In a library of the old University of Bologna, oldest university in Europe. Many seminal books on Zoology and natural history, including such as Linneaus and Cuvier.

Ravenna, 10/3: Protesting the interception of the #gazaflotilla. Beside the railway station.

Ravenna, 10/3: A protest against the interception of the #gazaflotilla. Part of the one-day national strike in Italy that is disrupting trains, planes, ferries, and buses all over the country.

“Iacta alea est!” Crossing the estuary of the Rubicon, north of Rimini, historical boundary of Rome. Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his legions in January 49 BCE, setting in motion events leading to the Civil War that ended the Roman Republic.

Ravenna is Mecca for folks who love mosaics. There are multiple UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the city which once was the Western capital of the later Roman Empire. This is an image of the Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora in the Basilica San Vitale, made almost 1500 years ago.

Our departure is delayed 25 minutes due to a problem on the high speed line. Venice doesn’t want to let us go!

Libreria Acqua Alta (High Water Bookshop), Venice.

“Don John of Austria is going to the war” G.K. Chesterton, Lepanto. A massive series of paintings by Tintoretto in the Doge’s Palace in Venice commemorates the strategic victory of the Holy Roman and Venetian navies over the Ottoman Navy at Lepanto in 1571.

[Part of] Giotto’s masterpiece frescoes at the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy. Though painted in 1305, Giotto presaged the Italian Renaissance by a century. What happened in the meantime? Only world-changing events like the Black Death that caused huge economic and social changes.

Cats of Burano, Venice. #caturday

Another dog on another vaporetto.

Dogs on vaporetta, Venice.

Early morning taxi pick up, Dorsoduro.

Late for work: small motorboat progressing at Batboat speed down a canal in Venice. (Photo courtesy of Julia Redmond.)

Passeggiata at the Dogana da Mar, Venice. This is an old customs building for Venice, now a gallery.

Welcome to Venice! The Rialto Bridge from the airport water shuttle

Another reminder of “Operation Anthropoid” to assassinate Reinhardt Heydrich, so-called Butcher of Prague. This “stumbling block” is set into the ground in the Jewish Quarter of Prague. Hilda Bondyová assisted in this successful effort. She perished in Mauthausen concentration camp in October 1942.

In Prague I saw an excellent exhibition “Women Artists 1300-1900” from collections in Czechia, Poland, etc. Many artists new to me. Artemisia Gentileschi was there, but this was the first I learned of Sofonisba Anguissola, active during the Italian Renaissance: “The Game of Chess”, a gorgeous piece.

On the way to the airport in Prague went by the memorial at the site of the assassination of Nazi Reinhardt Heydrich, June 4, 1942, by Czech partisans. @bwjones.bsky.social and I happened on the church where the partisans and many others were killed by the Nazis out for revenge.

Walking home from dinner along Resslova street in Prague @bwjones.bsky.social and I came across the site of the last stand of the Czech partisans who assassinated in 1942 Reinhardt Heydrich, Nazi governor of the Czech lands. The church was attacked by 100s of Nazi troops who killed the Czech heroes.

A plaque commemorating Christian Doppler, him of the effect. Doppler taught physics and mathematics in Prague in the 1840s. For biology peeps, one of his students was Gregor Mendel.

For something completely different to “The Bartered Bride”, there is Leǒs Janáček’s “Kátja Kabanová” (1921). If the former is comic and happy, the latter is dark and tragic. I first saw this as a teenager in the Wexford Festival Opera, which specializes in rarely performed and/or difficult operas.

Curtain call for “The Bartered Bride” by Smetana, performed at the National Theatre in Prague. This was a remarkable performance of this classic in a modern setting. This is the watershed opera (1860s) of Czech opera and Smetana showed how it was done. It was premiered in the forerunner of this hall

The pavements of Prague are paved with ~5 cm square pieces of grey and white stone. They are slippery when wet and Vibram soles skid and slide. Pretty, but not a fan!

🎼Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the feast of Stephen🎼. Statue of St. Wenceslas, in his square in Prague.

Try to find the Einstein commemorative plaque on Old Town Square in Prague. It is hidden behind an awning at the eponymous cafe!

Evergreen.

yes please

Back to my fig-thieving ways! There is a house on our street that has 2 fig trees, one a marvel, in its yard but the renters who live there DON’T. EAT. FIGS! Someone has to step up and compete with the crows!

Sóla has had enough of the rain and just wants to go home. Smarter than we are for sure! #dogsofbluesky

I was today years of age when I learned about Square Recess or Robertson screws and their associated drivers! Requiring a trip to the hardware store. Apparently, because I am not a woodworker or a Canadian. It seems Henry Ford played a large part in their lack of use in the US.

Real towns of “Il Comisario Montalbano”: standing in for “Vigata” are various locations in the town of Ragusa Ibla, one of the major towns in SE Sicily, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Baroque site of Sicily. These are of Piazza Duomo in Ragusa Ibla.

Real towns of “Il Comisario Montalbano”: standing in for “Vigata”, specifically Montalbano’s police station there, is the Town Hall of Scicli (pronounced ‘schick-lee’) another of the Baroque* towns of SE Sicily. The police station was under the flags to the right.

Real towns of “Comisario Montalbano”: the derelict Fornace Penna on the SE Sicily coast near Sampieri stands in for “Mannara”, a place where bad things happen. This was a model brick foundry that burned down a century ago and was never rebuilt. The walls were built of limestone blocks.

Real towns of “Comisario Montalbano”, Punta Secca standing in for “Marinella”. A Sicilian beach town with a lighthouse. Excellent seafood to be had here at every price point. Montalbano’s TV home is left of center with the green shutters on the waterfront.

Real towns of “Comisario Montalbano”, standing in for “Vigata” and “Montelusa”: Modica, Sicily. One of the famed Baroque towns of SE Sicily, famous for its architecture and Aztec-style chocolate. A panorama, so go left and right!

A bashful undergrad having a meeting with her major professor, Charles H. Townes, in #Greenville, SC.

Reginald’s Tower is a (the?) landmark of Waterford City (city of my birth!), Ireland. It is the oldest continuously operating civic structure in Ireland, built by the Normans on the foundations of an older Viking building. The Vikings established Waterford in the 9C as the oldest city in Ireland.

Arctic Fox kit, Hornvik, N. Iceland; July 2021.

Seems like a good time to re-up this one www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

New York Times story with profiles of researchers whose grants were terminated. [Gift Link] www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...

Red state governors be like: Let’s send our National Guard to a place with lower crime rates than our places like New Orleans, Memphis, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and St. Louis!

open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug... This and the fact that data centers (mostly bitcoin mining) used 30% more electricity in Iceland than all their homes in 2023. They can dam another river in their highlands, we have to burn more coal or gas…

WUSA-TV - DC restaurants saw a more than 25% drop in diners in the days following President Trump’s takeover of the city’s police department. www.wusa9.com/article/news...

Another “Caravaggio” we saw in Sicily was the Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence in the ornate Baroque Oratorio di San Lorenzo in Palermo. In parentheses because it is a replica of the original stolen in 1969 and never recovered. It is believed that the Cosa Nostra was responsible.

The Burial of St. Lucy by Caravaggio; Siracusa, Sicily. St. Lucy was a Roman martyr, patron of, inter alia, ophthalmologists, eye diseases, stained glass workers, and of Siracusa itself. Caravaggio, a master of the Italian Baroque, had a colorful life and painted this while in exile in Sicily.

Erice, a beautiful and picturesque hill town in far western Sicily and known as a “city of science”, is home to the Ettore Majorana Foundation centre. It has hosted many notables. Mostly used by physicists, this is the best small conference venue I have ever seen, hands down!!

This has the potential to be huge! RFKkr and Bhattacharya can eat dirt.

We went for COVID shots at CVS this evening and got flu shots as well. Flu shots are just in for the new season. Get them while they’re hot!

Same for science and medical research policy. Trump and co-President Russell Vought could not choose a better way to cede scientific dominance to the CCP if they tried.