All the feelings and capacities that are rejected by the ego and exiled into the shadow contribute to the hidden power of the dark side of human nature." ~Connie Zweig, Editor, Meeting the Shadow

Elegant orange sunburst lichen (Rusavskia elegans). The lichen is about 1.5cm in diamete. NWT, Canada. #lichen #fungi #fungifriends

wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

A small film of spring flowers from my garden because we recover from stress 60% more quickly when we look at plants & if we find them beautiful our brains release dopamine, lifting mood. Pause for a few moments to help your synaptic soup 🌿🧠:

Ladies, stop settling for less than you want. He's not consistent with his contact? You feel confused about where you stand? He's got a 50mph punch that he uses to break open molluscs to feed on? Then he is NOT the one, he is a peacock mantis shrimp and incapable of love, move on

hello. if you’ve been super plugged in and activated lately, if you woke up this morning and went from 0-100, i want to be the real hippie friend and invite you to be in your body for a few minutes with me i just did this meditation, maybe you can too. take some breathes. drink some tea.

Good folks of #speirgorm and elsewhere - would you mind signing this and sharing it? I got the link from Francesca Albanese's social media. Thanks a mil. eci.ec.europa.eu/055/public/#...

Did we really need an autistic Barbie? Yes, no, maybe? 🤔 I wrote for @jezebeldotcom.bsky.social back in 2023 about how Barbie has always been canonically autistic (at least for me) 🤓 www.jezebel.com/barbie-autis...

Mechanical Forms by Fernand Léger, 1919 https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137646

just as a fun aside, everything I've read/seen from people who work with rhinos say their personality is very golden retriever. They just have super bad vision and can react badly if they feel unsafe. Watching them play like this is what I needed today.

The world feels rough right now So please enjoy this shrimp, filmed off Cozumel, Mexico. It may be a larval reef shrimp, but we don’t know what species or how long it lives or what it eats. The world is still full of wonder and beauty and mystery. 🎥 @pedrovalenciam scuba diver on Insta

Glanadh mór an earraigh idir lámha agam anseo - an mbeadh spéis ag éinne glacadh le roinnt mhaith seaneagrán de Comhar? (ag dul siar go Samhain 2021) Bheinn sásta íoc as an bpostas. An iomarca brú ar leabhragáin an tí faoi láthair.

New research finds people with ME/CFS have a striking deficiency in vasopressin - a hormone that helps the body retain water. This could explain common symptoms like constant thirst and dizziness upon standing. Let's break down the findings.

After years of debate, scientists found a telltale sign that an ancient ape walked on two legs, making it the oldest known human relative.

Petroleum quartz is a nature’s time capsule, trapping ancient petroleum and methane bubbles inside sparkling quartz. [💎 oneloveminerals]

I saw a little wren in my garden today. First #sketch of 2026 #wren #birdoftheday #blueskyart #sketchbook #drawing #art #watercolour

Here are four of my most popular cartoons on 2025

Not causing harm requires staying awake. Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do. The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain.~Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart

[W]hat Jung is advocating is human beings to grow up, take responsibility and not just put it off conveniently onto somebody else who will forgive them for their sins and so they can remain defensive and unconscious for the rest of their lives.~Murray Stein

ok this might sound crazy but what if all the people from innumerable world traditions who said "hey maybe focus on your breath a little" were onto something

It’s #winter. The buzzing has stopped - mostly. So what’s happened to all the #bees? Let me explain. Please #repost this thread. Don’t just like/look. It literally takes you a second. Costs you nothing. Bees are in trouble and need you good people to help. Thank you. #share #nature #education 1/14

Genuinely funny fiction novel recommendations, outside of Pratchett and Adams? Ideally laugh out loud, on public transport, embarrassing self in the process

Nobody Asked Me: A Rose By Any Other Name Welcome back to Nobody Asked Me, the column where I answer advice questions that were not sent to me. Today we are answering a question sent to Prudence at Slate Magazine, and I am sure Prudence gave a perfectly fine answer. Today's letter hit close to…

Discworld QOTD, from Hogfather

Feasts in Studio Ghibli movies 🍽️

Citizens…good numbers to know 🇮🇪 #speirghorm

This is an almost shockingly wise essay. I'm glad I've finally read it.

In honor of bsky becoming a butterfly, did you know that insects ARE crustaceans? Their closest living relative is well within the "real" crustaceans (more on that tomorrow) Yes, ALL of bugs are shrimps, and not the other way around! #Crustmas 🧪

it’s insane, having diagnosed bpd and a literal system of emotional management strategies i am constantly practicing, to then see other people dismiss or recoil at any suggestion that they have any responsibility to manage their own emotions. like omg stop being a lazy baby lol

Our children’s funniest Christmas memory is when Santa’s reindeer pooped on our car. It looked like potting compost with gold glitter mixed in it, right on the windscreen. The kids laughed for an hour. Parents, maybe get your kids to check outside for reindeer poop this year 😉

Made a tiny Christmas tree out of fossils: the stars are crinoid ossicles, the trunk dinosaur bone & the branches are sharks’ teeth 🎄🦴

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the waaaaaa aaaaahhhhh #krampus #sculpture #creepmas #clay

💫✨ Larger Pacific Striped Octopus 🐙 Hand sculpted from clay and lovingly painted 🎨 #ArtAdventCalendar #ArtYear #Art #ArtGallery #Sculpture #Octopus #MarineLife #CoralReef #ArtSale #BSNM #Invertebrates 🦑🐡

After solstice

This cracked clay tablet from the 1800s BCE preserves the moment a baby named Ili-awīli was adopted from his mother Ayartum and her husband by another couple. People adopted for many reasons in ancient Mesopotamia — desire for a baby, need for an heir, adopting child from a previous marriage, etc.

Engaged in a passive aggressive battle with someone in Rathfarnham village where I'm tearing down racist stickers at a rate of almost one a day. I'm not going to run out of OCD before you run out of stickers pal so good luck to you.

there’s a quote I love which I believe is originally from Paul Tillich, though I first heard it from a book by Ann Lamott: “The opposite of faith is not doubt; it is certainty.” I used to talk about that all the time with my Confirmation kids who weren’t sure how they felt about God

With its silver-grey threads dripping gracefully from the trees around New Orleans, no one would think that Spanish moss is actually not a form of moss at all. In fact, it is a member of the bromeliad family and is a distant relative of the ... (continued) #nolasky #nola #neworleans #history

More from the craft/jewellery fair in the Cork FET College. #SpéirGhorm All the students were making full use of the workshop facilities (hence the dirty nails/hands from working with the metals and chemicals.) There's a big problem with workshop space availability once they graduate. A shame! 😞🫠🙃

Watching Death By Lightning with the spouse and I'm boring the snot out of him by expounding ceaselessly on the inaccuracy of the muted colors. This was the heyday of aniline dyes! Karen Memery wants to know where all the mauve, royal blue, yellow, and peacock are.

"Petite" sizes often don't take plus-sized shorter women into account, while "Curvy" sizes rarely acknowledge that plus-size women aren't always tall, so I'd like to propose a new women's clothing size category - Little Teapot, for those of us who are short AND stout

An illustrated line from the Prayer Of St. Brendan The Navigator, who is said to have travelled from County Kerry in Ireland to America a thousand years before Columbus made his journey. Trust in the darkness. 🌌 Prints available here: www.ciaraioch.com/artprints/p/...

TW: Euthanasia Clip from a NOS news report about Marjon Lindeboom who became severely ill with long COVID. Includes powerful interview with her daughter Kirsten talking about her mother’s isolation, deterioration and the fight to be seen and believed.

'Fox in the snow" by contemporary printmaker Cat Moore #WomensArt #December6th #ArtAdvent

This small bronze figurine of a naked Gaulish woman projects great vulnerability - which was certainly the point, but not in a good way. She's identified by her torc and represents the eroticization of a conquered people. 🏺 Found in the River Seine, Paris. Roman, 100-200 CE. #BritishMuseum 📸 me

An army of Candlesnuff Fungus looking Mordor-esque, at Risley Moss NR.

📌 ciaraioch.com is now taking Christmas orders for prints, cards, and vouchers - each archival-quality print on heavy art paper is made in Ireland, ships internationally in eco-friendly packaging with discount tracked postage, and comes with a FREE card and treats for every customer 🎁 #SpéirGorm

Time-lapse of various species of mushrooms growing