#increase plant yields

[puroxipurewater]

In a healthy greenhouse, you can increase plant yields, lengthen the growing season, care for delicate seedlings, and even grow plants that aren't usually compatible with your climate zone and humidity levels.  Here are some simplest ways to increase productivity if you're a greenhouse gardener looking for quick fixes to improve your greenhouse.  These pointers will help you get ahead of the curve and ease your life later on if you are just starting your greenhouse.

[yanderenightmare]

♡ TW: hybrid au, bullying, harassment

♡ GN reader

A sudden evolutionary change befalls the entire human race, turning everyone into hybrids…

And as your bully comes to terms with how much bulkier he's become, along with his new sharp teeth, stronger jaw, and round furry ears, as well as the little tassel he'd grown for a tail, he's also picturing you—his cute little classmate. 

At first, he caught himself thinking about what you'd look like if you were part bear like him, but then, when mulling over the fact that everyone had altered into some type of animal that seemed to complement characteristics they had already, he began wondering what animal characteristics best suited you, and what your bullyable body now looked like.

If he were to guess before seeing you, he'd think your meek nature must have gifted you with an animal equally as pathetic—like a little mouse.

But no, not exactly, though not far off either. 

There you are, in the classroom before anyone else, bright and early like always, as if you want him to catch you alone.

“Well, well, well… look what we have here,” he announces himself, placing one heavy foot before the other as he saunters over to your desk.

You jump up from your chair in a flurry, spooked by his voice. "Oh–hey," you greet, timidly like usual, maybe even more so, as you take in his new size, eyes widening as you do.

"Tch-" he scoffs, sharp eyes looking down at you, thinking you must have shrunk a whole head before remembering how his growth was probably half to blame. "Of course, the most useless person in the world turns into the most useless animal ever."

Your button nose wriggles, but you don’t dare negate his statement. "And you're a—" you start, but almost instantly regret it as obvious an observation as it is, "Bear."

He sneers, "Guess what they say about bunnies being dumb is true after all."

Your buck teeth peek forth as you bite into your lip, bowing your head. "Was there something you wanted?"

With his hands in his front pockets, he stands there for a moment—in silence that only seemed to increase in deadliness the longer it lasted, before stating his demand, "Show me your tail."

You look up at him at that. "W-why?"

He unpockets his paw and plants it on your desk, leaning in close. A grin spread on his lips—fangs and all. "'Cause I wanna see it. So turn around."

You shake your head pitifully. "N-no, that's embarrassing."

But he doesn’t care much about your refusal, only sighing heavily before grabbing your arm and pulling you forward until your chest met the solid surface of the desk, bent over it oh-so-prettily and ready for inspection.

"Come on, dont be difficult," he growls through a smirk, watching you wiggle a bit until settling down, all too quickly yielding under his mighty grip—a display that makes him lick his teeth before slolwy lifting your shirt, pulling it up your back, watching as the little tuft of fur waiting beneath it springs out of hiding for him to see.

He simpers at the sight, then eagerly goes to feel it. 

You whimper at his handling, but he ignores you. Feeling up the softness between his fingers. "Tch–so fluffy… no different from a stuffed animal."

His eyes pan to your face, looking at it cower, squished against the desk with knitted brows and eyes squeezed shut. You’re really just gonna lie there and let him do this, aren’t yah?

"Lop ears are a sign of domestication, y'know?" he says then, picking one of the floppy things up, giving it a rub that makes your whimpers turn into whines. 

"Yeah… if it wasn't clear enough before…” he chuckles. “You're as submissive as they come.”

♡ BNHA – Bakugou, Shigaraki, Dabi, Hawks, Shinso ♡ JJK – Sukuna, Geto, Gojo, Naoya, Toji ♡ HQ – Kyotani, Miya twins ♡ BLLK – Reo ♡ DS – Sanemi

♡ FEM x M INSERT masterlist ♡ GN x M INSERT masterlist

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A proposal to stop labelling carbon dioxide as a pollutant and instead celebrate it as a "foundational nutrient for all life on Earth" will be up for debate at the United Conservative Party's (UCP) annual general meeting(opens in a new tab) in November. The resolution, which includes abandoning Alberta’s net-zero targets, flies in the face of the scientific consensus(opens in a new tab) that carbon dioxide emissions created by humans burning fossil fuels is one of the primary drivers of global warming.  The increased temperatures, in turn, cause more frequent and extreme weather(opens in a new tab) like wildfires, floods, heat waves, storms and droughts.  A study published in Nature (opens in a new tab)found the deadly 2021 heat dome in BC that killed more than 619 people was amplified by climate change, and that other events like the fires that tore through Jasper this summer are made more likely and exacerbated by climate change.  The policy resolution put forward by the Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock and Red Deer South constituency associations says the carbon cycle is a biological necessity and "The earth needs more CO2 to support life and to increase plant yields, both of which will contribute to the health and prosperity of all Albertans."

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland @abpoli

[reasonsforhope]

"Marginal improvements to agricultural soils around the world would store enough carbon to keep the world within 1.5C of global heating, new research suggests.

Farming techniques that improve long-term fertility and yields can also help to store more carbon in soils but are often ignored in favor of intensive techniques using large amounts of artificial fertilizer, much of it wasted, that can increase greenhouse gas emissions.

Using better farming techniques to store 1 percent more carbon in about half of the world’s agricultural soils would be enough to absorb about 31 gigatons of carbon dioxide a year, according to new data. That amount is not far off the 32 gigaton gap between current planned emissions reduction globally per year and the amount of carbon that must be cut by 2030 to stay within 1.5C.

The estimates were carried out by Jacqueline McGlade, the former chief scientist at the UN environment program and former executive director of the European Environment Agency. She found that storing more carbon in the top 30 centimeters of agricultural soils would be feasible in many regions where soils are currently degraded.

McGlade now leads a commercial organization that sells soil data to farmers. Downforce Technologies uses publicly available global data, satellite images, and lidar to assess in detail how much carbon is stored in soils, which can now be done down to the level of individual fields.

“Outside the farming sector, people do not understand how important soils are to the climate,” said McGlade. “Changing farming could make soils carbon negative, making them absorb carbon, and reducing the cost of farming.”

She said farmers could face a short-term cost while they changed their methods, away from the overuse of artificial fertilizer, but after a transition period of two to three years their yields would improve and their soils would be much healthier...

Arable farmers could sequester more carbon within their soils by changing their crop rotation, planting cover crops such as clover, or using direct drilling, which allows crops to be planted without the need for ploughing. Livestock farmers could improve their soils by growing more native grasses.

Hedgerows also help to sequester carbon in the soil, because they have large underground networks of mycorrhizal fungi and microbes that can extend meters into the field. Farmers have spent decades removing hedgerows to make intensive farming easier, but restoring them, and maintaining existing hedgerows, would improve biodiversity, reduce the erosion of topsoil, and help to stop harmful agricultural runoff, which is a key polluter of rivers."

-via The Grist, July 8, 2023

[probablyasocialecologist]

Although the benefits of diverse forest systems are well known, many countries' restoration commitments are focused on establishing monoculture plantations. Given this practice, an international team of scientists has compared carbon stocks in mixed planted forests to carbon stocks in commercial and best-performing monocultures, as well as the average of monocultures.

Their work is published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change.

"Diverse planted forests store more carbon than monocultures—upwards of 70%," said Dr. Emily Warner, a postdoctoral researcher in ecology and biodiversity science at the Department of Biology, University of Oxford, and first author of the study. "We also found the greatest increase in carbon storage relative to monocultures in four-species mixtures."

[...]

Accordingly, the researchers were able to show that diversification of forests enhances carbon storage. Altogether, above-ground carbon stocks in mixed forests were 70% higher than in the average monoculture. The researchers also found that mixed forests had 77% higher carbon stocks than commercial monocultures, made up of species bred to be particularly high yielding.

"As momentum for tree planting grows, our study highlights that mixed species plantations would increase carbon storage alongside other benefits of diversifying planted forests," said Dr. Susan Cook-Patton, a senior forest restoration scientist at The Nature Conservancy and collaborator on the study. The results are particularly relevant to forest managers, showing that there is a productivity incentive for diversifying new planted forests, the researchers pointed out.

[dandelionsresilience]

Dandelion News - November 15-21

Like these weekly compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my Dandelion Doodles! (sorry it's slightly late, the links didn't wanna work and I couldn't figure it out all day)

1. Wyoming's abortion ban has been overturned, including its ban on abortion medication

“Wyoming is the second state to have its near-total abortion ban overturned this month[…. Seven other states] also approved amendments protecting the right to an abortion. A lawsuit seeking to challenge the [FDA]’s approval of abortion medication recently failed when the Supreme Court refused to hear it[….]”

2. Patches of wildflowers in cities can be just as good for insects as natural meadows – study

“This study confirmed that small areas of urban wildflowers have a high concentration of pollinating insects, and are as valuable to many pollinators as larger areas of natural meadow that you would typically find rurally.”

3. Paris could offer new parents anti-pollution baby 'gift bags' to combat 'forever chemicals'

“The bag includes a stainless steel baby cup, a wooden toy, reusable cotton wipes, and non-toxic cleaning supplies as part of a "green prescription". […] The city will also have 44 centres for protecting mothers and infants that will be without any pollutants[….]”

4. Indigenous guardians embark on a sacred pact to protect the lowland tapir in Colombia

“The tapir is now the focus of an Indigenous-led conservation project[… A proposed “biocultural corridor”] will protect not only the populations and movements of wildlife such as tapirs, but also the cultural traditions and spirituality of the Inga and other neighboring Indigenous peoples[….]”

5. Denmark will plant 1 billion trees and convert 10% of farmland into forest

“[…] 43 billion kroner ($6.1 billion) have been earmarked to acquire land from farmers over the next two decades[.… In addition,] livestock farmers will be taxed for the greenhouse gases emitted by their cows, sheep and pigs from 2030, the first country to do so[….]”

6. The biggest grid storage project using old batteries is online in Texas

“[Element operates “used EV battery packs” with software that can] fine-tune commands at the cell level, instead of treating all the batteries as a monolithic whole. This enables the system to get more use out of each cell without stressing any so much that they break down[….]””

7. Durable supramolecular plastic is fully ocean-degradable and doesn't generate microplastics

“The new material is as strong as conventional plastics and biodegradable, [… and] is therefore expected to help reduce harmful microplastic pollution that accumulates in oceans and soil and eventually enters the food chain.”

8. Big Oil Tax Could Boost Global Loss and Damage Fund by 2000%

“[… A] tax on fossil fuel extraction, which would increase each year, combined with additional taxes on excess profits would […] generate hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the decade to assist poor and vulnerable communities with the impact of the climate crisis[….]”

9. Rooftop solar meets 107.5 pct of South Australia’s demand, no emergency measures needed

“[T]he state was able to export around 658 MW of capacity to Victoria at the time[….] The export capacity is expected to increase significantly as the new transmission link to NSW[…] should be able to allow an extra 150 MW to be transferred in either direction by Christmas.”

10. Light-altering paint for greenhouses could help lengthen the fruit growing season in less sunny countries

“[Scientists] have developed a spray coating for greenhouses that could help UK farmers to produce more crops in the future using the same or less energy[… by optimising] the wavelength of light shining onto the plants, improving their growth and yield.”

November 8-14 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[fatehbaz]

Despite its green image, Ireland has surprisingly little forest. [...] [M]ore than 80% of the island of Ireland was [once] covered in trees. [...] [O]f that 11% of the Republic of Ireland that is [now] forested, the vast majority (9% of the country) is planted with [non-native] spruces like the Sitka spruce [in commercial plantations], a fast growing conifer originally from Alaska which can be harvested after just 15 years. Just 2% of Ireland is covered with native broadleaf trees.

Text by: Martha O’Hagan Luff. “Ireland has lost almost all of its native forests - here’s how to bring them back.” The Conversation. 24 February 2023. [Emphasis added.]

---

[I]ndustrial [...] oil palm plantations [...] have proliferated in tropical regions in many parts of the world, often built at the expense of mangrove and humid forest lands, with the aim to transform them from 'worthless swamp' to agro-industrial complexes [...]. Another clear case [...] comes from the southernmost area in the Colombian Pacific [...]. Here, since the early 1980s, the forest has been destroyed and communities displaced to give way to oil palm plantations. Inexistent in the 1970s, by the mid-1990s they had expanded to over 30,000 hectares. The monotony of the plantation - row after row of palm as far as you can see, a green desert of sorts - replaced the diverse, heterogenous and entangled world of forest and communities.

Text by: Arturo Escobar. "Thinking-Feeling with the Earth: Territorial Struggles and the Ontological Dimension of the Epistemologies of the South." Revista de Antropologia Iberoamericana Volume 11 Issue 1. 2016. [Emphasis added.]

---

But efforts to increase global tree cover to limit climate change have skewed towards erecting plantations of fast-growing trees [...] [because] planting trees can demonstrate results a lot quicker than natural forest restoration. [...] [But] ill-advised tree planting can unleash invasive species [...]. [In India] [t]o maximize how much timber these forests yielded, British foresters planted pines from Europe and North America in extensive plantations in the Himalayan region [...] and introduced acacia trees from Australia [...]. One of these species, wattle (Acacia mearnsii) [...] was planted in [...] the Western Ghats. This area is what scientists all a biodiversity hotspot – a globally rare ecosystem replete with species. Wattle has since become invasive and taken over much of the region’s mountainous grasslands. Similarly, pine has spread over much of the Himalayas and displaced native oak trees while teak has replaced sal, a native hardwood, in central India. Both oak and sal are valued for [...] fertiliser, medicine and oil. Their loss [...] impoverished many [local and Indigenous people]. [...]

India’s national forest policy [...] aims for trees on 33% of the country’s area. Schemes under this policy include plantations consisting of a single species such as eucalyptus or bamboo which grow fast and can increase tree cover quickly, demonstrating success according to this dubious measure. Sometimes these trees are planted in grasslands and other ecosystems where tree cover is naturally low. [...] The success of forest restoration efforts cannot be measured by tree cover alone. The Indian government’s definition of “forest” still encompasses plantations of a single tree species, orchards and even bamboo, which actually belongs to the grass family. This means that biennial forest surveys cannot quantify how much natural forest has been restored, or convey the consequences of displacing native trees with competitive plantation species or identify if these exotic trees have invaded natural grasslands which have then been falsely recorded as restored forests. [...] Planting trees does not necessarily mean a forest is being restored. And reviving ecosystems in which trees are scarce is important too.

Text by: Dhanapal Govindarajulu. "India was a tree planting laboratory for 200 years - here are the results." The Conversation. 10 August 2023. [Emphasis added.]

---

Nations and companies are competing to appropriate the last piece of available “untapped” forest that can provide the most amount of “environmental services.” [...] When British Empire forestry was first established as a disciplinary practice in India, [...] it proscribed private interests and initiated a new system of forest management based on a logic of utilitarian [extraction] [...]. Rather than the actual survival of plants or animals, the goal of this forestry was focused on preventing the exhaustion of resource extraction. [...]

Text by: Daniel Fernandez and Alon Schwabe. "The Offsetted." e-flux Architecture (Positions). November 2013. [Emphasis added.]

---

At first glance, the statistics tell a hopeful story: Chile’s forests are expanding. […] On the ground, however, a different scene plays out: monocultures have replaced diverse natural forests [...]. At the crux of these [...] narratives is the definition of a single word: “forest.” [...] Pinochet’s wave of [...] [laws] included Forest Ordinance 701, passed in 1974, which subsidized the expansion of tree plantations [...] and gave the National Forestry Corporation control of Mapuche lands. This law set in motion an enormous expansion in fiber-farms, which are vast expanses of monoculture plantations Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus species grown for paper manufacturing and timber. [T]hese new plantations replaced native forests […]. According to a recent study in Landscape and Urban Planning, timber plantations expanded by a factor of ten from 1975 to 2007, and now occupy 43 percent of the South-central Chilean landscape. [...] While the confusion surrounding the definition of “forest” may appear to be an issue of semantics, Dr. Francis Putz [...] warns otherwise in a recent review published in Biotropica. […] Monoculture plantations are optimized for a single product, whereas native forests offer [...] water regulation, hosting biodiversity, and building soil fertility. [...][A]ccording to Putz, the distinction between plantations and native forests needs to be made clear. “[...] [A]nd the point that plantations are NOT forests needs to be made repeatedly [...]."

Text by: Julian Moll-Rocek. “When forests aren’t really forests: the high cost of Chile’s tree plantations.” Mongabay. 18 August 2014. [Emphasis added.]

[lucarionite9364]

titan havik…titan havik and his silly stupid ridiculous arrogant attitude being a TEASE !!!

Chat, lemme cook for a second-- (this idea is great and so are you!)

Magnificent Maelstrom

Titan Havik x fem! reader

WC: 2,645

CW: SMUT! Mentions of violence, blood, bodily harm. Oral (M & F receiving), bitingg, scratching, creampie :3, uhhhh Havik is the warning tbh.

AN: Thank you Tan for the request,, I had fun writing this. <3

“VICTORY IS MINE!” You hear crowds cheering out as you roar your triumph in the pit. You throw your arms up as you circle around your dead opponent. Many of the Havik clones are throwing their arms at you in applause. Only one Havik catches your eye in particular though.

Lord Havik, the man he is. You hold his gaze on you. That crazed look he has on his face just looking at you covered in your foes blood is wild. It’s like lightning shooting through your veins. He knows exactly what drives you crazy for him. 

With a final show of glory, you turn to your deceased enemy and plant your foot firmly on his back, yanking your greatsword out from his side. You throw your sword into the air and watch as it lands mere inches away from your Lord. He doesn’t flinch. You know whether you strike him or not, he is never afraid. 

Climbing the wall of the arena, you take your spot next to Lord Havik. Takeda comes up to slap you on the back. “Nice job in the ring! I knew you’d win.” He laughs to himself as Kenshi comes up. “He bet on the other guy.” Takeda looks offended that his father would rat him out so easily. You elbow him in the side. Maybe a little harsher than expected, but he deserved it. 

“Oh please, as if I’d lose to the nobodies they give us in the ring.” This might have turned into petty squabbles had Havik not interrupted. He lightly traced his hand around your neck making you shiver. “You did well, my little hurricane.” 

He growled that last part in your ear, making your knees grow weak. Totally not the fact you just kicked ass in the ring. “Perhaps I should reward you.” The rasp in his voice never ceases to send heat straight to your core. Your mind couldn’t wander very far before you heard your telepathic friends stifle a cough. You glare at him, “How many times have I told you not to read my mind Takahashi.” 

You could punish him, but he’s already being punished enough by Takeda’s insistent pestering about what he heard in your mind.

You roll your eyes and turn your attention back to the ring where a significant increase in severed limbs has occurred. Everyone’s focus was on the ring as the next fight was to begin. You’d like to think Lord Havik knew that you want to keep your relationship on the down low. So why did you feel his fingernails creep up your back? Trying to keep your composure while he massages your neck slowly is more difficult than it sounds. 

You swiftly move to catch his wrist, in doing so he lets out a low huff of amusement. You lean over toward him so you can keep your voice quiet. “I’m starting to think you do this on purpose to test me.” Your mind clouds once more as you feel his breath creep down your face. 

“Your reactions fuel me, my dear.” You don’t even have to look to know he has that arrogant smile on his face. Not that he can make any other face. It’s the intention that counts you suppose. 

“The chaos in the ring should intrigue you more, shouldn’t it, My Lord?” “Oh yes, but the madness you yield has far more interest to me.” You feel him gently squeeze your ass from behind. You can only stifle your groan and hope neither of the other two heard you. 

You feel a presence prod at your mind. Since you can feel that it’s there, it must be Takeda. “That’s it.” You break free from Havik’s grasp and yank your greatsword from the stone ground. “Takeda, you’re a deadman!” 

You hear him laughing hysterically as he runs, and you chase after him. 

Kenshi and Lord Havik can only watch in amusement as Takeda uses his ropes to swing away from you. You tried throwing your sword at him only to narrowly miss. 

. . . . . 

Later, you enter the Citadel. The room with seemingly no beginning or end. There were fragments of cobblestone pathways everywhere. In the sky, or down below, there were walkways and obstacles in every part of the room. Is it even a room? A dimension? That doesn’t matter as you approach the man you’ve been looking for.

Titan Havik is observing a reverse waterfall with great interest. He always does, it seems to calm him, even if ‘calm’ is the opposite of his whole being. He held his mace on his shoulder. He was rarely seen without the sharp object in hand, you thought. His attention diverted as he heard your approach. He gazed upon you with pure arrogance, like he knew you would come crawling to him eventually. 

His bludgeon dissipated into the air as he made his way toward you. He reached out an arm to touch your face, but you swerved under his hand going behind him. His expression dropped slightly. “My Lord, you have been such a tease today,” you keep walking backward. “Do you really think I’d give you what you want after that performance?” Your smirk rivals that of which he wore earlier.

“Would you really deny me? Your ruler?” His voice is almost husky enough to make you give up then and there. You remained strong. His words, however, did bring a smile to your lips. “If you want me, come and get me.” At that, you took your last step off the edge of the walkway. 

Falling, you can’t see the nigh primal look in his eyes as he licks his teeth in anticipation for the chase. You quickly grab a floating stone to break your fall. You land on the path underneath just in time to see Havik break through the path above to get to you. 

“My hurricane, you can’t run from me in here.” You feign a pout, “Oh? But it makes my day that much more fun.” Expecting you to run away from him, you surprise him by heading straight for him. You slide between the gap in his legs and spring off the edge of the platform and leap on the larger floating rocks to move upward. 

Due to your many games of cat and mouse, you knew it was only a matter of time before he played dirty. As you jumped to the next stone, you didn’t see that he threw his arm at your leg until you tripped. Now in free fall, you see Havik follow you stone path to catch you in the air. He firmly lands on the next platform, but not without a sickening crunch indicating he broke his leg. 

You hear the limb snap back into place and his skin sealing itself together. As you're in his broad arms, you start nibbling on his exposed neck. He openly groans into your touch. “Now who’s being a tease?” He tilts his head toward you and leans to start licking your face. 

His unusually long tongue makes its way to your lips and parts them with ease. As your tongues dance around each other, he sets you back on your feet, roughly grabbing onto your chest. You moan into the sloppy makeout session. As he exits your mouth to give you air, saliva covers your lower face. 

You smirk and wipe your face on your unsleeved arm. You let your hands roam across his broad chest as you kiss your way down his torso. He looks down on you as you get on your knees before him. His hand makes its way to your hair to caress the soft strands as you start undoing the cloth surrounding his pants. His hand balls up into a fist, pulling deliciously on your hair. 

“Now will you serve me?” He asks, already knowing the answer. “Yes, My Lord.” You purr as you pull down his pants. You’ve seen him before, but his size still marvels you everytime. 

You grab the base with one hand and slowly lick a stripe up his shaft. The fist in your hair tightens as he groans. Wanting to tease him one last time, you swirl your tongue around his tip, occasionally dipping into the slit. “Your cruelty knows no limits, you maelstrom.” He grits his teeth as you lower your mouth on him.

You suction your mouth on him as you bob your head up and down. Just for added measure, you cup his balls and gently squeeze. You look up to see his dazed expression as his tongue lolls out from his mouth. 

You know you’re doing good when he plants his feet and thrusts all the way down your throat. You gag around him which makes him want to thrust harder. He grabs the back of your head with both hands and sets his own pace, using your face as his fucktoy. He knows you love it though. 

As much as you can’t breathe, you want to pleasure him. You hollow out your throat to allow for more room to take in air between the onslaught. You roughly grab onto his thighs and drag your nails down his leg in desperation. Clawing at anything to keep you grounded. 

You can feel his pace grow erratic as his hips stutter. He roughly pulls out and you heave in a large breath. As you regain your focus, you see blood creeping down his chiseled thigh from where you grabbed onto him.

You could feel yourself soaking through your pants from how wet you were. He pushed you to your back on the ground, laughing lightly as he could see your arousal. He knelt down over you, rubbing the spot between your legs that felt oh so good. But the little friction you got from that is nowhere near enough. 

You squirm as you undo the top of your pants, allowing him to pull them off of you with a harsh tug. You kept wiggling as you saw him stroking himself. You only wanted him inside you at that moment, but he had other plans. It seems like being a tease would bite you in the ass. Literally.

He dips his lead lower and puts a bite mark right on the inside of your thigh. You yelp in surprise. He has to pin your hips down, but not before ripping your panties off you. You shiver as the oddly cold air of the Citadel hits your lips. 

“Look at me, my dear,” He glares into your eyes as he says one more word. “Payback.” His tongue dives straight to like a thick line up your slit. Being the worst tease he is, he harshly sucks on your clit.

You can’t help but moan out as his teeth hit your sensitive bundle of nerves too. “Ahh, Havik!” You barely whimper his name, but to your surprise he stops. His gaze soured into a stern expression as he brought two fingers to gather your slick. “That is not my title.” You realize your mistake and quickly correct yourself. 

“I’m sorry My Lord! Please, don’t stop.” You have a pleading tone in your voice. He seems to like your answer as he pries you open with his two digits. Moving them in and out, scissoring them open to loosen you up. 

Your breathing increases in intensity. You feel the knot in your stomach tighten as he continues to suck your clit and finger you. You tangle your fingers in his hair, surprisingly soft, and tug on it. He growls out into your pussy as he keeps up the pace. 

“Lord Havik, I’m. . . I’m gonna–” “Let it out.” He commands, and you do as you're told. You yank his hair tighter as you shove your pussy into his face. Feeling your slick and release mix with his saliva as he continues to lick every last inch of you. You let go of his hair, but he doesn’t stop licking you, helping you ride out your orgasm. 

After he is done, he leans up to give you a sloppy kiss. You can taste yourself on his mouth as you bring your hands to wrap around his neck. You feel his still hard cock bumping your leg. Even after that strong orgasm, you still can’t help but want more. Want him. Need him.

He pulls away from the kiss and looks down on your disheveled form as he positions himself at your entrance. He pushes into you only to miss and slide up your soaked cunt. The tip nudged your clit sending a bolt of pleasure up your spine. 

Growing frustrated, he repositions himself and pushes all the way into you in one thrust. You can feel the breath being knocked out of you. You moan out at the intrusion, never being fully ready to take him. The stretch was a little painful, but the pleasure overtook that feeling as he pulled out and pushed back in with force. 

He started with a harsh pace, not giving you any time to adjust to his large size. You can feel yourself squeezing his shaft and you get impossibly wetter as he abuses your sopping cunt. He takes one of your nipples in his calloused fingers and pinches it while teething on the other. 

The thought that someone can find you splayed open underneath your Lord never crossed your mind as you moan every time he thrusts into you. He brings his unoccupied hand down to rub circles into your clit. His thrusts falter for a moment as you rake your sharp nails down his muscular back. Leaving bloody trails in its wake.

He loved the scars you left on his body. He wore them just as proudly as his battle scars. Letting people see the things you do to him, whether they knew it was from you or not. His thrusts lost their pattern and became erratic. He was close, and you were too. However, he was dead set on making you go first. 

He bit into the sweet spot on your neck. That coupled with his endless thrusts and toying with your clit cause you to let go for a second time. Your juices came gushing out all over his lower abdomen. He stopped playing with your clit, but his thrusts picked up till he finally threw himself over the edge. 

You locked your legs around his back to make sure he couldn’t leave. Your body heat rose three times as his hot cum was shot into your womb. He lost control of his groans as the bite on your neck drew blood. He had his hands holding your hips in such a grip you thought it might bruise as he finished spilling into you. 

You almost blanked as the please was too much. Were it not for the fact he’s holding you up, you would have slumped over already. He stayed inside you for a little longer. Growling out into your ear, “You drive me mad. You are the anarchy I crave.” You feel warm tears well up in your eyes. You can’t tell if it’s because you’re overstimulated or his words meant more than he realized. 

You breathlessly confess, “You are the disorder to my disarray. Nothing is better than the great turmoil you bring to my life.” You plant one more kiss on his exposed teeth before you groan as he pulls out of you. You shudder as you feel his cum drip out of your spent cunt. An idea, good or bad, sparks your hand into motion. You make a show of scooping his cum from between your legs and bringing your fingers to your mouth. 

You made sure we watched every second of your display. His voice drops to a growl as he speaks, “We have time before the next battle in the arena.”

[anneapocalypse]

So this may not be news to others, but this is the first I've come across it! According to Leonesaurus, who uploaded this capture:

Urianger was being roleplayed by a Square-Enix dev and interacting with players for his first appearance in-game before they implemented him into the story as an actual character. This took place at Camp Horizon on the old Selbina/Ridill server in 2011. Urianger would give players who visited him a 10 min buff for Quickened, Regen, HP and MP increase! Arcanist powers galore! Speaking of Arcanist, you can see on his back the original Arcanist weapon that was intended by the old FF XIV 1.0 team before Yoshida took over and retconned them into wielding books instead from ARR onward.

And here's the key dialogue:

Outside the Adventurer's Guild in Ul'dah:

Alfgar: Hearken adventurers of Eorzea! Ware you the venomous words of false prophets! Alfgar: Adventurer! I ask that you heed not the foul lies of those claiming knowledge of future happenings! Player Character: Who are these false prophets? Alfgar: They appear near aetheryte camps, bedraped in shadowy robes, preaching their untruths to any and all who will listen. Keep your distance, traveler, lest you become tangled in their web of deceit. PC: Are we in any danger? Alfgar: We are all in danger, for fear can drive a man to terrible deeds, and it is seeds of fear that these farls prophets wish to plant in our hearts and our minds. They are not the Archons of legend. They are not our saviors. They only foster unrest.

At Camp Horizon:

Urianger Augurelt: A shadow hangeth o'er the realm, growing blacker with each passing day!

Urianger Augurelt: Darkness descendeth, but surrender not to despair! For the future is forged in the flames of the present!

Urianger Augurelt: I am a mere messenger, entrusted with words of prophecy.

Urianger Augurelt: Awoken but recently to the truth, I come to stir those yet aslumber.

Urianger Augurelt: Ne'er till land consumes sun can sea bear moons. Heavens spew crimson fire, hells seep black dooms.

Urianger Augurelt: The senary sun yields the septenary moon - expelling the Astral, beckoning the Umbral. So saith the eternal wisdom of Mezaya Thousand Eyes.

Urianger Augurelt: Open thine eyes, ye seekers of truth! Stand and bear witness to the path that must be trod!

Urianger Augurelt: Awoken but recently to the truth, I come to stir those yet aslumber.

Urianger Augurelt: To spread word of the coming darkness and stoke the flames in your hearts, that they may light the way.

[datapacks]

So here's the idea for how to utilize the portals in the Ancient City without making them just lead to another dimension. I've had this idea for a while, but only just started to seriously think about how it would work, but make it so that when the player crosses the portal, they gain a new ability of sorts- they can see the secret machinations of the world, a spirit world.

When a mob attempts to spawn, it will first check to see if there are any spirits nearby. To the average player, these spirits will be intangible and invisible; placing a block over one will simply prompt it to move to a different location. For players who have been through the ancient city portal, though, they could intentionally move (or remove) these spirits, making a way to reasonably stop mob spawns in total darkness, or even intentionally boost mob spawns in certain locations. This would apply to hostile, neutral, and even passive mobs.

When a block attempts to age (oxidization, crops growing, trees sprouting, grass spreading, etc), as it stands right now, this uses the RandomTick system. RandomTick could be set locally though, again using these spirits. To the average player, this would rarely have any impact on the game, aside from certain areas seeming to grow crops slightly faster- to players who have been through the portal, they would have the option to move these spirits around to increase their farm yields, or even to stop crop growth altogether.

These spirit entities, for the most part, would effectively be particle spawner entities, rather than individual entities; while the individual spirits move freely from the source, that would make the source entity itself much easier to pin down and move. Otherwise, there could even be entire new hostile mobs that only appear to (and only attack) players who have been through the portal.

There could reasonably be entire structures that the player cannot see nor interact with unless they've been through the portal, but players who have can break these blocks, placing them wherever they would like. To players who haven't been through the portal, it could seem like players who have are simply walking across air. There could be entire swathes of decorative blocks & plants that could be crafted with echo shards to make them visible to the naked eye, or to otherwise make it so that an unassuming location becomes beautiful to those able to see it.

One final addition I would want to add is Solar Eclipses; during a solar eclipse, some of these spirits would be visible (though still not necessarily tangible) to the naked eye. This would be a way to ensure that players at least know about their existence, if they haven't been through the portal.

Removing the effect could be as simple as dying, like any other status effect in the game. To regain it, players would simply have to go through the portal once again.

We already have multiple instances of blocks specifically that only certain players can see under certain circumstances (barriers, light blocks), as well as the particle system allowing particles to be per-player, so if this tech was expanded to support block collision and entities, it would work out pretty well I think. This would add an insane amount of customization to the mechanics of minecraft, & I think any one of these features would be a really fun addition to play with. Imagine going through the gateway and seeing an entire city's worth of spectral villagers that have been in the ancient city this whole time.

[najia-cooks]

[ID: A circle of overlapping semi-circular bright pink pickles arranged on a plate, viewed from a low angle. End ID]

مخلل اللفت / Mukhallal al-lifit (Pickled turnips)

The word "مُخَلَّل" ("mukhallal") is derived from the verb "خَلَّلَ"‎ ("khallala"), meaning "to preserve in vinegar." "Lifit" (with diacritics, Levantine pronunciation: "لِفِتْ"), "turnip," comes from the root "ل ف ت‎", which produces words relating to being crooked, turning aside, and twisting (such as "لَفَتَ" "lafata," "to twist, to wring"). This root was being used to produce a word meaning "turnip" ("لِفْتْ" "lift") by the 1000s AD, perhaps because turnips must be twisted or wrung out of the ground.

Pickling as a method of preserving produce so that it can be eaten out of season is of ancient origin. In the modern-day Levant, pickles (called "طَرَاشِيّ‎" "ṭarāshiyy"; singular "طُرْشِيّ" "ṭurshiyy") make up an important culinary category: peppers, carrot, olives, eggplant, cucumber, cabbage, cauliflower, and lemons are preserved with vinegar or brine for later consumption.

Pickled turnips are perhaps the most commonly consumed pickles in the Levant. They are traditionally prepared during the turnip harvest in the winter; in the early spring, once they have finished their slow fermentation, they may be added to appetizer spreads, served as a side with breakfast, lunch, or dinner, eaten on their own as a snack, or used to add pungency to salads, sandwiches, and wraps (such as shawarma or falafel). Tarashiyy are especially popular among Muslim Palestinians during the holy month of رَمَضَان (Ramaḍān), when they are considered a must-have on the إِفْطَار ("ʔifṭār"; fast-breaking meal) table. Pickle vendors and factories will often hire additional workers in the time leading up to Ramadan in order to keep up with increased demand.

In its simplest instantiation, mukhallal al-lifit combines turnips, beetroot (for color), water, salt, and time: a process of anaerobic lacto-fermentation produces a deep transformation in flavor and a sour, earthy, tender-crisp pickle. Some recipes instead pickle the turnips in vinegar, which produces a sharp, acidic taste. A pink dye (صِبْغَة مُخَلَّل زَهْرِي‎; "ṣibgha mukhallal zahri") may be added to improve the color. Palestinian recipes in particular sometimes call for garlic and green chili peppers. This recipe is for a "slow pickle" made with brine: thick slices of turnip are fermented at room temperature for about three weeks to produce a tangy, slightly bitter pickle with astringency and zest reminiscent of horseradish.

Turnips are a widely cultivated crop in Palestine, but, though they make a very popular pickle, they are seldom consumed fresh. One Palestinian dish, mostly prepared in Hebron, that does not call for their fermentation is مُحَشّي لِفِتْ ("muḥashshi lifit")—turnips that are cored, fried, and stuffed with a filling made from ground meat, rice, tomato, and sumac or tamarind. In Nablus, tahina and lemon juice may be added to the meat and rice. A similar dish exists in Jordan.

Turnips produced in the West Bank are typically planted in open fields (as opposed to in or under structures such as plastic tunnels) in November and harvested in February, making them a fall/winter crop. Because most of them are irrigated (rather than rain-fed), their yield is severely limited by the Israeli military's siphoning off of water from Palestine's natural aquifers to settlers and their farms.

Israeli military order 92, issued on August 15th, 1967 (just two months after the order by which Israel had claimed full military, legislative, executive, and judicial control of the West Bank on June 7th), placed all authority over water resources in the hands of an Israeli official. Military order 158, issued on November 19th of the same year, declared that no one could establish, own, or administer any water extraction or processing construction (such as wells, water purification plants, or rainwater collecting cisterns) without a new permit. Water infrastructure could be searched for, confiscated, or destroyed at will of the Israeli military. This order de facto forbid Palestinians from owning or constructing any new water infrastructure, since anyone could be denied a permit without reason; to date, no West Bank Palestinian has ever been granted a permit to construct a well to collect water from an aquifer.

Nearly 30 years later, the Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (also called the Oslo II Accord or the Taba Agreement), signed by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1995, officially granted Israel the full control over water resources in occupied Palestine that it had earlier claimed. The Argreement divided the West Bank into regions of three types—A, B, and C—with Israel given control of Area C, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) supposedly having full administrative power over Area A (about 3% of the West Bank at the time).

In fact, per article 40 of Annex 3, the PA was only allowed to administer water distribution in Area A, so long as their water usage did not exceed what had been allocated to them in the 1993 Oslo Accord, a mere 15% of the total water supply: they had no administrative control over water resources, all of which were owned and administered by Israel. This interim agreement was to be returned to in permanent status negotiations which never occurred.

The cumulative effect of these resolutions is that Palestinians have no independent access to water: they are forbidden to collect water from underground aquifers, the Jordan River, freshwater springs, or rainfall. They are, by law and by design, fully reliant on Israel's grid, which distributes water very unevenly; a 2023 report estimated that Israeli settlers (in "Israel" and in the occupied West Bank) used 3 times as much water as Palestinians. Oslo II estimations of Palestinians' water needs were set at a static number of million cubic meters (mcm), rather than an amount of water per person, and this number has been adhered to despite subsequent growth in the Palestinian population.

Palestinians who are connected to the Israeli grid may open their taps only to find them dry (for as long as a month at a time, in بَيْت لَحْم "bayt laḥm"; Bethlehem, and الخَلِيل "al-khalīl"; Hebron). Families rush to complete chores that require water the moment they discover the taps are running. Those in rural areas rely on cisterns and wells that they are forbidden to deepen; new wells and reservoirs that they build are demolished in the hundreds by the Israeli military. Water deficits must be made up by paying steep prices for additional tankards of water, both through clandestine networks and from Israel itself. As climate change makes summers hotter and longer, the crisis worsens.

By contrast, Israeli settlers use water at will. Israel, as the sole authority over water resources, has the power to transfer water between aquifers; in practice, it uses this authority to divert water from the Jordan River basin, subterranean aquifers, and بُحَيْرَة طَبَرِيَّا ("buḥayrat ṭabariyyā"; Lake Tiberias) into its national water carrier (built in 1964), and from there to other regions, including the Negev Desert (south of the West Bank) and settlements within the West Bank.

Whenever Israel annexes new land, settlers there are rapidly given access to water; the PA, however, is forbidden to transport water from one area of the West Bank to another. Israel's control over water resources is an important part of the settler colonial project, as access to water greatly influences the desirability of land and the expected profit to be gained through its agricultural exports.

The result of the diversion of water is to increase the salinity of the Eastern Aquifer (in the West Bank, on the east bank of the Jordan River) and the remainder of the Jordan that flows into the West Bank, reducing the water's suitability for drinking and irrigation; in addition, natural springs and wells in Palestine have run dry. In this environment, water for drinking and watering crops and livestock is given priority, and many Palestinians struggle to access enough water to shower or wash clothing regularly. In extreme circumstances, crops may be left for dead, as Palestinian farmers instead seek out jobs tending Israeli fields.

Some areas in Palestine are worse off in this regard than others. Though water can be produced more easily in the قَلْقِيلية (Qalqilya), طُولْكَرْم (Tulkarm) and أَرِيحَا ("ʔarīḥā"; Jericho) Districts than in others, the PA is not permitted to transfer water from these areas to areas where water is scarcer, such as the Bethlehem and Al-Khalil Districts. In Al-Khalil, where almost a third of Palestinian acreage devoted to turnips is located [1], and where farming families such as the Jabars cultivate them for market, water usage averaged just 51 liters per person per day in 2020—compare this to the West Bank Palestinian average of 82.4 liters, the WHO recommended daily minimum of 100 liters, and the Israeli average of 247 liters per person per day.

As Israeli settlement גִּבְעַת חַרְסִינָה (Givat Harsina) encroached on Al-Khalil in 2001, with a subdivision being built over the bulldozed Jabar orchard, the Jabars reported settlers breaking their windows, destroying their garden, throwing rocks, and holding rallies on the road leading to their house. In 2010, with the growth of the קִרְיַת־אַרְבַּע (Kiryat Arba) settlement (officially the parent settlement of Givat Harsina), the Jabars' entire irrigation system was repeatedly torn out, with the justification that they were stealing water from the Israeli water authority; the destruction continued into 2014. Efforts at connecting and expanding Israeli settlements in the Bethlehem area continue to this day.

Thus we can see that water deprivation is one tool among many used to drive Palestinians from their land; and that it is connected to a strategy of rendering agriculture impossible or unprofitable for them, forcing them into a state of dependence on the Israeli economy.

Turnips, as well as cabbage and chili peppers, are also grown in the village of وَادِي فُوقِين (Wadi Fuqin), west of Bethlehem. In 2014, Israel annexed about 1,250 acres of land in Wadi Fuqin, or a third of the village's land, "effectively [ruling] out development of the village and its use of this land for agriculture." Most of this land lies immediately to the west of a group of settlements Israel calls גּוּשׁ עֶצְיוֹן ("Gush Etzion"; Etzion Bloc). Building here would link several non-contiguous Israeli settlements with each other and with القدس (Al-Quds; "Jerusalem"), hemming Palestinians of the region in on all sides (many main roads through Israeli settlements cannot be used by anyone with a Palestinian ID). [2] PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi said that the annexation, which was carried out "[u]nder the cover of [Israel's] latest campaign of aggression in Gaza," "represent[ed] Israel’s deliberate intent to wipe out any Palestinian presence on the land".

This, of course, was not the beginning of this strategy: untreated sewage from Gush Etzion settlements had been contaminating crops, springs, and groundwater in Wadi Fuqin since 2006, which also saw nearly 100 acres of Palestinian land annexed to allow for expansion of the Etzion Bloc.

All of this has obviously had an effect on Palestinian agriculture. A 1945–6 British survey of vegetable production in Palestine found that 992 dunums were devoted to Arab turnip production (954 irrigated and 38 rain-fed; no turnip production was attributed to Jewish settlers). A March 1948 UN report claimed that "[i]n most districts the markets are well-supplied with all the common winter vegetables—cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuce and spinach; carrots, turnips and and beets; beans and peas; green onions, eggplants, marrows and tomatoes." By 2009, however, the area given to turnips in Palestine had fallen to 918 dunums. Of these, 864 dunums were irrigated and 54 rain-fed. This represents an increase in unirrigated turnips (5.8%, up from 3.9%) that is perhaps related to difficulty in obtaining sufficient water.

Meanwhile, Israel profits from its restriction of Palestinian agriculture; it is the largest exporter of turnips in West Asia (I found no data for turnip exports from Palestine after 1922, suggesting that the produce is all for local consumption).

The pattern that Ashrawi called out in 2014 continued in 2023, as Israel's genocide in Gaza occurs alongside the continued and escalating killing and expulsion of West Bank Palestinians. The 2014 annexations, which represented the largest land grab for over 30 years and which appeared to institute a new era of state policy, have been followed up in subsequent years with more land claims and settlement-building.

Israeli military and settler raids and massacres in the West Bank, which had already killed 248 in 2023 before the حَمَاس (Hamas) October 7 offensive had taken place, accelerated after the attack, with forced expulsions of Palestinians (including Bedouin Arabs), and harassment, raids, kidnappings, and torture of Palestinians by a military armed with rifles, tanks, and drones. This violence has been opposed by armed resistance groups, who defend refugee camps from military raids with strategies including the use of improvised explosives.

Support Palestinian resistance by buying an e-sim for distribution in Gaza; donating to help two Gazans receive medical care; or donating to help a family leave Gaza.

[1] 918 dunums were devoted to turnips according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) report for 2009; the 2008 PCBS report attributes 253 dunums of turnip cultivation to Al-Khalil ("Hebron") for 2006–7.

[2] Today, Gush Etzion is connected to Al-Quds by an underground road that runs beneath the Palestinian Christian town of بَيتْ جَالَا (Bayt Jala).

Ingredients:

Makes 2 1-liter mason jars.

500g (4 medium) turnips

1 beetroot

1 medium green chili pepper (فلفل حار خضر��), halved

2 small cloves garlic, peeled

1 liter (4 cups) distilled or filtered water

25g coarse sea salt (or substitute an equivalent weight of any salt without iodine)

Some brining recipes for lifit call for the addition of a spoonful of sugar. This will increase the activity of lactic-acid-producing bacteria at the beginning of the fermentation, producing a quicker fermentation and a different, sourer flavor profile.

Instructions:

1. Clean two large mason jars thoroughly in hot water (there is no need to sterilize them).

2. Scrub vegetables thoroughly. Cut the top (root) and bottom off of each turnip. Cut each turnip in half (from root end to bottom), and then in 1 cm (1/2") slices (perpendicular to the last cut). Prepare the beetroot the same way.

If you need your pickles to be finished sooner, cut the turnips into thinner slices, or into thick (1/2") baton shapes; these will need to be fermented for about a week.

3. Arrange turnip and beet slices so that they lie flat in your jars. Add garlic and peppers.

4. Whisk salt into water until dissolved and pour over the turnips until they are fully submerged. Seal with the jar's lid and leave in a cool place, or the refrigerator, for 20–24 days.

The amount of brine that you will need to cover the top of the vegetables will depend on the shape of your jar. If you add more water, make sure that you add more salt in the same ratio.

[majingojira]

Complete List of Public Domain McGuffin Materials

I wanted a clean collection of these based on @titleknown original post, just for ease of reference and adding a few along the way.

Also, HAPPY PUBLIC DOMAIN DAY!

Cavorite - An Anti-Gravity Metal from First Men On The Moon by H.G. Wells.

Hihi'irokane - From "The Takenouchi Documents" (1935). A super durable metal that never rusts and is also a conductor of heat. In other words, it's Minecraft Red Stone.

Taduki - From the Alan Quartermain stories, a drug that allows users to relive past lives via smoking. It's a great framing device, and was used as one in the original stories.

The Absolute - from "The Absolute At Large". Byproduct of a matter-to-energy conversion. Implied to be the element of 'Divinity'.

Eitr - Source of all life in Norse Mythology. The mixing of the FIres of Muspelheim and the ice of Nifilheim -- but also a deadly poison to the earth.

Fleury's Gas - Rudyard Kipling's super gas from his story "With the Night Mail." Used to run Zepplins. It expands explosively fast as a gas and is both powerful and rigid. It can be liquified with Fleury's Ray. Produces a lot of power and acts as Hydrogen. Could be used very easily in Neumatics (ROBOTS!)

Tulu Metal - Lovecraft invention. rare space-metal. Extremely magnetic. Speculatively, it could do space-warping weirdness (given Lovecraft stories, that tracks).

Abyssal Gold - The Gold of the Deep Ones. It's whitish-gold alloy with a weird lustrousness. No special properties, it's just weird. And rather pretty. Rare type of gold are sure to go for a higher market value.

Alkahest/The Universal Solvent - Alchemy dissolver. It dissolved/breaks apart whatever it comes across.

Jeckyll's Compound - Most people use the Hyde formula as shorthand to make Hulk-knockoffs, but the reality of it more than that. Hyde is not just a coalescence of a man's "Dark Impulses" but a chemical 'disguise' to allow a person to indulge in whatever a person wants.

The Red Weed - A plant native to Mars from War of the Worlds. It tastes metallic, absorbs water, grows extremely quickly, and is bioluminescent.

Starlite - A purportedly heatproof material. Up to 90% organic.

Rossum's Protoplasm - Rossum's Universal Robots, the McGuffin that makes the robots move and behave.

Liquid Electricity - Glowing energy liquid. It was a common belief about Electricity in the early days, so it ended up in a lot of stories.

Herbet West's Re-Animation Fluid - From Lovecraft's Herbet West: Reanimator. It chemically kickstarts the mechanical process of life in organic tissue.

Solarnite/Solarbenite/Solarite - Plan 9 From Outer Space. It causes light particles to... explode.

Vril - The life energies harnessed by an underground utopian civilization. The energies are controlled by staves and there's different type of staff to control Vril in different ways. It can be used to heal, to destroy, or to enhance organic material.

Herakleophorbia IV - The Food of the Gods of H.G. Well. Organisms that ingest this chemical quickly grow to 5 to 7 times their normal size. This is used primarily on livestock to increase their food yield, but it naturally gets eaten by pest animals. Many common household pest insects are now the size of a person's thumb or their hand! A rat is now 6 to 9ft long. And if some jerk feeds it to an Alligator... it now as large as a blue whale.

The New Accelerator - From the HG Wells story from the same name. Within the story, Prof. Gibberne creates a drug that enables the user’s mind and body to gain temporary super-speed, so that everything in the world appears frozen solid as time appears to slow.

There are downsides to being a 1901 version of the Flash however. Users are still subject to friction, so moving while on the drug causes your clothes to get singed (this same friction making it impossible to breathe is ignored, however).

Devil's Foot Root - From the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes story The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot. A poison made from an African root, which vaporizes when heated, leading to those exposed going mad or dying after inhaling the fumes.

 Basically, works like the Scarecrow’s fear toxin from Batman, and is considered rare enough that someone has to specifically use some from a stolen from the collection of someone who had to gather it personally as an explorer. At least, at the time.

The White Powder - The novel of The White Powder by Arthur Machen, wherein a student is prescribed a drug made from a mysterious white flakey substance. His sister begins to worry about his sudden changes in mood and personality, which is only compounded when his prolonged abuse of the titular White Powder causes the student to literally melt.

One of Machen’s more famous stories, would go on to be listed as among Lovecraft’s favorite's and inspiring future writers, from the finale of Lovecraft’s Cool Air to one Stephen King story where a tainted six pack turns a dude into a blob monster.

[unatkozorobotok]

“Koalas are fucking horrible animals. They have one of the smallest brain to body ratios of any mammal, additionally - their brains are smooth. A brain is folded to increase the surface area for neurons. If you present a koala with leaves plucked from a branch, laid on a flat surface, the koala will not recognise it as food. They are too thick to adapt their feeding behaviour to cope with change. In a room full of potential food, they can literally starve to death. This is not the token of an animal that is winning at life. Speaking of stupidity and food, one of the likely reasons for their primitive brains is the fact that additionally to being poisonous, eucalyptus leaves (the only thing they eat) have almost no nutritional value. They can't afford the extra energy to think, they sleep more than 80% of their fucking lives. When they are awake all they do is eat, shit and occasionally scream like fucking satan. Because eucalyptus leaves hold such little nutritional value, koalas have to ferment the leaves in their guts for days on end. Unlike their brains, they have the largest hind gut to body ratio of any mammal. Many herbivorous mammals have adaptations to cope with harsh plant life taking its toll on their teeth, rodents for instance have teeth that never stop growing, some animals only have teeth on their lower jaw, grinding plant matter on bony plates in the tops of their mouths, others have enlarged molars that distribute the wear and break down plant matter more efficiently... Koalas are no exception, when their teeth erode down to nothing, they resolve the situation by starving to death, because they're fucking terrible animals. Being mammals, koalas raise their joeys on milk (admittedly, one of the lowest milk yields to body ratio... There's a trend here). When the young joey needs to transition from rich, nourishing substances like milk, to eucalyptus (a plant that seems to be making it abundantly clear that it doesn't want to be eaten), it finds it does not have the necessary gut flora to digest the leaves. To remedy this, the young joey begins nuzzling its mother's anus until she leaks a little diarrhoea (actually fecal pap, slightly less digested), which he then proceeds to slurp on. This partially digested plant matter gives him just what he needs to start developing his digestive system. Of course, he may not even have needed to bother nuzzling his mother. She may have been suffering from incontinence. Why? Because koalas are riddled with chlamydia. In some areas the infection rate is 80% or higher. This statistic isn't helped by the fact that one of the few other activities koalas will spend their precious energy on is rape. Despite being seasonal breeders, males seem to either not know or care, and will simply overpower a female regardless of whether she is ovulating. If she fights back, he may drag them both out of the tree, which brings us full circle back to the brain: Koalas have a higher than average quantity of cerebrospinal fluid in their brains. This is to protect their brains from injury... should they fall from a tree. An animal so thick it has its own little built in special ed helmet.”

[howtocareforbunnyboys]

"Formula" baby food for ARFID age regressors 🍼🥤

I'll make a better post with progress pics next time I make some, but I wanted to post about it quickly, since it was such a success.

My small (@bunnnybcy ) has ARFID, which makes it very difficult for him to get much nutrition, and I'm always trying things to make health accessible to him. One way to make "scary" foods accessible is to make them cute or baby-like. This recipe is sort of a "base model," a warm and sweet treat that can be altered later to increase their fruit & whole grain consumption.

Equipment you'll need:

Saucepan

Stirrer

Measuring cups

Stove or hotpad

Blender

Sippy cup or reusable pouches (Link to reusable pouch example)

Refrigerator for storage

Sweet Cinnamon Formula Recipe 😋

Ingredients:

1 cup + 1 cup milk or plant milk of choice (we used vanilla soy milk) 🥛

1/2 cup plain rolled oats 🥣

1 tsp dark brown sugar, or to taste*

1 tsp honey, or to taste 🍯

Cinnamon, to taste

Vanilla extract, to taste

Steps:

🥛 Heat the first cup of milk in your saucepan on the stove. Turn the heat up to medium, or medium-high if you're impatient.

🍯 Stir in the brown sugar and honey, and continue to stir frequently until the milk starts to lightly boil.

🥣 Stir in the 1/2 cup of rolled oats, and turn down the heat to medium, if it isn't already there.

🥄 Stir frequently until the liquid is mostly absorbed, about 5-8 minutes. (The longer you cook it, the smoother your end product will be, which is important for ARFID smalls.)

🆒️ Take off the heat, and let cool for a bit, until you're confident that it won't melt your blender lol.

Pour the oatmeal into your blender, add 1/4 cup milk🥛, and blend until smooth. Check the consistency, and continue adding milk in 1/4 cup amounts until your small approves of the texture. This would also be a convenient time to add more cinnamon, vanilla, honey🍯, or sugar, if they feel the taste is lacking.

Pour into pouches or sippy cups.

You can store leftover formula in the fridge for 3-5 days.

Other formula flavor ideas:

Strawberry 🍓

Banana🍌

Blueberry 🫐

Peach 🍑

Chocolate 🍫

Peanut butter 🥜

Apple pie 🍎

Pumpkin pie 🥧

Sweet potato 🍠

Notes for other carers of little ones with ARFID:

If your small one will tolerate it, adding nuts or seeds during step 1 will yield a more nutritious result, but some may not blend down. Chia seeds, for example, will remain visible and will feel like poppyseeds, which may be off-putting to someone with ARFID, even though they don't taste like anything.

Always remember to introduce new tastes and textures slowly, and allow them to try a new thing multiple times on different days if they're unsure about it. Unsure may just mean unfamiliar, and it'll take them a number of attempts to acquire a taste for it. Uncertainty is a good sign of a future "yes", but don't push them to finish a serving of something they're on the fence about; the pressure may turn it into a "no". Instead, give them the option of putting the rest away for later, and after some time, when they're ready, encourage them to try it again.

[thesnowtiger]

▪︎ Do you know how we called this in real life?

Selection

▪︎ Do you know how we called this in real life?

Breeding

▪︎ Do you know that "calves are typically separated from their dam (mother) shortly after birth, in contrast to their natural bond, as they would stay together for up to a year or more. Calves are separated for reasons of economic gain, by increasing milk yield for consumption, control over calf feeding and hygiene".

~ That's why nowadays, there are so many different breeds of pet animals like cats and dogs, domestic animals like cows and pigs, genetically modified agricultural plants like corn and potatos. That's why there are still these types of things called "animal/plant experiments" and probably even human experiments, who knows... ~

> but, I wonder, what happens if these breeding processes and experiments are held in not very legal conditions....if money and the profit become more important than the health and life of those living creatures? Maybe something like Alien Stage....

......Really, in what kind of world have we all been living this whole time? 🙁

[probablyasocialecologist]

The World Food Summit of 1996 approached food security through the principles of ensuring there is enough safe and nutritious food that can be accessed daily to meet healthy dietary needs and food preferences. By definition, this is a desirable and worthy goal. However, in the years since, food security has developed into a paradigm which does not question the underlying power dynamics and the reproduction of material conditions that make food insecurity a permanent feature of the global order. At its core, the food security paradigm deals only with access to food, without challenging the political and economic structures that determine and control access, as well as distribution.  By failing to address the root causes of hunger and famine, the food security paradigm makes it impossible to end hunger globally. Of course, many people worldwide possess food security, but this is restricted to increasingly limited geographic pockets. In terms of the people localised in one area, food vulnerability is influenced and determined by class, race, gender and, of course, citizenship status. Globally, “underdevelopment” and “de-development” lead to widespread food insecurity across areas. Another problem with the food security paradigm is that it is easily co-opted to generate partial answers that pose no threat to the corporate food system, or worse, that even open up new profit opportunities. Accelerated by other crises, the food security paradigm becomes ever more dependent on aid, be it through direct food delivery, cash transfers or small development projects that cannot compete with the food giants and their price-setting powers. In practice, a “science of food security” emerges, one which takes as its focus calories and the output that is compatible with precision agriculture having the aim to increase crop yields and to assist management decisions using high technology sensor and analysis tools. This model tends to be reliant on “Green Revolution” technologies that rely on chemical fertilisers and pesticides and that are tied to colonial projects and corporations, in order to optimise resources in aid response and/or development projects.  In this rationale, food insecurity can be addressed by reaching optimum yields of certain crops that should meet the demand for fats, fibres and protein. All of this is carefully managed and data-driven. Precision farming is advocated by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) with the objective of optimising, “agricultural value chains […] critical in advancing food and nutrition sufficiency without increasing the size of land under cultivation.” The framing of food that reduces it only to “optimal input” relegates vital elements of food production and the culture of eating, like territory ownership, taste, heritage, care, well-being and connection as secondary. This reductionist approach has, though, proved useful to corporate agriculture, since it reinforces the case for genetically modified crops (GMOs), more efficient fertilisers, and the standardisation of food production for market purposes. Advocates of plant breeding technologies (including GMOs and hybrid seeds) argue that government overregulation is an obstacle to achieving food security. Overregulation, as the argument goes, denies populations the opportunity to grow crops that have increased nutrient use efficiency and are more resilient to climate shocks. 

[...]

The paradigm of food security is about optimising productivity. It’s true that productivity matters – after all, feeding the world requires enormous quantities of food. But if productivity is approached solely as a technological problem, it reinforces the tendency to fragment the quantitative and qualitative aspects of food production and consumption. On the quantitative side, production for food security is viewed as a challenge of multiplication. Whereas division, that is, distribution of food, is left to logistical planning. This ignores what Raj Patel identified in his influential 2007 book Stuffed and Starved, as the bottleneck of power that concentrates international food distribution among a small set of corporations. This bottleneck excludes the poor and small-scale food producers from decision-making. It also normalises worrying tendencies, such as an overreliance on industrial animal exploitation as a protein source, which has direct health implications, as well as longer term consequences like the proliferation of new viruses, greenhouse gas emissions and inefficient use of water and soil.

28 May 2024