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shelfunstable.bsky.social

@shelfunstable.bsky.social
41 followers 66 following 66 posts

Posting about books I like. Mostly fantasy, horror, and historical fiction.

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Reposted by @shelfunstable.bsky.social
KYAA~wagata @kuwagata.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
oh look a siphonophore or salp, the ctrl+c+ctrl+vvvvvvvv of the ocean
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lauren @lauren.rotatingsandwiches.com · 03/08/2026
maybe take it to the next level and say why do you want to take away my FREE vaccines. they're stealing one of the best treats available to us
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shelfunstable.bsky.social @shelfunstable.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
a grant proposal is kind of like a romance novel because you have to come up with complementary but independent Specific Aims that are working toward the same goal but can also stand on their own. and then you make them kiss.
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D. Allan Drummond @dadrummond.art · 20/06/2026
A ghost throwback for #WorldHorseshoeCrabDay …a perfect molt. These guys shed their old exoskeleton by crawling out the front rim like an engine block climbing out from under the hood of a Corvette. And they leave this ghost of their former selves, golden and translucent and astonishingly not alive.
Two pictures of a fresh horseshoe crab molt side-by-side, the left a top view, the right from underneath, in both cases held between my fingers against a white background.
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That Iowa Ginger @thatiowaginger.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Oh look! I found a photo of the bitties! It was a delight.
Three barn swallow fledglings beg for food while sitting in a row on a house gutter.
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Tyler, from the Internet (Haunted) @tylerfromtheinternet.com · 02/06/2026
I don't know why you would get a baby monitor JUST because you have a newborn infant, it makes no sense to me at all. Sure they start small too, but lizards grow very fast, and it will probably eat your child.
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Gailey 🍉 @sarahgailey.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
"These are not the opinions of the University of California Riverside however, they are the opinions of a highly volatile arachnologist" This was a hell of a fun read
spiders.ucr.edu
Myth of the Brown Recluse Fact, Fear, and Loathing
Myth of the Brown Recluse: Fact, Fear, and Loathing Rick Vetter Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, CA
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Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
furthermore, shout out to Science magazine's cover photographer (Andreas Teichmann) for this outstanding feat of bird portraiture
Cover of the last May 2026 issue of Science, featuring a VERY dramatically lit photo of two gorgeous pigeons, not looking at the camera like birds but facing forwards like humans as if they are dropping a new Hall & Oates album
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/05/2026
If these changes go through, it will be impossible to do effective science in the United States. Logistically, labs will not be able to function under these constraints. Team science—vital to almost every discipline—will be impossible under the rules around international collaboration.
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 29/05/2026
Of all the harm this administration has done to US science, today's proposed changes to the way federal grants are awarded and administered is the most damaging yet. The text of the federal register document is impenetrably tedious by design, so here's an excellent summary of what it says.
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elizabethginexi.bsky.social @elizabethginexi.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule. Russell Vought is going destroy American Science. elizabethginexi.substack.com/p/summary-of...
elizabethginexi.substack.com
Summary of Key Changes in OMB’s Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule
Russell Vought is going destroy American Science
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Tracy King @tracyking.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
I did this last year. Dreamed that Pret sold a cookie called Hairy Man. He had a solid choc chest of hair and choc sprinkle body hair. Woke up, drew it, then baked it. Him.
A cookie shaped like a hairy manCloseup of cookie face
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Kate Manne @katemanne.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Walk into an urgent care and you have to opt out of a GLP-1 conversation katemanne.substack.com/p/a-woman-wa...
katemanne.substack.com
A Woman Walks Into an Urgent Care
And the one screening question is: would you like a GLP-1 with that?
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Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Life hack from a marine biologist: When your blue sea dragons need a little snack, remember that they never evolved to swim, so you have to drive the Portuguese man-o-war around and pick them up like a little bus 🎥 by me during field work :)
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The Midnight Society @midnightpals.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
Sarah Gailey: Submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the tale of the river of teeth Gailey: it's about the most dangerous game of all Stephen King: is it man? Clive Barker: what kind of question is that, steve? of course it's man Barker: it's always man Mary Shelley: phht
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Cherae @clclarkwrites.com · 13/05/2026
Please go celebrate Lee’s birthday with Summer Sons or The Woods All Black or my personal favorite, fucked up wolf lesbians aka Feed Them Silence.
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Cabel Sasser @cabel.panic.com · 11/05/2026
this graduation speech moment is notable, and her amazed shock at having failed to read the room feels instructive. when you're inside the bubble, you think everybody else is. but everybody isn't.
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yee-qi.bsky.social @yee-qi.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
My second piece for the POLAR LIGHTS zine! Parborlasia corrugata, the giant six-foot proboscis worm. Buy it here: polarlightszine.itch.io/polar-lights-4. Proceeds go to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition! #sciart #art #artist #marinebiology #artistonbluesky #originalart
A blood-red worm writhes from out the scenic solitude. Writhing with mortal pangs, it assaults the silent and defenseless sea stars, preparing to engulf their quivering forms. The throng of sea angels flees the scene; the curtain falls.
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BookPage @readbookpage.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
HOW TO FAKE IT IN SOCIETY proves that KJ Charles is one of romance’s most brilliant and consistent writers, delivering stories that blend historical intrigue, passionate yearning and flawless comedic timing.
bookpage.com
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Dr. Elena Mikalsen @drelenamikalsen.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Baby armadillo season
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Gailey 🍉 @sarahgailey.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
I got to do this VERY fun interview, in which I share the worst writing advice I've ever been given and put Literary Calvinism on notice
thenerddaily.com
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Hannah Comstock @hannahorca.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
So close 😭 #PhotoFailFriday
Photo of an orca breaching, but it’s cut off at the bottomPhoto of an orca breaching, but it’s cut off at the top
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Get To Know Nature @gettoknownature.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
“How do you keep track of all that neck?” (Red-winged Blackbird) #birds 🌿
A black bird with red and yellow shoulder pads looks up wonderingly at a large bird who is out of the frame.
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Robin Marty @robinmarty.com · 05/05/2026
The cruelty is the point… www.cnn.com/2026/05/04/u...
cnn.com
Smith College: Department of Education opens investigation into all-women’s college for admitting trans women | CNN
In the Trump administration’s latest attack on trans rights, the Department of Education has launched a Title IX investigation into Smith College, an all-women’s college in western Massachusetts, for ...
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HL Eisthen, defective human product @hleisthen.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
This should be a bigger story. I didn't know Isaiah but almost everyone in my lab, my TA, and a few close colleagues knew him well. They all say he was a sweet guy who was just really into herps. This is a tragedy.
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alix e. harrow @alixeharrow.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
just overheard a 4th grader telling her friend, "if you ever need to distract some boys, literally just draw an X in the dirt. they'll stop to dig it up, they can't help it" which is the only gender metric I'll be using, moving forward
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Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Pretty sure I’ve seen this X-files episode
popsci.com
Mysterious 'ship goo' contains new life forms
No one quite knows how the tar-like substance got on a Great Lakes research vessel.
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shelfunstable.bsky.social @shelfunstable.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Added to my list
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Kathryn Garner @kathryngarner.co.uk · 28/04/2026
I reckon I have two more days' worth of jellies, then I'm going to do insects for the final day... For day 5 of #invertefest then, a Moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita), made with watercolour and coloured charcoal pencil on paper 🐡 🦑
A moon jellyfish; a blue oval with four white bubble-like structures within it, bobbing in a turquoise sea.
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William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Middlebrow media enjoyers rise up. We want art with complex stories and emotional nuance featuring characters with interiority and yes we also want them to solve a murder or be a spy or kill a vampire or something
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Yard Gone Wild @yardgonewild.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
The Great Crested Flycatchers are still considering their options and really like this one… their only complaint is the road noise
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 23/04/2026
it is important to emphasize that this was *the point*. this was *intentional*. elon musk is a vicious white supremacist who thinks poor african children ought to die, so that the world can be whiter
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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 23/04/2026
We need to face the fact that Elon Musk is the most prolific child murderer in human history, and a staggering number of people refuse to face or consider that fact because they like posting on X.
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Yard Gone Wild @yardgonewild.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Flycatcher thinks this place is promising… and has a nice pole out front for perching😄 (sound on and listen to the end for their signature “reep, Reep, REEP” call)
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Veeloxxy Bites @the-episiarch.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
This feels like an inspirational story of how something that people would widely consider as a "disability" turn out to provide an advantage for an individual 🧪 www.abc.net.au/news/science...
abc.net.au
Disabled NZ parrot uses broken beak to achieve alpha status
Without a curvy upper beak to get in the way, Bruce the kea uses his lower beak to stab or joust at other birds in his social group.
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magpie TRICKS @magpie.tips · 21/04/2026
They're just little guys. You can look at them for free and you can look at them up close if you pay for Bird Premium (binoculars or camera). They're just doing behaviors. They will never email you.
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KJ Charles @kjcharleswriter.com · 21/04/2026
Massive shout-out here to everyone else unwillingly walking the "chronic problem--obvious solutions--yoga!" conversational treadmill. If you are the person recommending yoga, from the bottom of my heart, please stop it. Just stop.
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🌈 Hailey Piper 🌈 @haileypiperfights.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Easter is a good day to bring up my gory splatter western about a woman in 1882 holing up with friends in a New Mexico tavern one night where they're beset by a saber-wielding demon and a mad pastor with a crucifix dagger. It's blasphemous and bloody and bi 👁️ bookshop.org/p/books/crue...
a copy of Cruel Angels Past Sundown by Hailey Piper, art by Justin Coons, showing a hand-painted cover depicting several characters from the book above a gray wasteland, including a pastor with his eyes smoking, a woman in a tan coat wielding a revolver, another woman in a blue dress crying tears of blood, and a third woman who is pregnant and carrying a saber.
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Caitlin Starling @caitlinstarling.com · 03/04/2026
For the US folks, The Luminous Dead ebook is on sale for 1.99!
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Gailey 🍉 @sarahgailey.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
I will never write anything better than this and I am at peace with that
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Cryote @tweedwolf.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Every day I think about this passage
"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on the land is quite visible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise" quote by Aldo Leopold
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Craig Schaefer @craigschaeferbooks.com · 02/04/2026
So is Artemis II going to sort out the whole question about the moon being haunted, or what?
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alix e. harrow @alixeharrow.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
sorry i know it's supposed to be a scandal but there is literally nothing you could do that is more embarrassing than being married to that woman
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Mike Wiser @drmikewiser.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Reposting this meme (with alt text) as a stand alone for any future usage needs where someone might prefer it not being already part of a thread:
A screen shot from one of the Thor films (Thor: Ragnarok), with a dark haired pale skinned woman wearing dark eye makeup and clothing (Cate Blanchett playing Hela, Thor's elder sister) holding her arm straight out, braced against Thor's hammer that has been thrown at her. The scene is over a green field under a cloudy gray sky. The hammer is labeled "It's basic biology".  She is labeled "Advanced Biology".
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Premee Mohamed @premeemohamed.com · 28/03/2026
"Oh will it appeal to men" It will appeal to carnivorous fungus which I feel is practically the same thing
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mossworm.bsky.social @mossworm.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Video of a fairy shrimp gently investigating a snail. Larger thingy in the back is his cousin Triops
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Get To Know Nature @gettoknownature.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Brown Creeper doing the thing (creeping and also blending in) #birds 🌿
A small brown bird with a white belly perches on a wide tree trunk with an interesting bark pattern.
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shelfunstable.bsky.social @shelfunstable.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
I finally read the Imperial Radch trilogy (and the related standalone novels) and I am OBSESSED. And the audiobook narration is gorgeous!
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Julia Serano @juliaserano.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
frustrating to have to re-up this again, but this essay has all the necessary facts to counteract today's news: juliaserano.medium.com/trans-people...
juliaserano.medium.com
Trans People and Sports: Everything You Need to Know
I have been writing about transgender people and issues for over twenty years now. For most of that time, I never felt the need to pen a…
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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Everyone wants a turn holding the baby!
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