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bethanythebogwitch · 1 year

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It occurs to me that I have yet to cover an actual bony fish for Wet Beast Wednesday, so it's billfish time. Billfish are a group of related fish in the families Xiphidae (swordfish) and Istioporidae (marlins) that are knows for their long, pointed rostra, commonly known as bills. The taxonomic placement of billfish is something of an open question. Some sources place them with barracudas in the order Istiophoriformes while newer sources group billfish and barracudas with the tuna and mackerels in a group that I'm delighted to inform you are called scrombroids.

(image: a swordfish)

All 12 living species of billfish are large, migratory predators which live in the epipelagic zone (sunlit region) of the open ocean that rarely approach shore. As they either lack teeth or have small, file-like teeth, they feed primarily on small fish they can swallow whole. Billfish typically hunt schooling fish like mackerel or herring by swimming through the school, waving their bill from side to side to strike and stun and/or injure fish so they can be easily eaten on a second pass. Despite common depictions, billfish rarely impale or slice apart prey. Some species may also use their bills for defense as bills have been found imbedded in predators such as sharks. There are reports of billfish charging boats and getting their bills stuck, which is likely accidental. Many pelagic fish are attracted to floating objects so the billfish may have charged fish around the boat or mistaken the boat for a school of fish. Swordfish have broad, flat bills while marlins have rounded bills.

(image: a swordfish skeleton)

Billfish are considered highly migratory as they are constantly moving, migrating to follow the currents and find the best feeding grounds for their prey. Some species restrict their migration to certain regions (with half of the living species living primarily or exclusively in the Indian Ocean) while others, like the swordfish, live worldwide. Because of their constant migration and wide distribution, it can be hard to find and study them in the wild. Consequently, little is known of their movements and life histories, which complicates conservation efforts. All species live primarily within the epipelagic zone, but some will occasionally descend to the mesopelagic (twilight) zone. They have specialized swim bladders that can quickly compensate for pressure changes. This allows billfish in the mesopelagic to quickly ascend where other fish would have to slowly acclimate to the pressure difference. In the open ocean, speed is often one of the most important traits for both predator and prey, as there is nowhere to hide. Billfish are masters of speed. All species are capable of rapid bursts of speed, though the sailfish holds the record for the world's fastest fish. They have been reported moving up to 111 km/h (69 mph) though more modern estimates suggest this is an exaggeration and their top speed is between 37 and 55 km/h (23 to 23 mph). Like cheetahs, billfish are sprinters, only able to move so fast in short bursts. Billfish can tuck their dorsal fins into grooves on their backs to further streamline their bodies and are slightly endothermic, keeping their body temperature a few degrees above the water temperature, both adaptations that help with their speed.

(image: two marlin and some fish that are about to have a very bad day)

The swordfish (Xiphias gladius) is the most famous billfish and has several physiological differences from its marlin cousins. Interestingly, they have both teeth and scales as juveniles, but lose them ad adults. During the day, swordfish live in deep water, hunting in the deep scattering layer (which is worthy of its own post), ascending to shallower water at night. They are known to bask with their dorsal fins out of the water and to jump out of the water, likely an attempt to dislodge lampreys and remoras. Another famous billfish is the sailfish, a species of marlin known for its extremely large dorsal fin, which extends down most of the back. Known as the sail, this fin is raised during hunting to herd prey and is kept flat against the body most of the time. Sailfish have also been seen raising their sails after hunts, probably using them to cool down after a strenuous period of activity. Sailfish were previously divided into two species, the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific species, but most sources now consider them to be the same species.

(image: a sailfish with sail raised hunting a group of small fish)

All species of billfish are popular gamefish and many are fished commercially. Anglers consider billfish to be highly coveted due to their large sizes and the fights they put up. They are one of the more dangerous gamefish as they can easily injure or kill a person with their bills while thrashing around. There are no reports of billfish attacking someone unprovoked. Many species are being overfished or are having they prey overfished and conservation efforts have been put in place for some of them.

(Image: a sword made of a swordfish bill I found at an aquarium)

#wet beast wednesday #biology #fishblr #fish #animals #ecology #zoology #marine biology #swordfish #marlin #sailfish #cw animal skeleton

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max1461 · 10 months

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Okay, here is one such policy. Here is a specific example of a large governing body actually using the term “replacement” to describe its immigration goals for Europe and the United States. https://archive.is/YH9cY I am sending you an archive link because the actual page was taken down. Surprise surprise, people don’t want to be replaced.

Now of course, the world is somewhat complex. It’s not like the UN is the world government. So you need to go to other people and other governments. Look into the immigration policy of every single western nation - the immigration policy of all of them are moving third world trash in the millions into White nations. Do you think those migrant boats (which luckily do sometimes sink) come from nowhere? No, they come from anti-White governments and NGOs working in tandem to change the demographics. It must be also remembered that immigration is not natural. Immigrants are imported. Immigration could be curbed at any moment - in fact, one of the principle reasons for founding civilization at all is “protecting ourselves from outsiders.”

I sent you quotes from individual people, which you then described as “quotes from randos.” An example of one such rando was Joe Biden, a rando who I think has some government position nowadays. He stated at the 2015 White House global conference on confronting global extremism (where they sometimes let randos speak) that “the black box” for America, which he defined as “the secret hidden strength,” was 1. Skepticism for orthodoxy, and 2. The fact that White people will become a minority through mass migration.

An important concept I sent you, which you just kinda glazed over, was the Celebration Parallax. A parallax is the effect where the same thing is viewed differently by different angles. If someone says “the Great Replacement is real, and it’s bad and awful,” then they are a right-wing nutjob conspiracy theorists freak like me. If someone says “the Great Replacement is real, and it’s a good thing. White people will become a minority, your grandkids will be brown” like you then they are not incorrect in any way. Ash Sarkar is a Pakistani politician within British who has specifically pointed to changing demographics being real, and described it with “we’re winning.” Why would she say that? Why would she say “we’re winning” when describing how Pakistanis are replacing the British through demographic change? Mark Sotok of the SPLC has a chart on his wall of the declining White population, specifically singling out the year 1965 when the immigration act was passed. The 1965 immigration act was passed under false pretenses, by the way. People at the time correctly pointed out it would change the demographics of the USA, and it’s supporters simply lied and said it wouldn’t do that. It was passed, and demographics changed, which was always the purpose.

But I’m getting off on tangents. The point is, once you say the Great Replacement is good, you are no longer a conspiracy theorist. It’s only people who say it is bad who are conspiracy theorists.

“The man of the future will be a mongrel. Today's races and classes will disappear owing to the disappearing of space, time, and prejudice. The Eurasian-Negroid race of the future, similar in its outward appearance to the Ancient Egyptians, will replace the diversity of peoples with a diversity of individuals." - Richard Nikolaus von Coudenhove-Kalergi, Austrian politician, father of the modern European Union, certainly not a right wing crank

“We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him." - Jose Angel Gutierrez, Chicano activist, attorney and university professor, who probably doesn’t mean that, right?

“The key to solving the social problems of our age is to abolish the White race. The goal of abolishing the White race is on its face so desirable that some may find it hard to believe that it could incur any opposition other than from committed White supremacists. We'll keep bashing the dead White males, and the live ones, and the females too, until the social construct known as the White race is destroyed. Not deconstructed, but destroyed. Treason to the White race is Loyalty to Humanity." - Professor Noel Ignatiev at Harvard

The 21st century will be a century of mass genocide so complete and total that the genocides of the 19th and 20th (even the fake ones) will pale in comparison. The only question now is which races aren’t surviving.

Ok, let's start at the very beginning. That link does not say what you are claiming it says.

To quote from your link:

United Nations projections indicate that over the next 50 years, the populations of virtually all countries of Europe as well as Japan will face population decline and population ageing. The new challenges of declining and ageing populations will require comprehensive reassessments of many established policies and programmes, including those relating to international migration. Focusing on these two striking and critical population trends, the report considers replacement migration for eight low-fertility countries (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and United States) and two regions (Europe and the European Union). Replacement migration refers to the international migration that a country would need to offset population decline and population ageing resulting from low fertility and mortality rates.

So, first of all, this is not a policy. It is a report by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, reviewing the scientific evidence for whether a particular policy would be successful. This is similar to the IPCC climate change reports. If you know anything about those, you'll know that the advice of reports like this is not necessarily likely to be followed by world governments at all.

Ok, with that out of the way, what policy is this report examining? Well, you can read it for yourself, but it says it right there in the bit I quote: the report is examining the policy of offsetting already declining local populations through immigration. So it's not about shrinking the white population on purpose! It literally does not advocate that. It's basically saying "in developed countries where the native born population is already shrinking, can immigration be used to provide a source of young laborers to bolster the economy?"

That is the policy of "replacement" they're talking about, not some policy of intentionally shrinking the native born (white, Japanese, Korean, whatever) population!

Do you understand how this is different than what you claimed?

And, just to be clear, the report mentioned Japan and South Korea as countries where this policy could be tried as well, because they have low birthrates and shrinking native-born populations. But, again, the report is not advocating wiping out Japanese people. It's saying "Japan's population is already shrinking for reasons that we can't control. Given that it's already shrinking, could Japan offset its population decline through immigration."

This is not a policy of intentional race extermination. It just isn't. It's clear that you didn't even read the fucking report you linked, because that is simply not what it says.

So, on to the next thing.

[Joe Biden] stated at the 2015 White House global conference on confronting global extremism (where they sometimes let randos speak) that “the black box” for America, which he defined as “the secret hidden strength,” was 1. Skepticism for orthodoxy, and 2. The fact that White people will become a minority through mass migration.

Ok, this is a fun one because it's obvious you just saw the Tucker Carlson clip on this, and didn't actually go to the original source. Anyway, you can watch the full clip of Biden speaking here.

Tucker Carlson excerpted the following quote for a segment on his show, and it's what's apparently got everyone in hysterics:

An unrelenting stream of immigration, nonstop, nonstop. Folks like me who were Caucasian, of European descent for the first time in 2017 will be in an absolute minority in the United States of America, absolute minority. Fewer than 50 percent of the people in America from then and on will be White European stock. That’s not a bad thing. That’s as a source of our strength.

Anyway, if you actually watch the whole clip, Biden starts talking about the "constant stream of immigration" referring to (primarily white) immigration in the 1700s. He specifically mentions the Irish (because he's Irish)! Later in the discussion he mentions that white people will be less than 50% of the population in 2017, and it's pretty clear that he's saying this to illustrate the point that America is very open to immigrants. Like, he's not saying this because he thinks the demographic change itself is great, or because he wants white people to be a minority. It's extremely clear that he's just using this as one among several ways to illustrate the old "America is nation of immigrants" talking point, which he was already discussing just a few sentences earlier.

I frankly think there's basically no ambiguity at all here, when he says "that's the source of our strength", he means "immigration is the source of our strength", not "white people becoming a minority is the source of our strength". Like, just watch the whole clip!

The "America is a nation of immigrants" talking point isn't new. That talking point has been around for over a hundred years at this point! Emma Lazarus wrote The New Colossus in 1883! It's just a fucking talking point that every American president parrots. It has nothing to do with intentionally manipulating racial demographics, it has very little to do with actual policy (because American immigration policy has always been hostile to whatever the newest wave of migrants is), and it definitely isn't because of some UN report. Biden is trying to sound progressive, and he knows that pro-immigration talking points poll well with progressive voters, and so he's repeating the oldest one in the book.

This is really obvious. He's just a politician being a politician. It's not a conspiracy.

I'll give you one thing, he does unambiguously say that it's not a bad thing for white people to become less than 50% of the population. And, well, I agree! It's not a bad thing, it's not a good thing, it's just a neutral thing. Populations change and I'm not worried about it. But just because Joe Biden and I agree that it's not a bad thing doesn't mean either of us are trying to fucking orchestrate it happening in a grand conspiracy. This is just dumb.

Ok, next thing:

Now, I want you to read this next paragraph very carefully, because you have repeatedly ignored it, and I will not respond to any future messages in which it is clear you have not read it carefully:

When you very first messaged me, I asked you to define the Great Replacement. You defined it to me as an intentional policy, by Western governments, of trying to shrink the white population and replace them with immigrants. That is what you said. Do you understand this? Ok. And I said "demographics are changing, but it's not because of an intentional policy to get rid of white people. It's just the natural result of people having more freedom to move around the world. Demographic change is a neutral fact, it's not good or bad. People having more freedom of movement is good. So I support laxer immigration policies, and I don't really care about demographic change one way or the other".

Do you understand the position I am stating here? Again, I will not respond to any future messages in which you show me that you don't understand what I am saying. So read that paragraph as many times as you need to to be really confident that you've got it.

We do not simply have a "difference of perspectives" on the same thing. We are saying different things. You are saying there is a set of intentional policies to replace white people. I am saying there is not. We both agree that demographics are changing. I agree that the white population in the US seems to be shrinking, and although I haven't looked at the stats for any EU countries, I don't have any reason to doubt that it's shrinking in some of those countries too. We agree about this part.

You keep accusing me of thinking that this demographic change is good, and of wanting to exterminate white people. I keep telling you that I think this demographic change is neutral, and I don't care how many white people there are.

Do you understand? I have said this to you at least six times at this point. You have shown me that you can actually follow what I'm saying if I tell you that I won't respond to you otherwise, so you need to read what I just said until you understand it if you want to keep having this conversation. The above paragraphs are the most import part of this post. If you show me that you did not pay attention to them I will not respond to your message.

Ok, next thing:

Ash Sarkar is a Pakistani politician within British who has specifically pointed to changing demographics being real, and described it with “we’re winning.” Why would she say that? Why would she say “we’re winning” when describing how Pakistanis are replacing the British through demographic change?

I have no fucking idea. Ash Sarkar is a fucking YouTube political commentator, this is someone I would describe as "a rando". It does not matter to me what she thinks. Having seen a couple of her videos I suspect it was probably a joke, but I don't know, and even if she was serious it doesn't support your point. Because she is a fucking rando. I can find just as many internet commentators actually saying they want to exterminate black people. There are members of the KKK in elected office in the US. If you can use randos to back up your point then so can I. People believe all kinds of shit. If you want to show that some policy exists, you need to point to the evidence of that policy actually being carried out. For white supremacist policies I can actually do this, I can point you to evidence of segregation and redlining and so on. If you can't do this for the Great Replacement (as you fucking defined it) then you have no argument.

Next thing:

Mark Sotok of the SPLC has a chart on his wall of the declining White population, specifically singling out the year 1965 when the immigration act was passed. The 1965 immigration act was passed under false pretenses, by the way. People at the time correctly pointed out it would change the demographics of the USA, and it’s supporters simply lied and said it wouldn’t do that. It was passed, and demographics changed

Again, I don't care that demographics changed. I don't care about what percentage white people are of the population. I like when people have freedom of movement and I do not care if this changes population demographics.

which was always the purpose.

I strongly suspect it was not. If you think that it was, please provide any evidence at all.

I agree that this guy thought this. I don't deny that, like, some people have held this ideology. But if you think this is what motivates either the modern left or major world governments, I think you're just not paying attention to what's actually going on. There are pro-immigration camps and anti-immigration camps in every democracy. Sometimes people in the pro-immigration camps use rhetoric like this, but mostly they don't. They use they same rhetoric that I'm using, or they talk about the economic benefits, or whatever. The anti-immigration camps have their own rhetoric. The policies that actually get passed, like all policies, are then compromise positions between the desires of the various factions involved. But there's no conspiracy to eliminate white people, and the kind of position you are quoting here is very uncommon in my experience.

No I'm sure he means that, he's just a fucking random academic. I told you that quotes from random academics and shit are not evidence. There's random academics who say the physical world doesn't exist, it's all a product of subjective consciousness. Do you think that guides the policy of Joe fucking Biden? Cause I don't.

I'm pretty sure this person is talking about abolishing the concept of whiteness, which is actually a pretty common position among academics. There are a lot of academics who talk about "abolishing race", and what they mean is abolishing the idea of race, so that people will no longer think of themself as "white" or "black" or whatever, but just as "people". Pretty often they specifically want to abolish the idea of a "white race" because they think that the concept of "whiteness" been used as a tool of oppression. So they'd rather white people just identify their ethnicity as like "Italian" or "Irish" or whatever if they have to, and not as "white". Like I said, this is a pretty common position among humanities academics.

I know this is what these people are saying because I've met these people. They like to dress up their ideas in the most radical sounding language they can, which is basically a strategy for making themselves sound cool to their in-group. But what they actually believe is pretty moderate; it's not that all white people should die, it's that white people should no longer use the collective identity of "white".

I don't know if that's what this person is saying, but it kind of sounds like that's what this person is saying. It has all the hallmarks of a humanities academic trying to sound provocative for clout. Do you see how they refer to "the social construct of the White race"? So they're not saying they want to kill white people, but that they want to kill the idea of "Whiteness".

It's unfortunate that they talk this way, because it feeds into conspiracy theories like yours. I've tried to explain this to people but they usually don't listen. Unfortunate.

This is so fucking stupid, and I'm gonna be frank with you, I kind of think you know it's stupid. Like I've avoided pointing this out until now, but you insert all these cheeky little comments and provocative asides into what you're saying in a way that makes me think at some level you know you're saying it to get a rise out of people, you like adding in the most extreme bits you can because it's fun. You're a dumbass.

#anon #society #hooooo boy #hey if anybody sees any typos in this please point them out to me #I don't have the energy to proof read right now

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vela-pulsars · 2 years

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Sketched a lil theory I had because I love the idea of ancestors and skykids having fantasy logic levels of anatomy and basically being lantern folks. Hollow inside for light and warmth :]

Explaining my reasoning and thoughts under the cut, it's a bit long.

I never really liked when people went into the trope of losing magic when growing up to explain why ancestors (who pretty much represent "adults" in that game) are flightless, because it makes people afraid of growing up and missing out on their youth.

I think both youth and adulthood have their pros and cons. As a kid you might feel lighter because (ideally) you're safe and taken care of, you're given space to mess up and try things, and you're new in a world bigger than you can imagine. As an adult, you're toughened up by experience so you're less vulnerable to the horrors that you were spared from as a child. You're less sheltered, but also free. You hopefully have a better vision of who you are and what you want, staying critical of your surroundings.

It could be the same with ancestors and skykids, who I headcanon as different because while they represent the old generation ("adults") whose legacy is inherited by the new generation ("children"), that doesn't necessarily mean older skykids would lose their wings if they grew up. Rather, I think they are simply built different.

The ancestors could be made from heavier but sturdier material. They could withstand darkness for longer than skykids (see how Crab Whisperer walks through the polluted muddy waters of the shipwreck) at the cost of being less receptive to attempts at recharging their light, which would fit the concept art where they grew detached from and less attuned to the Light. Perhaps they were more reluctant to be vulnerable in a world getting more hostile as well, isolating them further and starting a viscious cycle of distrust.

In contrast, skykids could be made from fragile but lighter materials. They can take off with the slightest breeze, and have no problem mutually recharging eachother and taking in light from their surroundings. They're more vulnerable to darkness, but in groups they can survive it. It would also fit the contrast between the strenght in numbers of skykids getting them through trials, and how following the hero's journey crushes a single person with the fate of the world much like ancestors relying on themselves alone when they ran out of light and reaching a critical point above their darkness tolerance were doomed to fail.

I think the power of flight comes from Skykids just being built to be featherweights, but it symbolically represents connection; we see from ruins and murals flying boats were omnipresent, and in concept art you can see water is sacred in Sky (interesting how it's what harms you in Forest and Wasteland) so I like to think fluid elements (air and water) as well as what is used to navigate them (boats and large light creatures) would have some importance beyond transportation to ancestors, perhaps they were linked to the Light as well since it represents connection ! Rivers and seas irl were used worldwide since ancient times for trade and even as roads, and nowadays we took that to the sky... Skykids could be meant to succeed where ancestors failed, because in Sky, alone and isolated we struggle, connected together we soar.

Interesting fact, in the help menu for emotes, the game refers to the spirits as "your ancestors"... And with the whole death and rebirth thing, could it be that we play reincarnated ancestors ? The Light seems to go in cycles, carried by light creature migrations, ancestors before they sedentarized and now skykids, from the farthest reaches of the kingdom to Eden where it will ascend to the stars then rain back down on the world.

Like a drop of water making its way down to the sea then going back up the mountains with clouds to complete the cycle again, perhaps skykids are, in a way, the incarnation of the dreams of flight of ancestors if not their reincarnation within that river of light.

Hence why I think they would be similar to eachother, and really like how poetic it would be if they were like lanterns.

#sky: children of the light #thatskygame #sky:cotl #sky spoilers

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fatehbaz · 1 year

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Paul Van Damme and Fortuna Vargas Mejía met 28 years ago in Puerto Villarroel, a village in the Bolivian department of Cochabamba. Van Damme was a Belgian marine biologist who found in the lagoons of the Bolivian Amazon “the closest thing to a sea.” Vargas was a native of Cochabamba who had worked as a navigator for 12 years before becoming a fisherman, so he knew well the Amazonian rivers and lagoons [...].

At that time — the 1990s — commercial fishing had just begun to boom in Puerto Villarroel, a municipality located on the banks of the Ichilo River in the Mamoré Basin [...] of the Bolivian Amazon. [...] Until then, the area and its forests had been well preserved and was home to a mainly Indigenous population. People from the Moxo and Yuqui Indigenous groups lived in communities along the banks of the river [...]. Little by little, people from other parts of Bolivia started to move to the urban center of Puerto Villarroel and its outskirts, leading to it eventually becoming the main and largest commercial port connecting western and eastern Bolivia. [...]

These investigations eventually led to the study of the bufeo, or river dolphin (Inia boliviensis), a species endemic to the Madera River Basin, the largest population of which is found in Bolivia. As a predator of small- and medium-sized migratory fish, the river dolphin’s presence is viewed as an indicator of aquatic and riparian habitat health. Put another way: It is very sensitive to any changes in the ecosystem [...].

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In murky waters such as those of the Ichilo River, the dolphin was often seen shimmying to the rhythm of the waves and then disappearing, and it was a mystery as to where it would rear its head again. Sometimes, when the observation boat passed through warmer and clearer waters, small groups of 4-5 dolphins would appear in groups [...]. Last year, nature photographer Alejandro de los Ríos captured a pair of dolphins with an anaconda in their mouths. It is not known if they were playing with it or about to devour it, but the image was featured in news outlets around the world [...].

Until 2006, I. boliviensis was thought to be a subspecies of the Amazonian river dolphin, Inia geoffrensis, but [...] it was identified as an independent species. This differentiation, however, is still in the process of being recognized internationally. [...]. That is why, in the Bolivian Red Book of Vertebrates, it is considered a Vulnerable species, while for the International Union for Conservation of Nature it is listed as Endangered. [...] Far from the debate, experts in conservation, biology and ecology have reacted with astonishment to the findings about Bolivia’s only fully aquatic mammal. Details about these aquatic mammals include [...] they behave differently whether they are in dark or clear waters; the mothers and the whole group take care of the offspring; and not only do they not want their offspring to go near the fishing nets, but they seem to reprimand them when they do so. Such findings are “new and fascinating” information, according to Lila Sainz, wildlife officer for WWF-Bolivia. [...]

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[T]he presence of the dolphin has been reported in nine protected areas across Bolivia. [...] [T]he animals tend to migrate long distances [...]. “We have to take into account that I. boliviensis moves through rivers, but the other aquatic systems it uses, such as lagoons, meanders, and the surrounding habitat all are also important,” said Gabriel Tavera, a biologist [...]. “Furthermore, a number of these protected areas flood with water during the rainy season, meaning the bufeo can also swim through flooded forests,” he added.

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Image, caption, and text by: Rocio Lloret. “Scientists and fishers team up to protect Bolivian river dolphin.” Mongabay. 12 April 2023. As translated by Matthew Rose. Story first published in Spanish at Monabay’s Latam site on 29 November 2022. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

#endemic species #amazonia

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12timetraveler · 9 months

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We Were Never Made to Run Forever

Chapter 64 of Campfire Stories

Summary:

Hosea and his sweetheart were separated after the Blackwater job and have been searching ever since.

Notes:

This idea was given to me by @spurz, who is another amazing writer in the fandom. So go check them out. Thank you again for the idea. This honestly really helped me deal with those post-convention blues after the Tombstone event. ~~~~~~~~~ Word Count: 9004 CW: Light Angst, canon character death, vaginal sex

As always below is just a preview. Read the whole thing on AO3

~~~~~~

It had been a month. An entire month since Hosea had last seen you. You, his beloved, his wife in all but name. The morning of the Blackwater Ferry job the two of you had spent some quiet moments in camp together before you went your way to help Dutch, and Hosea and Arthur went their way to follow up on their little real estate scam. Hosea had a bad feeling about the job but he'd never imagined it would go so wrong. So many dead, such a high price on everyone's heads. And he had no idea what happened to you.

You'd never returned with the others. No one could even tell him for certain if you'd made it out of town. Your job had been to keep watch as a sniper from the top of a building in Blackwater. You'd fired a number of shots, by all accounts you'd been integral in a number of the gang surviving the event. John said after he was shot in the arm the same lawman nearly got him between the eyes, before your bullet shot down from the heavens and bought him enough time to flee. Lenny told him you'd cleared a path for him to carry out the mortally wounded Jenny. Dutch recounted your deadly accuracy every time you were mentioned.

Hosea would have been proud, had any of them been able to say "and then she rode off out of town" or "and I saw her slip away on a boat". But no one could say anything more than that you'd been an incredible shot and an important part of everyone's survival. But what about your survival?

He'd had to fight every instinct, every muscle in his body that begged him to turn his horse around and go back to find you. But he had to be reasonable. If you were hurt or under arrest he'd be no use to you if he got himself injured or captured. Rushing in blindly would do no good to anyone.

He also had a responsibility to your found family. He needed to get them safe, take care of them. He knew you'd kill him if he abandoned them to go look for you. Hell he'd never forgive himself if someone else was hurt or lost because he left them.

Beyond all that, he knew he had to have faith in you. You were smart, wiley, strong. Those were some of the characteristics he'd always admired in you. A true outlaw and con-woman. If anyone would escape in one piece, it was you.

So he went with the rest up to Colter. The cold nearly killed him, but he held on. He had to know that you and the others would be okay. He couldn't just roll over and die.

After almost two weeks on that mountain they'd finally migrated down to Horseshoe Overlook. Only then did Hosea begin his search. He began slowly testing the boundaries of how close he could get to The Great Plains. Surprisingly he could cross the state border into West Elizabeth without issue, but he couldn't get too close to the river separating him and Blackwater. There were patrols everywhere.

So he started sniffing around on the west side of the river. He asked after you at the Flatneck and Riggs train stations. Any traveler he encountered, any homestead he came upon he asked after you. Carefully of course, tactfully. He didn't want to get you in any trouble, bring too much attention to you. But he needed to know if you were alive.

Some nights he'd camp out, but he tried to return to camp often, if only to make sure they were all okay and let them know he was as well. And to check and see if you'd found your way to camp. Unfortunately you never had.

Trelawny had been found sniffing around. He'd had great information about Sean's whereabouts. Hosea begged him to look for you too. Even got a little threatening when Trelawny teased him. But even the man with a thousand connections could not find you.

Somehow there was not so much as a whisper to your whereabouts. It was like you'd just disappeared, evaporated like mist in the air. He tried to put a positive spin on it. The lack of your dead body being reported by the newspapers was a good sign. At least it meant you hadn't been found dead in the streets. It gave him some hope that you were alive somewhere.

After searching for another two weeks or so, he still had no leads on you. He was trying to remain positive, trying not to let the thousands of "what if" scenarios take root in his heart. It was too much for him to bear thinking about.

Finally he made his way up to Strawberry. He had tried to avoid the town, having heard of the carnage Micah and Arthur had caused. The survivors would be jumpy, paranoid. He didn't want to just ride in and start asking around. But he knew there wasn't a lot of other choice if he wanted to find you.

And he'd burn heaven and earth to find you.

#Hosea/reader #hosea/f!reader #campfire stories #rdr2 fanfic #Rdr2 fanfiction #ao3 fanfic

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aurianneor · 7 months

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Immigration

The images are frightening. We see caravans of migrants crossing Central America on their way to the United States. We see boats filled to the brim off the coast of Florida or in the Mediterranean. In border towns, we see hordes of young men on the streets, destitute, jumping the barriers of detention centres, living in squats, sometimes addicted to drugs.

European countries and the United States claim to be so overwhelmed that they delegate their borders to Mexico, Turkey and the countries of North Africa. They pay them to process asylum applications before the migrants have set foot in the destination country. The detention centres are inhumane and the migrants jump the barriers to get to their destination. The barrier is very easy to jump. Migrants enter countries illegally because it is inhumane to ask to enter legally. So they don’t assert their rights.

Faced with these terrifying images, we hear the Right telling us that these illegals must be punished more severely, and we hear the Left telling us that there are no problems with migrants. These migrants work for a tenth of the price and cannot assert their rights before a judge. The people most affected by migration are the rural and poor. The result of this situation of irregularity is to create an extremely cheap labour force that cannot compete with European or American labour. It is legitimate to feel helpless when faced with these migrants. The fields in the United States and Europe are full of illegal workers and the fields are not controlled. The current policy simply creates more scope for employers. The people living in rural areas are concerned, and only the right wing is addressing them.

In the short term, many migrants are arriving at the borders of the West and there is no reason why their treatment should not be organised in humane conditions. Those who wish to assert their right to asylum do not deserve prison.

In the long term, the European and North American powers have largely contributed to making the countries of the South unliveable. We must stop actively destroying these countries. Multinationals must be held criminally responsible when they commit an act in these countries that would be a crime in the West. They must be tried in the West for pollution, subversion, corruption, forced labour, child labour, etc. On the other hand, the West can and must support democratic regimes when they emerge in these countries. African revolutionaries have all been killed. This has to stop.

It is only under these conditions that development aid can be effective. If we give development aid when these conditions are not met, it feeds corruption. Only effective development aid will create decent living opportunities in these countries and reduce the number of migrants.

Taking stronger action on climate change is also important to ensure that these countries do not become hellholes.

If these countries end up receiving a fair income from their resources and labour, they will become long-term customers and trading partners and will be able to deal with the sanitary problems that threaten us all.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Peru, biodiversity in danger: https://www.aurianneor.org/peru-biodiversity-in-danger/

“How can you frighten a man whose hunger”…: https://www.aurianneor.org/how-can-you-frighten-a-man-whose-hunger-is-not/

Fair trade and organic farming: https://www.aurianneor.org/fair-trade-and-organic-farming/

How can we win back trust?: https://www.aurianneor.org/how-can-we-win-back-trust/

Humiliated by the Republic: https://www.aurianneor.org/humiliated-by-the-republic/

“Calais ou pas caler”: https://www.aurianneor.org/calais-ou-pas-caler/

Solidarité Hélvétique: https://www.aurianneor.org/solidarite-helvetique-democratie-semi-directe/

License on the Red Planet – A science fiction story: https://www.aurianneor.org/license-on-the-red-planet-a-science-fiction/

#agriculture #asylum #aurianneor #decent work #democracy #development aid #immigration #inequalities #justice #migrants #multinationals #no nonsense #pollution #prison #workers #impérialisme

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blubushie · 1 year

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What are some vulnerable/threatened/endangered species that you think are cool? (This can include both animals and plants)

There's a few, so I'm only doing critically endangered Australian species.

The south coast underground orchid, Rhizanthella johnstonii, is native to Western Australia and one of the weirdest plansts I've ever seen. Their mature population is estimated at a max of 49, but the population is stable.

The Lord Howe Island stick insect, Dryococelus australis, was thought to be extinct since 1920 before it was rediscovered in 2001. It's considered the rarest insect in the world, and while once found throughout Lord Howe Island, it's now only found on the islet of Bell's Pyramid. They're being killed by invasive black rat population on the island, who eat the adults and young, and the estimated mature population on the island is a max 35 individuals. Efforts are being made to eradicate the rats from the island, and reintroduce mature breeding adults, since luckily this is a species that thrives in captivity. Their primary threat is invasive species.

The Wyong Midge orchid, Genoplesium insigne, is native to the Central Coast of New South Wales. Their population is decreasing, and their estimated mature max population is 19. Their primary threats are invasive species particularly predation by rabbits, habitat disturbances, and illegal collecting.

The green sawfish, Pristis zijsron, is found the northern oceanic and intertidal waters of Australia. They used to be very prevalent in the waters north of Kakadu. The IUCN doesn't list their estimated population, but it is known that it's decreasing. Their primary threat is overfishing, as their fins are used for shark fin soup, their snouts are considered souvenirs, and because their meat is often desired for use in traditional Asian medicine, specifically Chinese. Their snouts also make them get caught in fishing nets often, and they're often killed being being brought on boats because of the danger their snouts pose to humans. They're also threatened by habitat loss. This is a species culturally important to many Aborigine mobs, and a species that's often considered sacred.

The southern corroboree frog, Pseudophryne corroboree, is a frog native to the Southern Tablelands of NSW. For a frog they're unique--most frogs obtain their poisons from animals they eat, but corroboree frogs produce their own poison. Their primary threats are habitat destruction, feral animals, chrytrid ("frogkiller") funguses, and bushfires. Their max mature population is 50, and their population is decreasing.

The orange-bellied parrot, Neophema chrysogaster, is native to Tasmania, its only known breeding location. This is one of the three known migrating parrot species. Their maximum mature population is 25. Their primary threats are competition with invasive species, predation by invasive species, habitat loss, and disease.

#blu whos #blu zoo

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its-short-for-jackalope · 10 months

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Jack's Big Rambly Nonsense Theory Post About Episode 3 ✨️

I am a merciful fella so the rambles will be contained under the cut.

hey! what's up? this is the only thing I care about for the time being so I'm gonna ramble about it! I don't know what I'm doing! all of this could be wrong! I'm very excited!

Please feel free to reply/reblog or like.. idk, y'all can tag me if you wanna make a separate post jumping off of, responding to, or completely annihilating (in a friendly way!) any of my theories here.

What The Heck Is Antikythera?

i didnt know what this was and it seemed somewhat important since it's in the title (lol) so I looked it up.

one of the first things I found was the wiki article for the Antikythera mechanism, which is basically a computer/calculator from Ancient Greece that predicted astronomical positions and eclipses. It was found in a Roman shipwreck in the Mediterranean in 1901 and might have been constructed as far back as 205 BC. (it had gears and everything! cool!)

Considering this device is related to astronomy and approximately, oh, ALL of our protagonists are interested in and have connections to astronomy, I don't think that's a coinkydink! additionally, since this is fictional and there are no limits, mayhaps the Antikythera mechanism is a part of the story and it can do (and does do) more than predict celestial events...? 👀

Now, I admit I read about this one interesting thing and kinda just ran with it, but in case there's anything else about this itty bitty little island, I did look into it more. According to the Wikipedia, Antikythera was settled and abandoned several times throughout history. This is also where the wreck with the mechanism was discovered (hence the name), and apparently lots of birds use the island as a pit stop during migration, but that's about it. It's enough for me to laugh shrug and carry on with my mechanism theories, lol.

The Ellen Austin, The Bermuda Triangle, & Maybe A Ghost Ship

Since our beloved quartet is confirmed to be aboard the Ellen Austin and they're en route through the Bermuda Triangle/Sargossa Sea where the Ellen Austin is said to have encountered a ghost ship, I'm gonna continue with my previously-held theory that we're getting a ghost ship encounter! (In one story about the Ellen Austin, they had some of the crew go onto the ghost ship to bring it back to shore with them, and the crew ~mysteriously vanished~ which is... interesting. 👀)

I have a few ideas about what this potential ghost ship might be:

An Ancient Greek vessel straight from Antikythera, with or without a mechanism, but probably with. [squints at map] I mean, the Mediterranean isn't that far from the Sargossa Sea/Bermuda Triangle area. And/or maybe there was some time-and-space nonsense happening that could land it on the other side of the Atlantic. If our quartet could get poofed from a satellite in 1835 back to Earth in 1881(?), then a mysterious ship could plausibly get zapped to another place and/or time. Might be a bit too on the nose but c'mon, the name is in the title, there's gotta be a connection to Antikythera, and who says it can't be this? Could also have ghosts!

A slightly less ancient Roman cargo ship like the (shipwrecked) one that had the Antikythera mechanism. (Please see above for hand-waving about date & location.) Maybe the ship has a mechanism on board, and maybe it's also got ghosts—both of the Ancient Greek variety via the mechanism, and of the slightly less ancient Roman variety via it's their dang boat. Bonus points if the Greek/Antikytheran(?) ghosties were scaring the daylights out of the Romans and are responsible for the ship becoming a (double) ghost ship. Of course this also hinges on how literal the "ghosts" in The Ghosts of Antikythera are, but I'll ramble about that in a little bit.

A much less ancient ship from whatever eras make it more likely to be in the Sargossa Sea, but it has an Antikythera mechanism somehow. This would take out a lot of fuss about how the ship got here or how it could have survived this long without being wrecked or discovered, AND it would bring up new and fun questions such as "why does this random ship have an Ancient Greek mechanism" and I call that a win-win. Could be a classic pirate ship, could be a newer vessel that'd be more familiar to the crew of the Ellen Austin... idk im not a boat guy but I think there's some fun possibilities.

bonus theory: the ghost ship has "witch" in the name or has a name related to witches, or maybe literally just has "wicked" in the name, purely based off this tweet:

thank you @man-down-in-hatchet-town for being my Twitter scout, lmao

Just 'cause, you know... wicked, witches. The waves could be just part of the water theme since (i assume) the episode takes place predominantly at sea, or perhaps the ghost ship is literally carried "this way" by the waves.

Ghosts — Like, Literally? Or Do You Mean Metaphorically?

We already know that Pulp Musicals will be exploring multiple genres—sci-fi, horror, mystery, adventure—so I'm betting episode three will add some horror to the mix, especially after Matt's delightfully ominous words in the trailer:

In this web of mystery, Margaret has begun to unravel her own... but she is not the only one awakening. And soon, our heroes will find that the light of discovery can bring forth shadows darker than anything they could have ever imagined.

...Yeah, sounds like horror and/or ghosts to me! So maybe the ghosts of Antikythera are real actual spooky scary spirits, in which case I am very excited to pull up a chair and listen to Herschel scoff and try to find a rational, scientific explanation for any spooky happenings. (Idk if he believes in ghosts or not, but in this case I hope he doesn't because that will make it much funnier for me. <3 )

On the other hand, "horror" is incredibly vague, so maybe we won't get jump-out-and-say-boo ghosts at all. Maybe the ghosts of Antikythera are more unsettling because they aren't an active, supernatural force wreaking havoc on the open sea—maybe they're just an empty vessel, forgotten memories, and the lingering consequences of the actions taken by people who are long since dead. What's scarier—the dead staying behind to screw with you face to face, or the dead abandoning their troubles & mistakes and leaving clueless strangers to get stuck with the deadly fallout?

Honestly, tho? I'm excited either way, and I'm very curious to see how scary Matt plans to go.

Theories That Don't Have A Ghost Ship, Because You Never Know

I am 100% behind the ghost ship theory, but making theories is fun so why not throw some other ones out there. Full disclosure, I don't think these are that likely, and some are mostly gonna be for laughs.

They find a shipwreck. I'm really only considering this because the Antikythera mechanism was found on a wreck. I don't think the Ellen Austin would stop to investigate a shipwreck if they happened upon one, and I also don't know if they'd even have the equipment to safely or effectively investigate it if they wanted to. Then again, maybe they would stop if they saw the wreck go down, and also who needs to go down in the water if you have a passenger with magic powers? If Margaret could launch the Sagitta, she could probably fish up a wreck easy peasy. Maybe she wouldn't even need the ship to stop, she could just see (or sense?) something in the water and reach out with the Radiance. And if whatever she brought onto the Ellen Austin was haunted, then that could kick off the ghost stuff... huh. I actually kinda like this idea!

Atlantis? I think someone mentioned this in the chat for the trailer's premiere. I'm inclined to say "probably not" though... unless the quartet gets poofed or otherwise summoned closer to Greece. But I think they'll probably be sticking around the Sargossa Sea, since there isn't a lot of time for them to be traveling all around in a ~90 minute episode, and the previous episodes kinda picked a place and stayed there. Doesn't necessarily mean we couldn't get an underwater city (or formerly underwater city), of course. It just probably wouldn't be Atlantis.

...I actually don't have any other ideas right now, lol. I really think it's gonna be a ghost ship. And that the Antikythera mechanism has something to do with it.

Oof okay, for the sake of my eyes and brain, I'm going to stop staring at my phone and thinking for now, lol. I will probably come up with some more thoughts & theories as time goes on, but I think I have used all my batteries for today.

Again, if anybody reads this and wants to contribute or comment, feel free! 💫

#jack jabbers #oh god my brain is FRIED rn lmao #pulp musicals #pulp musicals episode 3 #pulp musicals tgoa #the ghosts of antikythera #pulp musicals theory #pulp musicals theories

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hedge-bones · 4 months

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I used to be able to read like crazy growing up (for example, I think I read the entire HP series in a week to catch up with my friends who'd already read it, and I was once given the joke-award of 'Most Likely To Read a Book While The Boat Sinks' by a teacher), but once I hit about my second or third year of college, I got to the point where my ADHD really outweighed my ability to read consistently and I fell out of it. I still loved books, but would maybe get through one or two a year, and most of my reading became online--fanfic and original fic on AO3 and here on tumblr mostly. Not that that doesn't count as real reading, it does, and I'm talking 100,000s of words consumed, but it doesn't feel the same as holding the physical book in my hands.

But I really want to get back into it, so I've been working on different strategies and finding new ways to help me read. Not pressuring myself to read a lot at one time has been good, I'm trying to measure my progress in chapters versus pages. Timers and background music don't work, but what I've found does work is using 2 bookmarks--one at the start of the chapter and to mark my place, and a second one at the end of the chapter, so I can physically see the pages left. It's like a countdown, that second bookmark is my goal. And then usually, when I reach it, I find that I'm not ready to finish yet and I move it to the end of the next chapter.

Also varying what I'm reading!

I read almost exclusively sci-fi and fantasy growing up, which I love but it really burnt me out on it and I find that I struggle to read them now, especially high fantasy and hard sci-fi; I have a metric shit-ton of SFF published in the last few years I desperately want to read but can't get into.

So I'm exploring different genres--my first read of the year was The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones, which is supernatural/slasher horror, and the second was Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace, a YA post-apocalyptic SFF I've had for years. Last year, I found that I can really blow through romance and romcoms I enjoy (like Katee Roberts' Dark Olympus series and Chef's Kiss by TJ Alexander respectively, DO NOT mistake the Dark Olympus books for romcoms lmao), and I got through several holiday-themed romcoms near the end of the year. And I read a lot of poetry and non-fiction (mostly as research for ADHD Witch WIP, but it counts!) through my local library.

I'm still not consuming books at the lightning speed I did growing up, but I'm reading more than I have in a long time, and that's progress! I'm really proud of myself!

I want to get through some of the books I own but never read, so I think next up will be The Annual Migration of Clouds (following up post-apocalyptic sci-fi with more post-apocalyptic sci-fi lol) and then after that, I'm not sure yet. The important part is: No pressure!

#personal #reading #adhd #long post #rant #kinda #more like rambles #gotta outsmart my brain #i'm working through some internalized ableism about my adhd and how it impacts my ability to read #this part really kicked in after i started T as an unexpected side effect--my attention span got worse but my inattention got better #before T my inattention and emotional regulation was much worse but my ability to focus on reading was a lot better

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beardedmrbean · 6 months

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BRUSSELS (AP) — Abdesalem Lassoued had been denied residency in four European countries by the time he chased two Swedish men into a building in Brussels this week and gunned them down at close range with a semiautomatic rifle.

The 45-year-old Tunisian arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa in a smuggler’s boat in 2011. He spent jail time in Sweden and was refused entry to Norway. At one point Italy flagged him as a security threat. Two years ago, Belgium rejected his asylum claim and he disappeared off the map.

Until Monday night, that is, when he killed the two Swedes, wounded a third and forced the lockdown of more than 35,000 people in a soccer stadium where they had gathered to watch Belgium play Sweden. In a video posted online, he claimed to be inspired by the Islamic State group.

Within days he has become the new face of the European Union’s campaign to toughen border controls, rapidly deport people and allow the police and security agencies to exchange information more efficiently.

“It’s important that those individuals that could be a security threat to our citizens, to our Union, have to be returned forcefully, immediately,” EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told reporters on Thursday, as EU interior ministers met in Luxembourg.

Only around one in four people whose asylum applications are denied ever leave or are deported from the 27-nation bloc. Often the countries they come from, including Tunisia, are reluctant to take them back.

With EU countries constantly bickering over how to manage migration – their differences lie at the heart of one of the bloc’s biggest political crises – the European Commission has sought to outsource the challenge.

The EU’s executive branch has helped to seal deals with Turkey and Tunisia to persuade these countries to stop people from the Middle East or Africa – not to mention their own nationals – from trying to enter Europe, as they did in large numbers in 2015.

About 25 countries that people leave or transit to get to Europe are of concern. Egypt is the next country on the list. The commission is already helping to locate and pay for new boats for the Egyptian coastguard.

Belgium’s top migration official, Nicole de Moor, said that countries refusing to take back their nationals must be made to cooperate.

“The terrorist that committed an attack in Brussels on Monday had asked for asylum in four different European countries, and every time he was rejected because he did not qualify for protection,” de Moor said.

The EU does have coercive tools at its disposal. The commission has used visas as a lever, making it harder, more time-consuming and costly for the citizens of migration source countries to gain entry to Europe’s ID check-free zone – the 27-country space known as the Schengen area.

Thanks to this, Johansson said, the EU now has “much better cooperation” on deportation with Iraq, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Senegal.

The shooter Lassoued’s case was also marked by other failures. He applied for asylum in Belgium in 2019. His application was rejected a year later, and a deportation order was issued in 2021. Officials said this week that he couldn’t be found, as they had no address for him.

Within a few hours, admittedly with public help, prosecutors conceded, the authorities had discovered where he lived. He was shot dead by police at a café nearby the following morning when they tried to arrest him.

“It turns out that the individual had been convicted and had served time in a Swedish prison, which was unknown to our police and judiciary,” Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told reporters.

“We need to improve the information exchange on these kinds of things. The man apparently arrived in Italy in 2011 (and) wandered around Europe for 12 years,” she said. Migration services and the police must share information, she said, “to ensure that this cannot happen.”

The clamor for tougher laws and better intelligence sharing are fresh, but the problem is not new. Lassoued’s case resembles that of another Tunisian man, Anis Amri, who drove a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin in 2016, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others.

German authorities tried to deport Amri after his asylum application was rejected but were unable to because he lacked valid identity papers. Tunisia had denied that he was a citizen.

On Tuesday, after leading security talks throughout the night while the hunt for Lassoued went on, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo loosened his tie from around his collar as he answered a reporter’s thorny question about the failings of Belgium’s police, justice and migration services.

“An order to leave the territory must become more binding that it is now,” De Croo conceded. “We have to respect the decisions that we take.”

#nunyas news

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sillyroundkatie · 1 year

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Who the hell is this handsome sealy devil?? (OC info under the cut!)

Selkie Kaitlyn | She/Her | Butch Lesbian | Half Selkie Half Human | Late 20s | 178 cm / 5'10" | Arctic Circle Kaitlyn is a big silly idiot of a selkie, who likes to cause mischief, take long naps, and hang around with her girlfriends! She switches between very active and very snoozy on a whim. She can turn into a seal using her sealskin coat (cape?). But she's actually half human, half selkie, so her seal form looks a little weird, covered in long dense hair. She is very, very stupid, but as her saving grace, very, very lucky. Due to being smaller than full selkie leopard seals, she often found herself struggling to find food, so she eventually migrated down into warmer waters - ultimately finding safety (and lots of food) at Marcelo's selkie harem. Common activities/hobbies: Enjoys messing around and being a general nuisance. But equally, she loves to lounge in the sun and take indulgent snoozes. She's been learning how to fish from a boat with a net like a human, which she enjoys. Setting: Lives in Marcelo's selkie harem, which is located in the tropics. The year is uncertain, but human populations are pre-Industrial revolution. Clothing style: Her most important clothing item is her sealskin coat, which she is never seen without (lest she lose it). Her human clothing is scraggly simple fisherman's attire, decorated with rope and fishing net. You can draw them with:

Marcelo (friend) - Marcelo leads the selkie harem Kaitlyn found refuge at, and Kaitlyn enjoys her kind and considerate leadership style. Marcelo has lots of experience in human cultures, so Kaitlyn has been learning a lot from her.

Additional stuff to keep in mind: PLEASE do not alter Kaitlyn's facial features to be smaller/more conventionally attractive - I gave her these features because I like them, and I think she's gawkishly handsome as she is :) PLEASE do not alter Kaitlyn's body type to be less masculine because she is a woman. She is a butch lesbian and she is very proud of her muscles, and all the effort she put into getting them :) PLEASE do not shave her and remove her body hair, she is extremely hirsute and it's a large part of her butch identity (and her gfs love it) :) Some random trivia:

She has spiky leopard seal teeth, that are kind of too big for her jaw.

Her Dad is a sailor, her mum is a leopard seal selkie

She has a leopard seal spot on her inner thigh in the shape of a heart <3 Selkie Kaitlyn is the Alternate Universe version of her original human form here, where she is a stinky Brit Further information and images etc can be found at her Toyhouse page at the link below!: Kaitlyn's Toyhouse!

#sillyroundart #sillyroundkatieOC #Selkie Kaitlyn #butch #butch lesbian #lesbian #dyke #original character #selkie #digital art #OC art

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ausetkmt · 10 months

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International Organization for Migration recorded 3,789 deaths last year along land and sea routes in the MENA region – an 11 percent surge from 2021.

Last year was one of the deadliest for migrants using travel routes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with nearly 3,800 deaths reported.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) recorded 3,789 deaths in 2022 along sea and land routes in the MENA region, including crossings in the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea.

“This alarming death toll on migration routes within and from the MENA region demands immediate attention and concerted efforts to enhance the safety and protection of migrants,” Othman Belbeisi, IOM regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

“IOM urges increased international and regional cooperation as well as resources to address this humanitarian crisis and prevent further loss of lives.”

The report said the death toll – 11 percent higher than recorded in 2021 and the highest since the 4,255 documented six years ago – was likely much greater because of scant official data and limited access to migration routes for civil society and international organisations.

“Our data shows that 92 percent of people dying on this route remain unidentified,” Koko Warner, director of the Global Data Institute, said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The tragic loss of life on dangerous migration routes highlights the importance of data and analysis in driving action.”

On sea routes from the region to Europe, IOM recorded an increase in deadly incidents that involved boats travelling to Greece and Italy from Lebanon.

IOM said the highest number of deaths on land routes in the region last year was recorded in war-torn Yemen, where the agency said violence against migrants increased.

At least 795 people, mostly Ethiopians, died on a route between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the IOM said. Most of the deaths occurred in Yemen’s northern province of Saada. Libya recorded 117 deaths and there were 54 fatalities in neighbouring Algeria.

#Migrant death toll nearly 3 #800 for Middle East #North Africa #african #immigration #racism #european racism

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187days · 7 months

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Day Twenty-One

Longtime readers of this blog know that it's a tradition in APGOV to eat cake when there is a government shutdown (because if you can't have a government, you should at least have a cake). My students don't actually want the government to shut down, but they do want cake, and it might be a toss-up which of those sentiments is the dominant one right now.

Kidding.

But the possibility of a shutdown is something we keep discussing even though it's tangental to whatever I'm actually teaching. We went on a few other tangents today, too, but first we had an AMAZING discussion of Federalist 10 and 51. I'm so pleased about how that went; students asked great questions, and offered one another different insights and perspectives, and they understood Madison's arguments so much better by the time they'd talked through everything they wanted to talk through. And, actually, when we went on that tangent about local politics, I got to relate it back to Fed. 10 because the topic students brought up was a debate about school funding in the letters section of our local paper. Some of the letters were from wealthy retirees grumbling about the taxes on their million-dollar homes, which sure sounds like a faction that emerged due to the uneven distribution of property, right?

I'm a wizard.

Other tangents: the upcoming Republican primary, how and why realigning elections happen, their generation's voting power versus my generation's... It's all important, relevant stuff, so I'm all for talking about it.

My Global Studies students and I had some good conversations today, too. They'd done research related to Warsan Shire's "Home" in past classes, so they'd learned about some of the conflicts driving refugee migration, about the use of child soldiers, about the risks of different migration routes over land. They shared what they'd learned, and then I shared one more piece of information- about the risks of fleeing across the water- by showing 4.1 Miles. I reminded them of the line from the poem: "You have to understand, no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land." It's sobering to see how unsafe the water is and realize what that implies, and students had a lot to say after the video was over.

Inevitably, someone asked what's being done to solve the issues that are driving people to flee their homes, which gave me the perfect segue to discuss the UN's SDGs. Students examined those, saw what progress is being made, what setbacks the world has experienced, etc... And now they're thinking about solutions, and who has the power to implement them, and some even asked, "We'll keep talking about this in future classes, right?"

Sure will, kids.

It's a good day when students want to keep talking about something. So today was a very, very good day.

It ended with a leadership team meeting, which was long but productive, so no complaints. I walked out with Mrs. T afterwards into a perfectly crisp fall afternoon, and we joked that we should've made a motion to have the meeting outside. We would've if we'd known how nice the weather was!

#teaching #teachblr #edublr #education #teacher #high school #social studies #mrs. t #dean 2 #leadership team #see the whole board #I am a wizard #conversations about current events #cue the music of triumph #federalist papers #warsan shire #day twenty one

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atlanticcanada · 1 year

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Nature conservancy to buy tiny island off Prince Edward Island's north shore

A small, undeveloped island off the north shores of P.E.I. where blue herons, bald eagles and double-crested cormorants nest is set to be purchased by the Nature Conservancy of Canada and eventually placed under the full-time stewardship of the Mi'kmaq.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada announced plans this week to buy Oulton's Island, which is about one square kilometre in size and an important habitat not only for majestic birds but also woodland creatures such as snowshoe hare, red squirrel and migrating waterfowl.

The island, about 400 metres from Cascumpec Bay, has four kilometres of beach shoreline and supports salt marsh and freshwater wetland ecosystems and is also home to Acadian forests composed of jack pine, black spruce and white birch.

"We like the idea of protecting coastal islands," Lanna Campbell, Nature Conservancy of Canada's program director for Prince Edward Island, said in a recent interview. "It's an area of refuge for wildlife because they're often inaccessible to motorized vehicles or a lot of people, so they're just really quiet havens for wildlife."

The organization had its eyes on the island since the 1980s and stayed in touch with the landowners, she said. The conservancy bought the land for $1.2 million but still needs to raise about $300,000 to complete the purchase.

"It's a beautiful coastal forest," Campbell said. "We found a nesting great blue heron colony, which is a really impressive, beautiful bird. It always kind of looks like a dinosaur to me. We also found other birds nesting there, like double-crested cormorants. There's lots of eagles that live there. And so, once we really started to explore it, we knew it was a special place for wildlife."

About 90 per cent of Prince Edward Island is privately owned, and most landowners are good stewards, she said. But there is always the risk that if private property is sold to someone, they might log trees or "threaten its integrity," she added.

The Nature Conservancy of Canada, she said, has undertaken several conservation projects across the country. For example, the group negotiated the release of development and mineral rights to land in British Columbia to make it available for Indigenous-led conservation.

Darlene Bernard, chief of the Lennox Island First Nation, in P.E.I., called Oulton's Island an important piece of territory. The Mi'kmaq word for the area -- Kwesawe'k -- translates to "end of the island cape" or "end of the headland," she said.

"It's an island that has magnificent wetlands and a home for all kinds of special little creatures," she said. "And you know, our people would have used that island to sustain ourselves for generations."

She said the First Nation welcomed its partnership with the conservancy to protect the land, adding that she doesn't foresee any commercial development in the area. The conservancy's plan is to transfer ownership of the land in about five years to the Epekwitk Assembly of Councils, a Mi'kmaq governing body.

"Well, I think we would want to keep it in its pristine state that it's in now," Bernard said. "Certainly, we're not going to restrict visitors to the island. If you have a boat, you want to go over there and take a walk along its beautiful beaches and things like that, then you're certainly welcome to do that."

Campbell said she first visited the island in August, and she said it left her with quite an impression.

"It was a very sunny, beautiful day. The tide was low, so the beaches were really big," she said.

"And we were walking along in the sand watching the shorebirds, tiny little shorebirds, dance along in the sand in front of us looking for food. It was a walk around the whole island. I remember coming around a big wetland and watching a couple of really big herons take off -- big, beautiful blue birds. And it just kind of felt like we were visiting a fairyland. It was a very magical spot."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2022.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/dCEzogm

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