rockclanhawkstar

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lil sketches

Just some little sketches I made while taking a break from some other stuff

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the second leather anglerfish we've made.

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a presence walks by

You don't recognize it

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Excerpt from this story from Audubon:

“I can’t tell you how many people come that are like, ‘I grew up seeing fireflies, and I don’t see as many now,’ ” says Matt Johnson, the center’s director.

Candace Fallon, a conservation biologist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, had long heard similar concerns. But when she checked the literature in 2018, she found little to no information on firefly trends. In fact, there was no comprehensive population data for any of the 179 known firefly species in the United States.

Fallon and a team at the International Union for Conservation of Nature set out to determine how American fireflies are faring. In 2021 they published their findings, the first list of conservation statuses for U.S. fireflies. Of the 132 species they reviewed, more than half lacked enough data to conclude anything for certain. But among the species whose status was clear, the scientists found 20 to be threatened or near threatened.

Fireflies, which are actually bioluminescent beetles, face many of the same threats as birds. Habitat loss—especially of wetlands, given the insects' preference for moist areas—is a major issue. (Indeed, the most threatened fireflies are the species that depend on only one type of landscape, such as the critically endangered Bethany Beach firefly, which primarily occupies freshwater wetlands between sand dunes along a 20-mile stretch of the Delaware coast.) Rising seas and extreme weather events drown coastal birds' nests as well as firefly habitat, while pesticides kill insect prey that both fireflies and birds rely on—and likely fireflies themselves. Light pollution, which can disorient nocturnal migratory birds and contribute to fatal building collisions, also disrupts lightning bugs’ ability to communicate: Flashing in a brightly lit environment is like trying to yell across a crowd.

To help fill critical knowledge gaps, researchers are turning to community science. The Fireflyers International Network collects data on iNaturalist from all over the world, and in 2022 Fallon and the Xerces Society launched the Firefly Atlas, where U.S. participants can share incidental observations and even conduct field surveys. These crowdsourced records can illuminate how species are trending in the face of threats.

In some parts of the country, community scientists are logging the first records of fireflies. In the West, the flashing beetles are such a rare sight that some people believe they are imaginary. “It’s like: unicorns, dragons, fireflies,” says Christy Bills, an entomologist at the Natural History Museum of Utah. Western fireflies have always been harder to find: They appear late at night, in small numbers, and in marshy areas where people don’t often hang out. So Bills and her partners at Brigham Young University started the Western Firefly Project to focus attention on them. Today its participants have spotted fireflies in 27 of 29 counties in Utah, where previously there had been only a few documented sightings—and in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, so exciting to Bills that she likens the discoveries to finding gold.

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a Ness for the wiki

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let’s see if there really is someone out there for every pokemon.  reblog and tag your favorite unpopular/cringe/whatever pokemon that for whatever reason no one but you seems to like or even talk about really.  mine’s qwilfish 🐡

❌ UNPOPULAR POKEMON LIKERS ONLY. GET OUT OF HERE IF YOU��RE GOING TO SAY MIMIKYU/EEVEE/ETC.  ❌

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Fruity coloured ninja. Reblog if u agree

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This is both objectively hilarious, and a reminder of how easily stupid people are fooled.

The Satanic Panic was fucking INSANE, y'all. This shit was everywhere, and ya boy was in parochial school at the time, so they REALLY went hard into how serious and deadly this whole thing was.

Meanwhile, little kid Wil was listening to Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, WASP, Maiden, and playing the hell out of D&D and other fantasy tabletop games.

It was my first, and most profound, experience with a large group of people -- my teachers and other authority figures -- being completely consumed by bullshit that I knew was fake. I would watch these breathless news stories and listen to my teachers repeating whatever nonsense they'd been fed at church or on talk radio, and know in my heart and soul that none of it was true, because I listened to the music and played the games and watched the movies, as did all of my friends, and none of us were conjuring black masses (though if we'd had the candles and robes, I'm sure we would have cosplayed it).

The Satanic Panic shaped a lot of my values and convictions. I was in 5th grade when I began to wonder if these teachers and other adults who came to school to lecture us about the dangers of the music and games I already (secretly) loved knew they were lying, or if they were just stupid and easily misled. (I suspect it was a little from column a and a little from column b, as it frequently was with those right wing christian nationalist nutjobs who ran my school).

I remember so clearly when I saw through them all, and realized that all of it was bullshit.

So I guess I have the Satanic Panic to thank for giving me the push I needed to completely reject religion as a fear-based cult built on lies.

I was in 5th grade when I figured that out. It's wild to me that there are full-on adults today who haven't caught up.

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reposting from bsky, but heres a cheat sheet for how to properly send a message to payment processing companies over the recent highly conservative shift in where youre allowed to legally spend your money

more info here!

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Ashfur ⋆.ೃ࿔⛈ ݁ ˖*༄

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i went to the SCP website

 this shouldn’t be so funny to me

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Yeah

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So I've had this curious thought for a bit. I had the thought that if you watched one episode of Dragons Rising season 3 part 1 a week. What week would you end up on by the time your watch is complete. And so, from today August 6th. If you did this, you would end it at October 15th! Which I have heard that season 3 part 2 might drop in October instead September, this might line up beautifully! Especially if you go with watching one episode a week for part 2 too!!!

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maybe growing up is just becoming who you were at 14 again but learning how to love her this time

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i dont "Practice" anything. i Rawdog it. And if im not good first try i GIVE UP.

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why does my leg hurt