Everything that makes my inner magpie scream or make appreciative sounds
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Hi, there's a really good chance I'm imagining things, but isn't there a name/term for when we latch onto "cute"/marketable endangered species and that gives incentive to protect their habitat as well? Like when keeping one animal alive allows for the argument to be made to keep a different "uglier" animal alive, or put resources into protecting a plant species? I could swear there's a name for this but I can't find anything so I could also just be mixing it up with something
The term you're looking for is "Charismatic Megafauna" or and it works in two directions:
People are more likely to identify with a large mammal than say, an ecologically vital insect or slime mold, especially if it's something regarded as "cute" like Pandas or Orcas or Elephants. People give more of a shit about the enviornment and do what you ask if they give a shit about the animal in question.
Picking a Keystone Species at the Very Tippy Top of the food chain (Apex predators like Tigers and Orca), or that needs VAST amounts of space kept pristine (Pandas, Elephants) means that you also have to preserve THE ENTIRE FUCKING FOOD CHAIN UNDERNEATH IT, and by extension, the habitat all them critters live in. So signing a law to protect Penguins protects not just their land nesting sites but the ocean they hunt in and the fish they eat and this protects vastly more species than protecting The-Actually-Load-Bearing-Deep-Sea-Sponges would.
So if you were ever wondering "How come there's all these fundraisers for cute things like giraffes and gorillas? Where's the love for the ugly little guys like freshwater clams and earthworms?" the answer is "RIGHT BEHIND the big sexy poster animal. We sneak them in like hiding your dog's pills in cheese."
#lol#yeah#flagship species#keystone species#charismatic megafauna#conservation#ecology#environment#food chains#one for all#or something
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I'm trying to make a good pot roast in my crockpot, but after I take it out it gets dry. It's on "low" (whatever that means) for 8 hours. I've tried searing it before and still dry. It's submerged in plain water with some herbs and spices for that time. Am I over/undercooking it? It's a cut with low fat %, is that why?
I love you. I think you learned how to make pot roast from someone on Opposite Day, or perhaps April 1st. The only thing you got right is 'low heat for 8 hours'.
Choose a fatty cut of tough meat. Look for lots of fat marbling on a Chuck roast or Shoulder roast. Tough meat has a ton of flavor, and the fat keeps the meat from drying out. The long cook time on low heat, plus acids will make 'tough' meat into a pull-apart, melt-in-your-mouth glory.
Make sure the meat is completely thawed, NOT frozen.
Plain water and nothing else except herbs/spices is.... not what I'd do. A lot of flavor can come into the broth when you add whole carrots (minus the carrot top!) and quartered onions in there. I'm a fan of adding some big chunks of pumpkin or butternut squash and chunks of turnip as well.
I think using red wine for part of the liquid base, and adding a hearty helping of worcestershire sauce will also help the flavor and making the meat 'melty.' The acid and alcohol will draw more, and different flavors from the meat and vegetables that water alone cannot do. Makes it richer.
For my very best pot roast recipe, which had my wedding guests fuckin' clamoring to get the recipe; I cheat. I'm not ashamed of that fact. For the richest, most face-punchingly meaty tasting broth, go to an asian market (or online) and find a mushroom hot pot soup base. It'll be a thick liquid inside a bag, which you then dilute with water. Use THAT as the liquid base (remember to dilute it!), and add your wine and wocestershire sauce to it, along with those herbs & spices. Your whole face will be blown off with flavor. It's the best.
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Pats him between his cute lil' ears.
Hyaenodon portrait
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Paint me an absence, a silhouette of rain
When others take shelter, I take on shape
This invisible life in negative space
Shortens the fall that water must make
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1.5 hours of pain in Rennes, France
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the birdkeepers daughter
prints available here
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few things more humbling than the realization that you really do write the same fic(s) over and over again
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oh ok
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Weibo
CW: blood splatters?
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I just got described as an "ad hating commie" by someone because I said a minute of youtube ads is unpleasant. fully spent 5 minutes arguing and defending youtube ads. insane stuff
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x
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The creature who fell in love with the light
[Watercolor and gouache, based on ‘The Fog Horn’ by Ray Bradbury]
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