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• Post #4496804

  Some Communist University events this week with Chris and myself https://www.facebook.com/weeklyworker/photos/communist-university-2026central-londonzoomfriday-august-1410am-12noon-the-revol/1629717902405016/?set=communist-university-2026central-londonzoomfriday-august-1410am-12noon-the-revol

• Post #4462799

  Well considering all the precious fossils dragged back as loot by our colonizing ancestors, how terrible is it that the Abu Dhabi NHM snapped up an extensive Lyme Regis collection? https://www.theguardian.com/science/ng-interactive/2026/aug/09/one-of-uks-best-fossil-collections-sold-overseas-in-loss-to-the-nation

• Post #4462244

  #Invertebrate of the year series starting with the wood louse (Gwrach y Coed, “witch of the wood”, in Welsh). https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/03/common-woodlouse-invertebrate-of-the-year

• Post #4461681

  Truly weird shit going on in Battersea last night, for 5 or more minutes after 10 pm the whole landscape was being lit by orangey flashes right across the park to the US embassy and south to Clapham. Huge explosive noise almost rat at at! rhythm like machine gun, but sounding more like short circuiting than shots? Electrical discharges? It wasn't fireworks, or thunder. Wtf was it?

• Post #4247317

  Fantastic action today! https://defendourjuries.net/press-releases/mass-arrests-underway-as-hundreds-escalate-support-for-palestine-action/

• Post #4188589

  Review article on aDNA: 'synthesizes significant findings from the paleogenomic era (2010–2025), demonstrating how ancient DNA has resolved persistent debates across four interconnected themes: (i) human migration and admixture, ...; (ii) adaptation, tracking allele frequency changes during domestication and selection; (iii) pathogen history, clarifying the origins of pandemics and the evolution of microbiomes; and (iv) ecosystem dynamics, identifying extinction causes ...' https://www....

• Post #4073849

  Odysseus Lout, by Dennis Knight. He was a noted war poet of his experiences in the WW2 antifascist tank Frontline. This is his take on the real Homer text.

• Post #4066198

  'The Asháninka people, who have faced threats from intruders for decades because of their efforts to protect the forest and eject narco smugglers, say this is the worst danger they have faced, prompting an emergency delegation to Brasília this week to appeal for support from the government of the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.' https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/24/gangs-taking-villages-on-brazil-peru-border-hostage-say-indigenous-leaders

• Post #3957827

  7,000-year-old fish traps in southern Norway indicate hunter-fisher-gatherers were moving brown trout into mountain lakes by 5000 B.C., long before farming reached the region. #mesolithic https://phys.org/news/2026-07-centuries-farming-hunter-fish-norwegian.html?

• Post #3939628

  RE: https://todon.eu/@regendans/116946165259516557 Beyond belief! Reading a poem criminalized...

• Post #3884387

  A #bunnybuttFriday special with Jack admiring a cushion cover with fluffy tail, which my long lost niece knitted for me back in 2020.

• Post #3854029

  Oops...another female shaman: Bronze Age Wiltshire where she may have been metalworking. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jul/14/ancient-dna-analysis-reveals-upton-lovell-shaman-was-woman-wiltshire

• Post #3789245

  Thanks to everybody fur your lovely messages for Jack! This is over 12 years ago, he was nearly two, his first spring as new husbun of Molly. He's looking so proud while she snacks on her pear blossom! #RadicalAnthropologyRabbits #rabbitsofmastodon

• Post #3763963

  We are in mourning, devastated to have lost our beautiful rabbit Jack. He was 14 years old -- 99 in human terms -- a very brave old boy. Last of the #radicalanthropologyrabbits standing, he hopped up every now and then on #rabbitsofmastodon our favourite community on the Fediverse. 🌈

• Post #3737086

  Sheina Lew-Levy and Dorsa Amir draw attention to children's innovative role in 'peer cultures' "In this paper, we bring attention to the important role that children play in cultural adaptation by highlighting the structure, function, and ubiquity of the large body of knowledge produced and transmitted by children, known as peer cultures" https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/abs/children-as-agents-of-cultural-adaptation/F14F6E1809BE...

• Post #3718748

  RE: https://mastodon.social/@sundogplanets/116893541666491703 Don't fuck with the night sky!

• Post #3718726

  Decolonizing #palaeoanthropology '“Indonesia is now taking the lead in palaeoanthropology research.” In the past.. Dutch scientists would have come to Indonesia with a grant from the Netherlands and a brief instructing them to hire local people to help dig up a site, make discoveries, write papers and leave — a phenomenon called parachute research.' https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01357-3

• Post #3711915

  Dawn and the old Moon in South London

• Post #3701769

  "during those in-between times when children are able to stealthily evade adult surveillance – on playgrounds, on the internet and even when stuck at home during the pandemic – children’s culture can thrive. In these spaces, they can make the rules. They set the terms. And if it confuses adults, all the better." https://theconversation.com/the-6-7-craze-offered-a-brief-window-into-the-hidden-world-of-children-272327?

• Post #3650912

  A very cool, useful discussion of the question of violence or 'war' in prehistory, concluding, for nomadic HG ancestors, not anything like war, yes, some interpersonal violence. But it probably goes further than that -- doing violence likely did not help the perpetrator's fitness, no selection pressures or incentive. In fact, the opposite, until there were resources and assets to monopolize and compete for. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00223433221090112?

• Post #3606501

  Fascinating paper on interspecies signals and cues for mutual cooperation https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000334722600148X?via%3Dihub

• Post #3554671

  Well actually this is one of the best policies advanced by Labour. Are you fit to keep a 🐇?! Bunnies suffer some of the worst neglect of all pets, their needs badly misunderstood. #radicalanthropologyrabbits #rabbitsofmastodon https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0vzwdkddeo

• Post #3507308

  Jack in fine form this morning 🌅 nice and cool, tucking into a special herb platter with English dill, best of all! #RadicalAnthropologyRabbits #rabbitsofmastodon

• Post #3428259

  Just realized it's #RabbitAwarenessWeek, and we've been very watchful of our boy Jack who's almost made it through the horrible London heatwave. He's nearly 99 years old in human time! Go Jack! #RadicalAnthropologyRabbits #RabbitsofMastodon

• Post #3399986

  'To achieve this, the authors envisage three steps: more than halving average working time from 2,100 hours a year to 1,000 hours, roughly equivalent to a two-and-a-half-day working week; encouraging people to eat less red meat, which is the main driver of deforestation and ecological destruction; and refocusing the economy toward low-consumption activities by more than doubling education spending to €8,400 (£7,250) a person and healthcare spending to €14,400.' https://www.theguardian.c...

• Post #2577973

  What the official story leaves out: the anti-genocide Jewish voices being written out of “the Jewish community.” They have been silenced, expelled from parties, and accused of antisemitism for opposing a genocide. https://www.youtube.com/live/r2OV2VFQCDE?si=1QnvH1TFLuh3Aewe

• Post #2577972

  Big sleep study in relation to health and ageing: 'A sweeping analysis of sleep duration and signs of ageing in half a million adults has pinpointed a sweet spot — about six to eight hours of sleep each day — that is linked to a lower risk of early death and disease.' (This is large-scale and does not necessarily tell you what's good for you, but it may be a good guide). https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01506-8

• Post #2465050

  Elephant cultural traditions and transmission -- very largely, not only, matrilineal 'When old elephants disappear from their communities,... so does their culture, the knowledge that is gained with age and transferred across generations. “They usually do survive when the elders are gone,” she says. “But many more nuanced aspects of their behavior may be lost.” This imperils not just elephants themselves, but also the animals and people they live alongside.' https://www.natio...

• Post #2277452

  A genius chimpanzee drummer called Toon. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/eth.70079?

• Post #2265921

  Interesting essay on the new role of palaeogenetics in understanding the peopling of India, in relation to the 19th.C history of linguistics, and 20th C developments in archaeology of the Indus Valley. Mixing and migrating of course is typical Homo sapiens. Lots to learn here on the historic work of Indian activists on the need for emancipation from the caste system. https://aeon.co/essays/ancient-india-was-shaped-by-waves-of-migration-and-mixing