Vertandor

Hoping for a Seahawks win in this house - one of my favourite cities, and the team J picked to support

A picture of an eagle owl sitting on a wooden fence post, in front of blue sky. The caption reads "This is indeed a Superb Owl. Their name is Winnie"

Superb Owl thread... easy to mute for those who aren't into NFL 😁
#Superbowl

I have yet to see any evidence that there is a market for AI-generated books outside of people being tricked into thinking they are not AI-generated books. AKA, it is a project of scamming and deceiving people, and really should be treated as fraud

#beersky anyone know of a UK supplier of Einstok Wee Heavy? (it's for a thing so I can't substitute other similar/better brews)

40 MINUTES TO KICKOFF!*

*mixed relay biathlon

A clump of snowdrops on a gravel path.

An early pink primrose on a bed of dead leaves.

Cyclamen on an old tree stump.

Definite signs of spring…

A white cartoon stoat (he Olympic Mascot, called Tina) on cross-country skis

A brown and white cartoon stoat (the Paralympic Mascot, called Milo) doing wheelchair curling

aww, the mascots are stoats for this Olympics/Paralympics

Bluesky Biathlon: IT’S TIME!!!

The Mixed Relay is incoming. 4 x 6km. The Men will set off first for Legs 1 and 2, then the Women take over.

Each racer skis a 2km lap, shoots prone (lying down), skis another lap, shoots standing up, skis to the exchange / finish.

#biathlon

Fascinating men's skiathlon just now (waiting a on a jury result, though Klaebo's win is not in doubt) and nice to see Musgrave and Davies well up there in the results.
#WinterOlympics

Curling is amazing, it's like snooker, bowling, skating and housework rolled into one inexplicable sport :)

An orange and white striped cat, asleep, hugging my socked foot like a teddy bear.

Timeline cleanse

a screenshot of two tumblr posts. the first: aralintheobsessive Jan 16 if you want butterflies, you need to live with caterpillars. iam not being metaphorical, i work in a garden center, stop buying plants 'to bring in the bees and butterflies and then immediately poisoning every caterpillar that dares to consume a single leaf you will not get butterflies if you kill all the things that turn into butterflies! what are you doing! (end of post) below it, a response from afroartinc: As a poet, I also want my viewers to take this rather beautiful allegory into account.

what are you doing!

The alien ambassador sidled through the museum in awe.

"You Humans have so much art! Do you have machines to make all paintings, poems, stories and songs?"

"We experimented with that, briefly," the guide said. "But humans are both cheaper and more creative. And, well, we will make art regardless."

This New Hotel Reservation Scam Is Fooling People Who Use Sites Like Booking.com If you've booked a hotel through a platform like Booking.com or Expedia, beware any communication that directs you to confirm your payment details to hold your reservation.

A scammer just tried exactly this on me via WhatsApp. Glad I saw a post here recently outlining the scam - it would be very easy to fall for. The “hotel” account had an unconvincing name, but they had my name, number & reservation dates. lifehacker.com/money/hotel-...

the polish figure skating team in the kiss and cry holding a plush pierogi

IMPORTANT OLYMPIC NEWS:

THE POLISH FIGURE SKATING TEAM HAS A PLUSH PIEROGI

yeah, it's properly hypnotic 😁

I have actually used "This darkness dies with me" before. That's a conversation stopper, but it's not even hyperbole: I'm not passing on these shitty genes to some poor kid. I'm a *mess*.

The Roaring Game: Scotland's curling stone island | National Museums Scotland Curling is a sport native to Scotland, that can be traced back to medieval times. Today, the game involves two teams taking turns to slide heavy, polished

My blog post on Ailsa Craig, curling stones, and the weird minerals that make this rock unique. 🥌

oh btw if you need the CIA World Factbook because they took it down with no warning because we can't have nice things, here's where you can get the PDF for the 2024-2025 edition: annas-archive.li/md5/92d7b783...

Highly recommend the soundtrack to Hollow Knight: Silksong by Christopher Larkin.

I've not played it (I suspect I'd yeet the controller through the nearest window) but I've been enjoying a few play throughs on YouTube, and the music is superb on a standalone listen too.

A photo of a very sturdy and very fluffy gray and white cat in front of a box

Guys I know everything is incredibly bad but please stop for a moment and enjoy this photo of my fucking amazing cat. Look at this shape. The box behind him is his thinking box, he sits in it and thinks

See thread.

The winter version of the Olympics has some platinum-grade esoteric shit (by the standards of football/cricket/rugby/hockey) performed by absolute legends

Highly recommend

🫂💜

Graphics from Breast Cancer Now showing the symptoms of breast cancer: a lump, puckering or dimpling, colour change, inverted nipple, rash/crusting, liquid from nipple, change in size

Please make sure you know the symptoms of breast cancer. I only caught mine early because I had dimpling in my breast and knew it was a symptom so I saw my GP. Please check your breasts regularly for changes and see a GP if you have symptoms mentioned below

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university? When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...

Incandescent. One of the best pieces I've read about what university means to people and their communities - and what will happen to a city and people after one closes. The *Labour* government and Jaqui Smith in particular should be ashamed of themselves and shamed into doing something. Deplorable.

PIP shouldn’t be seen as income.

It should be seen as expenses.

Being disabled costs more, PIP was meant to cover that discrepancy.

It doesn’t come close to doing that though… and sadly many have to use it as a form of vital income due to other benefits being too low.

I did not realize (remember?) that blocking doesn't unfollow (it rarely comes up for me) BUT this could be important. If you're following someone (say someone awful who just showed back up but went silent so you might not remember not unfollowing) and want to block them, make sure to unfollow.

Equinor has changed its name to Adura in the UK

Equinor and Shell now hide behind their new joint venture name Adura for their most polluting projects in the UK, like the controversial Rosebank oil field.

Adura is Equinor. Responsibility does not go away with a name change.

Happy abseiling lesbians day to all who celebrate!!!