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Brett Holman

@airminded.org

3.8K followers 1.4K following 3.5K posts

Independent PhD historian (aviation, bombing; #WW1, #WW2; Britain, Australia; emotions, spectacle); books (Home Fires Burning (WW1 air raids on Britain; in progress), The Next War in the Air). Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. He/him. airminded.org

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Brett Holman @airminded.org · Nov 10

Hi! I’m a historian of early 20th century Britain and Australia. I study the cultural and emotional history of aviation, interested in what people thought and felt about aircraft as much, or even more than, what aircraft actually did. My first book was on the fear of bombing in Britain

The Next War in the Air

Brett Holman. The Next War in the Air: Britain's Fear of the Bomber, 1908-1941. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate, 2014. The Next War in the Air: Britain's Fear of the Bomber, 1908-1941 is my first book...

airminded.org

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Dr Ingrid M @ingridm.bsky.social · 16h

poor old Tony Abbott is on the public broadcaster dismissing the oldest and longest continuous oral histories in the history of humanity as “hearsay” how’s your morning going.

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Helen McCarthy @historianhelen.bsky.social · 2h

Delighted to see my article exploring how Britons planned for retirement in the mid-to-late 20th century out in the world! It tries to capture the mixed feelings prompted by ageing & retirement whilst connecting those themes to wider histories of social democracy, selfhood & financialisation.

The English Historical Review @enghistrev.bsky.social · 3h

New article (OA): Helen McCarthy @historianhelen.bsky.social on 'Planning for Retirement in Post-war Britain'

academic.oup.com/ehr/advance-...

Planning for Retirement in Post-war Britain*

Abstract. This article explores how Britons envisaged and planned for the end of working life across the second half of the twentieth century. It shows how

academic.oup.com

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Vaxatious Litigant 💉 @exposingnv.bsky.social · 3h

Linda Reynolds launches bankruptcy proceedings against Brittany Higgins

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Andrew Nette @pulpcurry.bsky.social · 6h

CROSS OF IRON (1977). Think THE WILD BUNCH on the Russian front with even more slow motion action. Peckinpah shifts between Nazisploitation & diamond hard anti war film. Coburn supported by a great cast, Mason, Warner & Schell. Definitely deserves a place on my war is noir film list: boxd.it/v8kuQ

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Hourly Cosmos @hourlycosmos.bsky.social · 2h

Partial Solar Eclipse 2024-04-08 - From Ryan Kinnett (rkinnett.bsky.social) - https://flic.kr/p/2pJaDVj

Imaged from La Crescenta, California with a Daystar Quark Chromosphere hydrogen-alpha filter, an Orion 60mm guide scope, and ZWO asi1600mm.

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Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 2h

I propose a moratorium on books that I would like to read being published until I have got through all of them.

*adding to my "to be read" pile*

Leroy @leroylynch.bsky.social · 3h

This looks interesting, a book by Colin Kidd due next year.

Twilight of the Dons | Princeton University Press
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
The rise to power and eventual fall from grace of the Oxbridge intellectual

After World War II, the academics of Oxford and Cambridge—the dons—formed an unusual kind of university-based, establishment-connected intelligentsia. Unlike intellectuals in other countries, often antiestablishment outsiders, the dons of Oxbridge enjoyed secure and even cosy connections with those in power. In Twilight of the Dons, Colin Kidd examines the golden age of Britain’s Oxford- and Cambridge-based intellectual elites—and how their influence waned when Oxbridge’s links to the establishment began to fray. Kidd explores a series of episodes and themes that range from the dons’ confrontations with student protesters in the 1960s to their reaction to the rise of Thatcherism in the 1980s. The cast of characters includes many of twentieth-century Britain’s most famous intellectuals—Elizabeth Anscombe, Isaiah Berlin, Edmund Leach, J. H. Plumb and Hugh Trevor-Roper, to name just a few.

Kidd describes the multiple important roles played by dons in World War II, the countercultural force of convert Catholicism and the strange phenomenon of Tory Marxism. He examines the dons’ attitudes toward America and France—as seen in their engagement in the debates over the Kennedy assassination and the awkward reception of Lévi-Strauss’s anthropology. When Oxbridge came under assault, it was first by a modernizing, technocratic Left in the early 1960s, then by student radicals in the late 1960s and finally by the Thatcherite right—in whose rise, Kidd shows, some dons were complicit. As deference to Oxbridge intelligentsia declined, a reassessment of the place of dons in British public life began.

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WHAT A FUCKING RECORD @whatafuckingrecord.bsky.social · 5h

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Mx Maddison Stoff @thedescenters.bsky.social · 2h

Far too many cis people are like this. She's comfortable admitting she has no idea what she's talking about and pretends to care about the issue, but she doesn't actually care enough to look at it in any detail. She doesn't even respect us as people enough to try.

Laura 🍁🍄🦇🎃 @tricksyliesmith.bsky.social · 4h

oh no. no. absolutely the fuck not. fuck off.

a bullshit statement from Keira knightley saying she was not aware of a boycott against jk Rowling before taking a job on the new audio series and that she's "sorry" and "we're all going to have to figure out how to live together and we've all got very different opinions"
She can fuck off.

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Bill Geerhart @conelrad6401240.bsky.social · 2h

"NUCLEAR EXPLOSION!" Advertisement for a military sound effects record found in the November, 1962 issue of ESQUIRE. Listen to sample sounds from the LP: www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkP9...

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Brett Holman @airminded.org · 2h

no, but at least it's more frequent than the public transport schedule

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DTV Connoisseur @dtvconnoisseur.bsky.social · 19h

New review, "Timebomb" (1991), starring Michael Biehn, Patsy Kensit, Richard Jordan, Tracy Scoggins, Robert Culp, and our newest DTVC Hall of Fame inductee, the great Billy Blanks! dtvconnoisseur.blogspot.com/2025/10/time...

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RG Poulussen @rgpoulussen.bsky.social · 6h

"It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by the Spitfire's role during Battle of Britain in 1940, but the Hurricane inflicted 60 percent of the losses". #WW2 #HISTORY

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Annalee Newitz @annaleen.bsky.social · 9h

Our galaxy is so good

Brett "Solidarity 2025" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 21d

Tonight's Milky Way taken from Point Reyes, California. The frames were taken about 33 miles, as the pelican flies, from San francisco. Light the curvature of the Earth is weird!

The Milky Way vertically with some orange and yellow tints at the bottom. These are four 60 second exposures edited in Lightroom and Stitched together on my phone comma so there's definitely a better version on my laptop if I ever release it

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The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv) @theserfstv.bsky.social · 17h

Fascinated how the guy who made superstars of Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, Jordan Peterson, and Michael Knowles thought that unfettered racism and every phobia in existence wouldn't eventually include anti-semitism

Ben Shapiro warns that conspiratorial right is taking over social media

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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · Aug 21

Remember, whenever you hear that “speed wasn’t a factor” in a deadly crash, what they mean is that the car involved wasn’t technically speeding. At least “not by much.” It presumes that the speed limit wasn’t too high to begin with.

When it comes to death from collisions, SPEED IS ALWAYS a factor.

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CAMERON WILSON @cameronwilson.bsky.social · 6h

for those keeping track at home: YouTube and Snapchat say they doesn't qualify, TikTok is reportedly trying to get around the ban by fiddling with its features.

With <2 months to go, 3 out of 5 companies /named/ by the government either don't accept they're in the ban or want to circumvent it

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will o’the wisp pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 7h

trains:
-abolish second class, everyone gets first class for second class price
-massage seats
-free showers
-crèche carriage
-minibar under seat

this is the future they are keeping from us

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Sam (ABeardedPanda) @abeardedpanda.bsky.social · 7h

Bret Deveraux has a (largely correct) recurring point about how the only thing humans fear more than death is shame and this motivates a lot of pro-social behavior and the increasing shamelessness across human society is kind of a massive problem for that

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choo choo choose anger @ralphtheewiggum.bsky.social · 8h

The difference bet the way the press handled Biden’s vs Trump’s health issues, as well as the standard to which they hold his conduct is one of the greatest scandals in the history of journalism.

Their conduct, and the knowledge they’ve done tremendous damage to their profession, should shame them.

ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 8h

he has been talking obsessively about the afterlife for some time, he is missing for chunks of time, his aides are trying harder than usual to show he’s fit, his public appearances show someone in visible physical decline, and jd vance talked impromptu about being prepared to assume office

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 15h

Trump: "I don't think there's anything that's gonna get me in heaven. I think I'm not maybe heaven bound. I may be in heaven right now as we fly on Air Force One. I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to make heaven."

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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 20d

You can be a “car guy” and not like car dependency. You can be a “car guy” and get that too many cars in cities is bad for everyone, including drivers. You can be a “car guy” and be tired of lies & manipulations like “the war on cars.” You can be a “car guy” and know more choice means more freedom.

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Brett Holman @airminded.org · 7h

Close. But way off

Brett Holman @airminded.org · 8h

After what seems like eons of transcribing sources, 900 words down for the chapter intro today. Pretty good for my first day of proper writing in months - let’s hope it’s sustainable

Brett Holman @airminded.org · 8h

inside: yes; trapped: maybe; microscope: no

Brett Holman @airminded.org · 9h

Where am I?

The image shows an abstract pattern on a textured gray surface. The surface is covered with multiple overlapping circular engravings and scratch marks. The circles vary in size and are etched with uneven depth, creating a complex visual texture. The surface is slightly reflective, catching light in certain areas, emphasizing the depth of the scratches and engravings. There is faint discoloration in some parts, which adds to the pattern's complexity.

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Brett Holman @airminded.org · 10h

I'd almost watch an X-Files series cut without the conspiracy arc episodes but then you'd miss out on CSM, X, and Krycek

Erin Biba @erinbiba.bsky.social · 15h

Ok so the consensus seems to be:

Overall: meh

Monster of the week episodes are good. Overall conspiracy doesn’t hold up.

Too many episodes fall prey to the 90s “none of this would have happened if we had call phones” trope.

Everyone fucking loves Gillian Anderson.

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