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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 16h

Yes. I can't think of anything comparable, except maybe some of those early 20th Century Scandinavian creations.

Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 21h

Perhaps it would help to de-scale the platform in some way. Maybe it's really a stack of unconnected communities in a trenchcoat, each with a different take on how moderation should be.

Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 1d

Alternatively, couple at the bottom could be Mary and Joseph, who, apparently, took refuge in a sycomorus tree.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Mata...

El Matareya, Cairo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 1d

Meaning? Goddess Hathor peers from inside a sacred tree (Ficus sycomorus - orange fruit on tangled stems) at scenes of herself. Top (as a cow) with her crocodile god consort, Sobek and bottom dancing with hawk god Horus.
See also, giant magic shrews and trickster turtle god Apesh.

Any other ideas?

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, and a cautionaryblesson to double- check the dimensions before you buy rugs in online auctions!

Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 1d

Rug of the Day

Huge tapestry presumed to be from the Wissa Wassef Foundation pending investigation. Anyone know anything about Nubian creation myths?

Too big for my sitting room and too heavy for my wall! Gallery owners please help!

A lage verh colourful tapestry-woven rug featuring animals in a jungle setting, flying crocodiles and people riding cows. Orange, purple, green and beige are the predominant colours.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, and not enough shelf space!

Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 1d

Apologies! I'm sure you're right about that. Here's the previous page from Luther Hooper's book showing a jig for making individual heddles rather than arrays of them "knitted" together. He was a silk weaver, so the knitting was probably the quickest way to make large numbers.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 1d

Who better to hold the purveyors of misinformation to account than our local Professor of Accounting?

Suggest you follow him.

Alan Jagolinzer @jagolinzer.bsky.social · 1d

Amman and Meloy (2024) define the term "stochastic terrorism" in terms of targeted speech that increases the general probability of violence against an outgroup.

A key element is the messengers' plausible deniability of inciting violence.

doi.org/10.1080/0954...

As a practical matter stochastic terrorism is an interactive process between a public speaker who may be a charismatic leader, one or more amplifying forces such as a media platform, and one or more
ultimate receivers. The originator speaks out publicly and with hostility toward a selected outgroup or individual in order to advance a political or social goal. An unknown receiver takes it in and churns out anger, contempt or disgust, often mirroring the speaker’s hostility and combining it with his own fear and anxiety stoked by the speech; such negative emotions may be intentionally aroused by the speaker to prove the need for his leadership and generate feelings of imminent threat posed by the target of his rhetoric that will personally impact the persecuted receiver. The speaker may overtly declare the target to be a threat, or “joke” about violent solutions to the shared problem represented by the target; violence is never explicitly suggested and plausible deniability remains intact. Social and news mass media outlets wittingly or unwittingly spread and amplify the message and its themes.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 1d

Rug of the Day

Mushwani Baluch rug with unusual border seen on the car boot sale on Sunday. (Coutesy of Larry, who's getting good at spotting them)

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 1d

The US Constitution is finished, isn't it?

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 2d

It's a linguistic survival from Old English when cnytan just meant "knotting" rather than that clever stuff with needles. The device only "knits" one specific thing - the heddle loops - rather than being an all-purpose knitting machine.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 2d

Made a rug hanging rail from B&Q water pipe and shower curtain rings. East Anatolian relic catching the autumn light nicely.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 2d

From my box of random postcards Unidentified bakery by Newmarket photographer, Edgar Young. Is this the Co-Op on Old Station Road making bread for soldiers in the 1914 recruitment camp? Or some big local institution?

Four men in an early 20th Century bakery have loaded about 50 loaves onto a large tray designed to be wheeled into an industrial oven on a cast iron trolley thing.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 2d

I presume everyone has one :-)

Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 2d

AI girlfriends seem to bear the same relation to prostitution as online gambling does to real-life gaming tables or crypto does to bundles of cash. The ultimate digitization of everything illicit.

Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 2d

This is brilliant. Not only a serious analysis of Japanese colour, but also inspiration for what to plant in your dye garden next year.

Joumana Medlej @majnouna.com · 3d

I've been working on this piece since last month! Please enjoy a dive into magnificent natural colours from Heian Japan, just published on #Caravanserai.
majnouna.substack.com/p/kasane

Kasane

The most refined art of wearing the seasons

majnouna.substack.com

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 2d

Technology that counts

Andrea Myklebust @mountainheartvt.bsky.social · 3d

Spotted this beautiful winder at neighbor's yard sale and had to bring it home. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but it has an adorable "clicker" design. It's a typical, 2-yard circumference, 80-yard measure.

#handspinning #reel #weasle

Am antique yarn winder. It is made of dark wood, has long, thing legs, and 4 arms. It's sitting next to a red woodstove in a farmhouse living room.

A detail of the mechanism of the yarn winder. When the winder is turned clockwise, a wooden gear on the side of the winder turns counter clockwise. A small wooden peg on the gear passes the arm of a weight once every 40 turns. The peg pushes a lever down, and when it passes by, a wooden knocker strikes the table of the winder. The winder is also designed with a built-in wooden handle at the top.

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 3d

Well, let's hope so. It's been a bit dull around here lately. Too much navel gazing and not enough poetry and emergent wizardry!

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 3d

It seems to be missing the obvious third axis - "promotes oppression and aggression" v "advocates peace and collaboration"

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 3d

Somewhere to sit down.

An oak bench seat against a whitewashed wall in the hallway of the Quaker meeting house in Lancaster. Above it is a tapestry with a view of Morecambe Bay. It is overwritten with the words Sustainability, Simplicity, Truth, Equality, Peace and Integrity. Next to it is a small tree in a pot with messages on little cards hanging from it.

Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 4d

Found this interesting guy in my postcard box, in a set about Luxor and Assuan.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Ne...

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Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 5d

Another textile worker emerges from the box. An old lace-maker from Bruges with her companion bird.

www.kantcentrum.eu/en/welcome

An old woman in a woolly hat sits making lace by a large window in Bruges. She has a pet bird i n a cage beside her.

Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 5d

These are probably not her sheep. They are from Laghouat, a couple of days walk away according to the card, but they were next to her in the box, so I'm giving them to her.

Paul McGhee @pmcghee.bsky.social · 5d

Another textile worker from my new box of (very random) postcards. A woman spinning yarn in Bou Saada, Algeria.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bou_Sa%...

A woman is standing against the wall of an old building. She is using a drop spindle to make yarn. An old person, maybe a parent, is sitting beside her.

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