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“It is a strong indication that we need better long-term planning. Climate change is not a future problem; it’s a challenge for right now.” 👇 🌍

'Over the Rainbow' #FotoVorschlag My 📷

The sunlight coming into the house is deep orange because of a nearby wildfire. Makes for some interesting shadows on the normally off-white walls. My 📷

Always comes out to say hi when I’m in the garden. 🌱 🕷️

🌊 🧪

I see 1978 music is trending. This will always be one of my favorite albums. I was a young teen when it was released in 1978; you sorta had to be there and lived the music at the time to understand how fresh it sounded. And every single track was good. #AT40

Apropos of the same 📕 I’m 📖 with my morning ☕️, Antonio de Pereda’s 1650 painting El sueño del Caballero. The angel is letting us know that ⏰ “Aeterne pungit, cito volat et occidit — Eternally it stings, swiftly it flies, and it kills.” All of your worldly pursuits scattered on the table, goodbye. 👋

Apropos of something I’m 📖 with my ☕️ , the Giralda, the Moorish minaret of the mosque built in the 12th century by the Almohad Caliphate is now the bell tower of Seville Cathedral in Spain. It was designed by Muslim architects ‘so that a man could ride horseback within it all the way to the top.’

A map of the Eastern Hemisphere from my copy of ‘An Improved System of Geography”by Francis McNally, published in 1866. Also, projections of the Pacific & Atlantic Oceans and a mountain profile chart. I flew helicopters through the ‘Hindoo Koosh’ at one stage of my life. 🗺️

Some afternoon / evening tea 🫖 reading (or 🍻) fir those who may have missed it, a thread on a great American who some have probably never heard of, or at least are unaware of his contributions to Reconstruction. Includes a few historical items from my personal library 📚 #booksky

Brown's peony is native to the Western U.S. & one of two peony species are native to the Western Hemisphere. It was first described to Western scientists in 1829 by David Douglas, but was of course ‘described’ far longer by indigenous people who used its roots treat illnesses. My 📸

My (only) contribution to this morning coffee reading, a thread on a great American who some have probably never heard of, or at least are unaware of his contributions to Reconstruction ☕️ Includes a few historical items from my personal library 📚 #booksky

A page from my copy of the Army Register of 1859. Of the four Second Regiment of Cavalry officers visible, only one, George H. Thomas, who was born OTD in 1816, didn’t break his oath and join the confederacy despite being a Virginian just like the Lt Colonel two names above his, Robert E. Lee 🧵

Clumps of native wildflowers, arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata). My 📸

For the curious..

Ghosts Behind GlassHow museums display extinct species—and what these exhibits say about us.   While it’s no longer possible to encounter a dodo in the wild, we can still come face-to-face with them in museums. The rema...press.uchicago.edu

Enough posting into the Bluesky void this morning, time to hit the trail. Have a good day or evening depending on your meridian. Don’t forget to log off and give your brain a break.

I’m pretty sure these are the best feet you’re going to see on Bluesky today 🪶

More birds, this time Watvögel (wading birds), in a plate from “Naturgeschichte Des Thierreichs” by Christian Friedrich August Kolb, published in Stuttgart in 1868. About as good as it gets for mid 19th century, German historical scientific art. Colored by hand. Coin for scale. 🖼️ 🪶 #sciart

I’m curious, but am I the only one who finds it mind blowing that in 1775 an American astronomer was contemplating intelligent life beyond earth and commented that said life was lucky to not be subject to slavery (addressing many who owned slaves), while pointing out its trivial scientific basis?

A scarce color painting of a dodo painted from life around 1625 by Ustad Mansur, master naturalist and painter for the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. A live dodo was brought by sailors to the city of Surat for the imperial menagerie in India. #sciart