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Reposted by Catherine Baker

Tombmas Spooks @thomasfuchs.at · 1d

How many trillions of dollars have been invested into this technology so far?

Google search for "austria hungary in space"

Google excitedly tells you about the 1889 orbital flight, and that by 1908 there was a Mars research output with 30 people.

Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 1d

Early 80s birth year here. No memory of any Susans at all in class except one very accomplished Year 12 or 13 (?) when I was a Year 7. May have been The Last Susan.

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 2d

This is *so many* email chains at work 😳

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Reposted by Catherine Baker

Chrissy Stroop @thebugbeardispatch.bsky.social · 2d

“Given these actions against Kneecap and ongoing efforts to censor the group, it’s essential to ask: Why are governments so scared of the spread of decolonial speech?”

@nicolefroio.bsky.social answers this question effectively in this must-read on censorship and the revolutionary potential of music

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 3d

At what point does a historian of post-Cold-War popular culture have *had* to see these things

Asking for a me who does not have them in their workload

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 4d

‘Trump took the floor again, rattling off how much each state spent on defence as a %age of GDP as if he were announcing the Eurovision song contest results. “Belgium: 0.9. That’s less than 1%. Croatia – oh, I’m so disappointed in you”’

These were the summits Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović had to go to.

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 4d

When Trump almost broke NATO.

“‘I’m leaving,’ Trump said. ‘There’s no reason to be here any more’”: inside the meeting that brought Nato to the brink

Former secretary general Jens Stoltenberg recalls the rollercoaster ride of dealing with Donald Trump – and how close the US president brought the alliance to the point of collapse

www.theguardian.com

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 5d

I’d just published an intro history of the Yugoslav Wars when the Brexit referendum happened. Wrote this for @lseeuroppblog.bsky.social a week later: blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2...

Can’t say we’re on the rosier side of those scenarios.

Brexit has echoes of the breakup of Yugoslavia - EUROPP

Is the stability of the European Union as a whole now under threat following the UK’s decision to leave? Catherine Baker draws a number of parallels between the dynamics that preceded the break-up of ...

blogs.lse.ac.uk

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 5d

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 5d

Mary Gentle’s Ash: historian discovers story of an alternate Joan of Arc figure in a Burgundy that can’t have existed while translating medieval documents. Longer than Strange/Norrell and must read it again.

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 5d

‘The impression is of a regulator telling each audience what it wants to hear by pointing at one end of the see-saw, rather than grappling with the hard edges of the case law in ways that may temper expectations rather than raise them’

Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 5d

'The interview centres on what I’ve previously described as the twin sandbags on the regulatory see-saw – the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 and the E6 condition on harassment and sexual misconduct.'

OfS rebalances the free speech/harassment see-saw on antisemitism

A probing exchange with OfS director Arif Ahmed exposes the legal and practical tensions at the heart of campus free speech guidance. Jim Dickinson looks at when happens when promises to Jewish studen...

wonkhe.com

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 6d

‘How much hip-hop iconography would be considered anti-American under this new regime of revisionist history? Where would our legacy live, if banned from the Internet, besides our heads and our hearts? How would we preserve it for future generations?’

Urgent 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ question too

Mark Anthony Neal (@NewBlackMan on X) @markanthonyneal.bsky.social · 6d

"Mark Anthony Neal notes the unprecedented "accessibility of the archive of contemporary and historical Blackness"...But "laments how digital accessibility has reduced our music to "the ambient background of the continued exploitation & commodification of Black culture."
www.npr.org/2025/10/01/g...

The BET Hip Hop Awards cut the cord as DEI dies

The show's suspension comes amid broader efforts to curb diversity at the institutional level. The next attempt to canonize the movement must learn lessons from its successes — and its missteps.

www.npr.org

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Reposted by Catherine Baker

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 6d

there are simply no words to describe the grief of this happening on yom kippur.

Manchester synagogue: Two dead in Manchester synagogue attack, with suspect also believed to have been killed - police

The suspect was shot by police, who say his condition cannot be confirmed due to

www.bbc.com

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Reposted by Catherine Baker

ESC Insight @escinsight.com · 6d

Why is the EBU having to vote on Israel's KAN entering the Eurovision Song Contest? What would happen if they are excluded, and what would happen if they are included? @bensvision.bsky.social explores two likely versions of our future. escinsight.com/2025/10/02/e...

No Matter November's Eurovision Vote, It's Going To Get Ugly

Discussing the Eurovision vote to exclude KAN and Israel from Eurovision 2026, illustrated byKobi Marimi, Israel 2019 (photo: esc.tv)

escinsight.com

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Reposted by Catherine Baker

Kate Jeffery @katejj.bsky.social · 7d

The University of Glasgow groundspeople are going to be quite annoyed when they come in to work tomorrow...

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 7d

‘It seems like everyone and their mother is being offered Saudi money, except, notably, queer people’

Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 7d

News for my Burns Notice newsletter: I wrote about why it's such a problem that Saudi Arabia keeps throwing their money at international entertainment and sports events like the Riyadh Comedy Festival. burns-notice.ghost.io/we-do-not-ha...

We Do Not Have to Hand It to the Saudis

Oh Bill Burr... What are you doing man? You were the chosen one. You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them! I'm referencing, of course, the Riyadh Comedy Festival in Saudi Arabia this week...

burns-notice.ghost.io

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 7d

‘Developing a deep and deliberate historical consciousness is becoming a core part of how modern elite sports teams build resilient cultures to take their performance to the next level’ www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/o...

Team Europe and Red Roses use connection to past, present and future to create history | Cath Bishop

Both teams embraced the history of their sports to embody strong identities they needed to dig deep when it mattered

www.theguardian.com

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 8d

Much needed 👇

Scott Reid @ascottreid.bsky.social · 9d

What’s that? A chance to write about misinformation and Eurovision? Potentially the most on-brand thing I’ll ever write. escinsight.com/2025/09/29/f...

Fighting False Information And Rumours Around Eurovision's Israel Vote

The Social Media Song, San Marino 2012 (image: EBU/YouTube)

escinsight.com

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 9d

If someone’s going to slog through the same collections, yes I want students to understand there can be different interpretations of that.

I don’t want an opinion anyone could bang out in five minutes for that particular pedagogical purpose whether it aligns with my own personal politics or not…

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Reposted by Catherine Baker

Good Law Project @goodlawproject.bsky.social · 10d

“‘When I walked into the National Gallery in Dublin I just broke down crying,’ Jane* says, overcome by the freedom to go into a public space without the constant fear of harassment and abuse which she suffers back home in the UK.”
https://goodlaw.social/iy8l

‘The writing was on the wall’: The gender diverse people fleeing the UK | Good Law Project

While many stay to fight the rollback of rights in the UK, hundreds of trans and intersex Brits are leaving home. Content warning: sexual violence

goodlaw.social

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 11d

We got told it was cybersecurity policy because pages it archived could contain malware! (This was before Online Safety Act came in - just as I needed to track how webpages re on-the-ground Eurovision programming last year had changed from day to day during boycott campaign for a monograph chapter…)

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Reposted by Catherine Baker

John Levin @anterotesis.bsky.social · 11d

Important new #OpenAccess article on how slavery in Britain was ended, and who ended it.

Taken Not Given: The End of Slavery in Britain
by Simon Newman

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

#History #EnslavedHistory 🗃️

Taken Not Given: The End of Slavery in Britain | Law and History Review | Cambridge Core

Taken Not Given: The End of Slavery in Britain

www.cambridge.org

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 12d

That’s made me look up when next Slovenian elex are - April 2026 😱

This is able to happen at the moment because aligns with centre-left govt policy, if the right gets back in expect a 180…

Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 12d

Even counting Sestre, this might be the most consequential part they’ve played in Eurovision history…?

*eyes Eurovision book which was meant to finish after Malmö with a Basel epilogue, warily*

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Catherine Baker @richmondbridge.bsky.social · 12d

‘For 69 years, Eurovision has sought to bring nations together through music and to build bridges in the aftermath of wars and divisions. Its values are founded on peace, equality, and respect. […] RTV Slovenija questions whether Israel’s participation is consistent with these values’

Eurovoix @eurovoix.bsky.social · 12d

🇸🇮 #Slovenia: RTVSLO Releases New Statement on Their #Eurovision 2026 Participation Plans eurovoix.com/2025/09/26/r...

🇸🇮 Slovenia: RTVSLO Releases New Statement on Their Eurovision 2026 Participation Plans - Eurovoix

The Communications Department of RTVSLO has provided a new statement on their plans for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026.

eurovoix.com

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Reposted by Catherine Baker

Claire Wilmot @clairelwilmot.bsky.social · 13d

I’ve been struck by how the British far right is using deepfake technology — less to deceive about specific events, more to tap into fascistic affects & desires. This is really frightening.

My dispatch from grim corners of the Internet, for @lrb.co.uk online.

www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...

Claire Wilmot | Fascistic Dream Machines

Part of the misunderstanding of the deepfake threat stems from the idea that it is a problem of bad information, rather...

www.lrb.co.uk

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