ok this sounds insane but in 2018 i went to a few carnivorous plant talks at the botany conference in minnesota. i got caught up in conversation with one of the guys there who was a huge nepenthes guy who told me a story about another collector in the pacific northwest who'd been buying poached plants, like a huge amount, and eventually got staked out by the fish and wildlife service and arrested and had all his plants seized and went to prison for it. idk if i ever talked about this on this blog before-- i know i liveblogged a lot from that conference but cant remember what all i posted-- but ive avoided talking about it since then because i was never able to find like, news articles or anything covering it, but behold.... we now have proof it was real, and im like 80% sure this was this guy he was talking about. the raid happened in 2016 and they'd been staking them out since 2013. he had nearly 400 plants and had been sourcing many of them from poachers in indonesia and borneo.
remember folks: poaching happens with plants too! it's a huge problem not only in carnvirous plants (nepenthes especially, which this piece is dedicated to talking about) but also in native plant populations in the US, including native carnivorous plant populations (north and south carolina's venus fly traps, california's darlingtonia, and sarracenia from the east coast), native orchids (historically one of the most poached categories), desert plants/cacti/succulents, and slow-growing woody ornamentals (cycads, for example). never buy bare-root plants off ebay or facebook! your best bet is local nurseries (which usually purchase farm-raised plants that do well in a wide range of conditions, and as a result have a healthy population in the wild) or specialty greenhouses (more expensive, but at least in the case of carnivorous plants offer young plants bred from established adult plants in-house, raised in captivity).
there's no way the bathroom at peppino's pizza is actually that big but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . hey ummm anyway.... i care them...... anyway there's a lil ramble on my take on fake pep's like psyche or whatever in tags on the og post if ur into that kinda thing :y
hey! it's a series! fake peppino world tour: [noise] [noisette] [peppino]<- u are here [gustavo] [gerome] [noisette again]
Dogstock are typical of what are often deemed the ‘evil’ races in many other fantasy works. They were created by some higher force to be slaves, they are carnivorous by nature, they resemble animals other than human in dentition and build. They growl and bite and walk behind.
The Uhasr (a dogstock culture) are descendants of such slave-infantry that was abandoned when the empire that used them to capture the steppes decided the land wasn’t so profitable after all, and more pressing matters drew their attention elsewhere. Like tools left spent on the ground, the unneeded, excess dogstock were left to survive on their own in Hochkiskuph. The native peoples, of course, did not welcome them any more, or see them any less as oppressors when the hand released the lead. To the Hochkiskuph peoples, the Uhasr are a predatory ghost, an echo that consumes them even in absentia. To the Uhasr, one human is much like another, differing in number and equipment, but never in essence. Uhasr are a species of wild animal with a human face. Humans are prey on two legs. Humans smoke and poison uncovered dens on principle, Uhasr abduct and consume men and women and children all the same.
A common trend I have noticed in media which aims to humanize monsters, is that it often relies on passivity. Humanity is contingent upon kindness. The monster that is A Person only so long as they are a harmless thing at heart, something which can be understood and befriended. Their violence is reluctant, their hearts noble. Grace is a concession to the dominated. Only the toothless beast, declawed and pinioned and caged, is one which has earned its personhood. The ontological enemy supersedes the ontological man.
Went to the doctor just for a check up and he basically just told me "your body just processes sugar very well! :) :) :) It's a good thing! :) :) :) It can't possibly be the source of your symptoms even though eating fixes it :) :) :)"
But there was also a moment when talking about my iron deficiency that is possibly one of the funniest things a doctor has ever said to me, up with the cardiologist who said "you're a medical mystery":
He was going over my blood test results, and said "Your iron levels haven't gone up at all, they are still extremely low, but you're not anemic anymore"
And I was like how am I not anemic anymore???
And he said "Your hemoglobin levels have gone up...somehow..." while frowning at the blood test results on his computer. It was very "somehow, palpatine has returned" lol
How do you feel about certain events which may have happened in a really really recent chapter of Japanese sky high with a hint of Naruto in it in which our main character is a green boi
I'm only partially spoiled because I was only trying to keep tabs on the major stuff, so I would still have something to react to when I catch up again. so I feel like I'm not really qualified to give an opinion just yet, because there's a lot of nuance and buildup and context I'm probably still missing. I will say that in hindsight I'm glad I'll get to read the for-reals final battle binge-style rather than week-to-week, both because I think it'll read better that way, and because if I'm being fully honest, the one thing I don't miss about doing weekly reads is weighing in on each new story controversy of the week. XD
granted I will admit this is a particularly spicy controversy lol. and not necessarily what I was hoping for, BUT at the end of the day it's Horikoshi's story and he can do what he wants. and if this really is The End For Real, it's nothing a few fix-it AUs can't handle if it comes to that. I do want to wait and see what the next few chapters hold before I give it an official star rating or anything like that, though, because I feel like there's still a lot of stuff that hasn't been fully resolved and/or addressed. so I'm withholding all final judgments for at least a few more weeks.
Some people claiming that the Monaco race wasn’t boring really surprises me when nothing happened during the race and it was easily one of the most boring race I’ve watched those last years.
4 overtakes in total, a lot of things happening in lap1 out of SEVENTY EIGHT where barely anything happened in the rest of it, the red flag killed all the strategy for the tyres, f1 cars driving at the pace of f2 qualifying laps, the top ten did not move the slightest … but you’re unwell if you were falling asleep in front of that?
Admitting a race is boring doesn’t mean you take anything away from the person who won it. Here, the victory of Charles was beautiful, emotional, especially considering everything that surrounds it.
But that doesn’t mean the race in itself was interesting. If Max had won it you all would have been the first to claim that it was the most boring race in a decade.
A race doesn’t have to be intense or interesting for its results to be meaningful. A victory will always be a victory.
its very interesting to me how Tamlin is the character and High Lord that is heavily vilified (I would almost say even more than Beron strangely) when he is the only High Lord to have talked about d how he has gone about removing slavery within his court, protecting lower fae in general, and his court was open to immigration from other courts (i cant remember if its mentioned again in acomaf but in acotar fae from other courts are free to move to the spring court. example, Alis) and how overall he is a great leader. Especially when you compare him and Rhysand as High Lords.
The Court of Nightmares is well, a nightmare. Its existence is extremely strange and makes Rhysand look very odd. as well as its unclear how Rhysand gets his wealth. Velaris was a hidden city until acomaf-ish, which means it was locked (so no immigration or emigration which isn't bad per-say but does bring up how it works economically) and Rhysands inability or unwillingness to protect his citizens (not enforcing the wing clipping ban and allowing people to be abused in the CoN. and before anyone starts about him not being able to control the illyrians, why did he make it a law in the first place? It just makes him look bad) makes him look like a shitty ruler. His supposed "feminism" and friendship with the people of velaris doesnt answer these very important questions or justify the strange shit he does. Versus Tamlin, which you can refer to my opening statement for the comparison. Also to note, his rule only came into question and stability after Feyre broke into people minds (which I do feel is extremely gross and a huge violation of ones autonomy and privacy) and had to sabotage him. I won't comment how I feel about this in this post, but it says a lot that she had to go through such lengths to break him down. Especially after it was revealed he was in fact a double agent and never actually siding with Hybern.
The only time Tamlin is an arguably bad high lord is in acofas and acosf where he is in a severe mental crisis and not in a position to properly rule. But even then, it's not clear if this is actually causing harm to the land and people. It's probably not good because they don't have a proper leader but I can't believe it's a severe issue.
Its definitely a strange choice, isn't it? Cause I think anyone in their right mind would choose the anti-tyranny, anti-slavery leader who does his best for his people... and its somehow not our supposed 'hero'
"I once told you I would fight against tyranny, against that sort of evil. Did you think you were enough to turn me from that?"
Hilarious that the same people defending any and all questionable choices the Bad Kids make (namely Kristen lbr) by saying "They're just kids! They have all this trauma and it's fucked up to expect teens to be good and nice all the time!" are the same people insisting that Kipperlily is an evil bitch and the Ratgrinders deserve to die.
You guys on dtblr are so nice and, like, have given me so much hope and a positive outlook on the future of the community. I think I need to start drawing again to contribute to the fanartist economy (in a few days/weeks though. Once things calm down).
JUST crossed my mind that i should share here the keychains (and standee) that arrived around a month ago with the end roll chibis i did. these ones and this!!
more rambling and also a small video of the chris and russell one under the cut!!
there's definitely some things i'd adjust if i could, or ever got more. especially with the chris and russell one, which is my personal fave by far otherwise 🥺💗 the translucent effect for the buildings ended up a little too much i think in hindsight sob, and the gradient in the one line was def a risk with that too
but since i have a few duplicates of everything—especially the russell keychain thanks to a nice discount for getting a few more—that could still use some love, i'm thinking i might try ko-fi or vinted (or mercari??) for selling them to anyone interested? i'm not very familiar with all that at all, so i'd be happy to know if anyone has a preference or suggestions there. i'm too intimidated by etsy for something so minor and unsure on how well doing it without a website involved would work :o although i can still consider that
definitely at a much lower price than if they were anything more final/refined. honestly i'd feel better even giving them out for free, but my wallet is crying too much from the cost of the order HAHA... i'll make a proper post once i figure all that out 👍