History Bytes: History on Twitter

 

I'm short on time this week, and wanted to get my history fix quickly. I' so tired of facebook except for keeping up with friends and the occasional cat video.

So I wondered: is twitter the answer for my history fix?

In keeping with the short and useful theme, he's my short assessment after reading about 50 tweets from each source. I rate them based on quantity and quality, plus any issues.  I rate them using the following old school lingo, from the best being an A to an F for crap.

 And remember if you like something better or have questions go ahead and ask me in the comments section.

Reddit History A-

Their tagline: Your connection to the past! Read discussions on historical topics.

These are always short post done almost daily. Reddit is a listserve in reality, and all their links drive you to their page, with the discussion board and links. All of the links lead to good, solid and credible articles online, like However, if you're looking for visuals, you'll have to dig into the original articles that they link to. More work but the history is solid with good references.

Outstanding tweet: WWI Starts - a youtube channel that goes into the war in depth everyday.

HistoryPics -also called ClassicPics B+

The world's biggest dead people condo - over booked and over sold.

This twitter feed is devoted to the awesome and the strange in history, from a kid in an alligator cart to Johnny Cash in the 1960s to pictures of the Clintons in the 1970s. The problem is that the context is missing, like looking at old photo albums of people you don't know. But, they do fulfil your history snacking needs.

Outstanding tweet: The world's biggest cemetery in Iraq

History Chanel  B

Easy to read, good links to their website where all of the links lead to. They never put up any links that don't feed to their blog/site History Lists and Ask History. Fun if you have some time to kill and are interested in a lot of general world and American history. They also tweet at least ten times a day and have the always favourite but silly this day in history themes.

Their biggest problem is its delivery - whoever they have hired has an idea of what to deliver that will be interesting to the broadest demographic, If you're a history buff or looking for stories that are not the norm, this tweet feed is not for you.

Outstanding tweet: Are the Great Lakes Connected?

Medievalist  A+

These guys go to the head of the class. I like history and it's clear that they do too. They update a lot, they link to other people's work and pages, they try to find new and interesting historical developments...what's not to love? They are short on tweeting pics but that can be forgiven by the solid content and great information you get from them.

Outstanding tweet : Sex and scandal in Medieval Ireland! You tube video as well

Learn More! A History Round Up of the Best From the Web

This week, real life too over and killed any interest in writing. Real life and some dodgy medication. But I did do a lot of 'surfing the web' as all the cool kids in my geriatric ward call it. I did discover some amazing historical articles and info from the web, and here's some highlights!

Learn more about...war!

 

Inventories of War

Photographer Thom Atkinson complied a gallery of what a soldier's kit and equipment for war would look like across time. With help from historians, museums, re-enactment societies, and soldiers, Atkinson laid out and shot pictures of kits from 1066's Warrior outfit to a Sapper's gear in 2014. One of the main things to look for in these pictures is how little the basic need for food and entertainment items has changed.

Obscure Wars

I'm not usually a fan of lists for lists sake, but this Chicago Tribune list of Obscure Wars is a pretty good info dump that you can go bounce off of to google and find out more about these silly wars, including the Jaybird-Woodpecker War of the USA, or the 12-year War of the Oaken Bucket, when thousands of people died because a bucket was stolen. Seriously.

A bucket similar to this one caused a war. No I'm not drunk but those people must have been.

Learn more about...Computers!

The Computer History Museum

I found this gem while I was trying to figure out when ARPANET began (1962). While this site is a gateway to the museum in California, it has some great on-line exhibits on  the first 2000 years of computer history, their PDP-1 restoration project, and a This Day in History section. A very cool site to get your history bytes from. (ohhhh...me so funny.)

Like today - August 3, 1977 - Radio Shack released the TSR-180, their first computer release. I had a Tandy 1000 I still miss...

Learn more about....sports!

 

The Commonwealth Games

The last ten days I've been following the Glasgow 2014 games, mostly because it was my Great-Grandad's home town, and I like these much better than the overblown Olympics to watch. The first one was held in Hamilton, Ontario in 1930, with only 400 people competing. over 4500 athletes are participating in this year's games. This years were of course declared the best ever, and Canada did well, placing 3rd in the medal standing.

But I don't think dressing as a shinny donuts or dancing candies is a good way to end it.

And on that note, I'm off to actually write a very overdue article for Eden Keeper, which does not involve the dance of the gum drops.