Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nicolas Demers

@figureoutthesea.ca

950 followers 620 following 1.8K posts

Web developer, gay, atheist, humanist, feminist, geek. Love volleyball, sci-fi, photography, birbs. He/him. Vancouver, BC "Either we'll figure out the sea, or we'll keep finding beautiful places." https://linktr.ee/npdemers

linktr.ee

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · May 10

I've got a photography store where I post mostly photos of birds, but also some landscapes and cityscapes and whatnot.

nicolasdemers.smugmug.com

A male Tree Swallow is resting on a wooden post, his blues all shiny and iridescent

A male House Finch is up in a tree surrounded by pink cherry blossoms and blue sky. He is holding a blossom in his beak

A male Wood Duck is vocalising, and his shiny mullet is moving

View of Vancouver West End towers from Burrard Bridge. The sun is going down, and clouds are a bit orangeish

3 24

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 3h

I call this piece, "Narcissus Seeing His #Reflection"

-- Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake, Feb 1 2025

#BirdOfTheDay #photography #birds

An American Coot on a log, bending way down over the shallow water and seemingly fascinated by its reflection

1 1 11

Reposted by Nicolas Demers

Andrew @andrewcyberkop.bsky.social · 2d

If you buy an NFT of a stock in OpenAI you should have to wear a big bell like a goat for the rest of your life.

Mark Lemley @marklemley.bsky.social · 3d

The crash is going to be brutal when it comes.

Robinhood says "it might offer "tokenized" equity in OpenAI. By "tokenized," Business Insider reports, Robinhood means "blockchain-enabled representations of securities like stocks." In reality, they have no connection to OpenAI equity whatsoever."

5 78 330

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 18h

Amazing! That's a follow!

Reposted by Nicolas Demers

Chris Fisher @fisherspeaks.bsky.social · 18h

This fall I have enjoyed many golden moments with northern wildlife. #birds #mammals
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Northern FLicker, Red Fox, Ring-necked Ducks

A yellow-rumped warbler perches on a wild rose plant with a golden backdrop of fall colours.

A northern flicker perches on a wolf willow plant with a golden backdrop of fall colours.

A red fox stands amid grasses with a golden backdrop of fall colours.

A small flock of ring-necked ducks swim on a calm wetland that reflects golden leaves.

8 48 240

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 1d

#BirdOfTheDay theme: Long Necks

Here is the resident American Bittern at ƛ̓éxətəm (Tlahutum) Regional Park. April 7, 2024

1) Neck retracted
2) Neck extended

#photography #birds

An American Bittern surrounded by tall grasses, all compact with its neck retracted

An American Bittern surrounded by tall grasses, stretched out with its neck extended

1 1 12

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 1d

Having read Les Misérables, you fortunately don't need any footnotes. Victor Hugo goes into excruciating detail on the background stuff, from an in-depth analysis of the Battle of Waterloo, to the history of Paris' sewer system, to the post-Restoration political climate and discourse.

Reposted by Nicolas Demers

Mrs. Detective PikaBOO, Esq. @clapifyoulikeme.favrd.social · 3d

Listen sometimes the situation simply requires a Catholic

Tumblr post from confusionofconfusions-deactivat
i love that 17th century jewish poltergeist story where the family living in the haunted house calls a catholic priest for help before they contact a rabbi, because yeah, i think that would be my call too; id be like, oh? a demon in my house speaking latin and drawing inverted crosses on my wall in sulfuric bile? then without even questioning my faith i'd call up the catholic church and be like yo father, one of your boys loose come get him

4 53 350

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 2d

Ooo that would get my attention! 😁

1 1

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 2d

Yes, I'm really thrilled with that one. I was experimenting with very short exposure times, and got a lovely series of very sharp action pics

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 2d

Ooo yeah, these guys and their sexy red shoulders, one could do a whole series on this theme

1 1

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 2d

#BirdOfTheDay them: #wings

A Great Blue Heron overhead (pardon how goofy they look head-on), a Greater Yellowlegs taking off, a Mallard flying low, and an Anna's Hummingbird sampling the flowers

#photography #birds

A Great Blue Heron flying overhead, facing us, against a solid blue sky

A Greater Yellowlegs taking off, with the water under still rippling

A male Mallard in eclipse colours flying low over water. His wings are fully extended, and we can see the speculum (looking dark blue here)

A female Anna's Hummingbird hovering over some red flowers

2 2 17

Reposted by Nicolas Demers

Standplaats Kraków @standplaatskrk.pl · 3d

Please

Standplaats Kraków @standplaatskrk.pl · 13d

October! Spooky fundraiser!

As we made last month's extreme goal (thank you, thank you,) we're caught up on bills and fees!

That means we can set a slightly more reasonable goal: 2500!

Art theme: Abstract Animals!

Paypal in bio, if you're European: bank info in the DMs!

A ginger cat in a found footage horror movie.

1 15 13

Reposted by Nicolas Demers

jj skolnik @modernistwitch.myatproto.social · 2d

look at this absolute robber baron

Tammi, yeah, that one. 2.1 @tammi.bsky.social · 2d

I found a 19th century Cat Villain!

A huge chonk of a fluffy cat sitting on a table near an open fire. The cat is cream and grey and appears to be shaped like a barrel in a fur coat. They are scowling fiercely with their moustache and bewhiskered ears apparently flowing back into the cold wind. There's a definite vibe that this villainous cat twirls their moustache as they evict orphans into the aforementioned blizzard and think Scrooge was an easy-going lightweight. They are magnificent.

27 150 1K

Reposted by Nicolas Demers

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 3d

It’s pronounced cyclist.

440 3.7K 22K

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 3d

#BirdOfTheDay

Here's the extremely common but always delightful Black-capped Chickadee and the much less common Chestnut-backed Chickadee

#photography #birds

A Black-capped Chickadee on a wooden fence, with a few seeds around it

A Black-capped Chickadee on a bare branch. In the background are other bare branches and bits of blue sky

1 1 19

Reposted by Nicolas Demers

mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 3d

One of the real dangers of becoming super rich is that you'll write or say some of the dumbest shit imaginable and there's no one around who will tell you how stupid it is before you publish it

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 3d

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

He describes the plot of Watchmen, a 1986 graphic novel involving superheroes grappling with moral questions about humanity against the backdrop of impending nuclear war:

The antihero Ozymandias, the antichrist-type figure, is sort of an early-modern person. He believes this will be a timeless and eternal solution – eternal world peace. Moore is sort of a late-modern. In early modernity, you have ideal solutions, ‘perfect’ solutions to calculus. In late modernity, things are sort of probabilistic. And at some point, he asks Dr Manhattan whether the world government is going to last. And he says that ‘nothing lasts forever.’ So you embrace the antichrist and it still doesn’t work.

Thiel later finds biblical meaning in the manga One Piece, discussing how he believes it represents a future where an antichrist-like one-world government has repressed science. He believes that the hero, Monkey D Luffy, represents a Christlike figure.

In One Piece, you are set in a fantasy world, again sort of an alternate earth, but it’s 800 years into the reign of this one-world state. Which, as the story unfolds, gradually gets darker and darker. You sort of realize, in my interpretation, who runs the world and it’s something like the antichrist. There’s Luffy, a pirate who wears a red straw hat, sort of like Christ’s crown of thorns. And then towards the end of the story, transforms into a figure who resembles Christ in Revelation.

Thiel, along with a researcher and writer at Thiel Capital, explored these ideas at greater length in an essay for the religious journal First Things earlier this month.

14 98 530

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 4d

#BirdOfTheDay theme is #Beakful

A White-crowned Sparrow and a Dark-eyed Junco with tremendous feasts for their fledged children, and an American Robin with lunch

#photography #birds

A backlit White-crowned Sparrow in a bush against a solid blue sky, holding several bugs in its beak

A Dark-eyed Junco standing on a short conifer branch, holding a mass of small bugs in its beak

An American Robin up in a tree, surrounded by green, facing to one side and holding a big coiled worm in its beak

3 2 19

Reposted by Nicolas Demers

Zohran Kwame Mamdani @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social · 4d

UNTIL IT’S DONE, Ep. 4: Sylvia Rivera

In the 1970s, queer New Yorkers had been pushed to the margins of NYC. Our trans neighbors faced immense cruelty. But in Sylvia Rivera, they found a champion.

As we combat Trump’s politics of darkness, her legacy can light the path forward.

410 6.1K 21K

Reposted by Nicolas Demers

Amos Teo @mossinante.bsky.social · 4d

Watching this instead of reading about Sora 2
youtu.be/_zfN9wnPvU0?...

AI Slop Is Destroying The Internet

YouTube video by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

youtu.be

1 2

Reposted by Nicolas Demers

Django Wexler @djangowexler.bsky.social · 4d

My boss: so how's our fourth quarter looking?

Me, the sales manager at the company that makes inflatable frog suits: well, you're never going to believe this, but

140 3.9K 20K

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 4d

It's so fuzzy and downy! 😍

1 1

Reposted by Nicolas Demers

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 4d

it’s said all the time but I think we should continue to hammer home how insane it is that we got dead-eyed bros trying to sell us robots that will free us from the supposedly cruel burden of “creative careers” instead of the actual cruel burden of “doing menial household chores”

Assistant HR Director of Antifa @sethdmichaels.bsky.social · 4d

AI HUCKSTER: "i built you a machine that reads books for you."

ME: "can you build me a machine that unloads the dishwasher for me so *i* can read a book?"

28 410 1.6K

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 5d

Amazing. That's a follow!

Reposted by Nicolas Demers

Alex Spahn 🌋🌪️☄️ @spahn711.bsky.social · 5d

One year ago today, a spectacular aurora display graced the night sky across much of the globe. This was my view in *Oklahoma.* What a beautiful world we are fortunate to live on. #photography

Pink, green, and orange aurora pillars with a SAR arc and moon-lit clouds over relatively still waters of a large lake.

The andromeda galaxy between a red SAR arc and the Milky Way.

Numerous pinkish aurora pillars with a bluish-purple sky and spotty clouds over relatively still waters of a large lake.

Pink, green, and orange aurora pillars with a bluish-purple sky over relatively still waters of a large lake.

13 130 630

Nicolas Demers @figureoutthesea.ca · 5d

#BirdOfTheDay is all about 'Juveniles/Chicks'

I present one brave little Mallard duckling about to dive in, two argumentative Canada goslings, and an immature Bald Eagle flying into the sun

#photography #birds

A Mallard duckling standing on a small rock by water, flapping its stubby wings

Two very young Canada goslings on sandy / gravelly ground. One seems to be yelling right in the other's face, who is drawing back

An immature Bald Eagle (plumage mostly brown including the head) is soaring straight overhead against a solid blue sky. It is backlit by the (off-camera) sun, highlighting some bits of the wings and feather edges

1 1 17