Lauren Beldi

My favourite grasshopper fact: Grasshoppers first appeared on the planet 250 million years ago.

Grass did not appear on the planet until 40 million years ago

Imagine it: 210 million years, hopping around on any random surface you can find, waiting for the grass that will make you truly yourself.

Bumblebee Queens Can Breathe Underwater

NEW: for @nytimes.com, I wrote about a new study showing that queen bumblebees can breathe underwater, surviving submerged for a week

the “remarkable” study stems from a lab snafu, when a co-author thought she accidentally drowned several bees—but later found that they were alive 🧪

gift link 🎁

Reindeer races in Finland draw international crowds | The World | ABC NEWS YouTube video by ABC News (Australia)

Just in case you need two minutes of not-war.
youtu.be/g1XJj_6Akmg

an AI focus group can never replace this guy

clown event still possible

Asking who is better is a question so dumb it's nearly suicidal. Who is better at being human? We are. If it could be shown someone would be a "better" parent to your child, would you think your child should be taken away? I am better at being me than AI, every time.

Curling incredibly rules.

Smoke rises after a strike on oil storage facilities in Tehran. [Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]

Fire burns at the Aghdasieh oil depot in Tehran, Iran. [Screengrab/Social Media via Reuters]

Saturday’s strikes triggered large fires after hitting four oil storage facilities and an oil transfer and production centre. [Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]

At least four tanker drivers were killed in the attacks in Tehran and Alborz, according to Fars news agency. [Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]

Dark haze over Tehran as US-Israeli forces bomb oil storage facilities https://aje.news/zzw4i0

This is an absolute *gem*. Hats to @henrymance.ft.com for making me spit out my porridge laughing

(I now too want to go for lunch with Lord Mancroft)

Almost all of animation is like this, and it's still devastating every time.

The train window is one of the best cinema screens It forces us to stitch together narratives from the briefest glimpse. In a blurred moment whole stories race into us. We see a track and know it is older than the line we travel. We see a track and all of its treading ghosts wave to us. – #DAKilroy

Killing people should not be something we do quicker than the speed of thought

If you're doomscrolling, guess what? So far there are 51 kākāpō chicks hatched and thriving this season, the same number of birds as we had in TOTAL in the 90s! Only one chick has died and there are still fertile eggs waiting to hatch!

you cant make art with ai prompts because art is subversive and ai is a product and you cant subvert a product by consuming it

Someone told me there was an interview a few days ago with a couple South Koreans who dressed up as DPRK supporters because they felt bad they had no fans present.

Dear Tilly Norwood: Some Blunt Advice, Actress to “Actress,” From Betty Gilpin The Emmy-nominated actor and author pens an open letter to the AI avatar that's got Hollywood in a tizzy.

Always a thrill to read an essay by Betty Gilpin www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

The only one who could ever reach me /

Was the son of a…

seems bad

Greetings from Kyiv.
Warcoffee in a place that feels like a feast for the eyes.

People can create beautiful things instead of waging wars and destroying the planet.

Two headlines, both from this morning:

She wake up like this

I haven't made a statement on international events thus far, as to retain strategic ambivalence as a member of the public

I saw a comment the said we aren’t “angry enough.” But all we are is angry. Our veins circulate it like acid. It cracks our sternums. It poisons and paralyzes us. We hiss and spit at each other, all impotent, helpless rage.

We don’t need more anger. We need more direction.

In the 20th century there were attempts - with very mixed results of course - to introduce accountability for this sort of atrocity. Now it feels like even that has gone. bsky.app/profile/moud...

I think about this Tony Benn speech much more than I used to

The news?? That’s… not the worst thing I’ve heard but still why is no one using HEADPHONES ANYMORE??

Watercolour painting of a small drinks bar, actually mum (love you mum)

I painted this ages ago but then my mum asked “what is it” so I didn’t show it to anyone for a year 😆 bless her

Remember when we cancelled cable to save money?

Now I pay more than cable ever charged me to subscribe to 12 streaming apps and still rent the one thing I actually want.