In 1977, American physicist John H. Van Vleck won the Nobel prize for his work on magnetism. In his Nobel lecture, amid a discussion of rare earth elements, one sentence leaps out: "Miss Frank and I made the relevant calculations." Who was Amelia Frank? theconversation.com/who-was-amel...

The @nytimes.com Lost Science series continues. Here's my Q&A with a scientist who was studying how wildfire smoke threatens human health when the EPA decided that her research was no longer a funding priority. Gift link: nyti.ms/4jhpw14

Human Kindness: "We invited a man into our home at Christmas and he stayed with us for 45 years". What began as an act of compassion turned into an unique companionship of love and compromise that lasted 45 years, until the day Ronnie died. www.bbc.com/news/article...

I found King Charles' Christmas message very moving, and I'm Jewish. Good for him for speaking up: “As I meet people of different faiths, I find it enormously encouraging to hear how much we have in common; a shared longing for peace and a deep respect for all life."

Courage, sacrifice and communities coming together in adversity "are the values which have shaped our country and the Commonwealth. As we hear of division, both at home and abroad, they are the values of which we must never lose sight", says the King in his televised Christmas Day message

Human Kindness: "We invited a man into our home at Christmas and he stayed with us for 45 years". What began as an act of compassion turned into an unique companionship of love and compromise that lasted 45 years, until the day Ronnie died. www.bbc.com/news/article...

The United States launched a number of strikes against the Islamic State in northwestern Nigeria. "American military officials said it was doubtful they would have much long-term impact because of the entrenched nature of the conflict." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/u...

Arundhati Roy

"Turn the Year Round," by The Wilderness Yet. Listened to this a dozen times today. www.youtube.com/watch?v=51yE...

Searched back through Blue Sky for this. Which is one of the best things I saw all year in any medium.

The Embassy staff of Germany, France and the United Kingdom sing Schedryk in the Kyiv underground. Wonderful!

“As I meet people of different faiths, I find it enormously encouraging to hear how much we have in common; a shared longing for peace and a deep respect for all life." youtu.be/Ciqg2W0T-8c?...

A drawing by the Kalaallit artist Buuti Pedersen [depicts] a screaming Donald Trump being thrown off a cliff by Kaassassuk, a legendary pan-Greenlandic figure. Gordon F. Sander reports @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

"How (...) can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold," Pope Leo said, adding that the territory's inhabitants "have nothing left and have lost everything." @lemonde.fr www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

Pebbles in a party hat, not embracing the party spirit but that is her way.

Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss with "The Wexford Carol." www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxDZ...

How delicately a Romanesque angel uses the lightest touch of a finger to wake one of the magi, snuggled with the other 2 under their embroidered circular blanket at St Lazare, Autun, c1130 (& how beautifully the textures of pillow & blanket are represented). Season's greetings to you all!

Dozens of times since the truce went into effect on Oct. 10, Palestinians have been killed for crossing east, knowingly or not. Palestinians say the continued bloodshed shows that Israel does not respect the cease-fire. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/24/w...

My Year in Books 2025, with thanks to Dr. Victoria Bateman, @vnbateman.bsky.social, who gave me a copy of her book Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power, which inspired me to write about my Grandma. medium.com/@josieglz/my...

"We are one of only a few groups in the nation focused on treating pediatric cancer that has spread across the brain and spinal cord. This research is being crushed by the broad, destabilizing impacts of federal cuts to the NIH," says @docsirianni.bsky.social theconversation.com/this-year-ne...

Pediatric brain cancer research: cut. Faster chemical safety testing: cut. Training doctors to treat addiction: cut. Six scientists spoke about the devastating impact of 2025’s federal science funding cuts on their work, on their colleagues and on society. buff.ly/cx6x1Ho

Israel’s new registration rules for international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) risk leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza without lifesaving health care in 2026, warns Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières @msf.ca www.doctorswithoutborders.org/latest/msfs-...

"This year, after two years of silence, we decided to reignite Christmas, to reignite the spirit that everybody needs here in town, in order to give them hope so they can continue staying in Bethlehem and not leaving Bethlehem," said Bethlehem's mayor, Maher Canawati www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

International non-governmental organisations not registered by 31 December face closure of their operations in Israel within 60 days, which the agencies say could severely disrupt healthcare and other life-saving services in Gaza. www.bbc.com/news/article...

My Year in Books 2025, with thanks to Dr. Victoria Bateman, @vnbateman.bsky.social, who gave me a copy of her book Economica: A Global History of Women, Wealth and Power, which inspired me to write about my Grandma. medium.com/@josieglz/my...

Merriam-Webster announced that “slop” is its 2025 Word of the Year, reflecting how the term has become shorthand for the flood of low-quality AI-generated content that has spread across social media, search results, and the web at large. arstechnica.com/ai/2025/12/m...

Mystery surrounds the appearance of hundreds of Victorian hobnailed shoes which have washed ashore on a Welsh beach. The black leather boots, thought to date back to the 19th Century, were discovered by volunteers cleaning up rock pools on Ogmore By Sea Beach. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Sophie Kinsella's novels remain stories full of wit, resilience and warmth, still offering readers “a little treat here, a little treat there”, writes Charlotte Ireland @cireland123.bsky.social theconversation.com/sophie-kinse...

You can’t drink oil

My Year in Books 2025: A year in which I read both "The Burnout," by the late and beloved Sophie Kinsella, as well as "Satantango" by László Krasznahorkai, featuring "spider webs, ghostly bells, collective dreaming, also continuous rain, lust, drunkenness and despair." medium.com/@josieglz/my...

A pair of studies published in the journals Nature and Science found that a short interaction with a chatbot powered by AI could meaningfully shift some people’s opinions about a political candidate or issue. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/05/w...

2025 was a miserable year for global health It’s nice see some hopeful things we can look forward to 👇🏾 www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Strangulation is a massive predictor of escalating violence. It's also a precursor to, or an actual method of, a large proportion of femicide events. The thought that it used to be seen as a legitimate sex act/kink until so recently is horrific. I'm so glad the CPS took the new law seriously.

Officials in Denmark and Greenland were furious that Trump had appointed a special envoy to Greenland, part of his efforts to take over the semiautonomous Danish territory. “It’s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.” www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/w...

Fascinating. Preliminary data dating back to 1966, gleaned from 18 organ-tuning books associated with churches in London, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, indicate a rise in average temperatures inside churches since then, during winter and summer periods. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Our coverage of the closing of a local hygiene center last month spurred a philanthropist to buy the property for $2M. Donors in WA & other states chipped in remaining $500K to secure the land. Thanks, @ricksteves.bsky.social Thanks @a-rlnt.bsky.social for reporting mltnews.com/thanks-to-ri...

"Consent was not a defence for strangulation and suffocation," said Kate Brown of the Crown Prosecution Service. “There is no safe way to suffocate, and suffocation can have some enormous, long lasting physical impacts as well as psychological impacts”. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

The Trump administration said it would pause leases for five wind farms under construction off the east coast, essentially gutting the country’s nascent offshore wind industry in a sharp escalation of President Trump’s crusade against the renewable energy source. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/c...

A well-researched and reported article, but it never gets to the heart of the issue: Why DOES Stephen Miller hate immigrants so much when he himself is the descendent of Jewish immigrants who fled poverty and pogroms? Has anyone asked Miller this question directly? newrepublic.com/article/2041...

The US is not Denmark. Denmark is not the US. The Danish immunization schedule is not adapted for the realities of the American Healthcare system and population. Let me explain. This is a long thread so buckle up 🧵

One of the strangest & most unhelpful things I heard from Tracy Beth Høeg (amid strong competition!), the RFK Jr ally who wants the US to adopt Denmark's vaxx schedule, was when she said athletes are fit so don't need vaccines Um, OK 😔 www.today.com/health/teen-... www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y5q...

60 Minutes' Sharyn Alfonsi wrote that she and her colleagues on the story had sought comments and interviews from the Department of Homeland Security, the White House and the State Department. "Government silence is a statement, not a VETO," Alfonsi wrote in the email.

Imagine if just by refusing to comment, you could stop any story from running. You would literally never find out anything unflattering about anybody. It amounts to asking people for their blessing to publish your reporting about them.

"We really did set out to change our society and to make life better for our daughters but it’s a fight you have to keep winning. There’s never any saying ‘we’ve won’ because you never have,” says Celia Brayfield. The women behind 1975 UK Sex Discrimination Act: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

Breakthrough of the year? Renewable energy www.science.org/content/arti...

California has transformed how it powers its main electrical grid in recent years, setting ambitious targets to create an emission-free grid by 2045 and investing heavily in solar, wind and battery storage. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The report from the panel of international experts known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) still warned that three-quarters of Gaza’s population, or 1.6 million people, are experiencing acute food insecurity and malnutrition. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

A pair of rare native New Zealand takahē birds who were believed infertile have stunned staff at the world’s largest urban eco-sanctuary, Zealandia, after hatching a “miracle” chick. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

“We’re Jewish—we grew up knowing how hated we were just for existing,” Miller's cousin Alisa Kasmer said. “Now he’s trying to take away the exact thing that his own family benefited from: that ability to create a life for themselves [...] to live a rewarding life.” newrepublic.com/article/2041...

Things are Terrible, but this isn't. Be weird.