this wikipedia editor is orbiting the moon right now!

I enjoyed this and am now off to read Lev Blumenfeld's 'Generative Metrics: An Overview'. Any other recommendations? mostly.substack.com/p/iambic-pen...

Bench 42136 https://openbenches.org/bench/42136 In Loving Memory Of Señor Andrés Carpen Reches 1955-2023

Bench 42097 https://openbenches.org/bench/42097 In memory of Karen Cragg 1970-2020 Train driver and friend to many On The Far North Line Forever remembered Forever missed

This, from Wiki's article on iambic pentameter, strikes me as wrong. It's the syntactic difference between the two couplets that's contributing more to the stress patterning than the weight of individual syllables, isn't it?

Galloway objectively has the best names

Done is a battell on the dragon blak, Our campioun Chryst confoundit hes his force; The ȝettis of hell ar brokin with a crak, The signe triumphall rasit is of the croce… —William Dunbar, c.1460–1520. The #poem was most likely written when Dunbar was at James IV’s court #medievalsky #Easter 1/2

Mars is braw in crammasy, Venus in a green silk goun, The auld mune shak’s her gowden feathers, Their starry talk’s a wheen o’ blethers, Nane for thee a thochtie sparin’ Earth, thou bonnie broukit bairn! – But greet, an’ in your tears ye’ll drown The haill clanjamfrie!

Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam Im Norden auf kahler Höh. Ihn schläfert; mit weißer Decke Umhüllen ihn Eis und Schnee. Er träumt von einer Palme, Die, fern im Morgenland, Einsam und schweigend trauert Auf brennender Felsenwand.

This is brilliant. Great comment section too youtu.be/0Ssi-9wS1so

The National Forum for Biological Recording #youmissedabit

Ane Fremmit Tree Heich abune · unhamelt grun, amang the michty · mithril brenches leemin, gowden · grow the flooers, an antrim sicht · in April's lift.

GaelEval: Benchmarking LLM Performance for Scottish Gaelic

FORHOO 'to forsake, abandon, esp. of a bird deserting its nest' Whan the ravens forhou the Morisons' Ha' The Morisons' back sall be dung to the wa'. O.E. forhogian, to despise, ignore dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/fo...

"Rakontu, ho Muzo! al mi pri la viro ruzega, kiu tre multe vagadis, post kiam li estis ruiniginta la sanktan urbon Troia" Thanks to @runskra.bsky.social for sourcing the pdf: bitoteko.esperanto.es/xmlui/handle...

Don't hate me, but it looks like ChatGPT found a downloadable PDF. bitoteko.esperanto.es/xmlui/handle...

There's an Esperanto translation of the Odyssey - Odusseias de Homeros; el la antikva greka lingvo tradukis W.J.A. Manders. Can't see any way to get my hands on it. But if anyone's in Iowa or New York, let me know: test.nypl.org/research/res... search.lib.uiowa.edu/primo-explor...

Mi ricevis ses bananojn sur la pramo ĉi-posttagmeze

oorNews is officially scalin up wi the new Government OorNews Web Kist (G.O.W.K)! Wi AI we're savin the government thoosans an makkin Scots news possible! Tae celebrate this braw milestane, aw contributors tae oor word-share database system are gettin a peyoot! 💰🎙️🗞️ #Huntigowk

Tridek ok mil bananoj

"The Stream scarce sensible here" Murdoch MacKenzie, South isles of Orkney (1750) maps.nls.uk/view/85449274

It is big sky and its changes, the sea all round and the waters within. It is the way sea and sky work off each other constantly… —Andrew Greig, “Orkney/This Life” from INTO YOU, @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social 2001 #poem #poetry #Orkney www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/orkney-...

A familiar site from West Cumbria in the centre of London. A plaster cast of the Gosforth Cross made in 1882 (Victoria and Albert Museum) #medievalsky #sculpture #cumbria

FB brought up Jackson Pollegg, my Easter Egg competition entry from 9 years ago. It's the best thing I've ever done. Didn't even make it to the podium.

***Special Theme Tour*** 😇Our first curator-led tour of the season is on Wed 1 April, and the theme is The Saints of the Cathedral.😇 Join curator Fran Hollinrake for stories of Magnus, Rognvald, Triduana, Duthac, Cormac, and more! It starts at 2pm, lasts 1 hour and costs £15pp. No need to book.

New Finland screenings with Q&A in Stromness May 25 and Thurso May 20th. Before that Ullapool April 4; Newtonmore April 6; Stirling April 13. All details here lesleyriddoch.com/events

Research & impact by IASSL members: the plans to restore Ellisland farm, the only home designed and built by Robert Burns, are underpinned by research carried out at Barnbougle Castle in East Lothian by Gerry Carruthers @glasgow.ac.uk who is also a trustee of Robert Burns Ellisland Museum and Farm.

They've not cancelled the Rousay boat yet. I'll report back

For anyone who is nearby, I am giving a talk about researching place-names on Monday, 23rd March 2026 at the North Lincolnshire Museum Society (Local History and Archaeology Section) at 7.15pm. The talk is called 'Digging for Lincolnshire - Axholme's place-names, a journey of interpretation'.

Yesterday was World Poetry Day but I quite often feel like this when I try to share the work of poets I admire.

As is tradition, here is Akhenaten for by Edmund Griffiths for World Poetry Day www.edmundgriffiths.com/akhenaten.html

Last one

Nobody's making John o' Groats posters

The Eco Experts #youmissedabit

Happy St Cuthbert's Day. Annual excuse to repost article on 'Cuthbert’s relics and the origins of the diocese of Durham', *Anglo-Saxon England* (2021). Warning: contains some dastardly revisionism about Cuthbert's history (at Chester-le-Street) & the 'Viking Age' Northumbrian church cup.org/4ssGyNq

Get a proper visceral reaction to this sort of LLM-ese. 700 retweets suggests it's not going anywhere soon.

On March 27/28, a walk and talks with the TRANSECTS team are part of events centred on plans to commemorate the Birsay whalebone.

Borg, Borve, brugh: the semantics of ON borg in the Hebrides - online talk on 31 March: norna.org/content/digi... #placenames #hebrides #OldNorse

www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/... ehutb.ehu.eus/video/69af10... @rhunedhel.bsky.social I imagine you're aware of this. The author just posted it on the Fantasy at Glasgow FB group

'Did Nobody Die? Rousay and Egilsay Kirk Sessions 1733-1747.' Join us to explore the fascinating world of 18th-century Rousay & Egilsay #Orkney UHI Institute for Northern Studies Public Seminar is to be held @uhiorkney.bsky.social & online 28/04/26 5.30pm tinyurl.com/2ncrktem

Attempting to write a refhvarfabróðir ‘the brother of fox-turns’ verse.* Currently sitting at zero words *"The antitheses occur at the end of each even line and are separated by one syllable (not adjacent as in refhvǫrf)." skaldic.org/m.php?p=vers...

Vibe coded an Esperanto reading tool. Chunks up books from Project Gutenberg into sections of ~400 words and lets you add words as flashcards. Pulls definitions from Wiktionary using a built-in dictionary to help search for compounds that aren't on wiki yet and uses Ido if there's no eo

Planets and Bright Stars xkcd.com/3219/

Hello. I’ve finished The Meece’s interpretation of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. *collapses in a heap* (If anyone can advise on iPad colour settings to put a kind of old fashioned green tinge to it I’d be very grateful because Lightroom doesn’t want to do anything for free any more.)

No place like home. Near Berst Ness, Westray, Orkney.

One day we'll see Kirkcudbright back

I've realsed GIS QucickLook, a macOS app that enables Finder to display previews of your GIS files, such as ESRI shape (.shp) files and GeoJSON files. Your file icons now show the corresponding maps! See github.com/rdmpage/gis-... (note that installation requires one extra step) #GISChat

The video for Welcome To My Island really does have something for everyone, including fans of the Chimera of Arezzo youtu.be/hxgcz_6GKX0