quark-nova

[quark-nova]

The real secret to being an effective activist isn't to hate yourself. It's learning to love and cherish everyone. You must learn to appreciate everyone's humanity, to make yourself able to see their potential and their inherent deservingness, and to value their perspectives and their feelings. You must learn how to lift up the marginalized, not put yourself down.

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"Manifest Destiny" was literally, explicitly, the inspiration for Hitler's Lebensraum ideology and for Generalplan Ost, the Nazi colonization plan for Eastern Europe.

Snyder, Timothy (8 March 2017). "Hitler's American Dream: Adapted from Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning". Slate.com

Westermann, Edward (2016). Hitler's Ostkrieg and the Indian wars : comparing genocide and conquest. Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

I am begging people who still say “Manifest Destiny” for any reason to understand that it means, very literally and without exaggeration, “White Power”

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thank you Canada 🇨🇦

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today's bird is this potoo (Nyctibius griseus) in his weighing container

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everyone loves sturgeons

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the conclusion of the paper is even more interesting, apparently it's not deliberate punishment but having a risk factor involved makes humans believe it might be punishment, and thus more careful about giving beeswax to honeyguides, so it still works out in the end

co-evolution of mutualism is honestly so fascinating

[To Bees or Not to Bees: Greater Honeyguides Sometimes Guide Humans to Animals Other Than Bees, but Likely Not as Punishment]

Lloyd-Jones et al. (2025)

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when the stereotype is simultaneously "trans men always pick basic names" and "trans men pick weird names to be unique", you can tell it's really just transphobia looking for an excuse.

Lot to unpack here but im ignoring that for a minute. Has op never been to high school. These are some of the most popular names in US, hell the entire world. You think CLYDE and ELIJAH are "uncommon" what fucking alternate reality did you fucking jump from.

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Nautilus expedition live streams (+ their commentary) | 2024

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Hummingbirds Living in a Hive Found for the First Time

In a remote mountain cave in Ecuador, hummingbirds were discovered sleeping and nesting together.

By Rachel Nuwer

Published Feb. 14, 2025Updated Feb. 17, 2025

Hummingbirds are tiny and delicate, but don’t be fooled: They are among the most aggressive birds in the avian kingdom. Their territorial fury is especially aimed at other hummingbirds. Competition over a patch of flowers or a mate often results in high-speed aerial chases, divebombing and beak jousting.

So when Gustavo Cañas-Valle, an ornithologist and birding guide, stumbled across a cave full of hummingbirds nesting and roosting together in Ecuador’s High Andes, he could hardly believe it.

“I thought, ‘This looks like a colony,’” Mr. Cañas-Valle said. He added, “They were like bees.”

He documented 23 adult birds and four chicks, all of the subspecies Oreotrochilus chimborazo chimborazo, commonly known as the Chimborazo hillstar.

Mr. Cañas-Valle’s discovery, described in the journal Ornithology in November, may be the first documented example of hummingbirds that nested and roosted communally. It is also notable that he found the birds engaging in both these behaviors in the same space — something that even highly social species from other bird families tend not to do.

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#why did no one tell me there was a dino skelly named sobek before today

Meanwhile the clade Sebecosuchia (terrestrial crocodile relatives that outlasted the dinosaurs) literally translates to "Sobek Sobek"

IT’S MY FAVORITE LITTLE GUY!!!! <3

Sobek the Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus at the Field Museum in Chicago.

August 8, 2023

taken on iPhone 14 Pro

(edit: oKAY WOW THANK YOU GUYS! Glad to see fellow Sobek lovers. Also I did not know his name was Sobek but I am so happy to have found out and thus have added his name <3)

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stages of the skitten

(some notes under the cut)

week 1

- just an 'itty', according to experts

- blind, deaf, and immobile; some can roll

- tail is just a nub

week 2

- eyes and ears open

- can crawl

- starting to mew

week 3

- strong enough to toddle and get lost

- whiskers are visible

- may become more vocal

week 4

- should be walking steadily

- ready to play and cause mischief

- tail tuft has finished growing

- last stage to be considered 'itty'

week 5

- can eat wet food

- slimmer part of tail is developing along with fronds

- whiskers have grown 'petals' at ends

- should exhibit all lv1 moves by now

- has discovered full vocal range

week 6

- tail grows longer, tuft shows longer fronds and petals start to show

- purple patches should start showing up on back

week 7

- fully grown physically

- will start 'filling out' slightly

- tail has reached full length

- tuff base has turned purple

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Turdus aficionados of Costa Rica please know I love your national bird but this is objectively hilarious

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Hi anyway it's my birthday today and I'll do more of a photodump tomorrow probably but today I saw my second wild nudibranch EVER IN MY LIFE and the last one was back when I was in high school so I'd say that's about the best birthday present I could ask for

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parallel play (liking and reblogging your mutual's posts but not talking to them)

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Tell them the air is halal too