I just woke up from a nap and somehow while I was asleep, everyone on the bus has figured out we are not going to the right place

Wrapped lemon trees at Villa Medici, Rome. www.instagram.com/p/DTabW1LDDGy/

Today is National Thesaurus Day. Personally, we find these made-up holidays contemptible, abhorrent, nauseating, repugnant, and unpalatable.

KEEP HONKING, I’M LISTENING TO a lengthy voicemail from my mom about drivers who back into the parking spots at Costco, don’t these idiots know they’ll want to load their trunks later

Stars are colorful, and the brightest can appear blue, red, yellow or sometimes white. But not green--even though they emit lots of green light! Here's why

The Open Library of Humanities Open Access Award 2026. Applications for OLH funding of up to £500 are welcomed from individuals or organisations and may be used to help fund events, projects or activities on #OA or with an #openaccess component. 📅 Deadline 30/06: www.openlibhums.org/news/882/

The Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery (CSLBS) is excited to announce 3 new roles on our groundbreaking Valuable Lives project! 🔍 Open roles: • 2 x Research Assistant (Digital Humanities) • 1 x Research Fellow (Digital Humanities) 🗓 Closing date: 23 Jan 2026 shorturl.at/OCpLP

With “Wikimedia Enterprise”, AI companies have to use (and pay for) dedicated APIs to scrape data, which helps to limit the strain on Wikimedia servers. (See eg arstechnica.com/information-...) This is a good thing for Wikimedia and for its readers.

Acoustic guitars used to just be called ‘guitars.’ Then, we invented electric guitars. Oh no. Which meant saying ‘guitar’ wasn’t clear enough. So 'guitars' became 'acoustic guitars.' ‘Acoustic guitar’ is an example of a ‘retronym.’ 🧵⬇️

Richard Scarry, Winter Reading, illustration on paper, n.d

January 13, 1986

Friendly reminder that we call eggplant eggplant because the "normal" eggplant used to look like this

The emergence of George, who wears the hat so the party will find him:

The house where the musician grew from suburban schoolboy to rock 'n' roll starman has been bought by a charity that plans to open it to the public. https://to.pbs.org/3YzsSTz

On day 8 of our Administration, @governor.ny.gov and I announced the beginning of universal childcare in NYC. No longer will New Yorkers be forced to choose between starting a family and continuing to live in the city they love. This only happened because of you.

hey, did y'all know that the Linguistic Society of America offers FREE registration to K12 teachers, K12 students, and Indigenous scholars of the Americas for the #LSA2026 Annual Meeting? And it's not too late to register for the hybrid/online portion of the conference!

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one of Pennsylvania's largest newspapers, will cease publication on May 3

This isn't surprising at all. We couldn't say the word "walk" around our lab because he'd go running for his leash every time. When we started spelling out W-A-L-K so we could talk to each other in peace, he figured that out instantly, too. And he was a lunkhead. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/s...

You have 10 seconds.

Thrilled about this new grant we are offering for under-represented early career scholars. The first cycle is for scholars in history and area studies. Please spread the word widely. @universitypress.cambridge.org ********************************* Read more here: 🔗 cup.org/4pF5xvr

we're hiring in STS @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social! deadline coming up soon (February 8). focus is the social science-y corners of STS preferably w/ some interest in sustainability & environment - but interpreted broadly. vacancies.maastrichtuniversity.nl/job/Maastric...

I'm hiring 2 postdocs on my Wellcome project "How Did Infectious Diseases Become Wild?: Plague, Yellow Fever, and Disease Ecology in the Brazilian Hinterland (1920-1975)" Department of Global Health and Social Medicine King's College 3 years 01/10/26- 30/09/29 Deadline: 01/02/26 shorturl.at/KZ6Vh

Meanwhile in Spain the Met Service there have issued a red weather warning for an area near Malaga with 120mm possible in 12 hours and risk of flash flooding. If you have family or friends visiting there please ensure they are aware.

Mom Wants To Know If You Could Use Grandma’s Antique, 12-Person Dining Room Table In Your Studio Apartment https://theonion.com/mom-wants-to-know-if-you-could-use-grandma-s-antique-1-1831765783/

READ THIS ARTICLE FOR #NEWYEARS: 25 simple but POWERFUL resolutions you can make to improve your life AND YOUR CITY! Revisit my most read @fastcompany.com article—the resolutions feel even MORE relevant now! Which ones resonate with you? What would you add? #HappyNewYear #Resolutions #NewYearsEve

Another day, another year and another of these mystery objects washed up. What are they and where are they coming from? Numerous suggestions have been put forward* but we still haven't found an exact match.

Solvitur ambulando is my favourite Latin phrase. It means "it is solved by walking".

Take a screenshot of this GIF, and whichever new word you land on is YOUR word for 2026. Let's. Go.

Welcome to the Public Domain, THE MALTESE FALCON (1930) 🦅💎 🕵️ Sam Spade is on the Case of the Disappearing Copyright as The Maltese Falcon novel joins the public domain. Learn more ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai... #PublicDomainDay #CopyrightFree

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALENDARS 🎉

EXCLUSIVE: @laurenweberhp.bsky.social & I have spent the last year collecting school+county-level vaccination data from across the US and found that only about 28% of counties now have herd immunity for kindergartners from measles—that leaves about 5.2mn kids unprotected. Gift link: wapo.st/49zDc43

Happy New Year to you all & as we careen into the GodKnowsWhattery of 2026, remember the words of the late great Kurt Vonnegut: ‘There's only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you've got to be kind.’

Wanna see real-life miracles? Fund scientific research. A team of US scientists just cured Alzheimer’s in mice — and there is now hope that the disease can be reversed in humans. futurism.com/health-medic...

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Dr. Mae Jemison always gives Nichelle Nichols credit for the reason why she wanted to become an astronaut. Remembering Nichelle Nichols on her birthday (December 28, 1932 – July 30, 2022) 🩷💚🕊

Caution: room is rapidly filling with ramen

Remembering Nichelle Nichols on her birthday listening to some of her discographie 🖖🏾 Legend, icon, trailblazer ~ you changed my life. #startrek #blackexcellence

Dominant Curve by Vasily Kandinsky, 1936 https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137241

Our photographer Alex Kormann captured the exact moment the presses stopped for the last time in Minneapolis, ending a 158 history of locally printed newspapers.

Even as the common consumer becomes increasingly exasperated by the endless stream of feedback request emails, marketing experts say they don’t even work particularly well. For one thing, surveys tend to over-index for rants and raves. trib.al/xQ83ys8

NY is having a bad flu season. More hospitalizations last week than any week on record. Health authorities are encouraging everyone aged 6mo+ to get the flu vax (it's not too late). Find a provider here: on.nyc.gov/getvaccinated. You can filter for sites where there's no cost for the uninsured.

44th Annual Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago — John Buczak for the Federal Art Project, 1940

Amazingly, reaction times using screens while driving are worse than being drunk or high—no wonder 90 percent of drivers hate using touchscreens in cars. Finally the auto industry is coming to its senses.

We’re hiring a Commissioning Editor in the Faber Children’s team. You’ll have experience working with authors across all age groups, picture books to Young Adult, and a track record in commercial acquiring. Closing date Sunday 4th January 2026. www.faber.co.uk/careers/comm...

They say imitation crab is the sincerest form of crab

unironically a good idea

Jo Ann Allen Boyce Dies at 84; She was one of the Clinton 12, a group of Black students who faced white mobs when desegregating a Tennessee high school in 1956 www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/u...

Art of the day Piet Mondrian

It's #caturday, and Loshi wants you to see his new toy. However, I must admit sweet little Loshi doesn't look so sweet when totally focused on attack mode!

Merry Bikemass @criticalmassyyc.bsky.social #yycbike