Red admirals in the garden this afternoon

One of my fave things in York Minster: a medieval wren stalking a spider. It reminds me that history isn't only kings and battles. Someone, centuries ago, found joy in the same things we still notice today. It's a reminder of how much we have in common over our differences.

Poems I wrote in July! • The Fall, or Freedom • Askr • Millers • Ode on a Pompeian Millstone • Querns Turn • Deriving the Speed of Light in Second-Year Electromagnetism Lectures • Principia, or Newton's Laws of Emotion • Bananas • Titles • Wine in a Time of Wildfires (1/2)

My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com

An utterly wild reply to read outside the context of its thread:

Matthew Cobb@matthewcobb.bsky.social · last wk.

Potato, decoration, dark, time, scream. That's what I remember.

Half the planet is having a massive fight about how to correctly interpret an Ancient Greek poem but go ahead, close some more humanities departments.

My mother has made her wonderful courgette cake, but had to slice the ends off the loaf to fit it into the allocated clip-box, and naturally I likened this situation to the violent ways of Procrustes, whom Theseus and met and killed on his journey to Athens

I see the world’s going to hell again, but please allow me to share my silly little bits of art to give you some momentary respite… #cornwall #miniature #art

Going to open up a chippy called The Chip of Theseus. Every week I replace one item on the menu with something slightly different – halloumi bites for mozzarella bites, etc. – until you're not sure whether we really still serve the same food we did last year

Latticed Heath moth in Narborough this evening #ukwildlife #teammoth

Was cooking with cloves of garlic earlier and now have that thing where my fingers still smell of it. "I too am meat and susceptible to being seasoned" etc. etc.

This 4th c. BCE Hellenistic glass ring has an embedded gold foil image of Nike, personification of victory. Ancient artisans placed a piece of gold leaf or foil directly onto a base layer of glass, then sealed it under a protective layer of translucent molten glass. 🏺 1/ #MetMuseum 📸 me

Left the window open during my bath, and I can hear the swifts screaming in the dusk

Vase

Sort of place the Ents of Fangorn would march upon and flood

Arif Hasan, but NFL🔨⚒️🛠️@arif.bsky.social · 2w ago

this shot is so bleak lmao

Ring of Brodgar, Orkney. Reduction Linocut. 25x16cm. #printmaking #printartist #printmakersofscotland #scotland #linocut

Almost forgot, but Happy (superior) Pi Day! The fraction 22/7 is actually closer to π than 3.14 is, so you get a beautiful hat-trick of • improved accuracy • a mathematically meaningful slash • resistance against US date order 😤

So…do you like…come here often?

Monument to July

Barry Windsor-Smith, “The Outlaw” (1979), pen and ink.

Awesome kid for wanting this (or maybe I'm just biased because I was often that kid) and awesome parent for obliging and creating it

Polly Mackenzie@pollymackenzie.bsky.social · 2mo ago

My nine year old asked for a Rosetta Stone cake for his birthday

We are in Whitby. Saw a house with a big sign saying "stop the boats" which I'm choosing to take as a Dracula reference

'Ballmaxxing' is just what Cinderella was getting up to with the help of her pumpkin-pilled fairy moggmother

Siobhán McElduff@siobhanmcelduff.bsky.social · 4w ago

I just read the question 'Is ballmaxxing safe?' in an article. We are so doomed as a species.

Part of the wonderful Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle at Stenness on Orkney. The stone circle dates to around 2600 to 2000 BC, and forms part of the ‘Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site’. 📸 My own. #StandingStoneSunday #Brodgar #Prehistory #Orkney

Serendipity is when you spend a significant part of your Sunday afternoon and evening playing Age of Mythology (the original) and then later, on Bluesky, randomly happen across the guy who programmed Age of Mythology

GREG DAVIES: seems like a kind of a shit task. Everyone just seems like they're going home normally. ALEX HORNE: well before you say that let's have a look at how Odysseus did. cut to panel of AJAX, MENELAUS, AGAMEMNON, and DIOMEDES who are all staring at ODYSSEUS with his head in his hands

Is it just my imagination, or does this flower seem to be watching me?

What is the charge? Training a chatbot? A succulent Chinese chatbot?

Simon@simonxix.com · last mo.

So what is the crime? Is the output of Claude copyrighted? Is Alibaba using Anthropic's product too much? If Alibaba's excessive use of Anthropic is damaging Anthropic's ability to offer their service, then how is that different from AI bots and scrapers effectively DDoSing open repositories?

Obviously from Danny it was going to be good – nay, great – but this is a masterpiece and a joy to read, by the way. Rigorously academic, and yet humour and character shine through consistently. Clever structure, with a broader story weaving throughout. A must-read for those who love language(s)!

Dr Rob@robheighton.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Train reading ft. @dannybate.bsky.social

A #Roman lead tablet from Bath (Britain), which a woman named Lovernisca hoped to use to put a curse on whomever had stolen her cape. In a world where many ordinary people went without justice, curse tablets were an option to try & get it through divine means #Archaeology #AncientBlueSky