Jonathan Packer

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

If you’re interested in stories about the exploration of liminal spaces, have I got the book for you

[בר נתיב, יהודיה מקצועית @Shteygen]

זו מחברת של ילד יהודי מלפני אלף שנה.

הוא כותב את האלף בית בדיוק כמו הילדה בת ה-6 שלי.

זה מעיף לי את המוח.

[Science girl @sciencegirl]

A single bird has completed a journey covering nearly one-third of Earth’s circumference, without stopping to eat, drink, or rest.

A five-month-old Bar-tailed Godwit, set a new record for the longest nonstop flight ever documented in a bird. It traveled from Alaska to Tasmania, Australia, covering about 8,425 miles in just over 11 days.

This remarkable migration took place entirely over the Pacific Ocean, with no opportunity to land. What makes the achievement even more striking is that it was the bird’s first migration, yet it navigated thousands of miles of open ocean with extraordinary accuracy.

The journey is made possible by extreme physiological adaptation. Before departure, the bird builds up large fat reserves, nearly half its body weight, to serve as fuel. At the same time, some internal organs, including parts of the digestive system, temporarily shrink to reduce weight and conserve energy.

Unlike seabirds that rely heavily on gliding, this young godwit maintained continuous flapping flight for the entire trip, enduring changing winds and weather conditions along the way.

Researchers at the Pūkōroro Auckland Shorebird Centre say findings like this are reshaping our understanding of what migratory birds can achieve. Their endurance, navigation, and energy efficiency highlight biological capabilities that rival even advanced human engineering.

[Kelsey Piper @KelseyTuoc]

My ancestors buried half their children. All mine are alive. My ancestors' house had a dirt floor. Mine is wood. I have indoor plumbing, I have hot water, I have never in my life hauled a full bucket half a mile and I probably never will. Do you know how rare it is, in human history, for small children to wear shoes? Mine have multiple pairs. I can speak to my relatives who live thousands of miles away, for free, at any time. Video, if we want video. With machine translation, if we speak different languages.

The original Library of Congress had 740 books in it. I have more than that. If I run out of books in my home my local public library has 350,000. If I want to take a hundred books with me on vacation, they all fit on a device that fits in my purse.

I have heat in the winter and AC in the summer and a washing machine and I have never, ever, ever had to scrub a dress clean by hand in the stream. I can look up recipes from more than a hundred different countries and I've tried dozens of them. I ride a clean and modern train across my city for $4, or take a robot taxi if I'm out too late for the train. I donate $40,000 every year to the cause of getting healthcare to the world's poorest people and even after the donations I never have to think about whether I can afford a book, or a pair of shoes, or a cup of coffee.

There is a great deal more to fight for, of course. I hope that our descendants will look back on our lives and list a thousand ways they're richer. Maybe we ourselves will do that, if some of the crazier stuff comes true.

But the abundance is all around you and to a significant degree you aren't feeling it only because fish don't notice water.

[Rebecca 📖 @Avonleebythesea]

I just saw this painting and it reminded me of a mulberry tree I haven’t thought of in a very long time. It was outside my son’s bedroom window when he was very small and we found so much joy watching it change from season to season: a bright yellow in fall, deep red nearly doubled over with fruit in summer, barren dark intertwining branched in winter. It was like a friend. Then one afternoon we came home from swim lessons at the Y to find it had been cut down. We actually cried, it felt like such a deep loss, that empty window where our faithful friend used to be.

(The Mulberry, Van Gogh)

[Chris Hoeger @DataDInvesting]

The picture below is of me and my father representing Venezuela in the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. He was born and raised there. I was born and raised in the States, but feel a strong kinship with my heritage. Here is what we think about what's going on in Venezuela:

A little background first. For years, he has spent hours each week following Venezuelan news and talking with his brothers and sisters who still live there. I have dozens of cousins still living there. He called me in tears when María Corina Machado won the Nobel Prize because of the hope he had that it would focus the international spotlight on his home country. He has spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours gathering donations and putting boxes of clothing, medicine, nonperishable food, and other essentials together and sending them with a trusted third-party courier to help the needy. Anything that goes through normal mail is stolen. We still have no clue how this guy gets the packages through, but they haven't had a single one lost or seized.

And when I say essentials, I mean essentials. My aunt recently told us that she hasn't even seen a single tampon or pad for sale in over 5 years. A bottle of Tylenol or Advil, if you're lucky enough to find it in stock, is a full month wages.

We were actually visiting my parents for the holidays, so when I woke up and saw the news I immediately asked him his thoughts. My Dad also hates Trump and is highly critical of almost everything he does. Here was his response.

"I really don't like Trump, but I think what he's done today is great. It's absolutely fantastic that that corrupt evil dictator is gone and he deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his days."

In fact, his biggest concern is that the US won't go far enough because there are several people still there who are just as bad or worse and if they seize power, this will have been for naught.

Remember, there was an election and they Maduro out. This is an illegitimate government that is not supported by a mandate from its population.

I texted him this afternoon and he said the messages he's received from family and friends have been a mixture of awe that this could be accomplished and restored hope for the future. They thought Maduro was untouchable.

The following note, which we did not write, but he shared in our family group chat, describes our feelings almost perfectly:

"It is striking how, now that the world 'cares' about Venezuela, so many feel so confident in offering their uninformed opinions. Including trusted media.

As a Venezuelan, I just ask you to remember this:

You cannot violate the sovereignty of a country where there is no rule of law.

You cannot strip the rights of a people who have none.

You cannot 'take advantage' of the resources that have not belonged to us for a very long time.

And above all, you cannot inflict more pain on a people who have already endured so much.

This is not an attack. This is the first real chance Venezuela has had to restore its freedom after nearly 30 years of repression, persecution, fear, corruption, famine, violence, forced exile, and endless human rights abuses...

And for those we have lost, today we can finally hope their fight was not in vain 🤍."

[SciencesNetwork @SciencesNetwork]

Large-scale genetic analysis of AMD drug targets highlights precision therapy opportunities for patients with high polygenic risk
https://t.co/sz9njTvrML

[CoffeeWithTheClassics @CoffeewClassics]

Never tell me the ancients were incapable of loving their children.

(a Greek epitaph from the 1st c BC)

[erika @yeeeerika]

this headline hums with ancient autumnal dread

[Wesley Yang @wesyang]

Ezra Klein responds to the torrent of criticism rained down on his tribute to Charlie Kirk and doubles down on his praise.

“It is too little to just say we oppose political violence. In ways that surprise me, given what I thought of his project, I was and am grieving for Kirk himself.”

“I believe this so strongly: We have to be able to see that the bullet that tore into him was an act of violence against us all.”

[The Free Press @TheFP]

"Someone in the newsroom said that this shattering event feels like the aftermath of another Charlie: Charlie Hebdo. It was a decade ago that Islamists burst into the offices of the satirical Paris newspaper and murdered 12 people who worked there.

In its aftermath there were a lot of spineless statements from people distancing themselves from the brave journalists who put out that magazine: 'I didn’t agree with them but . . .' We’re hearing the same thing now about Charlie Kirk.

No."

—The Editors

[Jack @tracewoodgrains]

yes! yes!!

elementary schools in Rockford, Illinois started grouping students by reading ability instead of age. what happened?

everything worked spectacularly. students happy, teachers happy, scores up.

ability grouping works.

[Pieter Garicano @pietergaricano]

The cost of nuclear went vertical before Three Mile and Chernobyl. The reason is ALARA - a rule based on outdated science that remains in force around the developed world. In WIP this morning.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

San Francisco schools is trying its absolute hardest to make sure all middle income families who could move out of the city do so right away

“Grading for Equity” is going to be a real disaster and I guess this is a boon for SF private schools and Burlingame housing prices

[Preoccupied Pudding (דָּוִד) @ian_pudding]

@katrosenfield When pigeons die in this city, they are taken. Not by sanitation. Not by nature.

By Them.

Beneath the city, behind rusted doors in old tunnels, man-shaped things wait. They peel the birds open for messages etched in bone. Every bird a courier, every death a delivery.

[Avi Bitterman, MD @AviBittMD]

Sarah was still alive and tried to crawl away after she was shot. The terrorist followed her and fired at her again, emptying his firearm at her.

And yet she was still alive and even managed to sit up as he reloaded his weapon. He finished reloading, and fired at her for the final time.

21 spent cartridge cases were found.

May he rot, and may the infested ideology factories that carry water for this madness face every consequence coming to them.

[Mariam Wahba @themariamwahba]

Yaron Lischinsky was a kind and generous friend, a devout Christian, and a defender of Israel. We would sit and debate early Christian theology for hours over a gin and tonic, and he would check in on me after every attack on Christians in Egypt. May our enemies resign to the ash heap of history, and my your memory be a blessing always my friend.

[Adam Feuerstein ✡️ @adamfeuerstein]

May their memory be a blessing.

🇮🇱🇺🇸✡️

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

Palo Alto just removed Honors Biology and Honors English classes from public high schools. The education bureaucrats have run amok, and the losers are kids who can't afford private schools.

I remember they tried 'de-laning' at my public high school in Fremont in 1996. Our parents showed up in force and stopped the grifting bureaucrats from taking accelerated and personalized education from us. I'm glad they did. I never would have gone to Stanford if the water-it-down educrats succeeded.

https://t.co/QtWqm0JjSd