tell me you don't miss the language of the 19C

Bookmarks in returned library books go on display www.bbc.com/news/article...

Happy 423 years of us! 🎉 📚 The Bodleian Libraries opened for the first time on 8 November 1602... This means, we're older than the refracting telescope (1608), the publication of Shakespeare's Hamlet (1623) and Sir Isaac Newton's apple (1666)! 😅

'Women of Punk' 1980 London. (Back row L-R) Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry, Viv Albertine, Siouxsie Sioux, (front) Poly Styrene & Pauline Black (photo by M.Putland) #WomensArt

Your cat when you're choking to death in your apartment

Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design. news.sky.com/story/the-x-...

I used the Wiener Library quite a bit for doctoral research and never knew they had Unity Mitford's diary!

Good news and fluffy owlets from our team in the South West! Working closely with the West Cornwall Ringing Group, our ranger team has recorded the most successful barn owl breeding season in Cornwall. A total of 21 chicks were raised, a clear sign of a thriving population.

Willy Spiller, Photographs from the New York Underground, 1977 – 1984. More here www.1854.photography/2016/10/will...

Did you happen to leave your @londonreviewbookshop.co.uk purchases on the Metropolitan line yesterday? Did one of your friends do this and send an anguished message to the group chat? If so, Darren has just done you a very good turn. 👇

The last survivor of the Crimean War died in 2004. "Timothy" spent 40 years in the Navy. After retirement, having moved in with the Earl of Devon, she revealed she was a girl. She would wander round his garden wearing a sign that said. "My name is Timothy. I am very old. Pease do not pick me up".

When in the woods, best beware of dead man's fingers lurking there. Reaching up above the ground, a creepy fungi to be found. Happy Halloween everyone. Photo: Sheringham Park by Rob Coleman

I keep seeing AI in libraries as being split into two groups: Grp 1 - ignores it, doesn't understand it, gets left behind. Grp 2 - understands it, onboard with using it, librarian of the future. How about a 3rd group that understands it but bc of that thinks most writing/library uses are rubbish?

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

Thu 6th Nov at 12:00pm - Billy Wilder’s DOUBLE INDEMNITY finally returns to the PCC, a cornerstone of film noir and one of the greatest films ever made. Sharp, shadow-drenched and endlessly imitated, it’s a story of lust, greed, and murder that defined an era. 🎟️ : tinyurl.com/kdxaxxf8

Due to ongoing strike action, all St Pancras Reading Rooms will be closed on Friday 31 October and Saturday 1 November. Reader Registration will also be closed on 1 November and operating at a reduced level on 31 October. Find all service updates on our website. bit.ly/StrikeAction...

Bluesky, help me out... What would you do about a totally fabricated quote attributed to you in a journal article? I suspect the author has used GenAI to research their article and it just made this (frankly tortuous) quote up - the article it cites is from 2013! I had no concept of GenAI then.

Farage: epic grifter

Joseph O’Connor on celebrating a Kerry priest who became a war-time hero

Updating my LEGO White House

If I were running Labour comms I would commission an app called 'Will the Tories/Reform deport you?' then let the reactions on TikTok and Instagram do their work.

Perfect timing!

She's good! I would be dizzy within 5 seconds.

Do you know anyone interested in becoming the Irish Language Officer for Wikimedia Community Ireland? #Wikimedia #Wikipedia #Ireland #IrishLanguage #Irish #Gaeilge

Films: We need to hack a keycard, obtained by seducing one of the guards. We then need to drop in from the skylight after jumping from a plane, and dodge all of the lasers and traps, carefully switching the jewels for fakes that weigh the same to avoid tripping the alarm. Real life:

This should be Time Magazine’s 2025 Photo of the Year:

In London, at the end of the 17th century, a fashion for unusual dials came into being. One popular form was the 'sun-and-moon dial'. In this fine example, the side-hinged case is engraved all over and the outer case is tortoiseshell.

goddamn is there anything Wikipedia editors can’t do www.nytimes.com/2025/10/17/n...

Can anyone identify this logo??

A request for weather interested volunteers! Met Eireann would like to rescue millions of weather observations taken in Ireland over many decades that are still stuck on paper. #WeatherRescue Anyone can help: www.zooniverse.org/projects/met...

London is proud to host Japan's Grand Sumo Tournament this week - it's fantastic to see the the teams using our cycling infrastructure to get around.

I will cut adrift—I will sit on pavements and drink coffee—I will dream; I will take my mind out of its iron cage and let it swim—this fine October. - Virginia Woolf #Womensart

Still to come in London this month: Sumo wrestling, a brand new comedy venue, a glowing Halloween trail, new exhibitions to visit, and loads more

New online: The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) collection is now available on LSE Digital Library! We’ve digitised and published the GLF Diaries and the GLF newspaper Come Together. Further series from the archives will be added as digitisation continues. 1/2 digital.library.lse.ac.uk/collections/...

This photo of Robert Bloch is the most writer photo to have ever writer photo’d. It is Pure Writer Photo.

#OnThisDay in 1920, the first women received their Oxford degrees 🎓 📷 | St Anne's College Oxford

me after attending a protest

If this happened at a steel plant there would be talk of government bail out to secure jobs

I hereby declare war on premature Christmassing. Any shop caught doing this before 1st December must be shut down and turned into affordable housing. Choose sanity. Vote Binface. (Photo dated 9th October 2025)

How many Tube lines have you been to the end of? Done Cockfosters? Upminster? Morden? Well, here's something unusual to see at every terminus londonist.com/london/trans...

The Producers – currently playing on the West End – satirises fascism with musical comedy. It's a tonic for our times.

If you are of reasonably financial means but also gifted with an awfully large room, the National Gallery is selling off some of its large sofas and wooden benches www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/art...

Louise V Durham, stained glass and driftwood sculpture, Shoreham by Sea, UK #WomensArt

The Lee Miller show at Tate Britain is a must see exhibition. Beautifully curated and a fascinating account of her life and her photography. https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/lee-miller

Homeless people often face the heartbreaking decision of deciding between their dog and a place indoors. Dogs Trust is working to change it.

From magical manuscripts to romantic meet-cutes, Katie Goh explores #libraries in pop culture as places of growth and transformation.

This makes me so angry. These people view all life as training for lifelong servitude/work. There's no room for interest, enjoyment, and culture in their bleak vision of education. At least she'll never be in power to see it through. Though Reform are probably worse.

Crumpsall is an amazing melting pot where so many cultures, classes and religions have lived peacefully alongside each other. That mustn't be forgotten amid the horror of the Heaton Park synagogue attack www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...