Andrew Curry's avatar

Andrew Curry

@spoke32.bsky.social

545 followers 528 following 151 posts

Journalist covering archaeology, science, culture, politics, business, and cycling. When not on my bike I'm found most often in Science, National Geographic & Archaeology these days. WahlBerliner. More at andrewcurry.com

Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Thanks!

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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A tiny ear bone shows a Neanderthal child 140,000+ years ago lived with #DownSyndrome for years, supported by their prehistoric kin. It's the oldest known case of the chromosomal disorder–and powerful evidence for care in the past. www.science.org/content/arti...

4 replies 48 reposts 138 likes

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Dr. Jens Foell's avatar Dr. Jens Foell @fmriguy.bsky.social
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Imagine having to teach your little kids field medicine just because a loud minority in your country is unable to read a full sentence in the constitution and for some reason everyone acts like their fantasy version of it needs to be the law of the land

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Dr Susan Greaney's avatar Dr Susan Greaney @suegreaney.bsky.social
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Amazing insights from aDNA analysis:

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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A grave pit in central France reveals the moment two ancient populations met – and mingled. Bones reveal real-time evidence of steppe ancestry arriving in France in a family tomb from 4,500 years ago: www.science.org/content/arti...

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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DNA from dozens of sacrificed children at the ancient city of Chichen Itza showed they were all male, connecting the ritual killings to a Mayan creation myth: www.science.org/content/arti... The results also connect modern Mayan communities in the region to their distant ancestors.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Can't speak for all disciplines but as a journalist I approach archaeology papers in Scientific Reports with extreme prejudice.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Me: Want some noodles? I'm about to make myself some. 10-y-old: No, I'm not hungry *10 minutes later* 10-y-old: Are there any more noodles? I'm super hungry. Me: No, you said you weren't hungry. 10-y-old: THAT WAS 10 MINUTES AGO!

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Early Celtic rulers didn't pass power on to their sons. It went to their sisters' sons instead, a rare form of social organization called avuncular matrilineality. Oh, and they were super tall and rich, too. www.science.org/content/arti...

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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There are other really cool events later in the year, although none as large -- in the fall there is a "Lichterfahrt" night ride that is a blast, for example.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Best part of the @adfcberlin.bsky.social #Sternfahrt each year is seeing thousands of cyclists quietly happily claiming their space in the city. (And for a few short hours, enjoying the Autobahn.)

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Last night watching German kids' TV I learned that in some part of the country "I have pee in my eyes" ("Ich habe Pipi in den Augen") is slang for "I have tears in my eyes," which is ... weird.

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Jon Connorton's avatar Jon Connorton @jonboyjon.bsky.social
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FT going for it today.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Strong early contender for favorite out-of-office of 2024: "I will be working in the Mongolian Gobi Desert and out of e-mail contact for June, July and August and will reply to your message when I return at the end of summer."

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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The pagan Balts were obsessed with horses -- in a way modern horse lovers would find utterly horrifying. A new study shows how their practice of horse sacrifice continued into the Viking Age and beyond: www.science.org/content/arti...

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David M. Perry's avatar David M. Perry @lollardfish.bsky.social
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2002: kinda creepy that everything we put on the internet is there forever 2024: i wish i could read anything I wrote before 2015 3024: we call the period from 1900-2100 “the dark ages” as paper had acid in it and later they trusted their writing to something called a cloud. Very little is known.

54 replies 869 reposts 2195 likes

Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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"Germany's raison d'etat means standing up for the security of the State of Israel. It also means doing our utmost to ensure that Israel does not lose itself in this war." -- German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/newsroom/...

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Imagine taking on a bear 3 meters tall, armed with nothing more than a wooden spear. Analyzing cave bear bones, researchers concluded ursus spelaeus was tasty enough for our distant ancestors to risk it: www.science.org/content/arti...

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Well into my 5th decade and I am still learning new words, like "extispicy"

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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“If you want to see climate change impacts in front of your face, come to Petra.” A new National Geographic Society project is helping communities save heritage sites threatened by climate change–including Jordan's iconic desert ruins: www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/arti...

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Nails Nathan's avatar Nails Nathan @chadstanton.bsky.social
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Someone brought up the way these same forces stood around outside during a mass shooting in Uvalde and if that really doesn’t say it all I don’t know what does.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Using DNA to analyze kinship, researchers can reconstruct family trees, social practices, and even local politics. A new paper looks at 1,500-year-old cemeteries in Hungary to show just how informative the "whole cemetery" approach can be: www.science.org/content/arti...

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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That's one way to help the pound maintain some value over the next decade

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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I spent some time in the north of England for work a few weeks ago, and left confident that there are better ways to spend this money.

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Lydia Polgreen's avatar Lydia Polgreen @polgreen.bsky.social
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I find hypocrisy to be a very boring accusation - hypocrisy is the human condition! But it is hard not to be impressed by the swiftness with which some free speech warriors/snowflake scolders have switched sides.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Sometimes translating German --> English feels like the mental equivalent of untangling knotted string.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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I got out of Berlin to do some journalism today and look what I found! (With typical German creativity, gummy bear inventor Hans Riegel named the company after himself: HAns RIegel, BOnn)

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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How much can you say about violence in the past based on bones alone? It depends: a team of French researchers suggest a series of Neolithic burials were ritual murders, done in a way that gives me the shivers and has echoes in Mafia executions. Others say they're pushing the evidence too far.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Man, order mushy peas in a UK pub and it's just as described.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Not his best work to be fair

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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In a new book, historians and archaeologists argue Napoleonic-era soldiers were victimized twice: Once by cannon fire, & again by 19th century industrialization, when battlefield graves #Waterloo & elsewhere were plundered to process sugar. The practice was probably much more widespread:

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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One of the points the authors made was that finding lots of smaller hunting weapons suggests hunting wasn't just an adult male activity. Whether the reverse was true is harder to say!

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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They reconstructed it after the excavations, which you obviously couldn't do with Stonehenge. It gives you a sense of the henge as a performance space for thousands, rather than the movie version of a few druids among the stones in the mist. Here are aerial photos:

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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There is actually a Woodhenge in Germany! It's the exact size and layout of Stonehenge and built roughly at the same time but with a different orientation (Imbolc/Beltane/Halloween vs the equinoxes). All that's left is soil discoloration from the tree trunks they used, plus some human sacrifices.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Dude next to me on a Ryanair flight today ordered the in-flight gluten free vegan lasagna and ate it with surprisingly real enthusiasm, scraping up every last drop of sauce. THEN he checked the packaging. They had mistakenly served him the wheat & meat version. He was, understandably, quite upset.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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A close look at 300,000-year-old pieces of wood shows early Neanderthals were careful planners and skilled woodworkers. “The whole idea of a Stone Age might be wrong,” says co-author Dirk Leder. “Maybe we should be talking about a Wood Age.” www.science.org/content/arti... 🏺🪵🪓

4 replies 45 reposts 149 likes

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Reposted by Andrew Curry

Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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I generally find football / soccer painfully boring, not to mention hopelessly corrupt, but between the lovely Germany jersey and now England's cool little flag maybe I will watch a bit of the Euro Championships this summer after all.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Let's be honest: It can be a HUGE chore if you haven't done it in a while, or at all. But then once you get up to date it's really minimal work to keep up with.

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Andrew Curry's avatar Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social
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Only because I got in the (very 20th century) habit of physically clipping stories and filing them in binders do I now have access to tens of thousands of my words. #RIPDiabetesForecast #saveyourclips

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