"Education is a process the reduces the distance between a person and the objects of the world."
The recording of my event at the intersection of history of monsters and gen #AI for the "Critical Perspectives on 'AI' in Education" webinar series is available.
Next event:
1/2
#academicsky
So Retsina has a long, long history.
I wept at their fragile beauty. The museum is wonderful.
My photo shows a museum display with colourful Minoan pottery cups arranged on three clear shelves, one above the other. These cups, known as Kamares Ware, are from Phaistos, Crete. They were made in palace workshops, c. 1800-1700 BC. The cups range in shape and size from conic and cylindrical cups (top and middle shelves) to hemispherical and carinated shaped cups (bottom shelf). They are decorated with multi-coloured geometric motifs; with spirals and swirls painted in red and white pigment on black.
Sipping my coffee ☕️ and thinking about these marvellous Minoan cups!
They look so modern it’s incredible to think they were made during the Bronze Age some 3,800 years ago!
Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete. 📷 by me
#Archaeology
The Telegraph views the world through a special lens.
(I’ve actually only read The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology all the way through though.)
Remembering the late KAREN CARPENTER — born 76yrs ago today.
He NEVER went up his own ass, NEVER.
And for a global superstar out of Hollywood this is a rare rare thing.
From Carpenter to icon.
A credit to my profession.
Love the guy.
A visibly moved HARRISON FORD accepting his AFI Life Achievement Award last night in Los Angeles.
I finished editing my fifth book last night!
INTO THE WORDS is my not-terribly-barbaric yawp about the words English uses to describe the natural world, and all the ways we have invented (and in some cases violently taken) them.
Arriving October 2026.
www.cbc.ca/news/science...
I feel this should be a much bigger deal
Have a listen to BOB DYLAN be unbelievably honest about how you can create ‘magic’ at some point(s) in your life, but not all the time, or even ever again.
You know what? Sure, I'll say yes. It also explains why aliens don't come here. Either they'd be afraid of the giant lizard monsters, or they're disappointed the dinos are gone.
www.scientificamerican.com/article/coul...
Margaret Bourke-White, takes a photo from one of the eagles on the 61st floor of the CHRYSLER BUILDING - NEW YORK in 1934.
Was Noah the one who sailed on the Arc de Triomphe?
Photo of an Ancient Egyptian artists’s small, naturalistic painting of a standing hippopotamus on a flake of white limestone, dated c. 1479–1425. The hippo is painted in profile with head lowered and to the right. The body is outlined with black paint and painted brown. The belly, eyes, and ears are painted red. Although the ancient Egyptians were well aware of the danger and destructive power of hippos, this painted hippo has rather a friendly face! Dimensions: H. 10.8 cm (4 1/4 in); W. 12 cm (4 3/4 in); Th. 1.7 cm (11/16 in) Egyptian artists made practice sketches on flakes of limestone, sometimes for use as templates when transferring an image to the wall of a tomb or a temple. Limestone flakes were readily available because of the constant construction of temples and rock-cut tombs. A number of such sketches were recovered at Deir el-Bahri during the 1922-23 MMA excavations. This painting was acquired by the museum in the division of finds.
Happy #WorldHippoDay! 🦛❤️
To celebrate here’s a lovely naturalistic painting of a hippo on a small flake of limestone. Painted by an Egyptian artist some 3,500 years ago!
📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
#Archaeology
56 Candles 🎂 today for the hugely talented SIMON PEGG.
🍵🫖
Remembering CHARLES M. SCHULZ — who left us 26yrs ago today, aged 77.
An incredible photograph of Dickensian London taken in 1865 - the year Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, Lewis Carroll's Alice made her first trip to Wonderland and a mere 22yrs after “A Christmas Carol” was published.
a meme — the top says “My dog just got a haircut and now he looks like he gave up drinking and got his life together” and underneath are 2 photos of a dog (a schnauzer i think?). on the left, the “before,” he’s scruffy and in need of a haircut and a bath. and on the right, the “after,” he’s clean and clipped and wearing a jaunty red bow tie and looking very dapper indeed.
i don’t know if it’s the jaunty bow tie or what but i cannot stop laughing at this
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue
My wife and I went to one of his talks. It was fascinating.
Singing in the clouds.
Met Museum photo of an Ancient Egyptian artist’s painting of a swallow on a flake of limestone, dated to the New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, c. 1479-1458 BC. The sparrow stands in profile with head to the right. It is delicately painted with a pinkish body. The outline and details are highlighted in a reddish/brown pigment. Its legs, eye, and beak are painted black. Limestone flake dimensions Height 6.6 cm x Width 10.6 cm. This may have been a practice drawing of the sparrow hieroglyph which was used for words meaning ‘small’, ‘poor’, or ‘bad’. Egyptian artisans who decorated tombs and temples made practice sketches on flakes of limestone which are known by egyptologists as ostraca (singular: ostracon). Sometimes the drawings were used as a template when transferring an image to the wall of a tomb or a temple. Limestone flakes were readily available for this purpose as by-products of the construction of temples and rock-cut tombs. A number of ostraca were recovered at Deir el-Bahri during the 1922-23 MMA excavations.
Artists have always loved to sketch!
Sketch of a sparrow from Egypt dated c. 1479–1458 BC.
Some 3,500 years ago in Egypt, artists used flakes of limestone as sketchpads!
MMA excavations 1922-23, Deir el-Bahri. 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...
#Archaeology
I'm not above shaming someone for a 400-year-old typo.
The editor of the English edition of Mercator's first "Atlas" really should have picked this one up.
I know there’s A Lot going on today but I would really appreciate some more visibility on this innocent Black man being assaulted by the fucking gestapo
Something special arrived today!
Useless Etymology will head out into the larger world on October 7th, but in the meantime here’s a little unbox and a reflection on its reason for being.
NEWS: The Trump regime has arrested Don Lemon in its latest crackdown on journalism after he reported from inside a church protest in Minnesota—despite a magistrate judge previously rejecting the case against him as unsupported by evidence.
