Dear AI bros, it's not AI itself we have a problem with, the kind that can detect cancers early or help people walk. May that continue. It's the content generation slop you foam at the mouth defending that we hate. It's theft and will never, EVER replace actual human creativity.

Third of my favourite Christmas carols. youtu.be/yb9tHjuy9Hw

Second of my three favourite Christmas carols. youtu.be/qcIIZpnZPgo?...

Goodnight from St. Hedwig’s Polish church, where Father Backzkiewicz is repairing his Gwiazdor disguise before heading out on a round of gift-giving and fear-induction. Goodnight from Mike Hargate, back from doing business across the Bone Border. Goodnight from Hookland.

It’s going to be really interesting when we’re forced to look back at this time in politics and culture, figuring out how much of it was based on lies people told on the internet

One of three favourite Christmas carols: youtu.be/pliqObTHxUQ

The future will be a struggle between huge competing systems of psychopathology.

Ideal short story for the time of year by @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social . And it has the best last line of any story about cats ever. www.tom-cox.com/the-cat-a-fo...

@kaihat.su www.instagram.com/p/DSfbfKjERUD/

The more I think about it, the more I reckon the 2003 Iraq War began the process that let Trump win. The blatant lies we were told by our governments, the disregard for public opinion and mockery of international law created a rupture that never healed. Trust, consent and cohesion were smashed.🧵 1/3

Many English words stem from Latin. But did you know there are Latin words that ended up in English two times - in two different forms? These are called doublets. Over the next days, you'll see doublets in French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, Galician, Dutch, and English again.

The word ‘whore’ is etymologically related to ‘charity’, ‘to caress’, ‘to cherish’, as well as Romance words such as French ‘cher’ and Spanish ‘caro’, which mean “dear”. They all stem from a Proto-Indo-European word meaning “desired; loved”. Zoom in on my new graphic to discover their stories:

From A for algebra to T for tariffs: Arabic words used in English speech https://aje.io/kw1deh

As someone who doubted that Putin would invade until a week before he did because he simply did not allot enough troops to achieve a stable occupation, the core lesson from 2022 is that even if a course of action is strategically stupid doesn't mean that a solipsistically deluded leader won't do it

I'm suspicious of those who don't aim to haunt a bookshop or a library. If the afterlife isn't the point you tackle the eternal 'to be read' pile I'm not sure we can ever call ourselves friends. If I am not allowed to read as a ghost there will be much trouble. – #DAKilroy #Books

This spooky carved relief of Ankou, the Breton personification of death, can found on the ossuary of the church of St Yves in La Roche-Maurice. He holds an arrow and a banner that reads 'JE VOUS TUE TOUS' (I kill you all). #ReliefWednesday

Love to hear about how safe Poland should feel from people on the other side of the continent

Anyone can become disabled. Anyone can become chronically ill. It’s not a choice. It’s not a moral failing. It’s not something you can “try harder” your way out of. You can be the healthiest person in the world & completely disabled in an instant. It’s a minority group you can join anytime.

There's a genus of false saber-toothed cats named after Pangur Bán en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangurban

Syn Białegostoku!

Fact of the day: it's #GaudeteSunday today, with the name coming from the Latin meaning 'rejoice'. Which means it's time for my annual sharing of Steeleye Span's hit. Listen to this live version from 1974, it'll blow your socks off! 🤯🧦 youtu.be/cEPmGq0Ii2o

Learned today that “Galápagos” comes from a Spanish word for tortoise, meaning that “Galápagos Tortoise” is, in fact, a tortology

Calling for a Retvrn to the term 'yamatologue'.

Amazing, the @dailymail.co.uk manages to publish an entire lengthy feature bewailing (!!!!) the exodus of Poles from Britain without once mentioning Brexit. Apparently this outcome (which is surely exactly what they campaigned for in 2016) is all the fault of Keir Starmer. mol.im/a/15379789

Brb, just going to explain to the ghost of my grandad that German soldiers are heading to Poland at Poland's request

Word of the day, should you be feeling a little huffish, is ‘apanthropy’ (18th century): a love of solitude and the desire to be away from other people.

I’m excited to show you my finished Krampus marionette/puppet in action. look at him go! 🌲

Your useful reaction image of the day:

Some people vocally oppose using ‘data’ and ‘panini’ as singular nouns, saying they come from plural nouns. That’s true, but that also goes for ‘marvel’ and ‘joy’: they used to be plural too. And ‘cherries’ and ‘peas’ used to be singular. Zoom in to learn all about this phenomenon: reanalysis.

But shall this crazed old man be tamely suffered to drag a whole ship’s company down to doom with him?

I love words like "yes" and "no." You'd think they are these ordinary rocks of words. But crack 'em open and you discover they are etymological geodes. "Yes" could be from the Old English "gea hit is swa" (yea, it is so)? Get out! That's just the start of it: mashedradish.com/2025/12/12/y...

'Vampire' is a word with debated origins – having tracked it to a Balkan Slavic language (likely Serbian), it gets lost in a dark forest of roots and borrowings. I'm intrigued by this paper's proposal that a local Latin word (impūrus 'unclean') might be behind it all: www.jstor.org/stable/24599...

Joshiraku v1 - c16

I read a book on making money in ancient Athens recently (by Michael Leese, it's great), and the Greeks absolutely believed that the endless pursuit of wealth was a serious moral defect and personality issue no different than being a drunk or sexual deviant.

MUPPET WICKER MAN (Brian Henson, 1993) Police Sergeant Kermie travels to the isolated town of Summerisle in search of a missing girl. He finds the locals to be a surly and suspicious lot, rustic practitioners of crude bawdiness and Celtic neo-paganism. Starring Vincent Price as Lord Summerisle.

A lot of people are one sepia tone anime away from "figuring it all out".

Wasn't expecting much from them but as I must say: cowards

'Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas being transported to Fossanova Abbey.' Photograph by Daniel Ibanez

Nātīvus is the Latin source of English 'native', but it also gained some new meanings after Latin developed into French. From Latin onwards, we see it come to mean 'natural', then 'without artifice', 'simple' and 'credulous'. It's from a French word with the later sense that English gets 'naive'.

RFK Jr.: A modern Trofim Lysenko? The comparison had occurred to me, too.

I am generally against free speech because things could be a lot better if we spoke less

On that note, research suggests that intelligent, imaginative people can in fact be more at risk of being drawn into cult-like movements than others. Many cults disproportionately attract idealistic, educated, and articulate people who are experiencing emotional stress or an identity crisis.