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Bernhard Leitner

@bmleitner

Historian of science/medicine. Brain science, neurology and psychiatry. Mainly D-A-Ch and East Asia. Based in Vienna. Interested in history and philosophy of science and medicine. 東亜・医学史・科学史・精神神経学史・科学哲学 https://meduniwien.academia.edu/BernhardLeitner

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Latest posts by Bernhard Leitner @bmleitner

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I just prepared a presentation on possession and exorcism for a seminar in medical history and the file has exactly 6,66mb!

05.03.2026 13:58 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Le Chat Chat with Mistral AI's cutting edge language models.

Time to switch to European AI: chat.mistral.ai

04.03.2026 17:39 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Early Japanese Animations: The Origins of Anime (1917 to 1931) Japanese animation, AKA anime, might be filled with large-eyed maidens, way cool robots, and large-eyed, way cool maiden/robot hybrids, but it often shows a level of daring, complexity and creativity ...

Early Japanese Animations: The Origins of Anime (1917 to 1931)

16.02.2026 21:44 👍 26 🔁 10 💬 0 📌 1

As a historian of biology, until a decade ago or so, I had been under the impression that we have to be sophisticated to spot the remnants of eugenics and 19th century scientific racism (e.g. Troy Duster’s idea of “backdoor eugenics”). But this kind of stuff takes us straight back to the 1920s-30s.

13.02.2026 09:20 👍 52 🔁 23 💬 6 📌 1
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Stream 4,000+ Public Domain Movies on WikiFlix: Silent Classics, Academy Award-Winners, Hitchcock Films & More Humanity was already enjoying motion pictures a century ago. But the ability to do so at home still lay a few decades in the future, and the ability to pull up a movie on demand through a streaming se...

Stream 4,000+ Public Domain Movies on WikiFlix: Silent Classics, Academy Award-Winners, Hitchcock Films & More

10.02.2026 05:24 👍 88 🔁 37 💬 0 📌 1
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Newly released files shed new light on Chomsky and Epstein relationship Latest communications undermine Chomsky’s earlier claims that he primarily had financial dealings with Epstein

Well, at least that settles the famous argument of Chomsky and Foucault. Although Foucault was no saint, he at least got it right that the idea of justice is discursive and embedded in power relations. I guess Chomsky's universal human values do not hold up... #Chomsky #Epstein #Foucault

04.02.2026 10:19 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Vulvodynia isn't a Mystery. It's Underfunded. A new clinical trial hopefully signals change

There is a new clinical trial that is recruiting for vulvodynia. This is a woefully under-researched aspect of women's care. Please help me spread the word. vajenda.substack.com/p/vulvodynia...

28.01.2026 05:28 👍 207 🔁 117 💬 7 📌 7
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27.01.2026 10:07 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Internat'l Conference "Southeast Asia & Indo-Pacific Imaginaries" with two DIJ panels incl papers on Japanese-Indian Relations (David M. Malitz) & Japan’s Educational Aid Programs @daneuhaus.bsky.social
📅 29–30 Jan 2026, Nat'l Museum of the Philippines, Iloilo
▶️ indopacificimaginaries.wordpress.com

26.01.2026 02:24 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Komplexes Gehirn, einfach erklärt Was passiert in unserem Gehirn, wenn wir reden, fühlen oder Erinnerungen hervorholen? Mit diesen Fragen beschäftigt sich die kognitive Neurowissenschaft. Wie Forschende dabei vorgehen, veranschaulicht...

Unser #Gehirn ist faszinierend und sehr komplex. Neurowissenschaftler bringen mit dem Projekt „From Brain to Mind“ kognitive Neurowissenschaften der Öffentlichkeit via Podcast und Dokumentarfilm verständlich näher. @unisalzburg.bsky.social #scilog 🧠

scilog.fwf.ac.at/magazin/komp...

26.01.2026 07:49 👍 11 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Europäische Partnerschaften: BrainHealth und BE READY Der FWF beteiligt sich an den Europäischen Partnerschaften BrainHealth und BE READY. Die neuen Ausschreibungen zu Gehirngesundheit und Pandemievorsorge starten 2026.

Der #FWF beteiligt sich an zwei neuen Europäischen Partnerschaften zur Forschung zu #Hirngesundheit und #Pandemievorsorge: Im Fokus von "BrainHealth" stehen neurologische und psychische Erkrankungen und "BE READY" soll auf zukünftige Pandemien vorbereiten. 🧠🦠

www.fwf.ac.at/aktuelles/de...

20.01.2026 08:53 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Join our next #DIJStudyGroup "Haga Yaichi and the Kokuminsei jūron: A Fragmentary Imagination of National Identity" with Alberto Zizza (LMU Munich/DIJ) who will discuss identity & self-imagination in prewar Japan
📅 Feb 5, 2026 / 6.30pm JST/10.30am CET
🏚️ online & DIJ
www.dijtokyo.org/event/haga-y...

19.01.2026 00:44 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1
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Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

"Imagining a Gender Equal World: Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women and Girls through International Partnerships"

11. Februar 2026 • 10:30 - 14:30

Be there or be square!

16.01.2026 15:23 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
One of those captcha things. This one says ‘select all images with bicycles. Click verify once there are none left’. There are 9 squares  - 4 contain photos of bicycle seats, with the remaining 5 showing the beautiful head and face of a grey greyhound with a white stripe going from the top of their head to the tip of their nose.

One of those captcha things. This one says ‘select all images with bicycles. Click verify once there are none left’. There are 9 squares - 4 contain photos of bicycle seats, with the remaining 5 showing the beautiful head and face of a grey greyhound with a white stripe going from the top of their head to the tip of their nose.

Hats off to whoever did this (and the beautiful model).

16.01.2026 08:18 👍 5886 🔁 1519 💬 50 📌 71
Prime Minister Takaichi and President Lee share drum session in Tokyo
Prime Minister Takaichi and President Lee share drum session in Tokyo YouTube video by No Comment TV

Something I didn't think I'd ever see: Japanese PM Takaichi and South Korean President Lee playing the drums together 😯

14.01.2026 14:30 👍 9 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Incredible article which points out that it often collectively costs more to apply for scarce research funding than the funds awarded to the successful proposals.

What an absurd system we've built in the service of efficiency and competition.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

13.01.2026 20:55 👍 267 🔁 98 💬 11 📌 20
Book cover of Colonial Surveillance: Technologies of Identification and Control in Japan’s Empire by Midori Ogasawara

Book cover of Colonial Surveillance: Technologies of Identification and Control in Japan’s Empire by Midori Ogasawara

Against the historical backdrop of Japan's expansion in the pseudo-state of "Manchukuo," Colonial Surveillance invites readers to delve into the genealogy of identification systems, and the colonial roots of the surveillance technologies that saturate our digital lives

https://ow.ly/uPsQ50XS9R5

06.01.2026 18:01 👍 15 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Gov. Pritzker: "They want you to question what your eyes and ears are telling you. It is unimaginable to think this can happen in our country or that when it does happen the government immediately tries to cover it up. It should anger you." #3E #endImpunity #ReneeGood #JusticeforGood #GoodVsEvil

08.01.2026 22:24 👍 1850 🔁 587 💬 48 📌 21
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The Heartbreak Machine: Nazis in the Echo Chamber WhiteDate ist eine Plattform weißer Suprematist:innen, die sich an Rassist:innen und Antisemit:innen richtet – und auf veralteter Infrast...

CCC ftw!

06.01.2026 15:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Context Widows or, of GPUs, LPUs, and Goal Displacement

Interesting post, arguing that LLMs aren’t really disruptors. “They arrived as intensifiers. LLMs function as an accelerant for the existing optimization machine, making the logic run faster rather than challenging its foundations.”

open.substack.com/pub/artifici...

06.01.2026 07:23 👍 8 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 1

FIFA will manage...

06.01.2026 11:40 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

We all need to send this link to data driven university administrators who view funding applications as key performance target.

02.01.2026 13:16 👍 33 🔁 12 💬 2 📌 0
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21.12.2025 13:44 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

I think there is a genuinely interesting question here: why is phrenology so damn popular? People seem to reinvent it constantly.

11.12.2025 19:41 👍 17 🔁 3 💬 4 📌 0

one thing is sure though: power creep will be strong with this one (i.e. turn 0 red creature with haste)!

11.12.2025 11:54 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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How were emerging medical disciplines and transnational networks connected to colonial racism in 20th c. East Asia?

Dive into my new #OpenAccess article, "Neurologically Speaking: Racial Science and Medicine at Keijō Imperial University" #HistSci #HistMed #EastAsia

doi.org/10.1163/2666...

10.12.2025 11:16 👍 12 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0
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‘Make Europe Great Again’ and more from a longer version of the National Security Strategy A fuller version reviewed by Defense One outlines the Trump administration’s plans for shedding old relationships and creating new ones.

“Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Poland are listed as countries the U.S. should “work more with…with the goal of pulling them away from the [European Union].”“

www.defenseone.com/policy/2025/...

10.12.2025 07:54 👍 175 🔁 92 💬 24 📌 19
A black and white photo of two soldiers walking toward camera while on railway tracks. On the left, the soldier is unharmed, dressed in his uniform. On the right, the soldier's face is heavily bandaged, and he has a coat thrown over his shoulders. In the background are various soldiers working and moving around.

A black and white photo of two soldiers walking toward camera while on railway tracks. On the left, the soldier is unharmed, dressed in his uniform. On the right, the soldier's face is heavily bandaged, and he has a coat thrown over his shoulders. In the background are various soldiers working and moving around.

During #WWI, medics applied 1.5 million splints, fitted over 20,000 artificial eyes & used 7,250 tons of cotton wool while applying 108 million bandages to injured soldiers. More than 6,000 medics died & over 17,000 were wounded in the British Army alone.

05.12.2025 10:59 👍 174 🔁 40 💬 2 📌 2
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27.11.2025 08:09 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Celebrate the 10th Anniversary or the Children of Time - an Evening with Adrian Tchaikovsky in conversation with Temi Oh | Events at Waterstones Bookshops | Waterstones Events at Waterstones get you closer to the books and authors you admire most. Find information and tickets about Celebrate the 10th Anniversary or the Children of Time - an Evening with Adrian Tchaik...

This coming Thursday I am at Waterstones Gower Street talking 10 years of Children of Time with Temi Oh. www.waterstones.com/events/celeb...

23.11.2025 23:55 👍 257 🔁 38 💬 13 📌 3