Hi! If you’re going to @sciencewriters.org I am pleased to see you and if I am looking at your badge it is because honestly I’m super bad at faces and I only know most of you from the Internet where you icon is like a pusheen plushie. A+ for dressing as a pusheen tho if you do.

The wonderful writers @sn-media-guild.bsky.social have been waiting on a fair contract almost long enough to gestate a baby elephant (620 days). They have neither a contract NOR a baby elephant. All they want is a contract, to be paid for their amazing expertise.

There's so many brains here it's like a little watercolor zombie buffet.

We have fully remote workers who are essential to our publications. They get freedom to work wherever they can do their best work. Those of us in the DMV have to go sit in an office building 2 days a week where it is very difficult to work. Why?

There are LOADS of anecdotes out there about how GLP-1s have rendered people unexpectedly fertile. 1. It's not precisely true. 2. But it's easy to see why people think so. Fertility is a tough, painful issue, and so many people suffer alone. www.nationalgeographic.com/health/artic...

This is beautiful. I want to see the next gen of happy herpers!

Our remote employees are showing up today too!

You have to admire the bloody-minded ambition of a pelican trying to eat a whole capybara (who seems utterly unconcerned). The thing with pelicans is that they have ONE super-power & their brains default to "get it in your mouth & deal with it later." Let's talk about the gular sac of the pelican.

We have spent 560 days at the negotiating table with @society4science.bsky.social. Today's work stoppage is painful to us, and now where we want to be. We deserve a fair contract!

Don't cross the picket line--no reading Science News today! These journalists deserve a fair contract that recognizes the value they bring to the company.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/VsTml

I’m so grateful for how @beebrookshire.bsky.social tells this story—with dignity, compassion, and evidence.

So we know that Dunn did it. He threw the sandwich. But I just went on a hunt to find out what the sandwich was. What WAS THE ORDER. A footlong? Turkey? Roast beef? Salami? And I CANNOT FIND IT. apnews.com/article/sean...

12 hours until the workers of the Science News Media Guild will conduct a 24-hour #strike. This comes after our members voted to reject the @society4science.bsky.social's latest contract proposal. Rally with us for a fair contract on 11/5, from 8 AM to 8 PM at 1776 Massachusetts Ave, NW.

I really think we should do a whole series about facts like this: Have you noticed that poison ivy seems worse and itchier? It's not your imagination. It's Climate Change. grist.org/climate/clim...

There are a lot of questions around GLP-1s like Ozempic, weight loss and fertility. These are PAINFUL questions. For people struggling with fertility, doctors might prescribe weight loss, and that takes TIME, time that ticks the fertility clock down. www.nationalgeographic.com/health/artic...

One of the biggest questions about GLP-1s like Ozempic and Mounjaro is whether they increase fertility. There's not a lot of evidence for that. But Mounjaro/Zepbound SPECIFICALLY can decrease the efficacy of oral birth control. www.nationalgeographic.com/health/artic... By me.

Science News is preparing to strike ✊

Looking to support our cause? Be sure to sign our petition calling for a fair contract! actionnetwork.org/petitions/fo...

After 5️⃣5️⃣9️⃣ days of negotiations, @sn-media-guild.bsky.social is now on the eve of our first-ever strike. We love our jobs. We just want a sustainable workplace. Support us by spreading the word or joining my DC-based colleagues on the picket line!

Proud of my colleagues!!! These are some of the best int he business, and they deserve to be paid for their work, and to be allowed to work where they NEED to.

Today is the day! Happy Book Day to @stealingfromwizards.com and congratulations on writing the sweetest, kindest, most joyful series on love of found family, being yourself, and of course, arson. Avalon is my favorite Wizard School.

I hope we all go into Monday with the energy of the three high school kids I just saw heading down the street, energetically rapping mockery and scorn at a squirrel up on a powerline.

This newsletter from Courtney Maum looking for a ballet/barre workout, says she wants something narrated by Werner Herzog...but the post itself was NOT a satirical workout class narrated by Werner Herzog courtneymaum.substack.com/p/workouts-w... And now it's all I can think about...

Happy Plant-O-Ween! Back in spring, I received guardianship of a Plant School: The Grow Where You Are Planted Academy. I received DETAILED instructions for my students. (A family moved, had to leave plants. This child loves the plants. I will move heaven and earth for this child).

For insomniac anatomy academy halloween edition I am covering baby teeth. Because NO.

Birds but they get spookier each time. 🎃👻 Enter if you dare...🚪

If you need a creepy anatomy fact: The forces required for birth are so strong they would shatter an adult human skull. Luckily baby skulls don't shatter. They squish. youtube.com/shorts/SHLrj...

🥲

"Counting on people who pay you directly isn’t the same thing as not having a boss. You have 100 bosses, and you can’t afford to piss off any of them. And even if you’re beloved, you’re not essential." talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-25/patro...

Every time, every week, ever since I learned about this journal when I was 21 (Not all of us started studying SRS Science in diapers yanno)

If you ever need proof that sexism and gender essentialism hurts everyone. The VA is making men with breast cancer jump through more hoops. Because "real men" apparently don't have breast tissue. www.propublica.org/article/vete... As someone who has been reading ANATOMY...this is crap.

Points at the sign 👇

Nothing can prepare you for the factual basis behind this 'wokeness gone too far' anecdote.

There's a condition, pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB) where beard hair, cut short, tends to curl back into the follicle. This disproportionately impacts people with tightly curly hair produced in oval-shaped hair follicles, most of whom are of recent African ancestry.

Daylight savings ends this weekend in the US...so watch out for DEER. Yes. REALLY. Deer. www.sciencenews.org/article/deer...

Look at this point if Richard Dawkins thinks you've got good ideas about how science needs to be run, you...should look hard in the mirror and reconsider your ideas. www.thetimes.com/uk/science/a...

Hello. It is past 5pm eastern time. It is the time of The Horrors. It is not recommended to be on Bluesky at this time. Why, you ask? Well, you might find that posts are filled with doom, they are sad, hopeful, terrified and fearful. This is people Processing The Horrors.

You can also go to the Feeding America website, put in your zip code and it will give you the largest food bank in your area. Food banks are able to make dollars go farther so putting cash into your local one feeds more members of your community. www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-lo...

If you come into contact with 8 people today, one of those people will be dealing with this. You have no way of knowing which one. www.npr.org/2025/10/24/n...

Already getting some really fun feedback from LNI readers on this newsletter. Let me know how you did! lni.media/p/are-you-sm...

The 24-hour banks are getting hammered. Because their largely unstaffed, they aren't eligible for a lot of grants that require record keeping, but, especially for people newly experiencing food insecurity and feeling ashamed, the anonymity of it means they can get their families fed.

Our neighboring church runs the only 24-hour food bank in the entire county. We're planning a bulk run to the wholesalers tomorrow to resupply them ahead of the GOP SNAPocalypse.

There's a lot of chatter (not just this) on food banks today, because SNAP benefits are not going out Nov 1. That's a CHOICE. apnews.com/article/food... I know many people are not religious, and I get it. But if you are looking for a place to donate, or get food? Churches.

"Agriculture and produce is inherently political. Think of all the things that goes into food: who has access to eat it, to grow it, how it’s kept safe, what companies dominate that market, where it is imported from and exported to, what food is kept to the wealthy and kept away from the poor..."

"Come, Mr. Frodo!’ he cried. ‘I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you and it as well. So up you get! Come on, Mr. Frodo dear! Sam will give you a ride. Just tell him where to go, and he’ll go."