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informationatlas · 4 months

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Parrots learn to make video calls to chat with other parrots, then develop friendships with each other

Researchers from Northeastern University, in conjunction with scientists from MIT and the University of Glasgow, conducted a study exploring the impact of teaching a group of domesticated birds to communicate using tablets and smartphones. The findings indicate that utilizing video calls may assist parrots in mimicking the communication patterns observed in wild birds, potentially enhancing their behavior and overall well-being in the homes of their owners.

via smithsonianmag.com

#parrot #mit #northeastern university #university of glasgow #study #animals #technology #video call #wild birds #TechForPets #Animal research #animal behavior

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hiyutekivigil · 2 years

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autumn is luring from the cracks in the pavement and glasgow has found me in its grasp.

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melancholyromantic · 1 year

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Had the last class of my MLitt degree today! Just got three essays and a dissertation to go

#grad student #gradblr #studyblr #university of glasgow

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theragingmoon · 6 months

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university of glasgow, pro-palestine student walkout and protest

25/10/2023

#glasgow #university of glasgow #palestine #glasgow uni profits from the arms trade #free palestine #🇵🇸

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ohsalome · 10 months

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The University of Cambridge is among almost a dozen UK universities accused of helping to develop Iran’s weapons including “suicide drones”.

At least 11 British universities are involved, with staff producing at least 16 studies with potential Iranian military applications.

Key pieces of research have been conducted by academics at the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, the University of Glasgow, Cranfield University and Northumbria University.

In one project, funded by Tehran, researchers in the UK worked to improve drone engines by boosting their altitude, speed and range. Another British university worked with Iranian researchers to test new controls for jet engines to increase their “manoeuvrability and response time” in military applications.

“It is quite possible these collaborations are assisting in the gender apartheid within Iran, and its hostile interference and violence across the Middle East or even helping to massacre civilians in Ukraine,” she added.

#ukraine #war in ukraine #iran #uk #uk news #University of Cambridge #war #drones #military drones #military #Imperial College London #University of Glasgow #Cranfield University #Northumbria University

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brian-in-finance · 9 months

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Diana Gabaldon spoke at the University of Glasgow's Outlander conference. Photo: Martin Shields

Diana Gabaldon recalls how first Outlander book ‘almost cancelled’

Best-selling Outlander author Diana Gabaldon has created nine beloved books and a seven-season TV series - but the franchise almost didn't happen.

The American writer told fans in Glasgow her first novel was almost cancelled because publishers could not decide what to do with it.

It took more than a year to go on sale as a debate raged about where it would sit on bookshop shelves.

The series has boosted Scottish tourism with fans flocking to Scotland to visit the book and TV programme's locations.

The author spoke at the word's first international academic Outlander conference at the University of Glasgow, which has been the backdrop for several scenes in the Starz TV series.

Expert scholars and Outlander fans have come together for events in the city, exploring themes such as Jacobite history, screen production, Scottish tourism, Gaelic and Scots, costume design, fandom, main character Claire Fraser's medicine, and witchcraft.

Ms Gabaldon - originally an academic herself - was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university in June last year.

The drama series stars Catriona Balfe and Sam Heughan as Claire and Jamie Fraser. Photo: Starz

Speaking about her first book, she said: "It took the publishers 18 months to figure out what to do with it. I learned later that they came very close to cancelling the contract and giving me back the book because they couldn't decide how to sell it.

"This was before Amazon where a book can be classified as several things at once and people can pick off the web what they want, and they still get the same book.

"Back in the day it was only bookstores, you had to put a book on a certain shelf, the shelf had to have a label and the book also had to have that label."

She said the decision to sell it as a romance came as a shock.

"My agent finally called me up and said they had decided to publish it but sell it as a romance. I said, 'What?' that isn't what I wrote.

"He pointed out that a best seller in fantasy fiction was 50,000 copies in paperback while in romance it is 500,000 copies. So we sold it as romance."

'Too weird'

She said that the success of the books was down to readers' recommendations.

"My first editor said to me early on these have to be word of mouths books because they are too weird to describe, which is totally true and that is also true about the word of mouth.

"So that being the case it made total sense to expose the book to 500,000 people in the romance category who will go out and tell their friends and the word will spread.

"So we did that and that is exactly what happened."

The Outlander series is currently nine books, with the author working on the tenth - and believed to be the final - book.

It follows the story of a post-World War Two nurse visiting Scotland who accidentally time travels to the Jacobite era.

Roger (Richard Rankin) and Brianna (Sophie Skelton) are main characters in the show. Photo: Aimee Spinks

It has now become one of the bestselling book series of all time and spawned the popular TV series, currently in its seventh season.

Ms Gabaldon's talk was entitled, '"Why Scotland? Why Not Mexico?" Genes, Borders, Culture and Fiction: Why They Matter and When They Don't'.

In it, she explained why she picked Scotland as the location of Outlander.

She said: "What I learned from my research and contact with Scots is that Scots are, and historically were, very literate. They wrote down things. They also have a very strong oral culture, they told their stories.

"They also have a lot of history available. Then there is the nature of Scottish history, it has a lot of heroes and heroines as well as conflict which is what you need for a good story."

The conference runs until Saturday and has seen fringe events including music concerts and battle re-enactments in the university's famous cloisters.

Transformative impact

Senior Lecturer in Gaelic at the University, Gillebride Macmillan, who has appeared in the programme, said it had been really important for the Gaelic language.

"It's so important for a minoritized language, such as Gaelic, to be seen on a world level, on a world stage, and Outlander gives Gaelic that opportunity.

"And I think it's been fantastic to hear Gaelic spoken by the actors and in the books, and also the use of Gaelic music, Gaelic song. I've been very lucky myself to be a part of that and I think it's been an incredibly positive thing for the language.

"Which I think has been born out by things such as, one and a half million people learning Gaelic in Duolingo. Obviously, many people are learning Gaelic for many different reasons, but Outlander has been one of the major factors for that."

Prof Willy Maley, professor of Renaissance studies (English Literature), at the university, said: "Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series has had a transformative impact on Scottish culture, generating global interest in the history, languages and landscapes of Scotland.

"Vivid and visceral, Outlander is an otherworldly but never unworldly phenomenon that takes a time-travelling nurse-turned-doctor and propels her from 1946 to 1743, two worlds of war that collide in an elaborate and painstaking reconstruction that make the series much more than historical fiction and more an innovative and pioneering rethinking of how we excavate and examine the narratives of the past.

"Outlander has also been a brilliant boost for the Scottish film industry."

BBC News

Gifs: @scotsmanandsassenach S01E03 The Way Out, Gillebride Macmillan as Gwyllyn the bard

Remember… I think it's been fantastic to hear Gaelic spoken by the actors and in the books, and also the use of Gaelic music, Gaelic song. I've been very lucky myself to be a part of that and I think it's been an incredibly positive thing for the language. — Gillebride Macmillan

#Tait rhymes with hat #Good times #Outlander #Diana Gabaldon #BBC News #22 July 2023 #Outlander Conference #University of Glasgow #18-23 July 2023

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scotianostra · 10 months

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Death mask of Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Chasing the Jacobite Dream.

A death mask is a cast made of a person’s face once they have died. Death masks have several functions; they are a memento of the person who has died, and they are sometimes used as the basis for posthumous sculpture or portraits, or as an effigy of the deceased for state funerals.

Apparently there are a few of these around, I know Inverness Museum has one, they would have all been copied from the original taken after Charlie popped his clogs.

The Hunterian have a few death masks from different famous faces thought the years including Isaac Newton, Voltaire, and William Hunter, the man the museum is named after.

#scotland #scottish #history #Glasgow #Hunterian museum #University of Glasgow #my pix #phone pics

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downfalldestiny · 1 year

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University of Glasgow, Scotland,

United Kingdom 🇬🇧 !.

#Glasgow #Scotland #United Kingdom #downfalldestiny #downfall #life #University of Glasgow #beautiful #magical world #magic destinations #magic moments #historical buildings

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1ditl · 11 months

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youtube

#1ditl Part 2 of an ongoing series documenting 1 day in the lives of people.

During a house move, Elvira shares her love for her home country India's rich and vibrant culture as well as criticizes its ongoing issues with colourism and a rigid patriarchal system which places societal limitations on its female population. She also discusses the complexities of her mixed Indian and Russian heritage. Currently navigating a living situation in the UK as a recent graduate of the University of Glasgow where she studied Game Design she also works as a UX Designer but faces difficulties in securing more permanent employment as a non-citizen causing a state of uncertainty yet limitless possibilities.

Elvira's YouTube - @Elviramishra

If you'd like to document a day in your life on 1ditl, send a message to [email protected]

#1ditl #a day in the life #1 day in the life #india #indian #russian #russia #patriarchy #women's empowerment #misogny #colorism #colourism #glasgow #university of glasgow #vlog #daily vlog #ux designer #feminism #Youtube

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leoba · 1 year

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Medieval Self-Insert Fan Art: Two amazing examples

Last night my favorite Discord server had an anniversary party, and we all presented to each other like the nerds we are. Usually when I present at conferences I post the talk to my blog, but this one felt like it would make a great inaugural post for this new Tumblr (which is going to be my personal-official space in the same way my Twitter account is now)

I gave a little presentation on MEDIEVAL SELF-INSERT FAN ART with two examples, and I share the slides and my comments here for you.

The first example: Owner portraits in books of hours, for when you want to hang out with Jesus and the BVM.

First, what are books of hours? Books of hours are...

Books of hours can be personalized in a variety of ways (for much more about personalization check out Kate Rudy’s book Piety in Pieces: How Medieval Readers Customized their Manuscripts, which you can read for free here). Owner portraits are part of the creation of the book of hours, so it might be more correct to call them commissioners portraits (I don’t think I’ve ever seen them called that, though). The person commissioning the book would work with the artist or artists to determine in which scene they would be included. In every case I’m aware of, owners are presented in supplication - kneeling, with hands together in prayer - and on the edge of the picture, present and part of the story, but not central to it.

Following are many examples of owner portraits from several different manuscripts in Philadelphia (all of which were digitized through the Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis project).

Some portraits, like this one from PMA 1945-65-14, show the book’s original owner. This is Étienne Thirion, in his own frame, kneeling at prayer, in a page facing the Annunciation - as though he’s watching, or perhaps considering the story, but not part of it.

More commonly, the owner is painted into the frame. Here, in this example from FLP Lewis E 112, he joins a couple of angels visiting with Mary and Baby Jesus. Unlike the previous example, we don’t know the name of the original owner.

Owners didn’t only include themselves in happy scenes. In this example, from UPenn Ms. Codex 1056, the owner (in traditional 15th century dress and a black coif) joins the women grieving for the recently deceased Jesus.

Here’s another happy one, from FLP Lewis E 123.

The original owner of PMA 1924-19-1 includes two owner portraits, one with Mary and a nursing Baby Jesus and one with the deceased Jesus laying in God’s the Father’s lap.

One more! Another woman (yes, women owned books of hours and other books, and had them made), and like the first one we looked at, she’s in her own frame, looking at or contemplating Mary and Jesus on the facing page.

That’s the first example of self-insert in medieval art. The next example is a single manuscript, rather than a genre, and although it is religious it isn’t only religious:

U. Glasgow MS Hunter 231 is a collection of devotional and philosophical works, copied in the 14th century (here’s a blog post about it, and this post includes photos from the blog). It includes a lot of texts by the 1st century Roman philosopher and rhetorician Seneca, which I find incredibly amusing for some reason. I guess I don’t think of Seneca as being terribly popular? But there’s a lot of him here.

Here’s a photo of the book from when it was featured on Coffee With A Codex (I forgot to hit record until 10 minutes in, oops). That’s Seneca there between Plato and Aristotle, with gray hair and a pink hat. We’ll take a closer look at this illustration later.

More details about the contents of MS Hunter 231.

Animation works better in PowerPoint but I’m doing my best to give you the experience. I love this manuscript for a lot of reasons but one thing that strikes me (aside from the self-insert fan art) is how oddly it contrasts with itself.

First, it has some really fantastic illuminations made by an identifiable artist (“Master of the Taymouth Hours” - so called because he is also responsible for illustrating a book of hours called the Taymouth Hours, now London, British Library, Yates Thompson MS 13). They are detailed and colorful and the gold has been incised with designs (seriously, look at the gold in the photos, it’s so well done). So whoever had this manuscript made wanted premium art.

Second, in contrast, the script isn’t great. It’s an informal gothic cursive script. That’s it on the right; on the left, another manuscript, also written in England at about the same time, written in a more formal gothic textualis quadrata script (it’s FLP Lewis E 84, a theological miscellany). The cursive would write more quickly, take less time to write, and would thus have been less expensive. So while the texts are important to the commissioner, the writing of that text appears to be less important than the artwork.

Third - the parchment. It’s not great! There are a lot of uncut edges (this photo is from a different manuscript, UPenn LJS 24, but this is the kind of thing you’ll see in MS Hunter 231), holes, and visible hair follicles.

Again, this means that great parchment wasn’t the commissioner’s priority. Not great parchment, not a great script, but really fucking great art.

And who is this commissioner? Here he is with Mary and Baby Jesus and a couple of angels - he’s pictured very much like the owners in the owner portraits, kneeling, hands held out in prayer.

His name is ROGER OF WALTHAM and we know a bit about him! We even have an idea of what he looked like: wavy gray hair, long on the sides and back but cut with a tonsure around his head, and a gray beard. He’s pretty distinctive-looking.

This is just to give you a sense of size. It’s not a really huge book (see my hands in the screenshot further up), so that illuminated initial isn’t big. But it’s so well done!

Here’s a close-up! Again, it’s the same style as an owner portrait (I mean... it is one, really, just in this purpose-made book and not in a book of hours). That’s Roger at the bottom, dressed in red.

And here he is again, watching the Blessed Virgin Mary be assumed into heaven after her death.

And again! Waiting patiently for Eucharist.

And with Mary and Jesus! (You can really see the design in the gold in this photo)

With Mary and Jesus again.

... and again. (I love that patch of gray on his forehead)

Here’s a larger illustration, Jesus crowning Mary... and there’s Roger kneeling at the bottom, yet again.

And here he is at the Crucifixion.

Here’s a fantastic full-page illustration. That’s the head of God at the top, with some angels, and in the middle is Saint Benedict and Saint Paul. And there? At the bottom? Who’s that?

Let’s take a closer look.

squints

It looks like Roger. And Roger! (I’m not 100% certain that is two Rogers, the fellow on the right could be someone else, but I wouldn’t exactly be surprised if it was two Rogers)

Finally, Seneca. Here’s Roger hanging out with his favorite philosopher! (No beard but maybe this is young!Roger?) That’s Seneca on the left, slightly higher in the frame, with Roger below, in the position of teacher and student. This is a pretty typical artistic trope that you see a lot (I’ve included another example from FLP Lewis E 37 just below).

And finally, the pièce de résistance: We return to this photo of Plato, Seneca, and Aristotle (we know who these are because they are labeled).

Seneca - in the middle, facing the reader head-on, an indication of his importance - looks familiar. Take a closer look. Closer. Closer!

The wavy gray hair? The beard? I’m not the first person to note that Seneca looks an awful lot like Roger of Waltham. His final self-insert: literally making himself into his favorite philosopher.

Thanks to Julie Gardham, Senior Librarian at the University of Glasgow who introduced me to MS Hunter 231 and Roger of Waltham’s place in it.

#medieval #manuscript #medieval manuscripts #roger of waltham #university of glasgow #ms hunter 231 #self insert fan art

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marionsinspirations · 8 months

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