queenlucythevaliant

[queenlucythevaliant]

Albino redwoods are the ABSOLUTE COOLEST. My family spent some time in the redwoods the summer after I took AP biology and I spent the whole trip obsessing over them. Here's some of what I remember!

Some redwoods have a combination of albino branches and wild type/chlorophyll producing branches. They're called chimeras and they're GORGEOUS (pics below). These trees express both sets of DNA along clearly delineated areas of the tree. Genetically, it's the same thing that's going on with calico cats

Most albino redwoods only grow to shrub or sapling size, but a few can grow to 30+ ft. Only the full-sized, mature trees produce cones. (Ie most albino redwoods arise due to new mutation and immediate natural selection, not heredity)

The filtration abilities are a direct size effect of the no chloroplasts thing. No chloroplasts -> weak stromata (bc it's basically just matrix) -> inefficient water transport and poor retention -> lots of uptake of environmental toxins, but poor retention. Kind of like flushing toxins out of our bodies! This kind of anatomy is really costly to the individual organism but, as discussed above, highly beneficial to the community. (Also, what even is an individual organism? Jury's still out lol)

There tend to be more viable albino redwoods near industrial/otherwise contaminated areas, as well as during periods of drought. Evolutionarily, this suggests that wild type trees might be behaving altruistically when the environment is stressful, allowing albinos to survive and thrive (the 30-footers). In contrast, during times of low stress, most albinos are ephemeral and die quickly.

Ecologically, this also means that albino redwood success might be a useful marker for localized environmental stress. They're the "white flags of the forest."

Chimera:

Large albino redwood:

More typical albino redwood, like the one I remember seeing:

Trees, like animals, can also experience albinism, though it is extremely rare.

#endless forms most beautiful #seriously these things are the coolest #i googled and googled and couldn't shut up about them #if I had access to my mom's computer right now I could add like 50 photos that i took that trip #unfortunately it was before i got a cell phone #also this is all accurate to the best of my recollection but feel free to fact check me #it was a while ago that I went on my albino redwood kick and memory is fallible etc #also: cute for Tumblr but the anthropomorphizing going on in some of the above responses itches in my brain #the driving force in nature is the propagation of one's genes. trees aren't ever gonna be altruistic just for the heck of it

[queenlucythevaliant]

As we know, of course, the apostle Paul did many terrible things before God saved him. Arson, murder, marijuana....

#jesus laughed

[queenlucythevaliant]

Leah with the scythe, California, 1975 - by Ilka Hartmann (1964), German/American

#bear flag republic

[queenlucythevaliant]

What are your thoughts on Eve? I have mostly positive thoughts/feelings towards her, so I want to know if you have any insights.

Quite honestly, most of the time when I think about Eve it's in the context of historicity of Genesis-type stuff, which I'm guessing isn't what you're after.

She reads as very archetypal, you know? And in some ways she is. She's a type of the church, certainly; the first Church failed by the first Adam. She's a type of Woman in many ways, cursed to bear the effects of sin and suffering within her own body.

I do absolutely love the song "Like the Dawn" by The Oh Hellos (my favorite song by them) and, less theologically, the poem "Eve and Adam" by Bertha James:

I think that Eve loved Adam, first of all, Not in the garden where all things were fair, Not in the sad time when he failed her there, But when they were at last outside the wall And it was night. They heard the night-birds call, And as the sword curved flaming through the air They saw long shadows crouch and leap; their hair Was brushed by unseen wings; they heard rocks fall. Then defiant Eve was caught by fear; Perhaps she turned and reached for Adam's hand And leaned against his shoulder to be near, Not caring that he could not understand, Feeling him marvelously strong and good.

#ask me hard questions #sorry i took a while to get to this #idk if this is the sort of answer you were looking for #but there ya go #Bible humans

[queenlucythevaliant]

Let’s do both: 9 and Epiphany?

I have "Fearless" at 9!

I think my family spent more time listening to the Fearless CD in the car than any other music of my childhood. If "Fearless" played twice, I'd know we'd been driving about an hour. If it played three times, we'd been going two hours. (NYC was generally three fearlesses.) After that point, someone generally switched the music.

"epiphany" is at 140 on my list. I quite like the song, there are just 139 Taylor Swift songs I like better ;)

Favorite lyric: "Holds your hand through plastic now / "Doc, I think she's crashing out" / And some things you just can't speak about

(This ask game)

#ask me hard questions #i am waiting for an oil change #perfect time to answer tumblr asks lol #thanks for asking! #tay tay

[queenlucythevaliant]

Can't believe that people will give whole talks on suffering to rooms full of Christians and not once reference the Actual Biblical Book About Suffering ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#it wasn't a BAD talk #but it was shallow idk #I'm still a little bit irritated and this was a week ago #pontifications and creations #theodicy

[queenlucythevaliant]

Sometime this weekend, I'm planning to update my Taylor Swift song rankings. Send me a number 1-241 and I'll tell you what song it is OR send me a song and I'll tell you where in my ranking it falls. Maybe I'll toss in a favorite lyric or an associated memory too.

#ok list is done 😊 #i always forget how long that takes #tay tay #ask me hard questions

[queenlucythevaliant]

"bilbo's poetry must be so embarrassing for elrond" is out

"elrond weaponises bilbo's embarrassing poetry" is in

elrond is old! he's heard it all before! there is not a single topic bilbo could write on that he has not been forced to listen to someone recite on before. at least bilbo doesn't expect him to be particularly grateful or honoured by it.

however! that does not mean other people have reached the same level of "sure bilbo you can write a limerick about maglor" that elrond is on.

so bilbo gets elrond's full permission to write whatever he wants IF he promises to wheel out the really, really sensitive stuff on request (when there are visitors Elrond doesn't like or a diplomat is being annoying)

#yesssssssss #tolkien legendarium

[queenlucythevaliant]

Red Woods by Robin Tran

#oh my #oh goodness #bear flag republic #a stranger comes to town

[queenlucythevaliant]

art comic

#the narnian air

[queenlucythevaliant]

#real fans only!!!!!!! #don't even think about voting unless you remember the SNL monologue song 🙄🧐😤😡 #(this came to me in a dream) #(i hope i made good on the premise) #tay tay #pontifications and creations

[queenlucythevaliant]

Sometime this weekend, I'm planning to update my Taylor Swift song rankings. Send me a number 1-241 and I'll tell you what song it is OR send me a song and I'll tell you where in my ranking it falls. Maybe I'll toss in a favorite lyric or an associated memory too.

#tay tay #ask me hard questions

[queenlucythevaliant]

The Other Kind of Leaving

"The Bolter" / "Intention to Escape from Him," Edna St. Vincent Millay / "Better Man" / Villette, Charlotte Brontë / "The Bolter" / Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë / "Better Man" / Jimi Hendrix / "The Bolter"

#kinda hand in hand with my one on abandonment? kind of? #but really just a celebration of the bolter (favorite song on ttpd) and better man (also a fave and one of my surprise songs) #tay tay #intertextuality #pontifications and creations

[queenlucythevaliant]

Marriage, Staying, and Taylor Swift: A man who's not interested in marrying you is a man that's prepared to abandon you

"Captivating, John and Stasi Eldridge // "Down Bad" / "Afterglow" / "Paper Rings" / "Right Where You Left Me" // "Left Behind," Kimberly Ropson // "cardigan" / "cowboy like me" / "The Archer" / "The Tortured Poets Department" // Eve's Hollywood, Eve Babitz // "Hey Stephen" / "I Think He Knows" / "All You Had to Do Was Stay" / "Fresh out the Slammer" // Hamlet, III.i // "loml" / "Stay, Stay, Stay" / "Last Kiss" / "We Were Happy" // "Hell's Bells," Buffy the Vampire Slayer // "You're Losing Me" / "The Manuscript" / "Say Don't Go" / "So Long, London" // When Harry Met Sally, Nora Ephron

#the first time i saw 'when harry met sally' my mom paused during the scene where sally finds out her ex is getting married #she said 'if a man doesn't want to marry you it means he's prepared to abandon you.' #'he'll use you until he's done with you and then he'll move on' #and it seems to me that this is maybe the central grief for all of TS's recent music #and the central longing for maybe all of it #stay stay stay. who could stay. all you had to do was stay. #what woman isn't afraid of being left behind? #in some ways it's our whole history #idk. i've never had anything like this experience but i am so so compelled by it in art #it rings true ya know? #i barely restrained myself from including eowyn's 'shall i always be left behind?' bc it slides right in w/ the fear of abandonment thing #but let's be real has nothing to do with marriage or commitment #i enjoy being a girl #tay tay #intertextuality #pontifications and creations #explicit lyrics

[queenlucythevaliant]

A fount of blessings upon thee, Wonderful Person!

And likewise unto thee 🫶

#ask me hard questions

[queenlucythevaliant]

Hey, you made a list of names for all the Narnian months, I think, sometime back? (Forgive me if I'm wrong.)

Any chance you could supply the link to that post? And is it okay if I use them in any fics I write?

Thanks!

--Rain

Hi Rain! So I definitely didn't name all the months. Greenroof is a month name from Prince Caspian, and I came up with just a few of others sort of in that vein for a story I wrote a while ago. Here's the months included in that story:

Cleardome ~ March

Laceveil ~ May

Highgrass ~ July

Greenroof ~ September

(I also proposed in that story that the Narnian year is actually longer than ours is, so the alignment between their months and ours is approximate)

Feel free to use those month names if you like, and if you end up filling out the calendar further you should tag me!

#ask me hard questions #narnia

[queenlucythevaliant]

Do you like the song Unclouded Day? It’s been stuck in my head for like 3 days now…

Hey there! Yeah, I do like that song! My favorite version is this choral arrangement 😊

#ask me hard questions #how can i keep from singing