I feel like maybe some people are skipping over the bit where Helen of Troy was HATCHED FROM AN EGG. I'll just leave this depiction from Metaponto here in case anyone needs it. (Photo by @diffendale.bsky.social)

Exciting news for folks interested in #lateantiquity and #GIS. AWMC's map of Hierokles' Synekdemos (offline since 2023) has now been refurbished and relaunched. Special thanks to Grace Bell for *lots* of heavy lifting on this project. experience.arcgis.com/experience/4...

america's reactionaries would love nothing more to nullify the reconstruction amendments and render them a dead letter of the constitution. this was as true in 1873 as it is today.

The rule appears to be that redistricting is always legal when it benefits Republicans and never legal when it benefits Democrats.

Critically: You must INTENTIONALLY REQUEST expedited processing by including a letter with your citizenship request explaining your situation, along with supporting documentation.

off to Edinburgh to talk about quarries, if all goes well

Historical research does not need to be done faster or in greater volume for any social or intellectual purpose whatever; if anything, it needs to be done more slowly and deliberately than at present, by people allowed the training, time, space, and resources to do it that way.

do you understand how historical research works? Search engines are only a part of it. I use physical indexes, and physical sources in three out five archives I frequent. And that is not going to change.

May God bless the 150,000 incarcerated mothers nationwide today.

happy day to those who mother, who have mothered, who want to mother

“We, the creators of the Torment Nexus, are now suing the writers of the classic science fiction novel ‘Don’t Create the Torment Nexus.’”

a couple of days ago

a couple of days ago

"Non è vero... ma ci credo!"

Britain represents cheap but deeply meaningful low-hanging fruit in a global culture war, and I don't think we have really understood that yet

Oh my. This is spectacular. sinceyouarrived.world/taken

today's Akkadian phrase is uznum rapaštum "understanding, intelligence" lit. "a wide ear" we are lucky enough to have it show up in one of the (100 BC–100 AD?) "Greco-Babylonian" student tablets as οζον ραφασθ at a stage where Babylonian had lost final short vowels.

when in doubt, map it out

A man walks towards the steelworks in Hartlepool in 1963 by Don McCullin. Industrial scenes like this had a grim majesty to them. I love everything about this photo, it is a masterful capture of a bygone age.

Re-upping this to remind everyone that this statue--part of our best evidenced dedication on the Athenian Acropolis in the late Archaic period--is on display at the Acropolis Museum in Athens. If you're traveling through this summer, check her out! Meanwhile, here's the open access article

Arno here is often so sluggish that the gentle libeccio sends water rippling back towards Florence. When it rains and the wind dies the river's a spotted grey mirror that forgot to reflect. Only when swollen, or worse, can you catch sight of the old god, mind made up, making haste for the sea

Arno here is often so sluggish that the gentle libeccio sends water rippling back towards Florence. When it rains and the wind dies the river's a spotted grey mirror that forgot to reflect. Only when swollen, or worse, can you catch sight of the old god, mind made up, making haste for the sea

But you can bet I'm going to be calling things absolute horses from now on.

A new post on my wordpress blog, also available on Patreon.

"I think that's right!" -me, pleasantly surprised while sorting socks

oh this one is mine

Fireflies! Along The Arno

Read more about what we are up to in The Guardian! bsky.app/profile/cplu...

as I understand it the massive push is spurred by growing demand from "AI"/LLMs in their various forms, and, w/ a few useful exceptions, I understand those forms as basically brain- ethics- society-rotting snakeoil. So the alternative is... not building light industry for society-rotting snakeoil 🤷‍♂️

In 2012 I took a comp ling course that went deep into language models as AI. The professor dropped a quote that I think about probably once a week now: “building a computer model of language and expecting intelligence is like building a computer model of the ocean and expecting to get wet”

come work with me

Out today in Public Humanities: "Perhaps tellingly, the most popular page on the site is the only one that lacks any data—but does address public confusion about the term 'humanities.'" bit.ly/3Rm44xK

"Google Chrome is reaching into users' machines and writing a 4 GB on-device AI model file to disk without asking.... The only ways to make the deletion stick are to disable Chrome's AI features through chrome://flags or enterprise policy" www.thatprivacyguy.com/blog/chrome-... #AI #infosec

Die zwei Geschlechter: Holzhändler und Italienerin

see them now, before they're overrun by crews filming Inspector Morse knock-offs

AI will never be able to experience the pain of a Banger Post not landing.

Palestinian photographer Saher Alghorra was awarded the 2026 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news photography for documenting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. His photos are worth seeing, so here’s a gift link:

better still, live as though it didn't exist

My current top provocative wish there is a simple paragraph or two discussing how 6/10 of the most populous nations in the world have had legally & socially recognized 3rd (or more) genders for many centuries if not millennia. But "Judaism didn't stop when Christianity started" is a close 2nd.

This does still indicate an important gap between the conversations historians are having mostly with each other and what shows up in high school history textbooks, however.

Trying again: Instead of noting down #Qgis tricks and tips privately I'm going to do it here so maybe it can help other people too. First up: Prettier contours. 1/11 #GIS #cartography

Allison Krause, 19 Jeffrey Miller, 20 Sandra Lee Scheuer, 20 William Schroeder, 19

look at this photo of whitby harbour by frank meadow sutcliffe in the 1860s look at it incredible