Trump’s helicopter flies near passenger jet “after garbled communications between his crew and air traffic controllers in Ronald Reagan National Airport’s tower delayed the controllers from clearing nearby air traffic.”
Alan
@gammacounter.bsky.social
Radiologist. Broadly enthusiastic. Science, outdoors/nature, travel. Lakes, coasts. Home experiments. Local environments. Many photos of slightly oddball things. Not seeking unsolicited advice.
Cageyratfish has found the mystery bone! The anal fin of the freshwater drum, this is an identical match. And with an x-ray as bonus, thanks!
cageyratfish (UTC-7) 🐟🏳️⚧️@cageyratfish.bsky.social · 1h agoi don't trust Google for anything anymore. this thread forked, but i think @mosasaurologist.bsky.social 's suggestion that it could be an *anal fin* spine might be correct especially given where it was found. Freshwater drum are common in the Great Lakes & they can get pretty big
1929-1949. The other thing I found on the beach yesterday was this marble. The marble gurus at the marble forum said it was made at Alley Agate in West Virginia. They can’t dare it, but Alley Agate operated 1929-1949. Was roughed up, surface like ground glass, these photos are with it wetted down.
I found a “wolverine claw” on the beach yesterday. (this is not a wolverine claw). Seems like the mandible/lower beak of one of these sea birds, gull or tern most likely. Love the articular aspect. Like our mandibular condyle/TMJ.  Just looking for rocks, sometimes you find these other things.
“Thousands Of Books Are Piling Up In Chicago Libraries Due To Staffing Shortage.” blockclubchicago.org/2026/08/05/t...
There is also a candy corn that’s supposed to taste like “blueberry cobbler.” I don’t know. Would you try it? Don’t forget what happened to Violet Beauregarde
How does sunlight get “deactivated.” They just make the claim but they don’t explain it. 
I don’t miss those polls of Twitter, or wish they had it at Bluesky, but sometimes I do want to ask a question, like how many of you guys get a pizza slice, immediately grab a paper towel & press down to blot out all the grease before eating it? BECAUSE ANOTHER GUY IN THIS SLICE SHOP DID IT AGAIN 
Can anybody identify what is making this sound. About 10 pm in Porter County Indiana. Clearly coming from up in the tree, based on where I was standing, not ground level. Is it a tree frog? If it is a bird, what bird is making such a racket at 10 PM. Not cicada, seems unlikely to be an insect. Frog?
While out on the beach at night hunting for fluorescent rocks, I spotted something super bright, turned out to be a fluorescent plastic dinosaur. Missing legs. Probably a Parasaurolophus.
My local extension mushroom expert said never eat a wild mushroom unless you want to die the most horrific death.
If you go to the 7-Eleven, now when you get a Slurpee, you get a free packet of these flavor crystals. I guess in celebration of 60 years of 7-Eleven. 
Botanist friends of mine use gloves even when they think they aren't handling hemlock.
the reason they say don’t smile for your passport photo is because everybody going through border control is miserable and they need to have a good likeness
Our local beloved native plantsman (recently deceased) once said that even botanists won't touch any wild plant in the carrot family, and won't eat anything in the family (parsnips, carrots, parsley) unless they know that they were purposely planted.
🚨FOR PETE’S SAKE PEOPLE, DO NOT EAT THINGS YOU THINK MIGHT BE WILD CARROT/QUEEN ANNE’S LACE UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE WILD HEMLOCK LOOKS A LOT LIKE WILD CARROT AND IS BAD NEWS FOR THE HUMAN BODY www.dcmga.com/wp-content/u...
dcmga.com
Alan@gammacounter.bsky.social · 2d agoOnly learned recently that this thing I’ve been calling Queen Anne’s Lace for most of my life is actually also called a “wild carrot.” Totally blew my mind. I didn’t eat it, but it *smells like a carrot*. There were hundreds, so I pulled one and washed off the dirt at the riverbank.  
Only learned recently that this thing I’ve been calling Queen Anne’s Lace for most of my life is actually also called a “wild carrot.” Totally blew my mind. I didn’t eat it, but it *smells like a carrot*. There were hundreds, so I pulled one and washed off the dirt at the riverbank.  
That is EXACTLY the situation for my son. He has decided he wants to be a doctor, so he has to — at minimum — take Chemistry at A Level, and most places specify three sciences or two sciences and maths. So biology, chemistry, maths it is. Chosen at age 15.
my neighborhood 7-11 closed a couple years ago and tried to reopen but couldn’t get the permit approved because there’s a preschool next door and 7-11s sell alcohol (the previous permit was grandfathered in). i saw a fence going up around the lot recently and looked up what was moving in: a gun shop
Replace Mark Goodman with Sam Altman, and MTV with GPT. Welcome to 2026.
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 4d agoAs Bowie would say to Mark Goodman two years later: “.. Having watched MTV over the past few months, .. I’m just floored that by the fact that there’s so few black artists featured on it. Why IS that?”
It’s hard to explain but tv was better when you couldn’t watch the show you wanted whenever you wanted to watch it and most of the shows were worse and the TVs were worse and the entire experience was worse, that’s when it was better
Damn. Another kid swallowing AAA battery. Come on kid, let’s get this thing out. Of course everybody wants you to tell them exactly where the battery is. Like, unequivocally. Nope. The only thing I can say it is not in the stomach. It could be in the small intestine, it could be in the colon.
