#ecological considerations

[cselandscapearchitect]

Natural Turf vs. Artificial Grass: Battling the Urban Heat Island Effect in the Low Desert

The low desert region faces the challenges of the urban heat island effect, where urban areas experience significantly higher temperatures than surrounding rural areas due to human activities and the built environment. As we strive to mitigate this heat island effect, one key consideration is the choice between natural turf and artificial grass. Both options have their own advantages and…

[flimsy-roost]

[fencesandfrogs]

I’ve decided I’m keeping plants pretty similar to earth plants, because botany is so ridiculous that I don’t even need to make shit up. Also, Tuvok hybridized a Vulcan flower with an earth orchid. So like. Plant hybridization is crazy, but this is like the Spock mammal thing.

Anyway I’m considering having my CAM plants be a major branch because like. What are the odds of convergent evolution creating that change multiple times on TWO planets. …high enough that I’m only considering having CAM be a major decision.

Plants also lend support to my thoughts on the Forge: there’s a carnivorous vine from that hat area, and.

Y’know what no i’m not using my walk home to type out half formed thoughts on low nitrogen environments. Please research carnivorous plants if you’re curious; pitcher plants are a favorite of mine.

So anyway they don’t really make sense in an arid desert environment IMO. But by an oasis?? Oh yeah, now we’re talking.

I’m not 100% sure that I’m keeping the major divisions of plants from earth, but like. I didn’t take botany for nothing. Ya boy knows his gymnosperms and monocots and so on and he wants to be able to use that knowledge.

[reasonsforhope]

"A new study reveals the profound ecological effects of wolves and other large carnivores in Yellowstone National Park, showcasing the cascading effects predators can have on ecosystems. In Yellowstone, this involves wolves and other large carnivores, elk, and willows.

The research, which utilized previously published data from 25 riparian (streamside) sites and collected over a 20 year period, from 2001 to 2020, revealed a remarkable 1,500% increase in willow crown volume along riparian zones [note: riparian means in/around rivers] in northern Yellowstone National Park, driven by the effects on elk due to a restored large carnivore guild following the reintroduction of wolves in 1995–96, and other factors...

Pictured: Upstream view of Blacktail Deer Creek in 2005 and 2021, northern range of Yellowstone National Park.

Trophic cascades, the effects of predators on herbivores and plants, have long been a topic of ecological interest. The study quantifies the strength of this phenomenon for the first time using willow crown volume as a proxy for aboveground biomass, demonstrating a significant three-dimensional recovery of riparian vegetation represented by the growth in both crown area and height of established willows.

The strength of the Yellowstone trophic cascade observed in this study surpasses 82% of strengths presented in a synthesis of global trophic cascade studies, underscoring the strength of Yellowstone's willow recovery process. The authors note that there is considerable variability in the degree of recovery and not all sites are recovering.

Even though riparian areas in the western United States comprise a small portion of the landscape, the study has particular relevance since these areas provide important food resources and habitat for more wildlife species than any other habitat type. These areas also connect upland and aquatic ecosystems and are widely known for their high diversity in species composition, structure, and productivity.

"Our findings emphasize the power of predators as ecosystem architects," said William Ripple. "The restoration of wolves and other large predators has transformed parts of Yellowstone, benefiting not only willows but other woody species such as aspen, alder, and berry-producing shrubs. It's a compelling reminder of how predators, prey, and plants are interconnected in nature."

Pictured: An across channel view in 2005 and 2021 of a downstream reach on Blacktail Deer Creek, northern range of Yellowstone National Park.

Wolves were eradicated and cougars driven to low numbers from Yellowstone National Park by the 1920s. Browsing by elk soon increased, severely damaging the park's woody vegetation, especially in riparian areas. Similar effects were seen in places like Olympic National Park in Washington, and Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada after wolves were lost.

While it's well understood that removing predators can harm ecosystems, less is known about how strongly woody plants and ecosystems recover when predators are restored. Yellowstone offers a rare opportunity to study this effect since few studies worldwide have quantified how much plant life rebounds after large carnivores are restored.

"Our analysis of a long-term data set simply confirmed that ecosystem recovery takes time. In the early years of this trophic cascade, plants were only beginning to grow taller after decades of suppression by elk. But the strength of this recovery, as shown by the dramatic increases in willow crown volume, became increasingly apparent in subsequent years," said Dr. Robert Beschta, an emeritus professor at Oregon State University.

"These improving conditions have created vital habitats for birds and other species, while also enhancing other stream-side conditions."

The research points to the utility of using crown volume of stream-side shrubs as a key metric for evaluating trophic cascade strength, potentially advancing methods for riparian studies in other locations. It also contextualizes the value of predator restoration in fostering biodiversity and ecosystem resilience."

-via Phys.org, February 6, 2025

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Hi. My wife referred me to you for your knowledge and enthusiasm for ecology. If I wanted my fictional fantasy world to have a saltwater river (my world is weird), how could I explain or justify that? Is it even possible, ecologically speaking? Anyway, love your posts and thank you!

I have been considering this with my colleague who is a physical geographer with a passion for riverine geomorphology and she wants to sit down with me and discuss the possibilities more fully. So I may yet update this post with more options.

But, the short answer is yes, there are options to make it possible.

The one we've best fleshed out so far basically comes down to groundwater contamination. Groundwater is contaminated with massive salt input (this would likely need to be anthropogenic - up to you whether that looks like Evil Factory Output, massive magical damage post-war, or any other consideration.) One or more of the river's main tributaries is fed primarily by this groundwater store, so it cannot flush through. Once it meets the sea, it would be brackish around the estuary anyway, but this would mean halophilic species - those tolerant of salt - would be able to spread backwards back up the river channel. Depending on what you want, for plants this could mean cordgrasses (saltmarsh formers), seagrasses along the riverbed in slower areas, or potentially long, linear stands of mangrove forest; in all of those cases, it's much more likely on a slower river than a faster one.

Now, a salt river will be far more erosional than a fresh one, so the river banks and bed would be eroding more. This means higher quantities of suspended sediment in the water, so the water colour would be murkier and browner than if it were fresh. However, if its a river with slow meanders, you might get little patches of saltmarshes establishing, where the erosion turns into deposition instead, so although the water would have a colour difference it would be extreme; on faster bits, though, it would.

There would be, either from the groundwater at the top of the catchment or along the river channel, a certain amount of salt incursion into land. This would basically make arable agriculture in those areas nigh-on impossible, but you could maybe try farming something like samphire along the banks. The exception would be areas that were away from the contaminated aquifer, that also got plenty of rainfall OR freshwater groundwater imputs from another part of the catchment. Even then, though, it couldn't go too close to the river.

Floodplains need considering, too! Floodplains only flood during wet weather events that cause the river to overtop the banks; the rest of the year, they're dry. In this case, that means you might have areas that are freshwater marshes, or maybe even normal grasslands/scrub for most of the year, which then suddenly get inundated with salt. That'll kill all those organisms quite rapidly. You wouldn't have any trees in those areas, and they'd look like mudbaths for the majority of the time, I'd imagine. Very ugly wastelands. These would then provide even more lost soil into the river, for even more browning of the water.

That much sediment would therefore mean the estuary would be a depositional one - new land forms at it. It would probably have a delta. This means lots of mudflats with lots of marine worms and other invertebrates, and consequently insane levels of wading bird diversity to feed on them (plus foodstuffs - oysters, cockles, octopus, smaller fishes, etc). Loot up Korean getbol for an idea of how impressive these things can get. Saltmarshes and/or mangrove forests, too! Depending on climate. Mangroves are a tropical species.

HOWEVER, this is just one idea we've explored so far, so I shall update you if we think of others

[sabertoothwalrus]

For the ask game! Laios dunneshi 4&8 please and thank you!!

:3

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Chowder

8. What’s something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

ohhh my god when people overstate how much he’d want to eat things. Especially people. Laios does not want to eat people!!! Especially by the end of the story he’s very considerate of ecology and not just mindlessly killing monsters/animals for the heck of it. He’s very pragmatic

Also he CARES a lot about people!!! He wouldn’t have gotten so upset about Shuro if he didn’t!! He gives everyone the benefit of the doubt and the only real grudge he has is towards his parents and the people that bullied him/Falin.

[bumblehoneybee]

Post-Nuclear - Chapter One

Inspired by Counting Stars Amongst Weeds by @/wearywheats

Contains Sonic 3 spoilers, so read with caution

Next

"S’just a woodpecker." You motion to the trunk above, not that Kermit really hears you. He braces on the tree, barking at the bird and jumping like he'll be able to reach it up on the tall pine branches. It hammers on, though, unfazed by the threats on its life. Seems it's used to dumb dogs with big ideas.

With a roll of your eyes, you raise the camera back up. The woodpecker pauses in its search for food to spit out the bits of wood collected in its beak. You take the chance to snap a few shots of it, hoping the sight of its tongue sticking out is caught on film. The papers and ecological sites tend to like the funnier images.

Kermit, seeing as his enemy is too far out of reach, scampers to your side instead. He braces on your leg as you fiddle with the aperture settings on your camera, whining for you to help him. However, you are not as young as he would prefer, and think better of throwing him into the tree like one would a football.

Seeing your cousin do that and then having to drive them both to get medical attention killed any sliver of consideration you could have towards the idea.

Instead, you grab a stick, slap it around at his feet, and once the dog is too overwhelmed by what's happening, throw it off into the trees. Kermit sprints after it, the sound of his feet in the brush all you need to be assured he's still nearby.

You gaze up at the trees again, finding the woodpecker turned around now, staring down at you. It's head cocks this way and that, trying to get a good look at what's causing a ruckus down below. You raise your camera again, smiling when the bird jumps at the sound of the shutter.

With a squawk of a noise, it takes flight, noisily flapping its wings so it can rise above the treeline. Before you can attempt to follow, however, something. . . happens.

You notice the light first, the sudden brightness to the sky when it should be darker. Late afternoon during this time of year means a steady setting of the sun, yet suddenly the world brightens around you, like an overexposed photo.

It's hard to see through the brambles and leaves, but high above there's a golden light burning through the canopy. You rush forward, towards your home where there's a clearing of trees, whistling for Kermit to follow. The little greyhound nips at your toes, shining bright as a star in the strange lighting, and seems unafraid of whatever phenomenon has plagued the forest.

When the trees part for clear skies, you spot it. A ball of flames scorches through the sea of blue, spiraling downwards. It cuts away at the tips of the trees, but you can tell when it hits Earth by the trembling of the ground. You stumble, knees scraping the dirt, while Kermit clumsily rolls past you.

Wow. A meteor. A falling star landed in the forest, near your home, and now you can see the smoke billowing up into the air. It's not that far away, not really, and whatever landed. . .

You bite your lip.

A meteor crater can't be safe, but then again, who wouldn't love a photo of burning meteorite still hot from its descent? You could make a decent income on some photos of that.

Without any more thought, you toss Kermit back into the house and sprint towards the smoke column, eager to make it there before anyone else can ruin the natural state of the impact zone.

A breathless laugh escapes you as you hurdle fallen stumps and small streams. Fallen leaves slick with mud send you windmilling over inclines, but you keep pace, too excited to care about mud-stained jeans and scratched up palms. You've never seen a meteorite period, much less one in its natural state. This will be thrilling, and maybe if you're very, very lucky, it'll change your life for the better.

After all, while being freelance is fun, being signed on to a nature magazine or a newspaper would make your salary not only steadier but higher too! You and Kermit could maybe even move somewhere closer to town, where the people are! Make friends and not feel like the weirdo living out on the town limits who people only see once a week, if even.

Well, maybe that's an exaggeration. After all, most folks who want wedding or birthday photoshoots call you. Still, a steady job would be a dream come true, and this meteorite could be your ticket to it.

Your shoes scuff tracks into the dirt. You wobble, nearly falling into the pit of seared earth. The grass is still smoldering, trees fluttering with burning leaves. Luckily, none of it seems like it’ll spread far, what with the wet week you’ve been having. So with that assured, you turn back to the crater, wafting away smoke.

There’s something black in the center. You catch glimpses of red too. Your heart flutters with excitement that the meteorite might still be rife with molten lava, so you quickly pull out your camera, fiddling with the exposure and such before you start snapping as fast as you can.

You take photos of the crater still filled with smoke, the burning trees, the smoky trail still burned into the sky. And finally, with your heart in your throat and enough of the smoke cleared, you approach the center of the crater.

It’s a long drop, the impact hard enough to reach a rocky layer of the Earth’s crust. You ease yourself down into the pit, wafting away the wisps of smoke that curl around your face. When the ground levels out, you ease yourself forward, a hand held out to detect anything that might be still too-hot to get close to.

You don't feel anything, even as you make it to the center of the crater. There's still a small column of smoke clinging to the meteorite. You try to waft it away too, but don't manage much. So instead, you kneel down, surprised to find that the cause of all this damage is something so small.

Your hands land on your camera, ready to get some lovely close-ups of molten space rock. You blow into the smoke, watching it curl and disperse enough to show you your prize.

Except. . . instead of rock. . . there's a hand.

You stare at it, and yeah. . . it's a hand, clasped in a white glove singed black, missing sections to reveal blistered skin. It's connected to a similarly burned arm, black fur and red stripping and even more patchy spots with burns.

Something constricts around your chest, making it hard to breathe. Your head spins, but you don't think too hard about crawling closer and grabbing the arm, fingers curling over the wrist.

It's there, a faint pulse. The soft thumps under your fingers makes everything sharpen. You stare into the clumped fur, too afraid to look farther than the elbow.

But your eyes betray you, flickering upwards to a face, slacken and covered in blood.

A fear unlike you've ever known ices your veins. You're panicking, hands fluttering now, parting fur to find more cuts, more bruises, and more burns, some worse than others. You want to turn his head, try and find where all the blood is coming from, but the quills that spike out from the back of his head make you nervous.

You're nervous. You're scared. But there's a guy-animal-thing here lying in a crater and bleeding out onto the earth, so you gotta do. . . something! And that something can be figured out when you're closer to home.

At least he's unconscious, because you certainly have no grace hauling him into your arms. He's warm to the touch, but not so hot as to hurt you. No doubt his burns are more serious than something your aloe plant can help, so there's research to be done there.

You stumble, struggling to claw your way up the crater's incline with a body half-strewn over your shoulder. There's puffs of air against your neck, hitching with each wobble of your footing. Your fingers are going to be raw from digging into the dirt and rocks, but god is your head too buzzed to care.

Kermit is understandably in a frenzy when you return with a guy in your arms. He does spins and circles around you, eager to play with the new person or new toy, whichever you chose to bring him. You stomp your feet and shuffle them at the hound so he runs away, though, expecting a game of chase. Instead of chase, however, you escape to the bathroom, shutting the door behind you.

He can cry about it for now. You can soothe his hurt feelings when there's not a guy dying on you.

The tub fills with water, and you set your new guest down on the toilet for the time being. Your camera sits on the sink, and your phone sits in your hand, pages of how to identify and care for burns trying to teach you how to save something you never knew existed.

You make sure the tub isn't too warm per the instructions of a hospital, then lower the guy down into it. You keep his head propped on the tub's edge, dunking one of your wash cloths into the water to use on his face.

Dried blood and ash clears with each pass, showing you the wound that's causing most of the mess. The gash cuts through his temple, curling up around the pointed ear on his head. You clean the debris from it best you can, and wonder if any of your first aid supplies will help bandage such a wound.

Before that, however, you pull your guest from his bath. The water is a dark grey from the ash and dirt, so you drain it quick, using the shower head to do a clean of the tub before refilling it.

You focus on the quills next, carefully pouring water over his head with the cup you usually keep your toothbrush in. You watch the debris wash out into the tub with disdain. Gross. You'll need to drain it again when you start focusing on his burns.

The article on your phone mentions cold water, bandages, and pain meds (the latter of which you have no expectations for). You have that stuff on you, but the cream they recommend, silver sulfadiazine, you don't have. Looks like he's going to have to put up with your aloe plant for now.

Satisfied that he's clean enough, you pull him from the tub and pat dry his fur and quills until he's dry enough for the couch. With Kermit screaming in your bedroom, demanding to play with the new guest, you drag over your big aloe plant, walking the heavy pot to the side of the couch before you grab your first aid kit from the kitchen.

You sit on the floor before the couch, staring at the hands and legs sporting the most serious burns, blistered and shiny. You don't know what you're doing. Your worst burn has been sunburn, and anything else is lost to the panic haze and childhood daze that covers those older memories. But you know aloe helps, and bandages are needed, so you can go from there.

"Aha," you laugh, sticky hands smacking for the remote, "I'm gonna have a dead body in my house, ha."

The TV blares to life, thankfully distracting you from your lack of confidence in your medical experience. A newscaster drones on about the upcoming weather, expecting rainy days and pollen counts, while you're smearing blisters in aloe and wrapping them in gauze, near tears with each twitch of foot and hiss of air.

"In other news, more information regarding the Eclipse Canon and the state of the moon has been released by officials, showing insight to the future that awaits us."

You pause, an arm held up by the glove you have half off. The TV shows a space station, like something from a movie, alongside a picture of a half-destroyed moon. A nausea grips at your stomach.

When did the moon explode? How did it explode?

You really need to start watching the news more often.

"Sources say that the explosion of the Eclipse Canon has caused a nebula to form within the Milky Way, close enough to Earth for us to see with the naked eye." You balk, but the stern-faced newscaster continues without fail, uncaring of your misery. "Monitoring of the nebula has shown its in a stable state, with no supernovas to occur for hundreds of years. As for the moon, it's new state thanks to the Eclipse Canon, activated by one Dr. Eggman-"

"He shot the fucking moon!?" You exclaim, only to jump with the arm drops to the couch, glove fully removed. "Ah! Shit!"

"-expected for tides to shift, due to the change in the satellite's new mass. Small pieces of debris from the moon are expected to fall to Earth as well, so if you are a part of these areas, be sure to fortify and ready for cover in case of your home is in the collision course."

You groan, flopping onto your back. You could've had a piece of the moon hit nearby, but no. You got a guy, probably an alien guy, instead.

Looks like you're going to be doing some internet searching tonight. Time to catch up with the current events, since apparently missing a few days of the news to watch game shows instead means missing the fact the moon got blown up while you weren't looking.

Rubbing your hands over your face, you sigh heavily. The past hour or so plays over in your head, settling into your bones like a heavy weight. There's an alien in your home now, more or less. An alien, hurt and alone, now residing on your couch.

You hit the floor with your first. What are you going to do? Calling the police would end up with your alien being taken away, and you're scared of that. But you're not sure this guy isn't. . . bad either. He could attack once he wakes up.

God. . . where did you put your laptop? You need to look this shit up.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Viewing landscapes as products of past human labour is a first, crucial step for an environmental history of work. Raymond Williams noted how ‘A considerable part of what we call natural landscape … is the product of human design and human labour, and in admiring it as natural it matters very much whether we suppress that fact of labour or acknowledge it.’ The extent to which labour is part of the landscape varies with geography as much as with history. In any case, removing the image of work from the landscape has produced the dominant vision of nature in the Western/industrial culture that has led to romantic views of ‘the environment’ as something to be protected from work and, therefore, from working-class people, even though environmental historians and political ecologists have documented that private property, the market and state control, not labour, have been the main forces behind resource exhaustion.

Stefania Barca, Workers of the Earth: Labour, Ecology and Reproduction in the Age of Climate Change

[erose-this-name]

humans are not the default race

In every scifi and fantasy setting with """races""", humans are the default.

If you're lucky, we're the short-lived, fast-reproducing pests that are all white Europeans for some mysterious reason, and also have disproportionate rates of being raised as undead because we can't be bothered to make zombie dwarf minis or animate a vampire gnome that has to jump up to bite a tall person's neck.

(We've got BOTH human AND elf skeleton warriors! Oh, hey, I just changed the scale, now it's a hobbit skeleton OR a giant skeleton! Such skeleton diversity! No, Khajiits can't be bone boys, a skeleton with a tail and a cat skull is just TOO SPOOKY)

I feel like a lot of people don't realize that we (Homo sapiens) have the longest running endurance of any land animal. Being able to run a marathon is not normal.

(It's because we evolved the very unusual hunting strategy of Slowly Chasing Gazelles While Throwing Sticks At Them Until The Gazelle Collapses From Exhaustion Then Casually Walking Up And Bashing Their Head In With A Rock™).

Even Neanderthals probably couldn't match our tenacity (they were considerably stronger and tougher though, but by no means dumber judging from the size of their brain cavities{which was bigger than ours actually})

(the evolutionary Neanderthal hunting strategy was probably something like Jumping Out And Stabbing A Wooly Rhinoceros With A Pointed Stick, Then Getting Punted 12 Feet Into a Tree But Getting Right Back Up And Doing It Again Until It Dies Because You Have Superhuman Bone And Muscle Density. And If You Do Break One Of Your Unbreakable Bones Your Homies Will Take Care Of You Until It Heals™

[Neanderthal skeletons are found with healed fractures surprisingly often despite said bones being much stronger and denser than ours, they just kept evolving denser bones until they couldn't even swim without sinking like a rock, but they still got broken all the time])

So given that we, Homo sapiens, actually literally used to be the "species that specializes in sheer endurance, determination, and unbreakable fucking will", I want more fantasy and scifi settings where we are that way! I think the only setting where that's even remotely the case is Undertale. We're not just the "default" intelligent species!

The only reason we're good at everything is because we can make complex tools and can learn and aren't bound by instinct. Which, by definition, all fantasy races would also be able to do. Otherwise, they'd just be considered animals. Like trolls or Redditers.

The "default" species should just be really good at making tools and quickly adapting, but kinda suck in every other category. So I guess gnomes or goblins are the default d&d race.

And Humans are certainly not the Tolkien "that one race that lives short lives and reproduces faster than everyone else and is good at farming" because:

A) we actually do already live relatively long lives for mammals of our size and also GIVING BIRTH CAN KILL US, AND IF OUR PARENTS DON'T RAISE US JUST RIGHT THAT CAN ALSO KILL US, WE ARE SPECIFICALLY VERY BAD AT REPRODUCING

B) we are in no way adapted to farming, and most of our modern health and societal issues stem from the fact that we aren't meant to farm or be civilized, but do it anyways.

We only farm because it helped us survive the ecological collapse at the end of the ice age, now we're in too deep to go back.

When the ice age ended (quite abruptly) the ecosystem couldn't provide for hunters and gathers anymore, a bunch of things were getting heat stroke, sea levels rose, hibernation and bloom cycles and reptile gender ratios were out of wack, predators died out because herbivores died out because plants weren't doing well. Decomposers like vultures and worms had a field day (Until they didn't [RIP condor population]). It would take a while for a new ecological equilibrium to emerge and for evolution to fix things.

But farming doesn't need any healthy ecosystems except for the soil and pollinators, mostly, so that still works. And farming makes more food meaning you can have more people. So now there's more people.

But that also means you can't ever go back to foraging without all those extra people dying of starvation. So, anarcho-primitivism would technically be the most deadly ideology if implemented, and therefore is not based, unfortunately. Here's hoping for an apocalypse to do that for us! (I would not survive it)

Fun Fact: those isolated tribal societies like the Sentinelese that still do hunting and gathering only spend 15-20 hours a week doing that and another 20 doing camp chores, and the rest of their time forming meaningful relationships and not being depressed.

Notice how most of what they do as "work" (hunting, fighting, hiking, berry/mushroom/etc picking, cooking, camping, arts and crafts, oral history/story telling) are things that we need to do during our limited free time as "hobbies" just so that our "work" doesn't drive us insane. Thus leaving less time for relationships, etc.

If we were actually good at farming or industry or civilization, then things like math and repetitive manual labor wouldn't be work. They'd be the most fun activities.

Sure, these foragers die young, but so did medieval peasant farmers who were even less healthy since they had much less diverse diets (a lot of carbs) and got plague more often thanks to cities and their close proximity to livestock. Our modern sedentary lifestyle is bad too.

Hobbits are suited to farming (also Entwives I guess). Hobbits are quite good at it, at the cost of not being as good at much else (besides going unnoticed and throwing for some reason), they inherently enjoy farming life quite a bit and most* aren't haunted by the sense they should be anything else, like we are. *(The Took family got that Call To Adventure 'tism)

We only think that we're not special or can't be anything other than what we currently are because we no longer have anything else to compare ourselves to. The Neanderthals and Denisovans died out tens of thousands of years ago and the fucking aliens are somewhere, presumably

We are special, only we survived.

But at the cost of becoming the species equivalent of an abandoned child raised by wolves. We fantasize about these things because we all know that we shouldn't be alone. But our perceptions of ourselves are twisted by our trauma and lack of socialization.

Personally, the realization that having lost our family was probably our fault makes that hurt so much worse.

[mutant-distraction]

credit: Coffee loves

This is a Flying fish up close. They can propel themselves out of water at speeds of more than 56 km/h. Once in the air, their rigid “wings” allow them to glide for up to 200 meters.

Flying fish, belonging to the family Exocoetidae, are remarkable marine creatures known for their unique ability to glide above the water's surface.

These fish are equipped with unusually large pectoral fins that function like wings, allowing them to leap out of the water and glide for considerable distances to escape predators. They are primarily found in warm oceanic waters around the world, including the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.

Typically, flying fish can glide up to 200 meters at a speed of about 60 kilometers per hour, using their tails to generate the necessary thrust by rapidly beating the water surface before takeoff.

In addition to their distinctive gliding capability, flying fish have adapted to a variety of oceanic environments, often seen in both coastal areas and the open sea. They feed on a diet of plankton and small marine organisms, making them an integral part of the ocean's food web.

Their unique behavior not only aids in evasion from predators like dolphins and larger fish but also makes them a subject of interest for humans, leading to their depiction in folklore and their role in various culinary traditions across different cultures. Their fascinating ability to glide and their ecological importance highlight the incredible adaptability and diversity of marine life.

[distantlcver]

Councillor!Sevika + Wife!Sevika x Fem!Reader

- married life and stuff :)

“Any mistakes are made out of pure hatred and disrespect for this language. The English have taken enough from this world, I will not let them have my tongue as well.” -ao3 author

She watches the Food Network in her free time and the cooking segments on PBS on the weekends to destress. Sitting on the council is not the most appealing in terms of engagement and overall work expectations, not to mention her “uppity colleagues,” as she calls them.

It’s mindless and empty, but entertaining enough to grab her attention—a small escape from the towering piles of paperwork, files, and documents she has to look over before the sun rises again. She’ll lean back on the sofa, shedding the day's stress, and watch skilled hands assemble a gourmet bolognese or some fancy steak arranged like a flower with hand-churned and seasoned butter.

She’ll tuck you under her arm, play with your hair as you watch together, and point to the final dish on the screen before she scoffs:

“I could make that shit,” she mumbles. “Of course, honey,” you say, and kiss her hand.

neither of you could make that shit

─────── ✶ ───────

After many failed attempts at communication—when emotions were high and the air especially tense—you both came to an agreement that something had to change.

She watches her tongue around you and tries (emphasis on tries) to mind her temper and regulate any frustrations that come with the day job. She’s mindful of her language, making sure not to curse when speaking to you as a sign of respect and overall consideration. It takes time, and she’s not perfect, but she tries.

That doesn’t stop her from the occasional string of curses you hear coming from the home office when she encounters errors in paperwork or remembers another meeting she has to attend.

In turn, you try to be more patient and understanding of the dedication and time her new role takes from your time together.

You visit her during lunch and push dinner back late to make sure you both can eat together. You walk her home from work on nights when she’s in the office particularly late.

She puts an and to the reeaaalll quick refusing to let you walk the streets alone so late at night. She scolds you for insisting, arguing that you’re just too impatient, and stubborn.

“You’re too cute, baby. Someone’s gonna snatch you up,” "I'm not a child sev-," "I know baby, but Just wait for me please ," she whispers, "I’m always comin' home—you know that.”

─────── ✶ ───────

She has an extensive collection of old R&B and jazz records she plays when fixing things around the house or doing chores. Mindlessly tapping and humming along to the beat

Her record player is an old, shoddy thing she built herself as a teenager, made out of recycled parts she found in scrap yards and junk drawers. the speakers muffle to sound every now and then blending together the lyrics with the background vocals and acoustics.

Even with her role on the council —and more-than-satisfactory salary, she refuses to buy a new one.

She plays Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me” on repeat while working and swings you around to “Two Can Have a Party,” because neither of you can really dance.

─────── ✶ ───────

✧ small bonus

She insists on fixing everything herself and doesn’t believe in hiring anyone to do anything.

her philosophy: “If I can’t fix it, I shouldn’t own it,”

When you finally hire someone behind her back, she hovers incessantly, making sure they don’t mess anything up, mumbling curses whenever they touch something. She side-eyes you with a *what the fuck* look.

─────── FIN ───────

[brucewaynehater101]

so in a number of ancient cultures it was inappropriate, unacceptable, and probably even an executable offense to look directly at the emperor with the idea that they have divine right to rule or they're descended from the gods or whatever.

Space Emperor Tim of many names had made it no longer an executable offense but his planets still find it very disrespectful for anyone, besides the royal consorts, to look directly at their baby space emperor. They actually appreciate and approve that he wears a mask, so clever and considerate of their baby emperor to restrain his divine glory in such a way! He's also a babie and so it's inappropriate and unacceptable to the empire for anyone to go around and have actual realistic images of their emperor or his equally babie consorts around everywhere. Instead all images of the imperial group is very stylized or they all incorporate the emperor's mask on not just him but also his consorts/bodyguards/whatever they are to him on whatever planet. Further, even on just one planet there are a lot of different ideas of what makes someone or something beautiful but fortunately for C4 all shades of human skin tend to be perceived as a color usually used on something to make it seem extra cute, and their relative smallness make all of them, especially Bart with the fluffy hair, the equivalent of kirby in the eyes of the empire, smol, adorable, probably able to destroy everything but you forget because, again, smol and adorable.

That being said, all the merch, from statues to commemorative spoons, tend to be recognizably probably a human in a mask and that's as close to being identifiably any member of the C4 that they typically get.

Tim has put in protocols just in case someone tries to visit the empire while impersonating him or any of his friends. So far no one has tried but if Damian ever goes to the empire as Robin he's going to inadvertently be dealing with some trouble. Or he may get written off as a baby cosplaying as their beloved emperor and Damian will be extremely pissed off because people are being condescending and cooing at him for the respect he's displaying towards their beloved emperor.

It would be hella cool if some of the planets gifted YJ a variety of masks. Perhaps the team ends up with a collection of different styled masks (with various beauty standards and styles) as the planets' gesture of gratitude, respect, and reverence. Some are styled similar to discowing, but others have wildly complex designs or simplified ones.

It'd be cool to see various designs, colors, concepts, etc. The regular Robin mask is used most often in fanart, but perhaps they play around with mask designs.

I think Damian would enjoy learning about different animals species on the planets. Maybe Tim entrusts upkeeping planet ecological systems to him at some point

[fatehbaz]

[E]very [interspecies] meeting in fact reminds us that the being we meet is and always shall be strange to us […]. When beings meet there is a distance between, such that in encountering the slug we also encounter something beyond the slug – a multitude of life we cannot sense. [...] So despite shared histories and the close proximity in which slugs and [humans] live, the slug retains a certain darkness as a creature apart; something is held in reserve […]. And so fleeting awareness of the irretrievability of the lives of others intensifies poignancy, such that despite a gulf separating the [human] from other creatures, some connection, however fleeting, is made to something – however strange. Refusing to dismiss the everyday and the banal is an ethical response. […] Slugs are there: sliming, chomping, and oozing around quietly and that should be enough to give them consideration.

[Text by: Franklin Ginn. “Sticky lives: Slugs, detachment and more-than-human ethics in the garden.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Volume 39, Issue 4. 2013. Bold emphasis added by me.]

---

So, can an insect speak? And if yes, do we understand it? Wittgenstein maintained that ‘if a lion could speak we would not understand him’, by which he implied that we do not share the ‘form of lion-life’ that would make lion language fully transparent to us […]. A similar insight was [...] expressed by [...] [a twentieth-century] honeybee researcher [...]: Beyond the appreciable facts of their life we know but little of the bees. And the closer our acquaintance becomes, the nearer is our ignorance brought to us of the depths of their real existence. But such ignorance is better than the other kind, which is unconscious and satisfied.

[Text by: Eileen Crist. “Can an Insect Speak?: The Case of the Honeybee Dance Language.” Social Studies of Science, Volume 34, Issue 1. 2004. Bold emphasis added.]

---

Animal studies scholarship tends to emphasize animal-human relations, encounters, and similarities. […] Jellyfish and other gelatinous creatures [...], however, float at the far reaches of our ability to construct sturdy interspecies connections [...]. Uexkull’s theory […] insists upon multiple worlds […], a capacious admission that a multitude of other creatures dwell as part of worlds that humans cannot readily or completely access or grasp. Three-quarters of a century later Terry Tempest Williams wonders what it would be like to be a jellyfish. […] [She] writes: “Perhaps this is what moves me most about jellies – their sensory intelligence […] the great hunger that is sent outward through the feathery reach of their tentacles. Imagine the information sought and returned.”

[Text by: Stacy Alaimo. “Jellyfish Science, Jellyfish Aesthetics: Posthuman Reconfigurations of the Sensible”. In: Thinking with Water. 2013. Bold emphasis added.]

---

Although we cannot ‘speak’ with nonhumans in any straightforward way, what we can and more importantly do do is become articulate with them in various ways. [...] If there is a way out of this historical impasse [alienation, climate crisis, global ecological degradation], [for some] it is not to be found in attributing some of ‘our’ qualities to ‘them’. It “would not be a matter of ‘giving speech back’ to animals […]. Perhaps the task is not to seek to compare the dance language of bees […] with human language, the ‘intelligence’ […] of Monarch butterflies with human intelligence, […] but rather (or at least in addition) to find a way of thinking about these ‘remarkable things’ that grants them positive ontological difference in their own right. […] [It] is concerned with what is always a multitude of others rather than a singular other […]; and it is radically nonanthropocentric […].

[Text by: Nick Bingham. “Bees, Butterflies, and Bacteria: Biotechnology and the Politics of Nonhuman Friendship.” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Volume 38, Issue 3. 2006. Bold emphasis added.]

---

Starfish may seem to be still, but longer attention [...] shows them [slowly] moving, changing. [...] Then there are beings [like some insects] that experience hundreds, thousands of generations within a human lifetime. For such beings, the memories, learnings and modes of passing on experience are, it almost goes without saying (yet it must be said as it is so often not), radically different from any human’s in terms of the ways they experience change. The immensity of the alterity is, literally, incomprehensible to humans. We can't know what these beings know. But we can be aware that they have knowledges and experiences beyond us. [...] [W]e should know they live and experience and think beyond us. We should seek respect and be aware of how our lives are entangled […]. It is not abstract, or empty.

[Text by: Bawaka Country et al. “Gathering of the Clouds: Attending to Indigenous understandings of time and climate through songspirals.” Geoforum Volume 108. January 2020. Bold emphasis added.]

[psink]

Makoto Teruhashi and Sai's (Kusuo's cat form) guidebook's full pages translation:

(left side) Disaster element: Siscon delusions in full swing! False accusations victim

A perverted older brother who loves his sister way too much A top idol who plays leading roles in blockbuster movies and popular TV dramas. (On the surface) he is a friendly, handsome and pleasant young man, but... ↑ This is Mugami Toru's true nature. He suffers from an extreme case of a sister complex. When it comes to his little sister, his delusions run wild.

? To avoid encountering･･････ Stay away from Teruhashi-san!! The other party is a top idol. He usually doesn't interact with people, but if you happen to get involved with Teruhashi-san, you'll become the victim of his escalating delusions! ! If you happen to encounter･･････ Teruhashi-san was over there!! He's in love with his little sister all day long. If you bring up the topic of Teruhashi-san in a conversation, all of his attention will shift to that. If possible, an avoidance technique is to involve other people.

(right side) Ecological information: 【Name】 Teruhashi Makoto 【Stage Name】 Mugami Toru 【Height】 178cm 【Weight】 64kg 【Birthday】 March 4th 【Blood type】 A

Disaster Status: Intelligence D, Physical Strength C, Acting ability D Kokomi ♡ Delusions◎ Popular ◎ Demon-Eye Detective Joker Actually a pervert ◎ Got it!

Overall disaster difficulty: 60% (C) A celebrity and a demon. Harmless, as long as you're not in contact with Teruhashi-san.

[Kusuo]: His inner-self is too disappointing and pitiful.

Main appearance spots Where does Teruhashi's older brother, a popular idol, for whom it'd be bad if he got discovered, frequently show up!? (top left) He's popular, but you can encounter him somewhere around there During the break from his drama shoots, he sometimes relaxes in nearby rest areas. Who knows, maybe he'll get to meet his sister there☆

(bottom left) He's popular, but if it's for Kokomi He took a break from Tamo-san's TV show to show up on his younger sister's school trip. He announced his participation in front of Saiki's house.

(top right) He's popular, so the drama shoots are also nearby! When shooting dramas, he pushes for the location to be his hometown, so that his younger sister can see his impressive appearance.

(bottom right) He's popular, so it'd be bad if it gets discovered He watches the movies he stars in with his beloved younger sister in a local movie theatre. He gives her commentaries, for her sake.

Asou-sensei's idea memo: Older brother + cute younger sister = siscon. His stage name is Mugami Toru. When you combine it and his given name, it becomes "communication". His last name is a play on "telepathy", so I think it's a well-thought-out name. By the way, the name Kokomi is a pun on "to see the heart" and "the heart is beautiful".

(up and middle left) Disaster element: Even in the cat world, he reigns on top!

A mysterious cat with an enlightened, detached gaze Saiki transformed into a cat form. He transformed because of Anpu, who had settled in Saiki's house without permission. This was actually the only time he turned into a cat. ← Since he was originally human, he's got a considerably intiminating presence.

! If you happen to encounter･･････ No way! Are you doing it outside? Because he was originally human, although he could do it outside if he wanted to, expectedly, he prefers to do excert indoors. If something inclines him to go to the bathroom, he'll retreat indoors.

(middle right) Ecological information: 【Name】 Sai (Saiki Kusuo) 【Height】 54cm 【Weight】 4.5kg 【Birthday】 August 16th 【Blood type】 Unknown Disaster Status: Intelligence S, Physical Strength A, Punch power S Uncontrollable Toilet Seat

Overall disaster difficulty: 10% (E) [Kusuo:] If you pet me, I won't show any mercy. (bottom left) Main appearance spots Since it's just a one-time cat transformation, the range of activities is extremely limited. To put it plainly, it's just one block.

The surroundings of Saiki's house, one block Since he doesn't travel far, as Sai, his actions were limited to about one block surrounding Saiki's house (bottom right) On top of Saiki Kuniharu's head It's no exaggeration to call the top of his father's head, Sai's reserved seat. The view and comfort of standing there are excellent.

Asou-sensei's idea memo: When the series first started, I never imagined that Saiki would turn into a cat. His psychic powers have come so far...! [Power] inflation is scary, isn't it?

== Other guidebook pages: Kuusuke + Teruhashi Kusuo + Kuriko

[acti-veg]

sorry for dumping this in your inbox; you’re the only person who would be even remotely sympathetic to what i have to say and i’d lose all my fandom mutuals if i posted this publicly. what i want to say is that it drives me up the wall how you cannot criticize ANYTHING about humans on here without someone calling you an ecofascist. god forbid you don’t agree that humans are “just beautiful apes who like to make art and hold hands! uwu” or “the Supreme Master Species that will singlehandedly save every other species on Earth from extinction (with no mention of the fact that we’re the reason why they are going extinct in the first place)”. even vegetarian/vegan rhetoric expressed in the most progressive, leftist terms gets branded fascism. truly anyone on tumblr who has ever reblogged any of those bullshit posts about how leather/wool/beef etc. is actually Great and Eco-friendly is just another useful idiot of carnism. all faults of the way humans relate to animals get blamed on capitalism, ignoring the fact that humans were being cruel to nonhuman animals LONG before capitalism became dominant across our society. “humans are just a species like any other so it’s okay to [act of animal cruelty that is universally accepted] because we’re part of the ecosystem!!” In what world is factory farming (or any animal ag) part of any ecosystem??? it actively destroys ecosystems. We’re not a species like any other—while I’m no fan of human extinction or governmental population reduction plans, it’s obvious that we’re a uniquely destructive species and acknowledging that doesn’t make you a fascist. In fact, fascist leaders throughout history would scoff at the idea of any other animal deserving equal consideration as humans (hitler being vegetarian does not count; he didn’t really care about the vegetarian cause, he was just a hypochondriac)

I think people have a pretty poor understanding of what ecofascism actually is, particularly on tumblr it must be said. We have this unfortunate tendency here to sort of half understand a social/political term, then we turn it into a catchphrase divorced from the original context and without any real nuance.

It is perfectly fine and in fact necessary to acknowledge the unique destructive potential and history of our species. We have more power than other species ever has, and we have wielded that power to radically reshape the earth to suit our needs. Homo sapiens wiping out most of the world’s megafauna (and possibly other sapiens as well) long preceded capitalism, and pretty much every time humans arrived on any continent or island, ecological diversity massively declines.

I actually think that the acknowledgement of these facts can be a guard against eco-fascism. When people talk about culling, a return to pre-industrial society, massively reduced population etc. we can point the fact that a vastly smaller, largely hunter gatherer human community very likely wiped out many species way before industrialisation, or even organised agriculture. We throw around a lot of ‘noble savage’ stereotypes about our ancestors and modern indigenous hunting communities, but this is really a rewriting of human pre-history to fit modern ideals about the noble Stone Age hunter living in harmony with nature. This is pure fantasy.

None of this means that humans are inherently bad or destructive as individuals. Our story not a story of a vindictive species destroying for the sake of destruction, it is a story of a species whose technological power quickly overtook our wisdom, and that is still the case now. Plenty of humans use that power for good, and plenty of us have lived ecologically successful lives without harming our wider communities. Our history should be used to inform our future, so that we can avoid making the same mistakes.

Where things start to veer into ecofascism is when we begin to brand humans as some sort of disease. When we talk about humans as an ‘invasive species that needs to be culled,’ when we blame this destruction on overpopulation or industrialisation. This all too often translates into harmful and often racist policies like forced birth control, sterilisation, and other anti-natal policies.

I think the left accuse each other of ecofascism a lot as a silencing technique, but in my experience it tends to be what happens when right wingers weave environmentalism into their ultranationalist views. Ecofascism is a harmful ideology that should be taken seriously, and that just isn’t what we’re doing when we throw the term at anyone who is trying to seriously reckon with the destructive history and potential of human animals, and our obvious exclusion from natural ecosystems.

[songsofbloodandwater]

"Calendar plants like Serviceberry are important for synchronizing the seasonal rounds of traditional Indigenous People, who move in an annual cycle through their homelands to where the foods are ready. Instead of changing the land to suit their convenience, they changed themselves. Eating with the seasons is a way of honoring abundance, by going to meet it when and where it arrives. A world of produce warehouses and grocery stores enables the practice of having what you want when you want it. We force the food to come to us, at considerable financial and ecological costs, rather than following the practice of taking what has been given to us, each in its own time."

— The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World (2024) by Robin Wall Kimmerer.