MARC in a Cold Climate

A photo of a hippo standing on dry grassy terrain, staring at the viewer. The animal is enormous, with a bulky round body and short legs. It has massive lower tusks which protrude out from its slightly open mouth.

Hip hip hooray, it’s World Hippo Day! Hippos are one of the largest living land animals. Full-grown adults can reach weights of up to 7,055 lbs (3,200 kg)! These large herbivores live in Africa & have one of the strongest bites in the animal kingdom!
Photo: olegrozhko, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, iNaturalist

Azdoufal, demon lord of roombas

Wilfred Pickles, a Yorkshireman born in Halifax, was selected by the BBC as an announcer for its North Regional radio service; he went on to be an occasional newsreader on the BBC Home Service during World War II. He was the first newsreader to speak in a regional accent rather than Received Pronunciation, "a deliberate attempt to make it more difficult for Nazis to impersonate BBC broadcasters",[80] and caused some comment with his farewell catchphrase "... and to all in the North, good neet".

Love this - defeating nazis with the Yorkshire accent:

My father saw Moose Murders and didn't think it was all that bad. Then again, I saw the only episode ever aired of Emily's Reasons Why Not and thought, "ugh, it's pretty terrible, but it will be a success because of what it rips off" and then the show was cancelled immediately

Love was a terrible thing. You poisoned it and stabbed at it and knocked it down into the mud and it got up and staggered on, bleeding and muddy and awful. Like - like Rasputin.

There are several in NJ and PA!

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Ideas are green
And colourless too

normally I would never go to a restaurant on Valentine's Day but I took the risk of hitting a Friendly's* at 3 PM. only the cheapest oldest lovers are here. ❤️

*inexpensive chain restaurant in the northeast US that serves simple food and giant dishes of ice cream

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Plums are delicious
So sweet
And so cool

That's weird, she just told me that she didn't even race today.

Me, teaching the 19th century

Skiiers on a half pipe course. Text reads "My Valentine is a full pipe."

Nathan Chen skating. Text reads "where does the blade go?"

An image of a doubles luge team with "spandex. ice. you. a perfect Valentine's Day."

Olympics-themed Valentines

I think I’ve been scammed….My Rottweilers haven’t grown in months 😱😱

How dare they presume to know what would dazzle a penguin.

The talk to your friends app and the witness the horrors app being the same app is not great for the mental health is it

It's always a bit jarring when I'm birdwatching and I spot a bird with tiny binoculars staring right at me crossing "big nerd" off his list.

What on earth did I just read

New from me, at @vqr.bsky.social: a few years ago two people contacted me about a TEDx talk I once gave, “The Art of Haunting.”

When I replied I’d never given a TEDx talk, things just got weirder.

On AI, ghosts, what it means to tell a story, and what Italo Calvino saw coming 60 years ago. Enjoy!

The Pride flag at the Stonewall Monument is re-raised!

New Yorkers won’t let Donald Trump erase LGBTQ+ history, or trample the rights of our LGBTQ+ neighbors.

And before one of you pedants are like what about the Disney Tunnels? NO! The tunnels were built at ground level and the Magic Kingdom was built on top of them. They’re not “underground.”

HOW DOES THIS GRIFT KEEP WORKING

while I was waiting at the bus stop a woman walked past me carrying a Jack Russell in a plaid coat and saying "You can't allow yourself to be distracted by everything, you've got a pregnant wife at home" and I thought THAT'S A BIG ASK FOR A JACK RUSSELL before I realized she was talking on her phone

Folks I’ve run the numbers on this and—you won’t believe this—for the 900th issue in a row, the real problem is not the issue itself but instead the way “””The Left””” talks about it. What are the odds

photo of Pam Bondi testifying in the foreground as a group of 7 women and 1 men raise their hands

Likely-historic photo by NBC News of all the Epstein victims asked to raise their hands if they've not yet been asked to meet with the DOJ as Bondi testifies in foreground

I lived inside a rotisserie chicken for a while, it was fun but just too moist

one small step for a Betty

All this said, a superbowl halftime show featuring Huun-Huur-Tu and athletes from the nomad games riding horses and shooting arrows with their feet and shit would fucking rule, look into that also goodell

BBC News headlines: Education School caterers 'confident' of meat Missing children data 'worrying'

Happy 13th anniversary to this pair of matching news headlines.