What I've been doing on my summer vacation (when not being pulled into artificial urgencies at the U). My big London landmarks cross stitch project is progressing pretty well!
Janice Liedl
@jliedl.bsky.social
Historian at Laurentian University (Canada). Researching early modern crime and urban women's lives, but I can never stay away from questions of popular culture & history. Gamer, fan, fibre artist.
Daaaamn. “AI is the asbestos we're shovelling into the walls of our technological society. Our descendants will spend generations digging it out again, and the longer the bubble goes on without popping, the longer it will take to repair the damage." www.thenerve.news/p/cory-docto...
Cory Doctorow: The people who tell you ‘AI is changing everything’ are lying
It has become impossible to tell managers mesmerised by artificial intelligence that the tools are not, in fact, helpful. So employees just play along with the fiction to keep their jobs, writes our t...
thenerve.news
This made it easy, if you want to have your say on Tim Hortons' very upsetting HP tie-in. affirmingconnections.com/tim-hortons-...
This nonsense about the printing press and universities is simply a different form of the "the Church enforced thought control in the Middle Ages" canard and says quite a bit more about what the speaker thinks about modern institutional surveillance and control than about history.
Sonja Drimmer@sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 3d agoI’ve seen in two culture /higher ed magazines recently the claim that the printing press engendered a crisis of authority at universities bc anyone could publish what they wanted and people could learn things without universities. This is not true.
Excellent! Among my year's words, I like ASCII, highlighter, microfilament, one-up, and teleconferencing.
Merriam-Webster@merriam-webster.com · 5d agoFind the 5 words from your birth year that perfectly describe YOUR vibe ⬇️ www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/
Scored some Civic Holiday weekend reading by the amazing Claudia Gray.
“These DNA fragments have prompted scientists to think about smallpox in a new light. It may not have begun as the dreaded killer we think of it as today. It’s possible that it was a relatively mild infection for centuries, taking many generations to evolve into Jenner’s dreadful scourge.”
‘This Is Very Strange’: Ancient Smallpox May Have Been Less Deadly
Scientists have found smallpox viruses in the remains of people in Chile from around 500 years ago, revealing how the virus may have evolved into a global killer.
nytimes.com
One year I dressed up for Halloween as Volume H of the World Book Encyclopedia.
S. Kramer@libraryephemera.bsky.social · 6d agoWere you a child who read The World Book Encyclopedia for fun?
In my university office, I have topical sections. Starting from behind my desk: historiography; medieval - 18thc Britain (w/gen military & occult); crime history; early modern Europe; gender history; ancient & medieval.
Immigrant Punk@porcupunk.eurosky.social · last wk.Enough of the horrors and doom scrolling. Let's talk about something fun. How do you arrange your books?
U.S. activist facing ‘entirely unprecedented’ charges after phone wiped during airport search. Canadians are advised not to bring their primary phone to the United States. #cdnpoli www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/art...
U.S. activist facing ‘entirely unprecedented’ charges after phone wiped during airport search
An American activist is facing prosecution for allegedly using Canadian software to wipe the contents of his phone during an Atlanta airport search in a case legal experts describe as 'troubling' and ...
ctvnews.ca
Barton's BS tarnished my relationship with my retired engineer father in his last years. Dad scoffed at my reliance on other historians' expertise to explain America's founding cautions against religious integration with the state. No, I was wrong because he'd listened to Barton & his ilk.
Pax Linson@paxll.bsky.social · last wk."Most notably, a book [David Barton] published in 2012 about Thomas Jefferson was pulled from the shelves by its publisher after a group of historians from Christian universities accused him of including distortions and false information." @hcrichardson.bsky.social @jbf1755.bsky.social
I see that the discourse has moved on from Bronze Age collapse to the Fall of Rome because of course, and I’d beg some of you to actually read something other than the 1000+ versions of warmed over Gibbon out there
Is it possible to take a real vacation when you are an academic possessed of a sense of responsibility to your students, colleagues, and your discipline? My experience suggests otherwise!
www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/o... new from Chrystia Freeland. Reminds me why I wanted her to replace Trudeau as PM, but maybe it's even better for her to be free to speak her mind like this.
Opinion | ‘You Aren’t Going to Like What Comes After America’ (Gift Article)
Remember when ‘blame Canada’ was a joke?
nytimes.com
AI-generated fake historic images are destroying our past, present, and future Morning File by me www.halifaxexaminer.ca/morning-file...
AI-generated fake historic images are destroying our past, present, and future - Halifax Examiner
"There have always been plagiarists, careless and lazy researchers, and bad actors. AI in its current incarnation and its rapid, seemingly thoughtless, dissemination just takes it to a whole new level...
halifaxexaminer.ca
Without saying your age what is your favorite movie from the year you turned 18
Indiana Jones Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Alt: An obscured scene of Indy pivoting slowly, reflected muzzily in the mirror, with Marion Ravenwood in the foreground, with Indy saying "It's not the years, it's the mileage" from Raiders Of The Lost Ark
static.klipy.com
Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · last wk.Without saying your age what is your favorite movie from the year you turned 18
Time for another bit of book-buying!
Duke University Press@dukepress.bsky.social · 2w agoIn "How Dungeons & Dragons Changed the Way We Play," @aarontram.bsky.social reveals how popular culture influenced the design of the iconic tabletop game and how the game’s legacy, in turn, influences game design today. Read the intro for free: buff.ly/jLA2ctp
We are hiring a new Editorial Fellow who specialises in pre-1800 CE history from any part of the globe 🌍 👉 this 2-year fellowship runs from October 2026 - September 2028 👉 this role is paid and part-time (3 hours per week) 👉 the application deadline is Friday 7 August Please share widely!
Call for Applications: Editorial Fellowship at History Workshop, 2026
History Workshop is seeking to appoint one Editorial Fellow in 2026, with specialism in pre-1800 CE history from any part of the globe.
historyworkshop.org.uk
It's the first day of vacation and I am enjoying time on our deck, hanging out with interesting wildlife.
One of the big reasons I dipped into the PC Gaming world is so I can start covering indie games more extensively. Now that I'm up and running, if you're an editor or work in PR, reach out and let's chat.
Well under $100 CDN for all of this gaming goodness. Winter term teaching is gonna be lit!
291 words in the next chapter of my book on Hannah Wolley. My argument is all about her work and advocacy on being an author(ity). She believed that teaching women to excel in domestic matters saved them from dependent poverty should disaster strike. Kind of resonates, doesn't it?
Dr. Evil may be evil but he didn't use an LLM to write his dissertation on Evil Theory! He was in the stacks! The evil, evil stacks! He put in the work!
Tressie McMillan Cottom@tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 2w agoIf I die and ten women say I made them feel less crazy and 19 people say they stopped conflating morality with intelligence, I will have lived as I meant.
Ironically, as @mart1oeil.eu showed, there are telltale signs that the piece was edited with ChatGPT: many links include "?utm_source=chatgpt.com" If even Science editorial team cannot afford good human editing, that's worrying
Jed Brown@jedbrown.org · 3w agoEditor in Chief of Science: AI in scientific publishing: Slower, worse, and more expensive.
George? GenAI isn't like the droids of Star Wars. A strange view for someone whose most famous creation emphasized the transformative Force of the living.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w agoGeorge Lucas likens AI sceptics to luddites clinging to horses and carts
