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DIABOLIK LOVERS MORE, MORE BLOOD Vol.12 Mukami Ruki [Track 5 + Epilogue]

Original title: 暴かれた罪 & エピローグ

Source: Diabolik Lovers More, More Blood Vol. 12 Mukami Ruki [CD not owned by me]

Audio: Here & here

Seiyuu: Takahiro Sakurai

Translator’s note: God this CD was so mentally draining. > < This final track in particular, Ruki is just so...evil. I feel like this has surpassed the level of ‘sadism’ and he really just wants to make the MC’s life a living hell. :’’) He even literally says it a few times. I honestly can’t help but feel like this Ruki was kind of OOC and I know at least one Ruki stan who would agree with me. xD

Track 1 ll Track 2 ll Track 3 ll Track 4 ll Track 5 + Epilogue

→ LIKE MY TRANSLATIONS? SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI!

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #ruki mukami #diabolik lovers more more blood #diabolik lovers translation #diabolik lovers drama cd #drama cd

“The External Source of Energy of the Universe, Origin and Intensity of Cosmic Rays.”

By Nikola Tesla

October 13, 1932, New York:

“A little over one century ago many astronomers, including Laplace still thought that the system of heavenly bodies was unalterable and that they would perform their motions in the same manner through an eternity. But the gradual perfection of instruments and refinement of methods of investigation, achieved since that time, has led to the recognition that there is a continuous change going on in the celestial regions subjecting all bodies to ever varying influence. Where this change is leading to, and what is to be its final phase, have become questions of supreme scientific interest. In a communication to the Royal Society of Edinburgh dated April 19, 1852 and the Philosophical Magazine of October of the same year, Lord Kelvin drew attention to the general tendency in nature towards dissipation of mechanical energy, a fact borne out in daily observation of thermo-dynamic and dynamo-thermic processes and one of ominous significance. It meant that the driving force of the universe was steadily decreasing and that ultimately all of its motive energy will be exhausted none remaining available for mechanical work. In the macro-cosmos, with its countless conception, this process might require billion of years for its consummation; but in the infinitesimal worlds of the micro-cosmos it must have been quickly completed. Such being the case then, according to an experimental findings and deductions of positive science, any material substance (cooled down to the absolute zero of temperature) should be devoid of an internal movement and energy, so to speak, dead.

"This idea of the great philosopher, who later honored me with his friendship, had a fascinating effect on my mind and in meditating over it I was struck by the thought that if there is energy within the substance it can only come from without. This truth was so manifest to me that I expressed it in the following axiom: "There is no energy in matter except that absorbed from the medium.” Lord Kelvin gave us a picture of a dying universe, of a clockwork wound up and running down, inevitably doomed to come to a full stop in the far, far off future. It was a gloomy view incompatible with artistic, scientific and mechanical sense. I asked myself again and again, was there not some force winding up the clock as it runs down? The axiom I had formulated gave me a clue. If all energy is supplied to matter from without then this all important function must be performed by the medium. Yes–but how?

“I pondered over this oldest and greatest of all riddles of physical science a long time in vain, despairingly remind of the words of the poet:

"Wo fass ich dich unendliche Nat—r?

Euch Bruste wo Ihr Quellen alles Lebens

An denen Himmel und Erd— hangt.”

[“Where, boundless nature, can I hold you fast?

And where you breasts? Wells that sustain

All life – the heaven and the earth are nursed. ”]

Goethe. Faust

“What I strove for seemed unattainable, but a kind fate favored me and a few inspired experiments lifted the veil. It was a revelation wonderful and incredible explaining many mysteries of nature and disclosing as in a lightening flash the illusionary character of some modem theories incidentally also bearing out the universal truth of the above axiom.

"When radio-active rays were discovered their investigators believed them to be due to liberation of atomic energy in the form of waves. This being impossible in the light of the preceding I concluded that they were produced by some external disturbance and composed of electrified particles. My theory was not seriously taken although it appeared simple and plausible. Suppose that bullets are fired against a wall. Where a missile strikes the material is crushed and spatters in all directions radial from the place of impact. In this example it is perfectly clear that the energy of the flying pieces can only be derived from that of the bullets. But in manifestation of radio-activity no such proof could be advanced and it was, therefore, of the first importance to demonstrate experimentally the existence of this miraculous disturbance in the medium. I was rewarded in these efforts with quick success largely because of the efficient method I adopted which consisted in deriving from a great mass of air, ionized by the disturbance, a current, storing its energy in a condenser and discharging the same through an indicating device. This plan did away with the limitations and incertitude of the electroscope first employed and was described by me in articles and patents from 1900 to 1905. It was logical to expect, judging from the behavior of known radiations, that the chief source of the new rays would be the sun, but this supposition was contradicted by observations and theoretical considerations which disclosed some surprising facts in this connection.

"Light and heat rays are absorbed in their passage through a medium in a certain proportion to its density. The ether, although the most tenuous of all substances, is no exception to this rule. Its density has been first estimated by Lord Kelvin and conformably to his finding a column of one square centimeter cross section and of a length such that light, traveling at a rate of three hundred thousands kilometers per second, would require one year to traverse it, should weigh 4.8 grams. This is just about the weigh of a prism of ordinary glass of the same cross section and two centimeters length which, therefore, may be assumed as the equivalent of the ether column in absorption. A column of the ether one thousand times longer would thus absorb as much light as twenty meters of glass. However, there are suns at distances of many thousands of light years and it is evident that virtually no light from them can reach the earth. But if these suns emit rays immensely more penetrative than those of light they will be slightly dimmed and so the aggregate amount of radiations pouring upon the earth from all sides will be overwhelmingly greater than that supplied to it by our luminary. If light and heat rays would be as penetrative as the cosmic, so fierce would be the perpetual glare and so scorching the heat that life on this and other planets could not exist.

"Rays in every respect similar to the cosmic are produced by my vacuum tubes when operated at pressures of ten millions of volts or more, but even if it were not confirmed by experiment, the theory I advanced in 1897 would afford the simplest and most probable explanation of the phenomena. Is not the universe with its infinite and impenetrable boundary a perfect vacuum tube of dimensions and power inconceivable? Are not its fiery suns electrodes at temperatures far beyond any we can apply in the puny and crude contrivances of our making? Is it not a fact that the suns and stars are under immense electrical pressures transcending any that man can ever produce and is this not equally true of the vacuum in celestial space? Finally, can there be any doubt that cosmic dust and meteoric matter present an infinitude of targets acting as reflectors and transformers of energy? If under ideal working conditions, and with apparatus on a scale beyond the grasp of the human mind, rays of surpassing intensity and penetrative power would not be generated, then, indeed, nature has made an unique exception to its laws.

"It has been suggested that the cosmic rays are electrons or that they are the result of creation of new matter in the interstellar deserts. These views are too fantastic to be even for a moment seriously considered. They are natural outcroppings of this age of deep but unrational thinking, of impossible theories, the latest of which might, perhaps, deal with the curvature of time. What this world of ours would be if time were curved:

"As there exists considerable doubt in regard to the manner in which the intensity of the cosmic rays varies with altitude the following simple formula derived from my early experimental data may be welcome to those who are interested in the subject.

I = (W+P) / (W+p)

"In this expression W is the weight in kilograms of a column of lead of one square centimeter cross section and one hundred and eighty centimeters length, P the normal pressure of the atmosphere at sea level in kilograms per square centimeter, p the atmospheric pressure at the altitude under consideration and in like measure and I the intensity of the radiation in terms of that at sea level which is taken as unit. Substituting the actual values for W and P, respectively 1.9809 and 1.0133 kilograms, the formula reduces to

I = 2.99421 / (1.9809 + p)

"Obviously, at sea level p = P hence the intensity is equal to 1, this being the unit of measurement. On the other hand, at the extreme limit of the atmosphere p = 0 and the intensity I = 1.5115.

"The maximum increase with height is, consequently, a little over fifty-one percent. This formula, based on my finding that the absorption is proportionate to the density of the medium whatever it be, is fairly accurate. Other investigators might find different values for W but they will undoubtedly observe the same character of dependence, namely, that the intensity increases proportionately to the height for a few kilometers and then at a gradually lessening rate.”

#Nikola Tesla #science #physics #chemistry #history #discovery #cosmic rays #radioactivity #universe #energy #experiments #ahead of his time #ahead of our time

Pelagornis

By Ripley Cook

Etymology: Sea Bird

First Described By: Lartet, 1857

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoromorpha, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostaylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Neognathae, Pelagornithidae

Referred Species: P. chilensis, P. longirostris, P. mauretanicus, P. miocaenus, P. orri, P. sandersi, P. stirtoni, P. tenuirostris, P. wetmorei

Status: Extinct

Time and Place: Between 30 and 2.5 million years ago, from the Rupelian of the Oligocene through the beginning of the Pleistocene (in the Gelasian age)

Pelagornis, being an extremely common seabird, is known from nearly everywhere around the world, usually associated with the coast.

Physical Description: Despite the incredibly generic name, Pelagornis was quite an interesting bird. Like other pseudotooth birds, both its upper and lower beak bore toothlike spikes, in an alternating small/big/small/big pattern. Its beak was robust and fairly long compared to the back of the skull. These pseudoteeth appear to have grown in relatively late in Pelagornis’s growth, implying the keratin covering the beak may not have been fully hardened until close to adulthood. Interestingly enough, fossil evidence indicates that Pelagornis probably held its head upright at a vertical angle.

By José Carlos Cortés

Pelagornis was fucking huge, m’kay. P. sandersi has an estimated wingspan between 6.1 and 7.4 meters! This makes Pelagornis the bird with the largest wingspan (but not the heaviest flying bird - that record belongs to Argentavis). Its wings were even more proportionally long and narrow than those of the largest flying birds alive today, the albatrosses. In comparison, its body was fairly small. There were, of course, some species of Pelagornis that were smaller than this, reaching only 4 meters long in terms of wingspan. Still, this large wingspan size is really only characteristic of these birds in flight - compressed, they would have looked much smaller, especially given that they were very light weight. They had stout legs and shorter tails, which indicates that they weren’t very good walkers, and spent most of their time in the air or sitting on the land.

By Jack Wood

Diet: Probably fish. The pseudoteeth are likely an adaptation to grab and hold onto large fish. Similar toothlike serrations are seen, albeit much less exaggerated, in modern mergansers, which also eat fish. In addition, the vertical position of the head would have allowed Pelagornis to skim-feed, grabbing fish and other aquatic organisms from the top layer of the ocean and scooping them into their mouths. Thus, the fake-teeth would have allowed Pelagornis to grab onto fish better than non-toothed skim feeding birds. It may have also used these sharp fake teeth in order to grab onto the slipperiest fish and cephalopods - rather than harder shelly animals.

By Scott Reid

Behavior: As with modern seabirds, Pelagornis likely spent most of its time out at sea. Gliding on oceanic thermals would have helped to support its huge body in the air without wasting energy just to stay aloft - which was important, since it wasn’t very good at flapping its wings and would have had trouble staying aloft long enough to get food if it had to flap too frequently. Think an albatross, but a giant, evil albatross. Landing and taking off would have been more awkward, though. It probably needed to take advantage of headwinds, drops in elevation and/or air gusts to get into the air at all. Albatrosses also kinda have this problem, but nowhere near to the same extent. The late appearance of the pseudoteeth implies that Pelagornis may have fed its young back on land like many modern seabirds before they could feed themselves out at sea. As such, they would have sought out good nesting sites, which may correspond to where fossils of Pelagornis are found - indicating that their spread around the world was greater than that we know of. Since it was a sea bird, it probably would have been very social, living in large colonies - and it would have cared for its young in similar social groups. In fact, it seems more likely than not that it would have laid its nests on cliffs and in rocky areas and plateaus, where being able to take off would have been easier than flatter, sandier beaches. Whether or not these animals were as noisy as modern seabirds is really another question altogether.

By Jack Wood

Interestingly enough, Pelagornis had a salt gland in the eye that would have allowed it to excrete excess salt, which was an extremely helpful trait when Pelagornis ate almost entirely seafood. That seafood diet didn’t meant it wasn’t a danger, however - today, seabirds will venture away from the coasts in order to scavenge food on the beach, and they are certainly defensive of their nests, young, and territory. Also fascinatingly, it had a very very very long skull - with all of those pseudoteeth packed in - which had similar shapes and organization as to the extinct really toothed birds of the Mesozoic. This implies that there was a certain amount of evolutionary regression in Pelagornis, allowing it to better support its teeth and chomping ability than it would otherwise. There is also an interesting furrow in the skull, which allowed it to be better support the head and possibly to better grab prey in the ocean.

By Scott Reid

Ecosystem: Pelagornis lived around coastlines worldwide. Because of this, it is difficult to pinpoint with certainty the types of animals it lived with. In fact, it was so long-lived and widespread it is more likely than not that Pelgaornis interacted with any ocean-going creature or animal found along the coast. It doesn’t seem to have a preference in the fossil record between rocky coasts or beaches, though it did seem to stay in at least somewhat warmer ecosystems and where cliffs would have been present for easier take-offs (and it is reasonable to suppose that cliff areas would have been its preferred place for nesting). Some notable animals it would have interacted with include extinct penguins, cetaceans, the famed giant shark Megalodon and… humans. Yup, Pelagornis is known from locations where early members of genus Homo ventured to. So, if you can imagine being afraid of a giant bird with fake teeth a little too well, that would be the instincts of your ancestors talking.

By Scott Reid

Other: Pelagornis is a fun time, classification wise, for multiple reasons: one, a whole bunch of different types of Pseudotoothed birds are actually, apparently, species of Pelagornis; and two, we don’t really know what Pseudotoothed birds really are. So, let’s break this down into those two parts. What’s going on with the species? Well, in the 2010s, a lot of research has been made that shows a bunch of the Neogene Pseudotoothed birds that we’ve counted as different genera are actually… just… part of Pelagornis. Why Wikipedia has not chosen to update their information as to this effect is beyond me, but the fact remains is that a lot of Pseudotoothed birds are just different shades of Pelagornis, primarily due to the fact that they really… aren’t different. In fact, a lot of the differences were just based on time and place, and the fact that Pseudotoothed birds weren’t really well known at all. The loss of Osteodontornis is a bit of a bummer, but there aren’t any major differences between this genus and Pelagornis, so it’s gone. We’ve also lost Pseudodontornis, you know, the name that actually means “fake toothed bird”, unlike the crappy name for Pelagornis, which just means Sea Bird. Like, come on people. Why are we here. Just to suffer. We’ve also lost Palaeochenoides, Neodontornis, and Tympanonesiotes. Hence the extreme amount of art in this article - the last time I covered Pseudotoothed birds, these were separate. So we have an abundance of terrifying tooth art.

By José Carlos Cortés

Finally - what the heck are Pseudotoothed birds? We don’t know. We really don’t know where they go. Are they related to the sea birds we have today (the Aequorlitornithes)? Are they related to ducks? Are they something else entirely? We have no idea, because, frankly, they seem to just appear in the fossil record without any sort of origin whatsoever. Like magic. Suddenly, toothed birds were back like the asteroid never hit. Honestly if I were to hazard a guess, based on the fossil characteristics, they’re probably none of the above - but an early branching group of Neognathous (aka, all birds that aren’t ratites and their cousins) birds that evolved from a non-easily fossilized ancestor. Whether that ancestor had weak bones or just lived in places where fossils don’t happen is a different question entirely, but either way, so far we have nothing. They just appear, in the Paleocene, out of nowhere. And, eventually, Pelagornis also disappeared.

By Jack Wood

Why did Pelagornis, the latest surviving species disappear? The most likely answer is climate change. The onset of the ice age would have caused extreme changes to the water patterns, currents, and air flow. Since Pelagornis didn’t flap its wings much, and relied almost entirely on soaring and thermals, it probably would have been greatly affected by changes in these weather patterns. So, changes in the ocean and the air by the ice age would have decreased its ability to reach food, and then the dramatic changes in its home climate would have been a further death knell. Interestingly enough, they only began to become uncommon right before they became extinct - indicating that Pelagornis really was finished off by this change in climate. Which is sad, because that’s right around when humans were becoming more of a thing, and it would have been nice to see one of these things in life. Except it wouldn’t have been. Because they’re terrifying. But I laugh in the face of danger. I think. I dunno I just think they’re neat.

By Scott Reid

Species Differences: The different species of Pelagornis differ primarily due to location and time, though there are some differences in shape and size - those fossils that were once assigned to Tympanonesiotes, for example, were on average smaller than other members of this genus. The largest known species was decidedly Pelagornis sandersi, though the best known species is Pelagornis chilensis. For now, however, Pelagornis is kind of a mess, since so much research is needed on this species complex to make sure things are where they belong and one genus is enough, so species differences are difficult to parse out until more research has been published on the subject. Just know that there were a lot of Pelagornis - and they came in all kinds of different shapes and sizes all over the place.

~ By Meig Dickson and Henry Thomas

Sources Under the Cut

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

The Iowa caucuses are now just five days away, so pollsters are busy trying to give us their final looks at where the candidates are heading into Iowa. But for those of you hoping for a clearer picture of where things stand, I’m afraid there’s no such luck.

Three new Iowa polls dropped today pointing to a still very close race between Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden (though former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren shouldn’t be written off). And topline numbers in our primary forecast show that Biden is still in the lead with roughly a 1 in 2 (45 percent) shot at winning a majority of pledged delegates, while Sanders has about a 3 in 10 (29 percent) chance of doing so.1 Buttigieg and Warren each have about a 1 in 20 (5 percent) shot.

Compared to yesterday’s election update, these figures represent a 4-point improvement for Biden and a 2-point decrease for Sanders. A fair bit of this has to do with fixing a bug in the model’s code — the model was giving candidates extra credit for wins in their home states and regions when it was supposed to be deducting credit instead (editor-in-chief Nate Silver has an explanation here). But it’s also because Biden led in two of the three new Iowa surveys whereas Sanders led in both Iowa polls we talked about yesterday.

In our Iowa forecast, Sanders still leads slightly (37 percent versus Biden’s 35 percent). This is unchanged from yesterday and is probably better thought of as a tie. Buttigieg and Warren’s chances haven’t really shifted in the last 24 hours. Although Sen. Amy Klobuchar did tick up a little today thanks to some double-digit showings in today’s batch of polls, though she remains a decided underdog with only a 3 percent shot at winning Iowa. On balance, though, the newest Iowa surveys held some good news for Biden compared to some other recent surveys where Sanders did better, though the Vermont senator did still manage to make gains in two of today’s polls:

First, Monmouth University found Biden in the lead with 23 percent, followed by Sanders at 21 percent, Buttigieg at 16 percent, Warren at 15 percent and Klobuchar at 10 percent. And even though Biden was the poll’s leader, he was actually down a point from where he was in Monmouth’s last Iowa poll from early January. Buttigieg also fell a point, while Warren’s numbers were unchanged. Sanders, on the other hand, ticked up three points from 18 percent to 21 percent, and Klobuchar two points (though both gains were within the poll’s margin of error).

Next, Morningside College made their 2020 debut this week with an Iowa poll that found Biden very slightly ahead of the field with 19 percent. (Buttigieg came in second at 18 percent.) Meanwhile, Sanders and Warren were tied with 15 percent support while Klobuchar had 12 percent.

Finally, contrary to what Monmouth and Morningside found, Iowa State University/Civiqs’s new poll found Sanders leading the field by 5 percentage points with 24 percent support. Warren came next at 19 percent, followed by Buttigieg at 17 percent, Biden at 15 percent and Klobuchar at 11 percent. But keep in mind that Iowa State/Civiqs has found strong numbers for Buttigieg and Warren in the past, so once we account for house effects, the model treats their results as 15 and 14 percent, respectively. At the same time, this pollster has generally had Biden polling worse than other pollsters, so his number bumps up to 18 percent. There’s less of a known house effect for Sanders, though, so our model keeps his support at 24 percent, up 3 points from the pollster’s December survey. (Buttigieg fell 7 points from December and Klobuchar gained 7 points. Biden and Warren’s numbers were roughly the same.)

Of course, we’re not just interested in the topline results in these polls either. We’re also keeping an eye on questions regarding Iowa voters’ second-choice preferences, as voters No. 2 could be important on caucus night because voters have to shift support to a new candidate if their initial choice doesn’t meet a certain level of support at their caucus site (usually 15 percent).

So if there’s one reason not to write Warren off, it’s that she was the top second-choice pick in both the Monmouth (19 percent) and Iowa State/Civiqs (16 percent) polls. In other words, if she can remain viable at most caucus sites, she could still benefit when some voters have to realign. At the same time, though, Monmouth found that if the field was limited only to the top-four candidates, Biden would lead with 29 percent, followed by Sanders at 25 percent, Buttigieg at 20 percent, Warren at 19 percent, so it’s unclear just how much room Warren has to gain as a popular second-choice pick.

One other thing to keep in mind that is going on under the hood with these polls is that pollsters are trying to gauge who is actually going to show up and caucus, a process that’s much, much more involved than simply casting a ballot like in a primary. University of Delaware political scientist David Redlawsk recently pointed out that some Iowa polls have small but meaningful differences in the age makeup of their likely caucus-goers, which may play some role in who’s doing better in a given poll. For example, the Iowa State/Civiqs poll found Sanders leading among 18-to-34 year olds with 33 percent while Biden got just 1 percent! But that survey estimated that 47 percent of likely caucus-goers will be under 50 years old, a boon for Sanders’s topline number, whereas the 2016 entrance poll found that just 42 percent of caucus-goers were under the age of 50. Of course, it’s difficult to say who is right when it comes to trying to figure out who is going to show up on Monday — will more young people caucus in 2020 than in 2016? The answer is we won’t really know until caucus night, but it’s just another thing to consider when looking at the topline numbers in these polls.

And while Wednesday was an Iowa-heavy polling day, there was one new national poll from The Economist/YouGov that found the race between Biden and Sanders tightening. In their survey, Biden led Sanders by just 2 points, 26 percent to 24 percent, with Warren in third at 20 percent. This was a strong poll for Sanders, who was at 18 percent in last week’s Economist/YouGov national survey and 28 percent for Biden. There isn’t a sizable house effect for either Biden or Sanders, though Warren tends to do well in Economist/YouGov surveys.

Bottom line: The clock is ticking for Democrats in Iowa. Candidates don’t have much time left to make last-minute appeals and undecided voters can’t vacillate between candidates for much longer either. As recent polls and our forecast show, it’s shaping up to be a very competitive and potentially unpredictable contest — quite possibly the most competitive Iowa caucuses ever.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Geoffrey Skelley

TOASTYSTATS: HOW BIG IS WATTPAD?

I’ve been wondering for a long time how much fanfic is on Wattpad, how fast it’s growing, and how it compares to other major platforms. Especially after @fffinnagain did some analysis showing that posting rate on AO3 has surpassed posting on Fanfiction.net (FFN), and @fansplaining suggested in a recent episode that they thought maybe Wattpad has been turning away from fanfic, I was curious how Wattpad compared.

Only AO3 reports the exact number of fanworks on its site. To estimate the number of works on FFN and Wattpad, I wrote a script to sample random works from each site. (See details below).

You can see all the images in higher resolution on imgur.

So which site has the most fanfic?

It turns out that it depends how you count. See the first figure above.

As of late October/early November, when I was grabbing these numbers, AO3 has ~4.2M fanworks. AO3 additionally has ~50K works in the Original Work category.

All works on FFN are supposed to be fanfic, so I took the estimated total number of works to be the total amount of fanfic. (A fraction of the works in the Misc category appear to actually be original work, but I think generously that number could be estimated as 20K original works, which doesn’t substantially change my estimate that FFN has ~7.7M fanworks.

Unlike AO3 and FFN, Wattpad is a general self-publishing platform, and “Fanfiction” is only one genre that authors can choose. When you do a search on Wattpad, the site says there are 4.1M fanworks matching the term “Fanfiction.” Based on sampling, I estimate that there are may be more like 5.1M works in the “Fanfiction” genre. And then when I hand categorized 100 of them (based on title, summary, tags, and sometimes the first page of the fic), I realized that there are a whole lot of pieces of fanfic that the authors have placed in other genres (e.g., “Romance” or “Random”). Including works in other categories, I estimate closer to 8.0M fanworks.

Thus, Wattpad has either the lowest amount or highest amount of fanworks of all the platforms. ;P But it seems reasonable to think it probably has the most fanworks, or close to it. This also means that when they say they’ve had “over 400 million story uploads,” they are presumably counting individual chapters.

I’ll also get to this more in future posts, but according to both my sample and the site’s (confusing, opaque) search results, Fanfiction is the biggest genre on Wattpad.

If you’re like, Um, okay, so if it’s so big, why don’t I know anyone who uses Wattpad? well, that’s a reasonable question. I'm hoping to explore a number of differences between Wattpad and the other platforms in future posts. But partial spoiler alert -- Wattpad seems to most often be used for RPF, especially K-pop and other bandom fic. It also looks like the users skew more international than on the other sites (based on the distribution of languages -- e.g., Wattpad has lots of Spanish, Filipino, and other languages from across Asia, Europe, and Latin & South America). It possibly skews younger as well. And listen to/read @fansplaining‘s recent episode on monetization of fanfic for some great discussion of other platform differences.

Keep reading for more about site growth and missing works.

#fandom stats #wattpad #ao3 #ffn #fansplaining #fffinnagain #cross platform comparison #my stuff #toastystats #50 #100

Endangered Cetaceans, part 1

Killer whale, Orcinus orca

Despite being one of the most famous and well-known of all cetaceans, the killer whale has no listing on IUCN. Or rather, they have the listing "data deficient", because despite being one of the most well-studied marine animals in the world, we don't even know the survival status of the species as a whole.

We do know the status of several subpopulations, however.

As famous as the vaquita's plight is probably the poor state of the Southern resident population that lives in the Northeastern Pacific, off Washington and British Columbia. Supposed to number in the many hundreds, they now number only around 77. A rough 30 individuals were live-captured in the late 1960s-early 1970s, but they were threatened and diminished even before then, which no one knew at the time since there was no killer whale research.

They rose to their highest recorded point in the mid-1990s to about 90 whales, then began to sink again, having a clear hit in their numbers after 2011 with the Fukushima disaster on the other side of the Pacific. Infant mortality rates are extremely poor (at least 50% are estimated to die before six months of age, and the vast majority that survive still die before reaching maturity), and in the period of 2011-2014, not a single calf survived.

They are among the most contaminated animals anywhere in the ocean, and they are starving to death due to a lack of their main prey fish, Chinook salmon, which are decreasing because (the fish was listed as endangered in the area in 1999). The whale above (J34 Doublestuf, 2016) was a Southern resident male in his prime, who was killed by a boat strike.

Others in recent years have been killed by navy sonar blasts (L112 Sooke above, 2012), propeller strike (L98 Luna, 2006) and by clumsy researchers (L96 Nigel, 2016, died from poor tagging leading to infection and death).

Less known than the Southern residents, are the killer whales of the Strait of Gibraltar, which are listed as critically endangered. They as well are mainly dying off from starvation, as their almost exclusive prey fish, the bluefin tuna, is endangered because of overfishing. In essence, the whales are going extinct because we humans are eating all their food.

In the seven-year period of 1999-2005, only one calf survived, and in the five-year period of 2006-2010, not one calf survived.

I can only find varying numbers of the total population, from 12 in 2006 to 39 in 2011, which obviously can’t both be true.

Even worse off than either of these populations are the Scottish residents. They are already functionally extinct, as not a single calf has been born after they began being studied over thirty years ago, and only eight whales remain alive. The most recent whale to die, Lulu (above, 2016), was found with the among highest levels of toxic pollution ever found. This pollution makes the whales sterile.

In New Zealand, there are 150-200 killer whales, and they are extremely prone to boat strikes, leading to mutilation and death. The main researcher in these waters in NZ is Dr. Ingrid Visser, who is well-known for swimming with, petting from boats, and playing with the whales, essentially training them to approach humans and boats.

We can't know yet how many other populations may be threatened, and may be fooled by the species' overall abudance. But because killer whales don't traverse the great oceans but stay in the same areas all their lives, if individual populations go extinct, that will mean disaster for the species as a whole.

IUCN

Chinook salmon

Gibraltar

Gibraltar infant mortality

http://www.espolarte.com/guide/spain/gibraltardel.htm

Loro Parque Gibraltar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_bluefin_tuna

Bluefin tuna - IUCN

UK’s last killer whales

http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/799913/Killer-whales-uk-doomed-toxic-pollution-threat-extinction-orcas

A last refuge

Boat strike dead calf NZ

http://us.whales.org/news/2000/12/another-orca-is-hit-by-boat-in-new-zealand

Ingrid Visser profiting

#endangered cetaceans #killer whales #killer whale #orca #orca whale #New Zealand #Scotland #Gibraltar

The Rose and Thorn: Chapter V

summary: Sequel to The Dark Horizon. The New World, 1740: Killian and Emma Jones have lived in peace with their family for many years, their pirate past long behind them. But with English wars, Spanish plots, rumors of a second Jacobite rising, and the secret of the lost treasure of Skeleton Island, they and their son and daughter are in for a dangerous new adventure. OUAT/Black Sails. rating: M status: WIP available: FF.net and AO3 previous: chapter IV

The water was a color Geneva had never seen before: the rich, unearthly green of deep open ocean far from any land to interrupt its endless, slow-motion tumbles, with waves that reminded her of slumbering giants stirring and rolling in their sleep, rather than the sharp and vigorous crash of shore waves or reef breakers. She had been on and around the sea as long as she could remember, but even she had felt a brief stab of apprehension when the distant shadow of Eleuthera – the last island between them and three thousand miles of the Atlantic – had fallen permanently astern. They were bound north by northeast, would stop over in Bermuda in about a week, and then, assuming good weather, strike out on the major leg to London. It was mid-July now, and the very best estimate put them there no earlier than Daddy’s birthday, on Saint Bartholomew’s day in the last week of August. Add in any storms or delays, and that could easily become the first fortnight of September. Then add in whatever the blazes Silver wanted to do once there, how long it took them to track down Billy Bones, the fact that setting back across to the Americas any later than October at the tail end was regarded as too dangerous for most shipping assurance agents to underwrite, and it looked quite likely that they would be spending the winter in England. Where this would be, or who was going to provide for this, or if they would be reduced to begging door to door for ha’pennies, Geneva had no notion. Considering who she had aboard, she didn’t think so, but still.

It was almost dusk, the red-gold orb of the sun spilling into the waves behind them as the Rose pointed her bow into the deepening night, and Geneva pulled her shawl tighter as she stood at the rail, the ship’s lanterns flickering to life as the crew lit them. It would be time for supper soon, but she would eat later in her quarters with Madi. At least nobody had killed anyone else yet, although the arrangement could not be said to have been rigorously tested when it was only three days old. And that was also not to say that Geneva did not expect –

“Captain Jones?”

Geneva grimaced, managed to control the expression, and turned instead with a pleasant smile. “Good evening, Mr. Silver. Did you require something?”

His own smile was wry, as if acknowledging that she had likely been enjoying said evening more before he appeared to further darken its doorstep. He moved up next to her, gazing out at the distant, cloud-veiled horizon, grey-black curls whipping loose from their thick ponytail. At last he said, “I did not need something, per se. I was only hoping that you and I could establish ourselves on more cordial terms. After all, we have a good deal of time to spend together, and it is always easier to do so in amicability. As well, I realize – understandably, of course – that you do not trust me, and I thought that too should be addressed. There is a great deal of indirect history between us, and. . . well.” He shrugged. “Perhaps I too am curious.”

Geneva regarded him coolly. “Trying to befriend me so as to decrease the chances of Madi and myself continuing to remain allied together against you? Is that it? You never do anything or approach anyone without half a dozen ulterior motives.”