My favourite cross-linguistic homophone (a word in one language that sounds the same as a word from another language) is the Dutch word for a squirrel, eekhoorn, which is pronounced pretty much the same as the English word "acorn" (that squirrels of course love to eat).

An aggressive Cafster - guardian of the caffeine. Morning All ☕👋#CaffeinatedHamster

A question for academics on Bluesky... I have requests for full text electronic copies of articles I've written. In some cases, these are for entire publications I have co-edited or articles I have written in edited volumes. Do you supply these? #Academia

My favourite opening line for a 2025 judgment. From @civlittweet.bsky.social excellent commentary. #Language and #Law

This is information that must be shared far and wide. Fraudsters pretending to be court enforcement agencies conning money out of vulnerable parties. (No paywall) www.civillitigationbrief.com/2025/12/22/f...

12/8, Israeli police forcibly entered the UNRWA compound in East Jerusalem, seized property, cut communications, and replaced the UN flag with an Israeli flag, according to an UNWRA statement. bit.ly/44CUlqP

Looks like a blonde hedgehog in a barrister's wig. #Alderney

I second this. #Plagiarism

If people admire you, they put your name on buildings. If you have to do it yourself, well… that’s different.

Nordic Journal of Linguistics is inviting contributions on L3/Ln acquisition in the Nordic context and/or involving Nordic languages. The journal welcomes studies of different linguistic domains, learning contexts, target languages, and more. Learn more:📚 https://cup.org/3K6Quvi

Revisiting talks from the 2025 Cambridge Disinformation Summit. @bellingcat.com founder and CEO @eliothiggins.bsky.social offered the opening keynote: Demanufacturing Consent: How disordered discourse is destroying democracy. youtu.be/D-FVjonlGOY?...

Clay goblet from Early Bronze Age Troy. Known as a depas goblet after the Homeric ‘depas amphikypellon', recent residue analysis shows these two-handled vessels were used for drinking wine some 4,250 years ago! Istanbul Archaeological Museum 📷 by me #Archaeology

"Israeli attacks have repeatedly struck journalists’ homes, places of displacement and areas known to house media workers and their relatives. In some cases, entire families have been wiped out, leaving journalists alive to bear witness to their annihilation." #IsraelWarCrimes #GazaGenocide

What brings both frogs together - Pepe and the Portland frog - is the interplay between the humorous, benign cartoon amphibian and a deeper political meaning. This is what political scientists call "tactical frivolity".

Brigitte Bardot Repose en Paix. Une vie bien vécue 👏👏👏

#German has a special name for this time of the year: it's called 'zwischen den Jahren' [between the years]. It can mean Xmas to New Year or Jan 6. The reason for the confusion: historically, the New Year sometimes began on Dec 25 or Jan 6. The term 'zwischen den Jahren' reminds of that history.

Written from the wonderfully named Santa Margarida i els Monjos (St Margaret and the Monks)! ~ No gels, no foams: Catalonia turns to grannies to teach traditional cooking | Spain | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/27/grannies-catalan-chefs-preserving-traditional-cuisine

In December, a report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) found that Israel killed more journalists in 2025 than any other country. Israel has never arrested or charged any of its troops for killing journalists. #IsraelWarCrimes

A blondie currently snuffling for grubs in the garden. #Alderney #BlondeHedghog

Lovely words by Bertie for today ❤️

Happy Saturnalia + Isaac Newton's birthday, Everyone! And a cool xmas yule to those who celebrate it. Wishing you peace and joy! #CaffeinatedHamster

"For these Germans, the invocation of the Holocaust to justify the Israeli campaign in Gaza ... has led to a crisis of confidence in Holocaust memory as officially propagated in Germany and in the West. For them, Holocaust memory ... has been abused to death by the German political class."

"Kisiya’s success offers renewed hope. But Israel’s settlement expansion, aimed at linking illegal East Jerusalem settlements with the Gush Etzion bloc south of the occupied West Bank, is continuing as part of the so-called “Greater Jerusalem” plan." The Israeli #Lebensraum

The assembly of the 42-meter (137-foot) -long vessel, which sits next to its already-assembled twin that has been on display, is expected to take around four years. #SolarBoat #Khufu #GEM

'Tis the breakfast before Christmas. Good morning from Cafster, your #CaffeinatedHamster. #CaffeinatedXmas

Any litigator who has stressed over bundles and redactions can now at least realise they did a better job of it than the US government. Amateur hour disclosure.

A quiet early morning in St Peter Port, Guernsey. The view from my hotel room. Here for a meeting. My last trip/flights of the year.

Beautiful 💫

It's the 23rd December. Two more breakfasts to Christmas. Good morning dear #BlueskyFriends! Cafster the #CaffeinatedHamster.

"For the first time this year, Santa seekers can place a call through the program’s website, www.noradsanta.org/en/ which organizers say will be easier for people outside North America." #NORAD #SantaTracking

"They claimed that: “Initial exclusion was due to testing. Diagnostic tests have thankfully confirmed his red nose is congenital non-infectious nasal erythema and of no harm to Jersey’s animals.”

Happy Winter Solstice, my friends. #BlueskyFriends

The Israeli army has killed more than 70,700 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and injured more than 171,000 others since it began its war on Gaza in October 2023. #GazaGenocide #IsraelWarCrimes

Loads of bots reposting the same message about the suspended @agentscraft bot account.

'Tis the Saturday before #Christmas at Jack's #Alderney. Good morning Bluesky! #CaffeinatedChristmas

Merry gentlefolk, it is time. Today is the day. Today is comma-mas. Today is the day where we contemplate the correct placing of the comma in 'God rest you merry, gentlemen'. And if we are lucky, we can have a row about it. >

The most brutal way of telling someone they’re a few sandwiches short of a picnic that I’ve heard in French is t’es pas la truite la plus oxygénée de la rivière. It means “you’re not the most oxygenated trout in the river.” * read on for similar insults from around the world (a thread)…

Truth !✊

The emperor's new maths

A new resource for those in the USA who work with Miranda cases. The website is a result of a two-year project to provide solid translations of the #MirandaWarning into different languages: Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, Haitian Creole & Armenian with more to be added. #Linguistics

Books provide comfort in times of need. They provide knowledge. They provide entertainment. They open the door to the rest of the world. And some books even feel like home.📚💕 #Booksky #ReadingCommunity #WritingCommunity 🎨 Not mine

A moving story of death and resurrection. Immortalised in a painting. #Art

Thousands of dinosaur footprints dating back 210 million years have been found on a mountain in northern Italy

committ genocide, wipe out 400,000 people, destroy the whole gaza strip then get contracts to rebuild it we are the evil in this world..

Katherine Stewart writes for the latest @newhumanist.bsky.social about how Christian Nationalism and far-right activism in the UK is being funded by wealthy religiousfundamentalists in the US.

Technologies like Siri and Alexa use phonetics to catch what you’re saying. They do it by breaking your speech into phonemes and matching them to a pronunciation dictionary. https://aboutlinguistics.com/explore/8-reasons-why-phonetics-matters/ #linguistics #phonetics

Hope you have a better start to the week 👋☕💥

The world allowed Israel to carry out genocide in Gaza for two years. It knew what was going on, and yet it chose complicity and silence. Today, it cannot erase its guilt, but it can choose to redeem itself. 🙏 Save the children of Gaza.

Only dead languages are 'standard'.