Michael Haslam
@twigtechnology.bsky.social
Aussie archaeologist, PhD, obsessed with tool-using animals. Steward at Skara Brae, Orkney || http://twig.technology || writing a book on intelligence with @abigaildesmond.bsky.social for Harvard Uni Press (2027) 🐒🦦🐙🐦⬛🐝🕷️🦧🐴🐠🪲🦜🐿️🐋🦀
Excited to share our new paper in Proc. R. Soc. B! 🐒🪨 We found that wild capuchin monkeys prioritize "social cues" (signs of previous use) over raw material quality when choosing nut-cracking tools. A big step in understanding cultural evolution in primates. #AnimalBehavior #primatology
I love child-inclusive archaeology so much. It *seems* obvious that kids would have directly or indirectly affected a lot of the material past we look at but it really has taken a sea change of feminist practice for anyone to even ask the questions!
Dr. Abigail Desmond@abigaildesmond.bsky.social · 4d ago15,000 years ago, in one of the the earliest settled communities in the world, a child collected fine clay from the slow-moving river by her home. She then committed an act familiar to all inveterate play-doh enthusiasts; rolling and and pinching the squishy clay into tiny round balls.
15,000 years ago, in one of the the earliest settled communities in the world, a child collected fine clay from the slow-moving river by her home. She then committed an act familiar to all inveterate play-doh enthusiasts; rolling and and pinching the squishy clay into tiny round balls.
Interesting article on the form and function of dinosaur gizzard tools -- the gastroliths, in the inference of their diets, and the evolution of feeding ecology. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... 🧪⚒️ #Geology #Paleobio #EvoBio
With highly-pathogenic avian influenza now in NZ, we're taking steps to protect #kakapo and #takahe by vaccinating against the disease, following a successful trial. We're aiming for ~90 kākāpō and 100 takahē in an initial phase to protect the most valuable birds/sites. #conservation #birds
That was quick. Anthropic with their own scare story/investor pitch www.anthropic.com/news/investi...
Investigating three real-world incidents in our cybersecurity evaluations
In a review of our cybersecurity evaluation transcripts, we found three incidents in which a Claude model reached the internet from within or while interacting with a third-party evaluation environmen...
anthropic.com
Michael Haslam@twigtechnology.bsky.social · 2w agoAI companies must keep their products in the news to attract investment. Intentionally causing havoc is one way to do that. We should expect many more of these ‘oops we deliberately and carefully trained a hacking system and used it to hack someone gosh aren’t we powerful’ stories 🧪📵
The new* Structure 44 on the final day of the Ness of Brodgar/Time Team dig #Orkney🏺 *very old, Neolithic
If you’d like at least 20 minutes alone at a site even older than Stonehenge just come to Skara Brae in January. We’re open and practically empty and the low sunlight is perfect 🏺❄️
Magic circle: Stonehenge offers lucky visitors 20 minutes alone in monument
Handful of ticketholders will be selected at random for up-close visits to ancient site throughout August
theguardian.com
New report on 1.4 million year old hominin footprints from the shores of ancient Lake Turkana in Kenya. Likely Paranthropus boisei but up to six feet tall. This is your regular reminder to always walk barefoot in mud/volcanic ash if you want to be remembered in a million years 🧪🐾🏺
Fossil footprints reveal that an ancient human relative was larger than previously thought and traveled in groups 1.4 million years ago
An international team of researchers from the U.S. and Kenya analyzed a trove of fossilized footprints that were left behind by a troop of eight hominins, first discovered nearly 50 years ago in north...
eurekalert.org
New report on 1.4 million year old hominin footprints from the shores of ancient Lake Turkana in Kenya. Likely Paranthropus boisei but up to six feet tall. This is your regular reminder to always walk barefoot in mud/volcanic ash if you want to be remembered in a million years 🧪🐾🏺
Fossil footprints reveal that an ancient human relative was larger than previously thought and traveled in groups 1.4 million years ago
An international team of researchers from the U.S. and Kenya analyzed a trove of fossilized footprints that were left behind by a troop of eight hominins, first discovered nearly 50 years ago in north...
eurekalert.org
This is the final week of Time Team’s Neolithic dig near the now-covered Ness of Brodgar site. You can visit anytime up until Thursday, for free. The circular anomaly seen on GPR last year turns out to be a building similar to some at Skara Brae. Are there surprises left in the final days? 🏺🧪
My contribution to the #Odyssey discourse is that you should buy my cool art about it to put on the wall of your home. The poster version is kinda glossy so you can wipe it down if it gets the blood of suitors on it. Arrow holes won't come out though, so careful ;-) www.inprnt.com/gallery/carl...
THE ODYSSEY - SCYLLA AND CHARYBODIS, an art print by Carly A-F
THE ODYSSEY - SCYLLA AND CHARYBODIS - Poster
inprnt.com
Honoured to say that I now have this rampaging nuclear legend by @carlydraws.bsky.social in my home. Need to find a wall that can support a kaiju…
This gigantic net, made of human hair (!) was used to corral and catch rabbits by the Hokoham people around 1250 AD. At 165 feet long, we have a physical manifestation of advanced materials engineering, technical skill, and countless hours’ craft. And a new meaning to putting yourself in your work.
Tool using dolphins from Western Australia on the cover of #PhilTransB. This time for epigenetic tests that were better than random at telling tool users from non tool users in the same habitat. Interesting ties to cultural transmission of this activity 🧪🐬 royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...
A culturally transmitted foraging technique in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins can be predicted by DNA-methylation levels
Abstract. Cultural repertoires can influence access to resources and fitness across species, impacting individuals' environmental niches and social network
royalsocietypublishing.org
Royal Society Publishing@royalsocietypublishing.org · 2w agoNew issue of #PhilTransB: Ecological #epigenetics at the intersection of behaviour and life history variation in non-model animals. Read #OA: buff.ly/6v4pqCo
I'm always amused by the way humans fetishize "walking upright," "tool use," and "language" as the iconic features of a superior species. And of course we ignore or downplay the obvious signs of all three in every other species. "They only walk upright SOMETIMES. Not like a true upright walker."
Just pre-ordered the new Wickhills by @premeemohamed.com, which is guaranteed to be weirdly and wildly excellent. You should definitely do the same 📚 (also ordered @emilymandel.bsky.social’s Exit Party, so I’ll have something to read in the meantime!)
Premee Mohamed@premeemohamed.com · 2w agoOh the @waterstones.bsky.social promo also seems to include WICKHILLS (a weird city fantaspionage with a lightly soulless government agent trying to keep the balance of the world in check!) -- it's saying November 19! SUMMER26 is the code you want! www.waterstones.com/book/wickhil...
A new paper reports orca using high speed ramming to smash up prey. Perhaps for fun 🧪 www.frontiersin.org/journals/eth...
A new paper reports orca using high speed ramming to smash up prey. Perhaps for fun 🧪 www.frontiersin.org/journals/eth...
Do humans and birds share an eye for design? 🐦🎨 For my Master's diss, I’m testing if we share aesthetic tastes with bowerbirds. I need 100 responses to finish! Visual, anonymous & under 5 mins. Link: exe.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... 🧪 cc: @scienseed.com #AcademicSky #SciComm
AI companies must keep their products in the news to attract investment. Intentionally causing havoc is one way to do that. We should expect many more of these ‘oops we deliberately and carefully trained a hacking system and used it to hack someone gosh aren’t we powerful’ stories 🧪📵
James Gleick@around.com · 2w agoThis is #AIhype disguised as a confession. OpenAI wants to pretend that its product has supernatural powers. The LLM didn't "go rogue" and it didn't "infer" anything. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/21/t...
Oh the @waterstones.bsky.social promo also seems to include WICKHILLS (a weird city fantaspionage with a lightly soulless government agent trying to keep the balance of the world in check!) -- it's saying November 19! SUMMER26 is the code you want! www.waterstones.com/book/wickhil...
Wickhills by Premee Mohamed | Waterstones
Buy Wickhills by Premee Mohamed from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.
waterstones.com
Thinkin about lizard belly buttons. Baby lizards connect to their yolk sacs through a tube like baby humans connect to a placenta. Unlike humans, the mark where the tube used to be isn’t permanent and will disappear by adulthood. 📷Northern Exotics
AI labs: “hey, what if we could take the Dunning-Kruger effect, bottle it in software, and sell it to every workplace, government office, and school on the planet? Now that’s innovation!”
René Walter@rawx.bsky.social · 2w agoAI advice made people three times less accurate but twice as confident: "Some participants who would have answered correctly on their own asked the AI and became wrong." Superpersuasion by dull tone has punch. I still suspect this is the same psych mechanism that reduces belief in conspiracies.
Friends, countrymen, lend me your algos! My public Instagram is a go, please join me over there for Stone Age insights, musings, and pretty pictures. www.instagram.com/dr_abigail_d...
