Author | Lightnews

Claire Oliphant @claireoliphant.com · 17h

This is absolutely delightful!

Mindy Weisberger @laminda.bsky.social · 1d

If you've been wondering how to tell ring-tailed lemurs apart, Duke Lemur Center has a very wonderful graph mapping individual variations based on ear angle and pointiness

Pointiness range is Round to Elf
Angle range is Cat (straight up) to Airplane (side-to-side)

lemur.duke.edu/catta-ears/ 🧪

A graph showing the range of ear shapes in ring-tailed lemurs, with photos of lemur heads distributed over X/Y axes. The horizontal axis range has "round" ears on the left and "elf" ears on the right. The vertical axis range has "cat" ears at the top and "airplane" ears at the bottom. Graphic created by Abby Flyer

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 1d

Democrats should hold a press conference and announce that if Mike Johnson has no interest in running the House they'd be happy to do it for him

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 1d

Mike Johnson has dissolved Congress. Why?

310 2.2K 9.1K

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 1d

Per @chicagotribune.com, the pajama-pants-guy is a former county prosecutor.

And he had some things to say. www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/25/c...

A different video captured after agents unleashed tear gas showed plumes of smoke billowing down the street as the crowd's piercing shouts and whistles reached a fever pitch.
Onlookers scurried to the sidewalk to get away from the chemicals, with one neighbor, Brian Kolp, seen walking away barefoot and in Chicago Blackhawks pajamas.
Kolp, 41, said he was drinking coffee on his couch and watching the news as he always does on Saturday morning when he saw what's become an all-too-familiar scene unfold outside
his window.
Two U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents were tackling a man to the ground on his front yard.
Meanwhile, Kolp's TV continued to blare a news segment discussing the ongoing temporary restraining order restricting federal immigration agents' use of tear gas.

Kolp, a former prosecutor with the Cook County State's Attorney's office, sprang into action as he sometimes wondered he would have to do
throughout the Trump administration's
"Operation Midway Blitz" these last two months.
He didn't even have time to put on his shoes or change out of his pajamas, he said, drawing jeers from one of the agents as he screamed
"Nazis!" and "Gestapo!" at the agents.
"Quite honestly, when all this started happening, I thought to myself that if the opportunity ever came my way to have to get involved in one of these situations, I was certainly going to do what I could to make sure that they weren't openly and flagrantly violating the law or the Constitution," Kolp said. "And yet, they just went ahead and did it anyway."

43 1.3K 4.1K

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Peter Flax @pflax1.bsky.social · 1d

I am looking forward to America's Nuremberg trials when sanity and democracy are restored. There simply can't be amnesty for the shit that is happening now.

290 1.1K 5.4K

Claire Oliphant @claireoliphant.com · 1d

This is beautiful. Good things are still happening!

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

One year after a historic dam removal, teens inspire river restoration worldwide: ‘It turns out you can win’

The Klamath River began rebounding almost immediately. Now, Indigenous youth are leading the next chapter of the recovery, inspiring tribes from Brazil to China

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Hunt The Economist @hunttheeconomist.bsky.social · 1d

Every country has a powerful right wing that argue “if you tax the wealthy, they’ll leave”

We need to start calling their bluff.

We need to make it so the ultra wealthy either contribute enough to be a positive part of society, or be globally shunned and unable to extract further funds from us.

380 1.9K 6.3K

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Art by Emily K @museum.of.emilyk.art · 1d

"Tzefardea Tzedek" (Frog of Righteousness)

As soon as the Portland Frog became a meme, Jewish social media blew up with jokes about the 2nd Passover plague - tzefarde'a (frogs) - and the Rabbinical commentary around it. I knew I had to make a calligraphy piece encompassing all of it. (more in alt.)

Hebrew calligraphy in dark green stretches in lines across the image. Negative space makes room for a simple representation of an inflatable frog costume with a blue bandana. That shape consists of the English translation of the Hebrew, in a lighter green, and in much smaller text.
--
Famously, the Egyptian tyrant causes Egypt to be overrun with frogs because he refuses to free the Hebrew people, but there are additional details that make this a fun one to ponder. For one, the Hebrew says "the frog came up" - ONE frog - even though the rest of the time it says "frogs." So there are a few explanations rabbis have come up with to explain this. One is that a single frog multiplied to create swarms. A more creative explanation is that there was a singular giant frog who traveled and brought destruction. Jewish social media was sharing videos of the Portland Frog protester with the caption, "One Big Frog! One Big Frog!" Of course the frog protesters did multiply, and many were seen in crowds all over the world on "No Kings" Day. This calligraphic work takes the verses addressing the frog plague and combines them to form a simple rendering of the Portland Frog protester. The frog figure itself is made up of the English translations of the Hebrew around it. At the bottom left my signature is in the shape of a lily pad.

150 2K 6.6K

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

MS Kohut @mskohut.bsky.social · 2d

Your fellow Americans are NOT your enemy. JUST the oligarchs. That’s it.

21 46 170

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 2d

i really resent the continued assertion that there’s so much anger on both sides, as if the causes of the anger are equally legitimate. we’re angry because masked maniacs are violently snatching our family and neighbors off the street, and they’re angry because we’re calling them out for it.

130 2.9K 10K

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 2d

Here in Seattle, furloughed NOAA employees were out in the pouring rain cleaning up beaches yesterday, part of a national week of service organized by federal workers who can't do their jobs due to the shutdown.

Story by @heyjohnryan.bsky.social at KUOW, our federally defunded public radio station.

Furloughed feds pick up Seattle beach trash to keep serving the public

Furloughed federal employees were out in the rain picking up cigarette butts, bottle caps, and other trash at Seattle’s Golden Gardens Park on Friday.

www.kuow.org

34 1K 3.3K

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

LorennaCleary.bsky.social @lorennacleary.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you, Chicago.

170 2.4K 8.3K

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Qasim Rashid, Esq. @qasimrashid.com · 2d

I’m good with my taxes subsidizing social welfare for people who can’t afford food.

I’m enraged with my taxes subsidizing corporate welfare to businesses that won’t pay a living wage.

260 3.8K 14K

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

ACLU @aclu.org · 2d

BREAKING: An appeals court just postponed President Trump's National Guard deployment to Portland, Oregon until Tuesday so the full court can vote on whether it will hear the case.

17 300 1.2K

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Congresswoman Maxine Dexter, M.D. @repdexteror.bsky.social · 3d

Our veterans shouldn’t be met with force from their own government for exercising the very rights they risked their lives to protect. I stand with every single veteran standing up and speaking out against Trump's lawlessness.

Lawmakers slam Ice after US military veterans are arrested, injured

The Guardian revealed how US veterans have been injured and arrested at protests against Ice deportations

www.theguardian.com

5 33 96

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Robert Farley @drfarls.bsky.social · 2d

Had an uncomfortable conversation about despair this afternoon.

To my mind, despair is the enemy. No matter how bad things are, this country has seen worse, people around the world have seen worse, and things got better because they kept fighting.

2 14 64

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Andrea Junker @strandjunker.com · 3d

Just a thought: How about we stop shaming the poor for buying things that may not be essential, and start shaming the rich for making a profit off things that are essential?

340 6.2K 21K

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

weeder @weeder.bsky.social · 3d

340 5.5K 27K

Claire Oliphant @claireoliphant.com · 3d

Last week I changed the stained glass in the window with a piece I made more recently. I'm really enjoying the way the light is playing with it this morning.

Stained glass in early dawn in a Penrose tiling derivative pattern. Shades of purple and gold glass with a bit of iridescence reflecting lampllight.

1 14

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Jeremy @floregonian.com · 4d

Tell me something beautiful

68 8 69

Claire Oliphant @claireoliphant.com · 4d

The dogwood I gave my sweetie for his birthday 10 years ago is going up in gorgeous color right now. The sun is shining through the leaves like stained glass.

1

Claire Oliphant @claireoliphant.com · 4d

She was also 14 when she got married, and probably targeted as a focus of rage due to being foreign and female

Kingfisher & Wombat @tkingfisher.com · 4d

Since I’m seeing the comparisons again, your regular reminder that comparing Trump to Marie Antoinette is unkind. Marie Antoinette helped convince France to back the colonists during the Revolutionary War and was thus a significant positive for America.

Claire Oliphant @claireoliphant.com · 4d

I try very hard to be extra kind/positive in my interactions with people after I have a negative one with someone specifically for this reason. If you know about it, you can fight against it. (I don't always succeed, but I try)

Kameron Hurley @kameronhurley.com · 4d

From Gaping Void newsletter, an important reminder about behavioral contagion. It's in our DNA!

I dramatically changed my life when I changed my inputs.

Let’s say you’re feeling good. Or bad. Either way, there’s a decent chance that your mood is just a mirror of the mood of the last person you interacted with.

Talk with a cheery customer service rep on the phone, and you start feeling sunny too.

Get stuck on a project with a grumpy coworker, and you start feeling down as well. A controversial 2012 study by Facebook even found that showing people more negative social media led people to post more negative posts themselves – without even realizing it. (The reverse was also true.)

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Resist List @resistlist.bsky.social · 4d

“Crochet, knitting, all fiber arts are for anybody. And so is the city of Portland.”

‘Craftivism’ draws knitters, crocheters to Portland ICE protests

Protesters can now get free crochet lessons outside the ICE building.

www.oregonlive.com

1 15 65

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

Congresswoman Maxine Dexter, M.D. @repdexteror.bsky.social · 4d

Oregonians, we need your help.

ICE activity is increasing in our communities. If you see something, report it to PIRC's hotline (1-888-622-1510) and get your phone out to record it.

8 340 530

Reposted by Claire Oliphant

𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @sundaedivine.bsky.social · 4d

ICE in Portland: “Dear God, they’re Jazzercising in formation! Light ‘em up!”

460 2.6K 10K