One nice thing about parental leave is you get to buy yoursel—... I mean, the kid, developmentally sensible toys such as high-end spinning tops, juggling balls, and yo-yos. Yes, yes, anything for the little one.

Interested in the weirdness that is humanity? Ever suspect human evolution itself may be changing? Join my colloquium at the KLI in Austria to learn about: The Science of an Evolutionary Transition in Humans kli.ac.at/en/events/ev... (3pm CET, 9am US Eastern, on zoom and live)

Throwback to a year ago. 🪢 We asked a simple question that nonetheless had never been answered: what kinds of knots have humans tied across cultures? (How) have knots evolved over millennia? We used some fun maths (knot theory) to provide an unambiguous answer. Thread:

This was a fun paper on the history of science. Despite all the pressures to standardize measurement, that good old informal unit of measure – the "drop" – persists in both medicine and chemistry. 💧 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

sites.google.com/view/dariia-... Hey everyone, how'd you like to learn about reproducibility and efficiency with Python code AND support Ukraine? Well, on Thursday evening at 18:00 - 20:00 CET you can! For just 20€ (more if you like) you can join an online class. More details at the link

Russia attacking Lviv city center. As close to the EU border as it gets. Civilians. UNESCO heritage. As performative as it gets. Bastards.

Russians, again 🤬 Destroying everything beautiful

Jos kirjoitatte hakukenttään tänään "Lviv", ei jää epäselväksi, miksi tänään on erinomainen päivä raivolahjoittaa omalle Ukrainaa tukevalle järjestöllesi - meille tai muille, joihin luotat.

Lviv today‼️ Russia bastards attacking the city in broad daylight ‼️

Fun anthropological fact – it is entirely normalised in Finland to undergo body modification if you can't roll your R properly. It's called frenotomy: they cut tissue under the tongue to loosen it. They did that to me as a child (because: *R*oope Oska*r*i Kaa*r*onen).

I just pronounce mine the orthodox Finnish way and enjoy the confused look on peoples' faces.

Bypias:in akku VTT:n testissä! Kasvun väreilyä. yle.fi/a/74-20216431

Once again paging for audiobook recommendations (also, why not podcasts!). Multiple hours of stroller walking per day. In the mood for something like The Invention of Nature. Nonfiction, (history of) science, travelogue, somewhat light but with insight.

Glad to see the Hadza fruit husk spinning top here. This toy is made entirely from organic materials and, in an environment with often uneven ground, the most suitable surface for spinning it is usually a rawhide antelope-skin sleeping mat (ref Woodburn, 1970). www.britishmuseum.org/collection/o...

Following the first independent investigation in 50 years of Monte Verde—a landmark archaeological site in Chile—researchers in Science report that it may be much younger than previously believed. https://scim.ag/47TTlQy

While I'm also not a fan of his recent antics, I have a tradition of listening to Astral Weeks on the first warm day of spring. So, soon.

Play is how children begin to understand their world and toys are their tools. I think I am paraphrasing Montessori. Tops are a marvelous compact laboratory of energy - transformation, storage, dissipation and vectorization...just wow. Also @roopekaaronen.net - dude.

Top of the morning! Today: the Matsui Gensui Troupe, a family of Japanese top-spinners who toured Europe in the 1860s. This 1865 woodblock print and photo show members of the Troupe performing tricks including spinning tops on fans, planks, edges of swords, and stacking them on top of each other.

Top of the morning! Today: the Matsui Gensui Troupe, a family of Japanese top-spinners who toured Europe in the 1860s. This 1865 woodblock print and photo show members of the Troupe performing tricks including spinning tops on fans, planks, edges of swords, and stacking them on top of each other.

Lord Brain was a neurologist who for over a decade edited the academic journal Brain. I shit you not.

And so, after four years of studying play in human culture, the final test begins: parental leave.

This is such a cool paper, with a proper interdisciplinary spirit: merging deep knowledge of cultural heritage with physics, linguistics and archaeological data to make inferences about the prehistory of textiles.

Top of the morning to you! This top is an interesting one. A whip-top with ivory inlays in alternating colours. It's from the Tomb of Tutankhamun! Over 3000 years old. "The top was one of the most beloved toys of Egyptian children." Source: www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?...

Can confirm, tops are top

I see yours and raise mine. Copper body with ruby contact point. Yes, it's a video.

Funny how Springer Nature never gets mentioned in the "predatory publishers" debates (MDPI, Frontiers...). Maybe it's different if you're the top predator. Also Nature journals' customer service sucks, review times are eternal, and they just racked in insane profits (and expect more growth):

Top of the morning to you! This top is an interesting one. A whip-top with ivory inlays in alternating colours. It's from the Tomb of Tutankhamun! Over 3000 years old. "The top was one of the most beloved toys of Egyptian children." Source: www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?...

Tämä on niiiiin kiehtovaa! Että ihminen on niin ihmeellinen, että se leikkii samanlaisia leikkejä eri puolillla maailmaa. Hyrrät, naruleikit, kaikki!

Ihminen on kyllä ihmeellinen! Ilahdun, että tulen mieleen tämmöisistä! (ilahdun myös aina kun joku huomaaa keskustelun naisten vaatteiden taskuista ja ajattelee - Kati!) Mutta siis tämä kiva keskustelu! www.apu.fi/podcastit/ja...

Tuli tehtyä 🌀historian suurin hyrrätutkimus🌀. Ja näinkin arkisesta asiasta löytyy vuosituhansia jatkuneita perinteitä, mitä erikoisempia uskomuksia, ja vihjeitä siitä, miten muinaiset esivanhempamme aikaansa viettivät. #minätutkin

My grandma had one of this and I used to play a lot with it when I was a child. There is a hard-to-explain pleasure in watching that damn thing spin 😅. Cool stuff!

Such cool work!

Did you know that the spinning top is one of the most common forms of traditional play worldwide? Our research found tops to be nearly universal across human cultures. Wherever you come from, your ancestors probably spun tops. New preprint: Top of the World osf.io/preprints/so... Thread:

Decorated spindle whorls are known from the Quijialing, Shijiahe and Huangguashan cultures (6000-4000BP), these are the right size for spindle whorls, but they are so tempting that I am sure they were also used as toys (see section 3.6 in this preprint www.researchgate.net/publication/... )

If you are interested in cross-cultural analysis, play and human cognition do yourself a favor and reach this amazing post - and the preprint. I’m so chuffed to be part of this research!

Spinning tops are so cool! One of the (v. exciting) things we discussed is whether some Magdalenian rondelles could have been spinning tops… the form and designs certainly fall within the range of known tops! Does the worldwide use of spinning tops suggest deep time origins? 🌀 📷: Cattelain 2012

Did you know that the spinning top is one of the most common forms of traditional play worldwide? Our research found tops to be nearly universal across human cultures. Wherever you come from, your ancestors probably spun tops. New preprint: Top of the World osf.io/preprints/so... Thread:

What does it mean for culture to “shape” cognition? In our new TiCS paper, @benjaminpitt.bsky.social & I offer a typology of four possible effects: culture can Privilege one cognitive process over others, Prune out disfavored ones, Produce new ones, or have no effect. www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

The logo of Posit (formerly RStudio), which you see every time you launch RStudio, looks a lot like the one of the most commong string figures worldwide. Also known as the Ancient Greek knot, Plinthios Brokhos Tetrakyklos. It's the one in my profile picture.

Here's one of my more recent paintings: 'She Was Always Asleep At School', oil on canvas panel, 40x50cm framed. A painting inspired by a girl in primary school who was always asleep due to unknown home troubles. Elements homage Dorothea Tanning. #art #painting #oilpainting #sleep #school #tanning

Where did humans evolve? What was the scenery like? And what should we make of the "savanna hypothesis"? What a pleasure to find so much clarity on these questions! My brilliant guest was Denise Su at ASU's Institute of Human Origins! @asuiho.bsky.social. 🎧 Enjoy!

Yes, this is what scares me. We are not ready for it.

TIL that Brits name their correctional facilities "His Majesty's Prison".

Things used in everyday life are the real archaeological treasures! This sewing needle was made from animal bone some 13,000 years ago. Some designs simply don't need to be improved, because form and functions were perfectly matched from the start Length: 5.6 cm 📷 Landesmuseum Württemberg 🏺

Re. "some designs simply don't need to be improved." The Antrea net was knotted ca. 10,500 years ago. It's the oldest surviving fishing net, discovered in Karelia, (then) Finland. Back when the Baltic sea was a lake. It uses the same knots (sheet bends) as fishing nets, volleyball nets, today.

If you make a job/funding (or similar) application interface, emphasising how important it is to input every detail and attachment correctly, could you *please* ensure that your instructions are internally coherent. Tired of seeing dead links for extra instructions, incoherent requirements, etc...

🚀 Postdoc Alert! Are you passionate about social learning & cultural evolution? @dominikdeffner.bsky.social & I have a 3-year position with freedom to develop your research and work on cutting-edge multiplayer and immersive experiments. Apply by March 30! hmc-lab.com/SocialLearni... Pls share 🙏

Melkein kuin talousennusteilla ei olisi hirveästi ennustusvoimaa monikriisin maailmassa. Kuka olisi uskonut? yle.fi/a/74-20213429