#patches is a giant and samantha is tiny

[peachesgarden]

i have a love and hate relationship on how this turned out

anyways i suddenly started to fixate on my old minecraft project from 2020 so i wanna yap about these two ocs i have (keep reading if youre interested lol)

i know i was supposed to be focusing on my magical girl project but STILL HSDHSHDSH im also gonna talk about a little bit about the worldbuilding of my project

The first OC is Patches, a piglin. His name is more of a nickname since piglins in the Nether aren't usually named, the name "Patches" was given by Cherry (another oc of mine). First things first, he's the only known piglin in the Nether that doesn't attack humans even when they're not wearing gold, the reason why is because he met Cherry a few years ago, when he was a young pig, and Cherry saved his life from Wither Skeletons that were attempting to kill him. They met for a short period of time and had to part ways, but Patches never forgot about her and is what made him want to protect innocent humans. After a few years, Cherry and her friends (Delia, Noah and Samantha) went to the Nether again and happened for them to meet again, that is how Patches became part of the group and started to guide and help them through the Nether.

Patches is around 19 years mentally and psychically, since piglins age more different than humans. He's also 210cm / 6'11. Patches had the potential to become a Piglin Brute thanks to his strength and height, but he never had the chance since other piglins didn't accepted his ideals of protecting humans, he's not even allowed to be in Bastion Remnants. He's also one of very few piglins that can understand and speak human language. The other OC is Samantha, a witch. I won't tell her full detailed backstory because it's very long and complicated and this text is already huge lmao, but resuming it, their story is a little bit similar to Patches.

Samantha used to live in a Woodland Mansion, and they were taught to harm and kill villagers, but Samantha refused to do so and ran away from that place, since then, they're hunted by pillagers for "betrayal", for not only running away but also for protecting villagers.

Samantha is 18 years old, and they're 152cm / 5'0. Because of her past she grew up physically weak, but they are fast and fight using potions. Despite the two being drastically different, Samantha and Patches got along really well and bonded over their pasts and their desire to protect, despite the two being considered "hostile mobs" (i know piglins are technically neutral but still lol) Both of them also weren't trusted when they were first introduced, but they proved that they weren't hostile and became friends quickly with the other characters.

I might do more of these but with my human/villager ocs too it's fun

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Sophisticated sensors suction-cupped onto the backs of whales are helping biologists answer two long-standing questions: Why are whales so big? And why aren’t they bigger?

Being big in general boosts whales’ ability to reach more food for less effort, helping them exploit the riches of the deep sea that are beyond the reach of many other creatures. By estimating the energy used — and gained — when foraging for 13 species of whales and porpoises, scientists have shown that how big the creatures get is influenced by feeding strategy and prey availability.

The sizes of toothed whales like orcas, which use echolocation to hunt for individual prey, appear to be constrained by how much food they can grab during a dive, researchers report. That’s not the case, however, for blue whales and other filter feeders, which tend to be much larger than their toothed cousins. Filter feeders alive today aren’t constrained by food availability, which may mean they might be limited by their biology. Or the animals could be on their way to evolving to be even bigger, according to a study in the Dec. 13 Science.

Researchers approach a blue whale off California to attach a tracking device in the summer of 2019. The tag sticks to the whale via a suction cup and lets scientists record the animal’s foraging behavior.

CREDIT: ELLIOTT HAZEN/NOAA. PHOTO TAKEN UNDER PERMIT ACA/NMFS #16111

“This is a fascinating study,” says Samantha Price, an evolutionary biologist at Clemson University in South Carolina who wasn’t involved in the research. Biologists have been thinking about the evolution of bigness for a long time, she says, “but this paper, through incredible effort, actually got some data about these hard-to-study behaviors.”

In the last 5 million years, whales have become larger than ever before, and the blue whale grew into the largest known creature in the history of life, says Jeremy Goldbogen, a comparative physiologist at Stanford University. Changes in glacial cycles, wind and ocean currents, he says, have intensified upwellings of nutrients in special pockets of the ocean, creating sparse, but absurdly dense patches of tiny crustaceans and fish and other animals — whale food.

Being large has helped whales exploit these food bonanzas in a few ways. Bigger creatures can travel farther using less energy per unit of mass, helping whales cross wide swaths of barren ocean to reach upwellings. Larger bodies also support larger lungs, buying bigger whales more time to feed during dives.

Simply put, bigger whales were thought to be more efficient at finding food, Goldbogen says. But without a detailed accounting of energy gained from food versus energy expended from diving and hunting, this idea had remained mostly speculative, he says. “We just didn’t know much about what these animals were actually doing underwater.”

So Goldbogen and a team of international researchers enlisted the help of technology-packed sensors, temporarily affixed via suction cup to the backs of more than 100 individuals from 13 species of cetaceans. Over a decade, the team tracked more than 10,000 feeding events of creatures as small as 50-kilogram harbor porpoises to 150,000-kilogram blue whales. “It was no small task,” Goldbogen says.

The tags, which housed pressure sensors, accelerometers, hydrophones and cameras, relayed a daily diary for the whales. The researchers could tell when filter-feeding giants opened their mouths to lunge at swarms of krill, or when sperm whales echolocated an octopus. All together, these data allowed the researchers to estimate how much energy different types of whales expend per dive.

Those tags were combined with sonar readings of prey density, as well as stomach dissections of stranded whales, to paint a detailed picture of different whale diets. That allowed the researchers to calculate an energy budget for each species. In other words, the team could estimate how much of a caloric bang a whale gets for its exertion buck, revealing the relationship between foraging efficiency and size.

Toothed whales, like the titular sperm whale of Moby Dick, use echolocation to hunt for individual prey, usually squid or octopus (SN: 8/5/16). The researchers found that being big helps these creatures dive deeper and access these higher-calorie prey. But after a point, these whales’ foraging efficiency wanes with increased size. While every once in a while, they might find a giant squid — a big energy payoff — there just isn’t enough such prey in the ocean for the whales to get any bigger, given the energy needed to dive and hunt, Goldbogen says.

In contrast, bulk filter feeders, which target dense aggregations of tiny krill and other crustaceans, only get more efficient with size. The whales get a huge infusion of calories — calculations suggest more than 10 million calories, Goldbogen says — from a single gulp, which takes comparatively less effort than chasing down a squid. Rather than being limited by a lack of prey, blue whales and other filter-feeding whales may instead be limited by their biology, though the study wasn’t designed to determine what that physical limit might be. It may not be possible physically to engulf more krill than the animals currently do.

Alternatively, the size of these ocean giants might not be limited at all. The creatures could be on their evolutionary way to becoming even bigger, as long as populations of krill stay abundant. “Perhaps, millions of years from now, we’ll see even bigger ocean giants,” Goldbogen says.

[moxy-fruitbat]

Don't Forget

It's a sad one - just the way we like it.

Feat. Muriel and F!Apprentice's kids (I used the names for my apprentice's twins)

---

Not counting Inanna, because she was a wolf, Samantha's favorite person in the entire world was her Papa. He was big and strong, still able to carry her and her twin brother, Sequoia, over his shoulders even now that they're eight. He carved them wooden animal toys and made them protection charms. He had dark hair like them and would braid wildflowers into it when they took breaks on hikes. He had a deep, quiet laugh and he looked at Mama like she was his entire world when he thought she wasn't looking. He gave big, warm hugs and when she nuzzled into his neck he smelled like myrrh.

Actually, everything smelled like myrrh. It was in their laundry soap, their bathwater, and in tiny sachets around their necks. Mama and Papa made sure they never took them off, and say it's really important that they always know what it smells like. "If you don't have it, you'll forget really important things." Mama said. "Papa has some strong magic on him, and myrrh is the only way for us to break the spell."

Mama and Papa know how to do magic, just like Ommer Asra, and they're really good. Samantha was sure that whatever spell it was, they were strong enough to break it. Papa was even strong enough to pick up the giant log out front of their hut - he was strong enough to do anything!

Samantha's other favorite thing in the whole world was pirates. Uncle Julian and Gramma Mazelinka were pirates, and Samantha thought they were so cool! Uncle Julian told her and Sequoia so many stories about his time as a pirate doctor, his favorite is the one about how he lost his eye and has to wear an eye patch. He lost it in a swordfight with an enemy pirate! Or was it when he had to fight off a giant squid that was attacking the ship? She could never remember - he told it different every time. Papa said not to listen to Uncle Julian, and that he was just being crazy. Sequoia says that Papa is just jealous because pirates are cooler than living in the woods. Samantha didn't think that was very nice to say, but she kinda agreed.

Today Samantha and her brother were playing pirates. That's usually what they play, but today was special because they were going to go exploring! Mama and Papa let them play in the woods by themselves, but they aren't allowed to go past the protection charms in the trees because it's not safe. It's boring on this side of the charms, though! They already explored everything, and pirates are supposed to keep going to new places. And they were big enough now to explore on their own, they thought, like real pirates.

So today Samantha and Sequoia were going to sneak past the charms and see a new part of the forest. Ommer Asra once told them about a cave that lights up rainbows, and today they were going to find it! A real adventure, looking for treasure!

Inanna always comes running after them when it's time to come in and eat lunch anyway, so how dangerous could it be? Inanna always knows how to find them.

******

Inanna ran back to the hut later than usual, barking and whining. This set off the first warning bells in Muriel's head, but when she burst in not two seconds later alone - no kids following her - he went into full panic.

"You can't find them?" He asked, shakily. Inanna whined, pacing by the door, wanting them to follow.

The two magicians bolted after the wolf, through the forest and past the protection charms. Muriel cursed under his breath - he should never had let them play unattended. They should still have Inanna with them, like when they were younger. How could he be so stupid? So careless with his own children?

His wife squeezed his hand. "We'll find them." She said. "They can't have gone too far, they're only kids..." She tried to be strong, but he could hear the crack in her voice. She was terrified. "They have their myrrh sachets on. It's not a hard scent to follow."

Inanna skidded to a stop, whining and sniffing at a low tree branch. She prodded something hanging from it with her nose. Muriel snatched it up and, in doing so, felt like he was going to vomit.

It was a sachet of myrrh, the cord snapped where it held around his son's neck. He must have gotten caught on a branch, and lost his necklace in the process of wriggling free.

"We can still find Samantha's, right? They wouldn't go too far from each other..." His wife put a hand on his broad shoulder to try and comfort him, but also to find support for herself. Tears welled in Muriel's eyes, and when he looked down to her, they were in her eyes too. They both knew the damage was half done.

Inanna ran ahead, and the two followed, filled with hope and fear. She whined when she got to the mouth of a large cave, stopping in front of a small pile of loose myrrh, fallen from a ripped satchet.

Muriel fell to his knees and cried.

******

"Mama's not gonna be happy that we got our clothes so dirty." Sequoia said. "We smell like mud."

"I'm getting hungry, too." Samantha put her hands on her stomach and frownes. "Is it lunch time yet?"

"It can't be. Inanna hasn't come yet."

"Mama was making smoked eel too. It's...." She paused. It was someone's favorite, but she couldn't think of who. Not Sequoia's - that was baked fish. Not hers - she liked scrambled eggs.

"Is it Papa's favorite?"

"Papa?" Her brother asked. "We don't have a papa. It's just us and Mama and Inanna in the hut."

It was? She could have sworn she had a papa, but the more she tried to remember, the more she forgot. What did he look like, again?

They were quiet for a moment. This path of the cave looked familiar. Were they here before?

"Sequoia, I think we're lost..."

"Samantha! Samantha Roseanna!"

"Sequoia Burr! Where are you, son?"

Voices called them from farther in the cave - or was it from outside?

"Sam! Sequoia! Please, come home!"

The voices got closer, and out from a cavern path came two figures, one big and one smaller.

"Mama!" Samantha yelled, running up to them. She stopped short, though, when she saw the other person with her.

He was big and strong, and wore a wooden protection charm on his black cloak. He had hair just like hers, and held onto her Mama's hand like she was his entire world.

"Mama, who's this?"

[liliannorman]

Why some whales become giants and others are only big

Sensors suction-cupped onto whales’ backs are helping biologists answer two big questions. Why are whales so large? And why aren’t they bigger? 

Being big can boost the ability of whales to reach more food and with less effort. That can help them access deep-sea prey that would be beyond the reach of many other creatures. In a new study, scientists estimated how much energy 13 species of whales and porpoises use — and gain — when foraging. They conclude that how big the creatures get depends on how and what they eat and how much food they can find. 

Explainer: What is a whale?

Jeremy Goldbogen works at Stanford University in California. As a comparative physiologist (Phiz-ee-OL-oh-gist), he studies how the bodies of animals work. He specializes in whales. For the new study, he worked with a large team of researchers to learn how whale size relates to what whales eat and how they get it.

Toothed whales, such as orcas, echolocate (Ek-oh-LOW-kayt) to hunt for individual prey. The whales’ size appears to be limited by how much food they can grab during one dive, the researchers report. That’s not the case, though, for blue whales and other filter feeders. They open their mouths wide and bring in a large gulp of water — along with whatever is in it. Then they shove the water back out between big baleen plates. Afterward, they swallow the food caught behind those plates. 

These animals tend to be much larger than their toothed cousins. Filter feeders alive today aren’t constrained by food availability. So they might be limited by other factors, such as how large a body they can physically support. These animals might even be on their way to evolving to become bigger still, the team suggests in the December 13 Science.

“This is a fascinating study,” says Samantha Price. She is a biologist at Clemson University in South Carolina who studies how animals’ bodies have evolved. She was not part of the new research. Biologists have been thinking about the evolution of bigness for a long time, Price says. These researchers, “through incredible effort, actually got some data about these hard-to-study behaviors,” she notes.

In the last 5 million years, whales have become larger than ever, Goldbogen says. The blue whale grew into the largest creature ever throughout the history of life. He says that could be due to changes in glacial cycles, winds — even ocean currents. Those changes have focused upwellings of nutrients in pockets of the sea. The nutrients attract dense patches of tiny crustaceans, fish and other animals. And that creates whale buffets. 

Being large has helped whales exploit such food bonanzas in a few ways. Bigger creatures can travel farther using less energy per unit of mass. So big whales can cross wide swaths of barren ocean to reach food-rich upwellings. Larger bodies also support larger lungs. And more air means more time for feeding during dives. 

Simply put, bigger whales were thought to be more efficient at finding food, Goldbogen says. But that was mostly just an educated guess, he adds. Researchers didn’t have good data about how much energy whales gained from food or used while diving and hunting. “We just didn’t know much about what these animals were actually doing underwater,” he explains.

Whale trackers

Goldbogen and an international team of researchers worked to change that. They employed technology-packed sensors. The researchers used suction cups to stick the sensors to the backs of whales. In all, the team attached sensors to 300 whales. These belonged to 13 species. They ranged from 50-kilogram (110-pound) harbor porpoises to 150,000-kilogram (330,000-pound) blue whales. Over a decade, the team tracked more than 10,000 feeding events. “It was no small task,” Goldbogen says.

The tags relayed data that became a daily diary of the whales’ activity. Pressure sensors and accelerometers tracked the whales’ movements and depth. Hydrophones recorded sounds. These included the clicks and buzzes used to hunt and socialize. And cameras captured video of the animals’ surroundings. All together, these data helped the researchers tell when filter-feeding giants opened their mouths to lunge at swarms of krill. They could show when sperm whales echolocated an octopus. And they allowed the researchers to gauge how much energy different species use on each dive.

Researchers approach a blue whale off California to attach a tracking device in the summer of 2019. The tag sticks to the whale via a suction cup and lets scientists record its foraging behavior. Elliott Hazen/NOAA. Photo taken under permit ACA/NMFS #16111

The team also captured sonar readings of prey density. They even dissected the stomach contents of stranded whales. That info, plus data from the tags, painted a detailed picture of what different whales ate. Then the researchers calculated an energy budget for each species. That refers to how much energy an animal has to spend to get food and how much it gains from eating that food. Such budgets help show how foraging efficiency relates to body size. 

Toothed whales usually hunt squid or octopus. Being big helps these whales dive deep to access more food, the researchers found. But after a point, their foraging efficiency falls with increased size. True, a giant squid offers a lot of fuel. But such prey are few and far between. What’s more, finding them takes a lot of energy. There just aren’t enough in the ocean for the whales to get any bigger, Goldbogen says.

Explainer: Tagging through history

In contrast, bulk filter feeders get more efficient with size. These eaters target dense swarms of tiny krill and other crustaceans. In a single gulp, the whales can get a huge number of calories. (Goldbogen says calculations suggest more than 10 million of them!) And it takes less effort than chasing down a squid. So blue whales and other filter feeders may not be limited by a lack of prey. Instead, their top body size may be due to other factors. Maybe it’s how far a whale heart can pump blood, or how large a jaw can grow. The study didn’t look at such factors or try to figure out what the physical limits on their growth might be. But it may not be possible physically to engulf more krill than big whales already do.

Or it’s possible the size of these ocean giants might not be limited at all. The creatures might still be evolving to get even bigger. That could be true as long as populations of krill stay abundant. Speculates Goldbogen, “Perhaps, millions of years from now, we’ll see even bigger ocean giants.”

Why some whales become giants and others are only big published first on https://triviaqaweb.tumblr.com/

[ezatluba]

Why some whales are giants and others are just big

The animals’ sizes depend on feeding style and prey availability, researchers say

In a new study of foraging behaviors and body size, scientists attached sensors to more than 100 individual cetaceans (two humpback whales off Antarctica in 2018, shown) and tracked them over a decade.

By Jonathan Lambert

DECEMBER 12, 2019 

Sophisticated sensors suction-cupped onto the backs of whales are helping biologists answer two long-standing questions: Why are whales so big? And why aren’t they bigger?

Being big in general boosts whales’ ability to reach more food for less effort, helping them exploit the riches of the deep sea that are beyond the reach of many other creatures. By estimating the energy used — and gained — when foraging for 13 species of whales and porpoises, scientists have shown that how big the creatures get is influenced by feeding strategy and prey availability.

The sizes of toothed whales like orcas, which use echolocation to hunt for individual prey, appear to be constrained by how much food they can grab during a dive, researchers report. That’s not the case, however, for blue whales and other filter feeders, which tend to be much larger than their toothed cousins. Filter feeders alive today aren’t constrained by food availability, which may mean they might be limited by their biology. Or the animals could be on their way to evolving to be even bigger, according to a study in the Dec. 13 Science.

“This is a fascinating study,” says Samantha Price, an evolutionary biologist at Clemson University in South Carolina who wasn’t involved in the research. Biologists have been thinking about the evolution of bigness for a long time, she says, “but this paper, through incredible effort, actually got some data about these hard-to-study behaviors.”

In the last 5 million years, whales have become larger than ever before, and the blue whale grew into the largest known creature in the history of life, says Jeremy Goldbogen, a comparative physiologist at Stanford University. Changes in glacial cycles, wind and ocean currents, he says, have intensified upwellings of nutrients in special pockets of the ocean, creating sparse, but absurdly dense patches of tiny crustaceans and fish and other animals — whale food.

Being large has helped whales exploit these food bonanzas in a few ways. Bigger creatures can travel farther using less energy per unit of mass, helping whales cross wide swaths of barren ocean to reach upwellings. Larger bodies also support larger lungs, buying bigger whales more time to feed during dives.

Simply put, bigger whales were thought to be more efficient at finding food, Goldbogen says. But without a detailed accounting of energy gained from food versus energy expended from diving and hunting, this idea had remained mostly speculative, he says. “We just didn’t know much about what these animals were actually doing underwater.”

So Goldbogen and a team of international researchers enlisted the help of technology-packed sensors, temporarily affixed via suction cup to the backs of more than 100 individuals from 13 species of cetaceans. Over a decade, the team tracked more than 10,000 feeding events of creatures as small as 50-kilogram harbor porpoises to 150,000-kilogram blue whales. “It was no small task,” Goldbogen says.

The tags, which housed pressure sensors, accelerometers, hydrophones and cameras, relayed a daily diary for the whales. The researchers could tell when filter-feeding giants opened their mouths to lunge at swarms of krill, or when sperm whales echolocated an octopus. All together, these data allowed the researchers to estimate how much energy different types of whales expend per dive.

Those tags were combined with sonar readings of prey density, as well as stomach dissections of stranded whales, to paint a detailed picture of different whale diets. That allowed the researchers to calculate an energy budget for each species. In other words, the team could estimate how much of a caloric bang a whale gets for its exertion buck, revealing the relationship between foraging efficiency and size.

Toothed whales, like the titular sperm whale of Moby Dick, use echolocation to hunt for individual prey, usually squid or octopus (SN: 8/5/16). The researchers found that being big helps these creatures dive deeper and access these higher-calorie prey. But after a point, these whales’ foraging efficiency wanes with increased size. While every once in a while, they might find a giant squid — a big energy payoff — there just isn’t enough such prey in the ocean for the whales to get any bigger, given the energy needed to dive and hunt, Goldbogen says.

In contrast, bulk filter feeders, which target dense aggregations of tiny krill and other crustaceans, only get more efficient with size. The whales get a huge infusion of calories — calculations suggest more than 10 million calories, Goldbogen says — from a single gulp, which takes comparatively less effort than chasing down a squid. Rather than being limited by a lack of prey, blue whales and other filter-feeding whales may instead be limited by their biology, though the study wasn’t designed to determine what that physical limit might be. It may not be possible physically to engulf more krill than the animals currently do.

Alternatively, the size of these ocean giants might not be limited at all. The creatures could be on their evolutionary way to becoming even bigger, as long as populations of krill stay abundant. “Perhaps, millions of years from now, we’ll see even bigger ocean giants,” Goldbogen says.

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims 4: New Game Patch (January 12th. 2017)

Remove all MODS and Custom Content before updating your game!

Update: 01/12/2017 – PC Version 1.26.96.1010 / Mac Version 1.26.96.1210

Hey Simmers and Simmodlers,

What’s New?

Toddlers.

Wait you skipped right to the what’s ne… what the whaaat?! Toddlers? Toddler toddlers… toddlers? Um, did you just say toddlers?

Perhaps. But the long standing ‘no talk’ of toddlers talk may be toddler blocking me. And, as such I can neither confirm nor deny their tiny toddler toddling presence in this release. I can however, say that any resemblance to a toddler in this toddler release is purely todd-idental… ler.

I am also required by the Toddler Coalition for the Betterment and Care of Toddlerhood to provide a few disclaimers:

For you and your toddler’s safety, please keep all toddlers at least 5 feet from all toddler messaging about toddlers.

In case of fire do not break glass, but grab the nearest toddler and exit the building in an orderly fashion.

Also, for a toddler lasting more than 9 days, turn aging on.

Batteries not included, so feed your toddler.

For identification purposes, this is a toddler: o>-<

Once safe, please take a moment to find the toddlers parents if the toddler was not yours.

Not actual size

Well whew! We’ve just had 24 toddlers already born in these release notes (make that 25). I feel there may be more toddlers on the way… so Woohoo*!

*Woohoo will not directly produce a toddler, but provide for the groundwork for a future toddler.

Argh! So… TELL ME ABOUT TODDLERS already!!!

Ok, ok alright. All things Toddlers…

Let’s start with

“How do you get a Toddler”?

Add your toddler in Create a Sim!

You can add them to a new or existing household through Create a Sim. And customize them as you would any other Sim:

Ok, now that the Caregiver bit is over with… let’s get into the other customization options.

Select their voice, gender, and ASSIGN A RELATIONSHIP

Sorry for the caps, but this is kind of important. Toddlers have a special relationship with caregivers.

Mothers, brothers, fathers, sisters, or anyone you choose via the in game interaction Adopt as Caregiver (found under the toddlers Help… interaction menu) are caregivers.

Being a Caregiver will ensure that the caregiver Sim cares for the toddler, while other Sims may be less inclined to answer the crying calls of your average toddler.

8 new traits to pick from!

Presets for the various toddler body and head parts to assist in your customization, as well as the same ability to modify the body and face parts that other Sims have.

All the same skin tones as adults (yes, Aliens too!)

Plenty of Styled Looks to choose from.

And of course all the usual stuff…

Angelic, Fussy, Silly, Charmer, Independent, Wild, Clingy, and Inquisitive

Does it make sense that that toddler wears an alien sized diaper?

No, no it doesn’t. But, it’s really cute!

Full body outfits, tops, bottoms, socks, leggings, and shoes.

Glasses, hats, hairs (and hair colors), freckles, and teeth.

Did we talk about the new teeth yet?

Yes, teeth for all ages! Head in to Create a Sim, click on your Sims head, click the Face category, and then Teeth to customize your Sims smile.

I like the braces.

Adopt your toddler!

Choose the Household… Adopt option on the computer, to adopt your very own toddler!

They come fully toddler-ized, ready for your snuggles.

Or, if you want to do things the old fashioned way, age up your baby!

It starts with… look it’s a birds and bees thing. There’s a flower, some pollen, and the bee… um, go ask your mom.

So, now you have a toddler…

How do you care for them?

Bathe, and Bubble Bathe them. Be aware of the possible splash back.

With a Potty Chair they can Go Potty, and Ask for Potty Help… or just use their diaper.

Sleep, Nap, Ask to be Read to Sleep or Tucked in, Sit and Chat all on a Toddler Bed.

Toddlers prefer the high chair where they can Ask for Food or Drink, and of course Eat.

Be hugged, snuggled, talked or played with, or listened to.

And of course, non-toddlers will have to Clean the Potty, and Change the Diaper.

But they may find their food more fun than edible.

And as they do ‘things’ they learn skills like communication, movement, thinking, imagination, and potty.

And their caregivers can be available to mentor and help them along.

But they want to have fun to, right?

Of course, and there are many ways for toddlers to have fun, or… not.

They can cry, laugh, yell, and throw a tantrum. Or babble in the mirror, tell stories, talk about dinosaurs, princesses, superheroes, parties, art, the day, their favorite animals, or just Ask Why… over and over and over.

Or play in things, find out what that is, splash in the toilet (hopefully you are a neat Sim), ask to be picked up, or talk to strangers (stranger danger).

Maybe they want to watch toddler videos, play Simshape or Blicblock Baby, draw with llama on the Wabbit Tablet. Or build a tower, study shapes, or ask others to help them build and study with the Nesting Blocks.

They can hit, hug, or talk to their giant stuffed animals.

Read or ask to be read a toddler book.

Look at flash cards, and learn animals, basic needs, letters, or objects.

Play with the toybox toys, and the dollhouse. Dance and listen to music (including the new Lullaby and Kids radio station).

Just to name a few…

Woah, ok… um, I hate to ask but can toddlers…

No, toddlers do not die. They are fireproof.

No, no... NO! I wasn’t… look, I just wanted to know can toddlers…

Yes, they can climb stairs, run and walk – but you’ll have to improve their movement skill.

Stop that, I just wanted to know can toddlers do anything else?

Yes, toddlers can…

…be your little sister or brother, son or daughter. Try your patience. Be loving but a handful. They can take all your time, or be ignored. They can travel with you, or go to daycare. Or you can stay at home, and hire a nanny. They can provide special moments for you and your Sims. And they can grow and learn, as they age up into children, teens, young adults, adults, and eventually elders. They can’t die, but they can be taken away. And ultimately, they can be part of your Sims family, and your stories.

Anything else?

Yes, in addition to toddlers, and I strongly suggest you pick up a couple of these if you intend to have a toddler, you can find the following items in Build Mode under the Kids Room sort (just click on the 3 blocks in the image):

2 Toddler Beds

3 High Chairs

Wabbit Tablet

Nesting Blocks

Chomper the Devourer toy box

A toddler sized Dollhouse

A Bookshelf and 12 toddler books

2 Potty Chairs

6 new toy box toys (bus, kitty, bear, ducky, butterfly, and Tentacle Tom)

And…

2 Curtains, 5 wall decals, a light for floors and a light for ceilings, a dresser, a rug, a wall shelf, an end table, a wall sculpture, a living chair, 4 decorated toddler doors, AND 7 walls and 2 floors.

That sure is a lot. Did you address any issues?

Just a couple, er some, er what is five in the verbal shorthand? And is couple really short for two? It has three extra letters. I’m so confused…

You can now use the Design Tool on a bassinet containing a baby, because sometimes your baby just doesn’t match your room.

Walls can now be built along all four edges of penthouse lots, rather than just three.

We addressed an issue that could cause the game to freeze while playing the Doctor Career or when hiring a Nanny in some languages.

Confident children will no longer get a whim to practice pick-up lines.

We addressed an issue that could cause doors to be stuck ajar.

And you can’t change the baby. Put down the baby safe paint and brush, and just back away.

*childish moment* Playing doctor, hehe.

Your door is ajar.

No, it’s a door.

And on that toddler’ish joke, that’s the update folks. In the time it took you to read these release notes, the following toddlers came to be in the Sims…

Abigail a toddler, Aidan a toddler, Alex a toddler, Alexander a toddler, Allison a toddler, Alyssa a toddler, Andrew a toddler, Anna a toddler, Anthony a toddler, Archer a hog of war, Ariana a venti-toddler, Ashley a toddler, Austin a toddler, Ava a toddler, Avery a toddler, Benjamin a toddler button, Brandon a toddler, Brayden a toddler, Brianna a toddler, Brian not a toddler because he turned aging off and stayed a baby, Caden a toddler, Caleb a toddler, Cameron a toddler, Chloe a toddler danced the tables, Christian a toddler, Christopher a toddler, Connor a toddler, Cruz a toddler, Daniel a toddler, David vs toddler-iath, Dylan a toddler, Elijah would a toddler?, Elizabeth a toddler, Ella a toddler, Emily a toddler, Emma a toddler, Ethan a toddler, Etta at last a toddler, Evan a toddler, Gabriel a toddler, Gavin a toddler, Grace a toddler, Hailey a toddler, Hannah a toddler and her sisters, Hunter a toddler, India a toddler, Isabella-watcha-doin-toddler, Isabelle a toddler, Jack o’toddler, Jackson a toddler, Jacob a climber, James a toddler, Jasmine a toddler, Jayden a toddler, John a toddler, Jonathan a toddler, Jordan a toddler, Joseph a toddler, Joshua a toddler, Julia a toddler, Kaitlyn a toddler, Katherine a toddler, Kayla a toddler, Kaylee a toddler, Kylie a toddler, Kyra a toddler, Lauren a toddler, Lily a toddler, Logan a toddler also known as James, Lucas a toddler, Luke – use the toddler, Mackenzie a toddler, Madeline a toddler made with flour, eggs, lemon, sugar, and vanilla, Madison a toddler and an avenue in a popular board game, Makayla a toddler, Mason a free-toddler, Matthew a toddler, Maya a toddler, Megan a toddler, Mia a toddler, Michael a toddler, Morgan a toddler, Natalie a toddler, Nathan an uncharted toddler, Nicolas a toddler, Noah a toddler on an ark, Olivia a toddler-newton-john, Owen a toddler, Plum a toddler, Rachel we miss you a toddler, Riley a toddler, Rosemary’s toddler, Ryan a toddler, Samantha b toddler, Samuel a toddler on snakes, Sarah a toddler, Savanna a plain toddler, Sean a toddler, Sophia a toddler, Sydney a toddler-mate, Taylor a toddler, Thomas a toddler, TK-421 a trooper, Toddler a toddler, Tyler a toddler, William a tell-toddler, Zachary a toddler, and Zoe a toddler.

We look forward to your stories, and we wonder who your toddler will be?

-SimGuruGnome’dler

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Sensors suction-cupped onto whales’ backs are helping biologists answer two big questions. Why are whales so large? And why aren’t they bigger?

Being big can boost the ability of whales to reach more food and with less effort. That can help them access deep-sea prey that would be beyond the reach of many other creatures. In a new study, scientists estimated how much energy 13 species of whales and porpoises use — and gain — when foraging. They conclude that how big the creatures get depends on how and what they eat and how much food they can find.

Jeremy Goldbogen works at Stanford University in California. As a comparative physiologist (Phiz-ee-OL-oh-gist), he studies how the bodies of animals work. He specializes in whales. For the new study, he worked with a large team of researchers to learn how whale size relates to what whales eat and how they get it.

Toothed whales, such as orcas, echolocate (Ek-oh-LOW-kayt) to hunt for individual prey. The whales’ size appears to be limited by how much food they can grab during one dive, the researchers report. That’s not the case, though, for blue whales and other filter feeders. They open their mouths wide and bring in a large gulp of water — along with whatever is in it. Then they shove the water back out between big baleen plates. Afterward, they swallow the food caught behind those plates.

These animals tend to be much larger than their toothed cousins. Filter feeders alive today aren’t constrained by food availability. So they might be limited by other factors, such as how large a body they can physically support. These animals might even be on their way to evolving to become bigger still, the team suggests in the December 13 Science.

“This is a fascinating study,” says Samantha Price. She is a biologist at Clemson University in South Carolina who studies how animals’ bodies have evolved. She was not part of the new research. Biologists have been thinking about the evolution of bigness for a long time, Price says. These researchers, “through incredible effort, actually got some data about these hard-to-study behaviors,” she notes.

In the last 5 million years, whales have become larger than ever, Goldbogen says. The blue whale grew into the largest creature ever throughout the history of life. He says that could be due to changes in glacial cycles, winds — even ocean currents. Those changes have focused upwellings of nutrients in pockets of the sea. The nutrients attract dense patches of tiny crustaceans, fish and other animals. And that creates whale buffets.

Being large has helped whales exploit such food bonanzas in a few ways. Bigger creatures can travel farther using less energy per unit of mass. So big whales can cross wide swaths of barren ocean to reach food-rich upwellings. Larger bodies also support larger lungs. And more air means more time for feeding during dives.

Simply put, bigger whales were thought to be more efficient at finding food, Goldbogen says. But that was mostly just an educated guess, he adds. Researchers didn’t have good data about how much energy whales gained from food or used while diving and hunting. “We just didn’t know much about what these animals were actually doing underwater,” he explains.

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Sensors suction-cupped onto whales’ backs are helping biologists answer two big questions. Why are whales so large? And why aren’t they bigger?

Being big can boost the ability of whales to reach more food and with less effort. That can help them access deep-sea prey that would be beyond the reach of many other creatures. In a new study, scientists estimated how much energy 13 species of whales and porpoises use — and gain — when foraging. They conclude that how big the creatures get depends on how and what they eat and how much food they can find.

Jeremy Goldbogen works at Stanford University in California. As a comparative physiologist (Phiz-ee-OL-oh-gist), he studies how the bodies of animals work. He specializes in whales. For the new study, he worked with a large team of researchers to learn how whale size relates to what whales eat and how they get it.

Toothed whales, such as orcas, echolocate (Ek-oh-LOW-kayt) to hunt for individual prey. The whales’ size appears to be limited by how much food they can grab during one dive, the researchers report. That’s not the case, though, for blue whales and other filter feeders. They open their mouths wide and bring in a large gulp of water — along with whatever is in it. Then they shove the water back out between big baleen plates. Afterward, they swallow the food caught behind those plates.

These animals tend to be much larger than their toothed cousins. Filter feeders alive today aren’t constrained by food availability. So they might be limited by other factors, such as how large a body they can physically support. These animals might even be on their way to evolving to become bigger still, the team suggests in the December 13 Science.

“This is a fascinating study,” says Samantha Price. She is a biologist at Clemson University in South Carolina who studies how animals’ bodies have evolved. She was not part of the new research. Biologists have been thinking about the evolution of bigness for a long time, Price says. These researchers, “through incredible effort, actually got some data about these hard-to-study behaviors,” she notes.

In the last 5 million years, whales have become larger than ever, Goldbogen says. The blue whale grew into the largest creature ever throughout the history of life. He says that could be due to changes in glacial cycles, winds — even ocean currents. Those changes have focused upwellings of nutrients in pockets of the sea. The nutrients attract dense patches of tiny crustaceans, fish and other animals. And that creates whale buffets.

Being large has helped whales exploit such food bonanzas in a few ways. Bigger creatures can travel farther using less energy per unit of mass. So big whales can cross wide swaths of barren ocean to reach food-rich upwellings. Larger bodies also support larger lungs. And more air means more time for feeding during dives.

Simply put, bigger whales were thought to be more efficient at finding food, Goldbogen says. But that was mostly just an educated guess, he adds. Researchers didn’t have good data about how much energy whales gained from food or used while diving and hunting. “We just didn’t know much about what these animals were actually doing underwater,” he explains.

Whale trackers

Goldbogen and an international team of researchers worked to change that. They employed technology-packed sensors. The researchers used suction cups to stick the sensors to the backs of whales. In all, the team attached sensors to 300 whales. These belonged to 13 species. They ranged from 50-kilogram (110-pound) harbor porpoises to 150,000-kilogram (330,000-pound) blue whales. Over a decade, the team tracked more than 10,000 feeding events. “It was no small task,” Goldbogen says.

The tags relayed data that became a daily diary of the whales’ activity. Pressure sensors and accelerometers tracked the whales’ movements and depth. Hydrophones recorded sounds. These included the clicks and buzzes used to hunt and socialize. And cameras captured video of the animals’ surroundings. All together, these data helped the researchers tell when filter-feeding giants opened their mouths to lunge at swarms of krill. They could show when sperm whales echolocated an octopus. And they allowed the researchers to gauge how much energy different species use on each dive.

Researchers approach a blue whale off California to attach a tracking device in the summer of 2019. The tag sticks to the whale via a suction cup and lets scientists record its foraging behavior.

CREDIT: ELLIOTT HAZEN/NOAA. PHOTO TAKEN UNDER PERMIT ACA/NMFS #16111

The team also captured sonar readings of prey density. They even dissected the stomach contents of stranded whales. That info, plus data from the tags, painted a detailed picture of what different whales ate. Then the researchers calculated an energy budget for each species. That refers to how much energy an animal has to spend to get food and how much it gains from eating that food. Such budgets help show how foraging efficiency relates to body size.

Toothed whales usually hunt squid or octopus. Being big helps these whales dive deep to access more food, the researchers found. But after a point, their foraging efficiency falls with increased size. True, a giant squid offers a lot of fuel. But such prey are few and far between. What’s more, finding them takes a lot of energy. There just aren’t enough in the ocean for the whales to get any bigger, Goldbogen says.

In contrast, bulk filter feeders get more efficient with size. These eaters target dense swarms of tiny krill and other crustaceans. In a single gulp, the whales can get a huge number of calories. (Goldbogen says calculations suggest more than 10 million of them!) And it takes less effort than chasing down a squid. So blue whales and other filter feeders may not be limited by a lack of prey. Instead, their top body size may be due to other factors. Maybe it’s how far a whale heart can pump blood, or how large a jaw can grow. The study didn’t look at such factors or try to figure out what the physical limits on their growth might be. But it may not be possible physically to engulf more krill than big whales already do.

Or it’s possible the size of these ocean giants might not be limited at all. The creatures might still be evolving to get even bigger. That could be true as long as populations of krill stay abundant. Speculates Goldbogen, “Perhaps, millions of years from now, we’ll see even bigger ocean giants.”