Barbara 🇺🇦 @babs_at_masto@qoto.org

I’m seeing folks from #Sudan on #twitter despairing that the site’s new limits, and its general m*sk-era brokenness, will compromise their ability to stay updated on the catastrophe unfolding in their homeland and share emergency info.

Once more: mastodon/fediverse needs to think seriously about how to expand to users in Asia and Africa and how to handle emergencies #twitterdown

"Even outside the cities, light pollution affects at least half the country's land mass, meaning rural areas are brighter, too. The issue is bigger than our relationship to nature. Research shows that small amounts of artificial light can harm our ecosystem and, possibly, our health.

"But it's not too late to change it. A small but growing number of Minnesotans are revving up efforts to protect the night sky's purity."

https://www.startribune.com/minnesotas-large-dark-sky-areas-are-unique-how-can-we-preserve-them/600284898/

#LightPollution #DarkSkies #Minnesota

Helpful Engineering Flow Chart

Has anyone checked the toilets in Mar A Lago for what the US plan is in this scenario? #russia

This means I will be sending takedown notices if you post my work to Twitter.

I'm not lending my work to the enrichment of Elon Musk, nor to the spread of bigotry. If you want to help broadcast white supremacy by supporting that place, take your own damn photographs. Don't use mine.

Two Buckeyes share a Black-Eyed Susan. How do I make sure they stick around? Sure, keep mass plantings of meadow flowers. But just any flowers are not enough.

Plantains, Bluehearts, and False Foxgloves must be available for their caterpillars to eat. These are usually seen as weeds, so when they are removed or poisoned, Buckeye populations suffer.

Leave food for their babies and beauty will come to you.

#wildlife #nature #butterflies #ecology #biodiversity #gardening #NaturePhotography

Often, ant colonies will have more than one queen.

Sometimes, colonies will have dozens, or even hundreds. This is a nest of little fire ants, Wasmannia auropunctata, in Puerto Rico.

The queens are obvious, but do you see the much smaller worker ants?

#ants #insects #wasmannia #polygyny #queenant

#LightPollution research is having a moment. It made the cover of Science Magazine.

The journal has published a special issue on the topic, consisting of an editorial piece, a Policy Forum, and several review articles: https://www.science.org/toc/science/380/6650

#DarkSkies #ALAN #Science

The national security of every ally of the United States has been put at risk. Trump would have had access to all kinds of information from allies around the world. He has put the safety of the free world at risk. If he gets into office again, no one will share info with the USA again.

This absolutely squares with what I've seen in Oregon. Reporting on mining in eastern Oregon, I didn't find people excited about working in a polluting, dangerous business. I saw people who wanted living wage jobs in a region with very few options for that. Green manufacturing can succeed in very red places.

#GreenJobs #RuralAmerica #GreenTech #ClimateCrisis

https://www.geekwire.com/2023/job-opportunities-outweigh-political-differences-when-climate-tech-comes-to-rural-communities/

Musk's Saudi-government-funded Twitter is getting more and more toxic. Latest: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/06/09/viral-hoax-pentagon-twitter/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWJpZCI6IjMzOTQ3MjciLCJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNjg2MjgzMjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNjg3NTc5MTk5LCJpYXQiOjE2ODYyODMyMDAsImp0aSI6ImVjNjRmYzBjLTNhNzgtNGVkMi1hMDZhLWVjNTU0NDE2NmRjMiIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS90ZWNobm9sb2d5LzIwMjMvMDYvMDkvdmlyYWwtaG9heC1wZW50YWdvbi10d2l0dGVyLyJ9.gBL_JWm2mghsBIy6WZazPuT8Z2XvJ26qhqHMfoBFS0w

Yet journalists continue to pour their work into the site, which means they are actively supporting it whether they want to admit this or not.

I know it’s a crude metaphor, but I often wonder how Reagan would react seeing this version of the Republican Party strapping on their kneepads for a Russian autocrat gleefully committing war crimes.

My evaluation of whether Trump will be indicted federally has moved to “more likely than not” for the documents case, “very possible but not more likely than not” for 1/6 matters, and “insufficient information” for other federal matters. I decline to opine on likelihood of Georgia charges.

For those watching from afar, the Texas GOP has a complete lock on power in the state, but with vast amounts of wealth at play, big egos, bigger aspirations, and no clear leader, the factions are breaking apart.

The various players know what shady corrupt crap their opponents have been up to, so I imagine we’ll be hearing some… stories as this unfolds.

#Texas #txlege

Want to help the bees?

1. Stop using pesticides. This includes "green" pesticides and mosquito misters.

2. Plant a diversity of flowers, if you have space.

3. If you have land, leave some bare patches, as most native bees are soil-nesters.

4. Leave dead trees and plants to stand for the wood and twig-nesting species.

5. Vote against politiicians who are insensitive to environmental concerns. You know the ones. Out with them.

6. Vote for politicians who expand protected areas.

Good morning to readers. Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands, but this week was the site of one of the most aggressive barrages since the invasion began last February.

On Tuesday morning at around 3 a.m., a series of loud, concussive blasts woke Georgy in the middle of the night.

Fully 294 pages into the 316-page #Durham review and then it just concedes that the predication of Cross Fire Hurricane was validly predicated because of the low standard required, as was independently confirmed by OIG, and that it could have been opened under any of several different justifications ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A new study looks back into history to assess human impacts on the habitat of Asian #elephants and finds sharp declines starting several centuries ago.

Habitat loss has increasingly driven Asian elephants, like these foraging at a garbage dump in Sri Lanka, into human areas.

⬇️🐘
https://theconversation.com/human-activities-in-asia-have-reduced-elephant-habitat-by-nearly-two-thirds-since-1700-dividing-what-remains-into-ever-smaller-patches-202920
#Science #Ecology #Conservation