Hoverflies are always one of my favorite insects to watch. #insects #invertefest #pollinators #Syrphinae #diptera

The most realistic scene in DS9 is when Gul Dukat whined about how the Bajorans never erected a statue in his honor. A prophetic text.

Had a dream last night that was the usual mess, but at the end, I was watching a giant polar bear walk toward me, carrying a volcano like a snailshell on its back. “Welp,” I said to the person next to me, “that’s either a god or a Pokemon.”

My favourite tidbit about the Mari Lwyd will always be the folklore collection interview where some guy says "it just gave incredibly annoying people the license to be obnoxious because they were dressed as a dead horse, I'm glad World War I killed it off"

Welsh-language staging of Waiting for Godot at the always about to be reopened maybe disused Llambed railway station

Who knew Andrew Eldritch was singing about Putney and the Thames Barrier?

choo choo, motherfucker

«The more we rely on algorithms, the more we normalize their values: automation, prediction, standardization, and corporate dependency. Eventually these priorities fade from view and come to seem natural—“just the way things are.”» www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

The biggest collection of historic Russian armour outside of Russia is in Finnish museums and store rooms. Something I've seen their senior military leadership occasionally remind their Russian equivalents of. Happy Independence Day to all Finns!

Oh, I’m in this video!

This is insightful Doubly so because it gives us all permission not to debate someone who is loudly and proudly wrong about stories in games. We can just keep telling stories and if some dude wants to bray about how that's not the point of games then that's just like, his opinion, man.

It's amazing how laughable this threat is but you still know there are plenty of people who *would* be panicked by it—low-information, early-career writers, perhaps especially in self-publishing where Yog's Law is already broken and the demand might seem relatively modest

it is very worth having a decent VPN nowadays, because you never know when you're going to need it.

Yep! We’ve been too polite for far too long. It’s time we fought back! Illegal interpretations of the SC ruling need to be challenged.

Trans ban: Good Law Project fights back with legal action against bullies The Good Law Project is warning that organisations’ decisions to exclude trans women could actually be unlawful (ahem, Girlguiding and Women’s Institute). It has now decided to challenge the trans ban. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I think Transactual put it best (in reference to the girl guides) and now Labour too: "There is no problem being solved here, only harm being done." All to appease the right, who hate them anyway - shame on them.

If you are a cis woman attending this conference I'm begging you to get it on the agenda and vote it down. Labour were cowardly over Clause 28. I have bitter memories of the way queer people were thrown under the bus. Don't repeat that disgrace!

Stenodema laevigata, a common Mirid bug found in rough grassland. I photographed this one during our trip to Bicton on Wednesday.

the perfect gift doesnt exi- www.amazon.com/dp/B0CLKVYHRN

The Nobel people should start a football prize and just hand it to some random tennis guy

How 'citizen scientists' helped red squirrels return to Aberdeen. 🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Episode 149 is here! Which we forgot to put on socials because John is at to SMOFcon and I didn't notice. We discuss some upcoming worldcon bids and get slightly derailed by Rutger Hauer. www.podbean.com/ew/pb-tjhfq-...

📢 NEW SPIDER GENUS JUST DROPPED

oh god, the Jan 6th pipe bomb guy was a Brony

tapping the sign

Mererid "The Archdruid' Hopwood did a lecture at our conference in September on AI and Welsh poetry, and you should see the poor thing (Chat GPT Pro or whatever it's called) try to explain cynghanedd

I am not going to deny that AI transcription and translation is improving fast, but as a speaker and researcher in a minority language I am not lookng forward to a bunch of anglophones clicking a button and telling me about my specialism with no ability to check the originals

Super, comprehensive exposition of the Eurovision fiasco by @davekeating.substack.com davekeating.substack.com/p/eurovision...

NHS gatekeepers are telling me that I have to defeat the Witch King of Angmar before they'll prescribe me estrogen

It sure looks like Russian intelligence attempted to use military drones to assassinate the President of Ukraine inside an EU country. Looking forward to more thoughts from Belgium on why freezing Russian assets is an escalatory move that might compromise the peace process.

All I want for Christmas is for "Keep me logged in" box to actually work on Microsoft services.

Today's Child Poverty Strategy leaves thousands of migrant children - 40% of all children in poverty - out in the cold. Every child deserves the same chance to thrive. Poverty is a political choice. The Govt's failure to act for all children falls short of the scale and urgency of the crisis.

Current average recruitment situation

Apparently the decision of the WI to rescind trans inclusion was prompted in part by an internal faction. If I were a cis member of the WI, I would want those bigots named,shamed and shunned. Aggressively promoting transphobia should have social sanctions applied to it.

I have called on the Equalities Minister to withdraw badly written guidance for single-sex spaces to protect everyone's rights and ensure trans people are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Today's burrito: Peanut butter, dill pickle, ground beef, elbow macaroni, blueberries and white cheddar cheese.

idea: before anyone can censor a video game for containing dark topics, they have to watch a video of two average children playing with barbie dolls for an hour.

It's time for a pilgrimage

My bullying story. At the private school that I attended, three boys slammed my face multiple times into the porcelain basin of a toilet. They broke two of my teeth and my nose. "He slipped and fell." They all said in chorus. "He slipped and fell."

Australia, and teenage Olympians and other upcoming sports stars are shuttering their Instagrams, likely impacting funding; or handing them over to “parents” to avoid bans https://alecmuffett.com/article/132775

Your seasonal reminder that Quality Street chocolates are a cash-in on a hit play by J M Barrie, and used to feature the characters on the box. So a bit like people in 2100 buying 2.22 A Ghost Story chocolates every Christmas with Lily Allen on the tin. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality...

🌲 THE BIG CHRISTMAS GIFT THREAD! 🌲 If you are a creator or small shop/business, reply to this post with: - pics and a brief description of what you do (don't forget the alt text!) - a link or details on how people can buy I will boost you! Everyone else: buy the cool things! Repost this post! ⛄

I know my audience here is international, but for the few Indo-based friends, we're trying to adopt out a cat who hasn't been accepted by our other cats. Help/leads on rehoming her is greatly appreciated.

Self-ID for left handed to be ended. Will now require a ten year wait and the opinion of three psychologists. Firstline treatments to include breaking all the fingers on the left hand with a mallet. NHS to offer sinister hand amputation to persistent cases. Move praised by charity Right Matters

P- and S-waves from yesterday’s (23:23:32 UTC 2025/12/03) M3.4 earthquake 3km depth beneath Silverdale Lancashire, UK recorded on my @raspishake.bsky.social in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England (about 130km southsoutheast of the event) ⚒️🧪

🎵❄️🎵 He sees you when you're sleeping He knows when you've just ate He knows full well he's normalizing A mass surveillance state

Crucial is shutting down — because Micron wants to sell its RAM and SSDs to AI companies instead. It’s already getting hard to build an affordable PC, and the exit of the longstanding provider of consumer memory is going to make that even more challenging www.theverge.com/news/837594/...

I'm relaunching Dominion of the Fallen in the US with @awfulagent.bsky.social Magnificent covers by @fringe-element.net Deliciously gothic atmosphere, queer characters from across the world, and high intrigue--in a Paris wrecked by magical cataclysms March 10th, 2026! awfulagent.com/ebooks/the-h...

KEVIN: Good morning, best thing that ever happened to me! ME: I had a dream about a cult leader who was convincing his followers to roam the streets mutilating themselves so I dosed him with shrooms and compiled a soundscape to give someone a really bad trip. KEVIN: …Alrighty then.

this feels like another iteration of the "what if I give a homeless man money and he buys booze" thing. So then he bought booze, so what, you are not his personal life coach. You did your bit now go live your life.