Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes

a girl wearing glasses holds her hands to her face ALT: a girl wearing glasses holds her hands to her face

Going to have three exciting things to (hopefully) share before the year is out!

(To clarify, I think spokesperson could still have made a dismissing statement eg "we don't recognise that depiction")

On repeat, for the next 12 months

I speak as I find...
Just haven't seen any applications in this specific context that are genuinely good

I don't actually think that trying to get the Prime Minister to publicly go after Trump for egregious comments, when UK is right in the middle of trying lead on Ukraine & future of European security without the US, is a good use of journalists' time?

📚

Congratulations!
(Your achievement gives me hope to reach this point again too!)

Not sure it's a valid comparison, but the result is unclean laundry that you then must handwash...

My point isn't that no #AI functionality is useful ever, but that gen-AI for complex writing & artistic output, especially in sci comm where accuracy is paramount, is not worthwhile or appropriate.

That part in your piece really stuck with me and resonates with how we frame evidence for aggression in deeper human history, typically as being about social conflict or bellicosity from active agents, when in fact adding in conformity makes it read rather differently

Sounds exciting!

How interesting! My grandfather also kept loving opera and Italy!

🗃️ Obviously it wasn't all Verdi & geological excitements - my grandfather Clarence "Tiger" Wragg also got malaria twice, narrowly avoided losing a leg to a mine - his friend wasn't so lucky - and was at Monte Cassino with the Poles... who got him very drunk.

(text below from family memoir)

Fun times* having to correct on broadcast a series one was actually professionally involved in...

*not in fact fun

🗃️ Obviously it wasn't all Verdi & geological excitements - my grandfather Clarence "Tiger" Wragg also got malaria twice, narrowly avoided losing a leg to a mine - his friend wasn't so lucky - and was at Monte Cassino with the Poles... who got him very drunk.

(text below from family memoir)

Photo of front of a bronze oblong shield, with central raised boss in an elongated oval, including red enamel inlays in curvilinear forms.

Close-up of shield boss.

Close-up of lower part of shield design, including engraved spirals, and zoomorphic features.

🏺🏛️ Witham shield, Middle Iron Age, River Thames

(pic taken at British Museum)

🏺🗃️ 🏛️ Went to the BM last week (spent 4 HOURS just in late prehistory galleries ❤️), will share many wonders, but starting with a cute, beautifully worked flint which a v. friendly volunteer had out for visitors to handle.

nice to see this!

This place does feel like it's achieved nearly all the good stuff without much of the crap.
BUT advertising was the start of the decay at twitter and bluesky team need to avoid the same monetisation mistakes.

Thinking of the generations who not only went up against Nazis but found their lives & horizons transformed via foundation of EU, and before that through unexpected travel & cultural awakenings during the war
(my grandfather heard opera for the first time in Valletta, and saw Vesuvius erupting)

Photo of front of a bronze oblong shield, with central raised boss in an elongated oval, including red enamel inlays in curvilinear forms.

Close-up of shield boss.

Close-up of lower part of shield design, including engraved spirals, and zoomorphic features.

🏺🏛️ Witham shield, Middle Iron Age, River Thames

(pic taken at British Museum)

👇 @proffrancesca.bsky.social is brilliant and her book God: An Anatomy is just superb merging texts & histories and archaeology 📚🏺

If journalists/media asked this fundamental Q of what they're actually trying to do, and then doggedly unpicked the responses, it would be extremely useful

[also, can't find an active British Museum account on here, are they really still using twitter?]

🏺🗃️ 🏛️ Went to the BM last week (spent 4 HOURS just in late prehistory galleries ❤️), will share many wonders, but starting with a cute, beautifully worked flint which a v. friendly volunteer had out for visitors to handle.

Useful review!

Photo showing room with black walls, inside which are the remains of a Roman temple of Mithras. Clever lighting & mist system re-creates spectral walls.

À different view looking down the length of the Mithraeum, with a glass image of the god at the end

View of the interior wall remains, and the light 'wall' above, where the mist is swirling.

View down into part of the lower sections of the Mithraeum, where apparent wood remains are found (probably due to waterlogging in the Walbrook valley where the site was).

🏺 Returning from London trip packed full of joys - masses of #archaeology, a wonderful meeting with a new artistic collaborator, and a Proper Night Out thanks to @iandunt.bsky.social

Pics from a sacred space of martial masculinity... not a Soho members club but the Roman Mithraeum cult temple

Photo of panelled wooden Roman door, with a wooden pivot at one corner.

Photo of small piece of wooden writing tablet with the word "LONDINIO" scratched into it.

Photo of four metal fibula brooches, with intricate decoration.

Photo of two leather shoe soles, for narrow very small feet.

🏺 As well as this, the Mithraeum has an #Archaeology Wall full of little delights - children's shoes, hinges, writing tablets (first mention of London!) brooches, coins- and one big marvel: half a wooden Roman door, looking like it wouldn't be out of place in a house today.

Photo showing room with black walls, inside which are the remains of a Roman temple of Mithras. Clever lighting & mist system re-creates spectral walls.

À different view looking down the length of the Mithraeum, with a glass image of the god at the end

View of the interior wall remains, and the light 'wall' above, where the mist is swirling.

View down into part of the lower sections of the Mithraeum, where apparent wood remains are found (probably due to waterlogging in the Walbrook valley where the site was).

🏺 Returning from London trip packed full of joys - masses of #archaeology, a wonderful meeting with a new artistic collaborator, and a Proper Night Out thanks to @iandunt.bsky.social

Pics from a sacred space of martial masculinity... not a Soho members club but the Roman Mithraeum cult temple

Photo taken at night in urban setting, the metal framework of a gas tower dominates, the moon is behind, bisetced by the central strut. In the distan6is a high-rise block with some lights on.

Caged moon last night, taken from London bus