One of the things I find infinitely fascinating is the mapping between modal verbs between languages. For example my mother tongue (Italian) has 3, German has 6 (and more, because the negative versions have subtleties) - I collate meanings together than need differentiated there. #language

Some language & history read to start the day

In Sudan è in atto la più grande crisi umanitaria del pianeta,con nove milioni di sfollati e quattro milioni di profughi nei paesi confinanti,diverse aree affette da carestia ed epidemie mentre metà della popolazione sopravvive con l’assistenza umanitaria già tagliata da Trump. Per non parlare

And here's the English version of the post - we looked at Airbnb listings that changed hands in Florence, discovering they're 13% of the total. Most likely they go from an individual owner to an agency, hence contributing to shrinking the market bernomone.github.io/citybreaking...

🧵 Is it a super flu year? Who knows, but I think the current reporting is stupid. A pissed off thread using data. Firstly - here are today's headlines and some from the last 3 years... spot the difference. 1/10

When it’s grey outside and you just want to stay wrapped up in bed. Photo: Ickworth Estate

The algorithms are making it a lot harder to spread the word about these online talks. Although numbers are still reasonable, it would be a great help if folk were able to give the 30 December event a quick share 🙂 Booking available here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/buildings-...

E io sono d'accordo con Andrea (che, ndr., è una leggenda)

Aiguille du Midi (3842 m) 1957 | 2025 Upper 'Mallory Glacier' (N aspect) and Aig. du Midi from the east! Remember that we are here “on top” of Alpine glaciers! Only 5 to 17 metres of ice left here. In some places, up to 18 metres have melted since 2003 only! Source/data: Xavier Cailhol 🙏

And here's the English version of the post - we looked at Airbnb listings that changed hands in Florence, discovering they're 13% of the total. Most likely they go from an individual owner to an agency, hence contributing to shrinking the market bernomone.github.io/citybreaking...

A Firenze i nuovi listing Airbnb sono per il 13% listing lavati con, nel senso che hanno cambiato mano, molto probabilmente passando da una gestione di proprietari* individuale a un'agenzia. Post qui bernomone.github.io/citybreaking...

If you need some good laughs

Listen with horror as Gone Medieval, one of the foremost English-language podcasts about medieval history, of which I've been a loyal listener for years, is now invaded by linguistics, thanks to yours truly. Apple: podcasts.apple.com/kh/podcast/m... Podlink: pod.link/1564113746/e...

Just a thought: how about substantial investment and subsidy for mass transportation instead?

This sign raises more questions than it answers

I just heard an ad for an AI service that will monitor your other AI services and fix any errors created by them

I've heard from @willdalrymple.bsky.social of @empirepoduk.bsky.social fame that Britain, in all its history, invaded all but 22 countries in the world??

There's many children who, Xmas or not, go hungry or can enjoy no happiness. A good way to help this is to donate for them - this is a fundraiser for Ukrainian children of the fallen, please donate

"morbido" in Italian means soft and it's a very "positive" word (used e.g. for pillows, fabric...) - the root is Latin, the same of the English "morbid" (macabre, obsessed with sickness and death). Morbidus meant affected by disease, weakened and soft because of that. Funny evolution of the word.

Nel #giardino dei bimbi morti è pieno di giocattoli che gli ucraini lasciano sui luoghi delle stragi russe. Tiriamo fuori qualche decina di euro e facciamo un regalo ai bimbi ucraini vivi e orfani di guerra con una donazione qui #RussiaIsATerroristState www.paypal.com/donate?campa...

Well, hi from Edinburgh, but also special mention from Italy as my heart is there too

Oxford is having a vote on its #WotY2025 You've got 2 days to let your feelings be known! Myself, I don't think I have a favo(u)rite out of this lot corp.oup.com/word-of-the-...

The Etruscan language was not a Indo-European one, it dates from before the arrival of those people. Tuscany, as a name, comes from them via Latin, which called the Etruscan people "Tusci" #language

A new hand-drawn dataviz on #overtourism for my newest project, we've been looking at big Airbnb hosts to see how widespread they are, geographically. English post here bernomone.github.io/citybreaking...

A new hand-drawn dataviz on #overtourism for my newest project, we've been looking at big Airbnb hosts to see how widespread they are, geographically. English post here bernomone.github.io/citybreaking...

Un'altra #dataviz disegnata! Stavolta si guarda (per il progetto sull' #iperturismo che sto facendo) a quegli host Airbnb che sono grossi in una città (hanno tante case) per vedere se sono pure estesi fuori dalla città stessa. Alcune sorprese, il post si legge qui bernomone.github.io/citybreaking...

A prisoner in the Arizona State Prison system decided to reconnect with his Welsh heritage by studying the Welsh language. Now he leads a group of inmates who are independently studying endangered, ancient, and vulnerable languages—Welsh, Brittonic, Assyrian, Old Norse, Taíno, Nahuatl, and Guosa.

The Ablaut, the vowel shift from the present tense to the past, is a thing of proto-Indoeuropean. It remains in German/English (not sure if in all Germanics) - e.g. drink-drank-drunk/trink-trank-getrunken; romance languages abandoned it for suffixation - e.g. Italian dormo-dormii-dormito #language

A week today, I'll be shining a light on local shops and makers. I hope you'll join me for a virtual Bluesky party/shopping night/blether. #EdinburghHour

Can you guess the country in red just by analysing the chart? Have a try at chartle.cc

Yet another example of self-declared do-gooders that are really just profiting while oppressing others

Wow that's great, didn't know such a thing existed in the US - more of this everywhere please

NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen. Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.

🌍 42.5m refugees Over 70% of them are hosted by low- and middle-income countries. 🇬🇧 548k refugees = 0.78% of the UK population. It is not refugees who tear our country apart, it is the mainstreaming of far right policies. And that’s a risk to all of us. My letter to my MP. #asylum #Mahmood 🧵

Bonnington based charity the Compass Therapy Centre are having an open afternoon this Thursday, particularly for people with neurological conditions. 1 in 6 people in the UK have a neurological condition, so really pleased to see such a proactive response in our community.

Bad news in from South Georgia - the population of breeding female elephant seals has nearly halved following a bird flu outbreak on the sub-Antarctic island. Here's what we know so far... 📸 Connor Bamford

I find that I retain information better when I read it rather than listen to it. Anyone else? Maybe this is why Elon Musk can’t tell the difference between The Odyssey and The Iliad.

A lot of people complain of the sycophancy of LLMs. But really, you can use it to your advantage when researching a topic/learning. Challenge the bot to challenge yourself, to see whether you really understood something. Push and question. Then always be skeptical and read the sources.

The Italian #Airbnb market is concentrating: bigger hosts (usually agencies) are eating up more properties. Rome is an exception. Post in English bernomone.github.io/citybreaking... and in Italian bernomone.github.io/citybreaking... #data #overtourism

36 years ago today, the Berlin Wall fell and the world changed overnight. This moment marked an important milestone in EU history, paving the way for democratic change and future EU enlargement. A lasting symbol of hope, unity and the power of freedom. #mauerfall

A movie you've seen more than 7 times with a gif

La bellezza del silenzio (e del clavicembalo temperato) ❤️ open.substack.com/pub/astutill...

Sudan is in a famine, and people are dying from it. The Khartoum Aid Kitchen initiative feeds the hungry, about 1250+ people daily, in the greater Khartoum area. They are at 93% Update below: gofund.me/bbbc084c

*A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.* That's A Huxley in the 1946 preface to "Brave New World"

F. Scott Fitzgerald: In my book I invented Gatsby lifestyle as a cautionary tale The president: At long last, we have created the Gatsby lifestyle from the classic novel The Great Gatsby

Please donate if you can, like, share, spread the word. Let's get this closed!

This @royalsociety.org report has not received nearly the attention it deserves. Key finding: "most current approaches to economic assessments of impacts of #climate change do not reflect the severity of consequences that are suggested by the latest physical climate science & evidence on impacts" 😬

Parlando di iperturismo, a Bologna l'ospite maggiore ha il ~4% delle proprietà Airbnb, a Milano quasi l'80% degli ospiti ne hanno invece uno solo. Quanto sono diseguali le città italiane riguardo le proprietà Airbnb? Qualche dato bernomone.github.io/citybreaking...

In Bologna, the top Airbnb host has almost 4% of the listings. Is it a rich-gets-richer mechanism? Yeh, pretty sure it is. Some #data bernomone.github.io/citybreaking...