oh dear, first I read that as “margarita“ then “migraine” 😅

Duh, no. It’s a wind instrument.

A miniature posy of real spring flowers in a thimble

Thankyou *so* much for your support of my ko-fi in the last few days, it’s helped more than you know. Here’s a seasonal posy in a thimble (all real flowers from the garden), including forget me not, sorrel, geum & lily of the valley. Spot the cow parsley floret 🌿

You're looking at velvet malachite, Cu2CO3(OH)2.

A few warnings:
Please resist the urge to touch it to feel how soft it is.
Absolutely /do not/ lick it.
Keep far away from any Supermen.
If a wingéd creature emerges, do not agree to any pacts.

Let's talk about the science here.

Report details tetanus in 4 unvaccinated US kids, including refusal of post-exposure prevention

Remember the unvaccinated boy who contracted tetanus in 2017, hospitalized for months at a cost of almost $1M? The boy who was a patient of (former) antivax doctor Paul Thomas?

He's not the only recent case. 4 kids, unvax'd, none received immunoglobulin when symptoms developed. Those poor kids.

Frog, ever the know-it-all, points out all the shortcomings of Toad's housekeeping. It is true, though, that Toad's house is a mighty mess, including a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. From "Tomorrow" In *Days with Frog and Toad*

“Your windows need scrubbing,” said Frog. “Your plants need watering.”

“Tomorrow!” cried Toad. “I will do it all tomorrow!”

VERY COOL PERSON: It's four-twenty, you know what that means?

ME: Hell yeah! [starts shoving blackbirds into a pie]

Aren’t they great? 😅

A photo of a rosy veincap growing from a mossy log. The mushroom’s cap is pink with a wrinkled texture. It has a drop of blood red liquid at its base.

Behold the rosy veincap! This species, which is considered inedible, is the only fungus in its taxon. It has a wide range & can be spotted worldwide, including in parts of N. America, Africa, Europe, & Asia. Have you ever seen one?
Photo: Dan Molter, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

When you use AI to do your writing, you are telling your audience: “I deserve your attention, but you do not deserve my effort.”

a man standing in front of the eiffel tower holding something in his hand Alt: a man standing in front of the eiffel tower holding something in his hand, holding it up in the photo as though he were holding it in his palm.

Here's a fact you can't un-know:

The strongest organism on the planet, pound for pound, is Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

The bacterial pathogen that causes Gonorrhea can 'lift' 100,000X its own body weight. That's like a human lifting the Eiffel Tower.

Let's explore how the heck we can even know that.

An embroidered skeleton in a gold coffin shaped mount against a green wall

Today has been a day of editing, watched over by this very sweet we chap from @crimsonpins.bsky.social

Oh god I just looked it up 🫣

A display of a well preserved object resembling a bucket, with a triangular handle and rough, decayed texture. The object is mounted upright in a glass case within a modern museum setting.

A Neolithic well bucket made of lime bast and a willow handle, dating back some 7000 years ago.
Lime bast fibre is a strong and flexible inner bark of a lime (linden) tree that was, for example, used to make textiles or ropes.
Found in a well in Eythra, dating 5100-5000 BC. 🧵1/2

📷 me

Say no to Generative AI Art Buy art from real degenerates

Off to make some Human Art 🤘🏼

A close-up photo of a beluga whale. The animal is pale white in color, with a somewhat domed head.

Meet the beluga whale! Known as the “canary of the sea,” this social animal uses sounds—including whistles, clicks, and chirps—to communicate & navigate the open ocean. Since it's so reliant on sound, noise pollution is one of its greatest threats.
Photo: azure27014, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

Iris Long, Scientific Mentor to AIDS Activists, Dies at 92

"She tutored the activists on immunology and virology and schooled them in the intricacies of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process and pharmaceutical research protocols."

[Gift article]

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/h...

Revisiting now that I finished the book and have had some time to digest it. If Persepolis captured my parents’ generation and story, this one captured mine and the future I hope for my children ♥️ #BookSky #Iran #Tehran

Creating baby geniuses to thwart the AI threat? (Yes, really.) The new wave of Silicon Valley–backed gene-editing startups is straight out of “Brave New World.”

Creating baby geniuses to thwart the AI threat? (Yes, really.) www.motherjones.com/politics/202... - smart people being really stupid about intelligence

My photo shows a frontal view of a buff-coloured Minoan pottery jug with a dark-red, stylised octopus painted beneath the dark red pouring spout. The jug has a rounded body with very short neck with out-turned rim, the body tapers downwards to a slightly turned out flat base also painted red. On each shoulder there’s a small chunky loop handle. The octopus is stylised and looks cartoon-like with a vertical dumbbell shaped body, with two large circular eyes with central red dots staring out at the viewer. From the top of the head emerge eight suckered arms. Four arms hang symmetrically downwards on each side of the body, writhing and curling at the tip. There is a similar red octopus on each side of the jug not shown in my photo.

A 3,500 year-old Minoan jar with a cartoon-like octopus under the spout! 🐙

From Kommos, Crete. Heraklion Archaeological Museum 📷 by me

#Archaeology

The photo shows a wooden model of a cow giving birth accompanied by two men. One man calms the cow while the other ensures a proper delivery.The calf emerges from his mother, licking the hand of the man.

Models of everyday life were deposited in #Egyptian tombs. They were supposed to support the deceased in the afterlife. One of the most charming examples is the model of a #cow giving birth.
Carved in wood, painted.
Probably from Meir, #Egypt, dating c. 2040-1985 BC.

📷 Royal Ontario Museum
🏺

A tombstone designed to look like a library catalog card. It has a hole punched through it because catalog cards used to be held in the drawers by a rod.

#NationalLibrarianDay Thomas Mann, who was a librarian at The Library of Congress, designed a catalog card gravemarker to mark his resting place at D.C.'s Congressional Cemetery.

gravelyspeaking.com/2024/10/31/b...
#TheVIctorianBookoftheDead

The Charm Patterns Drama Club Cape.

I have literally always been a fan of this look from Charm Patterns and would get it made in black (lined in grey) with pants, but I can't sew, do not have the time to learn how, and can't afford to have anyone do it for me, so oh well.

charmpatterns.com/shop/drama-c...

not many people know this, but Barilla has a line of 3D printed pasta it sells mostly to the fine dining industry. I don't want the pasta. I want the pasta printer

Seeing that post right above this post def made it look less like a bonnet and more like a halo/nimbus/aureole/etc.

bsky.app/profile/jess...

Chubby bunny, pudgy bunny, chubby buddy, all sorts of names for it.

Just woke up to my toddler squeezing my cheeks, demanding, “Say chubby bunny.”

Good morning, I guess 😳 #TinyJoys

yikes 😳 this is why I use ## as a placeholder or a “come back and flesh this part out”

Black dress with gigot sleeves, long skirt, satin sash, lace yoke.

Side view of a black dress with gigot sleeves, long skirt, satin sash, lace yoke.

#TheVictorianBookoftheDead Aesthetic mourning dress, c. 1895-1899. Second mourning, indicated by a lace yoke and sleeves and the shiny satin sash. The drooping gigot sleeves and Watteau back drape suggest Aesthetic movement style cues.
digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/m... [more photos at link]

A picture of a library shelf with a small rolled up note on it. The note says “read this” in child’s handwriting.

A picture of the note unrolled. In the same child’s handwriting it reads “beware of the future!!”

Still thinking about this note I found in the children’s section of the public library when I worked there back in 2018. This kid tried to warn us…