This is pleasing.

"Don't Engage, Just Block" is praxis

I see some of you dragging a shit take from the fascist site over here to dunk on it, a) why are you still on the fascist site to find that shit, b) why are dropping shit onto this site, c) when you dunk on it you just give it a new audience. Leave shitty fascist takes on the shitty fascist site.

Hell this morning has another deeply surprised soul

I have never been! Look at that crowd!

I got permission to share this, and I'm extremely grateful for that. The Onion got this letter from one of our subscribers in Alaska. She works with dementia patients and decided to leave a copy in the car for each one. This email made my year. Read it and you'll see what I mean. People are good.

One of my favorites #MosaicMonday

Keiser’s OCTAVIA at the Boston Early Music Festival! Always fun to hear a new (to me) opera. Can’t wait!

Babel: A Brief Review Babel by R. F. Kuang Wow. I'm not sure what I expected but it wasn't this. This is a Nebula-winning book and probably would have won the Hugo too if the Chinese government had not 'disqualified' it. It's ostensibly about a group of young people who are trained at Oxford to be…

One of my favorite places in the World.

(it also ignores that people, particularly young people, can change, sometimes radically, and quickly. That rule-follower you admit can become a rule-smasher overnight, and good for them when they do)

Well, shit, I wouldn't have made it into the University of Chicago under this policy, and considering that I became the editor of the school newspaper and then the student ombudsperson for the university, maybe that would have been their loss.

I went to the opera this weekend! Here's a very short review of John Adams' "Antony and Cleopatra".

A long-awaited labor of love, essay collection by me and Jo @bluejo.bsky.social collecting essays on the history of science fiction & fantasy, the craft of writing, and what genre is and does. A rich read for anyone who enjoys thinking about what makes the books we love so great!

Awesome.

Reading about the first Italian madrigals today and stunned to find that Machiavelli wrote the very first texts, purposefully for music to be sung as intermedi between the acts of his comedies 'La Clizia' and 'La mandragola'. @adapalmer.bsky.social. Here’s the opening music for 'La Clizia' 1525:

Via a mailing list I'm on: an academic dispute over the number of penises depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/04/28/m...

I have no doubt the lecture fell on unlistening ears and an unwilling mind. Our vice president was there purely for a photo op with the Pope. He got it, and sadly for our vice president, that's all he will take away from meeting a better man than he. It's all he was capable of taking away from it.

For #MosaicMonday we travel to Herculaneum and the gorgeous fresco that gives its name to the location: the House of Neptune and Amphitrite. The divinities pose while elegantly draped in light blue cloth while surrounded by stunning patterns. #AncientBluesky🏺

#MosaicMonday - A mosaic of theatrical masks - one tragic, the other comic. A pair of flutes lean behind them, casting delicate shadows on the wall. Discovered on the Aventine Hill: ca. 2nd Century AD. #Roman #Art 🏺 Image: Musei Capitolini (MC0392). Link - museicapitolini.org/en/percorsi/...

#MosaicMonday - The masterful 'Aion Mosaic' from Arles. Surrounded by Tritons, Nereids, and Erotes, Aion - holding a zodiacal wheel - dominates the central panel of this triclinium floor: ca. Early 3rd Century. #Archaeology #Art 🏺 Image: Musée de l'Arles et de la Provence antiques

www.cbsnews.com/news/concert... Very talented young musicians. Cheers to the retired musicians who helped make it happen.

AncientBlueSky 🏺 Ancient Egyptian burial chamber in the tomb of Nebenmaat and his wife. at Deir El Medina.who They lived sometime during the reign of Ramesses II during the New Kingdom (1279–1213 BC). #Archaeology #History #TombTuesday #Egypt #art #painting

Wow

Amazing

During the Iron Age in Europe, chickens were venerated, not food. The earliest chickens are unbutchered and many were buried with people. It was the Roman Empire that helped to popularise them as food. 5/9 📷 National Museum of Rome, by C. Raddato / CC BY-SA 2.0

In my book Between Two Rivers, I dedicate a chapter to the origin of rule by a single person and ideas about the quintessential king in ancient Mesopotamia. I also explore queens, including the very enigmatic Ku-Bau, a tavern-keeper turned queen in the ancient city of Kish.

Detail of floor mosaic - 1 century AD. National Archaeological Museum Aquileia. The bow motif connects ivy and vine branches, referring to the cult of Dionysus. #art #Archaeology #Italy #History 🏺 AncientBlueSky 📷: Ottone Porfirogenito.

#Earlymusic brings us together, since exploring long forgotten or ignored repertoire requires communities of knowledge and of specialized practice. The late soprano Deborah Roberts took this ideal to the highest level, connecting amateurs and professionals on both sides of the Atlantic.

Like many other here, they were just happy I was reading. I read books with explicit sex, books way over my head (The Inferno!), fantasy and SF, no policing ever. They knew I’d figure it all out and they were right.

The streets of #Roman #Pompeii after a rainstorm... #Archaeology #RomanArchaeology AncientBlueSky

I used Dvorak for several years in the early home computer days. I finally gave up because I had to use computers at work and who can swap easily between two different keyboard systems?

I haven’t posted anything for a while. Mi dispiace. Here’s the Duo Seraphim from the 1610 Vespers with its two - no wait three! - tenors.

Ancient Egyptian gold finger-ring set with a mouse amulet inscribed with the cartouche of Thutmose III. Gold and glazed steatite. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, 1479-1425 BC Squeak squeak Thutmouse! 🐭 📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti... #Archaeology

Gorgeous #Roman glass cups decorated with colourful enamel-painted animals from the Roman arena, AD 200s. Found in richly-furnished ‘princely’ graves in Denmark, where they are known as ‘circus beakers’. National Museum of Denmark. 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology

"AI" is, purely, a marketing term and a (poor) umbrella phrase for a number of different types of computerized statistical analysis, iteration and synthesis. If something is being touted as "AI" to me, it's because someone wants me to buy it, and also I probably don't need it.

Oh yes, Homer’s famous “Tes Thdpssssps.” 👍🏻

Works as advertised

#OTD in 1904. Italian composer Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly premiered at La Scala in Milan to poor reviews, forcing him to revise the opera. This was due in part to a late completion by Puccini, which gave inadequate time for rehearsals. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madama_... #music #opera

Helvetia. #PlaymobilInfestation

#AncientSiteSunday - The imposing Stadium at Messene in the Peloponnese. In use from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD, it has a horseshoe shape, is 182m long, and features 19 rows of seats. The stadium was used by athletes, but during the Roman period, it was used to watch gladiator fights.

WOW, I crossed 15k followers! I'm really happy to see such a large community of archaeology enthusiasts on Bluesky! Thank you all so much! The stunning mummy portrait of Eirene is one of the few mummy portraits that bears an inscription. It mentions the deceased as well as her parents. 🧵1/2 📷 me 🏺

A face from the past. A 12th century Hiberno-Romanesque head incorporated into a wall at Kilteel Church, Kildare.

Galileo Galilei was born #OTD in 1564. One of the key figures of the scientific revolution, his name is associated with important contributions in physics and astronomy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo... At PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho... #books #science #mathematics #astronomy

Well someone's got to do it - it's #WorldHippoDay! In MANN National Archaeological Museum Naples, from House of the Faun, Pompeii

Update update: 24 hours in and aside from a sore left arm, easily managed by ibuprofen, no real aches or fatigue. I feel lucky. But even if both vaccines kicked my ass this weekend, it would have been worth it. Get your shots, y'all!

Crazy day at work and I don’t care that I’ve posted this before; I need cheering up. So here’s a mosaic of a rabbit driving a chariot pulled by ducks. Good day to you all.

It's #DarwinDay, the year 2025. And (sad to say) this insight from the 1870s is more relevant than ever.

Don't trust consumer-facing "AI" for anything