I spotted a western bluebird on Valentine’s Day morning.
Seems appropriate.
(Spotted in a tree at a city park. As I was trying to aim my camera, it flew down and landed on top of a birdhouse nearby, making it easier to see.)
Update: This was the last photo I posted to Instagram before I stopped using the site altogether. Even at the time I cross-posted it to Pixelfed and Flickr.
A bright sundog next to a glass-sided building. The sun is off to the left out of frame. The sundog had a bit more color and more of the spectrum in it as seen through my polarized sunglasses, so I kind of wish I’d taken a shot through one of the lenses, but at least you can see how bright it was.
I haven’t adjusted the color on this image at all -– except for cropping, it’s straight out of my phone.
A 22° sun halo.
I need to start collecting screenshots of ghost Pokéstops in Pokémon Go. Not ghost-type nests, but the stops that highlight something that isn’t there anymore. In my area there are several murals that have been painted over, fountains that have been converted to planters, a park pond that’s become a splash pad, a sculpture in a store that’s been bulldozed…
It’s like a digital afterlife for landmarks.
Though I’m kind of reluctant to say anything about them in case Niantic decides to remove them!
I’ve got to appreciate this network error UI from Minecraft Earth. Especially the button text.
Off-duty cop fires ten shots at an unarmed intellectually disabled man and his family from twenty feet away, killing him and critically wounding his parents, because he pushed him in a Costco food line 3.8 seconds earlier.
No charges filed, because he had “no choice.”
And yet he had “no choice but to use deadly force.”
You’re seriously telling me there were no other choices?
It’s still not clear what started it. But the dead man had schizophrenia and was adjusting to a change in his medication, and his parents were trying to de-escalate the situation when they were shot.
Which the cop could’ve tried if he hadn’t started shooting immediately.
Update June 2020: His parents both survived, minus a few organs. The LAPD determined that the shooting “violated department policy.”
Update October 2021: A jury awarded the family $17 million in damages from the city of Los Angeles, finding that the officer was acting within the scope of his employment in the LAPD. And while Riverside County (where the shooting occurred) declined to press charges, the state of California charged him with manslaughter and assault.
Update August 2022: A preliminary hearing determined there was enough evidence for the former officer to stand trial.
