@neillyneil.bsky.social Hi mate. Was using DuckDuckGo put in 'reviews BFI player' their search assist came back with a rather negative summary. 'Overall, while the BFI Player offers a valuable selection of films, users are frustrated by its technical shortcomings...' Thought you should know. Nick

Very short notice (deadline 18 August) but we're advertising a 0.5fte lectureship in public history for next year. Covers my 3rd year undergraduate course on public history of Rome (ancient to modern) plus some MA public history teaching.

It's a hummingbird hawk-moth summer! There's been lots of sightings of the distinctive moth, which hovers over flowers to feed like a hummingbird. It's thought that, amongst other things, hot weather and strong winds have driven their spread northwards. 📷️: David Humphries

Seems like these days you can only trust an image if you created it, were there when it was created, or personally know the person who created it. Anybody have their own rules?

NEW 🚨 Apple are challenging the UK Government's secret data access that could create a 'backdoor' to our encrypted information. Liberty and Privacy International are also challenging these secret orders, known as 'Technical Capability Notices' (TCNs). www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/issue/libert...

Liberty responds to Apple’s new legal challenge against UK Government’s secret access orders - Liberty

libertyhumanrights.org.uk

Bizarreness of GPs online service. Needed a repeat prescription. I thought 'do it now which was 20:00 last night. Looked on their pages. Nope you have to wait until 07:00 the next day.

What will transform your organisation more? A) knowing your key processes, having them under control and managing them? B) Or introducing AI? Answers on a postcard. Hint it's not B).

Wait until it dries up and that waterwheel stops turning.

Arthur C. Clerk's Mysterious World@fantasticlife.bsky.social · 2d ago

Remarkable we still have a river

A thunderstorm warning for Northern Ireland has just been updated, and is now in force from now until 2100 this evening ⛈️ More details👇 #WeatherAware metoffice.gov.uk

"The week in review" — my brief look at current hot topics ranging from devolution to artificial intelligence, and from the latest machinery of government changes to digital identity

The week in review—from devolution to digital identity

Here’s a brief summary of a few developments that caught my eye this week—from devolution to artificial intelligence, and from machinery of government changes to digital identity. Devolution …

ntouk.wordpress.com

Utagawa Hiroshige, 19th century master of Japanese woodblock prints, created this guide to making shadow puppets for children (or children at heart) (1842) www.openculture.com/2021/07/hiro...

Have you ever heard of menuki? These beautiful objects are an example of a pair from the Ashmolean’s collection. Menuki are sword-grip ornaments on Japanese swords and daggers, they come in pairs and are placed asymmetrically on either side of the handle.

🚨New Substack🚨 It is currently the Summer Recess for both Houses of Parliament, allowing MPs, Peers and parliamentary staff the opportunity to take some time off. @jhdavey.bsky.social has explored its long history and how MPs have historically enjoyed their time away from Westminster. ☀️🌴

Summer Recess

It is the Summer Recess for both Houses of Parliament, allowing MPs, Peers and parliamentary staff the opportunity to take some time off.

historyofparliament.substack.com

The Mansard Roof - 1923 https://botfrens.com/collections/173/contents/39601

Sacred harmony: Pieter Jansz Saenredam, Dutch Golden Age architectural painter & draughtsman (1597-1665); pioneer of ‘church portraits’, whose subtle, tonal compositions foreshadow abstract modernism. St Bavo Haarlem, 1635, Gemäldegalerie Berlin

Guys when a woman start following you then sends a DM just block them immediately. No one i know personally ever says 'hello 'how are you doing today'. Its a Russian or African scammer. Everything about the account is, to quote Elaine from Seinfeld, 'fake, fake, fake'.

Cyber hacking as a business model.

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 4d ago

Anthropic said its artificial intelligence models hacked into three other organizations during testing, just days after ChatGPT maker OpenAI raised concerns over AI controls after it disclosed its rogue models hacked another company. https://wapo.st/4hbcfbh

Gunther von Hagens, who has died at 81, developed a novel method for preserving bodies. His traveling exhibition, “Body Worlds,” sparked debate but became a sensation.

Preserving and exposing the human form, he courted controversy with ‘Body Worlds’

Gunther von Hagens, who has died at 81, developed a novel method for preserving bodies. His traveling exhibition sparked debate but became a sensation.

washingtonpost.com

#OtD 2 Aug 1944 4000 Roma people in Auschwitz resisted being taken to the gas chambers. They armed themselves with sticks and crowbars, and barricaded the doors, women in particular fighting the SS with hands and nails. They were overcome and murdered stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9169...

Teacher and pupils in Manchester, 1956, photo by Bert Hardy (Picture Post).

A courtyard in Delft, c. 1658, by Pieter de Hooch, Dutch Golden Age painter, whose domestic scenes with perspective views reveal subtleties of light & mood; a contemporary of Vermeer, he lived 1629-c 1679, worked in Delft and Amsterdam. National Gallery London

#OtD 1 Aug 1993 Joy Gardner, a 40-year-old Jamaican woman, died in north London, a few days after police tried to deport her. They held her down and wrapped 13ft of surgical tape round her head, suffocating her stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8055...

He said he was the face of reform (not that one) but did not set any term limits for his role. So no better than Blatter. Welsh rugby deserves better...

Dr Adam Evans@a-b-evans.bsky.social · 5d ago

Unfortunately there’s only one plausible next step for Infantino if his reign at FIFA does come to an end: Group Chief Executive of the Welsh Rugby Union…

New month, new butterflies and moths to look out for in your gardens and local green spaces! 🦋🌻 See how many you can spot in the Big Butterfly Count, running until 9 August 👉 https://butrfli.es/3SVFepj

August is your last chance to see all of the Big Eight bumblebees 🎱🐝 Of the UK’s 24 bumblebee species, these eight are the most common. Have you spotted any bumblebees recently? How many species have you seen? 🔎 Brush up on your bumblebee identification skills: https://ow.ly/11BQ50ZoP6O

Yes but no one askes what is the best way to learn critical thinking, communication skills etc? By spending three years learning about a topic, say, Classics, and indirectly learning such skills. Surely there are better and quicker ways? A real lack of logic and rigour to such arguments.

David Higham@oldtrotter.bsky.social · 5d ago

Quite.

What’s that, Gussie? Madeleine Basset will break off the engagement if you don’t stop Spode building a data centre over the Market Snodsbury Cricket Club?

Mayfair Cynic@mayfaircynic.bsky.social · 5d ago

"I'm thinking of putting a data centre in the lower field, Ted" "I wouldn't know about that, sor" "Once we get the drainage sorted out, of course"

Souvenir rugs for the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. sovietpostcards.tumblr.com/post/8236316...

These delicate explorations of rosebuds were drawn and painted by May Morris (1862–1938), an influential embroiderer and designer of the Arts & Crafts movement in late-19th-century Britain.

How about keeping it clean and washing it every now and then?

Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan@london.gov.uk · 6d ago

The future of Oxford Street: More space, more trees... and fewer American candy stores.