… Read the restElkhorn and staghorn corals used to carpet Florida’s reef system, rising like antlers from the seabed — but not anymore. These crucial coral species are now “functionally extinct” in the region after record-breaking ocean temperatures, according to a study published Thursday.
The corals, which have been dominant reef builders in Florida for the past 10,000 years, were already critically endangered due to a host of factors including disease, pollution, hurricanes and ocean warming. But an unprecedented marine heat wave may have delivered a fatal blow.
In the summer of 2023, Florida’s water temperatures peaked at more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest recorded in the region for at least 150 years.
…
The heat wave marks
All entries by this author
Cascading impacts
Oct 24th, 2025 11:22 am | By Ophelia BensonTrump can spell “egregious”
Oct 24th, 2025 11:09 am | By Ophelia BensonTrump has tantrum chapter eleventy million.
Donald Trump has announced an immediate end to “all trade negotiations” with Canada over a television advertisement opposing US tariffs that quoted the former US president Ronald Reagan.
The ad, which was paid for by the government of the Canadian province of Ontario, uses excerpts of a 1987 speech where Reagan says “trade barriers hurt every American worker”.
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Canada had “fraudulently used an advertisment[sic]”, which he called “FAKE”, and accused the country of trying to interfere with US court decisions on the levies. “Based on their egregious behavior, all trade negotiations with Canada are hereby terminated,” he wrote.
He doesn’t even know the difference between … Read the rest
Mr Trans Ideology 2025
Oct 24th, 2025 10:45 am | By Ophelia BensonWhatever, bro. You’re still a man.… Read the rest
Personal to her
Oct 24th, 2025 7:33 am | By Ophelia BensonA tiny bit callous maybe?
Apparently, one of the Darlington Nurses was claiming she was having possibly a panic attack because she was in the presence of a trans woman colleague. Well, she is either lying, or, she has a trauma that is personal to her and it needs sorting. It’s not anyone else’s issue.
— Marianne Oakes (@OakesMarianne) October 23, 2025
Ah well, no surprise there, “Marianne” Oakes is a man.… Read the rest
Reality bites
Oct 24th, 2025 6:31 am | By Ophelia BensonJail time for saying that men are not women.
A man in Switzerland is facing 10 days in prison after refusing to pay a fine for an “offensive” social media post. Emanuel Brünisholz, a wind instrument repairman from Burgdorf, was convicted under anti-discrimination laws for making [a] statement emphasizing skeletal evidence of binary sex.
It’s a crime in Switzerland to say that there are skeletal differences between women and men. The popes had their inquisitions and now the gender popes have theirs.
… Read the restBrünisholz’s ordeal began in December of 2022 when he responded to a Facebook post by Swiss National Council member Andreas Glarner. In his comment, Brünisholz wrote: “If you dig up LGBTQI people after 200 years, you’ll
Guest post: The stories of the victims
Oct 23rd, 2025 5:14 pm | By Ophelia BensonOriginally a comment by Artymorty on For rejecting an ideology.
So glad you highlighted this. It can’t be said often enough. Graham is a deeply compassionate, and passionate man. The Glinner we see in his exquisite writing — every single side-splitting joke in every single episode of The IT Crowd was penned by him alone, against all odds and deadlines and budget constraints, and all the other challenges that are faced by a sole showrunner who is also the sole director who is also the sole creator and who is also the sole writer of a hit comedy series that runs for years — is the same Glinner I have the privilege to know in person: he’s a deeply … Read the rest
Aesthetics
Oct 23rd, 2025 11:08 am | By Ophelia BensonI’ll just say this – it’s going to look ridiculous. It’s way out of scale, so it looks like a damn warehouse.
That huge box on the right side: that’s the stupid ballroom. The entire population of Queens could fit in there.
… Read the restFor rejecting an ideology
Oct 23rd, 2025 10:28 am | By Ophelia BensonEuan McColm in the Scottish Daily Mail on Graham Linehan and the deranged ideology that trashed his life:
… Read the restBy rights, Mr Linehan should be revered, just as contemporaries such as Ricky Gervais and Simpsons creator Matt Groening are, as a visionary in his field. Instead, his career has been destroyed and his personal life upturned after years of relentless harassment by trans activists.
For rejecting an ideology –still hugely fashionable in the showbiz world from which Mr Linehan is now an outcast – he saw projects cancelled and friends turn on him. A long-planned musical based on Father Ted, the hit show Mr Linehan created alongside his one-time writing partner Arthur Matthews, was called-off while former colleagues denounced him as
Secret briefings
Oct 23rd, 2025 6:44 am | By Ophelia BensonWait, who was unreasonable here?
… Read the restSandie Peggie’s legal team says it is seriously concerned about the content of secret briefings for SNP ministers prepared by NHS Fife and uncovered by The Herald.
Confidential correspondence between the board and the Scottish Government, obtained through freedom of information, contains unredacted details about the nurse, including references to her occupational health appointments and other internal employment matters.
The documents outline NHS Fife’s account of events surrounding the employment tribunal and seek to reassure ministers that the board acted appropriately throughout.
In them, the board suggest Ms Peggie’s “personal circumstances” may have “contributed to the incident” and that the nurse should have had the “skills and knowledge to de-escalate or remove herself from this
Parts by name parts by nature
Oct 22nd, 2025 4:43 pm | By Ophelia BensonSuing her school was not how Evelyn Parts envisioned her final semester at Swarthmore College. Parts, 22, a distance runner and team captain of the school’s varsity cross country and track team, set big goals for senior year. The Towson, Maryland native had qualified for the 5,000 meters in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)’s Division III Centennial Conference Championship for Women’s Indoor Track & Field set for last March in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. For her, it was the biggest competition of the season.
But she was never given a chance to run. Parts, who goes by Evie, was banned from competing with her team because she is a transgender woman.
Thus Teen Vogue cheerfully admits … Read the rest
Two alternate realities
Oct 22nd, 2025 4:20 pm | By Ophelia BensonVia What a Maroon, Moumen Al-Natour writes in the Washington Post of the two Gazas:
… Read the restTrump’s ceasefire has split Gaza into two alternate realities on either side of the “yellow line” behind which the Israel Defense Forces have withdrawn under Phase 1 of the ceasefire deal. On one side is a Gaza that is desperate for Trump’s plan to succeed; on the other is a Gaza that is being pulled back into the abyss once again. It is impossible for these two Gazas to exist simultaneously for more than a moment in time, and soon enough one will consume the other. Fighting over the weekend underscores just how precarious the balance remains.
My Gaza, where I wish
Sauce for the gander
Oct 22nd, 2025 3:54 pm | By Ophelia BensonFun fact it just occurred to me to look up to make sure it is a fact.
All of Trump’s grandparents were immigrants. All of them. One two three four.
… Read the restOn October 7, 1885, Friedrich Trump, a 16-year-old German barber, boarded a ship with a one-way ticket to America, escaping three years of compulsory German military service. He had been a sickly child, unsuited to hard labor, and feared the effects of the draft.
…
Trump is the son, and grandson, of immigrants: German on his father’s side, and Scottish on his mother’s. None of his grandparents, and only one of his parents, was born in the United States or spoke English as their mother tongue. (His mother’s
When communinnies clash
Oct 22nd, 2025 10:39 am | By Ophelia BensonOnce again we see that religions have actual substantive beliefs about other people, specifically the kind of beliefs that lead to quarrels, fights, wars, genocides.
We’re supposed to pretend otherwise. We’re supposed to pretend that religions are entirely a force for good.
A pro-Gaza MP who welcomed the ban on Israeli football fans from Villa Park previously cast doubt on the atrocities committed in the Oct 7 attacks. Ayoub Khan, the independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, cast doubt on claims that women were raped during the Hamas-led massacre in 2023.
Religion! Ethnicity! History! Theocracy! Rivalry! A toxic brew. Football doesn’t improve it.
… Read the restHis comments have come to light as he faces a backlash for celebrating the decision to
On her return
Oct 22nd, 2025 9:12 am | By Ophelia BensonMan knocks out woman in boxing ring surprise.
Olympic gender-row boxer Lin Yu-ting controversially romped to victory on her return to the ring on Tuesday night, knocking out a 19-year-old female university student in just 94 seconds.
Lin, 29, won gold in the women’s featherweight division during last year’s Paris Olympics, despite being disqualified from the 2023 World Championships for failing a gender eligibility test.
If you don’t already know that Lin is a man you wouldn’t learn it from that beginning. What is the point of obscuring the truth this way? It’s not HER return to the ring, it’s HIS. He’s a man determined to punch women and he knocked one out yesterday. That’s the story. Saying … Read the rest
Overkill much?
Oct 22nd, 2025 8:25 am | By Ophelia BensonFined how much for doing what?
A woman says she was “shocked” when she was fined £150 for tipping the remnants of her coffee down a road gully in west London.
Burcu Yesilyurt, who lives in Kew, said she thought she was acting “responsibly” when she poured out a small amount of coffee from her reusable cup down the drain rather than risk spilling it on the bus she was about to catch to work.
But to her surprise, she was then stopped by three enforcement officers at the bus stop near Richmond station and fined under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Who were hanging out waiting for someone to pour a bit of coffee into … Read the rest
Any pocket will do
Oct 21st, 2025 4:47 pm | By Ophelia BensonYet more outrageous monetizing of everything by the monster:
Trump is demanding that the Justice Department pay him about $230 million in compensation for the federal investigations into him, according to people familiar with the matter, who added that any settlement might ultimately be approved by senior department officials who defended him or those in his orbit.
The situation has no parallel in American history, as Mr. Trump, a presidential candidate, was pursued by federal law enforcement and eventually won the election, taking over the very government that must now review his claims. It is also the starkest example yet of potential ethical conflicts created by installing the president’s former lawyers atop the Justice Department.
Just a tad.
… Read the restMr.
Guest post: Every corner of the country
Oct 21st, 2025 4:29 pm | By Ophelia BensonOriginally a comment by Jim Baerg; posted with the permission of his sister/source.
From my sister in Maine:
Went to this yesterday. There were about 2000 people there and it looked pretty much like this photo from June’s that I missed.
I had my little Canadian flag along with a little American flag. Progressives are trying to take back what it means to be a patriotic American.
One guy jokingly said to me, “You don’t have to gloat about being Canadian.” And I replied, “Yes, I do”. All in good spirit.
Lots of creative signage. My favorites were:
They’re eating the immigrants! Soylent Green is People! (Remember in the debates when Trump claimed that Haitian immigrants were eating their … Read the rest
The administration has provided no evidence
Oct 21st, 2025 11:42 am | By Ophelia BensonColombia’s Leader Accuses U.S. of Murder, Prompting Trump to Halt Aid
It’s not the US that’s the murderer, it’s Trump. Trump himself, ordering murders on the high seas. Did he order the code red? You’re god damn right he did.
… Read the restPresident Gustavo Petro of Colombia accused the United States of murdering an innocent fisherman in an attack on a boat that the American authorities claimed had been carrying illicit drugs, prompting President Trump to declare on Sunday that he would slash assistance to Colombia, one of Washington’s top aid recipients in Latin America, and impose new tariffs on the country’s goods.
The feuding between the two leaders reflected rising tensions in the region over the huge U.S. military deployment in
Rebusted
Oct 21st, 2025 10:07 am | By Ophelia BensonRemember when Trump pardoned all the January 6 treason-committers? Cool that they’re now free to plan more treasonous murder.
… Read the restAn upstate New York man pardoned by President Trump after taking part in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was charged last week with a new crime: threatening to assassinate Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, at an event in New York City.
The man, Christopher P. Moynihan, 34, sent text messages to an unknown associate on Friday threatening Mr. Jeffries’s life, according to a criminal complaint issued by local prosecutors in Dutchess County, N.Y.
“Hakeem Jeffries makes a speech in a few days in NYC I cannot allow this terrorist to live,” the complaint quoted
No no it’s chocolate
Oct 21st, 2025 9:49 am | By Ophelia BensonOn Oct. 18, 2025, the day people across the U.S. attended “No Kings” protests to decry U.S. President Donald Trump, Trump posted an AI-generated video of himself in a fighter jet, dropping a brown substance on protesters while wearing a crown.
A brown substance aka shit.
… Read the restGenerated by artificial intelligence, the video depicted Trump wearing a crown while flying a fighter jet with the words “King Trump” painted on its side. As the jet flew over city protests, it dumped loads of a brown substance. The video then cut to the ground, where the substance landed on protesters, including Democratic social media influencer Harry Sisson. Reports have described the brown substance as “brown sludge
