Ornate Hawk Eagle (Spizaetus Ornatus), Family Accipitridae, Order Accipitriformes, Found In Central

Amynta Moth (Ceroctena amynta), family Erebidae, Costa Rica

photograph by Casey Owen

Is your favorite color violet? Then meet your new favorite animal: the Violet-backed Starling (Cinnyricinclus leucogaster)! It lives in open woodland and riverine habitats in parts of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. It mainly snacks on fruits and seeds, but will also munch on the occasional insect. Males can be seen sparkling in the Sun with their iridescent violet plumage on full display. Females have brown or olive green plumage. 

Photo: Timmcclurg, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

here is a fun little star wars scenario that has been pinging around inside my head like a screensaver:

so let’s say there’s some very zealous, very low-ranking fresh young Imperial officer on duty the day they take the Senator from Alderaan into custody. 

and he is very very nervous because a) he’s been here for like a week and b) none of that week required him to be in a room with Darth Vader. which he now is. so he is trying to focus very very hard on Doing Everything Exactly According To Protocol, as a means of not focusing on the seven-foot evil wizard standing fifteen feet away.

and part of the protocol for processing new prisoners is to make a new file for them in the prisoner database, and enter all their biographical details and vital statistics and a gene sample and their known associates and the nature of their terrible crimes against the Empire and so on. which he does! very meticulously!

except the computer keeps throwing an error message. the stupid thing keeps beeping at him, this awful grating little noise that makes his shoulders ratchet up tighter and tighter every time it honks at him, and he can’t fix it and Darth Vader is right over there—

except oh god oh fuck the beeping noise must be annoying Darth Vader, too, because he’s coming over here and our poor junior officer is convinced he’s going to die before he even lives long enough to send his first paycheck home to his poor widowed mother —

he stammers out an apology. Vader just stares at him. he swears he’ll figure out the problem right away, sir, it’s probably a bug in the system, it’s just that for some silly reason it keeps saying this gene sample doesn’t match the one on file for the Senator so he can’t get her logged as a new prisoner just yet —

“Dismissed,” says Vader. the poor kid flees, gratefully.

Vader considers the matter. in fact, his underling was correct: the gene sample, which he saw taken through his very own helmet lenses, does not match the official record of Senator Leia Organa, heir to the throne of Alderaan. so: perhaps the sample on record was falsified. not impossible, but very, very difficult. and ordinarily a crime attempted by the lowly and desperate. he cannot see any need for it, in the daughter of a queen.

another possibility presents itself. Alderaan has no history of using royal doubles, as some worlds do. but Bail Organa has worked closely with royal houses where the practice is long-established. perhaps he was inspired. perhaps the girl they captured is not Leia Organa at all.

Vader runs the gene sample against the ship’s database. it is woefully incomplete, of course, containing only a fraction of the Empire’s billions of citizens: the ship’s own complement, a selection of known criminals and Rebels they might encounter, high-ranking officials whose identity must be confirmed should the Emperor require their presence. unlikely that this girl, whoever she is, would have a record here, or even a partial match—

the computer beeps at him. it’s a cheerful beep, this time, not the error message that stymied the junior officer. the computer reports that the gene sample is a partial match for Pooja Naberrie, the Senator from Naboo. they are, with eighty-nine percent probability, first cousins.

and Vader just. kind of stands there. for a minute.

when he goes to Leia’s cell, there’s no interrogation droid with him. he goes in. he shuts the door behind him. he stands there, silent, for frankly a worryingly long time, until Leia has run through her entire stockpile of  “how dare you, I’m a member of the Senate on a humanitarian mission” and “whatever you want, you can’t possibly think I would be of any help” and “well, if you’re going to interrogate me, get on with it already” and “are you even listening to me?” and  falls silent herself. 

Vader has been listening to her. he has also been listening to the Force, which seems to think that she’s not lying. obviously the humanitarian mission part is bullshit, that goes without saying. but the “I’m Senator Leia Organa” parts and the “I won’t help you” parts? yeah. he searched his feelings. he knows them to be true. the Force is singing in his head, bright and clear, in a way it hasn’t for nearly twenty years.

there’s still Tarkin to deal with, though. Vader turns and leaves the cell without a word.

Tarkin wants to blow up Alderaan. this is unacceptable, obviously, and Vader forbids it on the grounds that the Queen and the Viceroy possess vital intelligence, not disclosed to their daughter, that must be acquired. said intelligence being, not that he’s saying this out loud, how the fuck Bail got his hands on his daughter, and who else knows about it.

“the fate of the galaxy rests on it,” is what he does say out loud. from the way the Force harmonizes with his words, that might even be true.

so the Death Star just. parks there. in an incredibly threatening orbit around the planet. they issue a demand that the Organas surrender themselves, or else, but apparently the happy couple just left for a low-tech weekend retreat in the mountains, what awful timing, they’re sending someone to fetch them right away. Vader shuts himself up in his quarters, to seethe and watch the surveillance feed from Leia’s cell. he’s not really paying attention to much else. 

and it’s not like a random freighter getting tractored in for being an incredibly obvious smuggling vessel is the kind of thing you’d alert Darth Vader over, anyway. 

so he’s still sitting there, one great big thought filling up his whole entire head, watching Leia take a frustration nap, when her cell door opens. 

and a trooper comes in.

and the trooper takes off his helmet.

and he says, “I’m Luke Skywalker. I’m here to rescue you.”

(continued here)

How Do I Disassemble A Spell Jar?

I’ve seen way too many posts about how to make one, but never any about how to take one apart.

If you buried your spell jar (or otherwise placed it somewhere not in your general vicinity), retrieve it first.

There are a few ways to go about disassembling a spell jar.

Throwing Everything Away

Returning It to Nature

Burning It

Putting It Into Another Container for Safekeeping

Retrieving the Reusable Ingredients (crystals, shells, etc.) and Getting Rid of the Rest

Throwing Everything Away

As simple as it sounds. I would recommend breaking the seal (melting it or even just stabbing it) before getting rid of it, to break the spell itself. Keep the jar and wash it or throw it away with the rest of it. Throw the contents into the trash (or a dumpster, if you don’t want it near you).

Returning It to Nature

Also very simple. Can only be used with natural ingredients. Do not dump in rivers. Retrieve any non-organic materials (crystals, shells, poppets, etc.) to either reuse or get rid of separately. Be sure it doesn’t include things that can harm the local wildlife.

Burning It

Empty the contents of the jar into a different, fire-safe bowl or plate. Then, burn it. Simple as that. Lighters or matches, it doesn’t matter. Be sure that you and any pets or family can’t inhale the fumes from it. This is usually used with spells that have little amounts of ingredients. Be sure to research fire safety and safety when it comes to burning herbs and other ingredients.

Putting It Into Another Container for Safekeeping

Transferring the contents into a different container. Usually done when you want to reuse the jar or size down the original jar. Break the seal, pour it into your other container, seal that, and you’re done. Super easy. Can also be used when putting a spell into a ‘dormant’ state.

Retrieving the Reusable Ingredients and Getting Rid of the Rest

What I see the most in the witch community. Reusable ingredients include crystals, shells, rocks, bones, and anything else that can be used again. Doing this is a bit harder when the jar has liquid. Break the seal and place the contents of the jar into another container. Then, pick out all of the reusable items, the ones that you want to keep. Wash them and dispose of the contents of the jar through one of the methods above.

Notes

When disassembling a spell jar, it’s always good to declare the intentions of the jar done (or dormant). If the spell could have negative consequences on your or someone else’s life, be sure to neutralize the energy you have put into the spell. Cast a counter-spell or just neutralize the spell. Please tell me if I missed anything!

Happy ides of march

please please someone make an asmr/ambience audio of like, sleeping in a mech cockpit and u can hear a gentle hum of the engine in standby mode and the muffled sounds of engineers working outside in the hangar

reblog & tag how old you were in 2006

reblog to bap prev with your paw

Favorite bird genre has got to be 'that's literally just a dinosaur'

Groove-Billed Ani

Hoatzin

Pheasant Coucal