A recently discovered mummy suggests ancient Egyptians were using sophisticated techniques 1,000 years earlier than previously established. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/24/mummys-older-than-we-thought-new-find-rewrites-the-history-books

If you want to start a novel badly, any cartoon beagle can tell you that there’s only one choice: “It was a dark and stormy night.” https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/651542/dark-and-stormy-night-worst-sentence-history-literature

Oh come on, you know you have to look. Also, the article is fun writing. https://www.insidehook.com/article/architecture-real-estate/joe-pesci-sells-jersey-shore-mansion

The population of wild Amur tigers in China, commonly referred to as Siberian Tigers, has rebounded from only 8 big cats in the 1990s to around 60 today. https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/the-cat-is-back-wild-amur-tigers-rebound-in-china-thanks-to-govt-policies/

"The later Han Dynasty was when embroidery really took off in China, and many embroidery patterns have survived from this period." https://blog.fabrics-store.com/2021/11/14/the-silk-touch-embroidery-in-china/

A new Google tool lets you find out if a doppelgänger of your pet appears in any artworks. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59156684

Three flagship space-based telescopes, two gargantuan observatories on the ground, and suggestions for fighting systemic racism and sexism within the field of astronomy. Those are among the top priorities for US astronomers in the coming decade. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-03027-y

https://twitter.com/humanworkplace/status/1456664877918040067

IFTTT / Reddit Alerts Filling Up With Porn Spam? Here’s What To Do

https://researchbuzz.me/2021/11/15/ifttt-reddit-alerts-filling-up-with-porn-spam-heres-what-to-do/

You know they had me at "cats in Roman times." Finds at Richborough include skeleton of cat nicknamed Maxipus and potential evidence of figurative arena panels https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/28/amphitheatre-dig-kent-roman-town-richborough

“Day-O” is so suffused with joy and pathos—that age-old human mishmash—that almost anybody with an actively beating heart sounds awesome singing it. Incredibly, in 1957, five more artists made it onto the U.S. Top Forty with their versions. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/harry-belafonte-and-the-social-power-of-song

Smartphones have become ubiquitous—but do we really know how people around the world are using these devices? A team of anthropologists collaborated with a comics artist to share their findings. https://www.sapiens.org/culture/anthropology-smartphones/

Research suggests that a sheepdog follows two simple rules: Close any gaps between the “white, fluffy things in front of it,” and then push a gap-less herd forward. https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2021/06/lior-patel-sheep-herding/

Wilson, the volleyball Tom Hanks befriends in classic movie Cast Away, has sold at auction for $311k. https://hypebeast.com/2021/11/tom-hanks-cast-away-wilson-volleyball-prop-store-auction-results

The once-popular dogs that vanished https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211105-the-bizarre-dog-breeds-time-forgot

Dinner. Despite what it says here, this serves only two.

The oldest extant text ever printed with movable type predates Gutenberg. The Jikji, printed in Korea, is a collection of Buddhist teachings by Seon master Baegun, printed in movable type in 1377 -- and now digitized. https://www.openculture.com/2019/07/jikji.html

My Amazon review of _Knot of Shadows_, a Penric & Desdemona novella by Lois McMaster Bujold

Not that you needed any encouragement, but yes, this is as good as the rest of the stories in this fantasy series. https://amzn.to/30o2ot6