Specious Reasons

5-8-8-2-3-hundred,
Empire!

How much of a nerd I am that I said to myself, "Why are they leading with snowflakes when they're clearly featuring a radiolarian in the picture?" This book was added to my wishlist so fast.

A white, brown, and black Ragamuffin cat named Ahsoka is sitting in a small square wooden pedestal with raised sides. The box says "Cinnamon." This is where the dog named Cinnamon gets fed, but it's enough of a box for the cat to sit in when the food bowl isn't there.

This is not Cinnamon, but the pedestal for his food bowl is enough of a box for Ahsoka to claim. I had to kick her off to feed the poor dog. #catsinboxes #ragamuffin

A decorative skull on a dark surface

I normally hang this from my rearview mirror during October, but I got distracted. I'm rectifying this now.

@amandamarcotte.bsky.social The "Rock That Doesn't Roll" podcast obliquely references your Salon article in their discussion of the music of the Kirk memorial. As fans of the genre, their opinion is much different.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...

A mushroom sprouting between four larger rocks, with a scattering of orange and green cypress leaves.

A mushroom sprouting next to a large rock. The head of the mushroom is conforming to the shape of the rock.

Two clusters of mushrooms, one cluster is in the foreground, next to the base of a small concrete pagoda, another cluster is in the background, by a large blue flower pot.

Bumper crop of mushrooms in my backyard this weekend. #mushrooms

That was an accident? I assumed you were pumping us up for the release of The Fractured Mirror!

A flatworm of the Planarian class. Probably a Dugesia species. This is a darkfield photo, where the subject (the flatworm) is illuminated but the background is dark. The head is basically triangle shape, and its eyespots near the base of the head make the flatworm look cross-eyed. The worm's digestive system is refracting more light, so is readily visible as a branching structure behind the head.

Look at this wonderful little flatworm! #Planarian #flatworm

Anyway, this is the rotifer video, too. Taken because I was already trying to capture the Spirostomum on video:
youtu.be/kZEN1t7Tt9Q

However, instead of thrashing around in wriggling S-curves, this glides through the water. Once I realized this was exhibiting not-very-nematode-like behavior, I went to go look it up and learned about this genus.

I learned about this ciliate last time I encountered it. To me, and especially at low magnifications, this superficially looks like a nematode. It's about the same size and shape (this is just visible to the naked eye.) I didn't even think it was a ciliate at first because of its size and shape.

YouTube video by speciousreasons A ciliate, probably Spirostomum

I posted a two new videos! Both are extremely short, audio free, and pretty low effort. One is a boring old rotifer, and the other is this massive ciliate of the Spirostomum genus: youtu.be/sLYNNaYBZUw
#Spirostomum #ciliates

Rotifer in darkfield, approximately 200X. The rotifer looks a bit like a croissant, as it's bent in a C shape.

Rotifer! I generally avoid taking rotifer pictures because they often don't wind up visually interesting. I think this is an exception. On the left side of the picture, there's the body of a worm with long bristles, probably a Stylaria species.

A testate amoeba, species unidentified. The "test" - a shell of particles - is dark and out of focus and some translucent tendrils reaching out of the test may be seen by their outline. This is a bright field microscope photo at approximately 100X.

A testate amoeba, species unidentified. The "test" - a shell of particles - can be see as a greenish lightbulb shape. Some translucent tendrils reaching out of the test may be seen stretching out of the test. This is a dark field microscope photo at approximately 100X.

Testate amoebas are pretty common in lake water. I was having a lot of trouble capturing the full glory of this in brightfield, so I switched to darkfield and I'm so much happier with the results, even if the background detritus is noisier.

White, black, and brown ragamuffin cat resting her front paws on a loft railing looking down on the photographer.

Calrissian sees you beneath her and is not impressed.

It made me smile, I believe you are incorrect.

I half expected "Energy is like a series of tubes."

"Phenomena" of course, and it's probably more accurate than "Creepers", but I think it needed a classic Giallo title like "Dance of the Corpse Flies."

I started it and liked it, but got distracted and haven't returned to it in a while.

@nathanrabin.bsky.social "Liam Neeson, towering action grandpa" - brilliant!

I was just listening to the latest Kill by Kill, and it occurred to me to check.

*looks — I blame holding a kitten while typing.

@genadoesthings.bsky.social In case you're wondering, I got your last two newsletters, and I didn't do shit, so it look like your move to ghost was a success.

Giant house spider, roughly 5cm total length. It is on a light green wall next to a white ceiling.

Giant house spider, roughly 5cm total length. It is on a light green wall next to a white ceiling.

Giant house spider, roughly 5cm total length. It is on a light green wall next to a white ceiling.

Giant house spider, roughly 5cm total length. It is on a light green wall next to a white ceiling.

Giant house spider. Trying with a handheld 150mm macro lens (manual focus), so the photos didn't come out as I wanted. It's welcome in my office, but don't tell the rest of the family it's here.

One thing I miss moving from Illinois to the PNW is the lack of cicadas. Our dog used to like to eat them, that made for interesting evening walks.

Brown, white and black Ragamuffin kitten on a brown leather chair, jammed between the arm and a pillow.

This made sense to her at the time. #ragamuffin

Witness the beginning of a dark universe! The beast Rabin is on BlueSky!

Watched "Friday the 13th Part III" with the @killbykill.bsky.social commentary for my Friday the 13th viewing. Especially with the commentary, this watch was much more amusing than scary.

This was the month we covered this book in our local book club, so it may well have been one of us. (I still have my hardcover copy from way back when, so not me.)

How do you put mustard on this?