I'm blue (Da Ba Dee) @theblueescapist - Tumblr Blog

Posts

thoughtkick

“How beautiful is it that someone could make your heart beat so fast when you don’t want it to beat at all.”

— Unknown

Dr. Sallon and her team thought it was an extinct species known from history as Judean Balsam, but it turned out to be something called Tsor

"During an archaeological dig in a desert area north of Jerusalem 40 years ago, a seed was discovered which was determined to be in pristine condition but had obviously seen many a year.

Now, despite falling from its parent 1,000 years ago, it has grown into a mature tree, and botanists examining it believe it may be an extinct species that was used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years—even receiving a nod in the Bible.

Neither Israeli botanists, nor Dr. Sarah Sallon, a physician who founded the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, could determine what species it was from simply from the seed covering. So they did what nature intended—they planted it.

Using a well-documented technique that saw 2,000-year-old date palm fruit pits germinate, Dr. Sallon soaked the seed in hormones, liquid fertilizer, and water, and then planted it in a pot of sterile seed; then waited.

Despite its genetic code being exposed to environmental stressors for over 1,000 years, the seed sprouted after 5 weeks. The shoot was protected by a caplike feature called an operculum. As the shoot grew, the operculum was shed—leaving something for the team to radiocarbon date. It narrowed down the age of the almost 10-centuries-old seed to between the years 993 an 1202.

Fast forward 14 years and the plant has become a 10-foot-tall tree. Dr. Sallon shared images of the tree, its bark, and its leaves with botanists around the world. One expert suggested it belonged to the genus Commiphora, found across the Arabian Peninsula and parts of Africa. A genetic analysis subsequently revealed this was the case, but a perfect match was lacking.

Pictured: The tree, now 14 years old.

Dr. Sallon and her team thought it was an extinct species known from history as Judean Balsam, but the best way to confirm that suspicion would be to have some aromatic traces similar to the resins of the myrrh tree to which it is related. However, no such fragrant compounds were detected.

Instead, the chemical analysis of the leaves identified a group of phytochemicals known as guggulterols which have been observed in a related species called Commiphora wightii that’s known to possess certain cancer-fighting properties in its resin.

A medicinal balm, the origin of which is not known, is mentioned in multiple historical texts including the Bible as ‘tsori,’ and rather than the fragrant Judean Balsam, it’s this tsori that Dr. Sallon and her team believe they have found.

They must wait until the tree, now 14 years old, produces flower or fruit to know for sure if it’s an extinct species, and if so, how to perhaps keep it alive.

Dr. Louise Colville, senior research leader in seed and stress biology at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London who wasn’t involved in the research, told CNN that it was a major accomplishment to grow a seed that old and possibly lead to a resurrection of this Biblical botanical.

“What’s surprising in this story is it was just a single seed and to be able to have one chance for that to germinate is extremely lucky,” she said.

“Working in a seed bank, seeing the potential for that extreme longevity gives us hope that banking and storing seeds that some at least will survive for very long periods of time.”"

-via Good News Network, October 8, 2024

Note: This is such a good demonstration of why seed banks are so important!! They give us such real and massive hope for deextinction and the revival of endangered species.

#science #hopeful post is hopeful

once-a-polecat

This is badass: Medieval Nubian Fashion Brought to Life. Click through to the link because there’s more replica clothing and it is all stunning!

This is AMAZING.

Why You Should ‘Make Yourself’ Write (And How To Do It)

Most people who write for a hobby - especially the neurodivergent crowd - will write whenever they’re inspired, and many will be able to get an insane amount of writing done in one go, but then there’s a good while of writer’s block and low motivation/inspiration in between those bursts of creativity. You can see forcing yourself to write as something irrelevant to you; it’s just a hobby, so why burn yourself out forcing yourself to do it until it’s no longer fun?

The reason people say this, even for hobbyists, is so that you have some level of consistent progress; relying on random spikes in creativity or convenient hyperfocus isn’t a sustainable plan when it can either leave you burnt out after or leave you at a creative dead end for weeks or months between actual writing sessions

If you write consistently, you make progress consistently, so it’s good practice to make a habit out of using writing goals to keep you on track. Maybe you work best writing X amount of words, or maybe you prefer to write for X amount of time. Maybe you want to meet this goal every day, or maybe every few days, or maybe every week, or so on. I’m personally on 1000 words per week, and despite my autistic brain that thought I’d never be able to set and keep a consistent goal, I’ve been able to stick to it for nearly six months now. I also know people who are on 10 minutes per day, 100 words per week, 500 words every three days, 5000 words per month, etc

For me, being able to keep track of this not only means I get to see consistent progress being made, but it’s actually been really encouraging to see that word count go up so often and I’ve found that it motivates me to keep up with it. I’ve really enjoyed getting to work on this and having a minimum amount of progress per week really helps me feel like this is something real and something that’s slowly but surely going to be complete soon enough

Give it a try; say to yourself “if I want to achieve this goal, how long do I reasonably need to give myself to do it?” and have a go. After a few cycles it starts to register in your brain that, hey, you’re actually getting something done and being productive and watching that word count going up every day/week/etc! And don’t be afraid to change up your goal and your deadline if you think you’re not being challenged enough or if you’re starting to get burnt out on it - I’d consider it burning out when it’s consistently feeling less like a fun activity and more like a chore you have to do. It should still be fun!

#writing tips

a-hollow-forest

"people show their true colours in life threatening situations" no, they show you what they act like when they're mortally terrified, an emotion notorious for literally turning your entire brain off to the point where people who go into those situations as a profession need to be literally trained on how to not have that happen

divine0men

People ACTUALLY show you who they are when it comes to convenience (in my experience) lemme explain:

How they treat wait-staff

How they handle literal accidents (like spilled coffee, a broken item, etc)

And something small admittedly- do they put the shopping cart in the designated spot? I know we ain’t all perfect and sometimes ur tired and hurting but more often than not? Do they put it where it’s supposed to?

Humility (how do they act when they find out they’re wrong? And do they act different if someone of a “higher” rank tells them they’re wrong vs if a “lower rank” tells them they’re wrong?

So they wait for u to enter your home or do they leave as soon as they drop you off?

Do they tell you to put on your seat belt

#relationship advice

everythingfox

Blessed

(via)

coldsaturn

All I'm saying is that some of you should have warned me before I had a mild heart attack in a random Milan bookstore

#The Foxhole Court #TFC #All For The Game #AFTG

Mood

Same, doge, same

an Iraqi gamer's beautiful review of Disco Elysium

Full of helium

I lost count as a child

everythingfox

Enjoy this educational video

#cats

beardedmrbean

Well would you look at that

blackwolfmanx3

A tale as old as time.

#turtles

my-random--thoughts-deactivated

devilchiara

#this poor cat was thrown into it's very own survival horror game#it woke up and everyone was gone#a strange person she's never met before was hunting her down at random hours every day#invading her home with still no sign of her family anywhere#of Course she has the world weary stare of a horror protagonist (via @fnafmybeloved)

#cats

starlightervarda

Usage of Arabic Terms of Endearment

A run-down of the various terms and how and when to use them.

I get the appeal of calling someone ‘my life’ but hayati is not said nearly as often as the fandom has made it out to be. It’s not really the equivalent of ‘baby’ or ‘honey’, it’s a more intense term, is what I’m saying. Habibi is though.

There are tiers to terms of endearment and I’m going to try and break them down.

1. Habibi means ‘my beloved/darling’, in the relationship-sense it can mean ‘my lover’ / ‘my boyfriend’. It is the most commonly-used term to denote affection.

Like, do you have any idea how many Arabic love songs include habibi? If I made a compilation of sound-bites from every song that included ‘habibi’ it would be ten hours-long.

In every day conversations and among thoughtless pet names, it would be habibi.

It requires a different mood/intent/occasion. It can also be used for non-romantic relationships, like friends, pets, siblings or even acquaintances – you know how there are some really friendly people who call everyone sweetie/love?

2. Hayati would be more emotionally-charged and tender scenes, like after Nicky was killed by Keane or when Joe was waxing poetic about his love for him in the van.

Habibi vs Hayati is like the difference between calling someone babe / sweetie / love and calling them love of my life / my heart.

3. In a flirty sense, you can use ya amar – comparing someone to the Moon is the highest compliment. There’s also ya ‘assal (honey) usually used in regards to someone being sweet i.e. more personality than looks. Same goes for sokkar (sugar). And, of course, ya (g)jamil (Beauty), you can also combine it into ya amar ya (g)jamil (Beautiful Moon).

4. More intensely romantic (can be used for strong familial love) terms include ‘Omri (my entire life) and Hobi (my love) Rohi (my soul), Albi (my heart), and to a lesser extent ya ‘eyooni (my eyes) sometimes the three can be said in succession habibi, albi, rohi…

You can even make combinations like roh albi (soul of my heart), habib albi (beloved of my heart) and hayat albi (life of my heart).

5. And if you want to get real gushy and cutesy Haboob (darling), Amoori (Moon), ‘Assool (Honey) are like babycakes, sweetie pie, honeybunches etc. Usage depends on the tone, you can either be very lovey-dovey or purposefully cringey.

Unless you’re using babytalk to a literal baby.

6. Those can all also be used with heavy sarcasm/mockery, like when you’re about to tear someone a new one you could be like ‘Ya habibi, ya albi, ya rohi, I’m begging you to stop being such a moron’.

So, yeah, in memes and every day usage it’s habibi, in cheesy flirty scenes it’s ya sokkar/ya ‘assal. In compliments it’s ya amar and in more loving and focused moments it’s rohi, albi, hayati, etc.

(You can use most of these as platonic/familial)

7. There’s also different words for Love. Generally, it’s Hob –> Habibi/Hobi and I Love You is Ana Bahebak. In poetic (romantic) terms, there’s Hawa (Passion/Attraction) like ‘I’m a fool for you’ and ‘Ishq (Ardor) – think Mr. Darcy’s ‘I love you most ardently’ can both denote the process of falling in love, conjugated as Ahwak and A’shiqaq respectively. There’s also Shoq (Longing/Yearning) which sounds like Shok the word for thorns.

But outside of poetry and songs, I Love You is typically Hob / Ana Bahebak. It’s the clearest and most precise.

To sum up:

Table of comparison:

Habibi = Babe / Sweetie / Darling

Ya Amar = Gorgeous / Beautiful

Hayati = Love of My Life

#languages

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

I'm blue (Da Ba Dee)