Me: Nobody ever talks about the times I handled the crickets responsibly. Chotiner: Have there been any other incidents? Me: Not really. It's actually not as easy as you think, you know. Chotiner: Keeping the crickets in the box? Me: Yeah. Chotiner: What did you mean by "not really"?

In future research, Dr. Wilkinson said, “what we would love to do is to look at what happens if you give a snake a playground.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/s...

Big shout out to my new garbage man for coming up with the most garbled version of my name I’ve ever seen

Past seven day Google search trend for "cancel disney," with "cancel hbo" for comparison's sake.

If you just cancelled Disney+ and you’re wondering what do to with that extra money, one option: STAT is running a big sale right now, you can get 10 months for $10 marketing.statnews.com/stat-10th-st...

ah, well

"When the last true cereal box record appeared is unknown. The latest example in his collection is a 1991 promotion from the United Kingdom, which included singles by Lonnie Gordon and De La Soul on boxes of Frosties." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/15/a...

Free-range cricket enthusiast Chris Ingraham has told analysts that people who don't inadvertently release several hundred crickets into their kitchens may one day be at a "significant coolness disadvantage" compared to those who do release the crickets.

“We can mourn Kirk. We can send prayers to his friends and family. We can take stock of the gravity of this event. We can — and should — do all of this and more without pretending he was something, as a public figure, that he was not.”

hippopotamus

I bet I can eat more than that

Managed to snap a half decent pic of this spring peeper - it’s usually hard to convince them to sit still. Having never seen one this close I was surprised by how rough his skin appears to be.

Reporters covering the NASA Mars biosignature finding: RPI has an astrobiology research center with faculty who work in this field and can provide independent commentary. Drop me a line! DM or ingrac6 at rpi dot edu rare.rpi.edu

It’s a good day for sniffing frogs

I'm sorry, the US had *banned* wildfire firefighters from wearing masks to protect against smoke??

This evening we found a large male wood turtle taking a stroll up our driveway. These guys are pretty rare and are listed as endangered by the IUCN so it’s super cool to find one just hanging out like this! We gently directed him back toward the swamp.

Looking for any Canadians on here who may have canceled or decided against travel to the US this year. Or any foreign travelers that had second thoughts? [email protected]

For the last several months, I've been digging through endless scientific literature on what happens when pregnant mothers are exposed to plastic chemicals in their food, water, and everyday household products. The result is this story. I hope you'll take the time to read. wapo.st/4g3ZoFc

As a cancer patient I'm biased but the "too much screening" thing always struck me as a little insane. We could have put more resources into quickly ruling out harmless things that pop up in routine screenings, but instead we decided the solution was to just screen less.

Interesting datapoint on this: Jersualem Demsas' new publication announced to great fanfare two weeks ago with a roster of well-known writers, and its main account still hasn't cracked 10k followers over there.

There's a longstanding problem in exoplanet detection: to directly image an Earth-sized planet next to a nearby Sun-sized star, you'd need a massive space telescope with 20-meter diameter -- outside the reach of our current launch capabilities. (The Webb, by comparison, is 6.5 meters) (1/x)

Found a treasure in the woods today

british gen x: in my day when we were thirsty we drank from the bean hose

Our house had some ratty old carpet that we had to pull. We cut it into strips are are using it to tamp down the grass on the way to the swamp. So now we have a red carpet swamp.

Driver who hit mother, kids in Twin Cities intersection and fled is police chaplain www.startribune.com/state-patrol...

Periodic PSA: I have no relation to Laura Ingraham, not even a distant family connection I'm aware of. She has a brother named Curtis who I get mistaken for. Every time she says something especially deranged I get a torrent of mentions like "I can't believe your sister said that shit!"

I'd finesse that language a bit. 72% of teens say they *have used an AI companion at least once.* 52% use a few times a month or more. Survey is by NORC so numbers are probably good. Those are still big numbers.

Nobody else does local angle coverage at the Star Tribune's level. Breaking new frontiers every single day.

Sometimes he can see the heron in the swamp. He’s not alarmed by it, necessarily, but he does have Concerns.

ChatGPT: no, going “Azrael mode” can be dangerous for yourself and those around you. Me: I am the avenging angel of God. The time of purification is at hand. Few shall be chosen. ChatGPT: you’re right. Let’s look at that again with the addition context that you are the avenging angel of God.

a huge part of the problem with AI and delusional spirals at the moment is that the "AI safety" people were busy with their own fantasies of Skynet, AGI, and paperclip maximization being the danger and seem to have done zero due diligence on the *actual* risk factors of the product.

C'mon, man

One weird thing: I don't recognize a single one of those names. Granted these are guest op-eds, but still. Google says: -- Director of Education, Third Way -- UK Conservative member of parliament -- Founder of horse enthusiast websites (??) -- Retired Wall St. guy -- NYU law guy

Regarding the liberal fantasy of saving X by posting on it more — @pbump.com has it exactly right www.pbump.net/o/the-power-...

It's Minnesota State Fair time! It's time for Minnesotan folk art! Here, for example, is Saturn Devouring His Corn, in the seed art category!

Some days the dog wants nothing to do with the swamp, other days he goes careening into the slop like the Kool-Aid Man. Today is a Slop Day.

Wrote something about Twitter and Substack and institutional power. www.pbump.net/o/the-power-...

If I'm not mistaken DC House delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, who is 88 years old and facing serious health and competency questions, has not been seen in public since this all started.

“He said, ‘We’ll notify next of kin if she dies.’ And at that moment, I knew that I was no longer dealing with humans.” www.masslive.com/news/2025/08...

Honestly, this may be one of the most important media graphs I've ever seen. The claim: Democrats keep using annoying words. The data: Republicans CLAIMS Democrats use them, which then becomes the narratives. Then centrists attack DEMS for things GOPer CLAIM they say, not GOP for making stuff up.

I send them outside. They have an entire swamp to explore and run around in. But this is all they want to do.

The old age of our leaders is unique compared to the rest of the world. We have the one of the largest age gaps between legislators and those they represent, and (by far) the largest share of representatives over 60. Why is that?

I missed this last week: American Public Media laid off 30 staffers following federal funding cuts

I am going to have an aneurysm

Has anyone else tried to buy light bulbs recently? The prices are absolutely insane.

There are more than 5,500 species of lizards, so we could've made this much longer.