Barbara 🇺🇦 @babs_at_masto@qoto.org

Much of the GOP doesn’t even agree with Tucker Carlson on Jan. 6.

🤦
Here's Canada's most embarrassing citizen, Jordan Peterson, on Musk's hellsite actually telling the POPE that Christianity should mean that if they are hungry then cut benefits to programs that feed them, and if they are sick deny them health care.

🧵 Did you know that young Jimmy Carter heroically saved Canada from a nuclear meltdown when he was a naval officer?

It's true!

The world’s first nuclear reactor meltdown occurred right here in the Ottawa Valley — and a young U.S. naval officer (future U.S. president Jimmy Carter) was brought in and put in charge of the team containing the disaster — 70 years ago.)

#CanadaLovesCarter #JimmyCarter

Looks like someone got cold feet.

#MeanwhileInCanada

Great to see more cities adopting their code to promote biodiversity.

#biodiversity #Bangor

https://www.bangordailynews.com/2023/02/23/news/bangor/bangor-lawn-code-bee-conservation-joam40zk0w/

Bank Vole.

It was so funny to watch these voles scurrying off with the hazelnuts, as the voles themselves pretty much blended in with the woodland floor, but you could see this hazelnut zipping along through the undergrowth!

Canon R7 RF100-500mm, 500mm, f/7.1, 1/400th, ISO 8000.

#BankVole #vole #wildlife #nature

Happy #WildlifeWednesday!!

Can you ID this feathered friend?

📸: Maury Eldridge

“He made an unprecedented trip to a war zone, one where there are no U.S. troops to protect him. And, yes, he’s old. ”

Biden’s trip to Ukraine was a big deal. Here’s why. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/02/biden-trip-ukraine-kyiv/673134/

Do you have an innovative solution based on #EUSpace🇪🇺🛰️ to tackle marine plastic pollution🌊🐟?

Submit your idea for our #CASSINI Prize and contribute to the protection of marine ecosystems 🦈

📅Deadline: 3 May
💶Total prize pool: ~ Є 3 million

🔗http://europa.eu/!xdd6Cy

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/defis_eu/status/1625077497636216832

Sara Khadem: Top Iran chess player exiled for refusing headscarf

When one of the world's most promising chess players, 25-year-old Sara Khadem, decided to play at an international tournament without her headscarf, in solidarity with the protest movement in Iran, she thought a warning would be the worst that would happen to her.

Instead, she can't return to Iran - there are arrest papers waiting for her, and she now lives in exile in southern Spain, with her husband and one-year-old son.

Sara Khadem said there was a slow evolution of her decision to play in the tournament in Kazakhstan in December last year without her headscarf. The contestants only wore them in front of the cameras, and she felt that was hypocritical. Given the sacrifices being made by the women and girls on the streets of Iran, some of them risking their lives, it was the least she could do, she said.

#iran #women #misogyny #religion #hijab #choice #Islam #fundamentalist #patriarchy

Codebreakers deciphered century-old letters stored for centuries in French archives and discover they were written of Mary, Queen of Scots. It turns out she was "well-trained in the art of cipher by her mother, Marie de Guise, from a very young age."

My Ars colleague @jenlucpiquant spins a fascinating tale that nicely blends #history and #cryptology.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/02/lost-and-found-code-breakers-decipher-50-letters-of-mary-queen-of-scots/

The recovery of plant community composition following passive restoration across spatial scales https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2745.14063

Humans are damaging biodiversity, but restoring habitats can help. Ladouceur & colleagues studied 17 old fields for 33 years and found that, after up to 80 years of agricultural abandonment, biodiversity hadn't recovered to levels of undisturbed sites. Species composition improved, but some species increased more than others.

I'm involved in a project that uses the Twitter and Reddit APIs to help journalists send corrections/updates down the same social media pathways as the original story. With Musk and minions pulling the plug there, we're urgently investigating fediverse/Mastodon possibilities. I wish journalists would do that, too, because we could really help them out with this tool.

Canadian butterfly-lovers can apply to be "butterfly rangers" with the David Suzuki Foundation. Looks like there is training and events, and that rangers would encourage neighbours to plant pollinator gardens.

I have applied, mostly out of curiosity, but whether or not I become a "ranger," I'll be trading in some lawn for #milkweed and nectar plants. I will have native plants that bloom from early spring to late fall. #Bees #butterflies & birds are my new best friends.

https://davidsuzuki.org/take-action/act-locally/butterflyway/#editor-4

On #WorldWetlandsDay we want to stress the crucial service they provide:

✅ Reducing flood risks
✅ Mitigating storms, tsunamis
✅ Acting as carbon sinks
✅ Preserving biodiversity
✅ Sustaining local communities

They should be protected & restored for #Mitigation and #Adaptation strategies to face the #ClimateEmergency

“If there are pelicans nesting in a wetland, something is good with the health of this wetland.” For #WorldWetlandsDay we share a story set along the shores of the Prespa lakes in northern Greece. Read "The Spirit of the Wetlands," by Julian Hoffman. https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-spirit-of-the-wetlands/

Ontario wetlands under threat.

"the changes that are being proposed to the Ontario wetland evaluation system will dramatically undermine its efficacy and endanger wetlands across Ontario"

Happy #worldWetlandsDay to everyone except Doug Ford and his supporters.

https://phys.org/news/2023-02-ontario-wetlands-threat.html