#look up a video about the crab migration

[artemistorm]

Ooh! Prompt!

Wind befriends crab :)

"Look, I built the crab a little house," Wind called. "Now he won't get eaten by birds." He pointed to the shelter of stacked rocks he'd erected over the small red crab on the pebbly beach.

"That's great, kid. How do we get off this island?" Warriors asked.

"We don't," Wind said. "We're doomed to succumb to starvation on this deserted isle."

"Haha very funny. Seriously. How are we getting out of here?"

"Wars. Relax. Everything's fine. I know where we are." "

"Then where are we?"

"It's an unpopulated jungle island but there's a trade route that passes right by here. We just have to wait until a ship passes and flag it down. Shouldn't take more than a few days at most."

"So we basically get to have a beach vacation until someone rescues us?"

"Exactly!"

"Thank the Spirits!"

"Before we get too far into fun and games, we need to set up--" Time started but no one was listening. Wind ran off down to the surf, followed by shortly by Four. Wolfie was already near the water's edge, rolling in a dead fish. Warriors flopped onto his back and threw his arm over his eyes. Wild and Hyrule took off for the jungle with Legend hurrying after them. Only Sky stood smiling pleasantly at Time.

"What were you saying?" He said.

"Ah, never mind," Time said. "Go have fun, Sky."

******

"We have 27 crab houses in crab city so far," Wind told Time. "And more crab houses being built all the time!" He motioned to Sky and Four whom he'd conscripted to build crab houses for every crab they had found at the beach.

There was a shout behind them and they looked back to find Warriors flailing on the ground. He jumped to his feet flinging several crabs into the seagrass around him.

"You alright?" Time asked.

"I just woke up to legs on my face. Tiny armored ghoma legs. It was terrifying," Warriors shivered.

"Those are crabs," Wind said. "There's a lot of them around."

"AAAAAHAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Hyrule screamed running out of the jungle. "WATCH OUT! THEY'RE COMING!"

"What's coming?!" Sky asked, alarmed.

"Its... an invasion!" Hyrule huffed resting hands on his knees.

"What?! There's no monsters on this island!" Wind exclaimed jumping up.

"COMING IN HOT!" Legend yelled bursting out of the trees. "Out of the way! Clear a path!"

"Holy Hylia!" Warriors jumped out of Legend's way. "What's going on?!"

"That!" Legend pointed.

Wild sprinted out of the woods shrieking in terror and covered head to toe in bright red crabs.

"Come on! This way! Into the water!" Legend called to Wild. Wild plowed into the waves and droped to his hands and knees letting the next waves of water lift and wash off all of the crabs off his body.

"There you go. Wash them all off. You're alright. They're mostly harmless," Legend said.

"Easy for you to say!" Wild retorted with a crab hanging off of his nose by it's claw.

"I don't understand. What's going on?" Wind asked.

"Crabs!" Wild, Hyrule and Legend said all at the same time.

"I don't understand it either, but the jungle is completely full and crawling with crabs--every square inch in covered with them--and they're all crawling right toward us," Hyrule explained.

"What do we do? Are they dangerous?" Sky asked anxiously.

"No they're not dangerous--" Wind said.

"Lies!" Wild said trying to coax the crab on his nose to let go.

"If we don't all want to end up like Wild completely covered in crabs, we need to find a way off the island," Legend said.

"Woof woof arf woof arf awooo!" Wolfie said.

"Wolfie, we can't understand you--" Time started.

"Look!" Four exclaimed and pointed at the trees. It took a moment, but then they saw it. The trees, the shrubs, the logs, the vines, the rocks all started moving and shifting from their ordinary greens and browns and greys to pinkish reddish hues. There were thousands of them. Even millions.

The crabs were coming.

There was a crackle and Twilight shifted back into Hylian.

"We should build a raft out of the driftwood," he suggested.

"We can float in the middle of the bay," Wind agreed.

"Right," Time said. "Let's do that then."

*******

"This is probably the weirdest thing I think we have ever done," Warriors said dangling his bare feet off the raft and into the water.

"I still say we should have made a bonfire and eaten the crabs," Hyrule said crossing his arms. "We can't cook at all on this raft."

"We can't eat a bazillion crabs," Wind said.

"Yes we can," Hyrule answered. "I don't know about you but I'm starving."

"Can we please not talk about food or eating?" Legend said laying down with one hand covering his eyes.

"You good, vet?" Twilight asked.

"Do I look like I'm okay?"

"How long do you think this... event... will last?" Four asked eyeing the island which was now completely covered with crabs migrating into the ocean.

"I have absolutely no idea," Wind answered. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"Hey. What's cracking?" A new voice called. Nine heads turned around to look at a pair of sailors in a rowboat. At the mouth of the bay, Tetra's ship was anchored.

"Tetra!" Wind cried, elated.

"Thank the three we're saved!" Legend sighed.

[sol-consort]

I always wonder while playing ME. Do Hanar hug you with two tentacles or all tentacles like some facehugger

I've put too much time into researching this and this is what I found so far.

Firstly, I assumed that mass effect wouldn't have addressed the hanar hugging habits at all so I straight up jumped to their real life counterpart, the jellyfish.

And let me tell you how surprised I was to find that no one has raised the question of "can you hug a jellyfish?"

Like we have had heated discussions about how a horse would wear pants, are you telling me that the 21st century humans never imagined hugging the one immortal animal without a brain or bones? Shame on all of us.

But, however, I was delighted to find that people did in fact raise the question of "can you kiss a jellyfish?"

And you can! You might die but I say the price is worth it.

Jellyfish don't seem that friendly to humans either so I question the hanar willingness to hug us.

After finding out that the first page results of two different search engines were completely off topic, I went to the other source of information where people were chronically online enough to ask these questions seriously, tiktok.

I did end up with fruitful results. I found this video and this other one of jellyfish kinda of hugging each other underwater? And as you can see they do use all of their tentacles. I also found a bunch of cute other videos about jellyfish and got distracted for an hour, 10/10 experience.

Now the scales were leaning in the favour of hanar using all of their tentacles to hug you. Finding the barrel jellyfish to be the closest to hanar, here is an image with a human for scale to how the hug might be.

But that raised the question of whether they would fall or float? Which lead to the need to figure out how they even moved because their tentacles looked too fragile to act as legs.

I knew tiktok was too unreliable and search engines too professional so I migrated to the one place where source material is treated like a holy grail, reddit.

Scouring the deserted mass effect subreddit while half lucid on pain killers, I did find some information on how the hanar conducted their day to day surface odyssies.

Based on this one hanar "blasto" from the citidal dlc, hanar do in fact walk on their tentacles as legs. But it's less of walking and more of scuttering around like a tiny crab in a tiny shell. The wiki adds more explanation, they use a mass field effect on their tentacles to carry them since they are in fact fragile and unable to lift up their big bodies.

After reading the wiki that I realised I should've gone to from the start, I found out the hanar have a skull, which means they have a brain to protect inside the said skull. So they are in fact not as squishy as earth jellyfish :(

Then I finished the wiki and still found no information on their hugging habit. At which point I was close to giving up.

Going back to reddit since I had nothing else to do, I suddenly found an oasis amidst the dry desert of hanar informations.

This picture of a hanar hugging an asari! From the "Mass Effect: Blasto: Eternity is Forever"

I was flabbergasted! The exact thing I was looking for, just straight up offered to me on a silver platter! The fates smiled my way.

So the definitive answer is that they seem to hug you with 4 of their 6 tentacles, leaving the remaining 2 in the far back to carry their weight and balance on.

There is however an argument I found that mentiond how blasto is actually considered a bad representation of hanar in the mass effect universe. Blasto seems to deliberately exaggerate and preform un-hanar like behaviour to appeal to the bipedal viewers. One example is carrying guns that hanars are know to be unable to actually effectively use for the lack of fingers.

Which raises doubts about the authenticity of the Blasto hug. Is it how hanar really hug or is this one attempting to appeal to the human-like viewers? Do hanars hug with all of their tentacles underwater and only do a 4 tentacle hug on dry lands? Can you kiss a hanar? Where can I get a copy of that asari hanar tentacle porn game?

I'm afraid to admit that I know that I know nothing.

Here is another cute video of jellyfish.

[rockislandadultreads]

Read-Alike Friday: Better Living Through Birding by Christian Cooper

Better Living Through Birding by Christian Cooper

Christian Cooper is a self-described “Blerd” (Black nerd), an avid comics fan and expert birder who devotes every spring to gazing upon the migratory birds that stop to rest in Central Park, just a subway ride away from where he lives in New York City. While in the park one morning in May 2020, Cooper was engaged in the birdwatching ritual that had been a part of his life since he was ten years old when what might have been a routine encounter with a dog walker exploded age-old racial tensions. Cooper’s viral video of the incident would send shock waves through the nation.

In Better Living Through Birding, Cooper tells the story of his extraordinary life leading up to the now-infamous incident in Central Park and shows how a life spent looking up at the birds prepared him, in the most uncanny of ways, to be a gay, Black man in America today. From sharpened senses that work just as well at a protest as in a park to what a bird like the Common Grackle can teach us about self-acceptance, Better Living Through Birding exults in the pleasures of a life lived in pursuit of the natural world and invites you to discover them yourself.

How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler

A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature: the mother octopus who starves herself while watching over her eggs, the Chinese sturgeon whose migration route has been decimated by pollution and dams, the bizarre Bobbitt worm (named after Lorena), and other uncanny creatures lurking in the deep ocean, far below where the light reaches. Imbler discovers that some of the most radical models of family, community, and care can be found in the sea, from gelatinous chains that are both individual organisms and colonies of clones to deep-sea crabs that have no need for the sun, nourished instead by the chemicals and heat throbbing from the core of the Earth.

Exploring themes of adaptation, survival, sexuality, and care, and weaving the wonders of marine biology with stories of their own family, relationships, and coming of age, How Far the Light Reaches is a book that invites us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live.

Life Between the Tides by Adam Nicolson

Inside each rockpool, tucked into one of the infinite crevices of the tidal coastline, lies a rippling, silent, unknowable universe. Below the stillness of the surface course different currents of endless motion - the ebb and flow of the tide, the steady forward propulsion of the passage of time, and the tiny lifetimes of its creatures, all of which coalesce into the grand narrative of evolution.

In Life Between the Tides, Adam Nicolson investigates one of the most revelatory habitats on earth. As Nicolson journeys between the tides, both in the pools he builds along the coast of Scotland and through the timeline of scientific discovery, he is accompanied by great thinkers - no one can escape the pull of the sea. We meet Virginia Woolf and her Waves; a young T. S. Eliot peering into his own rockpool in Massachusetts; even Nicolson's father-in-law, a classical scholar who would hunt for amethysts along the shoreline, his mind on Heraclitus and the Hellenists. And, of course, scientists populate the pages; not only their discoveries, but also their doubts and errors, their moments of quiet observation and their thrilling realizations.

It is all within the rockpools, where you can look beyond your own reflection and find the miraculous an inch beneath your nose. "The soul wants to be wet," Heraclitus said in Ephesus twenty-five hundred years ago. This marvelous book demonstrates why it is so.

Birdgirl by Mya-Rose Craig

Meet Mya-Rose – otherwise known as ‘Birdgirl’. Birder, environmentalist, diversity activist. To date she has seen over five thousand different types of bird: half the world’s species.

Every single bird a treasure. Each sighting a small step in her family journey – a collective moment of joy and stillness amidst her mother’s deepening mental health crisis. And each helping her to find her voice.

Since she was young, she has visited every continent to pursue her passion, seeing first-hand the inequality and reckless destruction we are inflicting on our fragile planet. And the simple, mindful act of looking for birds has made her ever-more determined to campaign for all our survival.

This is her story; a journey defined by her love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.

[euphoricfilter]

hypothetically speaking if bts were crustaceans (btc - bullet troof crustaceans) who would be what because i can definitely see namjoon as a crab (classic crab crove) and jin as maybe a lobster (i am not implying anything bad ik lobsters are cold and distant lovers)

i can also see all of them being hermit crabs just trading their shells like how they rehouse shells irl in the ocean or something idk where they live

also shrimps they could totally be shrimps shrimptan sonyeondan

CLAMS!?

this is a very important question!!

(this got kinda long so i’ll add the read more 🥲)

crabs is definitely a classic. i could see them as ghost crabs, just because i like the lil antenna lookin eyes they have. actually i think, hobi gives off floral egg crab, with the cool designs on his shell??

even vampire crabs are cool, and i think live mostly on land— so i could see them all living under rocks or under little huts on the beach together, bathing in little rock pools together??? i also know they’re good as an introduction to crabs as pets so they seem to be pretty chilled out and comfortable with life 🕺

if we’re talking individually, namjoon is definitely a red crab, and yeah it’s inspired by those migrating red crab videos. and yeah namjoon would be the lone crab trailing behind the group, enamored by the world around him as they migrate

i could see jin as a lobster!! maybe a spiny lobster, just because they’re a little more flamboyant looking than regular lobsters!! they also don’t have the scary little snappers, so they look a little more gentle!! i also think they’re huge, so that could be the human equivalent of wide shoulders LMAO

i think jimin would maybe be a tadpole shrimp?? their tails freak me out a bit because i think when i first saw them i thought they were just little blobs, but they’re small and not really that scary at all. jimin would also be the kind of crustacean to like fresh water instead of salt water!!

since vmin are besties, then tae would have to be a fresh water crustacean too, so he’d be a common yabby. i like the blue yabbies, but the more brown ones also kinda remind me of the suits tae likes to wear so they fit him quite well!! and then!! him and mimi can still live in the same water together!! two little crustacean babies just living good lives

jungkook is a fairy shrimp, i think it’s the eyes??? also inspired by the nickname baby star candy, i could totally see jungkook as a lil fairy shrimp!! they also swim upside down which i could see as something jungkook would do!!

yoongi was a little hard to choose for but i think maybe the louisiana crayfish fits him the most?? just because they’re highly adaptable to their environment, and can live in varying environments which seems like a very yoongi thing to be able to do

hobi is a remipedia just because it looks like their legs are waves when they swim, and hobi (probably has adhd) but you know he moves a lot, i could see that as his aquatic form of dancing 🕺

they’d all be so cute as hermit crabs!!! i was just about to look at what kind of environment they lived in but!! i just found out that hermit crabs are part of natures clean up and recycling service!! which is super cool!!

some hermit crabs also have super cool shells, and really pretty ones too, so i could definitely see them swapping!!

shrimptan sonyeondan 💪💪 they’d all be tiger shrimp in this universe, and i can’t explain why.

CLAMS!!!!

not crustaceans, but still sea creatures.

shark tan!!!!!! i think it’s common knowledge that jungkook is a thresher shark, there is no arguing about that. with the eyes??? their little mouthes and just ah, i love thresher sharks. (they’re definitely my favorite)

also whale sharks are super cool!! they’re my second favorite shark, so maybe they could be whale sharks.

but!! lemon sharks are the ones that swim in groups so maybe they’ll have to be lil lemon sharks??? or, the maknae line could be sucker fish, because they cling onto lemon sharks to eat all the parasites and keep them clean??

but also! jellyfish are super cool?? and sea bunnies. imagine them all as little sea bunnies ☹️

[noncompliantcyborg]

Day 18 of taking myself to the water to remind myself I’m allowed to just exist

Video Description: Incredibly green water with fish swimming around a dock piling covered in little feeding barnacles. Subtitles read "Anyone know what these fish are?" The fish have a pointed face with a large rounded body that is relatively shallow, with a triangular dorsal fin, a forked yellow tail fin. Some are smaller with a less distinctly colored tail, and a series of dots on the body. "Are they the same species and one morph is male and the other female?" The fish pick at the piling. "I think they are eating the barnacles." We jump to under the dock where there is a feathery worm with brown and white striped tendrils. "I love sabellid worms. They come in such good colors." We jump to showing a red and a yellow tube worm. Up close under the dock, tons of tiny barnacles feed. "Look at those barnacles go." Next to them is some orange mats with lots of little holes. "All the orange stuff is colonial ascidians." A large crab with spindly limbs and its carapace covered in barnacles crawls into view. "What a beautiful kelp crab! (Tbh all crabs are beautiful). Big claws but eating tiny things"

Migrating this series I did on Tik Tok over to tumblr, which unfortunately means scraping the audio off most videos to avoid copyright strikes. If you have any questions, I’d love to talk about these critters!

Original with audio: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8MnSf8L/

[christmascocos2023]

Friday 11th August

Usual beautiful start to the day with a bit less of the breeze earlier but picking up now. Yesterday afternoon I went for a walk along a path just up from me which runs along the coast line and has a really nice viewing platform. I have been doing some panoramic videos in some places as I think it captures scenery better than stills. However I have just discovered that tumblr only allows 1 video for the blog so I will have to send the videos to those who are interested by Messenger when I get home.

Today is a tour to Dolly beach which is apparently a good beach but seems it is a 40 min walk each way from the car park so not one you would just pop to for a quick swim! Chris has promised to show us a beach near Dolly where all huge amounts (tons a year) of plastic waste form mainly Indonesia washes up. There is a big effort every year to clean it up with help from external parties like Sea shepherd. So sad!

ADDITS: Chris said that the British/ Singaporeans company mined phosphate here and apparently when the phosphate looked like it might run out the Singaporean govt in the mid 1950’s sold the island to Australia for a very cheap price! There was also a train that took the phosphate to the port from the original sight in the Southern tip of the island. It became too expensive and lines torn up and one of the locomotives was dumped in the jungle just off the road and is a tourist site or at least we are taken to see it and told the story! Will post photo when can.

Also on the same road as the train is the crab bridge. That’s right they built an overpass/bridge for the crabs to keep them off the road. It is made of a metal mesh (they trialled several materials and this worked). The crabs are directed to it by the placement of low metal barriers which despite the being able to climb over they seem to follow until they reach an opening and in this case the opening is where the bridge is so they climb it! They use a similar strategy to direct them to an under road pass. The under passes are like culverts dug across the roads with a cattle grid over them. The crabs go under the grid and the cars over it! There are I believe about 50 or so grids on the island.

Unfortunately millions also go over the roads and during the migration months everybody carries a few rakes and when you are blocked by crabs you get out and rake them out of you way or your passenger does! The crabs are so focused on getting to or from the sea that if you sit down they will just swarm straight over you. Not sure that appeals!

Yesterday I went to drive to a place for lunch after the tour (and which I had just been driven past on way back from tour) and I got lost again! I think I will have to pass on self drive unless there is a SatNav🤣.

Anyway today was the Dolly Beach tour. One thing that is now obvious is that to get anywhere like a beach or to see a sight it alway involves a drive on a dodgy road that really Or definitely does require a 4 wheel drive and nerves of steel AND a walk of about 20-60mins through the jungle and will end with clambering over limestone rocks😁. Really makes you appreciate final destination 😂. Dolly beach was no exception. The walk,after a very dodgy rough road was between 30-60mins. We did it in 40 out and 35back so we were not slacking🤣. Lots to see a mercifully flat with several sections covered with a raised boardwalk. The beach was worth the walk with the beach being protected by rock so lovely pools to swim in without tackling the rougher open ocean. Would be a great one to come to regularly if not for the challenges and time to reach it! We had a lovely swim and some morning tea and generally had fun. We did have to put all our bags etc on a platform raised on a hammock structure because there are 1000’s Robber crabs and they will still stuff from bags especially shiny stuff like keys.

By the time we got back and I had showered and done housekeeping and hols tasks I had a coup,e of bits of toast and an early dinner (just after 4pm🤣). I went down to the food van at Flying Fish Cove which sells takeaway mostly Asian food and importantly European cakes on Friday and Saturday 4-8pm.I had chicken satay and a mars bar slice yummy 😋.

[noiselessbuck]

my dearest bog-frog,

thank you for the crabs!! they're very entertaining <33

below is the research i have conducted into the nature of these crabs especially since they are now also on phones.

scientific observations about the temporal permanence of crabs:

sadly i was not able to have my computer the day of the original crab summoning so i dont know how these observations compare to the first coming of the crabs

the crabs have migrated and adapted to be able to live on mobile as well! however they have behavioral differences from their web based bretheren- they always are the same amount in the same spot no matter what page of the app you are on but composing asks posts and reblogs as well as viewing images and videos make them go into temporary hiding and the reappear in their same spots after the micro hibernation. the smaller encloser means that it takes fewer crabs to make the dash mostly unusable because you are clicking crabs and not buttons however this need for tapping helps a tiny bit with population control. unfortunately this new environment does not have adequate CPU for a large herd(?) of crabs but unlike the clicking this is not a symbiotic relationship. instead of slow CPU causing crabs to get clicked thus moderating the population the entire app including the crabs starts functioning slower. it is up to the user to click enough crabs that this goes back to a reasonable state. the other thing is that the crabs maintain their temporal permanence even after going to another app and coming back. i am going to perform some more tests on this matter:

leaving the app and coming back - stay

turning phone off and coming back - stay

taking the app off of short term memory (that list where u swipe up on apple phones to get rid of it - reset

the amount summoned tally also resets when the crabs reset, thus maintaining that crabs summoned minus crabs clicked always gives amount of crabs on the screen

powering off phone completely and coming back - reset

now on to web observations:

click on a new page within tumblr - reset

go back to previous page of tumblr - no longer there (thus the crabs do not maintain temporal permanence while unobserved)

go from asks page to writing ask - stay

reloading same page of tumblr - reset

these crabs are very cute and i am not trying to squash too many but also they are a facinating look into the difference between web development and mobile development. much appreciation for the enrichment to my enclosure >:)

your mutual,

snake

[montereybayaquarium]

Major Mola Moment: First Confirmed Hoodwinker Sunfish Photographed in Monterey Bay!!

Consider this your o-fish-al welcome to Monterey Bay, Hoodwinker Sunfish! You certainly had us fooled 😅

Divers in Monterey Bay have photographed two hoodwinker sunfish this year—the first confirmed sightings of this new species of sunfish in Central California!

A hoodwinker sunfish being cleaned by señorita wrasses off of Pacific Grove. Video: Joe Platko

Known to science as Mola tecta, the hoodwinker sunfish was officially described in 2017 by Dr. Marianne Nyegaard at Australia’s Murdoch University.

The word “tecta” is Latin for hidden—a perfect moniker for a hoodwinker. Mola tecta were thought to live mainly in the cold waters around Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Southern Chile. 

But then, earlier this year, a massive hoodwinker sunfish washed up in Santa Barbara! 

This sighting of Mola tecta was tantalizing for sunfish researchers: Are hoodwinkers new arrivals to the area, carried by Chile’s cool Humboldt current and somehow punching their way through the equator and into our temperate waters due to some climatic abnormality? Or have hoodwinkers been around these parts for some time, hiding in plain sight until Marianne’s discovery gave attentive observers the right clues to look for? Maybe a little bit of both? Something else entirely?

Mola mola, known as the common sunfish, in the Open Sea display at the Aquarium

Mola tecta found in Monterey Bay just offshore of Pacific Grove. This was the first confirmed sighting of a Mola tecta in Monterey Bay. Photo: Jr Sosky

Key characteristics of Mola tecta for identification. Photo: Jr Sosky/Marianne Nyegaard

A blessing in disguise

Whatever the case, there are now at least two more Mola tecta confirmed here in California, and the first ever identified in Monterey Bay.

In early August, a merry band of underwater photographers came across a large ocean sunfish being cleaned by señorita wrasses at Eric’s Pinnacle, a rocky outcrop off Lover’s Point in Pacific Grove. 

We shared an image on the Aquarium’s social media feeds by photographer Joe Platko under the guise of a “Mola mola Monday Motivoceanal Moment!” 

Our (erroneous) post on Twitter. More social media copy mistakes that lead to discoveries of new sunfish species in our backyard, please!

Mola mola is no stranger to the Monterey Bay—we see youngsters and heavyweights throughout the year just offshore of the Aquarium, and we’ve frequently had them on display in the Open Sea. 

(You may know Mola mola better from the expletive-ridden video of a Boston fisherman coming across a sea monster in this viral video https://youtu.be/r0IQCLQDfKw , or perhaps you’ve read the decidedly contrarian hate-click account of how “useless” sunfish are. )

Weighing nearly 5,000 pounds and spanning over 11 feet from tip to tip, Mola mola is one of the heaviest bony fishes in the sea (its Western Pacific cousin, the bumphead sunfish Mola alexandrini is just a touch heavier in the record books.)  

Something fishy about that fishy...

Content with our content, we looked to see what you all thought of this magical “Mola mola”—and that’s when things got exciting!

A comment right here on Tumblr by Drop Science mentioned that this fish looked more Mola tecta than Mola mola. The two are remarkably similar in appearance, but there are a few tells. Most noticeably, a Mola tecta caudal fin is is divided by a smooth band projecting backwards to the fin’s edge. 

Intrigued, we forwarded more images from Joe Platko and his dive buddy Jr Sosky to Senior Aquarist and resident mola expert Michael Howard. 

Michael has been instrumental in our ocean sunfish program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium over several decades, pioneering training methods, specialized diets and tracking programs for these megafish. The Aquarium is the only one to successfully display Mola mola in North America. 

Growing from just a few dozen pounds to several hundred, our resident sunfishes are released back to the wild. Once back in the bay, Michael’s satellite tags have revealed that Mola mola may migrate very far up and down the coast, and spend considerable time diving into the deep sea to feed on a varied diet of jellies, squid, crabs and other fare.

After reviewing the images, Michael thought there was certainly the chance that a hoodwinker had been found. He got us in touch with Marianne Nyegaard herself, and she confirmed that these were indeed the first images of a live Mola tecta in Monterey Bay! 

Then, just three weeks later, diver Wei Wei Gao happened upon another Mola tecta off of Cannery Row!! 

A hoodwinker sunfish filmed off Cannery Row. Video: Wei Wei Gao

A tecta-nic shift in our sunfish understanding!

In email exchanges that used up both of our yearly supplies of exclamation points, Dr. Marianne remarked that these sightings show just how little we know about one of the ocean’s most iconic fishes. 

Michael is now diving into our records to see if there’s a chance we have had a Mola tecta hidden in our studies. And as for us, we’re buzzing with excitement at the discovery of this neighbor in our backyard, pleasantly deceived by a hoodwinker sunfish, and awestruck by the limitless wonder and mystery of our beloved Monterey Bay.

The first-ever confirmed Mola tecta in Monterey Bay being cleaned by señorita wrasses. Welcome to the neighborhoodwinker! Video: Joe Platko.

[fanfic-inator795]

Oneshot: Movies and Mermaids

((Have some Mikey and Draxum bonding *throws confetti*))

It wasn’t as if Draxum had any genuine interest in human culture, certainly not! He could care less! ...Though, his obvious lack of caring didn’t prevent certain annoyances.

Like how he would be sometimes be completely lost in certain conversations. A member of the faculty at the high school would ask if he had seen the latest film in theaters and if he liked it better than the remake, or how his fellow lunch servers would reference certain shows and encourage him to watch them as well - Gladys especially seemed entranced with a show regarding doctors all dating each other in-between doing their actual jobs, for whatever reason.

The rest of the city seemed to only aggravate him more. From displays and the videos that would play on the large screens on towers, to the advertisements he saw on the television box or in magazines. It just seemed like everything he saw in human culture was a reference to something or someone - a laundry list of names and shows and movies and jokes and even what were supposedly ‘simple’ concepts like technology and brands and lingo and-!

After over two months of living on the surface, Draxum had reached his limit. He was tired of constantly being confused. He was tired of constantly missing or misunderstanding the references.

He was tired of being reminded that this was not his world, that he was still a yokai in human clothing.

So naturally, as a man of science, Draxum thought it only made sense to start with some research. Granted there was an entire pantheon that he would have to go through, and without the power of the ‘internet’ and a television box that only had five channels, it would be a incredibly slow process... At the very least, O’Neil had said that she would help him get a human library card when they both had a free afternoon. 

In the meantime, Michelangelo had plenty of ‘reference material’, and even with the insistence that this was all for education and NOT entertainment, Draxum figured it was as good of a starting point as any, considering how much the humans seemed to admire their on-screen stories and their film stars. (No wonder Lou Jitsu was just as popular as an actor as he was as a warrior...)

It was late Friday night when Mikey showed up to Draxum’s apartment with a backpack full of movies of all different genres and formats and a VHS/DVD combo player tucked under his arm. “Good thing Donnie found this thing a few years ago, huh?” he said as he hooked it up.

Draxum didn’t bother replying. Instead, he was focusing on his choices for that evening - as well as for the rest of the week, since Mikey said he could borrow them as long as he needed to - pulling out each tape or DVD case and examining it carefully. Quite a few of them looked like they were for children, which he probably should have expected, though he didn’t dismiss them immediately.

“Don’t worry,” he heard Mikey said, “I remembered what you said. All of these are super popular ‘staples of human culture’ that practically everyone’s seen.”

“Good,” Draxum mumbled, putting aside a movie about a boat next to a movie about a boy gardener who wore a cloak and was apparently very harry. Picking up the next one, his expression flattened a bit at the cover. “This one you can take back, I don’t need to watch it.”

“Huh? Why- ohhh.” The box turtle chuckled as he took the tape, smiling at the younger version of his dad on the box. “Sorry, guess that one accidentally got slipped in there. Though to be fair, ‘Jitsu for Justice’ is a total classic.”

“Irrelevant,” Draxum huffed, “I have no desire to watch ANY of Lou Jitsu’s films, no matter how popular they may be. Once was more than enough...”

“Alright alright, I’ll- wait,” Mikey paused, “so you DID watch his movies?”

“Er, I- Not because I actually wanted to!” Draxum told him, “It was for research!” Mikey gave him a flat look. “He had stopped fighting in the Battle Nexus and I needed to study his moves! I-I didn’t enjoy doing it, if that’s what you’re implying! His movies were still ridiculous and completely unenjoyable! I would never actually-”

“Whatever you say, man,” Mikey shrugged, ignoring the Baron’s growls at being interrupted, “Though, how’d you watch ‘em anyway? I didn’t think that TV was that big of a thing down there?”

“I used my viewing orb to summon and display them, obviously,” Draxum told him, “Most yokai have them for when they need them, and they’re much more useful and clearer than any television box.”

“If you say so...” “Hmph.” With that settled, Draxum went back to digging through the bag of movies. It didn’t take long for another video to catch his eye, this one in a plastic case rather than a cardboard one, with a picture of a happy mermaid and an equally happy human plastered on it.

“Awwww!” Mikey said suddenly, “That was April’s favorite movie when she was little! Which meant it was one of the first movies she brought over to share with us! Heh, guess we borrowed it so often we forgot to give it back, whoops. But it’s a really good movie! See, there’s this mermaid who wants to live on land as a human, and she’s friends with a crab and-”

Draxum had begun to tune the turtle out as he continued to stare at the VHS case. Mermaids weren’t too common in the Hidden City itself, though that didn’t mean they weren’t there at all. The city was next to water, after all, and some would live on the shore or become part of an air-boat crew - and they certainly didn’t look like this.

He felt his thoughts start to swirl, becoming just as mixed as his emotions as a grimace began to form on his face. On one hand, Draxum supposed he should’ve been grateful that the humans were portraying a yokai positively - as cute and friendly instead of vicious creature that lived to drown humans. 

Centuries ago, before the Great Migration underground, Draxum had heard that and many other similar claims about his people... Baseless claims meant to justify hunts and attacking on sight...

On the other hand, did humans only see them as ‘harmless’ when used for entertainment purposes? Did they only approve of yokai existing when they only existed in fiction, where they could be used however humans saw fit? 

He was briefly reminded of the creatures - the ‘poke-o-mon’ - that he would occasionally see on shirts or on phones, creatures not directly based on yokai, but similar enough. He had to wonder how much other human entertainment was based on so-called fictional creatures and monsters that they never would have even smiled at before.

“-xum... Hey, Drax?” Mikey poked his bicep, making Draxum flinch. “You okay, bud-?”

“Fine,” Draxum snapped, though there was a little actual bite to it, “Just surprised that humans would portray a yokai so positively, even in fiction.”

“Most humans do think they’re just fiction,” Mikey told him. After a moment, his tone became a bit gentler, thinking back to certain points brought up by his father and April. “Though, I can still sorta see why that would feel weird or kinda insulting, seeing a fake version of yourself or your people and not knowin’ how they’d react to the real you, wondering if they would only like the fake you. That probably doesn’t feel the greatest... and I’m really sorry about that.”

Draxum blinked. He stared at the turtle for a few seconds before finally replying with, “You’re a lot more introspective than I would have thought.”

“I get that a lot,” Mikey grinned, “But hey, they don’t call me Dr. Feelings for nothing. So, did you wanna keep this one then, or- I mean, I can understand if-”

Draxum stopped him, looking at the tape again. “...I am admittedly curious,” he said, “You did say this was a movie humans watch as children.” Studying a species’ influences during adolescence could prove to be pretty useful in understanding the adults. “And besides, if the portrayal is truly offensive, I can always send a complaint to this ‘Walt Disney’ and demand certain edits.”

“Riiiiight, though I don’t think you’ll be too mad at this one,” Mikey told him, “Ariel is a great character, and all the other mermaids in the movie aren’t portrayed as jerks or anything. ...Well, one guy kinda is but, uh-”

“Let’s just watch it already,” Draxum told him, shoving the tape into his hand, “The sooner we start it, the sooner I can gauge whether or not it’s actually worth watching.”

Mikey smirked a little. “Heh, alright.” Opening the case, he pushed the tape in while Draxum went over to the couch they had gotten him at the thrift store, briefly checking it for bugs or lumps before sitting down. “Good thing it’s already rewound.”

The only annoying thing about that was that they had to sit through previews, though Mikey used that time to cook up some popcorn kernels that he had snagged on the way out of the Lair, easily cooking it using a pan and the stove top. (No one trusted Draxum with a microwave after That One Time.)

By the time he finished, the movie’s title had just faded onto the screen. Mikey smiled widely, the nostalgia from the music and the memories he had with the movie sending slight shivers up his shell. 

Draxum, meanwhile, was watching the film intently, taking in every detail. The mermaids in the film were still completely different than actual mermaids, but at least they weren’t an insulting caricature (even if they were a bit too human-like for his liking).

As it turned out, the main mermaid character was not only a bit of a collector and explorer, but also a human fanatic. “Ugh,” Draxum grumbled as he grabbed a couple more pieces of the puffed-up corn-snack. Mikey gave him a bit of a look, but he ignored it. Just because he had been able to find a bit of common ground and comradery with his fellow lunch servers didn’t mean he was willing to give ALL humans a pass.

At least the mermaid’s father seemed to have some common sense. In fact, Draxum found himself nodding in agreement with nearly every scene the mer-king was in. ...Up until a certain point, at least.

Mikey winced a bit as the scene began. He resisted the urge to go into his shell like he always had when he was little, but he did sink a little in his seat as Triton stepped out of the shadows. When he noticed Draxum glancing over at him, Mikey simply mumbled, “I always hate this scene...”

A couple minutes and a destroyed grotto later, and Draxum could sort of see what Mikey meant, understanding how Triton’s act might have been “harsh”, as the orange-wearing turtle would’ve put it.

As the movie moved onto the next seen, Mikey relaxed a little, though a frown remained on his face... However, his expression of sadness soon became one of confusion as he felt a hand pat the top of his head.

“Uh... there, there,” Draxum mumbled, giving Mikey one more head-pat before retracting his hand. It was awkward as all heck, they both knew it, but seeing the sheepman somewhat care about his feelings still made Mikey smile.

It didn’t take much longer for Ursula to make her appearance, and as soon as the Sea Witch began talking of deals and trades, Draxum gave a small smirk of his own.

“What?” Mikey asked, tilting his head a bit.

“I didn’t realize Big Mama was in this movie.”

Mikey snorted at that. “So what, you tell jokes now?”

The sheep-man shrugged as he grabbed another handful of popcorn. “Just making an observation,” he said simply. As the scene went on though, his mind made another small connection - Ursula’s two eels reminding him of his own pair of pets, even if Flotsam and Jetsam were much more confident than his former goyles.

Even so, the reminder made his chest ache a little... Not in sadness, mind you, or because he actually missed them. No, clearly his chest ached for a completely different reason that he was sure he’d think of later.

Once the little mermaid made the contract and silenced herself, the film very much became a literal ‘fish out of water’ story, complete with plenty of amusing moments featuring misunderstandings and an over-abundance of cuteness, as well as another musical number. Thankfully, before things became too saccharine, Ursula launched the second half of her plan to rule the seas.

After that, the movie moved pretty quickly through its third act. Draxum was a bit annoyed at the human prince being the one to ultimately save the day in the end, but overall he could agree that the ending was a pretty happy one.

As the credits rolled, Mikey looked at him with eyes wide. “Sooooo, what do you think?”

Draxum cupped his chin in thought, staying silent for a few moments before finally speaking. “...If the king’s trident had the power of transformation, why didn’t he just turn the prince into a merman?”

Mikey’s face fell. “...That’s what you got out of it?”

“It’s a valid question!” Draxum argued, “Why should she have to be the one to transform?”

“Because she wasn’t just after the guy!” Mikey told him, resisting the urge to facepalm, “You saw her collection and heard her song, she wanted to be human! She was tired of bein’ stuck in the same ocean and wanted something new - something she thought was cool!”

“Hmph, I suppose that’s true... Plus, she still has the option to turn back into a mermaid later on thanks to her father’s power, so at least there’s that.”

The box turtle slumped back on the couch, disappointed though maybe not too surprised. “I guess that means you didn’t really like it, huh?”

There was a long moment of silence. “I didn’t completely agree with the ending but... the film overall wasn’t too bad,” Draxum conceded, “Not as bad as I thought it’d be, at least?”

“...You really mean that?” Mikey asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I wouldn’t waste my time lying about something as trivial as animated human-entertainment,” Draxum replied, “And... there were high production values. Characters were mostly understandable, and it was... cute. Not too annoying or insufferable. Even if it was still slightly inaccurate to actual mermaids and mermen.”

“...You know what, I’ll take it. And I’m glad you enjoyed the movie, and not just for my sake.” With a bit of a ‘whup’, Mikey sat up and tucked his legs under his body in a sort of lotus position. “Though, now I’m kinda curious. What’d the movie get wrong, and what else can you tell me about merpeople? I only ever saw one, on Hueso’s brother’s ship, but that was only for like a second.”

This time, it was Draxum’s turn to give him a look. “Really... The child who’s always pushing me to ‘embrace humans’ and hide my ‘mystic stuff’ is asking me to teach him about a member of Yokaikind?”

“Hey, I only to tell you to hide your mystic stuff so you don’t get yourself evicted, fired or arrested,” Mikey retorted, “I’m not the one goin’ around mutatin’ kids and/or lunches and making giant stone heads angry.”

“...Fair enough,” Draxum said, only slightly reluctant.

“But as far as I can figure, there’s no harm in just talking about mystic stuff. And as for my actual interest... Yeah, I really do wanna know.” Unable to help himself, Mikey directed his gaze towards the floor - down towards the Hidden City that he knew was there. That he only now knew was there. 

He wouldn’t have traded his life with his dad in the sewers of NYC for anything, but he would’ve been lying if he said there wasn’t a small part of him that wondered what it would’ve been like to grow up around people that looked like him in a city full of magic.

“We protect humans, but we don’t like only humans, you know,” Mikey continued, “We’ve got other mutant friends, and yokai friends too.” His smile softened. “Senor Hueso and Sunita and the chefs I’ve met at Run of the Mill, they’re all so amazing. And I’ve only seen, like, a fraction of the Hidden City but I know that’s amazing too, and I just... This city - the surface - is always gonna be my home, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about the other city or wonder about it.” 

He finally looked back at Draxum, his eyes firm. “So yeah... I wanna know.”

There was another moment of silence between them, though within it, the slightest bit of connection was formed. Small and fragile, but no less noticeable.

“...Fine,” Draxum finally agreed, “But pay attention, I don’t want to repeat myself later. First off, no merperson has the same skin tone as a human. They range between greens, blues and grays to help blend in with oceans. Their eyes are also much wider than a human’s to help them hunt.”

“Makes sense to me!” Mikey smiled, leaning back on his hands a little, though looking no less attentive. Even when the TV turned to quiet static, he kept his focus right on Draxum - a gesture the former warrior-scientist certainly appreciated, even if he didn’t say so outright.

“Merpeople are also able to survive outside of water. While mobility becomes an issue depending on how often they’re moving or traveling, they have no issues living on land - hence why some take to living on air-boats as a sort of compromise, plus it helps them travel across bodies of water in a shorter amount of time. They also don’t eat humans, despite the lies told about them, though they can be territorial when they are in the water - although you can’t blame them, especially if fish start to become scarce. Furthermore-”

It was sort of nice... Sure, Mikey had plenty he wanted to show and teach Draxum about humankind - and if all went well, then maybe there was a chance of Draxum having a change of heart. Maybe their technical creator wasn’t totally evil, and maybe one day, he really would be a better person and would understand what he and his family already knew. Mikey certainly hoped that would end up being the case...

But, in the meantime, maybe Mikey would end up learning a little from Draxum too. And honestly, as long as it wasn’t lecture series about ‘effectively destroying humans’ or anything like that, the orange turtle didn’t see anything wrong with that at all.

THE END

[sciencespies]

Adorable crab encased in amber is among the oldest true crabs ever found

https://sciencespies.com/nature/adorable-crab-encased-in-amber-is-among-the-oldest-true-crabs-ever-found/

Adorable crab encased in amber is among the oldest true crabs ever found

A tiny crab scuttled around a forest floor, in the time of dinosaurs, minding its own business, when a blob of tree goop oozed onto it. Despite its struggles – during which it may have amputated its own leg in a futile attempt at escape – the sticky tree resin hardened around it, entombing it for almost 100 million years.

“When I saw it for the first time I could not believe my eyes,” Harvard paleontologist Javier Luque said. “This spectacular crab looks so modern, like something you may find in [British Columbia] flipping rocks, but it is actually quite old and different from anything seen before, fossil or alive.”

Micro-CT scans revealed the amber had preserved the 5-millimeter crab to an exceptional level – even protecting the crab’s delicate setae (invertebrate ‘hairs’) around its slightly open mouthparts. 

Fragile gills and intricate compound eyes were still intact for the researchers to examine, and a clear molting line indicated the crab was still alive when drowned in tree resin. One of its legs is detached from its body, possibly due to limb autotomy.

“Cretapsara athanata is the most complete fossil crab ever discovered,” said Luque. He and his colleagues named the crab for “the immortal Cretaceous spirit of the clouds and waters” from South Asian mythology.

Amber is like a time capsule that preserves organisms like frozen in time. While most fossils in amber are land-dwelling animals—principally insects—, aquatic organisms such as crabs are extremely rare! #amber #jurassicpark #Cretaceous #Crabs Photo by @LidaXing1982 3/n pic.twitter.com/5JOoboMjnX

— Javier Luque (@JaviPaleobio) October 20, 2021

The fossil was found in a Kachin Province of Myanmar, a region now sadly embroiled in sociopolitical conflict. In recognition and to raise awareness of the unfortunate role the fossil trade is playing in funding the devastating conflict, Luque and colleagues declared they will only explore fossils from before 2017, when the current conflict resumed.

This amber was legally purchased by the Longyin Amber Museum in 2015. Plant tissues and insect poop within it suggest the amber formed on or near the forest floor, an assumption backed up by the lack of sand and layers that would have indicated the amber met water at some point.

However, the stunningly preserved gill anatomy of the crab fossil did not show any signs of land adaptation, like the lung tissue we see in terrestrial crabs today, so the crab was likely amphibious, the team concluded. It possibly lived in freshwater pools in the forest, estuaries, or migrated from the sea like Christmas Island red crabs.

One of the most remarkable surprises of the new fossil discovery is the preservation of tiny gills in #3D , revealed via a microCT scan. Mind-blowing! 🤯 What can we learn from the exceptional preservation of this crab in amber? #VirtualPhotography #OA https://t.co/NyXXTQj4Ax pic.twitter.com/8HI7k7EjXR

— Javier Luque (@JaviPaleobio) October 20, 2021

Crab fossils extend back more than 200 million years ago, displaying an incredible diversity in forms since then. This new find from the Early Cretaceous (~99 million years ago) has a mix of early and later evolved features that indicate crabs were already established in non-marine environments back then.

“This crab is telling us a very interesting story about the tree of life of crabs,” said Luque. “There is a lot of excitement about crab evolution because evolution has produced crab-like forms, known as carcinization, many times independently.”

And here is a stunning #3D video #animation of tiny Cretapsara athanata that will blow your mind! Because every day is #CrabDay 🦀🙌 Click here👇 #SciComm #sciart #paleoart #InsertAnInvert #Science #nature #art @HarvardOEB @NSF @NSERC_CRSNG 8/n pic.twitter.com/eOWWv1XO2F

— Javier Luque (@JaviPaleobio) October 20, 2021

C. athanata is one of the oldest and most complete finds belonging to the group of true crabs, Brachyura (as opposed to ‘false crabs’ like hermit crabs) – the same group as the crabs still scuttling about today. But there was a massive 50 million year gap between when molecular and fossil evidence indicated the split between marine and terrestrial/freshwater crabs took place.

“Cretapsara bridges the gap between the molecular DNA split of non-marine crabs from their marine kins (~130 million years ago) and their oldest known fossils (~75–50 million years ago),” explained Luque on Twitter. It also “tells us that crabs have conquered land and freshwater more than 12 times independently!”

Evolution sure loves messing with crabs.

This research was published in Science Advances.

#Nature

[expatimes]

'I just want my husband's remains to be returned to us'

This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center.

Stanley Jungco had only ever been to sea on a fishing boat once before, and he had vowed to his sisters that he would never go again.

But in September 2018, tempted by the promise of a monthly salary of $ 380, the 24-year-old went back to sea as crew on a Chinese-owned trawler.

The money would be enough for him to buy back the land his father had pawned and buy some for himself too. He could settle down and marry his girlfriend. One more trip would be the difference between a life spent jumping from one odd job to another, and stability.

Five months ago, Jungco had an accident on board and later died from complications. Worse, as a result of restrictions associated with the coronavirus pandemic, his body remains in a mortuary in the southern Chinese province of Fuzhou.

“My mother didn't want him to go, but he was determined to work and help our family,” his sister Rica Jungco told Al Jazeera.

The Philippines is at the center of a maritime crisis that has left thousands of seafarers locked down in their ships and exiled from home. The island archipelago, which has a maritime history dating back to the Galleon Trade during Spanish colonial rule, supplies about a quarter of the world's 1.2 million seafarers. Last year, they sent home some $ 6.14bn in remittances.

Sealed borders and ports closed to curb the spread of COVID-19 have kept some 300,000 seafarers quarantined on their ships, with little to no chance of being replaced by a fresh crew, according to the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF).

Stanley Jungo, 25, had an accident on board a deep-sea fishing vessel when a steel bar hit his thigh in April. He ignored the injury but it got worse and six weeks later he was dead. His body remains in a mortuary in southern China [Martin San Diego/Al Jazeera]

And if anyone dies, varying country health protocols on the repatriation of remains, discontinued flights and inter-governmental bureaucracy means families are facing hearting obstacles to claiming the remains of their loved ones.

A long time at sea

Debbie and Raul Calopez's 11-year marriage was mostly long distance. She worked as a domestic helper in Hong Kong and Lebanon while Raul stayed at home to raise their two children.

Debbie was still in Lebanon finishing her contract when Raul boarded the 7874 Fu Yuan Yu, a Chinese fishing vessel bound for the Atlantic Ocean, in March 2019. “He called me from the airport, told me he loved me and promised that when he came back, our family would finally be complete, ”she said.

That day would never come.

On December 31, 2019, while hauling in their catch, Raul fainted, hitting his head on a steel pipe as he fell to the floor. In a handwritten letter penned by crew members, Raul complained of a headache and body pains after the accident. The men took turns looking after him during their breaks, but he became weaker.

“We tried to ask for medical assistance, but the captain wouldn't listen. They gave us medicine, but it was in Chinese characters we couldn't understand, ”said Jesus Gaboni, one of Raul's crewmates.

On January 19, Raul finally got medical attention, but by then it was too late. A few hours later, he was dead.

Jesus Gaboni, left, with other Filipino crew on board their fishing vessel. The man on the right, Raul Calopez, got sick onboard and eventually died. Gaboni helped store Calopez's body in the ship's freezer where it remains today [Martin San Diego/Al Jazeera]

Gaboni and the other men took his body, wrapped it in a blanket and buried it in the ship's freezer. But as the pandemic accelerated, first in China and then around the world, the 7874 Fu Yuan Yu was stranded in China.

The crew members managed to return to the Philippines when travel restrictions were eased in July. They were transferred to another boat with crew from other company vessels stranded by the pandemic but, in the confusion, Raul's body was left behind - in the freezer of the 7874.

After the crew disembarked, the ship went back to sea.

According to correspondence between Debbie and the Philippine Embassy in Chile, the vessel's location on the high seas blurs country jurisdictions and accountabilities, complicating the repatriation of Raul's remains. The vessel may possibly dock in October and Raul's body may finally be retrieved. By then, it will have been almost a year since his death.

“It's been so long already. I just want my husband's remains to be returned to us. Then we can all be together again, like he promised, ”Debbie said.

Global Maritime Crew and Global Offshore & Marine Manpower Solution, the manpower agencies that recruited most of the crew for the Fu Yuan Yu vessels, could not be reached for comment.

Most dangerous job in the world

Seafaring is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

Migrants on deep-sea fishing boats spend months at a time on the high seas, working in the most perilous conditions and at risk of physical abuse in a situation some have likened to slavery.

Jesus Gaboni at home in the Philippines. He was the more senior of the Filipino crew and moved Raul Calopez's body to the ship's freezer after he died. It is still there, and the boat is back on the high seas [Martin San Diego/Al Jazeera]

Al Jazeera interviewed dozens of migrants.

They spoke of a life dictated by the availability of the catch - hauling in squid, fish and crab, cleaning and freezing it at all hours of the day and night.

“Commercial fishing is largely unregulated and unsupervised. It is practically lawless, ”said Rossen Karavatchev, ITF Fisheries Section Coordinator.

Among the major countries operating commercial fishing vessels, only Thailand has ratified the Work in Fishing Convention, which sets international standards for the safety and protection of crew, while South Africa is the only country in the world that allows port inspection of fishing vessels.

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned ships into virtual floating prisons, with some sailors now spending between 17 and 21 months at sea. The average contract is about 11.

“Getting sick and the chances of dying on board are much more than before. If you get sick on board, sorry. You can't get medical assistance and you can't get out. If you die, you may be thrown into the sea for a sea burial, ”added Karavatchev.

About a quarter of the world's seafarers come from the Philippines [Martin San Diego/Al Jazeera]

The International Labor Organization estimates about 41,000 people working on trawlers are migrants, mostly from Southeast Asia. However, this number could be as high as 100,000 as many people are undocumented or trafficked into sailing in international waters.

As Marla de Asis, a researcher at the Scalabrini Migration Center in Manila put it, “Once seafarers are on board, who gets to check on how they are doing?”

'He was our baby'

After Jungco set sail on his fateful voyage - to the rich fishing grounds of the southern Atlantic - his family did not hear from him for more than a year.

It was only in April, when Jungco's ship docked in Peru and he finally had access to a mobile signal, that they could speak.

He told his sisters that he was on his way home and that his ship would meet up with other fishing vessels off the coast of China en route to the Philippines. What Jungco did not tell them was that he had had an accident a few days before. The crew was dismantling fishing rigs and other gear in preparation for going home when a steel bar slammed into his thigh.

Jungco's crewmates were making similar calls to their own families, frantically trying to get updates over a patchy mobile signal. By then, news of the COVID-19 virus had reached every corner of the globe - except the deep seas.

They had heard scraps of information from the English their Chinese captain mustered, but the crew could not believe it. They thought the pandemic was an excuse to keep them from going home.

When their boat docked in China, Jungco texted his sisters again on June 1. He told them they had been prohibited from disembarking and had been forced to stay on board.

Jungco's crewmates wrote up the details of his final moments on board the deep-sea shipping vessel, His family hope they will soon get him home [Martin San Diego/Al Jazeera]

By that time, Jungco's condition had deteriorated. His left thigh had turned purple and was swollen. Video footage taken by crew members shows him lying in his bunk bed, visibly weak and having difficulty breathing.

The next message the sisters received was on June 6, from a crew member. Jungco had died.

“He was our baby, our youngest,” sobbed Rosalie Jungco-Pacheco, Jungco's sister who spoke to Al Jazeera via phone from their hometown in the central Philippines. The cause of his death has not yet been determined.

The oldest in the family of 11 children, Rosalie is 18 years older than Jungco. “When he was growing up, I was the one who would brush his teeth and bathe him. It hurts so much to think of how much he suffered without any of us beside him, ”she said.

When travel restrictions eased in July, the crew was allowed to sail back to the Philippines but Jungco's body was left behind. Through updates from the Philippine Embassy in China, Rica and Rosalie were able to confirm that he had been taken to a mortuary in Fuzhou.

“Repatriating seafarers, in particular, is made more challenging due to docking and disembarkation restrictions for vessels set by local authorities and the severely limited number of flights,” the Department of Foreign Affairs - Manila (DFA) said in a statement.

The DFA has been working with various governments to assist stranded seafarers all over the world, its latest data shows that more than 66,000 seafarers affected by the pandemic have been brought home.

A bittersweet goodbye

Last July, Ann-Ann Geraldino stood at Pier 15 of the Manila Port Area as the crew of various Fu Yuan Yu fishing vessels that had been stuck in China as a result of the pandemic finally disembarked.

Stanley Jungco, 25, died on a Chinese-owned deep-sea fishing vessel on June 6. His family are still waiting for his body, which remains in a mortuary in southern China, to be returned [Martin San Diego/Al Jazeera]

She was there to collect the remains of her brother, Felix Mark Guial, who was on board the Fu Yuan Yu 7886. Her husband held her hand and her brother-in-law was at her side. A government official and a doctor in hazmat suits stood behind them to witness his body being handed over by the port authorities.

The details are scant, but Geraldino said he suffered a stomach ache while onboard and never got better. She is certain that COVID-19 was not the cause of death. Nonetheless, health protocols mandated cremation and they went straight from the dock to a funeral home.

“Our parents call him Ar-Ar. All of us 10 kids have repeating nicknames. But we siblings call him “ears” or “rat” because of his protruding ears, ”said Geraldino.

It was bittersweet, she said, when she received her brother's ashes.

“It's very painful especially for his partner and young kids, but at least my brother is home. I hope the other families get to have their last good-bye, too. ”

#world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=11054&feed_id=7778

[dariadoesmoregraphics]

Process Project

I was absent for the initial briefing for the process brief, and had to ask a lot of my peers for help to catch up with the concept of the brief and what it was about as I was lost about what the brief was about. This was due to me moving flats at the time which disturbed my study time a lot.

I think because of this situation I initially struggled with the brief as I thought it was quite abstract at first, so the concept was hard for me to understand. However, after speaking to friends and going over the pdf many times I started to understand how a process can be anything and the brief is very open-ended in what you can do. I feel like this open nature of the brief is something I struggled with so I waited until my first tutorial to speak about it to my tutor. I went over what processes I would be interested in, and it was me speaking about moving flats that bought up the idea of rejection, and how my process of moving houses ended up in rejection 99% of the time. I liked this idea because at the time I was watching a show called Stath Lets Flats and this fit perfectly into it.

I was interested in seeing how my process could be seen anywhere and that it’s something that happens to everyone. I looked at animal migration initially and was very interested in animal documentaries showing animals migrating from one place to another. A specific reference I used was the hermit crab, which shared a similar process to my moving flats. When a hermit crab finds a shell there is a competition between them, where the strongest hermit crab wins the shell, which was exactly like finding a flat in London. David Attenborough in the documentary states “A bad shell is better than being homeless”, and I couldn't agree more with my situation that I ended up with also. I feel like this phrase also shows how this process can be seen anywhere. So I decided to look into seeing rejection specifically because that’s something I experienced a lot while trying to find a flat as an international student. Especially how you can see rejection shown everywhere in life and how much of an annoying thing it can be.

I have specifically been looking at film and how to show a topic through film.

I have mainly been looking at documentaries and TV shows and trying to see my process within them to get research from different points of views. My idea in my head that I have is to make a film for the final piece, which shows my process in different ways and scenarios. I think I might be using found footage to show this, and filming it myself.

I began to find it difficult to find inspiration for my project other than looking at the references that I was already looking at such as nature documentaries and the show Stath Lets Flats. Because of this, I decided to look at different things I could make my project about. I tried to simplify the brief because I feel like the problem I had in the start was that how to open the project is, led to me finding a lot of difficulty in the project rather than giving me a lot of inspiration.

So I decided to simplify the brief and started to look at more specific processes instead of such big ones, here is a list of processes I looked at:

Printing (Lino, Screen, Litho)

Cooking

Baking

Sewing

Curing (Charcuterie)

Fermentation (Pickles, Yoghurt, Fermenting)

Film Photography Developing (Dark Room)

Youtube Video Reactions

This all came from me also re-reading the brief and trying to understand what I needed to make and communicate with my final piece. There is a specific slide in the briefing pdf, about what inputs and outputs are there in the process which made me think more about what a process is and how I can show it. Showing how something starts and finishes and what changes along the way.

From my list of processes that I looked at I decided to go with youtube reaction videos. This is because it is something that I watch myself on youtube all the time but I never have questioned what I am watching when I watch these videos. There are inputs and outputs to this process, and it is a process that never ends as people can always create a reaction video to a reaction video. I have seen this during my research and also have seen people reacting to a reaction of a reaction, creating an endless loop.

There is a book which has one of the references that is on the Briefing pdf (Fibre Market), called Fear and Love which I have looked at before. Metahaven is one of the designers that is in this book, and that I like their work and thought that it would be good to use as a reference in this project. This is because a lot of their work that they produce is also about the digital world and the internet and how the internet affects political issues. When researching about them their website is blank, but there is a website link to sprawl.space which is a website full of videos that is constantly scrolling down. 

When you look at the information about this website, it says that it is a film that has been broken up into small parts and uploaded to youtube and then displayed onto the website as individual films. The look of the website and all the videos that are on it have a very specific aesthetic to them which is very internet-based. Metahaven describes this website as “Propaganda about propaganda” also which I find very interesting, as inspiration for my project.

From my research into my topic, I noticed that a lot of these videos are forced reactions

and I can notice some themes coming up when I look at different videos. I see that these YouTubers reacting to these videos are doing this as their job and most of their reactions are fake to get the people who watch their videos more interested in watching it. I feel that these people are making their emotions a job and something that they can monetise for money. Also when looking at most of these videos, the length is almost always over 10 minutes which allows them to get more AdSense money from youtube. I am looking to use capitalism as a theme to show how reaction videos and capitalism are linked.

I want to show the link between the repetition of reaction videos and how we watch tv and media to capitalism and how you can monetise and make money off anything today. I think that this will let me be critical of my topic, so I can make a video that shows the process in a different way. I feel that metahaven does this with how they show their topics through their videos.

After researching reaction videos and watching a lot of them, I have noticed that there is a repetitive process that happens when somebody makes a video like this:

Watch a video about anything

Show forced emotions or no emotion at all

Record yourself for 10+ minutes

Edit video

Upload

Money

Before this project, I didn’t notice that there was such a repetitive way of making these videos just for money. After doing this research I want to highlight this and use this insight in my final video, in a way that Metahaven does it by being critical of the themes found. I feel that one of the things I found out is how you can make money off of anything on the internet, and I think that I want to highlight this in my film by showing how weird reaction videos can be at times.

I feel critical about what I’m researching because even though I watch a lot of youtube it wasn’t until I looked at it from a different way that I realised how repetitive these videos and this process can be. I think that after researching this topic it has shown me how big youtube is and the large number of things that you can upload onto the platform is.

The idea I have thought about is to create a sprawl.space like video of my own, about the process of creating a youtube reaction video. I want to make it more literal than the sprawl.space videos because I feel like there are so many of those videos that metahaven has left the meaning behind them more open. The film I want to make is going to be made with found youtube footage that shows the process of a youtube reaction video. There are a few videos that I am using from the sprawl.space website for inspiration for this film:

https://youtu.be/vtKgW2DSIb0

https://youtu.be/9IN4v1KN3x8

I am going to begin looking at and collecting videos to edit together in my film.

I want to find videos that relate to my idea and videos that I can edit to create a narrative related to my process. I also want to use a 3D element like text similar to Metahaven, and also maybe something similar to this video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=vtKgW2DSIb0

My final idea was chosen because at the start of the project I struggled to find a way to show the process of rejection and I knew that I needed to simplify my process to know how to make something about it. With my initial idea about rejection I also wanted to make a film with found footage about the process, however, how open the process as it didn’t allow me to think about how I could do this.

I never used Adobe Dimension before this project but found out that you can use this program to create text with the look that I am going for. Adobe Dimension makes creating 3D things a very simplified thing, which is something that I never thought I could do in the past. I have made the background green so I can key the green out later when I am editing the image in Premiere.

I am also using After Effects which is something I have used before during my studies on this course. I wanted to create a 3D object that can be a symbol for the film that I can use. In the end, I decided to create the monetisation logo from youtube in Illustrator then transfer it into After Effects and create a 3D animation with it. I have purposely made the 3D look of this object look like old computer graphics to match with the look that I’m trying to go for.

When I thought about the footage I was looking at it made me think about John Berger’s ways of seeing. At the start of the ways of seeing John Berger talks about the perspective of humans and how it's made from one viewpoint. I started looking at videos of the series that John made for BBC on youtube. I wanted to include audio clips of this in the film but decided not to. This is because I thought that including the audio clips would be too literal in the film and wanted to include the open-ended feeling that metahaven has in their films. https://youtu.be/0pDE4VX_9Kk

In my opinion, the outcome looks great. It shows a clear idea throughout the whole film and it is interesting to watch. I think changing the process of my project was the right thing to do. It was more fun and much easier to research about. If I could improve it would be something to do with the editing. Maybe I would have experimented more with the 3D symbols using Adobe Dimension and Adobe After Effects.

[bretkelly-blog1]

Butterfly Project Video Clip with garage doors by various street artists organized by Nick Sweetman for the David Suzuki foundation in ravine park in Toronto

Lately, I've noticed that I'm being followed around by monarch butterflies all over the city. At first I thought it was a coincidence but its been almost every day over the last week. They are on major busy downtown streets and yesterday by the lake. They flutter right up me and then have been circling me. I think August is their normal migration time but I have been seen so many of them. And never like this in the downtown core. Maybe all this rain made all these plants grow which attracted these insects ?

The Monarch butterflys reminded me that I haven't posted many of the pictures that I took back in June. The reason that I didn't post a lot of them is that they honestly weren't very good the pictures that I took of the amazing artwork. That day I had walked about 4 miles by the time I got to the park where these garage doors are. Plus, I had to walk another 4 miles to get home. I basically, took pictures quickly.. because as usual it looked like it might rain.

The great time about pictures that aren't that good.. they can be turned in to a video that isn't so bad and that is what this is. Also, I managed to take a couple of video clips that day in spite of my arching feet.

This was a project organized by @nick_sweetman who I got to meet last month. This was for @davidsuzukiFDN which is " dedicated to protecting the diversity of nature.". Nick got all these local artists to come any work on these doors. He said when they started some other homeowners got excited about the artwork and they were able to do more than they had anticipated.

So here is the video of great artwork with not so great photos. (I will have to get my feet back up there to take better photos).

Here are the photos that I put in the video in order... Although, some of the garage doors had flower artwork on them.. I just put the ones with the butterflies for this video - which is why all of them aren't in this video. When I go back I'll make a better video with better photos.

1) @mksa on the left  @tuffytats on the right

2) close up of @mska

3) @ahayahisone

4) This is another butterfly by @andreamanica - its actually apart of another mural project. It was damaged - so she replaced the original crab with this butterfly

5) @crwales66

6)  @luvsumone

7) @blackburnjeff

8) @vizsla_bacon

9) @smugugly

10)  @anyamielniczek

11)  @adrianhayles

12) Then that is sticker slap that I saw on Bloor St where the butterflys were following me.. too weird..

13) Then that is the actually butterfly that was following by the lake yesterday

[keywestlou]

ST. PATRICK'S DAY.....THE WEARIN' OF THE GREEN

St. Patrick’s Day is upon us. Two whole days this year because of the weekend. Everyone is Irish. Most will be wearing the green.

Party time! Two days of the Duval crawl. Imagine! Drinking all that beer. Colored green, of course.

Key West party goers are fortunate. We have in excess of 300 bars.

Corned beef and cabbage. Oh, how I look forward to it. Only once a year. On St. Pat’s Day. One problem. Can’t get it. Everywhere I go, even with reservations, the restaurants are sold out.

I have a house guest coming in tomorrow for 2 weeks. Barbara. I am going to surprise her! Buy a piece of corned beef from Publix and ask her to cook it for me some day this week.

Hopefully, she will be amenable.

Key West will be crazier than normal these 2 days. There are locals, tourists, and spring breakers. My running around will be limited.

Chart Room last night. Still feel heavy re Che’s death. That feeling.

John, Steve and Cindy at the bar. Some Che discussion. Not much. I suspect everyone wanted to avoid the topic.

Mary there, also. We ended up having dinner together at Pier 1 outside on the deck. A beautiful evening, a beautiful view. Boats going back and forth in the distance. The boats returning home after watching Key West’s fabled sunset.

I must share something. Pier 1’s food is exceptional. A new chef was hired last year. She is amazing!

Living on an island, one learns respect for nature, fish, birds, little deer, etc. Something about it. Man becomes conscious of nature.

You are already aware of the nut who jumped off a pier onto a pelican. Can’t do it. Pelicans Federally and State protected.

William Hunter Hardesty the guilty tourist.

He left town. A warrant for his arrest was obtained. Everyone is upset with the man. He had the event videoed and run on Facebook, also.

A warrant was issued for his arrest. Evidence of the seriousness of what occurred is that the warrant was 10 pages long. Highly unusual.

Hardesty was vacationing yesterday in Ocean City, Maryland. Bragging to everyone re his exploit with the Key West pelican. Some had read in the news re his wrongdoing and that the police were looking for him. They called the police. Hardesty has been arrested. Bail $80,000.

The charges include cruelty to a migrating bird and intentionally feeding a pelican.

The message: Don’t jump on our pelicans! Serious wrongdoing!

I have been preaching for several years that robots are coming. People everywhere are aware. Our politicians not. Government is not doing anything to plan for the invasion and retrain the multitude of humans that will be out of work.

A new robot was introduced yesterday. The Guardian LFI, Mark 3 Underwater Robot.

Perfect for Keys’ waters. The robots’ sole function are to control the lionfish population.

Lionfish generally reside on coral reefs at a depth that divers cannot safely reach. The depths where lionfish breed.

The robot can dive to the depth a human cannot. The robot stuns a lionfish and brings it to the surface. Each robot can stun up to 10 lionfish a dive.

Lionfish are extremely dangerous to native reef fish. Scientists estimate lionfish ae reducing native reef fishes by 79 percent.

This blog has in excess of 69,000 subscribers. Readers from all over the world. I hear from distant followers frequently.

Today, Theodore Markis. A Greek. I love Greece!

First time I have heard from Markis. He sent via Facebook a copy of a Greek newspaper. A newspaper published in Epirus called Proinos Logos. A copy of the 3/4/19 edition.

Markis lives and works in Ioannina, Greece. Don’t know what he does. He studied at Northwestern.

Markis has become friends with Key West artist Raymond Rolston. They have been together in Key West and Greece.

The purpose of the newspaper was to introduce me to the artist Rolston. He shows at Sunset at Mallory Square and the Island Arts Gallery.

Rolston has done a number of paintings incorporating Key West and Greek scenes. Makes for special works.

I am ashamed to say I have never met Rolston. I will do so soon. Hopefully Markis and I can have a continuing e-mail relationship. I ask Markis to write me directly at louispetrone@gmail.com.

The following galls me. It will gall you.

September is the last month of the Federal budget/fiscal year. No one tries to save money. Any monies remaining in the till in September are spent. God forbid a surplus at the end of the year. Such might mean fewer dollars in the next year’s budget.

Trump says we are hurting financially. He wants to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Before he does so, he should look at the wasteful September spending in the government.

September found the budget with $197 billion unspent. Working under the use it or lose it philosophy, following are some examples of where our taxpayer dollars went.

The Pentagon spent $4.6 million on lobster and crab. Someone ordered a $9,341 Wexford office chair. $11, 816 on a foosball table. $258,901 on pianos.

Pigs!

Enjoy your day!

  ST. PATRICK’S DAY…..THE WEARIN’ OF THE GREEN was originally published on Key West Lou

[republicstandard]

Video Games Turned Me Into a Nazi

Hail The Guardian for saying what we're all thinking despite reams of academic data to the contrary. Games are far right tools of indoctrination. Every Head-Crab you crowbarred to death in Half-Life makes The Wall a few inches higher. Do you really think the aliens in that game were called 'Race X' for no reason? Wake up, racist gamers.

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"Although affected by context, video games have long focused on the expulsion of “aliens” (Space Invaders to XCOM), fear of impure infection (Half-Life to The Last of Us), border control (Missile Commander to Plants vs Zombies), territory acquisition (Command & Conquer to Splatoon), empire building (Civilization to Tropico), princess recovery (Mario to Zelda), and restoration of natural harmony (Sonic to FarmVille).

Second, video games put the user to work on an instinctual level, making the gamer feel impulsive agreement with these ideologies."

Sonic is a Nazi now. So writes Alfie Bown with a sub-par rehash of Sigmund Freud's most outdated ideas. This piece isn't going to be a slam dunk piece on how stupid that idea is; Twitter has already trampled it into the dust, and I'll splatter a few choice tweets like alien brain matter through this piece for your delectation. I want more to have a look beyond Alfie Bown and his reductive nonsense to the deeper tale. For years now we have talked about a certain pursuit being the Fountain of all Evil, corrupting the young and making the world a degenerate place. Bown is making an ideological argument instead of the intellectual one. There is an argument to be made that the ever-presence of technology as a whole has changed humans. Have you ever found yourself alone at a restaurant table and discovered you were suddenly online? This is followed by the not quite understood social faux-pas of someone returning from the bathroom whilst you are in the midst of tweet composition. Do you delay interaction with someone in the real world while you drop knowledge bombs on anime avatars? This applies to messages, Facebook, and yes mobile games are included. This is a conversation that should about what effect our technology has had on our attention span and our willingness to be alone with ourselves for any fraction of time- not that there are political ideologies being stealthed into our culture through shoot 'em ups that will make you a race realist.

Yes, you read that correctly, XCOM has xenophobic undertones; it doesn’t matter if your squad was a beacon of diversity or that you were defending yourself from a hostile alien force that sought out to violently subjugate humanity, those aliens represent refugees, silly!

— Bunty King ♔ (@realbuntyking) March 12, 2018

So, how is it that we still see claims of video games being the root of all evil? Because psychologically we are trapped in a confusing reality of polarized political opinions that are resistant to change. I don't know if any leftists read this magazine, but let me assure you- this isn't an attack on left ideology per se, though I have come to see incredibly dangerous flaws in that thinking. This mental cage we have built for society is not a left or right wing idea, it is a deeper concept, one of a purity test. The Christian Right burnt records by The Beatles, and racists attacked Elvis for bringing the corrupting power of Black music to White audiences. Now we see the Regressive Left building another filter through which to strain the dregs of culture, and this frame is fixated on trying to understand how people come to be woke on ideas like ingroup preference within ethnic groups, replacement migration, the Islamification of Europe and even that it is okay to be White.

The answer when you are viewing the world from a purely ideological perspective is of course that all the evil in the world comes from who you believe are your enemies. Bown believes that what he thinks of as conservative ideas like border control and sexual dimorphism are not just ideas to be contended with and argued against, but examples of impurity in society. As his own subheading states:

"Violent, isolationist and misogynist desires course through games – and push rightwing ideologies on players."

A better statement would be perhaps- violent, isolationist and misogynist experiences course through humanity itself. We might disagree with this and wish to become more than the animal we are, but this hierachy still exists! How we deal with this and reconcile the advanced mind of human beings with the animalistic, tribal desires of the beasts within is important. That might be a good question- instead, Bown projects behavioral traits onto people as a group through their shared activity- the classic GamerGate tactic which the records show doesn't work and makes you look rather silly in the process.

As we know,  Fritz Heider (1958) suggested that we have a tendency to give causal explanations for someone’s behavior, often by crediting either the situation or the person’s disposition- this is Attribution Theory. I hold this statement to be true, born out by observing reality as impartially as we can. You are a Nazi because I disagree with you and you are a Nazi because you do this unrelated action that I think made you into even more of a Nazi. This is the argument from the Left today- this is the anti-Gamer Gate argument, this is the argument that led to Martin Sellner, Brittany Pettibone and Lauren Southern being denied entry to the United Kingdom. It is this attitude that leads to Tommy Robinson being attacked in the street by masked men and the disruption of lectures by Carl Benjamin, Peter Boghossian, Christina Hoff Sommers and Jordan Peterson to name but a few.

Because these people are overtly opposed to broad church Progressivism, they are attributed with the trait of being a known fascist. This perspective is reinforced because they give speeches against Progressivism- that means, against authoritarian states, against neo-Marxism- they take actions that confirms their opinions, they are authentic in this manner, realized. That's the second attribution, now we have a physical and psychological image of who these people are in our minds, we know they are not just in disagreement, they act, and they are acting against us so they must be our enemies too and that is why we have to suppress or stop them. If you are familiar with Jeanette Falarca and her group By Any Means Necessary you will see how far this line of thinking will justify violence and harassment towards people who have been labeled as Nazis.

I was in his lair fighting him on a platform over lava, where the platform kept shifting, trying to throw us both off of it. I persevered, and as Iggy was thrown into the lava at the end of our battle, he shouted out, "have you read Mein Kampf?!" before slowly burning to death.

— Colin Moriarty (@notaxation) March 12, 2018

Attacking video games is a method leftists have struck on to try and explain to each other why their enemies exist. This indicates such a paucity of discourse between politically engaged people that we are looking at a discourse-less future of disagreement, and with the effective banning of right-wing opinions in totality in the United Kingdom, this future can only be violent.

Because someone disagrees with you does not make them an enemy that needs to be dehumanized and destroyed. Bown argues that video games can cause violent behavior along ideological lines as the themes in video games are not neo-Marxist. Well, isn't that just an expression that he feels that his ideology is losing in an arms race? I disagree with his premise, but surely his conclusion is the worst form of tribalism also.

"Currently, the new desires incubated by games lean far to the right, and without more progressive games on the market (though some are emerging), the future may be even bleaker than the political present."

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The link in that quote is to a Kotaku article about a video game that is about making a socialist society. It is not that Bown cares about the potential of technology (including video games) to alter humanity. He cares that technology is not being used to change humans in the right way according to his ideological beliefs. As a society we have to transcend this partisan thinking or at least find a neutral field in which our polarizing beliefs can engage with each other without descending into demonization. The survival of our civilization depends on it.

Thank you for reading Republic Standard. We publish this magazine and the Freebird Forum because we believe in free speech- but it doesn't come cheap! Will you make a small donation towards our running costs? You can make a difference by clicking here.

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[ourartzoneblog-blog]

Marine Hose Dept. Blog: How a Family Boat Means More Family Fun

Your Marine Hose Professionals Discuss How to Boost Your Family's Fun With a New Boat

Raritan Engineering your marine hose specialists would like to share with you these topics we thought would be of interest to you this month regarding how a family boat means more family fun.

Your marine hose manufacturers talk about how regardless of your income, buying a new boat probably represents a big financial commitment. But the return on investment can prove priceless. Allow me to provide some examples from my own life afloat.

Last Fourth of July, we took the boat out to view a large commercial fireworks display. Since we never even got on plane, even though we were out for hours with family and friends, it cost next to nothing. 

My youngest daughter (finally) got up on skis this year. It took her a while to get it, but when she did, we all exalted in her accomplishment, her victory over gravity, and her mastery of balance. Her smile was brighter than the sun, and the memory of that smile burns brilliantly too. At various times during the year, we were in close company with sea turtles, whales, porpoises, seals, and more varieties of bird life than space allows listing here. 

Check out our marine products choices here at Raritan Engineering, where we always take care of your marine sanitation supply needs.

Planning a boating jaunt with children? Here are 10 ideas to make it kid-friendly and fun for everyone, whether you are looking forward to a day trip or a vacation afloat.

1. Get the kids involved! Assign responsibility onboard, and watch them step up to the task with pride of purpose. Children can look out for crab pot buoys, help plot a course, or watch for traffic. Our son assisted with communication relays between the bow and the helm during anchoring: he liked being needed, and we liked being able to anchor without yelling.

2. Explore life underwater. You don't have to take a swim in chilly water to see incredible marine life. Make a bathyscope with a bucket or use a simple dipping net for an afternoon of entertainment while lying belly down on a dock. Check local tide tables to find daytime lows for tidal flat entertainment. 

3. Swing in the rigging! A child-sized climbing harness secured to fit and attached to a halyard can mean hours of fun (using common sense precautions). Little feet only need to be a few inches off the deck to prompt giggling; older kids may be ready to do more adventurous swinging out over water. Or ditch the harness and aim for getting wet! 

4. Go beachcombing together. A trip ashore is the fix for cabin fever with children. Create a simple list for a scavenger hunt: for the pre-literate, draw pictures. Make beach art from found objects or build a driftwood fort onshore.

5. Build boat skills on a smaller scale. The dinghy is a great tool to help kids learn with you and become better boaters while having fun. You can demonstrate rules of the road, judging effects of current and wind, rowing skills, even points of sail (if you have a sailing dinghy). 

Before you can leave the dock for your adventures afloat, make sure your family and visitors are prepared with a safety briefing and appropriate gear. Children age 12 and under are required to wear USCG-approved life jackets on an open deck or cockpit, and on all boats under 19 feet whenever underway. Avoid any late disappointments by making sure they can either bring their own, or you can supply them.

So don't forget these great reasons why boating boosts family fun. 1) The kids are able to get involved;  2) the kids can explore animal life out on the water;  3) you are able to beachcomb together;  and 4) you'll be able to build your boating skills together. 

Fun Winter Boating Activities To Try

It turns out that winter opens the door to some real adventures in floating fiberglass fun-if you know where to look. From plying slow southern waters to skidding across frozen northern lakes, here's what boating lovers do in the “off” season.

SLOW IT DOWN

Cruise the Intracoastal

The 3,000-mile waterway, which runs along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, is not just a means to an end-it's a destination. Explore historic towns like Wilmington,

Savannah and St. Augustine; sample local cuisine, from Low Country to Cajun and Creole; and savor the changing scenery.

Try Charter Fishing

During their winter migration down the East Coast toward South Florida, sailfish favor the Gulf Stream's warm waters and may be found less than 10 miles offshore.

Learn to Sail

Yes, you can become an accomplished sailor while enjoying a much-needed vacation. Several sailing schools offer opportunities for individuals, couples and families to fine-tune their skills and earn certifications that will allow them to charter a boat and go cruising.

SPEED IT UP

Go Winter Water-skiing

Don a dry suit for this fast-paced take on the Polar Bear Club. Some northern rivers and lakes remain ice-free, and their safe navigation sets the stage for never-say-quit skiers to enjoy thrilling (if chilly) rides. 

Sail an Iceboat

Frozen water is no excuse to stay indoors. Midwestern inland lakes with smooth, stable, snow-free ice and wind are prime ground for iceboats-sailing craft that can reach speeds up to around 100 miles per hour on their three skates, or runners. 

Try a Snow Kayak

Why put your kayak away when rivers turn icy? Obsessed paddlers can careen down snow-covered mountainsides, navigating trees and deep powder just like skiers. 

Purchase your marine hoses here and see how Raritan Engineering provides you the best products in the marine sanitation industry today.

Be sure to watch our latest video on marine hoses below. 

via Buying A Boat Is Like Filling A Prepaid Family Fun Card

via Fun Winter Boating Activities To Try