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Ferris Jabr

@ferrisjabr.bsky.social

13K followers 720 following 610 posts

NYT bestselling author of Becoming Earth (Random House, 2024), being translated into 12+ languages ✵ Contributing Writer, New York Times Magazine ✵ Gardener, baker, naturalist ✵ 🇱🇧🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈 ✵ Surname rhymes with neighbor ✵ https://www.ferrisjabr.com

www.ferrisjabr.com

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Courtney Vaughn @courtneyvaughn.bsky.social · 15h

Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.

Reposted by Ferris Jabr

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 19h

Kristi Noem confronts enemy combatants in the Portland war zone today.

Reposted by Ferris Jabr

John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 16h

Um, ICE just coldly shot an unarmed PRIEST in the head w a pepper ball when he (and everyone around him) clearly posed no threat.

For the crime of … complaining about government policy.

Core 1A speech.

With cameras rolling, they’re sniping priests for sport.

Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 18h

Here’s video of the incident

Reposted by Ferris Jabr

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 18h

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 22d

Thanks pal! 🙏

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 22d

Make some shelf space for this one. Peter has produced an epic work of superb synthesis: rigorously researched, bold in vision, eloquently told, and always illuminating — one of the best nonfiction books for understanding our current moment in the context of Earth history. Highly recommended ⭐ 🌍 💙📚

Peter Brannen @peterbrannen.bsky.social · May 21

Wrote a long book that comes out August. It covers from the origins of life at alkaline hydrothermal vents some 4 billion years ago through the Volcker Shock. I'm told pre-orders help, so if that sounds like your thing, buy one, won't you? www.harpercollins.com/products/the...

The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything

How carbon dioxide made planet Earth, shaped human history, and now holds our future in the balance. Every year, we are dangerously warping the climate by ...

www.harpercollins.com

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · 28d

Spotted a roosting Western screech owl

Four photos of a Western screech owl roosting in a tree. The owl is relatively small with large yellow eyes and mottled plumage of gray, black, and white. It’s perched in the y-shaped crook of two branches splitting off the main trunk.

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Aug 27

Many birds build nests. Beavers construct dams. And goliath frogs, the largest frogs in the world, appear to create their own meter-wide ponds by excavating sand, moving stones up to 2/3 their body weight, clearing debris, and piling some of it to form walls 😮 🐸

www.science.org/content/arti...

The world's biggest frogs build their own ponds

Goliath frogs excavate meter-long pools and guard their tadpoles through the night

www.science.org

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Aug 26

If the soil is moist, they are likely drinking from it as from a sponge. Bees often seek extremely shallow water or damp soil so they can get a drink, and perhaps some salts and minerals, without drowning.

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Aug 21

The same article also quotes "Jamila Khan, 21, a youth organizer with Fund the Hubs." Fund the Hubs is real but the only mention online linking it to Khan is this article. However, there is a real, older Jamila Khan who works as a child psychiatrist (the article is about adolescent mental health) 🤔

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Aug 21

For ex in this now removed article, Blanchard quotes "Dr. Amina Patel, a clinical psychologist & youth mental health advocate in London." I can't find anyone matching that exact description, but Google turns up multiple Amina Patel psychologists elsewhere in the world
web.archive.org/web/20250614...

“I was 14 when I first asked for help. Now I’m 17 and still waiting.” Mental Health Services Are Failing — And Young People Are Fighting Back

Margaux Blanchard “I was 14 when I first asked for help. I’m 17 now and still waiting.” That’s how Ava, a college student from Manchester, sums up her experience with the UK’s Child and Adolescent Me...

web.archive.org

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Aug 21

Some are saying that AI is not an especially important part of Blanchard's fabrications and that this seems more like old-fashioned lying.

But if we look closely, I think there are telltale signs of the half-invented patchworks — the mindless rehashing of existing text — that LLMs are so good at

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Aug 21

Glass is notorious in journalism circles. He found early success in the '90s as a feature writer for The New Republic. But he was making most of it up. 27 of the 41 articles he wrote were fabricated to some extent. If you're not familiar w/ his story, I highly recommend the film "Shattered Glass"

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Aug 21

"Margaux Blanchard" may go down as a kind of minor Stephen Glass of the AI moment. Whoever, or whatever, they are, they seem to have used AI to fabricate multiple articles with fictitious sources published in Wired, Business Insider, and other publications
pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/d...

Wired and Business Insider remove 'AI-written' freelance articles

Wired and Business Insider have removed freelance articles over concerns they were written by AI under a fake name.

pressgazette.co.uk

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Aug 19

Locust borer (Megacyllene robiniae), a type of longhorn beetle, disguising itself as a wasp

A locust borer feeding atop yellow flowers. The beetle has an electric appearance: long and narrow with bold zigzagging yellow and black stripes, six bent brown legs, and long curling antennae.

Same beetle viewed from above. From this angle, the black parts of its wing covers are more prominent, with thinner zigzagging yellow stripes.

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Aug 8

First time getting decent photos of the striking and swift North American sand wasp (Bembix americana) visiting the garden. A friendly native pollinator and pest-devourer with zebra-inspired body armor and jade relics for eyes

Four photos of a North American sand wasp feeding on a Rudbeckia. The wasp is about the size of a yellow jacket with a striking Escherian abdomen adorned in rippling yet neatly conjoined black and white stripes; long, angled, pale yellow legs: and eyes like large jade eggs.

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Aug 3

"We all knew that the wonderful world that had been built for us was coming to an end. So our games were urgent. Necessary. We simply had to have fun...we pretend[ed] that there was nothing wrong and continue[d] to play. The world would have to take care of itself."

-The MANIAC, Benjamín Labatut

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Aug 3

Larva (n), an animal's juvenile form preceding metamorphosis, from Latin larva/larua meaning ghost, spirit, or mask. Linnaeus so named them bc larvae are so different from their adult forms and thus 'mask'/conceal them.

So a butterfly is a caterpillar's dream, a caterpillar a butterfly's ghost 🐛👻🦋

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Aug 1

It's the root/tuber of the plant! And astonishingly that is their natural shape. That was one I'd never tried before

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Jul 31

Eggplants were so named in the ~18th century because certain white varieties (not quite as widely grown today) look so similar to bird eggs. In the 18th and 19th centuries, they were also sometimes known as garden eggs or vegetable eggs.

📷 Horticulturalist RJ, Wiki Commons

A small white eggplant sitting neatly between two white chicken eggs in an egg carton

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Jul 31

Fun fact: the potato and tomato are so closely related that you can graft one onto the other, forming a single plant known as a pomato or tomtato: sauce above, spuds below!

📷 Thompson and Morgan UK

Photo of a TomTato, aka a pomato, developed by Thompson and Morgan UK. A man is holding the plant in the air. The lower quarter is a cluster of freshly dug yellow potatoes. The top part is a cherry tomato plant with fruits in various states or ripeness, ranging from green to orange to red.

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Jul 30

other nations, parallel minds, flitting feverishly between the blooms

Oblique longhorn bee: Beautiful. Fuzzy and golden orange with jade green eyes and super long antennae. Ginger tomcat vibes in bee form.

Striped sweat bee: Stunning. Metallic green thorax glistening in the sun and yellow and black striped abdomen. Like a tiny mashup of a yellow jacket and jewel beetle, but entirely non-threatening

Potter wasp: Adorable. Tiny, trim, pert, and perfect. Mostly black head and thorax, impossibly thin waist, pointy abdomen with yellow stripes

Furrow bee: Cute: itsy bitsy, furry, grayish yellow body with striped behind and thick pollen pantaloons

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Jul 29

Japanese pickles, tsukemono (漬物), are my favorite type of pickles, and this spread from Murata in Portland, OR is especially stunning:

Daikon (yellow half moons), Carrot (orange slivers), Lotus root (white tinged pink cross sections), Crosne aka Chinese artichoke (knobby red), burdock root (brown)

A white ceramic platter with colorful and neatly arranged groups of Japanese pickles, aka tsukemono (漬物)

Daikon (yellow half moons), Carrot (orange diamond slivers), Lotus root (white tinged pink, gear-like cross sections with rings of oval holes), Crosne aka Chinese artichoke (bright red and knobby, like glass beads partly fused while still molten, or meringue kisses stuck together), burdock root (earthy light brown slivers, mottled skin, pale insides)

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Jul 28

I love iNaturalist and always upload my observations, but I’ve gotten to a stage in my personal education where it’s no longer dependably helpful for some of the trickier IDs of these small native bees. Some of them can only be definitively IDed by close examination under a microscope

Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Jul 28

Update from the Experts!

A very kind & generous native bee expert has been helping me ID the species I observe in my backyard in Portland, OR. Turns out these fluffy, green-eyed, ginger beauties are oblique longhorn bees (Epimellisodes obliquus), recently reclassified taxonomically

All four photos are closeups of a fuzzy, orange, green-eyed native bee with long dark antennae on a rudbeckia