iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Science: A Peculiar History

pixelatedboat aka “mr bluesky” @pixelatedboat.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Australopithecus 3 million years ago:

Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Habsburg England (Mary I and Philip II have children) is one of the wildest alt history scenarios that nobody ever talks about

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Noticing how 10th-11th Century Visigothic manus ripts often have Coptic/Ethiopian vibes

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Absolute genius approach to regnal numbers from Gerbert d'Aurillac. Otto I, II and III apparently rendered as Oto, Otto and Ottto

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

"What book are you reading?" "Oh, you know, that historical novel where they're trying to find out who murdered a manuscript illuminator." "What's it called?" "Oh, something to do names and red things."

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

NEW EPISODE The Emperor puts Gerbert in charge of a monastery in Italy (where the clergy routinely plunder each other's churches). He gets tangled in French and Imperial politics, but still finds time (according to William of Malmesbury) to build a tool for telling the future.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The plaque on Top Withens is actually extremely funny

Top Withens
This farmhouse has been associated with
WUTHERING HEIGHTS,
the Earnshaw home in Emily Brontë's novel.
The buildings, even when complete, bore no resemblance to the house she described,
but the situation may have been in her mind when she wrote of the moorland setting of the Heights.

Brontë Society
1964

This plaque has been placed here in response to many inquiries.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Pendle Hill seen from Pen-y-Ghent yesterday. One outlying Northern English instance of the Brythonic "pen-" hill name element seen from another.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

In 802, an envoy returned to Charlemagne's court with an extraordinary gift from Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Read about it here:

joebath.substack.com

Charlemagne's Elephant

The story of a remarkable diplomatic gift

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Realizing "transfer" and "translate" are from the same Latin root in different tenses

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Countries where snowfall almost exclusively occurs in places named after Saint Catherine

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

This text from the Codex Vigilanus, completed in 976 at the Monastery of San Martín de Albelda, in La Rioja, is the first known Western example of Hindu-Arabic numerals, which the monks presumably learned about through books acquired from across the border in Al-Andalus

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Some more images from the Codex Vigilanus, including the Hindu-Arabic Numerals

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

The team that wrote the Codex Vigilanus - a 10th compilation of legal and historical texts from the monastery of San Martín de Albelda in La Rioja that contains, among other things, the earliest known appearance of Hindu-Arabic numerals in a text from Christian Europe.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

NEW EPISODE: Gerbert starts a new job in Reims, where he manufactures various spheres, and introduces an ingenious system of mathematical notation that he came across in Catalonia. Listen wherever you get podcasts

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

omg he's literally me (Source: The Nobleman and his Housedog by Kitty Ferguson)

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

In John James Audubon's "Birds of America", he included an entry on a previously unknown species of eagle that he named the "bird of Washington" (Falco washingtonii). Audubon's account is the only evidence of its existence, and most experts think he simply made it up.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

NEW EPISODE An obscure monk from 10th-Century France begins his career as a mathematician and possibly (depending on who you ask) a sorcerer, when he leaves to study in Spain.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

To prepare for the series on Gerbert d'Aurillac, I have immersed myself in the mindset of an Early Medieval scholar by basing my understanding of ancient philosophy almost entirely on later commentaries (Wikipedia, the SEP, and @histphilosophy.bsky.social).

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

The first episode of the new series on Gerbert d'Aurillac is actually ready to record, and has been for a couple of days now, but I have a cold at the moment and if I recorded it now it would sound awful. Thank you for your patience

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Diagram of a solar eclipse, from a 'trilingual compendium of texts' from 14th-century England cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GG-00001-00001/764

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

"There he learned what the song and flight of birds portended, there he learned to summon ghostly forms from hell." I've started writing a new podcast series on Gerbert D'Aurillac: Mathematician, astronomer, Pope, and alleged necromancer.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I've written an article Tldr: There’s a rumour dating back to at least the 3rd Century CE that Plato invented an alarm clock, and there’s at least one replica in existence demonstrating how it might have worked if he did. open.substack.com/pub/joebath/p/did-plato-invent-the-alarm-clock

open.substack.com

Did Plato invent the alarm clock?

Exploring the origins of an intriguing rumour

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

NEW EPISODE Fundamentalists attempt to capitalise on the momentum from the Scopes Trial to pass "monkey laws" in more states. But as the 20th Century goes on, new legal precedents force them to develop new strategies in response.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

16% of Americans (well above Lizardman's Constant) who follow no religion apparently believe that God created humans a few thousand years ago. Who the hell are these people?

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

NEW EPISODE With the trial over, William Jennings Bryan takes his undelivered courtroom speech on a tour of Tennessee, Scopes weighs up his career options and incinerates unopened fan-mail, and the lawyers attempt to resolve their personal differences in time for the appeal.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Reminder that you can donate to help support the podcast at buymeacoffee.com/joebath. I'll even mention you at the start of an episode.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

In the wake of the 1925 Scopes Trial, it became a popular subject for country ballads, presenting the trial as a resounding triumph for the Anti-Evolutionist cause, in contrast to the most common narrative today, where it's usually seen as an unequivocal Evolutionist victory.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

NEW EPISODE Going into Day 7 of the Scopes Trial, the defence's expert witnesses have not been allowed to testify, leaving them with no evidence whatsoever. But Clarence Darrow has a plan to call a surprise witness - a "Bible Expert".

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

I made this map with data from the University of Hull's Domesday Book online database, showing the amount of land that was listed as "waste" (i.e. with no recorded population) in the Domesday Book of the 1086.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

I've done a couple of maps recently showing interesting etymologies involving indigenous languages of the Russian North. Parka derives from Tundra Nenets, via Aleut, and shaman derives from an Evenki word that might derive from the Sanskrit 'sramana'

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

The winning Limerick of the London Weekly Dispatch's Scopes Trial-themed competition, by E.J. Rackham of Southampton: If we take the Daytonian mind As an average of men's, I'm inclined To ask not if man With a monkey began, But "Did monkeys descend from mankind?"

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

NEW EPISODE The Monkey Trial continues - featuring dramatic speeches from Bryan and Malone, a less dramatic speech from William Jennings Bryan Jr., and a poetry competition in a London newspaper.

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Idea: Modern English translation of Beowulf in dactylic hexameters Lo! We have oft heard many a tale of the ancient Spear-Danes, Tales of their glorious kings, and the valorous deeds of their princes.

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Reposted by Science: A Peculiar History

The British History Podcast @thebritishhistorypodcast.com · 19/05/2026

It never ceases to amaze me how some authors tie themselves in knots to make William the Conqueror a hero. I just read one who described the Harrying as an effort to deforest the North in order to defend against a future invasion… but some inhabitants perished in the process. wtf

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

One of the most extraordinary etymologies I know

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Reposted by Science: A Peculiar History

John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Astrological clock in the form of a celestial globe, of gilt metal, made in Augsburg in 1584 by Georg Roll and Johannes Reinhold (V&A Museum, London)

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Reposted by Science: A Peculiar History

The British History Podcast @thebritishhistorypodcast.com · 13/05/2026

Me: Send me your questions and I'll answer them on ep 500! Inbox: Do you have a plan for succession? Me: ... Inbox: Hi, clearly you're not going to make it to the present day, do you have a plan for handling that? Me: ... Inbox: Love the show, I was just wondering who will take over when-

media.tenor.com

a man in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask on his nose

ALT: a man in a hospital bed with an oxygen mask on his nose

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

NEW EPISODE John Scopes, a teacher from Dayton, Tennessee, goes on trial, accused of teaching his students the Theory of Evolution. With the nation's eyes on Dayton, defence attorney Clarence Darrow questions a witness on the question of the taxonomic classification of whales.

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Reposted by Science: A Peculiar History

The British History Podcast @thebritishhistorypodcast.com · 07/05/2026

Alright chat, a banger just dropped in the feed and it's all about how, when William of Mortain wasn't bag chasing, he was straight up mogging the King of England and landmaxxing his portfolio. Until he crashed out. Hard. No cap. Uh... skibidi?

thebritishhistorypodcast.com

499 – William of Mortain and How Some People Never Have Enough Wealth | The British History Podcast

Some families are just…the worst. You know how it is, there’s the one or two in there that are half decent, but mostly you avoid them too because the rest of the family is just awful. Well, there was ...

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

How the Memphis Commercial depicted defence attorney Clarence Darrow on July 15 1925, day 4 of the Scopes "Monkey" Trial

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Clarence Darrow, defence attorney in the Scopes Trial, reading out a list of animal orders and the number of species in each from the biology textbook "Civic Biology" (I've been struggling to figure out what exactly what bearing this had on the case).

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Reposted by Science: A Peculiar History

Medieval Military Medicine @medmilmedicine.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Image of Bigfoot out clubbing discovered in 14th century manuscript - Bodleian Library MS. Bodl. 264, f. 260r

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Science: A Peculiar History @peculiar-history.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

NEW EPISODE With the ACLU planning to challenge the Butler Act in court, the Dayton businessman George Rappleyea sees an opportunity to put his town in the spotlight. The second episode in a series on the Scopes "Monkey" Trial

The image is a cartoon from the Washington Evening Star, showing a figure labeled "Dayton", in a pond labeled "publicity", saying "My first real vath. Gee! Ain't it great!", lit by William Jennings Bryan instead of the Sun.

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