Clare Downham

Clare Downham

@downham.bsky.social

Medievalist. She/Her. All DMs are blocked (Bluesky ID issue). Currently studying Scottish Gaelic part time with Sabhal Mòr Ostaig.

5.5K followers2.8K following2.2K posts

Clare Downham
@downham.bsky.social

Viking values? #medievalsky #history #vikingsky #archaeology do consider giving this great new account a follow!!

Vitki runic research@vitkirunor.bsky.social

What did Viking Age people want to be remembered for? We read all 2,633 Viking-age runestones and Hávamál and counted the praise. The warrior is at the back of the room. What counts: generous with food, gentle in speech, true to friends, and a good name after you. #runology #OldNorse #Skystorians

vitkirunor.seGentle in speech and free with foodWhat did the people of the Viking Age want to be remembered for? We read every Viking-age runestone and the whole of Hávamál and counted what is praised. The warrior is there, but as a minor figure. What counts is how you treat other people.

Clare Downham reposted

Resist 🕎🍉
@antizionistjew.bsky.social

"Being Jewish Means Always Standing By The Side Of The Oppressed" - Marek Edelman, Deputy Commander Of Warsaw Uprising This Is Why I Will Vote For The Non-Zionist Jewish-Arab Party "Joint List" Tommorow Full Equality From The River To The Sea - Regardless Of Religion, Race Or Gender 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🕎☪️🇵🇸

Clare Downham reposted

Vitki runic research
@vitkirunor.bsky.social

Runes in the British Isles: on the Isle of Man two crosses in three were raised for a woman – against one stone in thirty in Sweden. Gaelic and Norse names share families, and the Swedes who wrote of England at home left almost no runes there. #runology #MedievalSky #EarlyMedieval

vitkirunor.seWhat do the runic inscriptions of the British Isles tell us?There are 84 Viking-age runic inscriptions in the British Isles. We read them all and asked who wrote them and what they wanted to say. On the Isle of Man two crosses in three were raised for a woman, Norse and Gaelic names stand in the same families, and the Swedes, who carved about England at home, hardly show at all.

Clare Downham reposted

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò
@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social

I am requesting that we bring back shame a bit more urgently than usual

Eric Michael Garcia@ericmgarcia.bsky.social

Amy Acton's brother slams Vivek Ramaswamy featuring her estranged mother in a campaign ad. "This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core – a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants."

Clare Downham reposted

Vitki runic research
@vitkirunor.bsky.social

Women help raise one runestone in four, but only one in thirty is raised for a woman. Were women the vanguard of Christianity, as is often said? Our figures point to inheritance instead. #runestones #runology #MedievalSky #EarlyMedieval

vitkirunor.seShe inherited from her child – the women on the runestonesWomen are among those who raised one runestone in four where it can be read who raised it, but only one stone in thirty that states the relationship was raised in memory of a woman. Were women the vanguard of Christianity, as is often said? Our numbers say no. They point instead to inheritance: a woman raised the stone when she stood in the man's place, as widow or mother.

Clare Downham reposted

Dr Corrina Readioff
@fierengraw.bsky.social

As a published researcher, I do not want to submit my unpublished work to a company that is going to run it through an AI. If I’ve spent months working on it, a peer reviewer can do me the courtesy of spending half an hour reading it. Anyone else feel the same?

Springer Nature@springernature.com

How can AI support researchers in peer review? Springer Nature and Google DeepMind are partnering to co-design an AI peer review assistant that helps reviewers navigate manuscripts and focus on where their scientific judgement matters most. Learn more: spklr.io/63320EVgT8

Clare Downham reposted

Pete Quily
@pqpolitics.bsky.social

Anthropic stole Georgia voter data. It's CEO should be prosecuted How the company Anthropic stole Georgia Voter data was through AI software THEY coded, Claude. Anthropic & the other AI Chatbot programs should all be shut down & their CEOs investigated, prosecuted & imprisoned for theft & harm

Clare Downham reposted

Maciek Hamela
@maciekhamela.bsky.social

Vučić concedes defeat to Serbia’s student movement! After Orbán, another huge blow to Putin and Trump. Maybe Europe isn’t lost after all ? 🇷🇸🇪🇺 #Serbia

Clare Downham reposted

Tim Hannigan
@timhannigan.bsky.social

An excerpt from #ThePathlessLand in today's Irish Times. It's not that Ireland *never* had a network of rights of way, comparable to those in France or Wales; it's that it *lost* them... How it lost them - and whether there's any hope to get some of them back - is what I'm trying to figure out.

Clare Downham
@downham.bsky.social

Book proofs went back last night, with the draft index done. Annoyed at a few examples of eye skip when doing translation and never intuitively knowing when to use commas, but *generally* I am quite happy with this. Sneak peak of contents … #medievalsky #booksky

Clare Downham reposted

Dr Dave Hitchcock
@davehitchcock.bsky.social

"The short-termism of universities burning through their social licence neatly parallels the roll out of the resource-hungry, carbon intensive data centres on which AI depends. In both cases, the underlying philosophy might be rendered as après moi, le déluge (after me, the flood)"

KetAnthropic JoshAI@ketanjoshi.co

"If university bots graded bots, you would no longer have a university. You’d have a tomb, an academic mausoleum in which digital phantoms murmured emptily" theconversation.com/friday-essay...

theconversation.comFriday essay: AI is devastating higher education, but the system was already brokenAI is a project of the powerful, implemented in the name of an efficiency that has nothing to do with the good, writes Jeff Sparrow.
Clare Downham
@downham.bsky.social

Among other contributions, open access version of my paper revisiting the origins of the Kingdom of Man and the Isles using under-utilised evidence from Ireland #medievalsky #scotland #hebrides #isleofman #history #stair

Scottish Society for Northern Studies@northernstudies.bsky.social

As Northern Studies 56 reached members some weeks ago, no. 55 is now available in Open Access from our website! 🔓 With articles by @downham.bsky.social, @aonghas-macc.bsky.social, and others, as well as Terry Gunnell's Pálsson Lecture and Iain Cameron's Magnusson Essay. Plenty of book reviews too!

ssns.org.ukNorthern Studies 55 (2024) - Scottish Society for Northern StudiesNorthern Studies 55 (2024)
Clare Downham
@downham.bsky.social

Well that was a bit different - visit to Williamson Tunnels beneath Liverpool built at the behest of an eccentric tobacco merchant, partly as a job creation scheme in the early 19th century #history #liverpool someone needs to do ghost tours here 👻

Clare Downham reposted

Natalie Bennett
@nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social

Technology doesn't control society, humans do. Powerful voices are pushing AI into every corner of our lives, from classrooms to jobs. But despite what they say, AI is not inevitable. It is a political choice and we can choose a different future. #TechEthics #SystemChange #YouthVoices

Clare Downham reposted

Daniel Bellingradt
@dbellingradt.bsky.social

Replying to @dbellingradt.bsky.social

“This appears to be a long document ... save time by reading a summary.” “Thanks. But my flying fish is already working on it.”

Clare Downham reposted

Rachel Pope
@prehistorian.bsky.social

I was wondering what the actual figure might be. Why isn’t the collapse of UK HE as a sector reported as the social crisis it is.

Charlotte Lydia Riley@lottelydia.bsky.social

we’ve lost perhaps 30,000 jobs in British higher education in the last 3 years

Clare Downham
@downham.bsky.social

Willing to bet Al will not 'increase the economic power of vocationally trained, working-class, often male, voters' but it is a sound bite meant to appeal to them: first blame immigrants, now women. The richest want us constantly fighting each other, so unhappy and socially isolated, they can 1/2

@amybisinthewoods.bsky.social 🍄🍄‍🟫@amybdogsandfungi.bsky.social

“Palantir cofounder and CEO Alex Karp states ‘AI will undermine the influence of highly educated, often female voters and give it to working class men. We have feminine energy running our cities and our courts,’ he complained.”

futurism.comCEO of Palantir Says AI Will Seize Power Away From College-Educated WomenPalantir CEO Alex Karp said AI would disrupt "humanities trained" and "Democratic voters" who are largely women.
Clare Downham
@downham.bsky.social

can keep raking in obscene profits while we all suffer. Loving and admiring the worth of other people regardless of who they are (while shunning unkindness instead of validating it) seems like a radical act: a radical act to save others and keep hope and happiness in our own hearts.

Clare Downham reposted

Past and Present
@pastpresentsoc.bsky.social

"Chris Wickham (1950-2026): A Portrait" by current Past & Present Editor and Chichele Professor of Medieval History Alice Rio (@ox.ac.uk) for @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social www.history.ox.ac.uk/articles/chr...

history.ox.ac.ukChris Wickham (1950-2026): A PortraitChris Wickham’s work spanned an epic breadth of space and time. His major works are dazzling analyses of the medieval Mediterranean as well as of the Europe beyond it, from the fifth to the twelfth ce...

Clare Downham reposted

Gillian Branstetter
@gbbranstetter.bsky.social

Woah - boards of service in the Marines and the Navy are ignoring Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth's order to purge transgender troops from the military. "Navy and Marine Corps boards have voted to retain trans members in nine of 12 cases." www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...

nytimes.comMilitary Boards Are Defying Orders and Letting Trans Troops Serve (Gift Article)The service members at Navy and Marine Corps hearings are finding ways to keep trans troops in uniform.

Clare Downham reposted

Welwyn Archaeological Society
@welwynarchsoc.bsky.social

The next online lecture for the Combined Hertfordshire Archaeological Societies is Kelly Clarke-Neish, "Reassessing Britain's 'last' Roman hoards". The results from this project are great, so come along. Tickets are free. 2nd Nov., 7.45pm, on zoom. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/2003826362...

eventbrite.co.ukReassessing Britain's 'last' Roman hoardsReassessing Britain's 'last' Roman hoards: Preliminary results from a new AHRC funded project: a talk by Kelly Clarke-Neish.

Clare Downham reposted

Sonja Drimmer
@sonjadrimmer.bsky.social

"We are past the phase of adopting industry-supplied hype (“AI is inevitable”) and are now in the phase of industry-supplied resistance. Industry loves a conversation. So long nothing changes or pauses while we’re having it." sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2026/...

sonjadrimmer.comThe Conversation Trap — Sonja DrimmerMore conversation can be a weapon of mass obstruction. The editorial board for the student newspaper of Middlebury College recently published an opinion that leads with the righteous headline “ AI Sh...
Clare Downham
@downham.bsky.social

Another pleasing random fact in the Heimskringla account of the battle of Stamford bridge (1066) is that the cloud of dust alerting the Norwegians that an English army was riding horses hard towards them, seems to have the etymology ‘horse smoke’. #medievalsky

Clare Downham@downham.bsky.social

Curious fact of the day: Harold 'Hardrada' (Hardruler) who died at the Battle of Stamford Bridge 1066 had a very feminine name for his armour. According to saga 'His mailcoat was called Emma. It was long, so that it reached halfway down his leg, and so strong a weapon had never cleaved it'. 1/2

Clare Downham
@downham.bsky.social

This case has always been about more than one company or one scandal,” Torrez said. “It is about whether corporations can mislead consumers about what happens to their personal information without facing meaningful consequences. New Mexico stood its ground #meta #facebook #ai

Ars Technica@arstechnica.com

arstechnica.comMeta whines New Mexico is “impossible” to please after historic $25 billion fineMeta will appeal a ruling imposing the largest fine Mark Zuckerberg’s ever seen.