Extinction rarely departs with drama, it slips out the back door while we’re still debating the guest list. These records are made official on the Red List. "Conservation failures are often recognised only once they can no longer be reversed." via @mongabay.com: news.mongabay.com/short-articl...

And detainees are held for much long periods of time than needed so that these companies can charge more and make billions extra. It’s state sanctioned human trafficking.

Fine, whatever, this random cat is your new god of the winter solstice

Happy Holidays Everyone I pulled a decent shot of The Christmas Tree Cluster (upper) and the Cone Nebula (lower) in the constellation Monoceros last night The two objects are collectively known as NGC 2264, they exist ~2,300 ly away #Nature #Astronomy #Christmas #Xmas #AstroPhotography #Holidays

Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate!

"Freedom is All / FTP / Free the People' Seen in Portsmouth, Virginia

“So, yes, a real reckoning with Epstein would mean a real re-thinking of questions of gender, wealth, and power. So be it. Real reckonings are uncomfortable. That’s what it means to come to a reckoning.” www.thebulwark.com/p/screw-it-l...

It feels like every industry--journalism, sports, movies, etc.--is run by businesspeople who neither enjoy nor consume the thing they run.

Happy Solstice! www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbCM...

67 Senators could remove RFK Jr. today but there aren’t 67 Senators who care about Americans’ lives, health, or wellbeing. Babies will die. Our leaders hate us.

Does anyone wanna see a really good Getty image of Rita Moreno and Sam The Eagle having dinner in 1979?

Ursid meteor shower 2025: The longest night of the year approaches. On Dec. 21-22, keep an eye out for "shooting stars" as the annual Ursid meteor shower peaks. www.livescience.com/space/meteor...

People have been marking winter solstice for a very long time. Some 7,000 years ago, the people who built Goseck in Germany aligned the site's entrances to face sunrise and sunset at this darkest time of year. An ancient honouring of the return of the light. (Pic © LDA Sachsen-Anhalt, Gert Pie)

#Poets, did you publish a book in 2025? The Poetry Society of Virginia's North American Book Award is accepting submissions until Jan. 15. Guidelines can be found at the link below.You do not need to be a Virginia resident to apply. #callforsubmissions poetrysocietyofvirginia.org/napbaguideli...

Of course.

The latest issue of The Virginia Writers Project is out, including a memory of summer from yours truly to warm you up during the colder days. Thanks to editors Ray Griffin and Diana Kincannon. online.fliphtml5.com/dxvtw/prxj/#... [pp.32-33]

My investigators are back with more on our follow the money investigation into Epstein. Here’s a thread for anyone interested in learning about another major Epstein mystery:

The Trump Administration just launched its most devastating attack yet on the #EndangeredSpeciesAct, prioritizing economic concerns over science. The ESA is our nation’s most effective wildlife protection law. Use this ESC tool to take action: endangered.quorum.us/campaign/148...

The dismantling of NCAR should be the trending story on Bluesky, not the fucking Oscars leaving ABC for YouTube.

An absolute bedrock institution for understanding how the planet works, just civilization-scaled vandalism by the most incurious morons on Earth

Just out of curiosity, do I have a large gap in my historical knowledge about oil, land, and assets that Venezuela took from the United States? Sometimes my mind wanders in class so it is totally possible

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No parent wants this text. Thinking of the Brown University community.

Last week I visited Duddo Five Stones, aka the Singing Stones, for the first time - wow! Beautiful weathered megaliths crowning the hill, with Northumberland spreading far and wide, and the Cheviots on the horizon. The stones even whistled for us! Very nice indeed #StandingStoneSunday

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Post your favorite Star Trek character, wrong answers only.

Steve Bannon being friends with Jeffrey Epstein after spending years doing his whole populist, “down with the elites” bullshit is so funny. These entire movement is just criminals, liars, and sex offenders.

Since entering office, the Trump administration has encouraged the public multiple times to send in tips about people who are not aligned with its agenda or ideology. In effect, it's priming the public to police each other. #Velshi

BTW, this is a great day to close your Disney+ accounts. Yep, Hulu included. ESPN too. They are ok with feeding you IP AI slop (which is different and much worse than their usual IP slop), so best let them know quickly how you really feel about that.

🧵 On universal #healthcare. Some helpful and not-so-helpful thoughts throughout the discussion.

🌿💕🌿Green Man - by Brian Froud #FairyTaleTuesday #WyrdWednesday #LegendaryWednesday #FolkyFriday #FolkloreThursday #FolkloreSunday

It was believed that Ty’n-y-seler, a Standing Stone (Menhir) near Margam, Port Talbot, S Wales " goes each Christmas morning before cockcrow to drink in the sea ...." as reported in Thomas Grey's book, "The Buried City of Kenfig’" (1909) 1/2 #FolkloreThursday

Mood www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYe...

The EPA has removed references about humans causing climate change from its website. No US government website can be trusted for science information.

Waste. Fraud. Abuse.

Kimmerer called mosses the "coral reefs of the forest." Here are a few from my recent ramble in the Great Dismal Swamp in #Virginia.

❄️Join us for our annual Holiday Party on Fri, Dec 12, 5-9pm! ⚡️In the auditorium we will have an open mic at 5:30pm, finishing off the night with The Muse Neighborhood Jam from 7-9pm! The Back Bay Astronomers will be set up outside with telescopes to view the stars and planets.

#Virginia parents and teachers, check out this opportunity from the Poetry Society of Virginia for young writers. #callforsubmissions #poetry

Movie you've watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars, LOTR, or Marvel.

TIL about a memorial ceremony in Iceland in 2019 to mark the end of a glacier, changing the place name from Okjökull to Ok (jökull = glacier). Uncompromising wording on the bronze plaque: "This is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it".

The first known use of ‘conspiracy theory’ was in 1863…or so they want you to believe.

Heartbreaking. The University of Nebraska will terminate its entire Earth science department. One of the country's most successful and respected geology & climate programs: gone. When ideologues & politicians are threatened by the very act of studying climate change, I wonder: who of us is next?

It starts with knowing the truth. Don’t allow yourselves to be gaslit into believing this is a real question.

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They’re killing people as a twitter joke. It’s depraved. Can’t let yourself lose the capacity to be appalled and disgusted and outraged by this.

Each time, the found world surprises - that is its nature. Jane Hirshfield

imagine US political culture if Ford hadn't pardoned Nixon, and instead he went to jail