Small Batch Blogging

A smattering of topics, often biology. she/they (spivak pronouns work too)

[wanhyutji]

Actually I DO think twelve year olds should get hrt. That’s the normal age to start puberty, so why does it have to be different for trans kids?

[prokopetz]

Level 1: Asylums are scary because there's crazy people there.

Level 2: We shouldn't treat mental health facilities as objects of horror because it stigmatises mental illness.

Level 3: Asylums are scary because there's psychiatrists there.

[eartharchives]

Extraordinary fossils solve a 500-million-year mystery: Bryozoans were there at the dawn of animal life

Fossil evidence from approximately 520-million-year-old rocks in China finally places bryozoans where they belong, at the heart of the Cambrian explosion. Image credit: Baopeng Song

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1130390

[plantnerderyallday]

Today's super fun hobbyist activity:

I want to know which native plants have specialist bee species that depend on them. I have wanted to know this for a while. A year ago, I found this massive list of all the pollen specialist bees of the western US:

I am going through this list, first identifying which ones actually have record in Washington (and removing the rest), then which have a record in western Washington, or at least west of the Cascades but in B.C. or Oregon, and then copying the list from their specific page about the plants that they use.

I kinda have a suspicion that this has already been done somewhere by someone, but I wasn't able to find it.

The step after determining which species are native to west of the Cascades and which species they use is then to make a sheet, organized by plant, of which bee species use what plants.

Then, I'm gonna take that list to my bosses and be like, yo, we should plant all of these and make little educational signs about native plants and native bees and native peoples and how they were traditionally cared for pre-colonization and how settlers came in and took over and changed how the land was treated and how we can help the plants, bees, and peoples survive and thrive going into the future.

I think I might need to make a club. Dedicated to creating native pollinator friendly gardens and educational signs and getting people re-engaged with the world around them.

[plantnerderyallday]

So, there's 133 specialist bee species found in Washington state according to that site. That's a lot.

Going down to figuring out the ones found west of the Cascades now.

[plantnerderyallday]

Does it still count as a specialist with that many host species?

Though this species list also brings up a concern of mine. It lists Helianthus gracilentus put into the cashew family, while properly listing the other Helianthus species in the Asteraceae family. I also saw a bee named after Berberis, aka the genus Oregon grape was moved into, but the host genus was listed as Vitis, aka, actual grapes. Which I'm pretty sure don't grow anywhere throughout that bee's range. I'm not actually stopping and reading all the plant species at this point, but still, definitely some errors in this data set.

The list of sources is long:

Records of native pollen specialist bees captured or observed foraging flowers of host plants were compiled from Discover Life (Ascher & Pickering 2020), peer reviewed articles (Bouseman & LaBerge 1978; Brooks & Griswold 1988; Cane 2018; Cockerell 1916, 1919; Cresson 1878; Daly 1973; Danforth 1994; Donovan 1977; Griswold 1993; Griswold & Miller 2010; Hurd et al. 1980; LaBerge 1963, 1967, 1969, 1971a, 1971b, 1973, 1977, 1980, 1985, 1986, 1989; LaBerge & Bouseman 1970; LaBerge & Ribble 1972, 1975; Lanham, 1981; Linsley & MacSwain 1958; McGinley 2003; Michener 1939; Michez & Eardley 2007; Minckley et al. 1994, 2000; Moldenke 1976, 1979; Parys et al. 2018; Portman, Neff, & Griswold 2016; Pow 2019; Provancher, 1895; Ribble 1974; Robertson 1926, 1928, 1929; Rozen 1958, 1992; Snelling 1983; Thorp 1969; Timberlake 1951, 1954, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1968, 1975, 1980; Wright 2018), technical bulletins (Danforth 1996; Grigarick & Stange 1968; Hurd & Michener 1955; Krombein et al. 1979; LaBerge 1967; Mitchell 1960, 1962; Ribble 1968; Stephen 1954; Thorp & LaBerge 2005; Timberlake 1953), and personal communications.

So I will not personally be going through and vetting every paper. What I am going to do is only going to list the species that actually are native here. And when it's an obvious mistake like mixing up Oregon Grape with Grape-grapes, fixing it.

[plantnerderyallday]

Ok, so I've gone through all of the bees, now I'm at the step where I sort through the plant species that the bees use. There are 55 specialist bee species that appear west of the cascades. I am undecided about the bees that have like, a bunch of host species. Should I cut them out if they have like, more than 20 plant species and include common non-natives like white clovers?

Because I think my goal with this is to identify the bees that are the most specialist, that have the narrowest range of host plants and thus, to my mind, are at greatest risk of decline/extinction.

One the other hand, just because a bee uses white clover, doesn't mean that that is a great choice nutritionally speaking, for that bee. It may be something it's been forced to do because other plants have become unavailable.

I have decided though, that if the plant doesn't occur west of the Cascades, I will not include it. I'm gonna use iNaturalist to determine that (I mean, if it's one I don't recognize), and double check with the Washington Wildflower Search map.

... Also if it's only in high alpine conditions, I'm not including it. Mostly because those plants have a hard time growing in the lowlands. Like, if it's growing about the tree line on the Olympics, I'm just gonna go ahead and assume it's not gonna survive at sea level.

[plantnerderyallday]

I kinda think if a bees host species are all either species that aren't west of the cascades or just listed as Genus sp., I think I might not count it. Or double check where it's been spotted.

[plantnerderyallday]

I'm halfway through the bee list, and a bee species that only listed hosts by the genus has changed my mind on that last point. It very well could be that whoever is taking the observations is confident enough of the genus, but not confident enough to say that it's a particular species. Maybe that Malus sp. is pacific crabapple. Maybe it's the domestic apple. Don't know, can't say, plant a pacific crabapple anyway.

Goodness knows that while I can tell a bunch of plant apart at the species, I kinda just throw my hands up at bees once you get more specific than genus. They're tiny! They move fast!

[plantnerderyallday]

Me: Ah, Melissodes lupina? Probably uses lupines, right?

List of hosts: Nope, not even one.

Me: Ah. Well at least you're cute

[plantnerderyallday]

I think it's fair to assume that if a bee that's restricted to the continent of North America has Rubus idaeus (red raspberry, native to Eurasia) listed as a host plant, that it actually likes and will use native Rubus species as well.

[3liza]

i gotta be real with you guys im just sort of stunned tumblr has been running an open-front ZenDesk form for tumblr TOS reporting this whole time that doesnt require any kind of validation except a fucking email address. this one fact alone explains every single "why did so and so get banned for no reason" event of the past X years. however it is equally baffling that i didnt notice it before now. i would say it is baffling they implemented it in the first place but like i said, the management of their website is verifiably not well

[zoctopode]

you guys really liked that lineart preview so i figured id drop the first 4 pages. this is a wip comic of some lesbian robots comparing heat sinks and is shaping up to be eightish pages tops, will be done within the next 2 weeks or so!

[collapsedsquid]

Someone should check how those ticks that cause meat allergies are doing

[firebendinglemur]

saw this today

Acquired tick resistance (ATR) occurs when ticks can no longer feed on a host. This proposal will determine whether ATR can be induced against Amblyomma americanum - the first step in a novel vaccine to prevent red meat allergy. A. americanum tick bites are associated with IgE mediated type I hypersensitivity reactions to galactose-α-1,3-galactose (alpha-gal). Alpha gal is an oligosaccharide unique to many non-primate animals and added during post-translational protein modification. Old world primates including humans (catarrhines) have lost the enzyme and therefore do not possess alpha-gal modified proteins. Once sensitized by an A. americanum tick bite, some humans experience a hypersensitivity response to alpha-gal, known as alpha gal syndrome -- upon consuming specific types of meat or its derived products. Patients who avoid tick bites have been shown to have a decrease in their alpha-gal IgE levels suggesting that inhibiting tick feeding could decrease the production of alpha gal antibodies. ATR, therefore, is a novel strategy to prevent alpha gal syndrome. We demonstrated ATR in guinea pigs against Ixodes scapularis ticks. Further, our group also showed that ATR induced by I. scapularis results in ATR against A. americanum. In addition, we have also reported that a lipid nanoparticle containing the mRNAs for 19 I. scapularis salivary proteins (19ISP) was sufficient to induce ATR against I. scapularis. We have demonstrated that immunity against I. scapularis cement antigens also elicit ATR against I. scapularis in guinea pigs. Our initial observations suggest that lipid nanoparticles containing the mRNAs for 19ISP or predominant cement antigens of I. scapularis may induce ATR against A. americanum. These observations support our hypothesis that an mRNA vaccine can be developed to induce ATR against A. americanum – the first step towards a unique vaccine to prevent alpha gal syndrome. Our hypothesis will be evaluated comprehensively in this proposal.

[sukimas]

"the reason for the rise in autism prevalence is that we're noticing autism in demographics where it wasn't diagnosed before, like women!"

"no, the reason for the rise in autism prevalence is that our kids are getting fucked up from something in the water supply! tylenol! bisphenol A!"

"no, the reason for the rise in autism prevalence is that we're diagnosing people who are actually totally normal and we're pathologizing normal human behaviors!"

actually,

we're just recategorizing all intellectual disability as autism.

[averyterrible]

as meditations on kingship go, few things are better than this classic achewood, from november 2007:

[revizyonist]

med people are so annoying "This family's 8 year old child who was about to go through a major surgery and kept crying that she was hungry so they pitied her and gave her food, she then had a heart attack in the surgery. They're so stupid 😒" girl they didn't know that could happen or why it happens. it takes so little time to explain to them that will happen instead of telling them "no food" with no explanation 10 times

[revizyonist]

"Before surgery, your body’s reflexes that protect your airway are relaxed by anesthesia. If there’s food or liquid in your stomach, it will near certainly come back up and go into your lungs, which can cause choking, a severe lung / heart infection or even a heart attack. That’s called aspiration, and it is life-threatening. It's hard, but it's only a single day to prevent near certain death. Not eating or drinking beforehand massively lowers the risk and helps prevent these life threatening situations under anesthesia." <- TIP: patients have brains which allows them to receive information just like you

[ancelineonline]

I have four kids. I’ve had one or another of them need some kind of surgical procedure that requires anesthesia four or five times over the past 15 years.

This Tumblr post is the first time someone has explained to me *why* I couldn’t feed them before those instances.

I’m not stupid. I understood that just fine. Hell, my kids would have understood that just fine. But no one bothered to tell us.

[bowditch]

i did know this before having kids (i have six). we have a kid that's needed multiple procedures requiring anesthesia. and every single time, i am asked multiple times if i'm sure he was not given any food or water after a certain point.

every single time i have had to say, "i understand that if he had food or water, he could aspirate it into his lungs under anesthesia. i am not lying to you." THEN someone would make a little note and i would stop being repeatedly asked.

not a single time was that risk explained to me. the only reason it came up was because i already knew. i still don't understand why it isn't standard pre-op counseling or pre-op check information, when me as a parent acknowledging the actual risk also put THE MEDICAL STAFF at ease because i conveyed that i had informed understanding as reason to not lie about giving my kid food.

"maybe some people will get nervous and refuse surgery" okay so they need more counseling about risks and anxiety, not less information in a way that actually does endanger their child or themselves!

[arctic-turtle-cassiopeia]

Reblogging to save a life and teach medical professionals basic communication skills

[firebendinglemur]

The modern passport has eliminated fraud, forgery, and heroes who can bend the rules to save lives

Digital immigration controls make it nearly impossible for officials to bend the rules to save vulnerable people.

Take this hypothetical scenario. Customs and Border Protection officer John Smith admitted traveler Mehmet Yilmaz to the United States at 8:35 a.m. last Tuesday after asking him this set of questions and recording his answers. Mehmet Yilmaz has this face and these fingerprints and this birthday and used a visa issued in the Istanbul consulate by visa officer Jane Doe two months ago with these justifications and this work history and this travel history. All of this information is instantly populated into a centralized database accessible from Washington, D.C., and if Mehmet Yilmaz feels like he's being surveilled, maybe it gives some cold comfort to know that officers John Smith and Jane Doe are having their own decisions double-checked and assessed by their superiors every step up the chain. This accountability can be a good thing. The State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs maintains its own internal "Wall of Shame" of visa officers who extorted sex or cash bribes from applicants. Due to robust internal tracking, these officers are almost always immediately caught. But the accountability only works in one direction to make the system more restrictive. If you take away individual agency, you expose everyone to the whims of executive power, centrally directed. Years after the Holocaust, living in retirement, Sugihara mused to himself about what would have happened if his own fascist, Nazi-aligned government had discovered what he did for Lithuanian Jews. "No one ever said anything about it," he recalled. "I remember thinking that they probably didn't realize how many I actually issued." He was just there at his desk in the Japanese consulate in Kaunas with his visa stamp and his pens and his conscience. That world doesn't exist anymore. Headquarters today would have instantly noticed the discrepancy, the lack of full vetting, and the slippage in issuance standards. Officials in an office in Tokyo could have digitally canceled every transit visa issued by Sugihara's user ID and made it show up in other countries' computer systems. The modern biometric passport system and ID technology foreclose the possibility of individuals of conscience acting alone to do the right thing.

[ceausescue]

when i was a kid i often wondered what in a cell does the "thinking". like the nucleus has all this information, but it's just recipes for proteins. what decides which proteins to mint? if you're in a similar boat, please do yourself a big favor and look up transcription networks. that shit is awesome

[this-is-a-love-story-isnt-it]

This insane update from Neocities

[beardedmrbean]

[spiffiesttea]

strong bad would call the LGBT the L-Gibbity

[omnybus]

They later go the theater to see a performance by "The Drag Queen of Town"

[omnybus]

Bringing this back from last year

[alexanderwales]

I took a shower today and thought about how incredibly lucky I am to live in an era where I could have hot water whenever I wanted it. I'd been taking indoor plumbing for granted.

[winged-mammal]

Inside the U.S. Government-Bought Tool That Can Track Phones at Abortion Clinics

Privacy advocates gained access to a powerful tool bought by U.S. law enforcement agencies that can track smartphone locations around the wo

anyway yeah DELETE YOUR FUCKING ADVERTISING IDS

Android:

Settings ➡️ Google ➡️ all services ➡️ Ads ➡️ Delete advertising ID

(may differ slightly depending on android version and manufacturer firmware. you can't just search settings for "advertising ID" of course 🔪)

iOS:

Settings ➡️ privacy ➡️ tracking ➡️ toggle "allow apps to request to track" to OFF

and ALSO settings ➡️ privacy ➡️ Apple advertising ➡️ toggle "personalized ads" to OFF

more details about the process here via the EFF