@drtimpeacock.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in History & War Studies @uofglasgow.bsky.social & Director @uofggameslab.bsky.social. Space, Nuclear, Games, AI, Politics. Helping to make ideas fly like bicycles! Views mine. https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/staff/timothypeacock
Some Sunday ready over on the HGN blog! Today’s new post from @xurvermilion.bsky.social explores the potential of videogames as a way of engaging students with historical research, and key skills in critical analysis:
www.historicalgames.net/students-his...
Two people sit across from each other at a small table in an elegant wood-paneled room with a lit fireplace in the background. The person on the left is SRC president Duncan Calvert. The person on the right is the University of Glasgow's new Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andy Schofield. Papers, brochures, and two glasses of water are on the table between them.
Duncan Calvert, President @glasgowunisrc.bsky.social, sat down with the UofG's new Principal Prof Andy Schofield, for a wide-ranging conversation about student life at Glasgow.
Watch the full conversation to hear the Principal's priorities & vision for the future ⬇️
youtu.be/hNdlsYGV_mQ
Link to further details & to sign up for this seminar is below. The picture in the previous post is the cover of Prof Anna Feigenbaum's book - "Tear Gas: From the Battlefields of World War I to the Streets of Today". #WarStudies @uofgsocsci.bsky.social www.tickettailor.com/events/scott...
14.11.2025 09:19 — 👍 2 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Book cover containing the words "From the battlefields of World War 1 to the streets of today", by Anna Feigenbaum. Link to sign up for this seminar is in the next post.
“Is Tear Gas as British as Tea? An Examination of the UK’s Historical Role in the Marketing & Deployment of Tear Gas” - Seminar with Prof Anna Feigenbaum, Thursday 20 November, 5.15pm, Humanities Research Hub, 1 University Gardens @uofglasgow.bsky.social. Link to details & sign up in the next post.
14.11.2025 09:19 — 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0
On 1 November, Scottish secondary school pupils came to @uofglasgow.bsky.social for the northerly round of the UK Space Design Competition at the James Watt School of Engineering. 🛰🌌
Congratulations to the winners - "Earhart Advanced Industries" - who are heading to the #uksdc finals in March!
📣New #podcast episode out! Listen to @drtimpeacock.bsky.social & Prof Rebecca Sutton talk about the @uofggameslab.bsky.social and their work on #Peace Gaming. Inspired by their workshop at the Spring School in May #RIELASpring25.
👂➡️https://bit.ly/Peacegame
@uofgsocsci.bsky.social
@unesco.org
he University of Glasgow’s main Gilbert Scott Building illuminated in red light at night, with the tower standing out against a dark blue sky.
Our tower is illuminated in red to show support of The Scottish Poppy Appeal from 4-12 November.
The Scottish Poppy Appeal raises vital funds to provide support for service families, veterans and those currently serving.
Learn more: www.poppyscotland.org.uk/home
Image is "The Battle of Waterloo, 1815", Public Domain. Painting, oil on canvas, by William Sadler II, made in June 1815.
“Remembering & Forgetting Wellington’s Irish Soldiers”. Join us this Thursday, 6 November at 5.15pm, in the Humanities Research Hub, 1 University Gardens @uofglasgow.bsky.social, to hear Dr Catriona Kennedy (University of York) speak on this topic. Link to further details & sign up in the next post.
04.11.2025 15:59 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
If you are 25 years old, you have never known a moment where humans have not been in space. To celebrate the ISS's 25 years of permanent human presence in space, you can relive those moments thanks to Ben Fiest, who created ISS in Real Time. Visit here --- > issinrealtime.org #ISSInRealTime
02.11.2025 15:34 — 👍 21 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 0
A color photograph of the massive RDS-220 on display on a large wheeled dolly in a Russian museum. About one-third of the bomb, painted black, is the tail assembly, which also held a large parachute to retard the bomb’s descent (giving the delivery aircraft a chance to reach the minimum safe distance from the explosion.. A man in a dark suit and tie stands near the front of the bomb, resting his right hand on the nose.
Today in 1961, the Soviet Union tested the largest-ever thermonuclear bomb—a 50-Megaton RDS-220 (originally designed for a 100 Megaton yield). The device, later dubbed “Tsar Bomba,” was dropped by a Tu-95 Bear bomber and exploded about 13,123 feet over Novaya Zemlya above the Arctic Circle.
30.10.2025 16:36 — 👍 44 🔁 22 💬 2 📌 2
Three student standing in the university quads on a sunny day, behind them in the tower and Gilbert Scott building.
We’re delighted that UofG has been shortlisted for several categories at the 2025 @UKCISA #WeareInternational Awards, including Institution of the Year!
As the only Scottish university nominated, we’re proud to celebrate our commitment to supporting international students.
gla.ac/4oL3GEO
Our researchers developed a new form of 3D-printed twisting metamaterial that could lead to improved crash protection for vehicles.
27.10.2025 11:27 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Exercise: Broken Canvas - Discussion-led 'Artistic AI' Crisis Game as part of the AI Data Science Festival, on Wednesday 29th October at 1.30-3.30pm in ARC (Advanced Research Centre) 237C Abstract: The near future. An experimental AI has escaped from its test server into computers across Glasgow. Following its programming, MacAIntosh was designed to analyse existing materials and develop innovative artistic and creative outputs, in image, audio, video or other forms. Now, its unchecked efforts at producing or editing what it (wrongly) identifies as creative works are causing major disruption. Join a crisis team in the ARC trying to deal with the situation in this group discussion-led AI crisis game. Make choices around how to respond while reflecting on relationships between creativity, new technology and society. No prior experience required. Link to sign up is in the next post.
Sign up now for "Broken Canvas" - A discussion-led 'Artistic AI' Crisis Game on Wednesday 29th October at 1.30-3.30pm in the Advanced Research Centre. (QR code or link via the post below.)
This event is part of the University of Glasgow's Data Science and AI Festival from 27-29 October. #AI
Great publication by our researchers: Development of open radio access networks for real-time robotic teleoperation.
21.10.2025 10:58 — 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Cracked, dry earth caused by severe drought, showing a barren landscape with deep fissures in the soil due to lack of moisture.
Research led by @uofgdumfries.bsky.social has backed the UN warning that drought is emerging as the next pandemic – putting millions at risk and undermining progress towards Zero Hunger by 2030.
More: gla.ac/4huIJeQ
Aerial view of the University of Glasgow’s iconic Gilbert Scott Building at golden hour
Glasgow crowned the friendliest city in the UK: 2025 Readers’ Choice Awards
gla.ac/3WaOyUQ
A black and white photograph showing the original BMEWS mechanical radar at Thule Air Base (now known as Pituffik Space Base) in the background while in the foreground stands a warmly dressed Inuit man on the ice and snow next to his qamutit or wooden sled, his sled dogs resting to the left.
65 years ago today, the newly operational USAF Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) radar at Thule, Greenland, mistook the rising Moon for a huge Soviet nuclear attack—triggering a false alarm while Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was in New York City attending the UN General Assembly.
05.10.2025 15:17 — 👍 67 🔁 27 💬 2 📌 2
🚀New Glasgow Uni tool is democratising space exploration by enabling researchers to model how cameras capture light, offering advanced simulation capabilities once limited to major corporations
📍@uofglasgow.bsky.social
👇Learn more
glasgowcityofscienceandinnovation.com/university-o...
An official color photograph showing the canister containing the DIVIDER nuclear test device hanging from a crane and attached to thick diagnostic cables before being lowered into the test shaft.
A low-resolution image of the logo for the DIVIDER test, showing a caricature of the head of a bald man with one eye pinched shut while the other looks carefully at the calipers held in his left hand over the name of the test. The words “Los Alamos” are on the upper right of the image.
Today in 1992 at the Nevada Test Site, the United States conducted DIVIDER, a low-yield (less than 20 kilotons) underground nuclear weapon test. Bipartisan legislation imposing a 9-month test moratorium signed by President George H.W. Bush 9 days later made this the last full-scale US test—to date.
23.09.2025 13:07 — 👍 16 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Dr. Mahmoud Wagih, founder of RX Watt, discusses his research at @uofglasgow.bsky.social into making battery-free #wirelesstechnology a viable and more #sustainable branch of electronics, reducing the demand for electronic components and saving millions.
youtu.be/W54Q1YU_-zU?...
Last week we hosted a discussion panel at the @royalsoced.bsky.social Curious Festival. Our brilliant speakers (incl. @chriskempshall.bsky.social @drtimpeacock.bsky.social) explored history & fantasy in games & media. Find the recording here if you missed it!
www.historicalgames.net/recording-un...
For those who missed this wonderful event and discussion, it's now available in YouTube form! www.youtube.com/live/blXnnwc...
🗃️
Opening slide for an event. It has a colourful background with a pair of hands holding a game controller (in the top right corner). White text says: Talk Unreal pasts, playful presents: history and fantasy in games and media 10 September 2025
It's been a great day for fascinating events! Really enjoyed hearing @chriskempshall.bsky.social, @mimi-mortmain.bsky.social, @drtimpeacock.bsky.social & Fruzsina Pittner (chaired by @enwright.bsky.social) discussing history and fantasy in video games (and books) tonight!
10.09.2025 18:33 — 👍 9 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 0
A photo of a Team UofG logo Sticker
A photo of two UofG staff members helping at an open day stall
A photo of a member of staff from UofG Sport holding a water bottle, smiling, next to a pop up banner
A photo of the front of the main UofG campus building with UofG in big white letters sitting on the steps as a welcome to guests
Thank you to everyone who came to our Open Day today. We hope you had a fab day and enjoyed the warm UofG welcome despite the rain showers. ☔️
We look forward to welcoming you to #TeamUofG soon.
A black and white photograph circa August 1963 commemorating the establishment of the Direct Communications Link. Four white male officers are smiling and standing in what is probably a room in the National Military Command Center, two of whom are shaking hands and holding a presentation plaque on which two pieces of the undersea cable used to transmit messages between Moscow and Washington are affixed. A map in the background shows the path of the cable between the two national capitals.
A color photograph of a black and boxy ITT Intelex Teletype L015, used on the Washington end of the hotline, on display at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin, Texas.
A black and white July 9, 1976, photograph showing the hotline terminal room at the National Military Command Center in the Pentagon. Two pairs of (black) Electronic Teleprinter Cryptographic Regenerative Repeater Mixer (ETCRRM) cipher machines, in a mirrored arrangement, are clearly visible at center. Each pair is accompanied by a teletype machine for messages in English and an East-German T-63 2 in a wooden cabinet (in the foreground) for messages in Cryllic. Barely visible, at the extreme left, are two Siemens M-190 cipher machines that had been installed and were being tested at that time. They would replace the ETCRRMs a few years later. A seated operator and standing supervisor at at the far left.
A black and white August 27, 1985, photograph of the Direct Communication Link room in the National Military Command Center in the Pentagon. The Siemens M-190 cipher machine is clearly visible in the foreground. A seated male operator is typing a message on one of the teletype machines as a male supervisor stands, looking on.
Today in 1963, the Washington-Moscow “hotline” became operational. Although commonly pictured as a red telephone, the Direct Communications Link was originally an encrypted set of teletypes in the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon and at Communist Party headquarters in Moscow.
30.08.2025 15:06 — 👍 32 🔁 12 💬 2 📌 1
Hey, kids. My eponymous #Archaeogaming book (2018) paperback is on sale for 50% off this week. I only need 12 more people to buy the book to crack 1,000 lifetime sales! www.berghahnbooks.com/title/Reinha...
24.08.2025 18:18 — 👍 40 🔁 23 💬 2 📌 1
"In a world of deep fakes and disinformation, critical digital literacy is no longer optional; it is essential."
As schools go back, @uofgeducation.bsky.social experts Mark Peart and Libby Nelson ask – are we doing enough to protect pupils against online content?
www.scotsman.com/news/opinion...
Members of the GU Orbit Engineering society picked up the top prize at the 2024-25 UKSEDS Olympus Rover Trials, beating out teams from 14 universities across the UK. In addition to winning the overall competition, the team also received awards for Best Critical Design Review & Best Innovation.
20.08.2025 10:15 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Where they were tasked with peace keeping duties. Witnessing the aftermath of Japanese occupation would stay with Ted for the rest of his life and like many who fought in the Far East it was not until 1947 that he finally returned home.
14.08.2025 08:58 — 👍 21 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 0
