How Cool Is This?

Chart Shows Widespread Side Effect to Bad Bunny Performing in Spanish

By Melissa Fleur Afshar Life and Trends Reporter

Duolingo saw a sharp rise in Spanish learners following Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, according to a post shared by the language-learning app on social media.

“Duolingo saw a 35 percent increase in Spanish learners last night. Better late than never,” the company wrote on Threads on February 9, under its official account, @duolingo. The post, which included a graph showing a clear spike in Spanish lessons, has been liked more than 7,500 times to date.

The surge followed Bad Bunny’s history‑making performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, where he became the first artist to sing primarily in Spanish during the most-watched sporting event in the U.S. Duolingo’s official Threads account shared the data shortly after the night ended, highlighting the immediate impact the performance appeared to have on language learning behavior.

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl appearance came months after he used a Spanish-language monologue on Saturday Night Live (SNL) to tell audiences they had “four months to learn” Spanish ahead of the game. Despite online backlash from some commentators at the time, the data shared by Duolingo suggests many viewers embraced the message, with interest in learning Spanish rising sharply during the Halftime Show.

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Joy

His wife joins him during this dance.

Today In History/Black History

From LitHub.

Malcolm X is assassinated in New York City.

On Sunday, February 21, 1965, a little after 3pm, as he was preparing to address his Organization of Afro-American Unity in New York’s Audubon Ballroom, the controversial civil rights leader and revolutionary Malcolm X was shot dead by members of the Nation of Islam, the religious group X had broken from the year before. He was 39.

“In the aftermath, rivers of ink spilled across New York City’s many newspapers,” wrote Ted Hamm. The legendary journalist Jimmy Breslin was callous and dismissive; Langston Hughes “somewhat cryptic.”

James Baldwin, who was in London at the time, famously shouted at the reporters who found him after X’s death: “You did it! It is because of you—the men that created this white supremacy—that this man is dead. You are not guilty, but you did it. … Your mills, your cities, your rape of a continent started all this.”

Later, Baldwin told the story this way:

“There we were, at the table, all dressed up, and we’d ordered everything, and we were having a very nice time with each other. The headwaiter came, and said there was a phone call for me, and Gloria rose to take it. She was very strange when she came back—she didn’t say anything, and I began to be afraid to ask her anything. Then, nibbling at something she obviously wasn’t tasting, she said, ‘Well, I’ve got to tell you because the press is on its way over here. They’ve just killed Malcolm X.’ The British press said that I accused innocent people of this murder. What I tried to say then, and will try to repeat now, is that whatever hand pulled the trigger did not buy the bullet. That bullet was forged in the crucible of the West, that death was dictated by the most successful conspiracy in the history of the world, and its name is white supremacy.”

“I was certainly saddened by the shocking and tragic assassination of your husband,” Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote to Betty Shabazz, X’s wife, after the murder.

“While we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems that we face as a race.”

More than sixty years later, some details about the assassination remain unclear. But Malcolm X has endured as a cultural icon, death being, in the end, not quite enough to silence him.

MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM

How Two of America’s Biggest Columnists Reacted to the Assassination of Malcolm X

Fatima Bhutto on Channeling the Fearlessness of Malcolm X

Naming the Unnamed:On the Many Uses of the Letter X

EVERGREEN QUOTE:“You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or who says it.”–Malcolm X

Ooo! Spies! Black History Month

Black American Spies and Why They Were The Best

Black spies used their invisibility in plain sight to carry out some of the nation’s most important war efforts.

By Shellie M. Scott

circa 1925: Portrait of American-born singer and dancer Josephine Baker (1906 – 1975) lying on a tiger rug in a silk evening gown and diamond earrings. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

When most people think of history’s American spies, they imagine a sleuthy white man, tracking troop movements, planting bugs and obtaining secrets under the radar of the enemy. What’s rarely imagined, let alone taught, is the role Black Americans played in espionage from the Revolutionary War through modern times.

Enslaved and free Black men and women slipped into rooms they weren’t meant to enter, cozied up to marks who underestimated them and quietly ran intelligence networks that relied on invisibility in plain sight. Here are Black spies whose intelligence work shaped history.

Mary Elizabeth Bowser

Dubbed the “baddest bitch in history” by Comedy Central, Bowser became known as one of the Union’s most daring Civil War spies. Literate and underestimated, Bowser worked as an undercover agent from inside the Confederacy’s most vulnerable locations — Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s home, according to African American Registry.

Masking her intelligence by pretending to be bat sh*t crazy, “Crazy Bet,” as she was known, used a rumored photographic memory to collect important military information and pass it on to Ulysses S. Grant.

James Armistead Lafayette

Fascimile of the Marquis de Lafayette’s original certificate commending James Armistead for his revolutionary war service, 1784. From the New York Public Library. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images).

James Armistead Lafayette was born enslaved but became a master of deception during the American Revolution. According to America’s Army Museum, he disguised himself as a runaway, infiltrated British camps, delivered key intelligence to the Marquis de Lafayette and fed false information to the enemy. His double agent work was crucial at Yorktown in 1781.

With Marquis de Lafayette’s support, he later won his freedom and dropped his enslaver’s name.

Josephine Baker

Josephine Baker was a known boundary-breaking dancer, singer and international icon, but few knew she was also a World War II spy for the French Resistance. Though she spied on behalf of France rather than the U.S., Baker belongs in this conversation about Black espionage.

At the height of her fame, Baker used her celebrity to move through elite European society and collect information on Nazi Germany and other Axis powers, according to History.com. Baker hid intelligence in invisible ink on sheet music and pinned notes inside her clothing, later explaining, “nobody would think I was a spy.”

Her bravery earned her France’s highest military honors.

Debra Evans Smith

While working in Records Management, Debra Evans Smith attended the FBI Academy after gaining nine pounds to meet the minimum weight requirement.

When only one percent of Black women were spies, Smith was drawn to counterintelligence. She volunteered for surveillance, learned Russian, and spent four years handling Russian counterintelligence in Los Angeles, conducting interviews and investigations in the language, according to the FBI. For her, the work was never about individual cases—it was about serving the country.

Abraham Gallaway

*Screenshot: https://6abc.com/post/meet-the-most-important-civil-war-leader-youve-never-heard-of/5921540/*

If you’ve never heard of Abraham Gallaway, that’s no accident. According to historian Dr. David Cecelski, Gallaway may have been the most important Southern war hero, but his legacy was erased when North Carolina rewrote its own history in the late 1800s, depicting enslaved people as “docile.” Gallaway’s story did not fit their narrative.

Born enslaved in 1837 near Wilmington, N.C., he escaped at 19. Gallaway became a “master spy” for the Union Army during the Civil War, providing military intelligence from within the South and establishing a spy network. He also became a state senator, according to 6 ABC. Today, his story is preserved at the North Carolina Museum of History.

Mary Louvestre

Mary Louvestre (sometimes spelled Touvestre) was a free Black woman who would not take no for an answer. Working as a seamstress in Virginia, she stole documents about troop movements and walked to deliver them to Union officials in Washington, D.C. When officers brushed her off, hesitating to meet with her, she kept going back until they listened.

Darrell M. Blocker

Darrell M. Blocker spent 32 years in U.S. intelligence, retiring in 2018 as the most senior Black officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations and earning the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal. A second-generation intelligence professional, Blocker’s work took him to dangerous territory in places like Iran and North Korea, according to the International Spy Museum.

Having lived in 10 foreign countries, he has held titles including Deputy Director of the Counterterrorism Center and managed the CIA’s Ebola response.

Recently, he flipped his knowledge into a role as Hollywood creative consultant.

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman was more than the Underground Railroad’s “Moses.” She made power moves in the Union Army, using her reputation to recruit Black scouts. Tubman gathered intel no one else could. According to Brandeis University, she became the first woman to lead a U.S. military raid in 1863, which freed 750 people and sealed her acumen as a true strategist.

George E. Hocker, Jr.

*YouTube: “2025 Mary’s Woods MLK Jr Celebration”*

George E. Hocker, Jr., a Washington, D.C. native, joined the CIA in 1957 while studying at Howard University. Working as a file clerk to fund his education, he stopped short of aspirations to work as a spy because CIA leaders told him Black people were not intelligent enough or able to “blend in.”

He believed them … until the 1963 March on Washington inspired him to pursue his dream despite racism. During the Cold War, Hocker gathered intelligence in Africa and later went to Latin America, risking his life on dangerous assignments. Hoker never lost sight of the fight at home, stating, “While I was fighting for my country’s interests abroad, my fellow Black Americans were facing war zones of their own at home,” as quoted in Newsweek.

Robert Smalls

Born into slavery in 1839 in Beaufort, South Carolina, Robert Smalls rose to become a skilled pilot on the Confederate transport CSS Planter by his early twenties. In a bold act of courage in 1862, he seized the ship, picked up his family, and navigated past Confederate forts under the guise of a captain, delivering the vessel safely to Union forces. Smalls went on to become the first African American to command a U.S. naval vessel, and after the war, he purchased his former enslaver’s house, reclaiming a space that had once symbolized his bondage.

Happy Valentine’s From The Birds

Hear the song, get more facts, on the page! (Title below is the link.)

Chocolate-vented Tyrant

A handsome bird of open landscapes, the Chocolate-vented Tyrant is an unusual species to be included among the so-called “flycatchers.” Inhabiting flat grassland and scrub, this bird is primarily a ground-dweller, rarely seen higher than a fencepost or tussock. Furthermore, this flycatcher is not one to catch insects on the wing (to “fly-catch” in ornithology lingo), preferring instead to hunt its prey on the ground. In keeping with this terrestrial lifestyle, the Chocolate-vented Tyrant has notably long legs and is more likely to run or walk than to hop or fly. In combination with its large size and rusty belly, the tyrant’s appearance and behavior are reminiscent of birds in the thrush family, such as the American Robin.

The Chocolate-vented Tyrant breeds in the cold, dry, and infamously windy Patagonian Steppe, also known as the Patagonian Desert. In an environment largely devoid of trees, this bird takes advantage of the open sky to perform an expansive aerial display, similar to other birds like the Red Knot and American Woodcock that use flat, open habitat in the breeding season. The Chocolate-vented Tyrant is also known to forage alongside wintering shorebirds — yet another habit unusual for its family, but typical of others, like the groups of sandpipers and plovers it sometimes joins.

Threats

Birds around the world are declining, and many of them, including the Chocolate-vented Tyrant, are facing urgent threats. Throughout the tyrant’s range in South America, livestock grazing, agricultural expansion, and invasive species all hinder this bird’s ability to thrive. Furthermore, sparse protected areas may be insufficient to support the species, particularly on its nonbreeding grounds in the Pampas, the vast grasslands region east of the Andes.

Habitat Loss

The Chocolate-vented Tyrant is losing habitat in both its breeding and nonbreeding ranges. On the Patagonian Steppe, where this species breeds, overgrazing by sheep disrupts the limited vegetation afforded by a dry climate, resulting in erosion and eventually desertification. The Pampas faces similar threats from overgrazing by cattle, as well as the clearing of native habitat in favor of agriculture.

Habitat Loss

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Conservation Strategies & Projects

The Chocolate-vented Tyrant is a habitat specialist, making it particularly vulnerable to threats like habitat loss and degradation. In addition to protecting habitat through our network of reserves, ABC also works to reduce the threat of invasive species and restore habitat. At ABC, we’re inspired by the wonder of birds and driven by our responsibility to find solutions to meet their greatest challenges. With science as our foundation, and with inclusion and partnership at the heart of all we do, we take bold action for birds across the Americas.

Creating & Maintaining Reserves

Habitat is the foundation for birds’ survival. Working with dozens of partners and local communities throughout Latin America, ABC supports a growing network of protected areas in more than a dozen countries. Totaling more than 1.3 million acres, nearly one-third of the world’s birdlife (more than 3,000 species) is protected by an ABC-supported reserve.

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And In Lighter Presentation-

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More Rightwing Work Outside Their Own States

Seriously; if you read through these stories, both are part of the work of rightwing organizations operating in every state to get their missions accomplished. No state is safe from this sort of thing; people really need to keep their eyes on ALL of their legislators. Some of these groups even write ordinances and lobby county/municipal/local governing bodies.

Forty individuals, organizations object to Kansas Senate bill adding barriers to food and health aid

GOP legislators discount estimated $17 million annual cost of reform legislation

By: Tim Carpenter

TOPEKA — Melissa Sabin spoke officially on behalf of Little Lobbyists Kansas and personally in the name of her son, Logan, against a Kansas Senate bill aggressively expanding the state’s process of verifying eligibility for Medicaid, SNAP and other public assistance programs.

She was among dozens of organizations or individuals supplying opposition testimony Wednesday on Senate Bill 363. It would impose new state application and reporting requirements, some exceeding federal mandates, for programs serving children, elderly people, poor people, pregnant women and people with disabilities.

On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Government Efficiency, or COGE, heard from the lone proponent of the bill — a conservative Florida organization that has sought for more than a decade to slash participation in Kansas public assistance programs.

“I oppose this bill because it creates an expensive, inefficient and legally questionable administrative structure that will predictably result in eligible Kansans — especially children — losing access to health care and food assistance,” Sabin said. “SB 363 does not improve program integrity or efficiency. It instead builds layers of red tape that state agencies are not equipped to manage or that federal law does not permit.”

Sabin, state outreach manager of Little Lobbyists, said the bill was inaccurately touted by its advocates as a means of improving accountability in terms of serving 325,000 Kansans taking part in Medicaid and 188,000 enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Sabin said requiring determinations of eligibility to be repeated monthly or quarterly would lead to additional paperwork errors, missed notices or administrative delays rather than documentation of alleged fraud or abuse.

She said a proposal for recipients of Medicaid to have eligibility reassessed every three months, rather than at 12-month intervals, could violate federal regulations. In terms of her son, she said the bill would compel the state to reconsider four times each year whether Logan, born with a genetic disorder characterized by intellectual disabilities, was eligible despite lack of change in his medical diagnosis.

“His condition does not fluctuate with paperwork cycles,” his mother said. “His need for skilled care does not disappear because the form is refiled or a verification is resubmitted.”

Sabin’s message of opposition was shared by representatives of Kansas Action for Children, Alliance for a Healthy Kansas, United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, LeadingAge Kansas, El Centro, United Way of Harvey and Marion Counties, Flint Hills Breadbasket, Kansas Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, InterHab, Reach Healthcare Foundation, Kansas Interfaith Action, Kansas Children’s Service League, United Community Services of Johnson County, the Disability Rights Center of Kansas and others.

The Senate bill

Under the Senate bill, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and the Kansas Department for Children and Families would be required to establish data-matching systems to automatically share personal information on Kansans with other state agencies. KDHE would have to submit data to the federal government on a monthly basis to determine if Kansans were enrolled in Medicaid in other states.

The bill would direct the Kansas Department of Labor to affirm employment status of beneficiaries, while the Kansas Department of Revenue would reveal details on household income. The Kansas Department of Corrections would track prison inmates who might be ineligible for benefits. The Kansas Lottery would be on alert for anyone winning more than $3,000 because the income bump could compromise eligibility for aid.

As written, the Senate bill would block state agencies from unilaterally requesting approval of exemptions to federal regulations. Instead, the Legislature would have to first endorse the request. The legislation also would block Kansas agencies from accepting as true an applicant’s statements on household size, age or residency — a provision that would require extensive document searches by state employees.

Sen. Cindy Holscher, an Overland Park Democrat running for governor, said she appreciated a recommendation from an opponent of the bill to convene a special committee of the Legislature to develop a better understanding of how Kansans dealt with the process of obtaining SNAP or Medicaid assistance.

Holscher said the House and Senate should do more than accept testimony from the only organization supporting the bill: FGA Action, which operates as an arm of the conservative Florida think tank Foundation for Government Accountability.

FGA was a proponent of the 2015 Kansas law restricting enrollment in SNAP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Research subsequently showed the state law undercut low-income families in Kansas, made it more difficult to prevent child abuse and contributed to a record surge in the number of Kansas children in foster care.

“We have 40 opponents to this bill who are subject matter experts based in Kansas,” Holscher said. “One proponent with an organization based out of Florida.”

The fiscal note attached to the Senate’s bill indicated state agencies would need to hire about 300 new employees to handle the revised eligibility processes. The Kansas Department of Administration estimated the cost of complying with the law would be $17 million to $18 million annually.

Sen. Doug Shane, R-Louisburg, and Sen. Mike Thompson, R-Shawnee, challenged the fiscal note.

“Quite frankly the fiscal note is, I guess we could say, hogwash,” Shane said. “There are just some pure fallacies.”

Opponents’ perspective

Heather Braum, senior policy adviser for Kansas Action for Children, said the additional layers of government red tape contemplated in the Senate bill would disproportionately harm children. She said the reform was introduced at a time when nearly 20% of Kansas children didn’t know where their next meal would come from and about 50,000 children lacked health insurance.

“Bottom line,” Braum said, “this bill will result in families losing Medicaid and SNAP. Families will be unable to afford their child’s medical care and kids will have less food to eat in their homes.”

Braum urged the Legislature to work toward streamlining the process of applying for aid. She said House and Senate members need a good understanding of how parents, children, pregnant women, people with disabilities and the elderly navigated the Medicaid and SNAP application processes.

Erica Andrade, president and CEO of El Centro, said the state’s plan to spend more on eligibility checks would result in loss of benefits by people qualified to receive aid.

“From El Centro’s perspective,” she said, “the most troubling aspect of SB 363 is that it prioritizes bureaucracy over people.”

The Rev. Jessica Williams, a Merriam Baptist minister with the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice, testified on behalf of Kansas Interfaith Action. She said Interfaith Action opposed federal SNAP and Medicaid reform signed in 2025 by President Donald Trump and likewise objected to SB 363.

She said the legislation weaponized the bureaucracy to dismantle the Medicaid and SNAP safety nets. She said paperwork traps embedded in the bill were “certainly counter to God’s law.”

“In my faith tradition we regularly pray the only prayer that Jesus taught, which says, ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ ” Williams said. “This prayer is not an abstract nicety, but a concrete demand for survival and an indictment of unjust systems which withhold food from families.”

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Kansas local government leaders question ‘millions’ in costs, lack of detail in bathroom bill

By: Morgan Chilson

TOPEKA — Local government leaders want more details about how to enforce a “bathroom bill” passed by the Legislature that some city officials say could cost taxpayers “millions of dollars.”

Senate Bill 244, which is awaiting Gov. Laura Kelly’s signature, forces people to use facilities matching their biological sex at birth in government buildings.

Kelly has a 10-day deadline once receiving a bill to veto it. That deadline is Friday for SB 244, a spokesperson said. Kelly is expected to veto the bill, which passed both chambers with veto-proof majorities.

The bill says local governing bodies should take reasonable steps to ensure people use restrooms, locker rooms and other private spaces tied to their biological sex at birth, said Jay Hall, deputy director and general counsel for the Kansas Association of Counties.

The phrase that concerns Hall is “every reasonable step.”

“That’s really where our questions start,” he said. “What’s the expectation of local governments, and how are they supposed to handle the enforcement? That’s not something that we know at this point.”

Spencer Duncan, Topeka mayor and government affairs director for the League of Kansas Municipalities, said his organization is exploring what the bill means for its members. Initial determinations of changing signage and other steps could cost millions of dollars, some city leaders told him.

Duncan expressed frustration with the process that eliminated opportunity for public input when SB 244 was passed out of committee. The bill, originally House Bill 2426, addressed gender markers on driver’s licenses and birth certificates, which would stop the state’s practice of allowing transgender individuals to change their sex on those documents and would roll back markers that were previously changed.

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee added the bathroom portion of the bill and then amended SB 244 by overwriting it with HB 2426, a process called “gut and go.” That allowed the Senate, which had already approved the unrelated version of SB 244, to concur with changes rather than hold hearings on the bill.

The only public hearing was in the House Judiciary Committee regarding gender markers — which received opposition from more than 200 people. During floor debate in the House, Democratic legislators spent more than five hours trying to add amendments that were repeatedly defeated. The bill passed along party lines, with one Republican, Emporia Rep. Mark Schreiber, voting against it.

The process meant no fiscal note was put on the bill for the bathroom portion, which concerned Democrats during the House debate and also worried Duncan and Hall.

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For Science! On Friday

Meet The Giant Arctic Jellyfish That Defy Freezing Temperatures

Written by Matthew Russell

Beneath the icy stillness of the Arctic, where sunlight barely filters through thick sea ice, jellyfish are rewriting the rules of survival. For years, scientists assumed these delicate creatures could not withstand the region’s brutal winters. But that assumption shattered when researchers discovered adult Chrysaora melanaster jellyfish drifting under the frozen Chukchi Sea, tentacles trailing through near-freezing water.

The findings stunned marine biologists. Footage captured by Columbia University researchers using underwater vehicles revealed dozens of fully grown jellyfish gliding along the shallow seafloor. Their bells stretched nearly 24 inches across, and their tentacles extended up to 10 feet long. These jellyfish weren’t dormant, dying, or clinging to survival. They were alive and active, defying decades of assumptions about Arctic marine life, Live Science reports.

Arctic jellyfish are surviving the winter in their adult stage.

Life Under Ice Moves Slowly but Surely

To capture this rare glimpse, researchers rode snowmobiles across miles of frozen ocean and drilled through four feet of ice. Cameras dropped into the water below revealed not only jellyfish but a surprising abundance of other life — from algae to crustaceans. What stunned scientists most was that these jellyfish appeared healthy and fully developed, in the medusa stage, not the dormant polyp form previously believed to be their only means of winter survival, according to Columbia Climate School.

The cold helps them. It slows their metabolism, allowing them to conserve energy. And the ice above shields them from turbulent winter storms.

As Columbia biologist Andy Juhl put it, “Life under sea ice is like living in a refrigerator — everything slows down.” This slow-paced existence may help these jellyfish survive for years, not just months as once assumed.

Scientists found jellyfish living under four feet of Arctic ice.

From Arctic Shelters to Antarctic Giants

Jellyfish don’t just surprise us in the north. Thousands of miles south, in the icy waters of Antarctica, researchers aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s expedition recently filmed one of the rarest marine animals ever seen — the ghost jellyfish. This deep-sea giant (*Stygiomedusa gigantea*) spans over three feet wide, with flowing oral arms stretching more than 30 feet. It drifts silently through the dark, catching prey without the aid of tentacles. It was filmed at 1,300 meters depth in a region only accessible because a massive iceberg had recently broken free, the Stewartville Star reports.

Ghost jellies are rarely seen — only 120 sightings have ever been recorded since their discovery in 1899. Their immense size and unusual feeding methods set them apart, but it’s their reproduction that draws perhaps the most curiosity. Unlike most jellyfish, ghost jellies give birth to live young. The juveniles emerge directly from the parent’s mouth after developing inside its bell, a trait called viviparity, according to Live Science.

These jellyfish were once believed to die off each winter.

Adaptation in Every Form

While ghost jellies are deep-sea dwellers, some were filmed at surprisingly shallow depths — just 260 feet in Antarctic waters. Researchers suggest that in polar regions, shifts in sunlight and prey behavior may draw these jellies closer to the surface.

Both Arctic and Antarctic jellyfish species show how adaptable these animals can be. In the Arctic, jellyfish once assumed to vanish in winter now appear to thrive, aided by the very cold that was thought to be their limit. In Antarctica, a creature thought to be relegated to unreachable depths rises when opportunity allows, providing rare glimpses of life in Earth’s most extreme waters.

What unites them isn’t just their beauty or rarity. It’s their resilience — silent drifters shaped by pressure, cold, and darkness, yet still pulsing through the oceans, undeterred.

Ghost jellyfish in Antarctica can grow over 30 feet long.

Climate Change Could Tip the Balance

Despite their resilience, these jellyfish may face new threats. According to Columbia Climate School, arctic species like *C. melanaster* rely on thick sea ice for shelter. As climate change causes rapid ice loss, these jellyfish — and many creatures that depend on sea ice — may see their habitats disappear. At the same time, jellyfish in warmer parts of the world are thriving, even swarming, in response to warming waters and fewer predators.

In the far north, though, it may be the opposite. With less ice, cold-adapted jellies could decline. In the case of these jellyfish, warming may simply mean vanishing.

Still, these discoveries are a reminder of how much we have yet to understand. The creatures beneath the ice and beyond the reach of sunlight continue to defy expectations, reminding us that the ocean — even in its coldest corners — is alive with mystery.

In Regard To Scottie’s Search:

c’mon, everyone, Scottie can draw that toon! Cheer him on, and join him-draw one of your own! 🧑‍🎨

Make Your Own Comics

Exercises for the Classroom

Grant Snider

1. Start with a character

Will your character be an avatar of yourself? A plucky young heroine? A grizzled space pirate? A robot with feelings? Design your character with simple shapes that can easily be repeated from panel to panel. Put them in different poses, draw them far away and up close, from various views. Once the character starts moving on their own, you have the start of a story.

2. Journey from panel to panel

Draw the action from left to right, top to bottom across the page. The space between panels is called the gutter. In the gutter, time passes. This amount of time can be a millisecond (a character blinks) or an eon (a star collapses). Use small changes in expression and pose to show what the character is thinking and feeling. Add thought balloons and text bubbles for dialogue.

3. Create new characters

Make each character distinct in shape and personality. Let their form dictate their behavior and action. How do they complement or oppose the main character? What new direction can they take the story?

4. How does it end?

(Snip-this is a pretty long post with the art, so I’m snipping here. I wanted to leave the art big enough to be seen fairly clearly. We will know how our own toons end! Also, though I don’t recall thinking about it when I found this substack, no doubt there was subconscious inspiration from Michael Seidel’s blog. I read it over lunch.)