#zoo accessibility project

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

I’ve got some accessibility questions around zoo maps! Specifically, I’m interested in how people are impacted by the lack of paper maps / digitization of maps, especially when the ones in other languages than English are only online.

Please chime in in the replies and tell me about accessibility impacts you’ve experienced (or know someone who has experience) with:

No paper map policies

Online-only maps

QR codes to access maps

Maps available in an app only

Policies that instruct visitors to print their own maps ahead of time at home

Being told to photograph big signs with maps on them throughout the zoo in lieu of using an online map

Non-English maps being available online only

Policies that guests should use an app / Google translate to access map information / signage

I’ve got my own thoughts, but I know my perspective is limited to my personal experience. If these policies impact you in any way - not just due to disability - please tell me how. TIA!

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - June 22-28

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles!

1. Scientists have made a freaky 3D printed gel that’s alive – and eats CO2 (twice over)

“The new material is made using a printable gel, which can be shaped using 3D printing and requires only sunlight and artificial seawater in order to grow. This is then incorporated with a photosynthetic bacteria, known as cyanobacteria[….] “As a building material, it could help to store CO2 directly in buildings in the future,” said ETH Professor Mark Tibbitt[….]”

2. What Zohran Mamdani's mayoral primary win means for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers

“[…] Mamdani ran on […] free buses, universal childcare, city-owned grocery stores, and a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments. He also advocated for human rights [in Gaza, Iran, and the US, as well as] expansion and protection of gender-affirming care across New York City [including sanctuary protections, and plans] to "expand and centralize the services, programs, and support LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers's needs across housing, employment, and more."”

3. UK Zoo Helps Hatch Three of World’s Rarest Birds–Blue-Eyed Doves–with Only 11 Left in Wild

“A UK zoo is celebrating after helping to hatch three of the world’s rarest birds in what could be a breakthrough moment in saving the critically-endangered species from extinction. The trio of blue-eyed ground dove chicks were successfully hand-reared in Brazil[….] “With the arrival of these three new individuals, Parque das Aves is now home to six blue-eyed ground doves. All are being carefully monitored and are part of a coordinated reproductive management plan.””

4. Restoring a River, Reconnecting a Community Along the Shores of Lake Michigan

“The restoration will expand public access to parks, trails, and green space throughout Gary [Indiana]. […] Crucially, the restoration plans have been shaped by ongoing community feedback[….] The project aims to restore 1.6 miles of natural river flow and reconnect the river to its historic channels and surrounding wetlands. More than 400 acres of reestablished habitat will benefit state-endangered marsh birds and declining amphibian and fish populations, while invasive species removal will ensure long-term ecological balance.”

5. Geothermal energy keeps utility bills low in this Texas neighborhood

“The development outside Austin taps into natural heat deep underground to run heating and cooling systems for the planned 7,500 homes [,…] three schools; 2 million square feet of commercial space; and 700 acres of park and outdoor community spaces. Habitat for Humanity is set to build affordable housing, which will hook up to the geothermal network. [… S]avings on utility bills for residents […] can run up to $2,000 a year — based on a third-party-verified Home Energy Rating System.”

June 15-21 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[teaboot]

Hey! Bamboo toilet paper person here. Your response was very thoughtful-- I want to apologize for placing the onus of climate issues on individual action, haha. I work at a zoo that bills itself as being very heavy on conservation messaging, but as a non-partisan organization we're obviously not allowed to talk about the evils of capitalism. This means that in our programming, we MUST place the responsibility of stopping climate change on individual guests, encouraging them to make more environmentally conscientious decisions like buying reef safe sunscreen or reducing carbon emissions by driving less. The most "political" we're allowed to get is telling people to stay educated and vote in favor of laws that will have a positive impact on the environment. I think I've been drinking the Zoolaid a little TOO much recently, because you're totally right-- the vast, VAST majority of damage to the environment is caused by major corporations, not random people working around their own unique needs. It was also low key a little ableist of me to take issue with that ngl.

Obviously no obligation to respond to this publicly (though it's fine if you choose to do so), but I did want to thank you for your response and mention that it did get through the nonprofit mission-based-organization propaganda living rent free in my head haha. Cheers!

Hey, you work at a zoo? That is SO cool, aadsdggjjg@!!!

And hey, no worries, you totally had a good point about endless waste and trying to counter it where possible- Just from personal experience involved in the barest edge of the fashion industry, I really, really, REALLY hate the idea that, like... people can't access simple shit like plastic straws, even if they're the best, most practical, least-harmful option for them.... because a 12 year old made up some random number for a school project about plastic waste

Where, as a zoo person, I imagine you're already aware that the average sea turtle is WILDLY more likely to die from abandoned plastic fishing nets or ocean-dump grocery bags than accidentally get a straw inside it

So here we are, using paper straws!- which may be an improvement, or may not, I don't have that data, and construction emissions are their own thing- BUT WE STILL HAVE OCEANS FULL OF ABANDONED NETS

WHICH ARE OBJECTIVELY WORSE, but MUCH harder to get rid of, and as the average person doesn't USE fishing nets, it'd much harder to market as a "You, not me" sort of issue.

Cleaning up fishing nets isn't trendy. It isn't sexy. You can't troubleshoot a cute little trendy solution for it that you can market to upwardly-mobile tweens.

But a reusable water bottle? A cute canvas tote? A metal straw? That's a solution you can buy and feel good about.

Never mind that you need to use a single cotton reusable bag somewhere like a million times before the cost of its construction counterbalances the cost of a single grocery bag every time you shop- which, hey, some of us were reusing as trash liners for their wastebaskets, or bundle bags for donating clothes, or lining for our leaky winter boots!

If a better option is available, I'll take it. But as ZERO HARM is next to impossible at this time, I personally am gonna aim for MINIMAL HARM as long as I can.

...sorry, I didn't mean to ramble off again.

But hey, if your nonprofit is doing good things, feel free to shoot me a link! I can post it on my blog :D

(Link to original post for context lol)

[feverdreamjohnny]

The Epitaph of Anything Goes

I decided that this morning I would talk about The Museum of Anything Goes and the subject of lost media.

For the uninitiated, The Museum of Anything Goes is an obscure "game" released in 1995 by Wayzata Technologies, a company that is so far under the radar that I was unable to find any useful information about it outside of TMoAG.

All I could uncover is that they published a few multimedia projects (which are essentially lost now) alongside some asset discs (clipart, SFX, etc.). That's it.

The brains behind Wayzata are even more difficult to locate these days: there are only two main names credited inside of TMoAG - Michael Markowski and Maxwell S. Robertson.

The game alleges that Michael and Maxwell are well known in the art world, but any additional information about the duo is scarce beyond the confines of the museum. Attempting to search for either name online turns up plenty of rabbit holes - but none of them have anything to do with the Michael and Maxwell responsible for TMoAG.

This is particularly fascinating because it essentially means that TMoAG is the only accessible record of their lives. Before we dig any deeper into that statement, let me step back and actually address what this game is.

The Museum of Anything Goes is, by definition, a virtual art museum. Functionally it's a prerendered point-and-click adventure game where you can explore a bunch of multimedia exhibits that give the surface-level impression of a children's edutainment game, but once you start exploring further it reveals a side that firmly plants the game's feet into a haze of substance abuse and surreal humor.

Many exhibits are essentially just toying around with the astonishing new powers of CD-ROM. Everything has to make noise. Everything has to spin and flitter around. There's an air of genuine excitement for the medium, and I can't help but find it extremely charming.

The game also functions as a scrapbook, filled to the brim with photos of random trips to the zoo and snow-mobile rides with friends. At one point we even get insight into something as specific as Michael's one-year job as a tutor at a Chicago middle school, where he talks about how it opened his eyes to how poorly funded and mismanaged the school system is.

It's simultaneously quaint and chilling to see so much personal history packed into a world doomed to obscurity. As I explore the deeper parts of the museum, I contemplate if the creators are still alive today. It's a bit morbid, but imagine that - you create a single obscure game with your friend and it's all the world can see. TMoAG is currently the only surviving piece that gives any insight into who these two men were.

While many exhibits are lighthearted or nonsensical, there are occasional moments where the game dips into the eerie.

One exhibit has the player kill a man by dropping him from the sky, and after burying him you open the coffin to a video of a rotting pig carcass being put into an incinerator.

Other exhibits just feature simple 3D renders shifting around a dark screen while haunting groans play in the background.

While I would never refer to the game as "scary," its darker moments combined with the occasional mature subject matter definitely begs the question: Who is this game for?

You have to remember that this game came out long before the concept of "alt-games" had become codified in the digital space. Sure, unconventional digital art had been around before the advent of 256 colors, but TMoAG was being sold on disk as a game! It came out 2 years after DOOM hit shelves!

The trend of using the PC for entertainment was certainly on the upswing around that time, but It's not like TMoAG had a massive audience to find a niche in. With its mature themes it certainly wasn't suited for the kids market either, so who was it for?

At the end of the day, it's a moot question. We already know the target audience for The Museum of Anything Goes: Nobody. It doesn't have an audience because by its nature, TMoAG wasn't being made FOR someone, it was being made BY someone. It's a raw, unfiltered form of personal expression.

I think games like these are pivotal, because they question why people assume a game has to exist for the sake of being a consumable product. TMoAG certainly has the shape of a product: it features an intro cutscene, it has a tutorial, it features intuitive UX, it even has a map! These are all features that are solely integrated to provide comfort to an end-user. But once you actually wander around the museum for a bit, you realize how bizarrely its packaging fits its contents.

I think TMoAG is criminally underrated. It's not because its core content contains some earth-shaking truth, it's because the game defied all odds and cheated death.

How many thousands of other personal projects were deemed a little "too exotic" to be archived? How much history was lost these past 40 years as the digital space evolved and ate its old skin?

God knows how many other TMoAGs we'll never learn about because they weren't lucky enough to be preserved.

The Museum of Anything Goes isn't just some nonsensical art piece, it's a grave marker for so much lost media. Its existence is a reminder that some people's lives were fossilized, then macerated into nothing because a construction company built a skyscraper over them. The only evidence we have of those other games existing is this little fossil that somehow slipped out from under the skyscraper unscathed.

Even though so much has been lost, TMoAG survives as an epitaph.

[pokemonshelterstories]

Do you think it'll ever be possible to keep fossil pokemon as pets? Anorith is so so so cute but I don't think there's enough knowledge on them and their needs yet to let regular people own one. Not to mention the low population.

for the most part, not really, or not in a way that's accessible to most people.

there are two barriers to their care, and you've basically hit on both of them to an extent. the first is that, with the exception of a few isolated populations in areas like the crown tundra, there's really no way to get fossil pokemon without purchasing from a breeder (expensive, long wait lists) or finding a high-quality fossil yourself and having it revived (even more expensive, very hard to obtain). while blueberry academy has seen some success with a limited "wild" introduction in its terarium, that's a project in its earliest stages and with a relatively controlled environment. the vast majority of live specimens from fossil lines go to researchers.

the second is that we're still learning their ideal parameters- and for the pokemon where we do have a good idea of how to provide for them, it's not something the average person can or should try to do! they evolved to thrive in environments that, by and large, don't exist naturally anymore, so anyone who owns a fossil pokemon has to create that environment. think about what resources you have on hand right now. would you be able to maintain a large saltwater tank with appropriate pressure? do you have at least an acre, if not more, of land to turn into a simulation of a forest or jungle or tundra, and are you prepared to effectively run and pay for a zoo enclosure, replacing any broken or crushed tree trunks and stones regularly? if you manage to check those things off, are you an experienced trainer who can safely manage a potentially dangerous pokemon in a large environment? are you comfortable carrying a body shield to protect yourself during feedings and training sessions until you're absolutely certain your pokemon is safe to be around? are you okay with dealing with pokemon rights activists, who may protest outside your home if they find out you're housing a revived pokemon?

for most people, that's a no right from the start. and that's why a lot of people who have fossil pokemon are expert scientists, and they frequently work together as teams to raise these pokemon! a very dedicated and fortunate trainer could make this work, but even then it's less of a pet and more of a project.

[imaginedreamwrite]

Damned Together

Part 1: An Experiment

Your lungs burned. The antiseptic stench that lingered and clung to every imaginable surface of this secondary vault you were in had made it hard to catch your breath. Even with the population of dwellers lingering around in the open spaces—the common areas deemed accessible to anyone else but you—the vault seemed eerie.

Maybe it was because you were determined to be a risk to the rest of the population—despite the hopefulness that scientists had cast upon you. The genetic codes and sequences that they were trying to alter and replace, with something entirely different, had been unsuccessful.

Until the year 2273, when you were the first to not only survive but thrive. You were just a baby when they started the tests, the prodding and the poking. They analyzed you your entire life until this very day, laying hopes within you.

The tests, the experiments were all led by the idea that maybe someday the vault dwellers could reclaim the earth. That perhaps they could alter the human genomes to not just acclimate to the radiation but to put it to use.

The wistfulness lied with the idea that radiation absorbed could actually be turned into some kind of energetic reaction. It was almost like the sun providing vitamin D, the radiation would provide a kind of boost.

You were the only experiment to survive the exposure and the tests, and their excitement was not outdone by their caution. It was a vault within a vault, only allowed to be visited by a few select individuals.

Your life had been spent here, in a medical bay all to yourself. Isolated and watched like an animal in a zoo, for the sake of a few curious minds.

You coughed and waved your hand in front of your face as a small canister was dropped into the room through a hatch in the ceiling. The small pieces of radioactive material would be your allocated number for the day.

What was your limit last week? Had it grown? How much could you be exposed to before it killed you? Would it kill you?

”The child will begin testing within two days. Like subject 956, there is a necessary risk to this. But test assured Mrs. Coleman, your baby will be perfectly fine.” The voice crackles through the speakers and you rise to your feet, crossing the small room.

You press your hands against the reinforced glass as the metal shield parts. Though they cannot see you through this particular viewing point, you can see them.

A woman wearing the typical vault dwellers jumpsuit had boasted the same colours you were used to seeing over and over again. Blue and yellow, yellow and blue.

Though it wasn’t just the jumpsuit that boasted your attention, it was the babe in her arms. A small thing with wispy hair and a small button nose, had laid comfortably in its mothers arms.

”I don’t want to lose my baby, or lose access to my baby. It’s my baby—“ The woman on the other side pleads with the doctor, clutching the small bundle like it’s gold.

The woman’s baby is special, you think bitterly to yourself and scoff. You take your hands off the reinforced glass and wipe them down on the fabric of your hospital grade gown.

You were deemed to be special too, and that left you to a lifetime of loneliness and isolation. Of course they couldn’t have you mentally or socially isolated forever, and there were certain tasks that kept you sharp.

However you could only count on one hand how many times you’d left your cell. This place boasted a single bed, a bathroom with a shower and toilet, a single tv, a small bookshelf and a record player.

“—Mrs. Coleman rest assured that you will not lose access to your baby. You’re welcome to visit them anytime.” The head scientist of the project had lied straight through his teeth, something you’d picked up on from his nervous habit. Every time he lied, he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose—whether they needed to be or not.

The hissing of the canister had drawn your attention. There it was, the small infiltration of radioactive material starting to spread in your sealed medical bay. You drew yourself toward the canister and stooped low, the hem of your hospital grade gown draping across the tops of your feet.

You had been exposed and not died—yet.

But you remembered the stings of needles, every tool they used to access your genetic code internally, everything they had pumped into you. You remembered it all, and it was vivid.

”What did you bring me this time?” You twisted the top of the canister off and tipped it over, dumping the contents into the palm of your hand.

There they had sat, two small bottle caps faded red with familiar writing on the top—NUKA COLA—in fancy white writing. Your fingers curled around the pieces and your squeezed tightly, until you felt the edges digging into your flesh.

And then you let go, and let them fall back into the canister.

[hunieday]

Yamato, Sougo, Momo 2024 Shuffle talk RabbiTV Episode 1

Episode 1 - Episode 2 - Episode 3

Please note that I am not a professional translator and I'm only doing this to share the side materials to those who cannot access them, if you notice any mistakes please let me know nicely. Enjoy!

*Doors opens*

Momo: Good morning~! You two are already here! You’re early~!

Nikaido Yamato: Good morning, Momo-san. We just got here a little bit ago.

Osaka Sougo: Good morning, Momo-san.

Osaka Sougo: It’s an honor for me to be able to join you on this "Monthly World Travel" special series. I know I greeted you at the raffle drawing, but I would like to thank you again!

Momo: No no, I'm the one who’s super happy to travel with you to Australia! I may be a bit clumsy, but I’m looking forward to working with you.

Nikaido Yamato: No no no no. I’m still inexperienced, so I would appreciate your guidance and support, Momo-san...

Momo: Ahaha! Everyone's being so humble!!

Momo: It’s gonna be just the three of us on this trip, so you can be more relaxed!

Osaka Sougo: I’m sorry for being so formal... Even Tamaki-kun tells me I’m too stiff a lot of times.

Momo: Oh, then how about you try talking more like Tamaki? Maybe you’ll sound a bit more casual!

Nikaido Yamato: Sou’s gonna call you “Momorin”?

Momo: Yup! Give it a try!

Osaka Sougo: Mo, mo... Momo... Mo...

Osaka Sougo: I’m sorry! I really still can’t do it after all...

Momo: Ahaha! You’re so cute! Thanks for trying your best to call me by that name!

Momo: Well, looks like this project’s gonna be quite relaxed so let’s take it easy. Yuki said there would be photo shoots and missions, but also plenty of free time!

Osaka Sougo: You’re right. I’ll try to take it more easy!

Nikaido Yamato: Looks like the weather will be nice too, so I’m looking forward to it.

Momo: It’s winter over there, isn’t it? I was considering going to the ocean for a swim but that might be impossible.

Nikaido Yamato: That’s true. It’s warm enough to wear short sleeves during the day though.

Osaka Sougo: Melbourne has many tourist attractions such as the Royal Botanic Gardens and zoos, so there should be plenty more to enjoy aside from the beach.

Momo: Aren’t you two a little too well-informed? Did you already do your research!?

Osaka Sougo: Yes, I was so excited that I ended up researching a lot of things.

Nikaido Yamato: He ordered all sorts of books. From travel magazines to Australian history.

Osaka Sougo: I thought I would appreciate the trip more if I understood its historical background... Yamato-san, you were also studying common English conversation phrases at the dorm so you could use them during the trip, right?

Nikaido Yamato: Just a little bit. I can speak English pretty well, but if you don’t use it you’ll forget it.

Momo: Having two capable little juniors is so reassuring!

Momo: I usually push myself real hard, but Momo-chan can probably just take it easy and enjoy himself this time!?

Nikaido Yamato: Re:vale works a lot overseas, right?... Must be hard to work together with that guy.

Momo: Ahaha! I’m used to it by now!

Momo: I always think about Yuki whenever I’m planning a trip and ask myself if he would enjoy it.

Momo: Thanks to that, I fully prepare everything from in-flight entertainment to what drinks to order at the hotel!

Nikaido Yamato: Oh, sounds good~ I’d like to try some of the local Australian beers.

Osaka Sougo: It seems like they tend to have a lower alcohol content and are easy to drink.

Momo: Sounds good! Let’s clear the missions and enjoy some delicious drinks together as a reward!

Momo: Wow, so this is Brighton Beach! Those colorful warehouses are so cute!

Osaka Sougo: Everyone’s taking pictures here and there.

Nikaido Yamato: Should we take a pic too?

Osaka Sougo & Momo: Yaaay!

*Camera shutter*

Momo: Yup! All of us have nice smiles!

Osaka Sougo: This will be a great memory of our trip!

Nikaido Yamato: How nice would it be if we completed the mission by spending time on the beach.

Momo: Things would be boring if it ends this quickly! Let’s enjoy the mission too~!

Accompanying Staff: Thank you everyone for traveling this far!

Accompanying Staff: Here’s the card with your mission written on it. Please take a look at the hint and the exploration map as well!

Osaka Sougo: Thank you. Um, for starters, the mission is... “Let’s meet a mermaid!”

Nikaido Yamato: And the hint is, “Under the water.”

Momo: A mermaid... under the water... Maybe we can swim to an underwater palace from this beach!?

Nikaido Yamato: That’s more like Urashima Taro than a mermaid, isn’t it? (1)

Momo: Haha! Nice one, Yamato!

Osaka Sougo: Hmm, I can’t make anything out of the hint being under the water.

Osaka Sougo: Shall we start by looking for clues around here?

Momo: Ah! Then it’s time for this!

Momo: Tadah! I brought soap bubbles from Japan!

Osaka Sougo: Momo-san, you went through the trouble of preparing this for us...!

Momo: I thought it would be fun to do this at the beach! Aren’t these containers so colorful and cute?

Momo: I’ve got four colors for each member, ones in Yamato’s and Sougo’s colors, as well as Yuki’s and mine!

Nikaido Yamato: You even brought one in Yuki-san’s color.

Momo: They were sold in packs of two and I felt bad leaving Yuki back home, so I brought his.

Momo: Here, the green one for Yamato and purple for Sougo!

Osaka Sougo: Thank you very much.

Nikaido Yamato: Wow, I remember blowing into the hole at the tip of the stick as a kid, how nostalgic.

Osaka Sougo: It’s been so long since I did something like this. It’s kind of exciting.

Momo: Alright! Let’s make some big soap bubbles!

Osaka Sougo & Nikaido Yamato: Yeah!

End of Episode 1.

Urashima Taro: A fairy-tale of a fisherman who, after visiting the underwater Palace of the Dragon King, returns centuries later​.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

California zoo accessibility data dump

I just recently got back from a short (and fully covid-cautious) zoo road trip in Oregon and California, and wanted to share my notes re: accessibility at the facilities I visited. I'll get this all integrated into the spreadsheet, too.

Wildlife Safari - Winston, Oregon

This is a large drive-thru safari park with a free walk-about area attached that contains some small exhibits. Guests stay inside their cars the entire drive-thru, although there's at least one place to stop and sit in a gazebo to rest and use the bathroom (porta-potty only). You can pull over to watch animals for longer, and go through multiple times if you missed anything. It's a long drive-thru and there isn't really a good way to truncate the experience if you've got some kind of emergency. The roads are not flat, but they're well maintained and not bumpy.

The walkabout area is very small and contains bathrooms, food options, and other guest services. The paths are mostly concrete and well tended, although you do have to cross the steam train tracks to get to lion/some of the lemur viewing. I believe the Australia walkabout area was also unpaved. There's lots of parking in a big, flat, paved lot.

Sacramento Zoo - Sacramento, CA

This is a very cute, small inner-city facility - a good option if you don't want to try to walk a huge zoo in one day. There's lots of shade from all the plants and a good amount of benches throughout, including picnic tables with shade canopies. The paths are almost entirely flat and paved, with the exception of a boardwalk ramp up to the giraffe feeding and okapi viewing platforms. The cafe has gluten-free and vegetarian listings (maybe vegan?) on their menu. No straws are provided for animal safety, but if you need one, they can give you a reusable curly-straw from the slushies (kinda long and awkward for a normal cup) as an accommodation. They've got both water fountains and water bottle filling stations. Being build in a larger city park and recreation complex, there isn't a dedicated parking lot just for the zoo: the closest is across the street, shared with another attraction, and is kinda small. I've never had issues finding parking when I've gone, but sometimes it does involve a bunch of walking to get to the zoo entrance - if you have mobility or stamina limitations, probably best to get dropped off at the entrance and wait (there are benches).

San Francisco Zoo - San Francisco, CA

The SF Zoo is huge. There's lots of green / garden / swamp space that doesn't have habitats in it, but it means exhibits can be pretty far away, so plan your route accordingly. (Going out to the grizzly bears is the longest loop). Depending on the time of day, there's not always a ton of shade for guests either. There's a decent amount of benches, and quite a few are in decent proximity to animal viewing. After a somewhat long but not steep hill right at the entrance, the paths are all paved and fairly flat. There's a hill going down into/up from the Australia area / kids playground, but it's the only one I really noticed. There's a long elevated boardwalk through the lemur habitats that connects to the top of the new Madagascar construction - if you can't do stairs, as of Spring 2024, that's the only way to get up there to look down on the mandrills or see the top of the fossa habitat. (It's still under construction, so there might be an elevator in the building in the future). Back by the grizzlies, there's an old indoor rainforest building - while there's buttons to automatically open the door going in, I didn't find any on the first inside door going out. It makes sense they don't want both doors to open at once since it's a bird airlock, but not having independent ones on each door meant the day I used an ECV I got stuck in there until a nice staff member noticed.

All three times I've ever been to SF most of the little food kiosks haven't been open, and the vending machines for drinks have been hit and miss - so bring your own, or stock up at the cafe if you need to have supplies with you - but there are water fountains and water bottle filling stations around the zoo. There are interpretive audio boxes through the zoo in English and Spanish, used with a key you get at the entrance(?), but I heard a lot of complaints in passing about some of them not working. There's lots of parking at the zoo in a flat paved lot, and there's a specific dropoff area on one side for rideshares/mobility needs.

Oakland Zoo - Oakland, CA

To be clear up front - Oakland was the hardest facility to visit on this whole trip, with regards to mobility. We went twice, and I used an ECV (electric scooter) one and walked the other. Neither option was easy and both were exhausting. Oakland is a super hilly facility - you basically have to drive up a major hill to get to the zoo. The bottom half of the lower zoo can only be reached by going down pretty steep paths. The hills are also not graded to be "flat", so if you're in a wheelchair or ECV, you're going to have to lean to compensate for the tilt and balance the chair... while controlling it going down a steep hill. It's exhausting and kinda scary. (I don't even let other people carry my camera because $$, but I had to ask for help so I could focus on driving the ECV on those hills). There's also a lot of areas of the pathways that are not in the best repair, or patterned with pressed-in images, and multiple places actually have brass bugs embedded in the pavement so that they stick out above the surface. Lots of tripping hazards and/or things to rattle your teeth out rolling over. A couple places in the upper zoo (the California wilds area) the paths switch from paved to sand and back again, for drainage, maybe? On the upside, there's a lot of benches everywhere, including directly across from prime viewing areas.

Getting up to the upper zoo requires using a gondola - there's no walking option. You can actually take wheelchairs and ECVs on these, but you have to be ready to advocate for yourself. Normally, they don't stop the carriages completely, and expect people to walk on while they're still moving slowly. You can ask them to slow them down for you (I did, because knee issues plus torque is bad), or stop it completely if you need the time/help. When I took an ECV on, they had me disembark and get in one carriage, and they loaded it into the subsequent ones. This is fine because I can walk and stand on concrete for a while without it, but I'm not sure how that practice would work for people who need their mobility aids the whole time. They were very nice about managing the stopping and the loading and didn't make it feel like an imposition, too. If they stop the carriages completely at any point, there will be a loud buzzer/alarm when the ride starts back up. If you're close, it's pretty loud and startling. As they leave the track at the bottom the gondolas tip and dip a little, which can be scary if you're not expecting it - I think it's just the transition of the car from the loading bay onto the track itself. The rest of the ride is very smooth. The track is pretty high up and gives a great view of the bay and the surrounding cities, but face uphill if you don't do well with heights. Once at the upper zoo, the path from bald eagles through jaguar is mostly a boardwalk, but it's not too bumpy.

Oakland's parking is hard if you're not there early in the day, IMO. The overflow parking gets pretty far from the entrance, and starts to go up the hill towards the upper zoo. If the lot looks busy, drop anyone with mobility/stamina issues off at the entrance before parking. Unlike many other zoos I've visited, Oakland's ECVS have added sunshades, which is really nice (and which I should have used).

Monterey Zoo - Salinas, CA

This is a fairly small facility with most habitats on one level, but some big cats and bears are up a pretty big hill. The walkways are paved and flat, and there's an ADA-graded boardwalk ramp that takes you to the top of the hill. The pipes used for the handrails on both the stairs and the ramp get very hot in the sun, however. There's a boardwalk up to the rhino overlook. They indicate that their bathrooms are accessible, but the ones in the main building didn't have bars for transferring - I didn't check the ones up on the hill. At one point in the day speakers along the path started playing really loud pop music (drowned out the birds) and it was very overwhelming. There's lots of handicapped parking spots across from the front entrance, but if you don't have a tag, the rest of the spots are up a bit of a hill and a small walk from the entrance. They do have a note, though, that they can help if you need accessible parking and don't see any, so you could probably call/have someone to go in and ask for an accommodation.

Sequoia Park Zoo - Eureka, CA

This is another nice small facility, very doable for a half-day trip. The paths are paved and flat, and there's benches available. There's a lot of shade, although it can depend on the time of day, and places to fill a water-bottle. The sky-walk through the redwoods is accessible, but might be a little difficult depending on mobility limitations - its' a very sturdy boardwalk through the canopy of the tall trees. (I had more thoughts on this from my last visit, I'll dig out those notes). If you can do even part of it, it's worth it, and there's places to turn around. Because it's in a residential area of the town there's not a huge dedicated parking lot, but lots of street parking and a decent lot directly across the street. I've never had difficulty finding parking, and you can drop people off at the entrance easily.

[dandelionsresilience]

Good News - July 8-14

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $Kaybarr1735! And if you tip me and give me a way to contact you, at the end of the month I'll send you a link to all of the articles I found but didn't use each week!

1. Zoo welcomes birth of four endangered horse foals

“[The Marwell Zoo in GB] said it was "delighted" to welcome the arrivals to the endangered Przewalski’s horse herd. All four are female and said to be "doing well" after two were born in May and two in June. […] “These horses, that were previously listed extinct in the wild, are an example of how zoo breeding programmes can help restore threatened species around the world.” […] All the Przewalski’s horses alive today are descended from just 12 individuals. Current estimates suggest there are 178 mature individuals living in the wild.”

2. Restoring woodlands and planting trees for sustainability success

“In 2023, [the Marwell Zoo] planted 9,000 new trees […] both within the zoo and on our surrounding land. […] Marwell tries to encourage natural feeding behaviour and nutrition by including leafy material [in animals’ feed] as much as possible. […] Planting more trees and enhancing management of our existing woodlands, prepares the way to further self-sufficiency in browse production in the future. Plus, it creates new habitats for wildlife in our woodland areas.”

3. Inclusive Playgrounds Allow Children Of All Abilities To Play

“With ramps allowing children in wheelchairs to ascend the central play structure, as well as numerous other swings and apparatus usable for children of all abilities, the 16,000-square-foot P.K.’s Place is St. Paul’s first fully inclusive playground. […] To be universally accessible, a play area must have at least 70% of its play features fully accessible, far more than required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). […] Play areas should allow parents and grandparents with disabilities to participate as well.”

4. Combination treatment can increase human insulin-producing cells in vivo

“[Diabetes-model mice] were treated with the combination therapy [of a plant product called harmine and “a widely used class of type 2 diabetes therapy”] and their diabetes was rapidly reversed. Strikingly, human beta cell numbers increased by 700 percent over three months with this drug combination. "This is the first time scientists have developed a drug treatment that is proven to increase adult human beta cell numbers in vivo. This research brings hope for the use of future regenerative therapies to potentially treat the hundreds of millions of people with diabetes," said Dr. Garcia-Ocaña, the paper's corresponding author.”

5. Decades of Dedication: Australia’s Largest Ongoing Urban Restoration Project

“[Friends of Lake Claremont] has transformed the area into a thriving ecosystem, re-establishing native habitats and fostering biodiversity. This year, 800 native seedlings (100 trees, 350 shrubs and 350 ground covers) have been planted on the northwestern buffer of Lake Claremont. Volunteers replaced a large Port Jackson fig (Ficus rubiginosa) affected by [beetle] infestation with native plants to enhance the local wildlife habitat, thereby benefiting insects, frogs, birds and brown bandicoots. […] Overall, the project contributes to the area’s function as a regional ecological corridor, linking inland bushlands, the Swan River and the Indian Ocean.”

6. Important habitat for fish in Heart of the Fraser now conserved

“British Columbia’s iconic salmon now have more protected spawning habitat in the lower Fraser River, thanks to the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) conservation acquisition of Carey Island. […] Carey Island and its gravel channels offer calm and crucial spawning and rearing habitat for the river’s fish and aquatic species. […] The Pelólxw Tribe […is also] actively working to restore the resilience of aquatic habitat within this stretch of the Lower Fraser. NCC is exploring opportunities to collaborate with the Pelólxw Tribe in support of their vision for stewardship of the area, which prioritizes both ecological and cultural values.”

7. Prime editing efficiently corrects cystic fibrosis mutation in human lung cells

“[R]esearchers have developed a gene-editing approach that efficiently corrects the most common mutation that causes cystic fibrosis, found in 85 percent of patients. With further development, it could pave the way for treatments that are administered only once and have fewer side effects. The new method precisely and durably corrects the mutation in human lung cells, restoring cell function to levels similar to that of Trikafta [the standard treatment since 2019].”

8. Montana’s High Court Considers a Constitutional Right to a Stable Climate

“At issue was the appeal of a decision last year, when a Montana judge blocked a state law that prohibited agencies from considering climate impacts when deciding whether to approve fossil fuel projects such as new power plants, pipelines or mining. The ruling, by District Judge Kathy Seeley, was prompted by a lawsuit filed by 16 youths who argued that the law violated Montana’s constitutional right to a “clean and healthful environment.” It was the first ruling in the United States to effectively establish constitutional rights to a stable climate[….]”

9. The US is about to get its first solar-covered canal

“The first canal-based solar project in the U.S. is nearing completion on tribal lands south of Phoenix, Arizona. […] The long, narrow solar array design would snake along the line of the canal and tap into the local electrical distribution grid every 1,000 feet, or every one megawatt. […] “Canal solar allows for greater power production per land size, cleaner water, less power transmission losses, and significant reduction in evaporation[….]” Covering the entire 8,000 miles of canals and waterways managed by the Bureau of Reclamation with solar panels could generate over 25 gigawatts of renewable energy and reduce water evaporation by tens of billions of gallons[….]”

10. Camera traps offer glimpse of first beaver born in Northumberland for 400 years

“"It’s such a relief that they have bred successfully and to see a new fluffy kit swimming with the family[….]” In just one year [since releasing the beavers], there has been a noticeable increase in resident trout, says the National Trust, along with more regular visits from kingfishers and grey herons. There are more insects at the site, too, thanks to the organic matter that builds up behind the dams, which in turn provides food for Daubenton’s bats. […] Beavers also play an important role in creating habitats that are more resilient to the effects of climate change[….]”

July 1-7 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[the-crimson]

Ok I have thoughtsssss on the Dapper lore we just got.

I 100% believe the feds are coercing Dapper to mass produce these op health swap/regen potions for them - for a number of reasons.

First off, we need to go back to the convo Dapper had with Bad a week? Ago about keeping secrets. This was before Dapper started acting really weird and secretive. During that conversation, Dapper - to me - felt scared. At the time I assumed it was because they were afraid Bad would be upset at them for keeping secrets but now I think it was because Dapper was terrified of the secret he was keeping, that the Feds have commanded them to figure out a way of mass producing this Soul Vulture potion. It was only after Bad assured Dapper that he trusts them that Dapper started going all in on this mystery. She had gotten permission/reassurance from her dad that he believes in her and trusts her to do the right thing.

Now why would the federation ask an egg to do their dirty work? Easy. The eggs are so much more vulnerable that the players. The federation most likely created them so they probably have actual leverage or sway of some kind over the eggs but also think about what Dapper has to lose? Pomme, Ramon, Richas, all of their siblings in addition to threats to imprison or hurt Bad and Baghera. There is so much leverage the Feds have over Dapper it’d be easy to black mail him into compliance. Additionally, no one would expect the eggs to turn like this. The eggs are incredibly loyal and most hate the federation as much as their parents. It would be easy to get the egg to work for the feds without tipping off any of the islanders.

Even more damningly, Dapper is the most knowledgeable person on the island when it comes to mobs and has extensive knowledge of create machines. Dapper is the perfect person to learn how to mass produce the Soul Vulture’s corrupted form that produces the hearts necessary to make the potion in addition to building a create machine to mass produce the potion itself. Dapper has the perfect combination of knowledge that makes them the only person for this job.

On top of all of that, Dapper has Soul Vultures in the lab (thank you Minecraft subtitles XD). Soul Vultures are only found in the nether. We know the Feds have access to spawn eggs for nether mobs thanks to the mob Dapper asked for in the Zoo project and the only other way would be going into the nether yourself which we know thanks to Forever’s portal is incredibly dangerous and chaotic. I highly doubt Dapper was making solo trips into the nether this whole time trying to find the Soul Vulture without Bad finding out. It’s much more likely to me that the federation gave Dapper spawn eggs - or even the mobs themselves- so that Dapper could breed them and experiment on them.

Then on top of all of this, Dapper has been blatantly lying to Bad’s face because what else can she do? Dapper knows they aren’t fooling Bad but what are they supposed to do? They are being black mailed and can’t tell anyone without the feds threatening to take away everyone Dapper loves. Of course the only thing they can do is lie knowing Bad will see right through it and hope that Bad won’t interfere (or will and help Dapper get out of this) I thought the bald face lying was so odd but Dapper being black mailed makes everything make sense because at that point, lying was all Dapper could do even if there was no way anyone would believe them.

But there you have it. That’s all the evidence I can think of off the top of my head just from memory. Hopefully we’ll get a stream tomorrow but until then, I cry T-T

(I can’t remember if the Soul Vulture was the second spawn egg the feds gave Dapper/Bad for the zoo but if that is the case, then the feds gave Dapper the egg knowing what it could be used for and the black mail scheme unfolds the same)

[rainbow-universe]

dragging 'round a body (dead weight)

Attempted bottom surgery turns into secret relationship reveal? Click below for more!! Criminal Minds x DC Crossover Week Day 6 - Saturday, February 8th & Day 5- Friday, February 7th Day 5: Soulmate AU || Secret Relationship*** || Identity Porn/Reveal || “It’s actually safer to kiss.” Day 6: Lazarus Pits || BAU vs. the League of Assassins || Unexpected Allies || “Give a man a mask and he will show his true face." ***This can be romantic, platonic, or familial! The world is your oyster, be free! part of @criminalmindsxdc 's CM x DC crossover week!!

so this was inspired by one of Taxi's AITAH fics about the Lazarus Pit giving trans!Jason a dick and trans!Tim wanting one too, and an orphan_account's fic about Tim and Jason faking a relationship as their alibi for killing the joker (they did kill the joker but that's not the point) (both linked on the ao3 fic)

i had so much fun writing this one and it was also very cathartic at times. definitely self projected a bit at tim and reader in the middle there

Possible TWs: body/gender dysphoria, Pit rage?, explicit language, death, resurrection, batcest, etc

I know this isn’t for everyone so don’t like, don’t read, take care of yourselves

title from KMS by Sub Urban

cross-posted on ao3

wc: 3k+

flash warning for the gif below the cut

“What did you do over the weekend?” you heard JJ ask Spencer and Derek as you walked into the bullpen Monday morning.

“I read up on Allium haematochiton, also known as the redskin onion, native to certain places of California, and went to a Mitochondrial Psychobiology seminar on human energy and healing. It was really quite fascinating,” Spencer said, spinning in his chair.

“Of course you did, boy genius,” Derek teased playfully.

You reached your desk and put your bag down, still listening to your coworkers’ conversation.

“Oh, and what did you do, Morgan?” Spencer tossed back.

“I worked on one of my places, I’m almost done, just a few more things to finish up.”

“Good for you,” JJ smiled.

“JJ?”

“Henry had a playdate Friday night, so Will and I had some quiet time.”

“OoOoh!” Derek wiggled his eyebrows.

JJ laughed at his teasing. “And yesterday we went to the zoo.”

Emily walked up to their group. “Sounds fun.”

“And what did you do, Prentiss?” Derek asked.

Emily stuck her tongue out at him. “Chilled with Sergio and got caught up on the Real Housewives.”

“Ooh! What franchise?” JJ asked.

“Beverly Hills. Their drama is so insanely cathartic to me,” Emily laughed.

Derek called your name, and you looked up. “What’d you get up to, hot shot?”

“Umm…” You stared into space and thought about how to describe your weekend.

-----

It started with a text on Friday night, one of the days you were lucky enough to get off at a reasonable hour. You had been excited to have the weekend off too, ready to relax and catch up on things you neglected during the week thanks to your crazy work hours.

You’d just gotten into your apartment building when your phone buzzed. You pulled it out. It was Jason.

got an egg + mountain dew problem. come help me wrangle him.

Oh dear.

You turned around and headed right back out to the nearest Zeta tube.

Were you supposed to use them? Not really, but the Batkids had given you access so you took that as permission. Besides, this constituted an emergency.

You followed the coordinates Jason sent and stepped out into a Gotham alley.

“Thank fuck you’re here. C’mon, he’s gone rabid.”

Jason pulled you with him to his bike and tossed you an extra helmet.

You put it on and got behind him without question, but as soon as he pulled away from the curb you opened your mouth. “So, what’s the situation exactly? You were a little vague in your text.”

“Timmers found out that my dip in the radioactive Mountain Dew gave me a dick and decided he wanted to do the same thing, ignoring the fact that it gave me rage issues and other shit to deal with.” You could hear Jason’s scowl. You knew he was just worried from Tim.

“So we are going …?”

“To stop him, obviously. Brat’s already on his way so we’re going to steal the Bat-plane and stop him.”

“Ok.” Just a normal Friday night for you then.

Tim … was a slippery guy. He was smart and determined, which made him annoyingly difficult to catch up with, but you knew where he was headed, which helped. (There were only so many Lazarus Pits so you had a select number of locations Tim could choose from, narrowing your chase down.)

You caught him just before he could enter the caves, fully launching yourselves at him and grabbing onto him like a koala.

Tim, of course, could be as slippery as an eel sometimes. This was one of those times.

“Don’t you fucking dare, baby bird!” Jason yelled as he and you tried to wrangle him away from the mouth of the cave.

“Don’t try and stop me!” he yelled back, swinging his bō at you. Jason jumped over it and you rolled out of the way.

“Too late, we’re already trying to stop you,” you sassed and whipped out a sword to block Tim’s attacks. (Thank fuck, Zatanna had given you a sword charm upon request. You could carry it around, no one the wiser, and in necessary times like these, you could whip it out and have a weapon.)

“Did you learn nothing from my fuck ups? This is not the answer!”

“It’s free surgery!” Tim argued.

“With a bunch of side effects! You’re supposed to be the smart one!”

“Fuck you! I can be a dumbass if I want!”

“Tim, please,” you begged, blocking another hit with your sword.

“No!” he snarled and kicked up dust into your face and launched his staff at Jason.

You yelped and wiped the dirt out of your eyes. “Tim!” He was running through the caves.

“Fuck!” Jason swore and set off after him, you hot on his heels.

“Remember what happened with Jason!” you shouted, a last attempt to hold Tim off.

You caught up to him next to the pit. He was kneeling at the edge, staring into its depths. You went and knelt next to him. Jason stayed back. Hesitant.

“Tim,” you said softly. He didn’t move.

“I just want a body I like. I want to feel comfortable in my own skin,” he confessed, almost silently.

“Tim,” you started again, practically begging him to hear you. “I love you. I’m sorry your body doesn’t fit you right now, but you know that this isn’t the answer. Tim … darling … rationality and realities can be bummers. I wish we could mold our own bodies out of clay, give ourselves the bodies we’re comfortable in without having to jump through hoops and doctors’ appointments and evaluations and years of waiting. I wish we were given the bodies we wanted right away, without having to ask. I wish it was as easy as a suspicious looking bath, but it’s not. Jason didn’t choose to go in there, and he didn’t know what would happen. No one did.

“But there’s small joys in being able to craft your own body. It’s like pruning a tree, it takes time to form it into the big shape we want, but at any point we can decorate it with lights and ornaments and bows, until the time when it’s fully grown the way we pruned it. And even then, we can still decorate it.” You sighed. “I’m not sure exactly where I’m going with this, just that your struggles are valid. Being uncomfortable in your own skin is valid and wanting to change your body so it fits right is valid. But this isn’t the way, Tim, the ‘surgery’ might work but I think somewhere in there there’s a regret rate of 50%, as opposed to other ways. I want you to be happy. I want you to be comfortable, but I want you to be safe. This isn’t safe, Tim,” you whispered.

Tim took in a shaky breath and when you leaned down to see past his curtain of hair, you realized there were tears streaming down his face.

“Oh, Tim,” you breathed.

“I just want to not want to peel my own skin off,” he whimpered.

“Me too.”

You tapped the back of his hand to check his boundaries, and when he didn’t stop you, you wrapped your arms around him and pulled him into you.

You sat there together for a few moments, just breathing. Tim sat up slowly and disentangled himself from you.

You waited to see if he wanted to talk.

“Loving the emotional bonding that’s happening here but we’ve got company and not the fun kind. Unless you like being attacked. Like me. This is my kind of company,” Jason said.

“Alright, Tim-” you held out a hand “-let’s go, live to kick ass, say fuck you to society and gender norms another day.”

“I hate when you speak my language,” Tim said without heat, letting you help him up and grabbing his bō from Jason. “Let’s annoy Rā’s a little before we leave.”

“I’m sure we’ve already annoyed him by being here but sure, let’s make it worse.”

“Hell yeah, baby bird!” Jason shouted, shooting at the incoming assassins. You genuinely didn’t know what kind of bullets he was using.

“Bruce is going to have a fit when he finds out about this,” you said, pulling out your sword to fend off the attackers.

“If he finds out!” Tim called, swinging at more assassins.

If?? Oh dear lord, this was going to end badly, you just knew it. Wouldn’t stop you from continuing on the path, you were just prepared to say ‘I told you so’ to yourself later on.

Your phone rang. You glanced at it. Jason. You picked up.

“Yah?”

There was a cough on the other end, and not Jason’s cough.

“Hello?”

“Were you with Jason and Tim yesterday?”

“Bruce?”

“Yes.”

Ah. That was fast. You could tell yourself I told you so now.

Jason must be somewhere in the background, since it was his phone. You wondered if anyone else was there, was Tim? “Umm, what? Why?”

“A League base was attacked yesterday night. The Bat-plane has several hours of footage missing from its logs and Jason and Tim don’t have alibis for the suspected time period. Their alibi is that they were with you.”

“Ok, and? Yes, they were both with me.” You knew exactly what you did but no way in hell were you admitting that to Bruce. So, you needed to tell him a truth that absolutely distracted him from this interrogation.

“You were with Jason and Tim, yesterday night,” he said it like it was hard to believe. Maybe it was.

“Yes.” You had the perfect idea. You just hoped Tim and Jason wouldn’t want to kill you after this. It just needed the right introduction-

“Hn. And where were you?”

“Getting well acquainted with my bed,” you deadpanned. Oops?

The other side of the phone was silent for longer than Bruce’s normal pauses. Please let Jason and Tim go with it, dear lord.

“So no, we were not near any League base, Bruce, can confirm that Tim and Jason were in bed with me. At my apartment.”

There was a horrified snort-whine that you were pretty sure came out of Dick’s mouth in surprise.

Steph choked on a laugh. (At least you were pretty sure it was her.)

So if they were there, likely Jason and Tim were too.

“Are we done here?” you asked.

“The missing flight logs?”

You had to give props to Bruce for being unfailingly dedicated to his mission.

You pinched your brow. “Evidently, we didn’t want anyone to find out before we were ready to tell them. Yes, I took a Zeta tube to Gotham yesterday, yes, we stole the Bat-plane for a bit. We took it to my place.”

“The flight to DC is shorter than the deleted time. You wouldn’t have needed to delete that much time if you were just hiding your flight from Gotham to DC.”

You sighed. “No. But we … took our time. Hence the deleted footage.”

Silence. You wondered what Bruce was thinking. What everyone else was thinking.

You got your answer soon enough (at least, sort of).

“Don’t look at me like that, old man! My personal life is none of your business!” snapped Jason.

“Tim…”

“Why the fuck are you looking at him like that? Fuck you! I am a fantastic partner!”

“Polyamory does exist,” you added blandly. “I happen to be a practiser.”

“I am capable of making my own decisions, B,” Tim stated resolutely.

You wondered what kind of face Bruce was making when Tim added, “And if that includes dating two people then that’s my choice to make.”

“Fuck you, old man, give me my phone back, we’ve entertained you enough for the day.” You could hear Jason’s snappish voice get louder as he presumably stole his phone back.

“C’mon babe, let’s go.” You imagined Jason slinging an arm over Tim’s shoulders and politely forcing him out of the cave, not that Tim would necessarily fight him off, not to sell the lie.

“Have a nice day!” you called.

“See you later, sweetheart,” Jason said.

“Bye, love, talk later,” Tim said, and the line cut.

Well. You could certainly get used to them calling you pet names like that.

Tim and Jason showed up at your apartment a few hours later, presumably after they’d escaped all the prodding questions and interrogations from their family. You let them in.

“Faking a relationship to distract B? Bold move,” Tim said, taking his shoes off and walking further into your apartment.

“One that I respect, but also what the fuck,” Jason added, following him in.

You shrugged. “I needed something very distracting but believable.”

“Acquainted with the bed? Really?” Jason asked, spinning to look at you.

“What? It’s true! In a very unsexy way!” you defended. “We were cuddling in my bed for a fair amount of time. I’d say that’s getting very acquainted with it, not my fault most people would infer sexy times.”

Tim snorted. “I thought Bruce might have a heart attack for a bit when you said that.”

“Distracting. Like I was going for.”

“Fucking B and his judgemental looks,” Jason scoffed.

You snorted.

“We are going to have to actually fake a relationship for a bit. To make sure everyone believes it,” Tim said.

“I don’t mind,” you said. “I like you both. Sorry for springing it on you like that though.”

“’s fine, was a good idea,” Jason shrugged.

“It was. But now we have to sell it,” Tim said.

“After the shock of finding out is B really gonna believe it though?”

“You don’t think we can pull it off?”

Jason scowled and ran a hand through his hair, starting to pace. “We’re not that close-”

“Ouch.”

“No what I meant, bird brain, and you know it. Fuck, I tried to kill you. We don’t get along, we don’t hang out, no one’s gonna-”

“Not true.”

“Huh?”

“No, Tim’s right, we have been hanging out,” you said. “One, you and him are on much better terms. Two, I’m your friend so I’ve been hanging out at the Manor, so Tim and I have been hanging out more and we’ve become friends. So three, the three of us have been hanging out together. Four, well, Tim’s fallen asleep on me multiple times now and the three of us have ended up hanging out in silence or whatever. They could see that as … I dunno, bonding, feelings, et cetera. Anyways, all in all, we have been seen growing closer so it’s not too much of a leap (for the allos) to expect that they’d think we’ve … grown feelings for each other and started dating or whatever. And it’s not unsurprising that we kept our relationship a secret at the beginning either.”

“Besides, I don’t hate you,” Tim said. “I even had a crush on you when you were Robin.”

Jason was silent, emotions flitting across his face a mile a minute. “What?” Jason managed, looking as if Tim had dropped a bombshell on him. Maybe he had.

Tim blinked, not expecting that reaction from Jason. He shrugged. “Yah, I thought you knew.”

“How would I- Why would I- NO!” Jason exclaimed. “I did not know!”

Tim blinked again. “Oh.”

“I-” Jason cut himself off.

“Do you still?”

“What?”

“What?”

“Do you still,” you repeated. “Have a crush on him. I mean, his thighs in his Red Hood pants? His forearms? His whole Red Hood look? His whole Jason look? Damn. My aesthetic radars (ace-thetic, haha) are screaming. That is to say, Jason, that I like your face. And I think you’re beautiful. Also, you’re very important to me and I love you.”

“Oh.” Jason almost seemed flustered by your rant.

“So? Tim?” You turned your attention to him.

He didn’t answer but he was also staring intently at your floorboards. You noticed his hands tapping out code on his thighs and the tips of his ears darkening.

“Do you?” Jason asked this time.

“Do you? Tim retorted, looking up to stare Jason down.

Jason blinked, taken aback, and you see the tips of his ears start to blush.

“You do!” Tim crowed.

“No,” was Jason’s kneejerk reaction.

“No?” Tim had a gleam in his eye as he stalked closer.

You watched them amusedly.

Jason held his ground, glaring down at Tim in front of him.

Tim went up onto his tiptoes to breathe into Jason’s ear. “You sure?” His hands trailed over Jason’s chest.

Jason’s hands twitched.

You smiled, barely holding back a soft laugh, enjoying the show.

Quick as a flash, Jason reached down and scooped Tim up and threw him over his shoulder.

Tim squawked indignantly, immediately squirming and flailing and yelling.

Jason carried him to your room. “We’re going to get reacquainted with your bed,” he deadpanned.

You laughed, following behind, watching them affectionately.

Jason tossed Tim on top the bed and jumped on top of him but this time Tim rolled out of the way fast enough. They grappled for a few seconds, you stayed where you were, laughing at them all the while.

“C’mon, stop fighting and let me on,” you giggled.

They let up and soon enough you were all cuddled up in your bed again. Jason and you curled around Tim. (Making sure he wouldn’t get away this time.)

“I don’t hate you. I meant that,” Tim said softly.

“I know, baby bird.”

It was quiet another moment.

“I … don’t either.”

“I know.”

“I like you,” Jason whispered into the air. You couldn’t help but think he had his eyes closed, to hide himself from rejection.

Tim didn’t say anything for a moment and Jason immediately backtracked, “You don’t have to- I mean-”

“I like you too. Like, like like.”

Jason snorted. “Nerd.”

“Says the nerd who’s obsessed with Jane Austen,” Tim retaliated.

“You’re both Nerdy Birdies, ok? Now quiet and let me cuddle you in peace,” you mumbled into Tim’s hair.

“We’re all nerds,” Tim declared.

“Ok, Nerdy Birdy.”

“Oh fuck you!”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Jason shot back, jokingly.

“Love asexual sex jokes,” you mumbled.

Tim and Jason chuckled too. You smiled to yourself as you felt their chest rumble. This was very comfortable, you thought to yourself.

There was another silence. Peaceful though.

“Does this mean we’re dating for real now?” Tim asked.

“I guess,” Jason said.

“Ok,” you agreed, sleepily.

“Ok, cool.”

Jason snorted. “Who’d’a guessed that we’d turn from fake relationship to real relationship so fast?”

“Not fanfic authors, that’s for sure,” you joked. You all snickered at that.

"We'll get you a dick, don't worry," Jason said in his sleep heavy voice.

"Promise?" Tim murmured.

“Promise, now go to sleep, baby bird.”

“G’night, Jay, night, love.”

“G’night.”

-----

Your coworkers looked at you expectantly.

“C’mon, hot shot, what did you do all weekend?” Derek asked again.

You shrugged. “Nothing much.”

“Aww, come on, give us more than that,” Emily laughed.

“Give us details,” JJ urged.

“Nothing much to tell, just stayed at my apartment, chilled, hung out.”

“With who?” Derek immediately caught your slip.

“Were you with someone?” Emily teased.

“Uhh.”

“Come on, tell us,” JJ encouraged.

You covered your face in your hands and blew out a deep breath of air. “I may, or may not,” you started slowly, “have been with my … boyfriends.” You couldn’t help but smile when you said that. Boyfriends.

“Boyfriends?” Spencer echoed.

“Yes.”

“Cutie pie! Did you have fun?” Emily asked.

You huffed a laugh. “Yes, yes we did.”

“That’s nice, you sound happy,” JJ said, silently supporting you.

“I am.”

“You’ll have to introduce us sometime,” Derek added.

You laughed. “Maybe,” you agreed.

~~~

thanks for reading!! feel free to rb and leave nice comments <3

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

What are your thoughts on plausible explanations for dragon fire breath? Which style do you generally prefer and find the most compelling/likely? Aside from magic, the two chief explanations given is that dragons biological pyrotechnics is either caused by gas combustion or a chemical reaction.

I’ve never been a big fan of using flammable gas as an explanation of dragon fire, mainly due to just how impractical it is on numerous levels. The main problems being the immense quantity of flammable gas a dragons body would need to be capable of both producing and storing in the first place, and then needing to both pressurize and ignite that gas without it exploding or backfiring on the dragon. Plus the fact that flames produced by flammable gasses like hydrogen or acetylene don’t travel very far, making them poor fuel for flamethrower type weapons. (I have a copy of the Flight of Dragons by Peter Dickinson which popularized the concept, and to call the dragon biology presented in the book “intensely overly contrived and convoluted with a dash of immensely outdated paleontology” would be an understatement!)

Chemical ignition is by and large my favorite explanation for dragon fire aside from magical powers. Theirs a lot of highly volatile and flammable chemical compounds animal bodies already produce, it’s not hard to imagine a dragon evolving to weaponize those compounds. This chemical fire being much easier to produce, pressurize, store and control to be used as a weapon. One of the most realistic examples I can think of being the dragon centric spec-zoo project Draconology by Vickasroa, them going in depth about the bio-chemistry and evolutionary history of dragon fire breath and all the pros and cons it brings. (The TL:DR of it is that dragons fire breath is based on “nitro-lipids”, nitrogen inriched fat that’s combined with other chemicals like iron oxide/ hydrogen sulfide and acetione, that when shot into the open air rapidly oxidizes and ignites into a potent fire spitting attack).

Magical fire breath I feel like you can never go wrong with, as dragons are generally magical creatures and thus tend to have magical powers. I feel like it could also help tie the magic system into the world by explaining how dragons utilize it, assuming it’s a hard system and not a soft system. Like for instance dragons having ingrained knowledge of pyro kinetic spells they can access on instinct, or a dragon absorbing fire elemental power from the sun and shooting it out as fiery blast. The possibility literally are endless with the use of supernatural forces.

I think chemicals are the easiest and most versatile "realistic" explanation, as they can be stored in various sacs and explained by the dragon's diet.

magic is also a great explanation in this case, because as much as I love to insert realism into fantasy, sometimes you really do have to just say "this is a magic thing" and move on lol.

I liked the explanation in Dungeon Meshi, that the dragon has an extra "stomach" (or crop or gizzard), where all the indigestible parts of its meals are used as fuel for the flame breath.

[password-door-lock]

Four Seasons by Your Side: Conservatory

You can feel Saeran trembling with anticipation as he clutches your hand, and you can’t help the grin that makes its way across your face. “You’re really looking forward to this, huh?” 

“Very much so,” Saeran confirms. “Yes.” He’s got a professional-grade camera hanging around his neck, and it’s clear that he is prepared to take a copious amount of photos during this excursion. You know he’s going to have a fun time developing the pictures later this week. 

“I’m excited, too,” you confess. Not only is this a romantic date, but it will also surely be an incredibly interesting learning experience. 

When you heard that one of Jumin’s business associates owned a private conservatory, you were intrigued. When you told Saeran, his immediate reaction was to request the contact information for the aforementioned associate. Two weeks later, here you are, following the conservatory’s caretaker, who has been instructed to grant the pair of you exclusive access. 

“Mr. Lee said he modeled the original conservatory after the ones he’d seen in Europe and North America,” Saeran informs you in a low tone. Apparently, his great reverence for nature extends to the plants in this conservatory as well, even if they are living outside of their natural habitat. He was just the same way at the zoo last week. “But when he started making additions, he wanted to honor Korean architecture, so he paid a lot of attention to modern and historical buildings, along with other greenhouses that he saw around when he was planning the design.”

“Is Mr. Lee an architect?” You know very little about Jumin’s colleague, who is very quickly becoming Saeran’s friend. You make a mental note to invite him to the next RFA party, anyway.

“I don’t think so,” Saeran admits, “He says he runs a language education program, a few grocery stores, and a soup restaurant that he wants to expand into a national chain soon. But I should ask him who he worked with on the conservatory project.”

It’s clear that Saeran has been paying a lot of attention to the emails he’s received from his new friend. “Oh, those corporate conglomerates.” You shake your head. Even after all this time with the RFA, you’ll never get used to the insight you now have into the business world, by virtue of your connection with Jumin and Jaehee.

“I’ll be right here if you have any questions,” says the caretaker. “Otherwise, Mr. Lee wanted you to have free rein of the place.” 

“Thank you.” Saeran’s tone is respectful. “We’ll keep that in mind.” Last week, he had a lot of questions for the zookeepers about all the animals he met. The pair of you must have spent half an hour near the polar bear den hearing about the threats such animals face living in their natural habitat. You can imagine that Saeran will make good on the offer to speak with the caretaker at length. Then again, he knows very little about animals and quite a lot about plants, so the conversations might be more involved and harder for you to follow than the ones you got to listen in on last week. 

You and Saeran set foot in the first part of the conservatory and discover, to your delight, a beautiful bonsai tree by the entryway.

“Oh!” Saeran exclaims, withdrawing the camera with lightning speed. “This was made from an azalea bush,” he explains, as he sets up the perfect shot. Saeran is never one to waste film; he always makes sure that his pictures are set up precisely how he wants them. “It must have taken a long time to train it like this.”

“Really?” You can appreciate that the little tree, with its fantastic pink blossoms, is beautiful, but you aren’t informed enough to have a very strong idea about how it got that way. 

“Mhm,” Saeran steps back to admire the tree from a distance. “When I was little, I thought bonsai trees just grew that way naturally. I saw a picture in a magazine once at the cathedral… but it turns out that trees like this are the result of hard work and careful training. The gardener has to put in a lot of time and effort to make the plant look like this.” 

“That’s like most things in life,” you muse, “A lot of stuff seems easy, like jobs or hobbies or whatever. But then you learn more about it and you find out what a challenge it really is.”

“That’s true,” Saeran agrees, “But the challenge is what makes it sweeter when you finally succeed at trying something new.”

He drops the camera in favor of your hand, a sweet gesture, though you know that Saeran will find plenty of opportunities to take pictures throughout your visit. You can’t wait to see the beautiful scrapbook that you know he’ll make featuring the images he’s collected on this trip. “Should we go in?”

“Sure.” You follow Saeran into the greenhouse proper. Unlike his greenhouse at home, it has a high, round roof which lets in just the right amount of sunlight for the plants to thrive without ruining the magical effect. 

“Wow, ferns!” Saeran gushes, still in that gentle and respectful tone. “And horsetails! I’ve been wanting to add some of those to our greenhouse.” 

You fan yourself, grinning broadly as Saeran drops your hand once more to take photos. As much as you like to be touching him, you’re not possessive, and you’re happier to see him so obviously overjoyed. “It seems like they do well in similar conditions to ferns.”

“Mmm,” Saeran considers this. “So I would probably have to add another room onto the greenhouse and keep it more humid in there.” 

“Do you need your sketchbook?” You’ve been carrying Saeran’s art supplies in your bag along with your own to balance out the weight of the camera. Though he certainly loves taking photos, he’s also gotten into drawing lately, and you’d be happy to sit here in this beautiful place and sketch the plants you see.

“In a minute, please,” Saeran decides, “And thank you, my love. Now, I want to get some pictures of this moss.” He squats down on the beautifully tiled floor to get a better angle of his subject.

For your part, you settle onto a nearby bench, content to watch your husband at work. Maybe you’ll try sketching a portrait of him before you bother with the plants.

[catreginae]

okay i really really want to start reading your vampire wars thing because first of all, im OBSESSED with the concept, and second, it just seems cool as hell, but i’ve been unable to read recently so i haven’t had a chance to get to it. ITS ON MY LIST THO 🙌🙌🙌

BUT I STILL WANNA KNOW ABOUT HIM HE SEEMS SO COOL. I don’t wanna ask annoying questions cos I feel like most of the one’s I have are things you’ve probably already answered haha, BUT TELL ME ABOUT UR SPECIAL GUY. Is there anything in particular you just really really wanna talk about? Any little details you’re really proud of that you want people to notice? Can he turn into a particularly fluffy little bat? If so would bat Wars appreciate head pats? Is there a specific vampire lore that inspired this?

-crazylittlejester

Sorry this took so long! This is the first ask I got after asking for them but it's the last I got to!

I think people realized these things but I’m going to talk about them anyway!

Warriors has bad self-esteem. He’s super protective of the others. He has the ability to regenerate, so it’s hard to hurt him in a way that actually matters. He can pretty much bounce back from anything. Anyway, all three of these aspects of Warriors feed into each other. He doesn’t care about what happens to him because he can regenerate. The pain is worth it if the others are safe. He thinks keeping the others safe by taking the really bad hits is how he’s earning his keep in the group because he has a hard time accepting that they actually like him for who he is. The others are working on it!

This boy is a pacer. When he’s restless and antsy, or hopped up on blood, he just starts pacing. He cannot help it.

Warriors is actually the sleepiest in the chain and beats even Sky. I headcanon Sky with sleep apnea (because of projection) but Warriors ends up sleeping the most because being half-vampire is actually really hard on his body. I like it imagine that sleep is the glue that keeps his Hylian half and vampire half together to make one mostly functional person. This is why he can pretty much fall asleep immediately if he’s injured but also had some blood.

The fluffy bat thing is a plan but hasn’t happened yet. It’s not a vampire thing in this AU (it is a nod to it at least?) nor is it his shadow crystal form. It’s wizzrobe bullshittery that he actually saw some use in so he begged Lana for some way to have regular access to a bat form. It’s probably some sort of jewellery. I wrote a very small snippet about Four throwing a tiny bat Warriors into the air to help him figure out lift. Of course, he’s a vampire bat because they can run on the ground and I think that’s pretty neat. Go look up a zoo feeding them blood, they just run on the ground and take little sippies out of a bowl.

And finally, the inspiration for this AU is a movie from the 80s called The Lost Boys. It inspired his appearance a little bit (he’s got the same yellow and red eyes). Lore wise, some of the abilities made it over but I used a lot of different inspirations for this AU and of course, I had to try to remix it fit Zelda too. The Lost Boys is the first inspiration though because I was in that rabbit hole when I wrote the first chapter.

[allbeendonebefore]

hi hapo! just want to say thanks for all the work that you do, keeping the canadian personification side of the fandom alive. i live over 15,000 miles away from canada, but i fell in love with iamp and all its projects as a teen. 10 years later, my coursework on canadian politics and society has nominated me into a programme with a major canadian university.

if it's okay, i'd like to ask you how you deal with 'hobby burnout' when your interests align so closely with your study/work! canada's regional identities, history and politics are fascinating to me, but because of how i'm approaching academically, it saps some of the creative energy i have for my own province OC projects. even though it's important because of how inherently political personifications are, the weight of real historical and social issues sometimes bleeds into my projects more than i can handle.

thanks in advance!

[ catthatjustwokeup.jpg ]

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

wow thank you for this very thoughtful and flattering note and congratulations on DOING THE THING, that's wild! and hey if that major university is one i'm familiar with or have contacts in feel free to let me know so i can make recommendations on tasty treats and bookshops lol, but no pressure. (I am intending to stick close to academia for the foreseeable future, so it's nice to know what's going on across the country and across disciplines even when I'm not Formally Studying.)

uh well this is going to be long and rambling so i hope at least part of it makes sense and shout if there's anything I can clarify. The tongue in cheek short answer is "get a job at a university and get institutional access foreverrrrrrrr"

the hobby burn out is real for all the reasons you described and quite honestly i do what i've been doing since i was a kid who struggled making friends because i was Weird about my Interests in a way that I suspect may have been some flavour of neurodivergence that I continue to not investigate. That is, I have a handful of core interests that i cycle through and focus on when for whatever reason times get tough, it's kind of a juggling act that I will try to explain.

The Quick Fix

I think the fastest thing of Getting Away From It is having a few of those interests be Enduring, that is, the Simple Things from Childhood, if you can dust them off and get those feelings from them. While I realize going to post-secondary makes you full of Nuance and Ennui, or encountering shitty situations that ruin things for you over the course of your life is a big risk here, trying to find a grain of that you can build a pearl around is helpful. I still have been trying to beat the same Sonic games for 20+ years, I still like watching Empire Strikes Back or 1960s sitcoms when I'm feeling sick, and I still like going to the kinds of places that I loved going to as a kid like the zoo or museums to learn something from someone who's super passionate about a cool thing. It's just about making room for them and getting ready to catch them when they're coming up, which can sometimes seem impossible when you're deep into work or academia, but also necessary.

And it's also just about treating your child-self to something. I just think it's healthy once in a while to create something that would make your younger self excited or even want to be you. Take that kid with you once in a while, it's good for you both.

Personification Juggling

Within history/personifications generally, this usually results in a flip flopping between @athensandspartaadventures, which i had to quit working on and avoid during my first masters because thinking about "work" and school was so mentally draining that it ironically ended up becoming a bit of an IAMP renaissance for me, and likewise I have come back to AaSA after a long hiatus because I haven't been studying it formally since 2017, I finally got some time to read my accumulated pile of literature, and because [gestures at the current political situation].

The other thing I did within the 'fandom' (if thats what it is? i guess?) is I changed the granularity of what I was doing according to what I was thinking about at the time. For me this ultimately became @battle-of-alberta which I created primarily out of homesickness but also partially out of a retrospective need to process the "small town -> big city" transition that accompanied Becoming an Adult (tm). It occurred to me that I didn't JUST have to do either 1. Historically Brilliant Analyses With Punchlines or 2. Angry Vent Comics With Punchlines, I could also return to the sort of experiences of daily life that I was learning to notice and not just survive. I think of all the comics I do that I like doing comics about "taking the bus" or "minor annoying ways people behave in public" or "weird local news/memes" the best, even if it ultimately is very biased I think it can resonate with different people in different ways and I think the point of doing it is to get people to laugh and consider how these things do or don't match up with their own experience and to share that.

The Touch Grass Part

I think the above paragraph sort of segues nicely into "go outside, see thing that reminds you of blorbo, draw blorbo" advice, but what if you CAN'T draw blorbo???

Save your academic shit somewhere. Save those pdfs you don't have time to read, save those citations, save those quotes. Whether this is in like a physical bullet journal or a digital file or some combination, make sure you write down your sources and ideas so that 10 years after graduating you REMEMBER where to find That Thing you read on the left-hand side of some book that had a green cover. I cannot tell you how many times this has happened to me and I tear my hair out thinking "if only when I posted that stupid drawing and made that vague allusion I put a link or a citation in there so i knew what I was talking about!!" You're burned out now, sure, but some day some random anon is going to come and say hey you made an impact on my life, do you have any headcanons about blorbo and squimbus? and you'll be like FUCK!! I THINK SO!! BUT WHERE!? I try to tag these things now that a lot of things come up incidentally in my work work and I try to at least write down the date of the article for each of my newspaper screencaps and hope that I'll still be able to get along with the OCR/Proquest to find it again if I need to.

Make connections that enhance and outlast fandom. I cannot emphasize enough that this fandom is THE REASON that i have friends I can crash with from LITERAL COAST TO COAST (still working on that third coast). I have been so lucky to have hosts who are willing to share their local spots with me, and to have visitors I've been able to show around my home and adopted cities. It's just good for the soul to see things through someone else's eyes. I realize that travel is expensive and not always possible, so I encourage also both online and snail mail exchanges just to hear what is different and what is similar about places on this earth, and have fun exploring physically or virtually. You might be surprised.

Channel your inner anthropologist and get totally out of your depth on something, observe your observations. This kind of is related to the "go to the zoo" thing and also the "notice being an adult thing", but say yes to weird opportunities occasionally. Go see that play, learn how to make something, attend that highly specific conference of a profession you didn't realize HAD conferences (listen i got a free ticket to an event full of arborists last year and i was mostly there for the free food but i learned stuff about trees and bats that live in trees and people who plant trees and cut down trees and?? what a nice way to spend a summer afternoon compared to doomscrolling even though i spent a lot of it apologizing for not being there for any reason other than being a plus one.)

It sucks but sometimes you need to just quit cold turkey and let it simmer for a year or something. It sucks and it hurts but honestly sometimes you just need to put a moratorium on it because thinking about it puts you into the pits of despair, and that isn't healthy. Like, I used to listen to CBC radio every morning because it was a huge source of inspiration for me, and I had to stop for a long time because i was laying in bed grinding my teeth, so instead i switched to listening in the afternoon while i'm cooking. It's ok to put as much as you can stand of it aside, it'll still be there when you're physically and mentally able to notice the connections and appreciate them again. Combine with #2 and #3 for best results, sometimes you just need to get out of your own head and see things with different eyes, i.e. if the sociopolitical shit is getting you down try to change your routine or look at something else from another angle entirely. Learn something about the natural world, or the architectural world, or the urban planning world, just try to look for another door without carrying the baggage with you and see what you find behind it.

And kind of a spin-off of the above but trying to do a thing for a non-blorbo audience is also helpful. I'm currently working for two local history orgs and one of the things I'm doing is an illustrated article/comic that has nothing to do with my previous work, but is something my previous work prepared me to do. It's nice to do something for normies that build on all the things I did for school or for blorbs without exposing myself too badly, haha. Likewise, I have a dedicated sketchbook JUST for urban sketching so that I don't feel like dying 1000 deaths when a stranger sees me sketching, and it's something I can show people irl as a document of where i've been and what i noticed without worrying about them stumbling on my weird esoteric yaoi.

Finally, speaking of weird esoteric yaoi, just get comfortable doing bad stuff. Do the worst thing you think of. Maybe don't post it unless you think it will really resonate with people, haha, but get comfortable with being uncomfortable and making things you can't stand the sight of, or things that make you laugh because they are so stupid or so bad. Do self indulgent stuff but do it BADLY on PURPOSE. Don't take anything too seriously and don't worry about things being too niche and i swear to god do Not let the work that you do for yourself hinge on some arbitrary terminally online standard of success. People will always find a way to read things in bad faith or have wrong opinions or whatever, so allow yourself to get things wrong and to be cringe and to do things that won't make sense for your own sake, not theirs.

so. I don't know if this is completely comprehensive but I hope this is a start and gives you some ideas. The only other thing that I can add off the top of my head is that eventually, school ends. Whether it turns into work or it turns into something completely unexpected, it will end and even if it doesn't end when you think it will the experience will inevitably change. What works for me might not work for you now, but it might later, or it might work for somebody, I don't know, but nothing is permanent and that's ok.

I don't know you anon but if you or someone reading this is experiencing the joys and sorrows of Being In Your Twenties still, good luck to you and it does get better. It might feel like you are completely Baby and also Overburdened with Responsibility but trust me there are going to be times where you miss it, and where you realize "i know more than i thought i did" and "wait i can revisit that thing!" and it's actually a relief.

There are always going to be points where the work is a slog and you feel like an idiot and you feel like there is so much nuance you will never grasp, and that's fine. That's just the agony of being in the Conscious Incompetence quarter of the cycle, and eventually you will remember that you can do some pretty neat stuff when you reach other parts of that cycle. Nothing is permanent, including your understanding and your skill, and isn't it wonderful to be able to build on stuff you thought you knew and also learn stuff you didn't know you would?? wild. yeah

[ you watch me sit in silence for an hour wishing i could just manifest a gif of that poorly attempted mic drop from the 22 minutes skit about the last time you'll get to have to hear justin ]

[local-hellhound-steals-spaghetti]

I really appreciate when zoos actively stand up for themselves and their animals.

It's so bizarre how people like Helene O'Barry call themselves authorities on cetacean welfare and then say that orca habitats aren't "like the ocean."

Have you seen the ocean before? It's a desert when it comes to life. There's little pockets of life but you have to travel miles before you find them. The orcas that stick close to coast lines use rubbing beaches occasionally but those behaviours are pretty specific to ecotype and are learned. I'd argue that captive orcas use slide outs in very similar ways, plus having added advantage of getting an outside view.

I agree, more autonomous habitat design would be great. But it'll still never look like a chimp habitat or a lot of terrestrial zoo animal habitats. It'll be things like turning on and off sprayers or having surfaces to rub on that are safe for them to be with unsupervised. (pebble beaches in a tank could quickly become a disaster if one orca learns to eat the pebbles). Or schools of fish introduced into the habitat like SeaWorld is doing.

The ocean is very much a coming and going of different stimuli and challenges - tides, currents and finding food. But wild orcas that are well fed and thriving will focus the rest of their energy into social interaction and play.

Gating whales/dolphins into different pools with different social companions is enrichment, whether you agree that it's enough or not. You can also maximise social enrichment by giving whales the choice of who they want one to one time with or having all the gates for free social time (if it's safe to do so)

Yes, it's artificial but it is still enrichment. And social enrichment is a lot more valuable to whales and dolphins than some pretty rocks. Most of the time, rockwork is for guests. The dolphins I worked with in ocean lagoons often had environmental scrapes because they cut themselves on a rock or some coral because they were playing and got too close.

So we need to consider what elements of a habitat is enriching and what actually means something to our animals. Just because they're housed in sea pens, does not mean that they immediately get all their enrichment needs met.

In cases of dolphins I worked with in sea pens, there were still major welfare issues that were not fixed by ~being in the ocean~ or ~having a big area to swim~. They were caused by poor social management, a non-existent enrichment program, a stagnant training program and a general vibe of "this is how we always do it." They had coral, they had schools of fish, sea turtles, tides and currents ect. But I still saw some of the worst dolphin welfare cases I had ever seen there. And, in some cases, it was made even worse by free access to sharp rocks and coral.

There's no quick fix, there's no "perfect" solution to housing cetaceans. It's about assessing the individual needs of the dolphins/whales and meeting those needs. And habitat is only one piece of a very complex and constantly moving puzzle.