#a handful of ichthyology books

[beazt]

I really am ebooks/pdf books georg

[aquariuminfobureau]

As a child I grew to be very fond of the Interpet series of pet care manuals. Like Usborne and Dorling Kindersley imprints, they not only stimulated me with their subject matter, such as tropical fishes and aviary birds, but with their wonderful graphic design. It looks good to have a set of books on one's shelf, that just 'go together', especially when the content is useful, and the pages are beautiful.

As an example of the series, I will examine Livebearing Fishes by Peter W. Scott. To look at the cover, this is the 1999 print run, but the book was first published earlier. The volume is a great introduction to the format of this series, and how the books could blend together basic, entry level how-to, with more esoteric information.

The livebearers as a group of fishes, are best known through four kinds of fishes, that have been selectively bred, into a diversity of color and finnage morphs - the (common or southern) platy and the (green) swordtail of the genus Xiphophorus, the guppy or Lebistes reticulata, and the mollies of the genus Mollienisia. All of these fishes share an ancient, hypothetical common ancestor, a poecilid toothcarp that had already transitioned first to internal fertilization, and then to viviparity.

Although the disparity among the domesticated strains of these species, does not match that among the goldfishes, or certain other domesticated species such as the dog, their diversity is nonetheless remarkable, as is well illustrated by a page featuring guppies. Were these morphs naturally occurring, rather than developed by the hand of man, they would surely not all be regarded as conspecifics.

Human agency has removed the pressure from dangerous natural predators, that eat visible little fish in their ancestral habitats, and intentionally controlled which fishes passed on their genes through generations. Charles Darwin well understood this sort of thing, and he called it, 'artificial selection'.

Many people would find it strange to regard any organically bred livestock as genetically engineered, but all of artificial selection is the technics of manipulating the future of organisms, by engineering their future heredity. The wild progenitor fishes slready possessed high enough genetic diversity, that the potentialities of their diverse descendants was already latent, but not expressed in the wild environment, because of natural selection.

The Interpet guides are not without informational content. In this color diagram, the pregnancies of two anablepids and a goodeid, are illustrated. Although both these clades of fish are relatively close relatives, they transitioned to viviparity independently. In fact their most recent common ancestors, did not even practice fertilization internally.

Livebearing or viviparity has actually evolved a few times among true fishes, and 'fish-like vertebrates' which would include the old pre-cladistic definition, which survived as the focus of ichthyology. A disproportionate number of the transitions, surprisingly enough, occur within one clade of fishes named the cyprinodonteans, and specifically their subclade, the cyprinodontoids, to which both goodeids and anablepids brlong.

The most recent common ancestors of these clades was not viviparous, nor did they even possess the prerequisite state of internal fertilization, without which the transition to viviparity would have been impossible. No one has ever really explained why only cypryinodontoids are so prone to evolve into livebearing fishes, when other fish are not.

Even among the poecilids, the clade including the most familiar livebearers in aquariums, viviparity evolved twice from a common ancestor that already possessed internal fertilization, although its babies developed externally, ie. oviparity. The sister clade to poecilids, are the anablepids, representing a third evolution of viviparity in this subclade alone.

Two other clades of cyprinodontoid fishes are known to have evolved vivipareity. One of them is the goodeines, the split-fin toothcarp. Split-fins are sisters to the oviparous genera Profundulus, Crenichthys, and Empetrichthys, all of them killifishes retaining the external fertilization of their more distant relatives.

A further evolution of viviparity among the cyprinodontoids, has occurred in a South American genus, Fluviphylax. Finally among the broader cyprinodontean clade, viviparity has also evolved once among the beloniforms, in the zenarchopterid halfbeaks.

As an aside, what exactly is a toothcarp? Goodeids and poecilids are both known as 'livebearing toothcarp', as are several oviparous cyprinodontoids. In fact fishes known as toothcarps, do not form a natural descent group within the cyprinodontoids, in the way that the pupfishes can be identified with the cyprinodontid clade. Sometimes a species can be identified as either, interchangeably, and a clade such as the goodeids may count both 'killifishes' and 'toothcarp' among its members.

In all I find it fair to say that 'toothcarp' and a related word, 'topminnow', are partial synonyms of 'killifish', and both refer to the cyprinodontoid clade of killifishes. The archetypal killifishes of the aplocheilid or aplocheiloid sister group, are never referred to as either, nor are the ricefishes, which are also traditionally killifishes, and are now regarded as basal beloniforms. So that all three of the major cyprinodontean subclades, include 'killifishes' among their members.

None of the species that are known as killifishes are viviparous, though some have internal fertilization, which they have evolved more than once, as a result of intensified competition between male fishes. Yet not all of the killifishes that are called toothcarps, are viviparous fishes.

The Interpet guides feature memorable diagrams, in this case showing how a breeding trap works. The evolution of pregnancy and penetrative sex in livebearing fishes, might remind us of ourselves, and other placental mammals.

But unlike mammals, the familiar livebearers are not among those species of fish, that guard or provide for their offspring after partuition. Although carrying their offspring internally for a prolonged period, is a significant parental investment by the mother.

Because newly born livebearers fit into the mouths of their parents, there is a real risk of cannibalism in these fish species. Breeding traps are designed and manufactured to reduce the danger, by allowing the vulnerable newborns to find safety where their hungry parents cannot teach them.

Domesticated livebearers are among the easiest of all tropical fishes to keep, but their prolific reproduction can be problematic when the males and females are cohabited. Children are either fascinated or disturbed, when they see cute baby fishes eaten in the fish tank.

Livebearers are not only guppies, mollies, platies and swordtails. The genus Anableps is an estuarine fish that has evolved to hunt at the surface of the water. Technically it has only one pair of eyes, exactly as we do, excepting that Anableps can simultaneously watch both above and below the water surface. It would have been very easy for Interpet simply to feature captive bred livebearer morphs, but these guides can be so much more

The halfbeaks are a taxonomically confusing assemblage of fishes, sharing an I testing craniofacial morphology. It is still not certain exactly how they are related to their relatives, the predatory clade of gars or needlefishes with their saury sisters, and the gliding exocets.

Not all halfbeaks are viviparous, but all of the viviparous halfbeaks belong to a natural or monophyletic clade. Again, it would have been easy to overlook the halfbeaks, in a book about viviparous aquarium fishes, simply because they are such oddballs.

The major clade of poecilid livebearers is not merely covered as domesticated breeds, either. Not considered often by most aquarists, are a diversity of wild poecilid species and genera. Some of these, such as Phallichthys, are also featured in the Interpet guide, right after a sampling of the split-fin livebearers.

Among other content, the Interpet guide touches upon wild members of the genera Poecilia (using a consensus, overly broad definition) and Xiphophorus. There is gene flow and interfertility between different species assigned to Xiphophorus, both in the wild and in the aquarium. Some described species are recognized by some authors, yet dismissed as hybrids by others. In all it's a book with surprising content, given it's low price, and Introductory nature.

[uwmspeccoll]

Distinctive Collections Crossover ~~

The Naturalist’s Library in the American Geographical Society Library

UWM Libraries is home to three Distinctive Collections departments: the American Geographical Society Library (AGSL), UWM Archives, and Special Collections. To celebrate the rare and unique materials found in all the Distinctive Collections we are going to do a series of crossover posts featuring items from our sibling departments.

To start, we are going to showcase The Naturalist’s Library found in The American Geographical Society Library, a premier geography research library at UW–Milwaukee. This past semester I took head of UWM Special Collections, Max Yela’s History of Books and Printing class (INFOST 603) and wrote a research paper on The Naturalist’s Library, a 40-volume natural history series published in Edinburgh from 1833-1843 by William Home Lizars and edited by Sir William Jardine. What initially drew me to the series was the size of the books, which are small, measuring about 4 x 6 inches, and that each volume was profusely illustrated with hand-colored steel engravings of many different animals. I love natural history in all forms, but what is truly special about The Naturalist’s Library is that it was meant to appeal to a wide audience because it was affordable for different classes of society. Each volume cost six shillings, a fraction of the price of other natural history books featuring colored illustrations. The publisher William Home Lizars accomplished this through technological advances in printing and cheap labor. Steam powered presses and stereotyping improved the process of printing the text of each book. Illustrations were printed from steel engravings executed by Lizars or his assistant William Banks. Lizars relied on cheap labor to set the type, bind the books, and hand color the engravings.

The Naturalist’s Library was divided into four divisions: ornithology, mammalia, entomology, and ichthyology. A single volume would be a dedicated to a particular species or type of animal within those categories, such as an ornithology volume on hummingbirds or an entomology volume on beetles. It was not meant to be a complete system of the all animals, but a survey of notable species. Animals were chosen for distinct reasons, such as having an unusual structure, notable beauty, or economic value. Foreign birds and insects with flashy exotic colors were of particular interest, but familiar British birds and butterflies were equally as popular with those fond of their local nature. Each volume featured 35-40 hand-colored steel engravings.

Most of the illustrations in the book were done by James Hope Stewart, an artist and farmer who worked for Lizars on a number of natural history projects, including the Magazine of Zoology and Botany, 1837-38. We will do other posts on The Naturalist’s Library, but for today we thought we would feature a sampling of illustrations from several books in the series.

–Sarah, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[multcolib]

There is something definitely fishy going on in the special collections. At least these hand-colored, gill-bearing, aquatic craniate animals that lack limbs with digits are swimming around a bit in here. These creatures are from Ichthyology written in 1835 by noted naturalist Sir William Jardine (1800-1874), one of more than 40 volumes of little books he edited in The Naturalist’s Library...

[doeeyeddarlingxo]

Myriad Misadventures - Chapter 50

The Myriad Misadventures of a Midgardian Queen-In-Training - Chapter 50

AO3 | Previous | Next

Word Count: 1471

Pairing: Loki/Reader

Rating: T

Myriad Misadventures - Chapter 50

And so it comes to pass that you do return to the palace, after all. And it seems that people have taken notice. On Good Evening, America, they do a little rewind to some of the earlier moments filmed of the remaining contestants, and you’re surprised to see this included:

“Now, I’m not going to lie, Ashley—I’d almost forgotten about Little Miss (Y/N). As the only teen left in the competition, I didn’t think she was even old enough to be homecoming queen, let alone queen of an entire planet, but looking back, her interactions with the crowd at the train station really blew me away, let me tell you.” Footage plays of you with that little girl, and you’re shocked by how much younger you look on camera—was that really just a few years ago?—bending down to sign her notebook. “Isn’t that sweet?”

********************************************

You’d be lying if you said you didn’t fear things would be a bit awkward after your last conversation. But if anything, the opposite seems to have happened. Things are normal. Perhaps a bit too normal.

Like on your second day back, when he asks you for advice on a date with Irina. You must have stared at him for a full five seconds before shutting your jaw and thinking enough to give him a proper answer (horse-riding, of course). 

You knew he considered you a friend, but this? Really?

And then the day after that, he invites you into his office for tea. And you find yourself wondering if this is maybe a date of your own, until you end up talking again about a date for one of the other girls. You wonder: is he trying to make you jealous? Or is he really just that oblivious? 

Which option is worse?

There is a third option you’ve considered, which is that he’s giving you room to consider...well, consider the capacity in which you want to stay in the competition. Which, to be fair, is very sweet. 

But that means he’s probably expecting you to make a decision. Soon. 

So, again: which option is worse?

********************************************

On top of that, the return to the palace has done nothing to improve your friendships with the other girls. If anything, it just seems like it’s made them more conscious of the competitive element of the competition. Rosa’s outfits are more carefully coordinated than ever, and she’s perfected her already razor-sharp conversation skills. Rhea’s previously motherly air has taken on an edge that makes her seem even more formidable than before. Irina hasn’t changed much, actually—she keeps her head down and rides her horses and seems normal. But she’s here, and that alone is enough of a statement that she, like the others, doesn’t plan on going anywhere before the competition is done.

And you? You are determined to work harder than ever. Because if you’re going to choose to be here, you’re going to do this right.

 (What is “this?” And how exactly do you plan to do it “right?” Unclear. But it’s good to have a sense of purpose all the same).

Etiquette classes continue; and of course you attend. But you find yourself drawn more than ever to the library. You try to study the basics of a foreign language or two—for when you’re no longer under the protection of a language spell. With some difficulty, you begin to reteach yourself the math and science you’ve missed or forgotten since high school. And you find that, if you mention an interest in a particular topic, a slew of modern books on the subject will appear on your usual corner table, neatly stacked, the next day. Computer science. Literary analysis. Ornithology, ichthyology, other “ologies” you’ve never heard of— you do your best to dabble in a bit of everything. In case, you know, you want to go to college. Once all this is through. 

Honestly, it feels as though most things you do these days are on the assumption that you’ll be gone from the palace eventually. Definitely sooner, rather than later.

********************************************

“So the hair comb with the pearls for Rhea…”

He purses his lips, and walks around the board, frowning slightly. “You’re certain it won’t be overkill?”

It’s become a habit, this. Meeting in his office. Advising him on speeches, dates, and everything in between. And it’s easy, really. Light. Simple. Friends.

“I think love can take many forms. Friendship is one of them,” you always remember, and always you push the thought back. Sure, friendship is a form of love. He’s right. You know that.

It’s just not the form of love you’d hoped for.

“Overkill?” You look at him incredulously. “How so?”

“You yourself have told me numerous times that  you found the initial provisions of jewelry and clothing to be excessive.”

You roll your eyes at that. “It’s a palace. Everything is excessive. Besides, this is practical: she never leaves her room without her hair done up. She’ll get a ton of use out of it.”

He holds up his hands in defeat. “I defer to the wisdom of my superior.”

“Superior? I like the sound of that.” You launch yourself off the front of the desk to walk around and sit in the head chair behind it. “So tell me, inferior, what else is on the agenda for tonight?”

He looks at the board again. It’s like an old-fashioned blackboard, with gift ideas for the three girls scrawled across it in both your handwriting and his (and smudgy in places, where you wrestled with the chalk). “The anniversary ball is in a little over a month, Lady Amara has been sent the options for the decoration schema, the tokens for Ladies Rhea, Rosa, and Irina have been selected…”

You push out your lower lip in a show of faux-disappointment. “What, and no gift for me?”

Instead of the chuckle you’re expecting, a small smile rises to his mouth. “As a matter of fact…”

Wait, what?

You’d been joking about the gift. And even if he did have a gift for you, you’d expect for him to present it to you at the anniversary ball alongside the other girls. Instead, you see him reach into his pocket and produce a small, slim rectangular box. He presents it to you.

“You didn’t have to,” you say, feeling suddenly guilty. He laughs at your tone.

“You might want to open it before feeling too bad,” he teases. You hesitate. “Go on.”

You slip the lid off the box and lift off a layer of pale green tissue paper to reveal… “Oh my God.”

“Do you like it?”

“You’re joking.”

“I’m afraid not.”

“It’s incredible.” You lift the fish fork out of the box and turn it over in your hand, regarding it with no small amount of amusement. “Did you make this out of solid gold or something? It’s so heavy. No, wait.” You point the fork at him, preventing him from speaking another word. “Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”

His cheeks are slightly pink, and his smile, though small, clearly reaches his eyes. “You like it?”

You bring the gift to your chest and tilt your head at him. “I love it. Love it. You should have given it to me before dinner. I would have loved to see the look on Lady Amara’s face.”

He tsks playfully. “I should have known you’d use my gift for evil.”

“Oh, hush. I’m sure, if anything, she’d just be pleased to see how dedicated I’ve become to my studies.” A yawn escapes, and you clap a hand rather ungracefully over your gaping mouth. He smirks. “Shut up,” you warn him.

He shrugs, lifting his hands (though the smirk stays exactly the same). “Not a word.”

“I suppose that’s my cue. See you at breakfast?” He nods. You head towards the door, when you hear him clear his throat behind you.

“Although…” 

You turn to face him. “Although?”

“Well. Apparently there is supposed to be some sort of astronomical event happening tonight.” He jerks his head in the direction of the window. “A starfall.”

“What, like a meteor shower?”

“Is that the Midgardian term? Yes, I assume so.”

“Ah.” You pause, waiting for him to continue. “And?”

“And. Well, I wondered if you wouldn’t join me in the garden? Just for a short while, perhaps. Unless you wish to return to your room, which would be understandable, as well—”

“Yes.” You realize, with a burst of embarrassment, that you’re grinning. “A walk in the gardens sounds lovely.”

He stops rambling, then, and rewards you with a shy smile of his own. “Well, then. Shall we?”

He extends an elbow, just as he did that night on the beach. And you take it. "Okay."

You're both still smiling like idiots as you walk out the door.

[theotherrookie]

Josh Roche About page

Name: Joshua Clive Roche

Nickname: Josh, Fish Boy, Shark Boy, Scallywag

Age: 23

Birthday: August 13

Gender: Cis Male

Sexual Orientation: Homosexual

Species: Human with powers/Carrier of the Leviathan

Ethnicity: White

Nationality: American

Height: 6’2”/8′4″ in his shark form

Weight: 140 lbs

Body Type: Ectomorph

Hair: Blonde, curly and very soft. If you see him with his hair tied back, it means he’s focused on a project.

Eyes: Blue, may shift to black whenever something goes wrong with his shark form.

Distinguishing features: He has his share of scars on his back and legs (courtesy of his step father) that he tries to hide. On the other hand, he proudly shows his Leviathan mark on his right arm and the gills on his neck, if he’s around the right people. Sometimes you can sport a shark fin on his back and even a tail, if Josh feels like having it out that day.

Personality: Despite the power granted to him and his family’s innate extrovert nature, Josh can be very awkward in social situations. While he doesn’t mind partying all night with the Roche crew up on their ship, Josh doesn’t despise being able to sit down and doodle in the silence of his room after a long day. He often underestimates himself, due to years of being talked down to and punished for having an opinion, thus will always wait for the others before sharing his own ideas. The supernatural is still rather new to him, the monsters of his childhood were of a different nature, so he still tends to panic while facing a new type of foe. He still manages to calm down and help his friends to the best of his abilities, preferring to keep more of a support role while the others charge head on.

Current Residence: New York, the apartment next to Rook’s.

Former Residence: He used to share an apartment with a horrible roommate and before that, he lived with his mother and stepfather’s house.

Mother: His mother Jennifer is still alive but she likes to pretend Josh is dead ever since she found out he has magic like his father.

Father: William Roche, deceased.

Siblings: None.

Other Family: Josh doesn’t care for any of his living relatives. They’ve always been horrible to him and never accepted him for who he was. He’s however very fond of the Roche. They have been welcoming and all supported him since the very beginning, especially Edmund, who is both a father figure and a cool grandpa to him.

Languages: English, ASL

Hobbies and Interests: The Roche are creative fellows. While Josh tends to prefer the arts, he never shies away from designing a new trinket with or without help. He’s a bit more of a casual gamer, preferring chill games that allow a lot of customization, and won’t turn down a good book if he can make time for it. He’s a gifted swimmer, of course, which helps him with his newfound interest in Ichthyology. The ability to understand fish does help in that regard.

Occupation: Student with a part-time job at a nearby hardware store.

Powers and Abilities: Josh’s main abilities are related to water and the wind. He’s also a shapeshifter and can give himself spikes, fangs, claws, just to name a few, while he isn’t very comfortable with changing his own appearance (he’s afraid he might forget what his face was like and be stuck always looking off). He’s also a great swimmer, as expected from a member of his family. The shapeshifting also allows him an intermediate form, or shark form as he calls it, which makes up for his lack of physical strength in close combat. Said form allows him to dive even deeper without worrying about oxygen and pressure.

In addition, Josh’s signature spell allows him to bring anything he draws to life, from items to minions at his service.

Weapons/equipment: Josh doesn’t wear any kind of armor. Like every Roche worthy of his name, he has his own pirate outfit, modified to block most projectiles. His arsenal is also rather extensive. Along with a cutlass and a muskett, Josh can count on a trident and his trusty notebook and a pen that he uses to draw while on the battlefield.

He also has a flying surfboard to go around more quickly on land. It’s Roche technology™, of course.

Weaknesses: All weaknesses of the Carriers apply. Iron can hurt him, damage to his mark can potentially kill him. Using his powers for too long uses up a lot of energy.

Basic Backstory: Josh was born with no father. Or at least that was what his mother wanted him to believe. For a while, this was true. His father William had no idea of Josh’s existence, since he had been dumped about an year before his birth.

Life hasn’t been kind to Josh. After his mother remarried, he had to deal with his new stepfather, an abusive asshole who actually enjoyed mistreating Josh to the best of his abilities, and with his wife’s consent. This caused Josh to close into himself more and more, to the point he barely talked anymore, unless money was involved.

His ‘parents’ were rather careful regarding this interest of his, and made sure to snatch whatever money Josh managed to save up and put it to better use for their own entertainment.

Regardless, this only delayed Josh’s departure of a few months, and eventually he got out of there.

His first apartment was a hole and his roommate lacked of any regard, but he eventually found his way out and into one of the apartments in Rook’s buildings.

A new guy moving in quickly caught the interest of the ghosts that visited Rook on a daily basis. Edmund Roche, the oldest out of them, noticed the new tenant and felt himself being drawn to him for some reason.

After some research, and the first signs of Josh’s gift manifesting, Rook finally confirmed that Josh was indeed a Roche.

[stolenfromthemuses]

Bishop Fish. 🪡Sketch embroidery of Rondelet’s ‘De pisce Episcopi habitu’ or the fish in a bishop’s habit, from his “Libri de piscibus marinis in quibus ver piscium effigies express sunt” (1554). 📚 Guillaume Rondelet (1507-1566) is considered the grandfather of ichthyology and his work had been studied and admired for centuries. According to Rondelet, the Bishop Fish habitated the Baltic Sea, where it had been caught and brought to Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Aparently, the fish expressed its wish to be returned to the sea and his wish was granted. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 🎏 Although Rondelet included the Bishop Fish in his book, it has a really short description that shows his skepticism about it, as in this case it was a second-hand description and he hadn’t seen the specimen himself. He ends its short description with “Vera ca fit an non, nec affirmo nec refello”: “Whether it is true or not, I neither affirm nor refute”. 🧵This embroidery is part of my personal project to translate to thread zoological illustrations of Sixteenth to Eighteenth-century. #contemporaryembroidery #modernembroidery #threadsketching #handembroideryart #freestyleembroidery #freehandembroidery #threadpainting #needlepainting #embroiderersofinstagram #embroideryartist #handstitch #tinystitches #naturalhistory #orca #slowlife #zoologyillustration #zoologicalliterature #animalillustration #animalembroidery #seamonster #nerdembroidery #engravingstyle https://www.instagram.com/stolenfromthemuses/p/CYhHF_xI3k4/?utm_medium=tumblr

[medicusculber]

more of the x-men au please!!

Among the looming figures of sky scrapers in down town New York City, there sits an old mansion, passed down for generations through the Phlox family.  They were one of the first settlers of New York

These days, the only permanent residents of the house are all doctors.  Dr. Julian Bashir, who had moved from India to work with Dr. Hugh Culber and Hugh had seduced him away from their white labs to work with Dr. Phlox, the owner of the house.  To the unaware eye, it’s just a house and they’re just people.  Phlox is a little reclusive, perhaps, but the other two are genial enough (not that anyone really bothers to check, this is New York after all, and people have places to go and people to see).

The house was not just a house, but also a clinic and place of respite to a certain section of humanity- the mutants.  Those, who by fate or misfortune, had found them elevated to a standard beyond human and, according to many, unworthy of life because of it.  Of the three doctors, only Phlox was obviously a mutant- he only needed one week of sleep every year, around his eyes were ridges that crept both to his cheeks and hairline, and when he was startled, his face blew up like a puffer fish.  

The other two appeared human enough, but Hugh always knew the lottery numbers and luck seemed to favor him extraordinarily.  To a normal observer this was not worth any alarm, but Hugh wondered what they would think if they knew he could manipulate probability.  Only to a small degree- he could not change the mind of everyone to be pro-mutant- but a life threatening bullet could be a little easier to remove.

Julian’s powers were such that he had taken to wearing gloves around nearly everyone.  He was a natural empath, but when he touched people’s skin, that extended to telepathy.  At least most people expected their doctors to wear gloves.

The clinic they ran didn’t announce itself, but rather traveled by word of mouth- mutants knew it was a safe space and that none of the doctors would ask too many questions.  It is this reputation that brings Paul Stamets, Ph.D to the door one dreary morning when fog hangs thick over the city.  Tilly, one of his doctorate students, had mentioned the place to him after his ‘incident’ but he had always been self-sufficient before and saw no reason to change that until now.  He wasn’t even sure if he technically counted as a mutant, he didn’t know enough about the x-genomes to say for certain if his DNA had always bore a mutation that had made it possible for him to commune with mushrooms or if something had changed it when he nearly died in his garden.  But he figured a clinic catering to mutants would be a bit more welcoming then a regular hospital, so with a little goading from Tilly, he went.

As soon as he entered the house, he knew there was something different about it.  And no, it wasn’t just the lizard-man (whom Paul would eventually be introduced to as “Garak, just Garak if you please”) talking with a doctor, at least Paul presumed so, in scrubs who was talking Arabic, though that was a very good indication too.  The front room was only sort of a reception area- if one had a reception area with bean bags, toys, books, and food along with the traditional coffee and magazines.  A little bit like walking into someone’s living room, one that was actually lived in instead of glossy magazine spreads with perfect fruit in a perfect basket (or like Paul’s own home- a little more dust then anything else).  The reception was a rather portly mutant with a wide grin that stretched the ridges on his face.  

Paul was slightly startled by the whole thing, but thankfully Tilly was there.  “Phlox!  How are you?”

“Quite good, quite good thank you.”  The two of them hugged and Paul blinked at them- Tilly hadn’t mentioned she was that friendly with anyone here.  Then again, it might just be a Tilly thing.  “I see you brought along a friend.  Emotional support or you recommending them to our services?”  Phlox asked Tilly, pulling out his tablet to write it all down.

“He needs to see Dr. Culber.”  Tilly replied, smiling.  “He’s recently come into his powers and he’s having issues.”

Phlox look Paul over, nodding.  “Thankfully, you don’t seem to be freaking out too much.  What is it, if I may ask?”

Paul shook his head, “It’s no scarier then facing down the thirty lawyers trying to argue that you can’t patent a mushroom.  And uh, I can...talk to my mushrooms.”

That seemed to intrigue the doctor more then anything.  “Talk to mushrooms?  How interesting!  Is it like a verbal conversation?  More of a passage of thought?  Emotions perhaps?  Do mushrooms have emotions?”  Paul opened his mouth to answer those questions in some order (probably starting with, “Yes, mushrooms have emotions how dare you imply otherwise.”) when another person joined them in the waiting room.  He looked a bit like he’d just rolled out of bed and was clutching a coffee cup like it was his savior.  Unlike Phlox and the other doctor, this person was wearing a t-shirt that declared “Mutant Rock!” with a glowing green rock on it and comfortable looking sweatpants.

“Morning, Phlox.”  He greeted Phlox with a nod.  “Tilly...and friend.”

“Paul Stamets,” Paul introduced himself, wondering if it’d be rude to offer his hand or not, but the man just bobbed his head, sipping the coffee.  And it smelled really good from where Paul was standing.

“I’m Hugh.  Dr. Hugh.  Dr. Culber.”  Hugh blinked sleepily and yawned, Paul had to wonder what kind of life the doctor had to lead to be sleepy at 4pm.  “Sorry, Phlox, but thanks for the nap.  I feel a lot less dead.”

“It was a slow day, Hugh, and it’s not like I needed the sleep.”  Phlox gently nudged him back through the door.  “Paul was just telling me what he’s here for.  If you get changed, Tilly requested you.”  

Hugh nodded.  “M’kay.  I’ll be right back.  Ask Tilly how she did in her 6000 ichthyology class, she was worried about it.” Message given, he disappeared completely and Paul stared, dumbfounded.  This wasn’t like any doctor’s visit he had before.

“I got a B!” Tilly yelled back at Hugh, before turning to Paul.  “And don’t think about running, I know that face.”  People had never been Paul’s strong suit and it was pretty obvious these people were very friendly, very informal and his brain was still rebooting from Dr. Culber in sweatpants.  

[orbemnews]

The Ocean’s Youngest Monsters Are Ready for Glamour Shots For most scuba divers, few places underwater match the visual thrill of a kaleidoscopic coral reef teeming with colorful fish. For Jeff Milisen, a marine biologist and photographer in Kona, Hawaii, there is no better place to dive than an open stretch of deep ocean. At night. “There’s a whole lot of nothing,” he said. “There’s no bottom, no walls, just this space that goes to infinity. And one thing you realize is there are a lot of sea monsters there, but they’re tiny.” Of course, there are big monsters, too, like sharks. But the creatures Mr. Milisen is referring to are part of a daily movement of larval fish and invertebrates, which rise from the depths to the surface each evening as part of one of the largest migrations of organisms on the planet. The emerging hobby of taking pictures of them is known as blackwater photography. Most of the larvae are no bigger than a fingernail; others are even smaller. And they can easily be mistaken for bits of seaweed or drifting detritus. But up close, when captured with a camera using a special lens called a macro, the animals can appear to loom as large as wild animals on a safari — a safari on another planet. Five years ago, Mr. Milisen began sharing his photos in a Facebook group, and there he discovered a community of passionate nighttime adventurers who were capturing images of living things rarely seen before. Perplexed and astonished by what they were photographing, Mr. Milisen and others in the community, called the Blackwater Photo Group, began contacting fish scientists, asking for help in identifying what they were seeing. Even the most seasoned specialists responded with incredulity. “The No. 1 thing people, even scientists, ask is: ‘What the hell is that?’” said Ned DeLoach, an experienced underwater photographer, who, with his wife, Anna, and the writer Paul Humann, has published eight books on marine fishes. “Why these images are so spectacular and so popular is they’re so otherworldly. People have never imagined that creatures like this exist, and that has attracted photographers.” David G. Johnson, curator of fishes at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, was one of the first scientists to be contacted by members of the Facebook group. He said he was immediately smitten by the images. “You have behavior, colors,” he said. “It really is a great advance in terms of what we can learn about the early life history of fishes.” As the blackwater hobby has taken off, gaining adherents around the globe, more and more photographers have captured stunning images and videos that reveal a secret world of bizarre, tiny animals that scientists have struggled for decades to better understand. Many of the images have gone viral on social media, and some recently won major underwater photography awards. Now, scientists like Dr. Johnson want to formalize the collaboration with blackwater photographers. In a paper published on Tuesday in the journal Ichthyology & Herpetology, scientists from Hawaii, along with Dr. Johnson and others at the Smithsonian, have outlined how they hope to enlist more nighttime underwater photographers, most of whom have no scientific background, to participate in marine research. If the photographers could collect specimens of the tiny animals they photograph, DNA could be extracted and analyzed. So far, the scientists leading the effort have recruited about a dozen divers, who have collected more than 60 specimens for analysis. More are in the pipeline. “We’re building a collection that for the first time has a live image,” Dr. Johnson said. “We get the specimen and create a DNA record tied to it.” He expects scientists with a knack for underwater photography to join the effort as well. Marine researchers hope that examining images of animals photographed in their natural surroundings and pairing those images with data drawn from techniques such as dissection and DNA barcoding will significantly expand the knowledge of how these animals change over time and why they behave as they do. Ideally, the work will also shed light on the mysterious daily migration of creatures, called the diurnal vertical migration, that takes place every night in every ocean around the globe. The diurnal vertical migration includes trillions of tiny animals, many in the larval stage, that rise from great depths of 1,000 feet or more to just beneath the surface to feed. The journey takes place at night, scientists believe, because it allows the animals to avoid predation by larger fish that locate their prey visually. The baby fish return to the lightless deep before sunrise. Like many insect species and frogs, most marine fishes and invertebrates look and behave vastly different in their larval stages than they do as adults. The fish larvae are often festooned with flamboyant, streaming appendages to help them navigate the currents or imitate other species such as poisonous jellyfish. Some have enormous eyes and broadcast a rainbow iridescence that would not look out of place beneath a glass counter at Tiffany’s. Most marine fishes and some ocean invertebrates go through this two-stage life cycle. Scientists believe that the drastic shift in form is a product of evolution and natural selection. “Larvae and adults are each living in a completely different evolutionary arena,” Dr. Johnson said. “The larvae make their living in the open ocean currents, which is such a different place than where they’re going to settle out, like the sandy bottom, a coral reef or the deep sea.” The larval stage of many sea creatures transpires in the open ocean, which is difficult to study, and little is known. Almost all of the previous understanding of what these animals look like comes from expeditions that collected them in large conical devices called plankton nets, which are dragged behind research vessels. The technique began over 150 years ago, gaining prominence with the Challenger expedition from 1872 to 1876, organized by the British government. There have since been some major advances in the technology, but the basic technique is largely unchanged. Plankton nets draw the animals into a large open ring and funnel them into a jarlike device called a cod end. As water is forced into the jar, the animals are easily crushed and usually die before reaching the surface. Many creatures, such as jellyfish, salps and glittery, orb-shaped animals called ctenophores, are so delicate that they are mushed into a gelatinous goo that researchers on boats pull from the jars by the handful. The animals that remain intact are fixed in an alcohol solution, which prevents them from decomposing, but which turns them ghostly white. Often the delicate filaments and fins break off, making it impossible to know how the animals looked and behaved while alive. “Those filament appendages are extremely important,” said Luiz A. Rocha, a marine biologist and curator of fishes at the California Academy of Sciences who is not involved in the project. He said that they can be used for mimicry, movement or camouflage. “Because all that information is lost when collected in the nets, the photographs can open up an entirely new research area to understand why they have these features and what they use them for,” he said. Open water observation of fish larvae is not new, but it was mostly practiced during the day. The technique, called blue water diving, began in the 1980s when a group of California scientists, hoping to overcome the problems with plankton nets, began taking boats out while the sun blazed overhead. William M. Hamner, a retired ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, was a pioneer of blue water diving and developed many techniques to drift and dive in the open ocean that are used today by blackwater divers. “The fact that we started blue water is simply because no one cared enough about plankton at the time to go to all the effort to observe them in the wild, and I did,” Dr. Hamner said. In both blue and blackwater diving, scuba divers usually travel far offshore, often 10 miles or more, where the seafloor may lie several thousand feet below. They descend 50 to 100 feet beneath the ocean while clinging to a tether that hangs from a boat or from a buoy on the surface. In blackwater diving, however, powerful underwater lights are attached to a tether to illuminate the water, often attracting animals, including sharks. The avocation is not for everyone. “There’s a whole new sensory experience when there’s no top or bottom,” said Ms. DeLoach, one of the photographers. “It’s the closest I think I’ve come to being in outer space.” For the photographers, capturing an image of something never observed, let alone photographed, before becomes almost an addiction. “What’s really fascinating is when you send the scientists something and they have no idea what it is,” said Steven Kovacs, a dentist in Palm Beach, Fla., and a frequent contributor to the Facebook group, who has been blackwater diving for five years. “Or it’s the first time being seen. That’s one of the greatest thrills of all.” The photographers have reason to gloat. Some scientists say the images, paired with DNA from collected larvae, have the potential to revolutionize the study of larval fishes. “We believe this approach opens a new window for our understanding of these larvae and raises exciting questions for future research,” said Ai Nonaka, a researcher at the Smithsonian and the lead author on the paper. Dr. Johnson hopes that the project will inspire a new generation of underwater photographers to become citizen scientists and participate in research. “We’ve been doing this for four to five years, but it’s still new,” said Mr. DeLoach, who began collecting specimens for the Smithsonian with his wife in 2019. “There’s so much that hasn’t been discovered yet. It’s a pretty handy thing to have a specimen in the Smithsonian collection with your name on it.” Other scientists who study larval fishes are happy to give the photographers their due credit. “I think that this is one of those special cases in which the underwater photography people actually realized something quite valuable and cool before science did,” said Tom Shlesinger, a marine biologist based in Florida who is a convert to blackwater photography. “It really opened my eyes and mind to the fact that we actually know very little about what’s going on in the sea at night.” Source link Orbem News #glamour #Monsters #Oceans #Ready #shots #youngest

[mscoyditch]

Page Through a Fantastical Compendium of the World’s First Color Illustrations of Marine Life

ThisIsCollosal.com

August 17, 2020

Grace Ebert

All images courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library

In the early 18th century, publisher, bookseller, and apparent fish enthusiast Louis Renard compiled the seminal compendium of color-illustrated ichthyological studies. The volume contains more than 450 species rendered in vibrant hues that, while somewhat anatomically accurate, feature embellishments in color and characteristics. From beak-like mouths to extraordinarily patterned skins, the vast illustrations of marine life are unusual, bizarre, and sometimes psychedelic. One of the most fantastical illustrations even depicts a mermaid (shown below).

A digital copy of Renard’s work—which officially is titled Fishes, crayfish and crabs, of various colors and extraordinary figures, which one finds around the Moluccas islands and on the coasts of the Austral lands—is available in the Biodiversity Heritage Library, an incredible open-access digital archive. Overall, the library estimates that about 9 percent of the illustrations are fabricated, a detail that’s unsurprising considering the Dutch publisher never traveled to the East Indies to complete his studies. Instead, he copied 460 hand-colored copper engravings from other artists, many of which were contributed by soldier and painter Samuel Fallours who was based in Ambon, Indonesia. In a similarly duplicitous manner, the library also believes that Renard identified himself as a secret agent to the British crown as a way to sell more copies of his work.

The tome was published in three editions, and only 16 of the initial printing, which happened between 1718 and 1719, are known to exist. Thirty-four copies of the second version from 1754 remain, which is also the iteration shown here. There are just six books left from the third printing in 1782.

Page through the entire compendium in the digital library. To enjoy the vivid illustrations off-screen, Maria Popova, of Brain Pickings, is selling masks and prints of the enhanced creatures.

[vicioushyperbolizer]

Ok but nurseydex where Dex just poured out his gay little heart to Best Friend Chowder. Everything from realising it n hiding it up to recently, to his MASSIVE CRUSH ON NURSEY not realising that a)the bathroom door is slightly open and b) nursey just walked into the bathroom to shower and overheard the crush part and what happens after that?!?!? (Ace Dex or no thats down to u but also i always love all ur ace Dex fics) (also also no pressure to answer! Have a great day)

I wanted to do something fun, so I wrote this from Chowder's perspective :)I guess technically this is an ace!dex fic, but only in passing

Read it on AO3 here!

Chowder looked up from where he was studying. He was pretty sure that he heard a noise outside his door. It wasn’t like he believed in Jenny and Mandy, except he totally did, but Ransom never gave him the impression that they were malicious, so he couldn’t imagine them making noise outside his room. Which meant that it had to be someone else.

After another creak (definitely not a pair of lesbian ghosts, then, since ghosts don’t have weight and they couldn’t make the floorboards shift around), there was a pause, then a light tap on his closed door.

Happy to have a distraction from his ichthyology textbook, he bounced out of his chair and pulled the door open. Definitely not ghosts! On the other side of the door was a slightly distressed looking Dex. Well, distressed for Dex, which was two parts angry and one part really, really tired.

“Hey, Dex. Wanna come in? What’s on your mind?” Chowder already knew what was on his mind.

There was only one reason that Dex ever looked like that, and it made Chowder almost long for the textbook he was dying to get away from just minutes earlier. He loved Nursey and he loved Dex, but if he had to talk to Dex about Nursey or Nursey about Dex one more time, he might actually lock them in their room together so they couldn’t keep escaping to his.

Dex shuffled around for a minute like he was going to run away, probably because Dex was just about the most emotionally constipated person in the entire Haus. Eventually, he scrubbed a hand through his hair and nodded.

He made his way straight to Chowder’s bed, just like he always did when he came to talk to Chowder about his feelings, so that he could hug Sharkie to his chest. Yup, definitely a Nursey problem.

Chowder sat back down on his desk chair, facing Dex. Over the years that all three of them had been friends, Chowder had perfected how to talk to Dex and Nursey about problems. With Nursey, you had to keep pressing, because he was likely to get off topic (accidentally on purpose) if he wasn’t kept on track. Dex, though, needed a lot of silence so that he could take his time to form this thoughts.

So, that’s what Chowder did. They sat together in silence, and Chowder tried his hardest not to look longingly at his textbook, because even though this was valuable time he could be spending pretending to study, his friend was more important than that.

It didn’t take Dex long at all finally blurt out, “I have a problem.”

Which… duh. That was pretty clear from the fact that he was hugging Sharkie so tight that it looked like his eyes were about to pop out. And because that Nursey had already been by that morning and mentioned that it looked like Dex hadn’t slept in his bed last night. Chowder didn’t say that, though, because of the whole silence thing, and also because that would be super rude.

“Let’s pretend that you aren’t in a relationship with Farmer. And that you have a crush on someone, but you don’t want to make things awkward because you spend a lot of time with them, and you’re pretty sure they hate you. Oh and in this scenario, you’re also, uh… You know what, fuck it. I’m so fucking in love with Nursey, dude. And it’s seriously cramping my style. What the fuck do I do?”

Chowder was pretty sure that Shitty had stashed some emergency fireworks in the basement, and he almost felt like searching for them so that he could set them off to celebrate the fact that finally one of them admitted it. Instead, he nodded solemnly.

“Well, you… talk to Nursey about it?”

The look on Dex’s face was hilarious and Chowder had a hard time not laughing at him. His eyes were so wide they looked like dinner plates, and his eyebrows practically disappeared into his hairline.

“What? No! I can’t do that. Chowder, c’mon, man.”

Dex stood up and walked the few fee over to Dex. He put both hands on Dex’s shoulders and made sure to look him straight in the eye. “Dude, i love you. It’ll be okay. I can even moderate if you want!”

Instead of giving Dex time to respond, or think about it, or even process what he was doing, Chowder walked over to the bathroom so that he could get Nursey (boy, was it convenient having connecting rooms). Chowder resisted the urge to bang his head against the bathroom door, because holy crap his life would be so much easier if his two best friends just talked to each other for once. Instead, he opened it.

The thing was, when three 20 year old guys share a bathroom in a frat house, you learn to stop expecting anything when you went in said bathroom. Sometimes it was clean (mostly that was because of Dex), but sometimes it was full of gross dirty laundry that sometimes forgot to grab after they showered. And at least one time, someone (Chowder still wasn’t sure who it was, and frankly he didn’t want to know) had left a sex toy stuck to the wall of the shower.

So, at least a little part of him wasn’t super surprised when something tumbled out of the door when he pulled it open. He was, however, surprised to see that the thing that fell into his room was, in fact, a very naked and slightly damp Nursey, who scrambled to grab the towel a few feet away that Chowder guessed he had wrapped around his waist before he fell.

Nursey turned an amazing shade of red and blurted out, “I was showering. I wasn’t eavesdropping… on purpose?”

If it were possible, which Chowder would have said it wasn’t, except he saw it for himself, Dex looked even more embarrassed than Nursey was. Somehow he looked both incredibly pale, and bright red at the same time. It was actually really impressive. You wouldn’t know it, though, from how steady his voice was.

“How much did you hear, Nursey?”

Instead of answering right away, Nursey slowly picked himself up off the floor (and it kind of looked like he hurt himself, which wouldn’t be at all a surprise to Chowder). He carefully wrapped his towel around his waist, making sure to knot it tightly this time.

When he finally had nothing to fake distraction with, he shuffled his feet and muttered, “Uh, I definitely didn’t hear you say that you’re in love with me.”

Dex groaned and buried his face in Sharkie, then immediately pulled back and pushed Sharkie to the side, which Chowder thought was very rude. There was nothing wrong with hugging a plushie, even Bitty had one and he was one of the strongest people Chowder knew.

Chowder looked between Nursey and Dex to see who would start first, but neither of them looked like they were going to talk any time soon, which was hilarious to him, since he could barely get a minute to himself with all the talking they normally wanted to do about each other. The second they had to talk to each other, they both clammed up.

Chowder had to do everything around here!

“So, Nursey, what do you think of what Dex said about his crush hating him?”

Nursey frowned, and wow was that a weird look on him. Even when he was complaining to Chowder about how annoying Dex was, nagging about making sure his dirty laundry was in a hamper, or that his books weren’t all over the floor, or about how frustrating it was that Dex as so cute when he nagged, he never actually frowned. Nursey’s face was always chill.

“I don’t hate him. Like, at all. You’re my best friend, C, but Dex is… Dex.”

On Chowder’s bed, Dex snorted. “Fucking eloquent, Nurse. I can really hear that poet in you coming out.”

Nursey opened his mouth to respond, with something totally unrelated that would end up getting them so off topic, Chowder was sure. So, naturally, he cut off Nursey to keep that from happening.

“So if you don’t hate him, then how do you feel about him having feelings about you?”

For someone who was 6’2” and basically pure muscle, and also basically naked, he looked awfully small standing there under Dex’s suddenly very focused gaze. “I dunno. I figured he hated me, too. Which is why i never told him what a massive crush I have on him.”

Chowder beamed at them. It had only taken two years and two months, but finally they were making progress! He gave Nursey a tight squeeze, even though it meant getting a little wet, and squeezed Dex’s knee as he passed by on the way to his desk. If it were possible to look smug while holding an ichthyology textbook and a neon highlighter, Chowder was pretty sure he did.

“I’ll just head downstairs to study, while you two talk about things.”

On his way out the door, he heard dex clear his throat and say, “so, i guess i wanna date you, but the thing is, I’m ace and-”

His best friends were going to be boyfriends, soon enough, and when he got downstairs, Bitty was making vinegar pie. Man, life was good.

[plusorminuscongress]

Something Fishy…

Something Fishy… By Neely Tucker Published May 07, 2020 at 09:09AM

From “The Fishes of North America,” 1898. Illustration by John Petrie. Rare Books/Special Collections. 

This is a guest post by Andrew Gaudio, a reference librarian in the Researcher & Reference Services Division. 

Human beings have been fishing for a very long time, but the actual study of fish did not begin until the middle of the 16th century. Things were not exactly precise.

At the time, the definition of a fish was any animal that lived in water. Dolphins, whales, and even hippopotami were all considered fish. We can agree this was a little too broad. (For the record, a fish is a limbless cold-blooded vertebrate with gills and fins living in water.)

Enter the hero of our story, French zoologist Pierre Belon. In 1551, he published “L’historie naturelle des estranges poissons marins,” or, “The Natural History of Strange Marine Fish.” The publisher was one R. Chaudiere of Paris (no further information survives). It ran about 110 pages, had 10 woodcut images of fish as well as a picture of a sea serpent, hippopotamus and a dolphin.

Where’s the hero stuff, you ask?

Right in front of you! This was the first book ever printed to contain an image of a fish!  Johannes Gutenberg had set off the revolution in Western publishing (using movable metal type) in Germany in 1455, but more than a century later, this was the first tome to picture a fish. (The things you learn at the Library!) This makes Belon’s work one of the foundational works of ichthyology, the scientific study of fish.

Second – and this is important — Belon backed into his spot in history. He was actually writing about dolphins (which are mammals). The only reason fish are pictured at all is to make sure readers could tell the difference between certain species of fish and dolphins.

From “L’historie naturelle des estranges poissons marins,”  Paris, 1551. 

For example, the image above is a woodcut of a tuna. Here’s Belon’s description: “Seemingly the tuna, being a very large fish, having some likeness with the dolphin, has given rise to the occasion –  by many who may not recognize it – to suspect it for a dolphin. But in the end to remove this error, I wanted to provide its image, and moreover adding nothing of its description, for I do not claim to put anything in writing in this book, which does not suit the exterior and interior anatomy of the dolphin.”

So, while Belon was there first, we need a pretty big asterisk by his achievement.

By the 1700s, the modern definition of fish had emerged. Ever since, books about fish have looked more like current science. One of the first detailed studies of fish is the 22 volume “Histoire naturelle des poissons,”  or “Natural History of Fish,” by French ichthyologists Achille Valenciennes and Georges Cuvier. Their book was so massive that it was published over the course of 20 years, from 1828 to 1849.  It described over 2,000 species of fish, classified them into different families and groups, then gave them scientific names in Latin. Many of these names are still in use. A copy of this massive work is held in our general collections. Alas, it is not yet digitized, so it isn’t available online.

Title page of “The Fishes of North America,” by William Harris. 1898.

Of course, no discussion of fish would be complete without the late 19th century series, “The Fishes of North America,” by William Harris.  It was published as a monthly subscription from 1891 to 1898, targeted at anglers who had an interest in the details of the fish they were most likely to catch.

Each section – called a fascicle — contained two lithographs of Petrie’s paintings. At left is an image of the title page of the first fascicle. At the top of this story is Petrie’s image of a yellow perch.

These are just a handful of the rare and unique items we have on ichthyology in our vast collections. You can check them out in our online catalog.

Subscribe to the blog— it’s free! — and the largest library in world history will send cool stories straight to your inbox.

Read more on https://loc.gov

[pirate-autobot]

The Experiment: Ch. 4

Sometimes when you clean up, you find some things you have forgotten, and suffer the consequences of forgetting.

The Captain Underpants gem au is by @angerydj

Nine months came, and nine months left. The infant gems were finally “born”. The experiment can properly begin.

And a new chaos began in its wake.

Despite Citrine and all of the other scientist gems providing everyone with the necessary information for caring for the infants, nobody was prepared. Especially when they were crying.

With all the noise in the colony, Red Agate was thankful he had a place just outside.

Another unfortunate side effect of the experiment was that Citrine was constantly bragging about her raising of her orange peridot. That was something Red Agate especially hated about the experiment. At least now he wasn’t the only one.

But with the birth of the infant gems, it meant Red Agate actually had to start getting to work on the school.

Him and the other teachers at long last entered the building. And set out to clean everything up. The day started out simple enough.

The building used to be a hospital of sorts where gems could tend to whatever cracks in their gems and damages to their forms that were too much to handle. The outdated equipment was salvaged, upgraded, and relocated. Walls had to be knocked down to make a few classrooms bigger.

Lining the walls were lockers made for the gems to store extra supplies they may need. A lone peridot was programming all of them each with a unique code for the gem that it would belong to.

Red Agate stopped at one door. It had a hand scanner above a small console. Either put in the access code, or put your hand up. He put his left hand on the scanner. Nothing happened. He took it off and wiped the old pad clean and repeated the process. Nothing happened. He growled and kicked the door a few times before someone cleared their throat behind him. A bismuth. Red Agate watched the gem walk towards him, put her hand on the pad, and the door unlocked and slid open. Red Agate grumbled as he entered the room.

It was an office of sorts. Everything needed to be dusted, but everything he would need was already there. 

There was something familiar about the room. Red Agate was certain he had never been to Earth before. But after the time he had spent there already, he was not sure anymore. He walked to the large window taking up the far wall. It gave him a view of the courtyard in the center of the school. He imagined watching the young gems running around.

He imagined gem soldiers in their spots.

“Look at them down there.” Said Onyx, “Pathetic. I know you can sort them out.”

“Yes sir.” Red Agate said. He noticed an agate like him. His gem was in a similar shape in the the same spot as his. But he was different. He smiled and greeted every gem he passed by.

He was different...

“Do we need to make it bigger?”

“Huh?” Red Agate asked

“The room. Do we need to make it bigger?” The bismuth asked

“Don’t touch this room.” Red Agate snapped “It’ll be my office.”

“Sure thing.” The bismuth said, realizing she wasn’t needed.

Onyx. Red Agate remembered Onyx. The gem was his superior. One of the toughest gems ever made.

He told him to keep gems in line. And he did. But then, there was another Red Agate. He was like him, but different. He wore a cape...

Another...

Red Agate shook his head, hoping to clear his mind. It worked for the time being. He joined the other gems walking through the hall. A couple peridots were handling the wires and tech around the school, two bismuths were knocking down walls and building new ones. Red Agate made his way downstairs and found a large space with tables and in the far corner was Blue Agate. 

He felt his spots glow as his face heated up.

She was hauling giant canisters into a space in the far corner of the room. When she started struggling Red Agate ran to her rescue. 

“Uh hey! Hi!” He said as she dropped the canister in its rightful spot.

“Oh! Hi there. You’re the red agate from the ship, right?” Blue Agate asked

“Ye-yeah, eh ah. Um, I was wondering do, uh, do you need any help?” He asked

“I think I’ve got a handle on this.” Blue Agate walked in the back. “But... if you want... I know I could use help with-oh.” When she came back with a drum under each arm. Red Agate was gone.

He was panting just outside of the room. Stars, she was beautiful. How was he going to talk to her? How? HOW?!

He groaned as he walked away from the school and out of the colony. The entire way. He stopped before the spot of fusion.

They were breaking the law, whoever fused here. He growled and stomped over to the dusty ground. No gems needed to get any big ideas. He made to kick away the and, but found himself stopping.

No... please....

“You are not real!” He yelled to the ceiling. “Whoever you are, or were, or whatever, I am the agate in charge!” 

Whatever voice he heard didn’t talk back. Good! He showed it! Whatever the voice was, it was giving him a headache. His hands heated up and he ground his teeth together. He continue doing his walk and groan out to the beach. His groaning stopped when he finally made it to the coral reef. Perhaps this would brighten up his day.

He had read a few of the human books on ichthyology. He looked at all the fish.

“Damselfish,” he said noticing one, “Yellow tang. Oh, a seahorse.” He knelt down and noticed an ugly fish on the ocean floor. He struggled with the name, but remembered it eventually.

“Toadfish.” He said, giving the bottomdweller a poke. It opened its mouth and let out a sound. It was like a cross between a hum and a whistle, but it was LOUD. 

Red Agate stood up and covered his ears, ready to stomp the fish. A high pitched squeal made him look up. Dolphins. A pod of them. They swam gracefully above him. Occasionally they dipped down to get a fish snack.

Interesting creatures.

Having calmed down, he returned to the land. He looked back at the water. At his reflection. He cracked a smile.

What?

He chased the retreating water to get a better look. He opened his mouth. He ran over them with his tongue. He knew he had sharp teeth, but they weren’t that sharp before!

He retreated back to the colony, to the gem hospital. It wasn’t ready yet. So he went to the science district. Hopefully a gem(not Citrine) would have a reason for why this happened to him.

“Fascinating,” the tanzanite said, for the seventh time. Red Agate sighed with his mouth open, taping his fingers on the table he sat on. “Really. It’s just... fascinating.”

“I get it! I’m fascinating! But why!” Red Agate yelled, jumping off the table.

“... I don’t know.” Tanzanite said bluntly

“Have you tried changing forms to make them change back?” Another voice cut in.

Across the lab, a hunk of machinery was being carried by a short watermelon tourmaline. His gem looked like a magenta green spike in place of his right eye. A monocle in a similar shape and shade covered his left eye.

“You think I would not have tried that first?” Red Agate asked, running a hand through his hair.

“Ha! You’re an agate! Sometimes I’m not sure how smart you guys are!” Said the tourmaline, dropping his tech to approach the two gems.

“Hey! Hey,” Tanzanite held her hands up, standing in between. “Calm down, the both of you. P, don’t you have something better to do? Anywhere else?” The tourmaline crossed his arms. He scoffed and finally left.

“P?” Red Agate asked, taking a seat on the table again.

“An unfortunate designation caused him to reduce it to P.” Tanzanite explained with a sigh. “Now. If your form is not giving you any trouble, other than your teeth, then we need to go to the core of the problem.” Tanzanite pulled up a chair and stared at the unshapely gem. “I have never seen a gem like that before. A very strange shape.” She looked up at Red Agate, expecting some kind of explanation. Begrudgingly, she finally got it.

“It was an accident. I can’t remember anything before it.” He said, looking away.

“Are you sure about that?” Tanzanite questioned, tapping the gem.

“I get flashes of... something. Memories, hallucinations, something, but nothing makes sense.” Red Agate added quickly, waving his left hand to swat hers away.

“Do you remember... any gems?” Tanzanite asked

“I’m not doing this.” Red Agate said, sliding off the table.

“So, I would take that as a no? Or do you remember, but it was bad memories?” Tanzanite called after him. Red Agate froze at the door.  His shoulders slumped with a sigh. This was going to be painful. As if the day couldn’t get any worse.

“Don’t tell anyone about this. Or I’ll shatter you with my bare hands.” Red Agate growled.

“Got it.” Came Tanzanites fearful response

“An onyx.” He said. “Not just any onyx. He was my leader. Taught me everything I know for teaching gems everything they know. There were training gems, and one stood out. I also remember a peridot when I woke up. I remember Citrine when she...” he paused

He was on the ground. Mechanics were sparking. She knelt by him.

Everything hurt. His gem hurt. Something was missing. Everything felt hot. Too hot.

“They appear stable.” She said

What was missing? It was important.

I’m here! I’m here!

I... I can’t...

I’m right here!!!

“Sneedly. That clumping clod!” Red Agate yelled

“Eat everything up.” Citrine said, holding a spoon in front of her peridots mouth. He opened up to eat it all. “I know how much you like your supplements, but I have had to hold back. Just to make sure the other infant gems catch up.”

“CITRIIIIINE!” Came a bellow that shook her home.

Citrine sighed and stood. 

“Pearl? Please be ready in case I need you.” She said

Citrine stood in front of her door. She adjusted her visor and waited. Stomping footsteps slowly made their way here. The door was pulled out of its jamb. A hot fist was wrapped around Citrines neck. She felt her feet lift off the ground.

“You have some explaining to do, bub.” Red Agate growled

“It seems I do. Before that,” Citrine started, pushing something into Red Agates gut. He looked down at the inactive destabilizer in her hands. “You might want to cool down first.” Citrine was put down on the floor, but his hand was still wrapped around her neck.

“What am I to you? Am I just another experiment?!” Red Agate asked. “Answer me!” Citrine stared up at him. Unafraid and unyielding.

“Yes.” She said, her voice steady. “It was an experiment and a punishment for you. I was part of it, but not the leader.”

“What did you do to me?!” Red Agate asked, his voice laced with desperation. His eyes burned, his fists burned, everything burned. And he wanted Citrine to do the same. Everything felt hotter than fire and he wanted the gem in front of him to melt in it. But her firm expression slowly morphed into one of confusion.

“You... don’t know. You don’t remember.” She said, “Fascinating.”

“Say fascinating one more time!” Red Agate yelled

“Let go of Citrine.” Came anothers voice. Red Agate looked to his right. An orange tinted pearl pushed another inactive destabilizer into his side.

“A Pearl? You don’t deserve him.” Red Agate said, finally letting go.

“He is brilliant and helpful. More than I can say about you.” Citrine commented. Pearl moved to her side, taking her hand.

“Pearl, listen to me. Do as I say.” Citrine said, despite not looking away from Red Agate. She stepped closer and activated the destabilizer.

“I would advise against this.” Pearl commented

“Pearl.” She said, “I need you to take my gem and bubble it. Do not release me until Red Agate returns to apologize for his actions. That should give you more than enough time to figure things out for yourself.” 

She turned the destabilizer around and jammed it into her own chest. The yellow grid lines climbed up and around her body. She didn’t scream, but instead looked into Red Agates eyes.

In a puff of smoke, her gem fell to the ground. Pearl scooped it up into a bubble. It was then the volcano, full of pent up fire and anger, finally exploded.

[tadhglang-blog]

The Earth Path 1. At least once each week during your Candidate year, spend fifteen minutes or more in direct contact with the natural world. This may be in a wild place (such as a forest or a seashore), in a place recovered by nature (such as an overgrown vacant lot), or in a place created by humanity and nature together (such as a garden or a park). Part of your time in nature should be spent in the practice of stillness, which simply involves sitting, keeping your mind empty of thoughts and distractions, and being wordlessly aware of everything around you. Part should be spent in the practice of focus, which involves detailed attention to some specific thing - a tide pool, a wild plant, the living things in a six-inch-square patch of grass, or the like. 2. Read at least nine books on the natural history of the local ecological region in which you live, learning about the living things, the natural ecosystems and biotic communities, the patterns of weather and water, and the natural transformations of the land over time. Relate as much of this information as possible to your own experiences of nature. (Please note: the point of this requirement is to learn about your local ecological region itself, the land, its biomes, and the nonhuman living things that inhabit it. Books on general ecology or environmental science, without a specific focus on either the local ecological region in which you live or a slightly larger area which includes your local region, don't satisfy the requirement; neither do books about human peoples and cultures, or books about human impact on the environment.)  For most people, your local ecological region will extend no more than 100 miles from your home, and may extend a shorter distance; any major ecological shift (woodland to prairie, mountains to plain, desert to grassland, hardwood forest to softwood forest, etc) marks the end of your local region. 3. Make three changes in your lifestyle in order to take less from the Earth and give more back, and maintain those changes through your Candidate year. Different people lead different lives, and a change that would be easy for one might be difficult or impossible for another; Druidry also affirms the need of individuals to make their own choices, so the choice of changes to make is left up to each candidate. Whatever you choose should be something you're willing to keep doing for an entire year; a small change you can sustain is better than a larger one that proves unworkable. Some things that would meet the requirements of the Earth Path include buying locally grown organic food, even when it costs more; using public transit, bicycling, or walking to work, every day or at regular intervals, instead of driving; decreasing your household energy use by, for instance, replacing an electric appliance with a hand-powered one; replacing toxic cleaning or yard  products with ecologically safe ones; composting your kitchen scraps and yard waste; and so on. Donations and the like supporting political or environmental advocacy organizations do not qualify. The Earth Path requires you to change your own life, rather than trying to make other people change theirs. 4. Plant at least one tree during your Candidate year, and water and tend it until it is well established. Should you be unable to plant a tree outside, please contact the Grand Grove for permission to plant and tend an indoor tree of some kind, such as a bonsai. The Sun Path During your Candidate year, celebrate a cycle of Druid holy days. In the AODA the two solstices (approximately December 21 and June 21 each year) and the two equinoxes (approximately March 20 and September 23 each year) are traditionally celebrated and should be a part of your Druid calendar. Many members of the AODA also celebrate the "cross quarter days" of Imbolc (February 2), Belteinne (May 1), Lughnasadh (August 1), and Samhuinn (November 1), while others choose different days based on their own spiritual and cultural interests.  You are free to do either of these, or to celebrate the solstices and equinoxes alone. The holy days may be celebrated alone or with others, using a ritual you create yourself or one drawn from other sources. Participation in community celebrations qualifies, so long as your role in the celebration is not simply that of a spectator. Write a detailed account of each celebration in your Druid journal, and write at least nine pages on the place of seasonal celebrations in your own Druid path and in the Druid tradition in general. The Moon Path Practice some form of meditation regularly during your Candidate year. While any form of meditation that involves focusing and directing the attention will qualify, the particular method taught in The Druidry Handbook, which is called "discursive meditation," is particularly recommended. While many people who are new to meditation need to work up to daily practice, daily meditation should be part of your life by the end of your Candidate year. In addition, the Sphere of Protection ritual should be learned and practiced daily during your Candidate year. Ovate, Bardic, or Druid Exploration The work of our Order has three aspects, reflecting the threefold division of the ancient Celtic Druids. The Ovate branch focuses on the natural and earth sciences related to the natural world: ecology, zoology, botany, geology, hydrology, limnology, oceanography, potamology, vulcanology, astronomy, meteorology, climatology, phenology, paleontology, glaciology, ornithology, entomology, ichthyology, mycology; some fields within general biology, chemistry, and physics; and systems theory as it relates to one or more of these sciences. ("Ecology" is defined here in its proper scientific sense, as "the study of whole systems in the living world.") The Bardic branch focuses on the arts and crafts: painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, photography, and other visual fine arts; music; poetry; dance; weaving, spinning, knitting, quilting, embroidery, and other fiber arts; fine joinery, woodturning, wood carving, and whittling; pottery; glasswork, including glassblowing and the making of stained glass; smithcraft, including bladesmithing, fine blacksmithing, whitesmithing, silversmithing, and goldsmithing; calligraphy; and bookbinding. The Druid branch focuses on Druid philosophy, religion, spirituality, magic, mysticism, divination, and ritual.   Members who pursue the Second Degree are required to choose one, and may choose more than one, of these branches of Druid practice to pursue. In the First Degree, we require simply that you choose and carry out an activity that introduces you to some aspect of one of these three branches that you do not already know or practice.   Examples of activities that qualify as Explorations for the First Degree include the following: Taking a series of classes on a relevant subject, such as painting or bird identificationEnrolling in a correspondence course and completing it satisfactorilyDoing volunteer work in a relevant field, such as habitat restoration or arts therapyDesigning and carrying out a personal course of study in a relevant area If you have any questions about the appropriateness of an activity as an Exploration, please contact the Grand Grove with the details. Your Exploration should involve at least 20 hours of work on your part in a single subject, and it must be in a subject that is new to you. If you are already a guitar player, for example, taking further classes in playing the guitar will not count as an Exploration, nor will taking up another stringed instrument. On the other hand, taking a class in a radically different musical instrument, such as the clarinet or the bagpipe, would qualify; equally, taking a class in painting or poetry would qualify. The point of this requirement is to encourage you to expand your horizons. Please note: as of December 2010, history, folklore, languages, and other cultural studies do not count for any of the Explorations, although Third Degree candidates working on a program approved by the Grand Grove prior to that time may continue their approved course of study and work. The material in The Druidry Handbook which suggests folkloric studies is no longer current. As of December 2012, healing modalities no longer qualify for the Ovate Exploration, although anyone who received Grand Grove permission to study a healing modality prior to the end of the grace period in June 2013 may still continue in their chosen course of study. Human sciences (anthropology, sociology, medicine, human ecology, etc.) do not qualify for the Ovate Explorations; the point of the Ovate work is to study the earth and its systems, not to study humanity. Your choice of an Exploration in the First Degree does not limit your choice of a direction in the Second—thus you can do a Bardic Exploration in the First Degree, for example, and go on to become an Ovate or Druid Companion in the Second. Your choice of an Exploration will, however, determine your title as an Apprentice, for you will be initiated as either an Ovate Apprentice, a Bard Apprentice, or a Druid Apprentice. You may, if you wish, do an Exploration in more than one branch of our Order, and receive more than one title at your Apprentice initiation. Your Druid Notebook During your Candidate year, you should keep a running account of the work you do

[astralfrontier]

Now that FFXIV’s Stormblood expansion has been with us for a few months, I wanted to gather up everything I know about crafting in the new world and share it in a single coherent place.

Getting to 70

You should have all your Disciple of Hand classes at 70. If you do not, I highly recommend the 1-70 guides available at FFXIV Guild.

I strongly encourage you to keep your Mining and Botany up to date as well. If not, you will be buying a lot of materials you could farm for yourself.

Post-70

Red and Yellow Scrip

Scrip is a custom currency for crafters. In Stormblood, it comes in two flavors: Red (basic) and Yellow (advanced). Gatherers have an identical system, but the two scrip types cannot be exchanged. That is, Red Crafter’s Scrip (for example) is not the same as Red Gatherer’s Scrip.

To obtain scrip, look at the Timer (control-U), then click on Rowena’s House of Splendors. This will tell you the items you can deliver for the day to receive scrip. Each collectible must be manufactured, or gathered, as a collectible, and must meet a minimum collectibility value. Craft this stuff the same way you would try to create any HQ item, but with the Collectable Synthesis ability activated.

Specialization

You can use the Specialist System to specialize in up to three crafting classes. These work very similar to combat jobs: you get an equippable soul, along with specific abilities. Having the soul equipped also gives you +20 to both Craftsmanship and Control.

What should you specialize in? I recommend Alchemy, Goldsmithing, and Weaving if you are trying to do it all yourself, as these classes create most of the precursors for high-level recipes.

You can spend red scrip to change your specialization later. See the wiki page for details.

Master Recipes and Regional Folklore

The Splendors Vendor in Rhalgar’s Reach (X: 9, Y: 12) sells six fieldcraft items: Tomes of Geological, Botanical, and Ichthyological folklore for Gyr Abania and Othard. Each tome costs 50 Rowena’s Token (Regional Folklore). These tokens are sold by the Scrip Exchange vendor a few doors down, 50 Red Scrip per token. Thus, you’ll need 2500 Red Gatherers’ Scrip per Tome, or 15,000 for all of them. For most crafting needs, you only need the Geological and Botanical Tomes.

The Scrip Exchange vendor also sells Master V recipe books for all crafting professions, costing 900 Red Crafter’s Scrip apiece. These contain the level 70 two-star recipes you want to eventually make.

Material Gathering

The most useful tool for gathering from ephemeral and legendary nodes is Garland Tools. The site includes maps, rotations, and timers for rare nodes. Other sites, like FFXIV Clock, also include timers, but Garland Tools pulls it all together.

Aetherial Reduction

You’ll be doing a lot of farming for crystals and clusters. FFXIV includes a tool to help you acquire these very quickly: Aetherial Reduction. You must be level 56 or higher, and complete a quest, to unlock this. See the link for details.

When you see an Ephemeral Node on your map, make sure Collector’s Glove is active, then harvest from the node. Once the node is exhausted, you can force it to respawn, by tapping two nearby nodes. In Stormblood, gathering nodes come clustered together. You don’t have to fully harvest the regular nodes, just hit them once. Ephemeral Nodes will continue to spawn for four hours Eorzea time.

Once you have harvested the collectibles, right-click on them in your bag and select “Aetherial Reduction”.

Aethersands

Many high-level recipes call for one or more types of “Aethersand”. These can be obtained by Aetherial Reduction.

You can find the complete list, along with notes on how and when to find them, here.

Getting Geared

Your goal is to reach at least 290 equipped with your crafting gear. I did this by creating HQ 290 gear myself, made by WVR, LTW, and CRP. You can see this gear here, along with recommended melds: http://ift.tt/2gHsWPw.

In addition to this gear, the Scrip Exchange vendor in Rhalgar’s Reach sells level 300 items for Yellow Scrip. The main hand tools cost 1300 scrip apiece, while completely outfitting yourself in the gear for a single class costs 2400 scrip. I personally opted for a universally usable crafting set, so I crafted the 290 gear and am buying the yellow scrip tools. You must still craft or buy offhands yourself, so don’t neglect BSM too.

The recommended melds came from Katya’s post and cost me about 4 million gil. You might find it cheaper to pursue the Yellow Scrip gear, but grinding crafting with Potent Spiritbond Potions active should let you convert your spiritbound gear and sell it for this much money. Either way, check the rotations below for minimum stats, and make sure you meet those stats.

Rotations

At 70, I use three rotations for crafting, depending on what I’m making. I used these to craft my HQ 290 gear.

Credit for the 40 and 80 durability macros goes to Mahiko, in the FFXIV Guild Leveling Guide. Credit for the two-star macro goes to Katrisa Ashe of Ultros, posting at Stormblood 1* and 2* Macros.

Break these into separate macros, separated by the /echo lines. Also, don’t forget to make sure your cross-class skills include every ability named in the macro! That includes Comfort Zone, Ingenuity II, Byregot’s Blessing, Steady Hand II, Muscle Memory, Innovation, Waste Not, and Piece by Piece.

40 Durability

Minimum stats: 407 CP. Use NQ Tempura Platter as your food. Use this for precursor materials (cloth, ingots, alchemy, etc.).

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/ac "Comfort Zone" <me><wait.2>

/ac "Inner Quiet" <me><wait.2>

/ac "Steady Hand II" <me><wait.2>

/ac "Patient Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Basic Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Manipulation II" <me><wait.2>

/ac "Steady Hand II" <me><wait.2>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Innovation" <me><wait.2>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Great Strides" <me><wait.2>

/echo 40 DUR Part 1 finished <se.1>

/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>

/ac "Ingenuity II" <me><wait.2>

/ac "Careful Synthesis III" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Careful Synthesis III" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Careful Synthesis III" <me><wait.3>

/echo 40 DUR Part 2 finished <se.14>

80 Durability

Minimum stats: 407 CP. Use NQ Tempura Platter as your food. Use this for non-Master recipes.

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/ac "Muscle Memory" <wait.3>

/ac "Comfort Zone" <wait.2>

/ac "Inner Quiet" <wait.2>

/ac "Steady Hand II" <wait.2>

/ac "Hasty Touch II" <wait.3>

/ac "Hasty Touch II" <wait.3>

/ac "Basic Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Basic Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Basic Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Manipulation II" <wait.2>

/ac "Steady Hand II" <wait.2>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/echo 80 DUR Part 1 finished <se.1>

/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>

/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>

/ac "Ingenuity II" <wait.2>

/ac "Careful Synthesis III" <wait.3>

/ac "Careful Synthesis III" <wait.3>

/ac "Careful Synthesis III" <wait.3>

/ac "Careful Synthesis III" <wait.3>

/echo 80 DUR Part 2 finished <se.14>

Two-Star

Minimum stats: 1288 Craftsmanship, 467 CP. Use NQ Tempura Platter as your food (this is not optional).

If you start with about 2000 Quality (which should be easy enough), this should give you an HQ end product every time.

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/ac "Muscle Memory" <me> <wait.3>

/ac "Comfort Zone" <me> <wait.2>

/ac "Inner Quiet" <me> <wait.2>

/ac "Manipulation II" <me> <wait.2>

/ac "Steady Hand II" <me> <wait.2>

/ac "Piece by Piece" <me> <wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Observe" <me> <wait.3>

/ac "Focused Synthesis" <me> <wait.3>

/echo Advanced Part 1 finished <se.1>

/ac "Comfort Zone" <me> <wait.2>

/ac "Steady Hand II" <wait.2>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Prudent Touch" <me><wait.3>

/ac "Steady Hand" <me><wait.2>

/ac "Ingenuity II" <wait.2>

/ac "Innovation" <me><wait.2>

/ac "Great Strides" <wait.2>

/ac "Byregot's Blessing" <wait.3>

/echo Advanced Part 2 finished <se.1>

/ac "Careful Synthesis III" <wait.3>

/ac "Careful Synthesis III" <wait.3>

/ac "Careful Synthesis III" <wait.3>

/echo Advanced Part 3 finished <se.14>

[heckyeahlucilleballilovelucy]

Black Hat 2017: Researcher shows how phishing emails are getting so good they can even trick techies

Security experts agree that a sure-fire way to get your data compromised is to not train your staff in cybersecurity. However, as one researcher showed at Black Hat 2017, even solid training may not thwart the newest phishing scams.

We also need hardcoded solutions against today’s email and website spoofing, according to Karla Burnett, security engineer at mobile payment company Stripe.

In a Black Hat presentation titled “Ichthyology,” Burnett demonstrated how even her colleagues – who helped her set up rigged sites as part of a test – fell victim to their own phishing experiment.

How? The answer to this question, Burnett believes, can be found in Daniel Kahneman’s book “Thinking, Fast and Slow.” The book explains how the human brain uses two modes of thinking when faced with decisions: System 1 is instinctive, and System 2 is more methodical and calculated.

Burnett argues that with the huge influx of emails to our inbox every day, it’s impossible to apply System 2 to every single message. Couple this with the fact that phishing sites now include “trailouts” (redirects to the original site they are impersonating) and you can trick even technical users into handing over their credentials.

“People who know what they’re doing fall for this stuff,” she said.

While two factor authentication (2FA) is good, it does little to protect users against phishing, according to the researcher. SMS is just one example of a flawed system that renders 2FA nearly useless in a phishing attack.

Burnett advocates a technical solution. She proposed SSL client certificates for authenticating the domain making the request.

“The server requests a certificate, and the user’s machine serves it up,” she said. “They’re kind of like cookies but without all the downsides of cookies. They’re not a single shared secret being passed around everywhere.”

U2F (Universal 2nd Factor) would also work well, as it generates a unique credential for each domain every time that domain requires authentication.

“The underlying issue here is that any protection that relies on a human being making a reasonable decision is going to fail. We need to find technical solutions to this problem rather than just say, ‘We’ll train people and everything will be fine’,” Burnett concluded.

In the first three months of 2016, spam email containing attached files increased 50% from a year earlier, data from Bitdefender’s Antispam Lab revealed. Around the same time, spammers stepped up their use of new clever tactics like whaling and spear-phishing.

Locky and Petya, two emerging ransomware threats, were largely responsible for the uptick. Ransomware accounted for 15.5% of all measured e-mail antivirus detections last year. In other words, one in seven malicious email attachments delivered in Q1 2016 contained some form of ransomware.

from HOTforSecurity http://ift.tt/2v4bREQ