Anna Macleod

How far back in time can you understand English? An experiment in language change

This is super interesting.

The last one I can read fluently is 1600.

I can then still read it and figure out (almost) every word, with some puzzling, but then lose it almost completely at 1200.

www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

‘Is university still worth it?’ is the wrong question The graduate earnings premium isn’t really measuring what most people think

Turns out (says @jburnmurdoch.ft.com) it's not so much an oversupply of graduates in the UK (the same would be true of other similar countries but it's not) as an undersupply of the kind of jobs that a better-performing, more productive economy would supply.

👀 Well!

Do entry level baking (let them lick the spoon) then pull on wellies and let them run in the rain. Take them to the closest swimming pool to tire them out, and they have their baking to eat later. It can be a lovely day!

Aberdeenshire atomic bomb bunker hosting unique Valentine’s Day experience The secret 1950s site is gaining renewed interest and attracting visitors as it highlights a hidden chapter on the North Sea coastline.

It's not exactly a conventional Valentine's Day experience, but, on February 14, a group of people will visit the atomic bomb shelter at Bervie Brow on the north-east coast. It's a remarkable place, a throwback to the 1950s when Cold War tensions were high!

www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle...

🌧️ En los primeros ocho días de febrero se han acumulado en España 75 mm. Es una cifra cuatro veces superior al valor normal de ese período.

➡️ En poco más de una semana ya ha llovido casi un 50 % más de lo que suele llover en un mes de febrero completo.

Just did a quick tally of how many tickets are left on the WRU web for Wales v France on Sunday. I make it 16,638, which is more than a fifth of the Principality's capacity.

Grim times.

YouTube video by The Saltire Society Saltire Sessions: Gerda Stevenson

Saltire Sessions: Gerda Stevenson

The Saltire Society talks to Gerda Stevenson – actress, writer, director & musician – about storytelling, the Scots language, loss, & Gerda’s new #shortstory collection CAT WUMMIN, published by @luathpress.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l93G...

By-election bar charts, off-licence edition

Received this text message from my father yesterday. Panicked that he had had a stroke, or similar.
Turns out it was my iPhone trying to transcribe the Irish language.

This is why Shakespeare is the greatest genius who ever lived. And this is just from a few pages he wrote in someone else's play.

This video brought tears to my eyes.A dad has been waiting for son Ivan to return from Russian captivity for over 3yrs

Today,he received the message
(families of Ukrainians in Russian captivity often gather when news of an exchange appear,hoping today their loved ones will finally return home)
📹TSN

They were so desperate for him to be!

Driver billed for circling Earth 25 times at the speed of sound - RÚV.is A coach driver in Egilsstaðir flatly refuses to pay nearly ISK 20.000.000 for (allegedly) driving almost a million kilometres in January. This would mean his coach circling the Earth 25 times at the s...

Breaking news about the new driving taxes in Iceland

Some truly fantastic pun work in the replies here...

This is a post about animal excrement and the English language.

bull$#!% = nonsense/lies
chicken$#!% = petty or cowardly
horse$#!% = nonsense/lies
dog$#!%= low quality
ape$#!% = wild
bat$#!%= crazy

Ordered above from oldest to newest: bull$#!% (1914), bat$#!% (1971).

Meet Hereditary Peer Lord Hampton – The Only Serving Teacher In Parliament Lord Hampton, believed to be the only serving teacher in Parliament, tells Matilda Martin of a life divided between the work bench and the crossben...

This is great: Meet Hereditary Peer Lord Hampton – The Only Serving Teacher In Parliament www.politicshome.com/news/article...

A wonderful photo of STAN LAUREL at his Santa Monica home in 1961 with his Lifetime Achievement Oscar.

(check out the ‘Mona Lisa’ over his right shoulder)

A single Mars chocolate from an assortment tub

Being sold for THREE POUNDS

an incredible listing on Vinted, supreme game

Jeffrey Epstein sent £10,000 to Mandelson’s husband, emails show Epstein sent Reinaldo Avila da Silva payment in 2009

I'm not prone to exaggeration but this is probably the biggest scoop I've ever been involved in

Mandelson's partner took £10,000 from Epstein to pay for his osteopath course while Mandelson was de facto UK deputy prime minister, according to new files

more to follow

www.ft.com/content/c950...

Scotland's first deputy first minister Lord Jim Wallace dies, aged 71 The former Scottish Liberal Democrat leader was undergoing a procedure at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

Really sad to learn of this. Jim was a really kind man. Generous with his time, and driven by duty. Steely in an understated way. A real loss.

I came across Jim in several capacities. Political. Legal. Spiritual. Academic. Always unfailingly decent and fair minded. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

‘My kids buy me food’: civil service pensioners offered emergency loans as nearly 90,000 face delays Government to lend up to £10,000 to worst-affected new retirees as minister admits there is ‘unacceptable’ backlog Newly retired civil servants say they are struggling to pay bills and buy food because delays at their pension scheme have left them without an income for months. Pensioners have reported being forced to borrow money from family to pay for food and heating, with some saying they feared losing their homes because they could not afford their rent or mortgage. Continue reading...

‘My kids buy me food’: civil service pensioners offered emergency loans as nearly 90,000 face delays

This is very correct

Pregnant, 19 and facing down a mutiny: how did Mary Ann Patten steer her way into seafaring lore? Finding herself in charge of her sick husband’s clipper, a self-taught working-class teenager overcame storms, icebergs and a disloyal first mate to get her ship to safety

Pregnant, 19 and facing down a mutiny: how did Mary Ann Patten steer her way into seafaring lore?

Quilt art with image of purple baseball boots

Poem text

'When I Am Old I Shall Wear Purple' quilt art by textile artist/quilter Nancy Messier is named after the 1st line of the poem 'Warning" by Jenny Joseph, about fearless nonconformity and the liberation of older age #womensart

At the in-house laundry at Tickhill Road Hospital, staff are washing more than patient gowns and bed sheets. Since last March, the hospital has been running a free service for people in Doncaster who lack access to washing facilities and are preparing for job interviews. For those who do not have suitable clothes, the South Yorkshire hospital has also created a “community wardrobe”, enabling local residents to borrow suits to help them present themselves more professionally. “Some people might say this is ludicrous, that the NHS is subsidising interviews,” said Steve Forsyth, Tickhill Road Hospital’s chief nursing officer who helped create the initiatives. “But we have a responsibility to the community. This is preventive work, as employment links to physical and mental health.”

The rise of the ‘National Health State’ - fascinating stuff from @laurahughesft.bsky.social and @amyborrett.ft.com. Calls to mind teachers bringing in food, toiletries and clothes for pupils, albeit on a less institutionalised basis. (Source: www.ft.com/content/cb76...)

Revealed: a rotting illegal waste site belongs to the King’s royal estate It's been called one of the most dangerous illegal waste sites in the country - a huge 25,000 tonne dump of rubbish located next to a row of houses and a primary school near Wigan.

top work by Alex Thomson ..

This is excellent news, although following on from both Mary Berry and Prue Leith, she has some pretty big Chouxs to fill.

YouTube video by dinnatouch Pea & Ham, from a chicken - Knorr stock cube advert

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMnl...

Great journalist and what a voice.