We went on a whale watch yesterday. My best photo from the excursion is of a bird that flew over the boat. #BaldEagle #Nature #Alaska

Could anyone help me identify this wasp please?! We’re in the French Alps at a lake at about 1100m (near Bourg-d’Oisans). About 20–30 mm long, with a very elongated thorax, thread-like waist, smoky wings, mostly black body with narrow yellow bands, and strongly hooked antennae (all individuals appeared to have them). They were remarkably agile, running over wet lakeside rocks. About 5 of them engaging in searching/foraging behaviour.
#Entomology
#Hymenoptera
#Wasps
#Insects
#IDRequest

I swear I’m going to have to be jet-washed some time in September to get rid of four months’ worth of accreted SPF-50

A neighbor friend passed on this picture of fireflies in a meadow down the way from us. I love this time of year.

I had to read this twice. In what would have been unthinkable less than two months ago, hirado.hu - the news platform of Hungary's public broadcaster is carrying the following statement on its frontpage:

"The public media cannot lie.
We apologise for doing it nevertheless, and for so many years!
The public media is now transforming - to become independent and credible in the future.
News coverage is temporarily suspended.
Stay tuned!"

Yes, so, here we are with flooding again right now e.g. in Kaikōura. There was 60mm of rain on the Old Ghost Road when we were there, so we doubled up a day and took a rainy rest day in the hut; we were the only ones there. The Mōkihinui was full of water; fortunately, there were no river crossings. #Tramping

♾️Ten reasons why I like being autistic♾️

Maybe surprisingly to some, being autistic isn't all bad.

Here are some things that may get missed when autism is defined *only* through our difficulties & struggles.

#Autism #ActuallyAutistic #Neurodivergent #AuDHD

A thread 🧵

1/11

Ik vind deze campagne erg belangrijk - doe je ook mee? https://actie.degoedezaak.org/petitions/geen-kerncentrale-in-de-eemshaven-2?source=web_share_api&utm_source=web_share_api&share=e24e00bf-a9b6-44ac-af26-4fe806eb3e1d

Cool mid-60's F Tuesday morning in the yard, going up to the mid-90's F this afternoon. The Swamp Mallow Hibiscus is blooming in the pond.

#Bloomscrolling #Flowers

Across wealthy countries, dementia risk has dropped around 13% per decade since the late 1980s, helped by better blood pressure control, lower cholesterol, less smoking and more education. This feels surprising, because dementia cases are rising as populations age, even as age-specific risk falls. We aren’t as helpless as we think either - a 2024 Lancet commission estimated that up to 45% of dementia could be prevented or delayed. Vox https://archive.md/dYtGl
#ShareGoodNewsToo

CHAT CONTROL IS BACK → Today the urgent procedure for Chat Control 1.0 was passed.

NEXT UP: The EU Parliament is voting on Thursday.

If Chat Control passes: your messages, pictures, videos will all be scanned because the law will allow it - this removes privacy and welcomes mass surveillance in the EU.

Share this post, make some noise, and let's fight for our right to privacy. ✊🏻♥️🇪🇺

Pictured: Parliament President Roberta Metsola (EPP) who revived Chat Control 1.0!

SENTINELS (1988)

Acrylic on Canvas - 22” x 33”



After more than a decade of continuous illustration work, this was my first non-commissioned painting. Who can resist imagining a peaceful world where children are enjoying nature and the symbols of war are falling into ruin? 1/6

#fineart #personalvisions #imaginativerealism

I thought it was a joke

RE: https://mstdn.social/@Nickiquote/116879372231086207

😁

#HerStory #comicart #Cartoonist #NicoleHollander #cartoon

Another nature/wildlife #picspam account to block: @tangledwing@ohai.social.

Most of their animal photos are taken from Pixabay (which lets you use photos without credit: https://pixabay.com/service/license-summary/) and are, as far as I can tell, mostly accurately identified. However, they also:

- link LLM-generated articles (https://ohai.social/@tangledwing/116508513820316616, https://ohai.social/@tangledwing/116423175725416201)
- link LLM-generated articles on scammy sites (https://ohai.social/@tangledwing/116496161607225619, a degree mill)
- post AI-generated videos (https://ohai.social/@tangledwing/116389578007720215, originally from https://www.instagram.com/wildanimalverse/reel/DW31A1Mj389/)
- get stuff wrong which could have been avoided or easily checked by linking to the source (https://ohai.social/@tangledwing/116381546945554882, wrongly identified as a purple finch [a North American bird]; original photo https://pixabay.com/photos/natural-outdoors-wild-animals-bird-3283205/, as indicated in the tags, a long-tailed rosefinch [a Eurasian bird] photographed in Japan)

In general, accounts that only post other people's unsourced/uncredited photos because they look cool or make people feel good are vulnerable to posting misinformation and AI-generated content, whether they intend to or not.

#fediblock

HOW I laughed when I saw cat soup in the supermarket. What kind of idiot buys their cat soup, I thought? Me. I do. Turns out I'm that idiot because it gets them to drink in this heat. I already add a bit of water to their breakfast and they lap every drop of the water in their Saturday morning tuna, and Sparks has just snarfed a pouch of soup let down with 50% extra water. I worry about these crystals male #cats can develop in their waterworks and Sparks rarely drinks.

Book Review: Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchettt

Author: Terry Pratchettt
Title: Feet of Clay
Publication Info: Victor Gollancz, 1996
Summary/Review:

Once again, there’s a plot to remove Lord Vetinari the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, who is slowly being poisoned by means the evade Sam Vimes’ skills of “detectoring.”  Meanwhile the city’s guilds and nobels attempt to make Nobby Nobbs, of all people, their puppet ruler after learning that he may be heir to the royal family.  And Captain Carrot investigates a series of murders apparently committed by a golem that has gone mad, followed by several golems dying by suicide, and a golem named Dorfl falsely confessing the crimes.

This may be the best Discworld novel I’ve read yet.  It ties together it’s disparate threads perfectly and is full of humor, wordplay, and imagination.  Plus it provides great character moments for the large cast that includes the werewolf guard Angua, a female dwarf and forensic expert Cheery Littlebottom, the vampire Dragon King of Arms, and an unfortunate adventure in the sewers for guard Fred Colon and Wee Mad Arthur, a Nac Mac Feegle. The underlying social message that condemns the aristocracy and slavery is also well-done

Favorite Passages:

You wouldn’t find slum-dwellers in these pages, but you would find their landlords. And, while it was regarded as pretty good evidence of criminality to be living in a slum, for some reason owning a whole street of them merely got you invited to the very best social occasions.

The real world was far too real to leave neat little hints. It was full of too many things. It wasn’t by eliminating the impossible that you got at the truth, however improbable; it was by the much hard process of eliminating the possibilities. You worked away, patiently asking questions and looking hard at things. You walked and talked, and in you heart you hoped like hell that some bugger’s nerve’d crack and he’d give himself up.

Rating: ****1/2

Discworld Reviews Master List

Other books by Terry Pratchett I’ve read:

• The Carpet People
• Good Omens

1/2
In 1976, Shavarsh Karapetyan, an Armenian Olympic swimmer, had just completed a 12-mile run with his brother when they saw a trolley bus crash into a dam reservoir. The trolley bus sank 80 feet offshore at a depth of 33 feet.
Shavarsh immediately dove in and swam to the bus and despite zero visibility, managed to kick in the back window, injuring himself in the process. He proceeded to save twenty people trapped in the bus, one at a time. Making forty dives in 20 minutes.
The combined effect of the cold water and his injuries from breaking the glass window led to his hospitalization for 45 days after the incident, during which time he developed pneumonia, sepsis, and lung damage which ended his athletic career.

“The toughest fighters are the Belgians.” - Julius Caesar #WorldCup