Rebecca Spang

Grid of 9 early modern owls from the Newberry asking "Which SuperbOwl are you today?

Which Superb Owl Are You Today?

Every #SuperbOwl is from @newberrylibrary.bsky.social!

Photo of the described owl art. It looks like muddy scratch marks on a mottled brown cave wall. The head is very round with two upright lines for ears and a line in the center for a beak. Numerous parallel lines suggest plumage on the wings.

The oldest known image of an owl:

More than 30,000 years ago, someone skillfully scratched the figure of a long-eared owl (Asio otus) into the soft outer layer of the walls of Chauvet Cave, France. The owl is looking backward over their wings, head turned 180 degrees
carnegiemnh.org/ancient-owl-...

"Eighty-two years after his execution by the Gestapo on June 16, 1944, the Jewish historian and resistance fighter Marc Bloch will be inducted into the Pantheon on June 23... His family requested that 'the far right, in all its forms, be excluded from any participation in the ceremony.'"

“House Study Bill 547 (‘The Admissions Reform Act’) would require Iowa’s public universities to admit students…only on ‘merit’ and the likelihood they will stay in the state after graduation. It would also require the universities to accept the Classic Learning Test”

Good morning. The President of the United States was in the middle of the most serious child sex trafficking ring of the last quarter century.

He is referenced not a dozen times in the case files. Not 100 times. Not 1,000 times. He’s referenced 38,000 times.

18th C Goan storage bowl, silver work mounted on coco-de-mer shell from Seychelles.

Here’s my contribution to the Super Bowl- an example of 18th C Goan silver work mounted on a coco-de-mer shell. This is now in a private collection but you can see other examples if you visit the Menezes Bragança house in Chandor. The shell is from a palm that grows on only two islands in the world.

oooh we are posting super bowls?

As a specialist in Islamic ceramics *cracks knuckles* I present this fabulous 11th c. lustre painted bowl from Fatimid Cairo depicting a Coptic priest. Its white glaze imitates Chinese porcelain and the lustre technique was invented in Iraq a century earlier.

Frank Reaugh Representing the Manner in Which the Owl Posed Pastel drawing depicts an owl on a branch over a dark brown background. The owl looks directly at the viewer in a threatening or defensive posture. Frank Reaugh Art Collection Harry Ransom Center University of Texas at Austin

In anticipation of tonight's big game, here's a Superb Owl from @ransomcenter.bsky.social's digital collections. This pastel drawing was created by Frank Reaugh, sometimes called the “Dean of Texas Artists."

hrc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/coll...

#SuperbOwl #owl #Texana #birdsky #NatHist 🦉🏈🗃️📜🎨

'Eurasian blue tit' C. c. caeruleus

#photography #birds

'Eurasian blue tit'

C. c. caeruleus

📷 © @gblee.bsky.social

I love this portrait of a scientist so much. Portrait of Dr Bouchard, by Tamara de Lempicka, 1928

A naive representation of an owl on a small flat slate sheet. The body is depicted in alternating white and dark triangles. Crucially, this owl is not playing American Football.

It's Superbowl Sunday! So here's our traditional, and predictable Superb Owl.
🏈🦉

#SuperbOwl #SuperbOwl2026

A will so short it fits into one 'skeet':

'I James Jackson of Wedensbugh near Mottram in Longdendale in the County of Chester declare this to be my Will and mind shall all that I am possessed of and what my Uncle Thomas Lee have left me I Give to my Mother Betty Hide and to be at her disposal.'

Dog kicked by Memphis Safe Task Force member on the mend as US Marshals defend action The dog’s owner told Action News 5 that the deputy U.S. marshal seen punting her pup had no reason to do so, but officials with the U.S. Marshals Service say otherwise.

Small dog suffers broken rib after being repeatedly kicked by U.S. Marshals deputy. "Action News 5 obtained two videos that show the marshals service employee kicking Yoshi not once, but twice." www.actionnews5.com/2026/02/07/d...

Call it socialism, but I prefer funding research, education, and the arts through taxation to funding it through sucking up to sex criminals.

Exclusive: Detention Center Captives Are Throwing Lotion Bottles Wrapped With Notes to Organizers Outside Otay Mesa Facility ~ L.A. TACO “For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh," an Otay Mesa captive communicated through handwritten note. "We are all in one big room with no doors...

Otay Mesa "Detention Center" (prison camp) in San Diego, CA:

lataco.com/captive-loti...

A wine delivery departs from Ambrogio Gonnella’s wine shop, “La Vigna,” on Via Larga in Milan, Italy, circa 1910.

Ossoff: We were told that MAGA was for working-class Americans. But this is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich. It’s the wealthiest Cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class. They are the elites they pretend to hate.

Britain has dethroned a prince, forced Mandelson to resign, & lost confidence in Starmer because Rep. Thomas Massie & I forced the release of the Epstein files.

What is America doing to hold the Epstein class accountable?

We need to haul these powerful men before Congress.

Little Bermuda snail no longer on verge of extinction!

The Obamas are brilliant, compassionate and patriotic Americans. They represent the best of this country.

Donald Trump is a vile, unhinged and malignant bottom feeder.

Why are GOP leaders like John Thune continuing to stand by him?

Republicans must immediately denounce Trump’s disgusting bigotry.

Friends matter more than ever!!

Back when some argued that history had come to its end…

Reminder that ICE facilities are supposed to be civil, not criminal. And yet they have been designed under Trump to be concentration camps so terrible detainees will choose “voluntary” deportation rather than continue living there.

This is evil. And history will view it—and its participants—thus.

A mother in Maine has been reunited with her daughter after ICE arrest Mayra Vaca Latacunga, a single mother, was detained by immigration agents, leaving her daughter alone at school. Her future in the U.S. is uncertain.

If she is sent back to Ecuador, Mayra Vaca Latacunga only asks that she not be separated from her daughter again. (via Maine Public) www.bangordailynews.com/2026/02/06/y...

Going to take a hint from the slightly desperate snake-oil salesmen I am currently studying and start signing my institutional emails "Wishing you the top notch of success"

If ONLY it were merely a store of nothingness!!

What a great turn of phrase. Thank you. I will try to remember to cite you when I use it

This is true. One Man’s Meat has left so many images in my head.

Did you just « cancel » Charlotte’s Web?!

Outside in the evening. An office building with video and the words "Palantir Powers Fascism" projected at top. Below, a crowd of people with signs and candles memorializing people who have died at the hands of ICE.

Happening now in Silicon Valley: marchers have surrounded the Palantir building and are holding a prayer vigil for victims of ICE, while video of ICE and Palantir crimes is projected on the building. #AbolishICE #ICEOut #Palantir #PaloAlto