(Bonus) Uncharismatic Fact Of The Day

Autumn in Northern Mongolia

Autumn arrived in a blaze of color in north-central Mongolia. The montane forests surrounding Lake Hövsgöl, the country’s largest lake by volume, took on golden hues in late September 2024, while high mountain ridges nearby sported a layer of bright white snow.

At an elevation of 1,645 meters (5,397 feet), Lake Hövsgöl (also known as Khuvsgul and Khövsgöl) sits at the foot of the eastern Sayan Mountains, near the border with Russia. Along with shrubs and grasslands, forests consisting primarily of Siberian larch (Larix sibirica) blanket the hills around the lake. Larches are deciduous conifer trees, meaning that they have cones and needles like conifers, but they change color and drop their needles in the fall like deciduous trees.

The result of this seasonal transformation was captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 on September 26 (above, right). For comparison, an image acquired about one month earlier by the OLI-2 on Landsat 9 (left) shows much greener vegetation.

Lake Hövsgöl, which has existed for over 2 million years, is one of the world’s ancient lakes. It measures approximately 137 kilometers (85 miles) from north to south and is an important water resource for Central Asia, holding about three-quarters of Mongolia’s freshwater. Researchers have described the lake as “near-pristine,” with minimal development in its watershed. Its waters are oligotrophic, or low in nutrients, and very clear. The only outlet from Lake Hövsgöl ultimately feeds into the much older and larger Lake Baikal, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the east.

Fall is a relatively short season in this part of northern Mongolia. Ice can start to form on Lake Hövsgöl as early as November and persist into June. Reaching thicknesses up to 1.5 meters (5 feet), the ice once supported truck routes across the lake. Driving on the ice has been prohibited for decades due to environmental concerns, and efforts are underway to retrieve vehicles that sank while attempting the crossing.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Lindsey Doermann.

Currently crying about Yoso-Tama-No-Kakehashi, a Japanese guidebook from the 1700s about raising rats. It's the first known rat guidebook in the world :)

They were raised as pets and for show animals, and it's mentioned in the guidebook that "one can call out and rats will come to hand". They were referred to as "nezumi" and it was considered important that they have large cages to live in. There was also a variety of rat that had a fox-like coat!

Rats were domesticated in Japan from the 1600s to the 1800s - it's unknown if any of those domesticated strains are ancestral to the current domestic rats today. They were domesticated again in Europe in the 1800s (initially for much crueler reasons than just for being pets) and I think it's just so sweet that we as humans fell in love with rats so much that we had to domesticate them at least TWICE...

You can download an article about the guidebook here. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/expanim/60/1/60_1_1/_pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwioidaLs5z6AhUojIkEHRI1BvEQFnoECAkQAg&usg=AOvVaw3aarTW0iy1HybCcrxtp4ww

finally colours a lineup for my bad kids designs !! my kids

heres them all individually also

everyone riding the train today got 250 xp after a level 32 dracula wandered onto the tracks

the rosy-patched bushshrike is a passerine bird found in a wide range throughout africa. they prefer subtropical to tropical dry scrubland habitats. their coloration differs throughout their range, though all members of the species display some bright red coloration. they primarily hunt insects for food, but also feed on berries, fruits, and small rodents and reptiles.

-casts haste on you-

hello my name is keith and i write music :) this is some music i wrote for my personal 30-day TAZ Music Challenge, a self-imposed challenge where i stream, start+finish a short piece of music, and throw in on The Internet!! i pick a character from a table i made (and roll a 30 sided dice (which is called a triantakohedron??)) day 1 of 30 and i rolled The Hunger!! i made The Hunger distinct from John because ultimately they’re not the same character really... ANYWAYS it’s scary, enjoy~ credits to starapture for the artwork!! https://linktr.ee/starapture

ok i have a plan (gets distracted) (gets distracted) (gets distracted) (gets distracted) (get distracted) (gets d

Merry 2000 Trained Rats, everybody