Rhiannon Futch, Author

Witch, writer, intersectional feminist, she/her pronouns, puppy mom, gliding into the crone years with a smile

[herbgerblin]

Heads up, tumblr is raising its annual subscription from $39.99 to $69.99 on November 9th, so cancel before then if you don’t want to pay that price.

[lemsbiams]

[aesethewitch]

When you see someone say "do your own research" in a witchcraft post, do you know what they mean*?

Yes, and I'm a beginner witch

Yes, and I'm an experienced witch

No, and I'm a beginner witch

No, and I'm an experienced witch

Nuance/extract/bald/etc.

Voting ended onOct 16, 2024

* As in, understanding what "research" entails in a witchcraft context and how to perform said research.

A poll based on recent observations in the tags of beginner witches being frustrated by reminders to "do your research."

Reblogs for bigger sample size are appreciated. (:

[helenvaughans]

[politicalantibody]

I strongly suspect that Trump withdrew from the 60 minutes interview because CBS could not be trusted to let him lie without consequence.

Republicans do not always lie. It only happens when their mouths are moving.

[afrotumble]

[rhiannonfutchauthor]

Beautiful work.

[headspace-hotel]

look at this incredibly haunting coyote from Ohio I saw on inaturalist

[headspace-hotel]

I have a lot of really annoying thoughts about coyotes and how its like, a known fact that eastern coyotes are wolf and dog hybrids,

and the current red wolf population came from an effort to separate the "pure" red wolves from coyote hybrids,

and the effective population size of red wolves (genetically how much the diversity is equivalent to) is like, 10 animals, which means there's severe inbreeding depression,

but the red wolf genes are STILL OUT THERE they're just IN COYOTES and a lot of the coyotes probably have a HIGH CONTENT OF WOLF

And there has been SO much controversy over whether red wolves are their own species and a lot of people insist they're "just coyotes"

and people don't respect coyotes even if they do respect wolves and think they are totally different even though they have intermixed often in their evolutionary history.

and people keep shooting endangered wolves because "I thought it was a coyote,"

and basically one species is valued and the other species is considered to have no value even though they're not even totally separate things and a wolf that's part coyote has "polluted" genes but a coyote that's part wolf is just like. completely worthless and unremarkable for conservation.

anyways. Look at this handsome animal. Wonder what its genes are like. The tucked in waist says "dog" to me. Amazing how these creatures are evolving before our eyes and people are like "yeah yeah coyotes whatever"

[headspace-hotel]

@cosmosinmycoffee omg thank you for this addition, I hadn't heard of this playing out with grolar bears

I just Do Not get this prejudice towards naturally formed hybrids and denying that they have any conservation value. Yes, maybe it happened because of anthropogenic changes to the animals habitat, but...so what? Isn't it amazing that evolution can pull these neat tricks to ensure a creature's survival and the preservation of genetic diversity?

Another thing—I've read a lot of papers and studies about evolutionary history of species, and it is super normal for species to split, hybridize and blend together, split even more, and hybridize again over and over and over throughout the evolution of the clade.

It's called reticulate evolution and it's a major reason why resolving the taxonomic relationships of groups that radiated rapidly is a HUGE pain in the ass. A lot of times, species in the same genus are perfectly reproductively compatible with each other, just separated by niche or by the area they live in, and when those boundaries shift or when genetic diversity is scarce the species can merge again.

With red wolves, the conservationists have gone to great lengths to prevent hybridization with coyotes, including sterilizing coyotes in the region they're being released into the wild, and I just...I know there's reasoning behind it, they want to preserve the expression of wolf genes as much as possible, but I get a sinking feeling in my stomach when I think of how little genetic diversity exists in the red wolf population and how inbred those animals are becoming.

There's just something about humans doing so much intervention and effort to stop the wolves from taking coyotes as mates to maintain their "genetic purity"...Animals try to avoid inbreeding. Most animals have a drive to disperse and find mates they're not related to. And the coyote-wolf hybrids are ridiculously successful little beasts, more successful and adaptable than either of their progenitors.

Like I get wanting to preserve the wolf phenotype and the niche it can fill, but these animals are just doing what is healthy and beneficial for their offspring. They don't know or care what a species is.

[headspace-hotel]

oh my god y'all i've been reading a bunch more about this and the scientists are fightingggggggg

basically it has been traditional to think hybrids are maladapted evolutionary dead ends, but it turns out hybridization is common and natural and plays a major role in evolution, which is bad news for the idea of a "species," which is a BIG PROBLEM for conservation, because...protected species, endangered species list, species conservation.

All the laws are based on species!!! In fact, hybrids are often considered a THREAT to species conservation. But the scientists are looking at the evidence and it's like okay species lowkey aren't real so what are we conserving.

One paper I looked at points out the, uhh... "value-laden" terminology used to describe hybridization—words like "contamination" and "pollution" which....hey that sounds an awful lot like eugenics?

And it literally is! It's an obsession with "purity" without considering how the ecosystem is actually affected! It turns out that a lot of the claims of hybridization forming a threat to rare species, are bullshit with no actual evidence. Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that hybridization can sometimes benefit rare species, or even form something entirely new that is better at survival than its parents.

For example, coral is under extreme and immediate threat from climate change. There is a case where two declining species of coral have hybridized and formed a third new species, that is way better adapted to climate change—in fact its population is increasing. Scientists watching this are like "...guys? I think the field of conservation might be terribly wrong about the whole 'hybridization is the devil' thing."

In fact, we could end up destroying species that otherwise could survive by trying to bottle them up in a tiny, inbred "pure" gene pool, instead of allowing their genes to continue existing in a robust mixed population.

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!

[headspace-hotel]

here is one of the articles

[bloedgetuige]

ohhh october be kind. on god be kind

[bloedgetuige]

im handing out chocolate and tea to everyone reblogging this. good luck friends i wish you all the best

[victusinveritas]

[rhiannonfutchauthor]

This. These places, at the most had some hurricane remnants. A smallish amount of extra rain.

This was 30+/- inches within a short span in places that are filled with creeks and rivers.

Not to mention, most of the places where people live in the mountains are the valleys. Essentially the bowls between mountains.

This has never happened in these places.

Not hasn't happened in a hundred or a thousand years. This has NEVER HAPPENED there. There was no warning, not even the weather people predicted this until it was TOO LATE TO LEAVE. I'm in Durham right now, city next to the Raleigh person above. But I lived in those mountains and I will be going back to them (move was work related). They need our help, in whatever form we can provide.

BeLovedAsheville.com is one of the places that is one the ground helping feed people over there as many lost their entire home, literally it was washed down the river.

Please, do whatever you can to help. And for fuck's sake, vote. Climate change is here and it is hurting everyone.

[vinceaddams]

People who try to copy historical writing styles don't say enough weird stuff in them. I'm listening to a 1909 story about a ghost car right now, and the narrator just said he honked the car horn a bunch of times, but the way he phrased it was "I wrought a wild concerto on the hooter".

[bogleech]

Reblog to wreak a wild concerto on a hooter

[rhiannonfutchauthor]

Wild concerto on the hooter is wrought yet again, to the dismay of all my neighbors of many laned path to nowhere and everywhere.

[heck-yes-feminism]

after claiming in the recent presidential debate that he has nothing to do with project 2025, footage from trump’s keynote speech at the Heritage Foundation in 2022 proves the opposite: that project 2025 is “critical” and has “laid the groundwork” for what he plans to do if re-elected

project 2025 is very real and if you don’t think he’s going to use it or that it won’t impact you in any way, you are wrong

read it, get informed, and go vote

sources: X & msnbc

[the-elder-polls]

appalachia is devastated. towns i loved, towns i visited all the time, are gone. not damaged, GONE. they are leveled to the ground. there is nothing left but rubble and ruin. people are dead. appalachia is poor to begin with and relies on tourism for a lot of its income, and multiple of those tourist locations are just...gone.

my town is okay, but it's flooded and wrecked. trees are blocking all but one way out of our neighborhood. power lines are hanging limp in the roads. we've been without power for over 24 hours and will continue to be without power for likely another 24+. disabled people and poor people are GOING to die from this. gods save appalachia.

[the-elder-polls]

it's always a hit or miss with appalachian charities. a lot are just evangelism with no action behind what they do. i suggest looking into them before donating.

operation airdrop

nc community foundation

mountain projects

homeward bound

manna food bank

[idreamofagravedeepandnarrow]

adding some additional photos from the other side of the mountains here in northeast tennessee. there has been genuinely catastrophic flooding in many areas and billions of dollars of damage across NETN and WNC. we are not built to withstand this. 33 people are currently missing in unicoi county alone

[the-elder-polls]

to those of you reblogging this, thank you. i have not seen one negative comment about appalachia and i cannot put into words what that means as someone who has lived here for their entire life. we are used to being mocked, scorned, and dismissed, to being the butt of classist jokes, and y'all aren't doing that. thank you. so much.

[rhiannonfutchauthor]

reblogging to add BeLoved Asheville to the list of charities. Their website: belovedasheville.com

[crafblr]

btw I've found these stretches from the WAK blog very helpful when knitting a lot:

Plus make sure to take breaks regularly - and stop if anything starts to hurt!

especially with gift knitting I know it can be tempting to push through it for a deadline, but it's really not worth causing long term injury. (And anyone knit-worthy should be understanding of that, imho.) Stay well :)

[liberalsarecool]

Trump resents you pointing out that he is a little whiny baby.

[theconcealedweapon]

[socialjusticeinamerica]

[madammaursa]

[rejectingrepublicans]

And many more.

[wilwheaton]

[urfavhatesterfs]

YOU hates terfs

[switchingtogeico]

[captainhaterade]

[stankpasta]

rb if u hates terfs

[always-coffee]

TERFs can frak off.

[radicalgraff]

Stickers seen around NYC in the days after cops opened fire in the NYC subway, shooting a fellow officer, two bystanders, and an alleged "fair evader" they were attempting to apprehend.