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Darren S. Layne

@funkyplaid.bsky.social

3K followers 1.4K following 490 posts

Historian of 18th-century Scotland focused on Jacobite Studies and Digital History. Curator of JDB1745. Chair, Jacobite Studies Trust. PhD via University of St Andrews. In love with a swan and two cats. Currently watching the leaves in Portland, OR.

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Darren S. Layne @funkyplaid.bsky.social · Aug 20

First post on Bluesky as a brief intro:

Hi folks, I'm Darren, an historian in the PNW interested in 18thC British & Vast Early American history, with a focus on Jacobite studies and the social and cultural identity of plebeian Scots during the Jacobite era. Looking forward to connecting with you!

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The Oregonian @oregonian.com · 8h

Things are happening at Portland's ICE facility tonight.

Read more of our protest coverage here: www.oregonlive.com/crime/2025/1...

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The British History Podcast @thebhp.bsky.social · 11h

Regime: Portland needs free speech zones.

Portland: We have one of those. It’s called “the city of Portland.”

Regime: ….

Portland:

a man is sitting in the driver 's seat of a car looking out the window .

ALT: a man is sitting in the driver 's seat of a car looking out the window .

media.tenor.com

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Darren S. Layne @funkyplaid.bsky.social · 12h

Check out the war zone that is downtown Portland, y’all. Taken today, where I risked my very life by simply stepping outside of the house.

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Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 17h

If you rename the Department of Defense the Department of War, then bomb fishing boats in the Caribbean, and shoot an unarmed priest in the head with a pepper bullet, you should automatically be barred from receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for the rest of your life.

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Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 1d

Pretty sure Eleanor Roosevelt is dead

Bobby Silverman @robertsilverman.bsky.social · 1d

Bondi claiming they arrested [checks notes] "the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa" has me in stitches

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Bondi: "Bondi: "Just like we did with cartels, we are going to take the same approach, President Trump, with antifa -- destroy the entire organization from top to bottom. We are going to take them apart."

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Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 1d

The White House Antifa Roundtable is one of the best displays I’ve seen of this-is-how-bad-it’s-gotten — just a sewer of open fascism, dementia, morons and freaks, and incoherent rage.

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Darren S. Layne @funkyplaid.bsky.social · 1d

Right on. I guess my take is that the book might be valuable to many, but most of what the synopsis teases is that its conceit is somewhat antiquated & even siloed. Like, hello, interdisciplinarity, which we've been riding for a good two decades now. Historians deserve more credit than Gavin offers.

Darren S. Layne @funkyplaid.bsky.social · 1d

I don't ever want to repost this asshole, but I'm here to let you know that he's lying. We live in a peaceful, joyful, bite-sized city in the Pacific Northwest and we've got thousands of stores. Let us use them in peace.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump: "I don't know what could be worse than Portland. You don't even have stores anymore. They don't even put glass up. They put plywood on their windows."

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Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 2d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Scottish History Society @scothistorysociety.bsky.social · 1d

Winter Lecture Series: Finding Women in Scottish History

Join us for a series of free, online lectures to explore sources of women's lived experience, intellectual and religious networks, and socio-political power in medieval and early modern Scotland.

scottishhistorysociety.com/shs-winter-l...

SHS Winter Lecture Series: Finding Women in Scottish History

scottishhistorysociety.com

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Darren S. Layne @funkyplaid.bsky.social · 1d

No shit.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 1d

“One of the negative consequences AI is having on students is that it is hurting their ability to develop meaningful relationships with teachers, the report finds. Half of the students agree that using AI in class makes them feel less connected to their teachers.”

Rising Use of AI in Schools Comes With Big Downsides for Students

A report by the Center for Democracy and Technology looks at teachers' and students' experiences with the technology.

www.edweek.org

Darren S. Layne @funkyplaid.bsky.social · 1d

While I totally support the idea of 'historical sensibility' and tend to lean hard into context and compassion, hoping to explore the fog through experiential histories, I think Gavin elides the fact that politicians regularly use, ignore, and twist historians to support their agendas ALL THE TIME.

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Darren S. Layne @funkyplaid.bsky.social · 1d

Some good thoughts here, but I don't agree in the modern era that academics monolithically refuse to engage with war, peace, and diplomacy in an accessible manner. I also take umbrage at the intonation that historians bear any onus for not working with policymakers. Also, that's what polysci is for.

Christopher McKnight Nichols @cmcknichols.bsky.social · 1d

Worthy of some thought ... The Lost Art Of Thinking Historically🗃️ www.noemamag.com/the-lost-art...

The Lost Art Of Thinking Historically | NOEMA

To understand the world today, we must see it as actors of the past did: through a foggy windshield, not a rearview mirror, facing a future of radical uncertainty.

www.noemamag.com

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Teoni Maughan Passereau @teonipassereau.bsky.social · 1d

I was invited to co-organise this upcoming conference being held later this month at the University of Exeter. With two days of exciting talks and panels, plus a walking historical tour of Exeter and a group dinner, I'd highly recommend coming along if you can!

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Darren S. Layne @funkyplaid.bsky.social · 1d

Best of the best.

ljoeckel.bsky.social @ljoeckel.bsky.social · 2d

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Darren S. Layne @funkyplaid.bsky.social · 1d

Nice to see @scothistorysociety.bsky.social has joined the chat!

Scottish History Society @scothistorysociety.bsky.social · 1d

We've joined the blue sky! Just as the skies darken for winter too

Please let your followers know that the Scottish History Society has arrived!

Find out more about memberships, the society, and events at our website: scottishhistorysociety.com

The Scottish History Society

scottishhistorysociety.com

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British History Online @bho.bsky.social · 2d

Bulletin of the John Rylands Library goes #OpenAccess

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2025/10...

#History 🗃️

BJRL Goes Open Access: Professor Carsten Timmermann on Manchester's Medical History - Manchester University Press

BJRL 87:1 is now Open Access on Manchesterhive.

manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

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Darren S. Layne @funkyplaid.bsky.social · 2d

And should she return, she’ll get more of the same! Love ya, my Portland peeps.

Courtney Vaughn @courtneyvaughn.bsky.social · 2d

Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.

Reposted by Darren S. Layne

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 2d

glad to be born at a time when i got to see what life was like before the internet and will be dead before AI completely destroys humanity

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Effin' Birds @effinbirds.com · 2d

A painting of a bird beside the text "fix your shit"

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The Prize Papers Project @prizepapers.bsky.social · 3d

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Adam Parkhomenko @adamparkhomenko.bsky.social · 3d

There it is

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Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 3d

Friends, with the world on fire, it feels useless to be here selling my services. But I do need to keep the lights on, and the #maps pay the bills.

So...if you need a map(s) for a book project, let me know! I have space for new commissions.

Here are a few of my favorite maps I've done lately:
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Grayscale map of the Atlantic showing most of the Americas, Europe, and Africa. There are arrows showing the direction of trade, and each arrow has at least one number attached to it. The numbers match a key on the side that lists the products being traded and their place of origin. There are 15 different sets of commodities listed:
1:Midlands & Birmingham: Guns, Gunpowder, Metalware, Silks
2: Liverpool & Lancashire: Cotton-linens
3: Lancashire: Linens, Cottons, Cotton-linens
4: India: Cottons Cowries
5: Midlands & London: Metalware, Silks, Ceramics, Glassware, Guns
6: London & Glasgow: Credit, Shipping Insurance
7: New England: Beef & Pork, Fish, Rum, Wood, Whale products
8: Mid-Atlantic: Grain
9: Chesapeake Colonies: Tobacco
10: Carolinas, Rice, Indigo
11: Caribbean: Sugar, Molasses
12: Brazil: Coffee
13: Brazil: Gold
14: Mexico / Peru: Silver
15: Britain: Grain, Manufactures

The map has a set of grey arrows going from West Africa to the Americas showing the number of enslaved workers transported. The arrows are sized relative to the numbers. The largest arrow shows 6 million enslaved workers going to the Caribbean. 3.5 million went to Africa, 650,000 to the Spanish colonies in Central and South America, and 400,000 to North America.

A key in the bottom right lists a set of African kingdoms that participated in the selling of enslaved workers, including Benin, the Oyo Empire, Dahomey, the Ashanti Confederacy, the Kingdom of Allada, the Kingdom of Whydah, and the Nupe people. These kingdoms are outlined on the map.

Greyscale drawing of a floor plan of what looks like the first floor of a house, with ten rooms and a flight of stairs. The title at the bottom reads: "The Magic Bookshop." There are two exterior doors: a front door and a back door. The floor plan is on a tattered piece of paper that looks as if it is being unrolled from the top, so there is a curl of paper, or a scroll, at the bottom. Around the floor plan are four animals. A cat, labeled Angel, is resting on top of floor plan, dangling a paw down. To her left is a huntsman spider named Drusilla. At the bottom of the page on the left is a golden retriever named Willow, sitting behind the scroll like a good boy. On the right side is a cat named Spike, who is sitting on top of the scroll and crushing it like an jerk. Typical dog and cat stuff. There are four piles of books around the outside of the floor plan: two large, and two small

From top left down in a switchback pattern, the rooms are labeled:
Yellow: Books with gold covers
Possibility: Mystery, Crime (where they do the spell)
Exeunt Omnes: Older books (where Kennedy finds the magic book)
The Office (where hazel makes tea)
Bathroom
Gurgler: Sci-fi, Fantasy (where Hazel goes to hide out)
The Scriptorium: More modern books (where Hazel sends Luke to find a book for his niece)
Taboo
The Fishbowl: Romance (where Luke makes a pink and purple bookcase)
Pooh Corner: Children, Young adult (where Bob has his armchair and the silent book club happens)

A label in the central hallway reads: "(where they put a bookcase for Today's Donations). Another label on the stairs reads "Hazel's loft apartment" and there is an arrow pointing up the stairs.

Art. A greyscale map of southern Africa showing different biomes. The map map key indicates 7 different biomes: Succulent Karoo; Fynbos; Albany Thicket; India Ocean Coastal Belt; Mixed Woodland; Grassland; Nama-Karoo; and Kalahari Savanna. Each is represented on the may by a different shade of grey, with areas of more rainfall being darker, and areas of less rainfall being lighter. Several of the rivers are labeled, as is the Indian Ocean.

Art. Colored map showing the locations of Alderely Edge, done in a fantasy style. The map is drawn to look like an old map done on parchment, with torn edges curling up. Two bars with ribbons wrapped around them form a frame at the top and right sides of the map. The ribbon on top is blue, the one on the right is a dusty red. On the right side of the map, between the frame and the edge, the map is colored turquoise and does not show any land forms. Written in large vertical letters in this space is the maps' title: "The Edge".

The main part of the map is cut with forests and cliffs, and has 13 locations noted. Each location name is in a small frame that looks like a torn piece of parchment. Two roads cut across the map, one labeled Macclesfield Road and the other labeled Artists Lane. They meet in the bottom 3rd of the map by a location called "The Wizard Tearoom." An arrow at the top left points up one of the roads and has a label reading "to Alderely Edge (village). An arrow a the other end of the road, at the bottom of th emap, reads: "To Macclesfield."

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Darren S. Layne @funkyplaid.bsky.social · 3d

Enjoyed a quick flirtation with Vancouver the other weekend for a book launch, some social time with colleagues, and a few truly great meals and coffees. Hard to believe it’s just five hours up the road.

Darren S. Layne @funkyplaid.bsky.social · 3d

Nice to see Flora headed home. @westhighlandmuseum.bsky.social

Highland museum to display Flora MacDonald portrait for first time

A HIGHLAND museum at the heart of Jacobite history is celebrating two new additions to its collection as it marks a century since first opening its…

www.thenational.scot

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