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Brett Holman

@airminded.org

3.8K followers 1.4K following 3.5K posts

Independent PhD historian (aviation, bombing; #WW1, #WW2; Britain, Australia; emotions, spectacle); books (Home Fires Burning (WW1 air raids on Britain; in progress), The Next War in the Air). Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. He/him. airminded.org

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Brett Holman @airminded.org · Nov 10

Hi! I’m a historian of early 20th century Britain and Australia. I study the cultural and emotional history of aviation, interested in what people thought and felt about aircraft as much, or even more than, what aircraft actually did. My first book was on the fear of bombing in Britain

The Next War in the Air

Brett Holman. The Next War in the Air: Britain's Fear of the Bomber, 1908-1941. Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate, 2014. The Next War in the Air: Britain's Fear of the Bomber, 1908-1941 is my first book...

airminded.org

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Ian Kikuchi @curatorian.bsky.social · 6h

Today in 1940, cameraman Harry Rignold films #blitz bomb damage at the old War Office building in London. Close-ups include a shot of a rooftop telephone cable sheared by shrapnel. #otd #ww2 #history

Film: IWM AYY 44 / www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

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Jon at Handiwork Games @handiworkgames.bsky.social · 1d

We're delighted to say that Cold City second edition, the roleplaying game of hidden Agendas, trust and monster hunting is 🅞🅤🅣 🅝🅞🅦 in PDF and pre-order. All pre-orders come with a free PDF.

The PDF is available exclusively @drivethrurpg.com

Pre-order: handiwork.games/product/pre-...

Cold City Second Edition - Handiwork Games | Cold City Hot War | DriveThruRPG

In the divided city of post-World War II Berlin, terrors hide in the darkness. The legacies of war, suffering, and fringe science lurk beneath the surface, feared and desired by former allies and defe...

www.drivethrurpg.com

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Alom Shaha @alomshaha.bsky.social · 6h

Publishers to authors: you need to be active on social media
Authors to publishers: Sure! Could you help me make some stuff to help promote my book:
Publisher:
Author: please
Publisher:
Author: at least repost this for me?
Publisher:

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Hush-Kit aviation news, history & satire @hushkit.bsky.social · 22h

Use discount code LASERMANGO15 for 15% discount on The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes if you order via Substack or my social channels before 12 October 2025.

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Matt Houlbrook @tricksterprince.bsky.social · 6h

Serge Chermayeff also designed the astonishing interiors for the Cambridge Theatre, opened in Seven Dials in 1930.

This ‘remarkable building’ was lauded as the ‘first masterpiece in theatre design we have produced in the so-called “functionalist” manner.’

#20s30s

A black and white photograph of the spellbinding foyer of the Cambridge Theatre, opened in Seven Dials in 1930.

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WHAT A FUCKING RECORD @whatafuckingrecord.bsky.social · 17h

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The Mary Rose Museum @maryrosemuseum.bsky.social · 7h

Dodos were thriving when the Mary Rose sank.

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Tim Worthington @outonbluesix.bsky.social · 8h

How is this repeatedly made into a policy issue - by *all* parties - when the blunt fact of the matter is that grown adults who are obliged to pay for their own education, and relentlessly pursued to repay their loans, should be able to study whatever the fuck they want.

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Bill Higgins-- Retired Beam Jockey @beamjockey.bsky.social · 10h

1901. Buffalo. Come ride "A Trip to the Moon."

Board a winged airship. Let Fred Thompson and Skip Dundy convey you from Niagara Falls to the Kingdom of the Moon. Meet the tiny Selenites.

Students of amusement rides, & of Moon travel pop culture, know of this, but this photo is new to me.

Photo with handwritten caption reading: "C - Gorga; A Trip to the Moon; Copyright 1901 by Frederic Thompson." It depicts several persons within a cave-like tunnel, a theatrical set representing an underground city on the Moon. Actors representing one tall man and six little men are dressed in costumes including boots, tights, baggy shorts, tight-fitting shirts, and shiny helmets. From The New York Public Library Digital Collections. The NYPL entitles this photo "Gorge - A Trip to the Moon," but I think Thompson's handwriting looks more like "Gorga." I could be wrong.

Image of caption text, accompanying the photo I have also attached to this tweet. Both the photo, which is in the public domain, and the caption have been provided by the New York Public Library Digital Collection. Quoting: For the 1901 Buffalo Pan-American exposition, [Frederic] Thompson first teamed up with rival showman Elmer "Skip" Dundy. It was here that they first took their visitors on "A Trip to the Moon". Thompson & Dundy’s amusement was strongly inspired by H.G. Wells' science fiction story "The First Men in the Moon", which had been published in serial form in Cosmopolitan some months before the Pan-American fair. The amusement would later become the cornerstone of Luna Park. "A Trip to the Moon" used modern technologies such as electricity, illumination and hydraulics to give its customers the sensation of flying in a winged ship. Upon arrival, visitors could actually participate in the theatrical setting depicting the Kingdom of the Man in the Moon. There, they viewed a musical show and the monstrous "Moon Calf", sampled green cheese offered by the midget population, and shopped in a lunar marketplace.

Detail from photo of "A Trip to the Moon" by Frederic Thompson. This version has been enhanced by contrast stretching. It depicts several persons within a cave-like tunnel, a theatrical set representing an underground city on the Moon. Actors representing one tall man and six little men are dressed in costumes including boots, tights, baggy shorts, tight-fitting shirts, and shiny helmets. From The New York Public Library Digital Collections. The NYPL entitles this photo "Gorge - A Trip to the Moon."

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British Transport Films Stills @btfstills.bsky.social · 6h

HOLIDAY (1957) | https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-holiday-1957-online

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Brett Holman @airminded.org · 6h

Given the date specified, possibly the steampunk rpg Space: 1889, in which the empires of the late 19th century colonised the solar system (though I can't find if Austria-Hungary had a role in the game setting). Or, I mean, it could just be hallucinating the whole thing

Space: 1889 - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

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Dr Blair Williams @blairwilliams26.bsky.social · 8h

I'm excited to officially share that I'll be joining UNSW Canberra as a Lecturer in International and Political Studies in January 2026!

#AcademicLife #Academia #NewJob

Wattle with the Black Mountain tower in tje background

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Brett Holman @airminded.org · 7h

Awesome! Congratulations!

Brett Holman @airminded.org · 8h

Hope you're shipshape and back on deck as soon as possible

Brett Holman @airminded.org · 11h

How did I not know that Gotha Terror, the conclusion to Ian Castle’s superb ‘Forgotten Blitz’ trilogy, was published a whole YEAR ago? I swear even looked for it a few months ago!

Gotha Terror

By the autumn of 1916, advances in Britain’s air defence capability had all but ended the Zeppelin menace, which had haunted the nation for almost…

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

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Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 15h

Good reporting on the South Shore raid from South Side weekly here.

Confirms one thing I was told but didn't put in my own piece because I didn't have a second source and it seemed too insane: border agents segregated arrested residents by race

southsideweekly.com/federal-agen...

Federal Agents Storm South Shore Building, Detaining Families and Children

Families were woken by flashbangs and helicopters as hundreds of federal agents raided their homes. Days later, neighbors are still searching for the missing.

southsideweekly.com

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Mike "looking for research fellowship" Caulfield @mikecaulfield.bsky.social · 13h

Students who can get good grades not going to class don't go to class

NYT: is this cancel culture

Mike "looking for research fellowship" Caulfield @mikecaulfield.bsky.social · 13h

What a weird end to that subheading. Harvard students skip classes because they are recorded, they can pass without going, they don't do the reading, and intro to psychology is no harder at Harvard than at SUNY Oswego (honestly might be easier) so why not.

Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say
Many students don’t do the reading and don’t speak up in class, according to a report. Now, professors are trying to change a campus culture they say hurts achievement and stifles speech.

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Brett Holman @airminded.org · 12h

mahogany ship disclosure when

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Liam Hogan @liamhogan.id.au · 13h

The FBI has ordered all its agents to cease work and investigate sightings of large cats between Mt Victoria and Springwood in the Blue Mountains National Park

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Andy Orin @andyor.in · 13h

C:\Users\Agent_O\top_secret\classified\a_earhart_surfing.gif

CNN @cnn.com · 15h

The Trump administration has ordered FBI employees in Washington, DC, to immediately search their workstations and digital media for any records pertaining to the disappearance of Amelia Earhart, a law enforcement source told CNN.

FBI employees ordered to immediately search for records related to Amelia Earhart, source says | CNN Politics

www.cnn.com

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Onlyshootswithcameras @terririffle.bsky.social · 15h

Jupiter with Europa, Ganymede, and Io, taken on a cold morning! #astrophotography #astrosky #Jupiter #nightsky

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Jon Walker @jonwalkerpdx.bsky.social · 14h

You beat it by knowing that they are not real. Polygraphs are fake science more like a ouija or a magic amulet than a real test. They only "work" by tricking people into thinking they do so you confess.

Asawin Suebsaeng @swin24.bsky.social · 15h

“Pentagon Leakers Practice Beating Polygraphs Amid Trump's 'Idiotic' Leak Crackdown”

New, for @zeteo.com tonight, via @andrewperez.bsky.social and me:

zeteo.com/p/trump-hegs...

Pentagon Leakers Practice Beating Polygraphs Amid Trump's 'Idiotic' Leak Crackdown

The president and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are waging a war on leakers – but ‘this stuff only works if you let it get to you,’ says one Pentagon official.

zeteo.com

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The Alternate Historian @althistorian.bsky.social · 14h

Mozart and Marie Antoinette were only born a couple months apart in Austria. Had things gone differently they could have solved murders together in Vienna.

This is the only other plausible outcome for their lives!

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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 18h

I fear if things don’t change right now, this image is going to come back to haunt us

Laura Rodriguez, on Twitter:

A federal agent points a weapon at a woman who was recording them.

Jess, a U.S. citizen and member of a neighborhood patrol team that documents and shares ICE activity across the city, was filming when the incident occurred earlier today in the Berwyn area.

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love & barley 🐸🌶️🪏🎃 @loveandbarley.bsky.social · 1d

give greta thunberg a gundam

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