James Crossland
@jamescrossland.bsky.social
Professor of #History. Author of "Rogue Agent" and "The Rise of Devils".
#spies, #terrorism, #extremism, fake news, weird stories, terrible people and things that are not real 🗃️ 📚
#spies, #terrorism, #extremism, fake news, weird stories, terrible people and things that are not real 🗃️ 📚
I enjoy the one on the far left who looks like a cross between Julius Streicher and Tom Hardy in Bronson
November 10, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I enjoy the one on the far left who looks like a cross between Julius Streicher and Tom Hardy in Bronson
Very adroit summary of where we're at.
We are splintered as a civilisation, so atomised that nothing unites us. Debate is reduced to the playground. Narcissism trumps duty. We live more online than in the real-world. Splintered, childish, narcissistic, digital. These are the defining characteristics of this dreadful era we have forged
Crisis-hit BBC is just another casualty of the collapse of the 20th century rulebook
Like the Tory-Labour duopoly and the NHS, the BBC is a hangover from an age that’s dying. We must find how to make the media relevant again,…
www.heraldscotland.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Very adroit summary of where we're at.
Reposted by James Crossland
This Wednesday, 12 November, our very own @jamescrossland.bsky.social will be talking about his current #research project on the #history of domestic #intelligence in #Britain. Everyone interested is very welcome to attend.
November 10, 2025 at 10:58 AM
This Wednesday, 12 November, our very own @jamescrossland.bsky.social will be talking about his current #research project on the #history of domestic #intelligence in #Britain. Everyone interested is very welcome to attend.
Who knows if he's in this pic of the Lancashire Fusiliers preparing to land at Gallipoli in 1915, but today I'm remembering my great grandfather Joseph Mears, who ended #WWI traumatised and listless to the extent that he emigrated to Canada and killed a man with an axe in a barfight.
#Family
#Family
November 9, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Simpler times?
OTD - November 9 1979, computers at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) site at Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado detect a massive inbound strike by Soviet missiles. With only minutes to react, interceptor aircraft are scrambled, ICBM forces are told to prepare for a
November 9, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Simpler times?
Advanced classes for AI generated automatons in how to just about pass as human
November 8, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Advanced classes for AI generated automatons in how to just about pass as human
Reposted by James Crossland
You know, I’m 46, studying writing at University, something tech bros tell me has no future, but I’ve never felt more sure that I wanted to create fiction in my whole life.
November 7, 2025 at 4:38 PM
You know, I’m 46, studying writing at University, something tech bros tell me has no future, but I’ve never felt more sure that I wanted to create fiction in my whole life.
The rate at which humanity normalises stupid is the shovel with which we dig our graves.
A friend recently texted me the same thing. “Do you really not use ChatGPT?!” It was a sign of where we are culturally on this. People are compelled to use it but also starting to question the normalcy?
Recently met someone who was very surprised to hear I didn’t use ChatGPT or any LLM.
I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?
I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?
November 8, 2025 at 3:17 PM
The rate at which humanity normalises stupid is the shovel with which we dig our graves.
Reposted by James Crossland
Part II
Tesla showroom London…
Tesla showroom London…
November 7, 2025 at 3:44 PM
Part II
Tesla showroom London…
Tesla showroom London…
Reposted by James Crossland
#PhantomsFriday The Thing in the Cemetery
The awful Thing in this story from Van Wert, Ohio suggests Augustus Hare’s unearthly Croglin Grange vampire. "The apparition seemed in the distance like a huge cadaver clothed in a robe of sack-cloth."
thevictorianbookofthedead.wordpress.com/2023/10/31/t...
The awful Thing in this story from Van Wert, Ohio suggests Augustus Hare’s unearthly Croglin Grange vampire. "The apparition seemed in the distance like a huge cadaver clothed in a robe of sack-cloth."
thevictorianbookofthedead.wordpress.com/2023/10/31/t...
November 7, 2025 at 1:34 PM
#PhantomsFriday The Thing in the Cemetery
The awful Thing in this story from Van Wert, Ohio suggests Augustus Hare’s unearthly Croglin Grange vampire. "The apparition seemed in the distance like a huge cadaver clothed in a robe of sack-cloth."
thevictorianbookofthedead.wordpress.com/2023/10/31/t...
The awful Thing in this story from Van Wert, Ohio suggests Augustus Hare’s unearthly Croglin Grange vampire. "The apparition seemed in the distance like a huge cadaver clothed in a robe of sack-cloth."
thevictorianbookofthedead.wordpress.com/2023/10/31/t...
Reposted by James Crossland
Wow…what a revolutionary concept.
November 7, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Wow…what a revolutionary concept.
Reposted by James Crossland
BBC really burying the lede there
November 7, 2025 at 12:07 PM
BBC really burying the lede there
Reposted by James Crossland
The FBI is trying to unmask the owner of infamous archiving site Archive.is, according to a subpoena the site posted. No other information given, the site quietly posted the document a few days ago. FBI telling domain registrar to hand over all sorts of ID'ing info
www.404media.co/fbi-tries-to...
www.404media.co/fbi-tries-to...
FBI Tries to Unmask Owner of Infamous Archive.is Site
The FBI has subpoenaed the domain registrar of archive.today, demanding information about the owner.
www.404media.co
November 6, 2025 at 3:16 PM
The FBI is trying to unmask the owner of infamous archiving site Archive.is, according to a subpoena the site posted. No other information given, the site quietly posted the document a few days ago. FBI telling domain registrar to hand over all sorts of ID'ing info
www.404media.co/fbi-tries-to...
www.404media.co/fbi-tries-to...
Reposted by James Crossland
To think it all started with Marx and Engels researching together at Chetham’s Library, Manchester.
FACT OF THE DAY. 7 November 1917 (Gregorian calendar). The Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin stormed the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg to begin the Russian Revolution.
November 7, 2025 at 10:05 AM
To think it all started with Marx and Engels researching together at Chetham’s Library, Manchester.
"Psychos everywhere, plague of madness" - as always, the wisdom of 12 Monkeys delivers.
November 7, 2025 at 3:12 PM
"Psychos everywhere, plague of madness" - as always, the wisdom of 12 Monkeys delivers.
Reposted by James Crossland
#TheVictorianBookoftheDead 1915 Studebaker hearse, with elaborately carved curtains, tassels, ribbons and pillars, echoing earlier horse-drawn hearses made by Studebaker.
www.bonhams.com/auctions/247...
www.bonhams.com/auctions/247...
November 6, 2025 at 2:25 PM
#TheVictorianBookoftheDead 1915 Studebaker hearse, with elaborately carved curtains, tassels, ribbons and pillars, echoing earlier horse-drawn hearses made by Studebaker.
www.bonhams.com/auctions/247...
www.bonhams.com/auctions/247...
Reposted by James Crossland
Apparently Blue Sky has some sort of filth filter applied by default, so if you're not seeing this post maybe check your settings.
November 7, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Apparently Blue Sky has some sort of filth filter applied by default, so if you're not seeing this post maybe check your settings.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
The Scandinavians remain irritatingly good at this "doing things in a good and sensible" way shit.
The Scandinavians remain irritatingly good at this "doing things in a good and sensible" way shit.
‘If there’s a free alternative, I’ll eat healthily’: how Sweden devised brilliant school meals
A pilot scheme where students eat nutritious breakfasts using donated surplus food builds on the ‘folkhem’ welfare model to boost health and sustainability
www.theguardian.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:58 PM
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
The Scandinavians remain irritatingly good at this "doing things in a good and sensible" way shit.
The Scandinavians remain irritatingly good at this "doing things in a good and sensible" way shit.
Reposted by James Crossland
I'm telling my kids this is Socrates and Plato
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScRL...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScRL...
The Talk: Björk & Lady Gaga
YouTube video by THE TALK
www.youtube.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:12 PM
I'm telling my kids this is Socrates and Plato
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScRL...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScRL...
Human progress
November 6, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Human progress
Reposted by James Crossland
Today I learnt about a three-legged, one-eyed shapeshifting kitsune ( #yokai fox) known as Otora gitsune who possesses humans and talks about its wartime experiences. Those possessed suffer from discharge from their left eye, an aching left leg, and they recount...
1/2
🎨Matthew Meyer @yokai.com
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🎨Matthew Meyer @yokai.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Today I learnt about a three-legged, one-eyed shapeshifting kitsune ( #yokai fox) known as Otora gitsune who possesses humans and talks about its wartime experiences. Those possessed suffer from discharge from their left eye, an aching left leg, and they recount...
1/2
🎨Matthew Meyer @yokai.com
1/2
🎨Matthew Meyer @yokai.com
Reposted by James Crossland
Had the best conditions for sketching on my flight to LA: aisle seat, left side of the plane (light comes from the left - I’m right handed), nobody in the center seat next to me, smooth flight the whole way - done from start to finish in one sitting. It’s the little things… 😁
November 4, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Had the best conditions for sketching on my flight to LA: aisle seat, left side of the plane (light comes from the left - I’m right handed), nobody in the center seat next to me, smooth flight the whole way - done from start to finish in one sitting. It’s the little things… 😁
Reposted by James Crossland
WTF is a "Yaed Apple"?
Crimes against typeset, right there
Crimes against typeset, right there
November 5, 2025 at 1:13 PM
WTF is a "Yaed Apple"?
Crimes against typeset, right there
Crimes against typeset, right there