junk drawer & prizes

it's literally where i dump all junk don't expect much else

[oneheadtoanother]

idk anything about this but I love it

[lynati]

If any competition needed to be on Tumblr, it's this one.

[agoldenplum]

Thanks @slightlylightly founded by Sunny Somrat, This is  SSFood Challenge

The players in and around Bangladesh play and are rewarded with food even losers get food. The combination of colorful games and the feel-good factor of nobody going home empty-handed has given Somrat a genuine hit.

[herpsandbirds]

Let's Rename the Birds!!! (pt. 11)

As you may already know... ornithological authorities (such as the AOS and ABA) in North America have decided, for a variety of reasons, to rename all of the birds that have been named after people.

Some examples: Lewis's Woodpecker, Smith's Longspur, MacGillivray's Warbler...

I thought it would be fun for us to come up with some ideas for new common names here on Tumblr.

Here are some criteria for re-naming that might appeal to ornithologists and birdwatchers:

Habitat and geographical range

Physical characteristics

Call/song characteristics

Behavior

PLEASE MAKE YOUR NAMING SUGGESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS, REBLOG, OR TAGS.

We'll take the best ideas, and put them in a poll by the end of the week! (I and an esteemed panel of ornithological tumblererrsssres will make the decisions).

WEEK 11 - Bullock's Oriole

Bullock’s Oriole (Icterus bullockii), males, family Icteridae, order Passeriformes

Breeds/nests in the western US, far SW Canada, and far NW Mexico

Overwinters in Mexico and northern Central America.

Usually found in open deciduous forests, especially along habitat edges. Found often in riparian woodlands (along river edges).

This species and the Baltimore oriole were considered to be a single species, the northern oriole, which was re-split into 2 species in 1995.

Feed on insects, berries, other fruits, and nectar.

Sexually dimorphic.

Seasonally monogamous, males and females care for the chicks.

Nest is constructed of woven plant fibers, looking somewhat like a round hanging basket.

Listen to the calls/songs here: Bullock's Oriole Sounds, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

photographs by Mick Thompson & Kevin Cole 

photograph via: USFWS

Female - photograph by Janey Woodley

Nests, California - photograph by Eugene Zelenko

[imaginarylands4000]

TIME TO VOTE!!!

We had so much input for this one, that we couldn’t possibly include all the great suggestions, but thanks to you all for your input.

Also, some of the color suggestions are not very spot on, on the color of the bird irl. For instance, Citron Oriole is a beautiful name, but "citron" is an actual color that does not match the bird's color.... even if it happens to evoke for you the orange to yellow-orange coloration of this oriole. Also, all Icterid oriole weave nests, so Weaving Oriole would not distinguish it from other species

Okay, you made your suggestions, and our esteemed panel of judges has weighed in:

@nemertea; @greycatbird, @passerinethehallway; @todaysbird, @proton-wobbler, and I!!!

What should we rename the Bullock's Oriole?

Sunset Oriole

Western Oriole

Sunburst Oriole

Black-masked Oriole

Eye-striped Oriole

White-winged Oriole

Painted Oriole

Eye-browed Oriole

Voting ended onJun 9

I there is not clear winner (0ver 30%), then wew ill have a run-off election!

[janmisali]

oh I know how to make a poll's results look like the letter E watch this

what is the rightmost digit of the number of responses this poll has right now? (it should be visible before you vote.)

0, 1, or 2

3

4 or 5

6

7, 8, or 9

Remaining time: 3 days 29 minutes

[lichenaday]

Dibaeis absoluta

OK, so why does this lichen look like it is growing mushrooms, even though these are decidedly not mushrooms? My first answer is "just to fuck with you," but D. absoluta evolved long before humankind, nonetheless you specifically. So my second answer is because the mushroom shape just makes functional sense when you want to produce a fruiting body by maximizing the physical area that produces spores, and raising them above the substrate by a thin stalk so they can get caught in and distributed by wind. Ok, so they are the spore producing structure of fungi, shaped like that, how are they not mushrooms? Mushrooms are we typically think of them are the reproductive structures of basidiomycete fungi, the spores are typically released from the lower surface of the fruiting bodies like this:

And in an ascocarp, the reproductive structure of an ascomycete fungi like that of D. absoluta, the spores are released from the upper surface of the fruiting bodies. So like this:

OK this is waaayyy simplified. There are also a bunch of internal physiological differences but you, dear reader, can look those up yourself if you are curious about the nuances of fungal development. But very generally speaking, basidiospores come out the bottom, ascospores come out the top.

So not tiny mushrooms, but very very cute just as they are!

images: source

[adderall-juice]

me when they call my name at mcdonals (i am approaching the counter)

[blogspede]

here you go sir

[adderall-juice]

thank you

[gasterofficial]

[edderkopper]

Today I learned that cuttlefish experience REM sleep, and that it makes their skin flash random colors. This is the cutest thing ever.

[blackbearmagic]

The electric eel at my aquarium has a voltmeter attached to his tank, and whenever he pumps out a burst of electricity–either when he’s navigating his tank or getting fed–the meter lights up and makes noise. Sometimes, I’ll walk past him when he’s snuggled up and totally motionless on his log, and see the voltmeter going crazy.

I am left to assume that he is dreaming, and is sleep-zapping at the things in his dreams.

[arachnospooky]

I am absolutely delighted to learn that electric eels dream of kicking ass.

[targuzzler-deactivated20180224]

[toasthaste]

when (some orb-weaver?) spiders are hungrier they build/adjust their webs so the strands are more taut, meaning the web is more sensitive, and smaller prey than normal will make it vibrate (every bite counts when you're starving!). but ALSO: if you station a well-fed spider on a web that was built by an extremely hungry spider, that spider will go capture the kinds of tiny bugs that the looser web it would have built itself wouldn't have alerted it to. they outsource the decision-making for which prey to go after to their web! they just adjust the settings til they seem about right for the moment and then go along with whatever the web picks up. "the spider will eat whatever it's aware of, and it sets the bounds of its awareness by spinning different kinds of webs." that's so cool....

[planeposting]

Me when I am playing toys

[halondrus]

[nyanletnest]

[jessepinwheel]

I love it when people use "shrimp" to mean "beyond the human range". like "shrimp colors" but applied to other things. "shrimp emotions" "shrimp sounds" "shrimp morality", as if shrimp are living some kind of transcendent existence that humans can never comprehend

[bententeren]

ok so. so we’re just. not reading now. wow ok. ok!!! booktok says we should remove half of the fun from reading!!! wow!!! (i found this in a video and apparently it’s not just this person doing it. it’s. quite a few of them. just to make that clear.)

[haloveir]

Sounds like fiction podcasts may be right for these folks.

To be clear, I feel like they're missing out on a lot of the story, but at this point I'm just happy that they're supporting the authors.

Engage with your fiction however you want...only read the dialogue, only read the scenes, buy the book and sit in the dark of your kitchen at 2 am while you eat the pages so no one can take them from you. There will not be a test on this material, love it as you will.

[wifegideonnav]

“bits to use in everyday conversations”

[yesterdaysprint]

Hartford Courant, Connecticut, March 9, 1906

[binturong-of-the-day]

The binturong of being securely snuggled by mama’s prehensile tail

[desert-love]

[a-book-of-creatures]

When you see an adolescent saguaro 👍