Historical illustration from 1657 depicting three unicorn-like creatures. The top figure shows a horse-like unicorn with a long, straight horn and a raised front leg, labeled “Onager Wald Esel.” The middle figure is a stocky, muscular unicorn with a thick neck, a straight horn, and a protruding tongue, labeled “Lupus Marinus Meer Wolff.” The bottom figure is a shaggy goat-like creature with curved horns and a unicorn horn on its forehead, labeled “Capra Sylvestris wild Geiß art.” Each creature is set against a simple natural background with smaller animals in the distance. The style is detailed line engraving typical of natural history works.

🦄 Historiae naturalis de quadrupedibus libri: .
Amstelodami: Apud Ioannem Iacobi Fil. Schipper, MDCLVII [1657].

[Source]

Freedom is only a hop away. Can he make it?

Fun to read as my wife and I are literally on the road driving to Carleton to visit our kiddo. This piece really captures the quirky and caring atmosphere.

a man with long white hair and a beard wears a brown vest Alt: a man with long white hair and a beard wears a brown vest

If any more awful men wish to file their resignation from Congress, for heaven’s sake, send them in. I’m quite at my leisure.

Our new Complex Systems Lab website www.complexsystemslab.org is now available. Still under construction, but soon full power with our research areas, publications, teaching, outreach, news and highlights. Stay tuned. @marktas.bsky.social @jordiplam.bsky.social

just to be clear, everyone, when 8 pm EDT comes and goes, regardless of what does or does not happen, the president still threatened genocide and war crimes and we should still impeach, arrest, and try him

Toad shouts to his seeds, trying to get them to grow. From "The Garden" In *Frog and Toad Together*

Toad put his head very close to the ground and shouted, “NOW SEEDS, START GROWING!”

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Fun woodcock trivia: the brain is upside down. Because evolution and the need to have eyes closer to the back of its head and apparently upside down brain is more adaptive than long optic nerves. Or something.

The distribution of power and inclusiveness across deep time Democratic practice in the premodern world was not the exclusive domain of Greece and Rome.

Democracy isn't a modern luxury—it's a political strategy with deep roots.

In our new study for Science Advances, we analyse 40 different societies and develop a framework for measuring human governance along a collective-autocratic axis.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Collections: Against the State – A Primer on Terrorism, Insurgency and Protest This week, continuing in the vein of some of our previous strategy and military theory primers, I wanted to off a basic 101-level survey of the strategic theory behind efforts, in a sense, directed…

Excellent reading to pass along to anybody who thinks violent revolution would be an improvement on our current non-violent protests -- short form is, the success rate of the former is abysmal, the latter very good (and working *very well* right now):

acoup.blog/2026/02/13/c...

Neat geometric patterns in the ice at a local pond

Went for a hike. Saw ice. (The cool kind.) Thoroughly documented was ice was doing with my cell phone.

New in Perspectives Science and Technology Education for Land / Life Assessment (STELLA): Democratizing Remote Sensing Science With Low-Cost Open-Source Instruments for Research and Education By Mirel et al 2025

NASA scientists and engineers have developed low-cost lightweight #RemoteSensing instruments that anyone can build and use to bring remote sensing science to communities beyond traditional professional scientists.

🔗 Learn more in AGU's Perspectives:  buff.ly/tfFIR95

#AGUPubs #STEM #Education

Passages in a tower. Marvelous (and very calm) work by Egbert van der Poel of Delft, who tended more toward catastrophe. He was born on this day in 1621..

Posting this now. #2026MMM starts soon. I am team Honey Badger, and actually I do care. I care very much.

TWO HONORARY MAMMALS ENTER
ONE HONORARY MAMMAL LEAVES

If you are deeply confused, tune in at 7:00 PM CDT for the strange and terrible tale of the #2026MMM That's So Metal Wild Card round. The winner gets to go up against my beloved Honey Badger.

Not just water governance. My bosses want science based on old, simple, well-established methods. Novelty might get you published, but it also might mean the results are less likely to impact policy or practice outside academia.

Thank you! Yes! As a government planner, this is one of my pet peeves. So glad to see this in the literature. I thought maybe it was just me.

U.S. Climate Alliance States United for Climate Action | The U.S. Climate Alliance is a bipartisan coalition of governors securing America’s net-zero future by advancing state-led, high-impact climate action.

Any chance that the UN Foundation will spin up a mechanism for sub-national units of government to participate formally and collectively in IPBES, similar to the IPCC and the United States Climate Alliance? usclimatealliance.org

this is such a classic villain quote

Can you expand on "one of my solar punk communities?" Is there a list or starter pack? How do I sign up? :)

Years do not have plans (that we can share with mere mortals), but I can assure you that we years are not just making sh*t up as we go along. It is definitely not just random carp that you humans selectively remember into a neat personal narrative to create the illusion of order and control.

Hi, I am my teammate's Dad who thought it would be cool to try to throw a fastball to the other teammate's Dad right behind me during the first day of "t-ball," a beginner version of the sport baseball, a game in which men throw a round white rock at each other.

This Upton Sinclair quote never misses

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

Two paperbacks from Taran Hunt's KYSTROM CHRONICLES - THE IMMORTALITY THIEF and THE UNKILLABLE PRINCESS - surrounded by blue, gold and white Christmas decorations.

We do NOT have 8 maids-a-milking but we do have a linguist who could probably tell us why it's 'a-milking' - Sean Wren from @taranhunt.bsky.social 's THE KYSTROM CHRONICLES!

Open to US/CAN/UK & IE only. Like, follow, repost & drop a ☄️in the comments to enter! Ends 11th Jan 2026 23:59 GMT🪐📚💙

☄️

I feel this is probably quite important information. You wouldn't want to get it wrong.

screenshot of tweet saying "who the fuck is playing pokemon in antarctica" with a trade partner in antarctica

photo of me in antarctica playing my switch. adelie penguins are in the background

photo of me in antarctica playing my switch, with pokemon legends z-a. adelie penguins are in the background.

I've waited 3 years to make this post

From invasive species tracking to water security – what’s lost with federal funding cuts at US Climate Adaptation Science Centers The people who manage America’s aquifers, wetlands, shorelines and recreation areas rely on federal science as they face new and rising risks in a changing climate.

You probably heard the US admin is threatening to break up the National Center for Atmospheric Research: but did you know they already froze funding for the 9 regional Climate Science Adaptation Centers? From tracking invasives to helping tribes with drought, here's why the CASCs matter ⬇️