iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

We didn't domesticate wolves 10000 years ago, rather wolves and humans entered a mutualistic symbiosis. But then humans started agriculture, so now we have the goofy guys:

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

The similarity of Wile-E Coyote (in Coyote Vs Acme) was pointed out to me by Jeroen Wijnendaele in a facebook post. I just had to make the meme.

A film poster for the Coyote Vs Acme film, depicting Wile-E coyote pushing a bomb with a lit fuse up a steep hill.
I have overlaid text reading:
CAMUS
La Mythe de Coyote
il faut imaginer Wile-E heureux

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I spent 8 weeks in Ireland looking after my parents. I miss going to bed like this:

A border collie waiting patiently on the left side of the bed, because I always take the right side

Closeup of a black cat and a border collie beside me, taken in bed.

Another closeup, this one shows that the cat and dog are in fact snuggled against each other as well as me.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

My feedback to a student: "It's obvious you didn't read the assigned reading before the comprehension task which you could also see in advance" Student: "but I did do the reading. I can even show you my study notes..." Me strongly resisting the urge to reply with this meme:

Chidi from The Good Place saying
"Okay, but that's worse."
"You do see how that's worse, right?"

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 04/01/2026

I wanted to maximise time with my parents, so now I'm flying back to Prague on my birthday. At least I can have a birthday Guinness.

A pint of Guinness in an unmarked beer glass on a wooden table.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

Publication no. 5 of 2025. My contributor's copy of this lovely essay collection finally came home yesterday (no thanks to Česka Posta). Well done to all the authors and editors. I genuinely shed a tear for both Audrey Meaney and Christine Sallazar yesterday...

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

You might as well have just sent a pamphlet out saying "start panicking!"

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

75 kg? What's that in adult badgers?

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

I finally got my author copies. I'm building a nice little collection in my office.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

People who leave their dog outside barking at night are the worst. For the record, this is where my dog sleeps... she's less bothered by the other barking dog than I am. I hate sleeping with my windows closed in summer, but needs must.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

My panel at @imc-leeds.bsky.social next week. Come for the recipes, stay for an unknown manuscript of the Physica Plinii!

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

I'm very pleased to be able to browse through both of these books. I'm also humbled to have work published alongside such excellent international scholars. #histmed #medievalsky

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

My first foray into biocodicology was fun, but the news-crew kept getting in the way of us collecting samples from the manuscript! We were trying to remove contaminating materials (aka "dirt") from the manuscript for chemical analysis. Or I was an extra for an unanounced series: CSI Olomouc!

screencapture of a newscast. In the foreground, the new anchor. In the background, the opening footage of the segment.
In the background footage, seven people are looking at a manuscript in a science lab. I am fourth from the left.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Even my phone got some passable images, but my handshake tended to make them blurry, and they were lower resolution. Example

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Teaching Middle ENglish in the Czech Republic. I might as well use Czech orthography.

Reminder on Middle English orthography

þ = thorn (as in modern English /th/), a Dental fricative, voiced or unvoiced.
ȝ = yogh (as in modern /gh/ - written as an old insular "flat-top" g)
the result of softening (palatalization) of etymological 'g' in Old English,
a velar fricative, voiced or unvoiced.
The voiced velar fricative is essentially the sound /j/ in Czech, with more constricted airflow.
the unvoiced velar fricative is normally written /ch/ in Czech.
siþen þe sege and þe assaut watz sesed at troye - g softens to /dž/ (French)
þe borȝ brittened and brent to brondez and askez - Γ softens to /j/ or /h/ (OE)
If this seems unintuitive remember Pl gród, Sl grad, Cz hrad Ukr город

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

1933. Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, Berlin! FIRST, they came for the trans people, and YOU DID NOTHING! And I a m looking at every single equivocating USA Democrat right now and saying: FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE TRANS PEOPLE. And cowards like you did nothing! And I hate you for your cowardice!

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

A wild Old Czech marginal annotation found its way into this rubric in the Physica Plinii. You will notice that the Czech word (dobre) is in a slightly different shade of red ink to the original rubric. Městské muzeum a galerie Vodňany, MS 5, 15th century. Transcription in alt text.

Text in red: Ad ardorem stomachi et sitim dobre
Text in black: Aqua tepida cum oleo optimo mixta et data bibere sitim compescit

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 07/01/2025

I feel proud of my academic writing class today. One of them gave me this gem. The whole exercise proved his point. He had Googled for the first female Rector of any university in Czechia. Google showed just the current rector of Charles Univeristy... then Brno. Popelová: Rektor in Oloumoc in 1950!

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

Little known fact, the beaker people may not have been the first humans to have red hair, but their language most certainly contained the word "meep!"

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 28/12/2024

Of all the beer you could import from czechia, Lidl imports this one :(

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

Safety is important. Make sure your collie is visible when walking at night. Tara took a little persuading to wear the vest, but loves the walk

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

Apollonius of Tyre in the bath house with Arcestrates, king of Pentapolis.

Picture of a worried looking well dressed young man with a bow tie, cardigan, pressed red trousers and white dress shoes. He is sitting on a bar stool in a gay bar. All the other men in the bar are older, well muscled men wearing leather or denim. They are all staring intently at the young man.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 11/12/2023

Prague is starting to look festive. One bus driver went above and beyond. This is a shuttle route between my faculty and the nearest metro station.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 04/12/2023

The sun has set, it's -4 degrees, people are writing Ukranian swearwords in the snow on car windows. Nature is healing.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 03/12/2023

I couldn't resist buying a Berlin leather bear for Renata for the pun value, even if it was ridiculously over priced.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 03/12/2023

Wandering around Tiergarten before my bus home this afternoon..

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 01/12/2023

Prague right now. Actually, the first photo is from Tuesday. The second is the scrub land between my faculty and the motorway after my old English lecture today.

A snowy landscape. The foreground is paved, the background is woodland with some art installations made from reclaimed gas tanks.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 27/10/2023

According to the British Library social media team, Beowulf is a novel:

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 11/10/2023

Meet Rosa. She randomly appeared outside the Café where Renata and I were having a drink after work. As @lauraamalasunta.bsky.social points out, someone must have ordered a Kozel.

Picture of a goat standing in the doorway of a café bar in Prague.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 02/10/2023

I think this practical exercise was useful, but involved carrying a huge stack of books into the classroom for my students to sort into categories.

Stack of books under a slip saying "monograph"

Stacks of books under papers saying primary source, primary source anthology and translated primary source.

Stack of books under a paper saying edited (essay) collection

Stack of printed journal articles and a hard bound copy of the journal Anglo-Saxon England under a slip saying Journal article (periodical)

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 02/10/2023

I've been here 3 semesters and they still haven't put my name on my office door, so Renata wrote a sign for me to tape onto it:

Official names of four of my colleagues on an office door. My name is handwritten in Quenya (Elvish) script.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 01/10/2023

This is how I feel about tomorrow. Unfortunately, my students would be quite justified in complaining to my boss if I didn't show up and teach their classes!