Notices by Bryan Wright (catselbow@fosstodon.org)

@futurebird

It might seem like a small thing, but I think we need to start with openness and honesty. Secrecy and lies are a cancer that eats at the fabric of society, no matter how well-intended. Are back-room deals, secret negotiations, or covert operations ever really necessary, or are they just expedient?

An asiatic dayflower (Commelina communis).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commelina_communis

A "white-margined burrower bug" nymph (Sehirus cinctus) on boxwood (Buxus sempervirens). There were bunches of these huddled together among the leaves. From a distance, I thought they were ladybugs. Handsome creatures!

#bugs #Hemiptera #insects #photography

If you're over 45, get a colonoscopy.

I know someone in her 60s who recently had her first colonoscopy. They found a tumor, requiring surgery to remove a section of her colon. She had no symptoms before, and is an otherwise healthy and active person.

The pathology report showed that the tumor had just penetrated the outer wall of her colon. If she'd waited longer, it would have metastasized. An earlier colonoscopy could have nipped it as a polyp.

Just do it. It could save your life.

The passion flowers are in bloom, looking like a merry-go-round jointly designed by Dr. Seuss and H.P. Lovecraft.

#plants #flowers #florespondence

A handsome broad-snouted weevil.

#Weevils #beetles #coleoptera #insects #photography

#SilentSunday

A little harvestman sits at the center of a fiddlehead's spiral, like a minotaur at the center of a maze.

#ferns #harvestman #opiliones #arthropods #photography

@mikako6

Thanks! I always enjoy your comments.

As far as I know, opiliones can see. They do seem to watch when I'm trying to take pictures of them.

I've also noticed that they sometimes seem to position their legs so that their eyes are hidden. (maybe for camouflage purposes? or maybe they're shy?)

A fallen maple leaf.

#plants #trees #photography

Isis, for #caturday.

@janbartosik
Stanley Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey".

There are lots of books about schools for magical kids: Hogwarts, Camp Half-Blood, Unseen University, Strange Academy, and on and on.

But what about a retirement home for magical grownups? Imagine reaching a ripe old age, children and grandchildren grown and gone, and one day you find a gold-embossed letter in your mailbox:

"Greetings!
You have been selected for residence at the Moonfrost Home for Exceptional Elders."

Somebody write a novel about a magical retirement home. I want to read it.

If the folks working on high-temperature superconductivity got together with the folks who worked on cold fusion we could have lukewarm superconfusion.

#physics

@design_law
By clicking a star, I cause a little squirt of neurotransmitters inside the brain of someone potentially halfway around the world. What could be more significant than that?