"The name xenotime is written originally kenotime from the Greek words kenós (κενός) 'vain' and timē (τιμή) 'honor', akin to 'vainglory'. It was coined by French mineralogist François Sulpice Beudant as a rebuke of another scientist, Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius...

bed bat'leth and beyond

That's a remarkably good way to describe the feel of a lot of AI-generated writing. It's bologna or Wonder bread. Technically, this object is bread, but it has no personality and falls apart if you poke it too hard.

Ok now I've finished it and it's spectacular. A large section of the middle I actually didn't find frightening at all, but readers who don't recognize Ingold as a kindred spirit will probably disagree.

This is *amazing* so far. Do not read at night. Ursula Veron and @kjcharleswriter.com are pretty much tied at this point for writing books where I realize I *was* reading the book and now I'm five citations deep in a rabbit hole about the Angel of Mons or horrifying mine gases.

@dikleyt.bsky.social I made this at Yidish-Vokh inspired by some of your designs :-D (Trans.: "This language kills fascists" [Yiddish])

How the newspaper article presents my work on this project:

Stopped clock, etc. I'm curious if anyone has reasons I haven't heard of that we *shouldn't* do this, but it seems both relatively low-impact and long overdue.

I've got an amazing story about this one. Let me tell you all about how "If you've done nothing wrong you've got nothing to worry about" almost got me charged with unlawful possession of a minigun. 1/?

Today's @xkcd.com presumably explains this extremely wrong globe that turned up in the work supply closet:

WOW! Not the kind I would be getting when I need mine replaced, since these are temporary, but the advancements in pacemaker tech are seriously awesome. I'm hoping that ones using piezoelectric charge to power themselves off your own heartbeat will be available when I need a new one.

@becausechaucer.bsky.social is a good friend who goes "Hey, I just scanned an article on gay subtext in Yiddish theater and I thought you should be alerted to its existence" :-D

My new book, The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad, is out today. It tells the story of the botanists who worked at the world's first seed bank during the 900-day siege––and how they were faced with a terrible decision: eat the fruits of their research to survive, or protect the collection for science.

watching cabinet appointments get announced like

Place hold...place hold...borrow...place hold...