Connections Puzzle #931 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wordle 1,653 3/6 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I wish they gave these to you every time you increased academic rank. I particularly tend to forget (took a long time to recognise) the second point. I got this at the council of Europe parliamentary meeting two weeks ago Monday.

Here's our 20th most-read piece of 2025.

I'm running a play test for my LARP, Ruin The Game, between 1-5pm at King's College London on January 2nd. Let me know if you're interested! No previous LARP experience needed. You can find the blurb for the LARP in the Smoke's programme on pages 43-44: thesmoke.org/programme/

Grr Connections Puzzle #930 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟨🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪

Dammit Wordle 1,652 X/6 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩

Well, it’s the day after Wallace and Gromit rode again – and it’s the 31st anniversary of the first appearance of the greatest sound effect in the history of the motion picture, so here’s the story of how (I found out how) they made it...

Omgggg thissssss 👇👇👇👇👇

Gingerbread 2025 Dumpster 🔥

🏺Facebook archaeology groups might not be completely dead after all

Distorting time #obliquestrategies

Happy Boxing Day!

Connections Puzzle #929 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟨🟨🟨🟨

Wordle 1,651 4/6 ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜ 🟨⬜🟨🟩⬜ 🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Experimental evidence that students are more likely to contest grades when they are delivered by an evaluator with a female-sounding name. "These findings suggest that women in evaluative positions face disproportionate resistance when delivering negative assessments."

My new lab in Singapore is seeking a full-time RA to help investigate how exploratory cognitive states shape environmental representations (cognitive maps). The position is funded until late 2027, and comes with a postdoc-level salary package. Please forward! careers.sutd.edu.sg/job/Singapor...

Fifteen of those twenty years were spent writing unsuccessful grant applications.

Happy Christmas everyone, just remember, you'll get to stage 4 soon enough

Unbelievably, #DuvetKnowItsChristmas generates such good will on social media that over the years we've raised somewhere approaching a quarter of a million quid for homeless charities. If you can spare a bob or two, sling some to Centrepoint, and here's the link: www.gofundme.com/f/duvet-know...

Connections Puzzle #928 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪

Wordle 1,650 3/6 ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and please complete your mandatory e-learning by 31 December.

for many, it will be the space left by those no longer with us that can be felt most intensely today. Here is a poem for my dad and one for my mum. Hope the ghosts bring happy memories too .

Fell for it 🤦 Connections Puzzle #927 🟩🟦🟨🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟨🟨🟨🟨

Wordle 1,649 6/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜ 🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜ 🟩⬜🟩🟩🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I have made a #DuvetKnowItsChristmas bingo card! And done alt text on it (as everyone else should, if they're able).

You made a nice stack with these seven unread books and moved this particularly thick one to three different piles

Fully-Funded PhD in Human Origins – University of Tübingen, Germany. PhD role in archaeology & paleoecology. Eligibility: Master’s degree. Deadline: 31 January 2026. Apply: higherjobz.com/fully-funded... #AcademicJobs #ArchaeologyJobs #Paleoanthropology #GermanyJobs @unituebingen.bsky.social

Si la Comisión Europea no responde a este ataque a nuestra soberanía con una firmeza equivalente, más vale que cierre ya su sede en Bruselas y la convierta en un Airbnb.

Cunk spittin Christmas cheer

Crocheted Christmas tree, Medelim, Portugal, created by 50 female textile artists who came together from all over the country for the project #WomensArt #ChristmasEve 🎄 ❄️

I haven’t been this excited for a bubble to burst since I was a toddler.

This but Aunt is my plan for the future

In 2023 I became obsessed with videos of dads in cargo shortswaiting in parking lots during Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. So when she came to town, I grabbed a camera and headed down to talk to them. I thought it'd be funny. It turned out to be something else entirely.

Ireland has gone 10 years with the freedom to change gender and... society did not collapse. No scandals have erupted. No vile criminal behaviour has resulted. Just 300+ people per year having the right to become themselves. #SpeirGorm

Two vacancies for a Research Assistant/Associate in Technical GIS at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research (University of Cambridge) www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/54030/ www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/54031/

Connections Puzzle #926 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟪🟪🟪🟪

Wordle 1,648 3/6 ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ 🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

As my previous tree stump thing did well on Instagram, I made a festive sequel

the winter solstice is just a made-up holiday to sell more henges.

One of the most pleasant surprises of the past 20 years was the transformation of Wikipedia into arguably the most reliable general information source freely accessible to the public. It’s not perfect — I’ve certainly seen errors — but it’s kind of shockingly good. One might consider a donation.

Being hosed-down feels pretty good but what if you were also a capybara? Must be amazing.

For any children (or kids at heart) interested in Solstice, eerie fiction or both... BBC World Service has a great 12-part audio adaptation by Simon McBurney and @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social of Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising Start on Midwinter Eve (tomorrow)... www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

Connections Puzzle #925 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟩🟩🟩🟩

Wordle 1,647 4/6 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

We looked at 10 years of archaeology tenure-track job ads (2013–2023) to see what departments actually ask for: topics, methods, regions, and application materials. Open-access paper: doi.org/10.1017/aaq.... Data and R code used for the study are openly available here doi.org/10.5281/zeno... 🧪