Dr John Plus Dr Mary
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revdrjohn.bsky.social
Dr John Plus Dr Mary
@revdrjohn.bsky.social
2.2K followers 910 following 190 posts
PhDs in history and theology of Jihad in Islam/Xnty in Syriac and Arabic and other topic, ex-academics, historical wargame designer and retiree. Our identities concealed due to threats and doxxing.
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Reposted by Dr John Plus Dr Mary
historyworkshop.org.uk
In the nineteenth century, British officials became obsessed with collecting and codifying 'secret languages' across northern India.

In our latest article, Vipin Krishna explores how linguistics became a tool for classification, surveillance, and control.
Policing Language in Colonial India
Vipin Krishna explores how colonial officials in nineteenth-century India turned linguistics into a tool for classification, surveillance, and control.
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
December 2, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Reposted by Dr John Plus Dr Mary
thismanyyearsago.bsky.social
439 years ago, on the 3rd of December 1586, Thomas Harriot introduced potatoes to England after returning from Columbia. The Spanish had previously introduced it the the European mainland. Other accounts suggest others, for example Francis Drake, introduced the potato. #otd #history 🗃️
A portrait believed to be of Thomas Harriot (also spelt "Harriott" or "Hariot") (c. 1560 – 2 July 1621), an English astronomer, mathematician, ethnographer and translator, apparently painted during his lifetime.
December 3, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Reposted by Dr John Plus Dr Mary
greenleejw.bsky.social
The Dutch traded live eels to London starting in the mid-15th C., & quickly won a monopoly on eel sales in the city.

How do we know?

Well...by the 16th C., English regulations started calling ALL eel sellers in the city "palingmen" from the Dutch word for eel: paling. 1/2
🗃️🧪
Meme. Two Dutch eel ships from Hollar's 1647 "Long View of London." They're moored in the middle of the Thames, just off of the docks at Queenhythe. This is a quite detailed and accurate drawing; the eel ships looked very much like this up through the 1930s, when they left London for good. There are a clutter of other small ships near the docks; Queenhythe was the primary dock for ships bringing reeds into the city. So there's at least some reed ships in there. Behind the eel ships and the reed boats, you can see the houses and buildings of the city. The map is a tan parchment color, with the city drawn in black ink. Presumably, 17th C. London actually had color. But Hollar, for all his attention to accuracy in other ways, has chosen to lie to you about the city's hues. He's been dead a long time, so there's no way for you to seek revenge. You just have to deal with his deception. Meme text reads: "Two dutch ships just paling around"
December 3, 2025 at 5:41 PM
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aktange.bsky.social
Writing is asking the internet whether electric sewing machines were widely available in 1926, finding out that Singer released a very popular new model that year, clicking on a link to see what it looked like, and feeling completely breathless. 1/4
December 3, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Reposted by Dr John Plus Dr Mary
benjaminjriley.bsky.social
Last week @theverge.com published my essay exploring the limitations of large-language models. This week, that same essay is cited by a federal judge in Michigan to distinguish the process of human reasoning from what these models do. Very, very gratifying.
ali-alkhatib.com ali alkhatib @ali-alkhatib.com · 14h
h/t @robertfreundlaw.bsky.social

holy shit, an accurate legal critique of LLMs. LLMs don't reason because they're just stitching together plausible-looking sentences indifferent to the content
What happens when ChatGPT cites to a real case but misstates what the case stands for? That doesn't fly for Judge Behm in Michigan. The court says that while a litigant could make the same error based on faulty reasoning, LLMs can't, because they can't reason. And while a litigant might get away with similar overstatements because they could, perhaps, reason their way to showing how a case's stated holding might extend to novel situations, an LLM does not reason in the way a litigant must. To put it in a slightly different way, LLMs do not perform the metacognitive processes that are necessary to comply with Rule 11. When an LLM overstates a holding of a case, it is just piecing together a plausible-looking sentence
December 3, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Reposted by Dr John Plus Dr Mary
joneshowdareyou.bsky.social
It's an old clip but still uplifting. In case you need it. I needed it.
December 3, 2025 at 10:19 PM
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joneshowdareyou.bsky.social
It can't hurt to perform some aerobic wing exercises while waiting for breakfast. #Girri #OrangeNSW #PeregrineFalcons
December 3, 2025 at 7:50 PM
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erinsebo.bsky.social
Dr James Kane @flindersuniversity.bsky.social on ideas of friendship (or their absence) in the narratives of the First Crusade @anzamems.bsky.social conference 2025.
December 2, 2025 at 11:33 PM
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danclaggett.bsky.social
ANZAMEMS 2025 conference begins! @erinsebo.bsky.social on friendship in Beowulf and trying to understand the titular characters seemingly very unfriendly act of allowing his friend to be eaten by Grendel 🤔 @anzamems.bsky.social
December 3, 2025 at 12:03 AM
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erinsebo.bsky.social
@flindersuniversity.bsky.social ARC DECRA Fellow in Medieval History, @mattfirth.bsky.social speaking at @anzamems.bsky.social on political friendships in Wessex!
December 3, 2025 at 5:53 AM
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kpw1453.bsky.social
The northern ramparts and ditches of Meikle Reive Fort on the southern slopes of the Campsie Fells, near Glasgow. An early Iron Age date has been suggested, with possible later occupation in the early medieval period. 📸 My own. #HillfortsWednesday #MeikleReive
December 3, 2025 at 6:37 AM
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atheling.bsky.social
Early Byzantine Unarmoured Skutatoi/Toxatoi Unit 2
December 3, 2025 at 6:56 AM
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vandawilcox.bsky.social
Delighted to receive my copy of Framing the First World War, a great collection edited by @draefox.bsky.social @mpmfinch.bsky.social and @dmorganowen.bsky.social who have put together a broad range of original essays
Front cover of Framing the First World War which features cover art showing CRW Nevinson's Returning to the Trenches. Table of Contents pt 1 - see https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700640560/ for full details Table of Contents pt 2 - see https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700640560/ for full details
December 3, 2025 at 8:40 AM
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thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social
Study: The XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine elicits a durable antibody response to ancestral and XBB.1.5 SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins.

Published: 3 Sep, 2025

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccine elicits a durable antibody response to ancestral and XBB.1.5 SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins
A longitudinal analysis after XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccination revealed durable neutralizing antibodies against ancestral and recent SARS-CoV-2 variants.
www.science.org
December 3, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Reposted by Dr John Plus Dr Mary
adamchapman.bsky.social
A blast from my past - the Medieval Soldier database takes nearly 300,000 military service records from 1369-1453 and makes them available as a searchable database.

An invaluable resource for understanding medieval warfare, society and the English medieval state. Learn more in the link. 🗃️
We built a database of 290,000 English medieval soldiers – here’s what it reveals
We created the database in order to challenge assumptions about the lack of professionalism of everyday soldiers.
theconversation.com
December 2, 2025 at 10:17 AM
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drnwillburger.bsky.social
Somewhere in a Roman brickyard, around 1800 years ago, a fresh tile was drying ahead of firing - until a dog trotted straight across it.
Centuries later, the tile has made it into a museum: not because of an emperor, but thanks to one dog who accidentally walked his way into history.🧵1/2

📷me
A Roman tile with 13 dog's paws prints
December 2, 2025 at 7:01 AM
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cathywilcox.bsky.social
What could go wrong?
My @smh @theage cartoon.
Single frame. Parliament House in Canberra, with King Kong (marked AI) stepping over the building, holding a woman, looking menacing. Speech bubble from Parliament House: “Look, apparently it has a huge appetite, will put thousands out of work, steal copyright, dumb down education and facilitate abuse. But rather than try to regulate it, we’ll just see how it goes…”
December 2, 2025 at 8:58 PM
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njbbari3.bsky.social
We cannot be burning through humans like this.

Paging #PublicHealth.
thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social Denis - The COVID Info Guy @thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social · 2d
Day 12 of COVID and she’s still struggling— fatigue, hot showers just to wake up and walking her dog while actively sick. She’s missed shifts at her hospital job and is stressed about money and job security. She knows she’s still unwell but feels pressured to return, asking why she’s not recovering.
December 2, 2025 at 5:03 AM
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mikeaztec.bsky.social
I suppose it’s publication day: my 2020 book on Procopius, originally published by Amsterdam University Press, has now been reissued by Routledge and officially relaunched today in paperback, digital, and hardback formats: www.routledge.com/Masculinity-...
Masculinity, Identity, and Power Politics in the Age of Justinian: A Study of Procopius
A generation of historians has been captivated by the notorious views on gender found in the mid-sixth century Secret History by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea. Yet the notable but subt...
www.routledge.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:05 AM
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eurekaminiatures.bsky.social
Some more AB Figures goodness. This time Vistula Legion for the Napoleonic Wars in 18mm. Lancer regiments, and infantry battalions ready to fight from Spain to Moscow for Napoleon's promise of an independent Poland.
18mm Napoleonic figures painted in the uniforms of the Vistula Legion infantry. 18mm Napoleonic figures painted in the uniforms of the Vistula Legion Lancers.
December 2, 2025 at 5:42 AM
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404media.co
Flock accidentally exposed training materials and a panel which tracked what its AI annotators were working on. It showed that Flock, which has cameras in thousands of U.S. communities, is using workers in the Philippines to review and classify footage.
Flock Uses Overseas Gig Workers to Build its Surveillance AI
Flock accidentally exposed training materials and a panel which tracked what its AI annotators were working on. It showed that Flock, which has cameras in thousands of U.S. communities, is using workers...
www.404media.co
December 1, 2025 at 2:49 PM
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ottomanhistory.bsky.social
📷 An Arab Man Riding a Camel Near a Town in #Palestine, 1898
December 2, 2025 at 12:13 AM
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nothingsmonstrd.bsky.social
Lewis Chess Pieces, 12th Century CE
Picture of the backs of two of pieces from the Lewis chess set I think a king and queen on the back of each throne is an elaborate pattern I want to say something like a Celtic knot design but not quite backs of two of pieces from the Lewis chess set I think a king and queen on the back of each throne is an elaborate pattern
December 2, 2025 at 3:29 AM
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tigerlilyrocks.bsky.social
There isn't much of 2025 left, but Susanna Elm's new book promises to be the book of the year!!

The Importance of Being Gorgeous: Gender and Christian Imperial Rule in Late Antiquity

That cover is gorgeous, and it's open-access so you can just download it!
Front cover of Susanna Elm's The Importance of Being Gorgeous, featuring a marble carved head of a man and title
December 1, 2025 at 7:53 AM
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ideasroadshow.bsky.social
For #mosaicmonday a #mosaic of the catasterism of Orion, #Pompeii 1st c. BC.

✨ Orion was a legendary hunter in Greek mythology who became a constellation upon his death. Gaia had been angered by Orion and she sent a scorpion to kill him.🦂

🗃️ #arthistory #skystorians #archaeology 🏺
A remarkable mosaic of house of Orion, Pompeii, depicting the catasterism of Orion, Pompeii 1st c. BC.
December 1, 2025 at 10:36 AM