#gull records

[plus-low-overthrow]

Isotope - Retracing My Steps (Gull)

1974.

[mymelodic-chapel]

Judas Priest- Rocka Rolla (Hard Rock) Released: September 6, 1974 [Gull Records] Producer(s): Rodger Bain

[liquidstar]

This is such a tangent btw but on the topic of guilt tripping and reblogs... I remember a few years back there were some terrible fires in Greece (and again this year, entire island villages are gone now) and at that time I had family who were caught in them. I can't describe the desperation I felt with these horrible things happening to my family and loved ones in my country. And I remember being frustrated and desperate with how no one around me in America really seemed to give a shit. I remember blogging asking people to PLEASE care please share something please reblog this link for mutual aid please think about the stories and fires etc etc etc. And the thing is I was very much in a state of grief myself, maybe not every word or action was perfectly reasonable, because I don't realistically expect everyone everywhere to care about every tragedy in the world. You can't. Emotionally it's just not possible, especially with all the stuff going on in the states rn too. Yeah it's a lot. It's not like I blog about every tragedy that ever happens either. I understand.

HOWEVER what I also remember was at this time there were a couple mutuals very clearly making vagueposts along the lines of "remember not everyone has the energy to care about everything in the world uwu" while I was posting about family who died and family who were drifting in the ocean for hours as their homes and loved ones burned. Listen. You have to understand sometimes that when a person in grief and frustration with things going on in their countries and communities impacts them very personally beg you to care... It's coming from a place of needing to see that care in the world in general. They're not holding a gun to your head Specifically saying you have to reblog the posts, if you don't have the energy just ignore it.

You don't have to go out of your way saying "um actually I can't care about the horrible stuff you and your family and your country are experiencing rn. I'm too busy focusing on my own stuff so can you be quiet or more reasonable with your grief thanks." Like. Just keep it to yourself then??? Have some fucking sympathy for other people and understand that maybe it's not always logical. The same way you don't have the emotional energy to think about every tragedy in the world, people who've been impacted by them often don't have the emotional energy to handle that alone and may seek somekinda community or solidarity. Idk. It's not about forcing shit on you sometimes it's not about you

[foundsoundsart]

Blackpool at 07:00

Blackpool

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Conspiratorialism as a material phenomenon

I'll be in TUCSON, AZ from November 8-10: I'm the GUEST OF HONOR at the TUSCON SCIENCE FICTION CONVENTION.

I think it behooves us to be a little skeptical of stories about AI driving people to believe wrong things and commit ugly actions. Not that I like the AI slop that is filling up our social media, but when we look at the ways that AI is harming us, slop is pretty low on the list.

The real AI harms come from the actual things that AI companies sell AI to do. There's the AI gun-detector gadgets that the credulous Mayor Eric Adams put in NYC subways, which led to 2,749 invasive searches and turned up zero guns:

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nycs-subway-weapons-detector-pilot-program-ends/

Any time AI is used to predict crime – predictive policing, bail determinations, Child Protective Services red flags – they magnify the biases already present in these systems, and, even worse, they give this bias the veneer of scientific neutrality. This process is called "empiricism-washing," and you know you're experiencing it when you hear some variation on "it's just math, math can't be racist":

https://pluralistic.net/2020/06/23/cryptocidal-maniacs/#phrenology

When AI is used to replace customer service representatives, it systematically defrauds customers, while providing an "accountability sink" that allows the company to disclaim responsibility for the thefts:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/23/maximal-plausibility/#reverse-centaurs

When AI is used to perform high-velocity "decision support" that is supposed to inform a "human in the loop," it quickly overwhelms its human overseer, who takes on the role of "moral crumple zone," pressing the "OK" button as fast as they can. This is bad enough when the sacrificial victim is a human overseeing, say, proctoring software that accuses remote students of cheating on their tests:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/16/unauthorized-paper/#cheating-anticheat

But it's potentially lethal when the AI is a transcription engine that doctors have to use to feed notes to a data-hungry electronic health record system that is optimized to commit health insurance fraud by seeking out pretenses to "upcode" a patient's treatment. Those AIs are prone to inventing things the doctor never said, inserting them into the record that the doctor is supposed to review, but remember, the only reason the AI is there at all is that the doctor is being asked to do so much paperwork that they don't have time to treat their patients:

https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-health-business-90020cdf5fa16c79ca2e5b6c4c9bbb14

My point is that "worrying about AI" is a zero-sum game. When we train our fire on the stuff that isn't important to the AI stock swindlers' business-plans (like creating AI slop), we should remember that the AI companies could halt all of that activity and not lose a dime in revenue. By contrast, when we focus on AI applications that do the most direct harm – policing, health, security, customer service – we also focus on the AI applications that make the most money and drive the most investment.

AI hasn't attracted hundreds of billions in investment capital because investors love AI slop. All the money pouring into the system – from investors, from customers, from easily gulled big-city mayors – is chasing things that AI is objectively very bad at and those things also cause much more harm than AI slop. If you want to be a good AI critic, you should devote the majority of your focus to these applications. Sure, they're not as visually arresting, but discrediting them is financially arresting, and that's what really matters.

All that said: AI slop is real, there is a lot of it, and just because it doesn't warrant priority over the stuff AI companies actually sell, it still has cultural significance and is worth considering.

AI slop has turned Facebook into an anaerobic lagoon of botshit, just the laziest, grossest engagement bait, much of it the product of rise-and-grind spammers who avidly consume get rich quick "courses" and then churn out a torrent of "shrimp Jesus" and fake chainsaw sculptures:

https://www.404media.co/email/1cdf7620-2e2f-4450-9cd9-e041f4f0c27f/

For poor engagement farmers in the global south chasing the fractional pennies that Facebook shells out for successful clickbait, the actual content of the slop is beside the point. These spammers aren't necessarily tuned into the psyche of the wealthy-world Facebook users who represent Meta's top monetization subjects. They're just trying everything and doubling down on anything that moves the needle, A/B splitting their way into weird, hyper-optimized, grotesque crap:

https://www.404media.co/facebook-is-being-overrun-with-stolen-ai-generated-images-that-people-think-are-real/

In other words, Facebook's AI spammers are laying out a banquet of arbitrary possibilities, like the letters on a Ouija board, and the Facebook users' clicks and engagement are a collective ideomotor response, moving the algorithm's planchette to the options that tug hardest at our collective delights (or, more often, disgusts).

So, rather than thinking of AI spammers as creating the ideological and aesthetic trends that drive millions of confused Facebook users into condemning, praising, and arguing about surreal botshit, it's more true to say that spammers are discovering these trends within their subjects' collective yearnings and terrors, and then refining them by exploring endlessly ramified variations in search of unsuspected niches.

(If you know anything about AI, this may remind you of something: a Generative Adversarial Network, in which one bot creates variations on a theme, and another bot ranks how closely the variations approach some ideal. In this case, the spammers are the generators and the Facebook users they evince reactions from are the discriminators)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_adversarial_network

I got to thinking about this today while reading User Mag, Taylor Lorenz's superb newsletter, and her reporting on a new AI slop trend, "My neighbor’s ridiculous reason for egging my car":

https://www.usermag.co/p/my-neighbors-ridiculous-reason-for

The "egging my car" slop consists of endless variations on a story in which the poster (generally a figure of sympathy, canonically a single mother of newborn twins) complains that her awful neighbor threw dozens of eggs at her car to punish her for parking in a way that blocked his elaborate Hallowe'en display. The text is accompanied by an AI-generated image showing a modest family car that has been absolutely plastered with broken eggs, dozens upon dozens of them.

According to Lorenz, variations on this slop are topping very large Facebook discussion forums totalling millions of users, like "Movie Character…,USA Story, Volleyball Women, Top Trends, Love Style, and God Bless." These posts link to SEO sites laden with programmatic advertising.

The funnel goes:

i. Create outrage and hence broad reach;

ii, A small percentage of those who see the post will click through to the SEO site;

iii. A small fraction of those users will click a low-quality ad;

iv. The ad will pay homeopathic sub-pennies to the spammer.

The revenue per user on this kind of scam is next to nothing, so it only works if it can get very broad reach, which is why the spam is so designed for engagement maximization. The more discussion a post generates, the more users Facebook recommends it to.

These are very effective engagement bait. Almost all AI slop gets some free engagement in the form of arguments between users who don't know they're commenting an AI scam and people hectoring them for falling for the scam. This is like the free square in the middle of a bingo card.

Beyond that, there's multivalent outrage: some users are furious about food wastage; others about the poor, victimized "mother" (some users are furious about both). Not only do users get to voice their fury at both of these imaginary sins, they can also argue with one another about whether, say, food wastage even matters when compared to the petty-minded aggression of the "perpetrator." These discussions also offer lots of opportunity for violent fantasies about the bad guy getting a comeuppance, offers to travel to the imaginary AI-generated suburb to dole out a beating, etc. All in all, the spammers behind this tedious fiction have really figured out how to rope in all kinds of users' attention.

Of course, the spammers don't get much from this. There isn't such a thing as an "attention economy." You can't use attention as a unit of account, a medium of exchange or a store of value. Attention – like everything else that you can't build an economy upon, such as cryptocurrency – must be converted to money before it has economic significance. Hence that tooth-achingly trite high-tech neologism, "monetization."

The monetization of attention is very poor, but AI is heavily subsidized or even free (for now), so the largest venture capital and private equity funds in the world are spending billions in public pension money and rich peoples' savings into CO2 plumes, GPUs, and botshit so that a bunch of hustle-culture weirdos in the Pacific Rim can make a few dollars by tricking people into clicking through engagement bait slop – twice.

The slop isn't the point of this, but the slop does have the useful function of making the collective ideomotor response visible and thus providing a peek into our hopes and fears. What does the "egging my car" slop say about the things that we're thinking about?

Lorenz cites Jamie Cohen, a media scholar at CUNY Queens, who points out that subtext of this slop is "fear and distrust in people about their neighbors." Cohen predicts that "the next trend, is going to be stranger and more violent.”

This feels right to me. The corollary of mistrusting your neighbors, of course, is trusting only yourself and your family. Or, as Margaret Thatcher liked to say, "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families."

We are living in the tail end of a 40 year experiment in structuring our world as though "there is no such thing as society." We've gutted our welfare net, shut down or privatized public services, all but abolished solidaristic institutions like unions.

This isn't mere aesthetics: an atomized society is far more hospitable to extreme wealth inequality than one in which we are all in it together. When your power comes from being a "wise consumer" who "votes with your wallet," then all you can do about the climate emergency is buy a different kind of car – you can't build the public transit system that will make cars obsolete.

When you "vote with your wallet" all you can do about animal cruelty and habitat loss is eat less meat. When you "vote with your wallet" all you can do about high drug prices is "shop around for a bargain." When you vote with your wallet, all you can do when your bank forecloses on your home is "choose your next lender more carefully."

Most importantly, when you vote with your wallet, you cast a ballot in an election that the people with the thickest wallets always win. No wonder those people have spent so long teaching us that we can't trust our neighbors, that there is no such thing as society, that we can't have nice things. That there is no alternative.

The commercial surveillance industry really wants you to believe that they're good at convincing people of things, because that's a good way to sell advertising. But claims of mind-control are pretty goddamned improbable – everyone who ever claimed to have managed the trick was lying, from Rasputin to MK-ULTRA:

https://pluralistic.net/HowToDestroySurveillanceCapitalism

Rather than seeing these platforms as convincing people of things, we should understand them as discovering and reinforcing the ideology that people have been driven to by material conditions. Platforms like Facebook show us to one another, let us form groups that can imperfectly fill in for the solidarity we're desperate for after 40 years of "no such thing as society."

The most interesting thing about "egging my car" slop is that it reveals that so many of us are convinced of two contradictory things: first, that everyone else is a monster who will turn on you for the pettiest of reasons; and second, that we're all the kind of people who would stick up for the victims of those monsters.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/29/hobbesian-slop/#cui-bono

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[shadowwolfsage]

How rough was it for Nora to adjust not being on the same team as Ren?

Ren: (sitting in the library, enjoying the peace) I wonder how Jaune is handling Nora's, Nora-ness?

Nora: (rushing up to him) RENNY! Guess what?

Ren: (releases a small sigh before giving Nora his gull attention) what's happened?

Nora: So Jaune-Jaune was doing a project for Mr. Ooobleck.

In the distance: DOCTOR!

Nora: And it turns out I'm part bear faunus! Isn't that amazing?!

Ren: oh that. I already figured.

Nora: wait what? How?

Ren: (counting on his fingers) you have an almost instinctive hunger for honey, and salmon. You have the typical biting habits of faunus descendants. You sleep insanely deeply during the winter to the point its almost worrying. Aaand, its part of your medical records which I, as your pseudo-brother, and the responsible one between us, always handled.

Nora: D'awww. Party pooper

Ren: So how has your team been treating you?

Nora: OMG they're the best! Jaune likes to listen to my stories, Yang is an amazing workout buddy, and Ruby is always down to go on little adventures. Plus we all get to cuddle at night like one big sleepover. Why?

Ren: (resisting the urge to test howmany bullets it'd take to break Jaune's aura after remembering all the bite marks he saw on him earlier) No reason, just worried since this is our first time being apart like this.

Nora: (blissfully unaware) thanks for always looking out for me, Renny

[lonelywretchjervistetch]

The State Birds Initiative: Delaware (#1)

Welcome to the first official poll of the State Birds Initiative! Now, before the poll, one thing real quick. My suggestion is that you read the post below before voting in the poll below. That's especially important if you're lacking any context about the birds being presented as the new (or old) State Bird of the First State, Delaware. This is to be fully informed as to why these are being presented, and to make your choices appropriately. Lastly, some of these birds, you will notice, go against some of the rules listed in the introduction post. All is explained after the jump where the explanations are, I promise you that. But with that...OK! Here's the poll!

More details after the jump!

Welcome to Delaware, the First State!

Admitted into the Union in 1787 as the first state of this country, Delaware is the nation's second smallest, giving it the additional nickname "the Small Wonder"! Its capital is Dover, its most populous city if Wilmington (pictured above), and it's best known for its proximity to the Delaware River and the Delaware Bay, which it's actually named after. This does mean that Delaware Bay, for various reasons, will be one of the most important features of this post, since the wildlife that gathers around it is pretty ubiquitous in the state.

But OK, enough grade-school reporting of basic state statistics. What's Joe Biden's home state actually like, from the view of the citizens? On reddit, a user named hajisaurus said that Delaware is like a small town, but as an entire state. Compact, but eventful and familiar. Another user, raycooke, referred to it as the US condensed into miniature, with business in the north, beaches in the south and east, and farms in the middle. But the general vibe, it seems, is "familiar". Not overly friendly, but definitely close enough to be familiar. Also...the Bobbie.

God, that's a good looking sandwich. Invented in Delaware? Hell yeah. Anyway, off of turkey and onto birds. Personally, what all this says to me is that the chosen State Bird should be an easy-to-find sight, found throughout most of the state, and familiar to Delawareans in general. Something common but uniquely Delawarean would be great. In terms of habitat, water-bound seems appropriate, especially looking at beaches and estuaries. Again, the entire eastern border of the state touches the Delaware River or Bay, meaning water is somewhat important to the state (as is seafood).

Now, those Delawareans amongst us may have different opinions of what makes Delaware Delaware, and what represents its people most accurately. Which...yeah, I'm not from there, and I've only been there twice, and that's because I drove through it. Maybe went to one rest stop near Dover. And for the record, SOLID-ass rest stops in Delaware along the highway, just saying. Great job there, Delaware. But, yeah, PLEASE tell me if there's something else to take into account. And that goes for ALL of the states in this series, by the way. I can't claim to be an expert in any way here, so please call me on my bullshit if you feel that you have to. But, with that said, let's talk about what I do know: birds.

Red Knot (Calidris canutus)

For many of you, especially the bird-inclined amongst us, this was always going to be the obvious answer to this question. The Red Knot is an iconic Delaware bird for birdwatchers, as they're attracted to the state in MASSIVE numbers during migratory seasons. It's one of the most important and famous migrations in the country, and the flocks of Red Knots and other shorebirds are the main attraction. Why? Easy answer: the Atlantic Horseshoe Crab (Limulus polyphemus).

Delaware Bay is the site of the horseshoe crab's largest migration in the USA. This isn't the only place in the country they're found, but it's DEFINITELY the largest population of the species by a SIGHT. And speaking of iconic species, the horseshoe crab certainly fits the bill as a charismatic species of conservation concern. Which is why it may be curious that I'm highlighting the Red Knot, since they, y'know...EAT horseshoe crab eggs, alongside other birds in the great Atlantic seaboard migration. But that's actually why horseshoe crabs are so important.

Red Knots, amongst other shorebirds, depend on the horsehoe crabs for food, as these stopovers in Delaware Bay allow them to continue with their journey. Without the horseshoe crabs of Delaware, their life wouldn't be possible, and certainly not in the massive numbers found during migration. Understand, this is a threatened species, especially in the United States, that gathers in Delaware Bay in the thousands, with 2022 numbers being about 39,800 in a population. That's HUGE. The Red Knot is a symbol of this ecological boom, and both species should be celebrated. That's the reason the Red Knot is often given as the answer to this question of State Bird of Delaware, including by the Lab of Ornithology's article posted last year. Plus, it's got an iconic appearance, it's easy to find, and it tells a great story (which also includes a migratory distance of ~9,000 miles, which is crazy). Perfect, right?

...It doesn't breed in Delaware. It actually doesn't even breed in the United States. No, the Red Knot breeds in Nunavut and Greenland, above the limits of the Arctic Circle. I meant it when I said the Red Knot used Delaware as a stopover site. As such, it's an event when they arrive in Delaware twice a year...but they do leave. Pretty quickly, even. So, sure, the Red Knot is a great candidate for a number of reasons, but...is it OK if it doesn't actually breed in the state? I'd argue for it, since Delaware is is highest abundance of the species during migration in the country, and it's iconic in that way in particular. But I'll leave that as a question for you all to decide.

Let's go on to the next one, shall we?

Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis)

OK, this one might be cheating a bit, since the bird in question is found basically...well, everywhere. It's definitely not native to Delaware alone, and doesn't even breed there. So why even include this bird in the running? Easy answer: it's in the name. It's the only bird species in the world with the state of Delaware in its scientific name. However, this is also cheating, since the name actually refers to the Delaware River, not the state itself. That's because the bird was first described and discovered along the river, which flows from New York, through New Jersey and Pennsylvania, until ending in Delaware and the Delaware Bay. And yeah...technically that was in New Jersey. BUT STILL! Only bird with Delaware in the name, just sayin'. And after all, if the Red Knot can be considered despite not breeding in the state, then...what about the Ring-billed Gull? Or...maybe I'll save this one for New Jersey.

American Kestrel (Falco sparverius)

OK, this one I'm actually a bit enthusiastic about, partially because I love raptors, and I especially love this raptor. The American Kestrel is a small falcon, and is in fact the smallest falcon (and raptor) in North America. About the size of a mourning dove, they're pint-sized predators, specializing on insects, rodents, lizards, and the occasional sparrow or songbird. They're also versatile, living all over the USA in various habitats. And that, of course, includes Delaware. This is a breeding species in the state, so it already has that above the other two previously discussed! And to top it all off...it's literally a small wonder. Come on, man! This is perfect! A scrappy falcon that's literally red, white, and grayish-blue!

But, OK, if it's common all over, why specifically Delaware? Because it's actually threatened in Delaware, fun fact. This is prominent enough to have inspired the Brandywine Zoo to work with the American Kestrel Partnership (part of The Peregrine Fund, who we'll discuss again on another day or five), and start the Delaware Kestrel Partnership, which monitors kestrel populations in the state. The species' population has decreased by 88% in Delaware and surrounding states in the last 50 years, which is...dramatic. It's a species that desperately needs saving and attention, and work in Delaware can be applied in the kestrel's entire range. Look, I beg you to check this out, because it's a fascinating set of projects. And honestly, this alone would have me include the American Kestrel on this list. Plus...that would also make this the first raptor to become a state bird.

Yeah. Take a look. NO raptors amongst the State Birds. Insane.

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Now, this one seems out of nowhere, but hear me out. For whatever reason, the Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) seems to be completely ignored as a state bird across the entire country, despite it being one of the MOST iconic birds in the United States. I mean, come on, almost all of us have seen a GBH at some point in our lives, especially if we live near water. But why suggest it for Delaware specifically, then? Well, the herons breed in Delaware, so that's checked off. They're found in the state year-round, making them easy to access and identify with. They're definitely iconic in appearance. They highlight the marshlands and wetlands of Delaware as an important ecosystem of concern. And...uh...

Look, I'll be straight with you. "Blue Heron" is the closest I could get to...another set of words associated with Delaware and birds. Because honestly, it's genuinely somewhat difficult to separate Delaware from those two words, and this would be a fairly minor change that would allow the use of that term with little fuss! And honestly, the Great Blue Heron isn't the worst choice in the world for Delaware, even if it admittedly barely breeds in the state compared to others. And...like...oh, goddammit, fine, let's get this over with.

Delaware Blue Hen (Gallus domesticus)

Delaware. Look at me. Why...in the blue HELL...did you choose a goddamn chicken as your state bird? I mean, for God's sake, it's not a wild bird, and even if it is a breed developed in the state, IT IS A CHICKEN! What possible reason could there be to choose this bird over all the other possible birds? And look, I like chickens as much as the next guy. Used to raise and keep them as a kid, so I do love them, but this just feels wrong. But OK, let's make the argument for them by looking at Delaware's original argument.

So, from basic cursory research, the Delaware Blue Hen dates back to the Revolutionary War. Apparently, one of the regiments of the American army raised fighting game chickens that were so well-known, the regiment itself became known as the "Blue Hens". It's also possible that the leader of this regiment, Jonathan Caldwell, had a special blue hen that had blue offspring, and the men in the regiment also took to calling themselves "Sons of the Blue Hen." Which means...shit. That means the Blue Hen actually has cultural relevancy specific to the state of Delaware. Damn, that's actually a good argument for their assignment. But with that said...there actually is a problem here.

The Delaware Blue Hen doesn't technically exist.

Yeah, this isn't actually a recognized breed of chicken, despite the INSANE amount of devotion Delawareans have for it. I mean, military regiments, sports teams, even the unofficial nickname for the state is named after the Blue Hen, and it's technically not a real chicken breed. Instead, they're actually American Game hens that are crossed with Andalusian Blue hens to get that iconic coloration, but they're not actually an isolated breed.

So...what does this mean? Because this is genuinely a problem, right? Delaware's state bird doesn't actually exist, AND it's a chicken. Well...I have a proposition for you, Delaware. Because I do recognize the fact that the Blue Hen seems to mean a lot to you, both now and historically. So, if that's the case, we need to recontextualize this guy in a couple of ways. So, here's my proposition...

Make the Delaware Blue Hen the State Game Bird.

Haven't brought this up yet, but some states have what's called a "state game bird" alongside the actual state bird. Game birds, by the classical and nonscientific definition, are members of the Galliformes and Anseriformes that are associated with hunting and food. And technically...the chicken counts. Yeah, Delaware easily could ratify the Delaware Blue Hen into service as the State Game Bird, which makes even more sense when you consider its role AS A SPORTS MASCOT! See what I mean? But that's not the end of it.

You'll also have to find some way to get the hen recognized as an independent breed. I have NO idea what the process is for that (I guess this is the pathway to do it?), but it's probably gonna take a bunch of breeders and number of years to turn this into a defined breed. Hell, as it stands, not every chicken hatched to a Blue Hen is even blue. So, hey, get on it, Delawarean chicken breeders! Make you state proud!

And that's the information on the candidates for the Delaware State Bird! Will the Delaware maintain its place? Will the Red Knot take it, despite the controversy surrounding the choice? Will my bullshit proposal for the Great Blue Heron actually resonate with some people? Up to Tumblr!

As for the next state, it's time to hop next door to Pennsylvania, and to a State Bird that also technically doesn't exist...for a somewhat different reason. And yes, for the record, I know the below GIF is technically the wrong species, BUT MY CHOICES IN GIFS ARE FEW

See you soon, and happy birding!

Introduction to the State Birds Initiative

1. Delaware - Poll | Results 2. Pennsylvania - Poll | Results 3. New Jersey - Poll | Results 4. Georgia - Poll | Results 5. Connecticut - Poll | Results 6. Massachusetts - Poll | Results (upcoming)

[jadafitch]

Pond Island Light, Kennebec River, Phippsburg, Maine. Until 1937, Pond Island hosted a colony of terns, but the growing gull population forced them to clear out. In 1960, when the light became automated, all the buildings, except the tower were removed. In '73 Care of the island was transferred from the Coast Guard to Fish and Wildlife to be re-established as a tern colony. Thanks to the help of National Audubon, tern decoys and calls were deployed, gull nests removed, and finally in '99 the first common tern chick in over 60 years hatched. Then in 2003, Pond Island recorded its first successful breeding pair of endangered roseate terns.

[mjrtaurus]

My idea for some Crocodile's backstory until Oda spills the tea

A bastard child of Rocks D. Xebec, one of many, but the only to survive.

Afab, but knew he was a boy since he was in his single digits. His father was indifferent to this and everything else about him.

"Discovered" his name when he bit the ever-loving shit out of somebody who was fucking around and found out.

Inherited Xebec's horror of a temper and weaponized it as a self-defense mechanism. This got him into a lot of trouble later in life.

Was adopted by Whitebeard when Xebec was executed. He later took the mark on the back of his left hand, once the "family" was more well established.

Immediately had beef with Marco due to being under the assumption that the Phoenix was dad's new favorite.

Teach egged this rivalry on from the shadows, knowing damn well that if the two worked together, they would sniff his treacherous ass out in record time.

When their devil fruits were found and eaten, Crocodile was deeply jealous of Marco's newfound power.

What began as a brotherly quarrel spilled over into an actual, serious, life or death fight that Whitebeard had to intervene in.

This intervention ended with a nasty cut across Crocodile's face, and Marco dumbfounded by the attempt on his life.

Crocodile was marooned at the next port, his destructive temper deemed a danger to his brothers and sisters.

The whitebeard pirates mourned the loss, hitting Marco and Whitebeard the deepest.

Crocodile- betrayed and alone for the first time in his life- renounced his family by getting good and drunk, cutting of his marked left hand, and vowing to kill Whitebeard.

Set about learning to master his abilities, and- bitterly- how to keep a tighter grip on his anger.

By his late teens, he was leading a small but deadly efficient crew that only grew and grew with time until he gained the title of Warlord.

With this ego boost, he took his flagship- the Sobekneferu- to launch a swift and silent surprise attack on the Moby Dick under a dense fog, intent on catching Whitebeard unawares.

This attack went about as well as one could imagine. The fog covered them well, but not well enough to evade the eyes of one particular phoenix..

What the fog did do was delay Whitebeard's realization of who was attacking him until the Sobekneferu and the crew that manned her were all but destroyed.

Crocodile was the only survivor, presumed dead and adrift at sea, watching the gulls and the sea kings pick at the corpses of his found family, new and old.

He was saved days later by a passing Revolutionary ship that was scouring the wreck for anything that could be used or repurposed.

He was thought dead at first, until he lashed out at the Revolutionary who attempted to move his body.

They took him in, sick and starving and with his spirit all but broken, and he ran with them for about a year before he was ready to move on.

In that span of time, he met a man named Dragon, and bullied him ruthlessly for his impossible goals. Unfortunately for Crocodile, Dragon found this sour attitude to be quite charming.

It wasn't quite a relationship, though not for lack of wanting it to be. Times were too dangerous. The two couldn't even give each other their full names out of the need for caution, let alone be seen together outside of work related things...

It was Dragon who eventually introduced Crocodile to Ivankov, and the two were soon discussing the ins and outs of a full transition. This was put on hold when, one evening, it was discovered that a particularly nasty bout of cramps were actually the beginnings of labor pains.

No one knew who the father of this unexpected child was, save for him and Dragon, and that was for the best. If anyone asked, it had been a nameless bedfellow when they had been spending time ashore.

Neither named the child, knowing that giving the baby up would be the safest route to go for all of them. Crocodile didn't even want to know if he had a son or a daughter. He didn't want that pain.

He only spent long enough with the revolutionaries to recover from the birth and then from the transition. After that, he was off to reclaim his title of Warlord, to find new leads and new purposes, and maybe send some funds and information Dragon's way. Just to make sure he and his little outfit was still kicking.

[todropscience]

TINY CRABS ARE MAJOR PREDATORS OF FLATBACK TURTLE HATCHLINGS

Flatback turtles (Natator depressus) face predation risks during their hatchling stage on Thevenard Island, Western Australia. A recent study found that while no egg predation occurred, about 30% of hatchlings were consumed, primarily by ghost crabs (Ocypode convexa). Gulls and Caspian terns were also observed preying on hatchlings, although these were less common.

The absence of egg predation is unexpected and may be explained by the strategic nesting choices of female turtles or the composition of the eggshells. Despite these protective mechanisms, the survival rate from egg to hatchling remains vulnerable.

- Ghost crabs (encircled), and silver gulls and a Caspian tern predating on flatback turtle hatchlings emerging from nests, recorded by infra-red video camera on Thevenard Island, Pilbara region, Western Australia.

Conservation strategies must address these predation threats, particularly by targeting human disturbances and reducing predator populations in key nesting areas. These findings offer vital insights into the challenges affecting flatback turtle populations and their long-term recovery.

Photograph: Golden ghost crab by kaiwolfe

Reference (open access): Avenant et al. 2024. Predation rates on flatback turtle Natator depressus eggs and hatchlings at an island rookery. Mar Biol.

[plus-low-overthrow]

Ron Walton - Always Be the One (Gull)

1975

[lendmyboyfriendahand]

AU where the Third Kinslaying takes place a decade later

It doesn't truly change anything, not as far as the history books record things. Some of the Feanorian soldiers turncoat and defend the city, but not enough to save Sirion. The youngest sons of Feanor die in battle. Elwing is cornered in her tower, and jumps with a Silmaril. The remaining sons of Feanor take custody of her sons. Ulmo rescues Elwing and guides her bird-self to Earendil; Earendil and Elwing got to Valinor; Earendil pleads with the Valar. The arc of Fate continues unabated.

In other ways, it changes everything. Elrond and Elros are not children when the attack comes, to hide in a closet or cave in hopes their mother will return. Instead they are youths, not yet as wise or strong as some but nearly grown.

The princes take part in the battle to defend their city.

It's both of their first fight outside the practice yards. Elrond has gone hunting before and shot a deer, but Elros has never spilled the blood of another living being, not orc or elf or man.

He does so today, his sword travelling smoothly in the motion he's drilled a hundred times.

Elrond fights on horseback at first, riding down the street and firing arrows at anyone wearing Feanor's star, trampling down the invaders and moving on before he can see what's left behind and vomit in horror. But when the battle progresses into the palace he abandons his stallion at the gates, rushing to try and save his family.

Elros watches his mother jump from across a room crowded with combatants. Elrond is still four floors down, but he sees the gull emerge from the spray with a loud cry, far larger and brighter than any natural bird.

They do find each other in the battle, and fight side by side. But slowly the twins are driven back, before an army both more experienced and more numerous.

Elrond and Elros manage to retreat to the buttery and block the door, the thick stone walls that keep the beer cool also preventing anyone from reaching them. It's a very defensible room, with only one entrance to guard.

They are trapped. They know it.

Neither says it aloud.

They simply sit and wait, and hope the invaders will leave once they realize the prize they came to the city for is no longer achievable.

(Maedhros is not about to leave two young princes behind whose city was destroyed, will want revenge, would be a wonderful rallying point for the people of Sirion, and are two young to know the wisdom of not starting fights without a tactical benefit. Better to deal with it now, while the city is in chaos, than to wait and have an army come after the Feanorians in a year or a decade.)

(The only question is if the door can be breached, or if the Feanorians will need to starve the twins out. By which time reinforcements will likely have arrived to Sirion, so it becomes a matter of either defending the ransacked city or burning the palace with the boys inside it.)

After an hour or two, someone does think of negotiating, offering to spare the princes lives and leave the city not any further destroyed, and taking the boys captive.

(Tell me, what prince of the Noldor is infamous for going to a parlay under false pretenses? How much history and diplomacy do you think twins raised to rule a kingdom know?)

[reasonsforhope]

"There’s something deeply comical about suggesting that seagulls are smart enough to wait for you to look away before stealing your french fries, but dumb enough to fly into wind turbine blades.

A two-year study on the interactions of several seabird species at an offshore wind farm found that not a single case of birdstrike was recorded over the study period or in the 10,000 videos taken.

Looking at herring gulls, gannets, kittiwakes, and great black-backed gulls, Swedish state wind company Vattenfall found that most of the birds maintained a 50 to 230-yard distance between themselves and the radius of the spinning turbines.

“This is the first time that any kind of bird species has been studied this closely and in detail at an offshore wind farm,” said study author Henrik Skov. “And these birds are really good at avoiding the turbines. Now we need studies on more varieties.”

The study was conducted on a wind farm consisting of 11 offshore turbines near Aberdeen, Scotland. It used radar surveys and mounted video cameras to gather data.

Why these seabirds avoided the turbines could be down to the individual species observed since other studies have shown seabirds tend to rank high in offshore wind turbine mortality, and of medium risk for land-based wind turbine mortality.

Skov also offered that it could be the turbines are, for one reason or another, outside of prominent flight corridors, and therefore aren’t where birds have historically flown either for migration and nesting purposes, or feeding.

The study is a big milestone in scientists’ attempts to learn how and where to build wind turbines so that they don’t interfere with birds’ flight patterns. If there is something in the data of this study or future observations that could reveal the secret as to why there was no mortality at the Aberdeen wind farm, it could mean that hundreds of thousands of birds could be saved in the future."

-Good News Network, 3/31/23

[mindblowingscience]

Seagull species that have bigger brains are more likely to nest on coastal cliffs and may also be better adapted to breed in urban environments such as on the roofs of buildings. New research has found that more than half of cliff-nesting gull species have been recorded as nesting in towns and cities, compared to just 11% of those that do not, and these species have bigger brains than their non-cliff-nesting counterparts. The findings come in a broad-ranging study by ecologists at the University of Exeter looking at potential relationships between brain size, wing shape, nesting habits and the use of urban areas. It suggests that species such as the herring gull, the lesser black-backed gull and the black-legged kittiwake possess a behavioral flexibility that enables them to nest in more challenging locations.

Continue Reading.

[jules-writes-stories]

WIP | A Love That Bleeds

This is my Villains Week WIP. It's probably the closest I've ever come to writing anything considered Dead Dove (not because I'm anti, just hasn't happened yet--no TW for this excerpt). It's also the first story I will likely post, knowing it is still incredibly rough. But I'm trying to move past the unachievable quest for perfection and just share what I'm creating like a normal person lol. So here's Amarantha before she was Hybern's General, before Tamlin and Jurian's eyeball, and UTM...

Amarantha | Villains Week 2024 | Coming (hopefully) Day 7

Amarantha, eldest daughter of the House Ó Ceallaigh, hero of the Turas, was drunk. But the toasts had kept coming. And the warriors kept filling her cup. Father told her to switch to water, but she had not listened. Her head was fuzzy and the world spun on an unfamiliar axis. Several times the young Fae caught herself smiling for no reason.

She growled at the dour look on an old male’s face. He was staring at her from behind a painting. “What? Never seen a female win the Turas? Sail around the Isle in record time? Old gull.” Closing an eye allowed her to focus better. 

There was a small laugh from behind. Amarantha turned, palming her small dagger. There, in the empty corridor, was a human girl. It was her girl, from the Hall.

Amarantha resheathed her dagger and lifted her head, befitting the status of a legend. “Hasn’t anyone warned you it is dangerous to sneak up on the High Fae, mortal?” She tried to look down her nose into those enormous green eyes. It made her dizzy. So pretty. 

The human’s little rounded ears turned pink. Amarantha almost smiled again. “I beg forgiveness, Lady. I assumed one like me could not sneak up on a High Fae like you.” Her eyes sparkled with a wicked little light as they flicked towards the Fae’s pointed ears. 

Amarantha huffed. Clever creature. “Why are you lurking at these hours?” 

At this, the human curtsied, holding up her gray shift in her slender hands. She bore the brand of a crown along the inside of her wrist. Property of the King of Hybern himself. Of course. The royal household was known for hoarding the loveliest and strongest mortal slaves. They bred them regularly to keep them so. 

“His Majesty’s Steward sent me to your chamber. I was coming to find you. Her face flushed. She pulled parchment from her sleeve and lowered her head, holding out the roll.

Amarantha opened the letter and read the sloping words. A Gift. From the King of Hybern. Her dark eyes looked up at the human, who was watching her face with a keen gaze. Clever little creature indeed. 

She almost sent the slave back. The High Fae did not need another responsibility. Her narrow nineteen year old shoulders were buckling under her new role in Hybern’s court, watching out for a rebellious little sister, and trying to carve out her name on the Cliff of Legends. 

But it would be a terrible dishonor to refuse a gift. There were suddenly whispers coming from an alcove, the rustle of clothing, then a grunting sound. Amarantha needed to get out of the darkened hallway. It was not safe. She circled the slender, branded wrist. “Come.” 

She pulled the smaller female along several more doors until they approached her guest suite. It was a wing of honor, well appointed and luxurious. After locking the double doors and applying several wards, she allowed herself a chance to study the girl. 

She was more slender than Amarantha, and several inches shorter, but of a similar age. Human years were easy to discern. Her brown hair was tightly coiled, like little springs, and her skin was sun kissed. But it was those mermaid eyes Amarantha found herself falling into. 

She tore her gaze away and sat on the edge of the bed. The girl remained completely still in the moonlight, a lovely statue rescued from the ocean.

The warrior and seafarer was becoming a damned bard…

“Why did the King send you?” Amarantha asked, her eyes narrowing, as she continued to study her gift. The human was lovely and the new tug beneath her navel was back. Her breasts were small and firm. Amarantha imagined her nipples would be the color of the sky at dusk. Cauldron.

She cleared her throat, face burning. It was surely red as her hair. 

The human seemed confused. “It's tradition, my Lady. The victor of the Turas is gifted a slave from the King’s collection. His Grace noted your interest in– me– in the Hall.” She lowered her head full of curls once more. 

Amarantha felt like a fool. How was she to know of this tradition? Females were never permitted to race before, had never been offered a place in the Turas, and the only reason she was here, in this castle, instead of a cell, was because she’d won. It had been the gamble of her immortal lifetime. 

“Of course, dumb girl.” Amarantha scoffed. A shadow of anger might have passed across the slave’s soft features, but it may have been the flicker of flames from the hearth. “Well, what does the King call you?” 

When the girl did not immediately answer, she barked out, “What is your name?” 

“Peata, Mistress.” Her voice was a purr. Pet, in Old Hybernian. How fitting. It was common for the Fae to name their slaves after animals, objects, or even assign them roles.

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Fossil Novembirb 10: Bayou in the Badlands

Fluvioviridavis by @quetzalpali-art

Back to Eocene Ecosystems! One of the most famous Eocene fossil sites in the world is the Fossil Lake site of the Green River Formation, an ecosystem from Colorado in the United States. This ecosystem records the transition from the moist forested world of the early Eocene to the drier warm world of the mid-Eocene. The forests would begin to shrink back, the foliage would change, and so would the animals.

Fossil Lake records the start of that process! Sediment would regularly settle into this lake at periodic intervals, which then recorded the evolution of the lifeforms there over thousands of years. The forests were filled with sycamore trees and other broadleaf plants, as well as ferns.

Limnofregata by @iguanodont

Because the lake was so frequently filled with sediment, oxygen levels were low to nonexistent, preventing decomposers from living at the bottom of the lake. This lead to many different organisms being preserved nearly perfectly, including many gorgeous birds!

In fact, the Field Museum of Chicago - my home - has many of these wonderful fossils on display, and have fascinated me since childhood. So I'm going to break format a little here to showcase some of these fossils.

Cyrilavis, a Halcyornithid (Parrot-Passerine of Prey)

Fluvioviridavis, a Strisorian (like oilbirds or frogmouths)

Eofringillirostrum, a Passerine

Limnofregata, a Frigatebird in a Gull Niche

Nahmavis, a relative of shorebirds (Charadriiformes) or rails and cranes (Gruiformes)

An unnamed Anseriform, probably similar to Anachronornis

Celericolius, a mousebird

Zygodactylus, a stem-passerine

We see once again in this ecosystem - as we have in the others we've covered - the common theme of Avian evolution: the niches may stay the same, but the birds filling them will always change. We have Mousebirds perching in trees in North America, we have Frigatebirds filling the Gull niche, ducks wading around the lake like flamingos, and cousins of parrots/passerines hunting prey.

Presbyornis by @drawingwithdinosaurs

Other notable dinosaurs from this formation include Presbyornis, another one of those Flamingo-Ducks we've talked about like Teviornis and Conflicto; Gastornis because it was literally everywhere from the latest Paleocene through the early Eocene; Lithornithids like Pseudocrypturus because they were also everywhere; early landfowl like Gallinuloides; the cuckoo-roller Plesiocathartes; the ibis Vadaravis; and the turaco relative Foro. Once again, we see many tropical birds in places where they aren't today, due to the extensive warm climate of the Early Eocene.

Foro by @drawingwithdinosaurs

This swampy ecosystem was filled with large crocodile relatives, small mammals, the earliest known bats, giant lizards, and an alarming number of fish - making it one of the better known ecosystems of the early Paleogene. But the best known Paleogene fossil location is still to come...

Sources:

Grande, L. 2013. The Lost World of Fossil Lake: Snapshots from Deep Time. University of Chicago Press.

Mayr, 2022. Paleogene Fossil Birds, 2nd Edition. Springer Cham.

Mayr, 2017. Avian Evolution: The Fossil Record of Birds and its Paleobiological Significance (TOPA Topics in Paleobiology). Wiley Blackwell.