Leonie Moyle

a panda bear is eating something with chopsticks in a cartoon . Alt: a panda eating dumplings with chopsticks

yes…

tuesday, but no pancakes

field cricket (the higher pitch in particular)

"The Beagle sailed round Chatham Island, and anchored in several bays. One night I slept on a part of the island, where black truncated cones were extraordinarily numerous: from one small eminence I counted sixty of them, all surmounted by craters more or less perfect. The greater number consisted merely of a ring of red scoriae or slags, cemented together: and their height above the plain of lava was not more than from fifty to a hundred feet: none had been very lately active. The entire surface of this part of the island seems to have been permeated, like a sieve, by the subterranean vapours: here and there the lava, whilst soft, has been blown into great bubbles; and in other parts, the tops of caverns similarly formed have fallen in, leaving circular pits with steep sides. From the regular form of the many craters, they gave to the country and artificial appearance, which vividly reminded me of those parts of Staffordshire, where the great iron-foundries are most numerous."

he did seem to have a geologist's appreciation of the unique landscape...

agreed. and yet, five weeks later: "The natural history of these islands is eminently curious, and well deserves attention." 😹

his appreciation evolved over time, apparently

"Nothing could be less inviting than the first appearance. A broken field of black basaltic lava, thrown into the most rugged waves, and crossed by great fissures, is everywhere covered by stunted, sun-burnt brushwood, which shows little signs of life. The dry and parched surface, being heated by the noon-day sun, gave to the air a close and sultry feeling, like that from a stove: we fancied even that the bushes smelt unpleasantly. Although I diligently tried to collect as many plants as possible, I succeeded in getting very few; and such wretched-looking little weeds would have better become an arctic than an equatorial Flora."

In celebration of #DarwinDay, here are his decidedly mixed first impressions after landing on the Galápagos (17 Sept 1835; from 'the Voyage' Chap X):

"Nothing could be less inviting..."

Trump team’s new rule could make firing government scientists easier Although the government says the move will depoliticize US science, some researchers say it will do the opposite.

The revised Schedule F policy, finalized last week, will kick in next month. It could reclassify career government scientists—potentially those involved in grantmaking at agencies like NIH and NSF—into at-will employees, and would strip them of whistleblower protections.

Rabbits capture, try and execute a hunter. The Smithfield Decretals, decorated in London, England, in the 1340s: Royal MS 10 E IV, f. 59v-61v

Bad bunnies from long ago
www.bl.uk/stories/blog...

GMT-5 timezone not good

tired

How many tigers do you think is in a jar of tigers balm

art deco facade of the Babylon Kino. The marquee reads: metropolis live babylon orchester berlin

sunday

grunewald (in my apartment building)

snow & stairs, Berlin

Minotaur in the labyrinth, Roman mosaic at Conímbriga, Portugal
Frank Stella, Labyrinth, 1960

fantastic book (and one of her best)

U.S. government has lost more than 10,000 STEM Ph.D.s since Trump took office A Science analysis reveals how many were fired, retired, or quit across 14 agencies

Wow. This is devastating.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Charley Harper, "Darwin's Finches", from "The Giant Golden Book of Biology", 1961

Portrait of William S. Burroughs from the 'Danger' series, by Brion Gysin, 1959.

'”Modern man has lost the option of silence.”
William S. Burroughs.

Shout out to everyone currently experiencing everything

This is not a model. This is a "fossilised" taxidermy of a Woolly Rhino, discovered in Starunia mine in Carpathian Poland (now Ukraine) in 1929. Dating to the Pleistocene, its exquisite preservation is owed to a mixture of brine, oil and clays. 🧵

mislaid species — the latest "tortured phrases” in scientific publications?...

Not apocalyptic looking at all

Gratuitous X-ray microscopy imaging, a "bouquet" of developing soybean flowers.
@zeiss-microscopy.bsky.social
@danforthcenter.bsky.social

Photo of a roundleaf sundew leaf at dusk. The leaf is green and is covered in tiny red hairs. Each hair has a drop of sticky liquid at the tip. The background of the photo is dark.

Roundleaf sundew leaf. One of the #carnivorous plants we have here in #newfoundland, Canada. #botany #plant

The rate of global sea level rise doubled during the past three decades - Communications Earth & Environment Global mean sea level rise amounted to 4.5 mm per year as a result of warming oceans and melting land ice, more than twice the rate of 2.1 mm/year observed at the start of satellite data in 1993, base...

The rate of global mean sea level rise has increased from ~2.1 mm/year in 1993 to ~4.5 mm/year in 2023. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Screenshot of a twitter post from @kramerposts. “It's not my circus, but... I am a man with a sense of obligation and duty. Very well. I will care for these monkeys. I will raise them as if they were my own.”

Joining a research project mid-cycle like: