John

Down to my last 10 boxes of mince pies.

First read of 2026 is Slow Gods by Claire North

Wardruna - Hertan (Heart) Official Music Video YouTube video by wardruna

This year Wardruna topped my personal 'most played album' (Birna), 'most played song' (Hertan), 'most played band' and 'most seen live' charts. This was my most played song of 2025. What was yours? www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfiZ...

Kalandra - Ghosts (Visualizer) YouTube video by kalandramusic

Perfect song for this time of year from Kalandra - playing this EP a lot at the moment #solstice #wintersolstice #winter #kalandra www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrcN...

Fancy that @scifiscavenger.bsky.social

Book haul feat. @tomgauld.bsky.social @jamesbluecat.bsky.social @dennisetaylor.bsky.social

Do I even bother trying to sleep tonight? #fireworks

That was fun. Forgot the flour though IYKYK. #fieldsofthenephilim #goth

Building the Adam Nevill collection. Becoming one of my favourite modern horror authors.

New books this week. @foliosociety.bsky.social @greatdismal.bsky.social @brianclegg.bsky.social @alekskrotoski.bsky.social @jimbaggott.bsky.social @markcooperjones.bsky.social @jayforeman.bsky.social

Excellent, and yes it will be great to finally meet in person 🙂

Thank you. At least I’ll get to catch them both in Bradford in December! You going to that one?

Missing @newmodelarmy.bsky.social and Paradise Lost gigs this week due to COVID so I’ll have to listen to these instead and party like it’s 2020

Loved Cunning Folk, The Ritual and All of Fiends of Hell by Nevill.

This week’s new books. Definitely getting read for #spooktober #spookyseason #halloween @davidmbarnett.bsky.social @caimhmc.bsky.social @odavies9.bsky.social @cerihoulbrook.bsky.social

Finished (and enjoyed) Scuttler’s Cove this morning and purchased Withered Hill yesterday.

New books!📚

I must get round to reading some Baxter. Got The Thousand Earths on the shelf.

New books from @johnlangan.bsky.social and others

Kalandra - Borders (Official Live Performance @ Castlefest 2024) YouTube video by Castlefest

Most of my new favourite bands seem to be Scandinavian. Today's earworm is from Kalandra. Gorgeous track #MusicMonday www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OrR...

Modest bank holiday weekend book haul @weirdwalk.bsky.social @aptshadow.bsky.social
@andysaunders-1.bsky.social

First big book haul in a while. Nice selection I think @karenhao.bsky.social @sgj.bsky.social

Black Sabbath - "War Pigs" - Live in Paris 1970 [HD] [Remastered] YouTube video by SKEvil

RIP Ozzy 🙁 Black Sabbath were certainly a formative band for me. One of my favourites in my early teens. I remember being blown away by this when I saw it late at night on BBC2. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD2I...

Human - Series 1: 1. The First of Us The extraordinary story of how the human species, Homo sapiens, first emerged, where the discoveries of recent years are revolutionising the understanding of humanity's origin story.

Looking forward to watching this later...esp as it features some of the work done by the very excellent @elliescerri.bsky.social

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Unlocking Our Ecological History New discoveries from Côte D'Ivoire place ecosystem diversity at the roots of our species.

How deep are humanity’s roots in African rainforests? Eleanor Scerri details her team’s research published in Nature about the discovery of tools in Côte d’Ivoire dating back to 150,000 years ago, which places ecosystem diversity at the roots of our species. #Academicsky 🏺 🧪

How odd. My copy is thankfully romantasy free!

It was, but very good.

My favourite read of 2025 so far #stonelands @stonelands.bsky.social

Major expansion in the human niche preceded out of Africa dispersal - Nature Analysis of species distribution models in a pan-African database comprising chronometrically dated archaeological sites over the past 120,000 years shows major expansion in the human niche from 70 ka...

1/5 Why do all non-Africans descended from a group that left Africa 50k ago? In @nature.com we model 120k years of human niche dynamics. From 70ka, a big expansion of the human niche in Africa likely equipped later OOA dispersals with a unique ecological flexibilty.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Gift article about our work that also mentions our recently published paper in @nature.com on rainforests as well! Thank you @carlzimmer.com!