warreni

I caught a preview screening of Hamnet this morning. How closely it tracks with known facts about Shakespeare’s biography is debatable and it takes some liberties with the details of the play, but as a work of fiction, it is a fantastic origin story of the Bard’s greatest work.

#movies #drama

Beautiful! 🙂

alpine salamander on the ground

Meet the Alpine Salamander.

It may look like just another amphibian, but did you know they have one of the longest gestation periods in the animal kingdom?
Their babies take 2-4 YEARS to be born.

Yes, you read that right, up to 4 years of pregnancy.

#nature #amphibian #salamander #animals #wild

Debra the frog

Debra the frog

So this. This right here. This is when my opinion of The Conjuring: Last Rites shifted from mediocre horror film to despicable propaganda piece.

The Warrens were not pioneering paranormal heroes. At best, they were naive cranks--at worst they were grotesque con artists.

#movies #horror

The Elf Post is here!

This particular 40746 was missing about four key pieces--very unusual for me--so I had to improvise.

#LEGO #Christmas

On a lighter note, M3GAN 2.0 is a surprisingly fun movie. Is it a weird sequel that suffers from odd tonal shifts? Yes, but it's also a bit of absurd cinematic fluff, and we all need that sometimes.

#movies #peacock #horror?

Without Polio Vaccines, How Quickly Will the Disease Return? Polio, a disease that can cause lifelong paralysis, has been eliminated from the U.S. Experts fear a resurgence if lifesaving vaccines are revoked under the new administration

Do you know anyone who is living in an iron lung? No? Thank Jonas Salk.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/here...

America is seeing a historic resurgence in measles, whooping cough, and other vaccine-preventable diseases.

VACCINES SAVE LIVES!

#wtfcdc #vaccines #scienceftw

I have made it a rule not to politicize this space, and that's important to me, but when politicians abuse science for nefarious purposes, the consequences are often deadly; I cannot hold my tongue.

VACCINES DO NOT CAUSE AUTISM.

www.aap.org/en/news-room...

The calendars are in! I think this may be my best one yet; I love the matte finish.

A lot of axolotls: the amphibian-themed banknote Mexicans don’t want to spend Nearly 13m people are hoarding millions of dollars’ worth of the stylish 50 peso note, featuring Mexico’s cutest critter

Axolotls seem to be having something of a moment, and I am here for it.

#amphibians #salamanders #paedomorphosis #mexico #money?

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

A brown toad with rough skin covered in widely spaced reddish-brown warty bumps! Their entire body is also covered in tiny black speckles! They are moist and sitting in a very shallow puddle of water!

Our friend the Southern Pygmy Toad is mostly found in the Nama Karoo Biome in the center of South Africa! They are also known to live in small areas in Botswana and Lesotho! They only grow to about three quarters of an inch long! (photo by Marius Burger)

#frogs

Patricia the frog

Patricia the frog

I have a lot of mixed feelings about herp shows. On the one hand, it's nice to see the variety of amphibians and reptiles present, and I almost feel a kind of kinship with the humans who attend them; on the other hand, there are invariably animals for sale that should not be--like crocodilians.

Doctor Who legend Tom Baker, 91, dons iconic Fourth Doctor costume as he receives MBE in style Jelly Babies all round!

Congratulations to Tom Baker on his Member of the British Empire award! (Given the number of times he’s saved London from aliens, it probably should have been a K.B.E. 😉)

www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/do...

Grandview Barn in Stowe Vermont
📸Ken Rachlis

Lovely.

Leopard is fascinated by a passing dung beetle rolling its ball of animal waste

I finished Task yesterday. It's more of a family drama than a police procedural; it is nonetheless compelling and entertaining. It's probably six episodes' worth of story stretched to seven, but I recommend it anyway (televised narratives that fit their length are rare).

#television #drama

Presence is an interesting film--a ghost story from the ghost's POV. While that sounds like a cheesy gimmick, it's essentially a found-footage film with a few objects-thrown-around-the-room shots. It's the best movie I've seen this weekend.

#horror #movies

I gave up on the indoor-pond scheme today. It was loud and basically the opposite of relaxing. I will dismantle it over the weekend. 😕

Galápagos had no native amphibians. Then it was invaded by hundreds of thousands of frogs Scientists are only beginning to grasp the scale of the issue and understand what impact the tree frogs may have on the islands’ rare wildlife

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

This looks like a catastrophe.

#frogs #invasive

I watched The Postman Always Rings Twice for the first time last night. That sounds like a lie but it’s true.

It’s a decent film noir that sadly has as much to do with postal mail as Rudolph has in common with an Attenborough documentary on reindeer in Kyrgyzstan.

South Park Drive in Tilden to close for 5 months to protect newts The closure, which has been done during the newts’ seasonal migration since the 1980s, allows the salamanders to seek out the higher air moisture levels they favor for breeding.

More newts you can use. . . 😉

www.berkeleyside.org/2025/10/29/s...

Texas sues Tylenol makers alleging deceptive marketing to pregnant people Lawsuit comes after Trump’s baseless claims that acetaminophen can cause autism and ADHD in children

This goes beyond the normal level of internet idiocy: Tylenol does NOT cause autism.

#science #texas

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The other thing that bothered me about Weapons--humans are biological machines, which means that they receive energy inputs and excrete waste. So if the human zombies of the film had to be fed, did they not also have to be aided with toilet functions? 🤔
#movies #horror

Honestly, I'm a little exhausted with the disjunct-for-its-own-sake narrative. This story, told in a linear fashion, would have come in at the acceptable threshold for most movies: 90 minutes.

Weeks or maybe months (I was a little fuzzy on the timeline) went by with neither of these adults turning up for their jobs. The film seems to ignore or be uninterested in this idea.

I watched Weapons the other day on HBO. The most unrealistic thing about it was the idea that an elementary-school-aged child had two stay-at-home parents in this economy.

Why "stay-at-home," you ask?

#movies #horror