I Mad Agree With This.

Today is Denim Day, one of the last days of April which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Denim Day is a movement to show solidarity to the survivors of sexual assault. I'm taking a stand, well more sitting in this photo, for other survivors like myself. It may not seem like a rebellious act, putting on a pair of jeans, but it is. The young woman's abuser was set free after the conviction because "her jeans were too tight to be removed without help implying consent". Telling her story, being seen, and holding people accountable for their actions are steps towards ending assault culture. #denimday https://www.instagram.com/p/B_lTRl8D5fAm4PGvGRXIGtrad731ZEF8VrKTqw0/?igshid=s8v80iqwhyos

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Giant whale sharks have hundreds of tiny teeth-like structures around their eyes

https://sciencespies.com/nature/giant-whale-sharks-have-hundreds-of-tiny-teeth-like-structures-around-their-eyes/

Giant whale sharks have hundreds of tiny teeth-like structures around their eyes

Whale sharks, the majestic creatures that also happen to be the world’s largest fish, are far more gentle than the name suggests. They swim lazily around tropical waters, filter-feeding on plankton.

Now, biologists have discovered the enigmatic giants have a curious trick up their sleeve – teeth-like scales adorning their eyeballs. It appears to be the whale sharks’ version of eyelids, and one we haven’t seen in any other vertebrate.

“Eyeballs face a potential risk of damage from mechanical, chemical and biological hazards,” the researchers write in a new paper describing the find.

“This report elaborates on adaptations of the eyes of the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), including the discovery that they are covered with dermal denticles, which is a novel mechanism of eye protection in vertebrates.”

Dermal denticles, also known as placoid scales, are the tiny tough scales that cover sharks and rays. But although they are scales as we think of them, they’re also structurally very similar to teeth, and include an inner core of pulp, a middle layer of dentine or bony tissue, and a hard enamel-like coating on top.

We already knew that many sharks – including whale sharks – are covered with these denticles. However, finding them on the eyeballs of these fish is quite the surprise.

Eye denticles of the whale shark. (Tomita et al., PLOS One, 2020)

That’s partially because it’s long been assumed whale sharks don’t have to use their sense of sight much: their eyes are incredibly small compared to the rest of their body, and they don’t have a lot of midbrain, the part of the brain that processes vision.

“However, the highly protected features of the whale shark eye, in contrast to the traditional view, seems to suggest the importance of vision in this species,” the team argues in their study.

Researchers took a CT scanner to a preserved whale shark eyeball, as well as taking ultrasounds of two captive live whale sharks at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan.

3D rendering of the morphology of each eye denticle. (Tomita et al., PLOS One, 2020)

As well as discovering the eye denticles, the researchers also elaborated on the mechanisms whale sharks use to retract their eyes back into their head. Most of the time this can be for just a short period of time, however not always. Once, a particularly unfortunate shark ended up with its eyes retracted for 10 days after it was transferred to a new aquarium from Taiwan to Atlanta, Georgia.

“It is likely that whale sharks maintain their vision during eye retraction because the pupils of the whale sharks in this study were not completely covered with surrounding white tissues when their eyes had retracted, though their visual field would be much more restricted than when their eyes are positioned normally,” explain the researchers.

“In fact, the animal that kept its eyes retracted for approximately 10 days at the Georgia Aquarium appeared to have no problem navigating the exhibit space, until its eyes returned to their normal positions suddenly and, apparently, spontaneously.”

So, while whale sharks aren’t exactly a fearsome predator of the ocean, these two eye-protecting features are a fearsome competitor to… eyelids.

The research has been published in PLOS One.

#Nature

The Mother of all Masterlists

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Reading List

The Master Book of Herbalism, by Paul Beyerl

The Modern Guide to Witchcraft: Your Complete Guide to Witches, Covens, and Spells, by Skye Alexander

Out of the Broom Closet, by Arin Murphy-Hiscock

The Tree: The Complete Book of Saxon Witchcraft, by Raymond Buckland

A Witches’ Bible: The Complete Witches’ Handbook, by Janet & Stewart Farrar

The Herb Book, by John Lust

Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, by Nicolas Culpeper

Book of Magical Herbs, by Margaret Picton & Michelle Pickering

The Charge of the Goddess, by Doreen Valiente

Book of Pagan Prayer, by Ceisiwr Serith

The Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews, by Scott Cunningham

The Book of Stones, Revised Edition: Who They Are and What They Teach, by Robert Simmons & Naisha Ahsian

Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic, by Scott Cunningham

Supermarket Magic: Creating Spells, Brews, Potions & Powders from Everyday Ingredients, by Michael Furie

The Goodly Spellbook: Olde Spells for Modern Problems, by Lady Passion & Diuvei

Everyday Witchcraft: Making Time for Spirit in a Too-Busy World, by Deborah Blake

Wicca, by Harmony Nice

Norse Mythology, by Neil Gaiman

The Gospel of Loki, by Joanne M. Harris

The Occult, Witchcraft & Magic, by Christopher Dell

Wicca & Witchcraft For Dummies, by Diane Smith

Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs, by Scott Cunningham

Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem, and Metal Magic, by Scott Cunningham

The Green Witch, by Arin Murphy-Hiscock

The Witch’s Guide to Self-Care, by Arin Murphy-Hiscock

The Modern Guide to Witchcraft, by Skye Alexander

A Practical Guide to the Runes, by Lisa Peschel

Moon Spells, by Diane Ahlquist

Realms of The Earth Angels, by Doreen Virtue

The Black Arts, by Richard Cavendish

Wiccapedia, by Shawn Robbins and Leanna Greenaway

The Crystal Bible, by Judy Hall

Crystal Enlightenment, by Katrina Raphaell

Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece, Gustav, Schwab

The Pocket Book of Stones, by Robert Simmons

The Gods of Greece and Rome, by Talfourd Ely

Wicca Altar and Tools, by Lisa Chamberlain

Wicca Magical Deities, by Lisa Chamberlain

Wicca Crystal Magic, by Lisa Chamberlain

Wicca Wheel of The Year, by Lisa Chamberlain

Wicca Elemental Magic, by Lisa Chamberlain

already knew landlords were bastards but reading that landlord tell fuck knows how many people to sell their cars, spend all their retirement savings, borrow from friends and family, and pay their rent before they fucking FEED THEMSELVES because “it’s more important to have a roof over your head than buy groceries” and “your money goes to pay my mortgage” really hit differently this time ……im pretty sure the guillotine jokes are 99% jokes but bro if you’re going to extort money from people who cant work without risking them and their children’s lives and threaten them and their families with homelessness during a worldwide pandemic? you honestly can fuck around and find out

Oh worm.

deep sea bioluminescent worm

wanna hear a wild story? my brother’s history professor is closing in on 80 and basically lives at the university. one night my brother visited him for a meeting, and it came up that my brother was gonna be performing as a court jester at the castle the following day. and his professor busts out: “ah, that reminds me of my youth!”

he then proceeded to tell the tale of when he and his friends went backpacking to greece back in their early 20s. then one day they found themselves completely penniless. so they decided that the only reasonable thing to do was to set up acrobatic shows in skimpy outfits on the beach at day, and then drink up the money at night.

after a week or so they gained some traction, and a gang of young greek men walked up to them like “hey y’all are cool as hell, can we join y’all for drinks tonight?” and my brother’s professor was like “of course! y’all have to wear these revealing outfits and do somersaults with us tho” and the greek gang said “sounds dope. y’all are invited to live with us for however long y’all want.”

anyhow, they proceeded to live like this for the better part of 3 months, doing shows, drinking, and sleeping at the greek gang’s apartment. but after a while they decided enough was enough, and said thank you for everything, but we’re going back to sweden now. and the greeks said “sure! love y’all have a safe trip xx”

half a year later my brother’s professor gets contacted by the greek police. they ask him about the months they spent in greece, and then informs him that their greek friends have been convicted of serial homicide and robbery. that the group of young greek men had joined up with several tourist groups for several years “for drinks”, and then killed and robbed them all, terrorising the beach city for several years. with one exception, of course, because “this one group of swedish acrobats in slutty strongman suits were just ‘so damn nice’”.

and that’s the story of how one swedish history university professor survived sharing a flat with a group of serial killers for several months by performing acrobatics in slutty outfits on the beach. moral of the story? be kind of heart, thicc of ass.

sand dollars doin their thing

they’re basically sea roombas

I planted some saguaro seeds about a week ago. Who woukda thunk that such large lads start out so smol. (submitted @nolayelde)

this speaks for itself when paired with a pic of the grown plant for scale:

they usually live to be 150+ years old. cutting one down in Arizona, where they’re native, is a felony with a maximum 9 months in prison. 

in my brief wikipedia exploration to find out how old they could be for this ask i found out that there was a dude in 1982 who was vandalizing one (which is also highly illegal) by shooting at it and then poking at it, and not only did the 500 pound arm of the cactus he was shooting at fall on top of him, but the actual trunk of the cactus then also proceeded to fall on him. he died. smited by the cactus gods for his transgressions