This is (I think) a Greater Blue-Eared Starling (Lamprotornis chalybaeus) & the amazing chrome job is their super-power. They've evolved to manipulate light in VERY specific ways, attracting mates, intimidating rivals. Let's look at the nanostructures that bring this bling into being.

This is a legitimately great idea. Turn every ICE concentration camp into a museum of their crimes and the people who fought against them.

Get that bag

Oooh, I found where they sell all the blueskys

Let's keeping putting good books on the skyline. Here's a little thread of current staff picks, which all, would you look at that! are 20% off for the rest of the month. Let's gooooo.....

Reskeetable TL;DR: 1️⃣ Before 11:59p EDT tonight, donate any amount at the link below 2️⃣ @ me about it! 3️⃣ I'm matching every single dollar, with 100% of the proceeds going to the NCSU Libraries 📚💪💪 dayofgiving.ncsu.edu/donate?campa...

***** NCSU LIBRARIES T. GREG DOUCETTE ENDOWMENT FUNDRAISING THREAD ***** Sooooo we're officially a go for this thing, happening over the next ~22 hours! Though it's going to be a bit shambolic because nothing seems to go smoothly with anything philanthropic I do 🤪

LOBSTER SAYS TRANS RIGHTS

The image showcases the serene Sakuranosato Park in Mie Prefecture, Japan, where vibrant cherry blossoms lean over the tranquil Miyagawa River. This scenic location is celebrated by photographers for the perfect "V-shaped" reflection of the pink blooms against the surrounding evergreen mountains.

Truly, bless the digitization and archival metadata people of the world, because here's a 1985 oral history interview with my super-awesome great-aunt Amy (who was a physical education professor at Bowling Green State U, in Ohio): digitalgallery.bgsu.edu/items/show/3...

It's never good when Jennifer Homendy *has* to give a press conference, but every time I'm grateful there's still some corner of the government that works this well. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxDk...

So far in 2026, Democrats have flipped legislative seats in: Arkansas New Hampshire Texas Florida (today) That adds to their 2025 gains: Dems flipped seats in Iowa, Mississippi, & Pennsylvania specials, plus in New Jersey and Virginia's regular elections. GOP has flipped 0 seats over that period.

JUST IN: Democrats tonight have flipped a GOP-held state House seat in Florida. And not just any seat: This is the district that contains Mar-a-Lago. (It voted for Trump by 11% in 2024). That's right: Trump will now be represented by a Democrat, Emily Gregory, in Tallahassee.

At 7pm, polls are closing in Florida and its three legislative special elections, with the GOP defending all three. Dems hope for a flip. First batch of results should come in quickly—& will be most favorable to Dems; then GOP will do better as Election Day comes in. Question is how much of each.

If you weren't following this, you should tune in now. We'll know within the next 30-60 minutes whether the district that contains MAR-A-LAGO has flipped Democratic. Thread below.

I think it's vitally important that everyone know that when baby bear cubs are orphaned and taken to our local wildlife center, they get fed and rehabbed by people masking their scent and wearing costumes like this so they don't get habituated to humans

it has been NaN days since the last incident where someone tried to be clever with time zones bsky.app/profile/shad...

Luanne James is a hero. bookriot.com/librarian-lu...

If you love a book, write a nice review. It gives the author encouragement for bad days when they want to take up scorpion petting. - @lianabrooks.bsky.social #WriterSky #BookSky #ReaderSky

Okay, so caveating this by saying I'm not @conspirator0.bsky.social and nowhere near as expert. The operation has two main arms: the Abdelfattah cell (~877 accounts) and the Mahmouds Family cell (~124 accounts). Similar templates, but different infrastructure and different coordination methods.

Curiosity: 4844th day of the mission Image captured 6 hours ago. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS #Mars 🧪🔭

If you spot ICE agents at an airport in the coming days, I want to hear from you. Reach me via Signal at marisakabas.04

When I thought about fighting robots in the past this was not on the list.

“The logic…goes like this: the war has crashed the global oil market so hard that the administration needs the enemy’s oil to keep gasoline prices from eating the midterms. They are unsanctioning the people they’re bombing b/c the bombing is working too well at the thing they didn’t want it to do.”

I'm gonna go with Bulfinch's Mythology, where the meaning of the old-school poetry flew over my head but the sound did not, and I was deeply baffled that male statue crotches came in two different morphs, only one of which looked plausible, and I couldn't understand why

I want to be clear about what happened today: While Republicans keep the Senate in session to try and pass their dangerous SAVE act, they also tried to push through a ridiculous ban on transgender athletes. We blocked it.

This is your reminder that if you are a class member and have NOT yet filed a claim in Anthropic v. Bartz, the AI copyright lawsuit, you have 9 days to do so.

The question is not why is this man who claims he can teleport to a Waffle House in such a prominent position at FEMA, it's why isn't he in a prominent position at the Department of Transportation? www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

We must believe in a world to create that world

This is how I'm introducing myself at all work and social events going forward

I feel like this site has the right combination of nerds to tell us if the physics of a Godzilla sized surfboard checks out and I need y'all to tag them into this thread immediately

Thompson's hematologist at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Robert A. Brodsky, published a study revealing that the research now has an overall 94% disease-free survival rate. "[A cure is now] available to the majority, almost the entirety, of sickle cell patients.” #GoodNews #BlackSky 🌱

Watching a preview of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey of Extremely Manly Man Doing Manly Things Surrounded By Men and all i can think is that it would be cool to reread Wrath Goddess Sing

This week, the average daily population at Dilley dropped to 100 people, compared with over 900 in January. The shift follows weeks of mounting public pressure generated in part by the widespread publication of letters written by detained children. @micarosenberg.bsky.social @mckenziefunk.com

The Seattle Space Needle peeks through the clouds, looking like Cloud City from Star Wars. Is Lando Calrissian about to make a deal that’ll keep the Empire out of Seattle forever? ✨⚔️

"Audi Crooks plays for Iowa State — and for all those who’ve been told their body is too big" "When an athlete like Crooks comes on the scene, some critics would rather lean into fatphobia than admit much of what we’ve been taught about body size and fitness is wrong."

It's interesting how The Daily Wire attacks the idea that gender is a performance when their sets are all about gender performance. Look at the aesthetics here — the cigars and crystal decanter with Japanese whiskey, the black dress shirt, the tight suit with two-toned double monks and tie bar ...

reading this felt like falling down an escher staircase

One reason I’m writing a biography of Edward R. Murrow is because his life is one of the best surviving windows into the early history of CBS. The corporate archives seem to have been destroyed in the 80s, apparently to save money—which also left fewer facts to get in the way of the mythology.

As CBS gets torn to shreds, it's genuinely amazing to look back at what the president of CBS was saying about Trump's first presidential run 10 years ago.

This thread really gets at the way amateur restorative justice processes very often become about rape apologism and protecting perpetrators—while pushing survivors out of the community they never hurt in any way.

Happy friday!!! We're closing up shop TONIGHT, which means it's your last chance to raid our supply of hex fidgets at a lovely 20% off! Thank you so much for everyone who shopped & for all the good wishes. I'm nervous but excited to have a working hand again! So grab a hex! thebrokencircle.etsy...

Super interesting story out of Idaho: As Trump Demands Voter Data, This Fiercely Independent Red State Says No, by @audreydutton.bsky.social @jenafifield.bsky.social

I taught a session in my digital manuscripts class yesterday on the BL ransomware attack, and it yielded probably the most engaged discussion we’ve had so far, about cultural heritage, remediation, labor, and access. The word “ontology” was used correctly, and not by me!

dying laughing at the strava data for the guy running laps on the french carrier

This is awesome. MLK Jr. specifically credited Lillian Smith in his letter from a Birmingham jail, and I’ve always wanted to know more!

I guess if you have a window at BU it is now your moral obligation to festoon it with as many pride flags as you can get your hands on

Pope Leo is the first Pope to have ever experienced the US healthcare system, so there's that

O M G 🦐 Shrimp bowl (close-up). Bowl. Peru: Ica, Nasca. 100 B.C.E.-800 C.E. MOA Collections 2990/180. Photo by Joshua Doherty. myvancity.ca/2026/02/27/m...

oops