Just found out that in Japan you can be a ghost inspector, you get paid to stay in a house to make sure its not haunted. Sounds like my kind of job, although I'd be secretly disappointed when ghosts keep failing to show up and answer my history questions.

Iwan Rhys Morus follows the interplanetary safari that is John Jacob Astor’s A Journey in Other Worlds (1894), a high-voltage scientific romance in which visions of imperialism haunt a supposedly “perfect” future: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/colonizing-the-cosmos

Cognitive surrender. That's a good term for it.

While others succumb to AI hype, build your resilience. Develop your research and analytical skills by talking to people (it's the best way to learn of opportunities and problems that are within your ability to affect).

This Giant Sphinx (Cocytius antaeus) is visiting a Hymenocallis sp. Notice the exserted stamens. They are out where they can deposit pollen on the moth. The stigma is exserted, too. Pollen will be transported on the moth’s wings. 📷: Standa Pavouk CCBYNC4 #MothWeek #TeamMoth #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

I guess this is how one becomes someone who haunts estate sales for old Pyrex

Evan mentions here the notion of “hidden influencers” which I find fascinating. Capital wants there to be people (or companies, or channels) that can be commissioned, or at least wooed. But most rhetorical power — the power not only of platforming but *conversion* & action — is more diffuse.

how Roman soldiers would carry their items.

Did I or did I not mention "bring back 'drongo'" the other day? 🤣 Other Aussie slang available: dag, dill, peanut, galah, ...

'Cultivating the cosmic tree' by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) German Benedictine abbess, artist, writer, composer, philosopher #WomensArt

Some of the fabulous finds from the Regolini-Galassi tomb from Cerveteri.. On show in the Gregorian Etruscan Museum in the Vatican Museums. #TombTuesday

Hey, the court just gave final approval to the settlement in Bartz v. Anthropic. I'm reading through the order right now. www.courtlistener.com/docket/69058...

MyID app. Grrrr

Tradition is the preservation of fire, not the worship of ashes. — Gustav Mahler

Over the past month, New York has welcomed the world. From neighborhood watch parties to the stadium, we’ve celebrated the communities that make our city the global capital of the beautiful game. Today, we close out a historic World Cup, proud of how New Yorkers showed up every step of the way.

7,000-year-old fish traps in southern Norway indicate brown trout were being introduced to mountain lakes by 5000 B.C. onward, before farming and beyond fish’s natural reach.

A good analogy for what’s happening in terms of PR is the 1918 Influenza Pandemic being colloquially known as the Spanish Flu because Spanish media was actually writing about it. This isn’t the Taco Bell Cyclospora outbreak…

Every time I think 2026 can't get worse...

Your daily dose of botanical drawings by Mary Vaux Walcott. Green Pitcherplant (Sarracenia orephila), 1933 17.5 × 25.1 cm #woman #artist #plants #walcott #botany

Great table ornaments of the renaissance: Mechanical galleon with heralds & electors paying homage to Rudolf II, whose birthday is today.

"A Vegan said to me that people who sell Meat are disgusting." "I said people who sell Fruit and Vegetables are Grocer."

Air purifiers. Here in Australia I find the small Winix effective in small bedrooms and the Coway mighty mega handles the living area. amzn.asia/d/08UbwYgd

Twitter: we hate everything and everyone and we’re mostly bots. Bluesky: we have caturday and dog adoption videos.

Egyptian blue pigment found in Augusta Raurica, Switzerland. The pigments were used in wall paintings. In Roman times, Egyptian blue was distributed throughout the Empire in a more or less standardised form of small balls of 15-20 mm in diameter. 🧵 1/2 📷 me 🏺 #archaeology

i also can't help but feel a little like the smithsonian is quietly rolling out some of what we would have gotten if they had done the 4th of july

This isn’t the full duel but you get a sense of their vibe

It feels like every few months someone relearns that ecosystems are eco *systems*. It's important, but i wish we'd start communicating it with the public a bit more holistically, so we came to expect it

One primary incentive for disinformation campaigns seems to be to absolve or release people from their feelings of shame. Absolution of shame can enable impulsive, and potentially corrupt, behaviour that might otherwise be mitigated by shame. youtube.com/shorts/a0bS1...

Coffeeeeee! #listening

Schooner and Bark in Harbor (from Scrapbook) https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/12177

Orchards at Louveciennes https://botfrens.com/collections/49/contents/15273

"The wicked are always surprised to find wickedness in others." William Makepeace Thackeray #BookWormSat #BookChatWeekly 🎨 Hogarth - Election Propaganda

Stunning!

One of the challenges of middle age that no one warns you about is that the VAST majority of your experience is of living in a young body.

I cleaned both my glasses and my phone. It's a whole new world!

Escorting the nine-year-old to a friend’s birthday pool party, I told him I wasn’t going to swim in part because I’m dressed for work. He told me I could just jump in like Mamdani did. This is what socialism does to our children.

@3wombats.bsky.social thanks for reposting 😀 Happy weekend!

Have a fabulous weekend reading! If you were Baba Yaga's great-granddaughter you'd be reading in your space-traveling castle 😉 a.co/d/02tofOTz

bloody communists those english i tell you comrade

Two lighthouses were built at Dover by the Romans before the close of the C1st AD. They were sited on the Eastern & Western Heights of the harbour. Today, only the Eastern remains, standing at its near original 24m. Its survival may be due to it being adapted as a church tower. 📷mine

So frustrating seeing wishy washy public health messaging like this. When air is at hazardous levels: AVOID outdoors USE air purifiers WEAR a mask Do or do not, there is no try!

My first search engine.

The answer can always be found ... in a BOOK!

You know things are not going well when there's an illustration of a man in a gas mask next to the AQI.

Listening to 2 kookaburras. Their crazy laughter is entirely appropriate. #NearlyTheWeekend 😜

🏺Anyway, have an artefact from Scotland and on display at the National Museum of Scotland for your troubles. A Pictish stone carving of a goose and fish. 📜 www.nms.ac.uk/collections/...

Dog figuring out a water toy: #AGoodPlace Source: www.reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/s...