Rebecca Spang's avatar

Rebecca Spang

@rlspang.bsky.social

1437 followers 1014 following 803 posts

Professor of History and Interim Dean of the Hutton Honors College, IU Bloomington. Writes about money, French Revolution, restaurants. Friend to vert paleo.

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Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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Remember the time I somehow ended up speaking at a conference of CFAs in Grand Cayman? They put me up at the Ritz (pretty... ritzy) and called me "The Professor."

Now that's my title for @planetmoney.bsky.social's "Summer School: Economic History of the World." Episode One: What is Money?

0 replies 2 reposts 6 likes

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Unofficial Guardian (World) Bot's avatar Unofficial Guardian (World) Bot @guardian-world-rss.bsky.social
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Democrat calls for congressional leaders to denounce Trump loyalist’s ‘target list’

1 replies 7 reposts 12 likes

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Ben Gross's avatar Ben Gross @bhgross144.bsky.social
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Sloppy data + Fancy tech = Sloppy, fancy data

(I suspect that this slide from Simon’s talk could easily find a home in many other computer history & #histSTM case studies…)

#SHOT2024

1 replies 1 reposts 6 likes

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Unofficial Guardian (World) Bot's avatar Unofficial Guardian (World) Bot @guardian-world-rss.bsky.social
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Trump airs list of false grievances at Florida rally: ‘We don’t eat bacon anymore’

48 replies 38 reposts 140 likes

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Jay Weixelbaum's avatar Jay Weixelbaum @jayweixelbaum.bsky.social
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Final thought: STOP LISTENING TO THE POLITICAL PRESS They do not have your best interests at heart, full stop. They want to make money off your fear. They're too ignorant to even have a survival instinct--do they think they won't be targeted in a Trump dictatorship?

4 replies 68 reposts 237 likes

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Kim Shumway's avatar Kim Shumway @kimshum.bsky.social
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Good reporting on an entirely predictable problem. Fun fact: Airbnb also covers up thousands of sexual assaults every year! Its internal safety team has "cool-down rooms" to take a break from the trauma of what they hear. It's a bad company, a bad industry, and people should just stay in hotels.

20 replies 445 reposts 880 likes

Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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Nope nope nope. Nobody can make me do it and I won't!

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Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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It is the ninth of July in the year of somebody's Lord 2024 and I am still trying to figure out the "Groups" function in Canvas. Please send help! And a letter to all my editors, saying you will still read what I write even if the manuscript is a decade late.

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Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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Large-scale Bitcoin "mining" on the cheap (i.e., running lots and lots and lots and lots of computers all the time) causes noise pollution with health and safety consequences for people who live nearby. (In addition to wasting electricity and fueling a speculative bubble.)

2 replies 1 reposts 10 likes

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Jessica Pishko's avatar Jessica Pishko @jesspish.bsky.social
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"We will defend the right to mine Bitcoin."

6 replies 32 reposts 59 likes

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David Zipper's avatar David Zipper @davidzipper.bsky.social
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New study: Vehicles are more likely to kill pedestrians if they have tall and blunt front ends and/or flat hoods.

That's a major indictment of American SUV and truck design -- at a time when US pedestrian deaths recently hit a 40-year high.

doi.org/10.1016/j.js...

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Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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Nearly every university bookstore these days sells little but branded “gear” and souvenirs. This makes me super angry.

1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

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Andrew Parker's avatar Andrew Parker @andrewparker.bsky.social
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Given who has wound up on what side, maybe it’s time to reconsider whether you want to be: On the side with AOC, Bernie Sanders, and the Congressional Black Caucus. Or the side with the NYTimes editorial board, James Carville, and Cato Institution dudes.

3 replies 14 reposts 71 likes

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Seth Cotlar's avatar Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social
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On a whim, I started doing some database searches for the unusual phrase "Christ-hating Communists" and you'll never believe where it turned up.

4 replies 81 reposts 218 likes

Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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* “by eight authors” or “in eight texts,” I blame my current low-grade fever** for this weird conflation. ** COVID tests (3) all negative.

0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes

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Ed Zitron's avatar Ed Zitron @zitron.bsky.social
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Goldman Sachs recently issued a report called "GenAI: Too Much Spend, Too Little Benefit?" savaging the industry, with GS' Jim Covello saying that there's limited upside, and that it's incapable of solving the complex problems that would make it worth it.
wheresyoured.at/pop-culture/

6 replies 76 reposts 275 likes

Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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Google citation updates for _Stuff and Money in the Time of the French Revolution_ always spark joy. So far this year, it's been cited by eight texts in 3 languages, including by political theorists, journal of legal anthropology, and two musicology PhDs. #InterdisciplinaryImpact

1 replies 1 reposts 9 likes

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Tikkun Olamunist - ירמל גרױס's avatar Tikkun Olamunist - ירמל גרױס @tikkunolamunist.bsky.social
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9/9 Seriously, if you like gay anarchist comedies, you really have to see this movie.

3 replies 5 reposts 25 likes

Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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A reminder that family mattered more than gender in pre-modern Europe

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Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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Fried “chana dal” (split chickpeas). Soak in hot water for 6 hours , drain, fry in oil with garlic.

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Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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I have no interest in being a political pundit but I could be persuaded to do daily salad posts….

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Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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Sorry! I immediately suspected it was a autocorrect mistake and felt terribly snarky so deleted my comment. I do make good salads but mainly for human consumption!

2 replies 0 reposts 1 likes

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Joe Katz's avatar Joe Katz @joekatz45.bsky.social
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Meanwhile eight states, seven Democratic trifectas (CA, CO, MA, ME, MI, MN, NM) and Vermont, took a lesson from the pandemic and made universal free school meals permanent.

20 replies 210 reposts 676 likes

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David Hull 胡大衛's avatar David Hull 胡大衛 @hushuo.bsky.social
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I rather like this:

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beaulexus's avatar beaulexus @beaulexus.bsky.social
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I think billboards highlighting each chapter of Project 2025 placed in specific locations. For example the chapter on gutting military benefits should have billboards on highways near big military bases. Plans for destroying Social Security have billboards all over in Arizona and Florida.

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Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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I saw it yesterday and had the same reaction!

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Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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History isn’t history until it happens. Ignore doom-saying pundits and work to make the outcome you want. Note: some strategy required.

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NPR's avatar NPR @npr.org
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BREAKING NEWS: Voters turned out in numbers not seen in decades to stop the far-right National Rally from taking power in the French National Assembly. Polls predicted a first-place finish for National Rally, which instead came in third in initial results as polling stations closed.

55 replies 571 reposts 2278 likes

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Taniel 's avatar Taniel @taniel.bsky.social
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OH, a big result: Marine Le Pen's *sister* has LOST her bid to join Parliament. She led 40% to 26% in Round 1. Her left opponent won by 0.5%. (Macronist, who came in 3rd, initially said she wouldn't drop out but then changed her mind. Ended up blocking Le Pen.)

2 replies 92 reposts 526 likes

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Effie Seiberg 's avatar Effie Seiberg @effies.bsky.social
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Important penguin news

26 replies 130 reposts 470 likes

Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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Hashtag “Print Capitalism.” Right you were, Benedict Anderson.

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Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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Chard cakes/fritters. There’s an Ottolenghi recipe that you could use as a base

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Rebecca Spang's avatar Rebecca Spang @rlspang.bsky.social
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Corollary: some significant number of his supporters like him precisely because all their smarty-pants cousins and acquaintances from high school hate him so much. It’s taboo breaking and it’s fun (for them). Others, of course, do so because they’re greedy exploitative zillionaires.

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