Von Bakk

You're a very beautiful woman, probably. Don't rush it, man, you will surely lose it

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Ahhh. It is a shock. And even a shcok. But a welcome one!! 👍

[Von Bakk @VonBakk]

@dcsandbrook @bookclubpodhq Enjoyed the episode but slighty disappointed that friend of TRIH 'Sir Nigel' didn't get a mention when discussing Conan Doyle's 100 years war books! Fond memories of you opening episodes with discussions of the Red Ferret

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Went down the rabbit hole on this. Your brain treats a physical book like a landscape. It builds a spatial map of the text, the same way it maps trails, rooms, and city blocks. When you scroll on a phone, that map breaks apart.

Seven large-scale research reviews and direct brain scans confirm what you already feel.

A 2023 study in PLOS ONE attached brain-activity sensors to children��s heads while they read the same text on paper and on screen. Paper reading produced fast brain waves, the pattern linked to focused attention. Screen reading shifted the brain into slow waves, the pattern linked to mind wandering and daydreaming. Same kids. Same words. Measurably different brain states.

A separate 2022 study from Showa University in Japan scanned the front of the brain, the area that manages focus and comprehension, during phone versus paper reading. Smartphones sent that region into overdrive, meaning the brain was straining just to keep up with basic processing. Paper reading produced a moderate load that triggered natural deep breathing, which helped regulate brain function and sustain focus. The phone suppressed that breathing pattern entirely.

Since 2017, researchers have published seven major reviews combining hundreds of individual studies. Six of seven reached the same conclusion: people understand less on screens. A 2018 review of 54 studies and 170,000+ participants, literally titled “Don’t throw away your printed books,” found paper outperformed screens across the board for non-fiction. A 2024 follow-up with 49 more studies confirmed it. The gap has grown steadily every year since 2001. Being a “digital native” doesn’t help.

The best explanation is how your brain tracks where you are. Your short-term memory can only juggle about 7 things at once. A physical book gives you constant location cues: the weight shifting from right hand to left, where a paragraph sits on the page, how thick the remaining pages feel. Your brain hands off the “where am I in this text?” job to those physical signals, leaving more room for actually understanding what you’re reading. On a phone, every screen looks identical. Your brain has to track position and process meaning at the same time, and something gives.

A Norwegian eye-tracking study analyzing 25,000+ individual eye movements found screen readers processed text more shallowly. The students had no idea they were reading differently.

In 2019, nearly 200 reading scientists from 30+ countries signed an open letter warning that screen reading was degrading deep comprehension. Since then, Scandinavian countries, among the most digitized school systems on Earth, have started putting physical books back in classrooms.

[Dominic Sandbrook @dcsandbrook]

Here's the lineup for the first few weeks of @bookclubpodhq, if anybody wants to read ahead. (But you don't have to!)

17 February Wuthering Heights
24 February Never Let Me Go
3 March The Great Gatsby
10 March Hamnet
17 March Nineteen Eighty-Four
24 March The Secret History

[Von Bakk @VonBakk]

@holland_tom @TheRestHistory Great bonus episode, I particularly enjoy these additions to recent series when both you and @dcsandbrook are present. However.....throwing shade at legendary director Robert Bresson when you have written Byron vamprire fan fiction is outrageous behaviour 😂

[Robert Kwolek @RobertKwolek]

Leeds, 1921. What a compelling place. The sort of place one would travel hours to visit. It would have been a major tourist draw.
Many of these buildings are still here but the street itself is strewn with clutter, ugly shopfronts, and the trams are gone. It's not the same.

[Von Bakk @VonBakk]

@dcsandbrook @TheRestHistory @youngsm1th Good luck to Theo but I for one am glad that he won't be here when we revisit the second half of the hundred years war and Jeanne d'Arc, au revoir Monsieur 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇫🇷

[Film Updates @FilmUpdates]

First look at ‘DE GAULLE’ starring Simon Abkarian.

Touted by Pathé as its most ambitious project to date, the film will be charting the French Resistance during WWII through the eyes of General Charles de Gaulle.

The two-part historical thriller will be released in French theatres on June 10 and July 13, 2026.

[Von Bakk @VonBakk]

@dcsandbrook @TheRestHistory The tedium and mediocrity of the modern era is entirely offset by the joy and wonder of @TheRestHistory bravo to all involved especially @dcsandbrook and @holland_tom

[Lord Raglan @longestdefeat]

Bill Haydon wasn’t wedded to procedure. He was a fixer who just got things done, with great connections behind the Iron Curtain.

[gianmarco @GianmarcoSoresi]

My best joke about France

[Von Bakk @VonBakk]

@uncle_june Sister's Cunt!

[BJJotter @JiujitsuOtter]

Gordon Ryan showing how to start attacks from side control

[CommodoreBlog @CommodoreBlog]

Ladies and Gentlemen...
It's the Weekend! Have a good one!💛

[Jiu Jitsu NERD @Jiu_Jitsu_NERD]

初心者必須のエスケープ・10選
①ヒップエスケープ
②ヒップバンプ
③ウパ
④エルボーマウントエスケープ
⑤足絡み
⑥マウントバンプエスケープ
⑦エルボーエスケープ
⑧バックエスケープ→クローズド
⑨バックエスケープ→足絡み
⑩バックエスケープ→ディープハーフ

[John Frankensteiner @JFrankensteiner]

Val forever

[Von Bakk @VonBakk]

@TooFatLardies Chips? Surely frites are in order Monsieur

[Antonia @antonia_mdprjct]

Whenever I hear someone talking about how easy it would be to convert an office building to residential, I think of the first repositioning project I ever worked on.

500K SF of semi-vacant office into 500+ luxury rental apts. 1958 vintage building w/ some asbestos & a complex structure.

[Warlord Games @WarlordGames]

I have some sad news for Warlord fans. Warlord's co-founder, the mighty Paul Sawyer, collapsed earlier this year at the Salute show in London and has remained gravely ill for the last four months. Many of our loyal customers have been asking about him. I regret to say Paul will not be well enough to return to work. However, he remains cheerful and is surrounded by his loving family.

Paul and I set up Warlord Games over seventeen years ago, forming a dynamic team that has made tabletop historical gaming accessible to thousands of new hobbyists. His cheery and blokey approach to getting stuff done formed the "Warlord voice" for all these years.

He is hoping to be well enough to attend our Open Day later this month on the 21st September, where I am sure he will be delighted to meet and greet old friends, both customers and staff.

He was the best partner to set up a company with, always in high spirits and working like a trooper – he will be sorely missed around the Warlord offices.

~John Stallard, Warlord Games Co-Founder & CEO

[Ben Hopkinson @Ben_A_Hopkinson]

Why can Dijon, France plan, approve, and build a 12 mile tramway in 4 years, while it takes 13 years to build a 1 mile tram extension in Birmingham?

Our new report, written with @createstreets, explores how Britain can make building new tramways cheaper and faster. 🧵