that weird bug you saw at the gas station one time

abby, 29, she/her/hers or whatever, professional feral creature

[femmepathy]

The mile-long rainbow flag being carried down First Avenue in New York City.

[arcaneasexual]

“For New York City Pride in 1994 (Stonewall 25), Baker created a mile-long rainbow flag that was carried down First Avenue in Manhattan. During the parade, Baker used scissors to cut segments from the flag to be rushed to Fifth Avenue for an impromptu protest march in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the headquarters of New York City’s anti-gay Catholic archdiocese.

^“At the bottom of the image is the segment of the flag cut for the St. Patrick’s Cathedral protest. Photograph by Mick Hicks”

“Gilbert Baker wearing a white sequined dress (right) and other protestors triumphantly march the cut pieces of the mile-long flag past St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Photograph by Charles Beal”

[joeyclaire]

fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck

[spiralingintocontrol]

goose

[paper-mario-wiki]

in case you're wondering what the greatest AMV of all time is, it's this one from 2008.

[paper-mario-wiki]

[en-tailsgaythings]

y'all need to watch this this pride month

[sandandglass]

The Muppets s01e01

[le-sad-demiurge]

Fozzy getting hit on by lots of twinks

[cheshireinthemiddle]

Happy Pride Month

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Ten years later, this bit still slaps. They made a great pun and realized they could be nice/inclusive with it too.

[stoptheantisemitism]

Israel is burning children alive in tents. Israel had not stopped killing Palestinians and stealing even more land.

Israel is killing thousands of civilians in Lebanon. Israel wants the US to keep killing civilians and school children in Iran.

Until Israelis stop being the worst humanity has to offer I don't care how unsafe they feel in the world.

[stoptheantisemitism]

I can't even count how many headlines like this one I've had to read with my own eyes.

This one is from today.

Israelis can't stop killing babies. I don't think they feel unsafe enough

[stoptheantisemitism]

He was 7 months old.

[marinella-ela]

[godkissedme]

eagle huntress zamonbol / hannah reyes morales

[wordfather]

idk if this is an usamerican thing or not but it always blows my mind as a small european country resident that yall have many names and types of apples???? what do you mean its not just red yellow or green??? why is it so complicated??? who is granny smith????

[wordfather]

'whats your favorite apple' 'red' 'no i mean like what type' '??????' actual conversatiom i've had with a mutual from usa

[wordfather]

THIRTY TWO??????

[phillyphillyphilly]

Listen that doesn’t even account for all the weird shit local farmers are getting up to.

May I present the best apple:

[wordfather]

the world is so big and beautiful

[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.

[orcboxer]

got a crick in my neck and a frog in my throat and a chip on my shoulder and a stick up my ass and now you're gonna stand there puttin words in my mouth? haven't I been through enough?

[arowitharrows]

I feel like people struggle to understand that my life as an aorace person is not centered around an absence of relationships. There is no romance shaped void that I am trying to live with, or live around, or which my life's purpose is to fill somehow.

I go to university and I go to work and I volunteer in my community and in the in-between moments I drink tea with my friends and I plant tomatoes on my balcony and there is no need for anything else. There is no room for anything else anyway.

When I am asked how I deal with 'the hole in my life' or what I do with 'all my free time', I know these questions are not about me at all. They are a reflection of the person asking.

[thatsthebirds]

Its kind of asking how you cope with the lack of parking spaces when someone doesnt own a car

[ace-of-bass]

Ooh I love this analogy because not owning a car does come with problems (at least in the US typically), namely that US infrastructure is so reliant on cars that not owning one means that you deal with other problems, like lack of bike lanes, infrequent public transit, people always assuming you can drive places, etc. Aro/ace people do face problems due to amatonormativity in society, such as inaffordability of places to live alone (because it's assumed you'll live with a roommate until you're a "real adult" and live with a partner and also because of capitalism), lack of ways to meet new people that aren't specifically focused on dating, and people always asking when you'll settle down, aren't you lonely, don't you miss having a partner? as OP talked about.

Like, there are problems that one encounters as a carless person, and there are problems I've encountered as an aroace person. But the problem as a carless person isn't lack of parking spaces and the problem as an aroace person isn't lack of a relationship.

[plantnerderyallday]

There's a specialist bee that uses Epilobium ciliatum (Fringed willowherb) . Now I have to learn how to tell E. ciliatum apart from the other willowherbs. Because willowherbs are a very common weed around here. All for this guy (Anthidium tenuiflorae):

Photo by Radd Icenoggle.

[themoonandmyman]

Wouldst thou like to live fergaliciously

[nonlynear]

bear with me. but also twink with me and otter with me. happy pride month on planet earth baby

[magneatio]

came across this image on pinterest and straight up almost burst into tears…. vibes for JUNE

[wizardarchetypes]

at my local thrift warehouse where nothing’s priced and you make an offer on all the stuff you find. well i told the person at the register i’m on a budget and didn’t know if i could afford a rug i wanted and asked what they’d take for it and without missing even half a beat they said “how about a cup of blood?” then they started hopping up and down like a cheerleader and said “cup! of! blood!”

[wizardarchetypes]

we settled on seventeen dollars cash.

[targetedknowledge]

[dogpuppy]

Haha yeah eww no thanks

[hotvampireadjacent]

That’s a bug