Simone Sharpe
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sharpehistory.bsky.social
Simone Sharpe
@sharpehistory.bsky.social
270 followers 320 following 84 posts
Historian – local history, urban history, public history, manufacturing/industry, digitisation, archives, Melbourne, Australia. She/her
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Reposted by Simone Sharpe
george-station-cat.bsky.social
Night night sweet dreamies

All I would like for Christmas is for the person reading this to know they are enough and they are loved
December 25, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
onenerdsopinion.bsky.social
Here’s Dandy enjoying some Christmas ham.

I’d also post a picture of spike enjoying Christmas ham. However, technology has not made a camera shutter speed fast enough to catch how fast he inhaled it.
An orange kitten daintily eats ham from a blue saucer atop her Kitten Condo Complex
December 25, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
evansmithhist.bsky.social
When decimalisation occurred in 1966, the Australian government compiled an 81 page file on dangers of using decimal coins in Christmas puddings. There was a media campaign warning people not to use the new coins in their cooking. The file is now digitised.

recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetri...
December 25, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social
I rectified that here: www.tom-cox.com/jim/
Jim: An Insight Into One Of Our Finest Minds
I have made this post free for everyone to read but if you'd like to support my writing you can do so, at a price of your choice, from £2 per month/£20 per year, by clicking on the button above. This ...
www.tom-cox.com
November 27, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
grogsgamut.bsky.social
Linking the march across the bridge to the massacre is disgusting and everyone doing so should be deeply ashamed of their giving tacit support for genocide

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
NSW to effectively ban protests for up to three months as premier links Gaza rallies to Bondi terror attack
Chris Minns says state ‘can’t risk another mass demonstration on that scale in NSW [because] the implications can be seen, in my view, on Sunday’
www.theguardian.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
jmberger.com
I'll just add to that, when collecting citations from other works, it's not just an AI problem that the citation might not say what the person you're collecting it from thinks it does. As someone who gets obsessive about finding the "first" source of various claims, I see this a lot.
pamelaoliver.bsky.social Pamela Oliver @pamelaoliver.bsky.social · 14d
To echo: do not cite anything you have not at least skimmed and can verify it really exists and says what you say it says (or is about what you say it is about). Even if you collect citations from others' work (a legit practice), CHECK THEM.
joshshepperd.bsky.social Josh Shepperd @joshshepperd.bsky.social · 15d
Do not cite an academic paper unless you’ve read it
December 19, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
janecaro.bsky.social
My 93 year old father says it perfectly in today’s SMH.
December 19, 2025 at 5:36 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
garethknapman.bsky.social
Ideologies come and go and fanatics conduct horrendous acts. But in this skit Rowland Atkinson, explains in very simple terms, why guns should not be in the community
youtu.be/k7ThhuIUll8
No Firearms For Anyone | The Thin Blue Line
YouTube video by The Thin Blue Line
youtu.be
December 15, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
grogsgamut.bsky.social
As always, hug your loved ones.
December 14, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
gregjenner.bsky.social
Hi! If you’re looking for a gift for a history-lover this Christmas, I’ll personally sign & dedicate any of my funny history books to your loved one if you buy them through @foxlanebooks.bsky.social

I have three books for kids, and three for teens & adults

Thank you 🎄📚🎁
Greg smiles while holding the three vibrantly illustrated children’s books from his Totally Chaotic History series: Roman Britain, Stone Age, and Ancient Egypt Greg grins while holding his colourful book You Are History about the history of 50 objects a child used every day Greg’s books are Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity, A Million Years In A Day, and Ask A Historian
December 9, 2025 at 11:04 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
caseybriggs.com
We're looking for an Election Researcher to help prepare election materials & cover election results. You’ll help manage key databases, produce research materials, and dive into electoral research. This is a unique elections and data role at ABC News

Full details: careers.abc.net.au/en/job/50515...
ABC Careers - Job Details - Election Researcher
Apply now Job no: 505156 Work type: Contract Full Time Location: Sydney Categories:
careers.abc.net.au
December 9, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
nationaltrust.org.uk
Opportunities to transform nature don’t get much bigger than this!

We have the opportunity to conserve 340 acres (138 hectares) of biodiverse countryside surrounding the Cerne Abbas Giant, Dorset.
Aerial view of the Cerne Abbas giant - a landscape feature showing the white chalk outline of a naked man with a club raised in one hand. There is text over lay which reads 'It's a big one!'
December 3, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
kazcooke.bsky.social
Mr Gideon Haigh on why the ongoing, incompetent and dull-witted enshittification of the State Library of Victoria is so heartbreaking, so stupid, and so dangerous. Please share. www.cricketetal.com/p/an-institu...
An Institution Betrayed
GH on the State Library's post-literate plans
www.cricketetal.com
December 3, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
brionyneilson.bsky.social
Brass gong with wooden striker (State Library of Victoria)

Every day from the 1850s to the mid-1990s a librarian at Melbourne's State Library of Victoria would circle the reading room, striking this brass gong to mark closing time. In the 1990s the gong was replaced by a pre-recorded announcement.
photo shows a round gong made of brass with a wooden stick on top of it
December 2, 2025 at 5:10 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
kazcooke.bsky.social
Calling all Australian writers, musicians, film-makers & artists of every kind! Sign the new Open Letter about catastrophic crises at the State Library of Victoria, written by Gideon Haigh, Graeme Davison & Clare Wright. Text of letter & instructions on my Facebook page & Insta @reallykazcooke.
1920s style black and white movie still of silent movie actress in heavy make-up, doing terrified side-eye.
December 2, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
cjfrieman.bsky.social
We can read 4000 year old texts. We can't open 20 year old digital documents
November 28, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social
Thanks to all who have reposted this thread to help get the word out. The selling of these books "as new" on Amazon is making it more difficult for Unbound authors to rebuild what we lost and move on.
dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · Nov 28
Quick note to anyone thinking of buying my books: please purchase the new Swift Press versions, NOT the relatively small number of Unbound versions still knocking about, & being sold by OOINYA. Unbound stopped paying me for my work early in 2024 and I will never see a penny for these books.
December 1, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
colourfulhistories.bsky.social
This cause is close to my heart - please sign: www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/ha...
Hands off our State Library!
Library workers deliver essential services to 2.8 million people in our community each year. They run information services, connect people online, hold free workshops, develop community connections an...
www.megaphone.org.au
December 1, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social
Quick note to anyone thinking of buying my books: please purchase the new Swift Press versions, NOT the relatively small number of Unbound versions still knocking about, & being sold by OOINYA. Unbound stopped paying me for my work early in 2024 and I will never see a penny for these books.
November 28, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
phavictas.bsky.social
Funding cuts threaten our beloved State Library of Victoria.

Sign the petition to stop these cuts and share it with everyone you know.

The Petition link is c.org/JMgHTzVjLQ

#phavictas
#statelibraryvictoria
Sign the Petition
Save the State Library of Victoria!
c.org
December 1, 2025 at 12:33 AM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
bfletcherwatson.bsky.social
Eleven years ago, I wrote to Tom Stoppard to ask about this coup de théâtre from 1949. It took me down an unexpected rabbit hole - in memory of Stoppard, here's what I found.
"Years and years ago, there was a production of The Tempest, out of doors, at an Oxford college on a lawn, which was the stage, and the lawn went back towards the lake in the grounds of the college, and the play began in natural light. But as it developed, and as it became time for Ariel to say his farewell to the world of The Tempest, the evening had started to close in and there was some artificial lighting coming on. And as Ariel uttered his last speech, he turned and he ran across the grass, and he got to the edge of the lake and he just kept running across the top of the water — the producer having thoughtfully provided a kind of walkway an inch beneath the water. And you could see and you could hear the plish, plash as he ran away from you across the top of the lake, until the gloom enveloped him and he disappeared from your view. And as he did so, from the further shore, a firework rocket was ignited, and it went whoosh into the air, and high up there it burst into lots of sparks, and all the sparks went out, and he had gone. "When you look up the stage directions, it says, 'Exit Ariel.”
November 30, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
herberthistory.bsky.social
Surprise! We took last week's Historians At The Movies Watch Party on Ken Burns' The American Revolution and turned it into a podcast. So join me, @lizcovart.bsky.social, @michaelhattem.bsky.social @craigbrucesmith.bsky.social & the #HATM community right here.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
Episode 167: Ken Burns' The American Revolution (Historians' Commentary)
Podcast Episode · Reckoning with Jason Herbert · 11/23/2025 · 2h 13m
podcasts.apple.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
lenschiff.bsky.social
Mine, from the Real Thing
HENRY: Shut up and listen. This thing here, which looks like a wooden club, is actually several pieces of particular wood cunningly put together in a certain way so that the whole thing is sprung, like a dance floor. It’s for hitting cricket balls with. If you get it right, the cricket ball will travel two hundred yards in four seconds, and all you’ve done is give it a knock like knocking the top off a bottle of stout, and it makes a noise like a trout taking a fly… (He clucks his tongue to make the noise.) What we’re trying to do is to write cricket bats, so that when we throw up an idea and give it a little knock, it might … travel … (He clucks his tongue again and picks up the script.) Now, what we’ve got here is a lump of wood of roughly the same shape trying to be a cricket bat, and if you hit a ball with it, the ball will travel about ten feet and you will drop the bat and dance about shouting ‘Ouch!’ with your hands stuck into your armpits. (Indicating the cricket bat.) This isn’t better because someone says it’s better, or because there’s a conspiracy by the MCC to keep cudgels out of Lords. It’s better because it’s better. You don’t believe me, so I suggest you go out to bat with this and see how you get on. [quoting from the play] ‘You’re a strange boy, Billy, how old are you?”Twenty, but I’ve lived more than you’ll ever live.’ Ooh, ouch! (He drops the script and hops about with his hands in his armpits, going ‘Ouch!’ ANNIE watches him expressionlessly until he desists.)
November 29, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Reposted by Simone Sharpe
delilahsdawson.bsky.social
Art is an act of hope. Writing is an act of rebellion. The world will always need more stories--from real human beings, not bullshit plagiarism machines. Every book is a love story from the author, and every reader is fighting the war against cruelty, ignorance, and hopelessness. We are fighting.
November 20, 2025 at 3:26 PM