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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 43m

May I recommend: bsky.app/profile/did:...

Ann Finkbeiner @annfinkbeiner.bsky.social · 53m

just fyi: "triturated rat-shit" = finely ground ratshit, and I can think of a number of uses for that phrase.

Ann Finkbeiner @annfinkbeiner.bsky.social · 1h

Emily, newly pregnant, reads Montaigne and writes me letters about him. The combination of his mind and Emily's -- you'll just have to read this for yourself. If for nothing else than the phrase "triturated rat-shit." www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/10/08/t...

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Reposted by Bethany Brookshire

Ann Finkbeiner @annfinkbeiner.bsky.social · 53m

just fyi: "triturated rat-shit" = finely ground ratshit, and I can think of a number of uses for that phrase.

Ann Finkbeiner @annfinkbeiner.bsky.social · 1h

Emily, newly pregnant, reads Montaigne and writes me letters about him. The combination of his mind and Emily's -- you'll just have to read this for yourself. If for nothing else than the phrase "triturated rat-shit." www.lastwordonnothing.com/2025/10/08/t...

Portrait of Michel de Montaigne, all robes, braid, ruff, and mustache until you look at his eyes, seeing right through you

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 53m

A word like this we need the WORLD to know.

Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 54m

I literally heard about this because I met two friends of hers last night.

HOW have I not yet met this person I bet she's amazing.

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 54m

Anyway should you encounter snarge in your life, here's a handy-dandy flowchart on how to collect it and where to send it, and yet more evidence that my weirdo insistence on carrying alcohol wipes everywhere is in fact in service to science.

www.faa.gov/airports/air...

www.faa.gov

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 56m

There are walls, cannons, lasers, drones shaped like falcons. REAL actual falcons.

(Also they're called birdstrikes...but sometimes they are also BATstrikes. Ooofs)

www.wired.com/story/its-a-...

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! The Midair Collisions Menacing Air Travel

When winged wildlife slams into aircraft, disasters can happen. Inside the world of bird-strike countermeasures, where “snarge” is the enemy.

www.wired.com

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 58m

And of course there's what I knew about: The industry devoted to PREVENTING snarge from happening.

Keeping birds (and other animals) off plane runways, where the vast majority of these strikes occur.

This is esp challenging as many coastal airports in particular are near marshes!

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1h

Anyway when they get snarge, they COLLECT it and they send it to people whose job descriptions include identifying a species of bird down to the single partial singed feather.

www.sciencefriday.com/segments/fea...

Feathers And Snarge: Identifying What’s Left After Birds And Planes Collide

There’s a CSI lab for birds that strike airplanes. The species that hits most often? Not the one you’d guess.

www.sciencefriday.com

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1h

Apparently "snarge" and a portmanteau of "snot" and "garbage", and it's usually like...a smear... usually the plane is fine.

Unless it's not! Recall the plane in the Hudson. www.wired.com/2010/05/ntsb...

The bird is, of course, VERY not fine.

www.wired.com/story/its-a-...

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! The Midair Collisions Menacing Air Travel

When winged wildlife slams into aircraft, disasters can happen. Inside the world of bird-strike countermeasures, where “snarge” is the enemy.

www.wired.com

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1h

Today in I CANNOT BELIEVE I did not know about this word until now:

I learned about snarge.

Snarge: What is...er...left...when a bird and a plane collide. The bird bits, specifically.

Obviously I knew about birdstrikes but SNARGE?!

www.sciencefriday.com/segments/fea...

Feathers And Snarge: Identifying What’s Left After Birds And Planes Collide

There’s a CSI lab for birds that strike airplanes. The species that hits most often? Not the one you’d guess.

www.sciencefriday.com

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1h

This is the best Nobel Prize coverage I've ever seen www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/on-...

On the Red Carpet of the Nobel Prizes

INTERVIEWER: Chemical engineer Dr. Chesel Amniotiv is looking resplendent in orange gabardine, with cobalt accents of actual cobalt. Let’s see if w...

www.mcsweeneys.net

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 22h

For real even in the introduction, George Jetson has an annoying commute...in the sky.

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

Hahaha I saw that. Amazing.

Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

"You have been hired as a sop to a Trump administration that is actively hostile to the actual free press, and you will be made to oversee wave after wave of layoffs until you quit"

@lopatto.bsky.social If this doesn't keep Bari Weiss up at night, nothing will. www.theverge.com/business/793...

Memo to Bari Weiss Re: CBS News: You’re doomed

Bari Weiss has sold her company, The Free Press, to manage the decline of broadcast news at CBS. How many ways can it go wrong?

www.theverge.com

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

1. I love this.
2. You just KNOW in the future some scientist with an ego is gonna be like "honey I CAN'T go fully off grid what if I win the Nobel Prize?!??!"

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

Nobel committee unable to reach prize winner who is ‘living his best life’ hiking off grid

Fred Ramsdell was among those honoured with a 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine but might not know because he is somewhere in Idaho and uncontactable

www.theguardian.com

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

If shifting 5 times zones or more, potentially yes, but the effect is weak, and eastward travel only.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

The effectiveness of melatonin for promoting healthy sleep: a rapid evidence assessment of the literature

A systematic review was conducted using Samueli Institute’s Rapid Evidence Assessment of the Literature (REAL©) process to determine the evidence base for melatonin as an agent to optimize sleep or im...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Reposted by Bethany Brookshire

Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

C'mon my wonderful nonfiction colleagues. Please join us at @authorsabb.bsky.social and stand up for the right of everyone to read.

You might say "oh, but I write about science/history/culture! I only write true verified things!"

...you think they're not coming for that?!

Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 1d

So far this fight has been on the backs of children's books creators, which makes sense. We were the canaries in the coal mine. But they're coming for romance. They've come for long form journalism. They're coming for lit fic and SFF and horror.

Because it's not about the books; it's about funding.

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

C'mon my wonderful nonfiction colleagues. Please join us at @authorsabb.bsky.social and stand up for the right of everyone to read.

You might say "oh, but I write about science/history/culture! I only write true verified things!"

...you think they're not coming for that?!

Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 1d

So far this fight has been on the backs of children's books creators, which makes sense. We were the canaries in the coal mine. But they're coming for romance. They've come for long form journalism. They're coming for lit fic and SFF and horror.

Because it's not about the books; it's about funding.

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Reposted by Bethany Brookshire

Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 1d

It's banned books week and so I'm legally obligated to bully you, a person who has ever had their name on a book, into joining @authorsabb.bsky.social.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

We fight the source of book bans with calls to action, partnership w everyone in the game, and offer training.

AABB Author Sign-Up Form

Hello! We're Authors Against Book Bans, a group of authors who’ve come together to protect and promote the freedom to read on both the national and local levels. We’re creating a network of authors to...

docs.google.com

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

Literally, the last time I had to take my inhaler, I thought about this and I FELT BAD ABOUT IT.

I was fucking gasping for air and I felt GUILTY.

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

This is right up there with "omg having kids is bad for climate change"

WE COULD MAKE SYSTEMIC CHANGE. We could work to not live in a world where politics has brought us phrases like "beautiful coal"!

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

Coverage like this is how you Individualize the world into doing nothing about climate change.

The issue here is systemic, manufacturers need to change the inhalers. That will require laws.

The solution is SYSTEMIC.

It is NOT "shame people who use inhalers for their ACTUAL SURVIVAL"

CNN @cnn.com · 1d

The people who are most vulnerable to the hard-to-breathe air that comes with climate change may inadvertently be adding to the problem, new research finds. https://cnn.it/4pWQMoh

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

"But months later, the results are in: of more than 160,000 students enrolled, only 43 families chose to opt out of LGBTQ+ education districtwide."

"this crusade is not a mass movement. It’s the obsession of a vanishingly small minority"

Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 1d

"99.97 percent of families, even when given the option, chose to let their children learn about LGBTQ+ people."
Nice result, and it reinforces everything Montgomery County said to SCOTUS before its theocrats made their dehumanizing ruling. open.substack.com/pub/erininth...

Only 0.03% Opt Out Of LGBTQ+ Education In Maryland After SCOTUS Gives Them A Right To

After SCOTUS gave families a right to opt out of LGBTQ+ education, Montgomery County, Maryland is reporting only 43 families took them up on it.

open.substack.com

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

THIS.

We all know intellectually that meritocracy is a lie, that doing good work doesn't actually get you ahead.

But WOW is it being shoved in our faces today.

Josh Sternberg @joshsternberg.com · 2d

You work hard as a journalist. You lead with empathy, and you sweat details. You operate in good faith. You believe in honesty and truth. You get yelled at by the president of the United States. You worry that you'll get laid off. Again and again.

And then you see this. www.wsj.com/business/med...

Paramount Buys Bari Weiss’s the Free Press for $150 Million

Weiss, who once said she was done with legacy media, is to take control of CBS News’s editorial vision, aiming for “news that reflects reality.”

www.wsj.com

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 2d

Every social media platform is a Faustian bargain.

How do we meet people where they are...if every "where" is terrible?

brookshire-team-trash.beehiiv.com/p/backed-int...

Backed into a corner

Where do I share, when every "where" is terrible?

brookshire-team-trash.beehiiv.com

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