every single day I think about how american black vultures are known for engaging in interspecific allopreening (preening between different species)
and they have a specific relationship with crested caracaras, in which the black vultures assist them by not only preening them after meals but also leading them to food in the first place, while the caracaras assist the black vultures by acting as a warning signal in case of danger
and while this is more typical of black vultures, this is not common at all for any member of the falconidae family— it’s a special bond!
yet another post in favor of vultures everyone , hope you enjoy:) and I implore you to do some more research on these incredible birds !!
EDIT: I meant interspecific allopreening! excuse my typo!
EDIT 2: black vultures do not have a superior sense of smell to caracaras, sorry for the misunderstanding!
the writers REALLY liked my artist resource post, so I thought i'd give y'all my dragon hoard of things i use for writing
Reverse Dictionary, you type in the meaning of a word, and it gives you a bunch of words that mean that. (MY MOST IMPORTANT OFFERING IN THIS LIST)
Slang Dictionary, what it says on the tin.
Anglish Translator, Anglish is if English evolved without borrowing from other languages and it really itches my brain
Incorrect Quotes Generator, Put character names in, and incorrect quotes come out. Really fun way to goof around with your characters' dynamics.
Handspeak, an ASL dictionary
Library of Babel, Odds are, the finished version of your wip is in here somewhere
The best fantasy map maker i have ever used
Glitch Text Generator is one I use A Lot, does ť̷̨̢͓̤͔̤̤̝̺̯̄̔̄̌̄͗͒͋͂͋͝ḩ̵̼̜͍͚͕̏̓͊̈̉̆̄͐́͗͒̈̃̊̚͜i̵̻̐̇̎̏̀̋̌̃̇̿͘̚s̴̮̔̂̇͒͑͝͝ͅ to your text
Totally not bootleg microsoft office
Emotions Thesaurus a guide for writing emotions and their associated body language
Mythcreants, has a whole bunch of stuff you can read to learn more about the technical aspects of writing
A decent article talking about what to think about when creating a language
Trope Talks, particularly good for beginner and younger writers or people who have a hard time reading. Honestly this whole channel is a fantastic format to get information into my adhd rattled brain.
FOR MY AO3 BESTIES! Postimages will host your image forever so you can embed it into your work
Ambient Chaos, sometimes the only thing in the world that can kick your brain into writing mode is nuclear sirens and lofi beats
Radioooooo, play a station from any place and year. Particularly helpful for period pieces.
I don't pass as any gender. People can't even decide what direction I'm trans. If I grow out my hair I'm ma'am until they see my beard. If I cut my hair then I'm sir. Or ma'am. Or sir. If I shave my face or body they assume I'm a trans woman. If I wear a mask but they hear my voice they call me ma'am first then switch to sir in a panic when they decide I'm a trans man. People have seen me naked, my genitals, and asked me about my experience with a bottom surgery I've never actually had. Depending how I dress on any given day I'm either a dyke or a fag to the bigot driving past but it's always one or the other (derogatory). The one consistent thing is I'm Queer.
I can tell you that as a result of this I've been followed into a public restroom and cornered. It's usually not that bad, but it's happened, but I get stares no matter which restroom I try to use. I've had health professionals ask me why my med records say I'm on hormones because they assumed my AGAB to match those hormones; I've had another healthcare professional assault me for being trans. I'm intersex and non-binary. I can tell you by lived experience that I don't have the male privilege people who categorize me as a trans man often think I have. People like me get talked over in spaces dominated by cis folks and trans folks.
Please don't push intersex and non-binary people to the side of your conversations about gender. Don't assume that all intersex people are non-binary--there is no such thing as biologically non-binary and intersex people don't owe it to anyone to fit into a narrative about their identity. What we do share is that by default of not fitting within a binary, we are both pushed out of spaces and left out of conversations that affect us.
Names in The Murderbot Diaries (character spoilers)
All Systems Red:
Ayda Mensah — "Ayda" is of Arabic origin, meaning “returning, to come back." Mensah is a Ghanian surname (most common surname in current-day Ghana), apparently meaning “third-born”
Pin-Lee — Chinese. Could mean a several things, depending on how it is written.
Ratthi — Possibly a derivative of Hindu goddess of love “Rati.” The surname “Rathi” originates from/is often found in Northern India.
Bharadwaj — A Sanskrit name common to northern India. “Bharadwaja,” was a Vedic saint of ancient India, a renowned scholar.
Arada — In Spanish, "arada" means "plowing." In Turkish, “arada” means “between.”
Overse — “överse” in Swedish translates to “overlook, disregard (the faults of others), ignore, tolerate, forgive” or “to oversee, to review, inspect, monitor, survey.”
Volescu — Possibly Romanian
Gurathin — A mystery. Possibly a variation of the Sanskrit "Krithin"
Artificial Condition:
Eden — Biblical: garden of Eden
Rami — of Arabic origin meaning “archer” or “thrower.” (Etymology honorary mention: the word “tercera” describing Rami’s gender identity, is a spanish word meaning “third”)
Tapan — Hindi name meaning “summer,” “fiery”
Maro — Multiple cultures use the name “Maro,” (Japanese, Greek, Armenian, Hindi)
Tlacey — My bet is this is a space future evolution of the name “Tracey,” which has historically been a masculine name that later became feminine. It means “warlike,” “fierce”
Art — Yes, I know it’s an anagram acronym, but as a human given name, it’s English in origin.
Rogue Protocol:
Rin — Japanese name “dignified, severe, cold,” but may just be a short moniker that Murderbot chose for nondescriptness.
Don Abene — “Don” is a Spanish honorific, masculine. Google search turned up sparse results for “Abene,” with a suggestion that it may be Basque (an Iberian ethnic group), in which it is derived from the word “pillar.” “Abene” could also be a spelling variation of “Abena,” which is a given name meaning “born on Tuesday” (‘day names’ such as these used by Akan people of Ghana). “Abena” is also a Gujarati surname.
Hirune - Thin results again, and once again Basque. Meaning: “trinity, three,” and variation on “Irune”
Miki - A Japanese name, with misc spellings that can mean different things, though typically the first kanji used is “beautiful.” But this may just be intended to be a cutesy short name.
Kader - Arabic, meaning “powerful, capable”
Vibol - Khmer (Cambodian), meaning “abundant, vast”
Brais - Form of Blaise (Gaelic, Latin) English/French
Ejiro - Urhobo / Nigerian, meaning "praise God"
Wilken & Gerth - Both English names, both vaguely military-adjacent
Exit Strategy:
Jian - Chinese (“build” or “strong”), or Hebrew (“God is gracious.”)
Serrat - French surname
Network Effect:
Consuela Makeba - Consuela is a Spanish name meaning “comfort, consolation.” Makeba is an Ethiopian name, after the Queen Makeba.
Mensah’s Marital Partners, Farai and Tano:
Farai - A southern African name of the Shona ethnicity, meaning “joy, happy”
Tano - Possibly Italian, short for Gaetano. Or just a nice 2-syllable name of its own.
Preservation Survey:
Amena - An Arabic name, “honest, faithful.”
Roa - Arabic, or possibly Spanish surname.
Mihail - Romanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Greek. Variation on “Michael.”
Rajpreet - A Sikh name.
Hanifa - Arabic name meaning “true believer”
Kanti - Indian and Bengali name. Means “beauty.”
Thiago - A Portuguese name, derivative of “Santiago” i.e. “Saint James."
Barish-Estranza:
Barish - Hindi for “rain”
Estranza - Spanish for “strangeness”
Eletra - Similar to “Electra” of Greek myth
Ras - Greek name, meaning “to love”
Leonide - Old Greek
ART’s Crew:
Iris - A flower. Also a Greek name meaning “rainbow.”
Seth - Hebrew. “Set, appointed”
Martyn - Variant of Martin. “Dedicated to Mars” (Mars = God)
Tarik - Arabic. “Evening caller”
Turi - Celtic. “Bear”
Kareem - Arabic. “Generous"
Kaede - In the audiobook this is pronounced much like "Katie," meaning "pure." "Kaede" is also a Japanese name meaning "maple."
Fugitive Telemetry:
Lutran - Possibly a variation on “Lutron,” apparently a transliteration from Greek. Which I would think is a stretch, except it means: “the purchasing money for manumitting slaves, a ransom, the price of ransoming; especially the sacrifice by which expiation is effected, an offering of expiation.”
Indah - Indonesian name, “beautiful one”
Tural - Azerbaijani, “to be alive”
Tifany - Variant of Tiffany, English name “manifestation of God”
Kiran (mentioned as a name MB used at TranRollinHyfa) - Used in a variety of places and languages: Indian, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Gujarati, Nepali, Urdu. From the Sanskrit word “kirana,” meaning “sunbeam.”
Home, Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory:
Councilor Sonje - Variation of Sonia, an English name. Sonia itself may be a variation of the Greek Sophia, meaning “wisdom.”
Councilor Ephraim - In the Book of Genesis, Ephraim was the second on of Joseph, becoming the tribe of Ephraim.
Compulsory:
Sekai - A Shona name. “humorous, joy”
Asa - Hebrew, possibly “healer.”
Elane - Old Greek
Bonus: RaviHyral
Ravi = “Sun” in Hindi
(I’m guessing that other place/company names in the books could also be transliterations.)
