This may in fact have happened to me ten days ago. I'm still sore. 

In Japanese folklore kama itachi is a yokai that in English translates as sickle weasel. They look like weasels with spiky fur and long razor sharp claws and appear riding on dust whirlwinds, sometimes barking like dogs. They move so fast that they become basically invisible. Kama itachi travel in groups of three to hunt. The first weasel knocks the victim to the ground, the second uses their sharp claws to slice out chunks of their flesh, and the third applies a healing remedy that mostly hides the damage. This all happens so quickly that the victim believes they simply tripped, fell and scratched themselves and they remain completely unaware that their flesh has been dinner for a kama itachi.

Certainly can't disprove it.... Via Curious Ordinary on BlueSky

“Jane? Why, she was a little old maid ’oo’d written ’alf a dozen books about a ’undred years ago. ’Twasn’t as if there was anythin’ to ’em, either. I know. I had to read ’em. They weren’t adventurous, nor smutty, nor what you’d call even interestin’—all about girls o’ seventeen (they begun young then, I tell you), not certain ’oom they’d like to marry; an’ their dances an’ card-parties an’ picnics, and their young blokes goin’ off to London on ’orseback for ’air-cuts an’ shaves...

"... it’s a very select Society, an’ you’ve got to be a Janeite in your ’eart, or you won’t have any success... You take it from me, Brethren, there’s no one to touch Jane when you’re in a tight place. Gawd bless ’er, whoever she was."

IYKYK (rather the whole point)

Happy 250th, Jane! 

 

 Recommended podcast episode: Medieval eels, plus maps and history, but mostly eels. 

 Enheduanna's Song to Innana translated into Scots. Sample:

Draigon-lik      ye’ve pushionit the merse,
Yir thunnery rair      wedes aa the flooirs awa,
Fleet wattir      hurlygushin fae the muntain,
Foremaist Muin-Dochter,      Queen o Heivin an Erd.
Ootpoorin fluffed flames      doon aa ower the laund,
Graced wi the Heich God’s airts,       baist-muntit Leddy,
Ye gie deliverances      as the Heich God bids;
Ye awn grand rites –      and wha can ken whit’s yours?

An English version if your Scots isn't quite up to snuff. 

 "A samurai looks on as a giant frog runs over the menials"

Found while scouring Wikimedia Commons. Colour woodcut by Kuniyoshi, 1847/1848. 

 Upupa dicit, rana coaxat: The first children's picture book?

 The 23,000 year chronology for those footprints at White Sands seems to be holding up to confirmation.

This paper reports on an independent study of the chronology of a previously unrecognized stratigraphic record of paleolake Otero that is directly traceable into the track-bearing alluvium. The stratigraphic data along with 26 additional radiocarbon dates on palustrine mud determined by two labs independent of the original investigations document an aggrading lake/wetland/stream record that includes the tracks and spans >23.6 thousand years to ~17.0 thousand calibrated years before present, providing another line of evidence further supporting the validity of an LGM age for the tracks. 

 Magpie hunts a baby rattlesnake:

 Cuttlefish pass marshmallow test

To examine whether cuttlefish could delay gratification for a better reward, researchers (Schnell et al. 2021) offered them an Asian shore crab (a less preferred food) immediately, or a grass shrimp (a more preferred food) if they were able to wait. The food was offered in two chambers with sliding doors. Before the test, cuttlefish were trained to recognize symbols on the doors that indicated if it would open immediately (a circle) or with a delay (a triangle). Most of the cuttlefish waited 50 to 130 seconds to get the more desirable grass shrimp, comparable to time delays shown by chimpanzees and crows.

Meanwhile in Taos: prosecutorial misconduct centering around witchcraft, in the aftermath of a decapitation. Head went in the Rio of course. Hard to pullquote this one, just read it.

 The Yarn of the Nancy Bell by Sir W.S. Gilbert

 TIL - Apparently, Northwest native languages picked up their words for house cat from kitty-calling sounds:
Nimiipuutimt (Nez Perce): picpic ('c' goes 'ts')
Lushootseed (Snoqualmie): pišpiš
Chinook Wawa: puss'-puss

Contrast Shoshone languages, which seem to have simply grabbed the English: kedi, kiidi, kaattu

If you like this sort of thing, here's Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? in Nimiipuutimt.

 If you want to know what's being studied and learned at Göbekli Tepe (and don't we all?) without the pseudoscience and claptrap, Tepe Telegrams seems to be the place.

 New Euripides fragments! I'm unable, however, to find their actual text, translated or un-.

 I thought I'd posted this, but apparently not: Incomprehensible idioms in Maltese.

“Libbislu ċoff u daħħlu wejter!” Literal translation: “Tie a bow on him and employ him as a waiter.” What it means: “The object/human you are speaking about is useless.”

“Mela żobb, Sur Kappillan!” Literal translation: “Therefore penis, Mr Parish Priest!” What it means: “You bet!”

I haven't made my deep dive yet, but this looks like a promising series: Philosophising in... For instance, Philosophising in Sakha (that's Yakut to old-schoolers). Or you could try the posts on Syriac, Amharic, Cuneiform and more.

 Via Languagehat (of course, because is anyone else even attempting to put anything interesting on the internet anymore?)

 3d model comparison: Aurochs cranium versus modern cow. Hiking with these in the landscape would be... exciting.

HT: Searun at Querencia

A real musical oddity from the French Baroque: Tableau de l’Opération de la Taille, i.e. Scene of Cutting for the Stone by Marin Marais.

Tableau de l’Opération de la Taille begins with a somber section in the key of E minor and tempo marking Lentem (slowly), freely performed. It is followed by a contrasting lively piece titled Les Relevailles in the key of E major, tempo marking Gay, joyously celebrating the patient’s return to life. The score is annotated in considerable detail, guiding the performer in what the music is attempting to convey. As Joseph Kiefer accurately observes: “The music successfully depicts the apprehension, fear, agitation, and other emotions of the patient as well as the mounting tension of the operation itself, building up to the climactic extraction of the stone.”Les Relevailles is etymologically of particular interest. It refers to an ancient ritual that designates a period after delivery when the mother needs to regain her strength. Historically this period lasted 40 days and may be related to the religious ceremony known as “churching.”

What Tenochtitlan looked like

HT: Languagehat

 Dealing with dinosaurs: Darren Naish recounts cassowary wrangling.

Including a note for the speculative fiction crowd: "Cassowaries themselves might think of us as slightly unusual members of cassowary kind. Keep this in mind when imagining a hypothetical zoo housing non-bird dinosaurs. At least some such animals would likely become sexually fixated on humans."