The UB’s archaeological mission in Oxyrhynchus has found Homer’s ‘Iliad’ inside a Roman-era mummy The papyrus, placed in the mummy’s abdomen, contains a catalogue of ships. This is the first time a Greek literary text has been found in a mummy.

web.ub.edu/en/web/actua...

#archaeology
#indigestion
#romani

We tried it this evening. Very nice!

A faux Faber old paperback poetry book, apparently entitled The Shiteland by T.S. Idiot. The background pattern consists of repeated tiny LSDs.

Apropos. I discovered the attached in our bookshop cache of random used books. Please zoom in to appreciate the background pattern.

Thanks! I'll try it out.

Ooh please can you tell me the recipe? Love a sausage bake.

The new voice of Google Home sounds suspiciously like Sandi Toksvig. She just added vodka to my shopping list.

#qi
#scandinoir
#spookyvoices

The Wetland Project has been my favorite alternate-reality radio experience since it began. Since it only happens once a year, you can’t become accustomed to it. Close your eyes and be washed over by the sonic reality of an isolated bog on Saturna Island!

Patrick Radden Keefe's new book! Is excellent, of course.

Also, still: all the Dorothy Sayers novels, in order. I'm on to the Nine Tailors. Confirmed that Murder Must Advertise is her best book. 2 more to go after this!

New miniature marsupial frog found in Peru carries eggs in a back pouch Scientists have discovered a new species of miniature marsupial frog in the Peruvian Amazon that carries its young in a natural pouch on its back, a research institute reported Wednesday.

New frog just dropped

"There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar."
–Lord Byron

@lucyartmodel.bsky.social #fineartnude #implied #ocean #beach #chair #bayareaphotographer #photography #monochrome #classicmono

Still one of my favourite pop facts: the vocal sample is Peter Cook saying "voodoo rage" but the memory on Gerald's sampler was so small it cut off the end of the second word, and he just went with it anyway.

Still reading all the Dorothy Sayers books, in order. I've got to Have His Carcase (the big three still to come!)

Took a brief detour last week to read Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner - an utterly superb book. Would love to have heard her thoughts about celebrity in the age of social media.

Elevation YouTube video by Maxizulu - Topic

A new artist everyday for 2026 thread

Day 1 of 365
Minimal Techno
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE9a...

All the Dorothy Sayers novels, in order. I've got to The Documents in the Case.

A cherry tree in bloom next to a pink Italianate terraced house

Primrose Hill this morning

Did baby boomers eat all the pies? John Lanchester on the truth about the generation gap It’s a grim time to be in your 20s, no doubt, but don’t blame it all on older people: being chopped up into ever smaller rivalries only serves the market

www.theguardian.com/inequality/2...

I love reading John Lanchester's essays.

Ah good to know!

I think Ecosia only plant trees if you click on the adverts?

A chicken walking on the beach the caption is: If you are seeing this the curse is lifted have a good day

Congratulations everyone

I always associate Fairyland with a track by Biosphere called The Fairy Tale (from the album Microgravity) - I must have been reading and listening. The music fits the book very well.

Erm, I assumed when I read it that it was wordplay to do with the use of the word manor to refer to a local area, especially in the east end of London, from whence B. Windsor's and S. James' accents emanated.

This Swedish History Museum photo shows a frontal view of a helmet known as Vendel Helmet I. It is a rounded iron helmet with cast bronze fittings riveted into the iron and a face guard. The iron is rusty brown in colour and the bronze decoration is now greenish in colour, displayed against a black background. The helmet has a raised crest (ridge) running from front to back which combines with the two curved bronze eyebrows which are textured with fine lines and terminating in stylised animal heads, to form a mythical beast. Below the eyebrows, are two large almond-shaped eye holes in a rusty face guard. Between the eye holes is a small beared human face which stares at the viewer. From here, a long rusty noseguard runs downward.

Vendel Helmet 1. Iron helmet with bronze fittings from a boat grave in Vendel, Uppland, Sweden, c. 550–793 AD.

📷 Swedish History Museum samlingar.shm.se/object/F0DD4...

#Archaeology

...These ancestral memories figure in dreams. Plans stupendous recovery of primal past--but becomes sub-human, develops a hideous primal odor, takes to the woods, and is killed by own dog."

This one I'm sure I heard whispers of after a squat party in South London in 1988.

"Man tries to recapture all of his past, aided by drugs and music acting on memory. Extends process to hereditary memory--even to pre-human days...

My favourite is "Insect hypnotizes man and leads him to his death."

'Cats of the Louvre' by Taiyo Matsumoto.
#trochęsztuki

He clearly got his card machine from a cold caller who rang from the "Finance Department".

Petition: Ban the use of smart glasses with recording capability in public spaces We ask the Government to ban smart glasses with cameras in public spaces. We believe they allow secret filming, and undermine privacy, safety and the public’s right to know when they’re being recorded...

I found a petition to ban smart glasses in public spaces that needs a bit of a boost, if anyone else feels strongly about this: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/73...

It's my favourite quiz ever

Hey Bert's Books, thanks for sponsoring the book quiz last night!