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let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
YOU ARE THE REASON
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will byers stan first human second
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@pyrekite
Hello! I’ll answer to Pyre.
Changed the blog name and URL to match my AO3 handle, which is also PyreKite - this blog used to be Groundcedar.
(Groundcedar is a common name used pretty much interchangeably for any number of clubmoss species, class Lycopodiopsida - but especially those which formally went under the genus name Lycopodium, and whose flammable spores were used as an early form of flash powder)
fellatio sounds like a supporting shakespeare character rather than oral sex on a penis to be honest
If Shakespeare wrote a play today you bet your ass that the side characters Colonel Lingus and her valet, Fellatio, would have the best lines in the whole show.
Sorry, I was just watching that recent Ravenloft-adjacent actual play and Devora Wilde made a comment about the Baldur’s Gate Githyankis sports team, and I was possessed by a vision of Lae’zel becoming the coach of a fantasy Little League team.
extremely messy silver sketches cuz her face is giving me grief
Yet another new study debunked the basis for the anti-trans sports bans. It was never about sports but for creating legal avenues for exclusion and abjection. This is one of the largest analyses ever conducted, involving 52 studies and 6,485 trans people. Read the study here.
post so nice had to reblog it twice and force it down everyone's throats
At minimum about 4.5 thousand people liked this without reblogging it.
We gotta fix that.
Progress.
Onwards!
I can't access the full paper, but their conclusion is right there in the abstract:
While transgender women exhibited higher lean mass than cisgender women, their physical fitness was comparable. Current evidence is mostly low certainty and has heterogenous quality but does not support theories of inherent athletic advantages for transgender women over cisgender.
I feel a sudden need to bring some important, clarifying information to people. Mostly artists who love drawing murder shrimp.
There are two kinds of crustaceans that are called "shrimp" that use concussive force via cavitation bubbles as a weapon.
These are Pistol Shrimp, a group of actual shrimp, and Mantis Shrimp, which are not actually shrimp but they are the ones you probably think of when you hear "murder shrimp" and "shrimp colors" (specifically the Peacock Mantis, bc there's a lot of species for both.)
I'm not annoying enough to grumble about the mantis being called a murder shrimp, because "murder stomatopod" is objectively a less fun combination of words.
HOWEVER!! People keep drawing mantis murder shrimp with pistol shrimp claws. They are not the same claws!! They are not used the same way!!! I will explain!!!!
Pistol shrimp: A number of shrimp species which have one big megachad claw and one dinky normal one.
The dactyl, or movable part of the large claw, is snapped shut with so much force that it shoots a cavitation bubble out with a very loud snap that can stun prey or scare off predators. It's very fucking cool.
As cool as that is, there is a reason that the mantis shrimp is what most people think of when they read "murder shrimp."
This is the Peacock Mantis Shrimp. Which is not a shrimp, but a stomatopod.
(In a lot of pictures it appears like they're staring intently at the camera. They probably are, because they are alarmingly intelligent.)
Note that it doesn't seem to have the big classic claws, and that's becaus it doesnt. Please stop drawing a shrimp claw on them. Their "claw" appendages are kept tucked up, praying mantis style.
These are a raptorial appendage that do have a sharp bit, but that sharp point has adapted to add support to the club end. They use the club to punch the shit out of things. They do punch so hard that they create a cavitation bubble, but the punch is the main deal.
If you look up a mantis shrimp puncher you may find this image, but they rarely if ever fold out fully past the punching part.
The second common mistake on mantis drawings is from mixing up two types of mantis shrimp. There are punchers, which includes the peacock mantis, and stabbers. You can guess what they do.
Fun fact! The peacock mantis is the largest puncher species, maxing out at 6-7 inches. Some of the stabber species, such as a zebra mantis can get 11 inches. This is because the peacock mantis is as big as it can get before it would shatter itself with the force of its punch!
This has been the marine biologist PSA.
Please stop putting the wrong claw on a peacock mantis.
finally some relatable content on ig
Fun fact! This is identifiable as a glacial valley because of its shape! Glacial valleys tend to have a U shape, where the pressure from the colossal slug of ice scraped the valley with a rounded bottom. In contrast, river valleys tend to have a V shape, as the river has a much more concentrated erosive path. This is an oversimplification, but I highly encourage anyone vaguely interested in why the world around them looks that ways (geomorphology - the science that lies at the intersection of geology, the study of Earth and its forms, and geography, the applied study of change over time across space) to read a chapter from any physical geography textbook on glacial geomorphology. You’ll never look at the landscape in the same way.
“If a society puts half its children into short skirts and warns them not to move in ways that reveal their panties, while putting the other half into jeans and overalls and encouraging them to climb trees, play ball, and participate in other vigorous outdoor games; if later, during adolescence, the children who have been wearing trousers are urged to “eat like growing boys,” while the children in skirts are warned to watch their weight and not get fat; if the half in jeans runs around in sneakers or boots, while the half in skirts totters about on spike heels, then these two groups of people will be biologically as well as socially different. Their muscles will be different, as will their reflexes, posture, arms, legs and feet, hand-eye coordination, and so on. Similarly, people who spend eight hours a day in an office working at a typewriter or a visual display terminal will be biologically different from those who work on construction jobs. There is no way to sort the biological and social components that produce these differences. We cannot sort nature from nurture when we confront group differences in societies in which people from different races, classes, and sexes do not have equal access to resources and power, and therefore live in different environments. Sex-typed generalizations, such as that men are heavier, taller, or stronger than women, obscure the diversity among women and among men and the extensive overlaps between them… Most women and men fall within the same range of heights, weights, and strengths, three variables that depend a great deal on how we have grown up and live. We all know that first-generation Americans, on average, are taller than their immigrant parents and that men who do physical labor, on average, are stronger than male college professors. But we forget to look for the obvious reasons for differences when confronted with assertions like ‘Men are stronger than women.’ We should be asking: ‘Which men?’ and ‘What do they do?’ There may be biologically based average differences between women and men, but these are interwoven with a host of social differences from which we cannot disentangle them.”
— Ruth Hubbard, “The Political Nature of ‘Human Nature’“
Advice I gave someone today was: 'do it stupid.'
She wants to learn photography. Do it stupid. Take a million photos. Don't think about why they're not good. Enjoy the process of taking photos.
Pick out tge ones you like the most and figure out why you like them. Is it because the subject is centered? Is it because you caught them doing something cool? Is it because the light made cool shadows?
Do it stupid. If you try to do it smart, youll get stuck. If you think too much you'll never get to doing. Do it stupid.
Holy shit
This is honestly how I started quilting! I had fabric, I had a knowledge of backstitch, I had a quilting magazine. I asked "how hard can it be?" and now here we are. Just have fun and give it a go!
Works for writing too!! Write your Mary Sue’s, your cringe OCs, have your Wattpad era, you can only grow after the seed has been planted!!
unauthorized fucking thing!!!!!!
(warning: loud chirping throughout)
source: hellgate osprey cam
under US law, it's illegal for anyone who's not a member of a recognised native tribe to own an eagle feather. the penalty is a $100,000 fine.
14 years ago when I had recently moved to Alaska, I went hiking with an Aleut friend, and she pointed to a feather lying on the ground and said "hey that's a bald eagle tail feather, you should grab it!" and I was like "uhh I'm very white and that's very illegal" and she went "they're fuckin everywhere up here man. I have 20." so she grabs it off the ground and hands it to me and says "there, now it's a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person."
and I'm like, okay, cool, I guess this is how we do things in Alaska. nice.
so I keep this bald eagle tail feather around for years. display it in my home among other cherished memorabilia from places I've lived and visited, etc.
on a whim, I have just now looked it up. there is no exemption to that law for a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person. the last 7 years I lived in the US, I was technically a bald eagle poacher.
probably a good thing I don't intend to move back there anytime soon. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on bird crimes.
@freedomisscaryshit I'm fucking dying I think you forgot the word "feathers" in your tags?? or do you just wish you could grab whole ass eagles that land in your yard??
As an Indigenous person, it continues to astound me that there are such strict laws (written by White people) in our name, laws against...picking up things just found on the ground. Like, stop pretending this is "for" us. We don't want this.
so, for clarity, that's not what this is. the law against possessing feathers is an anti-poaching measure, derived from a North American treaty protecting certain migratory bird species from hunting. that treaty has an exemption for indigenous people to allow tribes that use eagle feathers in ceremonial or religious practices to continue doing so.
i used to collect feathers (illegally) as a teenager and the thing is that it's incredibly important for feathers from wild birds to be illegal to possess because it ensures that they never become fashionable to wear. the reason we passed the migratory bird act was because the american and european fashion industry was driving species to extinction in a timespan of years. not just decades. the ecological devastation of exporting birds for hats was absolutely insane and people were watching wetlands and forests and meadows just empty out in realtime. look at the wikipedia article for the plume trade.
the law against 'picking feathers up off the ground' means that you can't go shoot an eagle then sell the feathers on etsy by saying you 'just found them'. you can't own them no matter where they came from, which makes sure that they're not going to come from any birds killed and then secretly disposed of.
these laws, as harsh and ridiculous as they seem, saved flamingos, spoonbills, egrets, and all kinds of hawks and eagles from extinction. the minute these laws weaken and people can make money off killing them again, they're fucked.
this is one of those "no actually this regulation exists for a reason" laws much like work place safety and building fire codes (that Republicans keep trying to roll back) and is written in blood just like them as well. it's just not human blood this time, and the fact that people actually cared enough about long term future over short term profit to get it put in place is nothing short of astonishing. That it didn't get put in place in time to save several species is heart breaking.
“I don’t like this expression “First World problems.” It is false and it is condescending. Yes, Nigerians struggle with floods or infant mortality. But these same Nigerians also deal with mundane and seemingly luxurious hassles. Connectivity issues on your BlackBerry, cost of car repair, how to sync your iPad, what brand of noodles to buy: Third World problems. All the silly stuff of life doesn’t disappear just because you’re black and live in a poorer country. People in the richer nations need a more robust sense of the lives being lived in the darker nations. Here’s a First World problem: the inability to see that others are as fully complex and as keen on technology and pleasure as you are.”
— Teju Cole (via feminizt)
May I recommend: twenty-first century problems. Because the concept is useful: I am upset about a thing that, I recognize out loud, is a solvable issue that many would be lucky to have. It’s the phrasing that’s racist. Whereas, in dunking on the past:
Find me a pre-twenty-first century human - outside of tenth century Denmark - who is struggling to connect with the right Bluetooth.
Me at the supermarket, having a 21st century problem: “The item IS in the goddamn bagging area!”
10th century Danish king, Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson, on my phone, reading his Wikipedia article: [Whatever the 10th century Danish version of “Take that, Swein, you ungrateful little shit” is, I assume]
When you’re TRYING to sustain poetic purple prose but you have to write a transition paragraph you HAVE to just get them in another room like it is so serious and desperate that you just write a plain sentence but your extra ass is like “how can I make this sentence about them walking down the stairs exude the themes”
My very first tiger drawing and my latest
Your skill level is unquestionable but listen.
I love him.
me also. as well.
This is the COOLEST thing I’ve seen in AGES. You both completely made my entire week.
By Tanja Askani
BIG DUMB IDIOT BABY APPLE FIGHT
I wish all of my followers a wonderful Big Dumb Idiot Baby Apple Fight Friday
In the D&D campaign I'm running with my wife's siblings, one of them learned about how trolls regenerate within minutes of any damage not caused by fire or acid, and then asked why people don't just like. Cage them and eat them, forever. Why there aren't troll meat dungeons in the king's castle as a safeguard against sieges or famines.
And you know, I thought it was a fair question, so I said that if you eat enough troll meat, you start getting troll-y. And then I went further and just treated it like troll flesh is a general contaminant - if you eat enough troll, you'll turn into a troll, but if you bury enough dead troll flesh in a forest, the trees will start growing in strange ways, and will scream and heal and bleed when you hit them with axes.
I liked this idea. So as we played further, I just played around with the idea of Troll Origins, and I came up with something sort of like the Odyssey, but instead stealing Helios's cattle, it was Hathor's, and the horrible, awful, unending immortality was her curse of the army that pillaged her lands. A god of healing does not condemn you to die, she condemns you to live.
And then I got this fun idea for maybe the king that led the army is still kind of alive in the troll taint. Like a sort of literal fisher king. The kingdom is sick because he is, literally, the kingdom. The trees that bleed, bleed his blood and their screams are his screams. He is both the faintly green bear running down the mountain and the faintly green deer and there is no way past this without suffering. He is the entire ecosystem, and he eats nothing but himself and he dreams nothing but death and yet still, on and on and on and on, he lives.
Anyway they're traveling next session so I'm throwing this shit at them. I already have some gross ideas for like. Describing everything like it's a body (flowers red as blood, white as bone, pink as meat, grass fine as hair) then finally throwing horrible living things at them. Trees that grow eyeballs that turn and stare at them, or flowers with teeth instead of petals and trolls that speak in long dead tongues about how they wish they'd never tried to rob a god.
Anyway I'm passing this on because this is my new troll lore and I want it to become canonized in the way that all D&D lore becomes canonized: By having eople read it and go "oh, neat" then start doing that too.
under US law, it's illegal for anyone who's not a member of a recognised native tribe to own an eagle feather. the penalty is a $100,000 fine.
14 years ago when I had recently moved to Alaska, I went hiking with an Aleut friend, and she pointed to a feather lying on the ground and said "hey that's a bald eagle tail feather, you should grab it!" and I was like "uhh I'm very white and that's very illegal" and she went "they're fuckin everywhere up here man. I have 20." so she grabs it off the ground and hands it to me and says "there, now it's a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person."
and I'm like, okay, cool, I guess this is how we do things in Alaska. nice.
so I keep this bald eagle tail feather around for years. display it in my home among other cherished memorabilia from places I've lived and visited, etc.
on a whim, I have just now looked it up. there is no exemption to that law for a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person. the last 7 years I lived in the US, I was technically a bald eagle poacher.
probably a good thing I don't intend to move back there anytime soon. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on bird crimes.
@freedomisscaryshit I'm fucking dying I think you forgot the word "feathers" in your tags?? or do you just wish you could grab whole ass eagles that land in your yard??
As an Indigenous person, it continues to astound me that there are such strict laws (written by White people) in our name, laws against...picking up things just found on the ground. Like, stop pretending this is "for" us. We don't want this.
so, for clarity, that's not what this is. the law against possessing feathers is an anti-poaching measure, derived from a North American treaty protecting certain migratory bird species from hunting. that treaty has an exemption for indigenous people to allow tribes that use eagle feathers in ceremonial or religious practices to continue doing so.
To add to this, because the “But if it’s on the ground—” is strong:
Once it stops being on the ground, it’s no longer on the ground. Now it’s just a feather from a protected migratory species. Just as you cannot prove “it was just on the ground,” you also cannot prove “I definitely didn’t shoot the bird it was attached to before the feather hit the ground,” or “I definitely didn’t give someone money/or plan to accept money from someone in trade for this feather that was definitely on the ground all by itself, based on nothing I did.” But as soon as “it was just on the ground” becomes an acceptable defense, you’ve basically given up enforcing any wildlife trafficking crime.
In this era of watching US politicians yank the teeth out of as much environmental legislation as they can, there is no ground worth ceding. Look at the feather, draw it, paint it, take a picture, admire it - and then walk on, because, yes, It Absolutely Is The Principle Of The Thing.
For some reading on the context, interested folks can check out the history surrounding the Lacey Act of 1900!
