sunjinjo

[sunjinjo]

[sunjinjo]

*does a sick air guitar solo that drains your life force*

[sunjinjo]

my cat hates taking his pills. the only way we can get him to eat them is to turn it into an elaborate pantomime - we take the packet out of the cupboard slowly and hold it up, saying “oh!! what’s this? what’s this? a TREAT? a TREAT for louis????” while making surprised faces. we offer him a pill… then, before he has a chance to sniff it, we wag our fingers at him and replace it in the packet so it becomes a Tantalising Forbidden Mystery. we continue doing this until he’s so confused and excited that he will eat the pill as fast as possible, just so he can find out what it is before we can take it away from him again. as soon as he’s eaten it he looks utterly disappointed and betrayed, like a child who just ate a delicious sweet only to find it was a chocolate-coated brussels sprout. it never gets old

[sunjinjo]

There’s this guy in town who owns this little house, and a while back he rescued a street dog that was going to get put down. Turned out she was pregnant.

Problem is, he has mental health & drug issues and couldn’t afford to get them all spayed & neutered, so now there are 6 grown bitches with 15 puppies total, and they’ve dug under his fence in multiple places but he can’t afford to fix it so they go roaming all around town. (When I say can’t afford it, I mean his house is currently running on a generator because he can’t afford his electric bill.) He’s also a day laborer so he cannot take multiple full days off work to take them to the vet an hour away. He’s in a really rough spot.

He’s not a bad person. He’s just overwhelmed.

And this little conservative town with 6 churches for 300 people, have they tried to help their neighbor? Have they adopted the puppies he’s been trying to give away? Have they offered resources?

NOPE! All they wanna do is talk shit about him and complain about the dogs but never lift a finger of their own. And they come to his house to yell at him and cuss him out about the dogs, which does not exactly engender in him a cooperative attitude, as you might imagine.

So after a while of this going on, my mom gets fed up with all the NIMBY bullshit and starts talking to the guy, because she’s done animal rescue for 20-odd years and has Connections. He’s resistant at first, but when he realizes she’s not being an asshole to him on account of his addiction or the dogs, he decides to let her help.

She gets to work organizing and networking. Finds a non-profit that will cover vaccinations, spay/neuter, and flea treatments for all the dogs. Talks the next-door neighbor into paying for materials to fix the fence, since this guy can do the work of it himself. Gets him in touch with another non-profit that will adopt out the adult dogs.

Less than 2 weeks after she decided to do something, all puppies have been to the vet, 10 puppies and 4 adult dogs have been adopted out, and the second non-profit is coming by next week to pick up the remaining 7 dogs to ship them out for adoption.

I’ve learned a lot of things from my mom—some good, some bad—but I think the most important positive message she lives as an example of is this: sometimes, when something needs done and no one else is willing, you gotta stand up and say “I’ll do it.”

[sunjinjo]

𝑳𝑬𝑻 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹 𝑭𝑳𝑨𝑴𝑬 𝑩𝑼𝑹𝑵 𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑮𝑯𝑻𝑬𝑹 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[sunjinjo]

Luigi Mangione's lawyer is SO good

like, she didn't miss a beat in the arraignment, calling out the police, the perp walk, the mayor...

I hope this trial is televised tbh. i will not miss a second of it if it is

ETA: ANNNNDDD calling out the mayor for not using the word "alleged".. YES!

I get SOO annoyed whenever people complain about the media using the word "alleged", especially when there is video footage of the crime happening... people complain that it's some sort of media bias, and not like... straight up a VIOLATION OF A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT if they don't say "alleged"

The presumption of innocence is a right. Luigi's rights have been violated repeatedly in this regard.

And possibly also his right to a fair trial, since they are creating SO MUCH bias against him

[sunjinjo]

Brenthia Moths: these moths can mimic the appearance and mannerisms of a jumping spider so convincingly that actual jumping spiders will sometimes attempt to court them

The markings, posture, and movements of a Brenthia moth (genus Brenthia, also known as a metalmark moth) all contribute to its disguise; the moths move around in short, jerky motions that mimic the movements of a jumping spider, and their hindwings are covered in black-and-white bands that strongly resemble the tucked-in legs of a salticiid spider, especially when the moth displays its unique wing position. The disguise serves as a defensive strategy, enabling the moth to avoid being preyed upon by actual jumping spiders.

In some cases, that disguise may work a little too well, as jumping spiders may actually mistake the moth for a potential mate and then attempt to engage it in a courtship/mating dance (which must be a pretty awkward and bizarre experience for the moth, tbh).

The resemblance between a Brenthia moth and a jumping spider may not seem terribly convincing to us, as human beings, but as this article explains:

When discussing animals mimicking their predator, it is important to remember that we humans are not the target audience. This means that the imitator may not look too convincing in its mimicry to us, but still manages to trigger a desired response from said predator.

Jumping spiders have also been known to respond to Brenthia moths by exhibiting a territorial display, which is yet another behavior that the spiders generally reserve for other spiders.

This study expands on the adaptive benefits of the moth's disguise:

In controlled trials, Brenthia had higher survival rates than other similarly sized moths in the presence of jumping spiders and jumping spiders responded to Brenthia with territorial displays, indicating that Brenthia were sometimes mistaken for jumping spiders, and not recognized as prey.

The illustration below shows the basic/general resemblance between a Brenthia moth and a jumping spider:

Sources & More Info:

New Scientist: Moth's Disguise is so Good, Spiders Love it Instead of Eating it

Animal Behaviour: Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

Science: This Moth Could Pass for a Spider

PLOS ONE Journal: Metalmark Moths Mimic their Jumping Spider Predators

Gil Wizen: Jumping Spider Mimicry in Brenthia Moths

Moths of North Carolina: Brenthia pavonacella

[sunjinjo]

[sunjinjo]

Run your own race

[sunjinjo]

Don’t make me put your ass in the sealbarrow

[sunjinjo]

[sunjinjo]

He was as tall as he was tall, and his eyes were the color they were. To describe his hair one would say that he had some. His face had all the features you'd expect, and none of the ones you wouldn't. "There he is," people would often say of him, but only when he was there. And they were right.

[sunjinjo]

When you kill a healthcare ceo, it’s terrorism. When someone shoots your kid in elementary school, it’s thoughts and prayers for like a week and then they move on. It truly shows the fact that terrorism is whatever the american government wants it to mean.

[sunjinjo]

he’s at it again

[sunjinjo]

Plush Pillbugs by NAT in silver and gold

[sunjinjo]

wow i had no idea that spiders were so, so, so much less deadly than we are led to believe! thank you for informing us (and staying calm in that whole thing) :)

Yeah it just goes around matter-of-factly all the time that some spiders will kill you for sure, when typically you just need antibiotics for the bite wound itself (because bacteria love to get into small, agitated wounds) and in the case of a black widow, strong painkillers. Some people are even totally asymptomatic but for a lot of people it feels like "getting hit by a truck" for about a day. Fortunately widows are super reluctant to bite even when they're being mishandled!

Researchers used rubber fingers to gently grasp and squeeze black widows and it was very very difficult to get them to bite on purpose. Squeezing could force the fangs into the skin and force venom out in some cases, but the widows basically tried to squirm away or use "dry" (venomless) bites to escape, because venom is for their food, not for defense!

I also forgot to mention "hobo spiders," which are cited all the time as a hazardous one, but more recent studies found that their bite is completely mild in humans

[sunjinjo]

Chapter 6: The Fruit of Reason’s Culmination

Nahida gathers all that she's learned, and takes on the next challenge.

Nahida closed her mouth, thinking it over. “Hmm. It’s not entirely compassion,” she conceded. “It’s a desire to show him the extent of exactly what he did, too – and it’s for the sake of my own curiosity as well. I’ve… grown curious to find out the extent of my own abilities, and find myself eager to take on a new challenge… is that terrible of me?” Her curiosity did get in the way of her empathy. She could imagine it was unnerving to some, insulting to others…

It is FINISHED ahh it's so good to close off a WIP! :D ...There is the minor fact of two more works being very much planned, though... XD