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Ada Palmer

@adapalmer.bsky.social

29K followers 4.1K following 8.2K posts

Daily #ShareGoodNewsToo Novelist (SF fantasy), historian (UChicago Renaissance, Enlightenment, Italy, classical reception), composer (filk, Norse myth), disability (chronic pain), manga/anime (Tezuka), food, history pics #SomethingBeautiful Blog exurbe.com

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · Jan 28

“Inventing the Renaissance” is a history of histories of this (not so) golden age. Much of making history is simply adding new POVs to the braid as historians ask new & more diverse questions w/ each generation. I hope you’ll enjoy my effort to show the process at work! 25/25 https://buff.ly/4j6qkoS

The Vasari corridor bending around the Mannelli tower, whose tall stone edifice blocks its otherwise gentle descent. Last week my story about this building made it a celebration of resistance against conquerors, as the bend in the corridor shows the citizens of the city defying the tyrant who wanted to blast his corridor through the ancient tower that was the birthright of an old respected family, and was forced to go around, leaving this bend which has stood ever since as a symbol of resistance against the tyrant. From the inside, it's a super awkward narrow twisty space where you have to turn, and anyone with a walker or a scooter struggles to make the turns. Looks very different depending on your point of view, literally and figuratively!

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 1m

I’ve had consistent success with the “PMS Brownies” recipe from the cook book “Extreme Brownies” which I think you can get used cheap these days.

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 8m

All scripts turned voynich

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 8h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 8h

"The chancellor approved it"

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Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 8h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

hammancheez @hammancheez.bsky.social · 8h

"The chancellor approved it"

🫧 Spark Elation 🫧 @tyranny.sparklenoise.com · 8h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“a supply chain attack”

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Christian Callisen @ctcallisen.bsky.social · 10m

Intellectual History & Friends (@tomaashby.bsky.social)

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 11m

Can I be in this one, please? Lucretius, atheism, Ficino, Pico, Theurgic soul projection.

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Christian Callisen @ctcallisen.bsky.social · 13m

Early Modern Women Starter Pack (@emwjournal.bsky.social)

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Christian Callisen @ctcallisen.bsky.social · 18m

A (long) thread of (anglophone) #StarterPacks and #feeds of interest to #EarlyModern #skystorians.

The first two posts list a sample of hashtags for which Bluesky feeds currently exist. The following forty-two(!) posts list starter packs for scholars of various aspects of early modern history.

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Eike Exner @eikeexner.com · 7h

That's an interesting point. Does "BUMP!" count (bottom middle panel)?

Mutt and Jeff full-page comic episode, in one panel a character crashes to the ground with the word "BUMP!" next to him.

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Sam P-F @smhwpf.bsky.social · 2h

Forza Firenze!

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 15h

Within Italy, individual historic city states are recognizing Palestine; I was there for the Florentine Republic recognizing it this September, announced from the Palazzo Vecchio. Powerful seeing the old granular polities still using their strength. Cities are REAL in a powerful way. (See Alt Text)

Photo of Florence’s historic Palazzo Vecchio, seat of the republic. You can see Michelangelo’s David standing in front of it. Gathered in front are people in the historic red & white livery of the city, and many men in the red T-shirts of the “Republic of 1530” the organization that runs our city Florence’s historic festivals, named for the last pre-ducal/conquest iteration of Florence’s republic. I wish I had a pic with the Mayor and the pro-Palestine banner they hung on the balcony but I don’t. I forget if the Archbishop was there in person or just some priests, but the solidarity was big. I think the Parte Guelfa was there too.

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Beyond Shakespeare @beyondshakes.bsky.social · 19m

🎊It's October, it's getting dark outside, and the Wyrd Revels are on their way from 21-25th!
😈Doctor Faustus (two different versions!)
The Wise-woman of Hogston
🧙‍♀️The Witch of Edmonton! & Thyestes!
Book now! #drama #horror
www.ticketsource.co.uk/beyondshakes...

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Vanessa Braganza @vanessabraganza.bsky.social · 56m

Very excited to be teaming up once again with my editors at Smithsonian Magazine on a story about a brave young woman who broke a barrier for all women who became published writers. This one will be out next year!

@smithsonianmag.bsky.social #women #herstory

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 1h

The WHO has verified the elimination of both measles & rubella in all Pacific Island countries, alongside rubella elimination in Japan. The achievement follows 2 decades of coordinated immunisation campaigns, regional surveillance, and high routine vaccine coverage. buff.ly/EpFb7HK
#ShareGoodNewsToo

Rubella elimination verified in Japan, and measles and rubella elimination verified in Pacific island countries and areas

The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that the 21 Pacific island countries and areas that are part of the WHO Western Pacific Region have collectively been verified as having eliminated…

buff.ly

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jfoy.bsky.social @jfoy.bsky.social · 14h

Maybe with the "To Cogitate and to Solve" shield on the front, and the back reading THE FOLLOWING IS A FIB, BUT IT'S SHORT

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Rouroboros @rouroboros.bsky.social · 12h

I'd go with "The names are made up, but the problems are real."

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Lauren Schiller @leschiller.bsky.social · 15h

We're thinking of printing this out to put up in the kitchen next to the sink. Or maybe getting a needlepoint.

Tumblr user miseria-fortes-viros Jun 14 they don't tell you this but like half of adulthood is just washing the same FUCKING pan.
Tumblr user miseria-fortes-viros Jun 15 WASHING THE FUCKING PAN AGAIN!!!!
replies: 30 reblogs: 30,246 likes: 41,477

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 21h

On his election in 1655, Pope Alexander VII commissioned Gian Lorenzo Bernini to sculpt a skull in marble, which he kept on his desk as a reminder of death's omnipresence. The sculpture was rediscovered in 2021 at Schloss Pillnitz, Dresden

Guido Ubaldo Abbatini, Pope Alexander VII with Bernini's skull (1655-56), Art Collection of the Sovereign Order of Malta, Rome. Pope Alexander VII sits in an elaborately carved chair, carved with the Chigi coat of arms, and rests his hands on a carved skull on the desk in front of him and looks out at the viewer

A realistic, life-size marble skull with teeth missing, carved out of marble by Gian Lorenzo Bernini(1655)

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keri @keristars.bsky.social · 16h

sorry to tangent at you, but are you able to watch movies/with subtitles?

because i was reminded of the French movie LOURDES this week, and I feel like you would appreciate it, too? if you've seen it? (it's one of my favorite movies ever) (the way it depicts Catholicism is 🔥, also disability)

The Kanopy listing for the movie Lourdes, from 2009. The top photo is of a woman in a red bucket hat in front of a row of prayer candles. She has a neutral expression, maybe even resting bitch face.

The synopsis:
Afflicted with multiple sclerosis, Christine makes a pilgrimage to the holy site of Lourdes in hopes of a miracle. Among thousands of ailed visitors, she proceeds through the well-oiled machinery of the religious tourist destination until the unbelievable happens: she is suddenly able to walk. As Christine becomes the object of wonder and envy, bolstering and testing the faith of her fellow pilgrims, the question remains whether all is as it seems.

A personal favorite of Martin Scorsese, Jessica Hausner's acclaimed third feature distills the central theme of her filmography: the contentious gray area between faith and fact.

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🦋 Carmen G., PhD (🪖"Prima" to One)🌻 @tcrg2012.bsky.social · 1d

#WorldHomelessDay

#ONEV1
#Pinks 🌸
#Voices4Victory

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 15h

So enraged to heat you’re having to lean that way, Preeme, you’re brilliant.

We all need what Iceland has: UBI for authors. It’s win win since authors generate so much value (economic and cultural) for a nation.

I mean, we need UBI generally for everyone, but super for authors/arts/theater/etc!

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 15h

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 15h

Just arrived! Andrea Horbinski’s “Manga’s First Century.” Can’t wait to dig in!!! #manga #BookSky

Book cover of “Manga’s First Century: How Creators and Fans Made Japanese Comics, 1905-1989” by Andrea Horbinski. The cover shows three different styles & genres of early-to-mid century manga.

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Lena Sun @lenasun.bsky.social · 16h

BREAKING: Some of the layoffs at CDC are being REVERSED.
Here is my updated story.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

More than 1,000 CDC staff receive layoff notices during government shutdown

Another round of mass layoffs has struck CDC. The agency had already been cut during a reorganization this year, and more employees are now being shed amid the government shutdown.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 16h

I super want a Square One shirt, especially Mathnet!

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Sarah J. Jackson @sjjphd.bsky.social · 17h

I’m not trying to give @pbs.org ideas for raising money—but I am. I would buy women’s fit T-shirts of all my favorite childhood shows. Reading rainbow, 321 contact, square one, zoobiliee zoo. I feel like two generations will run to donate even more money for shirts with Levar Burton on them…

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Cameron McGrath @camgottaplan.bsky.social · 23h

Good news for your week

Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 1d

A decade after the Paris Agreement, global greenhouse gas emissions are barely rising, up just 0.3% a year since 2015, compared with 1.7% before. buff.ly/JXM4dIv
#ShareGoodNewsToo

Paris Agreement at ten – ‘brakes slammed on’ emissions growth, finds…

Annual increase slowed fivefold to just 0.32% since agreement signed

buff.ly

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