next week on @americanmedieval.bsky.social i talk with @elisewang.bsky.social about the medieval origins of conspiracy theories

Ernie Piper@whoisernie.bsky.social · 7d ago

Zeynep Tufekci is still completely insane over the lab leak idea. "There is a conspiracy to cover this up" is not evidence for "covid was a bioweapon that escaped from a lab". It could also be evidence for my theory, "please stop talking about this stupid idea"

Forget that we should all be forced to take 6th grade common core math so that the parents don’t have to suffer alone

Claire E. Aubin@ceaubin.com · 3w ago

A real - actual - I swear to god - argument happening over on Twitter right now is whether or not faculty should be regularly forced to retake the GRE

We’re back! The Law and History Review is excited to announce the publication of our first article this year in our digital imprint, The Docket. Anna O. Law (@unlawfulentries.bsky.social) told us about her new book. End the week on a strong note—check it out! lawandhistoryreview.org/article/anna...

Right. That’s how we know it’s a race argument, not an argument about culture. Because what makes you unacceptable is constant, inherited, and unalterable whether you’re born here or elsewhere.

In medieval England it was…everyone! In fact you could get in big trouble if you saw a crime and DIDN’T arrest them!

History Workshop@historyworkshop.org.uk · 3w ago

Who held the power during an arrest in early modern England? @lucyjsclarke.bsky.social explores how bystanders could uphold or undermine the power of the state.

She’s five and she spent 118 days alone. What does your five year old like? Mine likes pandas and eating red peppers like apples and making elaborate “ships” out of pillows to sail to sea. She’s scared of loud noises and dogs and being alone.

Joshua Eaton@joshuaeaton.bsky.social · 3w ago

NEW: A 5-year-old girl spent months in federal immigration custody here in Connecticut while her family waited for her release. Her case isn’t unique, experts and court records show. My latest w/ @jrabethomas.bsky.social at @ctinsider.bsky.social — www.ctinsider.com/news/article... #nutmegsky

She’s five and she spent 118 days alone. What does your five year old like? Mine likes pandas and eating red peppers like apples and making elaborate “ships” out of pillows to sail to sea. She’s scared of loud noises and dogs and being alone.

Joshua Eaton@joshuaeaton.bsky.social · 3w ago

NEW: A 5-year-old girl spent months in federal immigration custody here in Connecticut while her family waited for her release. Her case isn’t unique, experts and court records show. My latest w/ @jrabethomas.bsky.social at @ctinsider.bsky.social — www.ctinsider.com/news/article... #nutmegsky

One of the striking things seeing the Melisende Psalter in person is how much the gold letters glitter. This is a page from a litany -- a long list of saints' names. Some names are written in gold, so when read the page, those names sparkle. In the high-res PDF, they are all a dull brown.

Jay Rubenstein@medievaljay.bsky.social · 3w ago

So I spent the afternoon with British Library Manuscript Egerton 1139, a.k.a., the Melisende Psalter. I have thoughts. Mainly, I wish I had a week with it.

To be a historian is to speak ill of the dead and the rest of you should take more history classes and join us.

Before the Vikings descended on Lindisfarne in June of 793, the monks reported seeing “immense sheets of light rushed through the air" I’m just saying

Dave Levitan@davelevitan.bsky.social · 4w ago

England has 2-3 guys surrounding Haaland at all times like he's Hannibal Lecter being transfered to Tennessee.

It's Wed., & you need an eel. But you also deserve a stork. So enjoy this stork eating an eel from a 13th C. edition of Gerald of Wales' book on Ireland. (I know it doesn't look quite like a stork, but you can see a faded label below the bird. Sometimes that's what you get from monastic artists)

Everyone knows about the Renaissance book wheel, but I only today learned about the Holloway Reading Stand & Dictionary Holder, patented in the late 19th century by an Ohio company We used to be a proper country archive.org/details/holl...

The excommunication is automatic, the unusual aspect is how direct the Vatican has been about this. It signals a church that will not allow the fascist splinter groups that have always lingered at its edges (or encroached on the center) to maintain plausible relationships to the church.

Gabe Ortíz@tusk81.bsky.social · last mo.

Pope Leo excommunicates members of breakaway Catholic group after they defy his warnings. His decree “added in an explanatory note that priests belonging to the society and lay members who ‘formally adhere’ to the group are also in schism and excommunicated.” www.cnn.com/2026/07/02/e...

the official publication of the American Jesuits using the word "schismatic" is a sign that things are really popping off

Pope Leo makes final appeal to SSPX before schismatic ordination of bishops: ‘Please turn back!’

Pope Leo made a last-minute appeal to the SSPX to “turn back” from illicitly ordaining bishops, saying, “to tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity.”

americamagazine.org

Claire Willett@clairewillett.bsky.social · last mo.

happy Possible Schism Eve to all who celebrate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You guys, seriously read the footnotes in Ketanji Brown Jackson's concurrence. It's, like, all historians: Jones, Masur, Blight, Guyatt, Foner. It's a beautiful thing.

“White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters: ‘This country doesn’t have a future if we don’t end birthright citizenship…. One way or another, this nation has to end birthright citizenship.’” That “one way or another” is ominous. open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

June 26, 2026

Wednesday night, after President Donald J.

open.substack.com

I don’t have much to say about Slaughter, and honestly I think we do too much justice to the Roberts Court by treating its opinions like serious judicial reasoning. But I will say that it’s striking how openly the court treats congressional oversight as somehow antithetical to democratic government

Justice Sotomayor read her dissent from the bench. It reads in part: "Today, this Court undoes centuries of political practice and concludes that all three branches of Government have been acting in open defiance of the Constitution all this time. Its conclusion is wrong."

Kyle Griffin@kylegriffin1.bsky.social · last mo.

The Supreme Court just overturned 90 years of precedent to transfer unprecedented new powers to the executive:

Tens of thousands celebrated Budapest Pride, the first since Viktor Orbán’s ousting.

Tens of thousands march in the first Budapest Pride since Viktor Orbán was voted out

Saturday's Pride march came a little more than a year after Orbán's nationalist-populist government passed legislation and a constitutional amendment to outlaw the event, drawing criticism from human ...

pbs.org

The utterly glorious porch roof at St John the Baptist, Burford. Anyone who uses 'medieval' as a pejorative should be made to look at this until they promise never to do it again. Photo taken lying on my back shuffling around the floor until I was happy with the framing.

En plus des 5 sens corporels (vue, odorat etc), les scientifiques médiévaux distinguaient 5 sens mentaux : sens commun, estimation, conceptualisation, mémoire et imagination. Ce dessin représente la localisation de ces sens dans le cerveau ! CuL MS Gg.1.1 (début du XIVe siècle)

currently reading a whole bunch of petitions and editorials from black americans of the revolutionary era and it is so striking (and frankly inspiring) to see how the ink wasn't even dry on the declaration before black americans were demanding that the patriots live up to their stated ideals

This is the reverse of an impassioned argument with a Slavic speaker (for whom all ice cream is “sweet ice”) about whether or not a popsicle is “ice cream.” His position was yes, my position was that his was an offense against god. Agree to disagree.

Ian Rennie@theangelremiel.bsky.social · last mo.

this took way too long

If you are a historian in Germany you know that the Strait of Hormuz is like a Kreisarchiv, open, yes, but only on Tuesday from 8:30 to 9:17 and (with previous appointment) on every twelfth Thursday for fifteen minutes after the lunch break.

@lastpositivist.bsky.social · last mo.

Is the Strait of Hormuz currently open?

The best protection against AI is that we write and make art for connection, not product. A heartening and warm philosophical take on AI and intimacy:

The Inventor of the Thinking Machine Didn’t Worry. Neither Should You

The Inventor of the Thinking Machine Didn’t Worry. Neither Should You: In this age of AI anxiety, listen to your heart

nautil.us

The best protection against AI is that we write and make art for connection, not product. A heartening and warm philosophical take on AI and intimacy:

The Inventor of the Thinking Machine Didn’t Worry. Neither Should You

The Inventor of the Thinking Machine Didn’t Worry. Neither Should You: In this age of AI anxiety, listen to your heart

nautil.us

RIP Mark Rothko. You would have loved how the hydrogen peroxide bleach is only turning the Reflecting Pool blue around the perimeter

Cape Verde wins, 0-0.