Stunning Gamla (Old) Uppsala! The Kungshögarna (Royal Mounds) and Tingshögen (Thing Mound). A Vendel-period masterpiece of a monumental power landscape. My 📷

Stephen Mullen's excellent book on this topic, The Glasgow Sugar Aristocracy: Scotland and Caribbean Slavery, 1775–1838 is available to read for free from our website: uolpress.co.uk/book/the-gla... #OpenAccess #History #Slavery #Scotland

Wishing a very happy publication day to Len Pennie as her new poetry collection, Poyums Annaw, is out today! @canongate.co.uk Last night, we had the pleasure of hosting the Edinburgh launch of the book with Len in conversation with fellow poet Hannah Lavery - and what a wonderful evening it was 💙

1/ A longtime Wired editor just wrote a mush-brained essay about how he totally missed the political rot of Silicon Valley (& still doesn't get it). But in the late 1990s, a Wired journalist warned of a toxic ideology bubbling up from tech. Paulina Borsook has largely been erased. Let's change that

9/ I had launch with Paulina Borsook last month in Oakland. Her life is hard, but she still has a lot to say! She's trying to raise funds to get a new version of the book reissued on the Internet Archive. Some of her friends have a running GoFundMe to support her: www.gofundme.com/f/support-fo...

when autistic people talk about research that will actually help to improve autistic people's quality of life, this is the kind of thing we mean. this is a neat study.

World premiere time! We're really excited to be giving the first performance tonight of Seeing Creation by award-winning Finnish composer Jaakko Mäntyjärvi. Come along to Choral Evensong to hear it.

The strongest predictor of autism is genetics. Data: • If one identical twin has ASD, the other has a 90–99% chance. • Compare that to 31–67% chance for fraternal twins. • Non-twin siblings have ~20% likelihood of ASD, 7-fold higher than general population. 1/

It was monstrously hard to find examples within the media of humanising autism research @drmbothapsych.bsky.social even though universities are running humanising research it is not picked up by the media (who do publish widely dehumanising autism research)

Monique outlines a cycle of epistemic and social violence towards autistic people - Dehumanising research creates negative conditions for autistic people, which makes outcomes worse, which is used to justify more dehumanising and eliminationist research.

A backlit St Boniface, while the clouds are drawn in the blue. The old kirk this evening, Papay, island of the Papar.

So, should I finish the too many projects I already have to finish, or get an illustrator to collaborate on a translation of the Welsh Civil War spy cat's adventure poem?

It's incredible to me that this still isn't the norm. I don't understand why anyone who thinks they're a journalist would ever put out a story about autism without talking to Autistic people first.

We have two jobs at KCL History! 16-month post in Modern Irish and/or British History: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOU178/l... And 5-year post in Early Modern Europe & The World: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOU182/l... (both to start in January 2026)

The thing about being neurodivergent is that I Like It. What I don’t like is that the world imposes numerous taxes on me for being like this. I don’t view it as a Me problem.

The disabling aspects of being #autistic mainly come from that gap, that slight shift in dimensions between us & others. Autism isn’t an illness; it isn’t killing or injuring us. Autistic is our normal, our healthy. The struggle is getting our needs met within an inflexible social & economic order.

Being #autistic is like living in a slightly different world from everyone around us. We inhabit the same objective physical reality, but after that…we sense that reality differently, we think about it differently, we remember it differently, & we communicate it differently.

All I’ll say about the idea that modern medicine causes autism is that there is a 5-vol single-authored history of plants from 1561 that lists, in this order, the stems & leaves, flower & time of flowering, fruit, number of loculi, lines of dehiscence, rows of seeds, root, and smell for 500 plants.

"Quicumque hos virtutum libellos Columbae legerit pro me Dorbbeneo deum deprecetur, ut vitam post mortem ęternam possedeam." Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Gen. 1; Adamnanus de Iona, Vita Columbae; between 688 CE and 713 CE; Ireland; p.136 (e-codices.ch/en/list/one/...)

Robert Bowes reports to Walsingham from Stirling; yesterday he judged that the duke of Lennox was 'so farre apalled and caste downe as their appeareth in him litle couradge or resolution', which seems to fit the facts, and his allies were starting to give up on him. Today he seems to think ... 2/

Ireland just released a report showing the huge success of the unconditional basic income it provided to artists. Each $1 spent led to society gaining $1.39. Artists' earned incomes went up more than their side job incomes fell. And they were happier and used less welfare www.gov.ie/en/departmen...

Get a pre-order in for Len Pennie's new book - annoy all the right sort of people and then enjoy the book when it comes!

It's surely a badge of honour to get a bad review in a Murdoch organ from someone who follows a bunch of obvious bigots. You have to be doing something right for that sort to try and come for you.

I would be endlessly grateful if you were to support this crucial fundraising effort for Govan Old's 1,500-year-old graveyard and the @govanstones.bsky.social museum! 💲❤️ tghts.enthuse.com/cf/graveyard...

Whether they're blaming vaccines and Tylenol, or selling dubious "remedies," what they're really doing is promoting the perception that families (and especially mothers) can prevent and treat Autism. And thus also the perception that people with Autism and their families don't need social support.

SAVE THE DATE! The Stair Society AGM and Annual Lecture will be taking place on Saturday 15 November 2025 in Edinburgh. More details to follow, but we are pleased to announce that Professor Julian Goodare, University of Edinburgh, will be delivering a talk on ‘Witchcraft and Scots Law’.

Whether it’s paracetamol or something else, Trump and co are perpetuating the idea autism is wrong and disability is an individual’s responsibility to avoid. It’s anti-science but it’s deeply ableist at its core. The goal is for non-disabled to be afraid and disabled people to be ashamed.

Latest in the National: I spoke with Rachael Muir, Business Archives Surveying Officer for Scotland, who told me about her work across the country, investigating, organising, and sometimes rescuing archives. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 www.thenational.scot/culture/2548...

Its economist house style to not include authors. BUT, it’s some serious bullshit to use that policy to launder the well-known bigotry of this particular author behind the veil of said house style.

Blacader, Blacader! He built the southern aisle. Blackadder, Blackadder! He may have used some guile. Blacader, Blackadder! Although they share a name Blackadder, Blacader! They were not quite the same.

🎵 Mediaeval prayerbook on display The final Monday of September! But when this tune begins to play Inside your head, please do remember...

Paracetamol (Tylenol) does not cause autism, and it is a source of great dismay that autism researchers and Autistic advocates still have to spend so much time battling misinformation. Research on causes of autism systematically fails to control for the existence and behaviour of Autistic parents.

Blood libel, the conspiracy theory that Jews crucify and drink the blood of Christian children, was started by a dude who wanted to con his neighbors out of their livestock and feel important. I’m not kidding. He was willing to burn the world down to feel like a special little guy.

Exciting book launch event!! Dr Victoria Whitworth: The Book of Kells: Unlocking the Enigma is finally out, and you can celebrate it (and snag a copy) at the Tarbat Discovery Centre on 11 October. Tickets at www.tickettailor.com/events/tarba... (1/2)

Serious scholars have examined what happens when we change the number of H1-B visas issued. Cities that get more H1-B immigrants subsequently see the wages of natives *rise* substantially. Skilled immigrants bring new ideas, fill labor shortages and make us all more productive.

Mars’s atmospheric mille-feuille 🔴🍰 Scientists are trying to crack the recipe behind these hazy layers above Mars's limb using high resolution images form @esa.int's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

The edges of this tree-hollow and the branch next to it have been worn smooth by what must be generations of #possums coming and going. The tree is a pencil pine - one of #Tasmania's endemic treasures. These slow-growing mountain giants can live for 1000 years. That's a lot of possums. 🌲 #trees

'Animating the Dead: An #Archaeology of Bronze Age Burial Practices in #Orkney' by Professors Jane Downes and Colin Richards follows decades of research and incorporates new excavation results and radiocarbon dates from sites across the county. Available to pre-order now. #BronzeAge #Prehistory

What’s better than finding a #Persoonia coriacea, Finding #Polyzosteria mitchelli! In my opinion Australias prettiest Roach! These are Diurnal species found in the semi arid areas of Australia, and of course it’s a warning to predators and they will spray a bad smelling liquid!

Amazing opportunity for a specialist librarian at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. The Crawford Collection really is outstanding #histSTM 📜🔭 fa-evzn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Still not having much joy with this: does anyone know anybody working on family planning in India post-Independence I could put my enquirer in touch with? I know several people working pre-48 initiatives, but not post.

At a time when some use the language of feminism to attack trans rights, it’s vital to see feminist activists and scholars counteract such attacks. Feminist Legal Studies is inviting papers for a special issue that will explore how feminist goals and trans liberation are connected. Check it out. ✊🏾🏳️‍⚧️

The final talk in the second of Royal Marriages Summit series bit.ly/4lifqMO will be delivered by Dr Michael Pearce who will be discussing the marriage of James V of Scotland to Marie of Guise – an important part of the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France.

Stands on rooftops: 📣 🗣️ 🗣️THERE IS NO LINK BTW ACETAMINOPHEN & AUTISM. IT HAS BEEN STUDIED FOR MANY YEARS IN MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. 🗣️THE ONLY REASON THEY ARE TALKING ABT THIS IS THAT THEY DO NOT WANT AUTISTIC PEOPLE TO EXIST. 🗣️IT IS EUGENICS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION IN THIS MATTER. -EmilyPhD

For every person who understands meltdowns, RSD & hyperfixations, who is either neurodivergent themselves or loves someone who is, there's someone who thinks it just means a messy sock drawer, or creativity, or nerdiness, or only truly applies to nonspeaking + additional needs, or it's fake.

Awareness around autism & ADHD is improving, but the awareness is distributed unevenly - every day, I encounter both lovely, empathetic people who understand the challenges & folks who don't understand at all & aren't interested in trying. It's a lottery, & that can be scary.

Magiae Naturalis or Natural Magic. This book includes a recipe for Witches’ Unguent that supposedly allowed witches to fly at night… or at least they thought they could, due to its hallucinogenic properties!

Metafilter, the community weblog that has survived since 1998 and has been a tremendous resource for many, has been forced to block access from Mississippi, due to their horrendous age check law. https://metatalk.metafilter.com/26761/MeFi-blocks-access-for-Mississippi-users

By the time they're paid off, PFI schools built under Labour will have cost Scotland £15bn. The value of those schools? About £3bn. Want to know who is taking all that money out of the education system? Find out here 👇 www.heraldscotland.com/news/2548084...

I don't think this concept is understood - or talked about - nearly enough. Many disabled people spend very little time in our comfort zone, where things are easy. There are so many extra challenges to doing things, interacting, etc that if we are up and about, we are probably pushing ourselves. 1/3