Kristof Smeyers
@kristofsmeyers.bsky.social
natural + supernatural histories 1750-2000 🗃️ | editor + essays Dutch Review of Books | RAAF (2022) | WOLF (2023) | SUPERNATURAL BODIES (2024) | UITDRIJVEN (2025) | PERFORMING MAGNETISM (2026)
tot zo dadelijk
En daarna ook nog in Hasselt, Aalst, Leuven en Antwerpen. Tour, ik zei het toch? www.boektopia.be/zoeken?zoekt...
November 14, 2025 at 5:58 PM
tot zo dadelijk
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
This is very good and you should read it.
"Historical analysis is fundamentally different and more complex than producing a mass of visualizations and statistics that are the lifeblood of many A.I. programmes."
Gordon McKelvie @gordonmckelvie.bsky.social on the problematic use of A.I. within historical research.
Gordon McKelvie @gordonmckelvie.bsky.social on the problematic use of A.I. within historical research.
Artificial Intelligence: A Warning for History
Does A.I. have the potential to simplify, and ultimately impoverish, our study of the past? Gordon McKelvie considers the recent explosion in A.I. and what it means for historians facing the current H...
www.historyworkshop.org.uk
November 12, 2025 at 8:46 PM
This is very good and you should read it.
well only one person heckled me shouting 'shoot 'em all!' so I consider it a success
giving a talk about wolves tonight in wolf country and have already been asked several times if I'm 'pro wolf', might have to change my talk
November 13, 2025 at 9:19 PM
well only one person heckled me shouting 'shoot 'em all!' so I consider it a success
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
It's so wonderful so I write it like this for my students
November 13, 2025 at 5:27 PM
It's so wonderful so I write it like this for my students
giving a talk about wolves tonight in wolf country and have already been asked several times if I'm 'pro wolf', might have to change my talk
November 13, 2025 at 3:41 PM
giving a talk about wolves tonight in wolf country and have already been asked several times if I'm 'pro wolf', might have to change my talk
nothing to see here, just a man hoovering his lawn
November 13, 2025 at 9:30 AM
nothing to see here, just a man hoovering his lawn
We talk a lot about the Horniman walrus but Charles Waterton's attempt at stuffing the head of a bottom howler monkey deserves some attention/nightmares too
November 12, 2025 at 7:14 PM
We talk a lot about the Horniman walrus but Charles Waterton's attempt at stuffing the head of a bottom howler monkey deserves some attention/nightmares too
Recently learnt my brother in law got a leaf blower so I'm filling big bags with leaves as a Christmas present
The collective noun for leaf blowers is a SCOURGE
November 12, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Recently learnt my brother in law got a leaf blower so I'm filling big bags with leaves as a Christmas present
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
The birth of the author
November 12, 2025 at 11:31 AM
The birth of the author
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
The collective noun for leaf blowers is a SCOURGE
November 11, 2025 at 5:42 PM
The collective noun for leaf blowers is a SCOURGE
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
A strange 'sea monster' (squidlike?) caught by fishermen on the North Sea between Scheveningen and Katwijk, #otd 12 Nov 1661. (Rijksmuseum)
November 12, 2025 at 8:51 AM
A strange 'sea monster' (squidlike?) caught by fishermen on the North Sea between Scheveningen and Katwijk, #otd 12 Nov 1661. (Rijksmuseum)
Spent all day yesterday in cold peat because I was promised ravens, but there were no ravens. Instead there was a beaver, and there were leech ponds and a glade of sweet gale and old heath, and a man telling me how to read centuries of hard work in a landscape
November 11, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Spent all day yesterday in cold peat because I was promised ravens, but there were no ravens. Instead there was a beaver, and there were leech ponds and a glade of sweet gale and old heath, and a man telling me how to read centuries of hard work in a landscape
Zeg 'ns lieverds, het is ondertussen volzet denk ik maar wie venkeltaralli meebrengt zal ik discreet binnenlaten
Dienstmededeling voor volk in Maaseik en omstreken: er zijn nog enkele plaatsen vrij voor een lezing over raven en wolven (en ook wel mensen), donderdagavond in de bibliotheek
maaseik.bibliotheek.be/agenda/lezin...
maaseik.bibliotheek.be/agenda/lezin...
Lezing: Raaf en wolf - een dierengeschiedenis | Bibliotheek Maaseik
Historicus Kristof Smeyers neemt ons in deze lezing mee op een tocht door de geschiedenis van de mens, gezien door de ogen van de raaf en de wolf.
maaseik.bibliotheek.be
November 11, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Zeg 'ns lieverds, het is ondertussen volzet denk ik maar wie venkeltaralli meebrengt zal ik discreet binnenlaten
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
oh now HERE is a rabbit hole
If this exploded and killed someone they'd be casualties of WW2 which makes me wonder who the latest casualty of WW2 is and what killed them?
I'd guess French farmer ploughing a field
I'd guess French farmer ploughing a field
November 11, 2025 at 6:32 PM
oh now HERE is a rabbit hole
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
Owl alert! You can listen back to my little snippet on #TawnyOwls now. Thanks agains so much to Sophie Anton for asking me to do this and to being so flexible so we could get it recorded easily and accessibly for me, and to Caz Graham for coming to do the recording.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Tweet of the Day - Polly Atkin on the Tawny Owl - BBC Sounds
For writer Polly Atkin the nighttime calls of tawny owls mean company and community.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Owl alert! You can listen back to my little snippet on #TawnyOwls now. Thanks agains so much to Sophie Anton for asking me to do this and to being so flexible so we could get it recorded easily and accessibly for me, and to Caz Graham for coming to do the recording.
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
Dienstmededeling voor volk in Maaseik en omstreken: er zijn nog enkele plaatsen vrij voor een lezing over raven en wolven (en ook wel mensen), donderdagavond in de bibliotheek
maaseik.bibliotheek.be/agenda/lezin...
maaseik.bibliotheek.be/agenda/lezin...
Lezing: Raaf en wolf - een dierengeschiedenis | Bibliotheek Maaseik
Historicus Kristof Smeyers neemt ons in deze lezing mee op een tocht door de geschiedenis van de mens, gezien door de ogen van de raaf en de wolf.
maaseik.bibliotheek.be
November 11, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Dienstmededeling voor volk in Maaseik en omstreken: er zijn nog enkele plaatsen vrij voor een lezing over raven en wolven (en ook wel mensen), donderdagavond in de bibliotheek
maaseik.bibliotheek.be/agenda/lezin...
maaseik.bibliotheek.be/agenda/lezin...
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
Oh, I love this. A new species of sea anemone was discovered recently that parks itself on top of a hermit crab shell like a hat. It seems to feed partly off the crab's faeces, but it also excretes a hard shell that extends the crab's home. In return, it's carried around the seafloor like a king.
November 10, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Oh, I love this. A new species of sea anemone was discovered recently that parks itself on top of a hermit crab shell like a hat. It seems to feed partly off the crab's faeces, but it also excretes a hard shell that extends the crab's home. In return, it's carried around the seafloor like a king.
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
Or like it said at the end of a labor song I liked a lot when I was a kid: what I mean is, take it easy, but take it.
- Charles Mingus
- Charles Mingus
November 10, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Or like it said at the end of a labor song I liked a lot when I was a kid: what I mean is, take it easy, but take it.
- Charles Mingus
- Charles Mingus
preparing a class on animal histories
November 10, 2025 at 7:20 PM
preparing a class on animal histories
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
“I brought a couple of friends, I hope that’s cool.”
November 10, 2025 at 2:13 PM
“I brought a couple of friends, I hope that’s cool.”
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
Everyone, please remember this endearing crustacean family
July 3, 2023 at 7:12 PM
Everyone, please remember this endearing crustacean family
ahh, to live in a place where people spend their Sunday morning shaking their fist at a tree shedding its leaves
November 9, 2025 at 8:02 AM
ahh, to live in a place where people spend their Sunday morning shaking their fist at a tree shedding its leaves
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
Hi hi, my article is out too, it's called 'Economic myth-making in twentieth-century Belgium' and it's about how myths narratively reshape and manipulate macroeconomic realities in past, present (and future)
If you want a pdf let me know!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
If you want a pdf let me know!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
November 8, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Hi hi, my article is out too, it's called 'Economic myth-making in twentieth-century Belgium' and it's about how myths narratively reshape and manipulate macroeconomic realities in past, present (and future)
If you want a pdf let me know!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
If you want a pdf let me know!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Kristof Smeyers
If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 7:21 AM
If I see one more stupid Rosalind Franklin take I'm going to lose my mind. Thank god for @matthewcobb.bsky.social and @nccomfort.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/d41...