#Male Atoll

[newsepick]

Kuda Villingili Resort Maldives gets recognised by Conde Nast Traveller's Readers' Choice Awards

Kuda Villingili Resort Maldives has been ranked eighth among the top 20 resorts in the Indian Ocean by Conde Nast Traveller's 2024 Readers' Choice Awards, just three years after its opening. The award recognizes the resort's exceptional hospitality and service, underscoring its commitment to luxury travel experiences. Commercial Director Amjad Thaufeeg expressed pride in this recognition, highlighting the dedication of the staff and owners to enhancing offerings. Located in North Male Atoll, the resort features 75 villas, the largest pool in the Maldives, and a variety of dining and recreational facilities. https://app.newsepick.com/details/kuda-villingili-resort-maldives-gets-recognised-by-conde-nast-travellers-readers-choice-awards

[lesbianlovewonderland]

Sea Swing, South Male’ Atoll, Maldives

[arsleprosa]

Sea Swing, South Male’ Atoll, Maldives

[travelella]

Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi (5 Star Hotel),  Ithaafushi Island, Atoll Male, Maldives

Taken by Masroor Ahmed

[new-wave-girl]

Sea Swing, South Male’ Atoll, Maldives

[roipendragon]

Sea Swing, South Male’ Atoll, Maldives

[reise-buchen]

Kaafu (Malediven)

Der Kaafu-Atoll, auch bekannt als Male-Atoll, ist ein unvergessliches Urlaubsziel auf den Malediven. Er ist bekannt für seine atemberaubende Schönheit, kristallklarem Wasser und den strahlend weißen Sandstränden. Der Atoll ist ein Paradies für Wassersportliebhaber, mit erstklassigen Tauch- und Schnorchelplätzen, prächtigen Korallenriffen und einer reichen Meeresvielfalt. Die luxuriösen Resorts…

[kuboobs]

Sea Swing, South Male’ Atoll, Maldives

[herpsandbirds]

Chanced upon your blog and it’s very rad! Can I ask for some birds from the South Pacific?

Thank you very much. Here you go... First, lets start in Fiji:

Golden Fruit Doves (Ptilinopus luteovirens), T - female and B - male, family Columbidae, order Columbiformes, endemic to Fiji

photographs by JJ Harrison 

Collared Lory (Vini solitaria), family Psittaculidae, order Psittaciformes, endemic to Fiji

photograph by JJ Harrison 

Orange Dove (Ptilinopus victor), male, family Columbidae, order Columbiformes, endemic to Fiji

photograph by Chris Wiley

Fiji Parrotfinch (Erythrura pealii), family Estrildidae, endemic to Fiji

photograph by Keith Barnes

Maroon Shining Parrot (Prosopeia tabuensis), family Psittaculidae, order Psittaciformes, endemic to Fiji

photograph by Lars Peteersson

Ultramarine Lorikeets (Vini ultramarina), family Psittaculidae, endemic to the Marquesas Islands (South Pacific)

ENDANGERED.

photograph by peterodekerken

Red-bellied Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus greyi), family Colmbidae, order Columbiformes, found in New Caledonia, Santa Cruz Islands (Solomons), and Vanuatu

photograph by Paul Maury

Yellow-bibbed Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus solomonensis), family Columbidae, order Columbiformes, found in the Solomon and Bismark Islands

photograph by Mathieu Bally

Makalena aka Short-tailed Albatross (Phoebastria albatrus), parent with chicks, family Diomedeidae, order Procellariiformes, Midway Atoll

photograph by Jlfutari 

[hopefulkidshark]

Maldives islands: The Maldives is a country and archipelagic state in South Asia in the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is named after the main island and capital of Male. The word "Maldives" means "the islands (dives) of Male". The name may derive from the Sanskrit word "maladvipa" meaning "garland of islands". Dhivehi Raajje in Dhivehi means "Kingdom of the Dhivehi people". The Maldives is southwest of Sri Lanka and India. The Maldives' chain of 26 atolls stretches across the equator from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to Addu Atoll in the south. Wikipedia

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Taming the Tiger Shark

The tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) is a common sight for divers, fishermen, and tourists in the tropical waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. They are often found around sea grass fields or coral reefs, and tend to prefer warm, shallower waters near the coastline or surrounding atolls and islands. The northern end of their range extends up to the northern borders of the United States and China, while their southern range reaches down to Brazil, Madagascar, and the eastern coast of Australia.

While they're slightly smaller than great whites, G. cuvier is still one of the largest carnivores in the ocean. Adults can grow up to 4.7 m (15 ft 5 in) long and weigh between 300 and 900 kg (700 and 2,000 lb). Females tend to be larger than males, but the two sexes are otherwise indistinguishable. Individuals are typically bluish gray or green, with a white or light yellow underbelly; this provides them with camouflage, as fish swimming overhead or below are unable to pick out the shark's silhouette against the dark or light background, respectively.

As an apex predator, G. cuvier has few predators of its own. Juvenile tiger sharks will often fall prey to other sharks, including adults of their own species. Orcas are also occasionally known to prey on tiger sharks, but these occurrences are rare. In their own food chain, G. cuvier has a large appetite and will eat almost anything. Coral reef fish are a common target, though their speed and small size makes them harder to catch. More often tiger sharks will prey on cephalopods, crustaceans, sea snakes, turtles, sea birds, and a host of marine mammals like dolphins, dugongs, sea lions, and young, injured, or dead whales. Inadvertently, tiger sharks will also consume garbage such as bottles tires, earning them the nickname 'The Garbage Can of the Ocean'.

Tiger sharks are primarily active at night. Contrary to other sharks, G. cuvier has excellent eyesight, as well as a keen sense of smell. In addition, tiger sharks have two special sensory organs. The lateral line extends down the length of the body and can detect minute vibrations in the water. Ampullae of Lorenzini are small electroreceptors located on the snout; these detect the weak electrical impulses generated by prey. All these features make it easy for tiger sharks to find a meal, and once located their body shape allows them to put on a burst of speed and make quick turns to catch their target. Most of the time, this hunting practice is done alone, but occasionally groups of tiger sharks will gather to scavenge a large carcass or for the mating season.

Male tiger sharks mate every year, while females only reproduce every three years. Breeding seasons differ based on location; in the Northern Hemisphere mating occurs between March and May, while in the Southern Hemisphere it's between November and January. During this time, dozens or even hundreds of sharks may gather to find mates. Females carry their young for up to 16 months, at which time they give live birth. Tiger sharks are ovoviviparous, meaning that eggs are fertilised and hatch inside the mother; this species is also unique in that they employ a technique called embryotrophy, in which young gestate in sacks which are filled with an embryonic fluid. A single litter of tiger sharks may contain between 10 to 80 pups, and each one may live up to 12 years in the wild.

Conservation status: The IUCN has classified the tiger shark as Near Threatened. While exact numbers are unclear, a great many tiger sharks are killed each year for their skin, fins, and liver. This species also has a reputation for vicious attacks, and while they can be aggressive when threatened, only a handful of shark attacks occur each year.

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Photos

Neil Hammerschlag

Brian Skerry

David Snyder

[liesmyth]

has something from a tlt fic ever become headcanon to you? i ask because i find this happening to me all the damn time with this fandom but not others

OK SO, my tlt headcanons are like schrodinger's cat, they explicitly contradict each other sometimes and all of them exist at the same time in different quantum states of canon. So in that sense I've never read a fic and thought, okay, THIS is my canon from now on.

But I've read so so many fics that burst my third eye wide open and made me consider different perspectives on a character / dynamic, or helped me shape some I already had. A few favourites:

the soul that seeketh him by bittybelle — missing scene pre NtN ft. John and Kiriona. Wherein John Gaius meets his daughter, remembers the women he left behind, and deals poorly with being the male god of a universe in which the divine is essentially feminine.

AO3 user LesbianJesusLovesYou gave me Big Feelings about Gideon's childhood on the Ninth and her relationship with Harrow, Aiglamene, Ortus and Crux

believing in everything (and knowing nothing at all) — A series of childhood memories from the Ninth

when i call, will you come to me? — “My Lady,” Ortus wheezed, shifting uncomfortably. “I only thought you should know… Gideon Nav was flogged before the congregation.”

A few fics set right after NtN that really stayed with me:

never hear the sound of someone calling me home by @corpsesoldier — Kiriona Gaia returns to the House of the Ninth.

One More Son by captainpeggy — After Nona, Pyrrha Dve walks the Ninth.

two old broads split a cigarette by @forjodssake — Aiglamene/Pyrrha. “sometimes the girl you like becomes one person w her soulmate and you have to jack off about it”

Post HtN missing scenes:

Death in its season by @ancientannoyance — John holds Mercymorn's 24 minutes funeral

recognize them by their fruits by @ceruleanvulpine — John and Ianthe emerge out of the River

Other stuff that Stuck With Me

so I open the window to hear sounds of people by @sunderedstar — post NtN flashbacks. John and Alecto are the only two beings on earth, and he starts working on the Resurrection. This is harrowing and I'm absolutely obsessed with the implications in this fic of WHY John removed everyone's memory.

and they were roommates by @herenortherenearnorfar — pre Resurrection Mercy and Cristabel, from their first meeting onwards and it just really burrowed a hole in my brain and grew roots and sprouts and everything. Latin American nun Cristabel it's all I can see now, and YES they met working with climate refugees when M— was a bright eyed idealistic doctor. It also lines up great with the Asian Mercy headcanon that exist in my head (I have a whole elaborate backstory about M— aged 12 proclaiming to her Filipino Catholic family that she's an atheist now). Anyway, it's just a lovely, gorgeous fic. I think about it every day.

John 25:12 by @halfeatenmoon — pre-Resurrection, John and his friends escape the cow fortress to spend Christmas Day at the beach. With beer, salads, pavlova, and the corpses of a million fish killed by nuclear weapons testing. Ft. Southern hemisphere holidays in Mururoa Atol and 100% canon. To me.

Operation: The Most Honorable Man by @cadmean — Augustine has a proposal for the Saint of Duty (Dios Apate. That's the proposal)

lowkey cheating but I can't choose — absolutely anything AO3 user Raxheim has posted has been SOO up my alley. Every time I read one of their fics I feel like I'm enlightened by some never-before-considered detail. And mean ANYTHING, from Harrow Nova to Wake to Cytherea and the Lyctors to the Universe's #1 Sadgirl Gideon

[amethystfairy1]

For TT, can we have a bit more info about mer culture and where Scott is coming from before he ended up on the old continent? I absolutely love the way you write hybrids, and how much effort you put into the world building of their background and cultures and behaviours. Oooh also, while I'm asking questions, do the hybrids in TT have courtship the way they do in TTSBC? Because that one is somewhat relevant for a few of them.

Oooooooo ok sure!

Let's break down Mer Culture in Traveling Thieves yayyyy!

First of all, the Mer Kingdom and Mer culture is matriarchal! Scott is the son of the Queen of the Mer and one of her concubines/performers. The Queen and other powerful women of noble standing typically have multiple husbands and also there is a very strong courtly culture of performance, and the role of the concubine is very influential in this society. However, this is where the sort of stigma against Siren Spells comes from! Scott inherited his abilities for water magic from his Mom, the magic of the royal bloodline is very powerful which is why Scott is also very powerful and natural with water magic! He inherited his ability to use Siren Spells from his Dad, but Siren Spells are seen as something only used by concubines/performers...it's not something befitting of a royal child, even an illegitimate one like Scott.

Speaking of! If we're talking about Scott and his upbringing, I want to get rid of any notions I'm sure people are assuming that because he was an illegitimate child he was treated poorly, he wasn't! He had a lot of half-siblings and all of them got along decently well, and his parents also had a reasonably healthy and cooperative relationship! Scott was still excluded sometimes, for example he wasn't allowed to show his face at courtly proceedings or performances, but some of his older siblings would occasionally help him hide in the curtains or something so he could watch his Dad perform!

Scott wasn't allowed to practice Siren Spells, because his Mom raised him, as she did all of her male children, to eventually be married off or take up political posts, and both of Scott's parents agreed it would be better for his prospects if no one ever knew that he was capable of using Siren Spells. That doesn't stop him from sneaking off to practice them in secluded areas, but he never received any official training so that's why he's pretty bad with them.

Also also! I wanna describe the Mer Kingdom a bit! Because while I do plan to do some flashbacks from Scott's POV I'm not entirely sure if we'll ever actually go there within the timeline of Traveling Thieves.

Basically think Lizzie's Empires S1 base 😆

AND BEFORE YOU ASK NO LIZZIE IS NOT THE OCEAN QUEEN IN THIS SHE IS NOT SCOTTS MOM NO WE AREN'T DOING THAT 😭

It's just that her base inspires how I think of the Mer Kingdom, like a bunch of towers that emerge from the water but are constructed both above and below water. Also it is within a series of atolls and coral reefs so lots of small islands are all around too. While the Mer can breathe underwater all of their homes and such are watertight and so while they swim place to place when they're inside it's dry and they breathe air, so it's not like Atlantis-style or anything. A lot of buildings are also on top of the islands or build from the shallower ocean shelf and then rising up out of the water. With the Royal Palace being right in the middle of the largest atoll of course!

Scott, as you might've been able to guess, perhaps, from what he said when Jimmy said he was in love with him, was running away from an arranged marriage. And the sad part was it wasn't even technically a marriage. Again, Scott is an illegitimate child, he's the son of the Queen, yes, but he's not a prince. He was raised like one, educated like one, and more or less treated like one with a few exceptions (like how he couldn't attend court) but he is not a prince.

That means by Mer societal convention he can't marry high-class nobility. So the noblewoman he's arranged with, he's technically meant to go be one of her concubines, similar to how his own Father is to his Mother. That doesn't necessarily mean anything sexual by default, but it does basically relegate him to being passed around for his pretty face and his bloodline. It would be a pretty luxurious life, all things considered, and he was also raised fairly spoiled all his life, but even still...Scott's not the type who would just pliantly go along with being a pawn for his Mother to use politically. Plus it really pisses him off because after all these years of being told to hide the fact he could use Siren Spells like his Father and not being allowed to practice them, or learn how to perform like his Father does, all of a sudden his Mother decides to give him away as a concubine instead of marrying him to someone within the mid-tier of courtly society whom Scott would actually be allowed to wed. Scott in this AU really looks up to his Dad, and he also looks very very similar to him, much more so than his Mother, which is also why he's desired for his beauty even amongst Mer. His Dad is the Queen's favorite performer, so you can imagine he's gorgeous as well, and yet after living his whole life being told he had to distance himself from being seen as similar to his Father, all of a sudden he's expected to become a concubine just like him? Without any of the training or practice or skills that his Father has? That's ridiculous! So yeah, Scott was furious and he and his mother had it out in a terrible fight.

Last thing on this! I wanna make it clear that this doesn't mean Scott hates his mother or even has a bad relationship with her! He was actually on very good terms with her, which made the news that he was going to be given away as a concubine all the more shocking. So he took off in the middle of the night after this fight with nothing but the clothes on his back...he wasn't necessarily planning on running away for good, he was just upset and trying to get away and get some space to collect this thoughts, but he went a little too close to the mainland shore, to close to the waters where humans trawl, and...well, we know what happened to him from there.

As for courting ritual, they don't have them in Traveling Thieves the way that they do in TTSBC! It's more that they have certain things that require a level of intimacy, not necessarily romantic obviously, so if a hybrid lets you do it, it's a strong sign that they trust you and believe you care about them. Examples of this being: Preening Avians wings or brushing a dog hybrids hair!

Hope this was fun for ya! Sorry for the long turn-around on this ask, I wanted to really think about it and make sure I gave ya a good response that was lined up with the AU! 💖

[arsleprosa]

Sea Swing, South Male’ Atoll, Maldives

[rjzimmerman]

Wisdom stands at right with red leg band, facing her new partner at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge on Nov. 26, 2024. Dan Rapp / USFWS volunteer

Wisdom is back! Excerpt from this story from EcoWatch:

Wisdom, a 74-year-old Laysan albatross, is the oldest-known wild bird on the planet. First fitted with a band in 1956, the Hawaiian seabird has laid her first egg in four years, according to United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) officials.

Wisdom returned to the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge to lay what could be her 60th egg, USFWS said, as reported by The Guardian.

“We are optimistic that the egg will hatch,” Jonathan Plissner, Midway Atoll’s supervisory wildlife biologist, said in a statement, as The Associated Press reported.

Millions of seabirds come back to Midway Atoll each year to nest and rear their chicks.

Wisdom and lifelong mate Akeakamai had been returning to the Hawaiian atoll to lay and hatch their eggs since 2006. However, it has been several years since Akeakamai has been seen, and Wisdom started interacting with another male upon her return last week, officials said.

Laysan albatrosses lay one egg each year, and, according to Plissner, Wisdom has raised up to 30 chicks.

October and November represent mating season at the refuge. Albatross parents share the incubation of an egg for roughly seven months. They then fly thousands of miles over the ocean in search of food to bring back to their young.

About five or six months after they hatch, chicks fly out to sea, where they will spend most of their lives soaring above the ocean feeding on fish and their eggs, crustaceans and squid.

Adult Laysan albatrosses fly as much as 50,000 miles each year, so USFWS said Wisdom would by now have flown multiple trips to the moon and back, reported CNN.

“It’s really amazing to encounter the world’s oldest known wild bird and see her add to the record year after year, but it fascinates because of its apparent uniqueness and not for any scientific or conservation or management implications. It’s interesting that the next oldest bird here that we know about is currently just 45+ years old. Almost thirty years apart in age is a big gap, especially with the tremendous number of albatross that were banded here in the 1960s,” Plissner said, according to USFWS.

[smolfrosted]

Its flike ti wont fuckjng stop make it stop make it stop make to atol make ti sotl male it sotop make it fucking stop

Need to talm but I cant like it sount fucking let me ive been noverbsle beofte and this is worse like my fucking jaw is locked jdnr it wont stop