iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Jon Sullivan

On the way back to Montebello I stopped to take a photo of this fine vista. Can you see the extra bonus animal? #MentalHealthHike #animals

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Reposted by Jon Sullivan

Atle 🧇🧅 @atlefren.snabelen.no.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Bill Watterson: fortsatt like relevant!

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 18h

Here's my drawing for Day 15 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, from South America's cloud forests, and "Contraption". The first contraptions I thought of were Sylvester McMonkey McBean's Star-on and Star-off […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of two Andean Cock-of-the-Rock birds, both bright orange with big feathery heads. They're beak-to-beak and one has its wing around the other. One has a star on its belly and the other does not. The text above them reads: "The Andean Cock-of-the-rocks got really quite smart on that day. The day they decided that Andean Cock-of-the-rocks are Andean Cock-of-the-rocks. And no kind of Andean Cock-of-the-rock is best in the jungle. That day, all the Andean Cock-of-the-rocks forgot about stars. And whether they had one, or not, upon thars." (Apologies to Dr. Seuss.)

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neville park @nev.flipping.rocks.ap.brid.gy · 22h

#Arachtober 16: oy gevalt, almost forgot…anyway here's a zebra jumping spider (_Salticus scenicus_). °OO° #DailySpiderPic #spiders #JumpingSpiders #Araneae #Salticidae

Three-quarters view of a small jumping spider on limestone. It has a pair of large forward-facing eyes and its abdomen is striped white and brown. (The colour of the zebra stripes can range from the palest grey to brown to jet black.)

The spider looking straight up at the camera. It has a smaller pair of eyes flanking its main pair. Fangs can be seen at the ends of its shiny black chelicerae, partly hidden by fluffy white pedipalps.

A view of the spider's abdomen, showing the diagonal stripes of white and rusty brown, formed out of lots of little hairs.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 22h

Mark Avery’s blog posts an important press release from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds on the latest results of studies on longline fishery impacts on albatrosses in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s grim reading. > Dr Stephanie Borrelle, Pacific Marine Regional Coordinator at […]

mastodon.nz

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Artemis @artemis201.mstdn.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Guess who's back Back again Beans is back Tell your friends #BakedBeansOwl #owl #owls #screechowl #screechowls #animals #animal #zoo #Owltober

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Here's more about these Blue-Capped Cordonbleu birds. "Pairs dance holding twigs in their beaks, and film using a high-speed camera shows partners tapping their feet between twenty-five and fifty times a second, making a buzzing sound." […]

mastodon.nz

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

After their trip to the Funhouse, the pair of Blue-Capped Cordonbleu's affectionately referred to each other as Gangly and Fubsy. We're up to Day 16 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge and today's prompts are East Africa's Blue-Capped Cordonbleu, and "Gangly". It […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My quick ink drawing (with some colour pencil) of two Blue-Capped Cordonbleu birds (blue and brown birds) in the front of two funhouse mirrors, making one look stretched out and gangly and the other short and squat and fubsy.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Here’s the instrumental track, “All Winter”, by Duke Boara, for the #PeaceAndCalm theme for this week’s #JukeboxFridayNight www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7JP6UzIX0c

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sky @scroeser.kolektiva.social.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

I don't want to say Australian students should riot in the streets for better education funding. I'm just noting that so far the lack of riots has not resulted in a well-funded public education system.

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Reposted by Jon Sullivan

Karsten Schmidt @toxi.mastodon.thi.ng.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

Thin Layer Of Life (2026) (I love scenes like this, exposing just how thin and fragile this carpet of life is in the high mountains, considering the ages/centuries, the obstacles it took to overcome and the relationships needing to form for this varied life […] [Original post on mastodon.thi.ng]

A high alpine landscape showing a small plateau of rocks overgrown with mosses, small bushes and some isolated larch trees, all in beautifully rich autumn colors. The dense carpet of tundra life is interrupted by erosion and cliffs in the foreground, exposing just how thin and fragile that layer of top soil and vegetation actually is. Talus fields and bare rock higher up in the hazy background.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 16/10/2026

One of the ecology postgrads working with me at the moment, Dee Patel, has spent this year doing lots of data curation work, and now stats analysis, on my 23-years of ongoing high frequency bird counts between Ōtautahi-Christchurch city and Lincoln town in Canterbury, NZ. That's where I […]

mastodon.nz

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Mignon Fogarty @grammargirl.zirk.us.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

"Here comes the bride." "Down came the rain." Ever notice these phrases are backward, with the verb before the subject? It goes all the way back to Old English. And it never works with pronouns: "Here comes John," but not "Here comes he." The best part is that we follow this "no pronoun" rule […]

zirk.us

Original post on zirk.us

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Pxl Phile @ppxl.social.tchncs.de.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

Here we go: #inktober 15: "Hooray" Preparation time: 1 hour Drawing/inking: 5 hours 🫠 #inktober2026 #starwars

Black fineliner and Indian ink drawing under Aquarelle ink on white carton paper.

It is that StarWars Scene where (rtl.) Han Solo, Choowaka and Luke Skywalker walk down some stairs only to be awaited by hundreds of rebels standing in order for salut. They walk towards an aisle in a gigantic room, the backside lit up by 5 light columns intersected by dark columns. On the other side tiny people await them on some kind of stage.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

I'd not heard of Long-tailed Broadbills before. They're extraordinary-looking designer-level birds. www.inaturalist.org/taxa/8947-Psari… #birds

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

It’s a little known fact (so little known that I may not deny having made it up) that the collective noun for Long-tailed Broadbills is a "Hooray". Yes, it's another quick drawing, now Day 15 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Long-tailed […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing (with some colour pencil) of a row of long-tailed broadbill birds perched along a stem of a vine spelling the word "HOORAY". The birds are small and mostly green with blue tails and yellow heads with black caps.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/10/2026

It sounds like something truly terrible is happening to these goats. The truly terrible thing that's happening? I am not walking fast enough toward them with the evening grain bucket. Poor poor goats.

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Reposted by Jon Sullivan

Neville Park @nev.status.nevillepark.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

I know it's rare for locals to want outsiders to weigh in but I'd like to hear from people _not_ from Toronto: what do _you_ think about the provincial government removing bike lanes along a major street in Canada's largest city, purportedly to reduce traffic? Up-to-date Star story (🎁) #bikeTO […]

status.nevillepark.ca

Original post on status.nevillepark.ca

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

@nev Good on you for protesting and good luck. I’m in Christchurch, NZ, and we came within a whisker of this too. Our current self-confessed “petrol head” mayor campaigned for re-election on removing one of the cycleways in our centre city, and he won the election, but thankfully his proposal […]

mastodon.nz

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Neville Park @nev.status.nevillepark.ca.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

#breaking: Reporting live from Bloor and Islington where a small crowd of cyclists, passersby, cops, construction workers and reporters are all at a standoff. Will update in thread. #bikeTO #BikeTooter #Toronto

Cyclists on one side, cops on other, in eastbound lane

Supportive local parent with BIKE LANES SAVE LIVES poster

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 14/10/2026

Introducing Lady Victoria C. Pigeon of the New Guinean Columbids. It's my drawing for Day 14 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are New Guinea's Victorian Crowned Pigeon and "Lady." Unlike yesterday's Himalayan Monal, both the male and female […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a Victorian Crowned Pigeon, presented as a Victorian era portrait in an ornate botanically themed frame.

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Reposted by Jon Sullivan

Björn Brembs @brembs.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

Amazing! New spider species catapults ants into its web: "Ballistic high-powered spider webs overcome dangerous prey defenses" www.sciencedirect.com/science/artic… #biology #ant #spider

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Reposted by Jon Sullivan

myrmepropagandist @futurebird.sauropods.win.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

Absolutely diabolical. Should be illegal. What will spiders do next?

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

Here's another quick drawing, for Day 13 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Himalayan Monal and "Flimsy". Admittedly this one's a bit subtle. I learned that "flimsy" is old slang for bank note, and in 2005 the Nepal Rasta Bank released a […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a brown chicken-like bird with blue eye marking looking at a Nepalese bank note. The text says female Himalayan Monal with soft flimsy.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 13/10/2026

I was just looking through our copy of the Collins Complete and Unabridged English Dictionary and discovered the word “Flummery”. I’m not sure if I’ve ever used flummery before but it’s a good description of a lot of modern politics, and not the pudding […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

A photo of a passage in the dictionary defining the word “Flummery”. See the post for the definition.

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Prof. Sam Lawler @sundogplanets.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

I had an incredibly lovely, tasty, fun, relaxing day with my partner and kids. I'm really grateful. Tomorrow is a holiday here but I have a bazillion very stressful things I need to work on writing, so I should probably mostly do that. It's also supposed to […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A brown goat and a grey goat, both leaning their heads on the back of a yellowish dog. However, the grey goat's body is somehow crossed over on top of the brown goat's body. All 3 animals are quite unconcerned about this strange position they've ended up in. There are a few more goats partially visible in the background.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Here's the iNaturalist observation that I got the sharp-shinned hawk's grumpy look from. It's a photo by gibbous_jedda in the North Carolina Appalachians of a hawk in the hand that's just been banded. www.inaturalist.org/observations/18… #iNaturalist #birds #Accipiter #hawks

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

Here's a quick drawing for Day 12 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Sharp-shinned hawk, a small raptor from the Americas, and "Toss". I've drawn a bird that's being released after being banded. For all the good that this does for bird […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a sharp-shinned hawk, a small hawk with bands on its wings and talk. It's just been let go after being banded and it's looking back with a less than pleased look on its face.

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Isaac Freeman @isaacfreeman.cloudisland.nz.ap.brid.gy · 12/10/2026

The Green Party has released AI policy today as part of our general election campaign: www.greens.org.nz/ai_policy I’m pretty happy with it. There are some things I’d word differently for a more technical audience, but as something going out to all voters I think it strikes the right […]

cloudisland.nz

Original post on cloudisland.nz

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François @fmy.piaille.fr.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Japan looking very impressive on those two charts. Very high modal share of bicycle, very low modal share of car.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

I used these shoebill photos by christian78231 on iNaturalist (CC-BY-NC) as the reference for my Birdtober drawing. Shoebills are such epically prehistoric-looking birds. Totally fitting for B. rex. www.inaturalist.org/observations/37… #birds #iNaturalist

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Have you lost a shoe? I recommend hiring Bill from Shoe Rescue. This is my drawing for Day 11 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Shoebill from Africa, and "Rescue". I was reminded that the scientific name of shoebills is B. rex […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

@phil_stevens True. The leaf shape of *Ileostylus* is similar to *Coprosma* and *Griselinia*. You''ve got to look carefully sometimes to spot these mistletoes. In this case it was easier as the leaves don't look like lemonwood leaves and it's growing out of a lemonwood branch. Then there's NZ's […]

mastodon.nz

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 11/10/2026

Here are four of my more notable observations from my weekly biodiversity run about Ōtautahi-Christchurch city, NZ, yesterday. The steel blue ladybirds are back. These are Australians that have been spreading through the city over the past 6 years […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My photo of a small, accurately named steel-blue ladybird walking along a stem.

A photo of an iridescent bronze beetle on a leaf. There are a few holes in the leaf from its feeding.

My photo of two kererū (NZ woodpigeons) up in a tree. They're big green birds with white breasts.

My photo of a young native mistletoe growing on a (lemonwood) tree branch. The lower left branch of the mistletoe has a couple of small fruit developing (the first time this plant has fruited).

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

Here's my drawing for Day 10 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Crimson Rosella from Australia, and "Mystical". (Most mystically I discovered that my fingers still know how to write in cursive. It's been a *long time* since I've done that.) […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My stylises ink drawing of a rosella (parrot) in flight with a cosmic background.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

@va2lam @edfoc.bsky.social It's also data from 2015 so most of Paris's transport transformation has happened since then.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

@edfoc.bsky.social Great paper. Thanks for sharing. I'm looking at their Figure 3 and oh boy does it underscore how car addicted NZ, Australia, USA, and Canada are when compared with other countries. We're the highest in car ownership and car use per capita, and […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

Graphs showing each country and its number of bikes and cars per capita each graphed against the relative use cars and bikes for transport. NZ, Australia, Canada, and USA are the highest in car ownership and car use, and, while moderate to high in bike ownership, they are near the bottom of the world rankings for bike use in transport. This is Figure 3 from Chen, W., Carstensen, T.A., Wang, R. et al. Historical patterns and sustainability implications of worldwide bicycle ownership and use. Commun Earth Environ 3, 171 (2022). https://doi-org.ezproxy.lincoln.ac.nz/10.1038/s43247-022-00497-4

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 10/10/2026

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

As something of an antidote to my previous roadkill post, I also saw this family of Kakīānau, Australasian Black Swans, on my bike home today. It's great to see them breeding now in the wetlands that have been built around the fringes of Ōtautahi-Christchurch […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My photo looking through some trees at two adult black swans with three pale coloured cygnets.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

I was saddened to find a kāhu (Australasian harrier) amongst today's roadkill on my bike commute home from work. For a bird so frequently seen scavenging for roadkill, I see them killed by cars surprisingly rarely. This bird got unlucky. As sad as it is to find […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My close-up photo of the head of a kāhu, Australasian harrier, dead on the side of the road. It's a brown bird of prey.

My close-up photo of the talons and tail of a kāhu, Australasian harrier, dead on the side of the road. The tail feathers are pale with brown stripes. The feet are yellow with sharp, curved claws.

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

If you've got a tricky demolition job, be sure to hire the right animals. Here's my drawing for Day 9 of the Ink-Birdtober challenge. Today's prompts are the Rook, and Ram. Working together, I reckon they have a unique set of destructive skills. #Birdtober […] [Original post on mastodon.nz]

My ink drawing of a roadside billboard showing profiles of a rook (a black bird with a long pointed beak) and a ram (a male sheep with curled horns). The text says "ROOK & RAM Hire the Demo Experts 0800-SMASH-GRAB".

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

@debe I was thinking of posting Asaf's Lost Horse. Here it is. Such a voice. Also, this from Wikipedia might be relevant. "In every interview I gave from the first second I always said I am not an Israeli artist, but an artist from Israel. I am not coming to represent Israel. I am not a […]

mastodon.nz

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

@mtchl Yes, getting observation fields used at all can be an uphill climb on iNat, and a few different ways of coding interactions have emerged in different parts of the world. The iNat app also tends to purposefully shy away from the complexity of what observation fields can add to observations […]

mastodon.nz

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

@mtchl Neat. I've not read Pollock et al (2025) yet. Downloading now. Regardless of the potential of machine learning here, which is likely pretty huge, I also think we've barely scratched the surface of what a big community of people can do themselves. eBird and iNaturalist should be only the […]

mastodon.nz

Original post on mastodon.nz

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Jon Sullivan @joncounts.mastodon.nz.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

@mtchl Pretty cool. I like how you're making more use of existing citizen science data. I read a similar but different approach today taken in a PNAS article that extracted species interactions for the text descriptions of citizen science observations. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2602244123

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Mitchell Whitelaw @mtchl.post.lurk.org.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

New work: Anthophiles uses machine learning to ID plants present in bee observations. It's an experiment in joined-up biodiversity data. anthophiles.mtchl.net #biodiversity #citizenscience #pollinators #insects

Screenshot of an interface showing bubble graphs and an observation of a blue-banded bee visiting a tomato plant.

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Mabus [Comms Open] @mabus808.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Inktober - Day 8 Stinky (Wereskunk) #sketch-a-day #art #ink #Inktober2026 #inktober #stinky #wereskunk

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Brian Vastag @brianvastag.mas.to.ap.brid.gy · 09/10/2026

Oh, World Octopus Day almost went by without me posting this cutie that flashed me. #WorldOctopusDay

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