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Dr Rob

@robheighton.bsky.social

5.7K followers 6K following 1.6K posts

he/him • Doctor of Physics • Worldbuilder & Conlanger • Fan of Fantasy • Whovian • Amateur Enthusiast of Linguistics, Archaeology, Classics, and many other things 📍 UK • 📖 Bree • 📺 The Brownstone

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · Nov 12

Folks with any reach on Bluesky, please consider reposting so I can find friends old and new:

I'm Rob; I like fantasy books, maths and physics, ancient stuff and mythology, linguistics and music, British wildlife, and a whole bunch of other stuff. And I might occasionally mention Doctor Who

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Craig Barker @drcraigb.bsky.social · 1d

Happy #WorldOctopusDay

In this Attic kylix now in Boston, an octopus outsmarts the young boy fishing in the sea.

Attributed to the Ambrosios Painter, c. 510-500 BCE,
MFA Boston 01.8024 #archaeology 🏺
collections.mfa.org/objects/153702

Cup Interior tondo composition: A small nude boy is fishing as he crouches on a rocky ledge. He holds a woven bag in his left hand, and has a fish on the line. There is also a trap, shown under water, probably for the octopus hiding behind the rock. Above are the Greek letters: "P" "A" "S".

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 11h

The logo of this app is a butterfly, and you'd better believe I'll honour that

Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 14h

Thank you :) The butterfly did most of the work!

Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 14h

A peacock in the garden this afternoon

A peacock butterfly—mostly red, with a large 'eye' motif of pale blue and yellow on each wing—on an orange flower

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Christopher Burdett @christopherburdett.com · 10d

NEW ART!
Encounter at the Poisoned Dagger - 11 x 14 - Pencil, ink, and acrylic paint on paper. This is the next piece of art for the second book. Details and more on the blog: christopherburdett.blogspot.com/2025/09/enco... #monsterart #monsterartist #grandbazaar #ethravandalia #handdrawn #drawing

Illustration of a dark alley. Light creeps in from above to illuminate a door at the end of the alley. A cloaked beggar slides thier bowl towards you as you appoach.

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 14h

To me, this mosaic will always be the cover of Volume I of the Oxford Latin Course, my first Latin textbook. The night before my first day of Year 7, I was so excited to be starting both secondary school and weekly after-school Latin that I borrowed my older sister's copy to read the early pages

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 3d

Spectacular googly-eyed octopus does battle with a lobster in this 2,000 year-old Roman mosaic from Pompeii! 🐙 🦞

Fantastic fishy onlookers too! 👀

From the House of the Geometric Mosaics. Now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology

My photo shows a polychrome mosaic depicting Mediterranean marine life using earthy-coloured tesserae (mosaic tiles) against a black tessarae background. At the centre of the mosaic is a pale-coloured octopus composed of off-white and light brown tesserae with some of its writhing tentacles wrapped around the body of a lobster composed of light red, and pinky-brown tesserae. The octopus has an egg shaped body/head and it stares at the viewer with large eyes made of brown and pink circles with black centres.

The octopus and lobster are surrounded by various species of large and small Mediterranean fish and a mollusc, including an eel and a flat fish. On the left hand side of the scene there is a small kingfisher bird on top of a rock. Some of the fish appear to be watching the fight between the octopus and the lobster

This mosaic comes from the House of the Geometric Mosaics in Pompeii. Now on display at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

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Jon Carling @joncarling.bsky.social · Sep 2

forest spirits

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 16h

Chunky bumblebee!

An orange bumblebee on a bright yellow dandelion

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HolBolDoArt🏳️‍🌈 @holboldoart.bsky.social · 13d

Autumn and the Relics Of A Dead Summer

Within a gothic style arched frame with spandrels decorated with oak-leaves is a painted scene in which a woman with pale skin and flowing red hair and wearing a long blue silk dress holds a small but intricately decorated gilded box in her hands. She looks at the viewer with a reserved expression.
To either side of her stands a humanoid crow figure, with the heads of jackdaws and long flowing black robes. The left holds a simple chalice, the right holds a small dagger in open hands.

At their feat is a carpet of brown oak leaves fallen from branches above them (some leaves are caught in the dress and robes). In these leaves stand two ring-necked pheasants, a male in red and blue on the left, and a female in light speckled brown on the right.

Behind the figures stands a tall gothic church tower with castellated parapet and corner pinnacles shrouded in mist against a sunset sky streaked with fine clouds.

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 22h

Have yet to see a single instance of social media discourse comparing Tolkien's LotR and Martin's ASOIAF that doesn't heinously mischaracterise one or (more usually) both of the works in question

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 3d

Oh wow, literal boy dinner! I approve of it tbf, but fear I'd regret trying it

Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 3d

Momentarily thought those were bits of mozzarella, but realising they were raw garlic escalated the levels of "boy dinner" being reached

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Dr Kate Farrant Shaw @katefarrantshaw.bsky.social · 24d

A magnificient medieval treasure for a medieval Monday- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: (Cotton MS Nero A X/2, ff. 94v–95r)

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 3d

How I leave the social gathering

Suave Morbida @maitre-poulard.bsky.social · 5d

J'adore l'expression "bon, s'agirait de pas trainer" de Mélusine sur cette gravure sur bois du XVe siècle

Mélusine s'enfuit par la fenêtre
Jean d'Arras (14e siècle), auteur
Adam Steinschaber, éditeur scientifique et imprimeur
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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 4d

From me, 'cup of tea' almost always means the general stuff they call 'English breakfast tea' with milk, but in this case it was indeed something ever so slightly more exotic: a red berry tea!

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 4d

I have often enjoyed this strange parallel

Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · Jan 16

Weirdly, I was just talking about fig newtons earlier this afternoon, when we were having some Choco Leibniz biscuits with a cup of tea and I was musing about sweet snacks sharing their names with the rival pioneers of calculus—and now it turns out to be National Fig Newton Day

Sheila Friend @slfriend79.bsky.social · Jan 16

😋 Happy #NationalFigNewtonDay! 😋

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D.D.B.Torres @ddbtorres.bsky.social · Aug 6

I heard y'all like dragons in august so have two for the price of one

#art #illustration

a two-headed dragon, each head menacingly grinning in opposite directions while the dragon itself descends from a tempestuous sky

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 4d

The best days are those of broken clouds sailing through broad blue skies, throwing short-lived shadows upon the ground between bursts of warming sunshine, while blustery winds fluster the treetops and the willow-branches dance

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 4d

Only in the last few years have I realised that my favourite weather—like the weather here today—is a combination of sunshine and high winds

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Brian Groom @groomb.bsky.social · 6d

Regeneration, etching by Janis Goodman, Leeds-based printmaker. #WomensArt #NorthernArt

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 4d

Saw someone (not a mutual) posting that fig newtons are a lot of work, and I had to refrain from replying "actually, fig newtons are a lot of force; if they're a lot of work, then they're fig joules"

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John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 5d

"The Olde, Old, very Olde Man or Thomas Par" Looking good for his alleged 152 years of age here in 1635. (British Museum)

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 5d

Choosing to spend the latter part of this evening in an armchair with a blanket, a cup of tea, and this old friend

My family copy of The Fellowship of the Ring

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Dr Rob @robheighton.bsky.social · 5d

This is indeed the important question

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John McCafferty @jdmccafferty.bsky.social · 6d

Star-shaped tile with a phoenix and stylized flower spray

Kashan, c. 1250 - c. 1324

(Rijksmuseum)

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