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 🗃️ 📚
Enjoyment of this film enhanced by the knowledge that Gary Oldman was drunk in most scenes.
On this day, 33 years ago, Bram Stoker’s Dracula was released in cinemas.
Starring #GaryOldman, #WinonaRyder, #KeanuReeves and #AnthonyHopkins it was an Oscar-winning, critically acclaimed success and one of the most revered #vampire movies ever.
Starring #GaryOldman, #WinonaRyder, #KeanuReeves and #AnthonyHopkins it was an Oscar-winning, critically acclaimed success and one of the most revered #vampire movies ever.
November 13, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Enjoyment of this film enhanced by the knowledge that Gary Oldman was drunk in most scenes.
Reposted by James Crossland
JESUS CHRIST IN RICHMOND PARK: ORIGINAL UPLOAD
YouTube video by JAGGL113
youtu.be
November 13, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Reposted by James Crossland
Meet 26 yr old Leicester man and neo-Nazi, Matthew Gravill, ex Buckingham Palace warden guiding visitors around state room whilst also acting as an underground organiser of an International fascist group
Who does the security vetting
news.stv.tv/world/reveal...
Who does the security vetting
news.stv.tv/world/reveal...
Revealed: The Neo-Nazi who worked inside Buckingham Palace
Matthew Gravill, a 26-year-old fascist linked to two far-right groups, worked as a warden for Buckingham Palace, ITV News can reveal.
news.stv.tv
November 12, 2025 at 9:16 AM
Meet 26 yr old Leicester man and neo-Nazi, Matthew Gravill, ex Buckingham Palace warden guiding visitors around state room whilst also acting as an underground organiser of an International fascist group
Who does the security vetting
news.stv.tv/world/reveal...
Who does the security vetting
news.stv.tv/world/reveal...
Reposted by James Crossland
Our next book by Paul Cavill and Steve Harding from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social explores the latest research on the possible location of the Battle of Brunanburh in 937: storefront.chester.ac.uk/index.php?ma...
#Brunanburh #placenames #History #Archaeology #wirral #cheshire #merseyside
#Brunanburh #placenames #History #Archaeology #wirral #cheshire #merseyside
November 12, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Our next book by Paul Cavill and Steve Harding from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social explores the latest research on the possible location of the Battle of Brunanburh in 937: storefront.chester.ac.uk/index.php?ma...
#Brunanburh #placenames #History #Archaeology #wirral #cheshire #merseyside
#Brunanburh #placenames #History #Archaeology #wirral #cheshire #merseyside
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Using machines to set arbitrary production targets for human performance - Soviet economic policy meets AI-governed bureaucratic dystopia.
#progress
Using machines to set arbitrary production targets for human performance - Soviet economic policy meets AI-governed bureaucratic dystopia.
#progress
All schools in England to be given AI-generated pupil attendance targets
Unions decry move, saying it will put more pressure on headteachers without tackling absence from classrooms
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 9:50 AM
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Using machines to set arbitrary production targets for human performance - Soviet economic policy meets AI-governed bureaucratic dystopia.
#progress
Using machines to set arbitrary production targets for human performance - Soviet economic policy meets AI-governed bureaucratic dystopia.
#progress
Reposted by James Crossland
Calling all historians of US foreign relations. @shafrhistorians.bsky.social
RED ALERT: the University of Nottingham is threatening to close its Department of American Studies, putting all staff at risk of redundancy, and ending any American specialist knowledge in the Faculty of Arts.
Sign the petition here to save jobs:
www.change.org/p/save-ameri...
Sign the petition here to save jobs:
www.change.org/p/save-ameri...
Sign the Petition
SAVE AMERICAN STUDIES TEACHING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM
www.change.org
November 11, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Calling all historians of US foreign relations. @shafrhistorians.bsky.social
Reposted by James Crossland
The collapse of Noah Smith from 'interesting writer whose occasionally a bit random' into 'complete idiot and mentalist' is one of the most clear cut cases of twitter-poisoning I've seen
Noah Smith is paid in the high six-figures to write a blog read by Americans who believe themselves to be intelligent. Yet, he is both unable to read a sign and also for some reason chose to have a 90 minute layover for a flight that takes 90 minutes.
onemileatatime.com/news/economi...
onemileatatime.com/news/economi...
Economist Doesn't Follow Signs At Heathrow: Proof The UK Is Failing?
A economist had a bad experience connecting at Heathrow, suggesting it's reflective of bigger issues in the UK. There's only one issue...
onemileatatime.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:33 PM
The collapse of Noah Smith from 'interesting writer whose occasionally a bit random' into 'complete idiot and mentalist' is one of the most clear cut cases of twitter-poisoning I've seen
Reposted by James Crossland
A busy and chaotic #MementoMoriMonday
Dancing Skeletons, Kawanabe Kyōsai 河鍋暁斎
c. 1871-1889
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
Dancing Skeletons, Kawanabe Kyōsai 河鍋暁斎
c. 1871-1889
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
November 10, 2025 at 3:33 PM
A busy and chaotic #MementoMoriMonday
Dancing Skeletons, Kawanabe Kyōsai 河鍋暁斎
c. 1871-1889
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
Dancing Skeletons, Kawanabe Kyōsai 河鍋暁斎
c. 1871-1889
www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...
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...