Yesterday, one of my fellow archery club members told me that his mate has a theory that King Arthur was from Gumley in Leicestershire and would I like to read his pamphlets, and I have never said “yes” to anything more quickly in my life.

Tim Curry should also be remembered for featuring in the best between takes photo of an actor in recorded history.

[Exit Queen.]

This is the letter kids got at the end of Dolly’s Imagination Library. I defy you to read this and not cry.

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library gifted more than 332,000,000 books since it was first created 31 years ago.

SCOOP: 404 Media placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it. What did we find? It ended up at an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books. Yes. This is literally the logo outside the Amazon warehouse door. Read now:

We Tracked a Shipment of Rare Books. It Ended at an Amazon AI Training Facility

We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.

404media.co

Hwæt! A new edition of the Electronic Beowulf has been released by Kevin Kiernan (University of Kentucky). You can explore it here: ebeowulf.uky.edu Beowulf is one of our greatest literary treasures, and the unique manuscript is held at the British Library.

Still think it’s a sort of miracle that I can step on a train in a small coastal town in the south of France at 2pm and walk off the train at 11pm the same day in rural Leicestershire.

'Following the closure of Modern Languages programmes at Leicester from September 2026, if Modern Languages were to disappear from Nottingham, the greater East Midlands would become one of the largest language cold spots in the country.'

Glen O'Hara@gsoh31.bsky.social · 4w ago

Britain has skills shortages across the board. Yet the decision about what to preserve as part of post-18 tuition is being left to isolated groups of university managers whose legal duty is to preserve solvency. That's completely mad. www.hepi.ac.uk/2026/08/12/w...

In my (adult) lifetime we've already gone from 'Extraordinary summer high of 32°C measured at Heathrow Airport' to 'Random towns in the south east of England hitting 36°C in mid-August'. Can't wait to see what the next few decades will bring.

Dan Jagger@auditorynerves.bsky.social · 4w ago

New discovery puts 'women at the centre of early Bronze Age society'. For >200 years, experts believed bones discovered near Stonehenge belonged to a "stout man". Now, DNA analysis has revealed the 4,000-year-old skeleton of a metalworker & shaman was from a woman. 🧪💀 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Worst we’ve known’: UK turns to imports as drought and heat hit vegetable crops. Food insecurity and higher prices would follow. Poor hit the hardest. Despite warnings, no plan for water shortages. Need reservoirs, water storage, better water management. Companies can't do national planning.

‘Worst we’ve known’: UK turns to imports as drought and heat hit vegetable crops

Growers in dismay after scorching weather and lack of rain affect yields, sending wholesale prices rocketing

theguardian.com

Have your say on AI licensing and payment! Macquarie University and the Creative Industries PEC are surveying UK authors and illustrators on their views. Take the survey before 7 Aug: https://ow.ly/iXGl50ZuA8V

In 2018 I read about universities, libraries, and humanities councils in New England convening veterans to discuss The Odyssey to help them make sense of their own experiences and was blown away by what a good idea it was. Funding the humanities = good. www.concordmonitor.com/2018/03/14/h...

‘Homer can help you’: War veterans use ancient epics to cope - Concord Monitor

The trials of Odysseus are really not that different from the struggles of those learning to readjust after wars of today, modern veterans are finding.A small group of military veterans has been meeti...

concordmonitor.com

I need the most Tolkien activity you have / No that’s too Tolkien

I’ve seen the Odyssey and my overriding feeling is that it is less than the sum of its parts.

Look if you watched the prequels but are still surprised that the idea of making a movie while sitting at your computer without any collaborators, artists, writers, crew, or techs while being told you're a genius over and over is extremely appealing to Lucas I don't know what to tell you

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2mo ago

George Lucas likens AI sceptics to luddites clinging to horses and carts

Dan Burn takes to the field looking like he’s already been on for 85 minutes.

On the language of Homeric Greek, and the language of a certain forthcoming film: here are a few simple observations.

A Norway fan has gone viral for not taking part in their Row celebration after matches and won't do it if they win the World Cup "It’s factually wrong; they didn’t row, they sailed over the Atlantic”

The end of a tremendous day at #imc2026 : a collective, international demonstration of the enduring intellectual and cultural value, even urgency, of the study of medieval history in the modern world.

I mean this explains quite a lot about experiencing social media in the 2020's www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

Jordan Henderson with 0 minutes played one yellow card and a broken arm might be the single greatest statline in WC history

A friend said he always looks like a British solider about to go over the top at Passchendaele and now I can't not see that.

Seth Vertelney@svertelney.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Who did it better? King David, Stuttgart Psalter, 9th century, f155v Johnny Cash in concert, late 1950s

How UK higher education -- and education policy/the country in general -- is viewed in Germany. Wie peinlich. What a mess.

Stephen Shapiro@stephenshapiro.bsky.social · 2mo ago

zeitung.faz.net/data/863/rea...

Other work by the Ladybird artists. ‘How Scenery Reveals the Nature of Soil’ (1949) Artist: SR Badmin

I regret to say that I’ve found another utterly useless skill that I’m really good at.