Darling, do you remember? @darkthestars - Tumblr Blog

robot friend does not agree. 'failure' is inability to fulfill directive. human has no programmed directive. human evolutionary directive is to live. you are alive. everything else is bonus.

I’ve been saving this message in my inbox for a long time because it always makes me feel better. I needed it today. Thank you

#robot learns to live #it’s me I’m the robot #!!!#let’s try a gentler way #why don’t you stay just one more day

boccher

why is the combined ace aro flag different colours to the ace and aro flags

my square #mysquare

Ooh ooh ooh! This looks like an excellent excuse valid reason to talk about one of my favorite topics, matriarch trees!

So, when you see trees in a forest, they stick up outta the ground, some distance from each other, and you're like 'these are unconnected critters,' right? But! The thing is! Just like the trees in the picture are connected above-ground, trees in a forest are normally connected below-ground. There's this whole complicated thing involving a symbiotic relationship with fungi, but we're gonna simplify it to this: trees connect to each other through their root systems.

And they use it to share resources, across the whole forest.

If there's a tree over here growing in soil with a lot of, like, potassium, they'll pull up more potassium than they need, and send it out through the root system to other trees that are living where there isn't much potassium.

And one of the coolest things? Trees communicate their needs. If a tree is sick or damaged or starving, they send chemical messages out through the root system that tell the other trees to send them more food and tree-equivalent-of-immune-system.

Trees will share so much of their resources, they'll even keep trees alive that are almost entirely dependent. Like this tree! The tree above is getting some energy from its leaves, but no other nutrition of its own. And it wasn't able to link up to the shared root system. So the other tree reached out and hooked up to it directly, feeding it all of the nutrients it needed!

You see it more commonly the other way around: in an old-growth forest, where the roots are well-established, you can find stumps where a tree was cut down a century ago... but if you scrape the stump it's still green wood. The tree's still alive, without a single leaf. Because all the other trees in the forest are feeding it.

I promised to talk about matriarch trees, so here's where we get to them.

In a very old forest, you have very old trees. You have some trees that are so very, very old, their own roots cover entire regions of the forest. Their leaves reach up to the sky over everyone else. And after so long, they've developed to where they can take in way more resources than they need.

So what do they do?

They feed baby trees.

Baby saplings in an old forest can't reach up to the sun. There's no light down there. And their roots are too small and shallow to dig down to the nutrients they need. So the matriarch tree will draw energy from its towering canopy, and nutrients from its massive, ancient roots, and feed them to the little trees that are too small to feed themselves. For anything she can't get on her own, she'll act as a central hub, taking in spare resources from the rest of the forest and giving them to the little ones.

And one of the best parts - she won't just do it for her own species. She'll connect to all kinds of trees, because they're all necessary for the ecosystem to work. She'll adopt the whole forest's children.

Sometimes in forests you'll find a spot where there are a lot of small trees in an open space around an old, fallen tree. People generally assume they could find more light there, or maybe the soil's more fertile from the decomposition.

But no.

They're her children, and she's spent centuries keeping the whole forest alive.

dinothundersblog-deactivated201

banksy is so funny how do you gentrify vandalism

mftango

noticesghosts

Hey what the fuck

i-think-im-asleep

shoutout to all the real graffiti fans scouring the prestigious auction houses in tears because they’re the only places on earth where graffiti exists

livelaughratgirl

These people need to be shot how do you secure to right to something on a fucking brick wall

aquarianconstellations

Caught this while staying in Amsterdam a month ago. Photos taken one day apart - the graffiti got painted over, but the Banksy was painstakingly maintained. The joke writes itself.

clawmarks

British Columbia - Second Reader - 1915 - via Internet Archive

rosieandthemoon

Published 1888 {read}

gotylocks

Happy 10th birthday to the best tweet of all time.

foxes-in-love

hikes-and-moans

UNPOPULAR OPINION: A lot of "mental health issues" disappear when bills are paid, rent is secure, and the fridge is full. Peace is expensive. And pretending money doesn't affect mental health is privilege.

stuffman

People have written a lot of touchy-feely pieces on this subject but I thought I’d get right to the heart of the matter

sqbr

[The artist, putting a simple cake next to a much fancier one: “Aw man, that guy’s cake is way better than mine.” The Audience, gleefully holding up a knife and fork “HOLY SHIT! TWO CAKES!”]

elvencantation

additions from the og artist (credit)

scientia-rex

“Holy shit two cakes,” I mutter to myself as I do fucking anything these days, this post was a godsend

ruffboi-mags

I know it’s not July yet, but guys, happy 10 years of “two cakes”. This post on god has been a godsend not only as a writer myself but as a friend of artists and writers who I love to encourage. This was legitimately a game-changer.

OP thank you so much for this.