Remember this scene the next time a corporate reporter tries to insist that a rural diner full of white men in their 60s is somehow a more authentically "American" place, somehow more representative of who we are as a nation.

Yooo I really sat down 6 yrs ago and wrote a lil story about a Black boy with magic and now my books are in bookstores worldwide. It’s not everyday you get to live out your childhood dream. #booksky

State of the Garden, June 13th. Coneflowers are just starting to bloom, along with coreopsis, milkweeds, gaura, yarrow, and calaminth. Peak Lily is happening in the back. So many other plants on the edge of glory 🙂 Another week or so and…. #flowers #garden #BloomScrolling

Did you know that all parrotfish are protogynous hermaphrodites, meaning they start their lives female and transition into males, often changing their coloration and patterning entirely between phases? Life on the coral reef is often non-binary and queer af 💪🌈🌈🌈💪 #coralcitycamera

What in the name of Beetlejuice ARE these things? They're zebra morphs of 'squat lobsters', likely in genus Allogalathea. They're not true lobsters & are more closely related to hermit crabs. Now which one is white with black stripes & which is black with white stripes? (📷: hoopderscotch)

🎉My favorite neighbor is back🎉 I was so worried he didn’t make it through the winter- but here he is giving me a “don’t be ridiculous” look before tromping over to inspect my boots😄

For #WorldOceansDay, a Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) I observed in 2024 while snorkeling in Komodo National Park in the Indonesian archipelago. #herps #turtles #NaturePhotography 🌿

this week marks 10 years since "milkshake duck" was coined

This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like

Rain today, so no work outside :( A friend is visiting Madagascar atm, so I'm jonesing hard to get back. Madagascar famous for lemurs and chameleons, but the day geckos are gorgeous and ubiquitous. Gold Dust Day Gecko (Phelsuma laticauda), Toamasina Province. #herps #lizards #NaturePhotography 🌿

I planted some Agastache (“hummingbird mint “) (or “Hyssop”) this spring to add a little color mid-garden. At dusk yesterday I watched a hummingbird nectar at them - works as advertised 🙂 #flowers #garden #BloomScrolling

Cirrothauma or Inopiniteuthis @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 931 part 3 #Doldrums #MarineLife

It’s common knowledge that I’m a few planks short of a deck…hoping to finish up the surface tomorrow if the weather holds. Then guard rails and new steps.

Hilarious and deeply insightful writing by @brianphillips.lol.

Rabbit Rabbit! I’ve been in minimal social media mode for the past two weeks as I set the garden to rights and started refurbishing the back deck. It’s been lovely, spending all day everyday outside with the birds and bunnies and garter snakes.

The Frog 🐸 of the Week is the Green Puddle Frog (Occidozyga lima) from Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The species might actually be multiple different species. 📸 Martin Grimm learn more at buff.ly/R1SiT8R

Very interesting read! #nativeplants #pollinators #monarchs www.designyourwild.com/p/the-best-m...

Holy cow! Feast your eyes a while, on this gorgeous solar spectrum by the Sol'Ex instrument (assembled by Váradi Nagy Pál). It extends to UV and IR as well as the visible band. Marvel at the F lines, the fine structure, the IR doublets and repeating lines, and the molecular bands. Wonderful! ☀️🧪⚛️🔭

First #SundayFishSketch since I got back from my coastal residency, and I am still super busy, but here's a quick, very messy #sketch of a largescale sucker (Catostomus macrocheilus)! Copic markers and Micron fineliner. #fish #wildlife #animals #illustration

So Trump needs to be the centerb of attention. AGAIN. Let us return to our regularly scheduled programming. Memorial Day weekend. Honoring our veterans who gave their lives for this country. All gave some, some gave all. My cousin, Billy, shot down in Vietnam 💔💔💔

Joe Pye Weed, looking handsome. Once the weather warms up it will reach for the sky. #flowers #garden #BloomScrolling

Every summer I repost this article on how to spot drowning. Please read it and pass on. In the last few years I’ve had SIX messages from people who saved a kid’s life after clicking on the link from my feed. slate.com/technology/2...

We have records of diabetes diagnoses going back 2,500 years. We only developed a reliable treatment (insulin) 100 years ago. Now we might have a cure. What an amazing thing to get to witness.

I may have cried a little www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

I went to trim the lilac bush rubbing against our house, and found this Northern Cardinal nest. The lilacs can wait. Also a pair of mallards that hang around my back-fence neighbor’s above-ground pool are back for a 3rd year. They paddle around & perch on the edge. I don’t know their names. #birds

Original 1946 clip art that became the J R “Bob” Dobbs / Dobbshead from a tobacco gifts ad in The Blue Ridge Herald, 14 June 1956, p11 #iconomancy library.hrmtc.com/20...

I've sent more than a few consultancy clients away with this kind of (sad trombone) assessment after looking over the current product, roadmap, etc. Techies often rush to make large, disruptive changes for a momentary "buzzword compliance."

Check out @redpilljunkie.bsky.social's brilliant book cover for @agorightly.bsky.social's "Saucers, Spooks and Kooks"! www.amazon.com/Saucers-Spoo...

I'm not a plumber. But I'm pretty sure that's not how sinks work.

Today it’s the bluestriped grunts beefing on the reef 😤😤 #bluestripedgrunt #mouthoff #mouthfight #grunt #coralcitycamera

"We were never meant to live like this". ntl;wr (Not too long; worth reading) I visited my friend Marty yesterday and we talked on his front porch for four hours. No phones. Truly a medicine for the melancholy - since I retired, I no longer have that Second Place set of friends.

The most common rattlesnake that people encounter in Arizona, in their backyards or otherwise, is the Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.

If you see this, post your getaway vehicle.

First Monarch in my garden this season. I decided to put in a few extra Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) today, and this beauty came nectaring about 20 minutes after planting. #flowers #butterflies #BloomScrolling 🌿

Ancient amber pendants worn by hunter-gatherers during the Danish Mesolithic some 10,000 years ago! 📷 National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen en.natmus.dk/historical-k... #Archaeology

I am always having so much fun with scale drawings. These images are usually depicted quite small on a page in books, there just to show the size of the animal. I love adding some extra details and funny situations to these. :) Here is a series I have just made for an upcoming book. #SciArt

OTD 5 yrs ago, I hiked out to Fagradalsfjall at 2am. Just after sunrise, the last few people left. I was completely alone, face-to-face with the erupting volcano, its warmth on my skin. Unquestionably the most surreal experience I've had. I never felt more connected to...everything. #Photography

In this week's Scratch, @maggiemertens.bsky.social asks why writers remain on Substack—as a user of Substack herself—and interviews three writers who've left the platform for Beehiiv and Ghost. We know how hard Substack makes it to leave; we also think writers should still try do so.

Young Buns III - “Who’s Guardin’ The Garden?” Costarring Veronica Gaura. #flowers #BloomScrolling 🌿

In 2017, Criselda Vasquez painted this portrait of her parents and titled it "The New American Gothic." Last month, her father, the man in this portrait, was abducted by ICE after being in the US for 30+ years. The family is now struggling with bills. A GoFundMe has been started: gofund.me/456d8a193

Coral City grunts stay beefing morning, noon, and night✌️ #whitegrunt #mouthfight #mouthoff #grunt #coralcitycamera

Wrote a thing, and my newsletter always has visuals and this time it has the glorious art of Tino Rodriguez (and it's topical).

Happy hump day! A Hump-nosed Pit Viper (Hypnale hypnale) observed in Goa province, w. India in 2023. The snake was about a foot off the ground, in some twiggy brush, likely waiting in ambush for a frog or a gecko to come by. A small serpent at 12-18 inches. #herps #snakes #NaturePhotography 🌿

I tell the rogues to read, read, read, read, read. Those who read own the world; those who immerse themselves in the internet or watch too much television lose it... Our civilization is suffering profound wounds because of the wholesale abandonment of reading by contemporary society. — Werner Herzog

Masterwort (Astrantia) right, and Petite Jenny (Lychnis) left, looking cute and happy in the bottom of the garden. #flowers #BloomScrolling

call me controversial and finicky, but if I buy a car, I don't think it reasonable that I have to learn how to "hack" it so it doesn't kill my family But that might just be me. www.thestar.com/news/canada/...

An odd spring here in central Illinois. I still have Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks at the feeder, which usually come thru in early April. I still have White-crowned Sparrows too. I like birds but I’m not plugged into the birding world, so I dunno. Maybe it’s a normal swing. I’m not complaining 😁 #birds

It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.