Those spambots never sleep. My colleague in arms Luigi wrote a very nice blog post over at the other place about the genetic patterns among domestic cats the world over. Naturally he entitled it "Pussy galore". Just for a laugh, you understand. But I don't think either of us was fully prepared for...

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Not that I am in any position to judge, but it seems like another myth about Roman history has bitten the dust. The giant sundial known as the Horologium Augusti, out there by the Ara Pacis, is not a sundial at all. It’s a meridian. A what? Go read the whole post at Archaeoastronomy.

A book of essays is not ideal for a period of enforced idleness. There’s just too much time to zip through them, enjoying the moment but failing to savour the full pleasure of a really well constructed piece. Of course, I promise myself I’ll return, and maybe I will. But a honking big novel is a far...

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Language Log recently opened up comments on a post about the origins of a girl's name. One of the commenters wrote:

Comments are great. I also vote that you get Captcha/reCaptcha, because without comments a blog is...nothing.

How wrong can you be? On a blog with a smallish readership, I a...

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Classic, classic comeback from Neil Shubin to Stephen Colbert's question about why biologists want to believe we're descended from fish. Watch the whole video here.