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Eric Glover

@dolichon.bsky.social
93 followers 83 following 250 posts

Astronomy, classics, London. My book on Hipparchus now published.

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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 22h
The WASPIs will be outraged when they hear about this 20 years from now.
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Name a film with a female director: Le Bonheur by Agnès Varda. A beautiful but shocking suburban idyll.
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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Luxury retailers want taxpayers to fund a 20% tax break for foreign tourists. They paid consultancy Cebr to claim this will raise £2.6bn for the UK. That convinced Sadiq Khan and Kemi Badenoch. But it's false: a free lunch. Four basic errors mask a £600m loss. Thread:
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Tyron @tyron.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Just seen it's Wikipedia's 25th birthday. The greatest website online, and possibly the internet's greatest fruit
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Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Very normal day
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It would be very funny if AI killed the Internet because 99.9% of all traffic was bots doing stuff.
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Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
"I have nothing against cyclists. I just don’t think it’s OK for some to decide rules are for other people. And I find it baffling that so many cyclists who purport to be law-abiding want to make that argument." Now recorded for posterity in the New Statesman www.newstatesman.com/politics/fut...
newstatesman.com
A lesson in empathy from arguing with cyclists on the internet
The logic seems to be that because some drivers don’t care about their safety, they shouldn’t care about anyone else’s
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Chairman Moët @chairmanmoet.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I have eaten the moon that was in near orbit and which you were probably saving for night time Forgive me it was delicious so sweet and so cold
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In a hotel bar on a Scottish island. Intrigued by a jolly group of German and Swedish men, all speaking in accented but fluent English, and all drinking Guinness. Quite the European mix.
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Transpontine @transpontine.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
My new book 'New Cross, New Cross: a cultural history of London SE14' (2026) is now out in the wild, 300+ pages, £15. Available from The Word bookshop (314 New Cross Road) and Crofton Books (315 Brockley Road). Pubs, music, radical politics, sport and much, much more. (More stockists to come)
Cover of book showing stylised map of New Cross area
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Actual size - Spinal Tap style.
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Analemma and Equation of Time in one image.
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
They need to keep up with the hype.
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Somebody in Nato, Denmark or Greenland seems to have spotted that telling Trump he can have an enormous victory + then offering him the status quo of the last 25-50-75 years is an off-ramp
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Chris Dillow @chrisdillow.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
If the govt doesn't call this (& higher gilt yields) the Trump tax, then it is simply failing. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
UK inflation pushed up by petrol and diesel price rises
Summer holidays and disruption to global oil supplies by the Middle East conflict stoked price growth.
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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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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Bit tangential, but I recently asked Copilot to summarise a paper of mine on Herodotus. It correctly picked out a number of key points, but, amusingly, got the basic conclusion completely wrong.
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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Maybe unpopular view: the Igs have run their course, have now become too famous (Igbait papers are definitely a thing), and should be quietly retired. Otherwise there's a risk they'll hang about like a famous comedian whose shtick seemed hilarious when you were in your teens and has not aged well.
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Indeed, we fall for language every time (cf. Stroop effect). Weizenbaum demonstrated this in the 60s with ELIZA, even though its capabilities were tiny compared with LLMs.
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Well ok, but can you expect universities to employ people who understand numbers and evidence?
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Guildhall Library @guildhalllibrary.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
If you think sticky notes are a modern era invention.... this one dates from the 1560s! Found today in a Worshipful Company of Vintners accounts book. The Vintners received its first Royal Charter in 1363 and managed the import, regulation & sale of wine. Today it supports many causes.
Image shows a small oblong piece of paper attached at the centrefold of a handwritten accounts book. 1560s.
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Helen Day @lbflyawayhome.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
On this day 7th Sept 1838 Grace Darling and her father rescued sailors from from the shipwrecked Forfarshire Artist: John Berry
Grace and her father handle their small boat as it’s tossed in rough seas while we see the wrecked ship in the background, beneath stormy skies 
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Good Qs and worth reading but the answers can be broadly summed up as: "Me? A Conservative? You must have me confused with someone else."
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Odd This Day @oddthisday.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
It’s the 49th anniversary of the launch of Voyager 1 today, so here’s a pedantic but mercifully short thread about a famous quote attached to the event
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Angry People in Local Newspapers @apiln.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
No.
The Times: Could Martian moon be an alien spaceship? This scientist will find out.
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
www.theguardian.com/science/2026...
theguardian.com
Forbidden planet: was Pluto’s 2006 demotion a big mistake?
Since it was stripped of planetary status, Pluto’s defenders have been fighting the decision – and they’re only getting more passionate
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
"Decontamination ritual"
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Will Gater @willgater.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
The core of the Milky Way rising over the waters of Church Bay, Bermuda, last week. #astrophotography
A photograph of the Milky Way lying diagonally across the frame. The Galaxy appears as a misty band of whitish yellow light criss-crossed by numerous filamentary dust clouds. In the foreground there are dimly lit rocky outcrops sitting on the foreshore in blue-green tropical waters. The sky is still slightly blue in the fading astronomical twilight.
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 23/08/2026
Did you know you can see the planets during the day? This is Saturn, photographed 11 minutes after sunrise on 11 June 2021 from Monterrey, Mexico. At the time, Saturn was 1,346,765,000 km from Earth, or about 75 light-minutes away. Credit: Daniel Borja
Saturn. But in daylight!
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Antony Johnston @antonyjohnston.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I mean, fair, but also with good reason 😂
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Angry People in Local Newspapers @apiln.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
A spokesman for WaterBastard™️ said: “We are currently working hard to create superb value for shareholders”
kentonline.co.uk
Village spells out ‘help us’ with plastic bottles as nearly 2,000 homes still without water
A community has spelt out “help us” with thousands of two-litre plastic bottles as disruption to water supplies continues after almost a week.
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Love the idea of being a thought leader.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 19/08/2026
Also most likely to fall victim to Triffids, so that’s a bonus.
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Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan @london.gov.uk · 19/08/2026
This stopped me in my tracks. An independent study by @qmul.bsky.social has found that after ULEZ was introduced, children’s lungs grew faster in Central London and have now caught up with children outside of the capital. Incredible.
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Every time I see "Roman telescope" in my feed, the ancient science guy inside me goes "Wait -- what?"
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Didn't turn up to meet the Count, either. I'll get my coat.
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Margaret Low @megjlow.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Having fun with the colander approach to eclipse watching today in #Coventry with @robjlow.bsky.social #eclipse #eclipse2026 #SolarEclipse
lots of little eclipses when you use a colander to view the solar eclipse
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Maximum eclipse, just about to obscure a sunspot group #solareclipse @chrislintott.bsky.social
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
@chrislintott.bsky.social
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
First contact in London 18:18 #solareclipse
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Alex Selby-Boothroyd @alexselbyb.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
These eclipse prediction markets are wild
A mocked-up prediction market chart suggesting that the Moon God will consume the Sun for real this time
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Doug Clow @dougclow.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
With the solar eclipse coming up on Wednesday evening it’s good to draw people’s attention to this useful and timeless* explainer of different astronomical phenomena. * since 2014 in its original Twitter form
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Met Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 08/08/2026
The UK will experience a partial solar eclipse on Wednesday 12 August. The extent of the Sun's coverage and the timing of maximum obscuration will differ across the country. Never look directly at the sun; use a pinhole projector or certified eclipse glasses to view it.
Map on UK showing how much of the sun will be obscured by the moon, at maximum, during the solar eclipse on Wednesday 12th of August. this ranges from 88% in the east to 98% in the southwest.
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
And the text didn't even mention "Trojan Horse Attack". Bad show. @apiln.bsky.social
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
AI is much more like the textile mill than an unpopular app. What young people think isn't going to matter.
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
For Londoners. The solar eclipse next Wednesday will start at 18:18 and reach a maximum of 92% at 19:14, which means the Sun will still be dangerously bright if looked at directly. It may or may not be cloudy.
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Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
The USA is at the same time a nuclear armed superpower, and one of the most ridiculous states in the history of the world.
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Eric Glover @dolichon.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Just ask AI to discover stuff about the early universe. I'm sure it'll do a great job.
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Tube Mapper- Luke Agbaimoni @tubemapper.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
I love capturing those moments where London Underground trains line up perfectly with station posters. With a little patience and a bit of luck, you can end up with some wonderfully amusing and unexpected shots.
Poster looks like it's pointing a gun at a train Spiderman poster looks like it's riding on a train Dancer on a pister looks like she is running away from a train Witch looks like she is reaching out to a train
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