Columbo knew...

From the episode 'Old Fashioned Murder', series 6, episode 2, 1968.

I do not need my pasta to be a spy!

The Sanseverinos were mercenaries and big in many Renaissance wars. Roberto Sanseverino of Caiazzo was the most famous, and died heroically in battle in his mid 60s after fathering 25 children!

A VERY LARGE pinkish tardigrade on green mossy surface, all from cake.

Another shot of the cake, plus info tags.

Gotta show you this tardigrade cake I saw at the American Museum of Natural History.

This has now got me wondering, how many European queens married two kings? I can think of at least two others in the 15 seconds I have for a lunch break today, but I'm sure the number's considerably higher... OK back to teaching now!

Beatrice of Naples Twice Queen of Hungary is a perennial favorite. In the same period, Anne of Brittany Twice Queen of France (who married three since she married Maximilian of Austria, then Charles VIII, then Louis XII)

Dozens of deep-sea species discovered as new crustaceans named | Natural History Museum Twenty-four new species of crustaceans have been discovered as part of a project to name 1,000 deep-sea animals by 2030

24 new crustacean species discovered in the deep Pacific. As part of a project to name 1,000 unknown deep-sea animals by 2030, researchers hauled up cubes of mud from the seafloor between Hawaii and Mexico, and found two dozen new tiny crustaceans. buff.ly/7lq195w
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Ed is correct. In fact Davy at first suggested "alumium" before switching to "aluminum". Anyway, nice to meet you too.

Purple artichoke flower with a bee

I think artichokes should have a shade of purple named after them. It is such a stunning color!

I’ve had the same editor since 1967. Many times he has said to me over the years or asked me, Why would you use a semicolon instead of a colon? And many times over the years I have said to him things like: I will never speak to you again. Forever. Goodbye. That is it. Thank you very much. And I leave. Then I read the piece and I think of his suggestions. I send him a telegram that says, OK, so you’re right. So what? Don’t ever mention this to me again. If you do, I will never speak to you again

Maya Angelou on the joys of being edited

Technologies of Making and Knowing - HIAA Beyond its modern conceptualization, technology has always informed artistic production...

Call for Papers:
"Technologies of Making and Knowing"
Hosted jointly at Getty, LACMA, and UCLA
Los Angeles, California, March 4 - 6, 2027

www.historiansofislamicart.org/events-and-s...

Oh so glad to hear it!

seven months on beehiiv, by the numbers was leaving substack worth it?

There's a lot of talk about leaving Substack & whether it will be the death-knell of your newsletter. I have been on Beehiiv for 7 months now & @tlpavlich.gay helped me run some numbers. So, was leaving Substack worth it? The answer, for me, has been a resounding "yes."

Here are the hard numbers:

Once the writing bug grips you, it never lets you go.
So why not revel in it?

Why Yale’s term paper on what’s wrong with college gets a ‘D-’ | Will Bunch An Ivy League university's report on the loss of faith in higher ed ignores what really killed the American Dream of college.

That Yale report on what's wrong with U.S. college saw some trees (high cost, unfair admission, etc.) but missed the forest: the 60-year right-wing crusade to undermine higher ed, from slashing budgets to stifling speech

How to really fix college. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/yale...

Quick and Meaningless Data Collection Help me collect some data to use for student examples! The questions on geographic region and gender will only be used for subsetting the data, not for student analysis. No questions are required -…

I NEED HELP!

Please take this quick, meaningless 19 question survey so I can get data for my students to learn stats!

I did a similar version a few months ago but missed an important question type. Even if you did the old one, please do it again!

Please circulate widely!

Tim Curry IS VERY MUCH ALIVE.

It is his birthday so he is trending because people are gushing about how great he is, which is deserved.

Oh thank goodness. I cannot begin to tell you how important ringed seals were in the zooarchaeological record of Arctic peoples; whales might be important symbolically, but ringed seal was vital for oil, meat & blood, skins (used in many ways, like balloon floats for harpoons), sinew, and more.

Man alive!

Victory: Court Reinstates Alaska Critical Habitat for Bearded, Ringed Seals Center for Biological Diversity: ANCHORAGE, Alaska— A federal appeals court today upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service’s designation of nearly 160 million acres of waters off Alaska’s Arctic…

Arctic seals have regained one of their most important legal protections. A federal appeals court in the US has reinstated nearly 160 million acres of critical habitat for bearded and ringed seals off Alaska’s Arctic coast, reversing a 2024 lower-court ruling. buff.ly/kB0iIYe
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I'm not joking when I say mRNA technology is more important than "AI" and it's a tragedy we're throwing billions into one while our government is aggressively defunding the other.

Just sobbed hardest I have since my mom died in 2020.

She missed these trials by a few months.

One of most ruthless cancers. Hard to fathom that maybe she'd still be here.

I feel such a hole inside.

In case you're wondering if we should fund mRNA research instead of another stupid war ... yes.

A glazed ceramic teapot and two mugs with art depicting the northern lights along with silhouette figures of a couple and their dog looking at the aurora.

A while back I commissioned a wedding gift for two dear friends from @amyraehill.bsky.social and tonight I was able to give it to them! She turned my friend's photo of the northern lights from their engagement trip into a gorgeous ceramic tea set and I could not be happier with the result.

🧪 #sharegoodnewstoo
The number of scientists running for office has tripled in the USA!

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Yes, that stretch is magnificent.

We’re back, with some new recommendations.

the head of a unicorn from the left side, with tongue out

A happy and overambitious unicorn, handcolored into a book about Popes from the fifteenth century.

Found a payphone that someone repaired and forwarded to their personal google voice number so you can pick it up and talk to Some Guy

Please don’t say goodbye. You are loved. Even if it’s across the gulf of distance and being strangers, everyone who loves humanity loves you.