about a year ago i read that capybaras can briefly run as fast as horses and no revelation since has shaken me as much. i can’t get rid of the thought of the world’s largest rodent barreling at you at the speed of a horse. it’s so sinister
Ok this is cute but this octopus is living in a brick…
Stop polluting our oceans
This brick probably is just junk but it’s worth noting that sometimes “pollution” seen in footage like this isn’t actually garbage. There’s a lot of organizations that take old cars, ships, etc and strip all the paint and other harmful components and then place it in the bottom of the sea for new coral reefs to grow on. Besides that there will unfortunately always be pollution and I would rather it be a brick an octopus can make a home from than plastic bags that sea creatures will die from eating.
Artificial reefs are pretty cool!
They’re often used to provide habitats for corals, fish, and other marine life where the natural ocean floor has been eroded or disturbed by human use. They can be purpose-made like those reef balls up there, or they can be made out of recycled objects like cinderblocks.
While not all human-made materials are safe for reef use (tires used to be a popular choice, but then it was discovered that not only do they not stay put, they tend to leech toxins), sometimes marine life doesn’t actually care- they adapt to what we put in the water. A good example of that is the Rigs-to-Reef program, which takes offshore oil platforms and decommissions them by turning them into artificial reefs. While oil platforms are in use, sea life congregates around them, so instead of abandoning these platforms or removing them, which would disrupt what has become the “new normal” for these animals, they’re toppled and coral grows on them.
Anyways, I realize that I’ve totally derailed the awesome octopus and its teddy bear, but I just think that artificial reefs are neat!
There are some misleading headlines/tweets/general phrasings going around right now about the Republican healthcare bill. It passed the house of representatives, but it is not law. Currently Obamacare is still the law of the land. There are several more hurdles this bill would have to clear in order to be signed into law, many of which are looking unlikely. The Senate has already made a statement that they will not be voting on the House bill. That doesn’t mean we can rest easy, but it does mean that your healthcare is still safe for right now if you have Obamacare. I’m really glad everyone is staying informed and reading the news, but some of these headlines are scaring people and making them think that PP is now defunded and Obamacare is gone. The House voting to defund is different from defunding passing and becoming law.
Never think for one moment that the evil the GOP House has pushed forward today with the apocalyptic AHCA* is the worst they can do.
The GOP has declared war on the American people. They have made it clear they intend to steal every penny they can from us, use us, leave us to die in pain while keeping everything for themselves. They have made that nakedly clear, literally writing in exemptions for themselves from their own bill so THEY get to keep all the protections they strip from us, turning virtually everything into a “pre-existing condition” that can strip you of the insurance that will skyrocket in costs to get in the first place, and gloat and laugh and ship in beers (at our expense) to celebrate sentencing millions to die.
These unconscionable monsters absolutely will do worse if allowed. They’re prepping for a dictatorship.
Never, ever stop being angry.
* - In some minor good news, the AHCA is not law yet. Supposedly Congress isn’t even voting on that bill, as the GOP there are drafting a different healthcare bill, presumably in an effort to save their skins given the backlash. But they are not off the hook even remotely, and you should never, EVER stop being furious at what the “pro-life” GOP have done today.
So you know those news stories about how Millennials don’t buy enough breakfast cereal or paperback books or homes or whatever the hell that Boomers are complaining that “kids these days” don’t spend money on? And y’all are like “LOL, no cash my pal”?
I think there’s something more insidious going on. You see, they thought they had you. Forget the Saturday morning cartoons of my childhood, they had Disney Channel and Nickelodeon feeding you ads all day long. Your generation got advertising in your schools. Your parents took you to prosperity doctrine spewing MegaChurches (it’s Mega so it’s gotta impress the kids, right?).
They thought you were going to be their generation of super-consumers.
You are generations distant from the great depression, and the 1979 energy crisis. Boomers want to pretend that the 2008 housing bubble wouldn’t affect the little kids. And plus, we had grown past the era of Yankee thrift and hippie DIY frugality. Right? And there was no mopey Kurt Cobain glamorizing thrift-store flannel shirts. You guys were going to out-consume the Boomer generation. They were sure of it.
Those think pieces? They’re Boomer disappointment that you have found value in something other than your place as a mindless consumer.
And yeah, I’m not going to pretend that y’all have more cash than you do. It was fucking idiotic to think they were going to raise a consumer generation without having to pay them the money they would need to buy even life’s necessities. And I could write a book about how my generation was complicit in destroying the old values around work and loyalty that left your generation screwed. Really, I’m genuinely sorry for the mistakes we made.
But you guys have given a big middle finger to the generation who thought that they could manipulate you from birth into manipulable-money-spending-machines. And I’m way fucking proud of you for that.
davenport: chillin on the beach with some wine after a stressful twenty years of searching for the light of creation and fighting off the hunger over and over again :)
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
