James_AL_Downs

Reached Slemani before dawn, and just been listening to the Fajr Adhan

Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the wombats, for today is their special day! To celebrate International Wombat Day, here is an engraving of a wombat from 'The Illustrated Natural History' (1863) by J. G. Wood. 📷 Reserve 590.2/WOO #InternationalWombatDay #WombatDay #RareBooks

In Conversation with Salim Barakat "Barakat is forthright, crude, and uncensored in his writings, and he was the same in his responses to my questions. He paints a prophetic picture, neither for himself nor for anyone else."... https://arablit.org/2026/10/20/in-conversation-with-salim-barakat/

This street plan of Exeter, dating back to around 1910, may not be as old as some of our other maps, but it is just as fascinating! How does Exeter in 1910 differ to Exeter in 2026? 📷 Edmund maps 942.359/E30 BAC; digitised by @dhlabexeter.bsky.social #MapMonday #MondayMaps #Map #MappingOurExeter

Some Dartmoor photography today

Any reference to Monarch butterflies immediately reminds me of this 1976 issue of the National Geographic which we had at home growing up

The United Nations has recorded more than 1,600 attacks by colonizers against Palestinians so far in 2026, an average of 6.7 a day, hitting 275 communities. Over two dozen Palestinians have been killed and more than a thousand wounded in the attacks.

I really should finish Sarah Aziza's book before starting this, but the temptation is too great. Another superb publication from @arablit.bsky.social

Entomologist Gwendolyn Erdosh shows a Myrmecium spider in the Brazilian Amazon using Batesian mimicry to look and act like an ant, waving its front legs like antennae to deter predators that avoid ants' stings and chemical defenses. IG: @gwentomologist instagram.com/gwentomologi...

It's over a month since our event in Edinburgh with Raja but this is a good account by the CBRL of the his archive and our preservation project www.cbrl.ac.uk/news/archive...

Saw this today and thought of @reblambert.bsky.social

From last week's walk

Excellent piece on a really important project and worth saying: manuscripts follow the same path as early print in this period in England--Ottley was overseas himself and Celotti arrived w/his own dubious books.

This slightly maddening medieval Arabic practice of OVERlining text where we would underline it, just to give me a headache. #medievalmanuscripts

Not sure it's a great sign when diplomats are asking historians of the 1930s for advice.

The Theatre Royal in Exeter was closed in 1962 and many of the playbills previously used to advertise its performances are now held in the University of Exeter’s Special Collections! The interns used our camera in Lab 1 to take images which are then cropped and exported for Special Collections.

The new cohort of DH interns have got stuck straight in with ongoing projects here at the Digital Humanities Lab! For a few years now we have been working to digitise playbills from the old Exeter Theatre Royal.

Many people like to laugh at medieval illuminations of stag-snails, oh those funny medieval artists making up anim...

Weekend reading

Good morning to everyone but especially to all the octopuses, for today is their special day! To celebrate World Octopus Day, here's an illustration of an octopus from the book 'The World of the Sea' by Moquin Tandon, published in 1869. 📷 Reserve 591.92 TAN #WorldOctopusDay #OctopusDay #RareBooks

The Association for Human Mathematics (AHM) statement on OpenAI’s October 6 release of mathematical documents just dropped! www.ahmath.org/statements

On 07 October 1889, the (New) Theatre Royal opened in Exeter. It was demolished in 1962. Our collections include many items relating to the Theatre Royal, including 2,383 playbills! #OnThisDay #TheatreHistory #TheatreArchives #Archives #Exeter #ExeterHistory @uniofexeterdrama.bsky.social

Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the badgers, for today is their special day! To celebrate National Badger Day, here is an illustration of a badger from the book 'Animated Nature' (1828) by Georges-Louis Leclerc. 📷 Reserve 590 BUF #NationalBadgerDay #BadgerDay #RareBooks

When you have departments that produce fewer numbers of majors why is that always the fault of the department and not of the administrators? “Only two students taking Akkadian. We have to fire you.” “No, you’re supposed to get me more Akkadian students. You’ve failed your job. I fire you!”

Jeanne Dielman peeling those potatoes

Misty at Shobrooke this morning

I've heard people make claims that AI would lead to a new Renaissance, but I didn't imagine it'd happen like this:

A crucifix mandrake, probably 16th century Extraordinary. (Schloss Ambras Innsbruck)

In case you missed it - though I'm not sure how you would, as I was an absolute bore about it - my fourth folk horror novel TWISTED PIKE was released yesterday: www.canelo.co/books/twiste...

Believe it or nut - it's already October! 🍂 We hope you all have a lovely weekend. 📷 Illustration of oak, hazelnut & hornbeam from ‘The Flowering Plants of Great Britain’ (1855) by Anne Pratt [Baring-Gould Library 0691] #FridayFlowers #FlowersOnFriday #RareBooks

Good morning to everyone, but especially to all the raccoons, for today is their special day! This woodcut of a raccoon was printed in 1635 in 'Historia Naturae, Maxime Peregrinae' by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg. 📷 Baring-Gould Library 0689 Folio #InternationalRaccoonAppreciationDay #RareBooks

I had a lot of fun writing it. I hope y’all have fun reading it 😍

Algerian Cinema: From Colonial Images to a New Generation algeriaconnect.com/algerian-cin...

Today is National Sporting Heritage Day! Did you know our University Archive contains items relating to university sports going back more than a century, including reports, photographs, sportswear, balls, and even trophies? Here's a small selection! 📷 EUL UA #NSHD2026 #SportingHeritage #Archives

Born #onthisday in 1547, Miguel de Cervantes, author of one of the most illustrated books of all time, #DonQuixote. Read Rachel Schmidt on how the varying approaches to illustrating it have reflected + impacted its reading through the centuries: publicdomainreview.org/essay/p... #otd

Working late tonight trying to trim 150 words off this article so I can get it under 10,000 words in order to submit - down to the most hard-hearted 'Kill your darlings' stage which I always find hard. Hopefully it will be worth it in the end #Palestine

64 years ago, on the 27th of September 1962, Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring was published. It handled the environmental harm caused by the pesticide DDT and the disinformation spread by the chemical industry. Carson managed to sway public opinion and even policy. #otd #history 🗃️

Today I passed a Sainsbury's petrol station in Exeter with diesel at £1.99 but have since heard that in parts of Scotland the £2 per litre threshold has been crossed. I still remember my dad's incredulity in Scotland in the 1970s when he first had to pay £1 for a gallon.

This week the Society launched a new programme to support research bit.ly/4iFNuF0 The RHS / Social History Archive Partnership offers free access to resources in @socialhistarchive.bsky.social, published by DC Thomson. Applications for 6-month access to Archive content invited #Skystorians 1/2

The new AI captchas are really something ᵛⁱᵃ ˣᴷᶜᴰ

Buy Chloe's pylons before I do. I have no wall space and very little money so you'd be doing me a solid x

On the subject of I’m a person and I need money, but also woo, art, smashing! I do still have lots of pylons in my shop. www.chloecumming.com/inkwater

I bought these glass negatives in an antique shop the other day as a sneak peek in the box revealed they definitely weren't photographs of antiquities from Avebury & Silbury (or if they were, explosive revelations await us) As it turns out, the images aren't as exciting as I hoped: but still pleased

The kids are alright