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medievalmvb

@medievalmvb.bsky.social
2.9K followers 1.8K following 3.7K posts

cognitive medievalist (researching climate in medieval literature) | working remotely at Durham University, UK | lost decade at The SunBreak & Seattlest | outdoor photographer see mikevanbaker.myportfolio.com/work

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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 4h
“Because spending is growing faster than disposable income, it might stall as people face the limits of what they have in savings or want to borrow, said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY-Parthenon.”
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 4h
WSJ: The Mighty American Consumer Is Crashing Through Inflation and Driving Growth Paragraph 19: “Americans are taking on record levels of debt to fund their lives.”
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 6h
I hope there’s a word missing here bc infusing Mexican *people* to takes is either impossible or illegal
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 9h
*you will have to click on this screenshot to enjoy the notification synchronicity
Screenshot: a Seattle Times notification reading “WA town has broken ground on a tower to keep people safe in case a tsunami hits” floats above a Bluesky timeline that features a photograph of a human-sized toadstool “tower” with a red door, and small window, honestly unlikely to be of any help against a tsunami
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 9h
circling back to this every time you open the app the “top story” placement is bumped by a large “LA Times Studios Streaming” tile which is never updated & contains no info on its contents, anti-breaking news essentially
Screenshot of LA Times app home page view showing how a blank “Streaming” tile is given top position despite conveying no news at all
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 10h
wsj.com
Spending on AI Is Becoming Almost Impossible for Businesses to Budget
Artificial-intelligence use is measured in tokens, but the models’ use of tokens at any given task can be unpredictable.
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 10h
WSJ: Spending on AI Is Becoming Almost Impossible for Businesses to Budget *story notes that choosing lightweight models over $$$ flagship does not necessarily help
Screenshot of graph

How well can businesses forecast Al spending?

On target (within 10%): 11%

11-25% off: 39%

26-50% off: 35%

50% off: 13%

No forecast:2%

Source: Mavvrik and Benchmarkit's 2026 State of Al Cost Governance Report survey of 396 organizations conducted April and May
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
no, I think I remember this part
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Reposted by medievalmvb
Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Hate it when you see what you think is a cool bird and you look it up later and it’s called like the Common Dumb Asshole. “Birders throughout history have hated its guts. It can’t even fly right.” I thought I saw an interesting guy.
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
pregaming by rooting on my late tomatoes to ripen while we’ve still got sun
iPhone photo: a few greenish-orange tomatoes grow near the top of a tomato plant on a deck, to the right is a branch from a Meyer lemon plant, it’s a sunny October day with blue skies
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
the @latimes.com app might be the single worst instance of informational architecture I’ve run across in the news space more accurate to say it’s anti-architecture, like a collage that’s meant to defeat sense-making it’s an achievement to leave the map so completely so I grudgingly applaud it
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
thought you might want to see this driftwood log, nbd if you’re busy
iPhone photo: a large, bleached driftwood log stretches like a giant’s femur from left to right of frame, bottom third is round rocks, middle is Puget Sound, top third is blue sky with thin grayish blue clouds, vibe is somehow eldritch, confrontational
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julia 🌋 @hypv.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
endnotes are a plot by big bookmark to sell twice as many bookmarks
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
As the legends say, the strongest sweaters are assembled in ull-höll
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
also a little on the nose that a movie that wraps with a few evacuees entering a nuclear bunker, as humanity is about to be razed by bombs, was written by a guy named Noah Oppenheim
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
yes, I’ve had this exact dream, when wearing my silk eye mask
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
*eye twitch* just finished Bigelow’s ‘A House Full of Dynamite’ and she cannot keep getting away with making adrenal dysregulation our problem, that film ought to come with child-size beta blockers great to see our dozy stroke-addled guy on TV every day so his decline is super visible worldwide
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
they DON’T?!
static.klipy.com
John Candy's Polka Polka in Home Alone
Alt: John Candy trying to elicit some recognition of his Polka King character’s album “Polka Polka Polka” in Home Alone
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
think how many feet this person has seen!
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
today was pedicure & leg day, pushed a PR on basis of being told I have “beautiful feet” by the nail tech 🦵🏻
iPhone photo: two shins in navy blue joggers, two feet in black gym shoes, leg press with eight 45lb plates
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Yesterday’s bird bystanders, a flicker and heron
Photo: a flicker hunting for food in the grass on a hillside, reasonably camouflaged with brown and black back and gray neck, brown cap, but a red stripe on lower neck is eye-catching Photo: a great blue heron in profile perched atop a broken stump
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
WSJ “just asking questions” about AI: “To justify staggering investment sums, Americans will have to spend as much of their income on this one technology [in 2032] as they do on food.”
wsj.com
Will America Spend 9% of Its GDP on AI? The Industry Is Counting on It
To justify staggering investment sums, Americans will have to spend as much of their income on this one technology as they do on food.
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Sam and Dean Winchester from Supernatural sitting on a log by a lake, with a speech bubble added
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Fozzie Bear's Classic 'Wokka Wokka' Stand-Up Comedy
Alt: Fozzie Bear's 'Wokka Wokka' Stand-Up, looking around in vain for positive reactions
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
nice try, Noel, but maybe let the medievalists talk 😤
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
2nd season of intrepid Danish journalist Nora Sand (MHZ/Prime) retains & amplifies its approach to “slow TV”, 5 ruminative seconds pass before anyone responds to “hello”, but the best part is a captive fleeing through the woods at a sensible walking pace, and you know what, they don’t trip
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
from my pitch for a live action Bambi (& Thumper), not necessarily these two, it's just conceptual
Photo: a young deer is standing beneath a apple tree, the branches making a dark green umbrella, watching as on the edge of a hedge a white-tailed bunny hops away
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
PS: I got the password reset to work by switching to desktop and giving up on the phone, despite the original link arriving by text
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
static.klipy.com
Enthusiastic 'Yes Yes Yeeess' Meme Reaction
Alt: Enthusiastic Jack Nicholson 'Yes Yes Yeeess' Meme Reaction
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Just got a V-safe text from the CDC (“Vaxxed?”) & since I had the mini-malaria chills this time tried to respond. Old password expired and CDC site reset button doesn’t work. Can’t create new account, error message. Tried ‘Help’ email form, got 2 Captchas, form stopped responding. #publichealth
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
this will only cement the film’s popularity
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Nicolete Burbach @nicoleteburbach.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
If you're doing unstable remnants of empire trying to bolster a humiliated military via spiritual warfare, it would be far more based and trad - not to mention economically efficient - to just stick a stylite on top of the Washington Monument
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
and this extends to almost all third-party stuff, a lot of devil-in-details, like you might buy a multi-leg airline ticket from Expedia that is two cheaper one-ways stapled together, which means that the airline isn’t required to rebook you if the connection goes south
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
it’s not too soon to call this work “definitive”
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I stopped using Booking.com about two years ago bc I’d specifically used their map to choose a place near a resort, months in advance, and when I put the name into Apple Maps on the day it was 20 miles away, next to an airport. Customer service acted like *I* was trying to scam them.
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
👏🏻 Alt text coming through in a pinch with graphics not loading on our vibe coded social media
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Matt Levine on agentic AI killing customer lock-in: “They will tirelessly move money around to pay the last basis point to market makers.” I’m a frequent Levine reader but if you don’t mention that AI solutions come with a tireless error rate that can exceed basis points, it’s bad
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Anecdotal, but I think newsletter subs are being impacted strongly by recessionary budget-guarding, meaning new sub acquisition is critical, and Substack has the *reputation* of being the biggest marketplace where one can easily reach new subs
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Yes! Every time Frank shows up I think, Where’s Poochie?* *the workplace ensemble comedy
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
just popping in to say gosh my heart sank when he showed up again ugh
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
top notch, it writes itself
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
You were born for this 😤💪🏻
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Medieval coroner, looking up from body: He’s been ælf-shot. Reeve: I don’t see… Coroner: The arrows are invisible.
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Reposted by medievalmvb
Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Gasoline will have a big impact on September CPI. EIA data show Sep YoY gasoline inflation is 36%. Diesel (not a line item in CPI) will be worse, at 68% YoY. (Diesel demand is half of gasoline by volume; shows up more on the PPI side, and/or embedded in inflation of other goods with lag in CPI)
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
It’s a commonplace insight by now but it has been really instructive to see the CEO of six separate casino-hotel bankruptcies steering the wealthiest country in the world hard onto the Shoals of Stagflation Like, if you ever thought, “no, SIX times?” it’s all big as life on the national IMAX screen
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
good, I see we’re all on the same page at least
bloomberg.com
US Consumer Confidence Plunges to Lowest Level Since 2014
US consumer confidence fell in September to the lowest level since 2014 as views about the economy and the labor market deteriorated.
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“[T]he diaries of a Jesuit colonist in Mexico record buffalo being kept in the nature gardens and zoo of the Aztec emperor Moctezuma. There was no North America without buffalo. There is no North America without buffalo.”
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
of course but *produces chart* global demand is creating inflationary pressures even there!
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
it came to me in a dream* *another Bluesky post
Crude Photoshop where the little vampire girl silhouette from the “Let the Right One In” movie poster has been replaced by the Meta Muse mascot
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medievalmvb @medievalmvb.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
with a capital B!
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