Johannes Richter

Bio of Dr. Sam - Historiansplaining - A Podcast Samuel Biagetti holds a doctorate in early American history from Columbia University. He uses his knowledge & insights to produce the Historiansplaining Podcast, to be an expert guest on other podcast...

New favourite podcast historiansplaining.com/bio-of-dr-sam/

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

All Royal Society journal content is freely available this week for open access week @royalsocietypublishing.org

from cyberselfish by paulina borsook: It's an inability to reconcile the demands of being individual with the demands of participating in society, which coincides beautifully with a preference for, and glorification of, being the solo comman- der of one's computer in lieu of any other economically viable be- havior. Computers are so much more rule-based, controllable, fixable, and comprehensible than any human will ever be. As many political schools of thought do, these technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect.

2/ In 2001, Borsook said tech "libertarianism" reflected an adolescent mindset, with a craving for unchecked independence & resistance to constraint.

She warned that tech libertarians wanted an anti-human world that worked more like a computer. From "Cyberselfish," a book based on her 90s writing:

Well, people have always loved to hear about royal families doing royal things and buying merch saying "Keep Calm and Carry On"

OBAMA: It's fair to say that 80% of the world's problems involve old men hanging on who are afraid of death and insignificance, and they won't let go. They build pyramids, and they put their names on everything. They get very anxious about it.

These are the helpful conversations about religion we need – Baptist News Global “A remedy to this partisan sorting where we hate each other and don’t understand each other is by getting involved with local politics."

"We are belongers before we are believers."

@profsamperry.bsky.social on how, rather than driving behavior, religious beliefs often act as group identity signalers... "who is in, who is out, who I interact with, who I know, who I value.”

via @rickpidcock.bsky.social
baptistnews.com/article/thes...

The professor who's exploring Christendom from a historical materialist lens.

Tim is on Bluesky - so no need to troll his emails. I have no doubt he do post a proper critique of the book at some point

@timoneill.bsky.social

Thony Christie rightfully skewered it. And there's a lot more to be said.
bsky.app/profile/rmat...

Yet again, the zombie myth of Bruno (among other things). Just seeing this image alone alerts you to what will inevitably follow ("Bruno, martyr to science!"). Fortunately we have Thony to put things right - a Sisyphean task, I fear.

@kkjetelina.bsky.social Does your research apply here?

Why the predictable rehash of the old conflict thesis, though? Is it such a niche concern that even historians let it pass?

Thank you. I've been trawling social media to find just one person who picked this up. I mean, I support the rhetorical goals here, but the "history" barely rises above popular tropes.

My next interview on the History for Atheists channel will be with Dr Dan McClellan ‪@maklelan.bsky.social‬ on things atheists get wrong about the Hebrew Bible/OT, early Jewish beliefs, the history of ancient Israel etc. What would you like me to ask Dan about?

Historians of science would like a word with the historians cited in this piece... The conflict thesis? Really?

Column | Zuckerberg fired the fact-checkers. We tested their replacement. Our tech columnist drafted 65 community notes, Meta’s new crowdsourced system to fight falsehoods. It failed to make a dent.

Meta fired its fact-checkers, citing concerns of liberal bias, and replaced them with a version of X's "Community Notes." How's that going?

Well, my coworker @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social proposed 65 fact-checks debunking false posts... and only 3 got approved. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: January 2025 | KFF As Senate hearings begin for President Trump’s health nominees, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the latest KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust shows a decline in public trust for govern...

If you have ever wondered what difference does disinformation really make, please read this:
www.kff.org/health-infor...
The kicker is not this chart, but the finding that fully 40% of Republicans think more people died from the Covid vaccine than the disease, up from 25% in 2023.

I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science

He is on here davidgmcafee.bsky.social

From claims about the pagan origins of Easter traditions to biblical literalists asserting that the miraculous darkness at the crucifixion is historically provable, I explode all kinds of myths in this holiday special. megaphone.link/ARML7228019606

I would love to get a copy. Please sign me up @maklelan.bsky.social

#maklelan2672

Uncertainty and proof The COVID-19 pandemic showed in real time, and with the highest of stakes, how hard it can be to decide if something is true. Was the virus transmitted via surfaces or airborne particles? Which drugs ...

"An exceptionally clear and engaging account of how scientists demonstrate truth and falsity...this book ought to be on the reading list of policy makers everywhere, and should help any reader make more informed judgements in their lives"

Review by @philipcball.bsky.social of my book in The Lancet:

A frightening glimpse into the future of HIV research under Trump - Bhekisisa There were empty seats in San Francisco last week at an annual international science conference which has delivered some of the world’s most groundbreaking HIV research. It was a throwback to another ...

“What the people in the White House are now [again] doing is an act of premeditated murder on 40-million people living with #HIV around the world.” - @markhar77.bsky.social of @treatmentactiongroup.org in @bhekisisa.org: bhekisisa.org/health-news-...

Last week the Your Local Epidemiologist team released a survey on how the federal freezes are impacting your work.

The survey received over 3,000 responses, here are a few stories that were shared. See the full report here:

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

A false claim about USAID was viewed ~80 million times on X before there was a correction just 10 hours later. How many more people saw the falsehood compared to the correction?

#ordoamoris Pope Pius XI (quoted by Carlton JH Hayes in 'Patriotism, nationalism and the brotherhood of man', 1937.)

"When politicians start talking theology, Christians should be on high alert for distortions of their faith that serve the interests of the powerful."

I'd stupidly assumed that after decades of Hollywood movies we'd all learned to pick up on evil vibes immediately

They are really not hiding the ball here

Russian disinfo network “Matryoshka” is migrating to Bluesky as exodus from X continues The Russian disinformation network “Matryoshka” has launched a new campaign on the Bluesky social network. Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative journalism group Bellingcat, has been one of the ...

The Russian disinformation network “Matryoshka” has launched a new campaign on Bluesky. Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative journalism group Bellingcat, has been one of the first researchers to detect its activity. So far, four Russian-made fake videos have been identified on the platform.