Reposted by PonderStibbons
1/ Studying 19th Century France, you quickly learn that many people think "Les Misérables" is set in the French Revolution. (It's not.)
For @today.yougov.com, I polled Americans about when they think it's set.
Lots of Not Sures. But 2/3 of those with an opinion say it IS in the French Revolution:
For @today.yougov.com, I polled Americans about when they think it's set.
Lots of Not Sures. But 2/3 of those with an opinion say it IS in the French Revolution:
![A stacked bar chart of YouGov polling data with the headline: "Many Americans — including those who read it — wrongly say Les Misérables is set during the French Revolution."
The chart has the sub-headline: "As far as you know, are the following books set during the French Revolution? [Les Misérables by Victor Hugo] (%)See the data as a share of respondents with an opinion about each book.."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3pbwguskoq5efzi67w3npq2z/bafkreih4bmsinu2x2vaouet3odbwkpm2mrum4dm2rjpkfvktpdkm2rijiu@jpeg)
December 2, 2025 at 4:10 PM
1/ Studying 19th Century France, you quickly learn that many people think "Les Misérables" is set in the French Revolution. (It's not.)
For @today.yougov.com, I polled Americans about when they think it's set.
Lots of Not Sures. But 2/3 of those with an opinion say it IS in the French Revolution:
For @today.yougov.com, I polled Americans about when they think it's set.
Lots of Not Sures. But 2/3 of those with an opinion say it IS in the French Revolution:
Reposted by PonderStibbons
From the Far Side collection
December 1, 2025 at 9:58 AM
From the Far Side collection
Reposted by PonderStibbons
18 asteroids passed closer than the Moon in November. And every one of them was discovered this month. #Astronomy
November 29, 2025 at 11:58 PM
18 asteroids passed closer than the Moon in November. And every one of them was discovered this month. #Astronomy
Great Wolf lodge is the best demonstration of how parenting has changed. No adult would willingly go there unless they were insane. My parents wouldn’t have brought us here for any reason ever. But here I am, in hell but my children are in heaven.
November 29, 2025 at 8:59 PM
Great Wolf lodge is the best demonstration of how parenting has changed. No adult would willingly go there unless they were insane. My parents wouldn’t have brought us here for any reason ever. But here I am, in hell but my children are in heaven.
Reposted by PonderStibbons
incredible quote lol
November 28, 2025 at 8:21 PM
incredible quote lol
Reposted by PonderStibbons
Scientists found tryptophan, the ‘sleepy’ amino acid, in an asteroid — Here’s what it means | Click on the image to read the full story
Scientists found tryptophan, the ‘sleepy’ amino acid, in an asteroid — Here’s what it means
Tryptophan, the essential amino acid behind the Thanksgiving myth that eating turkey can make you sleepy, has been found to exist on Bennu, a small asteroid that swings by our planet about every six years.
www.wcvb.com
November 28, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Scientists found tryptophan, the ‘sleepy’ amino acid, in an asteroid — Here’s what it means | Click on the image to read the full story
Reposted by PonderStibbons
Some good football today
November 28, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Some good football today
Reposted by PonderStibbons
Australia recorded ZERO cases of cervical cancer in women under 25 for the first time since they started tracking the cancer in the 80s.
This is the power of vaccines.
The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer.
Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!
This is the power of vaccines.
The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer.
Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!
newsGP - Australia set for world-first cervical cancer elimination
Vaccination programs have played a key role, and GPs remain ‘instrumental’ in boosting screening rates to reach the 2035 target.
www1.racgp.org.au
November 27, 2025 at 3:45 AM
Australia recorded ZERO cases of cervical cancer in women under 25 for the first time since they started tracking the cancer in the 80s.
This is the power of vaccines.
The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer.
Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!
This is the power of vaccines.
The HPV vaccine is extremely effective at preventing cancer.
Viruses can be oncogenic. Get your vaccines and protect yourself!
Reposted by PonderStibbons
Site in Kenya reveals 300,000 years of uninterrupted toolmaking. Archaeologists uncovered nearly 1,300 stone tools spanning 2.44 to 2.75 million years, showing that early hominins taught and replicated the same techniques across roughly 10,000 generations. buff.ly/zQvktxJ
#ShareGoodNewsToo
#ShareGoodNewsToo
Advanced 2.5 Million-Year-Old Tools May Rewrite Human History
Early humans crafted the same tools for hundreds of thousands of years, offering an unprecedented glimpse of a continuous tradition that may push back the origins of technology.
buff.ly
November 26, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Site in Kenya reveals 300,000 years of uninterrupted toolmaking. Archaeologists uncovered nearly 1,300 stone tools spanning 2.44 to 2.75 million years, showing that early hominins taught and replicated the same techniques across roughly 10,000 generations. buff.ly/zQvktxJ
#ShareGoodNewsToo
#ShareGoodNewsToo
Apparently all the Leif Erikson-related memorials around Boston are one 19th century fan's viral campaign to promote the idea that he really did settle here for a while (he didn't)
www.atlasobscura.com/places/leif-...
www.atlasobscura.com/places/leif-...
Leif Erikson Plaque
An engraved granite slab claims to mark the location where Leif Erikson built his house in the year 1000.
www.atlasobscura.com
November 25, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Apparently all the Leif Erikson-related memorials around Boston are one 19th century fan's viral campaign to promote the idea that he really did settle here for a while (he didn't)
www.atlasobscura.com/places/leif-...
www.atlasobscura.com/places/leif-...
Reposted by PonderStibbons
Newsletter: Crypto’s latest “infinite money machine” is the digital asset treasury company — a publicly traded firm that exists primarily to accumulate crypto. For a while, these stocks traded at hefty premiums to the underlying assets. But now, the trade is unraveling.
Digital asset treasury companies are running out of steam
Convincing traders to pay $2 for $1 of bitcoin worked — for a while. As premiums evaporate, an unwind could be painful.
www.citationneeded.news
November 25, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Newsletter: Crypto’s latest “infinite money machine” is the digital asset treasury company — a publicly traded firm that exists primarily to accumulate crypto. For a while, these stocks traded at hefty premiums to the underlying assets. But now, the trade is unraveling.
Reposted by PonderStibbons
Fifteen Years
xkcd.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:09 PM
"Access to cash" legislation is the boomeriest thing imaginable. 75% of all transactions in Ireland are currently digital. Up 10% in the last 3 years. This is such a waste.
www.thejournal.ie/access-to-ca...
www.thejournal.ie/access-to-ca...
'Access to cash’ legislation to come into force later this week
The new law requires that an ATM is located within 10km of the majority of homes and businesses.
www.thejournal.ie
November 24, 2025 at 7:54 PM
"Access to cash" legislation is the boomeriest thing imaginable. 75% of all transactions in Ireland are currently digital. Up 10% in the last 3 years. This is such a waste.
www.thejournal.ie/access-to-ca...
www.thejournal.ie/access-to-ca...
The toxic combination of stubbornness, NIMBY politics and rural snobbery leading to a bridge being built that serves absolutely no purpose. Incredible.
martinrobbins.substack.com/p/how-hs2-bu...
martinrobbins.substack.com/p/how-hs2-bu...
How HS2 built a bridge to nowhere
A state-of-the-art road bridge has been built deep in the heart of rural Buckinghamshire. Designed to carry traffic over the HS2 railway, there's just one tiny problem - there's no actual road.
martinrobbins.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:25 PM
The toxic combination of stubbornness, NIMBY politics and rural snobbery leading to a bridge being built that serves absolutely no purpose. Incredible.
martinrobbins.substack.com/p/how-hs2-bu...
martinrobbins.substack.com/p/how-hs2-bu...
Reposted by PonderStibbons
like all of this, as an explainer. but also the last paragraph
"The AI industry’s most important product at this moment is not a chatbot or a video generator; it’s the story the AI industry is telling about itself"
www.theringer.com/2025/11/04/t... #AI
www.theringer.com/2025/11/04/t... #AI
How Catastrophic Is It If the AI Bubble Bursts? An FAQ.
The AI industry's most important product is not a chatbot or a video generator; it's the story the AI industry is telling about itself
www.theringer.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:11 PM
like all of this, as an explainer. but also the last paragraph
Incredible photo - the fall of Icarus by Andrew McCarthy www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMwJCuUH/
Is this the greatest photograph ever taken? #photography #astrophotography
TikTok video by news_eye
www.tiktok.com
November 15, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Incredible photo - the fall of Icarus by Andrew McCarthy www.tiktok.com/t/ZTMwJCuUH/
This is the most fun I have had watching Irish soccer in 20 years.
November 13, 2025 at 9:30 PM
This is the most fun I have had watching Irish soccer in 20 years.
The Indian perspective on Indian call center scams. Turns out they are exploiting their fellow citizens just as much as they are people in the US and Europe.
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
The Scammer Next Door — The Dial
In India, an era of glaring inequality is also a golden age of graft.
www.thedial.world
November 13, 2025 at 2:42 PM
The Indian perspective on Indian call center scams. Turns out they are exploiting their fellow citizens just as much as they are people in the US and Europe.
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
www.thedial.world/articles/new...
Incredible what we’ve learned about ATLAS already. Apparently the outer layer has been irradiated and changed by cosmic radiation so it will be more difficult to draw inferences about its place of origin from the outgassing of the surface.
www.iflscience.com/interstellar...
www.iflscience.com/interstellar...
Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Shows Evidence Of "Galactic Cosmic Ray" Processing. That's Not Great News
A new study has an explanation for the unusual chemical makeup of our interstellar visitor. If true, it's not the best news we've ever heard.
www.iflscience.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Incredible what we’ve learned about ATLAS already. Apparently the outer layer has been irradiated and changed by cosmic radiation so it will be more difficult to draw inferences about its place of origin from the outgassing of the surface.
www.iflscience.com/interstellar...
www.iflscience.com/interstellar...
Reposted by PonderStibbons
#nephsky
Organ donation and subsequent hydroceles
Organ donation and subsequent hydroceles
NEW: 1 in 8 men undergo scrotal surgery 20 years after kidney donation, underscoring the need for increased patient education about the risks and symptoms to monitor after donation. https://f.mtr.cool/xpxelntcyw
November 11, 2025 at 9:20 PM
#nephsky
Organ donation and subsequent hydroceles
Organ donation and subsequent hydroceles