I know we always infer by analogy with reptiles and birds that dinosaurs had wholly internal ears, but given that they wouldn’t be preserved in the fossil record do we know for a fact that no dinosaur had big floppy ears like an elephant?

Another film, another unattributed use of @openstreetmap.bsky.social. This is the fourth film that I’ve seen this year do this and the latest culprit is this Christmas @netflix.com romcom named Champagne Problems. Their travesty is now immortalized on the OSM Wiki: wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Films

A very good boy! 🐾🐕😍 An amazing c. 3,400 year-old ancient Egyptian dog carved from ivory. This leaping dog opens and closes its mouth as if barking by using a lever below its chest. The Met 📷 by me #Archaeology

'Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has made Tehran impossible to sustain' #Iran 🇮🇷

For readers outwith Scotland: gritters in this country are canonically part of Iain M. Banks's Culture. Formally, they should be referred to in the form "GSV Ploos Yer Doos"; the initials stand for "Grit Spreading Vehicle".

Temperatures dropped to -12.6℃ last night at Tomintoul in Scotland, making it the coldest November night since 2010 🥶 It won't be so widely frosty this weekend, though still a little nippy when you step out the door on Saturday and Sunday morning

Earlier today, I was notified that someone was at my door. This is who it was:

Well this 2,600-year-old clay letter was a journey. It comes from the archive of a goldsmith named Nabû-zeru-iddin in the heart of ancient Assyria. We’ve got someone left on read, a lawsuit, a mean step-mom, and people who get drunk and steal silver.

If you value my work and appreciate the fact that I put basic human decency and respect for human rights over my potential income, I'd really appreciate if you chipped into said crowdfunder here: gofund.me/55e3a6cf4

Looks like I'll have to add two grand to my pre-election poll crowdfunder because I certainly won't be working with this rag again. Absolutely disgraceful, awarding a hate campaign that is out to destroy my community and kill my best friend like this. Shame on you.

Part 140 of 200 in historically interesting things to inspire your ttrpg Roman anthropomorphic dice in the form of squatting figures. The silver dice work much like conventional dice, with their various sides numbered with 1 to 6 dots. 1st century CE

Every time I see this poster:

In case you ever lose her she's in Co. Roscommon. From the Irish 'greanaidh', meaning gravelly place. #speirgorm

Moxon’s Shaving Cream: “Never exonerate malice simply because it is also stupid.”

Did you know elephants are more closely related to elephant shrews (sengis) than shrews are? #elephacts

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

POINTS BASED IMMIGRATION SYSTEM, YOUR BOYS TOOK A HELL OF A BEATING

Cloudflare's down. Look at Capybaras.

It’s over for us

Lots of Rooks coming to the garden at the moment for the last of the acorns. Each birds takes 5/6 away at one visit & then returns. The number of cached acorns in the surrounding fields must be enormous. It's not only the Jay who is responsible for planting Britain's Oak Trees. #trees #corvids

#3157 A helpful tutorial

The internet was designed to survive a nuclear attack, but much of it, from Twitter to my personal site, is down right now because Cloudflare—a service made necessary by a proliferation of bad actors and AI bots—is not working.

Exclusive: The Home Office secretly funded a boyband to tour schools in Muslim areas and sing songs about 7/7. By me, for PoliticsHome. www.politicshome.com/news/article...

This has become the normal ‘local news website’ reading experience.

“The Vatican on Saturday returned 62 artifacts to Indigenous peoples from Canada, a historic restitution that is part of the Catholic Church's reckoning with its role in helping suppress Indigenous culture in the Americas.” It’s a start

Jeff Bezos received a quarter of a million from his parents in 1995 to start his online bookstore idea.

It’s the Turning Each Other’s Flag Through 90 Degrees derby

Imagine looking at Scandinavian models of social democracy from Britain and picking out cruel immigration policies as the big source of inspiration.

I appreciate this is a niche concern but every time I hear Gannon-Doak mentioned it makes me think of the American folk song Oh Shenandoah.

The baffling thing at the heart of UK government comms is that the key figures are extremely active on (highly problematic) social media sites and yet departments continue to do policy briefings as if we lived in a world where people got their opinions from their newspapers of choice. Incoherent.

The first episode of The Clangers was originally broadcast on this day in 1969.

thrilled to report that if Pope Leo is ever canonized as a saint, his jerseys will indeed become second-degree relics, and I unironically hope I live to see this

'Four cones wins, but in order to get a cone you have to build a civilization. Which is where the spirit cards come in'

Half of all UK jobs shed since Labour came to power are among under-25s

There's the constituency of 'I just don't like visible and audible difference' which Labour can't appeal to. And there's the 'I don't like that this has measurably made my area worse by introducing an insecure, economically detached class of people', which this policy makes worse.

You might be interested in this … in Hamish Henderson’s “Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica” he refers to “…the great word of Glencoe’s son, that we should not disfigure ourselves with villainy of hatred…” which he explains in an interview with Colin Nicholson, in Poem, Purpose, & Place (1992)

To explain briefly: at the moment people successful in their asylum claims get permission to stay in the UK for 5 years, then have to apply for permanent residency. At that point a review of their status is done, but it’s rare not to succeed at that point unless they‘ve committed an offence 1/

Michael is my neighbor and a wonderful, courageous person. When Nazis left anti-Semitic leaflets on people’s cars, he organized a neighborhood sign-making session and led people in posting the signs communicating our solidarity against hate.

Interesting insight from an Altmetric widget on a British Medical Journal article. Confirms what people have been saying anecdotally about BlueSky.

Happy partially muscled skeleton screaming before vanishing day to all those who celebrate.

We're experiencing our own personal solstice today as the low winter sun shines through the window on the bright side of the fiat into the darker side.

[To the tune of Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison] 🎵Baba Yaga 🎵Walking down the street 🎵Baba Yaga 🎵House with chicken feet 🎵Baba Yaga

Which ancient Egyptian was most modest about their views? Imho tep

How about as a compromise we maintain our current chronic British-style public services, but adopt Scandinavian style tax transparency, where the earnings and tax of high earners are published.

I’m sorry I just found out that in 1379, as in, 650 years ago, a baby girl was born in Yorkshire and named Diot Coke history is a fucking joke lmao

getting a text in the middle of the night and it's just my loathsome vizier saying "Your enemies lie in wait, my lord!!" what am I supposed to do with that. its four in the morning