iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Greg Jenner (Historian)

James A. Palmer @jamespqr77.bsky.social · 4h

I'm the wrong James Palmer to address this, but by gum, having to defend medieval territory from the late antiquers is really going to eat into my bandwidth for capturing territory from the blasted early modernists!

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 8h

Thank you! If you’re a writer, sign up — you may be due royalties on your work 👇

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Verified Account Tracker @verified.evil.gay · 8h

✅ Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social has been verified by @bsky.app.

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 8h

I’ve had a few scammers impersonating me recently, so I’ve become verified on here to help with that sort of thing — this is my personal guarantee to you that my lukewarm puns, historical warblings, and exasperated Spurs laments are genuinely mine

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 19h

“Hi I’m Jean E. Knoxville, welcome to J’Acc-ass!”

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 20h

A cheery reminder you can now watch visualised editions of You’re Dead To Me on YouTube outside the UK (and on BBC iPlayer in the UK) This episode on the history of underwear was one of my all-time faves, with amazing guests @vicmmic.bsky.social & Prof Serena Dyer youtu.be/T5X4LV46ZVA?...

youtu.be

What People Wore BEFORE Underwear Existed | You're Dead To Me

YouTube video by BBC Podcasts

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Lauren MacIvor Thompson @lmacthompson1.bsky.social · 22h

My department is hiring an Assistant/Associate Professor of Public History! I am on the committee so please let me know if you have questions and please feel free to share! Job ID 303951. campus.kennesaw.edu/faculty-staf...

campus.kennesaw.edu

Careers - Human Resources

find your next great career opportunity by finding jobs through the Department of Human Resources at Kennesaw State University!

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 21h

I’ve enjoyed the latest series of Vigil and Ludwig on the BBC — both knowingly OTT, but a fun ride

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

At what point does a points deduction become existential, because...

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Hello, VERY exciting news!!! -- We are doing a You're Dead To Me... Live special about Beethoven, with the BBC Concert Orchestra, on Nov 13th at London's Southbank Centre!!! Tickets (£26) go on sale to the public on Thursday, but tomorrow for members www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/bbc...

southbankcentre.co.uk

BBC's You're Dead To Me Live: Ludwig van Beethoven | Southbank Centre

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Who’s gonna play Dario Amodei in the movie about this impending disaster? I vote Daniel Bruhl

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Sarah E. Bond @sarahebond.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

“Archaeologists excavating near Naousa in northern Greece recently uncovered a roughly 2,400-year-old school complex, or gymnasium. The site which stood in the ancient Macedonian town of Mieza, may have been where Aristotle taught in the 4th century B.C.E.” 🚨 allthatsinteresting.com/greece-ancie...

allthatsinteresting.com

Archaeologists In Greece Found An Ancient School Complete With Intact Benches Where Students Like Alexander The Great Listened To Lectures More Than 2,000 Years Ago

Archaeologists excavating near Naousa uncovered a 2,400-year-old school that's believed to be where Aristotle taught a young Alexander the Great.

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Catherine Clarke @cathamclarke.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I'm thrilled that A History of England in 25 Poems has been chosen as one of the Waterstones Paperbacks of the Year! I'm so grateful for this support - and especially to the booksellers in shops across the country who've championed the book. It's on offer too: www.waterstones.com/campaign/pap...

Social media card reading 'Waterstones Paperbacks of the Year' with an image of the cover of A History of England in 25 Poems. Also reads 'Available from your local Waterestones or Waterstones.com'

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

In the spirit of John Milton’s sympathetic Satan, I wonder if he ever looks at the growing number of evildoers in the world and thinks “fuck, where are we gonna put them all?!” Is there a Housing crisis in Hell?

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Ryan @ryanwright.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is how I remember the order of Henry VIII’s wives.

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This piece by @djbduncan.bsky.social is such delightful writing, like a gift wrapped in many layers of pretty paper (please forgive the tea stains, he didn’t provide those)

A friend and decided to start
a band. We needed a drummer so we tried out a few, but the one we really liked told us that she was also auditioning for a different band. They were pirate-themed.
She played with us a few more times before announcing that she had resolved to commit to the pirates. We put on a compelled valour, but it was to no avail. She never came back.
I was reminded of my antipathy to pirates this month when I saw a new black flag on the horizon: another author called Dennis Duncan. A few years ago I wrote a history book about book indexes. One of the things that happens when you bring out a book is that you are subjected to email spam from the service industry that exists just outside the publishing mainstream and feeds on the struggling and the selt-published. For example, the reader engagement' company, a kind of search engine optimisation for books, which pledges to bring your work the 'sustainable, meaningful visibility' it deserves. I was about to delete one of these messages when I noticed the title of the book they were offering to promote: Gasparilla and the Winds of Fortune. Odd, I thought. Not one of mine. Not even close. But a quick Google search revealed how the mistake must have occurred: Gasparilla is a real book, and its author is called Dennis Duncan. Another click took me to the cover illustration - a young man in tricorn hat and ruffled shirt - and that old sense of wounded outrage started up again. Gasparilla his best work. is a pirate novel.

Putting aside my previous
run-in with usurping pirates, I'm inclined to feel delighted about the whole thing. How funny to have a literary double, especially one whose work is so different - wilder, sexier, odder - from my own. A Mr Hyde to my Dr Jekyll. Perhaps I should lean into it. My editor at the Washington Post - before they scrapped their Books section - was called Nora Krug, a name she shared with a German graphic novelist who lived in New York. After the latter's Heimat won a Natio…

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History Today @historytoday.com · 28/09/2026

Neanderthals Among Us: The Making of a Prehistoric Human by Peter Sahlins charts the ascent of an idea from prehistory to popular culture. ✍️ Helen Wickstead reviews the recent #history book www.historytoday.com/archive/revi...

historytoday.com

‘Neanderthals Among Us’ by Peter Sahlins review

Neanderthals Among Us: The Making of a Prehistoric Human by Peter Sahlins charts the ascent of an idea from prehistory to popular culture.

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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 10/10/2023

About to get thrown out of here for obvious reasons

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Gabby HC @scriblit.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

*blackadder theme* His head is bigger than a fence He breathes, and everything gets warmer His urge to trample represents A nation's nuclear war trauma Godzilla! Godzilla! The scourge of beast and man! Godzilla! Godzilla! He's flattening Japan!

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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I teach in an interdisciplinary department in Canada; almost all my students end up in healthcare adjacent fields. You can bet they need history. It’s not some kind of pollution of their training, but a necessary part of their foundation

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Marc Morris @marcmorris.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#OnThisDay 1066 William the Conqueror set sail for England. It was only 48 hours after the Battle of Stamford Bridge, so he and his army embarked with no idea which opponent they would have to fight.

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Dr Jo Ball @drjeball.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

The remains of the #Roman amphitheatre at Pozzuoli (Italy), built during the reigns of Vespasian & Titus (probably by the same people as the Colosseum). It had a capacity of some 40-50,000 spectators #Archaeology #AncientBlueSky #AncientSiteSunday

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

My daughter asked why different berries have such inconsistent English names: Blueberry, black current & blackberry — named for colour. Easy! Grape — named after the old grapper hook used to cut them from vines Raspberry — named after a type of 16th century rosé wine TBC… 👇

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

England are a good attacking side, but defensively they’re just not coherent

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Philippe Auclair @philippeauclair.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Following the news that Manchester City FC has been found guilty of 114 breaches of the PL's rules and regulations, @josimarfootball.bsky.social has lifted the paywall on articles of ours focusing on MCFC and its commercial partners since 2018. Links follow in this thread.

josimar.no

The Men Behind Manchester City: The Dark Side | Josimar

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This cheetah was named Chiquita and was Josephine’s pet. She famously took it to the cinema with her

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Delighted to say our You’re Dead To Me episode about Medieval Korea is now available worldwide, as both audio podcast or visualised on YouTube With our guests Dr John Lee and comedian Erika Ehler youtu.be/z_t6Qq0OMkU?...

youtu.be

Korea vs The Mongols: How Korea Survived | You’re Dead To Me

YouTube video by BBC Podcasts

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is beautiful writing about what happens when strangers on the internet narrativise you, based on 30 seconds of video 👇

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Sara Gibbs @sararoseg.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

He imposed Shania Law

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Ironically this article makes me feel pain

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Watching David Olusoga’s excellent history of Britain’s slave trade, which begins in the 1500s and spools forward to reveal how much money was made by so many different people www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis... B

bbc.co.uk

Finding Britain’s Slave Traders with David Olusoga - Series 1: Episode 1

David Olusoga reveals the new research that uncovers how the slave trade was driven by the monarchy, beginning with Elizabeth I, and how a royal monopoly was established.

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I have seen 72 of these Top 100 TV shows of the 21st century This a very strong list, but there are many extraordinarily brilliant shows missing: Ghosts, Derry Girls, For All Mankind, Foundation, What We Do In The Shadows, Detectorists, Rick & Morty, W1A, Young Sheldon, DTF St Louis, Fallout…

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

youtu.be

Korea vs The Mongols: How Korea Survived | You’re Dead To Me

YouTube video by BBC Podcasts

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Greg Jenner (Historian) @gregjenner.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Great short piece by Prof Christine Grandy on the 25th anniversary of Wikipedia -- for me, it's one of the great human achievements of the 21st century, despite its flaws Published in the always-excellent @historytoday.com www.historytoday.com/archive/behi...

historytoday.com

25 Years of Wikipedia

Wikipedia turns 25 this year. Its success was not a given and reveals much about our changing relationship with information online.

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Matt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o...

So the message of this research out of China, where you were seeing a lot of kids using A.I. to help them, was that when they were using the A.I., they were getting things done faster. But it turned out that the skills they were learning were not holding, that their actual personal performance, at least in the way we traditionally measure it, was degrading.

What do you think when you hear that?

The last part — I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division right now. The multiplication table is starting to be forgotten. Doing square roots, my goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter?

That’s my question for you.

Yeah. I don’t think it does. I don’t think it does.

But there must be some set of skills that matter.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But maybe not those. We’re going to discover new ones. Just maybe not those.

There are a lot of skills that don’t matter. My first confession, I actually don’t know my address.

And I ——

I don’t really believe that to be true.

It’s completely true. Janine will tell you and Lori will tell you.

One day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.

But let me take the other side because I don’t want to fall into a thing where, because some skills can be safely offloaded ——

Yeah.

I also can’t get anywhere without a mapping system now. Never could, frankly. But I’m a big reader. And one of the skills I really value, one of the capacities I have that I really value is an attention span formed on physical books.

You’re a big reader. I’ve read about the kind of reading you do. And there is, prior to A.I., a lot of concern and noticing among college professors and others that the way people use the internet has probably shortened attention spans.
Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Some skills can be safely given away. Others are valuable. They are capacities that are needed for that flexibility, for that creative thinking, for that focus. It can’t be the case that everything can be traded off.

Yeah. Well, I think that we’re going to lose some finer intellectual dexterity, but we’re going to be better systems thinkers.

Today’s engineers are far better systems thinkers than I was when I graduated from school. But I was a much better transistor thinker.

What do you mean by systems thinker?

They think of large systems. Today’s computers have trillions, hundreds of trillions of transistors in them. When I first graduated from school, the first chip I worked on had 200 transistors. I knew every one of them by name. No engineer does that today. Most engineers now work well above the transistor, well above the functionality, and they’re cobbling things together to do things.

So you need to think much more about systems and interactions of systems. So some of the lower-level knowledge is gone.

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History Today @historytoday.com · 25/09/2026

The Treaty of York was signed #OnThisDay in 1237, defining the Anglo-Scottish border. Scotland’s sovereignty and independence have #medieval origins. 🔓 This article is free for 7 days www.historytoday.com/archive/feat...

historytoday.com

The Medieval Roots of Scottish Independence

At what point did the Scots first see themselves as a distinct kingdom separate but equal to that of England? Scottish sovereignty and independence have medieval origins.

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Joe Barton @joebarton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Hey we’re back

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