With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years.

A four panel comic titled Bird Sounds. In panel 1, labeled thrush, a wood thrush sings its beautiful eeohlay song against a forest background. In panel 2, labeled wren, a winter wren delicately sings tweedly tweedly tweedly. In panel 3, labeled warbler, a yellow warbler delicately sings sweet sweet. In panel 4, labeled heron in a death metal font, a heron screams KRAAGH against a background of fire.

Bird sounds.

We're in the final day of an emergency fundraising campaign at @wunc.org (due to the pulling of federal funding). We need the support of North Carolinians now more than ever. And that's why I'm asking Bill Belichick, once again, to become a sustaining member, at any level. www.wunc.org/donate

This weekly Friday post always summons the song “Shanty” to my mind thanks to years of listening to @wttsfm.bsky.social on my Friday commute.

A section of the Cat’s Paw Nebula, a local star-forming region composed of gas, dust, and young stars. Four roughly circular areas are toward the center of the frame: a small oval toward the top left, a large circle in the top center, and two ovals at bottom left and right. Each circular area has a luminous blue glow, with the top center and bottom left areas the brightest. Brown-orange filaments of dust, which vary in density, surround these four bluish patches and stretch toward the frame’s edges. Small zones, such as to the left and right of the top-center blue circular area, appear darker and seemingly vacant of stars. Toward the center are small, fiery red clumps scattered among the brown dust. Many small, yellow-white stars are spread across the scene, some with eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of Webb. A few larger blue-white stars with diffraction spikes are scattered throughout, mostly toward the top left and bottom right.

Hooray for three years of paw-sitively amazing #NASAWebb science! To celebrate, the telescope examined a singular “toe bean” of the Cat’s Paw Nebula, a massive star-forming region. Webb reveals gas, dust, and massive young stars: webbtelescope.pub/4khJK9T 🔭

Reply with an image of your pet’s paws! 🐾

The INDY's 2025 Library Series Our public library system increasingly feels like a miracle.

It's Amazon Prime week!

Here's a link to our ongoing series on libraries.

An Art Nouveau staircase decorated with curved patterns and soft colors, with a nature-themed background and rounded windows on the walls.

Art Deco staircase. An angular, grand design in dark colors.

Art Nouveau is when stuff looks like it was made by Elves.

Art Deco is when stuff looks like it was made by Dwarves.

!!!!! Waking up to the news that we might have found an interstellar object passing through our Solar System - only the third ever seen. Looks convincing based on the orbit.

Unsung observatory worker was UK’s first professional female astronomer, experts say Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy is trying to find a photo of Annie Walker, who died in 1940, to give her star billing

Anybody got a picture of Annie Walker? Possibly first British professional astronomer, later moved to Oz. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

bloodcheep post pics of your friendly (or not) blöödchëëp (cardinal that is molting) and rejoice in the rëdnëss (or not)

But I just learned there's a Blöödchëëp subreddit?! I'm so happy
www.reddit.com/r/bloodcheep/

Just thinking of the Harvard computer women a century ago, who looked at images of the universe like this by eye to make discoveries. They revolutionized astronomy, and Rubin definitely will too!

Also, wow how excited would Henrietta Leavitt and Williamina Flemming be to see this! 🤩

🔭🧪🎢

Because it's not being said as part of this press conference, @vrubinobs.bsky.social would not be possible without the many, many international scientists and collaborators, some around the world, but many who immigrated to the US and are scientists and engineers here

This is just 2% of one of the images!!

Today's the day — it's officially T-0!

GET READY: Your full First Look at images from NSF–DOE Rubin Observatory is just hours away! We're about to reveal the preview of the greatest cosmic movie ever made 🎬 #RubinFirstLook #CaptureTheCosmos 🔭🧪

⌚️ 11am US EDT
🔗: ls.st/rubin-first-look-livestream

Godzilla is wearing a blue jumper with red buttons, and a matching straw hat with flowers.

I said I'd try to come up with something that wasn't political doom today, so here goes, war or no.

We have a neighborhood Godzilla that wears charming outfits, so when they change, I occasionally take paparazzi photos. Currently, he is wearing a fetching frock and straw hat.

Literally begging you to post about Just Some Stuff. We will see the news I absolutely promise. Twenty people will repost the same exact thing about the news. Only you can post about a turtle you saw

One thing you will never think after reading a great book or listening to a great album or seeing a great piece of art is, “I’m really glad this person remained cautious while they were making this and guarded against being perceived as weird.”

I understand the need to yell at this fucker, but I need everyone on this site to reach as deep as they can into their spite reserves and do the thing these attention-seeking trolls HATE MORE THAN ANYTHING ON EARTH:

pretend he doesn't fucking exist.

Find yours here

The Internet Archive has rolled out an extremely effective new tool for searching for old Geocities GIFs.

I'd apologize for what I'm about to do to this website as a result, but that would be a lie, because I won't feel sorry at all

gifcities.org

Your regular reminder that a corgi crossed with any other breed just ends up looking like a corgi disguised as the other dog.

Dalmatian

Don’t underestimate the power of a weird little hobby. No one needs to monetize everything. Knit chaotic scarves. Garden with spite. Build LEGO crime scenes.

Zine cover "Make Things."

Zine, pages 2-7, reading: "Make things with your hands. Share those things with other people. Make more things. Love is poured into the things that you make. the well is endless. The things you make are the vessels for that love."

Zine, pages 8-13, reading: "Make things and deliver that love to the world. You will notice that... not only do some people not make things... they destroy them. they burn and torture and break things. Keep Making things anyway."

Zine, final page, reading "Make more things than they can destroy." Image of kites flying in the air.

Realized I hadn't put this zine on here in any capacity. I took photos because the design is important to me. (It's an accordion zine!) Anyway...make things!
(By me, Kori Michele, but I didn't sign it; 2024)

Short version: "Make things. Make more things than they can destroy."

Some cattle on a Dartmoor country lane, having a snack before embarking on the long journey to Todmorden in West Yorkshire, which one of them had heard was nice.

The same cattle further on the lane, including Carol at the rear, who is already having misgivings and missing home.

People in cities think nothing dramatic ever happens in villages but that’s not true. In our village the summer before last the cattle pushed over a fence and escaped from John and Rita’s field and lots of people still talk about it to this day and some of those people don’t even live in the village

Agreed. I’m also enjoying adding photography to the mix because it forces patience and slowness because the little dinosaurs just won’t hold still for a picture. And sometimes you see something in the pictures later on a monitor that you didn’t notice, or couldn’t see, in-person.

I really strongly recommend making something right now. Doesn’t matter what — sew, bake, code, doodle, whatever. Doesn’t have to be “good,” doesn’t have to be pretty or deep. I promise that the act of making will help to combat that feeling of entropy that’s surrounding us right now! #DHMakes

It was a great show!

strange women lying in ponds distributing swords starting to look like a reasonable basis for a system of government

Protect your moments of hope like your last match on a desert island. We need it. They dont have to be perfect or everything to matter and sustain you.