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Hilary Davidson

@fourredshoes.bsky.social
2.5K followers 438 following 455 posts

Dress & Textile Historian | Curator | Fashion History | Culture | Archaeology | Books: @AustenDress 2019; Jane Austen's Wardrobe 2023 | In Lenapehoking / NYC

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Reposted by Hilary Davidson
Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
I do not care what comes after; I have seen the dragons on the wind of morning.
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marybeard @wmarybeard.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Here’s a treat from Instant Classics We interviewed Odyssey translator Emily Wilson BEFORE all the discussion of the movie to find out what translating the Odyssey is really about podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/i...
podcasts.apple.com
BONUS Emily Wilson on translating the Odyssey
Podcast Episode · Instant Classics · 18 August · 48min
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 18/08/2026
England’s ancient oak trees dying in extreme hot and dry weather
theguardian.com
England’s ancient oak trees dying in extreme hot and dry weather
Woodland Trust says trees struggling in drought stress, with older ‘survivors’ disproportionately affected England’s ancient oak trees are dying in the summer’s extreme heat and dry weather, according to the Woodland Trust, with trees and ecosystems unable to adapt fast enough to the changing climate. The heatwaves across much of Europe this summer have had a notable impact on crop growth and plant health. To cope with the extreme conditions, many trees are undergoing “early autumn”, wilting and losing their leaves early. Crow Leasow oak, Shropshire. Tea Party oak, Suffolk. King John oak, Devon. Enmore oak, Somerset. Lydham Manor oak, Shropshire. Old Knobbley, Essex. Pwllpriddog oak, Carmarthenshire. Continue reading...
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Sip Coffee, Build for Change @sipgoodcoffee.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
"The way we have been building... for the past 150 years is an anomaly in human history..." We know how to build a 100 or 500 year structure using materials w/ less embodied energy, natural ventilation, geothermal cooling, solar heating. We must get back to that wherever possible #buildforchange
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André Brett @drdrehistorian.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Only a fraction of materials that survive from the pre-digital world have been digitised, and even in a world of ideal funding and staffing we would not be close to digitising it all, never mind the straitened conditions in which so many archives and libraries must operate today
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Joshua Foust 🪖🎮 @joshuafoust.com · 16/08/2026
Media doesn’t “make” anyone do or believe anything. But it does provide permission structure and prioritization for what people think society will accept them doing or believing. This can be much more powerful and determinative than the seterotypical didactic propaganda we typically imagine.
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PM2.5 Kills ~9 Million People Each Year Worldwide @tkovach.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
"An FT analysis of 60 of the largest planned data centres being built in the US by Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta found that they could together produce 101.5mn tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year once fully operational...equivalent to about 7 per cent of US power-sector emissions in 2025"
ft.com
Big Tech’s data centre boom poised to drive up carbon emissions
FT analysis finds 60 largest planned facilities could emit equivalent of 27 coal plants or 24mn cars per year
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Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
We all have forests on our minds. Forests unexplored, unending. Each one of us gets lost in the forest, every night, alone.
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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
I’m not saying we should feed all the influencers to the sharks, but I note that the sharks do seem to have a taste for them
Incidents of sharks biting humans are incredibly rare, but at least three influencers have been bitten by the animals in less than a year.
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JonZoidberg @jonzoidberg.xyz · 15/08/2026
As we have record breaking heat wave after record breaking heat wave, it's comforting that our latest response to climate change has been to rush the construction of a thousand data centers that drink all our water and generate more CO2 than a couple industrial revolutions. JFC.
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Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
A team headed by bioanth @kabweprq.bsky.social is working to reconstruct medieval combat using everything from macroscopic bone analysis to 4D motion capture. Here's a short piece on their identification of a spiked club as the coup-de-grâce blow at the 1361 Battle of Visby. 🧪🏺
livescience.com
'Full-on berserker mode': Archaeologists solve mystery of medieval soldiers with gruesome square holes in their skull
A new analysis of skulls from a 14th-century battle in Sweden reveals a spiked club inflicted the death blow.
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 14/08/2026
The doctor who claimed that vaccines cause autism lost his medical license for faking for the study. But his lies and the damage he did to public health persist long after his paper was pulled. This is why science communication is so difficult; all it takes is one grifter.
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
There are no robot or automated sewing machines. Every single one of the countless billions of machine stitches was made on material held and guided by human hands. There are no true crochet machines either - all fast-fashion actual not lookalike crochet is handmade (by underpaid people, natch).
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Aunt Fancy @auntiefancy.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Bamboo fabric is almost always just rayon. Rayon is made by using chemicals to turn cellulose into a goo and extruding it into a fiber, and the process is usually quite toxic. There's a lot I like about rayon as a fabric, but it's not really sustainable and you shouldn't pay a premium for bamboo.
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
The Addams Family, and Addams Family Values. That's enough for a franchise. I will accept Wednesday as part of this.
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
This reached an even worse low when I got quite burnt in FULL SHADE created by a concrete awning, and the sun never got nearer to me than two feet away.
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Andrew Curry @andrewcurry.com · 11/08/2026
The man's skeletal injuries looked like a train hit him, but he died in 1304 CE. At #ppa26Berlin last week, @uniofbradford.bsky.social scientist Jo Buckberry concluded he was likely whacked by a flying boulder, making him the first confirmed trebuchet death in the archaeological record. @science.org
science.org
Shattered skeleton in Scottish castle is first confirmed death from trebuchet
“Devastation” across body of 14th century warrior indicates horrific demise from flying boulder
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Alisa Bokulich @alisabokulich.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
"It’s not just that the crystal is old. It’s that something this small and this fragile-looking has outlasted almost the entire physical Earth it formed on. Continents have assembled and broken apart, oceans have opened and closed, and entire mountain ranges have risen and eroded"
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whipmawhopma.bsky.social @whipmawhopma.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
The idea of asking a bot about Fenimore Cooper when Mark Twain was right there: www.gutenberg.org/files/3172/3...
gutenberg.org
Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences, by Mark Twain
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Past Hilary already made her course documents from last year fully accessible and for that - for once - I thank her.
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Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Axios writer: I melted my brain with AI. Not only can I no longer read, but I don't even understand the purpose of reading anymore. Here's how you can also do this. www.axios.com/2026/08/11/r...
Axios: AI has become my reading buddy as I've plowed through my summer book list, helping me keep track of plots and characters, unpack themes, and make sense of wordy, old prose.

Why it matters: The way many of us actually read books — a few pages before bed, a chapter at the beach, another on a plane — makes it easy to lose the thread. AI can help you pick it back up without starting over.
📖 I really got into using AI while reading James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans." The text was far too dense for casual vacation reading. My first prompt asked:

"I'd like a guide as I read The Last of the Mohicans who can help me understand what I've read and where the story is, without giving spoilers or getting ahead of my progress. Can you do this, chapter by chapter?"
The robot agreed: "Cooper's sentences are long and his diction is archaic."
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Hard Boiled Egg @perigominas.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
I remain undefeated bsky.app/profile/peri...
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Alex MacLaren @alexmaclaren.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Was this created *because* someone watched 'Anchorman', or because someone *didn't* watch 'Anchorman'?
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jj skolnik @supremenothing.myatproto.social · 11/08/2026
what if i do not want to be optimized. what if i want to make mistakes because that’s how you learn; what if i want to do nothing sometimes, what if i want a world that is weird and challenging and has mysteries left to reveal. what if i like taking the long way
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
This website is unintentionally the funniest thing I've seen in ages. Read it and weep. www.tacticalsoap.com
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
My skin's sun sensitivity has reached a new, bizarre extreme. I am mildly sunburnt on parts of my skin that, to the best of my knowledge, didn't get touched by full sun yesterday. I was in the shade or wearing a hat. The only time could have been sunset, sun on the horizon for 10 minutes. Depressing
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Catherine 🌷 @catebridget.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Call me Fishmael
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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 05/08/2026
Jane Austen used 'however' at the beginning of a sentence, and so can you.
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Another day, another (old) man telling me that I wear too much makeup. This time, someone who has asked me to participate in a short documentary he's filming. He wants me to be the "serious" historian. I guess you cant be serious and also glam?
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
“Imagine you’ve been a functioning adult since before 2024. It’s simply not possible”
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I truly don't understand how people rely on AI. Any time I use an AI chatbot, on any system, it turns me into some kind of dominatrix, where the chatbot ends up grovelling and apologising for its own inadequacy over very simple instructions, while I berate it for said inadequacy. E.g.:
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Ursula K. Le Guin Bot @leguinbot.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
You don't speak of dreams as unreal. They exist. They leave a mark behind them.
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
'Tis that most solemn and serious time of year: the ritual Changing of the Work Email Password, with all attendant cascading swearing as yet *another* program needs re-signing in and authenticating.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 03/08/2026
Every now and then someone takes a run at me along the lines of "I don't understand why you, a scifi writer, don't appreciate 'AI'," and I'm all, motherfucker, it's *because* I'm a science fiction writer I have the positions I have, how many times do we have to fucking yell "torment nexus," my dude
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 03/08/2026
Super useful. I figure a lot of us here in the Sky know this stuff already, but it might be handy to hand to parents, grandparents and pals who are less technically minded. www.librarian.net/NoToAI/
librarian.net
How to disable or avoid intrusive AI – librarian.net
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
This is Green Park
The lawn of Green Park in London, looking patched, tan and completely dry.
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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
so if Interview with the Vampire is canonically set in our universe, you're telling us there's a chance that Lestat de Lioncourt *did* visit The Museum of English Rural Life
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Jared Yates Sexton @jysexton.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
One of the most important issues of our time is that the future of humanity is presently being authored by people who have nothing but total contempt for humanity and seek the erasure of everything that gives being a human meaning. It’s not just annoying. It doesn’t just suck. It’s existential.
Sam Altman: cool use case of chatgpt work i heard last night:

connect your family calendars and explain your kids' interests.

every morning for the drive to school, have it make a podcast that talks about one kid's soccer game that afternoon, one kid's upcoming birthday, some news, etc.
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SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) @covid19disease.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
🚨 After 40 years of research, Brazilian scientist Dr. Mariangela Hungria wins the World Food Prize for pioneering a $2 nitrogen-fixing bacteria treatment that replaces costly fertilizers, saves farmers $25 billion annually, and cuts 230 million tons of CO₂ emissions.
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I have a joke about Ganymede, and it serves
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
1. This is what happened with microfiche 2. Again, material culture is entirely disregarded 3. @jasperfforde.bsky.social's Thursday Next series kinda warned about this
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nickyrvs.bsky.social @nickyrvs.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Not-so-accessible toilets www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
theguardian.com
Staff at newest V&A site in London vote overwhelmingly for strike action
V&A Storehouse dispute centres on toilet and hydration breaks as employees across V&A in London also vote to strike in wider action
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Incidentally, a lot of what I do as a writer is discard material. But in order to discard it, I need to know it exists and I need to understand why it doesn't belong in my book. If I allowed AI to analyze documents for me, it would only feed me information it felt was relevant. What might I miss?
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Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
While wading through dense academic research for my next book ETHER WARS, I had to stop every few pages to process the info. Now imagine if I had let AI analyze it. People forget: writing is not just the finished product. It's everything in between that gets you there. There are no shortcuts.
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I wish for material access to all dress and textile collections so I can look inside them, feel the fabric and inspect the seams. AI could definitely grant that wish, right??
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Hilary Davidson @fourredshoes.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Google Maps has gone bonkers for London transport. It pushes buses over everything, with wildly optimistic travel times, and won't offer the best tube routes, ones I know work (yes even with buses turned off). I can easily shave 5-15 minutes off Google's offered times. How are tourists managing?
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Spencer McDaniel @spencermcdaniel.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
I have a master's degree in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies, I've studied the 'Odyssey' in Ancient Greek, and I've been writing about the ancient world for over a decade. This is my exhaustive review of Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey'. #Odyssey #classics talesoftimesforgotten.com/2026/07/23/a...
talesoftimesforgotten.com
An Ancient Historian's Breakdown of Christopher Nolan's 'The Odyssey' - Tales of Times Forgotten
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is perhaps the most highly anticipated new film of the 2020s. It has already received near-universal acclaim from film critics and earned more at the box office in its ...
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iTEXTILIS | The IK Workshop Society @itextilis.eurosky.social · 24/07/2026
From the Archive – Essay: Needlework and Sewing Tools – Traces of Textile Trade in Whitby from the 1840s to 1914. www.ikfoundation.org/itextilis/ne...
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