#cw: conservative

[rebeccathenaturalist]

So--long story short, a FedEx driver killed a rattlesnake that happened to be on someone's porch, not causing any immediate problems. This is an all too common practice here in the United States, where a significant portion of the population has the backwards idea that "the only good snake is a dead snake" and that the only way to deal with a venomous snake in the proximity of a house, or people in general, is to kill it. Never mind that snakes tend to move on if left alone, and that there are numerous entities that can be contacted to move the snake safely to another place if so desired, and that most bites occur when someone is harassing, handling, or trying to kill the snake.

Dr. Emily Taylor of California Polytechnic State University (@snakeymama on Twitter) has requested that people contact FedEx about their recent commercial glorifying the killing of the snake, which you can view here. I've included both her and my letters to the appropriate folks at FedEx. There are options for both email and snail mail correspondence, and the more people FedEx hears from about this appalling matter, the better.

It's 2024, almost 2025. We have tons of information on rattlesnake behavior and best practices in coexisting with them (to include training your dogs in snake avoidance). We know plenty about the importance they have in local ecosystems, and the devastation that has been done through people slaughtering them, sometimes in the thousands (I wrote about the ongoing problem of rattlesnake roundups and their inherent cruelty here.) There are multiple rattlesnake species that are endangered or otherwise threatened with extinction.

The vast majority of encounters with venomous snakes are benign, and the vast majority of bites come from someone (person, dog, etc.) confronting the snake that was just trying to defend itself. We've spent a lot of time in this country defaulting to killing anything that inconveniences us, but there are better ways to live safely in proximity to wildlife that don't involve violence. It just takes a little more effort and awareness, and most importantly a significant attitude change that no longer vilifies native wildlife simply trying to live their lives.

As Dr. Taylor mentioned, if you want to contact FedEx, here are your options:

"You can help by reposting this or by emailing to express your concern about the commercial: mediarelations@fedex.com and to the CEO at FWSmith@fedex.com. Or send letters to: Fred Smith, CEO Brie Carere, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Ryan Kelly, Vice President of Marketing FedEx Corporation 942 South Shady Grove Road Memphis, TN 38120 USA"

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

Brazilian Treehopper (Bocydium globulare)

(Photo in Public Domain)

Conservation Status- Unlisted

Habitat- Africa; Asia; North American; South America; Australia

Size (Weight/Length)- 6 mm

Diet- Sap

Cool Facts- No, those aren’t eyes. The Brazilian treehopper has a distinct protrusion sticking out of their thorax called a helmet. Scientists don’t fully understand why the insects grow these outgrowths, but it could be for a bizarre form of camouflage or dissuading predation. Despite being able to fly, the treehoppers only do so when startled. They prefer to crawl on the underside of leaves as they search for sap. Females lay their eggs directly inside the tissue of a leaf and after a few weeks a nymph emerges. After only a month of life, the Brazilian treehopper is ready to have offspring of their own.

Rating- 12/10 (Of the 3,270 treehopper species, this may be the weirdest.)

[welcometomypov]

"It's four years then Trump is gone" as if they haven't talked about creating a dictatorship and people not needing to vote again. As if they didn't talk about taking the right of voting of women away. Seriously. Fuck you.

Not a single person that I follow, live with, talk with, or vaguely know that belongs to the Republican party wants a dictatorship.

We've had discussions on how we'll embrace our Second Amendment right to STOP Trump if he tries to impose a dictatorship. We don't care if it accomplishes everything that we desire- that's NOT what America stands for and we won't stand for disrespect to our country. The Democrats don't have to worry about the majority of Republicans. If he tries to play dictator, we won't stand for it.

I EXIST ON THE REPUBLICAN SIDE. If someone was intending to take away my right to vote, I think I would HAVE HEARD OF IT. Zero people have ever INSINUATED THAT and it's sad that Democrats are walking around playing like they're not the only ones discussing it.

Also, if someone tries to take away my right to vote, every male in my family will riot. Voting is an American right. No one will change that.

You want to have sex with me? Or at me?

Alright, I guess that's your prerogative, but I'll pass.

[anghraine]

I'm trying to redirect my political thoughts from my fandom escape blog again, but I found something interesting enough that I thought I'd talk a little about it.

Occasionally I choose suffering (looking at the more granular 2024 exit poll breakdowns rather than the summaries that I mostly don't trust much at this point). Anyway, I did find something intriguing, if not particularly surprising, in the CNN exit polls, which were done in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin with a sample size of 22,914 voters.

(I mention the specific states forming the sample because this pretty notably excludes any blue states while including some reliably Republican ones.)

Anyway, most exit polls including CNN's let respondents identify their place on the US political spectrum: conservative, moderate, or liberal (reminder that "liberal" in US usage can be a pejorative for "less leftist than me" but also a shorthand for "radical leftist" but also for "anyone who doesn't seek a cishet white Christian ethnostate", but also can be a more neutral synonym for progressives and/or leftists and is often used that way, as here). So you can look at the election results for each of these ideological factions and what share of the overall sample size they represent.

The interesting thing: this "liberal" category accounted for very similar proportions to 2020 of the overall vote in the sample (24% in 2020, 23% in 2024—a difference well within the margin of error of exit polling). There is no need to explain liberals/leftists staying home in 2024: at least in terms of proportions of the overall electorate, they didn't. Just under 1/4 of voters in 2024 were liberals or leftists, just as in 2020.

Okay, if the most leftwards faction of the US political spectrum actually formed a similar proportion of the electorate, then who did they vote for?

Harris. In CNN's own exit polls from 2020, 89% of this faction voted for Biden, and (surprisingly!) a full 10% voted for Trump. God knows what motivated that 10% Trump share after four years of his hellscape of an administration at the height of COVID, but in any case, that support cratered in 2024. 91% of this group voted for Harris and only 4% for Trump. It's an estimate, but it looks like these very peculiar Trump voters had enough of him in 2024 and around half either voted third party this time or for Harris.

So which faction is Trump's victory coming from? Further consolidation of the far right?

In part, yes! 90% of conservatives voted for Trump in 2024, vs 85% in 2020—likely, some conservatives who voted third party or even for Biden in 2020 came "home" this year. However, conservative turnout was actually a little down in 2024, proportionally speaking: conservatives dropped from 38% of the sample in 2020 to 34% in 2024.

But there's one more major faction in all this: "moderates" or centrists. To be clear, we're talking about the US version of centrism, given that this is a US organization polling US voters about US politicians, not "Bernie would be center-right in Denmark" or whatever. This moderate faction jumped from 38% of the overall sample in 2020 to 42% in 2024, and they swung hard towards Trump, though Harris still won a plurality of them. In 2020, 64% of moderates voted for Biden vs 34% for Trump. In 2024, 57% of them voted for Harris vs 40% for Trump—that is, the Democratic lead among centrists dropped precipitously from +30 to +17.

Tl;dr—ideologically speaking, this data suggests that Trump owes his victory to gains among both right-wing and centrist voters rather than some faction of would-be leftists or progressives apathetically staying home or voting third-party or otherwise deserting Democrats (because they're insufficiently radical or for any other reason).

Oh, and if you're curious as to how this compares to CNN's 2016 exit polls, I also checked those! Harris's 84-point lead among the most leftwards faction is a significant improvement from HRC's 74-point lead in 2016. Trump also got 10% of that group in 2016, as in 2020, so it's this campaign—not Hillary's or Biden's—that managed to eat into whatever the hell is going on with that group.

Harris's +17 with moderates is actually a slight improvement on Hillary's +12 in 2016. Biden's jump to a +30 lead among centrists in 2020 represented either a backlash against Trump from centrists, or Biden's own rapport with that group, or some mysterious issue some of those voters had with both HRC and Harris (I wonder what it could be!!), or some combination thereof. Regardless, there are a lot of actual ideologically centrist voters in the USA and not just would-be leftists who haven't heard the good news of Marx yet. And Trump has an iron grip on the right wing at this point: he beat Hillary with conservatives by +65 in 2016, then beat Biden with an even larger margin of +71, then leapt to a 81-point lead over Harris with right-wing voters this year.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Okay, I know people as a general rule tend to not care about invertebrates as much as cute, fuzzy mammals, but this is a must-read if you care about animal welfare. The short version is that horseshoe crab blood has been used for decades in medicine as a way to test whether something is truly sterile; the blood clots in the presence of bacteria. Since then millions of horseshoe crabs have been captured and drained of blood, even though a synthetic alternative was developed a few years ago.

They go through a pretty brutal experience in the process. They're caught by fishermen who often throw them by their tails into a pile in the open air, and they're then trucked to a bleeding facility where they're strapped down and their blood is removed with needles jabbed directly into their hearts. Over half their blood may be taken, after which they're supposed to be returned to the ocean. However, it's likely many of them never make it back, instead turned into fish bait and sold by the same fishermen who caught them in the first place.

Apart from the fact that this is a horrific thing to put any animal through, the attrition due to fatalities has put a serious dent in horseshoe crab numbers. This is compounded by massive habitat loss, pollution, and the capture of horseshoe crabs as food, particularly as the females of one species are considered a delicacy. And other animals that rely on horseshoe crabs are suffering, too. The American rufa subspecies of the red knot, a medium-sized shorebird, is critically endangered as the horseshoe crab eggs it must have in order to successfully complete migration have become increasingly scarce, and it is likely the bird will become extinct if trends continue.

While there are guidelines for medical horseshoe crab harvest, they're considered optional. The few laws that exist are poorly enforced. Short of a complete ban on horseshoe crab blood in favor of the synthetic alternative, these animals are in very real danger of going extinct after a history spanning over 400 million years on this planet.

Thankfully, this article is not the first to bring forth the issues surrounding horseshoe crab harvest. Here are a few resources for further information and action (US based, though horseshoe crabs are threatened throughout their entire range):

Horseshoe Crab Conservation Network - https://horseshoecrab.org/conservation/

Wetlands Institute - https://wetlandsinstitute.org/conservation/horseshoe-crab-conservation/

Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition - https://hscrabrecovery.org/

[horrorshow]

i love when people point out the 'family is hell' theme in spn and then go like 'do not romanticise this!!! this post is not for you' as if spn itself didn’t end up with the family is hell brothers being soulmates happily meeting up in heaven after 15 seasons of dark romance tropes thrown upon them.

no one romanticizes 'family is hell' more than supernatural itself.

[dystopianroach]

As we enter the first roadkill season of the year (March - May), I’d like to remind everyone to SLOW DOWN THIS SPRING. Not only does speeding put your life at risk, but it risks many other’s lives, including mother animals and their offspring. In the case of the fascinating Virginia Opossum, the death of a mother may mean the death for the rest of her generation. I was very heartbroken to collect this carcass today with one remaining kit inside her pouch.

[alinedreams]

It's only "physical mutilation of children" when it's to sic the population against trans people; when it's them actually mutilating intersex babies, it's all "fine and dandy" and "correcting some mistakes". Which is odd, because when it comes to trans people, they swear that "God never makes mistakes"...

[thunder-opossum]

Love that my future career path is being taken away from me. The path I've dreamed of to help a doomed environment. To care for what makes this place worth staying.

The United States fails its people and its lands again.

Beautiful things are being destroyed. Diversity is being cut down like forests. Happiness is burned like fosil fuel.

Trump is the toddler that pushes over your carefully constructed tower. The indignant child who always takes.

Trump is not a representative of the people. He is everything they shouldn't be.

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

Luna Moth (Actias luna)

(Photo from Bug Under Glass)

Conservation Status- Unlisted

Habitat- Eastern North America

Size (Weight/Length)- 11 cm wingspan

Diet- Leaves (as caterpillar); Nothing (as adult)

Cool Facts- The luna moth is an iconic moth of pop culture. The luna moth is one of the largest moths in North America. Being a species of silk moth, the caterpillars weave a cocoon of silk before triggering its metamorphosis into a moth. After emerging from their cocoon, the moth must wait several hours before their wings dry before taking flight. The long tails on their wings are thought to disrupt bat’s echolocation. As they are only in their adult form for 10 days before dying, luna moths are a rare sight in the wild. 

Rating- 13/10 (Not just an ingredient in Skyrim.)

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Rainbow Jumping Spider (Chrysilla volupe): these colorful spiders were regarded as an extinct species for nearly 150 years, until they were finally rediscovered in 2018

The males of this species have a stunning, almost rainbow-like appearance, thanks to the bands of color and iridescent scales that cover their bodies.

Despite the fact that Chrysilla volupe is probably the most flamboyant spider in the world, it was still lost to science for nearly 150 years. The species was first described in 1879, but there were no documented sightings of it for 139 years after that, until researchers finally tracked it down again in 2018. The female of this species was also described for the very first time in 2018 -- prior to that, Chrysilla volupe was known only from male specimens.

The spiders have been found in certain parts of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan. Like most jumping spiders, they are quite small: the males can measure up to 5.44mm long (and that includes their outstretched legs), while the females are less than half that size.

Sources & More Info:

Journal of Entomology & Zoology Studies: Chrysilla volupe Spider Spotted in Eastern Ghats, India (PDF)

The Hindu: Rare Chrysilla volupe Spiders Discovered at Puttenahalli Lake

Arthropoda Selecta: First Description of the Female of Chrysilla volupe from India, with Notes on the Species' Distribution & Life History

Peckhamia: New Records of Jumping Spiders from Nepal

Global Biodiversity Information Facility: C. volupe

[hope-for-the-planet]

Usually, sharks don't have much interest in lionfish--this is due partially to their venomous spines, but also to the fact that the sharks don't recognize the nonnative fish as prey. The lack of predation by native predators like sharks is part of what makes lionfish such a damaging invasive species.

However, sharks became more interested after spearfishermen working to cull invasive lionfish started feeding the fish they were killing to nearby sharks. After receiving many lionfish "handouts", the fishermen observed sharks hunting and eating lionfish on their own.

This spurs hope that sharks could be "taught" to view lionfish as a viable source of food and contribute to limiting their numbers.

[bisexualmcqueen]

sat down and watched COTR two years late, enjoy excerpts from my liveblog :

part 1

[puppybugwill]

need a conservative man to threaten my life and r@pe me until im sobbing and willing to do anything … 💭💭💭

[thedigitalwave]

Seeing that bitchy crosstagger saying "hey antis 🥺 dont worry those filtht radqueers will never be accepted into society!!" Is just. Well. Telling, raw and gross.

You know, it's really really fucking strange to me that people genuinely say out loud that a group majorly composed by minorities trying to be themselves will never be accepted into normal society. What is normal society? Your everyone-stays-the-same, divide-all-into-distinct-groups, never-let-mental-illness-be-normal society? Cause that's not normal to me. That's fascist.

I know I'm saying a big word there. I don't mean it in the "all antis are secretly alt-right" way. I mean "all antis are explicitly conservative in some way", though.

How can you propose us the idea that everything needs to stay the same, never progress, that minorities need to stay minorities and privileged people need to stay privileged, that certain people should stay in the shadows, and not be conservative?

By saying transid-identifying people should never transition, you're saying that. By saying paraphiles should never be accepted, you're saying that.

I hope you realize what you're doing now. This isn't protecting anyone. This is maintaining the status quo.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

For those unaware, Burmese pythons have been a seriously destructive invasive species in the Florida Everglades for the past three decades thanks to a hurricane destroying a breeding facility. Other than the occasional big, old alligator, nothing eats them--but they eat everything. In some places, mammal species have been reduced to a tiny percentage of their former numbers--or have been extirpated entirely.

Because these snakes are so good at hiding, and they often populate the more remote areas of the Everglades, it's incredibly difficult to track them or determine how many of them are hiding there, though their impact is certainly obvious. Even people who spend time hunting the pythons only bring back a tiny fraction of the population; over 17,000 have been killed since 2000, and yet numbers are robust enough that native species have been eaten nearly to complete extermination. Both amateur and professional hunters are allowed to hunt Burmese pythons year-round anywhere on private land and in many public lands as well.

It was totally by accident that researchers came across a way to find these elusive animals. Opossums that had been fitted with radio collars for a separate study became victims of pythons, and the transmitters showed exactly where the snakes went after feeding. While some very large snakes were able to pass the collars when defecating, others retained them in their digestive systems. And as it turns out, the opossums were the perfect size for large female pythons mature enough to lay plenty of eggs. Every female removed from the ecosystem meant that many fewer being born in the future, putting at least a small dent in the population of invasive pythons.

Now there are plans to fit opossums and other mammals with simple tracking collars that are more likely to stay in a python's system even after digestion. Quicker response will mean more of them can be captured and euthanized. While it's not going to be the solution that gets rid of all of the Burmese pythons in Florida, every tool we have in controlling their numbers is a step forward.