Nearly 40 years after Freddie sang it in Budapest

These are such good news, first real good news in a long time. A great day for Hungary, the EU and Ukraine!

Lest we forget...

I just prepared a presentation on possession and exorcism for a seminar in medical history and the file has exactly 6,66mb!

Le Chat Chat with Mistral AI's cutting edge language models.

Time to switch to European AI: chat.mistral.ai

Early Japanese Animations: The Origins of Anime (1917 to 1931) Japanese animation, AKA anime, might be filled with large-eyed maidens, way cool robots, and large-eyed, way cool maiden/robot hybrids, but it often shows a level of daring, complexity and creativity ...

Early Japanese Animations: The Origins of Anime (1917 to 1931)

As a historian of biology, until a decade ago or so, I had been under the impression that we have to be sophisticated to spot the remnants of eugenics and 19th century scientific racism (e.g. Troy Duster’s idea of “backdoor eugenics”). But this kind of stuff takes us straight back to the 1920s-30s.

Stream 4,000+ Public Domain Movies on WikiFlix: Silent Classics, Academy Award-Winners, Hitchcock Films & More Humanity was already enjoying motion pictures a century ago. But the ability to do so at home still lay a few decades in the future, and the ability to pull up a movie on demand through a streaming se...

Stream 4,000+ Public Domain Movies on WikiFlix: Silent Classics, Academy Award-Winners, Hitchcock Films & More

Newly released files shed new light on Chomsky and Epstein relationship Latest communications undermine Chomsky’s earlier claims that he primarily had financial dealings with Epstein

Well, at least that settles the famous argument of Chomsky and Foucault. Although Foucault was no saint, he at least got it right that the idea of justice is discursive and embedded in power relations. I guess Chomsky's universal human values do not hold up... #Chomsky #Epstein #Foucault

Vulvodynia isn't a Mystery. It's Underfunded. A new clinical trial hopefully signals change

There is a new clinical trial that is recruiting for vulvodynia. This is a woefully under-researched aspect of women's care. Please help me spread the word. vajenda.substack.com/p/vulvodynia...

Internat'l Conference "Southeast Asia & Indo-Pacific Imaginaries" with two DIJ panels incl papers on Japanese-Indian Relations (David M. Malitz) & Japan’s Educational Aid Programs @daneuhaus.bsky.social
📅 29–30 Jan 2026, Nat'l Museum of the Philippines, Iloilo
▶️ indopacificimaginaries.wordpress.com

Komplexes Gehirn, einfach erklärt Was passiert in unserem Gehirn, wenn wir reden, fühlen oder Erinnerungen hervorholen? Mit diesen Fragen beschäftigt sich die kognitive Neurowissenschaft. Wie Forschende dabei vorgehen, veranschaulicht...

Unser #Gehirn ist faszinierend und sehr komplex. Neurowissenschaftler bringen mit dem Projekt „From Brain to Mind“ kognitive Neurowissenschaften der Öffentlichkeit via Podcast und Dokumentarfilm verständlich näher. @unisalzburg.bsky.social #scilog 🧠

scilog.fwf.ac.at/magazin/komp...

Europäische Partnerschaften: BrainHealth und BE READY Der FWF beteiligt sich an den Europäischen Partnerschaften BrainHealth und BE READY. Die neuen Ausschreibungen zu Gehirngesundheit und Pandemievorsorge starten 2026.

Der #FWF beteiligt sich an zwei neuen Europäischen Partnerschaften zur Forschung zu #Hirngesundheit und #Pandemievorsorge: Im Fokus von "BrainHealth" stehen neurologische und psychische Erkrankungen und "BE READY" soll auf zukünftige Pandemien vorbereiten. 🧠🦠

www.fwf.ac.at/aktuelles/de...

Join our next #DIJStudyGroup "Haga Yaichi and the Kokuminsei jūron: A Fragmentary Imagination of National Identity" with Alberto Zizza (LMU Munich/DIJ) who will discuss identity & self-imagination in prewar Japan
📅 Feb 5, 2026 / 6.30pm JST/10.30am CET
🏚️ online & DIJ
www.dijtokyo.org/event/haga-y...

Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams Microsoft Virtual Events Powered by Teams

"Imagining a Gender Equal World: Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women and Girls through International Partnerships"

11. Februar 2026 • 10:30 - 14:30

Be there or be square!

One of those captcha things. This one says ‘select all images with bicycles. Click verify once there are none left’. There are 9 squares - 4 contain photos of bicycle seats, with the remaining 5 showing the beautiful head and face of a grey greyhound with a white stripe going from the top of their head to the tip of their nose.

Hats off to whoever did this (and the beautiful model).

Prime Minister Takaichi and President Lee share drum session in Tokyo YouTube video by No Comment TV

Something I didn't think I'd ever see: Japanese PM Takaichi and South Korean President Lee playing the drums together 😯

Incredible article which points out that it often collectively costs more to apply for scarce research funding than the funds awarded to the successful proposals.

What an absurd system we've built in the service of efficiency and competition.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Book cover of Colonial Surveillance: Technologies of Identification and Control in Japan’s Empire by Midori Ogasawara

Against the historical backdrop of Japan's expansion in the pseudo-state of "Manchukuo," Colonial Surveillance invites readers to delve into the genealogy of identification systems, and the colonial roots of the surveillance technologies that saturate our digital lives

https://ow.ly/uPsQ50XS9R5

Gov. Pritzker: "They want you to question what your eyes and ears are telling you. It is unimaginable to think this can happen in our country or that when it does happen the government immediately tries to cover it up. It should anger you." #3E #endImpunity #ReneeGood #JusticeforGood #GoodVsEvil

The Heartbreak Machine: Nazis in the Echo Chamber WhiteDate ist eine Plattform weißer Suprematist:innen, die sich an Rassist:innen und Antisemit:innen richtet – und auf veralteter Infrast...

CCC ftw!

Context Widows or, of GPUs, LPUs, and Goal Displacement

Interesting post, arguing that LLMs aren’t really disruptors. “They arrived as intensifiers. LLMs function as an accelerant for the existing optimization machine, making the logic run faster rather than challenging its foundations.”

open.substack.com/pub/artifici...

FIFA will manage...

We all need to send this link to data driven university administrators who view funding applications as key performance target.

I think there is a genuinely interesting question here: why is phrenology so damn popular? People seem to reinvent it constantly.

one thing is sure though: power creep will be strong with this one (i.e. turn 0 red creature with haste)!

How were emerging medical disciplines and transnational networks connected to colonial racism in 20th c. East Asia?

Dive into my new #OpenAccess article, "Neurologically Speaking: Racial Science and Medicine at Keijō Imperial University" #HistSci #HistMed #EastAsia

doi.org/10.1163/2666...

‘Make Europe Great Again’ and more from a longer version of the National Security Strategy A fuller version reviewed by Defense One outlines the Trump administration’s plans for shedding old relationships and creating new ones.

“Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Poland are listed as countries the U.S. should “work more with…with the goal of pulling them away from the [European Union].”“

www.defenseone.com/policy/2025/...