Newton Key
@newton-key.bsky.social
Among other hats, prof emeritus Eastern Illinois University. Historian of early modern plotting, sermonizing, politicking, gossiping, printing, and detecting before detectives. Mainly British archipelago.
The first Russian diesel cargo heading for the US left St Petersburg on September 22, two weeks *before* Trump announced the deal with Putin, Windward reports. The Greek-flagged tanker Minerva Zen carrying 275,000 barrels of diesel/gasoil is due at the US East Coast around 11–12 October.
Trump has been hiding his Russian diesel deal for over a month: the deal was announced yesterday, but it was likely agreed when Witkoff and Kushner visited the Kremlin on 5th September. While Trump was signing the Lindsey Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 on 18th September,…
I profiled the startup behind Pangram, the AI detector everyone’s talking about. It works really, really well. I wanted to understand how they did it. and also: why people still don’t trust them. (also, news: Penguin Random House is using it.) gift link! ✨
The World’s Most Reliable AI Detector Has a Human Problem
Armed with a near-perfect detection tool, Pangram is fighting to convince the public AI cheating can be caught.
bloomberg.com
My latest post: On the deindustrialisation of the university. And on being "in defence of history" at a time of extinction. thehistoryfactory.substack.com/p/the-histor...
The History Factory 2: The Deindustrialisation of the University
A few years ago, my employer, the University of York, commissioned a civil engineering firm named Tilbury Douglas to build a new nursery for the children of its employees and students.
thehistoryfactory.substack.com
"History shows that when a company starts acquiring the attributes of a state... its transformation can damage the parent country at least as much as the territories it exploits" @willdalrymple.bsky.social with lessons from the past about corporate power www.nytimes.com/2026/08/28/o...
Opinion | What It Took to Dismantle the Most Powerful Company in the World (Gift Article)
A playbook to curb the growing power of Big Tech.
nytimes.com
Yes, more Fable of the Bees needed in my timeline. Vain and like to distinguish ourselves from others. Of course the reductio ad absurdem is The Emperor's New Clothes.
derek guy@dieworkwear.bsky.social · 3mo agoFor instance, we have skilled tailors because people are vain. Avery and I unpack his argument and explore how Adam Smith and Karl Mark might respond. Each month, we’ll read a different philosophical text and explore what it can teach us about clothing and broader culture.
Self-portrait of Isaac Fuller, 1606 – #otd 17 July 1672 Made in 1670 (Bodleian Library Oxford LP 142) Best curatorial note ever: "He holds a torn sheet of drawings of putti. Said to have been painted when Fuller was drunk".
My grandfather ranched goats, so I knew cattle guards wouldn't slow them down. Sheep showing their own nous in the breakout game!
Dr Liam Sims@liamsims.bsky.social · 3mo agoI think @themerl.bsky.social would love...
Still time to make a comment. I wrote as loved one of a person with chronic illness, an historian, and administrator focused on undergraduate research in all disciplines. I picked a few areas for focus of my comments. Public conversation has also not captured the language of the rule change.
Karin Wulf@kawulf.bsky.social · 3mo agoPublic conversation about the OMB proposal has focused on science, but make no mistake: this is about ALL research and humanities are just as vulnerable. I'm back @scholarlykitchen.bsky.social w historian & @historians.org exec director Sarah Weicksel. scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/07/10/t...
this phenomenon enraged SC planters who nearly bankrupted their colony (1703) in one of their attempts to seize St Augustine between 1680-1821
Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X)@markanthonyneal.bsky.social · 4mo agoThe Enslaved South Carolinians Who Rowed to Freedom | Virginia McGee Richards Along the Lowcountry’s Inner Passage, they steered south by starlight as slave catchers pursued them toward Spanish Florida. This #Juneteenth, their names should not be forgotten thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-enslaved...
Every essay and book, even the ones I probably did not understand fully, helped me see the world, past and present, anew.
Jonathan Healey@jonathanhealey.bsky.social · 4mo ago
It pairs well with my report with @drnataliemartin.bsky.social for @demos-uk.bsky.social, "Verification, Deliberation, Accountability: A new framework for tackling epistemic collapse and renewing democracy" demos.co.uk/research/ver...
Verification, Deliberation, Accountability: A new framework for tackling epistemic collapse and renewing democracy
Demos is Britain’s leading cross-party think-tank. We produce original research, publish innovative thinkers and host thought-provoking events.
demos.co.uk
200 years ago the handloom weavers of Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire engaged in a 10-day rising, destroying over 1,100 power looms. To learn more check out our interactive StoryMap: storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/9a84... #19thCentury #skystorians @sslh.bsky.social @esriuk.bsky.social
Witnessing the Weavers’ Rising of 1826
A digital mapping project created by The National Archives and The Open University
storymaps.arcgis.com
The largest ever settlement or jury award for government violations of constitutional rights to a single person is $100 million, or 1 percent of what Trump demanding for the leak of his tax returns. That case -- a killing by police -- was reduced to $1 million on appeal.
Hillary Rodham Clinton@hillaryclinton.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe president is negotiating against his own administration to shake down taxpayers for $10 billion. The corruption meter is flashing red and sounding the alarm. ca.news.yahoo.com/doj-consider...
"Those taxes you just paid? The money is going straight into Trump's pocket" would be good messaging
The Denver Post@denverpost.com · 6mo agoTrump’s lawyers are in talks with the IRS to resolve president’s $10B lawsuit
Hegseth not only fired the Sec of the Army. He also fired head of Army Training & Command, as well as the Army's chief of chaplains. Destabilizing Army leadership during an active shooting war is another example of Hegseth's incompetence & cannon fodder philosophy www.military.com/daily-news/h...
Three Generals Ousted as Pentagon Shakeup Hits War Command
Hegseth's move represents a rare leadership shakeup, raising questions about strategy and command stability.
military.com
Yes don't forget to register your works with @britishlibrary.bsky.social to receive your PLR monies as well www.bl.uk/services/plr
Public Lending Right (PLR) - authors, illustrators - British Library
Published authors, illustrators, editors, translators or audiobook narrators could could receive up to £6,600 per year from public library loans.
bl.uk
Tony White@tonywhite.bsky.social · 7mo agoAuthor PSA – if you haven't already, don't forget to register your books with @alcs.co.uk and with PLR! Thank you ALCS – much appreciated🙏👏🫡✊
Was delighted to do an extended interview with the editors at @commongoodmag.bsky.social. This covers many of the major arguments of my @princetonupress.bsky.social book, The Greatest of All Plagues. As I told my PUP editor every time I missed a deadline, it's all still relevant!
Economic Inequality: The Unequal You Will Always Have | Common Good Magazine
The problem of economic inequality owns a long, frustrated story.
commongoodmag.com
I don't need this because I live about an hour's train away, but this is a lovely bursary and targeted at a set of us (mid-career), who don't get much, and whomever gets it, HMU I want to hear what you're doing!
Institute of Historical Research@ihr.bsky.social · 7mo agoWe are reaching out to mid-career historians who specialise in 17th-century British history! 📜 The IHR Ian Roy Mid-Career Library Bursary offers support for travel and accommodation for research using the IHR's incredible library collections in London. www.history.ac.uk/fellowships-...
Are you a mid-career historian researching 17th & 18th-century British Protestant dissenting traditions? 🏛️ Apply for the Dr Williams's Trust Library Bursaries at the IHR! Three awards of £3,500 are available to support your research in London libraries and archives www.history.ac.uk/fellowships-...
The Dr Williams’s Trust Library Bursaries for Mid-Career Researchers
The Dr Williams’s Trust has generously provided funds to support the work of mid-career historians researching the British Protestant dissenting traditions.
history.ac.uk
I had a great chat last week with @cward1e.bsky.social, looking back at the growth of open source investigation from when it was just a small bunch of people trying to figure stuff out, how the counter-disinformation community formed out of that, and why it's causing us all so many headaches now.
Bellingcat@bellingcat.com · 8mo agoBellingcat founder @eliothiggins.bsky.social and Cornell University’s @cward1e.bsky.social unpack how disinformation evolved, why trust in institutions is collapsing, and what tools we all need to stay sharp in a world of misinformation. Listen back to last week's Stage Talk: rss.com/podcasts/bel...
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue
Did everyone else know about researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/ already? Searches 7 million records at 1,400 archival institutions all in ONE PLACE
ArchiveGrid
ArchiveGrid connects you with archives around the world to find historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more.
researchworks.oclc.org
This morning, I recorded a video on TikTok about why DHS’s arguments for the power to enter homes without judicial warrants in immigration cases are bunk. Nine hours later, TikTok still says my video is “under review,” and can’t be shared. Well, here’s a link: georgetown.box.com/v/Vladeck-IC...
The headlines in this article in the Economist (UK) are great—better than almost any newspaper in the US
Duncan Weldon@duncanweldon.bsky.social · 9mo agoThe Economist coverage is grim but this is exactly how it should be reported. economist.com/united-state...
The ICE administrative warrant memo gives its officers authority greater than the general warrants used by the English that the 4th Amendment was designed to prevent. It allows law enforcement to enter homes based on "warrants" that they themselves approve, removing any external check.
Using imagery online of the shooting by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, we’ve created an animated sequence which highlights the approximate positioning of officers and vehicles at the scene. The red dot represents the agent who fired the shots. Yellow dots are other agents who arrived at the scene.
