Ross McKay

Here in Australia a popular small measure is a skerrick.

10. Raccoon = tábąąh mąʼii (waterside coyote) 9. Dog = łééchąąʼí (shit pet) 8. Spotted hyena = tééh łééchąąʼí łikizhígíí (shit pet of the valley, with spots) 7. Sea lion = tábąąstííntsoh (big otter) 6. Walrus = tábąąstííntsoh bideeʼ hólónígíí (big otter that lies on the shore, with tusks) 5. Turtle = chʼééh digháhii (in vain starts to go along slowly) 4. Alpaca = shádiʼááhdę́ę́ʼ tłʼízíʼilí (shaggy goat from the south) 3. Caterpillar = wódítłʼooí (insect that is hairy) 2. Shark = łóóʼ hashkéhé (angry fish) 1. Kangaroo = nahatʼeʼiitsoh (big hopping rat)

Navajo (or Diné bizaad, if you favour endonyms) is one of the most inventive of all languages (in my opinion) in that it has often created neologisms for new things, rather than borrowing terms from other languages. Here are ten of my favourite Navajo / Diné words (and their meanings) for animals…

My photo collage shows four Minoan ‘Kamares Ware’ cups from Bronze Age Crete which look similar to modern tea or coffee cups. Heraklion Archaeological Museum display information says these luxury ceramics were made in palace workshops and used by the elite of the community for wine consumption at palace banquets. This style of pottery derives its name from the Kamares Cave on Mount Ida, where this type of pottery was first found. Some Kamares cups with extremely thin walls are known as ‘eggshell’ ware. The cups at bottom left and right are examples of eggshell ware. The cups have decorative motifs as follows: Top left: single-handled carinated cup (i.e. with sharply angled body) painted black and decorated with a dense pattern of small white spots surrounding a large red geometric motif. From Phaistos, 1800-1700 BC Top right: single-handled beige carinated cup decorated with three rows of black oblong shapes, each with two white dots inside. The oblongs in the first and third rows slant to the left, the middle row slant right. The lower third of the cup is painted black and the handle is beige. From Phaistos, 1800-1700 BC Bottom left: single-handled hemispherical ‘eggshell’ cup decorated with three rows of upright black oblongs each with a white dot inside on a beige ground. A white and red stripe runs vertically down the exterior and interior of the cup and handle. From Phaistos, 1800-1700 BC Bottom right: single-handled hemispherical ‘eggshell’ cup decorated with red and white stylised floral pattern on a glossy black ground. From Knossos , 1800-1700 BC

Sipping my coffee ☕️ thinking about these marvellous Minoan cups!

Known as Kamares Ware, these luxury ceramics were made during the Bronze Age 3,800 years ago!

Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete

📷 by me

#Archaeology

On #LadySwinders this time we're on the trail of a female armed robber in 1920s New York, the 'Bobbed Hair Bandit.' With CBS News Correspondent Erin Moriarty.
Listen on @bbcradio4 and @bbcsounds
#ladyswindlers #podcasts #history #lucyworsley

I wonder if related to having someone threaten to "belt seven shades of shit out of ya"? I imagine that'd make one somewhat anxious.

My photo shows the front side (recto) of an ancient Egyptian administrative document written by the scribe Amunnakht in hieratic script (cursive writing of hieroglyphics) using black ink on papyrus. The papyrus is now a mid-brown colour and is worn in places. The document is known as the ‘Strike Papyrus’ and recounts that in November of Year 29 of the reign of Ramesses III, the royal tomb workers of Deir el-Medina stopped work for the first time and spent several days at the Theban necropolis in the temples of Tuthmosis III and Ramesses II. They demanded that the grain ratians for their work be distributed, and the authorities subsequently disbursed the grain rations. However, a few days later, the workers went on strike again, this time finding refuge in the temple of Seti I. Their refusal to retum to work stemmed fram the precarious working conditions, a situation they wanted to bring directly to the pharaoh. The last strike documented here was in January of the following year.

The first recorded strike in history took place almost 3,200 years ago!

The ‘Strike Papyrus’ recounts that in year 29 of the reign of Ramesses III (c. 1157 BC) royal tomb workers at Deir el-Medina downed tools over pay and working conditions!

Museo Egizio, Turin 📷 me
#AncientBlueSky 🏺
#Archaeology

This novel is about a huge ship called Titan. It hits an iceberg on an April night & sinks in the Atlantic

Written in 1898. 14yrs before Titanic hit an iceberg & sank on this day, 15 April 1912

First line: "She was the largest craft afloat & the greatest of the works of man."

Today in 1924 Hitler was sentenced to a pathetic 5 yrs for trying to overthrow the government.

He served 9 months. There might be a lesson here somewhere about being tough on people who assault democratic governance.

My photo shows a rock fragment with a fake cave painting of a figure pushing a shopping trolley and a horned bison (?) with two arrows piercing its hide. Known as ‘Peckham Rock’, this piece of hoax cave wall art together with an authentic-looking label was installed in the Roman gallery of the British Museum by the street artist known as Banksy. I believe ‘Peckham Rock’ is part of Banksy’s personal collection. He loaned it to the British Museum for their 2018/19 exhibition ‘I object’ which is where I photographed it.

Something a bit different for #FindsFriday!

‘Peckham Rock’ hoax cave art with authentic-looking label, installed without permission in the British Museum in 2005, by the street artist known as #Banksy

‘Found’ 3 days later in the Roman Britain gallery! 😳

Marker pen on lump of concrete! 😁

📷 me

Royal Society decides not to take disciplinary action against Elon Musk Exclusive: Fellows argue Musk has violated code of conduct but council believes investigation ‘could do more harm than good’

I’m finding it very hard to understand the stance of the Royal Society here. Science is part of society, not separate from it, existing in some strange metaphysical bubble. I look across the Atlantic, aghast at the damage being done to science and scientists.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Today in 1945 US Army Sgt Edward Allen Carter was shot 5 times assaulting a German position. 8 enemy troops tried to capture him but he killed six & took 2 back to friendly lines where he interrogated them in German.

Because he was African American he did not receive the Medal of Honor. Until 1997.

In today's edition of my newsletter MY LIFE IN THE PAST, I address the vitally important question of dressing up 😉
lucyworsley.substack.com

Always some crisis with these men. They're so emotional, no wonder they can't cut it in the workforce. Try smiling more and whining less, dearies, you're being testerical, it's so off-putting.

Manager: "What's this milestone 'Living on a prayer' ?"
Me: "That's the documentation deliverable."
Manager: "What's the status of that?"
Me: "We're halfway there"
Manager: "Why is progress so slow?"
Me: "You fired Tommy"
Manager: "So?"
Me: "Tommy used to work on the docs"

Today in 1811 the UK Parliament removed all power from King George because he was "insane"

A wealthy, real-estate obsessed head of state announced that he was taking personal control of a big chunk of someone else’s territory today in 1885.

King Leopold of Belgium established the Congo Free State.

The photo shows a Roman iron stylus pen used to write on wax-filled wooden writing tablets. It has an inscription which runs along its length on four sides. The image shows the four lines of inscribed text which read: ‘ab urbe v[e]n[i] munus tibi gratum adf(e)ro
acul[eat]um ut habe[a]s memor[ia]m nostra(m)
rogo si fortuna dar[e]t quo possem
largius ut longa via ceu sacculus est (v)acuus’ ‘I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me.
I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give) as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty.’ Excavated in London by MOLA. Photo by Juan Jose Fuldain/MOLA

Some things never change!

A 2,000 year-old Roman souvenir pen with a joke inscription roughly equivalent to:

“I went to Rome and all I got you was this cheap pen!" 😂

Dated to about 70 AD, this iron stylus pen was found in London during excavations by MOLA. 📷 MOLA

#EpigraphyTuesday
#Archaeology

The whole point of studying the 1930s is to foster hyper-awareness.

We should be nervous, pessimistic, jumpy. We should call out the first rumblings, the accidental tells, the faintest glimmers.

Because it was so monstrous that even the whiff of it is existential

During the Great Fire of London the rumour quickly spread that foreign migrants were responsible. Foreigners were beaten up & even lynched.

The fire’s severity was in fact caused by unusually dry conditions and high winds.

There is a strong temptation when facing paradigm shifting technology to double down on the familiar.

That’s why French infantrymen in red trousers walked towards machine guns as bands played in 1914…. 👇

FTC Order Requires Online Marketer to Pay $1 Million for Deceptive Claims that its AI Product Could Make Websites Compliant with Accessibility Guidelines The Federal Trade Commission will require software provider accessiBe to pay $1 million to settle allegations that it misrepresented the ability of its AI-powered web accessibility tool to make any

Breaking: Federal Trade Commission will require accessiBe to pay $1 million to settle allegations that it misrepresented the ability of its AI-powered web accessibility tool to make any website compliant with #WCAG for people with disabilities. #a11y #accessibility

Hey #APAC friends, we're looking for a speaker for WordPress Accessibility Meetup on March 18th at 11 AM AEDT (17 March at 7 PM CDT). Would you be interested in presenting via Zoom to our group on a web #a11y topic? You get IAAP continuing ed credits. #WPA11yMeetup #accessibility

This is a reminder to everyone. Use the 321 backup strategy. 3 copies, 2 types, 1 off site. I had an old client contact me, their rack came off the wall & fell 3.5m to the ground. Destroying their NAS & the external backup drive. Full recovery from the offsite cloud backup.

A mob threw tea into Boston Harbour today in 1773 protesting a corrupt executive determined to impose tarrifs on trade to suit the needs of a powerful corporation.

WordPress, and what should be on its roadmap I was reading Hendrik Luehrsen’s excellent post “WordPress isn’t WordPress anymore“, and I decided I had to write more about this. I recently spoke at WordCamp NL about “The missing features of WordPr...

It's clear that #WordPress is at a crossroads, whether we want it to be or not. As a result, it's good to talk about what it is, and what it should do, so, I wrote a post about that:

joost.blog/wordpress-ro...

Did you know that there is a block from the Parthenon embedded in the Washington Monument in DC (there was also to have been one from the Temple of Castor in Rome, a gift from the pope, but it was nicked before it could be inserted)? I didn't. tinyurl.com/s7967ubb

"We did this not because it was easy, but because we thought it would be easy."

vibes of a lighthouse doco story about the 1979 Fastnet Race, that made me cry; reaffirming that regulations are written in blood. 😢

I made a Black women in tech starter pack because I couldn’t find one and it annoyed me.

go.bsky.app/5upv7SQ

WordPressers Starter Pack Join the conversation

Here's a bunch of people on Bluesky who I've classed as "WordPressers". go.bsky.app/pZVzdf Please forgive the fact that the image of myself is in the middle - I've no idea why that is.