long stretch of worked roman stone on Hadrian's Wall.
If you ask someone today to name the builder of Hadrian's Wall, they would give you a funny look. But historical memory is odd, and right up to the 1800s we forgot who built it.
Until in 1840 John Hodgson, an obscure Northumbrian clergyman, published the LONGEST footnote in history... 1/22
Yes, hello, is that God? Yeah, hi. I have a complaint. You gave me this brain that’s designed for finding berries and avoiding lions and now people are ‘just circling back’ to see if we can ‘move the needle’ on ‘key initiatives’? NONE of those things are berries.
Photo of four lichens growing flat on grey rock. A yellow lichen is growing in a diagonal line across the photo. A dark grey oval lichen is growing along the yellow line as is a larger, round, off white lichen. A small amount of brown lichen is at the right side end of the line of yellow lichen.
Crustose lichen mix: Candelariella (yellow), Rhizocarpon (dark grey) Dimelaena (off white) and Acarospora (brown). Photo covers about 6cm, left to right. NWT, Canada. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends
I get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.
Aw, dang it.
This isn't really important, what with the war and all, but it did make me feel a little better and maybe it will make you feel better too
Onfim is one of my favorite historical figures ever, and any mention of him makes me wildly happy, so I am naturally compelled to re-share the delight.
Business travel + hotel fitness room + handstand pushups + heavy dumbbell snatches = I am now queen of this Hilton Garden Inn. Take note. #crossfit #crossfitmasters #escapistjoys
What's so amazing about Jim Henson as a puppeteer is that he could literally be explaining that Kermit is made out of felt and ping pong balls and yet Kermit still feels alive the whole time he's doing it
Leah doesn’t like slow songs but I dig this. You decide.
🔥
The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions!
This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t...
one of my strongest beliefs is that we're in our situation right now bc some of the most prominent talking heads (e.g. joe rogan, andrew schulz) are learning about politics in their 40s and 50s, instead of their teens and early 20s, and we have to go along for the ride as they learn basic things
Check out the #Comics4Liam hashtag. It’s wonderful.
For Liam.
Well, those boots were not made for walking
Blue buttons jellies float at the oceans surface, like little animal flowers, living between sea and sky. There are millions of them out there right now, and most will live their whole lives without even being seen by a human.
Despite the hard things, the world is still wondrous.
Here is a video of a frozen creek that had begun to thaw, and the water was flowing beneath the thin ice on top. I took this because it was soothing and wonderfully bloopy and I wanted to listen to it for hours. You are all welcome to enjoy it, too. Let your brain settle here and rest for a moment.
🔊 This is the sound of a vulture-bone flute inside a cave. Want to know what singing inside an ancient tomb would have sounded like? Check it out: buff.ly/7oVubJ6
Tonight I showed my son (who is newly 17) Mad Max: Fury Road for the first time. I am pleased to report that he cackled at all the same awesomely goofy things I did on first viewing, so therefore, he may continue to live in my house and eat my food, because he is indeed my son, shiny and chrome.
Discworld QOTD, from Hogfather
I’ve been watching a show in which people smoke ALL THE TIME. There are all these romantic intrigues, so they smooch it up at the drop of a hat. Do those with the habit just not mind having or giving constant ick-breath? Do they no longer notice it? I do not understand the appeal nor the tolerance.
Happy holiday to the #crossfit fam!
Holy gainz unto all, bruh!
I can’t think of a better day to wish you a merry Christmas
As you may know, I have stopped using Twitter, and have decided to reproduce some of my more memorable threads here for posterity. Here’s one I hold wrote after a particularly engaging swordfighting lesson.
Buckle up, swordfighting fans, because I *have* studied my Agrippa!
[BIG ASS THREAD]
The Royal Game of Ur from the British Museum
Okay, as promised, here are my 25 boardgames that would make good presents for historians or the historically-inclined.
- I've played them and enjoyed them
- They have to have a historical theme or be related to the practice of history
- They were within the first 25 I thought of...
I am completely charmed.
Brilliant. We need this everywhere.
[Florence, Italy]
I needed this. Maybe you do too.
