So a call for aid to any #Arabic #manuscript experts. I have a damaged word, which I think I know what it is, but will happily take advice! It’s the first word on the second line. We have الإرشاد لابن عقيل ؟؟؟؟ شرح الإرشاد للأنصاريّ. I *think* it’s المرجّع, which would certainly make sense . . .

A friend gave me an old book of Islamic bookbindings which he’d somehow managed to locate for my birthday. Now in pride of place in the maktab.

Important lesson learnt at the rather excellent Cotswolds Beer Festival yesterday: should you be somewhat on the short side anyway, with legs that at best can be described as “wretched little stumps”, then do NOT stand in the middle of the shot if your friend is taking a pic with a wide angle lens.

Having made a note to do my bit to make Bluesky less perennially serious, no jokes as such, but here’s a few snaps of some DNA celebrating its fiftieth in Singapore and Malaysia.

Definitely a cobble, then. Maybe even a boulder.

Somewhere in that book it says “Ait illi Iesus si vis perfectus esse vade vende quae habes et da pauperibus.”

So here’s an interesting and weird ChatGPT artefact. I switched half way through a response from the keyboard to the voice recognition (cos I’m lazy) and it correctly understood me, but … translated it into Welsh?

So, um, I try to avoid overusing AI for resource reasons, but I couldn’t resist. Behold the horror.