Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 2h

Not terrible.

The bare wooden bones of a sella curulis.

1

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 3h

Oh no! The consequences of your own actions!

5

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 8h

He had all the appeal of a 6pm Greggs' pasty.

2

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 10h

The good old days of consequence-free racism and racism are back!

5

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 13h

Fettling the hinge area on a replica 12th century sella curulis is just a question of taking back the wood with a chisel, in four different areas a fraction of a millimetre at a time, and hoping you don't fuck it up completely.

The beginnings of a sella curulis, modelled on one in Austria, showing the internal hinge and its narrow tolerances.

There are various tools on the table, and a mug of tea, which is arguably more important.

2

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 13h

I had blithely assumed we were talking about ecofascism and what the level of population would be if the 'blood and soil' types had their way. Which is almost certainly 5 million or below, given all the available evidence.

I'm not one of those people, and you've earned yourself a block.

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 13h

I'm reading university text books published in the last 10-20 years on the social and economic structure of the middle ages, pre- and post- Domesday, and you're suggesting Wikipedia for fresh insights.

OK.

1 1

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 13h

This source is for 1550- onwards. This does not represent the totality of the data, and your source also relies on significant estimation - because that's all we have.

I'm beginning to think that this is not a good faith argument.

1

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 13h

The Bank of England is, however, if you weren't so invested in the 'gotcha'...

1

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 15h

It's a shame that the written records and population estimates disagree with your thesis.

Population of England, 1100-1750. Shows a gradual rise fromm 1100 to 1300, where it stalls, falls, rises, the collapses with the Black Death. There is a slow reduction to 1450, then a slow rise through the rest of the period.

3

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 15h

Britain

doctober @docseuss.bsky.social · 1d

lets say a wizard has cursed you with a lot of money. you are going to become permanently brain damaged simply by being in possession of so much money. the only way out of it is to spend a lot of money on something ridiculous and not at all useful

what would you buy to break the curse?

1 4

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 1d

Residents will be shocked how different the view looks when it's all on fire.

2

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, entirely representative. The 13th century saw enclosures and yearly cropping of arable land across much of the prime wheat growing belt (roughly Dorset to Lincolnshire, including and especially East Anglia).

There were repeated famines from 1300 onward.

1

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 1d

Except that it did limit population growth. Grain yields from 1100 were broadly similar(or higher) to yields in 1700. Efficiencies in labour (horses instead of oxen eg) don't trump what the lamd can produce.

1

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 1d

Essentially, higher grain prices in 1250- led to an erosion of the 2/3 field system as landowners chased profits over established fallow and manuring techniques that had been followed since Saxon times. By 1300, yields were falling due to lack of nitrogen and phosphate.

2 1

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 1d

Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain, 850-1520 (New Economic History of Britain) (The New Economic History of Britain Series) by Christopher Dyer. Yale University Press (2009)

1

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 1d

Literally halved the population. Didn't recover in numbers until the 18th century.

1

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 1d

Nothing you've said there contradicts anything I've said.

Population growth was significant at times - between 1100 and 1300 for example. But the neglect of crop rotation and fallow fields were already causing problems before 1348. Yields were down, as was population.

1

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 1d

I am reminded that the stable population of the UK from 1100 to around 1750 was 2-4 million.

That's literally the limit of pre-industrial Britain, with most of the available land under the plough or grazing.

1 3

Reposted by Simon Morden

mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 1d

You're living through one of the biggest technological transformations in world history and it has nothing to do with AI

Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 2d

Grid scale batteries are changing our electricity system. Excellent new visual story on batteries in FT today shows just how far this technology has evolved.

Fasten your seatbelts, this is just the beginning.

ig.ft.com/mega-batteri...

32 590 2.1K

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 1d

*on

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 1d

Cyclists make the judgement that the cycling infrastructure on offer is more dangerous than riding on the road.

I'm with you know the lights, mind...

2 1

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 1d

Cyclists (after horse riders) are uniquely vulnerable on the roads. I can be lit up like a Christmas tree or in plain sight on a summer day, and drivers will still look straight through me.

Forcing HGVs to stop before making left turns? Disruption to the flow of traffic, but fewer dead cyclists.

1

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 2d

tbf, this isn't a 'grim new reality' but an ongoing issue since land was reclaimed in the middle ages.

What has changed is the rate of erosion, which now acts faster than memories are lost.

Simon Morden @comrademorden.bsky.social · 2d

The Border Beevers

1