Slnieckar
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slnieckar.bsky.social
Slnieckar
@slnieckar.bsky.social
250 followers 400 following 760 posts
Birds, books, and Bach.
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Reposted by Slnieckar
asls.org.uk
The Man Who Gave Away His Birthday – a Useless Information podcast

Robert Louis Stevenson was born #OTD, 13 Nov – but it’s not, strictly speaking, his birthday: in 1891 he gave the day to Annie Ide, the 14-year-old daughter of the US Commissioner to Samoa
1/5
uselessinformation.org/annie-louisa...
The Man Who Gave Away His Birthday - Podcast #108
When Robert Louis Stevenson learned that Annie Ide disliked her Christmas birthday, he gave her his birthday. The story includes an interview with Heather Finn, the woman who inherited his birthday.
uselessinformation.org
November 13, 2025 at 12:39 PM
slnieckar.bsky.social
Good one.
allthegalaxies.galaxyzoo.org All the Galaxies! @allthegalaxies.galaxyzoo.org · 12d
A spiral galaxy, observed with the Apache Point 2.5m Telescope in the SDSS survey.

It is at redshift 0.028 (lookback time 397.0 million years) with coordinates (169.56950, 28.26044).

32 volunteers classified this galaxy in Galaxy Zoo 2.
A spiral galaxy from the Galaxy Zoo 2 project, classified by 32 volunteers.
November 1, 2025 at 9:23 PM
slnieckar.bsky.social
I finished a modest eight books this month, five as part of my month’s topic of POC SF/F (plans went slightly agley). Seven by women/POC altogether, three in German, none finished in Portuguese (another fairly long one on the go).
chinese-poems.com/blog/?p=2938
Cover of Das gute Übel, by Samanta Schweblin: it's a Time War-esque blue and red hare motif.
November 1, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
cephalopodsdaily.bsky.social
The Vampire Squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) is the spookiest cephalopod. Despite its name, it is neither vampire nor squid. They are more closely related to octopuses, but are their own thing.

They are also the only cephalopod that doesn't hunt live prey, eating detritus instead.

#OCTOtober
A vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) swimming and contorting its arms to hide its cute little face. Its fins are mid flap, and it has big blue eyes. It is dark red and is covered in tiny white photophores. A vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) swimming away to the left. It has pinkish orange skin and blue eyes. It's fins are flapping and arms are extended behind it and partially curled inwards. Webbing is in between the arms and cirri are visible on its arms. A vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) swimming to the right in dark water surrounded by marine snow. It has dark red skin and blue eyes. Its arms are extended behind it. In between its arms is dark beige webbing. One of long feeding filaments is extended. A vampire squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis) floating in the ocean, surrounded by white specks of marine snow. The vampire squid is a pinkish orange with blue eyes. Its arms are spread out with translucent webbing in between, and its fins are mid flap.
October 31, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
privateeyenews.bsky.social
Minority representation on TV causes outrage

From the new Private Eye, in shops now.
October 29, 2025 at 12:01 PM
slnieckar.bsky.social
Before another Pacific island nation defeated me yesterday:

Worldle - Stats
🎮 Played: 169
🏆 Win Ratio: 95.9%
⚡️ Strikes: 99
🔢 Average Number of Guesses: 2.0
🔥 Current Win Streak: 50 (Fortgeschritten)
💯 Max Win Streak: 50 (Fortgeschritten)
📏 Average Best Distance: 56km
worldle.teuteuf.fr/play
Worldle - Guess the Country
A daily geography game where you guess the country from its shape and get clues with every attempt. Play daily or explore the archive.
worldle.teuteuf.fr
October 25, 2025 at 5:56 AM
Reposted by Slnieckar
rosemarymosco.com
Halloween costume ideas for birders.
A comic called halloween costume ideas for birders. In panel 1, labeled easy, there's a person labeled northern cardinal wearing a party hat, a beak, and red clothes, and a person labeled roseate spoonbill wearing pink clothes and a wooden spoon on their nose. In panel 2, labeled harder, there's a person labeled merlin sound ID wearing a big green circle with a microphone modeled after the button on the merlin sound ID app, and a person labeled hybrid green x blue jay wearing a complex costume with a mask and robe and hat modeled after a recently discovered hybrid bird. In panel 3, labeled challenging, there's a person labeled baltimore oriole nest wearing an enormous accurate woven oriole nest suspended from their arms and shoulders, and a person labeled african jacana carrying chicks with a hideous costume of long-toed bird feet hanging from their armpits. In panel 4, labeled hot, there's a person labeled high quality spotting scope who is shirtless and is wearing a spotting scope mask on their head, and a person labeled sexy owl pellet wearing an owl pellet top and bottom with a mouse skull on their head.
October 23, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
c0nc0rdance.bsky.social
The giraffe weevil (Trachelophorus giraffa) is native to the forests of Madagascar.

They show a strong sexual dimorphism: males (left) have elongated necks compared to females (right). This long neck is used in mating displays and challenging other males.
Giraffe-necked weevils (Trachelophorus giraffae) are almost invariably found on the leaves of Dichaetanthera cordifolia, on which they feed. The male's long 'neck' is adapted for rolling a leaf to make an egg case in which the female (which has a shorter neck) lays a single egg. CREDIT: Frank Vassen - Flickr: Giraffe Weevil, Andasibe, Madagascar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraffe_weevil#/media/File:Giraffe_Weevil,_Andasibe,_Madagascar.jpg CREDIT: "I, Axel Strauß" "Trachelophorus giraffa, female, Ranomafana, Madagascar" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giraffe_weevil#/media/File:Trachelophorus_giraffa_female_02.jpg
April 16, 2024 at 11:27 AM
Reposted by Slnieckar
solarisbooks.bsky.social
"A thunderous, visceral, Sapphic fever dream of a book" @rebeccaroanhorse.bsky.social

"Furious and staggeringly beautiful" @amalelmohtar.com

🎉🎂 Happy UK Book Birthday to August Clarke's Lammy Award-winning novel METAL FROM HEAVEN, out in the UK today!

Buy now 👉 geni.us/metalfhe
Against a purple fabric background, a paperback copy of August Clarke. Silver chains and scattered crystal stars fan out from the book. The white Solaris logo is in the bottom right corner.
October 23, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
ursulakleguin.com
Congratulations to Vajra Chandrasekera (@vajra.me), recipient of the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction for Rakesfall!

Chandrasekera's book was chosen by authors Matt Bell, Indra Das, Kelly Link, Sequoia Nagamatsu, and Rebecca Roanhorse.
Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera, with the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction sticker on the cover Vajra Chandrasekera, photo by Sanjeewa Weerasinghe. The author sits at a white table, arms resting in front of him, wearing a tan jacket and a white shirt.
October 21, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
theguardian.com
Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualised
Bird migration is changing. What does this reveal about our planet? – visualised
Bird migrations rank as one of nature’s greatest spectacles. Thanks to GPS tracking, scientists are uncovering extraordinary insights into ancient and mysterious journeys – and new threats that are reshaping them.
www.theguardian.com
October 16, 2025 at 8:32 AM
slnieckar.bsky.social
Ich muß das Hörbuch ergattern, wenn es erscheint!
buchpreis.bsky.social Deutscher Buchpreis @buchpreis.bsky.social · Oct 13
Der Deutsche Buchpreis 2025 geht an Dorothee Elmiger für „Die Holländerinnen“ @hanserliteratur.bsky.social - wir gratulieren 🎉

Foto © Christof Jakob
Dorothee Elmiger
October 13, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
schmidtocean.bsky.social
In celebration of World Octopus Day, we wanted to revisit one of our favorite cephalopod sightings, the glass octopus — Vitreledonella richardi filmed during a month-long #PhoenixIslandsCoral expedition in 2021.
October 8, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
davembmd.bsky.social
This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. @aptshadow.bsky.social @abraham.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
noreenmasud.bsky.social
underrated pleasure of having cats:

putting any rubbish that enters your house in the middle of the floor, and then leaving the room. knowing full well that, when you return an hour later, they will 100% be perched uncomfortably upon it
black cat perched upon a tiny box. there are two very comfy cat beds in the background which obviously he is not sitting on close up of black cat sitting on box and not on the comfy cat beds behind him
October 5, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
jeffvandermeer.bsky.social
Portland enacts emergency powers of nudity to check federal overreach.
Emergency World Naked Bike Ride planned in Portland, with blurred photi of naked bicyclists.
October 1, 2025 at 9:37 PM
slnieckar.bsky.social
I finished 11 books in September, 8 by women/POC, seven of those for my Black writers monthly topic, with three in German and one in Portuguese.

chinese-poems.com/blog/?p=2933
Covers of Black, Grenzenlos und unverschämt, and Jubel und Schmerz der Mandelkrähe.
September 30, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
yardgonewild.bsky.social
Today’s all new episode in the series:
How Much Opossum Can Fit in this House?
1/2
September 29, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
jazzreads.bsky.social
So exhausting..
September 28, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
cephalopodsdaily.bsky.social
When I think of a cranchiid, I think of a Taonius squid.

Transparent body? ✅
Ammonium filled sac for buoyancy? ✅
Steve Buscemi eyes? ✅
Arms making it look like they got funky hairdo? ✅

I mean, what else could you want in a squid?

#SQUIDtember
A Taonius sp. floating in the sea. It is facing toward the caemra. Its limbs are all held together and pointing up, making it look like it has a big spiky for a hairdo. It has large beady eyes with shiny photophores on the bottom. Its mantle is transparent and its limbs are translucent. You can see a long thin orange organ that is its digestive gland. A Taonius sp. swimming in the ocean. Its body is transparent, except for its digestive gland, which is a long thin red organ, and eyes which are reddish. Its tentacles are translucent with orange tips. Two photos of a Taonius borealis. The squid has deep red chromatophores all over its body. The first photo is from straight on and slightly above. Its eyes are looking down, its limbs are all pointing straight up, and its mantle is going straight back. The second photo is in front of its head. It is looking forward with sad, depressed eyes and its limbs are up and going back. Its mantle is going back and slightly down. Its siphon is just below its eyes, looking like a mouth. A Taonius sp. inking. Its body is oriented on a diagonal, with its face pointing to the upper left. Its arms and tentacles are raised above its head, at a 90 degree and to its body. Its body is translucent, with some red chromatophores on its mantle. Its eyes and limbs have more visible chromatophores, so you can't see through them. You can see into its mantle, including a long orange digestive gland that is oriented vertically. Its mantle is filled with ink that it is slowly releasing from its siphon, so it is looks like someone exhaling smoke or a vape.
September 26, 2025 at 3:50 AM
slnieckar.bsky.social
Two peregrines illustrating the size of their absurd nest.

#birds #WildlifeBrandenburg
Two peregrine falcons sit on a pylon, at the base of a ridiculously large and chaotic nest built between the struts.
September 25, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
rebeccarhelm.bsky.social
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
September 24, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
cwashington.bsky.social
Respect to whoever put this sticker on a post box in Baker Street.
September 24, 2025 at 12:27 PM
slnieckar.bsky.social
Get it!
fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social Fitzcarraldo Editions @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social · Sep 23
To celebrate the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah from prison, the ebook edition of YOU HAVE NOT YET BEEN DEFEATED, tr. an anonymous collective, is available to download for free for the next week via all ebook platforms, including Kindle and Apple Books, until 30 September.
September 23, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by Slnieckar
harikunzru.bsky.social
Alaa has been pardoned! So happy for him and his family apnews.com/article/egyp...
Egypt announces pardon for top activist who's spent 6 years behind bars
Egyptian authorities on Monday announced the presidential pardon of prominent activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, according to his lawyer Khaled Ali and an announcement by Egypt’s state TV.
apnews.com
September 22, 2025 at 1:10 PM