And now I’m experiencing existential terror in the middle of bloody Yorkshire

Well. This has cheered me right the fuck up. For the avoidance of doubt, I was being sarcastic just there.

Now listening to one of THE best NZ songs of the early 90s, which is fitting as we’re now well into the countryside m.youtube.com/watch?v=ghbt...

How to make perfume in 1230 BCE in the heartland of ancient Assyria. First, you need to mix cane with cleansed water from the palace well of the city of Aššur (pronounced Ashur). Second, you need to pour this mixture into a special vessel before adding...

Off to Edinburgh! The sun is out (at least in N London) and the coffee is delicious

"We have literally been talking about this for decades," says Carl, proudly. "That's why some many people have come down to be a part of it. Some of my friends were glad it happened today, so they could quit hearing about it!"

Two of my faves in one post, amphipods and parasitic worms!

eeep

bringing back some #InvertebrateShitposting from the archives

I have written a 2,000-word handover note because…well, I don’t know really. I’m only gong away for a week. Is it a need for control, or is it displacement activity to avoid finishing the strategy document I need to finish? Either way, no one can say I didn’t give ‘em a handover.

You will never understand how Class works in the UK. It is a complete baffling mystery - a set of rules so bizarre and arbitrary that the moment someone works out exactly how it works - the United Kingdom will disappear and be replaced by something even more complicated.

Aaaagh - if I didn’t have a full-time job I’d absolutely apply for this 😭 good luck to everyone who does apply!

UV photos from my latest plankton sample. Pseudocalanus copepod, a barnacle nauplius, a Harpacticoida copepod. #marineplankton 🦑

Woke up and remembered I read this last night, and now you can too (obligatory content warning for animated Victorian smut)! dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml...

Been attempting to track down the #Arctic natural #history specimens donated to the Whitby #Museum by William Scoresby Jr using old catalogues and photos. I've finally found a photo of his long-lost "sea-horse heads"! I've never seen walrus stuffed in this way. Also note the Ichthyosaur at the back!

London’s “worst mass eviction in recent history” is underway; hundreds of households across London told to get out of their homes this week by the same landlord, ahead of the renters rights act. The landlord? Billionaire Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital. www.londoncentric.media/p/asif-aziz-...

I don’t really ‘do’ fandom much any more but occasionally have a peek back in and for god’s sake, fandom isn’t praxis and neither is bullying, fanfic isnt activism and please for the love of fuck just enjoy yourselves and if you don’t agree with someone just leave it be 😭

I don’t know what this is about but I’m tipsy

Important news! I am delighted to announce the launch of my new podcast: The Untitled History Podcast. It's me, and guests, falling down all the history rabbitholes you can imagine. Please, please spread the word, subscribe and listen. Because... SHIPS CATS!! cms.megaphone.fm/channel/the-...

The last saved photo of a celebrity is your therapist I’m not sure much therapy would happen but he’d be super interesting to listen to.

This. If you read 100 books in a year that’s great, as long as you get something from them and aren’t just doing it for the numbers/asspats, and if you only read one book a year that’s also great. Numbers and what other people are doing don’t matter! Stop reducing everything to data and numbers!

Clovelly Bay Inn, Turnchapel, Plymouth, Devon Pub wall signs - • an enlarged copy of medallion issued by John Smeaton to workers on his Eddystone lighthouse - 1757. This was to stop them being snatched by “press-gangs” & being forced to join the navy. • South West Coast path #FingerpostFriday

This guy was so insulted that he pointed the finger of contempt at some other fellow in the newspaper, where everyone could see it.

I have adopted Goethe

CAT CHECKPOINT! show the most recent cat pic on your phone

my god right i KNOW it's a fossil i UNDERSTAND but it also CLEARLY DEMONIC www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Ash Wednesday, archival edition: hospital branded ashtrays from an era when smoking was still accommodated in health care settings. Shared for historical documentation. csts.ua.edu/ashtrays/ Content prepared by Rebecca Whiting, GRA, CSTS #TobaccoHistory #MedicalHistory #PublicHealthHistory #Archives

“I cannot overstate how much knowledge is housed in this library about literally our entire universe,” she told me. “The most expansive understanding of human knowledge about space is being packed up.” This is on the chopping block now. Contact your Congressional members, Reps and Sens to stop it!

One week to go until I’m in Edinburgh. I can’t wait; I really need to get out of London and away from The Work and into stuff I enjoy! I will be happy even if it’s pissing down, although I kind of hope it isn’t

Riding High! During the #ArgentinianDeepSeeps expedition, ROV pilots captured footage of a tiny animal, likely a crustacean, riding a jellyfish like a surfboard. Jellyfish = protection w/their stinging tentacles & access to food while traveling & “shooting the curl” (as surfers would say).

“You wrote this piece about X. Why didn’t you make it more about Y?” Because you asked for a piece about X and also I don’t tell you how to do your job vsrjghhdxb

May you have the energy of these fabulous Ice Age beasts as you enter the lunar New Year of the Horse! 🦣🐎

On February 14, 1852, in a London where nearly half of children died before age five, a small hospital opened with just ten beds and a radical idea. Sick children deserved their own wards, their own doctors, and care designed specifically for them: 🧵

“Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the UK is no longer considered to have eliminated measles, as transmission was re-established in 2024. “From 2021 to 2023, the UK was considered to have ‘eliminated’ the disease.” What’s next, polio? www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

I swear that the timing isn't deliberate, but if you're in London and looking for a different kind of walking tour on Valentines Day, voila: sarahbull.me/mapping-nine...

If Anthropic’s chief genuinely doesn’t know that LLMs are not conscious, maybe he’s in the wrong job

Reposting this from last year when I got the husband this excellent 🦀 card. This year’s was more restrained and featured penguins

❤️ A Tale of Two Stromnesses! ❤️ Elouise, who developed the Orkney Snorkel Trail with us, was recently in Stromness, South Georgia. The 'sooth' Stromness is 8000 miles away in the sub-Antarctic, where there's an old whaling station.

A Valentine’s Day reminder that lobsters don’t mate for life. They are promiscuous little critters who beat a path to the door of the nearest hot male then spend a couple of days enjoying him before making way for the next gal. If you want a romantic animal that does mate for life: PENGUINS

Playmobil Napoleon?! www.playmobil.com/en-gb/napole...

Kids frantically pushing aside the new Pokemon and Mandalorian LEGO sets in Target to purchase the ANE MÆRSK container vessel

Admittedly-horrid photo of the couch John Hunter (the great surgeon and anatomist) died on, next to his desk. This is in St George’s Hospital, SW London; he was head surgeon at its original location in central London. One of the medical school wings here is named after him #histmed

Syphilis has a long history and has often been accompanied by social stigma. In this post, Honorary Research Fellow Professor Ken Donaldson explores how city officials in Edinburgh attempted to banish people with syphilis to Inchkeith Island. surgeonshallmuseums.wordpress.com/2026/02/13/t...

I see someone couldn’t be arsed to knock, again

9/10, knocking off a point because it didn’t know Pennella instructa 🙁

Happy birthday to John Edward Gray (1800) & Charles Darwin (1809) 🎉whose curiosity inspires us daily. Gray was a zoologist who developed the cataloguing and taxonomic frameworks scientists still use today. His vast collections allowed Darwin to develop the theory of evolution and formed the NHM ⭐️

I never usually repost my posts but this is important!!!!

Born #otd in 1815 in Douglas, Isle of Man - Edward Forbes! Naturalist, geologist, botanist, artist, poet, book reviewer and that one friend who keeps everyone else’s social lives humming along. A bit overshadowed now by Darwin, who ironically was also born on 12 February, stealing his thunder again!

This is so, so worth a read. It was the book on ancient Mesopotamia I didn’t know I wanted

And now he’s told me about a party he went to years ago back in NZ where they all wore 19th century costume and got beaten up by some fellow students in 18th century costume. In suburbs New Zealand.