Interesting post, arguing that LLMs aren’t really disruptors. “They arrived as intensifiers. LLMs function as an accelerant for the existing optimization machine, making the logic run faster rather than challenging its foundations.” open.substack.com/pub/artifici...

here i am in the wsj on the very fine new biography of Francis Crick by @matthewcobb.bsky.social: www.wsj.com/arts-culture...

I'm hiring 2 postdocs on my Wellcome project "How Did Infectious Diseases Become Wild?: Plague, Yellow Fever, and Disease Ecology in the Brazilian Hinterland (1920-1975)" Department of Global Health and Social Medicine King's College 3 years 01/10/26- 30/09/29 Deadline: 01/02/26 shorturl.at/KZ6Vh

The rule of law has been suspended in the US.

Utah commissioned it's department of health to do a systematic review of gender affirming care for trans youth. In a 1000 page plus report found it was beneficial and the evidence was substantial. The lawmakers rejected it anyways. www.deseret.com/politics/202...

Hellloooo wow how do people find time for social media these days. And welcome to my TAG talk! Which was in fact about just that “the existential panic of keeping a social media based project like @trowelblazers.bsky.social alive when we can barely keep our heads above water: a DEI Story”

Danish PM statement

JOB ALERT! 3-year postdoc at @girtoncollege.bsky.social - research anything you like in History, Archaeology or Anthropology in a wonderful, welcoming scholarly community. PLEASE SHARE! Closes 12 January www.girton.cam.ac.uk/job-vacancie...

Holding hands with a feline species while trying to start your desk work. This 1482 image of St. Jerome and his lion nails it timelessly. #catcontent #academicchatter

Thought for a while now that there's a market for *article* length intro texts on topics for UGs. I see a lot of queries like this that *should* have a good answer but don't - key texts are books whose chapters don't always stand alone & we turn to podcasts or interactive websites as alternatives.

So, if Maduro is found guilty of 34 felonies, he gets returned to the presidency, right?

Jan. 4, 1776: The fleet of the newly created Continental Navy sets out for its first cruise. "The first American fleet that ever swelled their sails on the western ocean...sailed from Philadelphia amidst acclamation of many thousands assembled for the joyous occasion,” a witness reports. 1/4

My friends in Austria sent this and I can't stop watching...wait for the end. 🤗💜

First of my #BooksOf2026 and it’s a cracker. Or should I say a ‘Cricker’! @matthewcobb.bsky.social’s biography of Francis Crick is a propulsive and compelling portrait of a complex figure who towered over 20th century biology. Brims with insight. A superlative achievement.

In 1847, James Y. Simpson became the 1st surgeon to use chloroform as an anaesthetic during childbirth. Indeed, the 1st baby born under the drug’s influence was nicknamed Anaesthesia! Duncan Flockhart & Co. Ltd were the 1st British manufacturers of chloroform. #histmed #medicalhistory #skystorians

Sunday morning reading: ”Though Nomicos were in Candia in the thirteenth century, their connections were insufficient to save Jeremiah Nomico from imprisonment in 1492 on the charge of crucifying a sheep.”

When he said “no casualties” he meant no casualties that he cares about.

You can’t report illegal acts because you don’t want to compromise them being carried out is an interesting take, if true

🔥 #Impeachtrump

Yes, this is exactly the time to demand Democrats "do something." They can denounce Trump's actions as unconstitutional. They can state that he must be impeached and removed. They can make clear that all involved will be held accountable. These are the core duties of a role they all signed up for.

Donny Dump has just committed a massive breach of international and US law so, where’s the reaction from the Senat and the House of Representative? Doesn’t the US have a government anymore?

Total gibberish

Nicolás Maduro will be put on trial in the US on trumped up charges

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

An obvious point but one we should not ignore, especially those of us living in England: Sweeney’s account shows the central role that the Cass Review, and responses to it, played in shifting the NYT towards open anti-trans hatred

A private library full of #backwardsbooks. You see St Augustine in his study, lifting a burning heart up towards a heavenly light, and his books are all nicely shelved fore-edge outwards. #bookhistory #booksky

we have not "apprehended" the president of venezuela. we have invaded a foreign country and kidnapped its leader. what the fuck are we doing here, i am going to lose my mind

They gentrified the tinfoil hat

166 years ago, on the 2nd of January 1860, Urbain Le Verrier announced the discovery of the planet 'Vulcan' at the Académie des Sciences in Paris. He was awarded the Legion d'honneur. The existence of the planet was disproved after 1915 thanks to Einstein's theory of relativity. #otd #history 🗃️

And second, the first of what promises to be a super short series on the idea of progress, and what has become of it. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

ICYMI: Here are two very nice programmes that appeared on BBC Radio 4 over the holidays in which I've contributed. First, a report from the summer on the big quantum mechanics meeting on Helgoland. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

An excellent example of how lazy English speakers ignore diacritics at their peril

i get why ppl want ai checkers to be a real thing but they are effectively just random number generators. i don't think it's because of ai being trained on existing books, it's because detection is just a parallel grift. that's where we're at: the technological countermeasures to scams are scams

Two giants, who span the beginnings of modern medicine, were both born in the Netherlands on 31 December–Vesalius in 1514 and Boerhaave in 1668 #histmed thonyc.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/m...

Isaac Barrow & John Wallis introduced the young Isaac Newton to the concept of mathematical physics and the new continental mathematics #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/12/31/f...

Isaac Barrow & John Wallis introduced the young Isaac Newton to the concept of mathematical physics and the new continental mathematics #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/12/31/f...

Two giants, who span the beginnings of modern medicine, were both born in the Netherlands on 31 December–Vesalius in 1514 and Boerhaave in 1668 #histmed thonyc.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/m...

This is an important point, but it is definitely the case that premodernity is undervalued across the board, even by history departments. Global premodernity always has been and I think the writing is on the wall even for formerly privileged "European" fields.

This is an important point, though I think there is a distinction to be made between what is becoming the fate of the premodern “West” (an object of right-wing capture) and the premodern global, including less insular and less traditional framings of European history (objects of right-wing attack).

Apparently senior members of the field out there crying about the exclusion of white males? I can't even. People need to get a grip.

This is a nice addition to the "bad Cold War ideas" file — nukes that would detonate themselves at full yield "in the event the carrier and/or crew fell prey to the enemy defense." Never adopted as far as I know... from a Sandia study of nuclear safety issues, 1959.

We launched our podcast 'Beyond The Knife' this year, featuring fantastic guests discussing dissection, forensic anthropology, and the history of midwifery—something for everyone! Exciting episodes are lined up for 2026. Find Beyond the Knife wherever you get your podcasts.

Anyone know how popular or unpopular the Moderate Realist position is these days? Among professionals. #philsci

'You shouldn't be getting a medal for being robbed by your own government' 92 year old Betty Brown, the oldest surviving victim of the Post Office IT scandal, told #BBCBreakfast she was 'very honoured, but angry' about being made an OBE in the New Year Honours

166. Should I close this tab or continue my search for the film Coxeter made about dihedral kaleidoscopes? @graveolens.bsky.social @rmathematicus.bsky.social 🧪 #TabClosed2026

Your referees were idiots!

i can tell you i wasn’t one of those referees. I’d’ve said, “brilliant!”

“Technology and History: ‘Kranzberg’s Laws’,” was published in Technology and Culture in *1986*— that's *forty fucking years ago* people— & it was delivered as his (Kranzberg's) presidential address to the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) the year before that, so we're rolling up on 41…

As a college student, Isaac Newton tried to figure out a scale where all the frequency ratios are simple fractions. How did it work, and how does it compare to the scales invented by Mercator, Mersenne and Euler? I'll explain 174,240 such scales. johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2025/12/29/j...

Which is why we remember the sacrifice of health and life by the laying of yellow wreaths at war memorials. The British Legion Poppy Factories are now making such wreaths (to order).