Ötzi and a 45,000-year-old Siberian were both infected with a cancer-causing strain of HPV. This is fascinating, and a reminder that we have a vaccine that *prevents cancer* and everyone eligible should get it.

Bari Weiss is innovating entire new dimensions of failure. She's failing in ways hitherto unconceived of. A pioneer of failology. A faileontologist. Whole career is a Fail Mary. She's beyond the fail. The Daily Fail. She's on the quest for the Holy Fail. Making tomato and Fail Salad.

Karla's work advice column for the Post was *excellent* and I'll miss it. She leaves us with a great lesson in when, why & how to leave a job.

Funny, after hearing this I really feel like I do

we need bree newsome energy but for all this shit with trump's name on it

That’s the woman who said whatever that guy is saying, 5 minutes ago, but got ignored.

Great year-end list: the civil servants, data gatherers, reporters, lawyers & more who are supporting public health and trying to protect knowledge and lives from the destructive sociopaths in power. By @gregggonsalves.bsky.social www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Support @theopennotebook.bsky.social to improve the quality and courage of science (and any kind of) journalism. Donations matched through the end of the year: www.theopennotebook.com

What artist would you invite to a party? I bet Judith Leyster would be a blast & everybody would want to sit next to her www.nga.gov/artworks/370...

What can you do if you work in an office full of people jingling on with Christmas cheer, but you don't celebrate the holiday or it deepens your grief? Note to all the office Xmas elves: be more thoughtful about this, plz. (3rd question in this advice column on @slate.com) slate.com/advice/2025/...

Take a closer look at that yellow warbler next time you're birding in mangroves--a new species just dropped www.sibleyguides.com/2025/11/the-...

If you’re at #AGU25, come by our Town Hall tomorrow at 1PM in 243-244. After the National Climate Assessment was disbanded, a bunch of us got to work to advance climate assessment. We’re the editors of a new U.S. climate assessment collection, & need your help: eppro01.ativ.me/appinfo.php?... #AGU25

Glad the good folks at @merriam-webster.com are helping lead the AI resistance

For @slate.com Plus members: How to deal with a condescending, temperamental director & the enablers who say "That's just Ned," and change the things you can: slate.com/advice/2025/...

A few years ago I went to a bakery to buy donuts and asked the guy how he was doing, and he said "living the dream." I still wonder whether he was being genuine or sarcastic.

A Bad Boss Hall of Fame entry: Employees are expected to buy enough of his kid's wrapping paper to win a school contest. Here's why the sort of exploitation is terrible all around, and how to get out of it: slate.com/advice/2025/...

I helped take care of a baby this week and we played with toys & read books & bounced & sang & banged on things but nothing made her happier than when we stuck our tongues out at each other

Stealworkers

“For those who died and those who survived and all we lost during the covid-19 pandemic, we shall remember.”

"Mary Wollstonecraft prophesied in 1792 that the 'natural inferiority' of women would evaporate as soon as they were allowed the same educational opportunities as men." Nice review of what women were supposedly incapable of and a reminder to enjoy a good "told you so"

Weakening universal HBV vaccination recommendations has accomplished nothing positive for public health. It is undoing a policy with decades of evidence, extensively demonstrated safety, and it is erroneously suggesting that there is some kind of substantive risk to the vaccine. There isn't.

One of the Qs in my work advice column this week comes from someone whose very loud office neighbor may have hearing loss. But THIS advice is for anyone who has gotten hints or requests to get hearing aids: GET THE HEARING AIDS. Everybody else will immediately stop mumbling slate.com/advice/2025/...

There’s something wrong with bosses. We get letters all the time from people whose bosses expect them to watch their kids & dogs, diagnose their ailments, interview their idiot sons & more.

no story about elon musk or his companies is complete without reference to both his overt white nationalist agitation, or his willingness to put that rhetoric into action by gleefully consigning countless thousands of people of color to death while running DOGE

What’s the oldest article of clothing you still wear? I just pulled out a 29-year-old puffy coat that is still plenty puffy.

"'One trouble with living beyond your deserved number of years is that there's always some reason to live another year. And I'd like to live another year so that Nixon won't be President. If he's re-elected I'll have to live another four years.' -Rex Stout (1886-1975)" wordsmith.org/words/quidam...

Today marks one year since the Dec. 3, 2024 martial law declaration that rocked South Korea and still reverberates today. What’s on my mind today is the grit of South Koreans who rushed to the National Assembly that night, in freezing weather, to demand a return to democratic government.

ha yeah

It’s Giving Tuesday. (It’s giving … Tuesday.) I really encourage you to donate to an abortion fund, which make the promise of equality real by allowing women to control their bodies and lives, pursue their dreams, and live with dignity. Find your local fund here: abortionfunds.org

This is one of the many projects that makes @theopennotebook.bsky.social a worthy cause. Any reporters can make their stories stronger by including relevant science & scholarship. This how-to explains how to add important evidence to any story. (1/2)

I enjoy books that start with maps.

Sign at an outdoor classroom for a nature center: “Think outside. No box required.”

I can't scream loudly enough that the people leading HHS right now are liars. RFK Jr. Marty Makary. Vinay Prasad. They are liars. And the lies they are telling are the lies eugenicists like themselves tell.

What are we making with leftovers today? I'm working on turkey & wild rice soup.

This week in work drama: a boss who tells bigoted jokes (grrrr), managing impostor syndrome, and how to evaluate a job offer for more salary but possibly more stress. slate.com/advice/2025/...

Column: On this most #Florida of holidays, we should all be thankful for alligators. We saved them & now they may save us. My latest for @floridaphoenix.com also features shout-outs to the Pilgrims, @carlhiaasen.com and Dave Barry. floridaphoenix.com/2025/11/27/t...

Fifteen Years xkcd.com/3172/

Has anybody else gotten a flip phone just so it'll fit in your pocket? I need to replace an ancient iPhone mini and the new models are huge.

Donate to @theopennotebook.bsky.social now and we'll match it. This ridiculously generous project helps science writers (and any writers, really) improve their reporting, interviewing, writing, editing, pitching, teaching, planning, analyzing, diversifying, researching, and everythinging skills.

Sorry to get all earnest for a minute, but here are some ideas about how to say thank you more often and more meaningfully. lastwordonnothing.com/2025/11/24/h...

America putting most of its eggs in the generative AI basket, China going hard into green tech. When history looks back on this period, someone is going to look awfully stupid.

Smart analysis of rising heat in football stadiums. One of the biggest challenges for anybody who covers climate change is finding fresh stories that can get people in denial to pay attention. insideclimatenews.org/news/1611202...

i know we've all laughed about the worm and the affair but this is a profoundly dangerous person who should be expelled from the government.

It's somehow comforting that most tech problems can still be solved by turning it off and on again

Yes, sure, the U.S. should use the metric system...but not for climate reporting! Warnings about the dangers of "2 degrees" (meaning C) sound much less ominous than 4 degrees F.

I hope Jeff Bezos reads the paper he bought and is trying to destroy. This survey shows that people think billionaires are bad for society, skew elections, and are greedy & selfish & hoard wealth

The most important thing an editor does is invisible: good editors stop bad things* from happening. *fraud and rushed-reporting mistakes *embarrassing memoirs *AI slop (although even good editors can get fooled) *biased language or assumptions (ableism, racism, sexism) *so much more

For @slate.com Plus: A new hire drank too much at their first work party and is ashamed and anxious about the upcoming holiday party. My advice: Forgive yourself, and do not go to the party full of shame and anxiety, because shame and anxiety would love another drink, please, and make it a double

Thanks to staff of the Harvard Crimson for demonstrating the importance of local, community journalism (and for running a wiser, more informative, and more righteous editorial department than the Washington Post's). www.thecrimson.com/thread/2025/...

Few things are more frustrating at work than a boss who plays "guess what I'm thinking." In the second question in my advice column, someone gets vague assignments & critical, vague feedback. Here's what they can try (while looking for another job): slate.com/advice/2025/... on @slate.com