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**Vulgarity in online discourse around the English-speaking world**

“_Australians might well be disheartened when they discover that they are not the top users of profanity among English-speaking countries. Their deep national attachment to the vernacular dates back to the original mix of slang, dialect and underworld jargon that gave rise to Australian English — fueled by anti-authoritarian sentiment, the colloquial part of the language expanded to become the feature that best distinguished the established citizen (or old chum) from the stranger (or new chum).”

Schweinberger, M. and Burridge, K. (2025) 'Vulgarity in online discourse around the English-speaking world,' Lingua, 321, p. 103946. doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2025..

@linguistics

📖 **Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ**

“_Despite this being the oldest description of Jesus written by a non-Christian, scholars have long doubted its authenticity due to the alleged pro-Christian claims it contains. The present book, however, authenticates Josephus’ authorship and then reveals a startling discovery._”

Schmidt, T C, Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ (Oxford, 2025; online edn, Oxford Academic, 5 May 2025), doi.org/10.1093/9780191957697., accessed 22 May 2025.

@bookstodon @religion

**From the Masthead to the Map: an Experimental and Digital Approach to Viking Age Seafaring Itineraries**

“_The results suggest that Viking Age seafaring networks along the Norwegian coast may have been more decentralised than their medieval counterparts, and may have relied on relatively outlying nodes on small islands and headlands._”

Jarrett, G. From the Masthead to the Map: an Experimental and Digital Approach to Viking Age Seafaring Itineraries. J Archaeol Method Theory 32, 42 (2025). doi.org/10.1007/s10816-025-097.

@archaeodons

**Generalization bias in large language model summarization of scientific research**

“_Our results indicate a strong bias in many widely used LLMs towards overgeneralizing scientific conclusions, posing a significant risk of large-scale misinterpretations of research findings._”

Peters Uwe and Chin-Yee Benjamin. 2025 Generalization bias in large language model summarization of scientific research. R. Soc. Open Sci.12: 241776. doi.org/10.1098/rsos.241776.

@ai @science

**Warming of +1.5 °C is too high for polar ice sheets**

“_Here we synthesise multiple lines of evidence to show that +1.5 °C is too high and that even current climate forcing (+1.2 °C), if sustained, is likely to generate several metres of sea-level rise over the coming centuries, causing extensive loss and damage to coastal populations and challenging the implementation of adaptation measures._”

Stokes, C.R., Bamber, J.L., Dutton, A. et al. Warming of +1.5 °C is too high for polar ice sheets. Commun Earth Environ 6, 351 (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-022.

@geography @climatechange

⚛ **Editorial: Ending nuclear weapons, before they end us**

“_Even a fraction of the current arsenal could decimate the biosphere in a severe mass extinction event. The global climate disruption caused by the smoke pouring from cities ignited by just 2% of the current arsenal could result in over two billion people starving._”

Abbasi K, Ali P, Barbour V, Birch M, Blum I, Doherty P et al. Ending nuclear weapons, before they end us BMJ 2025; 389 :r881 doi: doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r881

**Hidden Nazi past: Ole Ivar Lovaas during the German occupation of Norway**

“_According to previous accounts, Lovaas and his family were forced farm workers during the German occupation of Norway between 1940 and 1945, when Lovaas was 13–18 years old. This article shows that the Løvaas family were in fact members of the collaborationist fascist party Nasjonal Samling._”

Gjerde, Å. B. (2025). Hidden Nazi past: Ole Ivar Lovaas during the German occupation of Norway. History of the Human Sciences, 0(0). doi.org/10.1177/09526951251324.

@histodons

**Comparison of Large Language Model with Aphasia**

“_Large language models (LLMs) respond fluently but often inaccurately, which resembles aphasia in humans. Does this behavioral similarity indicate any resemblance in internal information processing between LLMs and aphasic humans?_”

T. Watanabe, K. Inoue, Y. Kuniyoshi, K. Nakajima, K. Aihara, Comparison of Large Language Model with Aphasia. Adv. Sci. 2025, 2414016. doi.org/10.1002/advs.202414016.

@ai

📖 **Medicine in the Medieval North Atlantic World: Vernacular Texts and Traditions**

“_The chapters in this interdisciplinary collection draw together new research from historians, literary scholars, and linguists working on Norse, English, and Celtic material in order to bring fresh insights into the multilingual and cross-cultural nature of medical learning in northern Europe during the Middle Ages, c. 700–1600._”

🔗 brepolsonline.net/action/showB

@bookstodon @medievodons

**Narcissism and Affective Polarization**

“_We argue that the personality trait of narcissism (entitled self-importance) is an important correlate of affective polarization. We test this claim in Britain using nationally representative survey data, examining both long-standing party identities and new Brexit identities. Our findings reveal that narcissism, and particularly the ‘rivalry’ aspect of narcissism, is associated with both positive and negative partisanship._”

Tilley, J., Hobolt, S. Narcissism and Affective Polarization. Polit Behav 47, 599–618 (2025). doi.org/10.1007/s11109-024-099.

💻 **Evidence of a social evaluation penalty for using AI**

“_Through four experiments with over 4,400 participants, we reveal a social penalty for AI use: Individuals who use AI tools face negative judgments about their competence and motivation from others._”

J.A. Reif, R.P. Larrick, & J.B. Soll, Evidence of a social evaluation penalty for using AI, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 122 (19) e2426766122, doi.org/10.1073/pnas.242676612 (2025).

@ai

**Why humans evolved blue eyes**

“_And here comes the mystery: for no evident reason, and in an evolutionary time span as short as a few thousand years, the number of people with blue eyes proceeded to expand from one to millions._”

Bressan P (2025) Why humans evolved blue eyes. Front. Psychol. 16:1442500. doi: doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.144.

@psychology

**High-income groups disproportionately contribute to climate extremes worldwide**

“_Here we show how GHG emissions from consumption and investments attributable to the wealthiest population groups have disproportionately influenced present-day climate change._”

Schöngart, S., Nicholls, Z., Hoffmann, R. et al. High-income groups disproportionately contribute to climate extremes worldwide. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-023.

@climatechange @science

**From Land's End to the Levant: did Britain's tin sources transform the Bronze Age in Europe and the Mediterranean?**

“_Results from the shipwrecks near Israel strongly suggest that the ‘bronzization’ of the East Mediterranean, occurring 1500–1300 BC, was primarily driven by European tin sources, particularly from south-west Britain, rather than Central Asian sources. Tin ore finds from settlements across Cornwall and Devon suggest a decentralised production model in prehistory, with agriculture still dominant alongside numerous small alluvial tin workings._”

Williams, R.A. et al. (2025) ‘From Land’s End to the Levant: did Britain’s tin sources transform the Bronze Age in Europe and the Mediterranean?’, Antiquity, pp. 1–19. doi: doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.41.

@archaeodons

📖 **How Republics Die: Creeping Authoritarianism in Ancient Rome and Beyond**

"_This book gathers together Roman historians with political scientists and scholars of other periods of authoritarian takeover to explore how open and democratic political systems have historically fallen prey to autocrats._"

🔗 doi.org/10.1515/9783111705446.

@politicalscience @histodons

**A Hyper-Catalan Series Solution to Polynomial Equations, and the Geode**

“_....the hyper-Catalan numbers 𝐶𝐦 count the number of subdivisions of a polygon into a given number of triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, etc. (its type 𝐦), and we show that their generating series solves a polynomial equation of a particular geometric form. This solution is straightforwardly extended to solve the general univariate polynomial equation._”

Wildberger, N. J. and Rubine, D. (2025) ‘A Hyper-Catalan Series Solution to Polynomial Equations, and the Geode’, The American Mathematical Monthly, pp. 1–20. doi: doi.org/10.1080/00029890.2025..

**Threshold fertility for the avoidance of extinction under critical conditions**

“_The results indicate that the fertility rate should exceed 2.7 to avoid extinction. The extinction threshold is reduced by a female-biased sex ratio. We argue that the present results explain the observed phenomena of female-biased births under severe conditions as an effective way to avoid extinction._”

Cuaresma DCN, Ito H, Arima H, Yoshimura J, Morita S, et al. (2025) Threshold fertility for the avoidance of extinction under critical conditions. PLOS ONE 20(4): e0322174. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti.

@anthropology

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 **At the far end of everything: A likely Ahrensburgian presence in the far north of the Isle of Skye, Scotland**

“_ he people who made these artefacts originated in the mainland of northwest Europe, crossed Doggerland into what is now Britain, and eventually reached the far north of the Isle of Skye. Here, they adapted to live in a fragmented, fluctuating, and volatile environment amid melting glaciers, mountains, and oceans—vastly different from the low-lying environments of their homelands on the northwestern edge of the Great European Plain._”

Hardy, K., Barlow, N.L.M., Taylor, E., Bradley, S.L., McCarthy, J. and Rush, G. (2025), At the far end of everything: A likely Ahrensburgian presence in the far north of the Isle of Skye, Scotland. J. Quaternary Sci. doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3718.

@archaeodons

**Profiling misinformation susceptibility**

"_Multilevel modelling showed that Generation Z, non-male, less educated, and more conservative individuals were more vulnerable to misinformation._"

Kyrychenko, Y. et al. (2025) 'Profiling misinformation susceptibility,' Personality and Individual Differences, 241, p. 113177. doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2025.11.

@psychology

🇬🇧 🇮🇳 **Company-State at Home: The East India Company and the Fiscal System in Eighteenth-Century Britain**

“_This article shows that fiscal capacity was not created only by government bureaucracies: the ‘company-state at home’ model presented here complements the narrative of the ‘fiscal-military state’ by showing that much fiscal revenue from trade was realized through the action of the English East India Company (EIC). Lacking the capacity to enact exhaustive laws, carry out complex calculations, or effectively manage a large bureaucracy, the English state relied on the administrative capacity of the EIC to collect customs on the East Indies trade._”

Karolina Hutková, Ernesto Dal Bó, Lukas Leucht, Noam Yuchtman, Company-State at Home: The East India Company and the Fiscal System in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Past & Present, 2025;, gtaf009, doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtaf009.

@histodon @histodons

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