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msjess.bsky.social
MsJess
@msjess.bsky.social
910 followers 3.5K following 190 posts
Sipping whiskey while reading about people who lived a really long time ago is my coping mechanism. 🥃 In America but Costa Rican Mts are looking promising .⛰️Human rights 🌈 Fascinated by linguistics. 👄 If it's odd I'm probably in.
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Reposted by MsJess
joshuajfriedman.com
Happy Gävlebocken season! Every year since 1966, Gävle, Sweden, has erected a massive version of Scandinavia's traditional straw Yule goat. It is so attractive to vandals—particularly arsonists—that in the previous 59 years, only 17 goats have survived fully intact. Good luck in 2025, Gävlebocken!
November 28, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by MsJess
themedievaldrk.bsky.social
Kinda cool to randomly stumble onto a manuscript leaf up at auction, immediately recognize the border artist, check my notes, and see that this leaf marks a heretofore unknown, 6th manuscript painted by this person!
November 28, 2025 at 4:08 PM
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olivia.science
Really don't give a flying fuck about Catholicism, but like any academic I kind of care about what really happened.

Women in European academia before 1800—religion, marriage, and human capital, by David de la Croix and Mara Vitale
doi.org/10.1093/ereh...
We document the participation of women in European academia from the first universities to the eve of the Industrial Revolution. A total of 108 women taught at universities or were members of academies of arts and sciences. Most of them were active in Catholic southern Europe—an unexpected result. We conjecture that Protestantism left less room for women at the top of the distribution of human capital to exercise their talent. The percentage of ever-married female scholars is 79%, but a large fraction of them remained childless. Comparing them with 58,995 male scholars, we find that they were on average better.
November 23, 2025 at 8:55 PM
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ayasinvan.bsky.social
I already know depression hates to see this man coming. I’m cancelling all of my therapy appointments and adding this song and dance to my morning routine.

*Depression no, no, no ALEGRÍA SI SI SI*
October 25, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by MsJess
sarahebond.bsky.social
Etruscan tunnels are deeply interesting (sorry) and “the first complete mapping of the tunnels of the Etruscan city of Veii, a complex underground system comprising galleries, hydraulic structures, canals, cisterns, wells, and the large sacred pool” is now complete! cultura.gov.it/comunicato/2...
Among the technologies employed, the Magellan rover is used to map the tunnels of Veii along with researchers.
November 19, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by MsJess
antiquity.ac.uk
Archaeologists have unearthed a Bronze Age metropolis in the heart of the Eurasian steppe: an early form of city as complex as those of contemporary, more traditionally 'urban' civilisations, showing how steppe polities were just as sophisticated.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
November 18, 2025 at 8:17 AM
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downham.bsky.social
Hot off the press to have a read through in advance of @judithjesch.bsky.social presenting the annual Viking Society for Northern Research lecture to follow the AGM in London on 21 Nov. New members welcome! #medievalsky #sagas #poetry #runes #history vsnr.org/2025/09/01/w...
November 15, 2025 at 5:08 PM
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blueheronfarm.bsky.social
No salad today, only pumpkin
November 14, 2025 at 7:54 PM
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catrees.bsky.social
Sharing the final version of my Ceffyl Dwr for #FolkloreFriday. Absolutely loved making this needle felt creation and getting really into the wire frame modelling
Needle felt Ceffyl Dwr, white horse skull with green and blue mane and decorations on the face. Yellow background with wooden frame mirror Needle felt Ceffyl Dwr, white horse skull with green and blue mane and decorations on the face. Yellow background with wooden frame mirror and green plant in pot. Close up of needle felt Ceffyl Dwr, white horse skull with green and blue mane and decorations on the face. Yellow background Needle felt Ceffyl Dwr, white horse skull with green and blue mane and decorations on the face.
November 7, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by MsJess
erininthemorning.com
1. Many of you have seen a graph purporting to show trans identification has decreased in recent years.

Matt Walsh and Elon Musk celebrated it as a victory over "transgenderism."

Turns out, the entire graph is based on an egregious math and statistics error.

Subscribe to support our journalism.
Fact Check: No, There Is Not A New Survey Showing Trans Identity Is Decreasing
The claim, which originates from far-right professor Eric Kaufmann, appears to have made a glaring error: the survey actually shows more people have come out, not fewer.
www.erininthemorning.com
October 15, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by MsJess
londonmikmaq.bsky.social
Getting into the Halloween spirit with medieval books at the Morgan Library.
Image of skeletons attacking men in a medieval book
October 11, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Reposted by MsJess
scalzi.com
No
jenlucpiquant.bsky.social Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · Oct 3
Scientists revive old Bulgarian recipe to make yogurt with ants. Ants carry lactic and acetic acid bacteria that help coagulate milk, as well as formic acid to acidify it. They even partnered with Danish chefs to create three recipes using ant yogurt. arstechnica.com/science/2025...
Scientists revive old Bulgarian recipe to make yogurt with ants
Ants carry lactic and acetic acid bacteria that help coagulate milk, as well as formic acid to acidify it.
arstechnica.com
October 3, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by MsJess
rhetorician.bsky.social
Would anyone like to take a guess at the word before “kebob”? Which predates OED - ms is 1660
October 3, 2025 at 1:46 PM
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bencollins.bsky.social
Winter is approaching and I'm considering purchasing a Lenny Kravitz scarf. The Chicago winter has broken the spirits of many. I want to lug around a big ol blanket and call it clothes. I am prioritizing comfort this year and that means wearing a comforter to work.
a scarf that looks like the pelt of a woolly mammoth draped upon the shoulders of the Are You Gonna Go My Way guy
October 1, 2025 at 2:20 AM
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alisonfisk.bsky.social
Charming little octopus from a Roman villa at Villaquejida, León, Spain. Limestone, 2nd-3rd century AD.

Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid 📷 me

#Archaeology
My photo shows a mosaic fragment from the floor of a Roman villa in Spain, dated AD 100-200s. It depicts a cartoon-like, stylised octopus using red, yellow, white, and black limestone tesserae, against a white background. The front-facing octopus has a large red and white head/body outlined in black. Its yellow circular eyes are outlined in black with a central black dot. Below the head/body are eight writhing tentacles
September 30, 2025 at 3:51 PM
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rmdean.bsky.social
My students had trouble remembering that “specie” is not the singular of “species”. I started telling them about my toddler begging for “cheese please? Please just one chee?” And the problem cleared right up (to my surprise, tbh)!
September 26, 2025 at 11:42 AM
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cerihoulbrook.bsky.social
It was a beautiful day for welcoming the new cohort of MA Folklore Studies students to campus at the University of Hertfordshire AND for publishing a folklore book with @manchesterup.bsky.social - which you can buy now! manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526180377/
September 23, 2025 at 5:48 PM
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kfduggan.bsky.social
Next week, students in my medieval survey course @viuniversity.bsky.social will be discussing Katherine Allen Smith’s fantastic article “Why did medieval monks sew?” If you haven’t read it yet, you should. It’s superb.
The image shows the first page of Katherine Allen Smith’s article called “why did medieval monks sew?”. Beneath the title is the abstract, which say this: Building upon numerous recent studies of medieval religious women’s textile production, this essay explores sewing practices among religious men. From Late Antiquity through the Central Middle Ages, monastic regulators, hagiographers, and homilists promoted stitching as a fitting activity for religious men and women alike, but ascribed different meanings to this work depending on the gender of practitioners. For religious men, sewing was a demonstration of humility, poverty, and simplicity which signalled their rejection of a lay masculinity that coded stitchery as feminine. More broadly, sewing-related metaphors, exempla and miracles evoked a monastic world in which the spiritual and domestic intermingled, so that needles and thread could be understood as both practical tools and symbols of virtue.”
September 20, 2025 at 7:35 PM
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dieworkwear.bsky.social
The passing of Paul Newman (2008), Sean Connery (2020), Sidney Poitier (2022), and now Robert Redford (2025) signals the slow disappearance of a certain type of 20th century figure: men who embodied classic style in a way that reflected their taste, rather than a professional stylist.
September 16, 2025 at 10:28 PM
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victoriadecapua.bsky.social
He is the poutine fairy
An Irish Canadian guy dressed in a green fairy outfit with a poutine crown An Irish Canadian guy dressed in a green fairy outfit with a poutine crown
September 14, 2025 at 4:00 AM
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dieworkwear.bsky.social
i've been watching videos like this for over 20 years and don't know a single word of japanese. i just nod along bc the videos are so pleasing
September 12, 2025 at 2:11 AM
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joshuajfriedman.com
I love that this mascot is meant to represent Aotearoa/NZ's distinctive pōhutukawa blossoms!
Blossoms consisting of red fibrous needles with greenish-yellow tips, looking rather like fiber-optic toys.
September 12, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Reposted by MsJess
dieworkwear.bsky.social
black tie reads as formal today, but they are actually party suits, things you wear when you want to celebrate something.
August 30, 2025 at 5:22 AM
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cathamclarke.bsky.social
Somebody pinch me! My book on a table display in Waterstones Piccadilly! (Thank you so much to my colleague Mike - a member of the @ihrlibrary.bsky.social team who supported my research for this book so much.)
www.penguin.co.uk/books/461263...
miketownsend.bsky.social Mike Townsend @miketownsend.bsky.social · Aug 30
@cathamclarke.bsky.social Spotted in the Piccadilly Waterstones last night, and - huge announcement - comes with a complimentary bookmark
Copies of Catherine Clarke's 'A History of England in 25 Poems' at Waterstones Piccadilly A History of England in 25 Poems bookmark
August 30, 2025 at 11:06 AM
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lvhicks.bsky.social
#KingAndConqueror. Not a promising start when the moustache is on the wrong man. Now that's a very easy thing to get right.

'Feudal France?' oh dear.

We are undefined years earlier now.
August 24, 2025 at 8:13 PM