Rebecca Tickell

1016 years ago, on the 8th of March 1010, Persian poet Ferdowsi completed the epic poem Shahnameh. In the longest epic poem by a single author, the Shahnameh handles the mythical and historic past of Iran from creation until the Muslim conquest. #otd #history 🗃️

Campaign seeks 50 objects to ‘take the heat’ out of Englishness debate Billy Bragg, Caroline Lucas and Kojo Koram among those encouraging people to share cultural artefacts

Englishness: as represented by objects*

For me:
Stories - folk and fairy tales: e.g. Fi-Fi-Fo-Fum
Green - wood; patchwork fields; hedgerow; marsh
Stone - abbeys; castles; barrows

What about you? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

*objects are not always physical

Spotted a scarlet elf cup on my stroll through the marsh the other day, no #hedgehogs 🦔 though 🦔 🦔 Beautiful work
#Spring #Fungi

Childhood reading leaves scars.
When I was lounging on the sofa, watching Scooby-Doo, I always had the uneasy feeling that my school holidays should look like this instead
#WorldBookDay

Artist: AN Buchanan

Palm oil is the leading cause of orangutan decline and affects 193 threatened species worldwide.

The government cannot ignore this. Stronger action is urgently needed.

#ProtectNature #Deforestation

Full response 👉 hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2026-0...

I also agree that support should be matched to need; however, this doesn’t address the point Prof. Frith is making.

Categories need to be clearly defined for them to considered useful. If the process of judging - or assessing - is too subjective then the categories are likely meaningless.

Isn’t this subjectivity problematic?

To make a judgement as to whether someone is autistic or not requires categorisation. If this process is too subjective then the category collapses.

I don’t know. It was a genuine question. I have absolutely no idea where the boundary lies or how one decides - for themselves and also for other people.

How far from neurotypical would someone need to be to be categorised as neurodivergent?

Is #autism a spectrum?

The problem with categorisation is that clear definitions are needed and as soon as these definitions become looser - more accommodating of difference - they lose their usefulness. I think Prof. Frith is absolutely right; we are all neurodiverse.

#EduSky

The keystone from Abbot William’s shrine at Rievaulx Abbey, #NorthYorkshire
#BlueSkyArtShow
#Round
#AgnusDei
#Photography

Fascinating article.
May be of interest to folks following @chatbiology.bsky.social

This should be a wake-up call for Labour. I certainly think it will provide a catalyst for the leadership challenges to come out into the open.

The good news? It demonstrates the electorate is prepared to vote tactically to keep the far right out.

Well done to Hannah Spencer @greenparty.org.uk

Bayesians assemble

For me it has to be the persimmon. They taste of nothingness; think water holding onto a memory of sweetness that lies far far away. A close second would be dragon fruit, but at least they look good.

‘Tis the season in #Yorkshire

#Rhubarb looked far too good to miss yesterday. Crumble all prepped and ready for the oven this evening (will post a pic later if I remember).
Custard, cream or ice cream - how do you eat yours?

#Pudding

#stunday #urbangaze #eastcoastkin #neon #artshow #shops #carpark #photographersofbluesky #photography

Yorkshire's 'mysterious' starling murmurations caught on camera Yorkshire's murmurations are a

How to feel connected to nature – join the dance #murmuration

Although this article is focused on #Yorkshire, another great place to visit is RSPB Leighton Moss.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is very funny- well done to the SM team at Bedford Council*

*although I’ve never heard anyone wishing someone a ‘Happy Lent’ before. Is that even a ‘thing’?

For me, one glaring omission: our humanness; we are humans, e.g., where is the affective in all of this? As an aside, what exactly does this figure mean? “DD” a lone “B” … smells like genAI to me 😶

The #AICaricature #GPT trend has hopefully reached its zenith on LinkedIn.

The #AISlop introducing each image, extolling the virtues of using AI for generating this nonsense, is nauseating. The prevalence shows just how far genAI has become a part of people’s lives since Nov 2022. Novelty sells.

I think you’d like this:

Bradford student receives full scholarship to study at Harvard University Tina Chawira from New College Bradford wins a full Harvard scholarship to study government and East Asian studies, inspiring Bradford students’…

An alumni of the Sutton Trust Fulbright US Programme has secured a full scholarship to study at Harvard! 🥳

Tina, who is from Keighley, is set to begin a joint degree in government and East Asian studies at the Ivy League university.

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/2582651...

Congratulations Tina!

I think one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen were captive Beluga whales. It still sickens me to think I actually bought a ticket.

Zoos at risk under strain of cost pressures BBC research finds 40% of accredited zoos and aquariums raised financial concerns since 2022.

Zoos. I’ve changed my mind about them. Now the negatives outweigh the positives. Elephants have absolutely no place in them that’s for sure.
It’s incredibly cruel; however, they’re needed, with the other megafauna, to bring the people in.

Would I care if the majority of zoos closed? Not really.

The power of Bayesian reasoning | The Royal Society YouTube video by The Royal Society

You might not know it, but you probably use Bayesian reasoning every day. But what exactly is it? Professor David Spiegelhalter explains in our latest video with BBCIdeas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pnlExzbNqE

There’s a risk that LLMs will eat themselves:

“Previous research has shown that LLMs tend to “collapse” and produce gibberish when the dataset contains too much uncurated AI-generated data, which reduces the diversity of things an AI model can learn from.”

Beautiful #Imbolc