Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 8h

Well, this made me laugh 🤿🐟

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 1d

Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 12h

A shortpouch pygmy pipefish (Acentronura breviperula), doing a very good job of pretending to be a stick. Pic from Anilao.

#MarineLife 🌿🐟

A small, wormlike fish. It is brown and holding itself straight to resemble a stick or the stalk of a plant. Its tail is curled around a piece of weed.

#Wildlife #Nature

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 15h

I'd be interested to find out which one of them would be more offended by this, given how they feel about each other.

Reposted by Matt

Robert Boessenecker, Dr. of Whaleontology ™️ @coastalpaleo.bsky.social · 2d

A few more shots of the baby octopus 🥰🦑🦀

A baby octopus in a tidepool; it's light tan with many visible chromatophores. Its tentacles are wrapped around backwards, and it's sitting between a couple of mussel shells on some sand grains.

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 1d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

Eunice aphroditois in bathroom

(this is nothing to do with my profession, but I think it's suitably horrifying :)

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

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

Archives banned making copies.

Natasha Simonova @philistella.bsky.social · 1d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand:

New library catalogue website.

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Reposted by Matt

TrustedReveler @trustedreveler.bsky.social · 6d

LA: we will fight you.

Chicago: we will fight you.

PDX: we will make you endure week after week of of improv theater.

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Reposted by Matt

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 3d

in 2011, the president of antifa hired me to give fashion consultancy to the organization. i recommended everyone wear navy suits with tan shoes, dress sneakers, and golf polos with slim chinos. if you arrested everyone today wearing these things, you'd destroy antifa

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 2d

In the absence of proof, I shall continue to believe that it's a rock with a tongue :)

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 2d

It's good to get these reminders that there are still a lot of decent people in the US, given how relentlessly awful most of the news coming from there seems to be at the moment.

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 3d

Just got around to listening... lots of fun! But I'm afraid the winner has to be "shrimposter syndrome" :)

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 3d

World octopus day, you say? Very well, then... here is an octopus (possibly a male argonaut). No clue what the jellyfish is. The jellyfish is swimming down to try and get away from the bright flashing lights.
Pic from a blackwater dive in Balayan Bay, Anilao.

🦑🌿 #Invertebrates

A jellyfish, upside down because it's swimming downwards. On top of its bell is an octopus; it is translucent/white with some visible brown organs.

#Nature #Wildlife #Macro #WildlifePhotography #NaturePhotography #UnderwaterPhotography

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 3d

Congrats on 300! TBQH I'm amazed you're still going... but I'm really enjoying them!

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 3d

Machado has publicly called for assistance from the US/Trump. I can't help wondering how much assistance Trump will be willing to give someone who just snaffled the Nobel Prize he covets.

Pettiness and vengeance for a perceived slight will probably outweigh everything else, to Maduro's benefit.

kottke.org @kottke.org · 3d

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize. “When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist.” [apnews.com]

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel committee praised her as a key unifying figure in the opposition, advocating for free elections and representative government.

apnews.com

Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 3d

This is nice to read about!

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Creatures buried in soil for over a century burst back to life in Toronto waterfront

A project to restore coastal wetland leads to astonishing discoveries of a host of life: seeds and plant scraps, as well as water fleas, worms, larvae and plankton

www.theguardian.com

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 3d

My first thought was that it looks like some sort of carnivorous hippo, which is a truly terrifying idea.

Jason Bittel @bittelmethis.bsky.social · 4d

Shark peeps -- is this really a greenland shark? I'm reading that the bottom teeth are more interlocking, and the nose doesn't seem right either. Mislabled? 🧪🦑

animals.howstuffworks.com/fish/sharks/...

Reposted by Matt

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 5d

Friends, please join me in welcoming the Manta Trust to Bluesky! They’ve left Twitter and are setting up shop here.

🧪🌎🦑🦈 #SciComm

Manta Trust @mantatrust.bsky.social · 5d

Some of our ocean’s most iconic species are vanishing — whale sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays.

Join us in calling for action. Sign the petition today: only.one/act/cites-2025

#CITESCoP20 #SaveTheMantas

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 4d

I had absolutely no idea that this happened!

Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 5d

Many sea stars begin life as young fairy-like creature (called a brachiolaria) that float through the open ocean. Eventually, a small star forms within them (here in yellow). The fairy-like brachiolaria sinks under the star’s weight, and the star pops out!
🎥@the_story_of_a_biologist (on Insta)

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Reposted by Matt

Comfortably Numb @numb.comfortab.ly · 4d

Nobel Committee should just troll Trump, and give Obama a second Peace Prize.

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Reposted by Matt

ElieNYC @elienyc.bsky.social · 5d

Ubisoft: "Okay, so in this game you fight the Klan"
Marketers: "You can't sell that in America"
Ubisoft: "Why?"
Marketers: "Umm [gestures broadly]. The Klan fucking won?"
Ubisoft: "Merde."
Marketers: "Yeah, we've asked for the Statue back but they're being dicks about that too."

Stephen Totilo @stephentotilo.bsky.social · 5d

SCOOP: Last year, Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game set during Reconstruction. Was to feature a Black Assassin who, among other things, fought the rise of the Klan

Sources: Leadership nixed it over concerns re: U.S. political climate, backlash to Yasuke

www.gamefile.news/p/scoop-ubis...

Scoop: Ubisoft cancelled a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed last year

Company leadership deemed the project too controversial for the moment, sources tell Game File

www.gamefile.news

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Reposted by Matt

Australian Society for Fish Biology @austsocfishbiol.bsky.social · 6d

📢 SARDI have #marine #jobs available:

🐟 Research Officer
🐟 Estuarine & Coastal Moorings National Data Lead
🐟 Estuarine & Coastal Moorings National Coordinator
🐟 Senior Research Scientist (x2)
🐟 Field Operations Manager
🐟 Senior Research Services Officer

🚨 16 Oct
👀 iworkfor.sa.gov.au

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 6d

Chromodoris magnifica, Anilao. Many nudibranchs can absorb toxins or stinging cells from the things they eat, and repurpose them for their own defences. The bright colours are... fair warning :)

#MarineLife #Invertebrate #Nudibranch 🌿

A brightly-coloured sea slug. It has orange rhinopores and gills. The body is covered in black and blue stripes; there is a white marginal band with a yellow stripe in the middle. Its head is raised slightly off the coral its moving over

#Macro #UnderwaterPhotography #Wildlife #WildlfePhotography #Nature #NaturePhotography

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 6d

What did they *do*? It must have been something pretty awful...

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 6d

That's cool! Not sure if I have the energy to go back through my porcelain crab pics and see if they're the new species though :)

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Matt @xenomatt.bsky.social · 7d

Pseudanthias squamipinnis, Anilao. Its common name might be a lyretail anthias, or a scalefin anthias, or a sea goldie, depending on who you ask. But whatever they're called, they're always good to hang out with on the reef tops at the end of a dive.

#MarineLife 🐟🌿

A small colourful fish. Its body is orange, becoming purple-tinged towards the head and pale towards the tail. It has a prominent purple blotch at the base of its light purple pelvic fin and a purple tale with a dark margin. The erect dorsal fin has a yellow stripe at the base of the front part, a red stripe running into a black spot at the top of the rear half, and a long yellow spine rising from the front. There are plate corals in the background.

#UnderwaterPhotography #WildlifePhotography #NaturePhotography #Nature #Wildlife

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Reposted by Matt

Stephanie Carvin @stephaniecarvin.bsky.social · 7d

These new outfits are a mistake.

BRING BACK THE SANTA OUTFITS!

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