I Bet On Crazy Frogs

‘When fishing stops, the results are remarkable. On average, in 124 marine reserves studied around the world, some of which have been in existence only a few years, the total weight of animals and plants has quadrupled since they were established. The size of the animals inhabiting them has also increased, and so has their diversity.

In most cases the shift is visible within two to five years. As the slower-growing species also begin to recover, as sedentary life forms grow back and as reefs of coral and shellfish re-establish themselves - restoring the structural diversity of the seabed - the mass and wealth of the ecosystem is likely to keep rising for a long time.

Five years after Georges Bank, off the coast of New England, was closed for commercial fishing, the number of scallops had risen fourteenfold. Around Lundy Island, mature lobsters trebled in number within eighteen months of the creation of the reserve. After four years they were five times as abundant as those outside, after five years, six times.

Eighteen years after they were first protected, the combined weight of large predatory fish in the Alp Island reserve in the Philippines had risen by a factor of seventeen. Bigger fish produce more eggs, and the quality of eggs improves as the parents mature, so more of the offspring are likely to survive.

Like the Kraken in Tennyson’s poem, the suppressed life of the sea awaits only for its chance to re-emerge.’

George Monbiot, Feral: Rewilding The Land, Sea and Human Life

stupid i wish i was hot

In King Ludwig II’s defense, if I had basically infinite discretionary funds, was accountable to absolutely no one, and was king of a country full of picturesque landscapes, you couldn’t stop me from building myself a big gay fairytale castle on a mountaintop either.

So one day a dwarf is talking to a human and finally realizes that when humans say woman, they generally mean “person who is theoretically capable of childbirth” because for whatever reason, humans assign social expectations based genital differences. (What a fucked up culture, the dwarf thinks.) But hey, better communication! So the next time the dwarf introduces theirself, they say, oh, by the way, I am what you call a “woman.”

And the trade negotiations just stop. They just stop cold. The tall people insist on speaking to the man, they insist on talking to the lady dwarf about all sorts of irrelevant bullshit, like recipes and childrearing and perfume

so the dwarf goes back home, enraged

and is like “BTW guess what happened, we’re all just going to be men forever now as far as the tall ones are concerned”

and everyone is justly horrified at this barbarism but they all agree to do whatever  it takes to squeeze those tall bastards for all the resources they are worth

and the dwarves get surlier, and the trade agreements less generous

and the tall people are all “what a miserable and greedy race”

but really they’re just still nursing a grudge about how goddamn backwards and sexist the tall people are

because their best negotiator, one of their sacred cave people, got snubbed the instant she said she was capable of childbirth - and a mortal insult like that can never be forgiven

grahhhh why am i unloveable

i am also vegan because cattle farming is the main cause of amazon deforestation and illegal land seizures fom indeginous brazilians

i am also vegan because the shrimp industry enslaves and abuses migrant fishermen from south-east asia

i am also vegan because animal agriculture is one of the main drivers of climate change, which most affects the poorest on earth

i am also vegan because european fishing vessels are systematically stealing fish from somalian waters

i am also vegan because we could directly feed an additional 1 billion people with some of the food we feed to livestock animals

i am also vegan because animal agriculture is a main driver of antibiotic resistance, which killed 1,27 million people in 2019

i am also vegan because i believe it is wrong to exploit the planet and the most vulnerable populations for the sake of sensory pleasure

fat

broke

unemployed

bitchless

abt to b homeless

no prospects

In light of Duolingo laying off its translators, here are my favourite language apps (primarily for Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, and te reo Māori).

Multiple Languages

Anki is a flashcard programme and app that's not exclusively for languages. While making your own decks is ideal, you can also download shared decks for most languages.

If you're learning Japanese, specifically, Seth Clydesdale has websites for practicing alongside Genki's 2nd or 3rd editions, and he also provides his own shared Anki decks for Genki.

And if you're learning te reo Māori, specifically, here's a guide on how to make your own deck.

TOFU Learn is an app for learning vocabulary that's very similar to Anki. However, it has particularly excellent shared decks for East Asian languages. I've used it extensively for practicing 汉字. Additionally, if you're learning te reo Māori, there's a shared deck of vocabulary from Māori Made Easy!

Mandarin Chinese

Hello Chinese is a fantastic app for people at the HSK 1-4 levels. While there's a paid version, the only thing paying unlocks is access to podcast lessons, which imo are not really necessary. Without paying you still have access to all the gamified lessons which are laid out much like Duolingo's lessons. However, unlike Duolingo, Hello Chinese actually teaches grammar directly, properly teaches 汉字, and includes native audio practice.

Japanese

Renshuu is a website and app for learning and practicing Japanese. The vast majority of its content is available for free. There's also a Discord community where you can practice alongside others.

Kanji Dojo is a free and open source app for learning and practicing the stroke order of kanji. You can learn progressively by JLPT level or by Japanese grades. There's also the option to learn and practice kana stroke order as well.