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Philippa Lang

@philippalang1.bsky.social
114 followers 313 following 309 posts

Fond of guinea pigs, likes to write (amzn.eu/d/fhv1F4L), obsessive about Tolkien and the Beatles. Spent a couple of decades as an academic classicist & those books are here: www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Philippa%20…

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Reposted by Philippa Lang
Alfie Kohn @alfiekohn.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Fascinating account showing how a false claim can become widely accepted (and propagated by multiple independent sources) as a result of a common academic shortcut: citing a source you haven't actually read after seeing it cited by another source: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
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Academic urban legends - Ole Bjørn Rekdal, 2014
Many of the messages presented in respectable scientific publications are, in fact, based on various forms of rumors. Some of these rumors appear so frequently,...
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BirdLife Europe & Central Asia @birdlifeeurope.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Read our full press release here: www.birdlife.org/news/2026/10...
birdlife.org
Lead gunshot will finally be banned across the EU – ending the largest remaining source of lead pollution from hunting and shooting
After decades of scientific evidence and years of campaigning led by BirdLife, the European Parliament has cleared the way for an EU-wide ban on lead gunshot.
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Max Roser @maxroser.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
The share of children who died before they were 5 years old in 1950 and 75 years later. Africa: 33% ↘ 6% Asia: 25% ↘ 2.5% Oceania: 9.3% ↘ 2% Latin America: 21% ↘ 1.5% Northern America: 3.8% ↘ 0.6% Europe: 10.5% ↘ 0.4% Globally: 23% ↘ 3.5%
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Zoë Goldsborough @zoegoldsborough.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Why care about weird animal behaviors? Just out as an advanced publication, my contribution to the next Frans de Waal special issue in Behaviour @degruyterbrill.bsky.social. Unusual behaviors are a recurring theme in my career, and I much enjoyed writing this perspective! doi.org/10.1163/1568...
doi.org
The science of the unusual: how rare observations reveal the diversity of animal behaviour
Abstract Behavioural biology often focuses on identifying general patterns, yet unusual or rare behaviours at both the population and individual level can provide insight into animal behaviour. Here, ...
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Thanks! Yes, I can believe that. (Now all I need is a film of Maclean’s San Andreas…)
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I’d no idea there was a film of Eight Bells Toll, let alone that it starred Anthony Hopkins. Is it any good?
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Mike Cook @mtrc.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
New Post: Why I Love AI Next month it'll be twenty years since I went to university, learned to program, and studied AI. I wrote about why I loved it, why I still love it, and why, unfortunately, it no longer exists. www.possibilityspace.org/blog/posts/i...
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Prof. Dimitra Fimi @dimitrafimi.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Wonderful #Tolkien news! Westminster Abbey has announced that J.R.R. Tolkien will be honoured with a memorial in Poets' Corner. I've known about this project for some years + was privileged to be consulted during its development. Great to see it made public! www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-news/a...
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Digital Tolkien Project @digitaltolkien.com · 22/09/2026
On this Hobbit Day, enjoy the over 100 covers that have been used on the UK editions alone. Which is your favourite? books.digitaltolkien.com/work/hobbit/...
books.digitaltolkien.com
The Hobbit
Bibliographic data for The Hobbit.
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Steve Gale @stevewg.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Colley Hill, Surrey: coffee break from birding the steep scrub. Love the plaque on the bench I’m sitting on
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Caitlin Moran @mscaitlinmoran.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Hope this isn't a total "find and replace" on all official NHS documents - if I'm asked if I have "a warm hand over" in my pants next time I have thrush, I'm going to be very confused.
Story about NHS replacing "discharge" with "a warm handover"
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Anna H @athenepallas.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
An RNLI lifeboatman is taking part in the Great North Run tomorrow, wearing his full kit. Please donate here if you can: fundraise.rnli.org/fundraisers/...
fundraise.rnli.org
James Waters
I'm taking on Great North Run 2026 - please help me reach my fundraising goal of £1000!
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Jenny Chase @solarchase.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Basic Infrastructure - students would learn about where their energy comes from, plus the distribution systems for food, water and sewage treatment. And about how weather and climate interact with these.
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James Chalmers @jameschalmers.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The longest known Viking ship was discovered by chance while digging up ground to build an extension to the Viking Ship Museum.
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Excellent
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Elle Cordova @ellecordova.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Rough Draft vs Final Draft
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Brían Hanrahan @hanrahanistan.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
a squib of young Heaney
unpublished poem by Seamus Heaney (1964) from the collected Poems of SH (2025)

At Yeats's Grave

I came expectant, as one learning the trade, 
To find the grave plain, the verge and stone well-made. 
But under Ben Bulben in the August rain One grave is much like others: suddenly there 
I feared the trade itself might be all vain.
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
A lucid thread from an actual expert:
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Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I think that the scrupulous author can do a lot to flag where accounts are not verified/verifiable and need to be taken with a pinch of salt, but unscrupulous ones just do what they want, and I'm not sure what proportion of readers are alert to the difference.
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Cambridge Diary @cambridgediary.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
24th August 2022 There is just enough time for a walk at Wicken Fen before dusk cedes to darkness. Picture from my book 'Cambridge - Light & Shade'. Available at www.cambridgebooks.co.uk/cambridge-li... and all bookshops.
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Is that Tevildo, Prince of Cats?
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Absolutely: it’s brilliant.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Hey, a species has come back from the brink of extinction. Let’s kill it!
theguardian.com
First bluefin tunas caught off Yorkshire since 1960s ‘success story’ for marine conservation
Researchers laud return of giant tuna to North Sea after being fished almost to point of extinction
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Paul Mainwood @paulmainwood.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
A time ago, I wrote my entire doctoral thesis on the topic of "emergence" in condensed matter physics - where novel higher-level properties arise as the result of deep symmetries of the arrangements of their parts. As such, I read many discussions of LLM capability in a state of mild physical pain.
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Malcolm Stoneman @malcolmstoneman.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Church of St John the Baptist, Hatherleigh, Devon A section of the framework of the church spire, with a pegged joint. The spire was blown down in the storm of 25th January 1990. The church dates from the late 15th to early 16th Century & was restored in 1884. #Woodensday #WoodCarvingWednesday
Two pieces of timber once forming the framework of the church spire, with a pegged joint.
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Our Man Tho 🇻🇮 🇵🇷 @hitdogsholler.com · 18/08/2026
Planted dill weeks ago to attract Black Swallowtail caterpillars and it worked! Well, today they exited their chrysalis 🥰🦋🦋🦋 #butterflies #gardening
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
That looks like one of the objects turned to gold by Petr.Philos. in Diana Wynne Jones’ The Ogre Downstairs
Page of book listing various hideous household objects
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Gareth Hanrahan @mytholder.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Cornucopatrice (for Heart: the City Beneath) Spawned at the intersection of the Heart's desire to give you everything, and the Heart's instinct to fuck you up, the waddling cornucopatrice brims with a bubbling stew of acid and poison - but something you desperately need floats atop the fetid brew.
A drinking horn with legs
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Recommended
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
She’s the right colour to worship the sun. Has she tried dog ice cream?
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Dr Toby Driver @drtobydriver.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Spectacular day high in the Glyderau range of Eryri/Snowdonia today 🔥☀️ An extraordinary landscape of white rock, huge slabs & twisted outcrops. A favourite place 👌 📷 The famous cantilever 🤩
A picture of Toby standing on a long perched stone slab
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Met Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 11/08/2026
⚠️⚠️ Amber weather warning issued ⚠️⚠️ Extreme heat across eastern parts of England Thursday 0900 – 2359 Latest info 👉 bit.ly/WxWarning Stay #WeatherAware ⚠️
Amber extreme heat warning bounded by a line London to The Wash to Lincoln to Sheffield to Birmingham to Reading to London.

Temperatures:
Sheffield = 35°C
Lincoln = 35°C
Peterborough = 36°C
Birmingham = 37°C
Cambridge = 36°C
Oxford = 36°C
London = 37°C

Very high temperatures. Impacts on transport, infrastructure and health are possible.
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Jane Rushton @janerushtonart.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Sunrise was a bit showy this morning
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
You can't predict the turns this sentence takes. Extreme heat is threatening Italy’s “cheese banks,” where hundreds of thousands of Parmigiano-Reggiano wheels are stored as loan collateral. fortune.com/2026/08/10/i...
fortune.com
Italy's $4.7 billion cheese economy is feeling the heat as climate change threatens its cheese banks that hold Parmigiano wheels as loan collateral | Fortune
Extreme heat is straining the vaults that hold Parmigiano wheels as loan collateral, and economists say the damage runs wider than the vault
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
‘to’ !
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
A couple of weeks ago at least one was very present in our East Anglia garden. Very noticeable because very stunning.
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
For everyone who is too polite yo unfollow me, here is your solution! I don’t think I do anything BUT repost.
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Nina Willburger @drnwillburger.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
One of my favorite #Roman objects: World's oldest known "Swiss army knife", including a hinged knife, fork, spoon, spike, prick, sieve, spatula. Unfortunately, there is no provenance of this multi-tool, but it’s not a unique item: There are a few more examples, e.g. one was...🧵1/2 🏺 #archaeology
The folding multi-tool, it is built around a silver handle and a set of folding, pivoted implements. Its most visible feature is the broad oval spoon at the left; additional utensils fold from the opposite end and beneath the handle. A dark, heavily corroded piece along the top is the original iron knife blade.
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Malcolm Stoneman @malcolmstoneman.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
👀 Buckfastleigh, Devon A “Type N” or “Bantam” type of postbox, designed by Sir Kenneth Grange & introduced in the 1990s. There is a similarity with his aerodynamic Intercity 125 train design. (Bonus point for the road cone 😉) #PostboxSaturday
Postbox with curved top & front.
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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
If anyone needs yet another review of Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY, this, by Oxford don and poet A. E. Stallings in today’s TLS is pretty good.
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Mark Wallace @wallaceme.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
In case you thought you’d already heard academia’s worst thing this week: you were wrong.
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Beautiful point on the recurring imagery of an empty person, masks, reflections. I hadn’t noticed that.
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Ah. Yes, I think all of that’s right, so there is a note of escape in SHL that as you say isn’t there in the others (possible consolation in “you won’t forget her” but that’s almost buried) . But the bleakness is there in the failure of the parents’ love: we didn’t know it was wrong.
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
That’s really interesting, I tend to put Yesterday in a different mood/ group, but I’m not sure I have a justification for that. I have always wondered re SLH if a sense of familial love as stifling (in its obligations) resonated with Paul at all.
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Cambridge Diary @cambridgediary.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
6th August 2026 Tonight's walk home.
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Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Quite stupendous degree of nominative determinism at work here www.economist.com/science-and-... From The Economist
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
I did try to split them up but I might as well have tossed a coin 6 times!
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Yes, this for me is an album where he can’t put a foot wrong. I agree on For No One - I put ER first partly because of its radical bleakness. For someone famous for silly love songs he wrote 3 outstanding ones about love failing (SLHome is the 3rd).
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Philippa Lang @philippalang1.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
1. Eleanor Rigby 2. For No One 3. Here, There, and Everywhere 4th: I’m Only Sleeping, Yellow Submarine, And Your Bird Can Sing, She Said She Said, Good Day Sunshine, Love You To 5th: I Want To Tell You, Tomorrow Never Knows, Taxman, Got To Get You Into My Life Last: Dr Robert
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Time Traveler Causes of Death xkcd.com/2976/
A modified XKCD comic titled "TOP CAUSES OF DEATH FOR TIME TRAVELERS BY GEOLOGIC ERA:" features a tall, vertical rectangle representing Earth's timeline from its formation down to the present day. Along the left axis, tick marks indicate time intervals from "EARTH FORMS" at the top down through "4 BILLION YEARS AGO," "3 BILLION YEARS AGO," "2 BILLION YEARS AGO," "1 BILLION YEARS AGO," "500 MILLION YEARS AGO," and ending at "NOW" at the bottom. The vertical column is divided into stacked sections labeling the leading cause of death for each period: beginning at the top with "LAVA," followed by a section for "ASPHYXIATION," a thin band for "METEORS," a large section for "ASPHYXIATION," an even larger block spanning roughly 2.2 billion to 700 million years ago labeled "SLIGHTLY SLOWER ASPHYXIATION," and then smaller bands near the bottom labeled "FREEZING," "STARVING," "EATEN BY FISH," "TRAMPLED," and "EATEN BY MAMMALS." Next to the very bottom sliver representing the present day, an arrow points to the text "HIT BY SUV."
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