hi

[bluestbluebox]

we went camping up by lake superior, here are a few lake-themed pictures!

[bluestbluebox]

some of the cool bugs we saw!

we also saw a bunch of bugs i appreciated much less, such as swarms of mosquitoes and biting flies

[bluestbluebox]

some cool stones and rocks!

[bluestbluebox]

some of the more forest-themed photos, i have more somewhere but alas! it was a good foresg though, lots of lil mounds and all. and also, featuring my gf

[definitely-not-an-anteater]

Get a load of this guy

Credit > Tyson Cole art

Cartoons - Tyson Cole Cartoons & Illustration

Cartoons by Tyson Cole - Illustration, Graphic Design, Cartooning

[toasthaste]

according to An Immense World, apparently giant squid eyes are, like, UNREASONABLY large, even for something their size living at those depths. the next largest eyes on earth, blue whale eyes, are less than half the size, and swordfish, who live at similar depths as giant squid and have the largest eyes of any fish, have eyes that could fit inside a giant squid's pupil.

eyes hit serious diminishing returns wrt resource costs vs vision quality as they get bigger, so the question became: what the FUCK do giant (and colossal) squid need to see so badly that they couldn't see with swordfish-sized eyes that's justifying that massive energy cost? that nothing else in the deep ocean needs to see so fucking badly??

turns out the one strength eyes that big really have over much smaller eyes is: seeing large glowing objects in water deeper than 500 meters from an appreciable distance.

sperm whales are the primary predator of giant squid. sperm whales don't glow. BUT! water that deep is full of bioluminescent creatures-- these creatures light up when bumped into. something a sperm whale's size is continuously bumping into those critters, it's just surrounded by a glowing field all the time when it's swimming at those depths, visible from a distance-- if you have the right eyes-- as a massive glowing shape. so basically the only reason to have eyes the size of soccer balls is if you live in the deep ocean and your life depends on having a heads up when a hungry sperm whale lurking around

and also I gotta say, the imagery... the huge lurking threat betrayed only by the ambiguous glowing shape of its movements through the water, is really evocative, if spooky deep-sea games aren't already using that to make things extremely ominous then they should really start

[astercontrol]

whoever bought the domain spidersge.org and had it go to a simple html page with nothing except the text of the famous spiders georg post:

Thank you. You are doing good work. Hope you have a wonderful day

[despazito]

Nosy ass plant

[teethsmoothie]

[rowark]

Also, something that struck me as so funny when I was watching the TNG pilot....

137-year-old Bones McCoy tells Data (about the Enterprise): "You treat her like a lady. And she'll always bring you home."

Which is funny when I just watched Voyager, where Janeway treats her ship like a battering ram, and it still brings her home. Twice.

[rowark]

the notes on this post give me life

[raccoongrandfather]

If the last supper was for racoons they would all be sad about the ending of suppers

[gaysie]

do u think omegaverse acknowledges covid-19 and the generation of people who permanently lost their sense of smell like how are they all scenting each other now is the omegaverse economy in shambles

[gayagendaofficial]

actually pheromone sensing works differently from normal olfaction, since humans in our world don’t have a functioning vomeronasal organ (VNO), we don’t have any data on how covid-19 would affect a functioning VNO in omegaverse AUs

[gaysie]

Actually there is evidence that covid probably would affect the VNO and it stands to reason would accordingly impair its function. Briefly:

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid, can only infect cells expressing a certain protein called ACE2

ACE2 is expressed widely in nasal cavity epithelial cells but not in olfactory sensory neurons. 

Seo et al. (2021) studied potential nasal targets for SARS-CoV-2 using golden hamsters as a model organism (commonly used as a proxy for humans in virology studies)

They found ACE2 expression in the main olfactory bulb epithelium (MOE, your “normal” nose organ) as well as the vomeronasal organ (VNO)

Several cell types in the VNO were able to be infected and they also found significant inflammatory activity (macrophage activation, apoptotic cells, etc) 

The specifics of how covid actually causes dysosmia are not known for sure but epithelial damage by local inflammatory immune responses likely plays a role, especially because sensory neurons themselves are not affected (Bilinska, & Butowt, 2020). Therefore I would suggest a potential similar effect of VNO dysfunction as we see in the main olfactory bulb

From Seo et al.: “Considering the function of the VNO, infection and subsequent pathologic changes may affect the behavior of Syrian hamsters”

If it stands to reason that omegaverse individuals have functioning VNOs similar to members of the animal kingdom, then it is more than reasonable to conclude that covid may cause them to lose not only their main olfactory function, but also their VNO function as well

 References: (1) (2)

In conclusion the omegaverse economy IS in shambles.

[mahalidael]

OP this is very well-written but im still hung up on how you came onstage dressed as a clown only to tear off the costume and reveal yourself as a biologist

[agnesmontague]

ive invented (note: dubious claim) something i call the bear diet which is mostly fruits and vegetables with fish as the main protein source and something like once a month you eat a few hyperprocessed foods of your liking because that is when you, the bear, raid a dumpster in the suburbs

[succumbing-song]

[orteil42]

there should be more phoneme shifts happening… more rebracketings… there's still time for the english language to evolve… i hope to see the advent of "I wrote a nardicle" in my lifetime

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

n-mobile, my beloved

[draconym]

The eye doctor is the most fun doctor you can go to. They never steal your blood. They never make you get naked and put on a paper dress. They're just like, "Can you see these letters? It's fine if you can't, we can fix that." And they don't even spell anything.

[draconym]

[orcboxer]

Every time I go they put me in a chair and they say look into this machine there's a hot air balloon or a farmhouse in there and I do and I'm like you're right I see it and they're like yeah keep admiring that hot air balloon or farmhouse and I do and I'm like this shit's quaint as fuck and then do you know what happens next they attack me they jumpscare me with air directly into my eyeballs and i fall out the chair and they say sorryyyy but they're NOT they wanted this to happen they KNEW about the jumpscare well now I'm wise to it now I know better when I go in and they say look at this bodacious hot air balloon I'm like NO WAY DUDE that balloon wishes me harm have at thee and I attack them and push them on the ground and spit on them

[sucka99]

[so-much-for-subtlety]