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Sam Grinsell

@samgrinsell.bsky.social

970 followers 1.8K following 850 posts

Historian trying to help build better worlds 🇵🇸🌈✊🏳️‍⚧️

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Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 13d

Very pleased that my piece 'Urban history as urgent work, an argument for disciplinary promiscuity' has been published in @urbanhistory.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/S096...
Many thanks to @mctom.bsky.social for organising the roundtable that got these thoughts going back in 2023! #UrbanHist #EnvHums

Urban history as urgent work, an argument for disciplinary promiscuity | Urban History | Cambridge Core

Urban history as urgent work, an argument for disciplinary promiscuity

doi.org

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Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 5h

I think of Winnie-the-Pooh and his permanent state of feeling a little eleven-o'clockish

Reposted by Sam Grinsell

Simon Wyatt 🇺🇦 @drsimonwyatt.bsky.social · 10h

There's a real danger though that the bubble is so large that it kills otherwise very productive and valuable tech players

Reposted by Sam Grinsell

Simon Wyatt 🇺🇦 @drsimonwyatt.bsky.social · 10h

There very much is an AI industry in the field it emerged from: computer programming. I think that has decent prospects beyond the market crash, whereas creative media slop certainly does not

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Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 11h

There is no AI industry, there is an AI bubble with a handful of minor uses or creative experiments happening around the edges. The bubble bursting will be our next global market crash

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Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 11h

Those Other Humans Are Humans

Advanced Ecohumaning: Those Things That Aren't Human Matter Too

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folukeifejola @folukeifejola.bsky.social · 11h

Manifesto for when I rule the world: All humans must take CPD-like courses all through life called Continuing Human Development.
Courses include:
how to human properly
we all matter
racism is bad
greed is bad
destroying the planet also bad

Other suggestions on what the curriculum should include?

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Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 12h

And isn't elevenses more of a snack between meals while brunch generally replaces either lunch or breakfast or both?

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BBC Newsnight @bbcnewsnight.bsky.social · 1d

“You described Reform and other parties across Europe today as among the 'right wing equivalents of the fascists in the 1930s'. Why?”

“Because that’s what they are”

@vicderbyshire.bsky.social asks Lord Heseltine about remarks he made at Conservative Party Conference.

#Newsnight

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Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 1d

Haven't actually listened to this for a while, so my mind got blown anew! His guitar is like a backing band and another singer all at once

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 1d

Listen to this! RJ changes his swing feel dramatically over the course of this recording. In the first ten seconds he goes from triplet swing to completely straight eighths. His tempo is flexible too. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccfz...

Terraplane Blues

YouTube video by Robert Johnson - Topic

www.youtube.com

Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 1d

We already did a version of this when Uber et al used to claim they weren't taxi companies because, get this, they did everything on an app!

Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 1d

If, say, a very talented mimic make a podcast claiming to be Robin Williams, no one would claim they were the future and had to be appeased. That you can get a machine to do something does not make it a different thing!

Tea Junkie @teajunkie.bsky.social · 1d

"And for the love of EVERYTHING, stop calling it ‘the future,’ AI is just badly recycling and regurgitating the past to be re-consumed. You are taking in the Human Centipede of content, and from the very very end of the line".
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/oc...

Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda hits out at AI-generated videos of her dead father: ‘stop doing this to him’

Film-maker tells the public to stop sending her videos, saying: ‘You’re not making art, you’re making disgusting, over-processed hotdogs out of the lives of human beings’

www.theguardian.com

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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 1d

I agree with every word Zelda Williams says. And this at the end from OpenAI makes me want to go full Ned Ludd. Creators can’t have a blanket opt-out on copyright infringement of their work and have to fill out a form appealing to OpenAI’s mercy every time? Fuck off into the sun

OpenAI told the Guardian that content owners can flag copyright infringement using a “copyright disputes form” but that individual artists or studios cannot have a blanket opt-out. Varun Shetty, OpenAI’s head of media partnerships, said: “We’ll work with rights holders to block characters from Sora at their request and respond to takedown requests.”

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Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 2d

Also I'm still sort of annoyed that there's loads written about this show but seen little or nothing about how non-realist it is. There are numerous details that for me look dreamlike, even edge towards Lynchian, but like I've just never come across anyone talking about them

Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 2d

Acting is incredible and it's visually interesting too. Each episode has its own distinct feel. I think there was an exaggerated response to the plot, and I've heard critiques that by smoothing over elements of the real cases it's inspired by the writers produced something more sensationalist

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Colin Bell @colinbell.bsky.social · Aug 18

Got into a big argument with 70s rockers Thin Lizzy the other day about who wrote the greatest screenplay of all time. I had to hand it to Puzo and Coppola for “The Godfather”, but the band were ADAMANT that the honour should go to the script for “Chinatown”.

The boys are backing Towne again

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The Institute of Classical Studies @ics.bsky.social · 2d

Call For Papers: Environmental Approaches to the Eastern Mediterranean Landscape, 1750-1920
Panel at the Association for Art History (AAH) Annual Conference, University of Cambridge, 8-10 April 2026

Full details and how to submit here:

Environmental Approaches to the Eastern Mediterranean Landscape, 1750-1920 - For Art History

For centuries, the territories of the eastern Mediterranean were home to the ethnically, religiously, and culturally diverse communities that comprised the Ottoman Empire. These territories…

shorturl.at

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 2d

the best answer i got for this:

awaitsync on Threads writes: "Metrognome"

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Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 3d

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Helen 🏳️‍⚧️✊🏻💕 @mimmymum.bsky.social · 3d

Sophie Ellis-Bextor hits out at transphobia: “These people make trans people their whole personality and spend their entire day being angry” 💯

“There was a time when Pride felt like a celebration of the shoulders people were able to stand on, but now it feels like an absolute political necessity”

Sophie Ellis-Bextor hits out at transphobia: "These people make trans people their whole personality"

Sophie Ellis-Bextor has criticised increasing levels of transphobia in the UK and overseas in a new interview.

www.nme.com

Reposted by Sam Grinsell

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

The evidence she said that is actually quite thin. If she did, it was odd with most of the other things she said about Blair & New Labour, which she claimed was "embarrassed by our history, scornful of our achievement, oblivious of our legacy"; a "bitter, brawling, bully" with a "shrivelled heart".

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Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 3d

so I'm not certain how many Thatchers we've had but it is definitely two at least

Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 3d

Tony Blair is already officially the UK's second Thatcher, she said so herself

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

The best thing Conservatives could do - whatever they think of Margaret Thatcher - is to face up to the challenges of their own times, rather than trying to cosplay a leader who was formed in the 1930s and 40s, who took power half a century ago & who governed for the challenges of her day, not ours.

Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 3d

Hello Quentin Skinner? Yes, we're going to need your help here I'm afraid...

flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 3d

Not the most “I can definitely be trusted with power” kind of statement I’ve ever heard

Reposted by Sam Grinsell

flyingrodent @flyingrodent.bsky.social · 3d

Not the most “I can definitely be trusted with power” kind of statement I’ve ever heard

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Red Hot World @redhotworld.bsky.social · 3d

Experts feared it would take 193 years to reduce London's deadly levels of NO₂ air pollution to legal levels.

This week Mayor Sadiq Khan announced his team had defied the howls of pro-fossil fuel and motoring lobbyists to achieve the life-saving target in just 9 YEARS.

Here's how they did it 🧵

Deadly NO2 air pollution levels in London in 2016 before the introduction of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone

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Sam Grinsell @samgrinsell.bsky.social · 3d

Unlike many more serious journals where APCs are only likely to be affordable for institutions or funders