David Marley

Parrots in Seventeen Cultures

Taken in 1865 - the year Abraham Lincoln was assassinated & Lewis Carroll's Alice made her first trip to Wonderland - this extraordinary photo of Dickensian London never ceases to take my breath away.

Where am I, 80's TV fans??

The Old Appian Way, Rome, oldest parts dating to 312 BC. Beautiful in the daytime, but I and a mate explored parts of it after dark once. We retreated in a hurry.

@Pergament_F ‘The word “lady” comes from the Old English "hlǣfdige". Literally: the woman who kneads the bread. The mistress of the household. The one whose hands fed the hall. Meanwhile “lord” comes from "hlāfweard". The guardian of the loaf.’

One of the most amusing things about the English aristocracy is that beneath centuries of castles, powdered portraits, hereditary titles, political intrigues, expensive tea, restrained emotional repression, and entire libraries dedicated to proper etiquette, the words “Lady” and “Lord” emerge from something astonishingly domestic. Bread. The word “lady” comes from the Old English "hlǣfdige". Literally: the woman who kneads the bread. The mistress of the household. The one whose hands fed the hall. Meanwhile “lord” comes from "hlāfweard". The guardian of the loaf. The keeper of the bread. And suddenly half of British history begins sounding less like feudal grandeur and more like an exceptionally well-organized bakery with constitutional complications. Which, honestly, explains a surprising amount about Britain. Because language has a cruel habit of preserving truths long after civilizations begin decorating themselves with mythology. Behind every “Your Grace,” every velvet robe, every parliamentary speech delivered with magnificent confidence and carefully disguised panic, there still stands an ancient agricultural reality: one person kneading the bread. Another protecting it. Human civilization, for all its philosophy and architecture, has always depended primarily on whoever prevents the bread from disappearing. Russell would probably have enjoyed this immensely. After all, one of the great ironies of history is that people endlessly reinvent abstract theories about power while the structure itself remains embarrassingly primitive. Someone produces food. Someone controls food. Everyone else develops philosophy afterward. And perhaps that is why aristocracy fascinates people so persistently. Not because of superiority. But because human beings desperately enjoy placing poetic curtains over practical realities. “Lady” sounds infinitely more romantic than “the woman handling the flour situation.” “Lord” certainly sounds better than “the man responsible for protecting carbohydrates.” Yet etymology remains magnificently democratic. It quietly humiliates everybody. The emperor becomes a bureaucrat. The conqueror becomes a tax collector. The aristocrat becomes a well-dressed bread administrator. And somewhere beneath all civilization, all ideology, all opera, all empire, all philosophy, and all carefully cultivated prestige, humanity continues its ancient occupation: trying to survive long enough to eat in peace.

The song thrush has lived in England for thousands of years. Long before modern England existed, its song echoed through woodland, orchards and hedgerows across the country. And unlike most birds, the song thrush repeats each musical phrase several times before changing tune, giving it one of the most distinctive songs in the countryside. Robert Browning captured it perfectly: 'That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over'" They are also known for using stones to smash open snail shells, often leaving small piles of broken shells behind. For centuries, the song thrush has appeared in English poetry and countryside writing as a symbol of spring, renewal and the changing seasons. Yet despite once being common, their numbers have fallen sharply since the 1970s. Still, across gardens, churchyards and hedgerows, that ancient song can still be heard. One of the oldest sounds in the English countryside. Do you still hear song thrushes where you live? Follow @oaksandlions for the sounds, stories and heritage of the English countryside. #England #EnglishCountryside #Birds #NativeBirds

Mother of all. worldhistory.org/Ninhursag/

From Edward III to Elizabeth I 👑📜 Follow the evolution of music across England’s royal courts and changing world. medievalstudies.thinkific.com/courses/crown #EnglishMusic

UPDATE: Helen Mirren has FAILED to get Tom Hardy fired. Instead the world found out she is a psychopath terrorist who loved taking part in literal ethnic cleansing. The pro-genocide media ganged up on Tom and tried to smear him. But the backlash was so great that Tom hardy has now NOT been fired. Total genocider defeat. Love to see it.

@HiggsDoig @OverlandJournal under daily scrutiny by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The result has been a complete transformation in the international view of Israel.'

@djmarley6 @OverlandJournal David, how can you have any sympathy for a cause that wants to repeat The Holocaust? Why do you misrepresent the cause as wanting what they have repeatedly rejected since 1937? Why do you do this?

“More than four decades on, Edward Said’s famous observation that ‘permission to narrate’ is denied to the Palestinian perspective has lost none of its currency.” Nick Riemer reviews the transcripts of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism & Social Cohesion overland.org.au/2026/05/zionis…

@HiggsDoig @OverlandJournal the separation fence: All of these routines of occupation and repression were once familiar only to an informed minority of specialists and activists. Today they can be watched, in real time, by anyone with a computer or a satellite dish – which means that Israel’s behavior is

@HiggsDoig @OverlandJournal "Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza have magnified and publicized the country’s shortcomings and displayed them to a watching world,” Judt wrote. “Curfews, checkpoints, bulldozers, public humiliations, home destructions, land seizures, shootings, ‘targeted assassinations

@OverlandJournal 'As these exclusions suggest, the hearings repeat the near-complete erasure of Palestinian experience that regularly characterises discourse about antisemitism in the global north. On the witnesses’ side, this manifests most concretely in an almost universal failure to even

I read all 756 pages of transcripts from Australia's antisemitism Royal Commission - an invaluable source for understanding how pro-Israel politics is being constructed and defended at the moment, rhetorically, ideologically, emotionally. Thanks to @OverlandJournal for publishing

✍️ Opinion by Dan Glazebrook middleeasteye.net/opinion/trumps…

Yesterday I wandered around the Toolangi State Forest for hours. As i walked, I sang at the top of my lungs like I was the only person in this world. And for the first time in a while, I didn’t feel like I was just surviving. I felt alive. ✊🏼

A mulga parrot pair allopreening. Gluepot Reserve, South Australia.