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Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 13m

She looks like she will be a mini version of my step-daughter’s Luna. (SpringerPoo or Sproodle or something like that)

A cute black do sitting in some long grass looking straight at the camera.

Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 16m

Depends on who you ask? Apparently the Princess of Wales

Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 22m

With the mention of cells my brain went straight to Excel and it took me ages to work out what was going in here.

Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 4h

#Arachtober A long jawed orb weaver, Tetragnatha sp. These spiders often settle like this looking very long when they have been disturbed.

A long thin spider resting with four legs pointing straight forward and two legs pointing backwards with two to the side. It is on a spiky teasel head, a green one before it has flowered. Usually all four back legs pointing backwards but perhaps that was difficult on the teasel.

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Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 21h

Who would want to lead a team of disparate individuals who cannot work together and don’t even really want to be there …

Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 1d

Identifying baby spiders is difficult but this big ball is probably garden cross spiders, Araneus diadematus. Most of these
won’t make it but the ones that do grow into those lovely spiders that are hanging in webs in your garden, particularly at this time of year. #Arachtober

A ball of yellow spiderlings. Each little spider has a black mark on its bum. If the web is disturbed they will scatter.

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AJCann @ajcann.bsky.social · 1d

Pachygnatha degeeri

#Arachnids #Spiders #VC55 #macrophotography #macro #OMSystem #Arachtober

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Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 2d

I have no idea if this was eventually eaten but I did wonder, as digestion is outside the body, if some spiders venom and digestive juices neutralise whatever is unpleasant in the ladybird.

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Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 2d

Day 7 of #Arachtober another spider with prey. I thought ladybirds (ladybugs for Americans) tasted foul so aren’t predated but it appears not to bother this one. I think the spider is a lace web spider, Amaurobius sp. They often build these lacy webs in windows of garages and sheds.

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Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 3d

Day 6 of #Arachtober this is a Flower Crab Spider, Misumena vatia. Fearsome little spiders who lie in wait in flowes and are capable of taking prey much larger then themselves as can be seen here. All these images are from my own photo library.

A small white spider sitting on the pink petal of a flower. It is holding a black and yellow hoverfly vertically. The fly is at least twice the size if the spider.

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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 4d

It’s not that Heseltine has moved to the left, but that the Tory Party has moved to the right.

The Observer @theobserveruk.bsky.social · 4d

"The overwhelming majority of asylum seekers want to share in our standards and escape from persecution or civil war. To describe them as thieves or rapists is not just dishonest but encourages the worst sort of prejudice in our communities," writes Michael Heseltine.

https://bit.ly/4mUIeM

The Conservatives must never have any part in Farage’s po...

To describe asylum seekers as thieves or rapists encourages the worst sort of prejudice. We don’t need Trump’s mouthpiece anywhere near No 10

bit.ly

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Evelyndroid's Aperture Séance and Spooky Spood-Finding 🏳️‍⚧️🕷️ @apsciencebylyn.bsky.social · 4d

Habronattus alachua lass with the Head Tilt ❤️
#EmotionalSupportSpood #Arachtober

Light grey fuzzy jumping spider with reddish-brown stripes down her face across her big eyes, on a blade of dry grass tilting her head to peer at you

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Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 4d

Day 5 #Arachtober possibly the last thing the prey of a crab spider will see. Often the eye pattern can get to to the family of spiders and the eye pattern for Thomasidae is obvious in this image of a Xysticus sp which is about the size of my little fingernail.

A close-up image of a reddish brown spider looking straight at the camera. It is on the ground on a few blades of grass. It has the two forward pairs of legs spread wide giving it a crab like appearance, hence the name. The scale of the blades of grass shows that this is a small spider.

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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 4d

I think the biggest bang-for-your-buck on basically any video shoot is hiring a professional hair and makeup person. People spend money on all kinds of wacky shit that would be better spent on having someone dedicated to "does the person standing in front of the camera look ok"

Morgan Clendaniel @mclendaniel.bsky.social · 4d

A funny thing about the switch to increasingly high production video podcasts is they all invested in bright lights but no make up and everyone on a video podcast is the shiniest person you’ve ever seen. Even the Times’ podcasts!

mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 4d

The switch in the last few years from audio-only podcasts (which are very cheap to produce) to video podcasts, which have non-trivial production costs associated with them, I would wager has strained the economics here along with declining ad revenues bsky.app/profile/coff...

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Mart @beardybugmart.bsky.social · 5d

Day 4 of #arachtober sees us looking at a long-jawed orb weaver, Metellina sp, just doing what they do; hanging in their webs waiting for their grub to show up. @britishspiders.bsky.social #macro #macrophotography #spider #nature #naturephotography

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joemyers2k.bsky.social @joemyers2k.bsky.social · 4d

A quick video of an Argyroneta aquatica replenishing it's oxygen from its underwater web. @britishspiders.bsky.social

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Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 5d

As a minimum couldn’t there be no exemption for companies with government/NHS/LA contracts over say £2m. Smaller companies could decide if the costs outweigh the benefits when applying for contracts and it catches those with big contracts and few employees who take the contracts and farm them out.

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Emma Mitchell @silverpebble2.bsky.social · 8d

Acorn palette,
late September 2025

A collection of ripening acorns arranged so their colours shift gently on a buff coloured linen background with a calligraphy label

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Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 5d

#Arachtober You know those elegant long legged spiders that sit in the corners of the ceiling, sometimes called cellar spiders or daddy legs spiders; their scientific name is Pholcus phalangioides. This is what they look like close up, still amazingly beautiful.

A leggy spider facing downward. It has a largish body, probably full of eggs as it is larger than normal. There is a delicate beige and brown pattern on the abdomen. The eyes are tiny. The background is red, it is actually the stained wood of a shed roof.

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Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 5d

This turned up on my feed today - I think it relates.

bsky.app/profile/merr...

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 5d

Trivia on 'trivia'

In ancient Rome, a trivium was an intersection of three roads (tri, "three" + vium, road).

According to the Romans, when people met at a trivium, they would discuss trivialis ("inconsequential things") - which eventually helped give trivia its modern meaning.

Reposted by Jonathan Bliss

Adam Sharp @adamcsharp.bsky.social · 5d

I will again say that my favourite way of telling someone to fuck off in French (often chanted to opposition crowds at football games) is rentre chez toi, ta mère a fait des gaufres. It means "go back home, your mother made you waffles"

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Mart @beardybugmart.bsky.social · 5d

Day 3 of #arachtober. I can't promise I'll keep this up all month; I'll run out of photos soon, but for now here's another Araneus diadematus to delight you. This was a nice, dark form, but yet again, it was facing the wrong way 🙄 @britishspiders.bsky.social #macro #omsystem #macrophotography

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Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 5d

I think there is an answer in economics. There is a book by the economist John Kay called Obliquity. It describes with repeated examples how the pursuit of excellence and knowledge reaps more financial rewards than the direct pursuit of money.

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Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 5d

I feel that @thatdocphoenix.com must have some Princess Di memorabilia that should grace this thread.

Jonathan Bliss @jonathanbliss.bsky.social · 6d

For #Arachtober how cute are jumping spiders. I think this one is Evarcha falcata. This is just a few mm long you probably wouldn’t even notice it.

A close up of a jumping spider. Jumping spiders have excellent vision and have two of their eyes very large and front facing. This gives them a cute look, certainly among those who aren’t scared of spiders. Here there is a black background and the reflection of a ring flash is visible in the eyes. Four of the eyes are visible, two large in the middle of the face and two smaller ones.

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