Well This Sure Hit Me Like A Ton Of Bricks

Hey remember when both TNG and DS9 had multiple episodes about how even if you've been at war with people for decades they're never a monolith and should not be indiscriminately hated and killed

Just a thought

The Middle Rodentocene: 10 million years post-establishment

Canopy Critters: Arboreal Hamsters of the Middle Rodentocene

The Middle Rodentocene has seen massive explosions in hamster diversity, as various species adapted to take advantage of the banquet of different resources available to them in a mostly-vacant planet. And so, with most of the niches on the ground filled one way or another, the hamsters turned to the much un-exploited resources up above: the trees.

A veritable smorgasbord of seeds, nuts, leaves, fruit, bark and various invertebrates, there was more than enough reason for the hamsters to head skyward into the treetops to feast on the abundance. A tree-dwelling life favored those with more flexible paws for gripping, more agile reflexes, and long tails for aiding in balance, and 10 million years PE, the race to the treetops brought about the evolution of a diverse family: the Arbocricetimorpha, a family comprised of the squizzels and spunkmunks (Arbocricetidae) and the kiterats (Volaticricetidae).

The squizzels are among the most diverse forms around in the treetops, occupying virtually any biome possessing trees, such as tropical jungles, temperate forest, and even in the snowy tundras, where some species, such as the snowy ground squizzel (Pilosocaudamys arcticua) nest in the few sparse conifer trees that thrive in the chilly plains, but forage for food mostly on the ground, retreating to the trees only to sleep or to flee from ground-dwelling predators.

Squizzels are omnivores, feeding on a wide variety of food, with the long-nosed squizzels (Ardillacricetus spp.) being noteworthy for their more insectivorous diet, but nuts and other hard-shelled seeds are a particular favorite of the majority, with them storing nuts in holes gnawed into trees as larders for later meals. Many squizzels are gregarious creatures that store enormous hoards of seeds and nuts from the work of at least a dozen related individuals: benefitting them all in particularly cold climates as it improves the chances of survival of them working together as opposed to just hoarding seeds on their own.

But while most other squizzels are sociable, docile creatures that nest in small family groups, one small subclass, the spunkmunks, are notable for their vastly different temperament: highly aggressive and territorial, they are far more solitary than their gregarious peers, and thus defend themselves from predation not by cooperation or advantage in numbers, but simply by being absurdly vicious for their size. In fact, many species are rather poorly camouflaged: conversely, they have bright warning coloration contrasting light, dark, and warm colors easily seen by diurnal predators-- instead of hiding from their enemies, they outright advertise themselves as something not to be trifled with.

One such notable species is the rocking punkmunk (Rufomelanomys thanatometallicum), distinctive for its pronounced sexual dimorphism: females are a drab shade of brown, and are somewhat more tolerant of other females nesting in the same tree, though not as gregarious as other squizzels are. Male punkmunks, however, are fiercely defensive of their territories and the females their range overlaps with, engaging any other male on sight, and try to intimidate rivals with an exuberant display. They erect a crest-like mane of brilliant orange hair running along their backs, stand on their hind legs, and bare their teeth while making unearthly high-pitched screams to attempt to scare off their rival. This display is their first and final warning: if neither competitor backs down, it quickly escalates into a violent struggle that very frequently results in a messy end for the weaker of the two parties, as their sharp teeth, fast reflexes, and ferocious tenacity can lead to bloody wounds, severed paws, gouged eyes, or even outright evisceration-- and subsequent consumption of the loser by the victor.

Meanwhile, on a separate branch of the family tree from both their gregarious, cooperative cousins and their aggressively-antisocial ones are the kiterats (family Volaticricetidae), a lineage more commonly found in the forest grasslands: areas where small, dense bunches of trees are spread unevenly across thick grassland. With trees being too far away from each other to simply jump too, and the multitude of dangers lurking in the tall grass below, the kiterats instead opt to take to the air: converging heavily on a wide array of unrelated gliding mammals found on Earth.

Kiterats posses stretchy membranes of skin between their wrists and ankles, acting as gliding surfaces as they leap from one tree to another. Flat, feather-like tails act as rudders to change direction and control their descent, and with a good tailwind can easily travel up to 100 feet in a single glide. This enables them to travel quickly and efficiently across the sparse canopy, searching for food, escaping enemies, and tracking down mates as they journey across the treetops.

But of notable interest is one highly unusual kiterat that stands out among the twenty or so species in the Middle Rodentocene: the flittering jazzhand (Protopteramys razzli), the only member of its genus. Its divergence is evident from its broad, webbed hands, which specialized to catch flying insects midair --indeed, it differs from most other omnivorous kiterats by its almost-obligate insectivory-- which it grabs midair with a downstroke clap of its arms. However, these webbed hands serve more than to just act as bug-catching nets: they also increase the jazzhand's gliding surface in order to traverse longer distances than its solely-patagium-based cousins. They are also known to twitch their webbed hands mid-glide in order to gain lift and prolong their glides, and coupled with their insect-seizing clapping motion, would gradually give rise to a stronger flapping downstroke- the beginning of powered flight.

The Arbocricetimorpha, however, are not alone in the trees. A completely separate lineage, the bossums (family Didelphocricetidae) have also colonized the trees at this point. More closely related to the fearrets than they are to the other tree-dwellers of the era, the bossums thrive primarily as arboreal insectivores in dense, tropical jungle.

With grasping paws bearing semi-opposable thumbs and long, flexible tails, the bossums are highly agile and acrobatic in the trees. Most species simply use their tails as counterbalances, as well as tufted flags for signaling, though one species, the speckled bossum (Didelphocricetus variegata), has adapted its tail into a surprisingly-prehensile grasping organ, acting almost as a fifth limb while it clambers about in the treetops.

Most bossums feed mostly on insects, and many species which ambush pollinators among flowers and fruit have taken a liking to the flowers and fruit themselves. However, one genus, Dirodidelphis, has turned its attention from simply bugs and berries, toward another equally-abundant food source in the treetops: other arboreal rodents. The largest species, the tiger bossum (Dirodidelphis pantheri), is roughly the size of a small house cat and is the apex predator of the treetops as of the Middle Rodentocene, hunting squizzels, kiterats and even smaller bossum species as well. Agile in the treetops and able to scale vertical branches and leap from tree-to-tree in a manner akin to the Madagascan fossa of Earth, this canopy carnivore is well-suited for a high-living life, also managing to avoid competition with its distant cousins, the fearrats, which hunt prey on the forest floor and seldom if ever ascend to the trees.

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Some white goy: Your Ashkenazi family aren't from the Middle Ea--

Me: I literally can eat za'atar for breakfast. You don't even know what that is. I can eat whole peppercorns for snacks. CUMIN FLOWS IN MY VEINS

Carolina Wren II

oil on panel // patreon, store

About 7,000 years ago, a vast lake spread hundreds of square kilometers across north-central Africa. Known to scientists as Lake Mega Chad, it covered more than 400,000 square kilometers (150,000 square miles) at its peak, making it slightly larger than the Caspian Sea, the biggest lake on Earth today. 

open family and abuse

Guys, please be aware that there are some people in the consanguinamory community or on incest forums who might throw around words like “open family” as code for abusive behaviours involving the abuse of minors. Grooming is abuse. The concept of “open family” often implies grooming, whether these people admit it or not. This topic needs to be addressed sometime more properly, but for now, please be aware. Open family is a code word used by these very sick individuals, just like the term “MAP”.

Consanguinamory allies do not support grooming.

I know this is such a doomer kind of attitude but I genuinely cannot stand it when people go around talking about the ‘silent majority’ when it comes to Jew hatred. There’s two main problems I have with this statement

— Sure, these people might support Jews now, but it’s probably safe to say the majority of people in the world have deeply ingrained biases against Jews. Those biases are easily exploited, easily brought out, and easily radicalised into rabid hatred. See: large swaths of leftist spaces, who honestly seemed like sleeper agents with how fast they openly admitted raping Jews is a moral thing. There’s also the issue of a lot of these silent majority people not supporting Hamas or believing in the Aryan race or thinking that Jews have no culture and we’re just stealing it from everyone else, but still tolerating those ideas being held in other people— it shows that these people neither understand nor care about the gravity of these views, which then makes those precious biases much, much easier to show

and

— The entire point of the silent majority is that they are silent. Sure, they might chat with their Jewish friends about how bad things are, they might express sympathy in private, things like that. But when push comes to shove, when Jews are being actively murdered wide scale, they don’t show up. They leave us in the dirt. They watch quietly as the Gestappo drags their neighbours away. They look away politely as their Dhimmi shopkeeper is beaten in the street for walking on the wrong side of the pavement. They close their blinds when their friend is tied to the stake and burned alive

I know it’s comforting to think of this vague concept of the silent majority, but it’s not actually reality. I know it sucks feeling like you need to have your guard up all the time (and you don’t, just be careful), it’s going to suck a whole lot more if you put yourself into a false sense of security. The silent majority are not our friends. The silent majority are not there for us. The silent majority don’t care. We can’t just live in a nebulous idea of people who quietly tut to themselves whenever they see someone saying ‘glory to the resistance’ or ‘Jews are trying to taint the Aryan race’, we need to focus on the tangible reality, and the people who are actually present

I think this is also why I, and so many other Jews, absolutely love non-Jewish allies. There’s something so indescribably amazing to see people in this world that’s been so horrible to us standing up for us, listening to us, helping us. Allies go through a lot of shit from others because they care about us, I’ve seen it so much— they’ll get vicious hate for just associating with Jews. And they still do it. They still stick with us. Because they care, and it’s just so wonderful

Spread the love to non-Jewish allies, you are so amazing. And to the silent majority, I hope you can become the help that we desperately need

@frislander

@ayeleshia

l gave words of support and likes to those who are affected by the conflict.

Based on this, Tumblr has decided I'm interested in Hamas apologia.