James D Kightly

Photo of a cuneiform tablet fragment shaped a bit like an irregular diamond. It preserves nearly 20 incomplete lines of text separated by a horizontal ruling

There's a broken cuneiform tablet from the Old Babylonian period, nearly 4,000 years ago, which preserves a tiny portion of a dialogue between two friends.

It feels a bit like the conversations I've been having for the past week, so I wanted to share it.

Image showing a portrait of Susan Kare, and a selection of her Apple Mac logos.

Remember these Mac logos of Susan Kare? 'Her primary objective with the Macintosh was to humanize it, ... and give it "a smile'". She intended to bring "an artist's sensibility to a world that had been the exclusive domain of engineers and programmers". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_K...

No they didn’t. It’s not ‘fibreglass’, it’s glass fibre. Earlier, different scale of material, different process for use.

Thank you! Current museum ‘doctrine’ makes it easy to see the 1970s and 1980s as a peak of ‘fact, art and artefact’ achievement. While there’s much that’s great in current museums, there’s a lot of fundamentals - inc the actual stuff on display to be concerned about. I’d like to see her kind back.

Can you tell us more? Sounds like quite the era!

The IWM has an interview with him, unfortunately not accessible online (many are). The RAF Museum has some of his story as part of their (former) 'Pilots of the Caribbean' exhibition. There's other sources findable, and I'm sure his RAF record would be illuminating.

www.iwm.org.uk/collections/...

Sorry, missed this until now, ‪John @badsocialism.bsky.social . Conf def Airspeed Oxford ('Oxbox' was the nickname there), standard trainer for trainees selected to go to multi-engine types in service. The 'Boa Constrictor' is a nickname I've never heard, but has to be the Beaufighter, as discussed.

'Charlotte Holzer working on the glass dress from the collection of the Deutsches Museums.'

'The famous glass dress royal robe of Princess Eulalia, Libbey Glass Company, [1893]. Gift of Rob Smith. CMGL 134150. Visitors can learn more about fiberglass fabric and see fiberglass textiles and images in our 2017 exhibition, Curious & Curiouser: Surprising Finds from the Rakow Library.'

Fascinating article on conservation of historic handmade glass fibre* garments.

[*Here, I use 'fibre' (AusEng) because 'fiber' and 'fibers' grate. You're welcome to substitute what you wish.]

blog.cmog.org/2017/qa-rako...

Sess 2 was recorded, but no current plans to release a recording. It's primarily a security measure, and we *may* release talks (with participant permission) some time down the track.

This is because it's a *live* event for live Q&A, and the volunteer team don't have any spare capacity to do more.

A photograph of a large, 1/12? Scale cardboard race car on top of a Kit Kat display.

I don’t often miss being in retail, but when I do it’s because of the chance to assemble a ‘display stand’ like this (and I don’t even care about modern race cars, it’s all about the card engineering)…

Three book covers, featuring Helen Doe's 'Stanford Tuck, Hero of the Battle of Britain, and two books 'Piece of Cake' and 'How they Made Piece of Cake'.

What's the connection between Helen Doe's bio of fighter ace Stanford Tuck, & 1980s novel & TV series 'Piece of Cake' by Derek Robinson? Find out from Helen, myself and James Jefferies at @avculturesconf.bsky.social's Searchlight FREE online webinar this weekend! aviationcultures.org/spotlights/p...

Laid out against a dark grey background are ten biscuits that resemble aged, chipped mudlarking finds. An oval biscuit in a rich, dark green looks like the seal of a glass bottle, and features a raised characterful face at its centre. Next to it is an unevenly shaped black biscuit with grey chips and the raised shape of a hare’s face, ears, and upper legs. There are two large biscuits with jagged edges, each decorated in blue and white to look like broken pieces of delftware plates. One features the shape of a small bird surrounded by swirling lines, the other has a series of concentric circles and curved shapes. A small biscuit with a multifaceted texture replicates a knapped flint arrowhead. Next to it are a tiny hammer-shaped biscuit in pewter with delicate cross markings, and a very small gold biscuit button etched with lines, circles, and a rough star shape. The smallest biscuit is made to look like a yellow glass cufflink with decorative circles in blue, white, and red. Another small biscuit has the appearance of an aged metal button edged with decorative white and turquoise dots. Finally, there is a small angular biscuit in a terracotta colour with raised lines roughly in the shape of two intwined figures.

Some mudlarking finds survived for centuries in the muddy banks of the River Thames. Others are freshly baked tasty snacks. 🍪

This biscuit (cookie) set recreates ten of the 350+ mudlarked objects in London Museum's Secrets of the Thames exhibition.

The exhibition closes on 1 March. Don’t miss it!

A few weeks of X’s algorithm can make you more right-wing – and it doesn’t wear off quickly Elon Musk’s social media platform is boosting conservative content – and it’s having long-lasting effects on how users see the world.

Sadly, despite the good stuff in its heyday, you should not be on Twitter (X) any more. Data says.

"...also significantly demoted the share of posts from traditional news organisations’ accounts while promoting or boosting posts from political activists."

theconversation.com/a-few-weeks-...

Four books. From left ‘Stanford Tuck by Helen Doe; in the middle ‘Wings on my Sleeve’ by Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown and ‘Fly for your Life’ by Larry Forrester. On the right ‘Winkle’ by Paul Beaver. Both modern bios show much of what is in the period autobiography and biography to be myth. Find out more at our webinar Spotlight event with Aviation Cultures!

Thoughts on #FridayReads. A paired ‘then & now’ bio set on well-known, highly regarded British pilots: Bob Stanford Tuck & Eric Brown. In both cases, modern bios explode multiple myths. Join us, & author Dr Helen Doe at @avculturesconf.bsky.social to discuss! aviationcultures.org/spotlights/p...

Great post. People (which is people, next pedestrians, then cyclists, then drivers etc) come first in getting around.

We now know for certain human habitation built for people first works best, not what tech-knobs tell us.

Londoners flow through traffic. Jaywalking can stay under a car in the US.

Take the time to do this folks. The proposed changes to ILR are shocking and cruel, which is made abundantly clear in the text of the public consultation linked below. Please lend your voice to try to mitigate the cruelty.

Bonjour and good morning #histscalemodel gang!

Just a little reminder that on May 1st, the #BastilleBuild 🇫🇷 group build starts! It's never too early to order those aftermarket accessories ;)

You can read all the rules and (optionally) RSVP via the embedded form on bastille.videospectre.net

Southern Air Transport - Wikipedia

Exactly. And that was just the most (in-)famous one. The CIA operated a significant number of ‘airlines’.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souther...

Curious that no one’s picked why Audrey’s CIA question is amusing - anachronistically, I think.

Walter Matthau and Audrey Hepburn walking down a Paris street, impeccably dressed, in 1963’s ‘Charade’.

Tonight’s entertainment. First viewing of Charade (1963). Great film, glad to finally get there. Hepburn, Cary Grant ~and~ Walter Matthau.

Many zingers, but this one lands if you’re in aviation history…

“Mrs. Lampert, do you know what C.I.A. is?”
“I don't suppose it's an airline, is it?”

'They're gonna die': How five people tried to stop the Challenger tragedy Forty years ago, the Challenger space shuttle disintegrated just after lift-off. A small team of engineers tried to prevent the tragedy.

The most interesting thing about this ABC Challenger long read (to me) is that the five engineers who warned it was unsafe then became "lepers".

Why is it not the managers who overruled them to suffer social ostracism?

www.abc.net.au/news/science...

"The idea that trans inclusion at the ponds is somehow imposed against the wishes of users simply does not survive contact with reality. Londoners have looked at the evidence... and overwhelmingly said: this works, this is fair, and this reflects our values."

celord.com/2026/01/29/h...

Gotta be the Mk.IV.

Film review: ‘The Dig’ (2021) This article was originally a thread on social media, which is why it is formatted with lots of images and short responses.The text is about the image below that paragraph. Let’s go check out…

Turned another thread into an article for easy reading.

Film review: ‘The Dig’ (2021)

You can read it here;
fakehistoryhunter.net/2026/01/28/f...
or here;
fakehistoryhunter.substack.com/p/film-revie...

File photo from a previous event of James Kightly, sitting in front of a bookcase, obviously talking into a computer.

File photo from a previous event of James Robert David Jefferies, sitting in front of a bookcase, obviously talking into a computer. Gosh, there are differences though, trust us!

Yesterday James Robert David Jefferies and I had a fantastic chat about our paper for @avculturesconf.bsky.social 'Print the Legend' free webinar 'Searchlight'. Despite being on opposite sides of the globe, we were on the same page! See more, join us! Details: aviationcultures.org/spotlights/p...

At @avculturesconf.bsky.social we have a couple of terrific events coming up. The first, online,our 'Searchlight' is at the end of Feb.

The in-person (and also online) full conference is mid June, in Canada, AND you can submit papers for that until the 5th Feb. So don't be shy, engage via website!

Funny thing is, with my 'sir-name', freelance is v appropriate.

But like 'decimate' few know what the original meaning were...

I’m a journalist. We have ‘freelance’. ‘Freelance journalist’. I think it’s time we normalised ‘freelance historian’. Have at it, it’s appropriate, maybe even more if you’re a medievalist.

Don't miss it! It's free to attend our Print the Legend Spotlight event on 27-28 Feb online, and we have the full conference, in person in Kelowna, BC Canada and also online, so do join us!

We are still accepting papers for the AvCultures Conference in June, for details, see below!

It’ll be worth it!

Or your money back.