The bluish grey speckled bead is Roman, my daughter made the mushroom 8/9 years ago & the tiny silver acorn is Edwardian:

Emma Mitchell@silverpebble2.bsky.social · 4d ago

Having a bad mental health day but research shows that making something can alter brain biochemistry for the better, so l’ve made a cabinet of curiosities/small museum in a tiny antique Cadbury’s cocoa powder tin. This DEFINITELY helped ✔️

Stained glass artwork by English artist Tamsin Abbott. The #Fullmoon in October is known as #HuntersMoon #WomensArt

Three views of the same Paris scene, from a similar viewpoint, by three Impressionists ~ Monet, Renoir and Pissarro. Can you tell which artist did which painting? The answer’s at artinsociety.com/renoirs-le-p...

There was a fucking hole in our planet’s *atmosphere* Like a legit, no joke, “this will unravel our entire ecosystem” hole in the world, and then we fixed it by working together across national and political lines As a species we decided, “we will survive” Let’s do that some more

Michael Druker 🇨🇦@mdruker.app · 7d ago

Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

Nearly 5 MILLION TONNES of wood a year burned to power ONE datacentre. We thrived for centuries before TikTok and AI www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Drax datacentre could create nearly twice the yearly emissions of all Gatwick flights

Exclusive: Campaign group’s analysis of North Yorkshire plans finds datacentre would have to burn 4.9m tonnes of wood a year

theguardian.com

Jonathan Foyle@jonathanfoyle.bsky.social · last wk.

Data centres- no comment. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Hey so if you wanna absolutely ruin the day of the people actually organising the Cofnas event, you can force them to manually check every single request for ticket booking

Oxford Clarion@oxfordclarion.bsky.social · last wk.

Tickets are available on Eventbrite. To minimise no-shows, Reform state “Please use your Oxford student email when signing up for this ticket. Non-student emails will be cancelled” – a surprising endorsement of cancel culture. Student emails take the form firstname.lastname@[college].ox.ac.uk.

I'll be making my 1st short form video this morning about the 3 ways in which making one of these👇for yourself (doesn't have to be neat) & putting it where you can see it improves your mental health. My confidence has been in overdraft for ~4 yrs so am posting this for accountability-I need to do it

Manchester's Art Treasures Exhibition in Old Trafford closed on this day 1857, one of the most impressive collections of art works ever assembled. More than 1.3 million visitors attended. The Hallé is a legacy: Charles Hallé formed an orchestra that performed there daily.

Swiss Glaciers Lose Nearly 20% of Their Ice Volume in Five Years ->Arctic Portal | More on "Swiss glacier ice volume loss" at BigEarthData.ai | #Glacier

Swiss Glaciers Lose Nearly 20% of Their Ice Volume in Five Years

Low winter snowfall and repeated summer heatwaves caused substantial glacier mass loss across Switzerland in 2026. Swiss glaciers lost an estimated 5.5% of their ice volume, the second-largest annual decline recorded after 2022, bringing the total loss since 2021 to nearly 20%. Meltwater beneath the Great Aletsch Glacier, Switzerland. Photo: M. Huss / GLAMOS. Source: WSL. According to GLAMOS and the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT), the mean thickness of individual glaciers decreased by 2.5 to 4 metres, with local losses of up to 10 metres recorded on some glacier tongues. Less snow and prolonged summer heat The glaciers entered the melting season with below-average snow cover following a winter with little precipitation. Early heatwaves rapidly removed much of this protective layer, exposing the darker glacier ice underneath. Because bare ice reflects less sunlight than snow, it absorbs more solar energy, increasing melting during subsequent heatwaves. By September, the monitoring assessment reported no remaining snow even at an elevation of 3,500 metres. The loss of this seasonal cover affects both summer melting and the formation of new ice: without snow surviving the summer and gradually compacting into ice, glaciers cannot replenish the mass they lose. Alongside surface melting, researchers are...

arcticportal.org

Plus the massive environmental impact. No books on a dead planet etc. I want authors well-paid and their distinctive work cherished not used as filling in a thieves’ tombola.

Hi, you’re meant to be our advocacy group? This decision sucks. My books were stolen by AI companies, as were millions of books by other writers; it’s the biggest copyright theft in human history — there is no ethical AI when the technology itself is predicated on IP theft

Remembering Gwyneth Bebb today. She passed Oxford law finals with first class marks in 1913, but was refused a degree. The CA rejected her claim to become a solicitor, saying only men were "persons" within the legislation. In 1920 she finally became a Bar student. But died in childbirth in 1921.

Amazing lucid solemnity in Baptism of Christ, 1450, by Piero della Francesca. He died (alas!) on this day in 1492.

A tiny posy of October garden flowers in a cobalt blue Victorian ink bottle. There are small spots of dopamine-inducing floral colour out there if you search for it...🌿

Oh aye, wildlife on British coinage "is a denial of history", is it now?

This morning, the last of four ancient cottonwoods in Lochiel, AZ, estimated to be 200–250 years old and known as the “grandmother tree,” was cut down for Trump’s border wall. 🤬😢🤬😢🤬😢🤬😢🤬😢🤬😢

It's that time of year again when we need to remind National Trust members that Restore Trust is a dark-money funded right-wing astroturfing entryist outfit. Please vote, and vote for literally anyone else.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 4w ago

Support the National Trust by voting for Council members by 11:59pm on 30 October 2026. Quickvote is convenient if you're short of time or worried about inadvertently voting for Restore Trust's Bonigala, Cristea, Goldman, Mealing or Omrani. In our often bad times, the Trust's doing good things.

I've heard people make claims that AI would lead to a new Renaissance, but I didn't imagine it'd happen like this:

Elizabethan playhouses were supplied by a network of tailors, merchants & craftswomen. Their names survive in records, but little is known about their lives. I’m working on new research that brings the stories of these makers & traders centre stage. Here is the project in biscuit (cookie) form. 🍪

A lovely page of leafy doodles made by William Morris in a dull committee meeting, at the William Morris Society. A little bit of joy for @silverpebble2.bsky.social this evening x

I block these emails at this point, because otherwise they just keep sending endless word vomit "follow ups." Please, please, just type your own email.

Kelly Thompson@kellythompson.bsky.social · last mo.

Again I am begging all LEGIT people running cons, signings, talks, events, etc. to stop using Ai to write your emails. What's happening is ALL THE SCAMMERS/CONMEN are ALSO using it, and so your emails are basically indistinguishable from them. They give off slop vibes EVEN IF YOU ARE LEGIT.

New lectures klaxon! On Ruskin and his artistic relationships with Turner, the Pre-Raphaelite & the Arts & Crafts movement. With @92ndstreety.bsky.social - 3 online live talks with q&a, from 17th Nov. More info & tickets here: roundtable.org/live-courses...

There’s still some space on my 2 upcoming zoom w’shops:bird illustr’n & mental health,10 Oct & botanical illustr’n & mental health,7 Nov.I teach you how to draw birds/plants & how creative activity alters 🧠 biochemistry to lift mood.Incl 10% off materials & full recording: workshops.emmamitchell.uk

Thousands of university jobs lost too, and barely a peep either.

Willard Foxton@willardfoxton.bsky.social · last mo.

I think it's absolutely mad that today there's a *national news story* about 400 oil platform workers losing their jobs, and the government being blamed. 25% of the UK TV industry lost their jobs in the last 4 years and we never hear a peep about it! Some jobs are 'real jobs' I guess.

@suzannefagence.bsky.social Hello🌿x

This idyllic portrayal of a “green and pleasant land” at the foot of the Cotswold escarpment was painted by Stanley Spencer close to the village where he was living during WW2 (Landscape, Gloucestershire, 1940)

An autumnal wreath I made from small finds from a walk ...and my illustration of it✒️🍂🌾🌿🔃

A 7th Century pillow name stone in St Hilda's church, Hartlepool, an Alpha and Omega above the name Hildithryth. It's one of a number from the cemeteries of the Anglo-Saxon monastery that stood on Hartlepool Headland and which are occasionally unearthed under streets and in peoples gardens. 1/2