iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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U of T Centre for Medieval Studies @uoftcms.bsky.social · 23h

Congratulations to Shannon McSheffrey and Walid A. Saleh, who have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. www.medieval.utoronto.ca/news/shannon...

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Fine. I’ll update with a word count when I start writing again. @legalminimum.bsky.social · 22h

In case anyone wasn't clear that all the AI apocalypticism was a smokescreen to cover for wanting to delay their IPOs, here's your most recent proof. Not a gift link because the headline says it all.

ft.com

Sam Altman says OpenAI will delay its IPO until it overcomes safety concerns

ChatGPT maker launches new AI personal assistant as it faces challenge from Meta’s Muse

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georgeanne elisabeth @georgeanne.bsky.social · 22h

me writing my first email to admin requesting institutional $$$ for student travel to a conference

static.klipy.com

Adorable Cat with Big Sad Googly Eyes

ALT: Adorable Cat with Big Sad Googly Eyes

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Chaucer Doth Tweet @levostregc.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Measuringe the value of educacioun by returne on ynvestment onlye ys lyke measuringe the value of a garden by the weight of the floweres

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Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 20h

[looks at personal fiefdom of medieval eel history that runs up to 1938] That's cute.

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Kevin Moore @kevinwmoore.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

From this day on 2012: probably the most popular thing I’ve ever drawn.

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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The Schermerhorn will still host events. But after October 18, the Nashville Symphony’s musicians face an empty calendar. I wrote about the silence ahead, and the hope that this orchestra can return. silencesandsounds.blogspot.com #NashvilleSymphony #ArtsFunding

Image of Nashville's Schermerhorn center with banners for jazz, classical, pops, and so on hanging down between the columns. Blog title: Silences That Hurt: The Nashville Symphony’s 2026–27 Season Suspension

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Some do know that live-tweeting at events became a thing in mid-eighteenth century when a certain someone found his trumpet and lost his manners ... #LiveTweetingAtEvents

You see a print of 1748 titled "The Royal Assembly A Representation of the several Potentates Signing the Peace", and a messenger with a posthorn or trumpet is standing next to the Kings and Queens singing the Treaty. Source: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-3857

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The issue itself came together as a quasi-thematic issue (not a planned special issue) about queer topics in current music scholarship. Five great articles. We wrote the intro reflecting on how rare this is in music studies! Coverage of queer topics is still not at all common in our field.

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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Here's the introduction to the new issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies (JPMS), written by me and my co-editor Dr Alisha Lola Jones: online.ucpress.edu/jpms/article...

online.ucpress.edu

Editors’ Introduction

America is now in a moment—not its first—where backlash enjoys the full force of political authority. The lines between paramilitary and military, militia and police force, vigilante justice and the l...

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Sleestak @sleestak.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

and behold a pale horse. and the name that sat on him was death. and hell followed with him

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🌬Breeze @cool-summer-breeze.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota.

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Rachel Deering @racheldeering.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Hello Saturday. 🐇 A little marginalia. #InternationalRabbitDay

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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Medieval miracle stories contain some very relatable misery: sore throats, missed work, and the desperate desire to feel useful again. Also: one cantrix gets her voice back just in time. silencesandsounds.blogspot.com #nuntastic #monasticlife #Catholic #medievalsky

A photo of the ruins of the Dominican convent from St Margaret's Island, Budapest; blog post title “I Sang with the Others”: Voice, Healing, and Margaret of Hungary

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Musicology Duck @musicologyduck.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

nurse giving me my flu shot: “be sure to move your arms around a lot and that will help you not get sore” *looks at me for a minute* “typing doesn’t count”

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Southern Minnesota Museum of Natural History @smmnh.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

450 million years ago the majority of life in the oceans had soft bodies that did not fossilize very well. Their fossilized remains often appear as blurry stains upon a rock, but now and then a specimen is found with a well preserved body part, like this strange marrelomorph.

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sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

lol my flight got diverted because of a medical emergency and they landed us in reykjavik in the middle of the night and deplaned us and sent us through passport control and then the crew vanished and then british airways sent us links to book an overnight hotel room but for a hotel at heathrow

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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 22/09/2026

Apropos to discussions today, a piece I wrote in 2017 -- the "before times" here on Bluesky -- about how the Brain Eater comes for (some, not all) writers and other creatives, and what happens then. whatever.scalzi.com/2017/05/03/t...

whatever.scalzi.com

The Brain Eater

So, let’s say, there’s this writer. (It doesn’t have to be a writer. It could be a musician, or painter, or actor, any aspirant in any creative or indeed competitive field, in whi…

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Dr Craig Barker @drcraigb.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Apparently episode one was first broadcast on the BBC 50 years ago today. Still one of the most remarkable television dramas ever. I Claudius

Scene from opening credits of the BBC TV series I Claudius (1976)

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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Reading is research. Reading is important. Reading can also be an extremely sophisticated way of avoiding writing. A few thoughts on reading with a job to do — including that crucial scholarly skill of knowing when to STOP. silencesandsounds.blogspot.com #AcademicWriting #Scholarship

Photo of a bunch of slips of paper with quotes and attributions scattered on top of a page of loose-leaf paper with ink scrawl; a pen in the upper RH margin. Blog post title: Reading with a Job to Do

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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 18/09/2026

'Why Does Academic History Matter?' bit.ly/4yB8MYQ With contributions from historians Martha Vandrei, Susan-Mary Grant, Joy Porter and @davidandress.bsky.social Free to read for 7 days @historytoday.com #Skystorians

bit.ly

Why Does Academic History Matter?

The study of history at UK universities appears to be under existential threat. Should anyone care?

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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Augmented reality goggles and glowing overlays might not be the best way to augmented reality; what about listening as a means of engaging? A new post on auditory augmented reality, soundscapes, well-being, and—inevitably—earlids. silencesandsounds.blogspot.com #Soundscapes #Listening #Earlids

caduceus, sound wave, ear. Blog post title: AR for Your Ears

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socmedarch.bsky.social @socmedarch.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

#OnThisDay: Hildegard of Bingen died on 17 September 1179. She was a German Benedictine abbess, visionary, composer, and polymath. Renowned for her theological writings, sacred music, and pioneering work in natural science and medicine, she remains a profound figure in medieval history.

Medieval manuscript painting of Hildegard wearing black nun’s robes, seated beneath a small porch or canopy. Red, flame‑like tendrils descend onto her head to depict her receiving a vision. Beside her stands a man in a brown monk’s habit, writing as she dictates.

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elia ayoub @ayoub.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Friend shared this video of a man unveiling the library he hid when he fled Damascus in 2011. It’s incredible

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Bhutan eliminates dog-transmitted rabies, a southeast Asian first. The WHO validated the milestone on 4 September after Bhutan recorded zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies since June 2023, the result of over a decade of free post-exposure treatment. buff.ly/b2hnusS #ShareGoodNewsToo

who.int

WHO validates Bhutan for eliminating dog-transmitted human rabies

The World Health Organization (WHO) has validated Bhutan’s elimination of dog-transmitted rabies as a public health problem in the country. Bhutan is the first country in the WHO South-East Asia…

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Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

How to do with books, especially bibles, when you live in a material world? Well, William Hogarth of 18th century fame reminds us of the typical re-using (of bindings). In this case, the leather binding is re-used for a shoe sole. #bookhistory #booksky

A detail from William Hogarth, A Rake's Progress, Plate 1, from around 1735, showing a bound bible and the leather cover with a hole that looks like a shoe. William Hogarth, A Rake's Progress, Plate 1.

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Drag Rat Survivor @dragratsurvivor.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Seriously! It shouldn't be this hot. Doesn't September know I should be in a hoodie rn!?

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The Kimono Gallery @roger1952.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Hydrangea Forest, Japan

Tumbling in soft, pastel cascades down a shaded woodland slope, a dense carpet of hydrangeas (ajisai) transforms a towering cedar grove into a sea of muted color. Rounded mophead clusters in shades of cerulean blue, lavender, deep violet, and blush mauve crowd the understory, their delicate petals luminous against dark, moist earth and lush foliage. Soaring vertically through the floral expanse, the straight, dark trunks of Japanese cedar (sugi) create a rhythmic structural grid, filtering soft, diffused light through the high canopy to bathe the forest floor in a cool, overcast glow.

Native to Japan, the hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) has long been celebrated as the definitive herald of tsuyu—the early summer rainy season. Frequently cultivated in woodland precincts and temple grounds—giving rise to the beloved moniker Ajisai-dera ("Hydrangea Temples") across regions like Kamakura and Kyoto, as well as expansive mountain sanctuaries like Michinoku in Iwate—the flower thrives in acidic, damp soil. In classical Japanese literature and poetry, ajisai is known colloquially as nanatenge ("seven transformations") due to the way its petals shift hue from pale green to brilliant blue or violet as the rain changes the soil chemistry. This dynamic shift made the flower an enduring symbol of transformation, patience, and gentle resilience through the damp, mist-laden months of June and July.

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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I went looking at Thalbach’s 1479 statutes and found Provincial Heinrich Karrer remarkably worried about women talking. What counted as good sound, dangerous speech, & proper silence in a Franciscan women’s community? silencesandsounds.blogspot.com #nuntastic #Catholic #ConventLife #15thc

The 3 wise monkeys (see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil), with the "speak no evil" monkey circled in yellow. Blog post title: Guarding the Mouth: Speech and Silence in Thalbach’s 1479 Statutes

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Dr. Marianne C.E. Gillion @mcegillion.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Tonight is the night: early modern beguine chant in Uppsala! Also there are some delightful performance elements indicated in the manuscript that the schola will be exploring. (As an aside, very tempted to write that RenSoc abstract now…) #EarlyMusic #MusicalBookHistory #EarlyModern

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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Turning a conference paper into an article can feel overwhelming -- the original prose was built for a different job. One solution: break it apart, translate it row by row, fill the gaps, then rebuild. And of course I use a spreadsheet! silencesandsounds.blogspot.com #ScholarlyWriting #Academia

Image: podium; boxes from a spreadsheet with kind of informal prose and bold and space (for delivery purposes); the same thing in narrative scholarly prose. An arrow shows the work-flow. Blog title: From Conference Paper to Article: Turning Talk into Prose. (This post is thanks to an online discussion about just this challenge -- I realized that my method might work for others, so wrote it up...)

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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Reminder: Call for Papers on historical music pedagogy (aka musical learning in the past!) for the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 13–15, 2027 Proposals due Sept 15, 2026 -- Session ID #8258: icms.confex.com/icms/2027/pr... #medieval #CFP #MedievalSky

Image of folks gathered around a lectern with music on it -- the session title and details are provided: CALL FOR PAPERS "Pedagogies of Sound: Medieval Music Education in Slavic and European Contexts"; ICMS Kalamazoo, May 13–15, 2027 Deadline: September 15, 2026; Session #8258 (Hybrid!)

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Helen Gittos @helengittos.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

The complexity of the finest #lateantique art! A diagram of how this early sixth-century disc brooch is constructed. From Matthias Friedrich's 'Image & Ornament in the Early Medieval West'. Images: Archäologische Staatssammlung Munich.

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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

I had wild grapes. I had a three-day weekend. Clearly, an intervention was required. Laboring on Labor Day in the Vineyard of Life: silencesandsounds.blogspot.com #foraging #jelly #blog #LaborDay

silencesandsounds.blogspot.com

Silences And Sounds

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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Note from my notebook (2018). Still relevant.

THE TEN STAGES OF BOOK WRITING:

1. Faffing.
2. Terror.
3. More faffing.
4. ‘SHIT I AM SO BEHIND.’
5. Zombie who can’t think about anything but book and dreams about book every night.
6. ‘This is awful.’
7. ‘This might be OK, and that faffing might have been of benefit after all.’
8. ‘Oh my god I hope I don’t die before I’m done.’
9. ‘DONE! Never doing that again.’
10. Write another book.

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Nashville Severe Weather @nashseverewx.com · 05/09/2026

We were actually overachievers and reached 101°, tying July 3rd for the hottest day this year. In other news, the radar is still fairly quiet, as storms are struggling to maintain themselves. Think we still have at least another 2-3 hours to watch for any isolated storms. / 4:10p

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Dr Sian Witherden @sianwitherden.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I’m pleased to share that records for parish churches and chapels are now available on Medieval Libraries of Great Britain - mlgb.bodleian.ox.ac.uk #provenance #manuscripts @bodleian.ox.ac.uk

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Kathleen E. Kennedy @themedievaldrk.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

We might revise this to "every woman academic" tbh 😞

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Neon Genesis Xu-vangelion 🤖 @hellotherexu.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

“What are you working on right now” is such a loaded question. Consider lower stakes options like “what’s your most embarrassing personal trauma?” And “what’s your ao3 handle”

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The Onion @theonion.com · 03/09/2026

Woman’s Solo Hiking Trip Shockingly Doesn’t Have To Do With Inner Journey Or Anything theonion.com/woman-s-solo-hiking-tr…

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Cynthia Cyrus @scholarfarmer.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Nobody wants to work for free -- apparently Bregenz clergy were saying this in 1703 too. A little archival detour into war, parish finances, unpaid endowments, and the eternal question: who is paying for lunch? silencesandsounds.blogspot.com #Bregenz #Histodons #ChurchFinance #18thc

Image of Bregenz and the Gebhardburg from Merian, 1647, with blog title: Nobody Wants to Work for Free: Bregenz Clergy Complain in 1703

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Carin Ruff @carinr.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

"From 1 September Teatro alla Scala's streaming platform, LaScalaTV, will be dropping its paywall and making its entire catalogue of opera, concerts and ballet free to view upon registration." 👀 www.opera-now.com/content/news...

opera-now.com

La Scala's streaming platform now free - Opera Now

The Milan-based company has made free its archive of 31 recent and 13 historic operas

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Alison Stine @alisonstine.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Has anyone received a cent from the Anthropic settlement?

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Sam Bloch @samkbloch.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Comprehensive, and possibly novel, new NPR story that appears to be an original peer-reviewed study (!!) showing what many in the heat space already know — heat deaths are seriously undercounted in the United States www.npr.org/2026/08/31/n...

npr.org

NPR spent 2 years tracking deaths from heat. We found a staggering hidden toll

An NPR investigation found that people in the U.S. are dying from heat much more often than official counts show. We explore the reasons why — and how lives can be saved.

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David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Tomorrow I write about David and Jonathan. I have to say all the things in about 1000 words. Should be easy.* *if my subconscious does its job which it won’t the slacker gdi

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