You can't... repeal... a scientific finding. At that point it's just called lying about it.

Someone asked for a thread of my medieval story times (twist my arm!), so here they are. I’ll pin and add as I go!

Nobody has tried yet. It can’t be so bad? I’d award a virtual trophy for three out of four 🏆

My cartoon for this week’s @newscientist.com

“Can you hear me? Can you hear me? I think not. Is this better? No? Can you hear me? Apparently not. I will leave Teams and join the call again.”

Weekend quiz. Four anonymised victims of aeronautical engineering. You might underestimate the range to your target.

Live footage of Hannah Arendt's dichotomy between violence and power.

A man told me yesterday that it was important to "take emotion out of the equation“ when analysing the situation in the US, at which point I told him very calmly that "a woman who disagrees with you is not necessarily emotional". Ladies, it was a breakthrough. I should have done this years ago.

ICYMI here’s my illustrated article for The Aviation Show on the various prototypes and testbeds for the Hawker Typhoon and Tornado

There is literally zero time to waste right now, but I have to say that there is a part of me which is not only appalled and worried, but genuinely sad tonight. I have always thought of myself as an Atlanticist, it gives me no pleasure to say this. The world we relied on no longer exists.

Not a single day in 2025 was cooler than the 1991-2020 average, on a global scale. @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social

Babylon 5 - staggeringly and frustratingly prescient, including the part where they predicted Karoline Leavitt.

Seeing as I'm blathering about Spitfires, here's a free mythbuster for Bluesky The little letter after the Spitfire mark designation - e.g. Spitfire Vb, Spitfire XVIe - what does it mean? There is a widespread misconception that it relates to armament configuration, and *only* armament config...

every once in a while i remember this door

I can be real with you, right? We're all friends here. I'm publicly releasing this episode for two reasons. First, because people have been requesting I release it for years now... and second, because look at the news. It's here.

Now seeing a debate about how Hitler could have won/at what point could he have stopped and won/etc. and not jumping into it because if you think he *could have stopped* you do not understand Hitler. If the Holocaust and Lebensraum is not the key consideration, its all just a game of Axis & Allies.

It's easy to think Belgian comic art begins and ends with the usual passport stamps: Tintin, the Smurfs, Lucky Luke. But step into a new retrospective on Buck Danny, the fictional US fighter pilot, and you’re suddenly in a different tradition.

Yay! Literatureandhistory.com got a write up in the New York Times! www.nytimes.com/2025/12/27/a...

Juanjo Guarnido

Adoration of the Shepherds by Ghirlandaio, 1485. Lots of reminders that we're in Roman empire here.

Love Niels his drawings:

Take a moment to photograph the parts and progress on my edition of 16th Century mice armour today. #jeffdeboer #metalarts #mousearmour #armourer #miniatureart

Thread of threads.

A picture of me and the staff who operate my BlueSky account:

Although popularised by the British "Vickers Wellington" bomber, the geodesic construction technique was first used on an aircraft in the early 1920s with the Latécoère Laté-6, an all-metal bomber.

First prototype of the ‘Voltigeur’ from 1958, a three-seater anti-guerrilla warfare aircraft. The 2nd prototype, no longer equipped with a piston engine but with 2 Turboméca “Bastan” engines, broke up in flight during its seventh flight on 9 January 1959, killing its entire crew.

There are 1,000 of you following this account (1,001 to be precise). Thank you to the old followers whom I am delighted to see again on BlueSky, and thank you to the new who are curious to join us! To mark this nice round number, here is the Breguet Br.1001 Taon, a light fighter aircraft from 1957.

The Vickers Warwick, which first flew in Aug 1939, was intended to be a twin-engined ‘heavy’ bomber. However, following performance issues and protracted development the type wasn’t required by Bomber Command. Instead, Warwicks served with Transport and Coastal Commands. 📷 Destination’s Journey 🧵1/9

this man is an embarrassment to our Republic and its scientific and engineering history

My books cartoon for this week’s @theguardian.com

Detroit-Lockheed YP-24. 1931

Deep cut here from theophite, but he's correct. If you're not familiar with the history of the Kingdom of Heavenly Peace (and how it was, crazily and rampagingly, anything but) prepare for a wild historical ride.

this is honestly my main argument against AGI hype

You may be wondering, "what do you mean area ruled for Mach 1.5 or 1.2?". Well, if you're familiar only with R. T. Whitcomb's "transonic area rule", in which the sectional area distribution is calculated with plane intercepts at 90° to the velocity vector, then fair point.

MiG-21 supersonic inlet design🧵 Small Nose vs. Big Nose

This is the life-saving work that the Trump Regime is doing its best to destroy.

Deep breath. My publisher @johnmurrays.bsky.social informs me that my book about 🇬🇧, "Fantastic Kingdom“ which will come out in June 2026, is now available to pre-order, and that @waterstones.bsky.social is offering a 25% preorder discount this week. www.waterstones.com/book/fantast...

To mark the 959th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings here are four Sussex scenes from the Bayeux Tapestry: 1. Bosham Church. 2. The Norman invasion fleet sail into Pevensey. 3. Castle built at Hastings 4. Norman cavalry runs into the 'Malfosse', (yet to be located natural or defensive ditch) 🏺

Holy crap. This is terrible. The article states it's "not related to the current U.S. government shutdown". But of course it is: they are both connected by the GOP destroying everything good about this country from the top down and the bottom up.

One of my favorite medieval dudes is a guy named Sir Hugh Eland, a knight who started his career by pillaging his neighbors and ended it as a noble advocate for prison reform (from behind the bars of Nottingham jail). Medieval story time!

Window Screen xkcd.com/3151/

The Lioré et Olivier LeO H.242 was a flying boat used for passenger transport in Europe in the 1930s, particularly on Mediterranean routes by Air France. It was the company's first flying boat in 1933.

🫡

New post. The whole acetaminophen/autism story is a disgusting little scale model of how the entire Trump administration works:

Every reputable expert I know considers mRNA vaccine technology to be one of the most revolutionary advances in medicine in our lifetimes. Its inventors won the Nobel Prize in 2023. Shutting it down now is pointless self-harm to humanity.

Absolute banger from @deadcarl.bsky.social

‘The appeal to the mystical image of the “warfighter” is that it avoids having to discuss war in concrete terms. It sells the attractive myth that by doing more of the parts of war that look cool and really make you feel like a man, you can actually win wars.‘ www.deadcarl.com/p/clausewitz...

This by Calum E Douglas is very good @rafhistorical.bsky.social @smoorebofb1940.bsky.social @airminded.org @rafhistory.bsky.social @airpowerhistory.bsky.social