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Maria Browning

@marbro.bsky.social
871 followers 763 following 49 posts

Books, dogs, birds, music, art, wild things & human rights — not necessarily in that order

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Reposted by Maria Browning
Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 8h
Alright that's enough of me for the night. signing off with this duckling ❤️ 🪶 🐣
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Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 19/07/2026
Look how happy this duckling looks to be foraging!!! 🐣 🪶
a duckling in a lake about to scoop up a piece of a flower, their mouth is big and open and joyful
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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Few sights gratify me more on a long equinoxical walk than an eerie weather-ravaged tree playing conductor to a screaming sky.
an eerie weather-ravaged tree playing conductor to a screaming sky
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Liliana Segura @lilianasegura.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The tortuous, botched execution of Christa Pike is truly horrifying. And while it feels unique in some ways, in reality it is also only the latest in a history of botched executions going back years — YEARS — in numerous states. Please know: this is the reality of the death penalty in this country.
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Brian Lyman @brianlyman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Samuel Alito’s opinion in Glossip ought to go down with the worst ever handed down by the nation’s high court. The man who believes women can’t be trusted to make their own decisions thinks a state’s right to execute people is sacred and infallible, whatever hell takes place in the death chamber.
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Steve Cavendish @scavendish.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
A lawyer for Christa Pike confirmed to the Banner that she had been administered both doses of pentobarbital and was still alive. It appears the State of Tennessee has another botched lethal injection.
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Coach Finstock @coachfinstock.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is the thing about AI that I love so much. Think of all the morons you know (many on this site!) using and swearing by this tech that can change the output depending on who is controlling the AI. And those dumbasses still believe it should be used for anything regarding data!
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McJulie @mcjulie.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
No matter what LLM technology could be or might be, it’s becoming VERY apparent that in the hands of the current techbro and Republican oligarchs, it’s going to be used for whatever evil purposes they can get away with.
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Spokane Rising @spokanerising.com · 29/09/2026
Send Stephen Miller to The Hague.
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Maria Browning @marbro.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I just wrote a @theactionnetwork.bsky.social letter: Governor Lee, Reconsider Clemency for Christa Pike. Write one here: actionnetwork.org/letters/gove...
actionnetwork.org
Governor Lee, Reconsider Clemency for Christa Pike
Given the Christa Pike's stay of execution, now is the time to ask Governor Lee to reconsider clemency.
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Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This Day in Labor History: September 30, 1919. A shootout occurred between armed guards protecting a union meeting of sharecroppers in Elaine, Arkansas and whites seeking to intimidate them. The next day, the governor ordered the military to crack down. Let's talk about the Elaine Massacre!
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Toby Buckle @polphilpod.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
we're in this preposterous place where a stupid spatt involving 12 people woth no power, halway around the world negatively defines progressives but the horrific consequences (& political failures) of government policy are not felt to invalidate their approach of appeasing the far-right
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States Newsroom @statesnewsroom.com · 29/09/2026
After a fight for equality in the 1980s, Chattanooga civil rights activists prepare for new effort
bit.ly
After a fight for equality in the 1980s, Chattanooga civil rights activists prepare for new effort
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Afternoon light slipped through the curtains of a dimly lit room on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Chattanooga. Black residents, clergy members and activists gathered in early May to organize opposition to Tennessee state lawmakers’ congressional redistricting effort, aimed at eliminating the last Democratic-held seat in the state.
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Pete Fraser @petefrasermusic.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I’ve been fascinated lately that we seem to be in a period where ppl are administrating & conducting sex offences, as well as on end-to-end encrypted services, on *facebook*. Like, they don’t feel the need to go to great efforts to hide it - to police investigate and *immediately* there it all is.
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Get To Know Nature @gettoknownature.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
After further thought, I actually wouldn’t mind if a bird messages me to say it’s running for office and needs my support. TREE SWALLOW FOR SENATE #birds 🌿
A dark blue bird the white throat and belly stands facing the camera, appearing to look fiercely at the photographer.
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Eric Deggans @edeggans.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Since Elon Musk seems to hate this documentary about him from one of my favorite non-fiction filmmakers, Alex Gibney, figured it was my duty to spread a link to the trailer so you can see it for yourself. ENJOY: loom.ly/oA2_-p8
youtu.be
Musk | Official Trailer | Bleecker Street
Musk
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Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
context. sentiment. inferences. People seriously cannot do these things anymore. That’s why they angrily demand you spell out every joke, every reference, super duper promise you mean something only this one prescribed way. They cannot do it for themselves or tolerate the any ambiguity.
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🌬Breeze @cool-summer-breeze.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is the Stolen Neighbors Quilt. Each of the 11,000 squares represents a person taken by ICE in Minnesota.
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Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 24/09/2026
If we let the current crop of "AI" people stay in charge, we are not gonna make it; not because of "superintelligent AI," but because of what the MIT study terms "cognitive surrender": offloading and deterioration of critical skills. And it increasingly feels like that's exactly what they want.
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Bea Leiderman @bealeiderman.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Insect eggs, probably Hemiptera, stacked like tiny barrels on the edge of a leaf. 🌱🌿
Pink insect eggs stacked in an alternating pattern like barrels. Each egg has a tiny white dot
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Nick Brumfield @nickjbrumfield.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
There's a minor celebrity monk in my province who does his alms rounds in a boat full of stray dogs left at the temple
youtu.be
Thai Temple Dogs Join Monk on His Daily Alms Collection|TaiwanPlus News
YouTube video by TaiwanPlus News
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Saeed Jones @theferocity.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We can’t allow this man to get within striking distance of a viable presidential candidacy.
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 23/09/2026
ICE snatched up a Senegalese college basketball player with an ACL injury in a Kentucky airport. She’s “in so much pain” and needs surgery, but is being transferred from camp to camp with little more than ibuprofen. www.kentucky.com/news/state/k...
A picture of Amina Seck in her Kentucky State jersey on a basketball court.
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Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 24/09/2026
GREBELINGS ON TIMELINE 🪶 🐣
A western grebe with 3 babies on their back
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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Yes it could be argued that keeping up with world events is important but alternatively can I interest you in hugging an ancient mossy boulder that looks like a face and quietly listening while it tells you stories from centuries cloaked in mist.
A lovely mossy boulder with a face. I walked past this venerable stone gentleman on Dartmoor when I was beginning to write my first novel, Villager, and it whispered all 104,000 words of the book to me. So now I have to pay it all of my royalties. Unfortunately my ex-publisher stopped paying me royalties last year. Understandable, the boulder was not happy. But now I have a new publisher and the book has been republished. So remember if you purchase a copy you will be helping a boulder to eat, pay the rent on his riverside moss garden, and feed his boulder family.
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Amy Jo (AJ) Cousins @ajcousins.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is not deporting people. Literally. Legally. There is a deportation process and this isn't it. This is rendition. This is disappearing people.
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Brian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Imagine accepting these first two sentences from the NYT piece as a normal feature of American life: "What can a laid-off worker over 50 do to get health insurance? Besides staying healthy until Medicare kicks in at age 65, the answer is: Not a lot."
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
At her 22-week ultrasound, Amanda Jablonski learned their daughter had developed without a skull or a brain. There was no chance for survival, and every day Amanda stayed pregnant was a threat to her health and life. Under TN law, she was denied an abortion. www.wbir.com/article/news...
wbir.com
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Jonathan Ladd @jonathanmladd.com · 21/09/2026
The government moving or hiding jailed people to avoid review by courts isn't some loophole in our habeas corpus rights. This government behavior has been considered a violation of the people's habeas corpus rights since at least the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_...
Jailors were forbidden to move prisoners from one prison to another or out of the country to evade the writ. In case of disobedience jailers would be punished with severe fines which had to be paid to the prisoner.[5][6]
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Ned Pyle @nedpyle.com · 22/09/2026
In years of walkies I’ve never managed to capture an American Painted Lady butterfly. Until today
Said butterfly, in black and orange and gray and white, sits atop a pink flower with yellow center and spreads its wings showily
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Lee Zimmerman @zim2918.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
The moon at sunset
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Jesus Christ
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Toby Buckle @polphilpod.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
this from @radtranslib.bsky.social is excellent www.liberalcurrents.com/talarico-d-i...
liberalcurrents.com
Talarico (D) Is Just a Letter to Me Now
After folding on trans rights, James Talarico does not have my respect. Honestly, fuck him. And yet, Ken Paxton (R) must lose.
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Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 20/09/2026
The weird cults behind AI doomer fantasies? Yeah, the Nerd Reich podcast covered that more than a year go. Here's our TESCREAL explainer with @xriskology.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1tc...
youtube.com
Silicon Valley's Scary New Cult Religion: TESCREAL, with Rev. Otis Moss III and Dr. Emile Torres
YouTube video by The Nerd Reich with Gil Duran
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Michael R Photography 🌿 @msriffle.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Its #FlyDay. This great blue heron did a low and slow pass right in front of me as I photographed black skimmers. Locked on and mashed the shutter down. Thank you you beautiful thing. #photography #wildlife #ECK #birds #BirdsInFlight #birdsky #birders #biodiversity #nature #herons
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Pan: The Reverist @ok2panic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Might be okay.
A backlit hummingbird, whose wings are acting like a prism and showing the color blue
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Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Looks like Financial Times is first to report on today’s incredible revelations about OpenAI and Microsoft. /12 giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
giftarticle.ft.com
OpenAI staff knew the ‘existential threat’ AI posed to publishers, New York Times claims
Lawyers say AI co-founder Greg Brockman was ‘motivated by the gazillions’ he hoped to gain from models trained on copyrighted content
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Jason Kint @kint.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Eye popping. Court just unsealed Summary Judgment motions in New York Times v OpenAI / Microsoft. Easy to see why the AI companies had so many redactions (pink). Their own people wrote the lede for NYT, the "largest theft of labor in human history"... "more and more substitutive..." /1
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Ellen Enders @ellenenders.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
then cancel their health insurance
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Peter Nguyen @dptbirder.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
All hail the Queen 👸 Belted Kingfisher 📷🌿🪶
Belted kingfisher hovering over channel for fish
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This Is My Glasgow @thisismyglasgow.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Good morning, Glasgow. It's a lovely early autumn start to the day here in Kelvingrove Park, with blue skies and the trees just starting to turn - and a pesky crow with rather impeccable timing which insisted on photobombing my picture! #glasgow #goodmorning #glasgowuniversity #kelvingrovepark
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Imani Gandy @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 16/09/2026
Trans rights is inherently a bodily autonomy issue. Just like abortion rights is. We can't have gender equity or reproductive freedom without trans rights. Full stop. You can yell at me and make up shit that you claim I've said if it makes you feel better. I don't care. I'm right. And you know it.
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Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 16/09/2026
Magical swallow sunset tonight. 🪶
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Lee Zimmerman @zim2918.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The moon tonight
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Adam Keiper @adamkeiper.com · 16/09/2026
Well, that's a headline from the abyss. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...
theguardian.com
Revealed: ICE lost count of miscarriages, while detaining a record number of pregnant women
ICE says it has no updated information on the number of miscarriages after 3 October 2025. Lawmakers, advocates and immigration attorneys have raised alarms that pregnant detainees are not receiving b...
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Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 16/09/2026
Absolute banger of a frame for the sunset tonight.
The sun setting behind electrical Towers in the distance, this is happening behind trees which set them up distance, this is happening behind trees which set them up directly in the middle and above the sun is a lower of clouds, the entire sky is orange
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 12/09/2026
Once you understand the corporate culture of AI hyperscalers is everyone cooking their brains by locking themselves in the bathroom, holding flashlights under their chins, and saying "Aaaaaaaaaay Eyeeeeeee" until they wet themselves in terror, things snap into focus: pluralistic.net/2023/06/04/a...
A cutaway view of a stone tower containing an elaborate water-powered medieval geared machine. Rising out of the machine is a rainbow-tinted, pixelated God with the robes, beard and all. To one side of this scene is a cluster of tiny people in Jesus-era robes, falling about themselves in religious ecstasy all over a stone staircase, atop of which stands a robed priest with his hands upraised. The background is a set of shining golden rays, emanating from pixel-God.
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Jonathan V. Last @jvl.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Dear Democrats, You don't have to be perfectly fair and nuanced about the cost/benefits of data centers, or AI, or Flock cameras. You can just demagogue the ever-loving shit out of *all* of it. Thank you for your attention to this matter. www.thebulwark.com/p/democrats-...
thebulwark.com
Democrats Should Demagogue AI. Seriously.
The politics of data centers, Flock cameras, and runaway tech could hardly be clearer.
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Toby Buckle @polphilpod.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
they seem to imagine they can win huge numbers of swing voters with a small concession here or there what actually happens is the concessions pile up, until your actively persecuting a minority, & the promised political gains never materialise
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Brett "Solidarity 2026" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 15/09/2026
The Daily Plover looking into union busters.
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