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Reposted by Helen McAra

Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 14h

'Sorry, we can no longer offer you uncosted tax cuts - instead, we're going to focus on destroying a key source of UK economic growth, the green economy, whilst decimating public services'

Farage farrago latest:

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Reform UK abandoning manifesto pledge of £90bn in tax cuts, deputy leader admits

Richard Tice says party will concentrate on cutting civil service and scrapping net zero once in government

www.theguardian.com

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Compound Interest | Chemistry infographics @compoundchem.com · 11h

It's mushroom season in the Northern Hemisphere 🍄

Here's a look at the chemistry of arguably the most iconic mushroom, fly agaric, and what makes them so brightly coloured and hallucinogenic: www.compoundchem.com/2024/11/11/f...

#ChemSky 🧪

Infographic on fly agaric mushrooms, with an image of the mushrooms in the middle (red with white spots). The chemical structures of the mushroom's pigments are shown, including muscarufin, the primary pigment responsible for their red colour. The compounds behind the mushrooms' psychoactive properties, ibotenic acid and muscimol, are also shown. These compounds imitate neurotransmitters in the brain to exert their effects.

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Wildlife @worldwildlife.bsky.social · 13h

Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) This European, North African & Asian Kingfisher species has a wingspan of 25cm (9.8in). They nest in burrows close to lake edges or in riverbanks & defend their feeding territories from other kingfishers. Photo of a Kingfisher diving taken by Will Brown in the UK.

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Jim Blackler @blackler.bsky.social · 1d

These little ones look quite jaunty but they might be White Fibrecaps which are poisonous so best to give them a wide berth.

🍄☠️🤢 #FungiFriends

Two white mushrooms with pointy, angled caps grow in brown leaf litter.

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Wildlife Nomads @wildlifenomads.bsky.social · 3d

This green bird is the Spotted Catbird (Ailuroedus melanotis), a rainforest bird of West Papua (but also found in Australia and parts of Indonesia). Locally known as “Kuansu,” it gets its name from its cat-like, wailing call.

#birds #animals #australia #photography #nature #birding

Spotted Catbird. on the ground in the wild

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Stevie P @stevieparsons.bsky.social · 2d

The wonderful and rare Hazel Gloves Fungus (Hypocreopsis rhododendri). I love the fact that it’s a parasite, not of the Hazel trees where you find it, but of another fungus, Glue Crust (Hymenochaete corrugata), which forms the actual crust on the Hazel branches. 11/10/25 #fungi

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Natasha Devon @natashadevon.bsky.social · 2d

Number of deportations the ECHR have actually blocked since 1980 - 13 (THIRTEEN).

Please remember this next time some grifting populist claims us leaving the ECHR (and sacrificing the rights it gives us in the process) will allow us to ‘control our borders’.

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Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 2d

A profound rethinking of the history of #biodiversity.

"In new view, plants did not colonize a barren wasteland, but rather world prepared for them over eons by the ancient and persistent activity of the fungal kingdom."

scitechdaily.com/earth-was-a-...

Earth Was a Fungal World Before Plants Existed

Fungi arose long before plants, shaping Earth with early soils and nutrient cycles. Their hidden legacy shows they may have prepared the world for life to flourish on land.

scitechdaily.com

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 3d

They are incredible!

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 3d

Violet webcap (Cortinarius violaceus) growing under gorse today near the Devil’s Punchbowl in Surrey. An absolute stunner of a mushroom and nationally rare - it’s always good to see these beauties.
#ukfungi

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Francis Hickenbottom @fhickenbottom.bsky.social · 3d

After seeing Rugosomyces ionides (Violet Domecap) in a beechwood on limestone at Fairburn yesterday, I decided to search the same type of habitat at Brockadale and there it was. This is a more attractive specimen than ones seen yesterday. #fungi

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The Wee Owl Art (Scotland) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @theweeowl.bsky.social · 6d

Fly agaric mushrooms on a mossy mound of earth in the woods. This original artwork is available on Folksy...
folksy.com/items/8550552

#FlyAgaric #Mushrooms #OriginalArt #Drawing #ColourPencil #PenAndInk #Painting #Artwork #TraditionalArtist #ArtFromScotland #GiftIdeas #ArtShop #bsnm

A small colour drawing of red and white fly agaric mushrooms on a mound of earth covered in mosses deep in the forest.
Fly agaric is native to the UK. It grows in woodland and heathland on light soils among birch, pine or spruce.
An original art work, sold unframed.
Colour pencil and mixed media on acid free toned artist paper
5 by 7 inches (12.7 by 17.8 cm).

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Matt Berry @matthewberry.bsky.social · 7d

In haste before midnight hits here in Greece, here’s an Ophrys reinholdii for today’s #orctober post.

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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 7d

Spectacular googly-eyed octopus does battle with a lobster in this 2,000 year-old Roman mosaic from Pompeii! 🐙 🦞

Fantastic fishy onlookers too! 👀

From the House of the Geometric Mosaics. Now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology

My photo shows a polychrome mosaic depicting Mediterranean marine life using earthy-coloured tesserae (mosaic tiles) against a black tessarae background. At the centre of the mosaic is a pale-coloured octopus composed of off-white and light brown tesserae with some of its writhing tentacles wrapped around the body of a lobster composed of light red, and pinky-brown tesserae. The octopus has an egg shaped body/head and it stares at the viewer with large eyes made of brown and pink circles with black centres.

The octopus and lobster are surrounded by various species of large and small Mediterranean fish and a mollusc, including an eel and a flat fish. On the left hand side of the scene there is a small kingfisher bird on top of a rock. Some of the fish appear to be watching the fight between the octopus and the lobster

This mosaic comes from the House of the Geometric Mosaics in Pompeii. Now on display at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 7d

Amanita phalloides - Death Cap: always a thrill to find one if these beauties. I don’t see them that often so it was good to find one today. Sorry about the lighting. #ukfungi

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KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 8d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

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The Dangerous Ones @thedangerousones.com · 9d

This.
Is.
Brilliant.

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Evelyndroid's Aperture Séance and Spooky Spood-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 9d

Habronattus alachua lass with the Head Tilt ❤️
#EmotionalSupportSpood #Arachtober

Light grey fuzzy jumping spider with reddish-brown stripes down her face across her big eyes, on a blade of dry grass tilting her head to peer at you

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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 8d

A 3,500 year-old Egyptian glass cosmetic jar with two little duck heads!

Glass was a relatively new material at that time, so this jar would have been a precious possession.

From Merit’s beauty case, found inside Theban tomb (TT8) of Merit and her husband Kha in 1906. 📷 Museo Egizio

#Archaeology

Museo Egizio Turin photo showing a small, dark-blue, core-formed, round glass jar which tapers in at the shoulders below the neck. It has yellow, white, and light blue festoon decoration trailed around the main body. There is a single yellow trail just below the neck of the jar. There is a dark-blue circular glass lid, the top of which is adorned with two dark-blue duck heads with yellow bills, a yellow trailed stripe on the top of each duck’s head, and indents for their eyes. The jar is displayed on a perspex (?) stand against a grey background. Glass jar dimensions: 7.6 cm x 9.6 cm.

Core-forming is one of the earliest glassmaking techniques. Glassmakers shaped the body of the vessel around a core, wound colored trails around it. They then let the vessel cool and removed the core.

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 8d

I will not be bored 🤩

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 8d

Thank you 🍄

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 8d

They look like old hoof fungus fruiting bodies. Tough as old boots!

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Helen McAra @hedgerownibbler.bsky.social · 8d

I’m so sorry you have to see this awful, hateful rubbish. Please know that there are many more people who don’t feel that way, it’s just we’re not endlessly on SM like the haters are. I have no idea how to make things better.

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Clare Blencowe @clareblencowe.bsky.social · 10d

I am in the paper being authoritatively impressed with all y'all citizen scientist types.

▶️ www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Power to the people. Fungi forever!

Bravo @plantlifeuk.bsky.social - you're cool.

Fungi finds: UK citizen scientists make rare pink and purple discoveries

Plantlife charity enlisted help of 850 volunteers to look for waxcaps in places such as private gardens

www.theguardian.com

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Jeremy Bartlett @jeremybartlett.bsky.social · 9d

Giant Funnels, Aspropaxillus giganteus, in Earlham Cemetery, Norwich today.

Best left in situ: "Not a highly regarded mushroom", "can cause gastric upsets in some people" and have flesh that is "fairly tough and usually full of maggots."

www.wildfooduk.com/mushroom-gui...

#Fungi #FungiFriends

Giant Funnels, Aspropaxillus giganteus, by the edge of a tarmac road amongst fallen Hose Chestnut leaves.

Giant Funnels, Aspropaxillus giganteus, in cemetery grassland.

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