thenearsightedmicroraptor

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

the procrastinator’s mind will invent distractions you’ve never conceived of in order to avoid tasks even a dog could do.

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

if you see this , tell me what your favorite flower is

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

I saw many high quality snout beasts today, genus Lixus, not sure which species.

weevil 906

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

Well!

So first, let's clear a common misconception: no, President Abraham Lincoln did not love Black people nor see them as human equals. At best he was centrist about it (though, even his implication that 'exceptional' Black men ought to vote got him assassinated).

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do, it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union...I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be free."

The "freeing of slaves" after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 was meant to kneecap the economic and military powers of the seceded South. Lettuce stop making a white savior figure out of Lincoln, or thinking that my people's shackles were unchained via anything other than desperate war strategy and extreme violence. Think on that, for a moment.

That being said!

But not everyone in Confederate territory would immediately be free. Even though the Emancipation Proclamation was made effective in 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. As a result, in the westernmost Confederate state of Texas, enslaved people would not be free until much later. Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas. The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree. This day came to be known as "Juneteenth," by the newly freed people in Texas.

Consider going through the Smithsonian website to learn about Juneteenth! Recognize why it's an actual day of freedom, versus July 4th and the independence of a select few.

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

I got that tarantula in me

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

I wanna tell you all about a social blunder I committed that was ultimately harmless but very very goofy. A victimless crime, as my wife put it.

I was at a small gathering with my wife the other day, with some other people who live in my building. Some of them had just moved in last month and we were making small talk about what it's like to live in the building (we enjoy it a lot)

So we were chatting about the nice amenities, and we brought up the lovely patch of wildflowers and plants right outside our living room window. I love those plants so much, 10000x better than some garbage lawn.

And one of the neighbors inquired: "do you get a lot of bugs coming inside?"

Now, before we continue, I'm going to have to contextualize a few things:

1: I like bugs. I'm a bugs kind of guy

2: I'm disabled, and I can't go outside much

3: I recently moved to this place from an old and kinda wet apartment building where we had a lot of long-legged cellar spiders. We let them chill in the bathroom and we would watch their life cycle, from a gravid mother all the way to when the little spiderlets left mama's web.

4: In our old apartment, I could go out even less because it was on the fourth floor with no elevator. I'm not joking when I say that interacting with a little bit of nature via bathroom spiders was absolutely load-bearing for my mental health towards the end there

5: We moved to our current apartment in September. We began feeling vaguely alive again around halloween. Not a lot of bugs out around that time.

6: The apartment is brand new, freshly renovated, and nobody else had lived there before us. Furthermore, it had been used as showroom. Not a lot of opportunity for bugs to move in. This means, at the time of this conversation, I was coming out on the other side of some very long, and very bugless months

7: When I say I like bugs, I mean it in a really strongly neurodivergent kind of way. I'm like, really into bugs.

... which all culminates into me, excited that it's summertime and cheering every time we get a new spider guest at home, whose most recent addition to their camera roll is a video of a silverfish eating a small piece of cat food that got left on the bathroom floor, to respond, instantly, with no hesitation nor time to think:

"Yes! Loads!"

Esteemed audience, this was not the response my neighbours were looking for.

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

Today's Seal Is: Yummy Backpack I Eat It Maybe

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

Can You Imagine the Crab-Eating Frog?

The crab-eating frog (Fejervarya cancrivora) is a species of frog found throughout southeastern Asia, including Taiwan, southern China, the island of Sumatra, and the Philippines. They reside primarily in mangrove swamps, as well as tropical rainforests, estuaries, and near freshwater ponds and streams. They are particularly noted for their ability to tolerate high salinities, and they are the only known amphibian to make excursions into pure salt water.

The crab-eating frog is named for its usual diet which, around the mangrove, estuary, and coastal parts of its distributon, is composed mainly of crabs. This is supplemented with insects and smaller frogs, and near fresh water without crabs they make up the bulk of F. cancrivora's diet. Due to their small size, they have many predators, including birds, snakes, lizards, jungle cats, and larger fogs. Crab-eating frogs avoid being eaten by hiding in grass or under vegetation and leaf litter during the day; they are also more active at night.

Male and female crab-eating frogs are fairly similar in appearence. Both can be tan or brown, with dark mottling to resemble the muddy substrate in which they hunt, and a light underbelly. Females are slightly larger than males, reaching up to 10.7 cm (4.21 in) in length compared to only 8 cm (3.14 in). Males may also have dark throats, while females are bare.

Crab-eating frogs can breed year-round, but is particularly active during the wet season from June to October. Males will gather around bodies of water and call to attract females. Once a female has selected a mate, she will lay her eggs while he grasps her from above and fertilizes them. The eggs remain in the body of water in which they're laid without parental care. After hatching, the tadpoles take about three weeks to develop into adults.

Conservation status: F. cancrivora is considered Least Concern by the IUCN. They are harvested for food, but their primary threat comes from habitat destruction.

Photos

Nick Baker

Elijah Wostl

Benard Dupont

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

I've decided that I want to live like an animal crossing player character and I want my bedroom to be forest themed. A few weeks ago I went to the vacant lot across the street and picked out a bag full of rocks. Today I started gluing them to my furniture. This is the start of something great, I can feel it

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

prehistoric weevil at the smithsonian museum of natural history

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

Made some friends today

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

i made a sturgeon but i think i accidentally gave her anxiety. she looks awfully worried.

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

people on the internet: you shouldn’t hate people for the kind of media they enjoy! stand up comedians should be able to make jokes about whatever they want and it’s not okay to wish harm on them for it!

james acaster:

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

What I was taught growing up: Wild edible plants and animals were just so naturally abundant that the indigenous people of my area, namely western Washington state, didn't have to develop agriculture and could just easily forage/hunt for all their needs.

The first pebble in what would become a landslide: Native peoples practiced intentional fire, which kept the trees from growing over the camas praire.

The next: PNW native peoples intentionally planted and cultivated forest gardens, and we can still see the increase in biodiversity where these gardens were today.

The next: We have an oak prairie savanna ecosystem that was intentionally maintained via intentional fire (which they were banned from doing for like, 100 years and we're just now starting to do again), and this ecosystem is disappearing as Douglas firs spread, invasive species take over, and land is turned into European-style agricultural systems.

The Land Slide: Actually, the native peoples had a complex agricultural and food processing system that allowed them to meet all their needs throughout the year, including storing food for the long, wet, dark winter. They collected a wide variety of plant foods (along with the salmon, deer, and other animals they hunted), from seaweeds to roots to berries, and they also managed these food systems via not only burning, but pruning, weeding, planting, digging/tilling, selectively harvesting root crops so that smaller ones were left behind to grow and the biggest were left to reseed, and careful harvesting at particular times for each species that both ensured their perennial (!) crops would continue thriving and that harvest occurred at the best time for the best quality food. American settlers were willfully ignorant of the complex agricultural system, because being thus allowed them to claim the land wasn't being used. Native peoples were actively managing the ecosystem to produce their food, in a sustainable manner that increased biodiversity, thus benefiting not only themselves but other species as well.

So that's cool. If you want to read more, I suggest "Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge: Ethnobotany and Ecological Wisdom of Indigenous Peoples of Northwestern North America" by Nancy J. Turner

[thenearsightedmicroraptor]

Sometimes, I fuck up taking a photo on my phone so badly that I have to keep it. I have a whole little collection by now. Here's a selection of the worst of the worst.