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196.

With a very vague reference to 191.

Soren jokes because it's how he deals with things. It's how he's always dealt with things, and things in his life have not been easy. His mother left and he became a clown for Claudia. His father treated him poorly and he used humour to pretend it was okay. Queen Zubeia went missing once, and he spent the entire search being an idiot and annoying Corvus to keep things light.

Things have been bad before. They've been downright horrible before, and he's pulled through, and pulled others through by being ridiculous and stupid and funny.

It's pretty hard to imagine worse than this, though.

It's only been a couple of days since the attack on the castle. He and the other soldiers have moved the surviving civilians from the temples to the Banther Lodge where they'll stay until they can sort something else out, and in the distance, the ruins are still smouldering, still a grim reminder of dragon fire and destruction and death. Soren's gone back a few times already to look for more survivors, to help dig bodies out of the rubble, to salvage what little they can and it hasn't gotten easier. He can't imagine that it will.

And then Callum and Rayla had come back with—

He shakes his head. He's already had to speak to Opeli about this because she'd been furious about it, and Soren had tried to understand Callum and Rayla's perspective, he really had, especially considering that he's just lost his own dad, however complicated and messy all that was in the first place, but this? This is different.

This feels like an insult.

This is rubbing salt in an already festering wound.

The Kingslayer sits at their table and Soren can't help but be bitter about it, especially when a Skywing elf by the name of Astrid arrives to deliver more bad news.

Of course he turns to humour. Of course he makes jokes. Of course he's an idiot to defuse the tension that stretches over the dinner table, taut as bowstring and ready to snap. And of course—

"Do you think you can stop being an idiot for, like, a second?"

Soren turns to Callum, his jaw tight. "Excuse me."

Callum scowls back. "All this and Aaravos is out anyway. The castle's gone. People have died. And you're, what, making jokes? Seriously?"

Soren snaps back before he can stop himself. "Sorry," he drawls. "Are we supposed to be as angsty about this as you?"

"You can get your priorities straight at a minimum—"

"Priorities!" Soren actually laughs. "We're gonna talk about priorities? Okay. Where the fuck were you when all this happened, huh? What were you doing while I was here dealing with a dragon attack on our home?"

Callum has the audacity to snarl. "I was helping Rayla—"

"Bring back the elf that murdered your step-dad and who would have murdered Ezran too, right? Because we all know how you sort your priorities."

Silence falls over the table. Callum snaps his mouth shut. Rayla has the decency to flush.

Soren pushes his seat back and gets up. "Sorry for trying to keep everyone together," he says acidly. "Some of us have different priorities to you."

He stalks away. One by one, the others do too. For once, there is nothing to say and no joke to make it better.

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Cobra Kai...Still isn't over

God DAMN what a cliffhanger though.

Gotta appreciate how the writers realized that "Oh shit, we have way too many conflicts in this massive soap-opera to resolve within a tournament structure. Let's just have a massive brawl instead.

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They're cute

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Have you watched the new Arcane episodes?

my first "oh FUCK yeah" happened during the opening credits when I noticed Ekko's two shadows were moving like the hands on a clock and that momentum carried for basically the whole rest of the viewing experience

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Why do people keep watching a show that was created to whitewash the reputation of a company undergoing lawsuits over discrimination and sexual harassment?

I don't mean to be dismissive, but if Riot's intent was laundering its reputation, there are far more efficient ways to do that than overseeing an independent animation studio spending ten years and 250 million dollars painstakingly crafting an animated work of art that has so little in common with Riot's actual property that everyone actively warns new viewers away from in any way engaging with League of Legends

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When you hate your friend’s new friend.

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Oh Jinx

Giving someone a nice gift that also also plays your own theme song is such a Jinx thing to do.

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"Once thought to be extinct, black-footed ferrets are the only ferret native to North America, and are making a comeback, thanks to the tireless efforts of conservationists.

Captive breeding, habitat restoration, and wildlife reintegration have all played a major role in bringing populations into the hundreds after near total extinction.

But one other key development has been genetic cloning.

In April [2024], the United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced the cloning of two black-footed ferrets from preserved tissue samples, the second and third ferret clones in history, following the birth of the first clone in December 2020. 

Cloning is a tactic to preserve the health of species, as all living black-footed ferrets come from just seven wild-caught descendants.  This means their genetic diversity is extremely limited and opens them up to greater risks of disease and genetic abnormalities. 

Now, a new breakthrough has been made.

Antonia, a black-footed ferret cloned from the DNA of a ferret that lived in the 1980s has successfully birthed two healthy kits of her own: Sibert and Red Cloud.

These babies mark the first successful live births from a cloned endangered species — and is a milestone for the country’s ferret recovery program.

The kits are now three months old, and mother Antonia is helping to raise them — and expand their gene pool.

In fact, Antonia’s offspring have three times the genetic diversity of any other living ferrets that have come from the original seven ancestors.

Researchers believe that expanded genetic diversity could help grow the ferrets’ population and help prime them to recover from ongoing diseases that have been massively detrimental to the species, including sylvatic plague and canine distemper. 

“The successful breeding and subsequent birth of Antonia's kits marks a major milestone in endangered species conservation,” said Paul Marinari, senior curator at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. 

“The many partners in the Black-footed Ferret Recovery Program continue their innovative and inspirational efforts to save this species and be a model for other conservation programs across the globe.”

Antonia actually gave birth to three kits, after mating with Urchin, a 3-year-old male ferret. One of the three kits passed away shortly after birth, but one male and one female are in good health and meeting developmental milestones, according to the Smithsonian.

Mom and babies will remain at the facility for further research, with no plans to release them into the wild.

According to the Colorado Sun, another cloned ferret, Noreen, is also a potential mom in the cloning-breeding program. The original cloned ferret, Elizabeth Ann, is doing well at the recovery program in Colorado, but does not have the capabilities to breed. 

Antonia, who was cloned using the DNA of a black-footed ferret named Willa, has now solidified Willa’s place as the eighth founding ancestor of all current living ferrets.

“By doing this, we’ve actually added an eighth founder,” said Tina Jackson, black-footed ferret recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in an interview with the Colorado Sun. 

“And in some ways that may not sound like a lot, but in this genetic world, that is huge.”

Along with the USFWS and Smithsonian, conservation organization Revive & Restore has also enabled the use of biotechnologies in conservation practice. Co-founder and executive director Ryan Phelan is thrilled to welcome these two new kits to the black-footed ferret family.

“For the first time, we can definitively say that cloning contributed meaningful genetic variation back into a breeding population,” he said in a statement.

“As these kits move forward in the breeding program, the impact of this work will multiply, building a more robust and resilient population over time.”"

-via GoodGoodGood, November 4, 2024

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Breaking news:

New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and California state AG’s are already stating they will REFUSE any Trump effort to do mass deportations, attacks on reproductive rights, or attacks on LGBTQ+ rights.

These states will not allow him to enact any harmful legislation without a fight. Other blue run states are expected to join them.

Sources:

New York: https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2024/attorney-general-james-and-governor-hochul-commit-protecting-fundamental

Illinois: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/11/07/gov-jb-pritzker-has-warning-for-donald-trump-you-come-for-my-people-you-come-through-me/

Massachusetts: https://www.latintimes.com/massachusetts-governor-vows-refuse-trump-request-help-mass-deportations-absolutely-not-565052

California:

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rb to give the previous person a fucking break because life aint life-ing the way its supposed to life and it fucking sucks.

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hey this week is monumentally awful so you should reblog and tell me in ur tags if ur pets like being picked up or not for me

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Get there.

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babylon 5 season 2 episode 20: the long, twilight struggle

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I haven’t really seen any of the more recent U.S. election news hitting tumblr yet so here’s some updates:

There’s evidence of Trump cheating and interfering with the election.

Possible Russian interference.

Mail-in ballots are not being counted or “recognized” in multiple (notably swing) states.

30+ bomb threats were called in and shut down polling stations on Election Day.

20+ million votes are still unaccounted for, and that’s just to have the same voter turnout as 2020.

There was record voter turnout and new/first-time voter registration this year. We definitely should be well over the turnout in 2020.

U.S. citizens are using this site to demand, not only a recount, but a complete investigation into election fraud and interference for the reasons stated above:

Here is what I submitted as an example:

An investigation for election interference and fraud is required. We desperately need a recount or even a revote. The American people deserve the right to a free and fair election. There has been evidence unveiled of Trump cheating and committing election fraud which is illegal. There is some evidence of possible Russian interference. At least 30+ bomb threats were called in to polling places. Multiple, notably swing states, have ballots unaccounted for and voting machines not registering votes. Ballots and ballot boxes were tampered with and burned. Over 20 million votes that we know of are unaccounted for. With record turnout and new voter registration this year, there should be no possibility that there are less votes than even in the 2020 election.

[ID:

A screenshot with a link and information for contacting the White House directly regarding election fraud. The instructions include choosing to leave a comment to President Joe Biden directly and to select election security as the reason.

The screenshot then instructs people to include any or all of the following information in a paragraph as a comment to the president:

32 fake bomb threats were called into Democratic leaning poll places, rendering polling places closed for at least an hour.

A lot of people reporting their ballots were not counted for various reasons.

This all occurred in swing states.

This is too coincidental that these things happen and swing in his favor after months of hinting at foul play.

Directly state that an investigation for tampering, interference, fraud is required, not just a recount.

/end ID]

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Unfortunately evergreen