Beth Skwarecki

Go to your camera roll and search “boat” and then post a picture of a boat you like.

Photography by Douglas 🍁@darkwaterphotos.bsky.social

Go to your camera roll and search "boat" and then post a picture of a boat you like.

New best thrift find just dropped. My $300 cashmere sweater ($6) may technically be better percentage wise, but my music nerd kid was gobsmacked when I found him this MPC-1000 for $30. Called it a “mythical pull.”

Beth Skwarecki reposted

Aaron HM

@aaronhm.bsky.social

“The internet is a store but it used to be a library” hits me like a slug to the chest

Beth Skwarecki reposted

Adam Rogers

@jetjocko.bsky.social

For the Car Is Hollow, and It Has Touched the Sky

Anil Dash@anildash.com

The part that seems pretty on-the-nose to me is that (I think) the car is hollow and rigged just to do this trick for the show.

I get that the idea is to offer something unexpected, but last year my daughter uno reversed it. She was offered candy or a potato, and had not heard of this trend, so she said “can I have your garland instead?” And came home with a string of plastic pumpkins from their porch.

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It’s that time again 🤎💛🧡❤️

Kill Bill for Tax Purposes

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This Inktober I am practicing my gothic calligraphy and drawing the most unhinged zodiac symbols I can find in medieval manuscripts. They will get weirder from here.

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Medieval calendars often illustrate the “labors of the months.” Often they’re actual work, like pruning grapevines or bringing in the hay. Sometimes they’re leisure activities or celebrations. But TIL sometimes in May you dress up as cabbage and joust.

scim.agHow did Rosalind Franklin miss the helix in her iconic DNA image? She didn’tNew analysis refutes James Watson’s claim he was first to recognize significance of famed photograph 51

On further reading, this seems to be a fight between two Wild Men. Apparently a common trope, sort of the medieval Bigfoot, the garlic on the head and the uprooted trees are common accessories of theirs. This pic from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_ma...

Beth Skwarecki reposted

Science Magazine

@science.org

Exclusive: A new analysis refutes James Watson’s claim that he was the first to recognize the significance of the famed photograph 51. https://scim.ag/4rTKck8

Shh but I’ve always secretly kind of liked them.They’re pretty. Like a stinkbug in a prom dress.

Jason GRIZZLED Bittel@bittelmethis.bsky.social

Spotted Lanternflies… should you squish ‘em? 🧪

This Inktober I am practicing my gothic calligraphy and drawing the most unhinged zodiac symbols I can find in medieval manuscripts. They will get weirder from here.

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Calligraphy break! This is my 4th or 5th day in a row of practicing this early Gothic hand. I intend to keep copying out psalms, in Latin, all month, because if it worked for the nuns back then, it might just work for me.

13th century prayer books had the weirdest little zodiac guys. Here are the ones I’ve painted so far. Top two are from the Lewis psalter, bottom two from the Huth psalter. Both fully digitized at the British library if you want to see what else is in there.

This Inktober I am practicing my gothic calligraphy and drawing the most unhinged zodiac symbols I can find in medieval manuscripts. They will get weirder from here.

If a crab is like a crayfish, what is a scorpion? A dog with too many legs, of course.

The Capricorn is drawn with ink I made myself from black walnut husks and iron nails. It’s black walnut season, so if you live in the eastern US, I highly recommend boiling and straining some husks. Easiest cheapest art supply there is.

23 July

My hottest Odyssey take is that if you want to make an epic movie set in ancient Greece about regretting your war crimes, it should be the Thebaid

23 July

Athena in the Odyssey: woohoo let's kill some guys! This is gonna be good Athena in the Thebaid: oh god NOT LIKE THAT (*runs away, washes eyes*)

@beebrookshire.bsky.social

17 July

I was going to see the Odyssey movie so that I could form my own opinions for the Discourse, but then I saw that it’s 3 hours so nevermind.

Beth Skwarecki reposted

ElieNYC

@elienyc.bsky.social

30 June

See, people always want to make this just about "sports," but the real upshot here is that, 6-3, trans women can't make a claim under the Equal Protection Clause. And if they can't do that, it's hard to see how they have constitutional rights.

Beth Skwarecki reposted

Bethany Brookshire

30 June

This. It's just a chance to be hateful to a small group of people who want to play sports, to deny people the chance to feel part of a team.

Kristina Killgrove@killgrove.bsky.social

Reminder that there is actual scientific research debunking the claim that trans women have any advantages in sports. But it’s not like SCOTUS cares; they just want to be hateful. 🧪

livescience.com'There's no reason to ban us from playing': Analysis debunks notion that transgender women have inherent physical advantages in sportsA meta-analysis of 52 studies that included over 5,000 transgender people suggests that transgender women's physical fitness after hormone therapy is comparable to that of cisgender women.

Beth Skwarecki reposted

Dorit Reiss

@doritreiss.bsky.social

20 June

"The Food and Drug Administration's top vaccine advisory committee voted unanimously today to recommend Moderna's mRNA influenza vaccine, mFlusiva, for adults 50 and over. This was its first time reviewing a new vaccine application since 2023." www.npr.org/2026/06/18/n...

npr.orgKey FDA committee unanimously recommends its first vaccine since 2023All nine members of the committee unanimously voted to recommend Moderna's new mRNA influenza vaccine for adults 50 and over.

12 June

Friendly reminder that a person’s performance in a workout says nothing about whether they are fit to serve in political office! Even if Pete were the world’s best weightlifter he would still suck as a person.

12 June

(And if you must have my take: Shitty reps can still build fitness. Everyone who’s commenting about “no rep” or “injury waiting to happen” should calm tf down please. Injuries don’t even work that way.)

11 June

Skimmed a webpage or two about whipcording, made bobbins out of popsicle sticks, and after a long session of trial and error ended up with three lovely cords.

6 June

Finally some good odyssey takes on this site

Dr Florence H R Scott@florencehrscott.bsky.social

love how the Iliad starts with Agamemnon being like ‘wow haha I love having sex with this girl I kidnapped, she’s much better than my wife back at home Clytemnestra, who sucks in bed btw’ and then the Odyssey starts with him returning home and being murdered by Clytemnestra and her new lover

6 June

Some of us even remember being taught to “write for the web” circa 2000 with boldface for important text, lots of bulleted lists, etc. It was understood as best practice for (human) writers and needed to be intentionally cultivated!

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Beth Skwarecki reposted

samuel mehr

@mehr.nz

4 June

in case anybody is wondering how author advocates are handling AI in trade publishing, this is language my agency fought for and won

Beth Skwarecki reposted

Boston Tom Levenson

@tomlevenson.bsky.social

2 June

This. A thousand times this. Libraries do not reduce a book’s sales. They increase its readership. If you want a book your library doesn’t have, ask! If you want others to be able to get their hands on a books you already love, ask! [Speaking as a writer with a new book coming next Tuesday…]

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1 June

Decided I want to sew a dress and wear it to the renaissance faire this fall. Haven’t made anything for myself yet but found a cheap fleece blanket while thrifting and made a hood/cape out of it for my husband

1 June

Here’s the pattern, based on a famous viking era archaeological find. 2 squares, 2 rectangles. Mine is scaled to a 50x60 inch blanket and you can even keep the original edge if you want. Almost no scraps!

25 May

My emergency hot takes - Oreos are mid. - Knitters these days are too focused on patterns. Do some math and make stuff from scratch, you cowards! - Pineapple on pizza is good but Hawaiian is a waste of ham. Try it with sausage and peppers instead.

24 May

Red delicious are good anywhere if you get them fresh! My grandfather planted some trees decades ago and they make good snacking apples.

Lindsay Beyerstein@beyerstein.bsky.social

-Red delicious apples from the store are usually gross, but good red delicious apples in the Pacific Northwest are delicious.

22 May

Had a brain fart knitting, and picked up stitches on this sock’s heel flap before turning the heel. Googled whether you can do it in that order. AI overview told me I had it backwards (i know dummy, that’s why I’m asking) and results are just heel turning 101 So fuck it. We’re gonna find out!

22 May

Seems to be working just fine, but I also think I figured out why we don’t normally do it in this order. The needles from picking up the stitches are really extra in the way.

22 May

There was also a gap at each of the last 2 turns (of course) that I had to take care of by picking up an extra stitch. So the answer is: YES you can do these steps in the wrong order, with only minor inconvenience. I will be doing the second sock in the traditional manner.

Beth Skwarecki reposted

Ben Welsh

@palewi.re

16 May

ABC killed fivethirtyeight.com, pulling down thousands of stories and dashboards. I can bring them back, but I can offer you https://fivethirtyeightindex.com, my new index of everything captured by archive.org.

16 May

I think about this a lot.

Eric Ravenscraft@lordravenscraft.bsky.social

still not quite over the fact that i watched 15 year olds get sued for millions of dollars for downloading twelve songs and now we all have to accept AI slop because every tech company in the known universe decided that IP laws don't exist now that they're inconvenient for them

savethearchive.comTell New York Times, The Atlantic, and USA Today to keep the crucial work of journalists in the Wayback Machine!The news isn’t getting preserved in the Wayback Machine anymore because major media outlets are blocking it.

15 May

@iwriteok.bsky.social you are working on an Anthony Comstock episode, right? (Please??)

Mel Buer@melbuer.bsky.social

An entire generation of feminists were thrown in jail for distributing pamphlets on birth control, which violated Comstock, incl. Emma Goldman, who was eventually deported from the US (not the only reason, but one of them) Birth control, abortion access—all a right we with uteruses are entitled to

Beth Skwarecki reposted

Internet Archive

@archive.org

15 May

Replying to @archive.org

Web history disappears when it can’t be preserved. Today, many publishers are blocking the Wayback Machine from archiving parts of the public web, putting decades of digital history at risk. Tell publishers: don’t block the #WaybackMachine. Sign the petition ➡️ www.savethearchive.com/newsleaders/

14 May

New 4 Humors just dropped

11 May

My kid is obsessed with the very true fact that car names get funnier if you make them start with B. Our favorites so far (you need to say them out loud): 1. Bamborghini 2. Bubaru 3. Beep

10 May

I knew the ratio of wages to tuition was a lot more workable in the past, but I didn’t realize just HOW drastic the change has been. You could put yourself through school on a minimum wage job in 1970 (full time in the summer, part time during the school year) with no debt.

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Beth Skwarecki reposted

umbran.bsky.social

@umbran.bsky.social

Replying to @bethskw.bsky.social

The notion that there is a separation between "canon" and "fanfic" is an artifact of the business of literature and media. It doesn't reflect how humans typically interact with stories.

themarysue.comThis Is Your Reminder: 'The Odyssey' Isn't Real. It's Not "History." | The Mary SueThe latest trailer for Christopher Nolan's epic has some people upset about "historical inaccuracy"... and that might be missing the point.

It’s not history AND it’s not some original pure literary tradition that others later corrupted. It’s fanfic all the way down.

Jennifer Ouellette@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social

This Is Your Reminder: ‘The Odyssey’ Isn’t Real. It’s Not “History.” www.themarysue.com/the-odyssey-...

thecollector.comDid Homer Really Describe the Bronze Age? Reinterpreting the Iliad | TheCollectorHomer’s poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are some of our most important sources for the Bronze Age. But does he really describe the Bronze Age?

The Iliad and Odyssey are both, famously, mishmashes of elements from different times and places. *When they were written*, they were fantasy stories set long long ago with anachronistic details, like the “wrong” weapons for their time period. www.thecollector.com/did-homer-de...