@robertsmartino
Medieval & Early Modern Historian (PhD Nottingham 2020). Writes about C16 Church Courts. Postdoctoral Researcher @ University of Lincoln. Once a lawyer. Still overweight. Increasingly bald. Never keen on Fascists. Philogynist.
Both Churchill and Austen would themselves be team Badger.
Churchill would put a badger in a watercolour, while Austen would describe badgers in the grounds of a house.
Leave such personality stuff to other nationalities, like all those statues outside the Louvre.
How fascinating. Because they started this s*** in August. And suddenly, within a week, they deactivate it.
Quite the sign of how experts don't actually use Grammarly and thus hadn't noticed until last week? And how stressed Grammarly is about potential law suits now that we do realise.
Wash Post: Democrats ask what happened to millions earmarked for Trump's library.
Why does he need a library? From what I can tell, he can barely read.*
Yes, I do know ex-presidents have libraries in the main. Nevertheless, the point remains: what on earth would this one be for?
Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.
We've won the UK's first ever SLAPP suit - acting for @danneidle.bsky.social - and made some really important law protecting the right to call out barristers whose misconduct facilitates aggressive tax avoidance.
Academia is an environment of people w. unstable social skills in a context that doesn't really value being nice. It revolves around us making an internal (or even external) hierarchy of people whose work is better than others'. Breathe. It's not YOU, it's THEM & the circumstances we live & work in.
Never performed it, nor experienced it. Kissing one cheek: very, very rarely, but only with very close family & friends of opposite sex/gender. However, I am not one of the "cosmopolitan elite"! Also, lots of training about NEVER engaging in any physical contact with clients/other staff, etc.
Honestly, I am absolutely disgusted by academics suggesting that AI can do the reading and writing for you. At a certain point, what you're bragging about is fraud. And in a broader sense, what you're contributing to is the erosion of knowledge and the destruction of trust in academic publishing.
Exciting news from the sixteenth century:
Are you a mid-career historian researching 17th & 18th-century British Protestant dissenting traditions? 🏛️ Apply for the Dr Williams's Trust Library Bursaries at the IHR! Three awards of £3,500 are available to support your research in London libraries and archives www.history.ac.uk/fellowships-...
Never mind the endless Jane Austen adaptations, here's a period drama I'd watch:
Prison Break, except it's 1740s London & the hero is a 5 ft 4 Herefordshire woman called Elizabeth, with massive hands & massive feet
Come on @netflix.com it's what we all want
For every pound spent on net zero, the benefits would outweigh the cost by between 2.2 and 4.1 times says @thecccuk.bsky.social
www.ft.com/content/d163...
IS WIND STRUGGLING?
Not at all. Global deployment rose by +38% last year💪
- 169 GW installed in 2025
- 95% onshore, 5% off
- Led by China: +47% to 126GW
- Outside China: +17% to 37GW
"This momentum is not fading. We expect similar levels to end of this decade."
about.bnef.com/insights/cle...
Booked! Looking forward to it!
News! EHR is hosting a free one-day symposium at St John's College, Oxford, on Friday 17 April, 10-6, on the theme 'When there are no sources'.
Further details and how to sign up here:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/when-there...
This is a technical story with stunning strategic implications. It is quite possible the US launched a massive war because Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff lacked the technical expertise to even understand what the Iranians were offering in negotiations. Absolute idiocy.
www.ms.now/news/trump-i...
I'm sure I shouldn't want to read this, but I kind of do!
Ah! Is it 'firmam'? In other words,'to be exempt from tax for three years'?
LAO/Cj.4/fol.43v
#PalaeographyPuzzle Today's word is this one (highlighted by the manicule). It seems to describe a licence 'ad dimittendum ecclesiarum illam ad [?] pro triennio'. Thanks in advance. Help much appreciated.
Yes, I think so. When I get 5 mins, can I email you a pic? It's only a side issue to my research but certainly shows this man was seriously rich and keen to impress both God and those who dealt with his affairs post mortem.
You know the best way to kill AI? Don't use it. Don't buy it. Don't share it. Don't give the people who use it your labour or your money.
In contrast to the coverup of the EPSTEIN crimes here in America, there are ongoing investigations in the UK, France, Turkey, Poland, Latvia & Lithuania that is sure to expose his central, filthy role in the largest crimes against humanity case in world history. #AccountabilityIsComing
5. The EU Scholarship - £5k off tuition fees for PGT students: www.lincoln.ac.uk/studywithus/scholarshipsandbursaries/europeanunionscholarship. Good luck!! 6/6.
4. The Canada Scholarship: www.lincoln.ac.uk/studywithus/scholarshipsandbursaries/canadascholarship/ £5k off tuition fees for PGT students. 5/6
Thirdly, the Global Postgraduate Scholarship - again, £2k off fees. 4/6.
Secondly, the Global Undergraduate Scholarship - £2k off tuition per year if you apply before June. 3/6
First of all the Lincoln Global Leaders Scholarship: www.lincoln.ac.uk/studywithus/scholarshipsandbursaries/thelincolngloballeadership/
To anyone interested in our medieval studies programme, we have some scholarships for international students. Various links to follow in a thread. 1/6 www.lincoln.ac.uk/course/medstdma
'Elsevier made £1.04 billion in profit in 2025, according to its parent company’s latest annual report, up 7 per cent on 2024.' 1/2
Most of my best students over 45 years of teaching have been ‘mature’ students, ie not straight from school, and often with only basic pre-university qualifications. This is an appalling idea that should be resisted implacably.