The Orion Nebula.

Since I've got a bunch of new followers thanks to a quickly snapped photo of the Moon and Mercury last night that somehow blew up, here's an image of the Orion Nebula taken with a Seestar S50.

I was glad to be able to edit this to bring out a bit of the blue/green that is easily seen visually.

‘They pushed so many lies about recycling’: the fight to stop big oil pumping billions more into plastics Plastic production has doubled over the last 20 years – and will likely double again. For author Beth Gardiner, metal water bottles and canvas tote bags are not the solution. So what is?

“The research on #microplastics is very new...this is science doing what science needs to do...There’s a much longer history of research that is much clearer about the chemicals in plastic that leach into our food, drink, our environment, our bodies.”

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
#spéirghorm

How a Planned Disney World Vacation Turned Into Four Months in Immigration Detention A 9-year-old shares her story of being held at the nation’s only operating detention center for immigrant families in Dilley, Texas.

She lives with her grandmother in Colombia and travels frequently to the U.S. to visit her mother. Her visa made them targets for ICE.

A trip to Disneyland ended with a 9-year-old, who had broken no laws, detained at Dilley, Texas.

www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

Ossoff: "If you live in a major democracy, and the nation's spy chief is showing up at raids on sensitive election sites, something has gone wrong."

tweet from @cliftonhowze on twitter Last night at the #DataCenters meeting in Claremore, Darren Blanchard, who has attended most of these meetings around NE Oklahoma & has some pretty impressive FOIA/ORA skills, was arrested after going over his 3 min. allotted speaking time. First arrest I've seen at one of these.

in america, if you go over your 3 minute allotment to speak, men with guns come to take you away.

YouTube video by Robert Reich Why Are CEOs Paid So Much?

What would a typical worker earn today if their wages had grown as fast as CEO pay over the past 50 years?

Take a guess and watch this video to find out.

love to be looted by our criminal president

Fox graphic of the "TOP 10 STATES WITH HIGHEST ELECTRICITY PRICES" featuring DC as number 10

congrats to DC on achieving statehood

Like with using children as bait and eating at a restaurant then kidnapping the people who prepared it, ICE is routinely breaking taboos that have been part of human civilization since before recorded history.

Opinion | One Man Stole $660 Million. He’ll Never Pay It Back.

“Illiberal governments tend to live or die by their ability to sustain corruption. They rely for support on a network of oligarchs, who in turn are tied to the administration’s success. It happened in Hungary, Turkey, Russia and increasingly, it is happening here.”

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/o...

Mia Valentina Paz Faria A 7-year-old from Venezuela who was living in Austin, Texas Detained for 70 days “I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

UPDATE: Staff at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas have begun raiding the dormitories of kids and their parents to confiscate and destroy letters from the children. This is in response to the ace reporting by @micarosenberg et al for ProPublica:

“I don’t want to be in this place I want to go to my school.”

- 7 year old imprisoned by ICE for 70 days in a concentration camp in Texas.

Today, after @propublica.org published this story, the camp was raided to confiscate letters from the children.

www.propublica.org/article/ice-...

@paincomics

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has passed away at the age of 84. My thoughts are with his family.

I wanted to share this clip from his appearance on Sesame Street in 1971. His important words ring just as true today as they did back then.

Imagine doing this with your one precious life. Other people are out there teaching children and curing cancer and you decide to spend your time telling outrageous, laughably unbelievable lies about a dementia-addled rapist and fraud whose legacy will be nearly ending US democracy

Screenshot of a CNN segment shared by Acyn. A split-screen shows commentator Lydia Moynihan on the left and Kevin O’Leary on the right during a heated exchange. The chyron reads, “Obama: Dems need to avoid scolding and ‘virtue-signaling.’” The post quotes O’Leary referencing China and concentration camps, and McGowan responding about West Virginia.

I spent my childhood inside of American concentration camps. I know one when I see one. And that is what ICE is building.

Another thing to add to the Dem platform: all of these contracts were plainly procured through fraud, not one of them will be honored, and all culpable parties will be prosecuted.

This isn't a "radical" demand, it's the bare minimum required to re-establish the rule of law.

How is it possible that Kristi Noem still has this job. Imagine if you’re a family member or a shipmate of this guardsman.

www.nbcnews.com/politics/imm...

I know the US has done a ton of atrocities globally, but it’s really something to get so mad about one *good* thing we were doing that you turn it into a new atrocity. They KILLED MILLIONS OF CHILDREN with a keystroke and a grin, not a second thought. Unimaginable evil. Vought/Musk Hague 2027 Tour

Wow.

JFC, cut that shit in half and you’ve eradicated hunger, provided healthcare for all and made education free for all Americans. What the fuck are we doing?

This is what ICE does every day. Hunt little kids who are here legally. They get sent to a place called the “baby jail” in Texas. Very little of it ends up on video like this. But it’s routine. And disgusting.

And it begins - the #EpsteinFiles Analysis.

The opening of the Epstein files, such as it is*,
has unleashed the biggest crowdsourcing operation in the history of the world.

*The DOJ has not made everything public

LGBTQ U.S. Athletes Strike Gold at Milano Cortina Breezy Johnson makes history in downhill while Amber Glenn and Team USA’s hockey stars add to the medal count.

LGBTQ athletes struck gold at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games. Breezy Johnson made downhill history, while Amber Glenn helped secure gold for Team USA’s hockey team.

Ofelia Torres, teen who fought to have her father released from ICE custody, dies from rare cancer Ofelia Torres, 16, died on Friday from Stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer, her father's lawyer confirmed.

A child dying of cancer spent her final days fighting to free her wrongfully detained father from ICE custody.
 
This comes just weeks after a mother from Maryland was denied the right to be at her son’s side as he died from cancer.
 
Not one dime for this cruelty.

www.cbsnews.com/amp/chicago/...

Laws restricting abortions linked to rise in 'abhorrently high' maternal mortality rates Rising state-level abortion restrictions in the United States were linked to a similar, parallel rise in maternal deaths from 2005 to 2023, according to research presented at The Pregnancy Meeting. ...

Researchers have found that 6 of 10 abortion restrictions — bans on Medicaid funding for abortion, mandated waiting periods, 2nd-trimester abortion bans, ACA marketplace insurance coverage bans, biased counseling laws, and ultrasound requirements — were linked to higher rates of maternal mortality.

Examined one by one, Israel’s current policies reveal a power imbalance so extreme that it can no longer be obscured by diplomatic language, especially in the wake of Gaza’s catastrophic devastation.