Alastair Millar
@skriptorium.info
4.8K followers 4K following 1.8K posts
Translator & flash sf writer (BSFA); 🇨🇿/🇬🇧 Posts eclectically (archaeology, travel, current affairs, words); likes good coffee & bad puns; blocks for unsolicited DMs. Happily married; he/him; 🏳️‍🌈/🏳️‍⚧️ ally; #NAFO fella; 🇺🇦 🇬🇪 Links: https://linktr.ee/alastairmillar
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skriptorium.info
My flash science fiction collection, 'Mars & More', is still available!

If you'd like to get YOUR hands on some punchy, bite sized SF, you can find the ebook here: books2read.com/MarsMore

Or order in print (paperback) through your favourite bookstore: the ISBN is 979-8-227-17966-1
Cover of 'Mars & More' by Alastair Millar. On a lunar landscape, a suited astronaut observes conflict on the planet and in space.
skriptorium.info
Interesting assessment of China's latest iteration of the tank, and how it differs from its predecessors - as well as where China likely sees it being needed. Very different from current Western approaches.
Type 100: China's Vision for a Modern Tank - Militarnyi
Explore the innovations of the Type 100 tank and its role in the future of armored warfare amidst changing military paradigms.
militarnyi.com
skriptorium.info
When you hear someone say that "there's no such thing as an innocent [insert nationality/ethnicity/political affiliation here]", I advise you to remember the words of Iain M. Banks:

"A guilty system recognizes no innocents."
Reposted by Alastair Millar
ads-update.bsky.social
⭐ The ADS Data Catalogue is Live!⭐

Explore hundreds of thousands of archaeological resources including over 100,000 reports and 5,000 archive collections.

👉To find out more and start exploring visit buff.ly/BMulYqQ
Reposted by Alastair Millar
antongerashchenko.bsky.social
Lithuanian National Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė:

For Russia,strategic dilemmas are its tools,its weapons…Until Russia feels that it will suffer consequences of its war of aggression that would impair its ability to expand its military power, everything else is just talk.
skriptorium.info
Oh hey, you're in 🇨🇿 too? Awesome!
Did you manage to get to the Lucy/Selam exhibition at the NM in Prague?
Reposted by Alastair Millar
grandiloquentwords.bsky.social
Benignant [buh-NIG-nunt]
(adj.)
- Kindly, gracious, and benevolent.

From “benign” (exerting a good influence) on model of its opposite, “malignant”

Used in a sentence:
“He offered a benignant smile that suggested he might forgive you for existing—so long as you stopped doing it so loudly.”
Grandiloquent Word of the Day logo - Sepia-toned graphic with a baroque Victorian typeface and an illustration of a little girl offering a cup of milk to a kitty.
skriptorium.info
A brief article in English (with site photos) on this remarkable find from north Bohemia: a Stone Age hunting site and the remains of 19 (!!) mammoths from 26,000 years ago.

#archaeology #prehistory #mammoth #stoneage
19 Mammoths Found in Northern Czechia
Archaeologists in northern Czechia uncovered remains of 19 mammoths from 24,000 BC at a site in Ústí nad Labem during construction work.
praguemorning.cz
skriptorium.info
Just Trump - who demands that Europe stop buying Russian oil - fulsomely praising the European leader who buys the most Russian oil and glorifying himself again. 🤡
euronews.com
Trump to Orbán: “You are fantastic. I know a lot of people don’t agree with me, but I’m the only one that matters.”
skriptorium.info
Deluded idiot probably thinks he has a chance. The old fool genuinely doesn't seem to realise how disrespectful he's being.
reuters.com
U.S. President Donald Trump described Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as “a beautiful young woman”, as she stood behind him on stage at a Gaza summit in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
skriptorium.info
'Stunning' is the right word.
As Keats put it, 'a thing of beauty is a joy forever'.
alisonfisk.bsky.social
A stunning 2,000 year-old Roman blue glass amphoriskos.

📷 Getty Museum www.getty.edu/art/collecti...

#Archaeology
Getty Museum photo of a translucent, dark blue, two-handled, glass flask (amphoriskos) against a grey background. The free-blown body is bulbous in shape, with a narrow neck with a flattened rim. The two handles were added afterwards and attach to the body and mouth. The handle on the right has been attached slightly higher up on the body than the other side. Height 10.5 cm. There is some incrustation on the interior of the glass.
skriptorium.info
I mean, it's been US law that - as in most European countries - non-citizens carry their papers on them at all times since 1940, *even if* enforcement has been lax.

But tbh, what astonishes me is that in an era of street snatches and random checks, a resident alien would NOT want to do so.
reichlinmelnick.bsky.social
Wow, wow, wow. This has always been legally possible but the law has virtually never been enforced — and now this is the SECOND case I've heard of in the last month (first involving a person with a green card) of a noncitizen being charged for failure to carry their papers.
royalpratt.bsky.social
NEWS: ICE gave a Rogers Park man a $130 ticket for not having his papers on him. They rounded him up last week and eventually let him go, but not without a fine that some critics say is un-American. Trump admin enforcing little-used law
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...
Reposted by Alastair Millar
bsky.app
Quick Tip: Don’t want people getting pinged when you post or reply?

You can turn that off by heading to: Settings → Privacy and Security → Allow others to be notified of your posts and toggling it off.
A screenshot of “Allow others to be notified of your posts” with “No one” selected
skriptorium.info
Fun fact: the world's earliest known weapons factory existed in what is now Israel 7200 years ago. The region's diverse religious & ethnic groups, well supplied with extremists and zealots, have each fought and hated all the others ever since. So no, I don't think the latest 'Peace Deal' will last.
World’s Oldest War Weapons Factory Existed 7,200 Years Ago In Israel
The projectiles' standard aerodynamic form made them a nasty piece of work.
www.iflscience.com
skriptorium.info
"The author’s decision to split the prize between his translator Szirtes, who was responsible for introducing him to the English–speaking world, & Ottilie Mulzet, who produced a stream of translations of his later work, shows that perceptive translators play a key role in international recognition."
skriptorium.info
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story only someone in your profession would understand:

"AI determines our rates!"
cjfrieman.bsky.social
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story only someone in your profession would understand

"landowner used an excavator"
swilua.bsky.social
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story only someone in your profession would understand

“papers in IEEE format”
skriptorium.info
Bibi is showing that Israel is run by religious extremists, while flattering Trump and his Christofascist supporters. Like all zealots, they fail to realise that this will cause revulsion, and problems, abroad - including creating a new generation of jihadis. This 'peace' is unlikely to last.
aljazeera.com
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to lose his place during his speech to parliament, telling US President Donald Trump that the decision to bomb Iran’s nuclear site at Fordow was one of the ‘miracles’ of the Bible.
skriptorium.info
This is inspiring - this lady has survived 38 years (so far!) since her heart & lung transplant as a teenager. How can anyone see this, and NOT believe that we should 'trust the science'?
Woman, 53, becomes UK’s longest survivor of heart and lung transplant
Katie Mitchell had procedure at 15 after being diagnosed with Eisenmenger syndrome, a rare congenital disease
www.theguardian.com
Reposted by Alastair Millar
en.afp.com
In an AI-generated, dystopian vision of the British capital, a video shows Big Ben smouldering above piles of rubbish and London crowds dressed in traditional Islamic garb.

Far-right leaders are seizing on such AI clips of European cities changed by migration to promote racist views
u.afp.com/Smz4
Reposted by Alastair Millar
dreamforgemagazine.bsky.social
Today's Word: Kalopsia
The delusion or illusion that things are more beautiful than they actually are, seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. From Greek "kalos" (beautiful) and "opsis" (seeing). Hmmm... Is it delusion, or is finding beauty where others see none its own form of truth?
skriptorium.info
I'd not take his words too seriously. Lukashenko is completely under Russia's thumb, politically & economically, so has to say things like this occasionally to keep Vlad happy. He's been careful not to get drawn into the Ukraine war himself, though, so is clearly not that confident of victory.
kyivindependent.com
⚡️Lukashenko warns Ukraine could 'cease to exist', blames Zelensky for stalled negotiations.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Oct. 12 that he thinks Ukraine could "cease to exist as a state" unless President Volodymyr Zelensky "sits down, negotiates, and acts urgently."
Lukashenko warns Ukraine could 'cease to exist', blames Zelensky for stalled negotiations
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview on Oct. 12 that he thinks Ukraine could "cease to exist as a state" unless President Volodymyr Zelensky urgently begins peace talks.
kyivindependent.com
Reposted by Alastair Millar
eebc.bsky.social
On the 319th day of the continuous protests in Tbilisi, a march got held ‘Georgia cannot be captured!’ from Vere Park to the parliament, lead by prisoners’ relatives.

#GeorgiaProtests
Reposted by Alastair Millar
grandiloquentwords.bsky.social
Prevaricate [pruh-VAIR-ih-keyt]
(v.)
- To deliberately evade the truth; to speak misleadingly; to lie.

Used in a sentence:
"Poor Pinocchio’s pernicious propensity to prevaricate promotes probiscal protuberance prolongation.”
Grandiloquent Word of the Day logo - Sepia-toned graphic with a baroque Victorian typeface and an illustration of Pinocchio with a very long nose, crying.