@callymeg.bsky.social I wouldn’t bother following @sibelycl.bsky.social it’s just AI slop

Decolonial research in the Social Sciences IJSRM special issue. This collection stands out because of the range of thought brought to bear. If you’re interested in challenging discussions of #decolonising research, I recommend. www.tandfonline.com/toc/tsrm20/2...

✨✨Seasons Greetings!✨✨ Here’s a selection of my favourite ancient Egyptian blue hippos seen on my travels. Now where’s William? 🦛❤️ 📷 by me #Archaeology

At the midway point, out 5th most popular paper this year is from #RSOS, investigating bottlenose #dolphins who use marine sponges as tools to protect their snouts while hunting on the seafloor - a skill spread through family lines: doi.org/10.1098/rsos...

Withington Workhouse, Manchester, 1856 (Manchester Libraries).

Think Tank Called ‘The Himmler Institute’ Assures Nation This All Legal https://theonion.com/think-tank-called-the-himmler-institute-assures-nation-this-all-legal/

i post this story every christmas, and will keep doing so until it stops making me cry merry christmas xx

@academic.oup.com hello! Just listening to a New Books Network interview with Lin Hongxuan - his Ummah Yet Proletariat sounds brilliant but 2 years after publication is still £75 hardback only. Any paperback in the works? Thanks.

Putting aside the usual AI slop, note how they used a mosque to symbolise Damascus, the city that has some of the oldest churches in the world

The documentary about Seymour Hersh, 'Cover Up', is available on Netflix from today (Dec 26). Here are my initial thoughts on the parts that concern the My Lai Massacre. 1/

Israel’s public broadcaster Kan airs footage showing the total destruction of Jabalia Refugee Camp in northern Gaza: Video: Mosab Abu Toha via X (@MosabAbuToha)

"With Beit Lahia cut off and its farmland inaccessible, Gaza’s red gold remains buried behind a line that keeps moving, swallowing more pieces of land, while residents look toward fields they can no longer reach, fearing the loss may be permanent."

01.12.25 Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Kraus perform The Wexford Carol. This is a gorgeous version with a perfect pairing of cello and voice. I've shared it many times in the past and people always comment on how lovely it is. A gentle way to ease us into December. youtu.be/yxDZjg_Igoc?...

#OtD 25 Dec 1831 enslaved people in Jamaica went on strike to demand emancipation. They would start an armed revolt that eventually forced the British Empire to outlaw slavery in its territory. Learn more in CLR James' great book on global Black struggle: shop.workingclasshistory.com/en-gb/collec...

Incredible series of posts by Palestinian political scientist @danaelkurd.bsky.social about her fascinating family history

Excellent analysis from @dirkmoses.bsky.social of the implications of Western leaders devaluing Holocaust memory by invoking it to justify another genocide in Gaza: thediasporist.de/is-holocaust...

Netanyahu's very vulnerable politically rn If the US is serious about Gaza phase 2, now would be the moment to push him. By end of March at latest countdown to Israeli elections starts And the Trump WH will have no time for this As I said: If the US is serious.

The science museum in Berlin has a section on trains. Which is cool. The section on trains has a long mea culpa on the train company’s enthusiastic complicity in moving humans efficiently and lucratively. Which should make you stop and think.

RIP Mohammad Bakri: www.middleeasteye.net/news/mohamma...

New story with updates on our ongoing project examining the fates of 55 of Assad's most brutal enforcers: luxury lives in Moscow and Dubai, sure, but also properties in Spain, small apartments in Damascus, and some stuck on tourist visas. And one arrest. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/w...

Israel is building a new settlement in Beit Sahour, where according to tradition angels brought news of Christ's birth to shepherds. The settlement is called Yatsif ('Stable') in Hebrew. Bulldozers are already at work. www.middleeasteye.net/news/christm...

Seriously if you’re European and you didn’t have the same robust defence of freedom of speech when Germany banned the entry of Ghassan Abu-Sittah because he was going to talk about Israel’s genocidal violence, then kindly sit this one out and reflect on your racially motivated selective outrage.

I see there’s a post about microplastics going around with a photo of drinking straws, so here is my semi-regular reminder that the 3 biggest sources of microplastics are tires (45%), synthetic clothing particles (35%) and paint (~10%). Lay article attached:

Glad to see what is happening to the BBC Written Archive getting a bit more coverage. Can I suggest people use the public consultation for the BBC Charter Review to raise this issue www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/9febe15...

I think this is a really important point. When folks say "no AI" they often don’t mean "I can conceive of no possible use for AI"—they mean "the use cases I’ve been shown do not begin to justify the harms"—that’s not something you respond to by offering another narrow use case

More hypocrisy from Europe: Europeans in Ukraine and Greenland can have self-determination, but Western Sahara and Palestine? Not if it stands in the way of commercial interests and German guilt complexes:

According to EU, ICJ-CIJ's 1975 ruling dismissing Morocco's claim on Western Sahara should be ignored, UN-run referendum agreed in 1991 armistice shouldn't be held & Western Sahara should given 'autonomy' defined by the occupier Morocco with Saharawis having no say. www.euractiv.com/news/one-vot...

European Union supports Morocco's attempted annexation of its southern neighbour Western Sahara, which Morocco invaded in 1975. Against rulings by EU courts, @ec.europa.eu and @europarl.europa.eu are currently going proceeding with labelling products from occupied Western Sahara as 'Moroccan'.

Bye bye London, it was nice knowing you:

Over 70% of Israeli Jews oppose including Arab parties in the government according to new survey (Haaretz) www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

important

Dr Assal Rad— 🇷🇺: Illegally Annexes 🇮🇱: Approves Settlements

I posted this👇 to a claim that genAI is better than Ctl+F to search historical docs. @tristanpalmgren.bsky.social replied with a genAI summary of my document and @bookllyfr.bsky.social asked if it was accurate. It turns out that it did exactly what genAI does: made stuff up & got stuff wrong.🧵

Well golly gee, the Office for Students is too busy policing “wokeness” and corporatising universities to actually pay any attention to large-scale fraud. Who’d have thunk it? www.theguardian.com/education/20...

The report from the panel of international experts known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) still warned that three-quarters of Gaza’s population, or 1.6 million people, are experiencing acute food insecurity and malnutrition. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

#OtD 22 Dec 1997 45 Indigenous people who were supporters of the Zapatista rebel movement in Chiapas, Mexico were massacred by paramilitaries with the assistance of govt troops, as they attended a pacifist prayer meeting. Learn more about the movement: shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/...

I witnessed more dangerous driving on my bike ride this morning than I usually do in a whole day. Methinks people are driving under the influence of drugs and drink, probably the night after getting intoxicated. Drug driving is going to be a catastrophe this week. PS. Don't.

Menorah, 1296 Unknown illuminator & Elijah ben Meshallum (active 13th century), scribe (The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Ms. 116, fol. 226v)

Hey, do you want a doctor or someone to look after your elderly mum? Tough, Farage has destroyed even that bit of your life like he destroys everything he touches.

When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.

📍 NEW 📍 NY Young Republicans celebrated with far-right politicians from France, Germany, and other European nations at a lavish annual gala in Manhattan — an event co-organized by a think tank linked to Hungary's right-wing Orban government.

Sisi threatens military intervention in Sudan if Egypt's "red lines" are breached. But can he follow through, since this means opposing the UAE, which is his main financial linchpin? Sisi’s impossible choices in Sudan open.substack.com/pub/sayighye...

19 new illegal settlements on stolen land www.bbc.com/news/article...

The liberation of Paris - letter in LRB www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Matthew Goodwin objects to prosecuting this: ‘I think it’s time for the British to gang together, hit the streets and start the slaughter. Violence and murder is the only way now. Start off burning every migrant hotel then head off to MPs’ houses and Parliament, we need to take over by FORCE.’

Dog-whistle and factually incorrect. Ladies, raise your hand if you were sexually assaulted by a boy at school? I’d wager this or a family member is most women’s first experience of sexual violence

Celebrating the solstice watching Andrew Tate getting twatted.

Suddenly I’m feeling very pro-boxing