Anyone else forswunk?
[exhausted from work, heat, lack of sleep, etc.]
It’s a gorgeous word from the 1300s, to which I have added my own riff with ‘foreswunk’: exhausted before you even begin.
– Susie Dent
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I think everyone feels forswunk now, so here is this week’s collection to enjoy!
Good posts
Vancouver street art
#streetart
#Giants
#Vancouver
#Granvilleisland
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— ilovedogs2024.bsky.social (@ilovedogs2024.bsky.social) July 5, 2026 at 10:03 PM
The most uplifting architectural revival happening today is in Budapest.
Budapest is erasing the brutalist blight from its communist past. This building at Kossuth Square has been restored according to its original plans from the 1920s. Many such examples around the city.
– Beauty Matters
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The Bayeux Tapestry is going on display for a year at the British Museum
How do writers inspire themselves to write?
Some good comments on language
did you know that the English words druid, trust, truth, betroth, and truce all share a root word with “tree”?
this reflects the longstanding spiritual and symbolic significance of trees in European culture
– weird medieval guys
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English is such a possessive language, which I only realized after studying Scottish Gaelic in university.
My maternal family were Scottish Highlanders who immigrated to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia a few generations back. They brought their language with them, and studying it felt like an important task of remembrance and reverence. But it also completely reshaped my worldview.
For example:
In Gaelic the sense of ownership over things and people that we see in many Western European languages/cultures does not exist. The land is seen as a living being and words have gender because the world is animate, imbued with spirits and life forces in rivers and mountains.
In Gaelic you don’t say “Mary has a child,” you say “There is a child at Mary,” and this connotation implies that Mary does not possess or own the child, but that they are related.
In much the same way, you wouldn’t say that you “own” land. There is a beautiful concept called Dùthchas, which stresses the interconnectedness of people, land, culture, including an ecological balance among humans and more than human. We “steward” the land that nourishes us.
Even creativity has an inherent liveliness. Imbas is the Gaelic word for inspiration, but it carries an otherworldly or divine element to it. Many feel that it runs in the blood of families through generations and has been the root essence of divine creativity for poets, musicians, and artists throughout Celtic history.
Gaelic defines the world as a relationship, while English seems more adept at defining the world as ownership and separation. I think about this a lot.
– Ashely L. Crouch
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Paper-making in Xuan
Roman dodecahedron
Speaking of maps, here’s one showing areas where people can farm in 75 years. And where we can’t:
Amazing
🔥🐛This is the BAGWORM – The Master Builder of the Insect World! ✨😲
Found across forests, gardens and wooded areas worldwide, the bagworm is a caterpillar famous for its incredible self-made shelter.
It weaves silk and sticks tiny twigs, bark, and plant bits together to build a tough, portable case that perfectly blends into its surroundings.
It carries this protective “bag” everywhere it goes, retreating fully inside when sensing danger or bad weather.
✨ Did you know: Once mature, it seals the case shut to pupate, and later emerges as a moth — while females never even leave their bag!
We share fascinating science content, feel free to join us for more.
– Science Is Fun
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Some posts about dealing with energy, environmental and climate issues:
Scientists built a solar reactor that eats plastic bottles and burps out clean hydrogen at scale
Cambridge Uni made the device with simple materials using a paint sprayer—offering a possible dual fix for plastic pollution and dirty hydrogen production
www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2026/07/scie…
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— Go Green (@ecowarriorss.bsky.social) July 5, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Microplastics are one of the hardest things to remove from water, tiny, everywhere, and traditional filters are expensive and constantly need replacing. Then an 18-year-old came at the problem from a completely different angle.
Mia Heller, a student from Warrenton, Virginia, invented a prototype filtration system that removes roughly 96% of microplastics from drinking water. She was motivated by local reports of PFAS and microplastic contamination, and by watching her mother constantly replace expensive, high-maintenance filter membranes, which pushed her to find a membrane-free solution. Instead of a traditional physical barrier, her device uses a magnetic liquid called ferrofluid: this magnetic oil binds to microplastic particles, which are then pulled out of the flowing water using a magnetic field. Cleverly, the system recycles about 87% of the ferrofluid, making it low-waste and cost-effective. It’s currently a prototype that filters about one liter at a time, but she envisions it one day becoming an affordable, under-the-sink home system.
The timing matters. Microplastic pollution grows worse every year, and researchers have now found these particles throughout the human body, in blood, lungs, and more, and because our bodies don’t clear them well, they accumulate, which is exactly why their effects are being studied so closely. A teenager looked at a problem experts were stuck on and found a genuinely new way through it. That’s the kind of story worth sharing.
Source: Neurolab (Facebook)
– Science Is Fun
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This is a really impressive thing to see! Top marks for lateral thinking, Switzerland.
Also, the writer of the headline for this piece clearly had drunk way too much coffee that day and thought they could get away with it. They were wrong.
https://www.ecoportal.net/en/switzerland-5000-alpine-solar-muttsee-dam-winter-power/28487/
– Mike Sowden
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We are forced to exist in a world where the same people who believe a man built a boat big enough for every animal don’t believe in climate science because it’s “unproven.”
— 𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 (@sundaedivine.lol) July 10, 2026 at 7:53 PM
Its like having pockets in a skirt
Funny posts
Our modern world…
How much more do we have to spend to get this guy home?
– Konstantin Asimonov
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Congratulations to the newlyweds!
I declined to attend the wedding for a variety of personal reasons, but mainly because I wasn’t invited.
💒
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— Mark Hamill (@markhamillofficial.bsky.social) July 5, 2026 at 8:48 AM
More “Fuck-Off!” moments
Count Binface
@greater.london.maps Vote Count Binface to move the Hand Dryer in the Crown & Treaty Pub #countbinface #clactonbyelection #ukpolitics #farage #viral ♬ original sound – VOTE BINFACE
Explaining physics
– Nikki Attree
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Today in “Christ, What An Asshole” – this is a new category for my posts, but I will have no problem finding examples to share
Canada I present to you a senior editor and columnist at National Post …..
– Cole Bennett
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Ouch!
– Canadian Returnee
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Carolina Hurricanes owner puts his entire family’s names on Stanley Cup over organization members www.sbnation.com/nhl/1122058/…
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— SB Nation (@sbnation.bsky.social) July 9, 2026 at 7:29 AM
Carney Hat Trick – posts about our PM
PM Carney to Norwegian PM: “Interoperability also means sharing crews. And in the next World Cup, if you could share Erling Haaland with us, that would be greatly, greatly appreciated.”
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— Scott Robertson (@sarobertson.bsky.social) July 7, 2026 at 11:38 AM
And I have no idea whether this would be a good economic move for Carney to do or not, but sounds good to me…
TrumpWatch – posts about the world’s most anticipated event
And on a side note today, US Senator and Trump ally Lindsay Graham has died, I don’t know why except #ETTD. The internet also examined the evidence and concluded that another US Senator and Trump ally, Mitch McConnell, is also dead.
Animal Crackers
Two year anniversary of when I first posted this comic
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— beetle moses (@beetlemoses.bsky.social) July 10, 2026 at 5:24 AM
Horse 🐴 playing with pups
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— ContempraInn 🌹 (@contemprainn.bsky.social) July 6, 2026 at 10:56 AM
This is Oreo. He will eventually eat the blueberry. But first he must establish dominance over it. 12/10 (TT: oreominibernedoodle)
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— WeRateDogs (@weratedogs.com) July 9, 2026 at 11:14 AM
Great piece here about how your cat shows it loves you:
… Cats do not love the way we expect them to. They do not perform love for approval or treats. They love quietly. They love on their own terms. And when they finally decide that you are worthy, they show it in small ways. A blink. A belly. A dead mouse at the door.
If your cat does these things, even some of them, you have earned something rare. You have earned the trust of an animal who remembers what it means to be wild. That is not nothing. That is a small miracle happening in your home every single day.
Finally, here is a poem from the cat:
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