I also found this old electricity cable warning. Enamelled metal, nowhere near any cables, in a pile of rocks - guess it has slowly/maybe quickly descended the mountain. These are all plastic now, of course.
Another day, another old bottle found in the woods. There's so much old (interesting, some surprisingly valuable) rubbish here that I've started taking my trowel to help.
This is a hugely important story: everyone concerned with learning and truth should read it. Presented with prompts about a lesser-known turn-of-the-last-century composer, an LLM produces a nice, clear readable evaluation of her Symphony No. 1 - which DOESN'T EXIST. Everything is made up. 😵💫
Green, blue and turquoise seaglass pendents
Have been busy making new seaglass pendants ready. All handmade with seaglass found on #Shetland beaches.
Link to shop in comments
Definitely a favourite. There are some superb, similarly wonderfully-situated castles up in Caithness. (When i lived there, I never was brave enough to head into Bucholly Castle though; that one is barely attached to the mainland now.)
"This is Europe’s new reality: under water in winter, withered in summer. Yet even as the weather extremes worsen, the voices of denial have grown louder and more influential."
Excellent piece on the distance between lived realities and ideological denial.
www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
Two panel comic. Panel 1: a museum display of a megalodon jaw fossil, with some museum goers standing around it. There is a graphic on the information tablet next to the fossil, depicting the approximation of the megalodon’s full size compared to a human. Panel 2: “3.6 million years ago:” we see the true megalodon as it existed, a small shark with ludicrously large, juicy lips.
Stunning work!
#Archaeology 🏺
www.abdn.ac.uk/news/25127/
Okay, this is quite outstanding from Bedford Council.
Andrew, they said, was disliked by everyone. The exact quote: ‘He’s a cunt.’ I often think about this.
Charles, they said, was well-liked, amiable, always willing to be the butt of a joke, making others feel more at ease and, generally, being a decent person, with plenty of stories to back this up.
Today, for one reason or another, seems a good day to recall a series of conversations I had when I worked with two men who had served with both Charles and Andrew, back in the 70s and early 80s.
A famous Twitter exchange in which an alt-right bro praises a life-size sculpture of a white woman, implying it must have been made by a white man, and somebody else responds that “the sculptor is a Chinese woman you dork ass losers” with a picture of said sculptor with the statue
Every time some doofus bemoans the “fall of western civilization” I think of this classic
🧪🏺 Authors assert:
"archaeologists must evaluate these implications to proactively shape the foundations of our engagement with [gen- #AI]"
My take?
We should we should boycott & call out its use in #scicomm as something which *by its nature* diminishes accuracy, nuance & educational benefit.
Yes. In fact I have so far written two books about it, which you should immediately buy!
(bsky.app/profile/nick...)
Disappointing move by Bookshop Org. Supporting Spotify is not supporting artists. www.thebookseller.com/news/spotify...
This is only related in a sideways manner, but: the story of any small slice of humanity is the story of humanity, just boiled down and distilled. So:
In 2020, we had a lot of conversations about harassment at SF/F conventions, and Isaac Asimov came up several times.
Also, news just in: another sign of spring today, the ponies are back in the village, feeding on grass for the first time this year. Admittedly, there is not much of it, but... spring! Sort of. (Reading @levparikian.bsky.social's Light Rains Sometimes Fall has me looking.)
We've been working super hard towards this for *years*. Still a long way to go, but it's great to see it's being brought to the UK Commons. Super proud of our Taskforce and everything we've achieved so far.
Follow the link to read the full statement.
babao.org.uk/bill-to-stop...
This morning, upon listening to repeated black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) drumming from my study window, I realised that my love of all woodpeckers can be directly traced back to Bagpuss, and Professor Yaffle. This is probably a niche comment.
This happened at lunch time today, and it was a joy.
Every Lego catalogue, in full, from 1966-2015. At the link brickset.com/library/cata...
The best part? Now that the job market HAS flooded & tanked, the advice isn’t “oh hey maybe we were wrong & that whole humanities thing is actually MORE important in the face of AI,” it’s:
YOU MUST ALL WORK IN THE TRADES!
Ok yeah definitely that’ll fix it anything but reading books I guess
The British Museum posted Al slop and quietly deleted it. Here's what it was and why it matters.
#archaeology🏺#musuem #culture #heritage #history
The title 'Hope is Rebellion' sits over an infrared nighttime trail camera capture of a stone marten standing on its hind legs. The letter's home, The Crow's Nest, and its web address is below, along with Substack logo. Why a stone marten in a piece about hope? Well, I think the resourcefulness of this species offers answers and parallels to the direction I think we all find ourselves travelling. The world is changing, year in and year out, but there will be ways to survive, if only we remaining actively hopeful.
"Hope, as I have so often shared, is not to be confused with optimism. ... Hope, unlike optimism, is an act of rebellion."
alexandermcrow.substack.com/p/hope-is-re...
I shared this a year ago and it seems pretty relevant today.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Here, the irony is that, if prepared correctly, Amanita muscaria is indeed edible. I love the idea behind this but, I think, it perfectly demonstrates why education is crucial; there are no shortcuts when it comes to learning.
Am I here? I suppose I am. I've been absent from much of the virtual world of late, including my own corner. However, I think I might be returning, slowly.
As such, here's a thing I just shared, a list-of-sorts, a way to keep on keeping on.
I am still in the process... Back at the 'special investigations department', which probably doesn't even exist, but is just something they think will placate people. It shouldn't actually be hard to close an account! (Also, back here after an extended break! Hi!)
UPDATE: Have now spammed every single facebook 'help' contact address/form/email/link possible, ensuring the initials GDPR are clearly visible from outer space. (I even managed to find a data protection officer contact form.)
They don't make this easy. Glad I'm in the EU.