UNC has always been abysmal at football. 🤷🏻♀️
Staff writer @LiveScience.com Email: kristina.killgrove@futurenet.com Web: Livescience.com/author/kristina-killgrove PhD in anthropology, MA in classical archaeology. Former professor & Roman bioarchaeologist. I crochet and bake a lot. NC based.
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UNC has always been abysmal at football. 🤷🏻♀️
Media has been hollowed out from the bottom and a lot of that was beat reporting and grassroots stuff. The top is left without much to support it. There are about a fifth as many reporters per capita compared to 25 years ago.
It took three and a half years, but my opening word was finally today’s Wordle! 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
This week’s astonishing artifact is an example of haniwa — 6th century grave markers from Japan (that inspired the gyroids in Animal Crossing). 🧪🏺
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The 2nd c BC man was buried along with his horse. 🧪🏺
Very cool polychrome mural found in pre-Inca north Peru. 🏺🧪
The man also had a cervical rib -- an extra one up near his neck -- that may have been broken by the arrow. It showed signs of infection, which probably killed him within months after his injury, the researchers suggested. 🧪🏺
"Her patient had signs of what could be a cancer or could be an unusual infection — diagnoses that would require completely different treatment. Ordinarily, she would confirm an infection after sending a sample to the CDC for testing ...the CDC no longer has the capacity to do that"
I’m so grateful that I have tenure and the academic freedom to call it like I see it. “Dr. Kathleen Bachynski, a professor of public health at Muhlenberg College, described Kennedy’s comments as “absolute gibberish” and slammed the HHS secretary as a “dangerous buffoon” who is “threatening us all.”
Trump take LEGO www.404media.co/lego-stops-s...
This li’l Celtic dude looks just like the tiny green army men my brother played with as a kid. 🏺🧪
The 2nd c BC man was buried along with his horse. 🧪🏺
Very cool polychrome mural found in pre-Inca north Peru. 🏺🧪
Jim O’Neill is a tech investor, former CEO of the Thiel Foundation, and co-founder with Peter Thiel of the Thiel fellowship. He has no direct medical education or experience. It’s hard to get away from the feeling that they really are trying to kill us.
This is a really bad sign - signals a desire to start prosecuting academics and/or university administrators for political speech
AP live feed of the CDC walkout in Atlanta. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ7Q...
Some thoughts on the rapid disassembly of the CDC and what it means for the health of Americans, public trust and national security. As one former agency official bluntly put it: “When people call the CDC, who is picking up the phone?” My latest for @opinion.bloomberg.com (gift link):
When I read EO Wilson's letters at the LOC, it was clear that he was an ACTIVIST (for "scientific racism"). He was organizing with "race scientists," supporting them, positively reviewing their pubs and books, encouraging them to write Op Eds. Yet only progressives get the "activist" label.
7c. Care must be taken in building datasets from historical sources. "Off the shelf" data is not a thing for historians. Perhaps this is a key distinction between #DH/#dighist and computational social science (tho I'm 💯 sure there are comp soc sci colleagues who are engaged with the archive!). 9/n
1. Modeling data does not a historical argument make. 2. Lefebvre might have written an early classic, but his sources are not the complete 'archive' of Great Fear rumors. 1/n
"Using data to objectively measure societal events 'is the new paradigm for studying human dynamics,' says Walter Quattrociocchi, a computer scientist." LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL....*gasps for air* LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
🧵 I know it's ridiculous, but when he's talking mitochondrial challenges & inflammation, he's again referring to his idea of vaccine-induced autism. Let me explain.
“I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponization of public health.” Firings and resignations of top CDC leadership today. Gift link: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/27/h...
White House suggests vague plan to put government data on the blockchain. "[I]t doesn’t actually solve very many problems beyond maintaining the existence of cryptocurrency... A normal spreadsheet or database typically works just fine for distributing information" gizmodo.com/the-white-ho...
Do you have questions about the near-future and COVID vaccination access? (I do.) Fortunately for us, my colleague @meghanbartels.bsky.social has answers. I'm so grateful for the information she pulled together in this article. www.scientificamerican.com/article/who-...
We really haven’t changed that much biologically in about 50,000 years! Of course, the facial reconstruction is an artistic imagining (rooted in anatomical science), so who knows what this guy actually looked like.
FUCK YEAH SCIENCE arstechnica.com/science/2025...
Researchers think that the micropoints were arrowheads; but it's not clear who made them. 🏺🧪
A genetic flip helped turn us into upright walkers. Here’s my evo-devo story about the ilium. Gift link: nyti.ms/45BOenz
No idea why that image pops up; you’d have to ask the journal lol.
This link should take you to the open access supplemental file. It’s on page xiii, I believe. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/suppl/10...
There’s a reconstruction in the supplementary materials for the published study! (It wasn’t available for media use.)
A sense of doom among US biomedical scientists @arghavansallesmd.medsky.social & team www.statnews.com/2025/08/26/f...
The man also had a cervical rib -- an extra one up near his neck -- that may have been broken by the arrow. It showed signs of infection, which probably killed him within months after his injury, the researchers suggested. 🧪🏺
A person in Maryland has been confirmed to have an infection with the flesh-eating New World screwworm parasite www.livescience.com/health/virus...
love to live in 2025
I just got a PR pitch for *menstrual cups* trying to ride the Taylor Swift engagement news. "Taylor Swift is Engaged! Celebrate With [Our Product, Which Is A Menstrual Cup]" Absolutely wild.
Your Monday morning astonishing artifact is the Malia "bee" pendant. (Spoiler alert: they may be wasps.) 🏺🧪
Uhhh. 😬
Federalizing the bridesmaids
Science @science.org is recruiting an editor with postdoctoral expertise in infectious diseases or microbiomes. Come and work with us in the UK or USA! bit.ly/3UHOiMf 🧪
Does Not Rhyme -through -cough -though -rough -bough Does Rhyme -pony -bologna
EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration will move to pull the COVID vaccine off the U.S. market “within months,” one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s closest associates has told the Daily Beast.
Your Monday morning astonishing artifact is the Malia "bee" pendant. (Spoiler alert: they may be wasps.) 🏺🧪
"This is the first time scientists have found a Denisovan gene that came to humans via Neanderthals."
Oh I know. Lol. It was the early 90s… I guess this is what passed for Spanish-learning “hacks”.
Lovely! 🥰
Kinda jealous, tbh. On my first dig, the best thing I found was a colonial-era nail. 🧪🏺
Oooh, this lead seems promising! Wish I could read this, but from what I can see, it's the kind of thing I remember. www.latimes.com/archives/la-...
Late 80s early 90s maybe?
They were English-language ads for learning Spanish. To make it easy to learn, the examples were things like... "I'm sorry. I feel low. So low I can see into your toe. Lo siento."
Multiple postal services around Europe say they are suspending the shipment of many packages to the United States amid a lack of clarity over new import duties.
Update: a friend from high school remembered a third snippet: 3) SOCKS = eso si que es. Thinks maybe it was some sort of hooked on phonics thing.
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“I have to have a licence to curate remains,” Biers said. “You can’t take photos of any human remains under 100 years old if you go to Barts pathology [department]. But it’s OK to turn a child’s spine into a handbag handle. I don’t understand this.” M’learned colleague Dr Trish Biers eloquently…
Anyone else remember this? Or did we just Mandela-effect one another? (3/3)
1) I'm sorry, I feel so low. So low I can see into your toe... lo siento! 2) I have a key here. Aqui esta! We quote this CONSTANTLY. So much so that now our kids are doing it, lol. But neither of us can find wtf this even was. (2/ )
Gen X klaxon -- So my husband and I both remember a commercial from our childhood. Might have been radio-only (Casey's Top 40?) and maybe regional (central VA/DC). It was for a Spanish language learning product. All we remember are two snippets. Something like... (1/ )
🍆A Greek terracotta rhyton🍆 When only the best drinkware will suit you, then look no further than this delightfully phallic rhyton, sure to make tongues wag! #AncientRome #PhallusThursday
Oh, Petralona. What an odd skull. But it’s been dated to at least 277kyo, putting some theories to rest. 🏺🧪
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I used VERY cobbled together Latin for this Crow Time joke, but a few folks are asking me to make sure it's correct for a print version. Are there are Latin profs on Bluesky that would be down to correct silly Grim Reaper sayings?
A rainbow crosswalk in Orlando that was part of the city’s Pulse Memorial was painted over by the state last night at the order of Ron DeSantis. The memorial honored the 49 people fatally shot by a gunman at the Pulse LGBTQ nightclub in 2016 — the largest mass shooting in the country at the time.
Today's the day. 406 years ago today, when a Dutch ship called the White Lion brought some "twenty and odd Negroes" who they'd captured from a Portuguese ship to the shores of Virginia. One year before the Mayflower, Black history continued on American soil
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The largest ever data analysis of the US trans population is out today •2.8m trans ppl total, including 724K youth •3.3% of youth are trans •Minnesota had highest rate of trans adults + Hawaii had highest rate of trans youth, tho trans ppl are widely represented in similar ranges in all 50 states
This shit is so evil man. I don’t even know what to do.
2 bits of data from new Economist/YouGov poll..... 13% support for cutting research funding to universities. 24% among Republicans. Polling on this continues to be catastrophic for the Rs, suggests Dems should be learning far harder into standing up for science and our universities. 1/
This is really cool! But future bioarchaeologists will have a hell of a time with isotope analysis of these teeth, lol. 🧪🏺
Seeking science journalists: @quantamagazine.bsky.social is hiring a physics editor! A rare opportunity to join this great team and lead coverage of this foundational vertical. Please reach out with any questions and share widely simonsfoundation.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/simons...
Well, UChicago has paused new PhD admissions in my department now, too. One of the flagship departments for anthropology in the US and worldwide. This on top of hum, social thought, social work, and others. What happens to UChicago's brand--the so-called "life of the mind"--now?
Imagine telling the ancients, “in the 20th century we figured out a way to convince sand and metal to do mathematical computations that no human could ever complete. In the 21st century, we decided to give up on math, and convinced sand and metal to cast pretend spells instead."
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Wrightsville Beach, on the North Carolina coast, is recommending that no one swim in the ocean until at least Friday, after about 70 people had to be rescued on Monday from dangerous rip currents generated by swells from Hurricane Erin www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...
Worked great, thanks muchly! 🐝
Anyone have access to this journal article? Could use a downloaded copy! #icanhazpdf
Notable that AI tools could not even generate accurate meeting summaries beyond “a couple hundred words.” That’s useless for minutes. And for lit review they *completely* shit the bed. But these aren’t people’s favorite tasks & AI is way quicker, so many will keep using them, truth be damned.
Anyway, happy Monday! The Dean is shutting down my department - Religion & Culture, the only 1 of is kind in the country & home to the innovative Major in Humanities for Public Service. There is no immediate budgetary or political pressure for this decision
A massive attack on several humanities units (Arabic Studies, Judaic Studies, Holocaust Studies, Classics, Religion, German & Scandinavian, Russian/East European/Eurasian Studies) *and* tenure now unfolding at the University of Oregon (a blue state!). Closure of units and faculty layoffs threatened.
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“The universities likely to close are not Yale & Columbia but lower and mid-tier schools. “Regional universities and small liberal arts colleges, especially those in rural areas, face the biggest challenges,” said Zavodny. U.S. and international students will hope to attend well-known universities”
"A diamond's gotta shine..."
"I feel like I might sink and drown and die..."
"I'm drunk in the back of the car / And I cried like a baby coming home from the bar..."
"Clear blue water, high tide came and brought you in..."
"I thought heaven can't help me now, nothing lasts forever..."
Just a few weeks ago, Mars also got decked out in orange and purple, clearly an homage to TSwift.
"Yeah, lilac short skirt / The one that fits me like skin..."
"Perilous night, their voices calling, flicker of light before the dawning..."
A long time ago, the Earth may have had a "lavender haze."
"Strawberries and fairies with wings / Live for the little things..."
"Ocean blue eyes looking in mine..."
"We both did the best we could do / Underneath the same moon / In different galaxies..." (From the song Peter on TTPD.)
Did this purple-and-orange crab discovered a decade ago inspire Taylor's two Aug 2025 countdowns? 🤔