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Michelle Laughran

@misciel.bsky.social
293 followers 224 following 243 posts

Avid historian of Venice, medicine/epidemics/plague, fashion/cosmetics & social/cultural history (she/her)

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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
🤔😆✌️
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Today in WaPo… Dead soldiers’ teeth reveal diseases that doomed Napoleon’s army: “This new study reinforces how impossible the whole enterprise was; in a time before railroads and antibiotics, the invasion [of Russia] was doomed before it even began.” archive.today/EoayR
archive.today
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 25/09/2025
Today's award for a clever book title goes to... 😄
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 31/08/2025
#TIL that “few know that the genius behind [Topps “Wacky Cards” stickers] was none other than Art Spiegelman--the Pulitzer Prize--winning graphic novelist who created Maus.” 😲 bookshop.org/p/books/wack...
bookshop.org
Wacky Packages
Check out Wacky Packages - <p><b>Take a fun look back at Quacker Oats, Blisterine, and more classic packaging parodies--plus an interview with creator Art Spiegelman!</b></p><p>Known affectionately am...
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
A lovely little mini-documentary on the replacing of the last HORSE elevators in NYC 🐴 laughingsquid.com/last-ride-in...
laughingsquid.com
New York City Resident Takes One Last Ride in a Horse Elevator Originally Built in 1887
A woman who lives in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City took her very last ride in her building's 19th century horse elevator.
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Fascinating! A new perspective on Incan khipus… 👩🏽🪢 archaeology.org/news/2025/08...
archaeology.org
News - Lock of Hair May Change Knowledge About Inca Recordkeeping - Archaeology Magazine
ST. ANDREWS, SCOTLAND—Science reports that recent analysis of an Inca recordkeeping device in the collection […]
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
@austinkleon.bsky.social I’ve been a longtime fan of your newsletter, but I’m unsubscribing from all Substacks… Please move yours off Substack! 🙏 leavesubstack.com
leavesubstack.com
You Should Probably Leave Substack
You should probably leave Substack. Here’s why and how.
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
#TIL: Herbert Hoover was a mining geologist who — together with his wife Lou Hoover, the first woman to earn a geology degree from Stanford — created the definitive English translation of “De Re Metallica,” a sixteenth-century text about mining and metallurgy. www.neatorama.com/2025/08/09/H...
neatorama.com
Herbert and Lou Hoover, Master Latin Translators of Metallica
Herbert Hoover was a highly accomplished mining engineer, businessman, and humanitarian before he had the bad luck to be inaugurated as President of the United States shortly before the outbreak of th...
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
@sarahebond.bsky.social Please move “Pasts Imperfect” off Substack! 🙏 leavesubstack.com
leavesubstack.com
You Should Probably Leave Substack
You should probably leave Substack. Here’s why and how.
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
There was a period when ABBA was decidedly seen as cringe, but they prevailed in the end. I agree we’ll have to wait and see if history repeats for Coldplay… 23 years since “Clocks,” only little more than a quarter century to go! 😁
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Wait, this study seems not to have been peer-reviewed, no?
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Plus AI can only access digitalized sources, and mountains of documentation aren’t digitized!
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
I can’t decide if it’s ludicrous or horrifying.
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
BTW, if you want to save energy/water — or if for other reasons you like to limit AI — on some platforms like DuckDuckGo you can go to settings & turn automatic AI off. And if you want an easy way to use Google w/out AI — and even get its old style of results — try udm14.org!
udm14.org
&udm=14 | the search engine Konami code
A quick way to get an AI-free search without any extra work.
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Admittedly, it’s not culinary rocket surgery, but I’m under the weather at the moment and was grateful for the assist. 😊
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
So… I was looking for a recipe for microwaved “baked” apples without added sugar. After a regular web search came up empty, I turned to @claudeai.bsky.social, and it came through… So, I’m sharing the bounty! 🍎
Recipe
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Good news for Coldplay is that, historically speaking, appreciation for ABBA changed tremendously with the success of “Mamma Mia,” so apparently Coldplay only needs a blockbuster Broadway musical/movie to regain fully their pop culture dignity! 👯💃🕺👯
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
My music tastes are varied, so I hadn’t quite realized that Coldplay had gained the same reputation that ABBA had back in the ‘80s: thoroughly enjoyable pop music that’s simultaneously just a little bit cringe
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
Would love to see the whole thing! 🤩
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
I have a theory that Italian café napkins are some of the least absorbant substances on earth just to keep people from taking wads of them to use at home. 🤔
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Another step in cracking a culinary mystery: “Ancient DNA Unlocks the Secret Recipe of Roman Fish Sauce”! gizmodo.com/ancient-dna-...
gizmodo.com
Ancient DNA Unlocks the Secret Recipe of Roman Fish Sauce
Roman salting plants processed fish so thoroughly that researchers struggle to identify the species once used in ancient condiments.
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Bringing to light the missing links between the ancien régime and modernity, The Frankenstein of 1790 and Other Lost Chapters from Revolutionary France is an ambitious account of a remarkable politico-literary moment and its aftermath.”
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
& others were transformed into new tales with ongoing appeal. She uncovers a 1790 story of an automaton-builder named Frankénsteïn, links Baum to the suffrage campaign going back to 1789, and discovers a royalist anthem’s power to undo Balzac’s Père Goriot. [cont.]
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Deploying political history, archival research & textual analysis with 👁️-opening results, Douthwaite focuses on 5 major events btween 1789 & 1794—1st in newspapers, then in fiction—& shows how the symbolic stories generated by Louis XVI, Robespierre, the market women who stormed Versailles… [cont.]
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
can be found in novels by the likes of Mary Shelley, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Honoré de Balzac, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, & L. Frank Baum. [cont.]
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
In this book, Julia V. Douthwaite explores how the works w/in this enormous corpus announced the new shapes of literature to come & reveals that vestiges of these stories… [cont.]
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
“The French Revolution brings to mind violent mobs, the guillotine, and Madame Defarge, but it was also a publishing revolution: more than 1,200 novels were published between 1789 and 1804, when Napoleon declared the Revolution at an end. [cont.]
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
FREE book of the month from U of Chicago Press: “The Frankenstein of 1790 and Other Lost Chapters from Revolutionary France” press.uchicago.edu/books/freeEb...
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
What a remarkable discovery! 🤩 www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/73513
thehistoryblog.com
Untouched 7th c. B.C. Etruscan tomb found – The History Blog
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
A brand new article on Architectural Digest about the dangers confronting Venice for which I was interviewed… www.architecturaldigest.com/story/is-ven...
architecturaldigest.com
Is Venice Sinking? Here’s What You Need to Know About the Floating City
Overtourism and climate change pose significant threats to this feat of Italian architecture
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Since the Pocket app is going away I'm rediscovering some interesting links, like the 1626 book "Vox Piscis," the publication of a ms that had apparently been discovered in the belly of a codfish. You can read it for yourself at archive.org/details/bim_... ! 🐟
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
Wow, I didn‘t realize how much I missed this until now… A programmer has made live, current weather forecasts available in 1990s “Weather Channel”-style, complete with scanlines and cheesy music! Just enter your zip code and enjoy!! ☺️ weatherstar.netbymatt.com
weatherstar.netbymatt.com
WeatherStar 4000+
Web based WeatherStar 4000 simulator that reports current and forecast weather conditions plus a few extras!
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
“What Can I Do?: Volunteer. Donate. Learn. Teach. Invest. Be Heard. In just 3 clicks, answer the most important question & show up the best way u know how, for the causes u care about the most… And it’s free!” www.whatcanido.earth HT @densediscovery.bsky.social!
whatcanido.earth
What Can I Do?
The fastest way to take action on what matters. Donate, volunteer, learn, buy, and invest in proven solutions. Search in seconds for free.
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
The “cyanometer,” for measuring the blueness of the sky, was invented in the 18th century by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure. Turns out that there’s now an app for that at apps.apple.com/us/app/this-... SO COOL! 🗾
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
I rock Awesome Socks day & night! #rockyourawesomesocks @thegooddotstore.bsky.social
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Wow! A sixteenth-century mural has been found on Venice’s Grand Canal, near the Rialto Bridge! 😍 www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/72918
thehistoryblog.com
16th c. mural found on the Grand Canal – The History Blog
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
In other mindblowing historical news today: “Unprecedented Roman mass grave found under Vienna soccer field” 🤯 www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/72825
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Holy cow… or she-wolf, as the case may be! A new open-access study of geochemical & Pb isotopes from bronze samples again confirms that that the Lupa Capitolina is not Etruscan or ancient. It’s medieval & dates to 1000-1199 CE! (link.springer.com/article/10.1... via the Past Imperfect newsletter) 😲
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
The segment was called "Don't Mess with Textbooks". Can you tell me where I might be able to access it? Thanks ahead of time for your help! ✌️
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
@weeklyshowpodcast.bsky.social Hey Jon! I wanted to talk w students about the impact that disappearing media has on writing and studying history, and I wanted to share the story you did on March 17, 2010 about Oscar Romero and the Texas BoE... But ironically it too has disappeared from the internet!
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 09/03/2025
@kkjetelina.bsky.social, it’s been 10y since the previous measles death… but how long has it been since 2 deaths in 1 outbreak? How long has it been since the US has had an outbreak of this size? We need to keep publicizing these numbers to show Americans that we’re going backwards fast not forwards
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 08/03/2025
@post4nature.bsky.social Hey, Kimberly! What was that iOS app you used that had fine artist-inspired textures to add to photos? I can’t remember the name. Do you know if it’s still available? Thanks! 😊
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Thanks a million! 😁
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
@altcdc.altgov.info, it’s been 10y since the previous measles death… but how long has it been since TWO deaths in 1 outbreak? How long has it been since the US has had an outbreak of this size? We need to keep publicizing these numbers to show Americans that we’re going backwards fast, not forwards.
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Not to mention… www.tpr.org/military-vet...
tpr.org
U.S. military removes words 'history,' 'respect,' 'dignity' from digital presence as part of DEI review
The Department of Defense issued a Digital Content Refresh document to comply with DEI removal from the armed services. TPR obtained a document laying out the guidance of what to remove.
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Hi! Will this event be recorded and posted after? Thanks!
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
You can see it on the Wayback Machine at web.archive.org/web/20131118... (And he even cited one of my conference papers in the process. 😊 )
web.archive.org
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Throwback Thursday! Back to simpler times when "doge" was just a cute shiba inu meme and @dylanmatt.bsky.social made a historical meta-meme about the Venetian doges for the WaPo "KnowMore" blog. 🥹
4 x 4 tiled images of 16 portraits of Venetian doges with text overlaid that describes each one's story in a style that's reminiscent of the original shiba inu doge meme
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
I suspect that anti-intellectualism plays on middle school insecurities that most people never really outgrew. The truth is irrelevant if intellectuals can be mocked, discredited, and ultimately discarded so that everyone else feels so much better.
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Michelle Laughran @misciel.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
Unfortunately, it doesn’t have to be true if it reflects and heightens the anti-intellectual fantasies that are continually fed to the public. The ginormous gulf between reality and these fictions are irrelevant because nobody really cares to check.
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