iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I'm annoyed that timetabling means I probably won't be able to attend any of @ninondubourg.bsky.social 's talk at my faculty in Prague next week. It looks like a great intro to her recent book. I will definitely be sending my medieval-interested students.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I gave my American students an assignment to reflect on their regional dialects, and now I want to know a lot more about what's going on in Philadelphia.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Which document is that? I don't know the sources for feorm nearly as well as I should, but it looks like food for a very large retinue.

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The Onion @theonion.com · 29/09/2026

Cornell Vows That Rapists Will Be Forced To Write Much Longer Essays In The Future theonion.com/cornell-vows...

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I'm more than anxious about the Garvaghy Road situation (I think the Parades commissioners have MANY questions to answer, as do the PSNI). Meanwhile, all news coverage seems dominated by the biggest nothingburger in history at Fairford RAF.

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Finn @thegoblinpoet.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

ngl "2 doggers, a lad out on the rob for diesel, a fly tipper and an actual terrorist get swept up into an international incident" would be a really funny premise for a slice of life British comedy

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Well, I would advise you to use the terminology suggested by @drdragases.bsky.social (below) as he's much more of an expert on the Franks! I also note that Francia is the spelling in the Wikipedia article, so probably reflects the current status quo. I guess I read too much outdated scholarhip!

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I would tend to write Frankia, Frankish, etc., but I would also consult a style guide for the publishing house to which I was submitting.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I think it is very sad that so many scientists, engineers and doctors can finish a degree without taking any humanities courses. History of science can be an amazing tool for understanding science.

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Maria Farrell @mariafarrell.eurosky.social · 27/09/2026

I cannot ever forget how the marching bands refused to be silent, as requested, going past the house where the mother of those three murdered boys took refuge in the weeks after her unthinkable loss. A small detail that exposes everything this march is for.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Racist thug arrested after interfering with operation of emergency services (RNLI) and attempted murder of emergency services (RNLI) personell... There.. fixed your headline for you Skynews!

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Ash, apparently @arreffbee.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Do not. Blame. Trans people. For being upset. When the Democrats. Throw them under the bus. For political gain. You do not get to judge trans people for being angry about this. You do not. Shut your mouth.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Alexithymia Linguini has a certain ring to it!

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Hassinator @hassinator.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

a great letter in the times today. perhaps worth sharing in these troubled times. #RNLI #heroes

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Many people like me dream of a United Ireland that is achieved through cooperation, reconcilliation, cross-community mutual respect and a shared love of our homeland. Donald Trump can fuck off with his attempts to use our desires to score points to cow Andy Burnham. Not that I like Andy Burnham much

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I'm glad i was helpful rather than confusing. For very detailed current plague pandemic scholarship, start with Monica Green. She is on blue-sky as well.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

If it helps, you can compare things like the statute of laborers of 1349 to similar laws passed by the Emperor Justinian in the wake of the 1st plague pandemic...

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

But that is where you need to be regional and specific. In England it lead to the Peasants Revolt. But throughout Western Europe the years 1348-51 were characterised by highest level of anti-Jewish pogroms between the sack of Jerusalem and the Holocaust.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

But since I have mentioned those two figures, I will suggest this book, which doesn't say a lot about the Black Death, but does say a good deal about transformations afterwards: boydellandbrewer.com/book/christ-...

boydellandbrewer.com

Christ the Physician in Late-Medieval Religious Controversy

A consideration of the allegory of Christ the Divine Physician in medical and religious writings.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I mean, of the survivors in England we have John Wycliffe (1328-1384), but after him in Bohemia we have Jan Hus (1369-1415), and between them they launched the Reformation... And no, the Black Death did not 'skip' Bohemia, it just came late there!

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It's extremely difficult (and dangerous) to generalise on the political/cultural side, because the Second Plague Pandemic was not a single event, and it was essentially global. Even the Black Death that hit London, was not a single event!

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I guess it's like how I was watching an English language film with a Ukrainian friend, and suddenly there was dialogue in Irish with no subtitles, so I started translating the Irish for her, but I don't claim to *speak* Irish.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

It's weird how passive language acquisition can outstrip active production. The other day someone said something in Czech and I responded in English because I was too tired to say anything in Czech. He was like "you understood me, but you won't speak Czech!?" Yes, I understand more than I can say.

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

Adobe have been acting in increasingly predatory ways, so I just uninstalled it and installed SumatraPDF instead. NO I do not want an AI powered PDF viewer that costs me 1000 czk per month, ffs. I realised back in december I must have needed to translate a long document from Czech....

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Berin Szóka @berinszoka.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Photo of the decade: AfD leader Alice Weidel

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Nadine Batchelor-Hunt @nadinebh.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

If you’re not Jewish you won’t understand how simultaneously hurtful and enraging this is I can only imagine how hard it must be for Ed Miliband, the son of literal Holocaust survivors - whatever you think of him, he does not deserve this

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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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Lindsay Beyerstein @beyerstein.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Elon Musk backed a pogrom this summer and it was barely a one-day story.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I realise I haven't posted in a while. As Granny Weatherwax would say "I ATEN'T DEAD", I've just been busy, but sadly not with as much research as I would like.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

When I first read the headline, I thought it was a reference to The Boys, but sadly no. Where's Butcher when you need him?

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

An English literature degree doesn't teach English grammar. For that you need to learn other languages these days, either that or train to teach English as a foreign language. Importantly, an English literature degree does teach you critical thinking, and the basic skills to interrogate a text.

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

That's a lot of fucking, and I'm not sure I'm up for it. Could we just guillotine the emperors instead?

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

I found half a hair here. Did you split it?

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

"They were hired to be Gestapo officers and they are behaving as Gestapo officers" is perhaps not the flex you think it is!

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

ice agents simply aren't trained well enough to be on the street. they are a genuine danger to citizens

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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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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Expect to see a lot of this classic Onion headline, from 23 years ago, over the coming weeks.

No Blood For Oil vs. Exactly How Much Oil Are We Talking About?

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Well, I've survived, another darkest day in the Northern Hemisphere. It only starts to get brighter from here. I just hope I can get the momentum back and publish as much in 2026 as I did in 2025.

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Matthew Triponey @matthewtriponey.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

Dear Republicans, No one has ever asked you to apologize for being white. They have asked you to apologize for being racist. Love, Non-Racist White Guys Who Are Weirdly Never Asked to Apologize for Being White Despite Republicans Thinking That's an Inescapable Everyday Occurrence

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rom comrade @savasavasava.myatproto.social · 21/12/2025

this recent genAI discourse is at least helping to identify the non-serious scholars. like if your point is to use it to help you find things or summarize things or weed out things that might not be relevant, you are not a serious scholar. and if you can't see why that is, you are a bad scholar :)

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

This is some fucked up 1984 shit! Don't you all see the blueprint of a totalitarian regime when it's in front of your eyes!?

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Conan Doyle @conandoyle.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

I spent the day seeing multispectral imaging of medieval binding fragments in 16th century incunabula, which was interesting. In one chant fragment we could read the hidden side of the parchment binding.

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👻madeline bOoOoOoOodent👻 @oldenoughtosay.com · 02/12/2025

Vaccine for smallpox invented in in 1796. Vaccines for TB, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and whooping cough came out between 1921-1926. Polio in 1952, MMR (individually) by 1970. Observe.

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