Received my copy of this formidable doorstopper. A thousand pages on how cultures change. In Chapter 66, with @twaring.bsky.social and Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, we consider how the science of cultural change can be applied to... ...change culture more, and climate less. Or so we hope.

Online Exhibit 🐟 Rare, Beautiful & Fascinating Feature: Fishing Net Fragments From Collier Co., Florida Dates to ~AD 700-1500 "It’s well over 1,000 years old, yet you can still see the knots in the net and tell how they were tied." 🎧 With Bill Marquardt: www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/100-years/ob...

Cool new paper (and a thread about it) by @babeheim.bsky.social on the cultural evolution of Go games! Check out these colourful decision trees 🔥 doi.org/10.1017/ehs....

This is a really, really cool manuscript.

There's a lot more in the paper itself, here's the link!

Viikolla olimme Karijoen Susiluolassa kuvauksissa. Puhuimme kollegoiden kanssa luolan löydöistä, siitä onko luola uskottava neandertalinihmisen asuinpaikka ja testasimme vesihöyryn avulla miten savu käyttäytyisi luolassa. YLE:n dokumenttisarja Suomen historiasta tulee noin vuoden päästä ulos.

🚨 Excited to share a new paper 📃, years in the making, with Zach Wood. We propose that human evolution is characterized as an Evolutionary Transition in Inheritance and Individuality (ETII). Explainer and OA paper below:

This is the best explanation I've seen of Tyler Robinson's motives for assassinating Charlie Kirk. youtu.be/qcMYjtFWE7U

The count down starts for #CESRabat! Follow @ces2026.bsky.social and join us May 11-13 next year for an exciting meeting in Rabat, Morocco. Massive thanks to the #CESRabat organising committee: Sarah Alami (co-chair) Mathieu Charbonneau (co-chair) Zachary Garfield Edmond Seabright

All I saw was cheesecake boat and ocean for at least 5 minutes

Kyllä, lasten seksuaalinen hyväksikäyttö ja siitä kuvatun materiaalin levittäminen on hirveää ja väärin ja se pitäisi saada lopetettua Ei, meidän kaikkien viestisalaisuuden rikkominen ei ole siihen ratkaisu Ja kun se salaisuus kerran rikotaan, sitä henkeä ei takaisin pulloon saa

@durhampsych.bsky.social current has 5 (FIVE!!) PhD studentships being advertised! 3 to work with me on children as agents of cultural evolution 2 to work with @drboothroyd.bsky.social on examining school-based body image interventions. Please share and apply! www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

I built a palette generator based on description (or in any case text), I forgot to close the tab and it kept generating palettes based on all my meetings, youtube videos, conversations at home…

You've heard of the human "cognitive revolution" around 40 kya—a moment when our species suddenly became "behaviorally modern." Have you also heard that this story is wrong? From the archive, our episode w/ @elliescerri.bsky.social & @manuelwill.bsky.social! Listen: disi.org/revisiting-t...

⚡The largest attack on the territory of Ukraine since the start of the war Russia launched: 🔺 805 UAVs across Ukraine (747 shot) 🔺 4 Iskander-M ballistic missiles targeting Kryvyi Rih and the Sumy region 🔺 9 Iskander-K cruise missiles targeting Kyiv, Odesa, Kryvyi Rih (4 shot) t.me/mon1tor_ua/5...

It works. My hiking boots with the slippery laces are much more secure tied this way.

A pleasure to arrive in my office this morning and find Stone and Fiber by @chrisbuckley.bsky.social sitting at my desk. As well as being an meticulous material/ethnographic resource, the photographs - many from the 80s - are simply wonderful. This could be a coffee table art-book.

A project started shortly before Covid hit has finally arrived in print, phew!

Shells, including Nassa, cowrie and bailer shells, were traded into the highlands until recent times. But there is an important subtlety that needs to be added ... trade in the highlands was very different in character to trade on the coasts ... (1/3)

Israel tappaa ihmisiä tarkoituksella nälkään. YK:ssa linjattu suojeluvastuun periaate velvoittaa kansainvälisen yhteisön puuttumaan tilanteeseen. Sen mukaan pitäisi nyt toimia.

Heard on the train: Girl (~5 years old): Do you know who invented the Rubik's cube? Grandma: Well now, I suppose someone called Rubik? Girl: Yes. He got the idea from his name.

🧠 Want to integrate cultural evolution into your course using award winning materials created by the field's experts, and get paid $2000 to do it? 💵 🚨 The Cultural Evolution Society is seeking applications for the ACE Teaching Innovation Awards. 🔖 Apply here: vuw.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Good. Also, practical #climate action.

Miten äänikirjat vaikuttavat tunteisiimme? Tule mukaan aivotutkimukseen! 🧠 Juuri alkaneessa aivokuvantamistutkimuksessa hyödynnetään äänikirjojen kuuntelua ja mielikuvaharjoituksia, jotta voidaan paremmin ymmärtää, kuinka keho ja aivot toimivat yhdessä tunnekokemuksen aikana. tinyurl.com/2s24byp5

Observation with a newborn: Overtone throat singing quiets a baby better than hushing.

Something academia could learn from the world of business. But instead science funding is increasingly about flagships and "strategic" funds (and downstream Matthew-effects).

It's a great instrument, but I think I need a 11-string kantele already.

"Osa korotetuista Kela-korvauksista on valunut yksityisille lääkäriyhtiöille, jotka ovat nostaneet uudistuksen aikaan hintojaan." yle.fi/a/74-20176866

Published two years ago in @science.org: "Body-based units of measure in cultural evolution" We looked into how, and why, human societies have measured things with their bodies. A little thread about the deep ancestry and cross-cultural heritage of measurement: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Now shipping from bookseller's websites

A few days ago I gave a copy of "Stone and Fiber" to Enrico Kondologit, curator of the Museum Loka Budaya in Jayapura, Papua. We are negotiating with the Indonesian govt to get the collection repatriated to the Museum, and eventually to a new museum in Wamena, in the Baliem valley

If you're looking for a new science podcast, check out Many Minds. Focused discussions around the diverse topic of "mind"—whether human, non-human or artificial. Here we discuss how engagement with string may have shaped human cultures and minds over millennia.

Our new study examines Finland’s green transition & critical raw material governance via socio-technical imaginaries. National economic gains are prioritised, planetary boundaries ignored–continuing Finland’s long history of heavy resource use despite its ‘sustainability leader’ image.

I couldn't agree more w the point that the use of police/crime language abt science is unnerving, counterproductive, divisive. Science does not need an external police force in power. Science can't flourish under authoritarian governments or terms. That's all antithetical to the scientific endeavor.

For all the #STS and #histtech folks, we finally have video from the invention of the wheel

According to University of Helsinki's Disciplinary Code of Conduct from 1828 students were not allowed: - become overly intoxicated - move in city after 10 p.m. - play cards or dice - joyride with horse - smoke on the street

Some all but forgotten local history: Almost exactly 170 years ago two British frigates and one corvette anchored somewhere in this horizon and opened fire at what would eventually become a part of Helsinki, killing one Ostrobothnian soldier. The soldier's memorial stone is still here today.

Bought a new instrument a while ago, since there's lullaby duties ahead. That's a Finnish 5-string kantele. Made by Kaustisen soitinverstas. Only the 9th string instrument in this household.

Listening to Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global. Enjoyable book about Indo-European (pre-)history, and very well narrated, but now I want something like this except for Uralic, Austronesian, Bantu...

As we near prime #mushroom hunting season, you might be interested in how, why, when, and where humans across cultures have interacted with the fungal kingdom. That's all available in my recent global review of folk-mycological traditions: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Viisautta ja sivistystä huokuu tästä synttärihaastattelusta. Seppo Lindblom puolustaa velanhoidon ja puolustuksen pinteeseen jäänyttä hyvinvointia. Ja tutkimusta! Paras on silti tämä: ”-Mitä sanoisit 20-vuotiaalle itsellesi? -En kaksikymppisenä kuuntelisi näin vanhojen miesten neuvoja.”

Oh so it does have phd level intelligence

This (from OpenAI's official demo) is one of the worst chart crimes I've ever seen

Several ppl sent me this extraordinary chart crime. Thank you I love it

Stone tools from Sulawesi at least a million years old may be even more ancient than those found on Flores, suggesting an even earlier presence of hominins on Wallacea www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This is a book chapter I wrote in 2021 that I just got permission to share. It summarizes what is known about the early history of loom weaving and bark cloth in the Asia Pacific region www.researchgate.net/publication/...

What do mushrooms, political power, artificial intelligence, gender equality, moral gods and egalitarianism have in common? They're all subjects of the fascinating new eHRAF-based research featured in the latest Academic Quarterly: hraf.yale.edu/hraf-academi...

Ukkoseltahan se näyttää.

From the photo archives: Frog eye selfie.

New episode!! 🎙️📣 A conversation with @manvir.bsky.social about the many faces of shamanism. Shamanism is not a relic of the past or a curio from far-off lands—it's alive and well, all around the world. The roots of shamanism, after all, lie within us. Listen: disi.org/the-shaman-w...