#monsoon 2020

[abs0luteb4stard]

🔥 W ⛧ T C H I N G 🔥

(Anything this cute and lovely and watchable for grown up kids like us deserves to be linked and promo'ed)

[cokiemace]

[desert-love]

Entering the monsoon season…

The Vermillion Trail from 2020.

Mark Maggiori

#arizonariders

[heavenlyyshecomes]

recs directory

all my book / articles / film recs !! please check before sending an ask for recs <3 (this are mostly from 2020-22 so don't hesitate to ask for newer recs)

last updated: 13.04.2024

books

essay collections

short books for a reading slump

old wlw books

on generational trauma

social media accs for book recs women in translation MET art books on loneliness / pt. 2 lithub syllabi arthurian + atmospheric on internet culture gentle books underrated favs 2022 reads fav prose quarterly book recs summer reading list: 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 monsoon reading list: 2022 yearly tbr: 2022, 2023 random fiction, pt. 2, pt. 3*, pt. 4*, pt. 5*, nonfiction yearly fav reads: 2019*, 2021 on colour theory* drive link to books*

sff recs related tags: ref: mine, ref, book recs, book log

articles

misc readings tag random recs

places to read articles related tags: readings, articles

films

short films horror films random recs fav first watches: 2022 related tags: movie log

[henk-heijmans]

Two women in the monsoon rain Madras, India, 1975 - by Frank Horvat (1928 - 2020), Italian

[neoclassic-sonic]

Potential Sonic Drift 3 vehicle names.

As you may or may not know, aside from Fang's Marvelous Queen, the vehicles original to the drift games are all based on wind-themed meteorological terms.

Sonic has the Cyclone, he also owns the Tornado, a biplane that Tails often drives. A Cyclone is one of the biggest wind phenomenons

Tails has the MTP-01 Whirlwind and the MTP-02 Whirlwind S7, he would be the only one to carry the wind-theme name to the modern era with the Whirlwind Sport in Team Sonic Racing. Very fitting Tails gets the Whirlwind as its similar to a Tornado in scale.

Amy has Breeze, fitting for her gentle personality. Breeze would later be seen again in the IDW Comics and is the only other vehicle aside from the Majestic Queen and Cyclone to make a reappearance in recent years surprisingly!

Knuckles has Tempest, an old fashioned term for a nasty storm.

Eggman has the Egg Typhoon, Typhoon, being another name for a Cyclone and a Hurricane. Fitting for the two icons of Sonic sharing that importance!

Metal Sonic has the Blue Devil, I was confused about this growing up since it's not really a term you'd hear where I grew up but apparently in the US, terms like Dust Devils, Snow Devils, Water Devils, etc. are a thing, it's a small whirlwind containing objects and even Fire Devils and Trash Devils have been cropping up in recent years. A Blue Devil is not a real thing afaik, but if its a devil containing Metal Sonic, that seems a pretty apt name.

Fang's Marvelous Queen is the only vehicle I think that isn't connected to a meteorological phenomenon. Even though it was named in the Drift Games instead of Triple Trouble. I did some digging and there was a Japanese racehorse named "Marvelous Queen" who was born in 1991 (the same year Sonic came out) and was active from 1993-1996. She wasn't a particularly notable winner though so I think that was just coincidence. Should be noted though that other racehorses later on have been named marvelous queen like in 2016 and in 2020. Maybe its a nice horse name? Would lineup for Fang if he were into racehorse gambling. (And his whole gambling stage in fighters and cowboy design)

Now, in a potential Sonic Drift 3 sequel, how would I personally name the other characters vehicles?

Mighty - Monsoon

Ray - Flurry, a light gust of wind

Bean - Squall, a sudden violent wind, yknow like a bomb

Bark - Blizzard, of course.

Vector - Gale, a strong current of air.

Espio - Arashi, japanese for storm, could've went with Kaze but that's just wind.

Charmy - Puff, a small force of wind

[ramayantika]

A goodbye needed

From being born in Hyderabad to living in the northern part of India, that is Gurgaon and then the Western side, Maharashtra to Vishakhapatnam in the south and finally in the eastern states of Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and Odisha, I do get to say that I covered eighteen years of my life in the four main directions of India. But my favourite city has and will always be Kolkata.

To be honest, my brother desperately wanted to live in Kolkata because of Eden Gardens in our GK book. I wasn't that interested until I arrived in Kolkata in 2016 to appear for the written test in my school. The exam went well and so did the interview. I remember my father lived in a small bachelor's one room apartment in Ruby Park. My eleven year old eyes were stunned as they took in the grandeur of the old buildings from the British era to the modern metros and malls of Kolkata. When I came back to Raipur, all I knew was Kolkata would be life changing for me.

And in 2017, I did come home. To Kolkata. A small roadside apartment facing a canal where you don't have crystal clear water but drainage water. Somehow the water wasn't stinky until the arrival of the monsoon showers. I lived there from 2017 to 2020. I was supposed to stay there until 2022 but fate had other plans but that's a story for another day.

I always call Kolkata home even though I am from Odisha. It was the only city that embraced all shades of me. I spent the first two years of my teenage there. The damp roads leading to my apartment have heard my songs above sweet love and true friendship. On quiet midnights, my tiny balcony knew the whispers of my soul, and the questions it asked about fate and the world. The monsoon rainfall told me how to appreciate nature and beauty. I learnt to dance with storms, and dream of stories that I now write and desperately wish to be a part of.

I met a teacher who told me in a tone akin to a whisper in front of the class that I am like a small pandora box, hidden from view but having the most wonderful and beautiful things to offer the world. The next month I danced for a school event and God since then I never looked back. Kolkata connected my soul to literature and culture.

I am no longer in Kolkata but each time my calendar notifies Rabindranath Thakur's jayanti, my heart goes to the old tunes of Rabindra sangeet; the beauty and tenderness of his songs that captured my heart and caused me to spill some of my poetry in the last page of my rough notebook.

I visited kolkata again in December 2021 after first term examinations of class twelve. My connection with kolkata broke like a plant uprooted from its soil. It felt as if I had been banished from home. All the months that passed, and all the seasons that changed showed me memories and dreams of what could have been in kolkata. But when I visited kolkata, I saw how some things had changed.

My home appeared....... different? I always say that my young soul blossomed in Kolkata. The same soul turned sad at the emotion that the city showed me. Perhaps that's how growing up is. To see that things around you change, people, roads, hearts everything but somewhere there still lies a calling that says, 'hey, I know things are different. But I am still here. Look at me, embrace the new me. Embrace yourself. You are changing too.'

Where it once used to be wonder, nostalgia filled my heart as I met my friends after two years. I passed through my apartment again and smiled at the balcony, my small corner for solitude. I saw a few towels hanging there.

Going back from Kolkata felt a little sad. I could not accept the change. I had been uprooted from my roots, and when I come back I see new flowers springing up. Without me?

Then after a year, I visited Kolkata again in July 2023. I had grown so had the city. When I passed by the same British era buildings and Howrah bridge, the same wonder struck my soul. I saw a few flowers growing on the pathway, getting their nourishment from the July showers. The empty space in my heart too was filled with flowers. My friends who are now in their respective colleges, doing their own things with their own friend circles now but somehow we come together. Just like old days before.

Home is always home no matter how far you go or how long you stay away from it. Home will always welcome you back. The fragrance of wet earth filled my soul with a warm blanket, as if telling me that all this while, I waited for you. I am different but I am still your friend.

Era sukher laagi chahe prem, prem mele na.

Shudhu sukh chole jaye emoni mayar cholona

This song will always remind me of Kolkata, the warm monsoon nights that were filled with a longing of love, friendship and magic. It will take me back to dreams and whispers of a fantasy that my heart still believes in that I would one day bring forth the wonder and beauty of my Self to the world. It will remind me that there must be tender days to be spent in reading poetry on a cool evening.

The day I boarded the train to Durgapur, my heart hummed the tune of Era Sukher Lagi from Choker Bali. As the train left the station, I waved at my young self through the window. It was farewell. I would come home later for my dance work, a thread that shall tie me to this wonderful city forever but I would never come home this way ever again and for the first time I was happy. And perhaps to witness an end to a heartwarming journey of nostalgia, acceptance to change and farewell, the clouds showered rainfall against the window just like the cool monsoon nights years ago.

All was well....

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Qasim Rashid at Let's Address This:

This article will upset some people. But my responsibility as a human rights lawyer is not to speak soothing falsehoods, but hard truths. The Democratic Party has lost two winnable Presidential elections in the last three contests, resulting in devastating consequences for the American people. This moment calls for self-reflection and self-analysis. The fate of our republic is literally at stake, and we cannot afford continued failure. What went wrong, and how do we fix this? Let’s Address This.

A Quick Overview

Let’s start with some high level points. Black women and Black men showed up, voting 92% and 78%, respectively, for Harris. White women and white men, meanwhile, voted 52% and 59%, respectively, for Trump. Latino men shifted right 18% from 2020, and 54% voted for Trump in 2024. Latino women shifted right 7% from 2020, and 37% voted Trump in 2024. In short, Black people showed up for Harris, white people showed up for Trump, and Latino’s shifted right to Trump—with the overall majority of Latinos still voting for Harris.

Let’s also acknowledge the continued failure of legacy media. From LA Times and Washington Post refusing to endorse any candidate, to CBS and CNN refusing to fact check the Presidential debates, to the New York Times whitewashing Trump’s clear cognitive decline—legacy media absconded in its responsibility to hold powerful politicians accountable. Many will note that while Biden’s age was a constant state of focus, the moment he resigned media completely forgot that Trump is only a few years younger than Biden. Next, racism and misogyny absolutely played a damaging role in this election. Legacy media gobbled up Trump’s attempts to question Harris’s identity, distracting from issues that matter—like her actual policies. Disinformation about Haitian migrants created fear and hate of Black people and of immigrants. Misogyny and racism continued to dominate political discourse and Harris faced the onslaught of both, undoubtedly costing her votes in ways she had no ability to mitigate.

And finally, third party candidates like Jill Stein, Cornell West, and RFK played their roles in trying to break up the duopoly, with negligible success. Election results demonstrate that Stein did not cost Harris any electoral votes, and little evidence exists that her involvement played any meaningful role in Trump’s win. In other words, she did not pull a Nader 2000. All of the above are factors that impacted the election, but none of them individually, or even collectively, prevented Harris’s victory. It is critical the Democratic Party reflect on the matters within their control that they fumbled—fumbles that directly resulted in a Harris loss and Trump re-election to the White House—if they have any real hope of preventing a third presidential loss in four tries in 2028.

1. Joe Biden’s Arrogance

Let’s be blunt about this. I put the primary blame for the Election 2024 debacle on Joe Biden. And I will be as bold as to say that he set up Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party for failure. Here’s why. Back in 2020 Joe Biden ran for President on the promise of being a “bridge President” to a younger generation, suggesting he would only serve one term and then pass the torch. At numerous rallies he loudly declared,

[Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else. I view myself as a transition candidate.]

It was with that explicit expectation that a monsoon of young voters helped him cross the finish line with a victory, earning 7 million more votes than Donald Trump. But when it became clear that President Biden had no intention of stepping down, those who suggested he follow through on his campaign promise were dismissed, decried, and denounced. Even as poll after poll showed that Biden’s support among the young people who helped him win in 2020 was all but gone, those who believed Biden should withdraw were shouted down. 

And there are countless such examples. By backtracking on his campaign promise to serve only one term, and then stepping down last minute, Joe Biden denied Democrats a robust primary. How valuable is a robust primary? It is quite literally the difference between winning and losing. The data on this is undeniable.

[...]

Now in 2024, the Democratic Party did not, or was unable to, hold a primary. The end result—Harris lost the popular vote by 4.5 million votes, lost the Electoral count 226-295+, and voter turnout dropped 2.5% to 64.5%—a drop that cost the Democratic Party the White House, the Senate, and potentially the House. Just like in 2016 when a 2.4% drop in turnout was the difference between controlling all of the White House, House, and Senate, and controlling none of them, in 2024 a 2.5% drop in turnout has resulted in Democrats losing control of the White House, the Senate, and grasping at straws to win control of the US House.

To be clear, this analysis does not absolve the very real misogyny and racism Kamala Harris faced. But those two obstacles of misogyny and racism make holding a primary that much more important, because such primaries help build the critical and larger coalitions needed to more effectively overcome the obstacles of misogyny and racism. Likewise, this analysis does not second guess nominating Kamala Harris. After Joe Biden finally dropped out, she was the most logical choice as the Democratic Party’s nominee. This analysis is a critique of the fact that an impossible job was thrown upon her—pick a VP running mate with negligible voter input, speed date 330 million Americans, and define yourself as distinct from Joe Biden, all in 100 days or less. Black women can, and do, many amazing things, but a person can only be at one place at one time. It is revealing that even on Election Day one of the top google search questions was, “Did Joe Biden drop out?” That is not a question any voter should be asking on November 5, and one no voter would be asking if the Democratic nominee had more than the blink of an eye to make her case to the American people via a robust primary.

[...]

Losing the Palestine Argument

Despite the improved rhetoric from Harris on Palestine, when asked whether she has any policy shifts from Biden, the answer was always a firm no. This is significant because polling was absolutely clear that stopping arms to Netanyahu would result in more votes for Harris. Harris could have broken away from Biden by stating that she sees no contradiction between maintaining Israel’s security and upholding American and international human rights law. She chose not to, and Trump was able to commandeer the brand of the “peacetime President.” A YouGov/IMEU Policy Project poll among Democrats and Independents in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, found that the Harris/Walz path to victory included announcing a cessation of arms to Netanyahu.

In Arizona, 35% of voters said they would be more likely to vote for the Harris if she vowed to stop weapons to Israel. Only 5% said they are less likely to vote for that policy—a 7:1 ratio of voter support in a state Biden won by only 11,000 votes.

In Georgia, 39% of voters said they are more likely to vote for Harris if she vowed to stop weapons to Israel. Only 5% said they are less likely to vote for that policy—an 8:1 ratio of voter support in a state that Biden won by 12,000 votes.

In Pennsylvania, 34% of voters in Pennsylvania said they are more likely to vote for Harris if she vowed to stop weapons to Israel. Only 7% said they would be less likely to vote for that policy—a 5:1 ratio of voter support in a state Biden won by only 82,000 votes.

And beyond swing states, a national CBS/YouGov poll reported the following critical facts about American support of a policy change to withhold arms from Israel:

61% of Americans oppose weapons to Israel’s assault in Gaza

77% of Democrats reject US weapons to Israel

63% of moderates reject US weapons to Israel

77% of voters under 30 oppose weapons to Israel

75% of Black Americans oppose weapons to Israel

66% of women oppose weapons to Israel

64% of Hispanic Americans oppose weapons to Israel

56% of white college grads oppose weapons to Israel

American Muslims comprise of roughly 1% of the United States population. The vote some American Muslims withheld due to Biden’s policy on Israel did not impact the election results. But the Biden administration’s refusal to listen to 77% of Democrats, 63% of moderates, and 61% of all Americans, absolutely did.

[...]

Conclusion

The Harris campaign raised nearly $1 billion in just three months, compared to Trump’s $388 million over 10 months. Yet, at the end of the day, Trump found ways to ensure his base came out and voted for him, and the Democratic Party found ways to ignore the critical voters that catapulted them to victory in 2020. Racism, misogyny, media failures, Russian interference, third party candidates—all played a role. But at the end of the day, this was the Democratic Party’s election to lose, and they must take responsibility if they hope to meaningfully reform their fatal flaws and win in 2026 or 2028, and beyond.

Donald Trump is a fascist, and Project 2025 will invite fascism to America. This is the reality we face. The Democratic Party must understand that it will never ‘out conservative’ or ‘out center’ Republicans. Instead, the Democratic Party must stop cosplaying as a left party, and actually become a left party that prioritizes economic, social, and climate justice with meaningful action, not meaningless rhetoric. Today, the Democratic Party has two very distinct paths ahead of it. It can either blame everyone else as racist, embrace war criminals like Dick Cheney, and hold loaded primaries, thereby ensuring a repeat of this election’s failures in the future. Or, the Democratic Party can look inwardly and actually listen to its base and future—young voters, Black voters, Asian and Muslim voters, and Latino voters—and ensure success on the local, state, and federal level for a generation or more.

Qasim Rashid is 100% correct about what went wrong for the Democratic Party in the wake of Tuesday’s loss, and there were multiple factors that played into it: the global anti-incumbency trend, mainstream media’s sanewashing of Donald Trump, racist and sexist prejudice against a Black and South Asian woman leading the nation, Joe Biden’s decision to run for re-election, too much deference to protecting Israel at all costs, and alienating the base by lurching too much towards the center-right.

As for Kamala Harris herself, she help saved the Democrats from an even worse loss. While it was a short-term loss, it was a medium-to-long term win that keeps them alive.

[dreary0pals]

Some brands that I like to look at for cute pieces ✧･ﾟ:

I consistently look on second hand sites like Vinted 【I primarily use this but you could find similar on Depop or Poshmark probably】

Monsoon

Next 【labels before 2020】

New Look 【labels before 2012】

Jane Norman

Per Una

M&S Collection

Etam

Coast

Jigsaw

Ghost

Miso

Bhs

Hissy Fit

KOOKAÏ

Phaze

Morgan de toi

La Senza

Victoria’s Secret

Secret possessions

Intimissimi

Principles

COW

Pimkie

Kaliko

Jordash

Pilot

Images

【All the images pieces above were found on vinted or items in my wardrobe】

Where I got the crochet star bag

[tiffanys-aus-and-headcanons]

I'm really curious about where exactly Doctor Who & spinoffs fit in to the 'scrambled universe' framework

So it's 2012. After a series of mental health events, Dan Harmon is on the rocks with his sitcom The Big Bang Theory, and is looking for a new project to do. He decides to call up his old friend Justin Roiland, who he met almost a decade earlier running Channel 101, and asks if he has any ideas for a cartoon. Roiland decides to file the serial numbers off of his old shock comedy short Miss Wonka, and the result is Adult Swim's Ms. Frizzle. Dan Harmon brings the systematic approach to story structure he honed working on The Big Bang Theory to elevate the project to something with some actual redeeming value someone could care about. The show premieres the next year, in 2013. It is acclaimed and beloved, and for a brief and golden moment in history it isn't even considered cringe.

It's 2018. Year after year, season after season, Harmon's people have edged out Roiland's people in the Ms. Frizzle writing room. Roiland has grown bored and disruptive; the show's staff only really see him anymore when he comes in to record the voices, or when he decides to play some inscrutable Epic Funny LOL Prank on them and waste their time. Meanwhile, Disney's main streaming platform, Hulu, is looking for exclusives that might draw people to subscribe, in a streaming environment that's quickly and unsustainably growing bloated. They have an easy time convincing Roiland to divert his attention to a second project. Roiland announces Dr. Who in an interview; it's the first Dan Harmon has ever heard of it. Mike McMahan (also getting picked up around this time by CBS All Access to do There And Back Again: Gollum) is the cocreator this time. Roiland has learned various bad habits while stagnating on Ms. Frizzle, so he won't put much effort into Dr. Who either, but he will at least get it going.

It's 2020. Granted a sort of captive audience by the recently-started coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Who premieres on Hulu. At a glance, it's a low-effort off-brand version of Ms. Frizzle; Roiland isn't even bothering to do a girl voice this time. If given a deeper look, there is something worthwhile there. It's a riff on an old subgenre of soft sci-fi TV, the idea of an immortal celestial time guardian figure - you see it in the BBC's long-running Quantum Leap, in Constance M. Burge's A Wrinkle In Time, and there are even elements of it in Ms. Frizzle, though they're much more concentrated in Dr. Who. The show is very episodic, though there are more serialized subplots and hints of a deeper-running plot; like Ms. Frizzle, the show is full of undisguised references to other media.

It's 2023. A legal case in which Roiland is accused of domestic abuse becomes widely publicized, followed by the dissemination of various inappropriate text messages he had apparently sent to fans. It becomes common knowledge that Roiland is a nightmare to work with, and every single project he's involved with drops him nearly simultaneously as a brand liability, even the video game development studio he founded to make Gone Home.

Every unaired project on which Roiland was set to do a voice comes up with a different strategy to replace him. Science Time: Rita & Morticia hires a new up-and-coming voice actor to play assorted versions of King Tommy, without comment. Season 7 of Ms. Frizzle replaces Roiland with Jinkx Monsoon; it's a very noticeable change, but she's still basically playing the same character, she's just doing a better job.

Dr. Who is the lesser-known knockoff living in Ms. Frizzle's shadow, so it has less to lose; it decides to make a meta joke out of the whole thing, and whips up a new sketch to start off season 4, in which the Doctor trips, falls down the stairs, and dies in front of his companion Rose Tyler. We are thereby introduced to the just-invented openly-bullshit process of "regeneration", in which the Doctor can come to the brink of death but dramatically cheat it, with the only consequence being that he'll now look and/or sound like a different guy. So, as of the opening scene of season 4, the Doctor is now voiced by Dan Stevens.

And that's how the Doctor on Dr. Who became British.

[julionasurbonas]

I tried mountain dew infinite swirl recently, which marks my 56th mountain dew flavor

so far I have had Regular Atomic Blue Baja Caribbean Splash Baja Deep Dive Baja Flash Baja Gold Baja Laguna Lemonade Baja Mango Gem Baja Passionfruit Punch Baja Point Break Punch Baja Punch Berry Monsoon Black Label Blue Shock Cake Smash Cyclone DEW-S-A Extreme Pomegranate Flamin’ Hot (Both Versions) Fruit Quake Gingerbread Snap’d Merry Mash Up Pitch Black Southern Shock Supernova Thrashed Apple Typhoon Uproar Violet VooDew (2019) VooDew (2020) VooDew (2021) VooDew (2022) VooDew (2023) Baja Blast Code Red Dark Berry Bash Electric Apple Freedom Fusion Frost Bite Goji Citrus Strawberry Infinite Swirl Legend Liberty Chill LiveWire Major Melon Maui Burst Overdrive Passionfruit Frenzy Purple Thunder Spark Star Spangled Splash Summer Freeze Sweet Lightning Vibe Voltage

[swellbloom-kids]

How Kagepro influenced Swellboom Kids

I had gotten into Kagerou Project in early 2020 - around the same time I started conceptualizing Swellbloom Kids. Kagepro is a huge inspiration, and it'd be a disservice not to acknowledge the influence it's had on me and my work.

Let’s start with the obvious: one of the major deities in Swellbloom Kids is the Heat Haze Boy, named after the Heat Haze Daze of Kagepro. The Boy is the summer personified, El Niño, he who appears when the air shimmers as a mirage. The droning cicadas proclaim his gospel. He is one of the Twin Forces governing the universe alongside his sister The Monsoon Girl. A lot of the Boy’s imagery as a god of summer was inspired by Kagepro - cicadas, the color red, the mirage motifs.

Going into a deeper example, the thesis of Swellbloom Kids is something greatly influenced by Kagepro which tackles how trauma and hardships affect people. This Reddit post about Kagepro’s disability representation was the last piece of the puzzle in my head. It made me realize I wanted to write a story about disability, about neurodivergence, about admitting that yes, life can be hard sometimes, but you have a choice to ultimately move forward.

Duality is a big theme in Swellbloom Kids, given that it’s a ttrpg about superpowered bipolar people. The push and pull of the Heat Haze Boy and the Monsoon Girl are what lead to the eponymous swellbloom kids’ mood swings, but are what also cause them to develop superpowers. I’ve always found the Disability Superpower trope compelling, as well as the concept of an “ADHDvantage”. Speaking personally as a bipolar person, my upswings really help me get in a creatively productive mood.

Swellbloom Kids is a love letter to Philippine history, but it’s also my way of expressing my worldview. 

[htr2a]

climate change blackpill megapost

there are several climate tipping points identified in the united nations intergovernmental panel on climate change sixth assessment report (chapter 3, specifically). tipping points refer to critical thresholds in a system that, when exceeded, can lead to a significant change in the state of the system, often with an understanding that the change is irreversible. they are:

the greenland ice sheet

the west antarctic ice sheet

the atlantic meridional overturning current

monsoon systems

el niño-southern oscillation

tropical rainforests

northern boreal forests

thawing permafrost

extreme heat

current (2022) global warming of ~1.1°C above preindustrial temperatures already lies within the lower end of some tipping point uncertainty ranges. several tipping points may be triggered in the paris agreement range of 1.5 to <2°C global warming, with many more likely at the 2 to 3°C of warming expected on current policy trajectories.

greenland's ice sheet is in disequilibrium and we are committed to 2-3 meters of sea level rise from its melt alone in the next 200 years.

greenland's ice sheets have been melting twice as fast in the last twenty years as they were during the previous century.

rapid increase in the rate of melting of the west antarctic ice sheet is unavoidable.

the west antarctic ice sheet is retreating twice as fast as previously predicted

because of widespread seawater intrusion beneath the grounded ice of the thwaites glacier.

the west antarctic ice sheet will raise sea levels by four meters when it melts.

this is causing the atlantic meridional overturning current to collapse.

the gulf stream (aka amoc) is weakening. 99% confidence. measured volume through the florida straits has declined by 4% in the past 40 years

the gulf stream will collapse between 2025 and 2095. 95% confidence.

the north atlantic is four standard deviations above its historic temperatures.

when the amoc collapses, the arctic sea-ice pack will extend down to 50°n. the vast expansion of the northern hemispheric sea-ice pack amplifies further northern hemispheric cooling via the ice-albedo feedback.

a collapse of the atlantic meridional overturning circulation would have substantial impacts on global precipitation patterns, especially in the vulnerable tropical monsoon regions in west africa, east asia, and india where they will experience shorter wet seasons and longer dry seasons with an overall decrease in precipitation

although recent studies indicate that the amazon will experience net benefit from the collapse of the amoc with cooler temperatures and increased rainfall

increased el niño intensity will increase the frequency and severity of droughts in the amazon rainforest.

even if we were able to stabilize global mean temperature at 1.5º C, el niño intensity will continue to increase for a century

and the amazon rainforest is currently in the worst drought on record, which may indicate it has passed its threshold to maintain its own wet climate.

while widespread and persistent warming of permafrost has been observed in polar regions and at high elevations since about 1980, the highest permafrost temperatures in the instrumental record were recorded in 2018–2019 (data from 2019-2020)

as of 2019 the southern extent of permafrost had receded northwards by 30 to 80km

soil fires in the canadian arctic are burning the peat underground and melting the permafrost. stat from the study 70% of recorded area of arctic peat affected by burning over the past forty years has occurred in the last eight and 30% of it was in 2020 alone.

nasa finds that tundra releases plumes of methane in the wake of wildfires.

in 2023 eight times more land burned in canada than average.

russian siberia experienced a similarly massive fire season in 2021.

a methane source we weren’t expecting was warmer, wetter conditions to increase organic decomposition in tropical wetlands which is releasing ever increasing amounts of methane.

we have been experiencing exponential rise in atmospheric methane since 2006. historical data indicates that we may have entered into an ice age termination event fueled by these methane releases.

we have been over 1.5º C above pre-industrial temperatures since the beginning of 2023.

this may be because of the extreme el niño conditions of the 2023-24 cycle, but breaches of 1.5°C for a month or a year are early signs of getting perilously close to exceeding the long-term limit

and the world meteorological organization expects us to permanently break 1.5º C of warming from pre-industrial levels within the next five years.

the united nations environmental programme (unep) emissions gap report found that current fossil fuel extraction commitments leave no credible path to keeping warming below 1.5º C. based on current policies we will experience 2.8ºC of warming by 2100. even if all current pledges were implemented and followed through with (which they never have been), we will only be able to limit that to 2.4-2.6ºC of warming.

[veryqueermovies]

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Here is a short list of Queer Asian films to watch all year long!

Funeral Parade of Rose (1969)

Farewell My Concubine (1993)

The Wedding Banquet (1993)

Fire (1996)

Happy Together (1997)

Intimates (1997)

Drift (2000)

Lan Yu (2001)

Blue Gate Crossing (2002)

Tokyo Godfathers (2003)

The Gathering (2003)

Tropical Malady (2004)

Ethan Mao (2004)

Saving Face (2004)

I Don't Want To Sleep Alone (2006)

The World Unseen (2007)

Love of Siam (2007)

Drifting Flowers (2008)

Just Friends? (2009)

Yes Or No (2010)

Muli (2010)

The Dance of Two Left Feet (2011)

Two Weddings and a Funeral (2012)

Night Flight (2014)

Loev (2015)

Front Cover (2015)

Naanu Avanalla…Avalu (I Am Not A He…I Am A She) (2015)

Our Love Story (2016)

The Handmaiden (2016)

Spa Night (2016)

Die Beautiful (2016)

Fathers (2016)

A Bride For Rip Van Winkle (2016)

Taste Of Betel Nut (2017)

Present Perfect (2017)

Close-Knit (2017)

Malila, The Farewell Flower (2017) 

Billie & Emma (2018)

Fish Bones (2018)

Dead Ex (2018)

Our Body (2018)

Song Lang (2018)

Rainbow’s Sunset (2018)

Twilight's Kiss (2019)

How I Felt When I Saw That Girl (2019)

Goodbye Mother (2019)

Moonlit Winter (2019)

Monsoon (2019)

Super Deluxe (2019)

The Half Of It (2020)

Your Name Engraved Herein (2020)

I Told Sunset About You (2020)

A Distant Place (2020)

Midnight Swan (2020)

Wish You (2021)

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Joyland (2022)

Cobalt Blue (2022)

[ningauinerd]

Everyone knows and loves thorny devils (Moloch horridus), spines and all, but I think most people are unaware of their peculiar and highly elusive sister species, the chameleon dragon (Chelosania brunnea).

(Image credit: The Reptile Database)

Named after their laterally compressed body, extendable dewlap and funnel-like eyes that give them some resemblance to the true chameleons of Afro-Eurasia, the chameleon dragon occurs widely in the monsoonal savanna woodlands of northern Australia in the Kimberley and Top End (as well as a tiny part of north-western Queensland). They are quite rarely observed and little is currently known about their ecology or behaviour, but this is likely due to their highly arboreal nature and they may actually be more common than records suggest.

At first glace, the chameleon dragon doesn't share a great deal of resemblance to the thorny devil, but some similarities begin to appear on closer examination. One of the most obvious links is their diet - thorny devils are well known for being specialised for feeding on small black ants, and the chameleon dragon, despite its drastically different appearance and lifestyle, appears to have a similar diet. While a lot less is known about the diet of chameleon dragons, they may also be ant specialists and have been recorded feeding on green ants (Oecophylla smaragdina), a species that is particularly common in the treetops they inhabit.

(Image credit: Colin Trainor & Gunter Maywald)

As a matter of fact, genetics indicate that the thorny devil and chameleon dragon are not only each other's closest living relatives, but also that they form their own distinct clade amongst Australian dryland agamids. The majority of Australian dragons are part of a single evolutionary radiation that diversified as the continent began to dry out in the mid-Miocene, with most exceptions being basal wet forest genera like forest dragons (Lophosaurus) and the Australian water dragon (Intellagama lesueurii). However, the thorny devil and chameleon dragon appear to be the only living members of a more ancient, basal agamid lineage that colonised dry environments independently of the recent large radiation.

As a testament to how much we still have to learn about this fascinating species, it was only in 2020 that a study (linked in the image credit below) found significant sexual dimorphism in regards to colour in chameleon dragons, with males being grey while females are yellow. This same study also published the first evidence of the species using tree hollows and the nests of arboreal termites as shelter sites. Due to the lack of data they are currently considered Data Deficient by the IUCN, but they may be threatened by altered fire regimes and feral cats.

Males above, females below (Image credit: Laive & Jolly 2020)

Gonna be posting infodumps like this on Australian/Oceanian species I feel compelled to share fun facts on for whatever reason