Dr Una McIlvenna
@unamcilvenna.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer at ANU who writes about – and sometimes sings – ballads about executions, disasters, military conflicts & politics from the 16th to the 19th century. Personal website: unamcilvenna.com
Advice please. What are US airports currently like re: the detention of incoming passengers? Are we still seeing the same crazy detentions we were seeing in March-April? Is it safe to enter, do you think? Planning a trip in April next year and wondering whether it will be safe to do or not...
November 25, 2025 at 4:24 AM
Advice please. What are US airports currently like re: the detention of incoming passengers? Are we still seeing the same crazy detentions we were seeing in March-April? Is it safe to enter, do you think? Planning a trip in April next year and wondering whether it will be safe to do or not...
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
yes, hello, I would like to place an order for everyone’s funniest stories of holiday food-related family grudges / drama / chaotic incidents / lore
I feel like we need this
I feel like we need this
November 24, 2025 at 11:39 PM
yes, hello, I would like to place an order for everyone’s funniest stories of holiday food-related family grudges / drama / chaotic incidents / lore
I feel like we need this
I feel like we need this
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
A local artist traded me some odd objects for some of my art. One was a soup bomb. I assumed ”bomb” meant it was for the bath, maybe a little vegetal. My mom LOVES baths.
Turns out it was soup. In a ball. And my mom had to call for help to get out of the bathtub.
Turns out it was soup. In a ball. And my mom had to call for help to get out of the bathtub.
November 25, 2025 at 12:09 AM
A local artist traded me some odd objects for some of my art. One was a soup bomb. I assumed ”bomb” meant it was for the bath, maybe a little vegetal. My mom LOVES baths.
Turns out it was soup. In a ball. And my mom had to call for help to get out of the bathtub.
Turns out it was soup. In a ball. And my mom had to call for help to get out of the bathtub.
Tell me again how great AI is - this one can't even tell time 🙄
November 25, 2025 at 1:00 AM
Tell me again how great AI is - this one can't even tell time 🙄
Hadn’t heard about the news that inspired this post, but have since found out it’s referring to felching. As a historian of sexuality I’m very familiar with what that is - appears others are not so 😃
can't believe rfk jr wants to stop me from eating red M&Ms but he'll eat *** out of an ****
November 24, 2025 at 4:50 AM
Hadn’t heard about the news that inspired this post, but have since found out it’s referring to felching. As a historian of sexuality I’m very familiar with what that is - appears others are not so 😃
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
Oh, man. One of cinema's most reliable weirdos, and I mean that in a highly complimentary fashion. RIP.
variety.com/2025/film/ne...
variety.com/2025/film/ne...
Udo Kier, German Actor Who Appeared in ‘My Own Private Idaho,’ ‘Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein,’ Dies at 81
Udo Kier, a German actor who collaborated with everyone from Andy Warhol to Lars von Trier to Madonna, died on Sunday morning. He was 81.
variety.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Oh, man. One of cinema's most reliable weirdos, and I mean that in a highly complimentary fashion. RIP.
variety.com/2025/film/ne...
variety.com/2025/film/ne...
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
DOGE was created for data theft and infrastructure dismantling and it wildly succeeded on both counts within the first few weeks of its existence. It will take a generation to rebuild what it destroyed and the breach of data is unprecedented.
Bye bye, “DOGE”.
It no longer exists as a “centralized entity”, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/dog...
It no longer exists as a “centralized entity”, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/dog...
November 23, 2025 at 3:01 PM
DOGE was created for data theft and infrastructure dismantling and it wildly succeeded on both counts within the first few weeks of its existence. It will take a generation to rebuild what it destroyed and the breach of data is unprecedented.
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
Dear Bluesky,
www.thenerve.news is still tiny. We launched it with no dirty money (no money at all, lol!). But we're proving what's possible with a small expert team & no billionaire owners.
We knew the UK press wouldn't understand or properly cover this story, so we did. Thank you for the support!
www.thenerve.news is still tiny. We launched it with no dirty money (no money at all, lol!). But we're proving what's possible with a small expert team & no billionaire owners.
We knew the UK press wouldn't understand or properly cover this story, so we did. Thank you for the support!
This is the Observer's coverage of the Reform Russian Spie Scandal... 600 words on page 22 of the printed newspaper.
observer.co.uk/news/politic...
observer.co.uk/news/politic...
More MEPs investigated in Russian bribe probe | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 23, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Dear Bluesky,
www.thenerve.news is still tiny. We launched it with no dirty money (no money at all, lol!). But we're proving what's possible with a small expert team & no billionaire owners.
We knew the UK press wouldn't understand or properly cover this story, so we did. Thank you for the support!
www.thenerve.news is still tiny. We launched it with no dirty money (no money at all, lol!). But we're proving what's possible with a small expert team & no billionaire owners.
We knew the UK press wouldn't understand or properly cover this story, so we did. Thank you for the support!
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
My hot take is that over the next 10 years, we're going to see more emphasis on and investment in the humanities at Ivy League and other fancy schools just as state schools and small privates continue to decimate and even eliminate the humanities.
"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe
"The humanities really are a resource — a confidence for living in our times.” Dean Sara Guyer on the modern utility of humanities degrees
This interview originally appeared on the Division of Arts
bit.ly
November 23, 2025 at 4:13 PM
My hot take is that over the next 10 years, we're going to see more emphasis on and investment in the humanities at Ivy League and other fancy schools just as state schools and small privates continue to decimate and even eliminate the humanities.
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
Reading this as a historian of a period when women regularly wrote farewell letters to their families before giving birth because they knew how dangerous it was, and knowing how grateful they would have been for reliable medical care and medicine, makes me want to scream in frustration
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors
As Esau Lopez was asphyxiated for the first 17 minutes of his life on Earth, the atmosphere in the room remained serene, even ecstatic. Acoustic music crooned from a speaker in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Pennsylvania. “You are a queen,” murmured one of three friends in the room.
Only Esau’s mother, Gabrielle Lopez, felt something was wrong. She was pushing hard, but her son would not be born. “Can you help [him] out?” she asked, as Esau crowned. “Baby is coming,” the friend replied. Four minutes later, Lopez asked again, “Can you grab [him]?” Another friend murmured, “Baby is safe.” Six minutes passed. Again, Lopez asked, “Can you grab [him]?” Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Reading this as a historian of a period when women regularly wrote farewell letters to their families before giving birth because they knew how dangerous it was, and knowing how grateful they would have been for reliable medical care and medicine, makes me want to scream in frustration
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
For this week's #ThursdayFilmRec 🗃️🎥🍿🎬 #HATM
Watch (or Rewatch) one of my favorite films: "Broadcast News" (1987) - Dir. James L. Brooks
Fantastic performances by Holly Hunter, William Hurt, & Albert Brooks.
And, this unforgettable scene featuring Joan Cusack. ⬇️
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYCE...
Watch (or Rewatch) one of my favorite films: "Broadcast News" (1987) - Dir. James L. Brooks
Fantastic performances by Holly Hunter, William Hurt, & Albert Brooks.
And, this unforgettable scene featuring Joan Cusack. ⬇️
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYCE...
Broadcast News - Tape Scene
YouTube video by Peter Ghosh
www.youtube.com
November 20, 2025 at 7:18 PM
For this week's #ThursdayFilmRec 🗃️🎥🍿🎬 #HATM
Watch (or Rewatch) one of my favorite films: "Broadcast News" (1987) - Dir. James L. Brooks
Fantastic performances by Holly Hunter, William Hurt, & Albert Brooks.
And, this unforgettable scene featuring Joan Cusack. ⬇️
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYCE...
Watch (or Rewatch) one of my favorite films: "Broadcast News" (1987) - Dir. James L. Brooks
Fantastic performances by Holly Hunter, William Hurt, & Albert Brooks.
And, this unforgettable scene featuring Joan Cusack. ⬇️
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYCE...
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
At least it's honest, right? Intrusive questioning of women who don't conform to norms about how they should look, and women then being banned if they tell their inquisitor to mind his own sodding business, has always been the logical end point for the patriarchal project that is TERFdom.
November 20, 2025 at 6:43 AM
At least it's honest, right? Intrusive questioning of women who don't conform to norms about how they should look, and women then being banned if they tell their inquisitor to mind his own sodding business, has always been the logical end point for the patriarchal project that is TERFdom.
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
Fabulous resource on classic women’s literature, focusing mainly on women who wrote in the English language, as well as global authors who were translated extensively:
www.literaryladiesguide.com
www.literaryladiesguide.com
November 20, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Fabulous resource on classic women’s literature, focusing mainly on women who wrote in the English language, as well as global authors who were translated extensively:
www.literaryladiesguide.com
www.literaryladiesguide.com
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
Years ago he didn’t want them here. If you remember he canceled incoming flights. Now that it benefits him it’s ok.
November 20, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Years ago he didn’t want them here. If you remember he canceled incoming flights. Now that it benefits him it’s ok.
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
What a brain-dead dumb, completely shite appointment. @tonyburkemp.bsky.social
November 20, 2025 at 3:32 AM
What a brain-dead dumb, completely shite appointment. @tonyburkemp.bsky.social
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
Loving this Larry Summers arc where he’s like, wow taking a step back from leadership now that I found out about my own behavior which I have had access to at all times
November 20, 2025 at 3:06 AM
Loving this Larry Summers arc where he’s like, wow taking a step back from leadership now that I found out about my own behavior which I have had access to at all times
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
It turns out that the folks at Anthropic used two of my books to train their Large Language Models. I've gone and submitted my claim via the class action settlement. If you're an author whose work has been stolen, you should too
November 19, 2025 at 12:57 AM
It turns out that the folks at Anthropic used two of my books to train their Large Language Models. I've gone and submitted my claim via the class action settlement. If you're an author whose work has been stolen, you should too
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
Astonishing to stop and realize that, at any given moment, bands of masked men armed to the teeth are storming churches and daycares, terrorizing entire communities—and that most of the country's political establishment barely blinks.
November 19, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Astonishing to stop and realize that, at any given moment, bands of masked men armed to the teeth are storming churches and daycares, terrorizing entire communities—and that most of the country's political establishment barely blinks.
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
The people who make Shein's clothes labor for ten to twelve hours per day (in violation of China's labor laws), some up to seven days a week, and earn as little as 15 to 30 cents per t-shirt.
![Excerpt from a BBC article: ""We usually work, 10, 11 or 12 hours a day," says a 49-year-old woman from Jiangxi unwilling to give her name. "On Sundays we work around three hours less."
She is in an alleyway, where a dozen people are huddled around a row of bulletin boards.
They are reading the job ads on the board, while examining the stitching on a pair of chinos draped over it.
This is Shein's supply chain. The factories are contracted to make clothes on order - some small, some big. If the chinos are a hit, orders will ramp up and so must production. Factories then hire temporary workers to meet the demand their permanent staff cannot fulfil.
The migrant worker from Jiangxi is looking for a short-term contract - and the chinos are an option.
"We earn so little. The cost of living is now so high," she says, adding that she hopes to make enough to send back to her two children who are living with their grandparents.
"We get paid per piece," she explains. "It depends how difficult the item is. Something simple like a t-shirt is one-two yuan [less than a dollar] per piece and I can make around a dozen in an hour.""](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ks3gpa6ftoyaq7hmf6c4qx4c/bafkreiber7g4o5pujmzmjjzsp5dkz7blfexburuwjispfpv6dki7akjb7a@jpeg)
November 20, 2025 at 12:07 AM
The people who make Shein's clothes labor for ten to twelve hours per day (in violation of China's labor laws), some up to seven days a week, and earn as little as 15 to 30 cents per t-shirt.
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
NEW: Larry Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Epstein, per Harvard Crimson.
Let the consequences begin!!!!
Let the consequences begin!!!!
November 20, 2025 at 1:46 AM
NEW: Larry Summers will immediately leave his role as an instructor at Harvard while the University investigates his ties to child sex trafficker Epstein, per Harvard Crimson.
Let the consequences begin!!!!
Let the consequences begin!!!!
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble…
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble….
Fire burn and caldron bubble…
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble….
For the fourth quarter Nvidia projects revenue of $65 billion plus or minus 2%. Wall Street was expecting revenue of $62 billion.
finance.yahoo.com/news/nvidia-...
finance.yahoo.com/news/nvidia-...
November 19, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble…
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble….
Fire burn and caldron bubble…
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble….
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
"If we want a public space where you feel safe and welcome, and where you have a sense of ownership, we have to change mobility."
Major changes are taking place in cities worldwide in the areas of housing, safety, and sustainability. And women are the forefront of these initiatives: bit.ly/44jk3QR
Major changes are taking place in cities worldwide in the areas of housing, safety, and sustainability. And women are the forefront of these initiatives: bit.ly/44jk3QR
November 19, 2025 at 9:53 AM
"If we want a public space where you feel safe and welcome, and where you have a sense of ownership, we have to change mobility."
Major changes are taking place in cities worldwide in the areas of housing, safety, and sustainability. And women are the forefront of these initiatives: bit.ly/44jk3QR
Major changes are taking place in cities worldwide in the areas of housing, safety, and sustainability. And women are the forefront of these initiatives: bit.ly/44jk3QR
Reposted by Dr Una McIlvenna
Saying "Quiet piggy" to a female journalist on the eve of the Epstein files vote is a red lights flashing, sirens-blaring perp self-own.
November 18, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Saying "Quiet piggy" to a female journalist on the eve of the Epstein files vote is a red lights flashing, sirens-blaring perp self-own.