Dr Michelle Walker (/Moffat)

2026 Global History Lecture, with the German Historical Institute, London - RHS On Tuesday 10 February, the Society hosts its annual Global History Lecture, in partnership with the German Historical Institute, London. This year we are delighted to welcome Professor Vinita Damodar...

Join us on Tuesday 10 February for the 2026 Global History Lecture, hosted in partnership with @ghilondon.bsky.social

Prof. Vinita Damodaran will speak on 'Decolonising the Natural History Collections of Empire' bit.ly/4qLCaYB

Booking for in-person & online attendance is now open #Skystorians

Happy #Lawyercat Anniversary for all who celebrate! It's been four years since the kitten appeared in my Zoom courtroom, and I released the 48 second video that made the whole world laugh. Here is the full video showing the big reveal at the end (in two parts because Blue sky). Enjoy!

Upon surrender, Finnerty faced a Japanese officer who spoke perfect English. His words were chilling: 'Before this war, my best friend was a Scotsman. If I had him here now, I would treat him exactly as I am going to treat you'. (RAF POWs and Rangoon jail in pics) #WW2 #Burma #HistoryPod

Can you give any info about the photo? When was it taken? Some of those guys look in pretty rough condition 😟

For anyone interested in our 18-month post in British Studies please follow the link below. @ihr.bsky.social

www.jobs.london.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

For my war graves network people, this includes Australian graves...

Exclusive: Despite new curbs, Elon Musk’s Grok at times produces sexualized images - even when told subjects didn’t consent Elon Musk’s flagship artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, continues to generate sexualized images of people even when users explicitly warn that the subjects do not consent, Reuters has found.

New: Together with colleagues I’ve been testing Grok.

The chatbot still produces sexualized images —

even when told the subjects don’t consent.

even when told the photos will be used for public humiliation.

even when told the subjects are survivors of abuse.

www.reuters.com/business/des...

On Wednesday 4th February, Dr Sebastian Graf (Visiting IMH Researcher) will give the paper

“War, Memorialisation, and Digitality: Mnemonic Practices of Ukrainian Virtual Museums in the Russian War against Ukraine"

📆 4 Feb 2026
🕝 15:00 CET
📍RAAB or Zoom (dm for link)

Trigeminovascular system. Whatever that is 😅

Is this something that gepants can help with? I've not long started them for chronic migraine and the reduction in pain is incredible. I know they're different conditions, but they have something to do with trigeminal something 😅
Thought it might be worth suggesting.

‘All these souls deserve a dignified rest’: Ukraine’s ‘body seekers’ bring home the fallen Driven by a belief in a common humanity, the Platzdarm search team bring the bodies of soldiers back from the frontline – no matter which side they fought on

A really interesting here about burial of war dead, particularly in light of it being an active conflict zone.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

Worn papyrus with drawings of figures, symbols, and writing in Coptic. More here https://smarthistory.org/coptic-magical-text/

Coptic spell to Acquire a Beautiful Voice, 6th–7th century CE, Egypt, ink on papyrus, 37.3 x 25.4 cm (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven)
archives.yale.edu/repositories...

Musk’s Chatbot Flooded X With Millions of Sexualized Images in Days, New Estimates Show

We set out to determine how many images of women and girls Grok created during its nudifying spree. What we found was “industrial-scale abuse,” experts said. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/t...

Half of world’s CO2 emissions come from just 32 fossil fuel firms, study shows Critics accuse leading firms of sabotaging climate action but say data increasingly being used to hold them to account

"a powerful, concentrated group of fossil fuel corporations are not only dominating global emissions but are actively sabotaging climate action and weakening government ambition.”
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Amazing! Is this Wellington harbour?

Page of information outlining the aims of the Locating Loss research project which explores the histories of infertility in landscapes and spaces. This project aims to bring scholars from a wide range of disciplines together in 2026. Please DM me if more info is needed and this alt text is not enough!

Hello! I am sharing information about my @researchireland.ie project Locating Loss: histories of infertility in landscapes and spaces. I would love to connect with researchers/ practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines, so please share widely! @nursingclio.bsky.social

Aah New Zealand 😆

Can anyone point me in the direction of articles looking at Five Eyes response to the US interference in Venezuela and talk re. Greenland? Not necessarily academic, just news/analysis. Thanks!

Great, informative thread, thanks 💐

Jake Lang beat Capitol police officers for 2 1/2 hours with an aluminum bat on Jan 6. Pardoned by Trump, he's running to fill Rubio's Florida Senate seat.

🧵The thug with the aluminum baseball bat is neo-Nazi Jake Lang.

He beat Capitol police officers with that bat for 2 1/2 hours near a Capitol entrance.

Trump pardoned him, and he is now running in Florida's US Senate special election this year to fill Rubio's seat.

I hear this! I had a conversation with a teacher friend last week who said she 'couldn't do her job' without AI. I don't know if this is accurate, but if it's anything like universities, they fired most of the administration staff so now everyone else has to do admin on top of their other work 😣

Prof Patman swinging here "It's a direct challenge for countries like New Zealand, which support the view that international relations should be based on rules, procedures and laws"

That goes straight to the rhetoric party leaders like to use about the rules based international order

Thanks Paul! It feels like a real breakthrough.
Hope you've had a lovely Christmas 🎄🥳

Me wearing mint green with white polka dot wrap dress, holding an elderflower cocktail

Me attempting to flex my muscles as finally winning research funding after 4 years of trying makes me feel strong!

Happy New Year all 🥳
I'm excited for 2026 - I've already made this pretty dress, and in April I'll begin the research scholarship I've been awarded by the Gerda Henkel foundation, which means I can stay in the UK 🥳🥂

Men in pantomime costume and soldiers in uniform amid snowy ruins

Soldiers from the Royal Flying Corps Kite and Balloon Section rehearsing the pantomime Cinderella at Bapaume, France, 2 January 1918. Photo by David McLellan. Source: www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

Pretty Obvious 975 Leaked Memo on Leaks 729 Police Are Scrambling 918 Resolved and Unresolved 828

🎆🎇🎆2025 HEADLINE OF THE YEAR🎆🎇🎆
🎆🎇🎆🎇🎆🎇🎆GRAND FINAL🎆🎇🎆🎇🎆🎇🎆

After a seeding round and three rounds of voting, we have our finalists: Top seed Pretty Obvious will be facing off against 3rd seed Police Are Scrambling.

A reminder of how we got here:

Happy New Year, Kristen 🥳🥂

Post-doc positions:
"Academic freedom is under pressure today. This requires rescue havens of free research. ... [we] invite early career researchers, whose work is restricted due to political pressure in the USA..."

uni-freiburg.de/frias/call-f...

72 years ago this evening at Tangiwai, 151 people died in NZ’s worst railway disaster, including 148 of 176 second-class passengers. One of those 28 survivors was my Grandpa. A year ago in the @jds-disasters.bsky.social, I published my most extensive piece to date about the effects of this disaster:

What a way to spend the day before the day before Christmas! #freefletcher