The way the press is treating chatbots, like they have agency and they “know” things all of a sudden, crossed the line recently from dumb and obsequious to something else entirely. Treating them as alive and making conscious decisions is an almost religious belief. It won’t age well.

Grok can't apologize. Grok can, when prompted, generate a word sequence that is statistically similar to the colloquial phrases we think of as "apologies," but Grok cannot actually apologize because Grok isn't sentient. But we all have a lot of trouble with this because we assume sentience IS speech

AI being synonymous with some of the worst, most depraved crimes possible, and spearheaded by the worst people in the world, tells you all you need to know

Time to watch Avatar 3 I tried to see it 2 weeks ago but someone had done what I assume was a mega poo in one of the toilets, and so they kicked everyone out before the movie started because neither block was working

Peter Sawyer would probably be happy we're still debating whether there were 1 or 2 Viking Ages to this day! Mine and @history-w-hilbert.bsky.social's book is about the period c.350-793; one long build-up to the Lindisfarne raid from all corners of the North Sea (Frisia, Avaldsnes, Lindsey, etc)

Working on some artwork depicting the Norse mythological realm of Vanaheimr The problem is, basically nothing is written on it, not from Snorri or anyone else. All we know is that it was home of the 'Vanir', possibly (not certainly) a separate family of deities associated with fertility and sex

Looking forward to 2026 (and 2027 and 2028) with several projects on the go my next big non-fiction is mine and @history-w-hilbert.bsky.social's Dawn of the Vikings: A History of the North Sea Age, looming distantly on the horizon, published by @penandswordbooks.bsky.social

All good things come to an end, Dark Souls, Stranger Things, the Roman Empire

we can kill them all if we just work together and ✨believe💫

Ásgarðr - 'enclosure of the Æsir' (WiP)

Exciting news everyone, we will be opening up for submissions soon (January 1st-February 28th)!! And we've picked our theme for next year: Mythos! We also have some very exciting news about our interview section. But we're not sharing that news just yet. In the meantime, submission guidelines

Looking forward to 2026 (and 2027 and 2028) with several projects on the go my next big non-fiction is mine and @history-w-hilbert.bsky.social's Dawn of the Vikings: A History of the North Sea Age, looming distantly on the horizon, published by @penandswordbooks.bsky.social

One of my favourite journals, + this issue features an article on the 8th century Danevirke from the Jutland Peninsula!

FORGOTTEN VIKINGS proudly in stock at York’s Yorkshire Museum @yorkmuseumstrust.bsky.social !!

(hint hint...)!

Having now finally caught up with all 4.5 seasons of #StrangerThings ahead of the finale, I'm left wondering how they will try to top the coolness of Eddie Munson playing Master of Puppets on an electric guitar during a lightning storm Where do you go from there? The peak has already been reached

In his De temporum ratione, Bede discusses the Seasons, the Elements, and Humours which are all four in number and composed of combinations of warm, wet, cold, and dry. Consequently, the 'whole is linked up to itself like a sphere.'

My PRECIOUS.

#VikingSky Best artefacts / archaeological finds from the Viking Age? Give me your favs! Either from the PAS or random excavation reports, even stuff in museums. I want it all!

“Women in early medieval Ireland”, Online lectures by me, Lizzie Boyle, Charlene Eska, and Fergus Kelly seminar for Oxford Centre for Early Medieval Britain and Ireland youtu.be/ebQjYq-rT4c?...

Love this thoughtful new review for LITTLE KINGDOMS: 'Alex Harvey’s [new book] is enthralling but best read in small chunks. Imagine you’ve been given a huge bottle of the best whisky/brandy/whatever available: you should pour a small amount; sip it; and savour it, not quaff it by the pint.'

#VikingSky Best artefacts / archaeological finds from the Viking Age? Give me your favs! Either from the PAS or random excavation reports, even stuff in museums. I want it all!

An early medieval claw beaker from Nettersheim. Claw beakers, so named for the applied "claws" attached to their bodies, were prevalent during the 6th and 7th centuries. Fun fact: in German, these vessels are called Rüsselbecher - trunk beaker On display at Neues Museum Berlin 📷me 🏺 #archaeology

First draft.... acceptable! Now I'm going to leave it to set for several months and get it out of the oven when I'm ready (and have read enough) for Chapter 2!

Love this thoughtful new review for LITTLE KINGDOMS: 'Alex Harvey’s [new book] is enthralling but best read in small chunks. Imagine you’ve been given a huge bottle of the best whisky/brandy/whatever available: you should pour a small amount; sip it; and savour it, not quaff it by the pint.'

Santa did his job this year!

Quite excited to announce this I have 4 ongoing projects at the moment - all to be announced come 2026! I would say ‘watch this space!’ but I don’t work in HR nor am I about to announce anything mundane

Sad to see no new #DoctorWho this Christmas. In my mind quite an essential part of the UK festive season I made up for it by drinking my body weight in gravy, but still

I have risen

Merry Christmas one and all (Posting today because I will be in a food coma tomorrow)

spent all morning writing the first draft of the first chapter of a very distant book I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! as the word-count increases, the list of unorganised bullet-point notes (which I made months ago) starts to diminish

As we approach Christmas here's another ivory depiction of the nativity - this time in whalebone, on the early 8th C Anglo-Saxon Franks Casket. MAGI is written in runes above - the bird leading them is seen as the Holy Spirit (dove or duck? 😂) 📷 British Museum www.britishmuseum.org/collection/i...

Inscription, “Jesus, son of Mary,” was found in Jezreel, in Israel. The inscription was engraved in Greek into a stone originally from the lintel of a Byzantine church, dated to the 5th century AD. Merry Christmas, all! 🎄🎍✨️ #EpigraphyTuesday

LLMs are overwhelmingly popular with Right-leaning folk, so too are objectivist views on History (the past is concrete, immovable, a set of facts to be learned) It is no wonder then that inquiry and criterialism have become the natural opposite to this; the past bound by arguments and evidence)

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Little-Kingd... My third book, LITTLE KINGDOMS: AN A-Z OF EARLY MEDIEVAL BRITAIN, is now out I couldn’t find a better way of explaining it than the old thread I made - so here it is preserved in amber! Happy reading! 🧵

Another good day spent not using LLMs, sleep easy folks

Stuck in another endless cycle of rewatching Peep Show

3 French Hens for the Elven-kings under the sky, 7 Swans A-swimming for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, 9 Ladies Dancing for the Mortal Men, doomed to die, And a Partridge in a Pear Tree for the Dark Lord on his dark throne, In the Land of Christmas where the rest of the gifts lie.

The complete Bayeux Tapestry has finally been released and proves that Bishop Odo had absolutely nothing to do with the illegal Norman invasion of England.

genAI is STOLEN WORK. Using genAI in *any* capacity is trafficking in stolen work, supporting the plunder. Period. These facts aren't even denied by the AI companies, they just find ways to make that plunder seem benevolent. Using their product enables that lie. Stop enabling the theft of our work.

There’s an excellent and devastatingly thorough article in the latest @indexers.bsky.social journal by Elizabeth Bartmess and Michele Combs demonstrating that LLMs are worthless for indexing

Will be drawing Sæhrímnir next to complete the trifecta of Old Norse mythological boars, although interestingly (at least I find it interesting), the etymology of Sæhrímnir means 'sooty sea-beast' so it might have been imagined as a whale (these are all for my upcoming art book)

Gullinbursti, Freyr's boar of 'golden bristles'

(Realize that probably came off lecturey. I just feel it's somehow STILL underdiscussed. It makes me + so many other creatives I know feel absolutely insane, that we're supposed to give some kind of deference to this theft as the new default, not hundreds of years of creative and cultural history.)

Dive into the rich history of a region whose experience of the Viking Age was one of the most dramatic. Use promo code ‘ADRIEN’ at checkout to get 10% my courses and any course in the medievalist catalogue! medievalstudies.thinkific.com/courses/earl... #vikingsky #medievalsky #history

As I tell my students; History isn’t just dates, facts, and figures, but critical thinking laced with narratives of resistance Resist AI! Think critically! Use your human brain!

Lots of events planned for next year about my book 'These Isles: A People's History of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales', due out Feb 26th. Available for preorder.

I'm a FLO losing the will to identify. I've given reasons as to why this 'Latin runic' inscription on lead is not Anglo-Scandinavian or medieval. I've consulted a relevant professor, and still charged with 'dismissing' this piece. Any thoughts, but no guesses - only reply if you know! Cheers

One for the early medieval/Merovingian nerds: Happy to receive a copy of Dáibhí's 2023 Jennifer O'Reilly Memorial Lecture, in which he argues that the name Rath Melsigi, the Irish monastery where Ecgberct (d. 719) settled after the plague of 664 according to Bede, derives from 'M[á]el-Sigi'... 1/3

Hildisvíni, Freyja's 'battle swine'