futurebird

futurebird, 4 days ago (edited 4 days ago) to random

The bald eagle could have easily gone extinct. But we did all sorts of "woke" things protecting it legally, ran conservation and study programs, banned DDT (that was good for other reasons too) and in 2007 they were removed from the endangered species list.

Likewise pine forests could be dead from acid rain.

The ozone could have a huge hole.

We CAN take care of nature when we want to. And the successes have been worth it.

I feel like we forget this, you know?

futurebird, 6 days ago (edited 6 days ago) to random

Trump has said FOUR times that he will withhold federal funding from schools that require vaccines. Not just COVID. ALL.

This is most schools. This is hitting me where I work. This will lead to children dead from measles. It's obvious, inevitable.

Someone on here said they just couldn't bear to vote for Biden to keep Trump from office since at least under Trump there were better masking rules.

I hope that person sees this.

Worse is worse.

edit: because I don't know measles from smallpox

futurebird, 3 days ago to random

E-bikes are very cool and I'm glad they are getting popular.

However.

There is a big difference between a crash at 12mph and one at 20mph.

Your ebike can give you injuries normally only found in motorcycle accidents. And there isn't enough advice on what constitutes sufficient maintenance for ebikes.

If you don't get balding tires fixed on a regular bike you could fall off and bruise or break a leg.

At ebike speeds that same fall will shatter your leg in dozens of pieces.

BE CAREFUL

futurebird, 5 days ago (edited 5 days ago) to random

I often brag on tumblr about how "on the fediverse I never have to ask people for image descriptions, why is tumblr so terrible at this?" etc.

But, I've made the mistake of re-sharing a few images without descriptions recently! I was lulled into thinking it was not a problem.

Just FYI I'm going to get strict again about not re-sharing undescribed images. (You should too, it keeps the feed readable.)

If you forget? If this is new? Don't feel bad, just stop doing that.

https://www.tumblr.com/aspirationatwork/750857131588304896

futurebird, 6 days ago to random

If it's a problem that a judges daughter works for Democrats it's a problem that a judge was appointed by the defendant.

futurebird, 5 days ago to random

I don't know how my ancestors survived.

apex predator who could easily subdue and eat me in a tree

my brain: Kitty Cat! Little kitty cat! Let me hug it!

futurebird, 4 days ago to random

She likes to rest on this bookshelf so she can look us in the eye when we exit the shower.

She peers around the door frame. Two triangle ears and a little plaintiff face.
My husband peers around the door and he and Pica are eye to eye in a staring contest.
Pica won. She sits front paws neatly draped in front of her queen of the bookshelf.

futurebird, 2 days ago (edited 1 day ago) to random

Best movement of “The Planets” by Holst?

futurebird, 10 hours ago to random

At the Role-Playing Games club today, a fun debate. The whole campaign is on this ice-locked ship in the arctic: the DM introduced the possibility of sirens.

One player declares their character is ace and therefore immune to romantic seduction.

Not so, says DM these sirens call out with "whatever you desire most" ... another player wonders if, since their character is monk seeking enlightenment and the death of all worldly desires are they immune?

Apparently the sirens do enlightenment too.

futurebird, 4 days ago to random

When colonies are small they are nervous. Here is the young queen and her 23 daughters are gathered close to her frozen in fear as I feed them and collect the little trash pile they made. When their numbers pass some tipping point they will stop cowering like this and grow bold. I wonder how each ant decides if she should be brave or hide? how do they know the size of their colony?

futurebird, 5 days ago to random

Every day is Leg Day with Dirhinus! This is a parasitoid wasp. They lay their eggs in the pupae of flies, often flies that are found on corpses (including human corpses, making them forensically significant.)

Wasps are distant cousins of ants, and you can see something of the ant her... and something of the alien. Why is her head like that?

Her big back legs have a retractable tarsus so they can be used as prongs when injecting an egg into a fly pupae.

Showing how the tarus of the back leg can retract into the big shiny club like "thighs" This is a Dirhinus found in East Africa. They are found all over the world.
Front view. A very alien face. Big bug eyes. chubby antennae. small dainty mandibles. The taco grove can also be seen from this angle.
Thomas Shahan photo of the dorsal view. Showing the grove in the front of the head like a taco shell. The antenae can be tucked away into this grove.

futurebird, 3 days ago to random

Official campaign video says "unified reich" to describe Trump victory.

Campaign blames the intern.

I guess we should be happy they aren't just doubling down and saying "what's wrong with unity" or whatever.

The Intern.

That doesn't explain anything!
Why do you have lil nazi interns? (we know why)

futurebird, 5 days ago to random

This is the kind of thing I always imagined a husband would get when grocery shopping before I had one and, lo, it’s the sort of thing they really do come home with.

Just… just random cheese—

can I complain though? I think not!

futurebird, 5 days ago to random

Research means formulating a question. Sketching the kind of evidence you think would provide answers to the question and then dispassionately looking for that evidence and either answering the question or determining it can't yet be answered.

Falling into an internet rabbit hole and stimulating your sense of fear or wonder reading the strangest things you can find that creep you out isn't research. It's fun maybe, but it's not research.

Yes both involve searching and reading but ... come on.

futurebird, 4 days ago to random

Sam Alito is so much worse than I ever suspected. Watching him speak, reading his writing you encounter a man who clearly thinks he's smarter than everyone.

For various reasons, we do not often encounter smug academically styled conservatives. But, he's the genuine article. He sincerely believes himself a brave iconoclast who will be seen as a hero someday.

His self-flattery could be a weakness. He is very wrong about how history will remember him.

futurebird, 23 hours ago to random

Say good morning to a lucky squad of Nylanderia flavipes. They attacked this Archips sp. oak leaf worm as it was feeding. The worm tried to escape by jumping from the tree but the little army was too numerous and relentless. Urban ants tend to be a little protein starved. Our built environments are crusted with sugar— but thin on arthropods to snack on.

(sometimes I think about what would happen to the NYC roach population without the pressure of ants— then I shudder) Ants are omnivorous.

futurebird, 6 days ago to random

A benefit of giving my Camponotus nicobarensis colony a room with dirt to play in has been finding out that they will quickly bury large food items. I gave them a huge dubia this morning... which normally would keep them busy for about two days, in an hour it disappeared it into the ground.

I'm glad I can feed them in a space with a hard surface too... since if they bury food it will be hard to know when they have eaten it all. (which can make the tank too dirty)

Still I'm amazed!

futurebird, 12 hours ago to random

This passage from “The Algebraicist” by Ian M. Banks makes me think of many of the people around that former president…

futurebird, 22 hours ago (edited 21 hours ago) to random

It’s such a privilege to share my home with living breathing royalty. I check on her in the morning since she’s least likely to be disturbed. They are nocturnal and she’s been up all night laying eggs and being fussed over by her daughters. At this time of day she’s sleeping deeply enough that she won’t stir if I remove the light cover. Sleeping Beauty!

I never settled on a name for her. She’s just “the queen” —