spoke32.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Wondering what "Fremdereignis" means in Swiss train jargon. In related news, I am currently experiencing a black swan event, namely a delay on a Swiss train.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Man, this woke me up in a hurry. (I am on the train after all: One station on the way closed because they're clearing a WWII bomb, final stop in Basel cancelled for some other reason but I've been promised the Swiss will help me make the connection.)

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

‘Squirrelled,’ as in “squirrelled away,” can be pronounced “SKWERLD.” ‘Squirrelled’ has 11 letters, making it the longest one-syllable word in English.

submitted 5 days ago • 76 comments

As a journalist I can say up-to-date faculty pages are really useful for figuring out who a good source might be and how to reach them.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Overheard on weekend group ride: "I just don't want to end up in my 40s regretting all the things I didn't do when I was at my peak, you know?" 😳

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

Berlin right now

submitted 5 days ago • 7 comments

Between 1637 and 1697, people who died at Milan's biggest hospital were dropped into underground vaults. Now their remains (including nearly 3 million bones & preserved brains) are helping archaeologists reconstruct the lives, diet and drug habits of people historians often overlook. @science.org

submitted 9 days ago • 4 comments

I've been cooking for 35 years and today I got my first rotten egg. Pretty good run, I guess.

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Rather gory, but still fascinating:

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Between 1637 and 1697, people who died at Milan's biggest hospital were dropped into underground vaults. Now their remains (including nearly 3 million bones & preserved brains) are helping archaeologists reconstruct the lives, diet and drug habits of people historians often overlook. @science.org

submitted 9 days ago • 4 comments

Für eine Reportage auf den Spuren der #Hethiter hat @spoke32.bsky.social in der Türkei auch die #Istanbul_DAI-Ausgrabungen in #Hattusa und Grabungsleiter Andreas Schachner besucht. Nachzulesen in der aktuellen Ausgabe des #NationalGeographic-Magazins: 🏺 www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

submitted 9 days ago • 343 comments

If you want to stress-test your writing for clarity and lack of jargon, have someone translate it. The cracks show up pretty quick.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Did anyone catch a Stephen Colbert joke about the Hittites recently? Apparently a recent story of mine got the ultimate nod but I missed it.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Weird medical history side note: No one knew what caused celiac disease until the Hunger Winter, when a Dutch pediatrician noticed his young celiac patients got better when there was no bread to eat and they had to subsist on (gluten-free) tulip flour. www.atlasobscura.com/articles/his...

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

For 450 years, the Hittites controlled much of modern-day Türkiye and beyond, vying with Egypt and Assyria. But after their 1180 BC collapse they were forgotten. How did an entire empire vanish without a trace? www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti... My latest for National Geographic, out now!

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

Berlin government's latest pro-car-at-all-costs idiocy: Lower speed limits were introduced a few years ago to help reduce pollution in parts of the city. It worked! The air is cleaner! So now the speed limits will be raised again, because the pollution problem is gone.

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

Learning Latin: 7 months in and my kid can say "the evil farmer killed the goat" and "Paulla is happy that the shopkeeper beats the thief" but can't count to 20.

submitted 12 days ago • 2 comments

Imagine, a technology that makes it amazingly easy to obey the law. And it already comes pre-installed in cars!

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

The great thing about the airline forgetting to load one of your suitcases on the way home from a big trip is you only have to unpack half your stuff. Plus, thanks to the invention of Airtags you can watch your bag's independent travel adventures in real time.

submitted 15 days ago • 2 comments

The Phoenicians used mastery of the seas to spread their culture across the pre-Roman Mediterranean - but a new study of ancient DNA by @hringbauer.bsky.social & colleagues shows mass migration wasn't part of the package: www.science.org/content/arti... @science.org

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

PSA: Gladiators didn't fight animals. That was the job of the bestiarii, a specialized class of entertainer. Animals were also used to execute prisoners. For more, read my Nat Geo article on gladiator games and associated spectacles: www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/art...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

The Phoenicians used mastery of the seas to spread their culture across the pre-Roman Mediterranean - but a new study of ancient DNA by @hringbauer.bsky.social & colleagues shows mass migration wasn't part of the package: www.science.org/content/arti... @science.org

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

The U.N. projects global population will rise by almost a billion by 2037. If low U.S. birthrates are a worry -- and I would argue the opposite -- the obvious answer is to allow in more immigrants. This, of course, is exactly what those who claim to be the most worried oppose.

submitted 18 days ago • 11 comments

For 450 years, the Hittites controlled much of modern-day Türkiye and beyond, vying with Egypt and Assyria. But after their 1180 BC collapse they were forgotten. How did an entire empire vanish without a trace? www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti... My latest for National Geographic, out now!

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

There are many ways that gutting critical government services will lead to needless death and suffering. Gutting the National Weather Service strikes me as one of the dumbest

submitted 23 days ago • 71 comments

In response to Conner Dougherty's NYT article, it's helpful to revisit a piece I wrote. In the USA, the poorer you are, the greater percentage of your income you spend on transportation. In the EU, it's the opposite. Why? USA has car-dependent sprawl, EU has good transit. itdp.org/2024/01/24/h...

submitted 29 days ago • 5 comments

Wow, 400 liters is A LOT of mead.

submitted 30 days ago • 0 comments