Some discussion in my lab today about whether Arabic stops are aspirated, like in English, or unaspirated, like in Polish. Colleague googled it, and accepted the Google summary statement that they are not.

Since I did do my PhD in cyanobacteria growth and treatment optimization modeling AND work in the water treatment industry, I’m gonna share my theory as to what’s happening here and how to fix it. People are focusing on the painted bottom of the pool increasing residual heat, and while that 1/19

"So, if I use ChatGPT you think less of me?" Yep. Hope this helps.

They paved it, the motherfuckers.

So, a propos of my recent nib haul, I decided to properly orgnanize them, label them, and test them. We're talking buying special bead organizers from hobbycrafts, level of organizing LOOKIT MY NIBS!!! (not shown: two full-gross boxes of vintage nibs, which are perfectly fine as they are.)

♥️🧡💛🐍💙💜

All smiles knowing tomorrows the weekend🥰🐾

So, a propos of my recent nib haul, I decided to properly orgnanize them, label them, and test them. We're talking buying special bead organizers from hobbycrafts, level of organizing LOOKIT MY NIBS!!! (not shown: two full-gross boxes of vintage nibs, which are perfectly fine as they are.)

Hi, friends, a little extra boost for this review. I found a gem of a self-published book that really deserves more eyes on it, and I wrote a review of it on Nerds of a Feather in the hopes of doing exactly that.

Students need to remember that Inigo Montoya method for emails and greetings: "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Polite Greeting Name Relevant Personal Link Manage Expectations Keep it BRIEF.

OK so I tried to read Atlas Shrugged and I literally threw it across the room because one of the main characters was trying to make steel for train track rails MORE RIGID. Rigidity is NOT a desirable quality in rails! They're highly elastic! They need to flex as 100s of tons of axle weight passes!

Cast of Laocoön and his Sons (Roman version of a lost Greek original), 100BC-50AD Original post

The last working ochre mine in the U.K, Clearwell Caves in the Forest of Dean, where colour has been mined for 4,500 years. A beautiful range is still mined & milled there: yellow ochre, red ochre (Terra Rosa d’Inghilterra), brown ochre, & rarer purple ochre, akin to ‘caput mortuum’.

I was reviewing a paper this week, which definitely had some AI-tinged flavour to some of the sentences. (NB: not, like, a fake paper or anything. Just someone had pretty obviously run their prose through a robot.) And I was instantly struck by how much it immediately felt like student writing.

Centuries later, and still I feel a visceral satisfaction looking at that squashed bloodsucker. (Thread up and down for more examples, but none so pleasing as this one.)

Hercules and Nessus, by Giambologna, 1599 Original post

Good morning, class, can we say 'Streisand effect'? arstechnica.com/science/2026...

Job looking fed up, and being poked in the foot by a demon. BL Harley 2803; the 'Worms Bible'; 12th century; Germany; f.288v @blmedieval.bsky.social

This is fucking amazing art for a fucking amazing book and I love people and writers and artists and THIS IS THE WORLD WE NEED!!!

Hey -- if you take this recipe, add allspice and cloves, 1/3 cup aquafaba (whipped frothy first), and an extra quarter cup of flour, it makes a fantastic cookie that doesn't even taste vegan. www.loveandlemons.com/molasses-coo...

us, lightly touching a document: I just need to move you so I can make sure you're properly supported on this table the document, the pages enormous: you SHOVE document? you throw the vellum like a paper aeroplane? oh! oh! jail for archivist! jail for archivist for One Thousand Years!!!!

🟡🟠🔴 Just stumbled upon a great gradient/color palette generator by @obumbratta.com: obumbratta.com/colour It's inspired by Gregor Aisch's Color Palette Helper (gka.github.io/palettes/#/9...) and brings it to the next level with a color plot, contrast ratios, and different color spaces. 📊

Time to make a Starter Pack for “Academics Who Refuse to Let AI Write for Them”?

Y'all. Please remember the artists that drew these things when sending around memes. I feel for these artists who NEVER get credited for these (and some, nowadays, are even being accused of being AI!) Here's a few common ones I see (feel free to add others, I want this to be a living thread): 🧵

Holy forking shirtballs, my friends, I just won an ebay auction of vintage pen nibs, and when they arrived in the mail they proved to contain not one, not two, not three, but FOUR (4!!) unused (UNUSED!!) Gillott Principalities. FOUR UNUSED GILLOTT PRINCIPALITIES! LOOK! PICS BECAUSE IT HAPPENED!

As a general rule, I don't believe in gatekeeping art appreciation, but the fact remains that there are right ways and wrong ways to appreciate calligraphy. And one of the absolute wrongest wrong ways is to point out spelling errors.

This is really astonishing. I strongly recommend perusing the website, which is very well designed. Direct link to the artifact displays here: belowthesurface.amsterdam/en/rokin/

Good morning, class, can you say Streisand Effect? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Over on tumblr, some beautiful words moved me to break out the copperplate.

Turns out that lots of what we think we know about manuscript colour preparation might be a Chortlemuffin effect. majnouna.substack.com/p/false-red-...

It is the last Friday of the month, which means the Cathach of Columcille (RIA MS 12 R 33) is on display from 10am - 4.30pm. The Cathach is the oldest extant Irish manuscript of the Psalter and very likely the earliest example of the form of Irish writing known as insular majuscule script.

A propos of sharing genuine, human art, here are some sketches and eventual painted copies I made of the beautiful stencils in the drawing room of Holmwood House.

Got cute about Seddon’s 1695 “Pen-mans Paradis,” which I got to hang out with at the San Francisco Public Library last month

A propos of sharing genuine, human art, here are some sketches and eventual painted copies I made of the beautiful stencils in the drawing room of Holmwood House.

Unhinged, yes but in the BEST POSSIBLE WAY, omg.

Cheers to my student who wrote on their final exam code screenshot for an #Rstats course: dfAB <- length(variableA)-2 # (It's 5-2 which is 3 but why use brain when R do trick)

Last batch of marking for the semester, and I swear, if you ever want to feel validated, just type "nutella with a spoon" in the search bar.

I bought a jar of Nutella for holiday baking but we’re at the point in the semester where I’m standing at the countertop eating Nutella with a spoon

I largely agree with this. My university has, like many others, been trying to come up with solutions. An early one involved a workshop about making our teaching 'authentic' and 'inclusive', which would, they assured us, remove the incentives to cheat.

Excel in the UK: The glass is the 1st of February.

I'm pleased to report that this is also an excellent dinner!

Fresshhh newww potssss www.roseschmits.com Free UK shipping, worldwide shipping available

I love this so much. The shading on the faces, thee arch of Left Guy's foot, the dramatic colour contrasts picking out the folds of the cloaks, the way the artist decided it was Very Important to highlight the callipygous arse of the blond guy on the right...

more shronks

The Ambassadors, by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533, 📸 by @jp_lavs Original post