This is an AI-free, entirely open-access resource to help combat the slop currently inundating the internet. Please help me keep it growing!

Photo of the Day: let's nap with mama, polar bear twins edition www.animal-photo-references.com/polar-bears All photos on the repository are free-to-use for artists creating derivative/transformative works (sans AI).

A message for you all to carry through the year

it’s all i’ve got

These little wonders, still remain

Photos of the Day: very fresh, day-old babies, just like 2026. Happy new year! I bring you the gift of newborn white-bearded wildebeest, capybara, and Preswalski's horses All photos on the repository are free-to-use for artists creating derivative/transformative works (sans AI).

Very very very useful resource!

I've waited 3 years to make this post

Bring back the idea that there's stuff it's rude to ask people about and none of your business (why are you masking, why aren't you drinking, etc.)

Uh-oh… head archivist of a paranormal research institute… (podcasts count as an audiobook if you binge them like one).

I really want to set this project up to succeed: we need to create the GenAI-free future we want to see in the world, and this is my bit. For it to grow in ways users are requesting (taking donations of photos, additional web features) requires some outside expertise. Signal boosts appreciated.

Seeing people use generative AI is extremely embarrassing. They're like tiny children being given controllers that aren't plugged into the gaming system and they're smashing buttons shouting, "I'm winning!" Only they're adults, fully capable of playing but they want the unplugged controller.

Techbros seem to love Tolkien, so here's an analogy to help you understand what genAI is. GenAI is The One Ring. You think your use is justified, b/c you don't have evil in your heart. But it came from evil, it is intended for evil purpose, & anything you do with it will be twisted to that end.

anti ai, pro hag

team ai hater includes Bong Joon Ho, Guillermo del Toro, Vince Gilligan, the Pope, and me

Love to see the Sedgwick County Zoo putting out a good explainer on why GenAI slop videos of animals are a problem & how to identify them! It’s succinct, easy to read, and doesn’t shame people for not knowing better. A+ useful link to share with family and friends. scz.org/blog/the-rea...

oh but also, anyone photosensitive planning to watch WAKE UP DEAD MAN should know that there’s a very intense strobing light scene that happens shortly after the storm scene starts. it was extremely painful for me in the theater

‘Did he ever struggle to sell his stolen paintings? Sometimes, he said. But he never held on to them for long. “One thing you can do, which I did 200 times,” he told me, “is burn them.”’

TRENT REZNOR: and you could have it all, my empire of dirt GARDENERS: oh fuck yes

Does anyone want a survivorship bias shortbread

Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild. Key deer Resident & transient orca Roadrunner (!!) Northern elephant seal Douglas squirrel

On capitalism’s day of excess we encourage people to support small creators! I find crowdfunding so awkward but the repository depends upon it! The Ko-Fi and Patreon fund web & hosting costs, photo software, gear rentals, and more. Any contribution is appreciated. ko-fi.com/animalphotor...

Photo of the Day: wild turkey time! All photos on the repository are free-to-use for artists creating derivative/transformative works (sans AI).

won't have em for this weekend, but i've been getting a few more people at my table than I'd like lately asking *very pointedly* if i drew everything myself, so i designed a new sticker this afternoon that will hopefully quell some of those concerns. #art

hey, seattle, here's a bookstore to avoid (as nicole says, don't harass them! but I would add: also don't give them your money)

THEN YOU PURCHASE THEM AND DO NOT USE THE PROPERTY OF OTHERS

It's Veterans Day, so I feel like spinning a #GranddadYarn. I'm gonna tell what is known in the family as the Korea Story, though it does not take place in Korea and involves it only tangentially. It is, however, a timely story about good leadership, which I think we could all use right now.

Find your senators at reps.fyi or call 202-224-3121

Seattle! Check to make sure your ballot doesn’t have any issues being counted, it is a SUPER close mayor race and we need you! Go here to make sure: info.kingcounty.gov/kcelections/...

The Long Walk

One simple, powerful and often overlooked thing you can do to resist fascism? Wear a mask, ideally an N95! Covid is not over Masking sends a powerful message that you value your health & the health of your community That you don’t think disabled lives are expendable It’s radical community care

The Repository has been taken over by skeletons! ...they've been very enthusiastic about allocating the xtra bone stash this Halloween. For one night only, step up, and visit a world in which cladistics aren’t enforced & taxonomy is non-euclidean! www.animal-photo-references.com/spoopy-scary...

give me ticks and give me fleas i'll munch and crunch them, if you please in the trash or on the lawn i'll munch until the pests are gone #art

Drawtober Day 14: Unnatural #drawtober #Halloweenie

I'm going to delete my Bob Ross post to avoid my misremembered misinformation from making the 'rounds. But I wanted you all to read and repost this instead.

If I'm not meant to add my body to the giant sphere of candy corn and ectoplasm rolling through the cornfields at night, the sphere should stop making such persuasive arguments.

Alien, 1979. (Directed by Ridley Scott)

Photo of the Day: milky eagle owl preview! Thank you to everyone who funded the Birds of Prey trip. I’m hard at work sorting photos, but wanted to share this favorite shot immediately. All photos on the repository are free-to-use for artists creating derivative/transformative works (sans AI).

A few months ago I pitched @lisatozzi.bsky.social a story about the revival of an ancient Hawaiian board game. She said just go and write it. Before the story was published today she was laid off — so thank you to Lisa for making this happen and everyone involved in the story except Mark Zuckerberg

I'm officially putting out a call for volunteers with professional/academic expertise to help ID wildlife photos. My preference is to work directly with individuals rather than crowdsource IDs via iNat, for a number of reasons. If this is you re: any specific species or taxa, please reach out!

a reminder

A belief in a free and open internet and equitable access to knowledge is a huge part of why I’m so determined to keep the repository un-paywalled. People deserve access to images and information guaranteed to be free of AI slop without having to shell out for the privilege.

last time i did this (about crabs) i had to put on an upper limit because we reached 1000 crab facts. make him regret it, folks

New species added: Yellow Anacondas! www.animal-photo-references.com/yellow-anaco... All photos on the repository are free-to-use for artists creating derivative/transformative works (sans AI).

Please do not do this. Please do not mock people who are genuinely struggling to find ways to survive a society that decided to accept endemic COVID. It was a choice, that choice is made. Some folks are highly vulnerable to death as a result of that choice. That's just reality.

We have decided to ban the use of GenAI for research, writing & creative work at our organization. In fact, we make people sign an agreement saying that their research, analysis, writing, and creative work are *theirs* and not done by GenAI.

Every once in awhile, I think of my favorite “…the fuck did you just say?” phraseology, which is from Homer’s Iliad, proving we have never, ever changed as a species, only less fancily inclined. “What nonsense has escaped the barrier of your teeth now?”

Honestly, bless Teen Vogue. My tween daughter saw this headline over my shoulder & said “she’s so real for that.” Then pulled up the story to read it on her tablet. To my knowledge she has never read a political news story on her own before.

This is my most confrontational post of the day: please watch Armond’s video & think on it. It isn’t at all progressive or leftist to spread disabling disease in an ongoing pandemic. There are more Armonds than you know, & folks who don’t mask are making more each day bc most spread is asymptomatic