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Neville Morley

@nevillemorley.eurosky.social
4.4K followers 1.9K following 5.4K posts

Classics & Ancient History at Exeter; much Thucydides, Marx and decadence, but also beer, vegetable growing, cats, bats and obscure European jazz. STILL trying to keep the blog going: thesphinxblog.com.

PostsRepliesMedia
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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 14h
A Verye Short Introduction to Oxford Handbookes to Cambridge Companions to Routledge Guides
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Peter Whitewood @pwhitewood.bsky.social · 18h
Prejudices so suppressed they can only be ‘whispered’ in a national newspaper.
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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 19h
Oh great, when the AI companies crash they’re going to take everyone else with them.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 16/10/2026
If humans have an instinctive sense of threat at being watched, whether by cats or robots, why weren’t Roman enslavers bothered about being seen naked by their attendants? thesphinxblog.com/2026/10/16/c...
thesphinxblog.com
Close To You
One of the foundational texts of my early studies in ancient history – one of these days it might be interesting to think about which of the things I read as an undergraduate had the biggest …
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 16/10/2026
The use of hydraulics for completely unproductive but expensive display was of course a central feature of ancient Greek science and technology, as seen for example in the work of Hero of Alexandria. In this grant proposal I shall...
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 16/10/2026
I’m sorry to have to be the bad guy here but we need to recognize that we live in a compressed air thrusters world now. If you’re not finding ways to teach the critical use of compressed air thrusters in your classroom, you’re setting your students up to fail when you could be setting them up to fly
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Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 16/10/2026
New White House Press Secretary Katie Zacharia: “They have said I only took questions from conservative outlets. However, The Daily Mail is not known to be a conservative outlet or friendly to conservatives.” Brits everywhere: *hysterical laughter*
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 16/10/2026
On robots, cats, slaves and nakedness. thesphinxblog.com/2026/10/16/c...
thesphinxblog.com
Close To You
One of the foundational texts of my early studies in ancient history – one of these days it might be interesting to think about which of the things I read as an undergraduate had the biggest …
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 15/10/2026
Fascinating read, but as ever it makes me want to jump up and down yearling “What about Roman slavery?!” I can’t think of any direct evidence for whether a married couple would avoid arguing in front of their enslaved attendants, but they were happy to be naked in front of them.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 15/10/2026
I am NOT joining any club that has Cicero as a member.
Screenshot of an email: "Hi Neville,

We are delighted to inform you that you have been recognized by The Notable People Project. The Notable People Project is a permanent tribute to those who have made an exceptional, net positive impact on humanity. Your work has been reviewed and deemed to have met this standard - an honor that is bestowed on only a tiny fraction of people; others included in the Notable People archive include Cicero, John Dewey and Amartya Sen. We have added a short biography of you in the archive along with the following recognition statement..."
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Ali Messer @freereed59.net · 14/10/2026
Thought experiment. What if the degrees were thoroughly worthwhile, because they were educational experiences? But then the economic circumstances on graduation were difficult? What if the degrees are not the problem?
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 15/10/2026
Highly politicised actions, 2026 UK edition: donating to the RNLI and buying Sally Rooney books.
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The Midnight Society @midnightpals.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
JK Rowling: good newssss, children! Rowling: my BBC isss making a documentary about how great i am Poe: your BBC? Rowling: yess, my BBC Rowling: i mean, i do own it after all Rowling: it came with the country when i bought that
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Seva @seva.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Russia has a name for neighbors that aren’t supposed to have their own foreign policy: the Near Abroad. It’s a wonderfully dialectical term, each half negating the other to create an imperial synthesis that treats sovereignty as a plaything of the Russian imagination. new post
hegemon.substack.com
Trump’s Near Abroad
A complaint from across Lake America
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 14/10/2026
Time for career Plan B: fake my death and run away to Mexico.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 13/10/2026
As a very casual follower of baseball, there are a couple of teams that I vaguely follow but none that I hate. Since all of the former have been eliminated from post-season, mostly for being thoroughly useless this year, I don’t have a solid basis for deciding whom to half-heartedly cheer for.
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Richy Craven @richycraven.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Beware of AI scam emails targeting authors. Know the signs. I got one from a someone impersonating my publisher, demanding the manuscript I've been procrastinating on. Nice try.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 13/10/2026
Anthropic is trying to train its machines to invade my fridge.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 13/10/2026
Interesting to note that the Pharos Foundation website has a header link to Antigone, and vice versa, without either feeling the need for further explanation.
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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
It is now one of the biggest facts in the world that the richest man in the world is an overt white supremacist trying to bend politics worldwide in the direction of white supremacy. Twitter isn't the source of his wealth but it is his biggest megaphone.
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Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
it was never much of a secret that Russia tried to influence elections. It was those on the losing side of a couple in 2016 that then turned that into the *explanation* for their results
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Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
My concern with this is we'll end up recreating the failed supply-side approach to disinformation while ignoring the far more significant demand side. First is recognising the relationship between institutions, publics, and counterpublics have changed significantly.
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Ed Granter @edgranter.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
When is it 'mission accomplished' for the Labour government? When the first big university collapses completely? When the 'knowledge class' is just AI grifters and missile designers?
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Rachel Moss @menysnoweballes.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
New publication klaxon!! Very proud of this one and very glad to have worked with @drhelenroche.bsky.social @ricardameisl.bsky.social, co-editors extraordinaire. www.arc-humanities.org/978180270364... First in a new series! 2nd volume @djrgrey.bsky.social @drdiongeorgiou.bsky.social in process!
arc-humanities.org
Political Nostalgias—Ancient and Medieval Worlds - Arc Humanities Press
This volume is the first in a sub-series entitled Political Nostalgias. This book considers nostalgia as it was understood in ancient and medieval worlds an...
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 11/10/2026
Ruin a book by adding a word: A Dance to the Music of Bath Time
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 11/10/2026
Ruin a book by adding a word: Farewell My Lovely Horse
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 11/10/2026
Feeling of great smugness that 80% of the vegetables for dinner this evening were home-grown.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 09/10/2026
A highly engineered super-evolving microbe might shatter all our expectations and predictions in ways we can’t imagine, so we should be nice to it now in case it remembers how we disrespected it by wearing masks and washing our hands…
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James Butler @piercepenniless.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
It can sometimes seem like stating the obvious that the Trump regime does things that are evil, but this is evil. There's not another word for it. It is so corrosive and degrading that it will permanently disfigure the society which permits it. It is sheer barbarism.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 09/10/2026
It does feel like there’s a race between universities and the BBC as to which can self-immolate first.
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Dave Andress @davidandress.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Well, there goes lifelong learning. Absolute bastardry.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 09/10/2026
This, on old-fashioned BBC scheduling. Current thinking seems dominated by “Yes, but someone might not like it”, so off-loading responsibility to the machine; a basic lack of faith in human beings…
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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Today, selling a £1m house and moving to a £400,000 flat won’t change your children’s IHT. The estate is the same size. Under the Tory proposal, the £1m house was exempt from IHT, but the £600,000 you released is fully subject to IHT. Your house move caused £240,000 IHT.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
We demand the right to health defects in babies! And to the consumption of weevils!
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
It is notable that Anne Carson is the fourth Nobel laureate whose work has included serious engagement with Thucydides, and the second in ten years: Albert Camus, Czesław Miłosz, Peter Handke. (More debatable in the cases of Winston Churchill and Bob Dylan).
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
Presumably because it failed to meet Radio 4’s ‘All Programmes Must Include 50% Stand-Up Comedians’ rule.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
Unless everyone else but me was getting paid huge appearance fees, how the hell is axing Free Thinking going to save them significant money? Ridiculous.
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Andrew McGettigan @amcgettigan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
the 2016 settlement was really the point at which it became clear that we had moved from a high trust system to a low trust system in 20 years. HE Expansion did not produce the envisioned productivity gains - the problem must have lain with universities
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 08/10/2026
It’s the “Let’s just imagine that the hypothetical plague has R0=11 - and then quadruple it for kicks” move that completely discredits Jacobsen’s argument.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026
#DecadenceKlaxon www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Western civilisation is 'at an inflection point' Rubio says in speech overloooking Acropolis
In a speech overlooking the Acropolis, the US Secretary of State also said the US believes Europe "can awaken from its long slumber".
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026
Some days you’re Community, some days you’re Coupling. May you never be How I Met Your Mother.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026
Trains being cancelled “due to more trains than usual needing to be repaired at the same time”. Can’t help feeling that this indicates some issues with management and system resilience…
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026
Pericles? Plato? Thucydides? Demosthenes? Aristophanes? Vague ahistorical amalgam? Taking bets now…
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026
I am becoming a god.
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 07/10/2026
“The people running AI systems have more money than it’s possible to imagine. This gives them the ability to damage the world more than it’s possible to imagine.”
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 06/10/2026
Will we be able to collect Britannia Shield Stamps to save up for our own local missile defence set-up?
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 05/10/2026
You could call it eclectic; you could call it cultural cluelessness…
A display of nine album covers: Ultravox, Vienna; Bonnie Tyler, Faster Than The Speed Of Night; Dire Straits, Alchemy Live; Genesis, Genesis; Kate Bush, Hounds of Love; Deep Purple, Perfect Strangers; Kraftwerk, The Man-Machine; Pink Floyd, The Final Cut; ABBA, The Visitors
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Sneha Krishnan @snehakrishnan.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
With @tilley101.bsky.social www.anclogan.ie/a-machine-to...
anclogan.ie
A Machine to Read Marx? In Defence of Friction and Ecology
Some on the left have argued that AI will accelerate our liberation. Sneha Krishnan and Lisa Tilley write that such arguments mistake statistical patterning for intelligence, and miss the material cos...
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Neville Morley @nevillemorley.eurosky.social · 05/10/2026
Disabling AI and installing Safari content blockers is indistinguishable from creating a pure, monocultural society through discrimination and algorithmic violence!
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Phil M 🦻🏼💚 🍉 🏳️‍⚧️ 🇵🇸 @phillm.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
When they talk about reducing red tape, remember this image.
Grenfell Tower, a black smouldering carcass of the building shorty after the fire, in 2017.
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