Watching the Winter Olympics and remembering something Ahir Shah told me once. Posh people do dangerous sports, like skiing, because if they break a leg and have to spend weeks in bed off work, they don’t stop earning. Think it might be as good a class test as what you call your settee.

I deeply appreciate scientists doing work that caters to my particular venn diagrams of personal interests, such as bird poop + ancient civilizations: 🧪 🏺 www.scientificamerican.com/article/this...

There is nothing quite as aurally cute as a dog sleep-woofing and sleep-growling at some dream critter they've almost caught.

John Major is 82 which will come as a shock to those (me) who assigned him the age of 55 and never revisited the fact.

The RSPB is looking for surveyors to census the UK’s largest Storm Petrel colony on Mousa, Shetland. We need 2-4 volunteers who are comfortable working and camping in a remote location with limited facilities, to help complete playback surveys during mid-July 2026. 🪺🏝️🏕️

“Lebe Kunde Heute geschossen” “Live today, customers Today fired”

Woman who's emigrated to Dubai for the schools and the sun wants to defund a Welsh university.

this happens all the time with science and actual technology stories: reporters on the non-technical/science beats don't even know the basics, so they can't challenge the assumptions.

With a +64% increase in MSCA 2025 scholarship applications, funding cut-offs reached absurd levels. (e.g. a score of 96/100 remained unfunded, got news today from a candidate I sponsored). When rating is this compressed, a lottery among top-rated proposals deserves serious consideration I think.

Our #Bookofthemonth for January: Lichens of Britain and Ireland: An Introductory Guide by Frances Stoakley and Dr Rebecca Yahr. Filling a desired niche, it's a really useable and accessible guide for beginners and a faithful field guide for all! www.summerfieldbooks.com/product/lich...

These soaps contain a random set of polyhedral dice, are SLS free, and contain dried lavender from my own garden. I designed the formula with sensitive skin in mind as its something very important to me. We do free UK shipping over £30 so grab yourself some goodies at www.tabletoptinkering.com 🟩💚

Linen hood, made in #England, c. 1610-1620 The short gap between the crown of the hood and the top of the insertions suggest that it was worn with a ruff. (Victoria & Albert Museum, London)

#MolluscMonday 99% of visitors to the Egyptian and Greek galleries in the British Museum will be too focused on the items displayed in the cabinets to notice the Jurassic gastropods and Cretaceous rudist bivalves in the flooring beneath.

These are some pretty excellent gravestone boobs. No messing around with a leaf collar. Straight to the boobs. gravestone of Sibyll Wigglesworth (d.1708), Cambridge, MA carved by Joseph Lamson of Charlestown image via Farber Collection @amantiquarian.bsky.social

Please do share this doctoral opportunity with MA/MSt students - four years of AHRC funding to work on the history of children's play in Wales, supervised by me and the lovely and brilliant Dr Jacky Tyrie. Any questions get in touch! www.swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate...

Definitively one of the most momentous events in legal history. It should be a public holiday.

Excellent start to this new seminar this evening as Dr. Patricia Akhimie spoke about her work on the upcoming Folger exhibition on Black women and Shakespeare. #EarlyModern 🗃️ This thread contains details about future seminars - sign up now! 👇

Dewdrop Inkcaps, Coprinellus heptemerus. Delightful little fungi on old horse dung, Booton Common, Norfolk. #Fungi #FungiFriends

Hazel Porecrust, Dichomitus campestris. On a fallen oak branch at Booton Common, Norfolk. www.first-nature.com/fungi/dichom... #Fungi #FungiFriends

Ants 🐜 are my first scientific love, so this week’s post is a reminder of the little creatures that run the world! Ants are dominant predators, herbivores, and ecosystem engineers around the planet. We couldn’t live without them. And they’re also beautiful! @zoologymuseum.bsky.social

📣 Survey: human–large carnivore coexistence in Europe For professionals in wildlife management, land-use decisions and research. Focused on governance, coordination & collaboration. ⏱️ ~15 min | Please take part and share widely. Thank you! Link in 1st reply.

people who say that all creative endeavor can be replaced with AI probably need to reckon with the fact that all televised sports events with human athletes could easily be replicated by high-definition computer-animated simulations….and yet we don’t do this and no one seems to want to.

Part1 #ExhibitionSneakPeek #Wildcat #WhenBeastsSpoke

Since Valentine's Day is approaching, I'm reposting some of my past Valentine's comics.

I have heard stories floating around that Reform did a similar “letter from voter” leaflet in the Caerphilly by election. If that was also lacking the legally required identification it would make their current claims about printer error on the Gorton and Denton leaflet rather less plausible

Well, if it’s 8 February, it must be the 94th anniversary of Geoffrey Potocki de Montalk (a fascist from New Zealand who said he was King of Poland) going on trial for attempting to get into print his poem ‘Here Lies John Penis’ 🧵

As far as I can see this is now actually shipping via Cornell...

Former Washington Post journalists have launched a GoFundMe to help repatriate fired staff members who are effectively stranded in foreign countries. One of the richest men in the world fired them from the paper and didn’t even pay to ensure they got home. Abolish the billionaire class:

We're not ready to announce #DinoConUK 2026 events yet BUT David Armsby has released some info across social media... follow @dinoconuk.bsky.social and visit dinocon.co.uk for info. Happens July 25th-26th in Birmingham.

Hate-filled fake videos about London are everywhere. We've obtained a recording of a TikToker confessing to secretly filming Londoners in their homes for clicks. He says it's not political. He just wants to make money from far-right anger. Read what he says: www.londoncentric.media/p/london-tik...

It is time to get out of bed again, and once again I find myself asking the universe why I cannot have the same lifestyle as my cat.

Calling rock nerds: a large, heavy, and vaguely metallic rock at the Rock and Art Shop in Bangor.

If the past year has shown us nothing else, it's the imperative of community, purpose, focus, and resources. Scrap Along 2026 can contribute to all of those. The event begins on Valentines Day and ends on the Ides of March (15 March). Start earlier or finish later, but make something with leftover

The internet was built on free links. Meta is attempting to monetize a feature that the public has grown accustomed to. It's nothing more than a brazen money grab. "Facebook tests £9.99 monthly subscription for sharing more than two links" www.bbc.com/news/article... #enshitification

New on FT website: Downing Street has refused to say whether Sir Keir Starmer knew Palantir was a client of Peter Mandelson’s lobbying firm when they both visited the company in Washington last February — ahead of it winning a £240mn UK government contract. www.ft.com/content/5bba...

I have made... a mistake. Each auction lot had 8-12 photos, so I assumed that was the number of pieces in the lot. It was merely a sample. Each lot contains 100-ish pieces. I won three lots.

There are over 18,000 types of lichen in existence. My personal favourite is ‘village bench lichen’, which devotes its entire existence selflessly to gradually making communal public seating more furry and comfortable.

It's that time of year again: we're looking for our next Antarctic team! If you can imagine a job that’s needed to keep a small, remote community safe and running, we have it. Escape the ordinary and apply for the job of a lifetime in Antarctica ⬇️

This is like a mix of Terminator and the Robert Palmer Addicted to Love video

I love the Olympics

just a little baby child (from @mosquitolab.bsky.social's pitfall samples; I can see how this one got sorted into the beetle pile)

In Salisbury Cathedral Close, the wondrously named William Posthumous Chapeau and his family. You have to take off your hat to them.

Does anyone know what this is? It looks like a bird seed block but I found it in a place nowhere near houses or where people would be. I wondered if it’s some kind of bait?

Environmental Supervisor (part-time) University of Leicester Archaeological Services Salary: Grade 5 - £26,707 to £31,236 per annum , pro-rata Date: February 19, 2026 Location: Leicester www.bajr.org/job-ad/envir...

Project Archaeologists Headland Archaeology Salary: from £26,098.80 - £27,139.88 (depending on experience) + generous benefits package Date: March 31, 2026 Location: Sites across UK including Tilbury, Essex, Cambridgeshire and East Anglia www.bajr.org/job-ad/archa...

Project Officer (Fieldwork) Headland Archaeology Salary: from £32,879 – £36,489 (depending on experience) + generous benefits package Date: March 31, 2026 Location: Edinburgh, Hereford, Silsoe, Cleckheaton, Boxworth – but working on sites across the UK www.bajr.org/job-ad/proje...

What’s that Skippy? Another research idea just appeared in your head?

Our first RHS lecture of 2026 is '"Alike in Appearance but not in Scope": Queens and the Making of Medieval Europe', with Prof Charles West (Edinburgh) bit.ly/49GlmMR 6pm, Friday 6 February. In-person booking is now full but registration to attend this event online remains open #Skystorians

Excited that my volume on the Early Bronze Age coffined burial from Tetney is now published open access by @antiquaries.bsky.social! Now everyone can read about this amazing find dated to 2032 BC and containing an amazing array of environmental and artefactual data. library.oapen.org/viewer/web/v...