Winston Black
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winstonblack.bsky.social
Winston Black
@winstonblack.bsky.social
3.3K followers 2.4K following 500 posts
Gatto Chair of Christian Studies, StFX, Antigonish, Nova Scotia
https://hcommons.org/members/secondweb/
Studying: Medieval Healing Traditions, Pharmacy, Manuscripts, Black Death, Medievalism.
Dad to 2 mini-mes, 2 cats. Playing piano, MTG, D&D
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winstonblack.bsky.social
Looks good, congratulations!
December 3, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Winston Black
neilpollyticks.bsky.social
Alt text version. Thanks for sharing Harry.
Saved by Stoppard Sir, In 1993 my wife and I went to see the first production of Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (obituary, Dec I), and in the interval I experienced a Damascene conversion. As a clinical scientist I was trying to understand the enigma of the behaviour of breast cancer, the assumption being that it grew in a linear trajectory spitting off metastases on its way. In the first act of Arcadia, Thomasina asks her tutor, Septimus: "If there is an equation for a curve like a bell, there must be an equation for one like a bluebell, and if a bluebell, why not a rose?" With that Stoppard explains chaos theory, which better explains the behaviour of breast cancer. At the point of diagnosis, the cancer must have already scattered cancer cells into the circulation that nest latent in distant organs. The consequence of that hypothesis was the birth of "adjuvant systemic chemotherapy", ", and rapidly we saw a striking fall of the curve that illustrated patients' survival. Stoppard never learnt how many lives he saved by writing Arcadia. Michael Baum Professor emeritus of surgery; visiting professor of medical humanities, UCL r.
December 2, 2025 at 9:43 AM
winstonblack.bsky.social
Doctor of Medieval Medicine mightily approves that you got the colors right (or as much as possible without a black corners of Windoze).
December 1, 2025 at 8:09 PM
winstonblack.bsky.social
Real indeed! We got it last Xmas for Thing #2. Here it is in post-heist disarray.
November 27, 2025 at 11:11 PM
winstonblack.bsky.social
Yes “potentia” is also used in Latin sources C13-14 for “crutch”. I know it best from William of Auvergne.
November 23, 2025 at 12:07 AM
winstonblack.bsky.social
I'd like to know who got squished under that foot.
November 21, 2025 at 6:24 PM
winstonblack.bsky.social
a close up of a penguin with a red beak standing on a snowy surface .
ALT: a close up of a penguin with a red beak standing on a snowy surface .
media.tenor.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:37 PM
winstonblack.bsky.social
Got to stay with the monks last year, right under the amazing bell tower. No aurora then though!
November 13, 2025 at 5:36 PM
winstonblack.bsky.social
Hey I’m a professor of medieval medicine who normally hates the term “dark ages” but I agree this is fucking dark ages ass shit.
The dark ages is now.
November 12, 2025 at 8:42 AM