Ardent Archivist
@ardentarchivist.bsky.social
Nasty woman (and occasionally proud of it). Dog mom, citizen of the Earth, history & archaeology afficionada, all-around observer, faithful commentator on the ridiculous. Warning: there will be puns. Also at: @ArdentArchivist@archaeo.social 🇺🇦🇬🇱🇪🇺🇮🇪🇬🇧
That lucky so-and-so better reward those sanitation workers handsomely. The karma for doing anything else is a very dark shade of black. Black, black, black. #BeAGoodHuman www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Italy waste workers help winner find €1m lottery ticket
The player only realised they binned the life-changing ticket after family told them the numbers he played for years had been drawn.
bbc.co.uk
Education should be freely available to all, regardless of socioeconomic background. Anything less deprives us all of an insane amount of talent. Anyone who advocates for a populace unable to think & reason for itself is the enemy of civilization and humanity. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Student loan repayment rates an 'unsustainable burden', chancellor told
More than 120 MPs and peers have asked John Healey to carry out an "urgent review" of repayments.
bbc.co.uk
Not only would I not care if AI vanished overnight, I wouldn't even NOTICE.
Charlie Stross@cstross.bsky.social · 13h agoMy answer is LOL ROFL (dickbrain) The terminally AI-pilled can't even *imagine* some people have *never* asked stochastic parrots to cheat at their job for them.
In BBC4 tonight (Weds) they are repeating one of my Ultimate Rome episodes, with a 15 min intro here www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis... on how we made the programmes, making pizzas stand in for the Roman empire and getting up close & personal with the past.
Mary Beard Remembers... Ultimate Rome: Empire Without Limit
Professor Mary Beard is known for her explorations of the ancient world, but here, she looks back on the more recent past and the making of her acclaimed four-part 2016 series Ultimate Rome.
bbc.co.uk
However, recent, more advanced testing suggests that The Golden Man may in fact be an eighteen-year-old girl, possibly a Saka (Scythian) princess.
The "Golden Man" is the name given to an unknown individual discovered in a burial mound in eastern Scythia just north of Sogdiana, buried with warrior's equipment, and assorted funerary goods, including 4,000 gold ornaments. #CelebratingWomen
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 245: Read outside your comfort zone. If you're writing fiction, try also reading non-fiction: science books, medical journals, political biographies, psychology texts. The more you read outside your genre, the better you'll be within it.
An #IceAge masterpiece: This small carving (4.7cm) of a water #bird was made from mammoth ivory some 40,000 years ago. It's thought to be a #diver, #cormorant, or #duck. Found in the Hohle Fels cave on the Swabian Jura. It's the oldest known representation of a bird. 🧵1/2
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 47: Here's an experiment to try: Take a paragraph of your WIP. Highlight the most important word in each sentence. Now try rewriting with the important words at the very end of the sentences. Look at the difference it makes each way, and the way it affects emphasis.
The sphagnum mosses are grateful for this deluge of rain after such a long dry spell... holding over 20 times their own weight in water, they are life giving natural sponges ❤️ @sphagnums.bsky.social @communitywetlands.bsky.social @tocharstories.bsky.social @peatlandecr.bsky.social
Today is Venn Day, in celebration of the mathematician John Venn, born on this day in 1834. To commemorate the occasion, here’s a poem in the form of a Venn Diagram.
New discovery: A monumental 2,500-year-old marble statue has been unearthed at Sardis in Türkiye. The 2.2-meter-high statue, the sculpture depicts a young man and is dated to 470–450 BC. During the Roman period, the statue was reused as paving material and laid face down,...🧵1/2 🏺 #archaeology
The views from The Lost Cottage in County Kerry. #BlueSkyMonday #MountainMonday #Photography #landscape #lake #ireland
For this week's #MosaicMonday, here is a mosaic from Trier depicting the philosopher Anaximander of Miletus (c. 610–c. 546 BC), who is credited with inventing the sundial. The mosaic dates to the 3rd century AD. 📷 Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 301: Here's an exercise to try. Try writing your sentences like this, in isolation. It will make your brain think differently about the way in which you use language. It might give you some insights about your habitual sentence length, and how to vary your cadences.
"How you lose says more about you than how you win"...& "should the Brits turn the House of Lords into a House of Good Losers?". We welcome the lurking classicist Count Binface onto Instant Classics to talk about democracy, decency & how many elections he's lost! www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfMv...
Classic Chats: Count Binface (Bonus episode)
YouTube video by Instant Classics
youtube.com
RFK Jr.: “You probably don’t understand this as you’re not a scientist.” Dana Bash: “You’re not a scientist either.”
Now there's a brilliant role model for girls and women. "A shot of Dalton from behind in the scene, holding a sword and ready to pounce at the giants, is used in one of the posters for the movie." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/s...
Matt Damon’s Biceps in That ‘Odyssey’ Fight Scene? They’re Hers.
Devyn Dalton, a 4-foot-6 woman, is the leading man’s stunt double in Christopher Nolan’s summer blockbuster.
nytimes.com
"We have to recognise that water security is a critical part of our food security and food security is our national security… " Welcome to the future. Sure, let’s drill for more #FossilFuels www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Prolonged drought could cause shortage of some foods, farmers' union head says
NFU president Tom Bradshaw calls on the government to take action to prevent extreme weather affecting the UK's food supply.
bbc.co.uk
Did you see this, @justrena.bsky.social ?
Alison Fisk@alisonfisk.bsky.social · 3d ago‘Chariots, Treasure and Power: Secrets of the Melsonby Hoard’ Fantastic Yorkshire Museum exhibition showcasing some of the 800+ artefacts from the UK’s largest Iron Age metalwork hoard! So many beautifully crafted bronze objects decorated with coral, glass, and enamel! Do visit! 📷 me #Archaeology
Unsolicited writing advice, no. 61: Readers don’t relate to characters because they’re attractive; they relate to them because they recognise a shared experience. So give your characters hobbies; pets; watch them eat food; make them fall in love; worry about their jobs; their kids. Make them human.
www.theguardian.com/politics/202... The Home Office is living up to its reputation.
EU citizens in UK get letters telling them post-Brexit residency rights were given ‘in error’
After years of building lives in UK, potentially thousands of EU citizens could be told they have no right to remain
theguardian.com
Let’s talk, in short, about ALL the policy hinge points, and find the high-consequence, low-cost interventions which could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives, not just the artificially difficult ones.
On a simple moral level: hey. Guess what? We are, as a country, doing next to nothing to help people whose lives were burned down during the pandemic lockdowns. We are doing very little for Long Covid, for trauma. We are also AFAIK possibly even less prepared for a pandemic now than we were in 2020.
There’s something wonderfully somnolent about listening to your dog’s quiet, not-quite snores… 💚😋💚
Im delighted that unionists are participating in thr Fleadh. Music is bigger than any of us. This one celebrates us all, joyfully and thats why it is an important event for the city. Ulster Scots, marching band, pipes, and new arrivals fusing Bhangra with trad...it is us in all our effed up glory.
