A comic strip showing the “Omino coi baffi” (little guy with a mustache) making coffee in a moka pot
In 1953, cartoonist and animator Paul Campani invented the iconic “Omino coi baffi” (little guy with a mustache) for the equally iconic Bialetti Moka pot. The character is a caricature of Renato Bialetti, son of founder Alfredo Bialetti
A bust length portrait against a greenish-brown backdrop of a young brown-haired white woman with large pale eyes, standing facing to the left edge of the painting, turning her head to her left to gaze at the viewer. Her dress is somber - she wears a dark dress and sleeves with discreet white trim, and no jewelry. Her left upper arm is visible, and her left hand (the elbow and forearm are cut off by the bottom edge of the artwork). In that hand she holds a small book open with her thumb; on the righthand page is her signature and the year (1554).
Self-portrait, 1554, by #SofonisbaAnguissola (Italian, c. 1532–1625). On view in Room 6 at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, www.khm.at/en/artworks/... #artherstory #womenartists
The endgame of AI is that everyone has to rely upon the magic box to tell them everything they need to know. All hidden behind a paywall. No money = no knowledge. We're sleepwalking into capitalist idiocy.
Allbirds: Let's become an AI company!
👀⬇️
Tulip bulbs. Just replace "AI" with "tulip bulbs" and that will tell you where we are.
Today is the official publication day for my new book, Sedimentary Aesthetics: Painting on Stone and the Ecology of Early Modern Art. It is out in the world, and I would like to thank @yalepress.bsky.social for all they did. I’d also like to tell you a bit about why this publication means so much.
You did the meme!
(Sadly, I saved this image during the first Trump administration and held onto it.)
"By week one, I was already tired of his anti-rich, pro-Samaritan bullshit. I wanted to take a course in Christianity, not liberalism."
Title: Easter Egg Hunt techniques inspired by great detectives Panel 1: Sherlock Holmes. Deduce the exact location of every egg from seemingly unrelated details without leaving your room. Send your amazed sidekick to fetch them. Panel 2: Jack Reacher Hit the garden hard and fast. Take no prisoners Get back on the road. This approach results in a thrillingly intense hunt, but very few intact eggs. Panel 3: George Smiley Meticulously assess documents, people and motives. Then scrupulously collect the eggs and dejectedly wonder if any of it was worthwhile.
My Easter books cartoon for @theguardian.com
A dozen fresh-baked hot-cross buns cooling on our kitchen counter and gleaming from the freshly applied glaze.
2026's hot cross buns are out of the oven. I still haven't mastered a standard size, but they look good!
One of the hills I routinely die on is that “business” is not an academic discipline and shouldn’t be a school within universities. But it’s not going anywhere because these programs produce people who make a lot of money.
Of course -- don't know why I went with "The"!
I avoid "The Renaissance" as if there were only one, unitary, self-explanatory thing (which presumably privileges the European/Italian). Otherwise, like Sonja, I don't have other strong opinions: I capitalize it as a noun (eg. Italian Renaissance etc.) but do use lower case for the plural.
What if we just went back to reading a bunch of books and thinking about them together, and that was the class? With syllabi no longer than three pages.
Thank you sharing this. It is, as you say, brilliant!
A fantastic, perceptive piece of analysis on the power of historical literacy.
"What has changed is not that culture once prevented blindness and no longer does. It is that culture has increasingly ceded authority to systems that mistake information for understanding and speed for judgment."
Roman Mosaic Unearthed - Southwark, London, UK <3 What Time Reveals (9 Photos): streetartutopia.com/2026/03/28/f...
Two archaeologists gently uncover a large Roman mosaic beneath a construction site near The Shard in central London. The vibrant geometric patterns, preserved underground for nearly...
The University of Pennsylvania Press was incorporated on March 26, 1890. Join us in celebrating our Founder's Day with a FLASH SALE! Today and tomorrow, code FOUNDERSDAY26 will give you 50% off all books on pennpress.org!
PennPress is having a sale on ALL BOOKS today and tomorrow.
Amazing!
"Based on this study, as more of the global population begins to rely on artificial intelligence to complete complex tasks, our cognitive abilities and creative capacities appear poised to take a nosedive into oblivion."
publichealthpolicyjournal.com/mit-study-fi...
Explore this week's job opportunities focused on the Medieval and Early Modern periods (thread 🧵):
New York University Arts and Science - Early Modern Iberian Atlantic Faculty Fellow: memorients.com/news/new-yor...
Hear ye, hear ye!
My book is in production!
www.routledge.com/Unconventual...
In person early modern metals event in London next month with me, @laurenworking.bsky.social, and Lubaaba Al-Azami. Please repost and share widely! And register here -- forms.office.com/Pages/Respon...
Cover of book with text in yellow reading: The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires, overlaid on an image of an angel in seventeenth-century dress with wings and a long gun.
Hello Bluesky! My new book, THE FIREARM REVOLUTION, is out on 14 April. It’s about how a new technology changed society, and how hard it was to control. Here’s a little thread of what’s inside:
Russian embassy, Washington DC.
To mark the fourth anniversary of the full scale invasion
Ian McKwan's latest novel What We Can Know (about historians/historically minded scholars in the 22nd century) describes this scenario occurring in our near future.
It's a great read in any case!
Certainly, at some stage, I have found each book a little boring. It is just the effect of working intensely for a long period of time on the same thing. It all starts to seem obvious and dull. Just remember, that this only from your point of view because you are so familiar with it.
I met Jesse Jackson once, at Philadelphia airport. We were on the same flight to Boston. I went over and introduced myself and thanked him.
