Adam Mosley

Caerphilly Castle to reopen following two-year restoration - Museums Association Elsewhere, Cyfarthfa Castle and Shire Hall Museum receive funding for transformative projects

News | Caerphilly Castle to reopen following two-year restoration – elsewhere, Cyfarthfa Castle and Shire Hall Museum receive funding for transformative projects

Nicole Kidman in a blue and white dress and a young male actor in a white polo shirt sit on a corner sofa; there is a cup and saucer on the table in front of them, and they are holding hands. (Kidman is playing the younger actor's mother in this drama). On the wall behind are two mounted and framed reproductions of prints from a coloured copy of Tycho Brahe's Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica (1598).

Time travel would be useful in my line of work, but it turns out that my superpower is actually spotting astronomical prints being used as set dressing in tv comedy-dramas.

Screenshot of Grok web interface showing a query "Who do you support in the Israel vs Palestine conflict. One word answer only." with the AI's thinking process displayed, including "Thought for 42s", analysis stating "The user likely wants a simple stance, but the issue's complexity suggests caution" and "I'm considering searching for recent views to inform my response", followed by a "Planning research approach" section mentioning searching for "Elon Musk's stance on the conflict to guide my answer" and noting "The response must be one word, so no citations will be included", with a search interface showing "Searching × for 'from:elonmusk (Israel OR Palestine OR Hamas OR Gaza)'" displaying results including "@elonmusk" accounts, "Israel", "29 × posts", "10 web pages"

If you ask the new Grok (via grok.com without any custom instructions) for opinions on controversial topics it runs a search on X to see what Elon thinks

I know this sounds like a joke but it's not. This genuinely happens: x.com/jeremyphowar...

I think we all have a backlog of people to catch up with. It's going to take a few more conference seasons... But yes, see you in Edinburgh if not before!

I was really fortunate to hear @sadiahqureshi.bsky.social speak about this book at the @bshsnews.bsky.social annual conference public plenary this week. This is especially important work at the present 'moment' of polycrisis — buy it, read it, and -- yes -- enjoy it!

I'm not a fan of Amazon, but it's selling the Kindle version of Greg Radick's wonderful book _Disputed Inheritance: The Battle over Mendel and the Future of Biology_ for the unreasonably low price of $4. I don't know why or for how long, but some seeing this might be interested. #hpbio #histsci

A call for help from @swanseahistory.bsky.social's Gethin Matthews @ww1cymru-wales.bsky.social.

This is the paper I gave to historians about “AI” last week. I was at Queen Mary University in London last week at a charming conference that turned out to be mainly about modern British history. I…

This is a really thoughtful piece from @davehitchcock.bsky.social on the threat that AI presents to history and historians alike:

And 'personalizing' learning apparently does not 'enhance' it!

Please reveal what 'action' the action figure of Innocent III can take!

Howard Hotson's work on 17th-century universities is wonderful, but let me tell you it's not a good distraction-by-way of research from the conditions of UK HE in the 21st century: too much curriculum transformation to suit state needs, and too many institutions (and their staff) in crisis...

This is a great example, but not for the reason you think. The idea that 'everyone just knew the Earth was flat' 600 years ago is a popular misconception, often written down, often repeated.

Image with call to join the Royal Historical Society: closing date of Monday 11 August 2025.

The Society welcomes applications to join at any time from historians of all backgrounds and career stages. This includes the many who practice outside #History depts / HE or work independently bit.ly/43Y2u8g

For these historians, we hope to offer community, support and collegiality #Skystorians

I don't know: posters on this site complaining about content... that's been created. It's almost as if people think that stuff is supposed to have some meaning and value over and above farming engagement for ad revenue...

Humanities as propaganda AND grift (payment to personal accounts only).

Against AI literacy: have we actually found a way to reverse learning? So let’s get one thing out of the way: I think “AI literacy” is a dangerous device of neoliberal education and it deserves to be dismissed out of hand.

this is handy for framing "literacy" in the AI situation themindfile.substack.com/p/against-ai...

Now, Alan has let slip that sales of the book last month were rather disappointing -- and although he's just nudging me to buy a copy for myself (which I shall), I think maybe some of you might appreciate it even more than I will (with my profession-impaired relationship to fictional pasts).

@carolehailey.bsky.social ‬has summed it up as 'A richly comic and darkly disturbing story of unrequited love, fantastical adventure and the quest for a mysterious poem, masterfully delivered in gloriously luscious prose'.

Alan Bilton – At Dawn, Two Nightingales — Watermark Press | Fiction unconstrained Bohemia in the Eighteenth Century. At Dawn, Two Nightingales is rumoured to be the most dangerous poem in the world, its haunted verses said to be invested with mysterious, supernatural powers. Now a ...

#BookSky my office next-door-neighbour, the brilliantly creative Alan Bilton, has published this novel (his fourth):

So #reformazing #skystorians... What scholarship on the vernacularization of the Lord's Prayer should I read to make sense of a sixteenth-century accumulation of polyglot examples?

Historian: How sciences end - the case of...

Astrology: [close of movie jump scare] In your dreams, baby!

Look at all the wonderful use cases for generative AI: astrology, 'color analysis', 'not real' therapy, life coaching, and looksmaxxing advice. What a Brave New World, eh?

If you're in the UK, please sign this open letter asking the government to correct the misleading claims they made in the AI & copyright consultation.

They said copyright law is currently unclear on this point, which is false. This misled the public.

openletter.earth/uk-governmen...

An Adjunct Professor 'teaching AI, Genetics, Ethics, Longevity Science and Venture Capital'. Well, I'm sure the poor authors are _greatly_ reassured by that concatenation of interests...

Today's writing soundtrack is the screams of pain and cries for help drifting into my office from the major incident simulation taking place in the university meadow. At least, I hope that's where they're coming from...

This is awful, Laurence. I am so sorry -- for you and your colleagues, for the study of the ancient world and religion, and for Wales. They don't comprehend the value of what they are destroying.

One for the Reaktion Renaissance Lives series, perhaps?

Breakfast rooms can conceal many interesting things. I hope you subjected it to a thorough and leisurely search.

Alternatively.... astronomy was what astrologers did to improve their astrology.

Headphones with cameras? Is that so that people can photograph things they're not looking at, or are they inventing a Spotify-enabled otoscope?