Pretty Ugly Things

Quick timelapse of the snow so far today, still snowing at 12:23pm (now).

A bee with its head covered in golden pollen climbing out from an orange globe mallow flower. I’m no expert in bees but I don’t think this the specialized globe mallow bee, they are more squat and pale.

You got a little something on your face

I know he didn’t know I had expertise, but he damn sure assumed I couldn’t possibly.

(while I was mid-sentence), then (4) clearly INFURIATED that they validated my answer, he whipped around in his chair and put his back to me to work on it more.

It required learning a basic formula. Students paired up to do the problem, and the guy I was working with (1) insisted my answer was wrong because it was different from his, (2) glazed over as I tried to guide him to the correct answer, (3) turned to ask the pair next to us what answer they got…

That respect & “willing to learn from her” thing is so true.

I (white woman) shadowed another instructor when I was teaching college (they required it periodically), I just sat in class and pretended to be a student. The prof happened to be teaching one of my favorite subjects to lecture on!…

Lol I know people are supposed to hate on Mercator for being a distorted basic-bitch projection, but it is cartography 101 that “the appropriate projection is determined by the use case”

An immature Lophiomys imhausi displaying specialized hairs and warning coloration (A) and the same individual (center) with an adult male (top right), and female (top left), from the same trap location. The juvenile is being groomed by the male (B). FROM: J Mammal. 2020 Nov 17;101(6):1680–1691. "The secret social lives of African crested rats, Lophiomys imhausi"

The African crested rat (Lophiomys imhausi) is a rabbit-sized rodent with patterned coat.

They have no natural predators which puzzled scientists because they don't display obvious deterrents to large African predators.

That's when studies found they were packing enough poison to kill an elephant.

Midway through a crucial work meeting, Brad informs Steve that the local pub landlord is in reception and wants to discuss his bar tab.

A piece of the 300 million year old seabed that used to cover this area. The sand ripples are caused, then as they are now, by winds disturbing the waters above. So in some ways this is a preserved breeze from hundreds of millions of years ago. 🌬
County Clare, Ireland.

solidarity with all marginalized people in Kansas.

you are not alone. together we are going to build the better world we all deserve.

Screenshot from a zoom presentation, the slide titled “Legit birds: Subcategories to know” below it outlines Hawk or Some Shit - big, cool birds I can't be expected to differentiate between Falcon? That's a hawk or some shit Vulture? Also a hawk or some shit Raven? You guessed it! That's a hawk or some shit, too TIP: If you see a bird and say "whoa, that's a big bird!” It's a hawk or some shit On the right side of the slide is an image of a hawk or some shit with an arrow labeled “large” pointing at it.

I had to send the Hawk or Some Shit slide to a friend who works for an environmental non-profit and is exasperated with the question “what kind of hawk is that?”

Now science can tell us!

A colorful poster illustration featuring 15 species of animals from the Cambrian period 541-485 million years ago. These are mostly unusual looking invertebrates, such as Hurdia, Wiwaxia, Anomalocaris, Peytoia, trilobites, Marrella, Nectocaris, Hallucigenia, Opabinia, Plectronoceras, Lyrarapax, and Naraoia. An early chordate (Pikaia) is also included. The animals are brightly colored on a dark black background. White numbers with a key label each species.

Creatures of the Cambrian period!

looking forward to taking what i've learned so i can spot a hawk or some shit in the wild

Thanks to technology, bananas are becoming obsolete as pretend phones. The future belongs to the Pop-Tart.

I guess my final thought is that these platforms are pushing a vision of safety on platforms that is ultimately hollow and entirely structured around covering their own butts—not protecting users.

Why would Roblox need to run a face against adverse media? It isn’t a “bad actor detector.” Adverse media is traditionally used to reduce the risk exposure of a financial institution.

I imagine some service could have a database of PEP images given their exposure level. But it would be extremely low priority for the compliance of most business types. PEPs are high risk for activities like bribery and money laundering. Is that happening through Lime?

… but the compliance side of the business has to be like “actually we don’t and can’t do any of that”

Running facial recognition against watchlists? Good luck, watchlists don’t standardly include images. I compiled images when I came across them and had a handful at best.

I find it curious as part of this they claim they are running facial recognition checks against watchlists, PEPs, and etc.

This is the kind of thing the sales/promotion side of this business loves to tout: “look at all the applications! We promise we can do ALL the things with it!”

beginner macro part 1: equipment I learned how to use a camera by taking photos of birds. This was a completely different experience than capturing tiny critters like insects. It took time for me to transition from bird to macro phot...

i got deep into bug photography last year. a couple of bird photographer friends asked about how i do it, so i wrote a four-part series.

said with love: there is more out there than birds. go love bugs. they need us.
weneedtogooutside.com/blogs/main/b...
#bugsky

An slab of polished mineral with tan and dark brown agate-like banding, and wompy irregular edges. Two small knobs stick out from one edge, and are ringed with layers so they look like a crab’s eye-stalks

I was photographing some aragonite (sliced cave formation) and all of a sudden saw 🦀

This image displays a gully that starts at the top and flows down to the bottom into fans of dust in the Terra Sirenum region of Mars. While most of the dust is gray, there are streak of white throughout that could be water ice. The blue hues are due to the far-infrared wavelengths captured by the HiRISE camera and enhanced for human eyes.

#PPOD: This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows white material believed to be dusty water ice lining the edges of Martian gullies in a region named Terra Sirenum. Scientists believe dust particles within this ice act similarly to dust that falls onto glaciers on Earth... 🧪 🔭

This seems as good an excuse as any for a short thread introducing people to some single moths I've found in my area, looking for fun.

1. Here, for starters, is a Canary-Shouldered Thorn Moth (I didn't make this up).

A collection of six ominous bird valentines set against a background of pink hearts. In the first one, a Canada Goose looks angry and hisses and the text says "Baby, I'll make you fall head over heels if you approach within 10m of my nest." In the second, an American white pelican opens its mouth to eat the reader and the text says "There are plenty of fish in the sea, but I want this one." In the third valentine, a Black Vulture looks suspiciously at the reader and the text says "I will love you until you die. And after that, I'll love you even more." A Southern Cassowary stands proudly against the heart-covered background. The text says "My wattles are red. My head is blue. My deadly reputation has been somewhat overblown, but I'd kill for you." In the fifth valentine, a Northern Giant-Petrel stands open-billed next to a large brown furry object, and the text says "Let's seal the deal by sharing a 3000 kg elephant seal carcass." In panel 6, a happy-looking Bearded Vulture holds a bone in its beak, and the text says "I love every part of you, especially your bones."

Ominous bird valentines.

Glacier the skunk is chowing down on an apple in her home at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Until 1993, Glacier would have been in Family Mustelidae with weasels & badgers.

But molecular evidence showed that her ancestors diverged 60 MYA, so she gets her own family: Mephitidae which means, roughly, "stinky."

Large scorpion lit only by black light, roaming pine bark

Pinchy on the hunt 🩵

(lit only by black light)

When sleeping during the day, they just ... don't circulate their blood.

90% of their blood moves into their tiny liver, pulling it out of peripheral tissues for up to 12 hrs.

Tissues become 'deoxygenated', but the glass frog has special adaptations to these long anoxic periods.

This art features 100 bees of various colors and shapes. These bees are designed in a cartoonish style, based on real species. The common name or species is written below the animals. Some bees are moving leaves, scraping plant hair, or sticking out their tongues. Some male bees have hairy faces and unusually shaped legs. There are also baby bees that have just hatched from their petal nests. Cute and colorful atmosphere. There are over 20,000 species of bees, so I only depicted a very small fraction of them!

Bees 🐝

A lovely furry bench in Manaton, Dartmoor

There are over 18,000 types of lichen in existence. My personal favourite is ‘village bench lichen’, which devotes its entire existence selflessly to gradually making communal public seating more furry and comfortable.