James (he/they)

Quote from Easy by Nature Substack by Bill Davison

Not sure how active he is on BlueSky, but this was a nice read at Easy by Nature Substack by Bill Davison @easybynature.bsky.social

billdavison.substack.com/p/birdwatchi...

I’m lucky I’ve found a way to work and bird before I sacrificed years to this culture of labor 🪶

Fat little brown/white/grey bird with a yellow tummy stands on concrete with flora behind it

Share if you agree

Trump as spotted lanternfly

Invasive species

I haven't had the capacity to keep up with moderation lists for a bit, but this one is really obvious, so I'm stealing some energy from Future Me: a list for the extremely obvious wave of inauthentic accounts following today's newly-created US gov accounts

bsky.app/profile/did:...

Need a few seconds to stop doomscrolling? Enjoy our office yard squirrels, melanistic Eastern Gray Squirrels. This one is enjoying some acorns.

Take a few deep breaths, unclench your jaw, and enjoy some squirrel just living his best life.

He's good and so are you 🖤

block this shit

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Photo of a Black-capped Chickadee by Chad Hordewel. A speech bubble from the bird's mouth says "Hi, I'm gijigijigaaneshiinh"

🪶 In the Ojibwe language, the word for chickadee is gijigijigaaneshiinh. To hear it pronounced (it sounds really cool) visit ojibwe.lib.umn.edu/m...

A four panel comic called Happy Halloween From The Birds. In panel 1, a pileated woodpecker has pecked its huge gaping rectangular holes in a pumpkin. In panel 2, a yellow-bellied sapsucker has pecked a face using its standard rows of small holes. In panel 3, a satin bowerbird has carved a pumpkin into a bower and placed its favorite blue candies all around it. In panel 4, a loggerhead shrike has impaled mini pumpkins on a fence's metal spikes and is saying "fight me."

Spooky season approaches, so I'm going to repost some of my Halloween comics from years past.

Getting to infiltrate the Kansas City Renaissance Festival and be a temporary cast member for the weekend may be my favorite thing I've done all year.

Inside Meta's fight to change climate reality... all so it can frantically expand a risky AI program Everyone is ignoring the science on what Meta’s generative AI investment really costs, even though there's no evidence of a single, significant societal benefit.

Hey lovelies: here's part 2 of my @crikey.com.au series on Meta's massive new effort to wildly worsen their climate damage but mask that by lobbying to change the way emissions are measured.

IT IS EXTREMELY SNEAKY

MAGNIFICENT.

a flow-chart with 2 islands. "Do I need AI?" that flows into a final island saying "No"

A three-panel comic. The first panel is a scrap from a dictionary that says crypsis, noun: patterning or coloration that allows a bird to remain concealed by blending in to its environment. In panel 2, labeled effective crypsis, an american bittern blends in with a marsh full of tall plants. In panel 2, labeled ineffective crypsis, an american bittern fails to blend in among some short plants, next to a wet floor sign, and behind a stop sign.

I do a comic about ornithological vocabulary for every issue of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's wonderful Living Bird magazine. Here's the latest one, featuring the American Bittern.

Head-on closeup of a snapping turtle.

Just look at this face
#herps 🌿

Mint lemonade with honey instead of sugar.

I would like to remind everyone that the #Nazi order to euthanize those with mental health issues (and other #disabilities ♿️) was called Aktion T4. This involuntary euthanasia killed 300K people by conservative estimate. Kilmeade is promoting Nazi killing protocol. Literally, he is saying we should.

Birding with the birds! 🪶

An alucita moth, with frilly, lacy wings, in a photo taken by Timmy Wong in China. Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/232780177?fbclid=IwY2xjawMsKF1leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFyeEllRVFqekE3TlZiWUhnAR7crKukQCvxnpLzBA1e2rvrMO177PwoCqamq_fC-XgtqthxwbWDSHur3uuYWQ_aem_JoIYMoZvp03bfyCWcUH9xw

Oh. My. Goodness. Look at this moth! LOOK AT THOSE WINGS!! Honestly didn't know that moth wings could be that frilly and lacy - like bird feathers - but apparently there is a whole family of "many plumed moths". This one is from the genus Alucita and found in China, and is just spectacular. (1/3)

That packaging sure could be better.

A pencil sketch of a male American kestrel

Happy #FalconFriday! I'm pretty proud of this floofy li'l guy.

a small little doodle of a yellow blob figure with a blue pointy hat and there's little pink hearts coming from his hands

tiny wizard sending you small love

Ladapo said what? Comparing vaccines to slavery is just BEYOND insulting. A comment like that doesn't just miss the mark, it is diabolically ignorant & a slap in the face. Slavery is a REAL historical trauma, not a metaphor for vaccinations. @debunk-the-funk.bsky.social and Vincent discuss

AI impoverishes us at every step of the process: - data centers pollute our environment - energy use drives up costs - content theft robs creators of income - the actual output is used to displace workers and depress wages - using it harms our mental health and impairs our competence - the flood of AI slop is damaging our sociopolitical landscape All in service of making a worse product - and world - to enrich a handful of already spectacularly wealthy people

While defending the luddite argument in Discord, I stumbled into this IMO succinct explanation for opposing generative AI:

At every step in the process, it impoverishes us.

A key difference here is that while either can be incorrect, the structure of Wikipedia *creates context* and the structure of LLMs *destroys context*

Wikipedia has linked sources and an edit history showing where information came from and who added it when

An LLM just generates text

Put on @jointhepartypod.com to do some yardwork and accidentally spent two and a half hours out there. I was the last person of four to show up for Frosthaven in my own dang house. XD

Photograph of a hand holding a small piece of tree bark, on which is painted a tiny horseshoe crab and other sea creatures admid the actual algae growing on the bark.

I was trying to think of something unique for today's #AugArthroAwe prompt Tri-spine Horseshoe Crab. While I was outside, I picked up some bark that had tiny algae on it, so I decided to draw on it.

caked up mother earth in her thigh high fishnets is stomping in her stripper heels looking back at it. The words say "Milfs for Mother Earth

The earth is once again looking back at it in her fishnets but looks more coy in this one. The words say "Ok so climate change, a couple important things to note: 1) it's not too late to make a difference 2) Every 1/10th of a degree of warming matters 3) Governments need to do most of it 4) Acting as communities really matters. Here are some things we CAN do 1) Ditch cars, take transit 2) Switch to renewable energy 3) get solar for your roof 4)Share stuff, buy less 5) Don't use AI 6) talk to your friends and family about solutions. Details here (which points to a QR)

Mother earth looks at you over her sunglasses over the words "Do something" repeated a bunch of times, then under her it says "Doing anything is better than nothing", "learn how" and a qr

Mother earth is wearing a flower crown and peeking up from the bottom of the page. The words say "Biodiversity When it comes to protecting plants and animals, start by thinking local. Animals usually suffer most from habitat loss and climate change. Solving climate change is hard. Building habitat for wildlife is easier. Every action you take matters. Here's what we can do 1) Create good habitat by planting native plants 2) Stop using pesticides and get others to stop too 3) Kill your lawn, replace with useful plants 4) Fight to preserve wild spaces and to reclaim abandoned land 5) Encourage friends and family to do all this too"

I went into goblin mode last night and completed what is for sure the most unhinged zine I have produced to date.

I'll fold some up tonight and put them around and see how people react lol

If anyone is interested in printing one for your own enjoyment, here ya go drive.google.com/file/d/1eVEW...

I have taken
the plums
that were next to
the propaganda

and which
you were probably
hoping would save
the world

Forgive me
for taking
so long
to join the resistance

Practicing self care by lying on the forest floor until the roots of the trees and mushrooms pierce my body and accept me into their nutrient web