necessary thread

Directed by Ethiopian-American filmmaker Sosena Solomon, this short film explores the medieval stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe and their insights into an advanced African society’s legacy. It is part of the series Africa’s Cultural Landmarks, produced by @metmuseum.org and the World Monuments Fund

RIP to Jane Goodall, who opened the world's eyes to our closest relatives. (Photo by NatGeo's Hugo Van Lawick)

A temptress in the desert, but be careful. Check out those feet! The Temptation of St Antony by Master Girard (c.1470-1500) on display in Sam Fogg Gallery, London. #LateAntiquityBluesky

Scientists rappelled down cliffs to reach the nests of bearded vultures, which have a diet of bones and paint their feathers red with mud. Inside the nests were perfectly preserved human artifacts from the Middle Ages. By me, for Nat Geo: www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti... 🧪

A list of words for coffee in ten different languages... 10. Welsh = coffi 9. French = café 8. Manx = caffee 7. Romanian = cafea 6. Dutch = koffie 5. German = kaffee 4. Swedish = kaffe 3. Malagasy = kafe 2. Icelandic = kaffi 1. Ojibwe = makade-mashkikiwaaboo (literally “black medicine water”)

daughter (9) with a contender for the greatest opening line of the past century

🏺🧪🦣 Brilliant writing from Paige - what does it mean to encounter a being from such ancient times, who holds so much meaning in material remains? "Each visit to see her feels like paying respects, but also like taking notes on a conversation that is ongoing between the present and the past."

YES! THIS on GenAI! Please read this absolutely splendid piece of writing that had me cheering, a little bit weepy, and writing in the margins: "An extraordinary amount of money is spent by the AI industry to ensure that acquiescence is the only plausible response. But marketing is not destiny."

Every Child Matters

🎼I am a patient boy I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait My time, water down a drain Everybody's moving Everybody's moving Everybody's moving, moving, moving, moving Please don't leave me to remain 🎵 #punk #punks #punkrock #waitingroom #hardcorepunk #fugazi #history #punkrockhistory

The talented painter Hayami Gyoshū (1894-1935) is the third generation master of modern nihonga (Japanese-style painting), Gyoshū successfully combined the Western illusionistic realism with the subjective realism and refined representation of the Chinese Song and Yuan flower-and-bird paintings.

South Texas game cam catches a raccoon riding a javelina (Dicotyles tajacu). The deer feeder corn attracts a lot of other species, but maybe we should worry about them all teaming up against us? (📷: Jeff Davis, TAMU-Kingsville alumni forum)

WHO statement on autism-related issues The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes that there is currently no conclusive scientific evidence confirming a possible link between #autism and use of acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol) during pregnancy Full statement bit.ly/47YsgwI

It's never occurred to me that it IS an assumption. This is the most astonishing start to a paper I've read in years: "Living organisms are assumed to produce same-species offspring. Here, we report a shift from this norm in Messor ibericus, an ant that lays individuals from two distinct species."

“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” hits #1 — 37 years ago today. “It wasn’t even on the docket as a tune,” said Bobby McFerrin. “I was working on some other piece and I got stuck … I dismissed the engineer .. went in the back and wrote out the lyrics … the whole thing took about 45 minutes.”

It's absolutely astonishing: In just about 13 years, Norway has skyrocketed from virtually no sales of zero-emission battery electric vehicles to nearly 100% of all new passenger car purchases.

A shovel nosed Spathacalymene trilobite from the Silurian Massie Fm. of Indiana. These trilobites are usually found upside down, so you can only see the outside edge in the field. There's lots of speculation on the purpose of the shovel. Maybe to stir up the ocean floor sediment. #FossilFriday

Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin ✨ figured out what stars are made of ✨ when she was just 25. 🔭🧪 Her PhD thesis basically established the Harvard astro department — at a time when Harvard didn't officially allow woman students. I wrote this little profile to mark the 100th anniversary of her thesis:

Teahouse, 1938 https://collections.artsmia.org/art/117519/teahouse-yoshida-hiroshi

Not sea glass but fragments of plastic car tail lights, indicators and brake lights, probably washed into storm drains after heavy rain, eventually making their way to the sea. #oceanplastic

Ireland just released a report showing the huge success of the unconditional basic income it provided to artists. Each $1 spent led to society gaining $1.39. Artists' earned incomes went up more than their side job incomes fell. And they were happier and used less welfare www.gov.ie/en/departmen...

The @washingtonpost.com story on Tylenol & autism leaves out a MAJOR 2.5M sibling-controlled study of children in Denmark, which "found no evidence that acetaminophen use during pregnancy was associated with children’s risk of autism, ADHD or intellectual disability." jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

#OTD 19 September 1991, walkers in the high Ötztal alps on the Italian border, found a body melting out of the ice. It turned out to be the remains of a c.5200 year old man preserved with all his kit. Of course, it was essential to replicate him in Playmobil. 1🧵 #PlaymobilÖtzi #PlaymobilInfestation

Dose of good sense from the great Kurt Vonnegut. His enduring advice on living well, often rooted in his humanist perspective, is as relevant today as ever. #LittleBookofHumanism @profaliceroberts.bsky.social

“The world is big, and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.” — John Muir

The capital of Finland hasn't had a traffic death in a full year. Lower speed limits, plentiful speed cameras, 1,500+ km of bike lanes, infrastructure for pedestrians, and a new tram line. When you prioritize people and not vehicles, you can save lives while protecting the environment.

Him & Billy Ocean are about to drop the most soulful 80’s r$b album of all time.

More of this please.

the hexagon still boggles my mind

thinking about getting "the stain remains" on a t-shirt, and how much more wear it will get in about 3.5 years.

They erased the new Banksy mural in London. But the stain remains.

Also, I will admit to never having even heard of Duployan shorthand until just now, but how is this for a wild font?

𝗜𝗞𝗘𝗔 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗨𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗵𝘁 𝗲𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗼𝘁 The “Do-It-Yourself-Delivery” pilot, which has been extended until early October, allows IKEA customers to rent one of two NÜWIEL eTrailers, as well as cargo bikes from Vok Bikes and Freetrailer. Booking is done via an app and the first 2 hrs are free.

Christ, can today get any worse?

THREAD. Trained in a European architecture school, I was taught about Frank Lloyd Wright as a kind of grudgingly respected peripheral oddity. Visiting this, his Robie House in Chicago from 1910 firmly disabused me of any notion that his architecture was anything but revolutionary

i’m laughing so much at this toad loaf i might actually cry

Pages from the 1975 dream diary of William S. Burroughs, from the William S. Burroughs Papers (SPEC.CMS.40).

#PPOD: Many Martian dunes are known to be covered unevenly with carbon dioxide (dry ice) frost, creating patterns of light and dark areas. Carbon dioxide doesn’t melt; instead, it sublimates, directly turning into a gas. Credit: HiRISE, MRO, LPL (U. Arizona), NASA; Processing: Włodek Głażewski 🧪 🔭

Incredible minimalist drawing ❤️ 'Woman Reading' by Frédéric Forest

In most commercial gallery agreements, sales are split evenly: 50% to the artist, 50% to the gallery. In theory, this reflects an equal partnership, but in practice, the balance of labor and investment varies considerably. When and for whom is 50-50 truly fair?

"Official records from French colonial forces in Algeria report hundreds of lions being shot over the course of the 19th century. Entire regions where lions once thrived became silent... But it was in 1925 — a century ago — that one final image was taken."

Exhibit A

What do the data show?? Of course, like most results at the bleeding edge of discovery, it's not as clear as we'd like. The current JWST data are consistent with two scenarios: a flat line, indicating a bare rock (boo!), or a wiggly line, indicating a heavy atmosphere (like Earth's is). (8/N)

Truly amazing

Born on this day, September 8, 1838. Ramón Tusquets y Maignon, Spanish painter, 1838–1904. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️ 📷 Virtual Art Museum

👏👏👏 👏👏

Infrastructure for the 21st century. Albi, I hardly knew you, but I so want this to be my daily choice of transportation modes: 🚶🚲🚊 And not just mine, of course. Everyone should be so fortunate.

Just wow 😵‍💫 #MolluscMonday