iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

In honor of #FatBearWeek, here is how to circumvent the AI apocalypse. Behold, an 1872 letter about military action at FORT BRADY that has tricked all the bots into thinking it is about fat bears. Practice your cursive, it's the new encryption! #ConfidentButWrong #historian

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Weird how people question if the chicken or the egg came first when if chickens are just tiny lame dinosaurs the answer must be “egg.”

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

How did fingerprinting become "a thing" for disparate police forces spread across America? Turns out, the FBI had a whole campaign to get them adopted, and their PR materials got saved at the US National Archives One of the first cases used was four bank robbers called the Fleagle Gang 🧵

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

There are Easter eggs in the endnotes and my favorite one has officially been found! I made a comment that submarines work better when NOT filled with water. I provided a “citation.”

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

There will be no history content from me this week, sorry. I’ve explained it in this video and I don’t have the energy to do it again. 😊 Send cookies. I stopped all leaks before commencing Floor Time. youtube.com/shorts/uztIX...

youtube.com

When Life Happens, History Content Missed a Week. Send Cookies.

YouTube video by Rachel Lance

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

But how does it do at its other two jobs?

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RG Poulussen @rgpoulussen.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The "Chariot" Mark I, a manned torpedo, inspired by Italian successes. #WW2 #HISTORY

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Luca @lucagalletti.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Bro about to do some serious engineering. IG: @canoe_carrier Algonquin Highlands, Ontario 🇨🇦

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

WWI devices like this one were the ancestors of modern dive gear. This model, the Proto, was used by military engineers trying to dig below and behind enemy trenches. The same concept kept soldiers safe from poisonous gases like chlorine. Here’s how the gizmos worked!

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

How long could soldiers have survived inside the Trojan Horse? I know it’s the question that haunted us all through the movie*, so I did the math! *only me youtu.be/iiruwIMfpbo?...

youtu.be

How We’ll Build a Survivable Trojan Horse

YouTube video by Rachel Lance

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Bold parental choice to pair up the name Clytemenestra with Helen

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Jonty Wareing @jonty.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Life goal: Get a plaque this good

Stephen Hales DD FRS 1677- 1761

Curate, Twickenham, Middlesex. The first person to measure blood pressure (in a horse) and sap pressure in trees. Found how to stop a pie crust sagging

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

I want to share a fact about a real submarine in the Great Lakes but now I must restrain myself. What a conundrum.

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I wish I’d kept the email I got from an undergrad - when I was faculty - offering to help me with my long-finished PhD work. “Physics can be hard,” he attempted to comfort me, after reading a mainstream article about the completed project and looking no further.

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Yet another day trying to be witty and engaging without sounding like I'm trying to be witty and engaging. #AuthorLife

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Scott MacFarlane @macfarlanenews.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Important statement from the New York Times

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

This cuirass, last worn in 1872, shows just how far body armor has come. Prior to the invention of Kevlar armor was not designed to stop bullets, rather only flak. This direct gunshot wound was almost certainly fatal, but today would be stopped by modern armor.

Metal backplate showing an indented bullet hole in the upper left, above the left shoulder blade. The indented portion has a hole where the bullet fully penetrated, in a location that suggests the bully tore through the lung of the wearer. The cuirass is in the collections of the Bayerisches Armeemuseum in Ingolstadt, Germany.

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Bev Vincent @bevvincent.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Science! Michal Misiak of the University of Wroclaw and Petr Turecek of Charles University in Prague used a mathematical model to show that the long-term practice of cannibalism can lead to population collapse by causing illnesses in those who eat other people.

reuters.com

Cannibalism is bad for your health, scientists find

Cannibalism became taboo in human societies not out of instinctive aversion but because it is harmful to populations who practise it, scientists from Poland and the Czech Republic ‌have found.

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!! My fifth and final fireworks safety tip, as a blast trauma expert: Nobody should have an ignition source unless they are a sober adult. Leave a comment if you have any more blast questions you’d like answered! #FireworksSafety #Happy4th

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Don’t blow yourself up! Part 4: check the list of recalled fireworks published by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. It’s free! And easy to find! And might save your hands! Here are the 3 fireworks models recalled this year #Americas250th #FireworksSafety

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Don't blow yourself up!! Part 3: no firework is a "dud" until it's in water, plus an unfortunate case report demonstrating the point. Fireworks are deflagrating explosives, meaning the best way to ensure a suspected "dud" won't go off unexpectedly is to dunk it in water.

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

How to avoid blowing yourself up with fireworks, a series by someone with a PhD in blast trauma! Part 2: never EVER assume a fuse will last a certain length of time

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

How to avoid blowing yourself up with fireworks, a series by someone with a PhD in blast trauma! Part 1: when setting off mortar fireworks, always use the correct tube. Here’s why! #Americas250th #FireworksSafety

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Grab your caffeine and Adderall, it is time to win at Monday. #WeCanDoIt

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

This Russian spacesuit is from the 1970s but shows more expertise than the OceanGate Titan. HERE'S WHY! The suit called the Orlan-D was used for EVAs (Extra-Vehicular Activities), and a placard with TWO numbers: one for the O2, but another for the duration of the suit. (🧵 1/5)

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Why do movie characters hyperventilate into paper bags, and why is that BAD? The history of breathing science is full of good ideas peppered with wrong guesses born of limitations. The "breathe into a paper bag" advice is an artifact of one such guess! #ScienceHistory #MilitaryHistory

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

How many Musk bros do you think realize that money is a zero-sum game, so to accumulate that much does mean you took it from others? And that SpaceX does not provide a product, so it was not from people making purchases?

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

When UK sailors captured this Italian "human torpedo" during #WWII what did they do?? JOY RIDE! Yes.... it is a torpedo with saddles and controls. These "Maiale," meaning "pig" because they were difficult to steer, had a range of 3-5 miles, and the Brits got to try it out Dec 1943-Jan 1944

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Science of D-Day countdown last day!! D-1: breathing AND working at the same time…. A shockingly novel concept Thank you for joining me on this countdown adventure #WWII #DDay #MilitaryHistory #ScienceHistory

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Science of D-Day countdown continues! D-2: how NOT to get stuck in the sand, and the operators who risked their lives to make sure the Allies didn’t. #WWII #MilitaryHistory #ScienceHistory #DDay

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Science of D-Day countdown continues! D-3: the LACK of body armor, and why that was a good thing #DDay #MilitaryHistory #ScienceHistory

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Science of D Day countdown! D-4: explosives, and blowin’ things up… strategically of course #MilitaryHistory #ScienceHistory

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

Science of D Day countdown! D-4: explosives, and blowin’ things up… strategically of course #MilitaryHistory #ScienceHistory

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

For this D Day anniversary, I am counting down my top 6 scientific innovations during WWII that helped bring the Allies success D-5: DICING PHOTOGRAPHY #DDay

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

One of my favorite historical blast photos. YES, plungers used for explosions in cartoons EXISTED! Modern switches use redundant toggles or buttons for safety, but people used to build switches with wire or whatever metal they had on hand. From @hagleymuseum archives

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

What is this delightful work of art? It's the bomb-damaged remnant of an X-craft, a mini-sub built by the British during WWII, @I_W_M This X-craft ("X-7") was used in Operation Source, a valiant attempt by UK mini-sub crews to attack German warships at harbor... (1/4)

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

What happens when your algorithm hates you 😉

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

PLOT TWIST Giant worm fighting for the Nazis

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Buy it for me and I will make the breathing system

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

There is a cost to delaying childhood vaccines and that cost is quantified in infections.

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Trevor Ball @easybakeovensz.bsky.social · 26/04/2026

Iranian media have published several images of US/Israeli cluster munition dispensers and submunitions reportedly deployed during the war.

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

I post this, and then 11 months later #POTUS claims he doesn't need to give his documents to archives. ....coincidence????

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

I've been invited to do a Reddit AMA about old-timey submarines! Tune in and grill me, Wed Apr 22 at 9 am, r/history.

A selfie of Rachel looking like she just emerged from the ocean, holding an origami submarine, with handwriting saying 9:00 EDT, AMA, and r/history.

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Apparently victims prevail in employment discrimination cases in America so rarely that the ability to report the income and fees correctly is not even programmed into @intuit-turbotax.bsky.social AMERICAN ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW IS THAT BAD.

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Rachel Lance @underwaterlance.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Nothing says “my book is under consideration for a serious award” like cover letters submitted in submarine format! Never stop submarining.

Four paper submarines made out of origami sit on a desk. The submarines have writing on the side of the pattern hidden by the folding.

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