Every billboard on Hwy 101 from downtown San Francisco going south (and on the return) is promoting AI. There’s a lot of billboards and maybe saw one that wasn’t AI (but still tech). It was disconcerting.

Shout it loudly!

America has 925 billionaires as of this year. Collectively they have a record $6.9 trillion in wealth. The bottom 50% of Americans control $4.2 trillion in wealth. When 925 people control more wealth than half a country’s population, we have a very serious problem.

Haunting festive presence.

I asked ChatGPT for a good metaphor for using ChatGPT

generationally good insult, awe inspiring

Franklin would like a treat and then some breakfast! “Mom, hey Mom. Mom!” Sound up for digging! @ellen-friedman.bsky.social

another gloomy, cloudy day brightened by the Evening Grosbeaks and some lovely hoarfrost☺️

The days between December 25 and January 1 are the Lanthanides and Actinides of the Gregorian calendar

Mega-rare Christmas miracle bird shows up in Vancouver! A presumed female Taiga Flycatcher found by @ethanmoon.bsky.social is a first for Canada! This bird's typical winter range is a tropical band from central India to eastern China and south to peninsular Malaysia. Birds never cease to surprise.

Today is Septidi the 7th of Nivôse in the year 234. Nivôse is the month of snow. Today we celebrate topsoil.#JacobinDay More information on topsoil

Today is Sextidi the 6th of Nivôse in the year 234. Nivôse is the month of snow. Today we celebrate lava.#JacobinDay More information on lava

Time to tackle the big year-end crossword! 🙄😅

Discworld QOTD, from Hogfather

A selfie on the way back from our lab lunch came out like a Christmas card! Happy holidays from the Palmer lab ☃️🧪

I've got my theory that some people are overworked and miserable. When they see other people make a Conscious Choice not to overwork (and possibly be happier) they need to find a fault in the reasoning, otherwise they would need to admit they are choosing mystery deliberately.

If you’re cold, they’re not cold. Put on more layers and stop whining. Definitely do not bring them inside. If you do bring them in, you’re the meanest dad ever and you’ll be reported to Mom for cruelty and neglect, you monster.

Do you remember the famous #Earthrise photo from #Apollo8? On Christmas Eve in 1968, William Anders turned his camera toward Earth and captured the legendary photo. It showed humans a new perspective, with the moon in the foreground and Earth floating in distant space. 🌎🚀🔭📸 buff.ly/s01u0Ww 📸 NASA.

It always feels like Stephen Cherry is *reading* the bidding prayer rather than *praying* it 🫤 (complained the atheist*) (*terms and conditions apply) #9LC

The Ship of Lost Soles

It’s must be Christmas when…an academic relative remarks that they received an out-of-office reply from research support staff *during Christmas week*…

#ArtAdventCalendar Dec. 23 Crossbills love spruce and pine seeds. In the winter, when the trees are loaded with cones, flocks of crossbills will sometimes arrive in our area. This male White-winged Crossbill has plucked a spruce cone and is very focused on getting out all the seeds! #Birds 🪶

Robin demonstrating correct Christmastime physique (side view) Mortonhall #Edinburgh #birds

Today is Quartidi the 4th of Nivôse in the year 234. Nivôse is the month of snow. Today we celebrate sulphur.#JacobinDay More information on sulphur

on the tramway in Nantes and a pretty old woman gave her seat to a very old woman so I gave my seat to the pretty old woman then a man gave me his seat then a teenager gave a man his seat and then we all laughed, aren't people fantastic

#ArtAdventCalendar Dec. 22 We never thought we’d get to see them living in their own home. But on a recent trip to Kruger Park, South Africa, we were fortunate to see a scene I’ll never forget. The Matriarch appeared out of the bush and slowly led her small elephant herd across the river. #Mammals

'Rewilding' presented as merely another investment opportunity. Capitalism is like a highly corrosive acid, relentlessly seeking to corrupt and neutralise everything that offers ways out of the dead end nightmare IT is creating. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Every winter solstice, at sunrise, the night becomes a cat

Neighbourhood child who drew this, welcome to @thewaroncars.bsky.social

Important end-of-the-year article on government priorities: fight tooth and nail to defend nature-killing activities like the nitrates derogation, do next to nothing to support nature protection or restoration. The result? Species and ecosystems continue to plummet.

My sister-in-law is a political theorist, who has studied the form and impacts of protest through history, including via the use of the human body. She always says that no major advances in rights have ever been achieved through purely peaceful means…

Slime Mold #fungi #slimemold #macro #closeup #closeupphotography #macrophotography #nature #naturephotography

#ArtAdventCalendar Dec. 21 Crow is our friend. She has a damaged wing, but can fly, and has come back to nest in the area, and hang out in our yard, for the last few years. She’s getting a drink and is showing off the subtle iridescence that crow feathers have! #Birds #photography #wildlife 🪶

As we get close to the end of the year I thought I'd repost some of my favorites. These aren't in any particular order, but how could I not start with my absolute favorite of the Kingbird riding on the osprey while carrying a fish? #photography #birds

me waiting for santa

Keep seeing people say that Bob Cratchit would be on £60k per year adjusted for inflation and that Scrooge was better than modern bosses, but, Bob Cratchit was on 15 shillings per week for 60 hours of work. So 75p in new money, but, doing that job now he’d be on 40 hours per week.

Blesséd Yule to everyone. May what you seek to leave behind you slip into the great darkness, and may what you wish to bring with you blossom in the sun’s returning light. Hold fast. The light will return.

shout out the guardian photo editor one time

So, just to confirm, the BBC can’t keep Robin Ince on the air because his trans allyship brings the organisation into disrepute, but they can keep David Walliams, who performed Nazi salutes at the recording of this very show, on the air despite him being predatory towards women. Cool. Very normal.

important

Calgacus, Vercingetorix, Hannibal - early advocates of walkable cities

Merry Solstice to one and all! ☀️

Mosses aside, there are at least 4 different species of epiphytic plants on less than metre of this birch tree. From top down: 1. Polypody fern 2. Broad buckler fern 3. Wood sorrel 4. Hay-scented buckler fern This is rainforest.

Okay, I’m breaking my promise (sorry) because I forgot one of my favourites, which is a Nigerian way of disparaging someone’s intellect that goes “why are you such a Dundee United?” Dundee has been synonymous with being idiotic ever since Dundee United’s disastrous West African tour in the 1970s.

"He made me look he must be a genius." My friend people look at car crashes. So predictably so that the act of doing this even has its own name

The attention economy has everyone moving mad

Spring survivor #ArtAdventCalendar #Photography An overwintered Mourning Cloak butterfly warms up in the early spring sunshine

"Shadwell hated all southerners, and by inference, was standing at the North Pole."

A perfect movie indeed.

A pair of Boobook Owlet's in a a Brisbane park. The chicks tend to be less flighty than adults, choosing the stay-as-still-as-possible tactic. This pair were not well hidden, being on the edge of a path, even though there were plenty of bushy roost trees towards the creek. #birds #wildoz #brisbane