[all-mammal-creechur]

Long-furred Rice Rat Oecomys trinitatis

it has a wide distribution in Central America and South America, being found in southern Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, much of Brazil, eastern Ecuador, and eastern Peru. Its nests are located near the ground and its litter size ranges from two to four young.

img source

[tainbocuailnge]

I've been using this tool called tumblr-utils to back up my tumblr blogs. it creates a locally navigatable archive of a given tumblr url's posts, which is more convenient than the post soup you get from tumblr's native blog export feature.

what that means is that I have a folder on my computer with the name of my url with an index.html file in it, and when i click on that file to open it in a browser I get a simple page with a list of years and months. selecting a specific month will send me to a list of the posts i made or reblogged in that month, similar to tumblr's own archive page. the contents of the post including images are stored locally on your machine.

It can also make a separate index file that organises posts by tag, which is great if you're a consistent tagger, but it will list every single tag you've ever used so it can take a while to find the tag you're looking for in the list if you're a habitual tag commentator. generating the tag archive also takes a while depending on how many posts have to be processed.

you can make it back up any blog as long as it's not set to private. I have backups of both my main and sideblogs and it keeps them in separate folders.

it's had some trouble going all the way back to the start of my main blog in 2012 just by sheer volume of posts, but by making it fetch posts from one month at a time I've been able to go back to 2015 (that's tens of thousands of posts), which was good enough for my purposes.

it might be a little scary to use if you've never touched the command line before, but there's both text and video instructions to set it up and using it is just a matter of typing the command and letting it do its thing in the background.

[ltleflrt]

This document has a really good guide for setting it up, along with some other options for backup. I've been using tumblr utils for a while myself, and I run an incremental backup once a week.

[syncarida]

Also I have to spread this beautiful kakapo image (by Andrew Digby) I saw this evening on bluesky... her baby lint... protecting my mould spore...

[is-this-fascism]

#1 thing you can do to be a better driver is to be at peace with going the wrong direction for a little while.

like it is not the end of the world if you miss your turn. all the roads are connected to all the other roads. you will find your way very quickly.

unless you're experiencing a genuine emergency, dont even think about making a sudden movement, ESPECIALLY across one or more lanes, just to avoid missing a turn

just relax. be at peace with the way the universe has led you. who knows you might discover something you never would have seen, like a nice restaraunt or a park you didn't know about. just. fucking relax

[peoplefolk]

The best driving advice I ever got was "you get there when you get there."

Miss a turn? It's okay. You get there when you get there.

Left the house late? Nothing you can do about it now. You get there when you get there.

Stopped by a train, or an accident on the highway? It's out of your hands. You get there when you get there.

I know all of these things can be anxiety-inducing. But by the time you're in the car experiencing them, no crazy maneuver will make a meaningful difference in the time it takes to get where you're going, and that maneuver will be at the cost of your safety and others.

Nothing is more important than your life.

You get there when you get there.

[kedreeva]

Wait wait wait. To tell apart the different lines of the chicks (I assume), you put the eggs in little mesh baggies?! Like for fruit???!!!! Please please please post a picture of the bags of freshly picked quail chicks, that is a very funny mental image and I’d like to see it for real

Freshly peeled quails

(also, again, they are way more comfy and relaxed in the bags than out of them. They just snooze quietly until they are gently poured forth into a tagging bin for me to band and put in the brooder)

[mycoculture]

This dog has the best ears of any animal ever

Biscuit

Biscuit

[jupiterswasphouse]

[VIDEO AND PHOTOS TAKEN: MARCH 10TH, 2026 | Video and Image IDs: A video and six photos of a spiny brown and grey larval Pyractomena firefly crawling around on a human hand, its head looking around curiously and its back end curling up and pushing forward almost like how one would use a cane/walking stick /End IDs.]

The first I've seen of this kind's larvae! What a badass looking beast this thing is, and so curious too! It's like a doggy to me

[correctopinionhaver]

[cathartidae]

hey. dont cry. 566 california condors, okay? 369 free flying.[1] it's gonna be okay.

[cathartidae]

for the record, in 1987 there were 27. [2] things can get better.

[cathartidae]

HEY. DONT CRY. 607 CALIFORNIA CONDORS, OKAY? 392 FREE FLYING. [3]

[mycoculture]

You Will Consider The Birthday Horse

[mossworm]

fun fact I wish I had realized earlier: if you can't get rid of a stain you can just embroider stuff all over it

[writing-relatedactivities]

31 Things I Want You to Know I Love About the Twin Cities When We're Not Under a Violent Occupation by Federal Agents

1. We're the home of A Klingon Christmas Carol, a.k.a The Christmas Carol "in the original Klingon." Actors in Klingon make-up, speaking Klingon, tell the story of a cowardly Klingon who is visited by three spirits and regains his honor.

2. People's Pride in Powerhorn Park, an escape from the corporate Pride downtown, with free food, free clothing exchange, and amazing local artists.

3. If the sidewalk in front of your house in St. Paul cracks, you can get it replaced with one with a poem stamped into it. Any resident of the city can submit a short poem in English or another language to a contest to be added to the bank of poems used.

4. The beautiful murals and mosaics down Lake Street, illustrating the different groups that have immigrated to the area over the years and the amazing artists they brought with them.

5. The Smallest Museum in Saint Paul, a defunct fire hose cabinet outside of Workhorse Coffee that features ever-changing small but beautiful, thought-provoking, and wonderful exhibits.

6. The cat tour where you walk through the Wedge neighborhood taking pictures of cats.

7. The secret art gallery in the alley behind the Mississippi Market co-op where someone has painted words onto shards of mirror.

8. A 20 foot pencil that gets annually sharpened.

9. Going to the closest Native American coffee shop every October and stocking up on bear grease for my aching back.

10. 2nd highest number of theatre seats in the country after New York, baybeeeeee!

11. I can't just list theatres or we'll be here all day, but the May Day Parade put on by Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre with the most amazing and evocative puppets and masks.

12. When you're marching in a pro-immigrant rally down Lake Street and everyone is cheering and whooping and honking their horn and the Somali community members run out of their businesses with cold drinks in the summer and hot sambusas in the winter

13. The Aztec dancers

14. That moment when all the cottonwoods shed their fluffy white seeds in spring and it looks like we've been covered in snow again

15. That other moment in spring when the lilacs are blooming and you can't walk five feet without smelling a lilac

16. And then it rains and all the cherry trees bloom and the entire city smells like candy

17. All of the art on the Green Line stations tying directly into the history and culture of each neighborhood

18. Midtown Global Market, where you can get delicious Lebanese cheese, bubble tea, tacos, camel burgers, Scandinavian sandwiches, Alaskan Native hot sauce, and more, all under one roof

19. The Hmong farmer's market near my library, the most reliable place to get the vegetables I want that I can't find anywhere else and also a place I could buy an entire bushel basket of hot peppers if I wanted

20. Whoever is drawing fat chickens all over town

21. Whoever is drawing pubic hair on lamp posts

22. Fireweed Community Workshops, a masks-required woodworking workshop dedicated to making woodworking welcoming and accessible to people who aren't straight white men

23. Naomi Kritzer's incredibly specific local election guides every year, and the way she uses it to raise money for local classrooms

24. The little faucet at the back of the Saint Paul Cathedral with the sign that says 'free holy water'

25. The Ecuadorian women selling mango with tajin on the street corners when work lets out

25. The trails by the river where you can make a turn onto the beach and have an equal chance of coming across a beaver or a live college production of "Dune"

26. The U of M experimental garden where they've found a cactus that can survive Minnesota winters (it's from the mountains of Peru)

27. The way I have seen lost keys and ID badges get hung up on branches of trees and left there for the person to return and find, untouched, for months

28. Urban foraging wild grapes, serviceberries, and mulberries

29. That morning I walked into downtown St. Paul, frozen, silent, still, empty but for the pervasive and delicious smell of bacon, a mystery until I came upon a whole pig being slowly roasted over the coals in front of a fancy French restaurant

30. The roving bands of wild turkeys

31. The fact that you are never more than a 5 minute walk from a coffee shop, bike repair shop, or combination coffee shop/bike repair shop

[mycoculture]

Stupid muffin animal

[subluxurious]

Alright folks this is my dysautonomia/POTS DIY electrolytes recipe.

These ratios are the exact same ones LMNT uses for their flavorless electrolytes. It's on their website if you want to check. Potassium and magnesium are important components to maximise your body's use of the salt, as well as maintaining blood volume.

- 500g pickling salt

- 77g potassium chloride powder

- 78g di-magnesium malate powder

Single serving = 3.3g per 16 fl oz and contains 1,000mg sodium per serving

Pickling salt is stupid cheap, Morton's brand sells it for $4 at my grocery store. You want pickling salt specifically bc it dissolves the best and doesn't contain anti caking agents that otherwise cooking salt contains and makes it harder to dissolve. Some people like sea salt but I find it does not dissolve easily like pickling salt does. The other powders you can source for cheap on Amazon, I used a non Amazon source (Professional Supplements dot com) and paid $30 total for both, and the jars are 8oz which is about 230 grams so they'll make about 3 batches.

Each batch is a total 655 grams, and with each serving being 3.3 grams (a little more than 1 baking teaspoon/2.5g) per 16 fl oz, each batch gets you almost 200 servings. 200 servings for about $15 total of ingredients used = actually only about 8 cents a serving. Your upfront cost will be closer to $35-40, but that will get you ~600 serving total. (Again, if you use Amazon and your powders end up being cheaper than what I spent, you'll save even more money).

When you go to combine the ingredients for a big batch, it's best to use a kitchen scale in grams. If you can't access a scale, it may be best to make smaller batches with the same ratio and measure the best you can with a baking teaspoon, which equals 2.5 grams, or baking tablespoon = 7.5g. If you do make a big batch, you want to make sure to measure just the pickling salt first, because it might be clumpy, and you need to grind the clumps out either with a mortar and pestle or whatever's on hand. Then add your other powders and mix it really well (the other powders consistency will be extremely fine and can get in the air pretty easily kind of like powdered sugar but worse so go slow). I store mine in a glass jar with a little measuring spoon.

Lastly, if you need flavor in your electrolytes like I do, you can just buy really cheap tiny bottles of those liquid water "enhancer" flavor add ins, there are so many brands and flavors, my local grocery has their own brand and it's less than $2 for a lemonade flavored bottle and I typically go through a bottle somewhere around 2 weeks, but ymmv.

Whether you just want to save money and not spent $2 a serving on big companies preying on you or if you're like me and literally can't tolerate all the extra B vitamins in Liquid IV, I hope this saves y'all money. Peace and love on planet earth 🙏

[mycoculture]

My new wallplate! Thank you to my mom for the wonderful gift of Nosecat ❤️

[mycoculture]

Happy year 👍🏻

[sweetfirebird]

Hey the US government is proposing to get rid of the Endangered Species Act. Please go comment.

(yes this entirely for corporate profit)

Cut and paste the docket number to put in your response if you remember. You can comment anonymously if you want.

The Oregon Zoo has some sample arguments you can make.

We have until December 22nd!

[six-improbable-things]

I don't usually add on to stuff like this, but this is really really important to me.

Since OP didn't explain what's actually changing (lots of things) here's a simple explanation of one of the Big Ones.

One of the biggest changes is a proposal to remove the ESA’s Threatened Species Blanket Rule (FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0029). The Blanket Rule is extremely important because it automatically extends the same protections given to endangered species to all newly listed threatened species, quickly providing prohibitions on harming, killing or trading the species. If the Blanket Rule is rescinded, species-specific rules would have to be enacted, imposing additional procedural delays and uncertainty at the most critical time for the species' survival. And with more and more species in danger each year, that’s a risk that we as a country cannot afford to take. 

Also, @why-animals-do-the-thing / @animalphotorefs this seems like something that your reach might help with, and that's relevant to your blog(s).

If you run into issues, try turning off your VPN if you have one, in case it's getting annoyed that you're not "in the U.S.".

If you need a template, I'm putting one I got sent at work under the cut. (But check out the Oregon Zoo link, too! Or better yet, write your own! Unique and individual comments catch more attention than copy-pasted ones!)

"For over fifty years, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has played a major role in protecting wildlife, preventing nearly 99% of listed species from becoming extinct. This legislation has had support across the country since 1973 because safeguarding America’s wildlife is not only a responsibility, but a proud part of our nation’s history. The proposed change to remove the ESA’s Blanket 4(d) Rule will result in fewer protections for threatened species and compromise the ESA’s mission. It is imperative to maintain our commitment to protecting endangered species and their habitats. I encourage the Administration to withdraw all proposed changes to the ESA in order to ensure our country’s wildlife will continue to be protected for generations to come."

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Thanks for the tag, I definitely want to jump in here because the most helpful thing any individual can do is write your own comment.

I’m going to give you a little bit of information about the process that’s happening here, why it’s happening, and how you can best contribute to protecting the Endangered Species Act. You can skip it by scrolling to the red text, but you’ll be best set up to comment and help if you know some things about what’s happening first, so please stick with me. I promise to be as simple and jargon free as possible.

First, and to catch people's attention as they scroll, here's two red wolf sisters: a species the ESA actively preserving. This is who we're doing this for.

To clarify one thing: they’re not trying to totally repeal the ESA, the entire law, they’re looking to roll back regulations implementing it/enforcing it to what was being used in 2019. This is still bad! Very bad! But a thing that’s important when dealing with legislation/regulation is precision in the language we use.

Okay, so here’s what you need to know. This is part of what is known as the “notice-and-comment” rule making process, which is federally mandated. This happens with the implementation of regulations to enact new laws, or changes to the interpretation of laws. Laws like the ESA, once passed, are delegated to various federal agencies and departments to enact and make happen, and they do that by deciding what regulations need to exist to fulfill the text and intent of the law. This change to the ESA is happening because one of the earliest executive orders from this administration “directed all departments and agencies to immediately review agency actions to identify those actions that potentially impose an undue burden on the identification, development, or use of domestic energy resources, and, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, consider suspending, revising, or rescinding agency actions identified as unduly burdensome that conflict with this national objective.” So, as @sweetfirebird said, literally go figure out what laws and regs and protections they can interpret differently, put on hold, or trash for the energy sector. Fucking gross.

This “notice-and-comment” process is the process with which all these federal agencies go about exploring changing regulations. It’s a formal process that is specifically designed to allow stakeholders to have input on what happens. Good news: in the ESA, the public is literally a stakeholder! It’s written into the law that any “person” (basically an individual or a group of individuals) can sue the government for a violation of the law. This is actually historically the prime enforcement mechanism of the ESA. Which means you, as an American on tumblr reading this, have absolutely valid standing to go tell the feds to knock this shit off. And with the way the “notice-and-comment” process works, they actually have to take your argument into account. (Yes, even though we know this admin is a piece of shit and dgaf). Here’s why.

A “notice and comment” process has four major steps.

Agency issues a notice of proposed rulemaking. That’s what you’re looking at in the first link @sweetbirdfire shared. They have to describe what the rule they want to make/change is and explain the legal authority for the rule.

The public must be given an opportunity to participate in a written comment period. That’s what you’re being asked to do - submit a comment before the comment period is over on the 22nd.

The agency must “consider all relevant, timely-submitted comments. If it decides to issue a final rule, the agency develops the regulatory text along with a preamble explaining the rule’s basis and responding to all significant issues raised in the comments.”

Final rule is published.

Okay, so why did I jump to a direct quote from federal documents in the third bullet point? Because that’s the really important shit. When federal agencies move forward with rulemaking after a public comment period, they are required to consider and response to all significant issues raised. And that is why you should write your own comment if you can.

It’s really common for organizations encouraging people to leave public comment to ask people to send in form letters. It’s easy, it takes no time or real work, it shows a lot of general public support on the issue, and they can quote the comment numbers when they’re lobbying.

But! What I’ve been told by serious professional people who work with regulatory agencies is that all those form letters only have the functional weight of a single comment during the “notice-and-comment” process. If 100 people only bring up the same significant set of issues, that requires far less time and work for the agency to respond to than even 20 people writing in with their individual concerns. I’ve seen follow-ups on comment periods where they actually count how many people raised issues on a single topic or concern - but the form letters only counted as one “comment” because they were the exact same thing.

And while the political agency head probably wants to fast-track this process of changing the regs to let the feds tear up whatever the fuck they want, a “notice-and-comment period” is a really good way to gum up those gears. There are still people in lower-level positions who do this daily work and I expect that they’re opposed to this and will go through the whole process like they’re been trained to. Under normal administrations, an overwhelming number of concerns raised during comment periods have stalled the creation/change of specific regulations for a decade. This is a process that works best when as many people as possible participate, and it’s detrimental to our interests as invested members of the public that that isn’t more widely known or the process understood.

So! What does that mean you should do here?

Write your own comment if you have the time/spoons.

Literally, write it in your own words, rather than using the form letters provided. If you make it a “different comment” it has to be considered separately and your concerns on the topic will be given more weight. Even if you just stick to the topics the Oregon Zoo offered: to be clear, they’re really good ones.

But, you’ll have even more impact if you can tie it to specific concerns for you. It takes a little more work so I don’t expect everyone to do this, but if you have some specialized or local knowledge that can be relevant, this is a great time to drop that in. Tie the concern to endangered or threatened species in your specific community, or an ecosystem that you know companies might want to pillage.

Your comment doesn’t have to be super well written or perfectly edited. It can be in language about as casual as you’d use in a tumblr post (with punctuation, though). This isn’t something you’re turning in for a grade - it’s raising your hand to say hey, I object! You’re not a major advocacy group or professional org, you don’t have to be perfect, you just have to tell them how you feel. That being said. Public comments are public record. You can submit them anonymously but don’t include identifying information.

Here’s a link directly to the comment portal. While the site has a text box embedded in the page, you can also submit a document/file containing your comment.

https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FWS-HQ-ES-2025-0039-0001

Comments close at 11:59 PM EST (4:59 GMT) on December 22nd. We have less than five days to get more comments in. I’m really not kidding when I say every unique, individual comment makes an impact. Let’s do this.

Images from @animalphotorefs