#pasture monitoring

[farmerstrend]

Why ILRI's Kapiti Ranch in Kenya is the Ultimate Test-Bed for Digital Innovation in Livestock Research

“Learn how ILRI’s digital twin project at Kapiti Ranch is transforming livestock management in Africa, offering data-driven insights into cattle health, pasture availability, and climate adaptation.” “Explore ILRI’s innovative use of digital twin technology in Kenya, enhancing livestock research with real-time health monitoring, climate-resilient breeding, and sustainable rangeland…

[solidaritygaming-fanblog]

Hes beautiful... I will cherish him forever. Friendly little creeper shepard guy AAAGWHW

Tumble Town’s gun powder farm but it works like sheeps with wool,, so friendly creepers taking a stroll with their favorite shepherd :)

[phantomrose96]

So my mom's birthday was this week and I flew down with Patches to visit her for a few days. Patches, while a verified hater of the airport, really loves my mom's place because there are so many more closets to explore and birds to watch and cobwebs to dust with her stupid little face.

My mom also goes to bed earlier than anyone I know, so for the evenings it was on me to monitor Patches' activity. And she's very good. She's 99% good. She's 1% "could use improvement" good and the 1%, which I'd forgotten about, is tomatoes.

Patches will leave most things alone. (And by "alone" I mean she'll absolutely bitch slap them onto the floor, but they will leave the ordeal with just as many or few surface punctures as they had before the encounter started.) Not tomatoes. Patches has it the fuck out for tomatoes.

So when I noticed her batting something around on the ground I realized that my mom had left a sole, roma tomato in the fruit basket on the counter and it was now experiencing the life cycle of a pingpong ball between Patches' paws.

I take it away from her, like a fucking evil woman, and now I'm like "okay actually, where do I hide this." See at home I have an anti-Patches cabinet, which is for things that have no business living in a cabinet but which WILL have business dying at Patches' hands if left accessible. And this is WEIRD to have such a cabinet but it's my own home.

I'm scanning my mother's cabinets going "is this weird here? can the tomato go in my mother's dish cabinet?" And I briefly consider sticking it in the fridge, as a normal location, but the audacity of altering this tomato's ripening process is an audacity I do not possess. So I go with cabinet. I go with the first eye-level cabinet, which is the coffee mug cabinet, which is perfect because the tomato will not be lost to cabinet purgatory there, since my mom opens it every morning for her coffee. I will simply tell her in the morning that the tomato is there.

Next morning. Seeing as my mother goes to bed at the butt-crack of dusk she ALSO gets up at the ass-crack of dawn. This means I trail down like 2 hours after her with my work laptop and Patches. This is also now her birthday. I'm sharing the sofa with her for a good 15 minutes when I think to myself I'd like some coffee, and I remember I put a tomato in the cabinet. I tell my mom as much. I put the tomato in her coffee mug cabinet.

And the look I get is one I can't really figure out on spot. But she says "Chrissy this is the best birthday present you could have given me" which is a very weird response to the already weird statement "Oh you probably saw, but I hid the tomato in the coffee mug cabinet because Patches has it out for tomatoes."

So I do not at all know how this makes for a good birthday gift. My mom tells me how a week or two ago, she came home unloading groceries. At the end of putting everything away she could not for the life of her find her phone. Absolutely nowhere. She pinged it from her iPad and it started singing. From the fridge. She opened her fridge. Her phone was in the fridge.

A couple days later she lost Ash's collar. Spent three days looking for it. Couldn't remember where she'd taken it off or what she did with it. Showed up in the grass when she remembered she took it off to let him play fetch in the lake.

And then this morning, her birthday morning, she came into the kitchen, made her pot of coffee, opened the cabinet to fetch her coffee mug, and found... tomato. Singular. Tomato in the cabinet. Tomato she had no memory of placing in a cabinet. Tomato she could not possibly fathom having a reason for being in the cabinet.

She was like Chrissy I cried. She was like this is it, time to send her to pasture. She's a harebrained old lady now and there is no coming back from this. She's the lady who accidentally puts tomatoes in the cabinet. Awake before God, standing in the kitchen, signing her life away over this tiny roma tomato. (Roma tomato with little cat vampire teeth marks in it).

I was like oh. No. I put it there. Because Patches was going to commit war crimes against it. I put it there because I did not stop to consider "Will finding a single tomato in the coffee mug cabinet somehow be the very specific thing that undoes my mother this morning?" I put it there out of careful consideration for the life of this tomato, and with no consideration for the extremely esoteric way that a tomato in the cabinet could be received like a horse head in the bed, Godfather style.

We made a salad with the tomato. Happy birthday Mom.

[reasonsforhope]

"Abby Allen has no problem with her neighbours peering over her luxuriant hedges to see what she is up to on her farm.

For years she has been carrying out ad hoc experiments with wildlife and farming techniques; in her lush Devon fields native cattle graze alongside 400-year-old hedgerows, with birds and butterflies enjoying the species-rich pasture.

Under the environmental land management scheme (ELMS), introduced by the government in 2021, those experiments were finally being funded. “We have a neighbour who has always been more of an intensive farmer,” she says, but he is now considering leaving fields unploughed to help the soil. “It genuinely is having such a huge impact in changing people’s mindsets who traditionally would never have thought about farming in this way.”

The new nature payments scheme followed the UK’s exit from the EU, when the government decided to scrap the common agricultural payments scheme, which gave a flat subsidy dependent on the number of acres a farmer managed. In its place came ELMS, which pays farmers for things such as planting hedges, sowing wildflowers for birds to feed on and leaving corners of their land wild for nature.

But these schemes are now at threat of defunding, as the Labour government has refused to commit to the £2.4bn a year spending pot put in place by the previous Conservative government. With spending tight and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, cutting back on infrastructure and hinting at tax rises, a cut to the ELMS scheme may be on her list.

However, government data released last week found the schemes were working to tentatively bring nature back to England’s farmland. Butterflies, bees and bats are among the wildlife being boosted by ELMS, with birds among the chief beneficiaries, particularly ones that largely feed on invertebrates. An average of 25% more breeding birds were found in areas utilising the eco-friendly schemes.

...there are also farmers who welcome the schemes. Allen says the ELMS has helped her farm provide data and funds to expand and improve the good things they were doing for nature. “Some of the money available around things like soil testing and monitoring – instead of us going ‘we think these are the right things to do and providing these benefits,’ we can now measure it. The exciting thing now is there is money available to measure and monitor and kind of prove that you’re doing the right things. And so then you can find appropriate funding to do more of that.”

Allen, who is in the Nature Friendly Farming Network, manages a network of farms in England, most of which are using the ELMS. This includes chicken farms where the poultry spend their life outside rather than in sheds and other regenerative livestock businesses...

Mark Spencer was an environment minister until 2024 when he lost his seat, but now spends more time in the fields admiring the fruits of his and his family’s labour. He says that a few years of nature-friendly agriculture has restored lapwings and owls.

“On the farm, I haven’t seen lapwings in any number for what feels like a whole generation. You know, as a kid, when I was in my early teens, you’d see lapwings. We used to call them peewits. We’d see them all the time, and they sort of disappeared.

“But then, me and my neighbours changed the way we did cropping, left space in the fields for them to nest, and suddenly they returned. You need to have a piece of land where you’re not having mechanical machinery go over it on a regular basis, because otherwise you destroy the nest. We’ve also got baby owls in our owl box now for the first time in 15 years. They look mega, to be honest, these little owls, little balls of fluff. It is rewarding.”"

-via The Guardian, August 23, 2024

[rjzimmerman]

I'm going to invite these scientists to our house and yard. We have dozens and dozens of grackles at our feeders, making their grackle noises and bullying away our other "resident" birds. But in case they're right, here's an excerpt from an Audubon story:

As people have remade the American landscape, they’ve also shaped the fortunes of Common Grackles. The iridescent blackbirds flourished in the grain fields and pastures that European settlers cultivated after cutting down forests in the 18th and 19th centuries. By the 1970s, an estimated 150 million grackles inhabited a vast stretch from the East Coast to the Rocky Mountains, and today they are regulars across much of the continent. But the birds are disappearing—and no one knows why. A new tracking project aims to reveal what’s driving the mysterious decline.

Birders were among the first to gather evidence of the species’ troubling trajectory. In winter, grackles join Red-winged Blackbirds, European Starlings, and other birds in giant swirling congregations. Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) long tallied roosts of up to tens of millions of birds. But in the past couple of decades, participants have rarely found flocks of more than a few million, says former CBC director Geoff LeBaron. Other blackbirds are in decline, too, but grackles have become noticeably absent from winter roosts.

According to CBC data, Common Grackles have been dropping at a rate of 3 percent per year, which amounts to a roughly 78 percent decline since 1970, says Tim Meehan, a quantitative scientist at Audubon. Meanwhile, federal Breeding Bird Surveys, which take place each summer, have found at least a 50 percent decline over the past half century. These data clearly indicate that there are fewer grackles across the board, Meehan says: “It’s a slam dunk.”

Michael Ward, a University of Illinois biologist, is one of the lead scientists delving into the conundrum. In 2021 he and his colleagues ruled out a hunch that grackles were failing to produce young: 60 percent of chicks in nearly 200 nests that he monitored fledged successfully, a higher rate than most songbirds achieve. Whatever is harming grackles is likely affecting adults, Ward says.

It’s possible the resourceful foragers, which eat everything from grubs to grains to garbage, are exposed to something dangerous in their diet. The researchers suspect insects and corn could be hazardous meals: Both may contain high levels of neonicotinoids—insecticides commonly applied to grains that have been linked to a decline in avian biodiversity in North America and beyond. Ward’s group plans to study what grackles eat on their breeding grounds to help determine how great a risk their food poses.

Meanwhile, the scientists want to better understand the challenges grackles face after leaving their breeding grounds. In addition to stringing up mist nets to snag birds in residential neighborhoods and at roost sites, Ward and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Kelly VanBeek set live traps baited with seed and mealworms at Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance’s Goose Pond Sanctuary. They outfitted 14 Common Grackles with satellite tags throughout the summer and early fall of 2023 as the birds prepared to depart for their wintering grounds in the Southeast and southern Midwest.

On those journeys, VanBeek says, there are plenty of opportunities for the migrants to encounter other possible chemical culprits like fungicides, which may disrupt birds’ hormones and metabolism and are typically applied in the fall when grackles are on the move. Blackbirds’ penchant for foraging on farmland in large flocks makes them a target for culling as well. Between 1974 and 1992, the federal government killed up to 18 million Common Grackles in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama to reduce damage to agricultural crops. The pace has slowed, but the practice continues: Wildlife Services, a USDA division, killed more than 630,000 Common Grackles over the past decade. That’s on top of birds taken by farmers under FWS permits.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Through more than 500 case studies pulling from sociology, anthropology, history, economics, political science, forestry, and ecology, Ostrom and her colleagues identified a set of principles that bottom-up, community-led organizations had used to successfully manage commons. Among them were clearly defined boundaries for a commons; monitoring of the resource and its users; graduated sanctions for anyone who stepped out of line; and a mechanism for conflict resolution. Ostrom’s work showed these principles could be managed by people from any background absent the expertise of executives or bureaucrats. “Humans have great capabilities, and somehow we’ve had some sense that the officials had genetic capabilities that the rest of us didn’t have,” Ostrom said late in life. “I hope we can change that.”

[...]

If counterpoints to “Tragedy” exist in great numbers, across regions and resources, why did Hardin’s essay sink its teeth into our collective understanding of the commons? Thomas Dietz, a frequent Ostrom collaborator, blames society’s tendency toward “catastrophism” and “simple, universal explanations.” As the authors of a retrospective paper put it in 2019, Hardin “contributed a catchphrase that caught the prevailing winds of public discourse,” even though the pasture metaphor was “reductionist and distorting.”

[xinfinityl0ve17]

Zapping CD Track 24: Interview!

Gackt

"This time, the PV is based on the story of the song’s world."

15:58 - Gackt makes a magnificent entrance through the grasslands.

17:44 - Gackt gives direction to Jasmine, saying, "Relax and entrust your heart and body to me."

18:16 - A playful scene during filming for the engine shot.

"This song was originally created last year when I went to France to shoot a video. I was zoning out on top of a hill when the world of 'Le ciel' suddenly came to me. The version in the album and this version aren’t about which is correct; I think people will feel our emotions and the expanded worldview in this single. And for this promotional video, we wanted to portray the song’s world as a story. We spent a huge amount of time on the storyboard, and I think it changed about 14 or 15 times. By the way, Nagano is really a wonderful place, right? I’m having fun, and it’s been relaxing to film here."

17:03 - During a shoot for this magazine, Gackt asks, "Is this photo an extension of the PV or something separate?" showing his attention to detail.

16:04 - After checking the eyeline, they started the test. Five test takes, two main takes, and it was a wrap.

We enjoyed nature, including the various bird calls, but almost all of the staff were bitten by insects…

MALICE MIZER

Day 2

6:30 - 18:30 Filming in a pasture in Nagano was purely magical!

At 6:30 AM, the staff gathered at a certain location in Tokyo and headed to a ranch in Nagano. The scene was shot in a pasture where ordinary people are not allowed. That day, it was just Gackt and Jasmine appearing again. The two blended so beautifully into the landscape that it seemed almost surreal. On this day, they shot 20 scenes and 48 takes. After each take, they checked the monitor and discussed the subtle expressions and movements with director Muto. The attention to detail and the commitment to refining every shot was a testament to their passion as creators.

At 16:25, Gackt continued holding Jasmine, smiling wryly as he said, "I'm starting to sweat."

Director Hiroyuki Muto

"There's no one more interesting than them."

We held three full meetings with everyone involved. While respecting the vision of Gackt, who wrote the lyrics, we discussed everything as a team and created the storyboard. The challenge was to maintain the unity of the group while highlighting each individual member. Their concept is always clear, so it’s fun to shoot each time.

This is the third time that director Muto, who usually works in television drama, has filmed a PV for MALICE MIZER.

A completely new arrangement of "Le ciel Beyond the Blank Space"

Since their major debut in July of last year, MALICE MIZER has built a world of "merveilles" (which means "wonders"). To conclude the concept of this album, they’ve released this song. While the song was already included in the album "merveilles," this single features a completely new arrangement, making it even more dramatic. The track begins with a bass drum beat (with each beat at a different pitch) and has been meticulously crafted. From the beginning to its shocking ending, it’s a song meant to be played at high volume. (Released by Nippon Columbia CODA-16178, priced at 1,400 yen, released on 9/30.)

A studio where the entire set was completely rearranged in one night.

Yu-ki’s prop was a staff adorned with a crystal ball.

Day 4

9:00 - 22:00 Finally, the entire cast appeared, and it was simply breathtaking!

On the final day, the filming proceeded with Jasmine, followed by Kami. Initially, Kami was unsure of how to move, but gradually, his poses came together, and he finished within two hours. Then, at 16:26, the entire cast appeared. This was the only scene in the video where all the members appeared together, and the tension of the final scene made everyone assume it would take a long time to get an OK take (meaning the end time was undetermined). Surprisingly, though, it was completed in about 40 minutes with just six takes. Afterward, Gackt was filmed alone, marking the end of all shooting.

→ After filming, Kami took Jasmine out for a stroll in this very outfit to a convenience store.

13th Day, 20:56 - Yu-ki checking the oboe fingerings.

Interview!

Yu-ki

Even the other members were surprised.

"At 20:44 on the 13th, I was instructed by Director Muto to take on the image of a 'bad fairy.'"

"I’m trying to surprise everyone."

"It’s not just an ordinary promotional video. I want to capture the world of the song in a concrete way through the visuals, so I’m putting in a lot of effort. Regarding the costumes, this time, for the first time, we used 'white' as a theme, and each of us brought in our own ideas, trying to surprise even the other members. I think everyone had that feeling. I made my own headpiece, but I didn’t have any initial image for the makeup. As I was drawing, it just ended up like this (laughs)."

→ At 20:39 on the 13th, he checks his position during a makeup touch-up.

14th Day, 19:07 - Only two scenes left!

At 1:27 on the 14th, the director instructed, "Don’t forget your affection for her."

Yu-ki’s look was highly praised among the staff. On the 3rd day, he shot three scenes with five takes.

14th Day, 13:54 - Kami shows off a daring move, playing the sitar with a bow.

This song has the most emotion packed into the interlude.

Gackt appeared at 16:26 on the 14th day. The scene of breaking the flower was symbolic.

→ Even just standing still, Kami looks like a picture.

"This was the hardest shoot for me. There was so little movement (laughs). During 'Gekka no Yasoukyoku,' there was quite a bit of movement. Somehow, the movements feel forced. As for 'Le ciel Beyond the Blank Space,' I focused on the pacing, especially in the interlude. We mixed four types of drums, and for me, that part is packed with the most emotion. Some sounds don’t even seem like they’re from drums. In this interlude, I wanted it to feel like the emotions of all five members were clashing. Time off? None (decisively). We’re destined to keep running (laughs)."

Kami teaching Jasmine how to play the sitar.

Filming completed! Time for a commemorative photo!!

After the unexpectedly quick conclusion of the full-cast scene, at 18:38, the staff joined in, and they took a commemorative photo. Some covered their faces, and some turned their backs, but in any case, great job, everyone!

[echoesoftheabandoned]

She... ... we don't wish to talk about it.

Day 121 of drawing Junior Secret Squad until Chapter 3

I decided to make Elymas purely so I could finally use them for Junior Secret Squad drawings, though surprisingly this was not my first idea. That idea would require a chapter 5 secret boss though, which I can make later. This idea came from thinking of Britni and Elymas's first meeting/general dynamic. Both are religous zealots, Elymas's is just more prideful, arrogant, and loud than Britni, who is very dead-pan and blunt.

I don't think this is their first, first encounter. But likely once Britni finds Elymas after the first encounter or something.

Also I plan to make a colored drawing of Bitsy and Naomi soon, as well as Wilbur and the Chapter 5 secret boss, who I'm thinking is gonna be based on a fungal infected flower or something.

[saberamane]

My headcanon for what 'pets' the AC Protags have:

Altair: He would definitely have some sort of 'raptor' rehabilitation or sanctuary. Maybe even a breeding program for endangered species he houses.

Ezio: Being from a rich family, I'd have to say he would be a 'horse girl' and would have quite a few on his family property. Maybe even show horses with prestigious pedigrees with a stallion he studs for profit. With a singular big draft horse he rescued that simply gets to enjoy top notch grain and oats and miles of green pastures.

Ratonhnhake:ton: He volunteers at an animal sanctuary where he can interact with bears, wolves, Bob cats, and mountain lions, but he has a pet hedgehog at home that he adores. Maybe even some domestic 'descented' skunks instead of cats. And a ferret or two.

Desmond: It has become my personal headcanon that Desmond would have various snakes, lizards, frogs, and amphibians as pets. Mostly he breeds ball pythons, as they don't get overly large and are pretty chill. He also has a variety of tree frogs, a leopard gecko with a bad attitude, and one giant albino Burmese python he had to build his second bedroom into an enclosure for. But his most memorable pet, if only because of its attitude, is the monitor lizard he found as a baby. It acts very much like a dog, if dogs could climb vertical walls and has hooked claws and a whip like tail.

[pokemonshelterstories]

Any tips on cohabitating a kantonian rapidash and Galarian rapidash? They’re both gelded so I’m not worried about hormones/breeding but I’m hoping to pasture them together

careful monitoring during introduction is really the most important thing. there's usually not any issues in keeping them together that you wouldn't see in integrating them into a herd of all the same variant.

the main issue people tend to report when introducing these two is overexertion injuries and burns/cuts, but it really depends on the personalities they have, especially the personality of the kantonian rapidash. galarian rapidash tend to be less willing to back down when determining herd leadership, and rapidash's main ways of establishing a hierarchy is by racing and fighting each other. if the kantonian rapidash is a less dominant personality, he may just let the galarian have his way. but if he's also a more dominant individual, they might chase each other around too much or get into spats until they sort things out. rapidash fights can get pretty intense, so you need to make sure you check them both over really well every day! you can probably expect a couple of bite marks, so you're really keeping an eye out for kicks, gashes from psycho cut, and burns.

if these are your only two rapidash, they'll likely bond pretty quick, though. keeping two geldings together is generally less likely to result in issues than any other combination.

[ahedderick]

Fractured Friday

Yesterday was a bit tough and seemed to cover a lot of different emotions. Two main points, though . .

The vet came midafternoon to check Hero. Hero stood very stolidly while being poked prodded, having a blood sample drawn, and also a fecal sample taken. His teeth were checked, and deemed acceptable Horses need dentist visits sometimes, and have trouble eating if their teeth need work - but apparently that's not the issue. We'll have to see what the lab results turn up.

After that, K went down to Home Farm, and called me from the pond to come hang out with them. When I got there, Three young adults and one dog were enjoying the ice, while Rosalie was puttering around close behind K in bafflement. The water is? hard? and the humans are standing on it? I must closely monitor my human? Who is standing on the hard water???

She also decided that anyone who fell on the ice (which was happening frequently, because the kids were engaged in an impromptu pushing and shoving battle), must need a dog snoot right in their face. At one point K fell, and Rosalie rushed over to stick her little dog snoot in her face - while standing right on K's hair. The issue in question required zero dog snoots, but. You know. A dog snoot was offered anyway.

After a while we moved on to the 'sledding' portion of the event. Featuring an abandoned, beat-up kayak that somebody left on the farm years ago, a long tow chain, a Subaru Crosstrek, and a semi-flat pasture. The guys were jubilant about hitting speeds in excess of 40 mph (64 kph). "We'll take it slower for you," my son assured me. You darned well better. It was fun and also scary. Mostly fun.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Crime more than climate is to blame for record fires in the Amazon

An investigation by SUMAÚMA suggests land grabbers and ranchers are committing arson for commercial and political objectives, safe in the knowledge that investigations are few and punishments weak

The area burned in the Brazilian Amazon in the first ten months of this year would cover a space equal to 100 times the size of São Paulo, Latin America’s most populous city. From January to October, over 120,000 fires destroyed 15 million hectares in the biome, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. Despite a record number of blazes and certainty that human action is what caused them, only a few dozen people have been arrested, as found in a SUMAÚMA survey of federal and state police departments. There are cases like São Félix do Xingu, Pará. In this municipality, which holds the country’s largest herd of cattle and the record for most area burned in 2024, nobody has been punished for a single fire thus far.

The numbers illustrate how weak the laws are and how difficult and insufficient the investigations are in the Amazon, leading crime to continue rising. This year, the area lost to fire in the Amazon grew by at least 114% compared to 2023, according to the MapBiomas organization’s Fire Monitor. Police, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, and environmental authorities have a hard time obtaining evidence that would lead to a criminal prosecution of the people behind the fires. And when this happens, forest arsonists receive a slap on the wrist: their entire sentence can be served with work release or in home confinement.

According to the Fire Monitor, most of what burned in the Amazon from January to October 2024 was forest. Yet over half (55%) of fires started in areas where cattle are farmed – the vast majority (86%) of which were cleared after 2015. This means that most of the fires began in regions where there are agricultural activities, but they spread to native vegetation areas. At this point, 14% of the Amazon’s forests have been replaced with pasture.

That is why it is no surprise that the few suspects arrested and charged with causing these fires are ranchers and land-grabbers who use fire as a tool to remove native vegetation and clear space for their cattle. That is what investigations by the Federal Police and Civil Police in Mato Grosso and Pará have found.

According to the Federal Police, 112 investigations were opened to look into fires that happened in 2024 in every region of the country (there is no Amazon-specific data). Seven people were arrested and ten were formally charged after sufficient evidence was found to file a criminal complaint. Some of these investigations led to operations like Dracarys, which is targeting those responsible for the deforestation of 1,672 hectares and for setting fire to 2,368 hectares of forest located on public land in the municipalities of Boca do Acre and Pauini, in the southeast of the state of Amazonas – burning an area equal to 15 Ibirapuera Parks, the city of São Paulo’s largest urban green area. According to the Federal Police, “the leader of the criminal scheme” and the “main financial backer and articulator of illegal operations in the two cities in Amazonas resides in an upscale condominium in Campinas [in the interior of the state of São Paulo].” His name was not disclosed.

“In various cases [as with Dracarys] we have signs of planned and coordinated criminal activities, aimed at a subsequent crime, the theft of public lands for livestock farming,” Humberto Freire, a chief of police and the Federal Police’s director of the Amazon and Environment, told SUMAÚMA. Another two police operations in the state targeted public forest arsonists. One of them is looking into fires that ravaged 5,000 hectares of forest to create pastures. Although the crime was committed in Apuí, in southeastern Amazonas, one of the suspects lives in Novo Progresso, in the state of Pará. Two sources in the city told SUMAÚMA the Federal Police were looking at a rancher involved with illegal mining and deforestation in the Jamanxim National Forest, where 17% of the plant cover has already been illegally cleared by land-grabbers in the region.

Continue reading.

[oncethefirefades]

Welcome to DawnClan

─── ⋆⋅ ♰ ⋅⋆ ───

You find yourself standing in an unfamiliar environment. Nothing but mist and stardust as far as the eye can see until you are greeted with a pair of orange eyes. Before you could call out to ask who was there, a large tom joins you in the vast empty space and gives you a slight chuckle. “Well, I’m not sure how you got here, but I could take a pretty good guess. Either way, I’ve been told to expect company, so I’ll do my job— though I can’t say that showing you my home is considered hard work exactly.” 

His words didn’t make much sense, but you weren’t going to question it. Something about the broad, orange tabby told you to trust him; perhaps it was the glimmer of starlight in his gaze, his tall and proud stature, or perhaps something else that words could not describe as easily. Regardless, as he led you towards a welcoming barn and a land of fences laced with the faint scent of a few too many animals, you followed without hesitation.

─── ⋆⋅ ♰ ⋅⋆ ───

While some cats may find it difficult to work in an environment so close with twolegs, it is something that the cats within this Clan pride themselves on heavily. With the boon of bountiful prey and a multitude of various food sources backing them up, nothing stops these excessively proud cats from boasting about never going hungry even during the peak of leaf-bare. Their lands are smaller than the other two clans, yet this doesn’t stop their territory from being full of life. With sheep, cows, horses, chickens, and the occasional friendly herding dog to keep them company, DawnClan falls nothing short of being one of the most bountiful clans. Working around (and sometimes with, when they can be manipulated) twolegs, these cats are able to fill their bellies and back their Clan up with the power of eggs and milk. It also helps that they are able to get their paws on the highly sought after sheep wool that makes their camp one of the most luxurious. Buzzing bee hives dotting the outskirts of vast, rolling pastures also provide an excellent source of honey when carefully extracted by a feline’s cunning. The only thing that could set this rowdy coalition back is when new-leaf arrives, then every cat is needed to place their full attention  towards the massive workload increase that comes with the birth of new young animals DawnClan strives to oversee.

⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☽ ◯ ☾₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆

Each of the Clans within this territory, all with their own methods for survival, have developed unique roles for each of their members to grow into as they undergo their training and become warriors within the clan. While all warriors will hunt and defend their territory, these specialized roles play a huge part in maintaining the prosperity of their respective Clan. Within DawnClan, a warrior can find themselves becoming a pointer, shepherd, or guardian. 

Pointers work towards surveying and memorizing the migration patterns of prey and the movements of predators to keep the Clan’s territory in perfect balance. Alongside monitoring the behavior of prey and predator alike which rove throughout their territory, pointers are specially suited for tracking unusually large game over long distances. They use coordinated team tactics to bring down quarries several times their size, functioning in sync akin to packs of canines on the hunt— a practiced strategy that is unique to DawnClan’s culture and grants them skill to fell even the most magnificent of prey such as deer. There is nothing more thrilling than a brutal chase and satisfying capture in the eyes of pointers, reveling gleefully in their shared camaraderie. 

Shepherds on the contrary are a more nurturing role, tending to the multitude of animals within the farm and working to understand them on a deeper level. These cats are most often in charge of gathering eggs from the chicken roost, extracting milk from cows, and collecting wool from sheep— even more dangerous tasks such as gathering hair from the mane of horses fall to shepherds. No other cats within the Clan can be found to be as patient and gentle as these, unafraid to approach any animal no matter what temperament they may have. These cats are often inquisitive and have a keen eye, as they must always be mindful of their charges’ health and mood. 

Lastly are the guardians, a role sporting some of the most dedicated warriors within the Clan. Being placed within the most time and attention consuming niche, these cats are tough. Trained to be exemplary fighters with incredible brawling ability, these felines are constantly stationed outside of camp and the animal enclosures. Guardians work together to patrol each section of their ranch’s most vulnerable areas and keep both cats and livestock safe from a multitude of threats. Anything from raccoons to stray dogs can be found attempting to steal a chicken or harass peacefully grazing sheep, and it’s the responsibility of guardians to keep vigilant regarding potential enemies, alerting the Clan and fearlessly protecting their charges from them in turn. 

⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☽ ◯ ☾₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆

From unique clowders that have long since stood independently while cultivating their own lives stems equally unique cultures, and celebration for each of the following Clans which have sprang from their pawsteps. For DawnClan, each season they find themselves partaking in a series of games consisting of multiple trials where all cats can show off their skills. This tradition is called the Red Sun Derby— hosting wild events such as an obstacle course, herding competition, and a bucking showdown, a fervor runs through the lifeblood of DawnClan as each warrior seeks to declare themself rodeo champion. Substantially less dangerous— though no less chaotic— in new-leaf, a scavenger hunt called Suns’s First Light takes place. Imploring cats to work together with their clanmates, special objects often laced with sentimental value to the owner are hidden throughout various sections of the territory, often in tricky or potentially difficult to reach places. Cats must work together to locate and gather each of these objects before the other teams. A cat who finds the particular item can either choose to keep it with permission from the owner or return it, either way serving as a symbol of interconnectivity throughout the Clan as they appreciate each other’s special mementos and the effort taken to retrieve them. Of course, the teams who find the most items may enjoy bragging rights too, but it’s all in good fun as things often are within DawnClan’s jovial environment.

─── ⋆⋅ ♰ ⋅⋆ ───

[rjzimmerman]

Meet SwagBot, the AI-powered robot cattle herder preventing soil degradation. (Reuters)

Excerpt from this story from Reuters:

With four wheels and a bright red paint job, SwagBot is not your average cow.

But researchers at the University of Sydney say this autonomous robot is on its way to becoming the world's first 'smart cow', able to make cattle farming more efficient and environmentally friendly.

First launched in 2016 as a simple herding robot capable of traversing rugged terrain, SwagBot has been updated with sensors, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning systems.

The battery-powered SwagBot can now determine the health, type and density of pasture and monitor the health of livestock.

It then uses this information to autonomously herd cattle to the best pastures and move them before land is overgrazed and soil becomes degraded. It can also feed data back to farmers.

"Once the cattle are used to the robot, they will follow the robot around," said University of Sydney professor of robotics and intelligent systems, Salah Sukkarieh, whose team made SwagBot.

[oomles]

I was already frustrated with my pc's monitor terrible contrast, but now it's started to fully turn off every hour or so... so I looked it up, and it turns out that my model was released in 2013. I didn't realize it was that old!

Its time to put her out to pasture 😭

The good news: Wow! I got a new color-accurate monitor, and everything looks spectacular!

The bad news: Wow! Everything I've been making for the past couple of years looks COMPLETELY different than what my old monitor was showing. No wonder my merch looked off to me irl :"D

[garbinge]

Opening Up (3)

Angel Reyes x OC Isabeth ‘Izzy’ Flores 30 Day Fic Challenge (20/30)

Word Count: 3.2k A/N: Sorry I missed uploading two days! I've been in a bit of a mental rut and just haven't opened my laptop but back at it with the rest of these 30 day fics :)

Warnings: All my fics are 18+ regardless of content. Angst. Trauma. Bad Thoughts. Series Finale Spoilers. Mentions of blood, violence, abuse, assault, murder. Arguments. Heavy topics discussed.

Mayans Taglist: @drabbles-mc @justreblogginfics @narcolini @danzer8705 @keyweegirlie @kmc1989 Continuation from Wanderlust (1) and Library Day Care (2)

Despite the summer months being well and over, the sun hadn’t really gotten that memo. The coastal heat in La Paz was still just as brutal in October as it was in June. Angel spent most of his day outside in that heat, but he didn’t mind the slightest. This job brought him everything he needed. Besides the paycheck, the job gave him a place to live on premise. A modest two bedroom cottage that although could have been toured in less than a minute due to it’s size, was exactly what the two Reyes boys needed. Maverick wasn’t exactly in the market for a huge room being only 2 and with the extra cash Angel was bringing in and using to spoil his young son, it would have soothed the desire anyways. It was much better than the house he had been renting before, and now he only paid a fraction of that, only having to shell out for the utilities, not the space itself. The location of the ranch overall felt like he was in his own planet, so far away from the world he used to be in. It was peaceful, it was beautiful, it was honestly everything he could ask for, but it didn’t stop the memories from sneaking their way in. As he’d work in the field, throwing seeds or harvesting things, his mind would suddenly start to sneak away from the task at hand. At first it’d be peaceful, thinking of Maverick, how his day at the library was going, how big he’d been getting. Then it’d move to dinner, what he planned to make or pick up, then it’d quickly go from there to the kitchen in his childhood home, where he’d remember his mother cooking for them, talking to them about the steps she’d take to make the perfect meal, he’d see himself, as a kid, at that kitchen table watching his mother intently, then see his brother, not far off from Maverick’s age on the seat across from him. It’d be almost instantly where the scene of stabbing the knife into his gut flashed in his mind, which would follow by the gurney with his father being brought out, and his mother on the floor of the carniceria. He’d try and shake the thought, bring himself back to the nature surrounding him and his list of tasks. When it’d be time to move onto the livestock pastures, or repairs, he’d be relieved. Those two tasks tended to keep his mind off his thoughts, it’s why he’d always jump at the mention of them.

As he’d head down to his truck to drop Maverick off at daycare, he’d always stop into the main office to get his list first. The de Valle family had welcomed the Reyes boys with open arms. The matriarch of the family, Paulina, always mentioned how her and her mother would gladly watch the boy if ever needed while Senor de Valle himself even mentioned bringing him to the few school field trips that would come to see the farm. They’d often ask him down to dinner on the weekends, and sometimes he’d oblige and join the family and other farm employees. 

Currently he should have been picking up today’s list and making his way down to his truck with Maverick to drop him off at daycare but, today was a little different. Angel had already woken up early to get started on a few things that were always better to get done before the sun was up. With Maverick asleep, and a baby monitor on full blast at his hip, doing the work in the few fields in his backyard was his way of getting a jump start on his day. Until the thoughts got the best of him and time became nonexistent. Angel stood practically frozen as he remembered the blood all over the floor, it became like a wallpaper in his brain, EZ’s voice echoed in his head. “Tell your boy about me. Tell him about mom.” It was then that the bloodied wallpaper in his head turned to a different one, one with more memories tied to of him as a boy. The shop, where he practically grew up, ruined by one instance. He couldn’t help but to worry that what his mind was, ruined by the instances that he could blame no one but himself for. Selfish worry quickly turned outwards as he thought about his own kin, how would he grow up, would he be ruined by the memories of his past, the memories his father gives him? It was then that the crying from the baby monitor pulled Angel back to the weeding he was currently doing. As he came more to it, he saw the sun rather high and it was at that moment, he realized, he was late. 

Quickly he ran back to his cottage, mere feet away and went to the bedroom where Maverick had woken up rather crankily. “It’s okay, shh, it’s okay, daddy’s here.” Angel quickly bounced the boy up and down in his arms before moving to get him changed and ready for the day. His eyes constantly glanced at the clock now as the minutes passed and the later he became. 

His normal entrance into the library of holding Maverick’s hands and lifting him a couple inches off the ground was not possible in this moment, he replaced it with a quick pace so he could get to the children’s section quicker. 

“You’re late.” A familiar voice spoke up without even looking at Angel. Izzy was heads down into some paperwork at the children’s circulation desk, the sign in sheet still sitting on the counter but looking almost full. 

“I know, I’m sorry, I got–” Angel stopped as he realized what prevented him from being on time. “I lost track of time.” He moved Maverick to one arm as he quickly put his information on the sign up sheet. 

“You know, I pass the ranch on my way into work. We could pick Maverick up for you. Even drop him off.” She still wasn’t looking at him, her focus was on the stuff in front of her as she moved a few stacks of papers around and continued writing things down. 

“I couldn’t ask that.” He shook his head, adjusting Maverick in his grip. 

She smiled at that, “Good thing you didn’t ask.” 

“Izzy.” He said as his head fell to the side begging for her to be serious for a moment. 

That made her look up and almost widen her eyes as she took in the sight of him. He had dirt everywhere, his shirt, his face, his arms, and his eyes looked tired and tormented all at once. 

It was instinctual to ask immediately if he was okay or what happened, but she bit her tongue and just stepped out from behind the desk to take the young boy into her arms. 

“I live in La Huerta, right of 286. I pass El Ranchitos everyday, it’d be no issue to add 5 minutes to my commute to pick Maverick up and drop him off.” Her voice was sincere but serious too. 

Angel clearly didn’t know what to say, so Izzy just kept talking. “Look, you don’t have to make the decision right now, I’ll bring him home tonight and you can let me know then. I’m happy to do it.” 

Angel just nodded, still stuck in whatever frozen state his body was in but just when Izzy was about to ask him if he was okay to drive he was quickly planting a kiss to Maverick’s head and moving right back the way he came in. 

____

Izzy pulled up to the ranch to see Angel waiting at the entrance, leaning on his truck. He pointed to where she should park and jogged over to her driver’s door and opened it for her. 

“What service they have here at El Ranchitos.” She joked as she stepped out of the two decade old Xterra. 

“It’s what they hired me for, welcoming service.” Angel joked back and looked over the car. “Nice ride.” 

“Thanks, it was my dad’s.” She hung off the door frame of the car as she looked at it. “Been through a lot but I keep her as up to date on repairs as I can.” 

Angel peaked in through the open door to see both kids in the backseat and waved. Maverick kicked his feet and giggled, waving back quickly at his dad and then pointing to the girl next to him and saying her name a few times. “Abrielle, Abrielle, Abrielle!” 

Angel let out a chuckle. “You guys have time for a quick tour of the farm?” He turned to ask Izzy. 

“Yea, don’t see why not.” She shrugged and closed the door before opening the back seats to get the kids out. 

“You can let ‘em roam. Maverick kind of knows where to and where not to go, Abrielle will stick close to him anyways.” He said as they began the trek up the dirt road. 

Angel showed them the livestock barns, the open grazing fields, showing the kids horses, goats, and cows. He let them sneak into the garden, and made each one of them promise to not say anything because Senora De Valle took her greenhouse very seriously. And after that, he picked a couple strawberries for the kids as well as Izzy. They ended their tour at the general store, which was closed but Angel had a key. 

“Figured, you could grab whatever you wanted for dinner.” Angel lifted his hands up and pointed around the store. “My treat, as a thank you for today.” 

“I thought that’s what the tour was for.” Izzy was already looking around at what she wanted to grab for dinner for her and her daughter. 

Angel just laughed and shook his head, grabbing his own food and then placing a hundred dollar bill near the cash register, which Tatiana, the store manager would have known was Angel’s doing. 

“We can eat up at my place, it’s a two minute walk from here.” Angel pointed up the hill.

Izzy nodded, giving her young daughter a piece of food to hold and eat as she trekked up the hill. 

“Holy shit.” Izzy mumbled under breath as she reached the top of the hill to see Angel’s small cottage, more open fields, and the most beautiful sky as the sun began to set. 

“Ain’t bad, right?” Angel laughed before nodding his head so the woman would follow into the home. 

It wasn’t long until the kids were passed out on the couch, the remnants of their different dinners all over the bar counter where Izzy was currently sitting sipping the last of her soda while Angel leaned up against the back counter of his kitchen, the fridge directly to his right, and the living further out to his right. 

“You want a drink?” Angel used his foot to kick open the fridge, and leaned forward slightly to look in at what he had. “Have beer, wine, water…” He began to name off. 

“Cerveza, por favor.” She spoke so fluently it took Angel by surprise hearing it, he was so used to talking to her in English. 

He grabbed one for himself and pointed to the sliding door connected to the living room. “Sit outside?” He asked, already walking over. 

Izzy followed him, still in awe of the view he had here. 

“It’s pretty amazing isn’t it?” He plopped down on one of the lawn chairs that sat on the small patio deck. “Hard to believe this is my life sometimes.” 

“I get that feeling.” Izzy was nodding as she slowly moved down to sit in the chair and looked out across the field. 

“I’m sorry about this morning.” Angel brought the beer just shy of his lips before he apologized and then quickly brought it to his mouth right after to stop any other words from coming out. 

“You think anymore about my offer?” As hard as it was to not look at how beautiful the sky was, Izzy pried her eyes away to look at Angel. 

“Feel like all I ever do is think.” Unlike her, Angel couldn’t look over at her, his eyes were still looking out at the field, the very field where everything started this morning. 

“Well maybe you should turn that thinking into talking.” Izzy had a bit of an attitude in her voice, not a harsh one, but more of an obvious one. 

This got Angel’s attention. His head snapped to look at her, a confused frown filling his face, clearly picking up on the tone. 

“All I’m saying is, it’s not good to keep it bottled in. The thoughts. You gotta get them out.” She shrugged, casually bringing her legs up to sit criss crossed in the adirondack chair. 

“And you?” Angel matched the tone she had earlier. “Who do you talk to?” 

“God–sometimes.” She tossed her head back and forth and smiled “Myself.” She nodded so confidently. “I journal.” At those last two words she had pointed her hand with the beer in it like it was a forgotten thought. 

“You tellin’ me I should journal?” His eyebrows were furrowed but also raised. 

“I’m tellin’ you,” she mocked his language before returning to her own, “that you need to do something. Keeping it inside is going to kill you.” 

Angel laughed at that. The idea that now, where he was at in life, his thoughts would be the thing to kill him. Not an enemy, not his club, not the cartel, but his own fucking thoughts. 

“You suggestin’ I talk to you?” His voice had humor in it, it was deflection and Izzy knew it which is why she didn’t give in to it. 

“Doesn’t seem like you have many other options.” She turned her head to sarcastically look around. 

Angel smirked again, deflection still coursing through everything in him. “But you talked to yourself, or God.” He was leaning forward now, his hands resting on his knees, almost as if he was antagonizing the girl. “Oh and your journal.” He pointed to her copying exactly what she did earlier. 

Izzy stood up, finishing the beer in a huge chug before turning around and staring Angel down directly in his eyes. “I did that shit because when I came here, I had no one. It was me and my newborn. So yea, Angel, I made due with what I had.” She broke her eye contact and went back inside, tossing the empty bottle in the recycle bin and moving to grab her daughter from the couch. 

“We’re gonna head home.” She stepped back out onto the patio, her bag on one shoulder, and an asleep child on the other. 

Angel realized he fucked up the minute she was getting up. His head was starting to hurt between the thoughts and what just occurred. And now the headache was filled with regret and stress. 

“Give me a minute, let me just put him in his crib and I’ll walk you to your car.” Angel didn’t let the woman answer, just stepped inside and quickly moved Maverick to his bedroom before meeting Izzy back outside. 

The walk down to the car was silent, only the sounds of the birds and bugs as the night started to settle around them along with the crunches of the dirt below them. As they approached her silver SUV, the sounds escalated to car doors opening and the clicks and snaps of car seats and seatbelts. 

“Hey, look. I’m sorry.” Angel spoke up when Izzy was turning back around from strapping Abrielle in and lightly closing the car door. 

“Don’t worry about it.” Refusing to make eye contact she moved from the back seat to the driver’s door. 

Angel grabbed the door as she opened it, hoping his hand resting on the frame would get her to stop for a minute and look at him. “It’s just hard. I come from a place of not being able to trust anyone, trusting the wrong people, and just keeping a lot internal so it’s just tough for me.” 

Izzy turned around now, her body was inches away from Angel, the tension growing immensely as she stared up into his eyes, trying to fully grasp what he meant and was saying.

“My father was killed by a cartel hit squad, the person that killed him was looking for me, because I was pregnant with his child and planning to run away.” 

It was a sentence that lacked any detail at all, it was simply fact and really only said to make a point. Angel was lost for words, he could tell Izzy had a past, but he hadn’t expected it to be that dark. 

“So when I say I get it, Angel, I get it.” 

It was then Angel realized that she already knew, she knew where Angel came from without him having to say a word. She might not have known the names and the logistics but she could pick out the similarities between them easily.

“I was in an MC–motorcycle club, we had a deal with a cartel–worked for them, it ended bad. Lost my family, everyone except Maverick.” Angel offered up his story, similar to Izzy’s lacking all the detail but just something so she knew he was open to talking to her. 

The silence felt heavy and very apparent to Angel after he spoke up. His thoughts racing a mile a minute, was this the wrong decision, should he not have said anything. But then Izzy cut through that tension. 

“Looks like we have a lot in common.” Her face was still stiff, it was a side of the girl he hadn’t seen but he realized it was likely a part of her that was entirely who she was for a while based on what she told him. 

“If you’re up for it still, I’d love to take you up on what you said, picking Maverick up and dropping him off?” 

“Depends.” Her looked hardened even more. “Are you done?” Angel wasn’t sure what she was asking and apparently his face said that for him because she spoke up again. “Is that part of your life done, Angel? The MC, the cartel?” 

He felt sick thinking about it, all the death, the blood, the loose ends tied up. “It is.” 

“I can’t get involved in that again.” Her face had loosened up from his answer, but she still wanted to make her point clear. 

He nodded and then frowned. “Involved?” 

That’s when a small smirk flashed across her face for a moment when she looked down at the ground but then straightened out when she looked back up at him. “Yea my offer depends on if you plan to actually treat me to a proper dinner on your back patio.”  Angel’s eyebrows raised, a little in shock and the corner of his mouth turned up as he nodded.

“Yea, yea I think we can arrange that.”