A dragon is hoarding all the sleep somewhere

Hey Bluesky/ #AcademicSky, I seem to remember last time things were kicking off in Iran there was an international support network for Iranian scholars, almost like an academic asylum scheme (at least in the UK and Australia). Is this ringing any bells for anyone? Is there anything similar now?

Want to go and see Hamnet but one of the showings this weekend is the Dog Friendly one and I don't want to accidentally go to that one and am somewhat afraid I will. Not sure you should take dogs to see Hamnet. Or to the pictures.

Wouldn't have seen this if it were not for a reskeet. So quote-skeeting for awareness, since I've already just plain re-skeeted this earlier.

Clearly this is a 15th century swiss expression of the worry "I think my dog is judging me"

normal dog, switzerland, 15th century

Mental ill-health is never allowed to just be the real problem it is, it is always retrofitted to fit just exactly the change a political party is trying to make in another domain. Treating it as important in its own right demand change that is too uncomfortable share.google/rYY9mh63kxKe...

Caught myself nearly adding to some sort of rhetorical discourse and then discarded the draft because I love me and also you

And this, from 2018, was built around the experiences of people living with mental ill-health and being at work. You can't magic away anxiety and depression, there are always costs What it feels like to hide your mental health problems from your boss | Shortlist www.shortlist.com/news/mental-...

It is also incredible the political shift from positioning the injustice of mental ill health being situated in the struggles and privations of those that experience it to being situated in everyone else who has to put up with those moaning minnies who should just buck up their ideas.

I was a young person with mental difficulties (I'm now a much older person with mental health difficulties). Being able to access disability benefits made it a) possible to survive and b) having survived eventually move into work. I've watched this pendulum swing over 25 years or more.

I wrote this over a decade ago. It's perhaps the most true thing I've ever written "Lack of money for mental health is not a natural fact. It is a decision taken by people" | The New Mental Health share.google/WTqlTcsqeJ5S...

It's like a jive bunny mega mix of past moral panics. "NEET young people, social media, generational benefit families, strivers not skivvers, anarchy in our schools, the young are swinging the lead, there's too much of that mental illness about, it's for your own good" <Ah yeah! sample>

As someone who spent most of my twenties on disability benefits because of mental health issues (which were largely caused by undiagnosed autism): I'd have been lost if I'd fucking died because of the issues. Which was at times a risk. The benefits enabled me to get a lot better.

All this to say, there have always been a contingent of older white people who helped immigrants integrate and build communities within the Twin Cities. I remember they gave up a lot of time, effort, and resources for us. It’s not super surprising to me that they’re out now, protesting in force.

My family’s original sponsor couple have both passed, but I still see their kids and grandkids every now and again. Their grandkids are about my age. It started with Hmong immigrants in the 1980s, my Vietnamese family came over in the 90s around the same time as a lot of Somali families.

This is anecdotal, but Minnesota in the 80s-90s had a pretty robust network of sponsor families helping immigrants settle in because of the Refugee Act. There were a not-insignificant number of Minnesotans around the metro helping to onboard immigrants. Often they did this through church groups.

I'm old enough to belong to the last generation of people being morally failed by not making the benefits system a nightmare of conditionality. We don't even have a public health strategy for ensuring the best mental heath for all anymore. If you want fit workers, help people don't bully them

Austrian research - I need a name of for a professional medical specialist from Austria in his late thirties (born 1990ish). First and second name. Additional question - do clinical psychologists style themselves as Doctor?

I want to scream and it's probably just being hungry and tired (well, probably being all of HALT tbh) but it is still annoying that I do.

Generally the rule with gifts is that they should be something the person you are buying would like and that they wouldn't necessarily buy for themselves. So with books you don't necessarily buy them your favourite book, you buy them something you think they would like.

Lovely thread

So, serious question about this aspirin thing: if you're taking enough to be bruising very easily, does that raise the risk of severe bleeding from a fall or other injury?

Medieval cat with kitten on the roof of the Château de Pierrefonds in France. fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A...

Tomorrow’s front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 23, 2026

I've talked to people on the ground about the strike here tomorrow, and the single thing everyone brings up is just how shockingly wide the support for the strike is. Businesses that no one would have expected to support it are doing so.

My glasses broke last week, so I had to urgently Sort New Glasses (thanks vision express!) and now the internet believes I want to buy infinite new glasses.

well damn

A snippet from 125 years ago! A Bridgend man has forgotten the name of his wife 🧠 The Star • 1901 📰 @findmypast.bsky.social #Wales #History

London folks, it pains me to pass on a dancing based outing but I have 2 tickets available for Lil’ Louis at Jazz Cafe tomorrow night. Shout if you’d like them, happy for them to go to a good home.

I need 1 more person to enrol by tomorrow morning! Thank you! adulteducationedinburgh.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spyd...

Really struggling today. Trying to force myself outside because that generally helps but failing.

Ooh, ooh, I thought of a "smallest hill I would die on": 12 noon is 12 noon, it is not 12pm (it IS the meridian it BY DEFINITION cannot be either ante or post meridian) thank you and what is yours?

I need at least 3 more folk to sign up for my Edinburgh Adult Education Programme archaeology classes at Craigentinny, or the course will be cancelled. If you know anyone who might be interested, please let them know. Thank you! adulteducationedinburgh.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spyd...

Rewatching "What Happens Later" (virtually) with my sister. Still think it's a really sweet movie.

I’ll be reviving my irrepressible double act with Katherine Hindley for London International Palaeography Summer School 2026. We provide an introduction to manuscript studies ideal for anyone starting graduate study. It’s a lot of fun. #MedievalSky 👇 ies.sas.ac.uk/study-traini...

EOWYN: Women of this country learned long ago... those without swords can still be killed by them. ARAGORN: Well, yeah. It's easier to kill people without swords. EOWYN: My point is... ARAGORN: That's the vast majority of sword deaths, is what you're describing.

My date tonight - met on Tinder, but have known her two years - is bringing a female friend along and just called in a panic to establish a complex back story in which we met not on Tinder but at her birthday party in Berlin five years ago. You're overthinking this, girl. Nobody cares. At all.

Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, post the second sentence. "I could not have been more than twelve or thirteen at the time and I remember being inspired by this".

Pick up the nearest book. Turn to page 42, post the second sentence. ‘Bowie’s name, figuratively speaking, was once again over the door.’

Owl carving from the medieval chancel stalls of St. Mary's Church at Higham Ferrers in Northamptonshire. 📸 My own. #Woodensday #HighamFerrers #Northamptonshire

Sorrysorrysorry butting in again but would any of ye know any decent resources for Munster (or Kerry specifically) Irish - I'm following a good few Instagram accounts already that focus on it, so more like books, podcasts and the like? (Apart from the regional nuacht bits on RnaG) #Gaeilge

Calling published SFF authors! I’m researching the work lives & well-being of science fiction and fantasy authors for my doctoral dissertation, and I'm looking for participants! If you’re a published SFF author interested in participating, then DM me and I can provide details

who still uses an RSS reader? what works best for you? no AI-integration a plus

Update from Channel 4:

People who like Chretien De Troyes*: what aspects of him do you most like? (I realise I am included in this group of people but I have access to me All Of The Time and other peoples opinions would be useful here)

The dragon at Pollok House is giving off the vibes I aspire to right now.

Joint pain of some form is incredibly common. (Am mostly joking but the reason I have used them a fair bit since discovering them in 2016 is that they do a lot for it)