The Tune ship gets moved this week www.vikingtidsmuseet.no/english/news... #viking #ships
Games and stories are imitations of life, ways of playing at life, sometimes ways of learning how to live. Some of the rules may appear both cruel and arbitrary. But if you want to play the game, or live the life, you have to follow them.
A rather beautiful view of the Ullandhaug tower upon returning to the office. Hopefully marking the beginning of a significantly better 2026!
Techbros seem to love Tolkien, so here's an analogy to help you understand what genAI is.
GenAI is The One Ring. You think your use is justified, b/c you don't have evil in your heart.
But it came from evil, it is intended for evil purpose, & anything you do with it will be twisted to that end.
I do find it interesting trying to explain to people that historians deal in arguments, not in facts. History isn’t a catalogue of dates and names, but what happened around those things, and how we now and those who were alive at the time perceived and responded to those events.
Another beer post for the evening: In 1241, Pope Gregory IX informed Archbishop Sigurd Eindridesson (r.1231-52) that children who are baptised in beer can not be considered to have been properly baptised.
He could not force himself to understand how banks functioned and so forth, because all the operations of capitalism were as meaningless to him as the rites of a primitive religion, as barbaric, as elaborate, and as unnecessary.
Trick or treat? 😈
#Halloween
BL Stowe MS 17, f.200r
The Greenhouse @unistavanger.bsky.social is launching an international Masters Program in Public Environmental Humanities from fall 2026! Taught in English.
Please share with all your students, #envhist #envhum colleagues!
Learn more about the program here: www.uis.no/en/studies/t...
What HE managers fail to understand is that in the context of the Humanities, ‘employability’ isn’t teaching coding or carpentry, but skills around writing, presenting, reasoning, evaluation, analysis, research etc. In an 80% service economy, these are the skills that fundamentally matter.
There is a certain bleakness in finding hope where one expected certainty.
📅 Save the date!
The University of Stavanger, invites you to a symposium entitled:
Freedom of Expression in Times of Genocide
🗓 Wed. Nov 12, 5–7:30 pm | Sølvberget, Stavanger & online
Speakers include: Sindre Bangstad, Raz Segal, Zoé Samudzi, Maha Abdallah & Martin Shaw
More details to follow.
Medieval techniques to preserve mental health? Sage advice here (and a wonderfully written post).
"Tao seemed forever struggling with the dilemma between living freely but poorly and working in the government but unhappily. Besides resorting to alcohol, Tao dealt with such struggles with poetry."
At my good colleague @markusmindrebo.bsky.social’s book launch at the @unistavanger.bsky.social Library today. Women, Politics, and Social Networks in the Sagas of Norwegian Kings. Congratulations on the book, Markus!
Thanks, Finn Arne! 😁
Step into the heart of Medieval Baghdad—right from your phone.
📜 Uncover rich, immersive history
🦅 Explore 9th century Baghdad
📱 Experience it all for free, anytime, anywhere
Launching today for free: the Discovery Tour App – Medieval Baghdad
#AssassinsCreed
We have a cover for Ancient Egypt in Video Games! Out either late 2025 or early 2026 - will post a link with contents once it’s up on the DeGruyter website.
I’m very excited that this is soon out in the world!
29th August is the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist. Here Salome is depicted doing a spectacular sword dance! ⚔️
Bodleian Library MS. Auct. D. 2. 6; 'The Littlemore Anselm'; f.166v @bodleian.ox.ac.uk
"This book is a must-read for both medievalists and gamers." - @medievalists.bsky.social The Middle Ages in Computer Games by @robehoughton.bsky.social offers the most comprehensive analysis and discussion of medievalist computer games to date. Learn more 👉 buff.ly/XnzZx0z #medievalsky
It’s an unimaginable amount of money. He could have bought two - maybe even three - Warhammer armies.
a university is not for generating profit, it provides cultural enrichment via weird little gremlin people who love visigoths or haikus, and very occasionally a scientist who figures out faster than light travel
So does that mean it’ll develop crippling depression and a bunch of debt
Gode poenger her. Synes også det ligger en viss risiko i den typen kritikk mot ChatGPT som først og fremst er flisespikkeri mot bagateller (slik som du nevner her) - da bidrar man såvidt jeg kan se til å ta brodden av all (mye viktigere) kritikk så fort språkmodellene får fikset disse bagatellene.
There's another very kind review of The Middle Ages in Computer Games out on @gamevironments.bsky.social from @markusmindrebo.bsky.social. There's also a bunch of important articles on peripheral religions in games in this issue which are well worth a look. doi.org/10.48783/gam...
Look even *if* AI could do the job of a historian, I still wouldn’t trust it.
My research is on how elites used the past as a political tool and tried to control historic narratives.
I wouldn’t trust tech companies and their connections to right wing governments to not rewrite the past.
The Call for Papers for our strand on the Middle Ages in Modern Games for next year's @imc-leeds.bsky.social is now open with the conference theme of 'Temporalities'. Please circulate to any interested parties. Deadline 17 September. Text here: middleagesinmoderngames.net/announcement...
Universities messed up by not getting rid of student evaluations after the wave of peer reviewed scholarship about their issues and before evals became a culture war item. This could have been done a decade or more ago and betrays a stunning lack of imagination in capitalist ed sector
Indeed, there is evidence from randomized controlled trials of large introductory classes, that student course evaluations are negatively correlated with how well students learned the material.
maa.org/math-values/...
