morgannalefey

[morgannalefey]

[morgannalefey]

protests in UTAH

[morgannalefey]

In case you aren’t familiar, Michael Scott Moore and David Rohde are both journalists. Moore was held by Somali pirates for 977 days. Rohde was held captive by the Taliban for 7 months after being abducted in Afghanistan.

[morgannalefey]

The NYT has finally put out an article about Elon Musk taking over the American government and I encourage you to read the whole thing, but I need to highlight this:

“At one point, Mr. Musk sought to sleep over in the White House residence. He sought and was granted an office in the West Wing but told people that it was too small.”

I just need to hand it to whichever writer is responsible for “sleep over.” They could’ve said “spend the night” and avoided connotations of puerile besties, but they didn’t. And I applaud that.

[morgannalefey]

𝐴 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 @aearyn

𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒅! 💐

[morgannalefey]

No, I am not 'hoarding craft supplies.' I am sourcing materials for a very big project that will be revealed to me at a later date- perhaps in a dream.

[morgannalefey]

Scientists have for the first time in 185 years confirmed the presence of the Asian small-clawed otter in Nepal, thrilling conservationists and researchers looking for clues to its existence here.

The last time the Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus), the smallest of the world’s 13 known otter species, was recorded by scientists in Nepal was in 1839.

“After years of speculation about its presence in Nepal, we can finally confirm that the small-clawed otter lives on in the country,” said Mohan Bikram Shrestha, the lead author of a short note published in the latest edition of the bulletin of the Otter Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority.

Although historically three species of otters are believed to occur in Nepal, modern researchers had until now only confirmed the presence of smooth-coated otters (Lutrogale perspicillata) and Eurasian otters (Lutra lutra), with a question mark hanging over the small-clawed otter. During that time, reports have come in, never confirmed until now, of small-clawed otter sightings in Makalu Barun National Park in Nepal’s eastern Himalayas and Kailali and Kapilvastu districts in the western plains...

“As it was found in a fragile and injured state, the forest officers decided to feed and nurse it, but they didn’t know which species it belonged to,” Shrestha. The forest officers, led by Rajeev Chaudhary, shared the images and video of the animal, known locally as saano owt, with the IUCN Otter Specialist Group. The members of the group then confirmed it to be a small-clawed otter.

The discovery comes after the species was confirmed for the first time in 2022 in the Darjeeling area of neighboring India, which shares a similar topography with eastern Nepal. “Following the discovery in Darjeeling, we had been keeping our eyes open for the species in eastern Nepal, but it showed up in the west,” Shrestha said.

There have also been reports of sightings of the animal in the eastern parts of the country, but none of them have been confirmed.

The Asian small-clawed otter is classified as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN Red List. Its range stretches from Indonesia in the east to Nepal in the west...

As for smooth-coated otters, although their presence in the country has never been in question, sightings of them still excite conservationists. This was especially the case in Chitwan National Park, where their reappearance in September 2023 after two decades spurred calls for more research.

“This is an incredibly significant finding,” Sanjan Thapa, deputy coordinator of the Otter Specialist Group’s Himalayan region, said of the latest development. “We had long suspected that the Asian small-clawed otter might still survive in Nepal, but without concrete evidence, its status remained uncertain.”

Thapa, part of the team that confirmed the 2023 sighting of the smooth-coated otter in Chitwan, said researchers tend to feel a bit edgy about a species when it hasn’t been reported for more than 50 years.

“We had received suggestions that we remove the small-clawed otter from the Nepal otter list as it hadn’t been found for a long time,” he said. “However, we decided not to do so in the hope that it would be rediscovered sooner or later.”

The discovery adds to the challenge of saving Nepal’s otters as the country prepares to finalize and implement an action plan for otters, Thapa said. “Now that we have concrete proof that the small-clawed otter is also found in Nepal, we need to incorporate it in our policies and programs,” he said.

Both Eurasian and smooth-coated otters are protected under the country’s Aquatic Animal Protection Act. The newly rediscovered species, however, isn’t on the list. “The first step would be to add the species to the list,” Thapa said."

-via Mongabay, February 5, 2025

[morgannalefey]

This flagrant disregard for proper procedures jeopardizes the integrity of government functions and public trust. Immediate steps must be taken to revoke any access Musk or his affiliates have obtained and reinstate full control to the career civil servants intended to operate these systems. Unelected private citizens should never be permitted to exert undue influence over core government operations in this manner.

[morgannalefey]

[morgannalefey]

[morgannalefey]

just overheard a little girl ask her father if I am a boy or a girl and all he said was “some people have bodies”

[morgannalefey]

cleaning along desire paths

[morgannalefey]

Something unnerving to consider

...But better to know about it than not to.

Just a general reminder that increasingly it's going to be smart to watch what you discuss, in what venue.

[morgannalefey]

[morgannalefey]

[morgannalefey]