Sue Wilkes

Green glass beaker

Glass 'funnel beaker' from #Viking-Age Birka grave Bj 854.

From the Carolingian region, such pieces were high-status signifiers due to the costs of importing delicate artefacts long distances, and their likely prominent role in elite feasting contexts.

My 📷 Ref. Historiska museet

Magdalen Green station #dundeewestend

At the start of last month, we posted a great photograph of Magdalen Green station from 1956 - the year it closed.

Continuing the theme and with thanks to Tom Millar and Dundonian History for All, this is a superb postcard from the heyday of the station.

👀👀

Meta buried 'causal' evidence of social media harm, US court filings allege Meta shut down internal research into the mental health effects of Facebook and Instagram after finding causal evidence that its products harmed users’ mental health, according to unredacted filings in a class action by U.S. school districts against Meta and other social media platforms.

Meta buried 'causal' evidence of social media harm, US court filings allege reut.rs/48eKxnO

Dispensing false information in a confident tone, rather than offering no answer when none is readily available, is a major flaw of generative AI, experts say. An audit of the top 10 generative AI models including ChatGPT, Gemini and Meta’s AI by the media literacy non-profit NewsGuard revealed that the non-response rates of chatbots went down from 31% in August 2024 to 0% in August 2025. At the same time, the chatbots’ likelihood of repeating false information almost doubled from 18% to 35%, NewsGuard found. None of the companies responded to NewsGuard’s request for a comment at the time.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

A pine marten.

"The first sighting of a pine marten in Studland, Dorset, in more than a century!" swanage.news/rare-and-end...

Wrens, Dipper and Grey Wagtail, illustration. Woodland watery scene.

Morning.
Dipper, wrens, grey wagtail, Alfred Brehm, 1913.

Every so often my @ is used in a post about the great US actor and comedian David Alan Grier.

This one is a corker.

Colour me surprised.

This month Sir Keir Starmer sought to win over a dozen FTSE 100 chiefs at a drinks party in Downing Street. He stressed the government's plans for deregulation and business' role in growing the economy, even as Number 10 was battling a briefing crisis over the prime minister's leadership. Steve Hare, head of software group Sage and an attendee, said the message from the bosses was "pretty consistent... government leaking of different options and creating uncertainty and anxiety is unhelpful to business". Nevertheless, a day after the party, where Tesco's Ken Murphy and Jennie Daly of Taylor Wimpey were also present, the Financial Times revealed Reeves and Starmer had abandoned manifesto-busting plans to raise income tax rates.

And who chose the date of the Budget and who has been briefing the media?

Rochdale chippy owners Jimmy and Elsie Greenwood with their coal-fired fryer, May 1973.

Titanic passenger's pocket watch fetches £1.78m at auction The watch belonged to the American businessman Isidor Straus, who died alongside his wife in the disaster.

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

How Jodrell Bank kept an eye on Cold War Soviet missile launches How did a giant radio telescope in Cheshire help the West monitor the Soviet Union's nuclear missiles?

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

Why do people think England flags have been raised on lampposts?

White adults
National pride: 26%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 49%
Both: 19%

Ethnic minority adults
National pride: 15%
Anti-migrant/minority sentiment: 55%
Both: 20%

yougov.co.uk/society/arti...

Update November 22. We’ve updated this article after realising we contributed to a perfect storm of misunderstanding around a recent change in the wording and placement of Gmail’s smart features. The settings themselves aren’t new, but the way Google recently rewrote and surfaced them led a lot of people (including us) to believe Gmail content might be used to train Google’s AI models, and that users were being opted in automatically. After taking a closer look at Google’s documentation and reviewing other reporting, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Gmail does scan email content to power its own “smart features,” such as spam filtering, categorisation, and writing suggestions. But this is part of how Gmail normally works and isn’t the same as training Google’s generative AI models. Google also maintains that these feature settings are opt-in rather than opt-out, although users’ experiences seem to vary depending on when and how the new wording appeared. It’s easy to see where the confusion came from. Google’s updated language around “smart features” is vague, and the term “smart” often implies AI—especially at a time when Gemini is being integrated into other parts of Google’s products. When the new wording started appearing for some users without much explanation, many assumed it signalled a broader shift. We’ve revised this article to reflect what we can confirm from Google’s documentation, as it’s always been our aim to give readers accurate, helpful guidance.

If you have been sharing that Malwarebytes article on the Gmail thing, you should note the giant correction up top.

www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

The coast of Swale Estuary in Kent, a mix of flotsam and jetsam washed up. Some examples of the colourfully unique or in life of the intertidal, Orange (Suberites sp), also called estuary sponge. A common find on the #swaleestuary, #Kent and the Lower #ThamesEstuary.

If you use GMail, AI (Gemini) was turned on yesterday by default and now scans all of your content for machine learning. To turn off, go to Settings>General and scroll down. Uncheck the box for "Smart features."

There's other "Smart" add-ons as well, but that's the one that reads your content.

Stunning historic black-and-white photograph from the 1921 Cairo Conference: a group of about a dozen British officials and experts, including Gertrude Bell (second from left, in hat and fur stole) and T.E. Lawrence (far right, in Arab headdress), pose on camels in front of the Great Sphinx and pyramids of Giza. The Sphinx’s face looms large directly behind the riders, with the Pyramid of Khafre rising in the backgrounb.

Cropped black-and-white 1921 photograph taken in the desert to highlight Winston Churchill (left, smiling in goggles and military coat), Gertrude Bell (center, wearing a large hat and fur stole, looking serious), and T.E. Lawrence “of Arabia” (right, in suit and tie) sitting on camels. In the full shot, the Sphinx and Pyramids are in the background.

Gertrude Bell, the "female Lawrence of Arabia," was an archaeologist, diplomat, adventurer, writer & more. She is best-known for helping to establish modern #Iraq after #WWI & creating the Baghdad Antiquities Museum (future national Iraq Museum).

winstonchurchill.org/publications...

CPRE Shropshire calls for winter hedge-planting volunteers - BBC News CPRE Shropshire wants volunteers to help plant more than 4km of hedges this winter.

CPRE Shropshire calls for winter hedge-planting volunteers - BBC News share.google/ksHAYfBmhDfk...

Left 'eye' view: A rock apparently composed of angular fragments of various sizes embedded in its matrix sits on the dusty surface of slope of Jezero crater rim. One face of this rough textured rock seems quite 'polished' reflecting reflecting the sun strongly at points

Right 'eye' view: A rock apparently composed of angular fragments of various sizes embedded in its matrix sits on the dusty surface of slope of Jezero crater rim. One face of this rough textured rock seems quite 'polished' reflecting reflecting the sun strongly at points

NASA Mars Perseverance Rover at Jezero crater
Sol 1,688 (19th Nov, 2025)

Nice chunk of breccia

MastCam-Z (left + right) ZCAM09775
Site 81 / 1418
📷 Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU / MSSS / Martian-Observer

Ardvrek Castle wall 'ripped down' for use as stepping stones Ardvrek Castle in Assynt is a 500-year-old former clan seat, and reputed to be haunted.

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

This, from the Guardian, is Ryanair at its very worst.

It's not good enough for them to insist that they're a low-cost airline and everyone knows the rules, in circumstances like this...

I wonder if legislation is needed?

It's #SteepleSaturday again, so here's our #ScottishChurchOfTheWeek, the wonderful @oldparishcors.bsky.social in Edinburgh

Its distinctive 15th century tower and truncated spire has survived relatively unscathed since the 15th century when it was built as a collegiate church by Sir Adam Forrester.

Side view of the bodice of a cream silk pelisse with high waist and military style silk braid. It has a matching belt and high collar

Front view of the long cream figured silk pelisse with high waist and braided decoration at the bodice

Back view of the long cream silk pelisse showing the gathers centre back of the waist

A fashion plate showing a lady wearing a yellow winter pelisse with fur trim

The pelisse, such a stylish approach to outerwear. During the #1810s the puff sleeves and braid decorations were a reminder of prevalent military matters, wrought in swirls of silk @metmuseum.org #FashionHistory 🗃️🪡

Researchers have analyzed the genome of a man in Egypt who lived around 2855 B.C., the earliest days of ancient Egyptian dynasties. His ancestry may settle some key disputes in archaeology …

archaeology.org/issues/november-december-2025/digs-discoveries/the-egyptian-sequence/

Fragmented remains of a bronze sword laid out on a dark surface, its blade hacked into multiple pieces. The broken segments show long, parallel ridges characteristic of the original blade, along with sections of the hilt and guard.

An intentionally destroyed #BronzeAge #sword found in a burial at Blaubeuren-Asch. Bronze Age weapons deposited in burials were often bent or hacked into pieces before placed into the grave, in this way they 'died' with the owner. Dating 9th century BC.

📷 Landesmuseum Württemberg

🏺

Frost-covered leaves, including a brown oak leaf and a vibrant orange leaf, nestled among green foliage.

Close-up of a branch with white blossoms, set against a blurred background of a garden under a clear blue sky.

Individual in a video conference mentioning Fen Orchids at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden.

A fox sitting among shrubs and grasses, looking attentively to the side, with red berries and a brick wall in the background.

🌟A very busy – and very cold – week in the Garden.

🌳A very special visit from a beautiful fox, sharing the news about the endangered Fen Orchid back from the brink of extinction, our first frosty mornings, installations going up for Cambridge Botanic Lights and our Winter Garden coming into bloom!

Foot and Mouth – The Killing Fields in Wales (2021) This documentary revisited the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak and ensuing animal cull in Wales, and its impact on the country’s farmers, in part through the prism of the recent COVID pandemic.

My new piece on the 2021 BBC documentary ‘Foot and Mouth - The Killing Fields in Wales’, and its revisiting of the impact of the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak and ensuing animal cull on the nation’s farmers. A 🧵 about the programme...

#skystorians #envhum #polisky

Masham's artistic heritage marked with plaque trail A film director, a barber and a children's book illustrator are among those celebrated in Masham.

A trail of 13 blue plaques celebrating people who have links to Masham in N. Yorkshire have been unveiled. 👇
BBC News - Masham's artistic heritage marked with plaque trail - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Meet the AI workers who tell their friends and family to stay away from AI When the people making AI seem trustworthy are the ones who trust it the least, it shows that incentives for speed are overtaking safety, experts say

Meet the AI workers who tell their friends and family to stay away from AI