Computational analysis of book descriptions: placement project A PhD placement reflects on her time at the British Library and her research in using computational analysis on early printed book descriptions.

A lovely post from Jeanette Croen, a PhD placement student, on her work at the British Library doing computational analysis on early printed book descriptions www.bl.uk/stories/blog...

We don't know how much Reform-run KCC sold this off for, but they flogged off about 100 works of council-owned art in March for just £32,000.

Once they're gone from public hands, they're gone. £32,000 would barely cover an admin assistant for a year (when you inc. pension & emp taxes).

A characteristic of their flex and for attitudes they stoke and exploit is a contempt and derision for art and creativity. I suspect they think there are votes in further denigrating arts and associating it with ‘woke’, Greens, DFL’s and refugee-loving lefties.

Fury as Kent County Council sells artwork by renowned Turner Prize winner Antony Gormley - United Kingdom News Beep A council selling off an art installation created by the renowned Turner Prize winner Sir Antony Gormley has sparked anger and disbelief.

Kent County Council sells Anthony Gormley artwork that has adorned the entrance to a flagship library. Heritage & Culture sure is safe with Reform UK (and they just spent more on parking spaces for themselves than they have on the trumpeted Sittingbourne Library upgrade) www.newsbeep.com/uk/529201/

‘I can’t imagine why a Christian wouldn’t support Palestine Action. If I was younger, then I would probably be smashing up the weapons myself, but at 84 I can still do my small bit by being arrested, going to court and potentially going to prison.’

Sure, Trump attacking the pope and sharing ludicrous memes of himself as Jesus is attracting all the attention over how Christianity responds to war and suffering, but then there are those who treat these issues seriously www.thetablet.co.uk/news/anglica...

My forthcoming book has a page! No cover yet, but a page! It's really happening!

press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

Celebratory dance in Hungary

Sending best hopes and wishes to Hungarians today. 🫶

Leaflet of three candidates, white blokes with limited hair, all in glasses. --- **GATESHEAD IS BROKEN. VOTE REFORM UK TO FIX IT** Introducing your Reform UK candidates for Low Fell leaflet text: **ATKINSON, John** Reform UK John has lived in Low Fell for 30+ years. His background is in civil engineering, policing, teaching and transport. He wants to bring back a sense of community, listen to residents' concerns and focus on local issues such as crime, roads and streets, and better services. --- **HENDERSON, Iain** Reform UK Iain has lived and worked in Gateshead all his life. Now retired, he wants to give something back to the borough. With a positive outlook, Iain is looking forward to making a real difference to the lives of the residents of Low Fell and to working closely with them. --- **MURRAY, Arthur** Reform UK Arthur has owned several businesses for many years. He has lived locally for 50 years and employs local staff, servicing the northeast and Scotland. His priorities are to see the ward and area prospering once again, caring for the old and infirm and maintaining our parks and open spaces. ---

This Reform leaflet from three Gateshead candidates looks like a timelapse of the same person

Poor us, eh?! 🙄

Collage of Guernsey lily (Nerine sarniensis): left, handcoloured copperplate engraving after a botanical illustration from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Stephen Couchman, London, 1795); top right, A Shipwreck off a Rocky Coast by Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg (1760s); bottom right, pink Nerines flowering beside a brick wall.

An old legend tells that a Dutch ship carrying bulbs was wrecked off Cobo Bay, Guernsey. Washed ashore, they took root and flourished, becoming known as the Guernsey Lily. Their botanical name Nerine sarniensis recalls Sarnia, the Roman name for the island. #FolkloreSunday

Cafe bar on a street corner in Fécamp, Normandy, with an eye-catching sign in a kind of retro style fat and bold font.

Cafe bar on a street corner in Fécamp, Normandy, with an eye-catching sign in a kind of retro style fat and bold font.

Tout Va Bien. The typographical excellence and reassuring life philosophy are most soothing!
#typography #adesignforlife

Cuba’s doctors were a lifeline for the world. Now the Caribbean is shamefully complicit in the US drive to expel them | Kenneth Mohammed For decades, Cuban doctors have served the Caribbean’s most marginalised. Now, as Cuba faces its own crisis, the region looks away, waiting on Trump’s approval

Cuba’s doctors were a lifeline for the world. Now the Caribbean is shamefully complicit in the US drive to expel them | Kenneth Mohammed

the devil just blinked

But will hay stop your daughter flinging your credit card about and down the gap between the bare floorboards?

Cheese from Neufchâtel, wine from Quincy, knife from the drawer.

Cheese can be so fucking good that it is able to make you swear!! 😋🫠

Rob Yates smiling for a photo by the Lido sign at Cliftonville / Margate, wearing a white jacket and green rosette

Kent County Council victory for Greens against Ref UK!!!
Last time the results were Reform 1922 votes and Greens 576 votes; this time Reform got circa 10% less votes and Greens got around 300% more.
💃🕺🪩
Well done people, and well-deserved, Rob Yates!
theisleofthanetnews.com/2026/04/10/k...

Important points within about sharing life and experience; about community, solidarity and comradeship. Being human - and good humans together is vital and sustaining ❤️🤍

Esoteric shelves in bookshops are becoming way too unwieldy

A member of the government comes clean.

The idea Starmer has ‘kept Britain out of this illegal war’ has been a lie.

It’s exactly the same approach they have to health. Health, Culture, education - all the preserves of the mythical ‘hard-working’ (when they mean people with money). Their persecution of people living with social and economic challenges are same old conservative hatreds and con-tricks.

Facebook post from Robert Jenrick, a politician who famously had Mickey Mouse cartoon murals painted over at a children’s asylum centre

a bizarre intervention on entry fees for museums and attractions from Robert Jenrick — and a fascinating comments section in which nobody seems to agree with this apparent Reform UK culture policy
www.facebook.com/share/18FNQ1...

US military bases in Gulf 'useless' after Iranian strikes, experts say One expert said it was 'highly unlikely' the US Fifth Fleet will ever return to the Gulf state of Bahrain

US military bases in Gulf 'useless' after Iranian strikes, experts say - www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-military-bases-g...

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump I know why Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years, especially by the fact that they think it is wonderful for Iran, the Number One State Sponsor of Terror, to have a Nuclear Weapon — Because they have one thing in common, Low IQs. They’re stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it, too! Look at their past, look at their record. They don’t have what it takes, and they never did! They’ve all been thrown off Television, lost their Shows, and aren’t even invited on TV because nobody cares about them, they’re NUT JOBS, TROUBLEMAKERS, and will say anything necessary for some “free” and cheap publicity. Now they think they get some “clicks” because they have Third Rate Podcasts, but nobody’s talking about them, and their views are the opposite of MAGA — Or I wouldn’t have won the Presidential Election in a LANDSLIDE. MAGA agrees with me, and just gave CNN a 100% Approval Rating of “TRUMP,” not Hand Flailing Fools like Tucker Carlson, who couldn’t even finish College, he was a broken man when he got fired from Fox, and he’s never been the same — Perhaps he should see a good psychiatrist! Or Megyn Kelly, who nastily asked me the now famous, “Only Rosie O’Donnell,” question, or “Crazy” Candace Owens, who accuses the Highly Respected First Lady of France of being a man, when she is not, and will hopefully win lots of money in the ongoing lawsuit. Actually, to me, the First Lady of France is a far more beautiful woman than Candace, in fact, it’s not even close! Or Bankrupt Alex Jones, who says some of the dumbest things, and lost his entire fortune, as he should have, for his horrendous attack on the families of the Sandy Hook shooting victims, ridiculously claiming it was a hoax.

I ain’t reading all that

Sangita Myska receives foul racism - for daring to challenge racism Sangita Myska also received a flood of support as hundreds condemned the racists and the politicians who had incited and enabled them

Trigger warning: this article contains depictions of extreme racist language.

Sangita Myska receives foul racism - for daring to challenge racism

“authorized heritage discourse” (AHD) 🖤

We *need* a vocabulary for the established and prevailing beat of the drum in the spheres of culture and heritage.
Changing the rhythm - even the odd drum solo - is painstaking work and resisted at every step by the possessors of cultural capital and power.

Garden in the sunshine

Setting up for my morning tea break.
I am such a Leo! 🌞🙏

A few selections from last week's Edible Books Festival, including our winner of the Golden Spatula: a cake dressed up as a Victorian poisonous green book, a shade created by combining copper and arsenic (by the Victorians). Also featured are The Works of John Locke and Bookfish. #historysky

Literally this morning Reform were suggesting refusing visas to every single citizen of a country whose government called for slavery reparations.

Now their leader is upset by the refusal of a visa for one specific individual for things he actually said….

Heinous. The lowest point. These despicable bastards.