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will pooley

@willpooley.bsky.social
9K followers 3.4K following 8K posts

historian of witchcrafts, tarot, folklore, France 18-20th century ed. Cambridge Elements in Magic also #CreativeHistories yes, that’s an actual photo of me. never had ebola. yet

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Reposted by will pooley
Sarah Andersen @sarahseeandersen.bsky.social · 55m
The image is of a four panel comic.
The first panel shows Sarah, the protagonist, holding a red ball labeled "A SILLY MEME".
The second panel shows Sarah taking the ball and going through a door labeled "GROUP CHAT".
The third panel shows a group of women sitting together and consoling one woman in the center. The woman in the center is saying "...And that's how it happened. It's been the worst day of my life."
The fourth panel shows Sarah standing in the doorway behind them awkwardly holding the red ball.
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 1h
new name going forward
Dear Dr. History,
I am a submission assistant in the field of qualitative research, education, teacher education, educational management, and my name is Emily.
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Liam J. Liburd @liamliburd.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
For my London-based or adjacent followers, I'm speaking at an event marking the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street next Tuesday evening. I'll be reflecting on the history of antisemitism and state racism among other things. Tickets are free!
bisa.bbk.ac.uk
The Battle of Cable Street ninety years on: the struggle against fascism and antisemitism, then and now | Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism
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Michael Spicer @michaelspicer.bsky.social · 8h
Most TV is just this now.
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 3h
hehe www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?...
megalithic.co.uk
Les Fesses du Diable Sculptured Stone
Sculptured Stone in Pays de la Loire:Loire-Atlantique, France
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 7h
worth reading the whole blog kieranhealy.org/blog/archive... some of these dynamics are different among historians but some of this is depressingly familiar
kieranhealy.org
How Rude
Nomy Arpaly has an interesting post at Daily Nous called Is Polite Philosophical Discussion Possible? She says, in part: I am not a philosophical pacifist, but you don’t need to be a literal pacifist ...
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Dr Dave Hitchcock @davehitchcock.bsky.social · 7h
"AI has not rescued the humanities. What it has done is reveal, with unusual clarity, what happens when societies allow the institutions that cultivate judgement to erode."
corp.oup.com
AI just made the case for philosophy majors; the humanities should not waste it - Oxford University Press
Sophie Goldsworthy, Global Academic Publisher, explores how AI companies hiring philosophers may have made a compelling case for the study of humanities disciplines.
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Emily Tesh @emilytesh.net · 8h
it has now been two months of suddenly having my reading mojo back. I have read or reread twenty-nine books. I can now share such revelations as 'it's been 13 years but Ancillary Justice is still a perfect book' and 'has anyone else heard of this Tchaikovsky chap?'
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 9h
If you’ll be in Durham on 18/11, I’m giving a talk at @durhamhistory.bsky.social seminar “Murder, Magic… Spreadsheets?” about writing my new book on witchcraft in France(1790-1940) due out with Cornell next year. The highs, the lows… the stupid stupid spreadsheets. www.durham.ac.uk/departments/... 🗃️
Black and white photo  of a woman manipulating an ox heart with various other magical paraphernalia History Department Research
Seminars
Wednesday 21 October 2026
Catherine Fletcher (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Wednesday 18 November 2026
Will Pooley (University of Bristol)
Wednesday 2 December 2026
Jane Whittle (University of Exeter)
Wednesday 27 January 2027
Emma Hunter (University of Edinburgh)
Wednesday 10 February 2027
Shamara Wettimuny (The Queen's College, Oxford University)
Wednesday 24 February 2027
Holly Stephens (University of Edinburgh)
Wednesday 10 March 2027
Olesya Khromeychuk (Ukrainian Institute London)
Wednesday 12 May 2027
Mark Bailey (University of East Anglia)
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 11h
ok. im the guy in that viral video paddle boarding after an inflatable mattress and im ready to answer Qs: -the wind came from NOWHERE -this is our actual bed -no we haven’t got it back. in fact im still at sea, ive been paddling for 3 days no food or water, BUT i think i can finally reach it! oh
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Linda Andersson Burnett @lindaaburnett.bsky.social · 22h
The Instructing Colonial Natural History Seminar Series is back and we have a stellar line up: @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social, 6 Oct; @cberiksen.bsky.social, 28 Oct; Jim Endersby, 25 Nov; and Ma. Mercedes G. Planta, 9 Dec. All seminars are on Zoom, 15-16 CET
Poster for Instructing Colonial Natural History, Autumn Term 2026 seminar series. The design uses an 1785 watercolour by Sarah Stone showing the interior of Sir Ashton Lever’s Museum in Leicester Square, London: a dark green natural-history collection crowded with display cabinets, birds, shells, antlers and other specimens, with green curtains opening onto receding galleries and a large elephant on the right. Four online seminars are listed: Sadiah Qureshi, 6 October; Christoffer Basse Eriksen, 28 October; Jim Endersby, 25 November; and Ma. Mercedes G. Planta, 9 December. All seminars are on Zoom, 15.00–16.00 CET. Registration: instructingnaturalhistory@uu.se
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
ok so this is 🔥 atlas.jazco.dev
Clusters labeled eg:
Art Deco Glasgow buildings
UFO-shaped bathhouSes and granaries
Northern industrial nostalgia

Historie
Architecture & Lost Sites
Clyde River heritage and industrial ruins
Yorkshire
ridge ruins and sepulchral sites
Folklore landscapes of the British IslesWorkplace
Writing Pressure
Editing Fatigue & Créative Breaks
Daily Word Goals
& Momentum
Writing the First Draft
Weeknight Writing
Struggles
First Draft Milestones
& Feedback
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Institute of Historical Research @ihr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Does your research touch on science or science history? Come to this free training session led by IHR Research Partners @sciencemuseum.org.uk on Oct 14 14:00-16:00 at the IHR. Learn about Science Museum Group collections, the SMG Research and Public History team, and grant funding. buff.ly/6xETNyy
A collage of museum objects fills the background, including a large penny-farthing bicycle, a wooden mechanical apparatus, historic vehicles, a steam locomotive, a close-up of turbine blades, and a brass navigational instrument. The words “SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP” appear in large white capital letters across the centre of the image. In the upper right corner, a white panel displays the date “14 Oct 26”.
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
and for the record, i wrote the proposal for this fellowship a year ago so the more recent stuff about AI “risks” wasn’t even what i was thinking about
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
people in/near bristol and into/violently against tarot/AI: we are hosting a series of events this year on “risk”, tarot and AI as part of my university research fellowship get in touch if you’d like to be involved
La Maison Dieu tarot card above text 

TAROT / RISK / AI
a series of events hosted at the University of Bristol
November 4 2026: discussion event open to anyone interested in Tarot / Al

contact: william.pooley@
bristol.ac.uk
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Tim Daw @timdaw.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Historic England vanishing archive - details of why it is broken : www.sarsen.org/2026/09/hist...
sarsen.org
Historic England’s Vanishing Archive
Not just the aerials. The lot. Historic England still holds the negatives, the prints and the scans. What the public lost, in early Sept...
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huck mason @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
bad news babe a rogue openai agent must have hacked our refrigerator last night and drank 15 beers
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
“we’re all gonna be soup”
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
YO it’s ornamental squash season for the love of gourd let’s get this party PUMPKIN
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Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
NEW: I came across a bookseller who was afraid that a mysterious company trying to buy some of his rarest books was going to use them to train AI models. I went down the rabbithole with him, and was confused and altogether existentially weirded out by what I found www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
A bookseller confronts a mysterious company hunting his rarest books
Was a Kentucky retailer targeted by a destructive AI "predator"?
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London Fortean Society @forteanlondon.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The Haunted Landscape 2026: Magic, Fairies and Old Gods Saturday 21 November 2026 10 am - 5 pm @conwayhall.bsky.social and online Line up below, books, coffee and more on the day. Details and tickets: forteanlondon.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-... 1/9
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London Fortean Society @forteanlondon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
It's a whole day of ghosts, magic and old gods @conwayhall.bsky.social and online on 21 November. forteanlondon.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-... @strangeattractor.bsky.social
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Sarah Elizabeth Cox @oispooky.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
2yrs after I finished my MA History at Goldsmiths, my research rights were bought and I was hired to work as historical consultant on this TV show. It's had BAFTA and International Emmy nominations. I got a book deal, too. Goldsmiths: "No point in MA History, let's fire everyone and delete it."
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
“so will, how did you get into marking google maps with all the scatological folklore landmarks mentioned in academic literature?” well
Google Maps
We've accepted your edit
Your edit to Les Fesses de Gargantua was accepted. Thanks for making Maps more accurate and reliable.
Map data ©2026
Edited Sep 26, 2026 • Accepted
Edits may take 24 hours before appearing on Google.
You can track the status of your edit at any time in Edits.
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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Do not carry a cold beverage in their presence. Politely decline any drinks or sweetmeats they may offer. Keep a plain iron nail in your left trouser pocket and a sachet or paper twist of coarse salt in your right shoe. Enter and leave your chair moving clockwise. Follow up with a thank-you note.
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Catherine D'Ignazio (she/her/ella) @kanarinka.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
MIT spent $3 million on 500 AI-capable surveillance cameras while laying people off, shutting down libraries, and canceling journal subscriptions. In this article, 4 faculty & I discuss our new arts initiative to celebrate surveillance and repression on college campuses: fnl.mit.edu/how-we-learn...
fnl.mit.edu
How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Campus Surveillance – MIT Faculty Newsletter
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
forgive me iced coffee is just so delicious so sweet and so cold
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
DERRY GIRLS. If it’s not there it’s not a serious list
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
is it a fair read to say that both public and politicians are obsessed by the idea of more money for vocational training, while there is essentially no set of employers/industry that actually needs this now while no one cares about universities which employ huge numbers and employers need and want
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
the fact that you still can’t buy the branded huntryx noodle pots with their names on as depicted in the film is a sad indictment of capitalism
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Near Bain-de-Bretagne Adolphe Oran reported, lies a pond, the étang de la Huais, which finds its source in a stream that runs down from between two round hillocks: the buttocks of Gargantua watch this space to see if GoogleMaps accept my request to have this location added!
Google Maps clearly shows the buttocks in relief
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Near Bain-de-Bretagne Adolphe Oran reported, lies a pond, the étang de la Huais, which finds its source in a stream that runs down from between two round hillocks: the buttocks of Gargantua watch this space to see if GoogleMaps accept my request to have this location added!
Google Maps clearly shows the buttocks in relief
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
yet again finding it difficult to concentrate on work as another breaking news event unfolds www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c6...
bbc.co.uk
Growers going head-to-head at giant veg competition after exceptionally hot summer
The national championship, held at the Malvern Autumn Show, often sees world records broken. This year, UK growers faced a summer of dry ground and drought.
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Saima Nasar @saimanasar.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Please join us in celebrating the Centre for Black Humanities’ tenth anniversary. CBH is holding a two-day symposium titled ‘Collectivity, Community, Collaboration’. Our keynote will be Professor Christina Sharpe. Cfp below. Please spread the word!
CALL FOR PAPERS
Centre For Black Humanities 10th Anniversary Symposium: 
‘Black Humanities: Collectivity, Community, Collaboration’
Keynote Speaker: Professor Christina Sharpe
8-9
th April 2027
University of Bristol

The Centre for Black Humanities is an interdisciplinary research collective dedicated to 
advancing scholarship on the artistic and intellectual contributions of people of African 
descent. It is inspired by and expands legacies of scholarship, art, and activism relating 
to Black lives across time and space. Building on our international and multilingual
networks, and our home in the port city of Bristol, our research often engages with 
communities beyond traditional academic settings and addresses inequality and social 
justice through innovative collaborations. By centring an ethics of care and generosity, 
despite the chronic conditions of life in and beyond the academy, we support earlycareer scholars and visiting scholars/practitioners. In turn, we seek to interrogate and 
repurpose institutions of knowledge production such as universities, museums and
publishing houses, within entangled contexts of reparative justice, decolonization, and 
the climate crisis. We imagine collectivity, community and collaboration as methods for 
Black Humanities research going forwards.To celebrate the Centre’s 10-year anniversary, we will be holding a two-day symposium 
entitled: ‘Black Humanities: Collectivity, Community, Collaboration’. The keynote 
will be Professor Christina Sharpe, Research Chair in Black Studies in the Humanities at 
York University (Canada), and author of In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (2016) and 
Ordinary Notes (2024). We invite scholars and practitioners (at all levels, independent 
and affiliated) to submit abstracts for presentations of 15 minutes. The event will be 
held in person at the University of Bristol. We invite presentations that speak to Black 
Humanities in its multi/anti/undisciplinary forms. We are particularly interested in work
that speaks to the following themes:
- Collectivity, Collaboration and/or Community in Black Humanities
- Black Humanities/Studies in times of polycrisis
- Black Health
- Environmental Justice
- Radical Imaginaries (how creative works make sense of Black pasts/present and 
help to shape Black futures)
- Methods for solidarity and/or incompleteness
- Folklore and storytelling as method
- Translation and multilingual solidarities
- Beyond critique
Please submit your abstract of no more than 250 words, along with a short bio of no 
more than 100 words, to cbh-publicity@bristol.ac.uk. Abstracts should be submitted 
no later than Friday 30th October 2026. A publication and podcast series are planned to 
follow on after this event.
You may reach us at cbh-publicity@bristol.ac.uk in case of any questions or 
observations.
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Ethan Mollick @emollick.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The cybersecurity threat from agents is increasingly more likely to come from a massed swarm of AIs whose only goal is to penetrate your system to figure out how much you paid for your company t-shirts as part of a research effort to "find good t-shirt prices" as it is from bad actor attacks.
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
things i have learned from building a spreadsheet to reconcile inconsistent naming practices in my book manuscript: 1. the book refers to 525 different individuals by name (tho some are not clearly identified) 2. i really, really should have just thought about consistent rules for naming people
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Dr Francis Young @drfrancisyoung.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
From 18 October there will be a new exhibition at the Museum of Cambridge devoted to folklore (and supported, among others, by the @folkloresociety.bsky.social)
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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
oh! The second part of the de Gaulle movie that's been taking France by storm is coming to London this Friday! With a special screening and discussion with director and actors on the 26th! (based on an actual academic book by one of ours, @qmulsse.bsky.social!)
institut-francais.org.uk
De Gaulle (Part 2): Liberté at Ciné Lumière - Institut Français · Royaume-Uni
+ Q&A with director Antonin Baudry & actors Simon Abkarian, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tom Mison on 26 Sept at 19.00
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
In 1832 Edme Jacquier received the following anonymous letter. the author was Jean-Baptiste Mignon, and he was acquitted, perhaps (the Gazette des tribunaux 3.12.1832 speculated) because it was true: Jacquier was a witch! also, threats of arson sound less real if they’re also threats of magic
"Witch and magician, if you do not lift [the spell] you put on us within 8 days, you will see what you have not seen [clearly?]: you are a witch, but son of a witch myself I have already sought out the drug, and shall [find? administer?] it; your whole family will perish this very month, down to the last daughter; you will all be burned; I cannot spare you: you will die. (Signed)
Agent of Death."Fais et délibaire à Racine, le 13 mai 183). Sorsie et maj-sie, si tu notts pat ce que tat mie cheus nous dissis a 8 jourre, tu vairat ce qué tu na pat corre vus : tu et sorsie, mais fis de sorsire : je déjat chaircé la droje, je la traivraie; tout la la-miles, vous perire ce mois ici, à la fille ; vous sere brule tous: je ne peu pas t'an ragete : tu mourat. (Signé) Aidde de la
mors. »
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
horse ebooks are back baby
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Lyndsey Stonebridge @lyndseystonebri.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
You're going to be needing specialists in: languages, narrative, history, psychology, information, mythology, conspiracies, etc, etc. then? #humanities #socialscience
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
new article appears on first view IMMEDIATELY spot a typo fffffffs
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
too soon?
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
bad news for any of you all that have dreamed of “naked ladies” Perégrinus’s 1822 “Golden Key” of dreams confirms this signifies “someone will die”
Page from this divination manual with a circle drawn round the relevant interpretation:

etre tache des prus.
etre fou, sie. alépresse.,

être fou, sig. alégresse.
être ivre, sig. folie.
être emplâtré d'œufs, sig. persécution des

ennemis.
étre offensé par un loup, sig. tromperie des
ennemis.
atre couronné d'os de morts, sig. mort.
être perché sur un arbre, sig. bonne nouvelle.

être tranquille, sig: être persécuté.
épervier prendre, sig. gain.
Femmes en couche voir, sig. alégresse.
fêtes voir, sig. alégresse.
farine voir brûler, sig. dommage.

farine belle voir, sig. mort de quelqu'un.
fortune avoir, sig. chagrin.

faire un bain, sig. siège.
faire mariage, sig temps bienheureux.
faire ou voir la guerre, sig. persécution.
faire voyage à pied, sig prendre femme.

faire des onguens, sig angoisse.
faire testament, sig. interprétation.

fille belle voir, sig boune fortune.
faire bien aux morts, sig gain.

fleuve trouble passer, sig travail.
fleuve qui déborde dans la maison, sig- gain. 1g
osteurs voir, sig. mortilica
cars voir cueillir, sg gain.
Femme nue voir, sig, mort de quelqu'un.

froment mesarer ; sig, infirmité. fonr voir brüler, rig. changement.
fontaine trouble voir, sig. effusion de sang.LA CLEF D'OR, 4
OU
L'ASTROLOGUE FORTUNE DEVIN, CONTENANT une liste générale de tous les Arts, Songes et Visions nocturnes, avec les noms des choses, et les Numéros auxquels elles se rapportent, pour s'en servir aux tirages de la Loterie Royale de France.
TRADUIT DE L'ITALIEN NGU
D'ALBUMAZAR DE CARPENTERI.
EnnicHi de yu ligures, qui expriment les Arts, les Animaux, et tout ce qui peut correspondre aux quatre-vingt-dix numéros:
Y joint la Figure Pentagone pour la
Cabale mathématique.
NOUVELLE ÉDITION,
Antoine des ombe leura ses des payans
des pairs el impairs el des numéros des Mameluchs
Par M. PEREGRINUS.
Sur l'Imprimé de Venise.
A LYON,
Chez MATHeRoN, Libraire, rue Mercière, N.® 16.
An 1822•
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Royal Historical Society @royalhistsoc.org · 22/09/2026
Join us online at 1pm on Thursday (24th Sept) for 'Historical Context: The Climate Crisis' bit.ly/3V4lgKf With panellists @dagomardegroot.bsky.social, @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social and @ellydezateux.bsky.social. How does historical expertise help us understand the world today? All welcome #Skystorians
bit.ly
Historical Context: The Climate Crisis
A panel discussion, hosted by the Royal Historical Society, in which expert historical researchers provide context for current events.
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
it finally happened! the greengrass brothers crossover! (iykyk) 🗃️
Poster in the tube for new film “the uprising” starring Andrew Garfield and directed by Paul Greengrass
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Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War @smhcentre.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
🚨Save the date for the next IHR/SMHC Military History seminar, where Dr Grace Huxford will discuss 'Living with Uncertainty on the Cold War Frontier: British Military Communities in Germany, 1945-1991' 🗓️ 29 September 2026 🕓 17:30 📍IHR and online 👇Registration will open shortly
history.ac.uk
Military History
This seminar, founded in 1958 by Sir Michael Howard at the same time as he developed the discipline of War Studies
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
why is MS Word like this?????
MS word suggesting spelling correction has highlighted half of the word “attention” and the whole “of” in the phrase “attention of Swiss feminists” and helpfully suggests spelling Ogrodnik or Ogrodnick
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
looking at the UK position on this chart like 😔
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will pooley @willpooley.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
anyone know academic indexers interested in work coming up imminently (it’s a multi authored handbook style publication)? self promo welcome!
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