Matthew Adams
@ythos.bsky.social
Very unlikely, but almost certainly.
Pinned
Matthew Adams
@ythos.bsky.social
· Sep 26
As always, there's a Yes Minister scene for this.
Reposted by Matthew Adams
Worked on several major infrastructure projects in the 1970s. Watching old Time Teams on C4 on demand at the moment I weep for all the archaeology we smashed through back then, including several burials and what I suspect was a Roman villa on one occasion.
December 22, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Worked on several major infrastructure projects in the 1970s. Watching old Time Teams on C4 on demand at the moment I weep for all the archaeology we smashed through back then, including several burials and what I suspect was a Roman villa on one occasion.
Reposted by Matthew Adams
Busy year here. I helped this lovely lot below on the nature of Neolithic society in Ireland.
I wrote on the archaeology of matrilineality for the Iron Age.
And sorted out palisaded enclosures as a type, building a model of Late Bronze Age transhumant pastoralism with Lorrae Campbell.
I wrote on the archaeology of matrilineality for the Iron Age.
And sorted out palisaded enclosures as a type, building a model of Late Bronze Age transhumant pastoralism with Lorrae Campbell.
Academics: what's the best bit of knowledge you created this year?
I co-authored a new model of the Irish Neolithic, effectively rewriting social structure and the role of large funerary monuments for the creation of community identities
I co-authored a new model of the Irish Neolithic, effectively rewriting social structure and the role of large funerary monuments for the creation of community identities
What historians (and other scholars do) is create knowledge. We should use that phrase more and talk about what it means. I think we don't, and it's part of why AI enthusiasts are confused when we don't readily agree that our work can be replicated/replaced by their products.
December 22, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Busy year here. I helped this lovely lot below on the nature of Neolithic society in Ireland.
I wrote on the archaeology of matrilineality for the Iron Age.
And sorted out palisaded enclosures as a type, building a model of Late Bronze Age transhumant pastoralism with Lorrae Campbell.
I wrote on the archaeology of matrilineality for the Iron Age.
And sorted out palisaded enclosures as a type, building a model of Late Bronze Age transhumant pastoralism with Lorrae Campbell.
The thing about not looking at the XBox for several years* is that "Game Pass" now has all the games in series you used to like that you have missed. And now you don't have to pay for them.
How many Assassins Creeds have there been since Origins?!
Also Blue Prince.
*The daughter has taken it over
How many Assassins Creeds have there been since Origins?!
Also Blue Prince.
*The daughter has taken it over
December 22, 2025 at 10:42 AM
The thing about not looking at the XBox for several years* is that "Game Pass" now has all the games in series you used to like that you have missed. And now you don't have to pay for them.
How many Assassins Creeds have there been since Origins?!
Also Blue Prince.
*The daughter has taken it over
How many Assassins Creeds have there been since Origins?!
Also Blue Prince.
*The daughter has taken it over
Reposted by Matthew Adams
We're not sure how "merry" he actually was, as at the time he was a prisoner in the Tower of London, suspected of treason and awaiting execution.
He was eventually beheaded on 22nd June 1535 at Tower Hill.
He was eventually beheaded on 22nd June 1535 at Tower Hill.
December 22, 2025 at 8:16 AM
We're not sure how "merry" he actually was, as at the time he was a prisoner in the Tower of London, suspected of treason and awaiting execution.
He was eventually beheaded on 22nd June 1535 at Tower Hill.
He was eventually beheaded on 22nd June 1535 at Tower Hill.
Reposted by Matthew Adams
The first person recorded wishing someone "Merry Christmas" was Bishop John Fisher, in a letter to Thomas Cromwell #OnThisDay, 22nd December 1534.
"And this our Lord God send you a mery Christmas, and a comfortable, to your heart’s desire."
🖼️ Wikimedia Commons
"And this our Lord God send you a mery Christmas, and a comfortable, to your heart’s desire."
🖼️ Wikimedia Commons
December 22, 2025 at 8:14 AM
The first person recorded wishing someone "Merry Christmas" was Bishop John Fisher, in a letter to Thomas Cromwell #OnThisDay, 22nd December 1534.
"And this our Lord God send you a mery Christmas, and a comfortable, to your heart’s desire."
🖼️ Wikimedia Commons
"And this our Lord God send you a mery Christmas, and a comfortable, to your heart’s desire."
🖼️ Wikimedia Commons
Reposted by Matthew Adams
I needed just one USA order today so I can summon the courier man to give him his Christmas chocolates, and I have succeeded. I mean, he's coming anyway now so if you want to add any more it'll just be really efficient you know 👀
December 22, 2025 at 7:13 AM
I needed just one USA order today so I can summon the courier man to give him his Christmas chocolates, and I have succeeded. I mean, he's coming anyway now so if you want to add any more it'll just be really efficient you know 👀
I have this. I strongly recommend you seek out a copy.
Came across Clarissa Dickson-Wright’s autobiography in a charity shop. It is everything a devotee of weird history could hope for
December 21, 2025 at 11:55 AM
I have this. I strongly recommend you seek out a copy.
Generally agreed. However, I'm quite happy with a small mince pie which is about 50:50 pastry:mincemeat if a) the mincemeat is highly alcoholic and b) the pastry is so short it only holds as long as it takes to get it to your mouth.
Can we all just agree that DEEP filled mince pies with thin short crust pastry are best? Not puff pastry, not more pastry than filling.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. AJP.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. AJP.
December 21, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Generally agreed. However, I'm quite happy with a small mince pie which is about 50:50 pastry:mincemeat if a) the mincemeat is highly alcoholic and b) the pastry is so short it only holds as long as it takes to get it to your mouth.
Reposted by Matthew Adams
Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower
December 21, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Rare footage of St Paul’s Cathedral testing its giant flamethrower
One of the things I really cannot stand is when my sock gets pulled up marginally too far and it is slightly tight on my big toe. I overreact to that horrendously.
December 21, 2025 at 9:11 AM
One of the things I really cannot stand is when my sock gets pulled up marginally too far and it is slightly tight on my big toe. I overreact to that horrendously.
Produced by Trevor Huorn.
A Lord of the Rings cover band called Tom Bombalurina
A Lord of the Rings cover band called Sarumanfred Mann
December 20, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Produced by Trevor Huorn.
Surely it is as simple as "an editorial intern at the publisher checks the citations for 'existence' and if any are non-existent, then the paper is immediately rejected before peer review, and no-one accepts further submissions from that individual for, say, 12 months."
Cheap, easy, fair.
Cheap, easy, fair.
So. What are best strategies for us as researchers? How do we divert this sewage, what infrastructural elements help drain it out of the system? What are best—and by that I mean efficient, least effortful—practices whenever we encounter this kind of crap? We need public education in info hygiene.
Do people realize that this is also happening with case law?
Like Do You Understand What That Fucking Means???
Like Do You Understand What That Fucking Means???
December 20, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Surely it is as simple as "an editorial intern at the publisher checks the citations for 'existence' and if any are non-existent, then the paper is immediately rejected before peer review, and no-one accepts further submissions from that individual for, say, 12 months."
Cheap, easy, fair.
Cheap, easy, fair.
Reposted by Matthew Adams
Peter Ustinov, Christopher Fry and Kenneth Tynan drinking in the Nag’s Head pub in Covent Garden, 1955
December 20, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Peter Ustinov, Christopher Fry and Kenneth Tynan drinking in the Nag’s Head pub in Covent Garden, 1955
Reposted by Matthew Adams
Glorious music writing.
A new instalment of INVENTORY is available now via the @backlisted.bsky.social Patreon. Sign up as a Locklistener today, read about the best acid folk, prog rock, Robert Kirby-arranged protest album ever, support the podcast.
This week: Spirogyra, St Radigunds (1971).
www.patreon.com/backlisted
This week: Spirogyra, St Radigunds (1971).
www.patreon.com/backlisted
December 19, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Glorious music writing.
My favourite Pink Floyd album (post Syd) and part of the collection gifted to me by my Aunt (who was, IIRC, dating someone at Hipgnosis at the time).
Raising a glass to the wonderful news that Wish You Were Here is the UK’s Christmas Number 1 album.
December 19, 2025 at 7:31 PM
My favourite Pink Floyd album (post Syd) and part of the collection gifted to me by my Aunt (who was, IIRC, dating someone at Hipgnosis at the time).
Reposted by Matthew Adams
Raising a glass to the wonderful news that Wish You Were Here is the UK’s Christmas Number 1 album.
December 19, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Raising a glass to the wonderful news that Wish You Were Here is the UK’s Christmas Number 1 album.
Reposted by Matthew Adams
She moved to Cricklewood where she was, I’m sorry to report, a less than generous neighbour. Meanwhile my lovely, deeply musical and truly remarkable cousin Lotte (second cousin twice removed) lived on Swains Lane from around 1940 until her death in 2013. www.theguardian.com/world/2013/j...
Lotte Passer obituary
Other lives: Wartime heroine who rescued about 60 fellow German Jews by finding them shelter in London
www.theguardian.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:09 PM
She moved to Cricklewood where she was, I’m sorry to report, a less than generous neighbour. Meanwhile my lovely, deeply musical and truly remarkable cousin Lotte (second cousin twice removed) lived on Swains Lane from around 1940 until her death in 2013. www.theguardian.com/world/2013/j...
You should have heard the language.
December 19, 2025 at 5:45 PM
You should have heard the language.
The number 1 movie (in the US) when I was 10, was this. I guess 2026 is much like 2025.
December 19, 2025 at 4:38 PM
The number 1 movie (in the US) when I was 10, was this. I guess 2026 is much like 2025.
Reposted by Matthew Adams
slow day in the office so figured we'd start some beef with museums
December 19, 2025 at 11:30 AM
slow day in the office so figured we'd start some beef with museums
Just finished a work call and popped the lunchtime loaf in the oven. The oven spring on this wholemeal is amazing today (that was risen to the tin top on its final proof, everything else is spring!)
December 19, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Just finished a work call and popped the lunchtime loaf in the oven. The oven spring on this wholemeal is amazing today (that was risen to the tin top on its final proof, everything else is spring!)
Bottom right is one of the best episodes of Upstairs Downstairs, from January 1974: "The Sudden Storm". The last hurrah before WW1. Lovely Christopher Beeny as Edward. Two of the great TV performances from Jackson and his patriotic fervour, Beeny as the young man who suffers the consequences.
Remembering today the late 🏴Scottish-born actor #GordonJackson OBE, (19 December 1923 – 15 January 1990) born #OnThisDay in Glasgow
December 19, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Bottom right is one of the best episodes of Upstairs Downstairs, from January 1974: "The Sudden Storm". The last hurrah before WW1. Lovely Christopher Beeny as Edward. Two of the great TV performances from Jackson and his patriotic fervour, Beeny as the young man who suffers the consequences.
Reposted by Matthew Adams
The extraordinary thing is that the Overton Window has moved so far right that many of the "lefty" Green policies are what would have been seen as broadly centrist economically, and not really any more socially liberal than the 2010 Cameron administration.
There it is, Labour MPs using 'lefties' as a slur. Overton window moving right at speed
December 19, 2025 at 10:07 AM
The extraordinary thing is that the Overton Window has moved so far right that many of the "lefty" Green policies are what would have been seen as broadly centrist economically, and not really any more socially liberal than the 2010 Cameron administration.