Anisomorpha - Wiems

more bugs more drinking

Scanning electron microscopy is awesome and I personally think the images it produces are gorgeous but objectively speaking I feel like it doesn't do any favors at all for the "scary" cultural image of insects, because I mean, here's a closeup of a carpet beetle in its true colors:

And here's an SEM image that comes up for carpet beetles on google:

And the thing about SEM images is that they aren't "photographs;" they are computer scans. They're 3-d digital models generated by scanning an object at the molecular level. Color is not preserved by this process, and if it were all the specimens would look like metal anyway (I'll explain this is in a moment), so images like this had to be colored artificially. This isn't done to recreate the true colors, but to make different body parts more visible as study material, resulting in scientific images of wacky blueberry fleas:

The subtly varying transparency levels of living tissues are completely lost as well, which is why the fine hairs of insects stand out more like cactus thorns in SEM imagery, and tardigrades look like opaque leathery things with no eyes:

...Even though a tardigrade actually has eyes, they're just under the surface of a crystal clear exoskeleton:

Another thing that probably contributes to the uncanniness of SEM images is also the fact that they can only show us embalmed corpses encased in liquid metal.

It's not possible to do this fine level of scanning "instantaneously" enough for it to work on anything that's still moving, so even when you see scanning electron images of animals in various lifelike poses, it's because they're preserved specimens that were carefully positioned, or they were live specimens basically "flash frozen" by a sudden dehydration process, mummified so fast they never knew it. Many specimens are then "sputter coated," meaning they're sprayed with a thin (like microns thin) layer of liquid gold, platinum or other fine metal in order for the electrons to perfectly bounce off of every subatomic detail and produce that perfect scan. So this is a live fruit fly:

And this is a fruit fly mummy with probably some sort of chrome plating:

So--long story short, a FedEx driver killed a rattlesnake that happened to be on someone's porch, not causing any immediate problems. This is an all too common practice here in the United States, where a significant portion of the population has the backwards idea that "the only good snake is a dead snake" and that the only way to deal with a venomous snake in the proximity of a house, or people in general, is to kill it. Never mind that snakes tend to move on if left alone, and that there are numerous entities that can be contacted to move the snake safely to another place if so desired, and that most bites occur when someone is harassing, handling, or trying to kill the snake.

Dr. Emily Taylor of California Polytechnic State University (@snakeymama on Twitter) has requested that people contact FedEx about their recent commercial glorifying the killing of the snake, which you can view here. I've included both her and my letters to the appropriate folks at FedEx. There are options for both email and snail mail correspondence, and the more people FedEx hears from about this appalling matter, the better.

It's 2024, almost 2025. We have tons of information on rattlesnake behavior and best practices in coexisting with them (to include training your dogs in snake avoidance). We know plenty about the importance they have in local ecosystems, and the devastation that has been done through people slaughtering them, sometimes in the thousands (I wrote about the ongoing problem of rattlesnake roundups and their inherent cruelty here.) There are multiple rattlesnake species that are endangered or otherwise threatened with extinction.

The vast majority of encounters with venomous snakes are benign, and the vast majority of bites come from someone (person, dog, etc.) confronting the snake that was just trying to defend itself. We've spent a lot of time in this country defaulting to killing anything that inconveniences us, but there are better ways to live safely in proximity to wildlife that don't involve violence. It just takes a little more effort and awareness, and most importantly a significant attitude change that no longer vilifies native wildlife simply trying to live their lives.

As Dr. Taylor mentioned, if you want to contact FedEx, here are your options:

"You can help by reposting this or by emailing to express your concern about the commercial: mediarelations@fedex.com and to the CEO at FWSmith@fedex.com. Or send letters to: Fred Smith, CEO Brie Carere, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Ryan Kelly, Vice President of Marketing FedEx Corporation 942 South Shady Grove Road Memphis, TN 38120 USA"

:O

i don’t like how endings in real life come on so suddenly without making sense, without much warning. one minute you’re in the middle of something and the next it’s all a very long time ago and you’re a different person and none of it is ever coming back

they love apple more than god

words cannot sum up my love for neil shubin

weird question, vibes based

shooo

macarons are deeply fascinating to me. it’s such a precise science with so many highly sensitive variables. all to create a pastry that isnt that good