This week’s Filtrate features a slice of violent history from Asia, ancient tools, intoxicated tentacle porn, sick penguins, and more.

Most of us can’t do anything about the horrible stuff that’s happening in the world right now. But when the news is intolerable, we don’t have to immerse ourselves in it first thing in the morning.

In the Plague Year of 2020, I started posting a weekly update of selected science news, which I called ‘The Filtrate.’ Now I’m starting it up again. Welcome to this week’s collection of stories about science and science communication, plus maybe a few bits that were too weird not to include.