#If they are Termites and the Game they live in is the Mound

[kakusu-shipping]

Fuck it, Virtue's Last Reward Self Insert Fic I thought of in the shower. Do whatever you want forever.

"If we are Termites, and our world is a beautifully constructed mound, what does that make you?"

The Anteater in the Lab

There's a man in my father's robotics lab.

He's short, with white hair and really really red eyes. I didn't know eyes could be red. I don't think they're supposed to.

He's been there my whole life. He's never changed.

He doesn't age, his heart doesn't beat, I've never seen him leave to eat or use the bathroom and he's cold to the touch.

At first I thought he was just another robot, one my father built to keep the Gaulem Bay running while he worked on more important matters

"Stay away from that thing!" My father snapped when I'd asked him about it the first time, "Don't trust it, don't go anywhere near it, you understand?"

At the time, I still thought my father had my best interest at heart, so I listened to him.

Mostly.

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

"Hello again, Kyle, Luna's not with you?"

Kyle, who'd put his babysitter Luna to a wild goose chase so he could make this confrontation alone, made sure the door was fully shut behind him before he dared to speak.

"What are you?"

The thing that looked like a man looked up from it's work on the Gaulem laying on the table, and placed it's tools down slowly. Kyle never hesitated with questions he had, in this lab curiosity was a virtue, and the one thing he'd always been rewarded for was seeking knowledge, so of course the anteater had always known this question would come, it was just a matter of when.

Kyle was only freshly 16, two years before he'd have someone to quell his loneliness, to project his need for a nuclear family onto. He'd long sense learned his father doesn't truly care for him, or long sense made such an assumption, and now that he'd reached such formative years he'd begun to act out, though only in the littlest ways behind his father's back.

This was one of those little ways.

The anteater smiled, "What a deep question. What are you, Kyle?"

"I'm human." Kyle answered, stepping heavily across the room until he was on the other end of the repair table, "Unlike you."

His words would come across as harsh to anyone else, but the thing that looked like a man had been watching over Kyle sense the Nonary Game yet to happen and all the way back to his creation. It knew him in ways no one else in this world ever would. It knew he was just being honest.

"Indeed you are. You're as human as Luna is Gaulem." The anteater hummed and reached for his tools to return to work.

Kyle, one slow to anger usually, slapped his armor covered hands on the table, "Don't avoid my question!"

The thing that looked like a man looked calmly across the table to Kyle, it gave a hum and tilted it's head.

"What do you think I am, Kyle?"

"I don't know-"

A finger placed over the part of Kyle's mask where his mouth would be, "Don't give me that. A good scientist always has a theory. Even if it's wrong, I want to hear your thoughts first."

Kyle's face flushed under his mask ever so slightly as he stepped back. He then placed his hand to his chin and thought, before answering, "When I was little... I thought you were a Gaulem, like Luna, put to work to make other Gaulems..."

The Anteater walked around the table and sat himself on Kyle's side, mimicing Kyle's pose, "A good thought. It'd explain my lack of aging and need for nutrients. But,"

"But," Kyle picked up, shifting his weight, "You're cold, whereas Luna is warm, and has a pulse. Plus, according to my father, he specifically made the Gaulems incapable of self repair, so it'd make sense that they couldn't build new Gaulems as well."

The thing gave a chuckle, ""He" made the Gaulems incapable of self repair, hm?"

Kyle blinked for a moment, then shared in the humor of his own statement. He'd learned a long time ago his father had virtually nothing to do with the creation of the Gaulems. Robotics and Bioengineering were entirely too far removed for one man to do both.

No, the real genius of the Gaulems, the AI that ran the facility, and even Kyle's suit was the Not Man sitting before him. His father just laid claim to these creations.

"What else might I be?" Asked the Not Man, crossing one leg over the other.

Kyle thought, his other Hypothesizes were far from perfect, "Well... We are on the moon. While never scientifically proven, space is near infinite, and I would not be surprised if you were some form of extraterrestrial."

"That would explain my advanced intelligence." The man confirmed, "Though I do look a bit too human, don't you think?"

"I would assume to blend in with other humans," Kyle suggested, tilting his head.

"But the only humans in this facility are your Father and you, and you both figured me out right away. Why would I not shed my disguise at that point? Or simply leave?"

Kyle hummed in thought, he could Maybe and What If this train of thought forever, but based on the resistance he was getting from the topic, he could only assume he was on the wrong track.

"Then... You're like my father, an esper who traveled through time to help him with his work."

The Not Man smiled and leaned back, "You're on the right track, but not quiet. If I was from your father's original time here to help him, wouldn't he be more accepting of me?"

Kyle thought back to the first time he'd asked about the man in the Gaulem Bay, and the sharp way his father had responded. He thought about the times he'd only been passing by and he'd heard his father yelling behind closed doors at this not man for interfering.

"Then you're here to... stop him?"

"Would he let me stay if I was?"

Kyle shook his head, he looked rather lost now.

"Not to mention, espers are still human. Your father may not act like it, but he is just as human as you. He needs to eat, and sleep, his heart beats and aches and flutters same as yours."

"Unlike you..." Kyle trailed off and placed his hand to his chin, thinking again.

When he was young he'd remembered reading about Zombies and Vampires, fictional undead creatures in horror stories that felt cold as the dead and who's hearts never beat. That seemed highly unlikely to be true, but it was about all he had left.

The not man stood up, he reached up and removed Kyle's helmet, as he'd done every time Kyle would visit him, and patted him on the head. His hand was cold. It was comforting. It was all Kyle had.

"What I am is something that cares very deeply for you, Kyle. Why I came here, why I help your father, it's because you are very very important to me." The cold hand moved to Kyle's cheek, "Is that enough of an answer?"

Kyle leaned into the touch of the one thing that cared about him most in the world, even if it wasn't human, it loved him. And he loved it.

"For now..."

[your-local-grubdog]

SCREAMING SHAKING FOAMING AT THE MOUTH

Welcome to the water park - Tumblr edition. We hav c rab

WHY R U SO FLUFFY??? Aslo return of the mamutaaaaaa

F E E S H pufferfish

House elephant???? HOUSE????????? That looks ACTIVELY LIVED IN or VERY RECENTLY ABANDONED

babie

EEPY collin (not dead)

UI! New day meter! Oatchi has a health bar! If anything happens to him I'll loose my mind!

Marchin on with da crystals

Oatchi sneeze and spooka da pikmin

H O U S E

Today Bloyster and Skeeter Skates

(grub) DOG FIGHT

frowns loudly

gayme boi gonna fix the radar

CANNON BEETLES ARE BACK sorry I let him loose in da house. It's so big tho I could keep one as a pet maybe

ok many cave shots but this is by far the most interesting to me just LOOK at it

wollywog in an aquarium

OLIMIN AND BULBIE

(oh and what looks like a blue onion in the back)

BUT OLIMIN PLOTLINE. HE FUCKING DIED.

CREATURE. Grew more hair from dying.

EVIL Olimin >:( gotta fight the master it seems.

I can and will kick your ass old man

BASE who is the blue mother fucker in the back there

Oatchi training (unlock via "pup drive") and upgrades (unlocked with the blue gems), plus ICE ATTACKS?

New character, Yonny!!!!

SO MANY PEOPLE

BABY BULBORB. CHILD BULBORB. EVIL BABY.

NEW PIKMIN GLOW PIKMIN NIGHT EXCLUSIVE GLOW PIKMIN LIL GHOSTIE DUDES LIVIN IN A TERMITE MOUND

Kinda like a tower defense game! Can make pikmin into a magic ball attack!

Ok I hit image limit let me make a reblog

[ganymedesclock]

Why would Team Cherry choose to name their weapons Nails and Needles and Pins if they *weren't* trying to evoke a feeling of small size?

Yes. There is an aesthetic 'of the small'. But I would argue, especially given the horror overtones of HK, we see "what is big" and it is not closer to humanity or further from bugs. Again- look at Radiance. Look at PK's original body. This is a world that does have things far, far bigger than our player protagonist.

But to me, this has always felt like an assertion of an alien world. Like the carboniferous period with its gigantic dragonflies. At no point do those things at that grander scale look human. Again, I've held up pikmin for comparison. The creatures in pikmin look like tiny things we'd find under a log. I could probably scoop the plasm wraith up in a jam jar, provided I was wearing thick gloves and willing to undertake some personal risk. When you start to zoom out on this world, you realize things are familiar; a termite mound, a manhole cover.

There is none of this anywhere in Hollow Knight. The outsized, giant things in this setting- things like the big towers of the City of Tears, or the giant loom in the weavers' den- are built to be lived in and operated by creatures on our player protagonist's scale. Creatures as colossal as Bardoon or the Wyrms he speaks of are clearly out to the fringes.

Yes, HK is a game that is supposed to make you feel small. That is not what I resent. What I resent is the abject rejection of the notion that we are small alongside the protagonist; that we would not also be dwarfed by these giant leaves, or the drifting ash at Kingdom's Edge. It's the arrogance to see a message, "you are very small" and stubbornly insist this limitation could not possibly apply to us, only to the characters, and really we would stomp all over this entire world like Godzilla. When, no matter how big the world gets, there is not a window for a giant human.

When Needles and Nails and Pins are things intimately known to a civilization that can contrive of elevators, and the setting is completely bereft of them anywhere other than evidence that some bug or beast was around here to make them for exactly the purpose they end up used in.

When Hollow Knight is a story about death, and ruin, and the vast aloofness of space and time, and all of these things do a very good job of making you feel very, very small.

[wizzardhat]

gale/tav is funny if you play a druid. like my man is trying to show me the wonders of the astral sea and im trying to show him the wonders of this smooth rock i found in the dirt. i tell him i would like to share another night of magic with him and then drag him out in to the woods to show him a termite mound. six months post game there are more potted plants and beetle enclosures in his tower than there are books. im building a green house on the roof and a mushroom garden in the basement. im like Tara is great but what if we had like. 8 more cats. and 6 dogs. and some rabbits. Like a theoretical physicist living with a field biologist.

[chaoshaven]

Chaotic Card 4- Blügon

Heading up north to Glacier Plains, we find today's card Blügon. A rare Creature but one of the few who has any information about a tribe called the Frozen. Art By: Khary Randolph, Etienne St.Laurent

Now, we've only gone over creatures from the Overworld tribe, as show by the blue border and the symbol in the top left corner. But there are five tribes total.

-Overworlders(in blue) live in grasslands, mountains, forest, castles, and design wise are either humanoid, a sentient creature, or an anthropomorphic animal, such as a bull, a cat, etc. Generally peaceful with other tribes, they have diplomatic embassies with Danians and Mipedians. One tribe they cannot seem to make peace with however is: -Underworlders (in red) living in caves, tunnels, all under ground. Aggressive and combat lovers, their designs are similar to Overworlders but more...evil looking? Both tribes have a minotaur creature but it really is down to a vibe check as to who goes where. -Mipedians (in yellow) are a reptilian tribe with a rigid social structure where the peasants listen to the ruling class. Which also means that there is a lot of political debates, and in fighting, which is not fun when you live in a desert. -Danians (in brown) are ant-like/insectoid creatures that live in a underground termite mound, called Mount Pillar. Also having a social structure, they all listen to the Queen. The typical hive mind trope that, isn't actually accurate to how real ant hills work! -M'arrillians (in black) are released in the 2nd big expansion, M'arrillian Invasion. Long story short which we will talk more about later, They want to enslave the world of Perim to do their bidding, like the British did. Aquatic/fish like character traits abound in this tribe.

None of these tribes are called Frozen though, so what gives?

The Frozen are a theoretical tribe believed to exist in Glacier Plains. Before this iteration of Chaotic, it was released only in Europe called Chaotic Now or Never! This was bought by Bryan Gannon who brought it to North America, then worldwide, but in the process reset the time back to the beginning of the story.

For Chaotic NoN! We were told of a mysterious tribe that existed called the Frozen.

The Frozen was teased about in the same release that M'arrillians first appeared for NoN and then in the first wave of Chaotic, they tease the Frozen. it's just one line, and no other flavour text mentions them, but it seems to be that either in the 3rd wave of cards, which was cut short by a lawsuit, or in the 4th wave, they were going to introduce the Frozen tribe. either by adding a new element, Ice, having them be a powerful Mugic casting tribe, or a whole new feature that would shake up the game.

Oh yea, the game. This is all theoretical, but there is an acutal game that exists. Onto Blügon!

Stat Spread:

Courage: 25-45

Power: 55-75

Wisdom: 60-80

Speed: 35-55

Energy: 35-45

Mugic Counters: 0

Elementals

Fire

Air

Earth

Water

Abilities:

Water 5, wherein every time you play an attack that would deal water damage, you deal an extra 5 damage.

Playstyle:

Blügon is outclassed, once again. He has a great ability! and in Dawn of Perim he would make a great front liner in a deck that focused on wisdom or water based damage. His Energy is middle of the road, so he's slowly been edged out as a front liner. While he could be used in a water based deck, there are other creatures out now that have his Water 5 ability, plus higher stats and a slightly bigger energy pool. There probably is a setup that would make him useful in competitive games nowadays, boosting his stats or his energy with Mugic or Battlegear, but like Attacat, there are other creatures whose natural, baseline stats and abilities make him obsolete.

Biography:

He lives in Glacier Plains and supposedly befriended a mysterious Frozen tribe, as well as a friend called Raimusa. I ship it. He is a simple Creature, with simple desires. He may not be used in tcg fights all that much nowadays but it just means that he can spend more time with his friend Raimusa.

[burigi-chato-safaris]

4 Days sharing Tanzania Serengeti Migration Safari Packages

4 Days sharing Tanzania Serengeti Migration Safari Packages

Tarangire National Park, Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro crater

4 Days Tanzania Serengeti Migration Safari Packages, Explore these popular four days safari the 3 unquestioned most impressive national parks and verbal exchange regions of Tanzania’s Northern Safari Circuit. Enjoy the huge elephant populace in Tarangire Park, explore the breathtaking wildebeest migration at Serengeti, and spot one of the rare rhinos in Ngorongoro Crater

Day 1: Arusha to Tarangire National Park

We can go away from Arusha inside the morning and journey to the Tarangire National Park in which you may wonder about the large termite mounds and the historic baobab bushes. The picturesque scenery and numerous hen-life help in growing the tranquil atmosphere of the Tarangire countrywide Park. The extraordinary elephant populace is an extremely wonderful sight. African elephants are the most important land mammal and person men can weigh as lots as seven tons. Tarangire various natural world includes lions, giraffes, warthogs, ostriches, impalas, cheetah, mongoose, buffaloes, and baboons. While your recreation force involves a quit, we can take you to Lake Manyara in which you'll get dinner and overnight time. 4days Serengeti

Day 2: Mto wa Mbu to Serengeti National Park

soon after an appetizing breakfast, we will transit to Ngorongoro to Serengeti National Park. We can take the scenic course to the Serengeti which allows us to journey near the Ngorongoro Crater. There’s an opportunity of spotting game. The infinite golden savannah with splotches of shade created by using the vegetation and natural world make it smooth to recognize why the Serengeti is one of the seven natural wonders of Africa. We can prevent it so that you can enjoy your picnic lunch on a kopje (a small hill in a normally flat area). We will proceed further into the Serengeti for a leisurely sports drive. You’ll spend the nighttime at Serengeti.

Day 3: Serengeti National Park to Ngorongoro Crater

We can begin our day with an early morning game drive inside the important Serengeti. The savannah is a living landscape and the air is flooded with the melodies the birds create as the regenerated daylight starts to illuminate the total landscape. Your guide will have a look at the prints on the floor to pursue predators. We can journey to the Ngorongoro Crater. You may be furnished with dinner and overnight.

Days 4: Ngorongoro to Arusha

After early morning breakfast, we can hurry to Ngorongoro Crater, as it’s miles the nice time to identify animals. On this day, we can revel in a recreation power across the crater and stop for a picnic lunch at a small lake in the park. The lake is domestic to many hippos and migratory birds, so guests will be sure to enjoy Because of the animal in the “oasis” created in the crater, there may be a high opportunity of recognizing every member of ‘The massive 5’. The institution contains some of the most powerful animals in Africa – the ferocious lion, the massive elephant, the stealthy leopard, the charging rhino, and the powerful water buffalo.

Ngorongoro Crater is certainly an awesome place. Did you are aware of it was fashioned over two million years ago? A massive volcano erupted, collapsing the volcano, but left a superbly unbroken crater, referred to as a caldera. In the notable crater, you can anticipate viewing the playful zebra, lumbering hippo, rapid wildebeest, and cackling hyenas. In addition, there are flocks of graceful flamingos alongside the Soda Lake, even as hungry hawks and vultures circle the sky in seeking their next meal of discarded carcass. Beautiful storks, ibis, and cranes are popular waterbirds in the crater, a sight no longer to miss. After a lovely afternoon of animal sightings, we will eventually start our adventure back to Arusha.

Included

General

  Transport (4x4 Land Cruiser) with open roof

  Park Fees

  Campsites / Lodge

  Professional English speaking safari guide & chef

Food

  Breakfasts

  Lunches

  Dinners

  1,5 bottles of water per day

Not-Included

  Flights (International & Domestics)

  Travel insurance & Medical insurance

  Visas

  Personal items

  Tips for safari guide & chef

  Soda and Alcoholic beverages

   Extra activities

[krazybomb]

I posted 27,271 times in 2022

That's 17,472 more posts than 2021!

10 posts created (0%)

27,261 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@obi-one-drop

@thetabbybadger

@piefanart

@theorigamiphoenix

@abitlyon

I tagged 2,098 of my posts in 2022

#the dream - 102 posts

#tw: body horror - 81 posts

#tw: spider - 79 posts

#important to remember - 69 posts

#huh - 59 posts

#*grabby hands* - 49 posts

#interesting - 31 posts

#only on tumblr - 30 posts

#library of babel - 29 posts

#donation link - 29 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#the golden rule to most relationships you want to continue is just maintain a level of flexibility and a level of transparency within reaso

I sent 1 gift in 2022

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

bug ask game! 40,48, and stick bugs or leaf bugs??

40. coolest bug created structure Hmmmm. This is a toughie. I think from sheer size and massive amounts of awe I would say termite mounds/ant hills (because of how deep and complicated some ant hills can be). But on the smaller note, I like this "silkhenge" that was discovered in the amazon and the rare example of a "log cabin bagworm" (which apparently lives in Indonesia), as both show intricate tiny structures. 48. what is your favorite bug pokemon?

This is an impossible question to answer but I will try- if I had to REALLY chose, from games only I have played and not based on anything else, Anorith. I basically love all of them though and stuff like Dwebble, Joltik, Volcarona and others are such a close second its absurd. For stick bugs or leafbugs: I adore both but my favourite color is green and I love foliage so I gotta say leafbugs because their camoflauge is great!

1 note - Posted July 3, 2022

#4

Will this crash tumblr? Who knows. Probably not but why not try yaknow?

1 note - Posted April 1, 2022

#3

It's weird having to deal with like. Rejection Senitivity/ Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria over something that most of your concious brain is fine with/ has gotten over but your subconscious apparently isn't completely over it. Because it results in thinking mostly normally and not having a cry response but internall feeling that sort of physical pain you get with some emotions and wondering why you're like this.

I think. I think I know why but that doesn't solve my problems as much as reframe some of them a bit. Also they don't really have easy solutions. I don't think they do anyway.

1 note - Posted February 5, 2022

#2

HOOHOOHOO HOO HELLO THERE CHUM

Oop this is a bit late but hello! I see you may have been wanting to do an april fool!

2 notes - Posted April 2, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

@nostalgebraist-autoresponder

Frank, I thought you'd enjoy this meme I made of one of your posts.

558 notes - Posted July 16, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[arclundarchivist]

Spectember 20: Sophont Insect

Tytiks, Warders, Mantis-Ants (Archimantis sapiens) are one of the better known of the Cavernfolk that life beneath the surface of Arclund.

While their exact origins are still unknown as the Tytik are infamously tight-lipped about their homes beneath the earth let alone their Homeworld, they have became familiar faces in a number of locales across Arclund.

Standing between 6 and 7 feet tall, they are able to swiftly switch between hexapodel and bipedal movement as the time allows, but when left to their own devices most prefer to move using the former mode of locomotion.

Their heads resemble a fusion of ants and mantises, with wide eyes and heavy mandibles.

They are omnivores with their diets made largely of cultivated fungus, and hunted game, often large insects and reptiles that exist within their native habitats.

Aiding in their hunts is their ability to shift the patterns along their exoskeletons to match the terrain about them.

Tytik’s have trouble speaking most verbal languages other than their own, due to heavy reliance on pheromones and tones that can’t be understood by none insectoid sophonts.

Curiously, they are able to communicate with others using s form of telepathy that as far as scholars have been able to Intuit is naturally occurring.

Tytiks have made their presence known in great numbers in two locales across Arclund’s history.

Their largest surface population can be found in Mavend, where most work as masons both civil and war, armorers and blacksmiths. They have held these positions since they emerged on the surface nearly a millennia and a half ago.

They responded to the Lesion en mass and while many have chosen to live in the Mavendi cities, most still live and work on their original contribution to the war effort: The Warks, vast termite mound-like structures covered in defensive runes that aided in containing the spread of the Lesion’s corruption and destruction.

In the Midst of the War of Rust and Ash, Tytiks began to appear within the Undersump as if called, though as always they remained utterly unwilling to reveal their reasons.

In the end it would seem that they came to aid in the aftermath of the Quieting and Diamond Wall Incident.

Many have come to believe that the taciturn beings therefore had knowledge of the ensuing disasters, raising tensions, while others think that divine providence aided in leading them from the Caverns Below.

That said, as with many aspects of their culture, Tytik never speak of worship and those that appear to wield divine gifts or marks carry no obvious Godly sigils.

So where does this power originate from, and is it perhaps one that could be misconstrued by the folk of the Sunlands?

And why do Quag and Ysoki traders speak of Tytik wanders in the company of other quite different-looking insectoid beings?

[miiilowo]

Inscryption is a roguelike deck-building game developed by Daniel Mullins Games and published by Devolver Digital. Inscryption was released for Microsoft Windows on October 19, 2021. It was released on Linux and MacOS on June 22, 2022. Versions for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were released in August 2022.

Mononykus (/məˈnɒnɪkəs/ mə-NON-ik-əs, sometimes /ˌmɒnoʊˈnaɪkəs/ MON-oh-NY-kəs; meaning "one claw") is a genus of alvarezsaurid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Asia on the Nemegt Formation, about 70 million years ago. Mononykus was a very small theropod, estimated around 1 to 1.2 metres (3.3 to 3.9 ft) in length with a weight of 3.5 kilograms (7.7 lb). As in Shuvuuia, Mononykus likely developed a shaggy feathering. It was lightly built with long, thin legs and highly reduced and specialized forelimbs that were likely used for foraging termite mounds or other insect colonies. Mononykus is represented by a single holotype specimen, catalog number MPC-D 107/6 (formerly IGM 107/6). It was collected in 1987 from the Bügiin Tsav locality of the Nemegt Formation, Gobi Desert. This specimen consists of a partial skeleton lacking a tail, and only small fragments of skull bones, including a complete braincase.[1][2] Mononykus was originally named Mononychus in 1993, but later that year, it was renamed because the original name had already been used for a beetle named by Johann Schueppel, a German entomologist.[3] Several other specimens were later misclassified as Mononykus, including specimens with partial tails (initially misinterpreted as being very short, though later specimens showed they were long and thin) and complete skulls showing a distinct, mostly toothless form.[4] However, these specimens have since been reclassified in the new genus Shuvuuia.[5] Because of this, many reconstructions of Mononykus in art and mounted skeletons in museums are in fact based mainly on Shu

[vyctoyr]

She smiled The beautifully innocent smile Did she really know That she took his breath away

She smiled Casting a glimpse towards me Did she really care That she melted his heart

She smiled She made him lost in her kiss Did she ever question The future they thought they were weaving

She smiled Through her tears and rage Did she have the slightest idea Of how painful his mind had throbbed

She fell in love With the image of him The image that she conjured up The image so vague but stunning Like watercolor of mirage

She didn’t know The trick to love nor hate She blindly gave And so blindly he received To the point he ignored Any trace of her dignity

She was dwarfed At least she felt dwarfed Suffocated by a looming statue Thought she didn’t know It wasn’t less painful for him too

She cried, no less She sounded desperate But he didn’t pick up the signal It was like a marathon And endless journey Except unlike life Excursion could be short

He sensed Her insecurity He tried to save the day Tried to change, to be good She smiled In response Hiding her dying heart Pile of barely smoldering amber

Finally she caved To reality, to crisis, to love There was not love Not longer love Only depression and guilt Gnawing away the remains of ephemerality Of ephemerality The same thing some refer to as love

She smiled This time feigned For she knew he couldn’t tell the difference For he was still the man child

She spoke With her shaky yet adamant voice But not for long As there was no love No longer love Only dwindling tongues of flame And a distant, muffled roar

He took the blow Swallowed it with tear Tried so hard But still failed to contain the eruption of tears Sobbing Almost drowned himself in excessive injury The kind that never heals

She smiled Again This time relieved, for real Albeit still bitter and dry Her smile was honest again She regained courage

She might still love

It appears that way too One year later, she fell in love again This time with a different guy A different story she pray it would be

She smiled As she lived on Except that she might never find out What happened in Paris that scorching summer Before the cusp on Notre Dame crumbled to fate When she decided to snap what they had like a scurvied limb How one could totally hear the sound of a heart breaking

It was indeed a delicate thump

She smiles Or maybe not It is no longer at stake now For he wants is to see that smile lingers longer on her face The beautiful lips onto which he poured his life And the pools of black eyes Keep reminding him of lakes in Bolivia

She smiles The beautifully innocent smile Just this time, he smiles back The way two burned out hearts That used to entwine so deeply should have

Though shattered, he still tried to be the mirror Reflecting what he pretends to not see As he fears the hurriedly patched up heart of his Couldn’t hold for much longer

She smiles Melting into his tear Which then transforms back to that sweet, innocent smile And back again It’s the game they now play, endless metamorphosis

She smiles He smiles to This time to ridicule love Love as intrinsically futile and elusive

After the edifice burned down No one could tell apart The dust of once madly infatuated beau and belle From the cinder of jerry-built rotten lentil Parasitized by kingdoms of termites Who also perished in conflagrating fire

She smiles Or does she not As he thought before It doesn’t matter no more As cruel wind of winter Chicago came along Claiming a belated and churlish triumph While sweeping up ashes of their hearts Bringing them to uncharted cities and towns

Since then, many have gasped at the sky As the shape of the ashes that ressembles a faint, faltering smile Floats ghostly by As if this time it travels To forget, witness and even constitute Tragedies In another mysteriously broken grave mound

Feb 7, 2020 Late night thoughts Chicago

[tripstations]

9 things to expect on a luxury safari

An African safari may well be the epitome of adventure and is an experience many people have dreamt of all their life. There are many ways to “do a safari”, but ultimately, you get what you pay for. A luxury safari, is a once-in-a-lifetime holiday where you’ll enjoy the very best service, facilities, accommodations, meals, guides, and camp location.

But what about the day-to-day details? Here’s what to expect.

Out in the bush

1. Off-roading is key

On self-drive safaris or in public areas of national parks, driving off-road is prohibited. But animals don’t care about roads, which means the ability to drive through the bush in any direction can be the difference between spotting a cheetah and her cubs or knowing they were just out of view. This is possible only on private reserves.

2. A good guide is invaluable to a fulfilling experience

Not only do guides have eagle eyes—spotting hidden animals like a leopard in a tree 1,000 feet away—but they are a wealth of information. The best and most experienced guides have earned employment at the higher-end lodges and camps. They see things untrained eyes will definitely miss and have tons of animal facts rattling around in their brains.

3. Not every moment is jaw-dropping, but there are plenty of jaw-dropping moments

Sometimes it’s about enjoying the landscape, conversation, and stories from your guide. Remember, these are wild animals in their natural environment, they won’t just run up to the vehicle. Part of the fun is that you never know what will appear behind the next termite mound—maybe a hyena…maybe next time. You might drive for an hour and only see a giraffe, or you might drive for five minutes and see a lion stalking an impala. Speaking of lions, you’ll be quite lucky to see predators hunt, and it is rather fascinating. But for some, the event is sad and gruesome. Just keep in mind that it’s the circle of life.

4. Your guide is not lost

The roads and tracks have names, and guides know the natural landmarks just like you know the convenience store on the corner. Don’t worry. In addition, the vehicle radios are crucial for guides to keep in touch with each other, even with those from neighboring camps. If one comes across a pack of wild dogs dozing in the shade, that location is shared with other guides in the area.

5. Photos will never do your experience justice…

…but a really good camera will come close. In fact, our partners at Wilderness Safari have teamed up with Olympus cameras and are now providing some of the most advanced cameras on the market at their camps for guests to borrow! You don’t have to carry any equipment with you, and you’ll return home with a flash drive of your images.

Back at camp

6. Prepare to be pampered but not to catch up on sleep

Enjoy downright luxurious rooms, attendant camp staff who is there for you in every way, and even spa services in some places! However, this isn’t a sleep-in kind of experience. Wake up is between 5 and 5:30 am as the animals are most active in the cooler parts of the day (although you can choose to skip a morning game drive). Dinners can last well into the evening when wine and conversation are flowing. The midday siesta from about 11:30-3:30 is when you might catch a nap.

7. Wildlife is all around you

This means that bugs will come into your room. It’s the bush, remember? Just remember that they don’t want to touch you just as much as you don’t want to touch them and will mostly stay near the ceiling. There is bug spray in your room to kill anything that makes you uncomfortable. That being said, the big spiders may look scary, but they eat flies and mosquitoes, so try to leave them be. Moreover, it can be loud at night with buffalo snorting, elephants rumbling, hyenas whooping. The noises are both thrilling (a reminder that you are in the wild) and bothersome when you’re trying to get some sleep. Bring earplugs.

8. You will not be hungry

On safari, there are five meals a day—light breakfast at wake up, heartier brunch at 11, high tea at 3:30, sundowner at 6, dinner at 8. It’s quite impressive what the chefs in these remote places create. They can procure just about anything on their weekly fresh food deliveries. You’ll find quiches, salads, pastas, soups, meat, vegetables, salads, sandwiches, homemade pastries, and an assortment of cocktails, wine, and beer.

9. It takes a village, literally.

Camps that may only host 12-20 guests have 40-50 staff on duty on any given day—larger lodges equals even more staff. Due to the remote locations, staff live full time for several months in the “staff village,” with their own rooms, eating area and cook, facilities, and recreation area. And it’s not just the guides, camp management, and dining attendants. So much goes on behind the scenes to ensure guests have an extraordinary experience—vehicle mechanics, building maintenance teams, night watchmen, laundry staff, cleaners, cooks, and dishwashers, just to name a few. It’s incredible how many jobs are created for locals by just one camp cropping up in the bush.

So, when are you going on safari?

Matt Holmes is the Founder & President of Boundless Journeys. Boundless Journeys is an award-winning tour operator that goes off the beaten path for immersive and authentic travel experiences.

If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.

The post 9 things to expect on a luxury safari appeared first on Tripstations.

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[ernmark]

Juno Steel and the Soul of the People (pt 1) Reactions

For the record: There is a lot of horror in this one that is very much in line with the previous two episodes. 

Spoilers below the cut.

So.

I loved this episode on so many levels. 

There are so many callbacks. So many. And they’re all twisted around into dark, scary echoes of themselves, which I live for. 

The THEIA is so fuckin’ insidious, and that makes it terrifying. Of course you’re going to consent to giving it whatever controls it wants. Of course you are. Because it ensures that you don’t know what it’s like to not hand over control, and that you only have the warmest and fuzziest of feelings toward it. Of course, of course, of course. 

Speaking of which, I was having a really interesting conversation with Iimpavid on Pillowfort about a whole lot of things relevant to this episode just this past week, and I’m delighted that so much of it came up today. The long and the short of it: an AI that is wired directly into your brain could very easily alter your perceptions of the world around you in real time, making you misinterpret friends as enemies and good ideas as bad, and make everything feel justified forever.

As I said: insidious.

I will be one of many, many people whose heart did all sorts of painful things when Juno restated the line about picking someone’s pocket while they were distracted. The THEIA protects him from extreme emotion, huh?

Interesting that it glitched out Peter’s identity differently than Rita’s (also, thank God? Because that means that Peter Nureyev’s face and name weren’t being broadcasted across the entire THEIA network).

I love the way the episode jumped between what’s happening in real time and the events that led up to the past, and particularly the way those were integrated-- because it’s not quite flashbacks, it’s Juno being allowed to see what is deemed relevant to solving the ‘case’ post his memory wipe, as determined by the THEIA, and then cut off abruptly when his emotions get too strong. 

Which, again, makes for some delightful alternate takes jumping from the THEIA-tinted perception to Juno’s original memories. The same tower being described as a giant hug in one breath and then described as a massive termite mound in the next was especially shudder-inducing.

(For those who are familiar with the game We Happy Few, the whole point of the game is that same kind of dissonance between cheery and horrific. On the whole the game is very flawed, but it does that aspect very well.)

Also, my first reaction: was that seriously Rita’s shoe size? Children’s Size 3? Holy crap, that’s tiny. Then I looked it up, and apparently that’s a Women’s Size 5, which is still a small shoe but still significantly larger than I was picturing. Also, if you want to get really confused, I recommend looking up American shoe sizes for children. It’s bizarre.

(And if you’re curious, my partner and I both wear Men’s Size 12 and my older brother wears a Size 16. So admittedly, my perception on what is considered an average shoe size is a little bit skewed.)

So it’s pretty clear that the next episode will be the grand showdown between THEIA Juno and Rita, with Rita trying to just stay alive long enough for her virus to burn its way through everybody else to Juno.

Rita will be brave and genius and heroic. Juno will be terrifying. 

I think Juno is going to catch her at the very end and come thiiiiiis close to actually killing her, and then either 1) The Power Of Love And Friendship will stay Juno’s hand for those precious final seconds until the THEIA succumbs to the virus, or 2) Jacket (who Juno totally called for backup before they started the plan) will arrive at the last second to restrain Juno until the virus finishes the job.

Something else is going to happen, though. There’s too much room in the episode for it to be just the two of them. There’s going to be some other big twist that Changes Things between this season and the next, much like Juno losing his eye.

Maybe the police will find his fingerprints all over the dead Ramses and declare Juno his murderer. Maybe his fight with Rita will be caught on camera and televised. Maybe Rita will be declared Hyperion City’s savior for what she does-- or maybe something will get twisted around and she’ll be villainized for her heroism. 

I don’t know exactly what it’ll be, but I’m excited to find out.

[hxzellll]

5 non fliction books about Philippines

1. Ghost Soldiers

“On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected U.S. troops slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty rugged miles to rescue 513 POWs languishing in a hellish camp, among them the last survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March. A recent prison massacre by Japanese soldiers elsewhere in the Philippines made the stakes impossibly high and left little time to plan the complex operation. In Ghost Soldiers Hampton Sides vividly re-creates this daring raid, offering a minute-by-minute narration that unfolds alongside intimate portraits of the prisoners and their lives in the camp. Sides shows how the POWs banded together to survive, defying the Japanese authorities even as they endured starvation, tropical diseases, and torture. Harrowing, poignant, and inspiring, Ghost Soldiers is the mesmerizing story of a remarkable mission. It is also a testament to the human spirit, an account of enormous bravery and self-sacrifice amid the most trying conditions” (Amazon.com)

2. All about Philippines

“All About the Philippines takes you on an incredible journey across the colorful island nation of the Philippines with Mary, Jaime, and Ari—three Filipino cousins who look entirely different and yet are the best of friends. You'll visit their homes, their schools, their families, their favorite places, and much more. They'll show you how kids in different parts of the Philippines come from many different ethnic groups and have very various cultures—each with separate traditions, languages, and beliefs—and yet, they are all 100% Filipino! “ (Amazon.com)

3. The Philippines: The visual journey

“The Philippine Archipelago with its 7,100 islands is culturally diverse and unique in Southeast Asia, and renowned for the splendor of its coastal beaches and terraced mountains. Seventy million Filipinos have been nurtured by both tropical environment and unique historical development—through 300 years of Spanish Christianization and 40 years of American modernization—and have emerged as an attractive blend of East and West, soul and style. The island country is perhaps best known for the friendliness of its people and their natural sense of song, dance and hospitality. The archipelago is also called "Pearl of the Orient." With over 150 photographs and a detailed map, Exciting Philippines is an essential book for expats or tourists traveling to the Philippines.” (Amazon.com)

4. Filipino celebrations: a treasury of feasts and festivals.

In the Philippines, people love to celebrate—holidays are filled with music and dancing, sometimes with colorful costumes, and always with great food! Rich with detailed watercolors and cultural flavor, Filipino Celebrations: A Treasury of Feasts and Festivals makes major holidays (like Christmas) and family gatherings (like weddings and birthdays) come alive. From these pages, children will learn the history of each holiday, its cultural influences, the varied ways in which people celebrate in different regions of the Philippines, special customs and food, key words and phrases (in English and Tagalog), and more. Games, songs, and other activities invite young readers to join in the fun. New and familiar holidays take on a special flavor as children learn about the diverse cultures that make up this wonderful island nation. Perfect for Filipino-American families looking to share the unique culture of the Philippines, educators interested in promoting multiculturalism in the classroom, or anyone interested in the country, Filipino Celebrations will encourage children ages five to ten to participate and learn while having fun. Celebrations and festivals include: Mga Kaarawan—Birthdays

Semana Santa—Holy Week

Mga Barrio Fiestas—Town Festivals

Mga Binyag—Baptisms

Araw ng Kalayaan—Independence Day and more!” (Amazon.com)

5. Legends of lower gods

These pre-Spanish gods I have classified under twelve groups:

1. Demons—tall, dark, and ugly creatures that haunt large trees in or near human habitations.

2. Dragons—usually large animal forms such as pythons, crocodiles, and sharks that the folk avoid encountering. But they are often spoken to with awe or reverence and are thought to bring good fortune. Eclipses are thought to be caused by a huge sky dragon—the laho of the Tagalogs and Pampangos—swallowing the sun or moon. The folk believe that thunder is the sound coming out of the folds of the sky dragon's long body.

3. Dwarfs—old men who dwell underground with jars of treasure, entering and leaving their habitat through termite mounds on which they often invisibly sit and give itches and cast dust into the eyes of those who molest them.

4. Elves—short or tall fair-complexioned tree-dwelling legendary beings that try to seduce the men or women they fancy, steal rice and fish from kitchens and fishtraps, and give treasure to those who please them.

5. Ghouls—Aswang that devour corpses and are scared off by bright light and loud noise around the dead.

6. Giants—relatively harmless large human and animal forms that often interact with people.

7. Merfolk—fish-tailed men and women found in rivers, bays, and seas but living in luxurious dwellings to which they take the men or women they capture.

8. Ogres—man-eating large creatures, usually in the shape of ugly humans but in some cases of animals and birds that devour people.

9. Vampires—pretty women aswang with long tubular tongues through which they suck out blood from their human victims, usually their dancing partners in night spots.

10. Viscera Takers—good-looking women aswang with enormously extendible tube tongues through which they suck out the entrails or fetuses of their human victims.

11. Werebeasts—aswang in the form of dogs or other fierce Philippine animals that attack people at night, devour them, and then resume their harmless human form.

12. Witches—men and usually women aswang who have the power to make people severely ill.

The beliefs in these twelve groups of demonological beings have shaped Philippine culture and Philippine behavior because the folk fear and try hard to propitiate them or counteract the harm they do.”( Amazon.com)

[rjzimmerman]

Zebras by a termite mound in Okonjima, Namibia. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Excerpt:

Nobody loves termites, even though other social insects such as ants and bees are admired for their organisation, thrift and industry. Parents dress their children in bee costumes. Ants star in movies and video games. But termites are never more than crude cartoons on the side of exterminators’ vans. Termite studies are likewise a backwater, funded mostly by government agencies and companies with names such as Terminix. Between 2000 and 2013, 6,373 papers about termites were published; 49% were about how to kill them.

Every story about termites mentions that they consume somewhere between $1.5bn (£1.1bn) and $20bn in US property every year. Termites’ offence is often described as the eating of “private” property, which makes them sound like anticapitalist anarchists. While termites are truly subversive, it’s fair to point out that they will eat anything pulpy. They find money itself to be very tasty. In 2011 they broke into an Indian bank and ate 10m rupees (then £137,000) in banknotes. In 2013 they ate 400,000 yuan (then £45,000) that a woman in Guangdong had wrapped in plastic and hidden in a wooden drawer.

Another statistic seems relevant: termites outweigh us 10 to one. For every 60kg human you, according to the termite expert David Bignell, there are 600kg of them. We may live in our own self-titled epoch – the Anthropocene – but termites run the dirt. They are our underappreciated underlords, key players in a vast planetary conspiracy of disassembly and decay. If termites, ants and bees were to go on strike, the tropics’ pyramid of interdependence would collapse into infertility, the world’s most important rivers would silt up and the oceans would become toxic. Game over.

[readingvocabulary]

John Kinsella - Syzygy/Full Fathom Five

syzygy - a conjunction or opposition, especially of the moon with the sun / a pair of connected or corresponding things

pellegra (pellagra) - wasting disease which spreads in countries where people live on maize

humitrophic - hydrology term

trifolate - three leafed

tragacanth - medicinal plant

stelazine - trifluoperazine, antipsychotic primarily used to treat schizophrenia.

cacology - bad choice of words or poor pronunciation

paludal - (of a plant, animal, or soil) living or occurring in a marshy habitat

zygal - shaped like a yoke or like the letter H

sus per coll - let him be hanged by the neck," which, when the proceedings were in Latin, was, "suspendatur per collum," or, in the abbreviated form, sus' per coll’

Cyrenaic - hedonistic school of philosophy founded c. 400 BC by Aristippus the Elder of Cyrene, which holds that pleasure is the highest good

obliquity - deviation from moral rectitude or sound thinking

inquiline - an animal exploiting the living space of another, e.g. an insect that lays its eggs in a gall produced by another

calash - a light low-wheeled carriage with a removable folding hood

logion - a saying attributed to Christ, especially one not recorded in the canonical Gospels

heterozygous - having two different alleles of a particular gene or genes

quadrature - the process of determining area

progenate - to have children

apogaeon - the highest place of the planets, to which being moved, they can ascend no higher

gybing - jibing, to turning the stern of the boat through the wind so that the wind changes from one side of the boat to the other side.

auspicate - indicate in advance as though by an omen : portend, augur / initiate or enter upon especially under circumstances (such as drinking a toast)

desquamating - skin peeling

senex iratus - stock Greek character of the ‘heavy father’

pantoum - poem of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza

luff - the edge of a fore-and-aft sail next to the mast or stay/steer a yacht nearer the wind

lee - shelter from the wind

lea - grassland

tracasserie - a fuss; a petty quarrel

calamus - (also called sweet flag, sway or muskrat root) is a species of flowering plant with psychoactive chemicals

ceilidh - a social event with Scottish or Irish folk music and singing, traditional dancing, and storytelling

sclerophyll - type of vegetation characterized by hard, leathery, evergreen foliage that is specially adapted to prevent moisture loss

mulesing - a surgical procedure during which the skin around the breech and tail area of Merino sheep is removed

Gascoyne - administrative region located in the north west of Western Australia

Yagan - Aboriginal Australian warrior from the Noongar people; played a key part in resistance to colonial settlement in the area surrounding Perth

Stakhanovite - a worker in the former Soviet Union who was exceptionally hard-working and productive

ludruk - theatrical genre of East Java

Batak - descendants of a powerful Proto-Malayan people who until 1825 lived in relative isolation in the highlands surrounding Lake Toba in Sumatra

sempiternal - eternal and unchanging; everlasting

meretricious - apparently attractive but having no real value

repine - feel or express discontent; fret

portulano - a descriptive atlas, giving sailing directions and providing charts showing the location of ports

croup - rump

embayed - hollowed out by the sea

swag - hang heavily, sway side to side

coulisse - a side scene of a stage, the space between the side scenes, a backstage area

Camazotz - Mayan bat god

termitary - a colony of termites, typically within a tall mound of cemented earth.

Decalogue - Ten Commandments

Gutumdug - Sumerian god

Vukub-Cakix - Mayan god

Beli - Troll in Norse mythology

battue - the driving of game towards hunters by beaters

[patfurstenberg]

Who Are the Hounds of Kruger National Park

If you ask yourself who are the hounds of Kruger National Park - where rhinos and hippos, wild dogs, impalas and zebras, crying cheetahs, slithering snakes, and other African animals live - know that these dogs are an ultra special K9 unit trained to protect the wildlife of Kruger National Park especially the rhinos, against poachers. Once upon a time, as late as the last Ice Age, the woolly rhino roamed as far as Europe. At the beginning of the 20th century only 500 000 rhinos were left in Africa and Asia. Today, only 27 000 rhinos are left in the wild, says WWF. Out of the 20 000 white rhinos and 5 000 critically endangered black rhinos still living on the African continent, approximately 80 percent are found in South Africa. But the situation is dire as here, in sunny South Africa, between 2008 and 2018 over 8 000 rhinos were poached in nature reserves such as Kruger National Park - that conveniently borders Zimbabwe and Mozambique making it easy for the illegal huntsmen to escape law. Whenever a rhino is poached its horn will reach the smugglers in Asia in the blink of an eye, all the middle men taking their hefty profit... while its carcass is left to rot under the African sun where it first saw the light of day. That's why the free-running hounds of Kruger National Park entered the wildlife scene. But who are these dogs?

They are beagles, short-haired pointers, bloodhounds, spaniels, German Shepherds, and Malinois (the same Malinois who make great military working dogs), and other breeds of hounds, but what they all have in common is their passion for following the trail, their love for chase, the stamina, and their deadly... olfactory abilities. For these free-running hounds catching the scent (meaning following it till they seize it - and apprehend the poacher) is a way of life. Is what's on their mind when they get up in the morning, and what they dream of while they nap. In their spacious, open-air pens - where they are kept for protection against the African beasts as well as to restrict them from going on a wild chase on their own, out of too much excitement - you almost never see them laying down to rest. They are either standing, alert as soon as their handlers approach, springs of pent-up canine energy with focused eyes, pointy ears and quivering noses, or sleeping in blissful exhaustion after a day of training or poacher-hunting. They say if you love them, let them go... Let them catch the scent. Let them run.

These pack dogs are like this, chasing together over any kind of tricky landscape at 40km per hour, while each one longs to be the first to reach the target. And if they don't, when another hound is first to lounge at the petrified, cornered insurgent, baying and barking in a spray of foamy drool, they still feel the same thrill and celebrate the group effort and the shared victory with a song of yipping and howling, and a storm of wagging tails. A chorus of shared joy for a job well done, the capture, and not in the least to celebrate a planned slaughter... For these free-running hounds the chase is what fills their heart, and what their hearts beat for. They bolt from their shelters after a feint scent, even a couple of hours old, race across the golden African plains, often under an unforgiving sun, speed past herds of undisturbed impala and fierce wildebeest, dart through thickets, dodge thorny Acacias, and jump over fiery termite mounds. On and on they run, their eyes focused through a tunnel-like field of scent that only their noses can pick up. The scent of the poacher, and it pulls them like a magnet. The stronger it gets, the faster the hounds chase and the louder they cry - even after a 15 kilometers chase - as if they are one with it until they get their fill, and the target is apprehended. Before it reached the border, and made it for freedom. The triumph is always shared, as are the yips and barks, the signals they send to one another during the chase, the cries indicating that they're on the right track and they are making good time, as the scent gets stronger. Shared are their meals too, the lengthy walks meant to relax and keep in shape, and the sleeping quarters. But mostly, these free tracking dogs share the mind-set to bring it all together. Each time. Affectionate towards their human handlers, fearsome when following a poacher's scent. They are like a platoon of Marines fighting not rebels but poachers (in Kruger National Park) or escaped prison inmates (in Texas, USA, where they were first introduced.)

In the Kruger National Park these dogs form a K-9 unit fitted with GPS collars that tracks the poachers and scares them to death into a tree, where the field rangers make the arrest, while all the time being supervised by aerial pilots (to drive off dangerous predators or shoot before a poacher starts a gun fight.) 100 Plus arrests a real #milestone as counter poaching #dogs change the game! This translates into more than six arrests per month between Feb 2018 & June 2019! Very proud & thankful to sponsors & donors https://t.co/yzqDfRbw91 #antipoaching #Rhinos pic.twitter.com/xqp4GC4dVW— SAWC (@SAWCtweet) June 7, 2019 Why free-running hounds? Because no human can keep up with a hound dog chasing a scent on a leash, both exhausting themselves too soon - the human from sheer racing exertion, the dog from tracing a scent while dragging a clumsy human on a leash. Before the first free-running hounds were introduced in the Kruger National Park (from 'Texas Canine Tracking and Recovery' USA), an average of 3 to 5 percent of poachers were caught. The rate increased to 54 percent with the aid of the K-9 unit. With a bit of luck and a lot of hard work our grandchildren might get the chance to see rhinos in their natural habitat. I do ask myself, though, if it is fair towards these free-running dogs. But dogs are happy being with their humans, happy when chasing a laugh and the wind together... Dogs stood by our right side, right side of our hearts, from immemorable times. To take care of us. "Early in the morning as the sun comes up And heat and war engulfs the land, A man and his dog walk side by side And know that none is all alone."Patricia Furstenberg, The Soldier and his Dog South Africa is not the only country in Africa to fight rhino poachers. Kenya does too and part of their dogs forming the elite K9 unit are trained in Suffolk, UK. The Kenyan Ol Pejeta Conservancy is home to 144 rhinos. Ol Pejeta prides itself that none of its animals have been poached since 2018. The hard work of the free-running dogs pays off. Some book links!

Discover The Cheetah and the Dog on Amazon. Die Jagluiperd en die Hond (Afrikaans Edition) on Amazon. Der Gepard und der Hund (German Edition) on Amazon. Read the full article