iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

🚨📘 Book Alert! 📘🚨 My first monograph, 'A Science for Everyday Life' is now available for pre-order! Published by @upittpress.bsky.social & released mid-December 2026. US/North America: upittpress.org/books/978082... UK/Europe: www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10....

Book cover for 'A Science for Everyday Life: Mass media, natural history and the environment in Britain, 1900-1945'. Image on the cover shows a class of children watching a film about a frog.

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Bee orchid, pyramidal orchid and yellow rattle today at @magdalenoxford.bsky.social!

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

The summary of the debate published by the OxStu newspaper really underscores quite how laughable and unserious it is to think of this as in any way contributing to a positive understanding of free speech and the exchange of ideas. Great to see Oxford turning out to reject this rubbish yesterday

Snippet from coverage of Tommy Robinson and Laurence Fox debate on Islam at the Oxford Union, where Fox compares Islam to fascism and says that "the West should condemn Islam in the strongest terms", before producing an AI picture of Jacob Rees-Mogg

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

🔔⏰Just over 1 month to go! ⏰🔔 Call for papers: Modern British History and the 'Environmental Turn' A two-day workshop organised by @andrewseaton.bsky.social and myself at Lincoln College, Oxford, 16-17 September. Deadline for abstracts is 15 May. Details in poster below!

Details for a call for papers for the workshop "Modern British History and the Environmental Turn", 16-17 September 2026, at Lincoln College, Oxford. 300 word proposals for a short 'position paper' of approximately 2500 words, to be submitted to andrew.seaton@manchester.ac.uk by 15 May 2026

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

I’d want to check out that mould in the bathroom!

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

My latest in History Today, on the Pride of Derby river pollution case of 1952. Now available in newsagents etc!

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Huge news for the little owl! Its transformation from 'vermin alien' and 'worst bird in Britain' to 'cute little bird' is now almost complete 🦉

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

Little Owl of the day. Colour photograph by Skoflek István (1960s-1970s), from the collections of the Museum of Kuny Domokos (Tata, Hungary)

Colour photograph of a little owl on a tree branch

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Little Owl of the day: ‘I think you will consider this proof enough of the mischief it does’. The Field, 1919

Black and white photograph of a Little Owl (or, Athene noctua) peeking out of a hole in a tree.

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

Little Owl of the day, 1938 Photograph by G. A. L. Bisseling & F. Kooymans, published in the Illustrated London News

A black and white photograph of a rather alarmed looking Little Owl, or Athene Noctua, sitthin on a large log

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Doing some of my favourite kind of research: surveying periodicals. The ones I'm looking at are usually bound up with other random titles, leading to some wonderful chance encounters!

Front cover of the journal 'The Frier' from 1923

Front cover of the journal 'Fancy Needlework' from the 1920s

Front cover of the periodical 'The Gamekeeper' from 1942

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Not quite what you’re looking for but I wonder whether Elaine Leong might touch on this?

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Mignot started breeding narcoleptic dogs at Stanford in the 1990s, leading to a major discovery in the way that narcolepsy occurs in humans. Here he is with one his narcoleptic dogs, which he keeps as a pet

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

These and similar accounts from the past resonate strongly with the experiences of many people living with narcolepsy today. Despite numerous medical advancements, the everyday life of narcoleptics today is not too dissimilar from that of a century ago.

Newspaper article from the 1930s titled "slept on a grave" about a woman who suffered from narcolepsy: "Immediately the patient tries to do needlework, knitting, or darning she begins to fall asleep"

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

I first became interested in this when I came across a medical article from 1928 by S. A. Kinnier Wilson. I found these accounts of narcolepsy patients really moving. This is an image of a railway carpenter who had his first sleep attack while "on the top of a signal post executing a repair."

Image of a railway carpenter who suffered from Narcolepsy in the 1920s, from S. Kinier Wilson's 1928 article "The Narcolepsies" in the journal "Brain".

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

As a historian, I have also recently been developing a research project which looks at how individuals have lived with the condition in the past

Newspaper article from 1937 showing an image of a girl sitting at a desk with an open book, and the headline "She Falls Asleep Too Easily"

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Happy World Narcolepsy Day! I was first diagnosed with the condition almost a decade ago, and it's been great to see the work done by Narcolepsy UK to raise awareness in the past few years. I'd love to hear from fellow narcoleptics on here!

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

Here's a picture of Mignot with one of his narcoleptic dogs. Mignot began breeding narcoleptic dogs in the 1990s, eventually leading to a major discovery in the way that narcolepsy occurs in humans. He now keeps some of the dogs as pets.

The Stanford narcolepsy researcher Emmanuel Mignot, holding one of his narcoleptic pet dogs

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

I first became interested in this project while reading a medical article from 1928 by S. Kinnier Wilson. I found the descriptions and images of his patients really moving. This picture is of a railway carpenter, who had his first attack "on the top of a signal post executing a repair."

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 22/09/2025

As a historian, I have also recently been developing a research project which looks at the history of the condition, particularly from the perspective of people who have lived with the disease in the past.

Screenshot from a newspaper feature in 1932, showing a young girl sitting at a desk with an open book. The headline reads: "She falls asleep too easily"

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

I stumbled upon lovely lonely pyramidal orchid yesterday on @magdalenoxford.bsky.social’s Addison’s Walk!

A pyramidal orchid surrounded by undergrowth

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Of course, the vandals are out in strength too

Screenshot of the Wikipedia page for pope Leo XIV, with a user asking people to stop changing the image to one of Cardinal Parolin

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

There’s a debate emerging about whether they should adopt US dating formats

Screenshot of Wikipedia talk page, where users debate whether the new Pope’s US nationality should determine the date format on his Wikipedia page

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

In moments like these, Wikipedia talk pages never fail to disappoint

Text from a Wikipedia talk page with a post reading “he the pope”, referring to the election of Pope Leo XIV

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Max Long @maxlong.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

“A Protest” - a drawing by a Southport schoolgirl in 1929, raising awareness about the effect of ships’ oil on sea birds. Published in the RSPCA’s magazine “The Animal World”

Child’s drawing of ship spilling oil into the sea, with a seagull in the foreground. Text below reads “A Protest” and “Effect of Oil on Seabirds”.

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