This year I read Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, all 20 books full of British naval intrigue and adventure and odd foods. (Spotted dog, anyone?) I finished yesterday. Retreating into the early 19th century helped me avoid doomscrolling my way through 2026. Strongly recommend. #aubreymaturin

Niche #cycling content: It's been quite icy in Berlin the last two days and I am tapping out of the #festive500. The math doesn't work without some monster rides in the next few days, and it's not worth the risk of starting the year with a broken wrist. There will be other years to try.

Watched "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" last night for the first time in many years and it was immediately obvious it was shot in Germany (Munich, it turns out) – they don't even bother to take the @spiegel.de off the newsstand in the opening scenes. I never noticed before.

Crunch time: I have just hours left to remember if I bought presents months ago and hid them somewhere I have now forgotten, and then find those possible presents.

The CBS investigation portrays a modern concentration camp, similar to the Soviet GULAG (like CECOT, an acronym): sadistic guards, 24 hour lighting, isolation cells. Americans once opposed this inhumane system. The Trump administration sent innocent people there to suffer.

And this is exactly the reason why there should be a professional ethics framework agreed with urgency for #gen-AI, in particular photo-realistic stuff : archaeologists and heritage orgs who use it for general outreach & #SciComm are contributing to this problem.

And now, the #Pope, in an apostolic letter on … the importance of #archaeology: "It teaches us to respect matter, memory & history. Archaeologists do not throw things away, they preserve them. They do not consume, but contemplate. They do not destroy, but decipher." www.vatican.va/content/leo-...

Really good piece on the real world challenges of restitutions and a new museum in Benin City

Christmas reminder: In Berlin most bookstores can get your book order in by 11 am the next day -- they're almost as fast as pharmacies. I order at hundthammerstein.de whenever I can.

Eins der gruseligsten Massaker der LBK Zeit 5.000 BCE war in unserem Nachbarort Herxheim, hier im Artikel mit Bildern erwähnt. In Herxheim gibt es dazu eine interessante Ausstellung. Headless bodies hint at why Europe’s first farmers vanished | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

The author's been at @newyorker.com for 32 years, so he can probably do whatever he wants at this point. Still, it seems weird to me to go to work high, write about it, and admit it made you unable to do your job properly a few paragraphs later. Does that make me terribly conservative?

one of my longstanding takes is that car manufacturers should be forced to install mandatory speed limiters in every new vehicle and people react to that like I'm advocating to strip them of their right to free speech

“It's not my duty as Mayor to make sure you have a parking spot. For me it's the same as if you bought a cow, or a refrigerator, and then asked me where you're going to put them.” — Mayor of Pontevedra, Spain (re-elected 6 times)

I was just chatting with an extremely intelligent and educated master's student who admitted he had no idea how insects reproduced or if jellyfish were considered animals. And it was a good reminder for me that huge segments of the population do not know all the things, but they want to. 🧪

🏺 Top tip for British Museum visitors: go across the court, up rotunda stairs, cross bridge into upper floor, head past crowds aiming for Egypt and Mesopotamia, and go straight to Rooms 50 and 51 where the most stunning array of glories from later prehistory await you!

Made a site comparing the sizes of living things :) The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used > neal.fun/size-of-life/

A member of parliament from the right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AfD) was sure his presentation to the State Department would be canceled after news broke of a Nazi-linked serenade. Then he got a phone call from a senior State Dept. staffer... www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

Wow! 🔥 New milestone in human evolutionary studies! New clear evidence of deliberate fire-making (and not just fire use) some 400,000 years ago, at a site in ancient Britain! #fire 🦣🧪🏺

A mom in the parent chat broke out the "my Ukrainian friend's 9-year-old has to study with a flashlight, sleeps in a bomb shelter, and goes to school every day in an airless basement, our kids can probably handle 3 quizzes in 2 days" and that shut things down pretty quick.

"It's like Lotto, you have to be in it to win it."

Fun fact: In German X-ray images are called "Röntgen pictures" (Röntgenbilder) after their inventor.

What a terrible, weak message from #Merz. "I tell Americans: 'America First' is fine, but 'America Alone' can’t be in your interest. You need partners in the world. One of those partners can be Europe. And when you can't accept Europe as a partner, then at least accept Germany as your partner."

My kid got an advent calendar with 24 tiny science experiments and this little pile of hydrophobic sand on our kitchen table is freaking awesome.

Worst part of Christmas for some Berliners: All the pressure to be thoughtful and get along with people.

Berlin Time, AKA three months of blue hours at dawn. #ephraimpalais #berlin #berlinzeit

“Moriori are the only ones who arrived on these shores in voyaging canoes,” Solomon says. In my latest for @science.org, I report on preliminary results of dating of fibres found with a partially excavated waka on Rēkohu share.google/R2fBdAIt4PXt...

The Black Death was history's worst documented demographic disaster. New research shows it was also a bizarre anomaly, the unlikely result of volcanic eruptions, multiple consecutive poor harvests in Italy, a war between Genoa, Venice and the Mongols, AND a Black Sea plague outbreak. @science.org

The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service

Was the Black Death a black swan? New research shows history's worst documented demographic disaster was also a total anomaly, the result of volcanic eruptions, multiple consecutive poor harvests in Italy, a war between Genoa, Venice and the Mongols, AND a Black Sea plague outbreak. @science.org

During the past 15 years, The Open Notebooks has: ✍️Published more than 600 articles—over 1.5 million words!—on the craft of science writing 🌐Translated more than 100 of these stories into Spanish 📚Published 2 books! 🎓Produced 7 free, online science journalism master classes ... 🧵

And they say ‘poly-crisis’ is a new concept.

The Black Death was history's worst documented demographic disaster. New research shows it was also a bizarre anomaly, the unlikely result of volcanic eruptions, multiple consecutive poor harvests in Italy, a war between Genoa, Venice and the Mongols, AND a Black Sea plague outbreak. @science.org

I’m writing up this year’s top discoveries from ancient DNA and it reminded me to circulate a link to last year’s top 10 list. Some amazing stuff there and remarkable how fast this field moves! www.johnhawks.net/p/top-10-dis...

Did you know fleas can subsist on grain dust? I learned that today! (But not through personal experience.)

Archaeologists find evidence that a wave of mass brutality accompanied the collapse of the first pan-European culture. Learn more: https://scim.ag/4abcijL

Somewhere in a Roman brickyard, around 1800 years ago, a fresh tile was drying ahead of firing - until a dog trotted straight across it. Centuries later, the tile has made it into a museum: not because of an emperor, but thanks to one dog who accidentally walked his way into history.🧵1/2 📷me

Congratulations!

I guess @science.org readers are really interested in why Europe's first farmers vanished! That, or headless bodies.

A quick note from the Vráble team, since this archaeological structures are crucial for interpretation: while the ditch system is well traceable in the ground, an earthen 'wall' is not, and we're struggeling to see a closed palisade – research is still going on here, so stay tuned! 👀

Germany is one of the most popular destinations for students and scholars worldwide, but those pursuing academic careers face significant hurdles to success www.nature.com/articles/d41...

European rice enthusiasts: What family-size rice cooker do you recommend?

Paging @nytimes.com copy desk, someone jiggle the CMS to make sure it's not stuck

Whenever you think these days that the #TasTepeler sites have already turned everything we thought we knew about the early SE Anatolian #Neolithic upside down after so many years of digging at Göbekli Tepe, they come up with something even crazier ...

This reminds me of the time I wrote a story for National Geographic on looted art and repatriation and the British Museum wouldn't give us an interview or permission to take any pictures in the building. Repository of memory, but only certain memory, and only if it flatters the British Museum.

A grim and fascinating read.

A massive study of ancient DNA from a Stone Age site China uncovers the roots of later Chinese states. @science.org

I feel like this location took effort and intent on the bird's part. I mean, come on, birds! So gross!

This is a fascinating & kind of terrifying piece, the way it rules out various reasons for collapse you might guess (famine, climate) to leave the impression these people just decided to slaughter each other

Pointed out by my friend @carloshasanax.bsky.social . There's something weird and unsettling about a fairly homogeneous culture spread out across Europe that then collapses into an orgy of genocide. www.science.org/content/arti...