Steve Weddle
@steveweddle.bsky.social
2.6K followers 760 following 110 posts
My book about a 1933 outlaw camp in Arkansas: www.amazon.com/TheCountyLine My book of connected short stories: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Country-Hardball/Steve-Weddle/9781440570803 Reading, Writing & Arsenal Cville & RVA steveweddle.com
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brodiewaddell.bsky.social
The world is falling apart and UK higher education is a bin fire, but I've got two first-year BA modules this year at @bbkhistorical.bsky.social and the enthusiasm and curiosity of new Birkbeck students give me life.

They just want to learn about new stuff! And I get to help them do that!
The world according to Henricus Martellus, a German  mapmaker working in Florence in the 1480s.
Reposted by Steve Weddle
themountaingoats.bsky.social
highland cattle have it figured out
dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social
Highland cattle are famous for their ability to "disco nap". Normally these brief, efficient sleeps will last between three and twenty minutes, deploying a variety of objects as pillows, including moorland boulders, cars or any particularly large dog or sheep who happens to be nearby.
A highland cow having a little nap on a boulder on Dartmoor (ok, it was actually scratching its head)
Reposted by Steve Weddle
megireid.bsky.social
Does banned books week feel stale to anyone else? Can't tell if it's just that I live somewhere where censorship is an active, living threat, which a book display with 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 doesn't really speak to.
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maybejed.bsky.social
PLAY DIRTY hot take - Mark Wahlberg: not a bad Parker
Reposted by Steve Weddle
edzitron.com
Hahaha this device is never going to release, or if it does it will become notorious for its shittiness, like if pets.com released the N-GAGE


	Multiple people familiar with the plans said OpenAI and Ive were working on a device roughly the size of a smartphone that users would communicate with through a camera, microphone and speaker. One person suggested it might have multiple cameras.

The gadget is designed to sit on a desk or table but can also be carried around by the user. The Wall Street Journal previously reported some of the specifications around the device.

One person said the device would be “always on” rather than triggered by a word or prompt. The device’s sensors would gather data throughout the day that would help to build its virtual assistant’s “memory”.
OpenAI and Ive are seeking to build a more powerful and useful machine. But two people familiar with the project said that settling on the device's "voice" and its mannerisms were
a challenge.
One issue is ensuring the device only chimes in when useful, preventing it from talking too much or not knowing when to finish the conversation - an ongoing issue with ChatGPT.
"The concept is that you should have a friend who's a computer who isn't your weird AI girlfriend... like [Apple's digital voice assistant] Siri but better,
" said one person
who was briefed on the plans. OpenAI was looking for "ways for it to be accessible but not intrusive" OpenAI's device will be entering a difficult market. Friend, an AI companion worn as a pendant around your neck, has been criticised for being "creepy" and having a
"snarky" personality. An Al pin made by Humane, a company that Altman personally invested in, has been scrapped.
Still, OpenAI has been on a hiring spree to build its hardware business. Its acquisition of io brought in more than 20 former Apple hardware employees poached by Ive from his alma mater. It has also recruited at least a dozen other Apple device experts this year, according to LinkedIn accounts.
Reposted by Steve Weddle
lgambrose.bsky.social
Never turn a Liverpool game off before the final whistle.
steveweddle.bsky.social
“Sadness, I think, can be beautiful. Sad songs or books or movies are beautiful because they move you, make you cry and make you feel them deeply. There is beauty in the melancholy, too.”

open.substack.com/pub/emwednes...
orange peel in the sheetz parking lot
a stream of consciousness about nothing in particular
open.substack.com
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eicathomefinn.bsky.social
'In a tragic turn, Mākereti Papakura – believed to be the first woman from an Indigenous community to study at the university – died just weeks before completing her thesis, and in the decades since, her family has fought to have her degree recognised.'
Nearly 100 years after her death, Oxford’s first female Indigenous scholar honoured
Mākereti Papakura died weeks before handing in her thesis at Oxford university documenting the life and customs of her tribe, work that is still used by Māori today
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Steve Weddle
brodiewaddell.bsky.social
Who did what in early modern England?

New #OpenAccess book, 'The Experience of Work in Early Modern England' by @jwhittle.bsky.social, @markhailwood.bsky.social, @hkrobb.bsky.social & @aucointaylor.bsky.social, based on thousands of #EarlyModern court depositions 🗃️

Read it: doi.org/10.1017/9781...


This book applies the innovative work-task approach to the history of work, which captures the contribution of all workers and types of work to the early modern economy. Drawing on tens of thousands of court depositions, the authors analyse the individual tasks that made up everyday work for women and men, shedding new light on the gender division of labour, and the ways in which time, space, age and marital status shaped sixteenth and seventeenth-century working life. Combining qualitative and quantitative analysis, the book deepens our understanding of the preindustrial economy, and calls for us to rethink not only who did what, but also the implications of these findings for major debates about structural change, the nature and extent of paid work, and what has been lost as well as gained over the past three centuries of economic development. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
Cover of Whittle, Jane, Mark Hailwood, Hannah Robb, and Taylor Aucoin. The Experience of Work in Early Modern England. of Cambridge Studies in Economic History - Second Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025.
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fck.de
... und jetzt Du! ⚽ Der Vorverkauf für die UEFA Nations League Finals ist gestartet! 🎟️

Sei live dabei, wenn die Deutsche Frauennationalmannschaft am 28. November ihr letztes Heimspiel im Jahr 2025 uffm #Betze bestreitet 🏟️
📲 https://tickets.dfb.de/

📸 Getty Images/DFB
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imogenreid.bsky.social
My contributor copy has arrived! Extreme excitement on opening my book post this morning! With work by Ian Critchley, Pippa Goldschmidt, Alison Moore, Okechukwu Nzelu, Simon Okotie, C. D. Rose, Iain Sinclair, Naomi Wood, lucky old me et al. Thank you @saltpublishing.com & @nicholasroyle.bsky.social
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cwblackwell.bsky.social
Special thanks to @steveweddle.bsky.social over at @dosomedamage.bsky.social for having us on the blog! ON FIRE AND UNDER WATER is now available 🔥🔥🌊🌊
dosomedamage.bsky.social
Chatting with four authors from On Fire and Under Water, the hot new crime fiction anthology.

open.substack.com/pub/dosomeda...