🦀 for the feed
Scuba, nerdery, science, and what makes people tick. Expat Brit in Canada. Pics mine unless otherwise credited.
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🦀 for the feed
The Ig Nobels are out! arstechnica.com/science/2025...
Maybe he could go home, and we could get an ambassador who's less whiny, less entitled and less stupid. I'm not sure that we would, though.
Although on second thoughts they might be Yellow Pygmy Gobies (L. exiguus).
A classic #macro subject... golden gobies (Lubricogobius ornatus) in a bottle. They have probably laid eggs inside. Local dive guides frequently leave bottles at dive sites so they can do this, as they're very tolerant of photographers. #UnderwaterPhotography #MarineLife 🐟🌿
Kinda makes me think of the Talisker Dark Storm marketing... very similar vibe.
ah, well
Yeesh. #DiveSky Although I should also note that Corryvreckan is an excellent dram, if Islay malts are your thing.
Yes, if you're looking towards the Speaker's Chair, as in this pic.
Thanks! They'll be coming as I get round to them. IIRC you helped me figure out the hellfire anemone a couple of weeks ago...
A vital corrective to the Charlie Kirk hagiography, from Ta-Nehisi Coates: www.vanityfair.com/news/story/c...
Cool space news: one of the biggest black holes in the universe is doing something WEIRD! You probably remember this picture, the first ever image of a black hole, in the galaxy M87. What you’re really seeing here is the disk of gas around the black hole. (1/n) 📸: EHT Collab.🧪🔭
Well, you'd have been closer than me, because I thought it was a siphonophore of some sort :)
Thanks. I suspect there's quite a few folks wondering whether their local MP needs a reminder of what Charlie Kirk actually said and did.
We really need more clarity on the rules. I mean, if you choose pink, can you go to a Chinese or Indian restaurant, or is that cheating?
Do we have a reliable list of who participated in that and who didn't? I haven't been able to find anything.
You're at well over just one at this point :) I love seeing these things and taking pics of them, but I love them even more when I know what they are!
I had no idea what this was... but since @echinoblog.bsky.social has been posting doliolids for #TunicateTuesday all day... now I do! I think this looks like the nurse stage. Crappy pic, but it's the best I've got... from Balayan Bay, Anilao. #MarineLife 🌿
Happy Pythagorean triple day (9/16/25) y'all's
What a masterpiece. Absolute chaos - couldn't have designed it better mysefl. If you’re English, you know.
Connected through there once. "We'll be there at midnight on a Saturday... how busy can it be?". We found out. Never again, if I can possibly avoid it.
Use of the word "evil" in official congressional e-newsletters, over time, by party
A friend of mine was on Charlie Kirk's "watch list" of Black professors. She received so many death and rape threats that her university offered her a security detail for the walk to class. This is Kirk's legacy. You would never know it from reading all of these legacy newspaper op-eds about him.
congrats to all the media outlets carrying on charlie's work of silencing speech www.404media.co/behind-the-b...
It's not only that Republicans like Greg Abbott are lying that they don't want political violence. Greg Abbott pardoned the convicted murderer of a Black Lives Matter protestor- a guy who texted "I'm going to shoot a protestor" and then did so. Pardoned. Greg Abbott actively encourages violence.
Thanks!
I dunno. All we need is a pronouncement from Trump that eating tofu is very patriotic and something all red-blooded Americans should be doing, and domestic consumption will more than make up for it, right? Full disclosure: I'm not entirely sure whether I'm joking or not.
A larval shrimp, I think? It certainly looks shrimpy, but not normal shrimpy, if that makes any sense. Pic from a #blackwater dive in Balayan Bay, Anilao #MarineLife 🌊🌿 #Invertebrates
Feels like the world is burning so time for weird jellyfish facts 🧵
I once tried to explain cricket to a Canadian while we got through a bottle and a half of port. Work was a struggle the next morning, and he still doesn't understand cricket.
#MarineLife
EVERYONE STOP cheese wheel of cheeses
Get off Twitter NOW. Like literally right now. Delete it from your devices.
So... do males compete over females that they think are about to moult? And also, how often does that happen?
Still checking all the buttholes I see. Still no joy, alas. I really hope nobody quotes this out of context.
Octopus news: I'm not sure how "handedness" works when you have arms, and eight of them, but... apparently it does. 🦑 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Saturday night crab-posting... A tiny crab living on a sea cucumber. I think it's probably Lissocarcinus orbicularis, but.. IDing these guys is hard. #MarineLife 🦀🌿
Yup. This. It's not even slightly problematic for them.
Canadians stand with Rachel Gilmore. The Conservative government, whose actions and rhetoric have put her in harm’s way, must take responsibility and act immediately to ensure her safety. This injustice cannot be ignored, and it must be rectified. NOW. #IStandWithRachel
Need some motiv-ocean to leap into the weekend? 🐟 Leaping blennies are amazing amphibious fish who can launch themselves off rocks and into the air up to 50 times their body length. 🌊 These extraordinary terrestrial fish shore do know how to make a splash, both in and outside the water!
A ringtail cardinalfish (Ostorhinchus aureus), Anilao. They are mouth-brooders, and this one has a clutch of eggs. The photo was taken as it opened its mouth to rotate the eggs and circulate fresh water through them. #MarineLife 🌊🐟🌿
Cutest larval anglerfish EVER!
I like to think that I know quite a bit about fish at this point, but I am forever reminded that when it comes to fish, you can never know everything. So for today's #FishOfTheWeek let's talk about a reproductive strategy that I spent an entire day studying when I did learn about it 1/7
Amidst a crazy time, the cutest arthropod I've ever found in my garden, a candy striped leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea). Is he eating my cilantro? 🌱 Yes. Will I stop him? No 🥰
I've been managing BHL's #Bluesky account for 4 months now. It's an honour to share such beautiful & significant content, particularly at this critical time. BHL's future is uncertain, but hopeful. Follow along @biodivlibrary.bsky.social & on the #BHLblog: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/tag/transition
Mentally saying "Wed-Nes-Day" when writing the word Wednesday.
Biology Department xkcd.com/3140/
![Comic. [Building with large sign in front of it[ SIGN: Welcome to the *Biology Department* It has been [changeable sign: 3] days since we discovered something existentially horrifying about bugs that makes you question your whole reality](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreigvmzverlrjgqp4mazbkhm43fpvv2hdbkd2t2646dhihozrwdcy24@jpeg "Click to view full size")
I know Charlie Kirk valued debate and free speech because he blocked me for fact-checking his lies on Twitter and then put me on his organization's Professor Watchlist for writing a book he didn't like.
I had no idea that the crabs were doing that!
i wrote this post in july two years ago when blue sky had around 200,000 total users and i thought i would ask again tell me what u are doing be proud of what u do and share it here
rarely have I more acutely felt the dynamic by which Dems are held responsible for the rhetoric of every random left-leaning person on the internet and Republicans are not even asked to answer for their own personal words
This. Times a thousand. Again and again.
thanks!
I've never seen one either, alas, and I'd love to. Also 🦀 for the feed :)
Posting pics of cool stuff I've seen underwater. Like this! bsky.app/profile/xeno...
When Minnesota Democratic State Representative Melissa Hortman was murdered in her home by a gun toting MAGA maniac less than 90 days ago they said nothing. Trump even skipped her funeral and chose to play golf instead. He had the chance to condemn political violent and did not.
Not uncommon, but always beautiful; the ever flappy-flappy #pelagic #SeaButterfly #Pteropod, Corolla spectabilis. This one is feeding, as can be seen by the mucus net that it’s currently reeling in. #corollaspectabilis #plankton #blackwater #blackwaterdiving #gug #chrisgug #gugunderwater #ocean
There’s a way to be respectful in reporting on Charlie Kirk being shot while also refusing to whitewash who he was and what consequences his political activism has had. Obituaries for public figures are a part of history.
Ribbon eel (Rhinomuraena quaesita), Anilao. Always love seeing these guys - the nose-trumpets make me smile every time. #MarineLife 🌿🐟
This is what happens when the government gets sufficiently corrupt and people get sufficiently pissed off with it.
Yup. This. These things are useless if the spammers and astroturfers can take them over.
How pretty is this Cnidarian polyp! Like a little burst of gorgeous. #marineplankton 🦑
*sigh*. Why does it not surprise me in the least that it was the Fifth?
You have GOT to read this forensic breakdown of Trump’s birthday card to Epstein, which his flak continues to deny is his. With cameos from Trump’s letters to @hillaryclinton.bsky.social and @gtconway.bsky.social, and word-parsing about “enigma” and “a wonderful thing” www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...
A juvenile pipefish. I believe the long filaments probably mimic siphonophores, but I'm no expert on this stuff. Pic from Balayan Bay, Anilao #MarineLife 🐟🌿
Not sure if anyone asked this previously, but what about the single-judge divisions that pretty much guarantee an ideologically-compliant judge by filing in the right place? It'd be great if we could destroy that boondoggle too...
In July 2023, Blue Ant Media, the Canadian company behind Animalogic, asked to use my pre-existing images for their crab video. I quoted USD60, they said yes, will pay within the month of contract. I sent my images before the payment anyway because I vaguely know the people there. They never paid.
I have not the foggiest idea, but I would also like to know. I'd also like to know what happened to the white thing. Was it consumed, or merely trampled underfoot (or undertentacle, or whatever those things are)
Excellent Open substack by @asharangappa.bsky.social Making Sense of MAGA
I think a big factor here is that much like AOC, it feels like his opponents didn't take him seriously until he'd done a hell of a lot of groundwork and established himself with the electorate.
Sadly, yes.
Yup. Nominative determinism is always fun when it crops up!
Definitely worth the trip. No big stuff, but a ton of little things
Timeline cleanse: something orange that you actually want to read about #MarineLife 🐟🌿 www.cbc.ca/radio/asitha...
An anemone shrimp (I think Ancylomenes holthuisi) dances on the tentacles of a tube anemone, Anilao #MarineLife #Invertebrates 🌿
Snorkelling in the British Isles! 🤿 💙 Great photo by Ben Lamming taken at Orlock Point, Northern Ireland. 📸: (instagram.com/ben.lamming_photo) #BSACdivers #divewithus #snorkeling #snorkelling #freediving #freediver #ukdiving #ukdivingrocks #coldwaterdiving
Salps, a clear, gelatinous ocean animal, use jet propulsion to glide through the water without leaving insight into how they move. With harmless green dye, former MIT-WHOI Joint Program graduate student Kelly Sutherland was able to study salp locomotion at the Liquid Jungle Lab in Panama.
Yellowtail fangblenny (Meiacanthus atrodorsalis), Anilao #MarineLife 🐟🌊🌿
Here's the #InverteFest art book August 2025 cover posted in full - how many species can you identify in this piece? I'll post the answer later when I have the time to annotate the image.
Reposting for #Invertefest, because I haven't got a decent ctenophore pic that I haven't posted before #MarineLife 🌿
"The shells are attached dead, although there is one account of a live kitten's paw being attached in an aquarium." Don't ask how long it took me to get past the initial "WTF" and figure out what they were actually talking about here. I know they explain but my train of thought just... derailed
It's #Invertefest, it's Saturday night, so... here's a couple of nudibranchs who are having a very good Saturday night indeed! Chaimberlain's nembrotha (Nembrotha chamberlaini), Anilao #MarineLife 🌿
*waves* Now I do it with celebrities and thoroughly embarrass myself when I try to talk about them.
I love the way things just appear and vanish as they swim through the plane of focus. it's delightfully weird.
This little shrimp larva is definitely the winner of the backstroke competition this week! #marinebiology 🦑
Of the many writers to predict AI, only Douglas Adams got the tone right
A repeat for #Invertefest, because I haven't seen any flatworms yet this time around! #MarineLife 🌿
These (annoyingly) probably come under the category of "they have seen me, but I have not seen them"
I think stuff like this is one of the use-cases where AI can actually be useful to point you in the right direction. We definitely need the humans though... the problem is that I don't have enough knowledge to recognize when the AI gets it wrong, and so I'm sure as hell not going to trust it.
I love the fact that you can chat to global authorities on things here :) Meg was telling me some cool stuff about tube anemones a while back...
Thanks!
Today... something I can definitely identify! A hairy squat lobster (Lauriea siagiani)... and since it's #Invertefest, we shouldn't forget to mention the giant barrel sponge that it lives on (the pink background in the photo). Pic from Anilao #MarineLife 🦀🌿
And definitely didn't try touching it :) Almost always a bad idea when diving... if you don't damage yourself you'll probably damage whatever it was you just prodded.
I was totally unfamiliar with anemones having tentacles that look like miniature broccoli... I've only ever really seen them with relatively smooth ones.
Ya, that was what the AI on iNat suggested now that I've just posted my pic there :) And it definitely looks right.
🦀 #Invertefest
Anilao, Philippines. And probably at around 10-15m deep, if that helps
TBH, given how often the context is "President Cankles", that seems to be a reasonable conclusion.
This one is only for Blueskyers of a certain age.
