reallykindasorta

Sound on for important commentary from the videographer

For many links a picture is automatically displayed in the preview. I’m curious if there’s a way to add an image for links that don’t generate one?

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/34373074

Idealist.org 'in person' initiative

Idealist is primarily a job/volunteer list but they have been working to find ways to encourage people to organize and get out and do meaningful in-person work together on days like 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, etc.

They have been organizing zoom calls to try to brainstorm how to encourage people to participate. You can read or watch the presentation for the general premise of the project at the linked site.

Here’s an email from today:

Check it out if you're interested!

In the study, an international research team led by Professor Cosimo Posth at the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment at the University of Tübingen traced the dramatic genetic history of European Neanderthals. Researchers already had indications that Europe's widespread earlier Neanderthal populations had largely disappeared.

The new study indicates that one localized group had survived the harsh conditions by retreating to a climate refuge some 75,000 years ago in what is now southwestern France—and that the descendants of these survivors spread across Europe after 65,000 years ago. Genetically, almost all Late Neanderthals descended from this one lineage.

Posth and his team also found that these Neanderthals later suffered a sharp decline in population around 45,000 years ago. This fall in numbers was rapid, reaching a minimum around 42,000 years ago—shortly before the Neanderthals became extinct altogether. The study has been published in the journal PNAS.

Genetically, Neanderthals can be clearly distinguished from modern humans, Homo sapiens, who replaced Neanderthals by around 40,000 years ago. "We have evidence that Neanderthals inhabited Europe continuously between 400,000 and 40,000 years ago. However, we have only fragmentary details of their population history," says Posth.

"So far, we know very little about the evolutionary developments that preceded their extinction." He and his research team were therefore particularly interested in the Late Neanderthals, who lived between about 60,000 and 40,000 years ago.

A new study reveals that farming in Argentina’s Uspallata Valley was adopted by local hunter-gatherers rather than introduced by outside populations. Centuries later, a stressed group of maize-heavy farmers migrated into the region, facing climate instability, disease, and declining numbers. Despite these pressures, there’s no sign of violence—instead, families stayed connected across generations, using kinship networks to survive. The research shows how cooperation, not conflict, helped communities navigate crisis.

Study

Intro:

In a major advance in genetics, scientists at Northwestern University have uncovered what researchers describe as a hidden second layer of human DNA. By mapping how the genome folds and shifts inside living cells, the team has revealed how the physical structure of DNA helps control gene activity.

The research, conducted with the 4D Nucleome Project and published in Nature, offers a new understanding of how genetic instructions operate beyond the DNA sequence itself.

Conclusion & research article link:

By linking DNA folding, chromatin loops, and gene regulation, the study provides a more complete picture of how genetic instructions function inside cells. Scientists report that this new perspective could lead to improved diagnostic tools and more precise therapies based on genomic structure.

The findings mark an important step toward understanding how this hidden second layer of DNA influences human health and disease.

Intro:

A newly detailed archaeological record from the United Arab Emirates is reshaping what researchers know about early human settlement in Arabia, showing that people returned to the region again and again over tens of thousands of years, including as far back as about 125,000 years ago.

The study, led by K. Bretzke of the University of Tübingen in Germany and published in “Nature Communications,” centers on Buhais Rockshelter in Sharjah.

Researchers found clear evidence of human occupation at roughly 125,000, 59,000, 35,000, and 16,000 years ago. The findings suggest southern Arabia was not as empty during key stretches of prehistory as many scholars had believed.

intro:

In 1066, England was invaded by multiple foreign powers. A northern force led by King Harald Hardrada of Norway advanced on York via the River Humber, while a southern force, led by Duke William of Normandy (later William I the Conqueror) crossed the Channel with forces from Normandy, France, Brittany and Ponthieu, and took up position at Hastings.

King Harold of England had to dash up from London to deal with the Vikings, only to hurry back south again to deal with William. A distance of more than 250 miles separated his victory at Stamford Bridge (on September 25) from Battle, the site of his defeat (on October 14) at the Battle of Hastings.

His "almost miraculous" march, as one historian described it, became part of Harold's legend. It's now taught in schools, recreated by re-enactors and depicted in TV dramas such as the recent BBC miniseries, King and Conqueror (2025)…

Spoiler for the lazy:

An Egyptian archaeological mission has completed the restoration and reassembly of a major gate built by KingRamesses III at the Karnak temple complex, bringing renewed attention to one of Egypt’s most important ancient sites.

The project focused on the northern gateway of Ramesses III’s enclosure wall, located in the northwestern sector of Karnak. Work was carried out between 2022 and 2025 by the Franco-Egyptian Center for the Study of Karnak Temples (CFEETK), in cooperation with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and the French National Centre for Scientific Research.

Archaeologists dismantled, conserved, and reassembled the structure using a detailed scientific approach. The lower part of the gate had first been identified in the 19th century, in poor condition and hidden under vegetation. Recent restoration has allowed researchers to recover its original form and better understand its role within the temple complex.

A paper published in the journal Quaternary International reveals a distinctive technological behavior at level TD10.2-BB of Gran Dolina (Atapuerca, Burgos), characterized by the almost exclusive use of local chert and linked to one of the earliest pieces of evidence of communal hunting in the human evolutionary record, dated to around 400,000 years ago.

The research, led by Andion Arteaga Brieba, a researcher at The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), in collaboration with IPHES and the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona), focuses on this level of the Atapuerca site, where an intensive occupation associated with bison hunting and processing has been documented.

"Level TD10.2-BB of Gran Dolina represents the earliest evidence of communal hunting in the human evolutionary record. The archaeological assemblage contains the remains of the slaughter and processing of more than 60 bison, documenting an organized hunting activity that required complex strategies and large-scale group coordination," explains Arteaga-Brieba.

Associated with these faunal remains, the team has analyzed more than 10,000 lithic artifacts, identifying a clear preference for the use of local chert, which accounts for almost 99% of the assemblage.

This behavior has no parallels with other Pleistocene sites in the Sierra de Atapuerca, where a greater diversity of raw materials is typically observed.

This grows near my house, I’d appreciate any tips for successfully gathering some for use in a terrarium!