I’m a young-adult woman with the hopes of becoming a well-known writer. I’m a dreamer, a music lover and a chaotic human being, curious about what the future will bring but without any idea of what to do with it. As for this tumblr, we’ll see. I will make an attempt to make an interesting place but for now I still have to figure out what to do with it.
167 posts
Latest Posts by wolfspoot - Page 3
weird little brain tweak/reframing that helped me out. i Often find that advice that seemingly helps Everyone Else doesn’t make any sense to me, in ways that are hard to describe, and it can be really frustrating. but when i find a way to explain it to myself that finally seems to break through and make it click, it feels really good
Ethiopian wolves feed on the sweet nectar of a local flower, picking up pollen on their snouts as they do so – which may make them the first carnivores discovered to act as pollinators.
The Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) is the rarest wild canid species in the world and Africa’s most threatened carnivore. Endemic to the Ethiopian Highlands, fewer than 500 individuals survive.
Sandra Lai at the University of Oxford and her colleagues observed wild Ethiopian wolves lapping up the nectar of Ethiopian red hot poker (Kniphofia foliosa) flowers. Local people in the mountains have traditionally used the nectar as a sweetener for coffee and on flat bread.
The wolves are thought to be the first large carnivore species ever to be recorded regularly feeding on nectar.
“For large carnivores, such as wolves, nectar-feeding is very unusual, due to the lack of physical adaptations, such as a long tongue or specialised snout, and because most flowers are too fragile or produce too little nectar to be interesting for large animals,” says Lai.
The sturdy, nectar-rich flower heads of the poker plant make this behaviour possible, she says. “To my knowledge, no other large carnivorous predator exhibits nectar-feeding, though some omnivorous bears may opportunistically forage for nectar, albeit rarely and poorly documented.”
Some of the wolves were seen visiting as many as 30 blooms in a single trip. As they lick the nectar, the wolves’ muzzles get covered in pollen, which they could potentially be transferring from flower to flower as they feed.
“The behaviour is interesting because it shows nectar-feeding and pollination by non-flying mammals might be more widespread than currently recognised, and that the ecological significance of these lesser-known pollinators might be more important than we think,” says Lai. “It’s very exciting.”
Lai and her colleagues at the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme now hope to dig deeper into the behaviour and its ramifications. “Trying to confirm actual pollination by the wolves would be ideal, but that would be quite challenging,” she says. “I’m also very interested in the social learning aspect of the behaviour. We’ve seen this year adults bringing their juveniles to the flower fields, which could indicate cultural transmission.”
this is a poster i made for my call to action assignment in humanities! it's a bunch of basic and easy stretches for people who sit and work at a desk all day (me)
the idea is that you'd put the poster up above ur desk and do the stretches every 30 minutes or so,, the whole routine won't take more than about 6 minutes to complete and when done regularly it can prevent wrist, shoulder, neck and back pain! :)
all these stretches can be done while sitting (although i HIGHLY recommend you stand up and move around while taking a break from working)
‘While bats can only sense the outer shapes and textures of their targets, dolphins can peer inside theirs. If a dolphin echolocates on you, it will perceive your lungs and your skeleton. It can likely sense shrapnel in war veterans and fetuses in pregnant women. It can pick out the air-filled swim bladders that allow fish, their main prey, to control their buoyancy.
It can almost certainly tell different species apart based on the shape of those air bladders. And it can tell if a fish has something weird inside it, like a metal hook. In Hawaii, false killer whales often pluck tuna off fishing lines, and “they’ll know where the hook is inside that fish,” Aude Pacini, who studies these animals, tells me. “They can ‘see’ things that you and I would never consider unless we had an X-ray machine or an MRI scanner.”
This penetrating perception is so unusual that scientists have barely begun to consider its implications. The beaked whales, for example, are odontocetes that look dolphin-esque on the outside—but on the inside, their skulls bear a strange assortment of crests, ridges, and bumps, many of which are only found in males.
Pavel Gol’din has suggested that these structures might be the equivalent of deer antlers—showy ornaments that are used to attract mates. Such ornaments would normally protrude from the body in a visible and conspicuous way, but that’s unnecessary for animals that are living medical scanners.’
-Ed Yong, An Immense World
I feel like in the rush of “throw out etiquette who cares what fork you use or who gets introduced first” we actually lost a lot of social scripts that the younger generations are floundering without.
You don't have to force yourself to bounce back so quickly. I read something recently that said "when you come in from a rainstorm, you don't expect yourself to be dry and warm right away", and it really resonated with me. It's okay to take time to dry off and warm up. Take the time you need to process what happened to you.
This a a reminder to not fall victim to the sunk-cost fallacy. Just because you invested time and energy into something, does not mean you should indefinitely waste more time and energy on it, if you decide it’s not what you want anymore. This goes for anything, from books, to relationships, to jobs, to hobbies, etc.
If it’s not serving you anymore, move on.
This is one of the best explanations of executive dysfunction I've read, as someone who suffers from it. People who don't have it really don't understand how challenging it is to want to do something but then getting roadblocked by your own mind.
Reblog if your blog is boopable-safe so you can get all the (probably new) achievements. I don’t care about notes I just want boops
My friends and I used to do this thing where we'd dress up on a theme and go do something totally normal.
We dressed up as pirates and went bowling.
We dressed as vikings and went to the grocery store. The security guard told us we had to move our longship because it was illegally parked.
We dressed as Romans and went to Blockbuster. The staff chanted, "toga! Toga! Toga!" at us.
We dressed up all steampunk and went to the museum. Tourists kept taking our picture.
New: Search operators for better searching!
We hear you, and we share your frustrations: it’s hard to find a specific post. You know it has a particular tag or phrase, and it was posted on this date, or at least, within a specific year. But you can't find it!
So, today, we’re excited to announce that you can use ✨ advanced search operators ✨ in the search bar now! You can now say potato from:staff year:2021 to easily enjoy that video of a potato being microwaved again.
Before we jump into the details, a couple of caveats to note:
These search operators are only available in the main Tumblr search bar. They don’t work in the search bar in individual blogs.
The search operators only work on posts created in 2017 or later.
OK! Let’s go explore these operators!
Exact phrase match
When you surround your query with regular double quotes (not curly quotes), it will match posts with that exact phrase in the post's text content, or that exact phrase as a tag.
For example, "chappell roan is roan of arc" matches posts with that exact phrase in the content, and also matches posts that have the exact tag #chappell roan is roan of arc.
Match operator
By default, the query matches the post on either the text or the tags.
You can use match:text to specify you want to search the post content, or match:tags to search the post tags. For example:
sword world match:text looks for posts with the words "sword" and "world" in the post content.
sword world match:tags looks for posts with the words "sword" and "world" in the post tags.
From operator
Use from:blog or from:@blog to find only posts by a particular blog.
For example, halloween from:staff finds all posts by @staff that has the word "halloween" in the post content or tags.
Year operator
Use year:YYYY to find posts from a particular year.
For example, halloween year:2019 finds all posts from 2019 that has the word "halloween" in the post content or tags.
Date operator
Use date:YYYY-MM-DD to find posts from a particular date.
For example, halloween date:2019-10-08 finds all posts created on October 8, 2019 that has the word "halloween" in the post content or tags.
All together
You can combine all the tools above to form even more specific queries:
Congrats! You’re now a Tumblr search wizard! 🪄
Other syntax
As a reminder, you can already search by a tag, or by multiple tags:
Prefixing your query with # performs a tag search — that is, it will find posts with that exact tag. For example, #star wars will only return posts with the #star wars tag.
You can search for multiple tags at at time. For example, #star wars #art will find posts that are tagged with both the tag #star wars and the tag #art.
You can combine this with the new operators to find what you are looking for!
We will add a guide for this new syntax soon to our Help Center.
Tumblr Patio support
The enhanced syntax makes Tumblr Patio even more powerful. You can now open multiple search columns each with different fine-tuned queries that use the syntax above to get you customized feeds.
Feedback
We’d love to hear what you think! Please share your feedback in the replies and reblogs of this post, or by reaching out to Tumblr Support.
I hate the concept of working and no I am not weird
I have always felt, that the concept of work is strange. You spent the best years of your life away from people you love, from your home and you have only very limited time to do things, that you like. You are stressed, worried, angry. (Yeah sure, there are people who genuinely love what they do and love to process and you know what good for them, I am just not one of them.) I have never been particularly tough. Stress gets me fast. I cry. People stress the fuck out of me. But in every part-time job, that I had I had to work with people and it was just killing me inside. I am now a self-employed language teacher and even though I studied for that and all that I still hate it. No shame. I just hate spending hours every day doing the same fucking thing. Yeah, some of the students are really lovely and I genuinely like our lessons, but some are just energy sucking vampires. But bills need to be paid right. Last week I had a bit of a mental breakdown over a work email. I just felt if this is going to be like this for the rest of my working life I seriously want to kill myself. I can’t tough it out. I can’t muddle through. I want something different.
I don’t buy much. I buy food, occasional treat, dinner. Tickets. Bills are paid. If I would be able to grow more food by myself, that’s less money I have to spend on food and more money I would have left for the rest. I could work now and then. Not every day. I could actually enjoy my life. But when you tell this to people they freak the fuck out. Call you crazy. You really want to make as little money as possible? You are so smart you can make a lot of money! Well, I don’t want to. I don’t need to travel, I don’t want 2 weeks of paid leave every year. I don’t need new iPhones, SHein bullshit and ugly overpriced shoes. I just want to be free and do what I love. No I don’t want to work. No I am not weird.
collection of useful things tumblr has taught me:
even if you can't fall asleep, laying down with your eyes closed will still rest your body
you don't have to brush your teeth standing up
you don't have to do any chore standing up, from dishes to showering
you don't have to shower with the lights on
if you can't brush your teeth, flossing and a tongue scraper gets rid of plaque and bad breath
if you can't do that, mouthwash kills a lot of bacteria
eating "unhealthy" food is better than eating no food
you can make the same meal everyday for however long you still want it
some pills come in syrups or chewables if you can't swallow them
kids nutritional shakes can be a quick way to get fuel if you can't eat/don't have time
if walking hurts/exhausts you on a regular basis, canes and rollers are for you, no matter how young you are
we have free will—if doing something "out of the ordinary" makes life easier for you, do it
Give-away shops
I'd like to tell you all the story of Jan's give-away shop.
The story:
Jan was a guy who lived in my hometown. Financially speaking, he was well-off: he owned the house in which he lived alone, and had gathered a lot of stuff throughout the years.
One day, Jan realised all of this stuff wasn't making him happy. He decided to move to a small apartment and to get rid of most of his possessions.
Jan also realised the privileged life he led: he owned much more than he needed, and was able to move on the fly just because he felt like it.
All of this made Jan decide to open up a give-away shop. He moved everything he didn't need to his living room, simply opened up his front door, and told everyone they could come and pick up whatever they wanted for free.
His friends declared him an idiot: humans are selfish, they said, and would just take his valuables and sell everything they'd gotten from him. They were wrong. Sure, some people did this, but they were only a small part of those who came.
Those who had less than Jan (including yours truly) came by and found things they needed but had been postponing to buy because they couldn't afford to. Others came to pick up things they could use for their charities, or for the classrooms they had to teach on a too low budget.
The biggest surprise was how Jan never ran out of things to give away: rather than taking things, a lot of people started donating items they didn't need anymore!
Objects weren't the only thing people donated: Jan quickly amassed a team of dedicated volunteers to run the shop for him whenever he was absent.
And that's the story of how my town got its first give-away shop. Unfortunately, the shop doesn't exist anymore: they closed down after about five years because Jan eventually had to sell his house.
His shop has left an important impact on my town: inspired by his shop, we now have a thriving freecycle community, town hall frequently hosts give-away markets (flee markets where everything's free), and individuals have been putting up give-away cabinets, fridges, and libraries all over where people can leave their unused goods, leftover food, and unread books for others to enjoy.
The take-away:
Not all of us are as privileged as Jan: if we were, we wouldn't have much need for projects like these. However, we can still learn from his story!
If you've got an unused cabinet lying around, why not turn it into your own give-away corner? If you work in event planning, maybe consider hosting a give-away market some time. Do you work at a library or a community centre? Those are the perfect spots to put a give-away library or a leftovers fridge: just make sure to keep an eye on anything food-related and to clean out expired goods when necessary.
Another popular variation on this idea are plant cuttings corners and seed banks. These are a great way to share native plants with fellow gardeners to improve the biodiversity in your neighbourhood.
If this post has inspired you, try petitioning your town for projects like these: they're often welcomed because they don't cost much to set up and can have a big positive impact on both your community and the environment.
(Image source) [ID: a small outdoors wooden construction with a see-through plastic roof containing a cupboard with toys, cookwares, and shoes, a hanging rail with clothes, a shelf with books, a bulletin board, and a box and a bag. The text "Give Box: sharing is caring" is painted at the top of the shed, and purple flowers and red hearts are painted on its sides.]
Wolves and ravens are often seen together. Ravens like to eat meat from wolf hunts (up to half of the meat is eaten by ravens rather than wolves), but instead of having an antagonistic relationship with an animal that could be seen as stealing their food, wolves and ravens seem to share a mutual respect. Wolves will avoid killing ravens, and ravens help wolves as well; they can see prey from further away with their high vantage point, and will lead wolves toward it. They may also act as sentries, alerting wolves to incoming threats. Wolves, in turn, help ravens to eat meat from animals they could never take down on their own, and tear open carcasses too tough for ravens' beaks. Both wolves and ravens are highly intelligent and social animals. Even outside of hunting and eating, they often spend time together, engaging in play. Ravens will "prank" wolves by pulling their tails, and wolves will chase them without intent of hunting or killing them. Ravens will also play tug-of-war with wolf pups, or fly over them holding sticks, enticing them to jump up and grab them. There is some evidence that individual ravens and individual wolves even form personal connections between them, with ravens that played with a wolf when it was a pup following it if it leaves the pack once it matures.
Story time:
In middle school biology, we did an experiment. We were given yams, which we would sprout in cups of water. We then had to make hypotheses about how the yams would grow, based on descriptions of yam plants in our books, and make notes of our observations as they grew.
Here’s what was supposed to happen: we were supposed to see that the actual growth of the plant did not resemble our hypotheses. We were then supposed to figure out that these were, in fact, sweet potatoes.
What actually happened was that every single student in every single class lied in their notes so that their observations perfectly matched their hypotheses. See, everyone assumed the mismatch meant they had done something wrong in the process of growing the plant or that they had misunderstood the dichotomous key or the plant identification terminology. And, thanks to the wonders of a public school education, everyone assumed the wrong results would get us a failing grade. We were trying to pass. We didn’t want to get bitched out by the teacher. Curiosity, learning, science - that had nothing to do with why we were sitting in that classroom. So we all lied.
The teacher was furious. She tried to fail every student, but the administration stepped in and told her she wasn’t allowed to because a 100% fail rate is recognized as a failure of the teacher, not the class. It wasn’t even her fault, really, though her being a notorious hard-ass didn’t help. It was a failure of the entire educational system.
So whenever I see crap like Elizabeth Holmes’s blood test scam or pharmaceutical trials which are unable to be replicated or industry-funded research that reaches wildly unscientific conclusions, I just remember those fucking sweet potatoes. I remember that curiosity dies when people are just trying to give their superiors the “right” answers, so they can get the grade, get the job, get the paycheck. It’s not about truth when it’s about paying rent. There’s no scientific integrity if you can’t control for human desperation.
what in the world is solarpunk please tell me
Across the last six or so years, solarpunk has graduated from an aesthetic to a combination of art and politics that focuses on everything from a positive imagining of our collective future to actually creating it. It began mostly as a visual vocabulary and literary subgenre of science fiction like steampunk ( steampunk focuses on the past and the industrial revolution). Solarpunk focuses on a positive future grounded in our existing world that emphasizes the need for environmental sustainability, self governance and social justice.
-It is a movement that is dedicated to human-centric and eco-centric ends. It looks beyond capitalism and the current rift between humanity and nature.
-Solarpunk a futurism that focuses on what we should hope for rather than on what to avoid. It recognizes that climate change, the consequences of centuries of damage aren’t averted in the future. Yet it still manages to incorporate hope. A future where we have a lot of work to do, but we are doing better. Using technology in more uplifting ends. Solarpunk emphasizes real-world application, Its all what we do here and now from DIY projects to larger organization.
-It’s other core aspect is that it’s very aesthetic and artistic and it uses a lot of nature motifs and takes inspiration from art nouveau, upcycleing, and asian and African styles and artistic movements.
-What is not solar punk is slapping trees and flowers on steel skyscrapers or concrete buildings, that is green washing which as the appearance of sustainability but is actually really damaging to the environment. A ton of water is used to maintain those “green” buildings and they are often not built with sustainable or durable material.
When having no hope for a positive post-climate change future is completely understandable, we also have to understand that the first step to mitigating climate change is knowing that it’s a future that’s possible and worth fighting against. Regardless of the odds stacked against us.
ways to incorporate solarpunk into your life☀️
Learning how to fix/adapt things instead of buying new replacements every time something breaks.
Starting personal or community gardens and weatherproofing them to hell and back because seasons are becoming less and less predictable.
Support local craftsmen and artisans as well as learning crafts/trades yourself!
Normalize walking or cycling (If possible depending on geography and weather because biking in Minnesota winters is a fools errand).
Educate (if you are able) people on the dangers of climate change and how to take care of the environment.
Employ solar panels no matter how small.
Practice upcycleing and learn how to properly recycle.
Voluntier in humanitarian aid and practice organizing and taking care of your community.
the assurance "nobody is judging you" is straight up false... people ARE judging you and you have to find a way to be ok w it
my trick for getting through grad school is learning to navigate the quadrants with all their nuances