David Underdown

Not recent but very first bout of Covid back in March 2020 left me like that for a few weeks

#UnconfibedWalks A little walk in the park, mostly avoiding rain

A cafe in Dublin airport has a robot that delivers hot food orders! But it just sped off without letting the people get their food out.

When it came back it had a human minder. And when my order arrived, the same human bought it, saying she couldn't trust the robot.

This is a post about most AI.

#UnconfinedWalks Surprisingly fairly dry at lunchtime! (I was so surprised I almost forgot to take a photo at all). No photos from yesterday’s rather miserable ride to Wigmore Hall for Rhiannon Giddens’ brilliant concert

Exploring the itineraries of King Edward I 🤓

A heart shaped medieval manuscript open flat to show a page of musical score opposite a page illuminated with a colourful drawing of a richly dressed woman and an angel holding a sword and floating atop a wheel.

what if we kissed while singing little tunes from the 15th century heart shaped book of french love songs ?

Creative Commons Licenses are ill-equipped for the AI era and the rapid ingestion/scraping of open content by bots. - training for AI doesn't fit traditional copyright definitions because text is converted into statistical patterns that are tokenised processed and used for probability-based outputs.

New DPC blog post: Supporting COPTR, our community-owned tool registry www.dpconline.org/blog/support... #DigiPres

#UnconfinedWalks A dry day and still some light in the sky as I left the office around 17:15

My girlfriend's birthday too

The @ads-update.bsky.social Archeology Data service (ads) are looking to recruit a Digital Archives Assistant.

jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/digi...

#digipres #digipresnorth #archivejobs

New AI guidelines launched to help galleries, libraries, archives and museums prepare for the future — Archives & Records Association The Archives and Records Association UK & Ireland (ARA) has today published new open-access guidelines to help the Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAM) sector prepare their collection...

Today we launch new AI guidelines to help galleries, libraries, archives and museums prepare for the future - read more here: www.archives.org.uk/news/new-ai-...

Waddle this way! The sign-making genius who kept Britain’s drivers (and ducks) safe Airports, road signs, animal warnings … Margaret Calvert revolutionised how Britain looked and her brilliantly clear designs are still used today. We meet the font legend and Porsche lover

It is always a pleasure to read about Margaret Calvert. Absolute legend. Her contribution to the look of modern Britain is immense.
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

#UnconfinedWalks Met Office said it was likely to be wet all day, but in the end lunchtime wasn’t too bad

A clump of snowdrops in grass

Pinky-purple crocuses in grass, another clump a little way behind and a few snowdrops further back

Brighter skies on the left, above a line of bare trees. To the right still very grey and cloudy

#UnconfinedWalks Wet again but signs of spring at Wesley’s Chapel, and the sun was trying to break through above Richmond Park

Photograph of an American bison standing beside a fence at the London Zoo in 1906.

The research guide on Environmental History that I wrote for The National Archives, UK is now live! Includes research advice and resources on colonial environments, pollution, agriculture, and animal histories.

Available here: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-yo...

#envhist #envhum

Thank you

Coat of arms

Illuminated title plate, 17th Century

A very unexpected surprise. Browsing the 17th Century Agarde indexes (as one does) and found these lovely illuminated pages. TNA IND 1/17089

On a small M&S Malbec while waiting for dinner #ConfinedCocktails

#UnconfinedWalks Weather has generally continued being a bit grim hence the continued lack of photos. Plus yesterday I was up in Bradford for my Aunt Isma’s funeral (where the weather was definitely living up to northern stereotypes). Somewhat better today though

Thanks to @thefnl.bsky.social this exceptionally rare Tudor map of Kingsbridge in Devon has been acquired for public research at the Devon Heritage Centre, after more than four centuries in private hands.

Council Housing in Plymouth before 1914: ‘the merry homes of England’ This post looks at the first council housing built in Plymouth after the public duty to ensure decent housing for all was recognised in the 1890 Housing of the Working Classes Act.

🚨 New on Substack: Council Housing in Plymouth before 1914: ‘the merry homes of England’
municipaldreams.substack.com/p/council-ho...

British Ambassador's Fight for Survival Highlights Brazil's Dengue Breakthrough - Science Museum Group Blog For World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day on 30 January, Roger Highfield talks to a diplomat and leading biomedical researcher about the importance of a new vaccine and why often-overlooked illnesses ...

It's World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day, so join @rogerhighfield.bsky.social as he shares the fascinating story of a remarkable recovery and explores why often-overlooked illnesses demand global attention https://bit.ly/4qPEpdK

Currently peer reviewing an article that uses the term 'archive(s)' in the title, the key words, several times in the abstract, and c.50 times in the main text, yet fails to cite a single recognised archivist, archival theorist, or archives journal. This keeps happening. #archives

Building Your Own Verification Toolkit A guide to the tools and databases librarians use, plus a personal fact-checking workflow you can run in under 60 seconds.

A guide to the tools and databases librarians use, plus a personal fact-checking workflow you can run in under 60 seconds

< dons in wider family, but higher degrees not necessarily a prerequisite for a fellowship until comparatively recently

Grampy’s father’s went straight into the lace trade so far as I know. It seems to have been grampy’s older brother John’s time as a chorister at Southwell and King’s that opened the way to higher education with him and Clive preceding Grampy to King’s. You may be first with PhD though a few Oxford >

#UnconfinedWalks Didn’t really go out until dark yesterday or today, so a City lights view again (with added aircraft heading to Heathrow, and fellow cyclists heading up Sawyer’s Hill)

Discworld QOTD, from Carpe Jugulum