#this is a very serious ecology paper

[mariacallous]

In February, a dermatologist in New York City contacted the state’s health department about two female patients, ages 28 and 47, who were not related but suffered from the same troubling problem. They had ringworm, a scaly, crusty, disfiguring rash covering large portions of their bodies. Ringworm sounds like a parasite, but it is caused by a fungus—and in both cases, the fungus was a species that had never been recorded in the US. It was also severely drug-resistant, requiring treatment with several types of antifungals for weeks. There was no indication where the patients might have acquired the infections; the older woman had visited Bangladesh the previous summer, but the younger one, who was pregnant and hadn’t traveled, must have picked it up in the city.

That seemed alarming—but in one of the largest and most mobile cities on the planet, weird medical things happen. The state reported the cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the New York doctors and some CDC staff wrote up an account for the CDC’s weekly journal.

Then, in March, some of those same CDC investigators reported that a fungus they had been tracking—Candida auris, an extremely drug-resistant yeast that invades health care facilities and kills two-thirds of the people infected with it—had risen to more than 10,000 cases since it was identified in the US in 2016, tripling in just two years. In April, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services rushed to investigate cases of a fungal infection called blastomycosis centered on a paper mill, an outbreak that would grow to 118 people, the largest ever recorded. And in May, US and Mexican health authorities jointly rang an alarm over cases of meningitis, caused by the fungus Fusarium solani, which seemed to have spread to more than 150 clinic patients via contaminated anesthesia products. By mid-August, 12 people had died.

All of those outbreaks are different: in size, in pathogen, in location, and the people they affected. But what links them is that they were all caused by fungi—and to the small cadre of researchers who keep track of such things, that is worrisome. The experts share a sense, supported by incomplete data but also backed by hunch, that serious fungal infections are occurring more frequently, affecting more people, and also are becoming harder to treat.

“We don’t have good surveillance for fungal infections,” admits Tom Chiller, an infectious disease physician and chief of the CDC’s mycotic diseases branch. “So it’s hard to give a fully data-driven answer. But the feeling is definitely that there is an increase.”

The question is: Why? There may be multiple answers. More people are living longer with chronic illnesses, and their impaired immune systems make them vulnerable. But the problem isn’t only that fungal illnesses are more frequent; it is also that new pathogens are emerging and existing ones are claiming new territory. When experts try to imagine what could exert such widespread influence, they land on the possibility that the problem is climate change.

Fungi live in the environment; they affect us when they encounter us, but for many, their original homes are vegetation, decaying plant matter, and dirt. “Speculative as it is, it's entirely possible that if you have an environmental organism with a very specific ecological niche, out there in the world, you only need a very small change in the surface temperature or the air temperature to alter its niche and allow it to proliferate,” says Neil Stone, a physician and fungal infections lead at University College London Hospitals. “And it's that plausibility, and the lack of any alternative explanation, which makes it believable as a hypothesis.”

For this argument, C. auris is the leading piece of evidence. The rogue yeast was first identified in 2009 in a single patient in Japan, but within just a few years, it bloomed on several continents. Genetic analyses showed the organism had not spread from one continent to others, but emerged simultaneously on each. It also behaved strikingly differently from most yeasts, gaining the abilities to pass from person to person and to thrive on cool inorganic surfaces such as plastic and metal—while collecting an array of resistance factors that protect it from almost all antifungal drugs.

Arturo Casadevall, a physician and chair of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, proposed more than a decade ago that the rise of mammals over dinosaurs was propelled by an inherent protection: Internally, we’re too hot. Most fungi flourish at 30 degrees Celsius or less, while our body temperature hovers between 36 and 37 degrees Celsius. (That’s from 96.8 to the familiar 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.) So when an asteroid smashed into the Earth 65 million years ago, throwing up a cloud of pulverized vegetation and soil and the fungi those would have contained, the Earth’s dominant reptiles were vulnerable, but early mammals were not.

But Casadevall warned of a corollary possibility: If fungi increased their thermotolerance, learning to live at higher temperatures as the climate warms, mammals could lose that built-in protection—and he proposed that the weird success of C. auris might indicate it is the first fungal pathogen whose adaptation to warmth allowed it to find a new niche.

In the 14 years since it was first spotted, C. auris has invaded health care in dozens of countries. But in that time, other fungal infections have also surged. At the height of the Covid pandemic, India experienced tens of thousands of cases of mucormycosis, commonly called “black fungus,” which ate away at the faces and airways of people made vulnerable by having diabetes or taking steroids. In California, diagnosis of coccidioidomycosis (also called Valley fever) rose 800 percent between 2000 and 2018. And new species are affecting humans for the first time. In 2018, a team of researchers from the US and Canada identified four people, two from each country, who had been infected by a newly identified genus, Emergomyces. Two of the four died. (The fungus got its name because it is “emerging” into the human world.) Subsequently, a multinational team identified five species in that newly-named genus that are causing infections all over the world, most severely in Africa.

Fungi are on the move. Last April, a research group from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis examined the expected geographic range in the US of what are usually called the “endemic fungi,” ones that flourish only within specific areas. Those are Valley fever in the dry Southwestern US; histoplasmosis in the damp Ohio River valley; and blastomycosis, with a range that stretched from the Great Lakes down the Mississippi to New Orleans, and as far east as the Virginia coast. Using Medicare data from more than 45 million seniors who sought health care between 2007 and 2016, the group discovered that the historically documented range of these fungi is wildly out of step with where they are actually causing infections now. Histoplasmosis, they found, had been diagnosed in at least one county in 94 percent of US states; blastomycosis, in 78 percent; and Valley fever in 69 percent.

That represents an extension of range so vast that it challenges the meaning of endemic—to the point that Patrick Mazi, an assistant professor of medicine and first author on the paper, urges clinicians to cease thinking of fungal infections as geographically determined, and focus on symptoms instead. “Let’s acknowledge that everything is dynamic and changing,” he says. “We should recognize that for the sake of our patients.”

Without taking detailed histories from those millions of patients, it can’t be proven where their infections originated. They could have been exposed within the fungi’s historic home ranges and then traveled; one analysis has correlated the occurrence of Valley fever in the upper Midwest with “snowbird” winter migration to the Southwest. But there is plenty of evidence for fungal pathogens moving to new areas, via animals and bats, and on winds and wildfire smoke as well.

However fungi are relocating, they appear to be adapting to their new homes, and changes in temperature and precipitation patterns may be part of that. Ten years ago, CDC and state investigators found people in eastern Washington state infected with Valley fever, and proved they had acquired it not while traveling, but locally—in a place long considered too cold and dry for that fungus to survive. A group based primarily at UC Berkeley has demonstrated that transmission of Valley fever in California is intimately linked to weather there—and that the growing pattern of extreme drought interrupted by erratic precipitation is increasing the disease’s spread. And other researchers have identified cases of a novel blastomycosis in Saskatchewan and Alberta, pushing the map of where that infection occurs further north and west.

The impact of climate change on complex phenomena is notoriously hard to prove—but researchers can now add some evidence to back up their intuition that fungi are adapting. In January, researchers at Duke University reported that when they raised the lab temperatures in which they were growing the pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus deneoformans—the cause of a quarter-million cases of meningitis each year—the fungus’s rate of mutation revved into overdrive. That activated mobile elements in the fungus’s genome, known as transposons, allowing them to move around within its DNA and affect how its genes are regulated. The rate of mutation was five times higher in fungi raised at human body temperature than at an incubator temperature of 30 degrees Celsius—and when the investigators infected mice with the transformed fungi, the rate of mutation sped up even more.

Researchers who are paying attention to rising fungal problems make a final point about them: We’re not seeing more cases because we’ve gotten better at finding them. Tests and devices to detect fungi, especially within patients, haven’t undergone a sudden improvement. In fact, achieving better diagnostics was top of a list published by the World Health Organization last fall when it drew up its first ranking of “priority fungal pathogens” in hopes of guiding research.

Multiple studies have shown that patients can wait two to seven weeks to get an accurate diagnosis, even when they are infected with fungi endemic to where they live, which ought to be familiar to local physicians. So understanding that fungi are changing their behavior is really an opportunity to identify how many more people might be in danger than previously thought—and to get out in front of that risk. “Patients are being diagnosed out of traditional areas, and we are missing them,” Mazi says. “All of these are opportunities to achieve better outcomes.”

[geraskierbrainrot]

This is a collection of fics, canon or AUs, where Geralt and Jaskier have a meet-cute — a cute, charming, or amusing first encounter between romantic partners

Flirting (Wasn't Flirting) by TheArtistFormerlyKnownAsG | T | 1k

Sugar and Spice Witcher bingo Prompt: wrong date

Fire Lizards and Flirting by @wherethewordsare | 1k | G

Out on an ecological survey, Geralt has to fish a handsome stranger with a lute of all things out of the river. Roach is a big goofy Great Dane and responsible for the need to fish the guy out.

sweet tooth by willkinnie | 1k | G

so basically, a few days ago i was trying not to think abt an upcoming dentist appt, ergo new dentist geralt trying his best to make everyone comfortable and jaskier that has to deal with it. that's it. that's the story.

Up to Date by @lambden | 2k | G

"You were so hot that when you asked if I was the blind date you were looking for, I lied and said yes. But then your actual date comes up to introduce themselves and I'm so embarrassed." for Geralt/Jaskier.

sideway spirits by @julek | 2k | T this work is part of a series but can be read as a standalone (though I recommend the whole series)

“Got anyone in today?” He wonders, nodding to the dark green door that leads to the mortuary downstairs. “The paper says there’s been a car crash. ”Geralt shakes his head. “No one in yet. But I’m sure they’ll start coming soon.”

Weird Fishes by @aalizazareth | 3k | T

Jaskier doesn't think he has a superpower until he meets Geralt, who can't believe he's finally met someone who's able to see him.

Signs and Dogs by @dahliavandare | 3k | T

While jogging with Roach, Geralt meets Jaskier and his dog.

→ and the subsequent Geralt and Roach, Jaskier and Baby series

Don't Look a Gift Gobling in the Mouth by @yoursummerfrost | 3k | G

“No, I’m serious, I really do have like, uh—a goblin… thing… in my house!” Jaskier insists. “Will you come take a look at it? I don’t want it to, I don’t know, eat my liver or something?” Geralt massages at his temple. “Very few monsters are that picky. It would probably just eat all of you.” Aka: The one where Jaskier hires Geralt to investigate a monster in his house, and the outcome is somehow better and worse than Geralt expects.

Never Been in Love Before by jesskier | 3k | T

Geralt takes his dog, Roach, for a walk and meets his new neighbor.

Meet-Cute for the Socially Anxious by @freyjawriter24 | 4k | T

Jaskier liked people, but he also didn’t like people, and now he was on his way to a house party where there were very definitely going to be a lot of people. Most of which he didn’t know. Ugh. University was a stressful place. *** Modern everyone-is-human AU where Jaskier and Geralt meet at a uni house party and bond over D&D. Inspired by The Amazing Devil's Drinking Song for the Socially Anxious.

all roads lead to tranquility base by seasofglass | 4k | T

Jaskier needs some promotional photos for the launch of his new album, but as much as he loves composing new music, posing for the camera makes him a nervous wreck. On top of all, he's saddled with an unconventional photographer who claims he'll be able to show Jaskier a new side of himself. Navigating his feelings of anxiety and attraction, Jaskier remains skeptical that the photographer can deliver on his promises.

Sweet as Chocolate by @xianvar | 6k | T

“I don’t think that’ll be your next hit,” blue-haired-regular says apologetically. Jaskier is coming up with a witty reply – he really is – when he notices the figure in the back corner, seated underneath the broken lamp Valdo has been “about to fix” for weeks now. White hair, a scar over his right eye, uncomfortable gaze fixed on a large cup of coffee – it must be chocolate-voice, and Jaskier is ready to bet his favourite guitar on that. He’s even more swoon-worthy than his imagination has made him out to be. Jaskier temporarily forgets all his words, to the point that he only nods agreeably when Valdo says, “Fuck it, make yourself useful if you’re done; I’m gonna go take a leak.” Jaskier enjoys his lot in life – he has friends, a job that he loves, and all the opportunities to flirt that he could ever want. Until a gorgeous white-haired man starts frequenting Jaskier’s little bakery-slash-café and turns his whole world upside down.

hold my hand, show me something sweet by ghostiewritesthings | 7k | T

“You alright?” The other man groaned, bringing his hands up to cover his face. He screamed into his palms for almost a full minute, and Geralt let him, waiting patiently to the side. He’s been there. Eventually, the stranger stopped and took a deep breath. He left his hands over his face. “Never been better.”

a dream is a wish the heart makes by @dear-galileo | 12k | T

the last thing geralt had expected to do was meet a prince in the woods. no- the last thing that geralt expected to do was fall in love with the prince, and make a deal with a witch to see him again. (cinderella witcher retelling)

Show love to all these authors by leaving kudos and comments, and happy reading! And thank you for all the appreciation on the last rec list, I hope you enjoyed it all ♡

#geraskier #geralt/jaskier #the witcher #the witcher fic #geraskier fic recs

[uriekukistan]

how about some school related hcs for your favs ^_^

hell yeah thank you for the ask :D this is gonna be a very mixed fandom post slfkgj but im sure you were expecting that

i think i once said mello would be a classics major, but i think he would also have a double major in psychology? or really some combination of a humanities and a stem major. he likes to exercise both types of thinking equally. he's also a very serious studier, definitely pulls a lot of all-nighters. he's not super organized about it though, he just jumps from assignment to assignment randomly depending on what he feels like doing.

i think misa would either be into studying something more creative like music or fashion, or something more human-focused like anthropology or sociology. very active in class and asks a lot of good questions. but she doesn't study. wings every exam. her gpa rides solely off of her passion for the subject, which shows in her projects/papers.

i can see urie being into something like math or some science idk because everything is very formulaic and orderly. also a serious studier, similar to mello in intensity, but different in that he completes one assignment at a time. always works in the library. color coded notes. very organized. top grades of course. goes to study sessions with the TA and everyone's like "what is he doing here" because he's just that good.

saiko....girlie please go to class. probably only shows up if there's a test or she has to present something (everyone's annoyed because why is her presentation so good when she's never been to class). can see her studying graphic design or computer science but in like a video game designing type way not an engineering type way. her grades suffer from her lack of attendance but not enough that it matters. cs get degrees and whatnot

a lot of people say megumi would study to be a vet but i actually disagree. i think he loves animals too much to actually watch them suffer and perform surgery on them or put them to sleep. probably started on that path but realized quickly it wasn't for him and stuck to volunteering at the shelter. he would probably switch into something like ecology, focused on like preservation and protecting habitats for wild animals. he's not super into the outdoors but again. animal lover. he canonically gets more sad for animals than humans, so it just seems fitting for him. also a pretty serious student and gets good grades, but never pulls all nighters. i had a roommate who had straight a's as a neuroscience major and slept at 10pm every night, that's megumi.

was gonna talk about choso but tbh i dont see him attending college. i've seen him depicted as a tattoo artist or a firefighter too many times for my own good, so i'll talk about my fav wet cat boy yuuta. was gonna say med student but i think that was the white jacket talking, so i'm going with archaeology, i don't really have a reason, just that he seems like he would be very good at handling artifacts. a good student, but not good at studying. always loses focus. pulls all nighters bc he fell behind during the day only to get distracted again

this got so long...oops :D

[acf-lab]

Science and Technology Supporting Life Becomes a Reality ACF SoftValley Honored with Exemplary Transformation of Scientific and Technological Achievements Award

On June 8, Foshan Science and Technology Finance Association held a conference themed "Integration of science and technology financial resources to promote the development of the real economy of the emerging science and technology finance conference" in Chancheng. LinZhi science and technology ACF soft valley by virtue of "ACF artificial cartilage bionic energy absorption technology" in the field of anti-impact and industrial vibration isolation achieved breakthrough results, won the 2022 annual scientific and technological achievements of the transformation of exemplary award.

This honor not only fully affirmed the innovation ability of ACF SoftValley, but also highly recognized its ability to serve the real economy and promote scientific and technological achievements and industry.

As the industry's leading extreme cushioning materials and impact protection technology solutions provider, ACF Soft Valley has always been "let science and technology to support life" for the mission, is committed to extreme cushioning energy-absorbing materials research and industrialization, to solve the problem of reducing the impact of injury, in the economic, social and ecological aspects of significant value.

Focus on impact protection field, protect human safety

ACF Soft Valley's research results in the field of impact protection protect people's safety. In extreme sports such as skiing, riding, racing, rock climbing, etc., the head, shoulders, elbows, back, chest, knees and other parts of the human body are most vulnerable to impact injuries, of which the head and the back are very important parts of the body, and if the protection is not in place, it will cause serious or even permanent damage to the body.

ACF sports protective gear figure

Currently on the market ordinary sports protective gear can not effectively buffer the huge impact to protect the lives of athletes or sports enthusiasts, ACF Soft Valley using ACF R & D results for the human body to wear clothes, shoes, protective gear, etc. to provide a full set of body protection solutions, protective performance to enhance the performance of 30% or so, the application of products such as: Soft Valley protective insoles, soft Valley protective clothing, soft Valley protective helmets, soft Valley protective gear, soft Valley protective footwear. These products not only play a huge role in the field of sports, but also in medical rehabilitation, aerial work, military activities to play a value, its protective performance can not be underestimated.

Chart source "Mechanical Properties and Multiple Impact Resistance of Soft Matrix Hybrid Cellular Pore Materials" paper, the experimental data show that ACF material has good recoverability after impact, and still maintains stable multiple impact resistance after multiple impacts.

By combining scientific and technological achievements with the reality of life, ACF soft valley greatly protects human safety and realizes the mission of letting science and technology support life.

Focus on the field of vibration damping and isolation to protect people and industrial property

In modern industrial production, intelligent manufacturing lines and industrial robots are becoming more and more popular. While the motor in the process of operation, will produce a lot of vibration, not only affect the production of fine degree and the service life of the machine, the vibration and noise pollution will also affect the surrounding residents and factory operations.

At the same time, in the field of civilian electronic products, some valuables such as cell phones, laptops, DSLR cameras, etc. appear in people's life and work. In the process of use, such as encountering bumps, will cause serious damage to these electronic products, and electronic products often store a large number of important information, which indirectly leads to the damage of personal interests.

ACF technology, as a platform technology, can provide vibration isolation and damping solutions for the industrial manufacturing field (especially precision instrument production) and the field of valuables, which can effectively reduce the noise and vibration amplitude generated by industrial manufacturing, reduce production errors, and also protect valuable electronic products from damage caused by impacts and falls, so as to protect the property of the people and industry.

Project cooperation, accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements

ACF SoftValley actively participates in industry-university-research cooperation, and establishes close cooperation with universities, academies of sciences, etc., and jointly prepares to establish Bionic Mechanics Metamaterials Laboratory, ACF Innovation and Development Laboratory of Shanghai University, SoftValley Bridge Collision Laboratory, SoftValley Biomechanics (Sports Direction) Laboratory, SoftValley Biomechanics (Medical Direction) Laboratory and Mechanical Mechanisms of Human Injury and Protection Laboratory, which provides a platform for incubation of scientific and technological achievements, and jointly promotes scientific and technological achievements The Laboratory will provide a platform for the incubation of scientific and technological achievements, and jointly promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

In order to alleviate the fatigue injury of foot bones and promote the rehabilitation of foot patients, ACF Soft Valley and the Biomechanics (Medical Direction) Laboratory of Southern Medical University analyzed the mechanics of human foot soles by collecting a large amount of force data of the soles of the feet and joints, and finally combined ACF bionic cartilage super-materials with the research data, and an ACI Artificial Cartilage Bionic Energy Absorbent Insole for athletes and foot patients was launched. Nowadays, this insole is well loved by consumers and active in major e-commerce platforms all year round.

Joints to be used when walking: hip (purple), knee (red), ankle (green), big toe (blue)

ACF Soft Valley and Southern Medical University joint laboratory for 3 years to develop insoles.

In addition to the university alliance laboratory, ACF Soft Valley is also quite successful in universities and other major projects. ACF has developed 3 national standards and 1 military standard, and cooperated with various universities on research projects to establish a wide range of applied R&D system, such as cooperating with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to develop the "Key Technology Development Project on the Application of High-performance Nano-modified Polyamide in Extreme Cushioning Composites", cooperating with Beijing Institute of Technology of Clothing Cooperation to develop "Beijing Winter Olympic Games Ice and Snow Sports Protection Cooperation Project" and "Women's Shoes Midsole (Middle Heel) Cushioning Performance Research Report", cooperation with the School of Mechanics and Architectural Engineering of Jinan University to develop "Mechanical Properties and Resistance to Multiple Impacts of Soft Matrix Hybrid Cytosporous Materials Project", and cooperation with the China **** Combat Academy to develop "Research Project on the Parachuting Injury of Special Soldiers and Protective Equipments", and so on. Among them, the project researched with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) was selected as the first prize of the special fund between HKUST and Foshan Municipal Government.

At present, ACF SoftValley owns more than 70 invention patents from China, Australia, the United States and other Chinese and foreign countries, and has won more than 30 awards such as China Science and Technology Innovation and Invention Award, Bronze Award for Transformation and Application of China's Advanced Technology, Silver Award for Patent in Guangdong Province, and Gold Award from the British Invention Association, etc. The technological achievements have been widely recognized by the society.

400-6543-699

www.acf.com

[andhowdoyoufeelaboutthatzine]

Rough Draft of Master Plan

“And How Do You Feel About That?” zine project idea 

Vision: An ever-shifting, community-populated living space built in between the pages of a so-called “zine” presently and possibly foreverly focused around the theme of [STUFF IS ON] FIRE. The ethereal materials making up the so-called “pages” could include (but are not limited to) metafiction, poetry, serious scientific research papers, selfies, stream-of-consciousness expletives, visual art, songs, stitched-together videos, meandering essays, diary entries, cartoons, collages, manifestos, lists of facts, meditations on spiders or volcanoes, advice columns, and the like. These materials are offered to the so-called “world” in both printed form and digital online format (which would be able to include unprintable multimedia content). 

The general ethos is anarchistic, dark, collective, intelligent, humorful, collaborative, serious, contextual, expressive, playful, honest, curious, inflammatory, compassionate, indignant, anti-construct, pro-illusion, anti-delusion, and pro-amatuer. Aesthetics are games not rules. Not all opinions represented must be shared by all, though perpetuation of societal oppression will be addressed noisily and damnably. A diversity of tactics is the artistic method of choice. Any truly unifying thread is invisible and unspeakable, though thoroughly felt. 

The goal is not profit. The goal is everything is as free and accessible as possible. Donations may be acceptable means to make possible physical production/shipping. Surplus funds, if gotten, will be given to organizations or individuals in a form of non-dogmatic mutual aid. This model limits all projects to what is do-able only with resources/time/energy on hand to the so-called “collective” involved. This limitation is not a problem. It is a catalyst.

Stuff Is On Fire Theme: to explain - a very un-thorough late-night brainstorm list of possible source material/idea sparks

-creation through destruction/destruction through creation

-mythology related to fire

-wildfire ecology

-incendiary politics

-chemistry of state change

-hearth design blueprints

-liminal states created by/with fire

-heat as a feeling

-volcanoes, the sun, explosions in space, magma, etc

-how candles look in the dark

-anger

-human evolution through/with fire

-etymology and cross-language comparison of fire words

-jokes (duh)

-historical fires

-coal vs charcoal

-directions and reflections on using wood ash in gardens

Misc. Notes: Stuff to go in zine is accepted on an ongoing basis (see contact page for email address) with zines being put together when enough material is around to work with (which may just mean only one ever gets made which is cool). Neither deadlines nor consistent creation are encouraged, but the message will go out amongst the people when a zine seems to be forming itself along with an estimated timeline for birth in case anyone wants to offer materials. The relational process is more important than the outcome. Anyone who proffers materials for the zine has to shoot the shit in some form or fashion with people (or person) putting the zine together at that time. That basically means say hi and mean it, don't just email some material without any of the context that is you. “Stop taking yourself so seriously and get serious about this shit” is the secret actual name of the zine.

[ham236]

Entry 2

From September 27 to 28, the NGO parallel forum at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 15 for short) was held in Kunming, Yunnan. More than 400 representatives from more than 30 countries participated in the forum online and offline, sharing their cutting-edge views, cases and actions around global biodiversity issues.

The forum released the list of "100+cases of biodiversity", among which 19 cases including "Ant Forest" of Ant Group, "Earth Artificial Intelligence" of Microsoft (China) Co., Ltd., "Penguins Love the Earth" of Tencent, and "Renniaofei Project" of Beijing Entrepreneur Environmental Protection Foundation were selected as "Global Special Recommended Cases". The global collection of "100+Cases of Biodiversity" was guided by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Office of the COP15 Preparatory Committee, and hosted by the China Environmental Protection Foundation and the Taohuayuan Ecological Protection Foundation. A total of 258 cases were reported by 196 units from 26 countries on seven continents. A total of 108 cases were evaluated as "100+Global Typical Cases of Biodiversity", of which 19 cases were evaluated as "100+Global Special Recommended Cases of Biodiversity".

Note: Publicity of selected cases in the global solicitation of "100+cases of biodiversity" (partial)

Liu Ning, the COP15 negotiator of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Executive Deputy Director of the Executive Committee Office, said that the selection of "100+biodiversity cases" presented typical practices worldwide, providing an example of action for global NGOs to implement the global biodiversity framework after 2020.

Yang Fangyi, the project director of IUCN China Office, believes that it is a particularly good signal for enterprises to participate in the declaration of cases. Two thirds of China's public welfare donations come from enterprises, which have established a long-term funding mechanism. Many Internet enterprises and biodiversity conservation are internalized into their own business models and businesses, which is very different from before.

Taking Ant Forest as an example, in 2016, Alipay "Ant Forest" was launched on Alipay platform. By transforming users' low-carbon behaviors such as walking, subway travel and online ticket buying into quantifiable "green energy", Alipay exchanged a certain amount of energy for a real tree, and then planted these saplings in areas with serious desertification to complete the landing of public welfare projects. According to statistics, more than 280 million users are planting trees in the ant forest, which has become the world's largest all age personal low-carbon account platform. As of September 26, 2020, more than 223 million trees have been planted in the "ant forest", with a planting area of more than 3.06 million mu, and the future total ecosystem output value can reach 11.18 billion yuan.

Netizens' low-carbon behaviors, such as green travel, paper reduction and plastic reduction, energy conservation and consumption reduction, and recycling, can be counted as "green energy" through carbon emission reduction methodology. When they accumulate to a certain extent, they can apply for planting a real tree in a desertification area, or "claim" a one square meter conservation area in an area where biodiversity needs to be protected urgently. After that, enterprises will donate money to public welfare institutions, which are responsible for planting and maintenance, and forest and grass departments and ecological environment departments will guide and supervise the implementation of a series of public welfare projects for ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation throughout China.

It is understood that as one of the important themes of the COP15 NGO Parallel Forum, the release and discussion of the "100+Cases of Global Biodiversity" gathered successful experiences from all walks of life in biodiversity conservation, and will also contribute to the COP15 official meeting opened on October 11 and the "Kunming Declaration" issued at that time.

Ant forest has explored a feasible and effective way for [Internet plus public welfare]. More importantly, we let the general public see the real picture of the Internet public welfare changing the environment. Users can also plant real trees in the real world through their own efforts, and make some contributions to greening the world. The correct value orientation inspires users' positive feedback and action. At the same time, users gain a sense of achievement due to their contributions to environmental protection.

It has to be said that Ant Forest is a win-win product.

Zu Wang, the product manager of Ant Forest, once said that technology is the greatest public welfare in this era. And I agree it very much.

Some users said that what wakes them up every morning is not a dream, but an ant forest. A girl wrote a paper for Ant Forest; A little fat man lost 70 kg because he saved energy; Someone's child was born on the same day as the tree. He said that he must go to see the tree in the future and tell the child about the tree. Of course, more users left messages on the Internet saying that after planting trees, they felt "finally the world is a little different because of my existence." Others said that this tree is "the first thing that I have given my living qualification for the first time in more than 20 years of life".

#Service Learning Journal Part 1

[tendercoretroglodyke]

hm the thing about invasive/introduced species (that admittedly took me several years into my conservation education to fully realize) is that we're so inundated w the message that they are incredibly destructive and, yknow, INVASIVE and we must stop them At All Costs, that we forget that ecosystems are constantly changing, and yeah humans are making that change happen a lot faster than it would otherwise be, BUT changing ecosystems and new plant/animal species isn't always a bad thing, could potentially help fill an empty niche (re-introduced wolves to yellowstone!!), and could even be valuable resources for us!

#obviously there have been some Very Bad Cases leading to extinctions and devastated economies (hello warty comb jelly) #but in the grand scheme they're kinda the minority #I'm researching for my paper on the invasive species of australia #(which OK are many and Serious) #but i was trying to find the aboriginal perspective on invasive species expecting them to hate them as a plague brought by settlers #and unsurprisingly there wasnt that much research on that! #but from what i could find it actually sounds like theyre more tolerant of invasives than most other australians #and it looks like this is something they share w indigenous people of other continents #in that they more often think of introduced species as part of an ever-changing ecosystem which can be valuable resources #turns out indigenous folks are less interested in the native--non-native binary of plants and animals than white conservationists! #we like. really have so much to learn from indigenous ecological knowledge

[youvebeenlivingfictional]

The Depths

Part Eight of Take Your Time

Two Days | Masterlist | Guilt

Pairing: Oberyn Martell x Reader x Ellaria Sand Rating: M (this may go up—if it does, I will give everyone fair warning before there is any explicit content) Notes: I hope y’all had a good week! 🧡

Warnings: Cursing; angst; yearning

Summary: There are moments, small, infrequent moments, when a flicker of guilt passes between Oberyn and Ellaria.

The first day underwater is terrifying.

You’re queasy; you can’t keep anything but tea down. It’s not sea sickness, it’s nerves.

The boats are all in order, your team is set for the dive. Everyone is buzzing with excitement as they look over the plans that you’ve set out for them for the day. The first couple of days will be used for observation, planning, and photography. The water is cool; the visibility is better than anticipated. When you surface, you have fewer bubbles of fear, and more bubbles of nerves. A lot of the structures that you can identify as part of the Old Palace been very badly corroded; some have become artificial reefs for marine life, and you already know that you can’t disturb them, lest it harm the ecosystem that’s taken form. There were a few things glinting at the sea floor, a few materials that you believe are copper, but couldn’t get a good enough look at at the time—your tank had been low on oxygen, and the team in the boat had been urging you to surface for the last hour.

You tug your gear off, sucking in a breath of fresh air and raking a hand over your face. Your team is chattering around you, delighted, volleying species spotted, structures noticed. You cast your eyes back toward the water. The artificial reefs, what they were covering...Well, you’ll have to review the pictures, but you’re certain, based on what you’ve seen in drawings, that those were key components to the upper portions of the burial chambers. If you’re right, then there will be no touching them—the Dornish ecological society won’t allow it. “...Boss?” You turn your head back to your team. Someone’s said something to you and you’ve missed it. You push a smile onto your face. “Sorry guys, what’s up?” -- Oberyn and Ellaria see very little of their archaeologist in the week following. It’s not that they don’t try—they certainly do. They drop in on her classes, leave notes with invitations for dinner or drinks the desk in her office. They even take The Red Viper near the area of the dive once. They see her pulling on her gear just before she drops off of the boat and into the water. Oberyn watches her during one of her lectures. Where she’s had an ease, a joy to talking about these topics before, the archaeologist is now distracted and almost rigid in her teaching. He’s seen the papers, he knows that the early findings underwater haven’t been nearly as promising as she’d hoped. It’s beginning to wear on her, the threat of failure. And there are moments, small, infrequent moments, when a flicker of guilt passes between Oberyn and Ellaria. They know what else lays at Blackmont Cove—they know what she’s looking for, and they know that she won’t find it in the depths. But they’ve kept their anonymity for so long—they’ve managed to stay afloat by being careful. Doran and the Sand Snakes went out of their way to destroy so many depictions of them, save for the ones that remain in Blackmont Cove. If they’re found...Well, it’s not worth thinking about what may happen.

They get the notes that they leave for her back—slipped under their doors or pinned to the bulletin boards outside of their offices. They bear responses like Sorry, the dig is too busy, or, Some other time. This happens for weeks. They can’t even catch the archaeologist after her classes—she steams out of there, and they know she’s headed for the dive. Ellaria inspects the latest note that she left for the archaeologist—another invitation to the open-air market. This one just has a hurried scribble that reads Can’t. She glances up as Oberyn comes into the office, sees the slight calculation and subsequent concern in his expression. “You look troubled, my love,” He says. Ellaria holds the note out for him, and he takes it, looking over the response. She sees his brow furrow just a touch. “A disappointment, but not a surprise,” He passes the note back to her. “I suppose,” She concedes, looking down at the note again. Oberyn rests his hands on Ellaria’s hips as he considers her expression. “...What is it?” He presses. She takes in a deep breath, her eyes flitting around the office. “It’s just...Quite rare that we meet someone that understands so much about...The lives that we knew. It was refreshing.” Oberyn hums, urging her on, and Ellaria meets his gaze, “I let myself get my hopes up, and now it feels...Foolish.” Oberyn smooths his thumbs in soft circles along her sides. “It’s not foolish to want someone, or to appreciate their prowess.” “Yes. You spent many hours appreciating her prowess.” Oberyn chuckles, raising his hand and cupping Ellaria’s cheek, “Be serious a moment.” Her mirth drops away as quickly as it arose, and she lowers her eyes to his chest. “Well,” She says, “Whatever happens, I enjoyed our time together.” Oberyn nods, tipping his head up and brushing a kiss to her forehead, then her lips. “Giving up so easily? Now who is being timid?” He teases. “There is a difference between being timid and taking the proper caution. I attended her class this morning—I’ve never seen anyone so tired.”

-- The Dornish Ecological society is staunch in their insistence that you leave the artificial reefs alone, as you knew that they would. You’re on the phone with them when you hear a knock on your office door. You glance up and spot Oberyn there. Something in your gut clenches—something nervous and twisty. You hold your hand up and point to the phone.

Oberyn nods.

And you figure he’ll leave, but instead he steps further inside and shuts the door behind himself. You narrow your eyes a little bit, lowering your eyes back to the files in front of you and refocusing on the conversation.

“Right…” You answer into the phone, “No, I understand that that species has become a vital part of the Harbor—...I understand, I’m not proposing that we—” It hurts you to press on, “I’m no longer proposing that we raise and restore those structures.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you can see Oberyn still in his looking at your shelves; you see him tip his head back toward you, clearly listening in on your conversation. You clear your throat before you go on:

“But I would like to get a better look at a few of the objects along the sea floor in the area. I think they may’ve been uncovered by the most recent tide…Yes, I had a hydrographic survey done. The area I’m proposing to excavate along the floor is minimal in regards to the entire site, but I'd like to retrieve them before the next tide…I could run the survey down to you now...Yes. Thank you,” You hurry to hang up before you bend over your desk, hurriedly gathering your materials. You glance up as you feel Oberyn turn to face you fully.

“Is there something I could help you with? I’m sort of in a hurry.”

“I can see that,” Oberyn nods, “...The structure you won’t be raising, is that—”

“Yes,” Your answer is hurried and clipped. It’s not your ego that tells you that Oberyn has been keeping up with the dig—it’s how well you’ve come to know him, his fascination and love of Dorne’s history. That brings back that twisting feeling, and take in a deep breath, trying to rid yourself of it You stack the folders and files that you need and grab your bag, shifting it onto your shoulder.

“I gotta go,” You skim around the desk, “So—Sorry that you’ve wasted your time coming over here—”

“It wasn’t a waste—”

“Feel free to stay and to—to browse whatever books you like—”

Oheryn catches hold of your hand, stilling you, and you turn to look up at him, brow furrowed. He’s watching you with something that you can’t quite place—it seems too near concern, too close to something warmer, and you don’t want to read too far into that. “Take a moment for yourself,” He urges you, “Not now, but...Slow down, sweet—when you have time.” Maybe he doesn’t mean for the advice to irritate you; maybe it’s not just the urging, maybe it’s the softness of his expression—maybe you feel that the man has no right to look at you softly, with a concern that should be pointed at someone like Ellaria. You shake his grip off and reel away, slipping out of your office and into the hall. It isn’t fair—what does a man like Oberyn Martell know about time?

Tag list: @massivecolorspygiant ; @mylittlelonelyappreciationtoo ; @recklessworry ; @paintballkid711 ; @peoniarose ; @fantasticcopeaglepasta ; @missredherring ; @writeforfandoms ; @grogusmum  ; @phoenixhalliwell ; @donnaa ; @natandtasha ; @quietpainter ; @acrossthestars ; @elen-aranel​ ; @letsfly-andbe-free​ ; @wonderlandgabby​ ; @amneris21​ ; @you-didnt-see-that-cuming​ ; @blueeyesatnight​ ; @ayamenimthiriel​ ; @librariantothejedi​ ; @revolution-starter​ ; @softdindjxrin​ ; @whovianayesha​ ; @youngkenobilove​ ; @emotionalsupportdaydreams​

#oberyn martell x reader #oberyn martell x reader x ellaria sand #oberyn martell/reader/ellaria sand #oberyn martell x you #oberyn martell x you x ellaria sand #Oberyn Martell/You #Oberyn Martell/You/Ellaria Sand #Ellaria Sand x Reader #Ellaria Sand x You #Ellaria Sand/Reader #Ellaria Sand/You #Take Your Time #The Depths

[psycherprince]

THIS POST IS LONGER THAN I EXPECTED AND I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE

i'm reading the doctor who fooled the world and i'm about 2/3 through it and tbh my big takeaway is that we really really need to teach scientific/statistical literacy better. the first time i /had/ to read a legit scientific paper in school was in college, in a course that was only required for stem majors. the whole antivax movement as we know it today was started by one scam artist and the whole reason it picked up so much steam outside already-fringe groups was the fact that people trusted that the news was accurately reporting on a well-conducted study, and neither half of that equation was true. it was a poorly done study interpreted and sensationalized by scientifically illiterate reporters who didn't know enough about statistics and the standards for a scientific paper to realize how utterly bullshit the paper was. it's so infuriating to read about honestly.

in light of this i would like to encourage all of my very few followers to familiarize yourselves with basic statistics (sample size, bias, and statistical significance, mainly) as well as the basic blueprint of a scientific paper. you don't have to do any math yourself, you don't have to know all the jargon in a paper, but see if you can find some journal articles for free (psychology and ecology papers tend to be relatively layperson-friendly in my experience but i encourage you to find something you're interested in) and just... think about it. think about what information is presented, how the researchers got that information, and whether that information supports the conclusion the researchers say it does. i'm reading a really interesting study right now about adhd symptom remission in adolescence that i found for free, and as i'm reading it, i'm finding that even though i don't know all of the language being used or exactly what all the tests entail, since my child psych class is next term, i can look at the data and conclusions and see how they connect, and make my own judgments about whether the data supports those conclusions.

scientific/statistical literacy is super important and i really encourage you guys to actually look at the studies you hear about, especially if hearing what's reported makes you think "wait, really?" or "that doesn't sound right" or even "that's what i would expect". if you want an intro to statistical literacy, just google "bad data viz" and see how graphs can be manipulated to trick a casual viewer, or even just poorly designed to give off the wrong impression by mistake. one of my favorite compilations is a business insider article from 2013 called "the 27 worst charts of all time" which includes charts and infographics that are just hilariously difficult to read as well as graphs that seem to be intentionally misleading. it's a pretty good and pretty funny introduction to thinking critically about scientific studies and how they're reported on, if you're not sure where else to start.

if you have the opportunity to, take a basic statistics course. khan academy has a unit on study design, and crash course has a series on statistics. knowing the basics will help you know when something is being falsely reported on or blown out of proportion, or when a scientist is straight up bullshitting, because reporters and scientists are both human beings, and these things happen.

apologies for the long post (and the homework assignment) but reading about how easily this guy was able to bullshit and scam his way into creating an entire movement that actively threatens public health, even while other scientists knew either initially or after just a little prodding that there were serious flaws in the study has made me really angry. academia has a huge elitism problem that really contributes to this- even basic statistics (in the us) is usually an optional course for high school students, that a lot of high schools don't even offer, and in college it's usually not required for people who aren't stem majors, which just feeds back into this sense of elitism and the fact that people with bad intentions are able to basically say whatever they want and know that a good chunk of people might not notice how shaky the foundations are.

#stem #stemeducation #humanities #academia #higher education #long post #sorry for the rant. it's 3 am i just took 4 finals and im working on my 5th but i cant stop thinking abt this book #its very good but it will make you very angry

[notwiselybuttoowell]

We're Stewards of Our Land: The Rise of Female Farmers

'I was always fascinated by getting things out of the ground’

Sinead Fenton

Grows vegetables and edible flowers at Aweside Farm, East Sussex

Sinead Fenton is on an early lunch break, hiding from the sun. “It’s ridiculously intense, so I think we’re going to call it a day and crack back on in the evening,” she says. Fenton and her partner, Adam Smith, have been putting in beds and getting ahead on groundwork for next year. This year, there will be no commercial crops on the couple’s 4.5-acre plot.

They signed the papers on their farm last November and moved onto the land in March. Around the time they needed to make decisions about how they’d manage their first harvest, lockdown happened. With restaurants and florists – their main clients – out of action for the foreseeable future, they made the decision not to sow seeds but concentrate on opening up the land. “We were going to do it over three or four years, so we’re squeezing three years of work into this year, so we can focus on growing next year,” Fenton says.

She and Smith cut their scythes at Audacious Veg, a 0.1-acre plot in Hainault, at the end of the Central Line between Essex and London. Shortly after volunteering at the allotment in 2017, they heard the project was about to finish: “Naively, with about three weeks’ worth of growing experience, we decided that we’d take it on and get the produce to chefs.”

Smith worked in insurance accounting and while Fenton most recently worked in software and food policy, her background was in geology. “I came at farming from an activist point of view,” she says. “I was always fascinated by getting things out of the ground, but that is a destructive industry. Farming is nicer because I can do something for the system instead of taking everything from it.”

There was a lot of insecurity around the project. Land is contentious, especially in London, and land law is difficult and expensive to negotiate for those with no farming background. “Adam and I are both from cities – I’m from London, he’s from Essex. We’re from low-income families, and we had no access to farms growing up,” Fenton explains. “It’s basically impossible to get on the land, because it’s so expensive, or passed down through generations.”

They got the land for Aweside through the Ecological Land Co-op, which buys fields designated by Defra as only being good for arable crops, then splits them up to create smallholdings. Aweside is neighbours with a veg-box scheme, and waiting for others who’ll transform what once was a 20-acre maize field into a cluster of small farms rich with biodiversity. Now Fenton and Smith have a 150-year lease, and no worries that what they create will be taken away.

It’s not yet a permanent home. Fenton says they’ll be living in a caravan for a few years: “Another part of land law in the UK that makes land inaccessible is that if you want to live on your land you have to go through five years of proving your business is profitable, viable and that there is a functional need for you to live there.” Having livestock is an easy way to pass the test, but because Aweside is a vegan farm, Fenton and Smith need to cultivate and show they use every bit of plot.

It’s daunting but Fenton is excited about having a blank slate to work with. “There’s so much more to food than what supermarkets tell us to eat,” she says, explaining that they’ll grow varieties at risk of extinction, or that aren’t commonly grown in a mass market food system. “Seed diversity and plant genetics are serious issues.”

The three principles the couple work to are: more flowers, more trees, thriving soil. They’re working no-dig, putting compost directly on the ground and letting the soil life mix everything over time. They’re pesticide-free and are counting on the fact that the more diversity they have in the system, especially with a high proportion of flowers to pollinators and insects, the fewer problems they’ll face.

“Socially, economically and environmentally, something needs to change. Things have been done the same way by the same people for a long time,” says Fenton of the farming industry’s need for greater diversity. “I learned to grow on an allotment site where there are lots of different things growing at once. Bringing that approach into sites like this is needed – the industry needs it to keep itself relevant.”

'I'm hoping this will be seen as quite a cool career… even if it’s not’

Abi Aspen Glencross

Head of grains at Duchess Farms, Hertfordshire

It was, Abi Aspen Glencross was well aware, an odd, even inopportune time to launch a crowdfunding campaign. In June, with the country still locked down, Duchess Farms asked for support to buy dehulling, cleaning and milling equipment. The Hertfordshire farm needed about £16,000, and the money would go towards boosting the production of ancient and heritage grains for making flour.

“A lot of crowdfunders have been for charity or ‘please keep our restaurant open’,” says the 28-year-old Glencross, head of grains – or “senior flour nerd” – at Duchess Farms since 2019. “We felt a bit bad, but we lost a lot of our business overnight when all the restaurants closed and we were like: ‘God, we hope we don’t go under.’ It was quite a scary time for everyone.”

Still, if we have learned one thing from Covid-19, when times are hard, British people get baking. Perhaps inspired by countrywide shortages of flour, maybe invigorated by a new interest in left-field, older wheats such as einkorn and emmer, Duchess Farms sprinted to its target. “We’ve just done some ordering of equipment this morning,” says Aspen, when we speak in July. “It’s been a tough time for everyone but it has cascaded into some beautiful things and we’re just so thankful.”

Glencross’s path to farming was circuitous. She studied chemical engineering, but while her classmates were heading off for jobs at ExxonMobil and Procter & Gamble, she was more of “a hippy at heart”. She decided she wanted to learn more about soil and its role in food production. This led her to Blue Hill Stone Barns, Dan Barber’s pioneering farm-to-table restaurant in the Hudson Valley, north of New York. She spent four months working on the farm and in the bakery, receiving a crash course in ancient grains – an obsession of Barber’s. But the moment Glencross knew she herself wanted to farm came in 2016 in a field in Hertfordshire. She was with John Cherry, who was showing her around Weston Park Farms, 2,500 acres of land he maintains with minimal fertiliser use and zero tillage.

“We were walking around the fields of wheat and I just said: ‘Where does all this go? There’s so much of it,’” Glencross says. “And John goes: ‘Oh probably for animal feed. It’s a consistent market, they’ll take it, it’s easy, even if we don’t earn that much money from it.’ And I was like: ‘This is crazy.’ And that was the beginning of me getting on this grain bender because I was like: ‘Why can’t we grow these grains organically and not feed them to animals?’ So I realised I’d have to start a business, because there were not very many people doing that.”

Heritage grains can be harder to produce in vast quantities – einkorn, especially, is “a bitch to harvest” – but they do have advantages over conventional wheats. They typically have deep roots and grow tall, which means they shade out weeds and do not require chemical sprays. The end product is more nutritious and then there’s the taste. Since 2017, Glencross has run a roving supper club called the Sustainable Food Story with Sadhbh Moore, and Duchess Farms has worked closely with bakeries such as E5 Bakehouse in east London and Gail’s, and restaurants including Doug McMaster’s Silo. “Heritage grains are delicious: when you stop growing for yield and you start growing for quality the flavour is insane,” says Glencross.

Learning to farm from scratch has not been straightforward, but you sense that’s a big part of the appeal for Glencross. “There’s all these decisions the farmer makes throughout the year and why he sprays and why he doesn’t,” she says. “You realise that most people get up, sit at a computer all day and if they press the wrong button, they just delete it. When you’re a farmer, you plant at the wrong time of year and tomorrow it washes away your whole crop.”

Glencross acknowledges that it is almost unprecedented for women to run arable farms. She struggles to name a single other example in the UK. She also notes wryly that men dominate all the farming conferences, saying: “They have a wife but it’s always the men who have written the book and given the presentation.”

With more role models, Glencross hopes things will change. “I’m not cool in any way, but I’m a reasonably young lady,” she says, laughing. “And so when people say: ‘What do you do? Oh, you’re a farmer. Maybe I could do that …’ So I’m hoping that it might become seen as quite a desirable, almost cool career.” A pause: “Even if it’s very much not cool.” 

#agriculture #long post #female farmers #farming

[cutest-bug]

Interview with Adrien Agreste! Subject: The Oxygen Project.

Conducted by Alya Cesaire

Ok so I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this addition to a post I made on my main blog about Adrien low key trashing the Agreste brand the way Robert Pattinson does Twilight. I know it was meant to be more of a goofy idea but my head is full of angst and this is what I came up with at 4 a.m. lol.

Alya smiles warmly as Adrien settles into the seat across from her.

“Are you ready?” She asks. He gives her a slightly nervous smile but nods. She nods to Nino who hits record and Adriens face immediately smoothes over into a pleasant and unreadable mask. It’s actually a little freaky to watch.

It’s a Monday afternoon and they’re set up in the art room during their lunch period. Adrien looks as perfectly neutral as always. Non flashy designer labels and tousled hair that probably took 20 minutes to style. For once though, his actions will be a little less perfect and easy to swallow.

“Hi Adrien, thanks for agreeing to an interview on the Ladyblog, I’m glad we could finally do this.”

He smiles and considers for a moment before answering, tiling his head a degree, “The pleasure is mine Alya, especially since I’m the one who approached you about doing this.”

That’s true. Right after the class joined Mylene and Ivan for their protest of the Oxygen Project Adrien asked to speak with her. He was upset that he had been tricked into modeling for the project without knowing what it was for. While most of his die hard fans had gotten wind he didn’t support it, he wanted to farther remedy the situation and use his position to reach a wider audience. Of course there weren’t many platforms he could do that on behind his fathers back, hence asking for Alya’s help.

“Still, I know interviews aren’t your favorite. Otherwise I probably would have asked you a while ago.”

Adrien smiled again, a little more genuinely (the one she knew Marinette was so fond of), “I don’t really like probing questions from journalists about my personal life. The fact that you’ve never asked or taken advantage of knowing me means a lot. I trust you.”

“Personally I think it’s a little crazy you have to do all of those interviews at all. You’re only 15, your life shouldn’t be so public.”

Adrien lets the smile fall several degrees. It’s deliberate, he’s letting people see his discomfort, “Well, it kind of goes hand and hand with all of the modeling. I’m the face of the Agreste brand.”

Alya nods and looks down at the papers in her lap, “Which is the point of our interview today, really.” They had agreed on what was and wasn’t to be talked about before hand, however they don’t have a planned out dialogue. They agreed that they both do well with more organic conversation, and it’s important the interview comes off as very genuine.

Adrien nods in agreement and Alya continues, “Now that the plan for the Oxygen Project is officially canceled, it’s time to clear up what your involvement with the promotion of it was. Nearly everyone in Paris saw the ads that ran.” Unfortunately it had been to late for Mayor Bourgeois to cancel the first few days of ads. For nearly a week Adriens face played on every television in the city, telling everyone about what a great breath of fresh air the project would be.

Alya hands him the first photo in her lap. It’s of him with the class after they first arrived at the protest, looking interested but not particularly emotional yet. It’s from the video that she filmed, but there was a pretty low view rate on the protest coverage. The interview with Adrien will probably get anywhere from 3 to 5 times as many.

“What not everyone realizes is that you were present during the planned tree cutting ceremony and following protest. So what was going on for you at this point in the day Adrien?”

“Our whole class had just gone to the park to support Mylene and Ivan, our friends who lead the protest. Right after we arrived Mylene started arguing with the Mayor about whether the project was good for the environment or not.”

“That girl has a hidden fire!” Alya adds, “I have a section dedicated to activism on the blog now. The video from the whole day is there but I also posted some smaller segments explaining the conflict and a few more that Mylene recommended on how to get involved.”

Adrien gave his most genuine smile yet, “I watched those! I hope your viewers take the time to check them out. I know the super hero fights are exciting, I mean I’ve been glued to your blog from the start, but I’m glad people like Mylene and Ivan are reminding us to keep our eyes on the big picture too.”

Alya nods, “So am I. Ok, it was during this argument that the ad was first shown correct?”

Adrien lets the smile fall completely this time, “Yes. Apparently the plan was always to air it for the first time during the tree cutting ceremony. It was also the first time I’d seen it.”

“I’m sure most of our viewers have seen it already, so I’m not going to play it now,” Adrien shoots her a grateful look, “Adrien, she says kindly, “I remember how surprised you were when the ad played. Do you want to tell everyone why?”

Adrien looks down at his hands, “I hadn’t known what the ad was for when I filmed it. I thought it was another one of those silly perfume commercials.” Alya isn’t sure if him saying “silly” was a slip up or on purpose but she struggles not to laugh.

“Did someone tell you it was a perfume commercial or did you just assume when you were given the script?”

“I was told it was for perfume.”

“Can I ask who by?”

She thinks the discomfort is genuine this time. Everything else is the video isn’t that bad, but this line could bring hell for him.

“My father told me it was.”

This isn’t news for Nino or Alya but she pauses for a long moment to let viewers digest that before asking her next question, “Do you know why he lied to you?”

“I suppose he thought I wouldn’t be ok with doing it otherwise.”

Alya smiles, a little proud, before handing him another picture. She’ll edit them into the screen for viewers to see later, “Well he thought correctly. Here’s a picture of you standing with Mylene and our friend Marinette, forming a physical barrier so the trees wouldn’t be cut down,” she pauses for a moment while Adrien examines the picture, “I gotta say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so angry.”

“I had just found out my image was going to be used to promote an anti-ecological plan that would harm our city. My friends had spent months trying to prevent it. I was furious.”

And Bam! As soon as she posts this video Adrien’s empty head, pretty face, good boy persona is shattered. He just admitted to having feelings. Angry ones. Directed at his father. Not to mention opinions on political matters. That is not the pretty face most of Paris is familiar with and fawns over.

“I’d be angry too,” Alya sympathizes.

Adrien puts the photo down and looks at her with a serious expression, “That’s the main reason I wanted to do this interview. For better or worse I have a lot of sway with my fans and public opinion. There’s still some controversy about the Oxygen Project being canceled so I want to be very clear that I do not stand with it,” he looks directly into the camera, “The oxygen project would have only helped the people profiting from it. The only ethical solutions for our city, and the whole world, are complicated, long term, sustainable options that will protect and rejuvenate our planet. No one has said it better than Mylene and Ivan so please go check out those videos under the activism section. Help if you can, and spread the word about the truth. It’s important that people know when they’re being lied to by a corporate campaign.”

Alya realized she stopped breathing for a moment because oh my god that was so good. She manages to quietly clear her throat and thank Adrien for the interview again. He plasters back on his polite smile and they give a brief hug before she gestures to Nino to stop filming.

“OH MAN! That was awesome!” Nino pulls Adrien into a one armed hug and doesn’t let go.

Adrien smiles a little bashfully, “You think? It wasn’t to much?”

“No way Adrien,” Alya cuts in, “the whole thing was great but that bit at the end? Amazing. Mylene will be thrilled.”

Nino pulls away from their friend a bit and clasps his shoulder, “Are you going to be ok though? Your old man is not going to be cool with like, any of that, is he?”

Adrien purses his lips and shrugs, “Don’t worry about my dad, I can handle him.”

Alya can see the fake nonchalance a mile away. Marinette is the queen of it after all, so she tells him, “Adrien this is really brave of you but I just want to make sure you know you’re in charge of this narrative. I probably won’t finish editing everything until tomorrow because I have a project to finish tonight. If you change your mind there’s no hard feelings. Or if there’s something you decide you want left out I’ll work some editing magic.”

Adrien smiles but her words don’t seem to relieve any tension, “Thanks Alya, it means a lot. By the way, where’s Marinette? I thought she was coming?”

“She’s probably just got caught up with something but I’ll see if she messaged me.” Alya checks her phone and realizes she left it on silent after the test last period. No texts from Marinette, but there is an akuma alert which explains her absence. She tries to ignore the immediate twinge of worry.

Adrien suddenly looks up from his own phone and rushes to grab his bag, “I actually got to go, my dad wants me home until the akuma attack is over. Best keep my head down until the bomb drops tomorrow right?” He rushes out before Alya or Nino can respond.

Nino sighs after his best friend runs out, “It’s so unfair he’s having to rectify his dad’s bad choices.”

Alya takes his hand, “I know. Something tells me this won’t be the last time he does so either. We’ll be there to support him though.” Her boyfriend gives her a soft smile and she kisses him on the cheek, “Come on, I want footage of that akuma fight.”

Nino glances down at his phone, “Actually it looks like the fight just ended a minute ago.”

“Wow that was short. It couldn’t have gone longer than the ten minutes we did the interview with Adrien for.”

“You’ll catch the next one,” he grins at her, “one way or another.”

She laughs, “okay turtle boy, let’s go get some lunch before we have to head back to class.”

They run into a slightly dejected Adrien on the way. He gives them an interview smile. They all find Marinette and get lunch. They keep the conversation light and avoid talking about the bomb Alya’s going to post tomorrow.

This is self indulgent. I really need Adrien taking some control of his life and standing up to his dad. Yes it’s painful but it’s so important that Adrien puts some distance between them in the public eye before Gabriel is revealed as Hawkmoth. I’m just hoping that can actually happen in canon but I have many fears this season.

#miraculous ladybug #adrien agreste #mega leech #alya cesaire #nino lahiffe #theres adrienette is you squint lol #im going to be honest i don't think there's anywhere this is a perfect fit chronologically in the season #it's just inspired by mega leech and the general trend of the season #with adrien becoming more and more frustrated #and that hopefully leading to him taking more action in his personal life #i hope i hope #my post #my fic

[rayarmat]

Efficacy of Fermented Food Bacteria in Mitigating COVID-19 Severity

Two recent scientific research papers have confirmed the importance of probiotic bacteria such as lactobacilli (available in traditional fermented food) in mitigating COVID-19 severity and outcome. A summary of the papers follows:

Picture shows homemade kefir being fermented.

Cabbage and fermented vegetables: From death rate heterogeneity in countries to candidates for mitigation strategies of severe COVID-19

Large differences in COVID-19 death rates exist between countries and between regions of the same country. Some very low death rate countries such as Eastern Asia, Central Europe, or the Balkans have a common feature of eating large quantities of fermented foods. Although biases exist when examining ecological studies, fermented vegetables or cabbage have been associated with low death rates in European countries. SARS-CoV-2 binds to its receptor, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). As a result of SARS-CoV-2 binding, ACE2 downregulation enhances the angiotensin II receptor type 1 (AT1 R) axis associated with oxidative stress. This leads to insulin resistance as well as lung and endothelial damage, two severe outcomes of COVID-19. The nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2) is the most potent antioxidant in humans and can block in particular the AT1 R axis. Cabbage contains precursors of sulforaphane, the most active natural activator of Nrf2. Fermented vegetables contain many lactobacilli, which are also potent Nrf2 activators. Three examples are: kimchi in Korea, westernized foods, and the slum paradox. It is proposed that fermented cabbage is a proof-of-concept of dietary manipulations that may enhance Nrf2-associated antioxidant effects, helpful in mitigating COVID-19 severity.

Efficacy and safety of novel probiotic formulation in adult Covid19 outpatients: a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial

Methods Single-center, quadruple-blinded RCT. Symptomatic Covid 19 outpatients (aged 18 to 60 years) with positive SARS-CoV2 nucleic acids test were randomized to active (n=150; ≥2×109 colony-forming units (CFU) of probiotic strains Lactiplantibacillus plantarum KABP022, KABP023 and KAPB033, plus strain Pediococcus acidilactici KABP021) or placebo (n=150), take orally once daily for 30 days. Oral acetaminophen was allowed and controlled as co-intervention. Primary endpoint included: i) proportion of patients in complete remission (both symptoms and nucleic acids test) or progressing to moderate or severe disease with hospitalization; ii) death rate and duration on Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Safety was assessed in all patients. This study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04517422).

Findings 300 subjects were randomized (median age 37.0 years [range 18 to 60], 161 [53.7%] women, 126 [42.0%] having known metabolic risk factors), and 293 completed the study (97.7%). Remission was achieved by 78 of 147 (53.1%) in the active group compared to 41 of 146 (28.1%) in placebo (P<0.0001; ARR=25.0% [95%CI 14.1-35.9%]), still significant after multiplicity correction for the primary endpoint. No hospitalizations or deaths occurred during the study, precluding the assessment of efficacy on these endpoints. No serious adverse events occurred during the study. Replication studies with this probiotic formula are warranted.

#fermentation #probiotics #yogurt #viruses #health #vaccination #COVID19

[special-collections]

Special Collections

08.24.2021 7PM PDT

KCHUNG 1630 AM

http://kchungradio.org/stream.html

https://specialcollections.radio/Bat-Chat

Bat Chat

Highly social and vocal creatures, bats comprise almost one-fifth of the earth’s mammalian population. They live in very large colonies, maintain familial ties, and can live for decades. So it makes sense that bats would develop nuanced communications. But what do they talk about?

Yossi Yovel and his colleagues at Tel Aviv University’s Bat Lab for Neuro-ecology have some answers. They have established a “bat cave” at the university where bats can be observed and recorded but are also free to leave. The result is a colony of bats that roost in the study zone and leave to hunt each day. Using this infrastructure, and audio and video recordings, the Bat Lab has made a study of these bats’ day-to-day communications, and established that certain behaviors are associated with particular sounds.

It turns out, bats argue. The argue over food, they argue over sleeping position, they argue about sex, and who to have it with. And, perhaps most interestingly, they prefer conversing with certain bats more than other bats. Individual members of the colony were documented to have distinct preferences about which other bats they preferred to argue with.


The paper “An annotated dataset of Egyptian fruit bat vocalizations across varying contexts and during vocal ontogeny” by Yosef Prat, Mor Taub, Ester Pratt & Yossi Yovel analyzes 293,238 recorded audio files alongside video of the recorded interactions of bats at the TAU “bat cave.” This edition of Special Collections features these recordings of bat communications, compiled in indeterminacy.


The above description of the research this audio collage is based upon is terribly flip and over-simplified. Please consult the paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata2017143.pdf or take a look at the Bat Lab home page at http://www.yossiyovel.com/ to check out their serious and amazing work. Bats in video are wearing tiny computers that measure GPS, audio, video, acceleration, EEG, and external data in the bats environment.

[plant-lights-yr]

How to choose plant lights for cannabis cultivation?

As a herb that grows throughout the year, hemp, in addition to a particularly important attribute that people know, it also has more uses. For example, it is a raw material for fiber products, clothing, ropes, sails, grease, paper, and medical supplies. Has a lot of medicinal value. Therefore, in addition to large-scale hemp cultivation for the development of the textile industry, there are also greenhouses to explore the use of hemp in other ways.

Various crops in greenhouses, due to the short sunshine time in winter and the weather such as overcast, rain, snow, and fog, will cause serious lack of light for plants; southern greenhouse crops will also suffer from lack of light under continuous rainy and plum rain climates, resulting in crops Not normal photosynthesis. Yaorong technology plant supplement light can supplement light scientifically and reasonably. Yaorong technology high pressure sodium lamp is suitable for all stages of cannabis growth. It can make the plant leaves full, root system developed, good growth, and enhance resistance and immunity. , Promote the early maturity of hemp, increase production, and improve the quality of hemp. It can also inhibit the growth and reproduction of germs and eggs in the shed, reduce the amount of pesticides, and reduce the pollution to the environment and crops, which is in line with the current "green" trend. After being irradiated by Yaorong Technology's plant supplement light lamp, cannabis grows very well, and the accumulated content of CBD and various medical nutrients has increased significantly, and there will be no phenomena such as excessive growth. Demeter cannabis supplement light is continuously irradiated for 12-16 hours every day. The cannabis grown under such a light source will have better nutrient accumulation, overall morphological performance, aromaticity and other indicators than the normal greenhouse environment. Has economic value

Hemp is a light-loving, short-day crop, and late-maturing varieties are the most sensitive to light. Therefore, you should pay special attention to light conditions when growing hemp in a greenhouse. Insufficient light will affect the growth of plants and the high content of various substances. The growth of cannabis requires strong light, so when planting in a greenhouse, pay attention to the light transmittance, light intensity and light time in the greenhouse. Because industrial hemp has high requirements for light intensity, when choosing a fill light, pay attention to the power of the fill light. It is best to choose a high-power LED fill light, which can not only ensure the light intensity, but also save energy. The high-power modular plant supplement light can be combined according to needs to meet the requirements of plants for light intensity, and is very suitable for greenhouse engineering, greenhouse planting, and plant planting.

The light environment is one of the important physical environmental factors that are indispensable for plant growth and development. Through the regulation of light quality, the control of plant morphology is an important technological achievement in the field of facility cultivation. LED plant lights provide photosynthesis to plants, can promote plant growth, shorten the time it takes for plants to bloom and bear fruit, and improve product production! In modernization, it is an indispensable product for crops

1. Principle of LED cannabis fill light:

The light environment is one of the important physical environmental factors that are indispensable for plant growth and development. Through the regulation of light quality, the control of plant morphology is an important technological achievement in the field of facility cultivation.

According to the light required for photosynthesis of plants, we basically make plant lights in three forms: red and blue, full blue, and full red, covering the wavelength range required by photosynthetic plants. In terms of visual effects, the plant light with a combination of red and blue appears pink. Red light promotes plant germination and flowering, and blue light can promote plant growth. You can choose a more suitable plant wavelength and color ratio to promote plant growth.

The chromatogram ratio of red and blue LED lights is generally between 5:1 and 10:1, and the ratio of 7 to 8:1 is usually available. Of course, if conditions permit, the ratio of red and blue light can be adjusted according to the cycle of plant growth.

2. LED fill light application range

Plant tissue culture, vegetable and fruit planting, facility horticulture and factory seedling breeding, and aerospace ecological life support system, etc.

3. LED fill light product features

The wavelength types are abundant, which coincides with the spectral range of plant photosynthesis and light morphology; the spectral wave width and half-width are narrow, and pure monochromatic light and composite spectra can be obtained according to the required combination;

It can concentrate light of specific wavelength to irradiate crops in a balanced manner;

It can not only regulate the flowering and fruiting of crops, but also control the height of the plant and the nutrient composition of the plant;

The system generates little heat and occupies a small space. It can be used for multi-layer cultivation and three-dimensional combination systems, which reduces the heat load and miniaturizes the production space;

High luminous efficiency: 90% of the emitted light can be absorbed by plants, but traditional high-pressure sodium lamps and metal halide lamps have only 8-10% luminous efficiency;

The light decay is very small, and the life span can be as high as 50,000 hours; the particularly strong durability also reduces the operating cost of the lamp.

In the greenhouse, you can choose plant lights to fill the cannabis light, but when choosing the fill light, you should pay attention to the power of the plant lights. The powerful plant lights can meet the light requirements of cannabis growth. If the temperature in the large shed is high, the water vapor is high, and the shed needs to be watered by spraying, then the selected plant light should also pay attention to the waterproof function. The high power of the plant light may lead to an increase in heat generation, so it is better for the plant light to have heat dissipation facilities, which can extend the service life of the plant light.

When choosing supplemental light, you can consider LED plant supplementary light. After a long period of development and research, LED plant light has clear data that can show that it can have a good supplementary light effect on vegetables, fruits, and flowers. It is used in greenhouses. It can be used in laboratories and plant factories. Therefore, when choosing a fill light for cannabis, you can choose a high-power LED plant light for lighting, which can have a good fill light effect.

www.86yr.com

[recentanimenews]

IN-DEPTH: Unraveling the Ecology Behind My Favorite Anime and Manga

  Ecology is a widely misunderstood term that is often confused with environmentalism. The word "ecology" originates from the Greek word oikos (home or household). As that suggests, ecology is the study of the organism and its oikos — its home or environment. Land, water, air, sunlight, plants, animals, other individuals of the same species, and itself — everything is part of an organism's environment along with the way everything relates to everything else. That’s ecology.

  Most information on ecology is in the form of research papers, textbooks, and popular science. In short, nonfiction. We may read nonfiction books on topics we are interested in, but for topics we aren’t interested in or even aware of? It’s unlikely. Fiction bridges the gap between education and enjoyment. You may not want to watch a documentary about agriculture, but you’d certainly be interested in watching Silver Spoon. It’s a win-win.

  Anime and manga have always had an interesting way of approaching topics of nature and ecology, whether it be a celebration of nature like A Place Further Than the Universe, a subtle treatise on ecological topics like Parasyte, or environmental commentary like Weathering With You. Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is probably the most important anime/manga piece of eco-fiction. These are all important works, but let's look at the ecological themes in three of my most treasured anime and manga, each of which embodies a different branch of ecology.

    Shin Sekai Yori (From the New World) and Behavioral Ecology

    From the New World might have the most overt connection to ecology. Author Yusuke Kishi was inspired to write the original novel after reading Konrad Lorenz’s 1963 book On Aggression. Konrad Lorenz is widely considered to be the father of modern behavioral ecology, perhaps best known for his studies on imprinting in geese. In On Aggression, Lorenz attempted to explain aggression (defined as the intent to harm another individual of the same species) through the framework of evolutionary biology. According to his (now outdated) "hydraulic model," frustration builds in the individual like a fluid until it is "released" by an outlet — namely, aggression.

  Aggression is a curious phenomenon. You are probably accustomed to seeing animals in grand fights to the death in nature documentaries. Except, this actually almost never happens. All organisms seek to be as "successful" as possible. In evolutionary terms, "success" comes from leaving behind as many descendants as possible. Can’t do that if you’re dead, can you? Even injuries have the potential to impact success: an injured individual might be viewed as an undesirable mate, for example. Animals will actively avoid violent escalation of conflict as much as possible — especially social animals where conflict is an inevitable byproduct of increased interaction, and powerful carnivorous animals who have the capability to kill. Lorenz wrote of how these animals must evolve behaviors that will reduce the impact of aggression. One of these anti-aggression adaptations might sound familiar to From the New World fans: attack inhibition.

  In From the New World, attack inhibition is one of the key properties of humans with the psychokinetic powers called Cantus. Basically, a human with Cantus will feel strongly unable to physically attack another human. Persisting with such an attack will result in the triggering of "death feedback," killing the attacker. This is similar to natural phenomena — fights among wolves or dogs usually have a clear winner and loser but rarely end in serious injury because bite strength is carefully moderated so as not to cause injury (a phenomenon called soft mouth). The loser will turn upside down, exposing their vulnerable regions to the winner, who will not attack as they have already established dominance. Similar behaviors can be observed in many other animals, such as ravens. According to Lorenz, this is the result of an innate attack inhibition that has evolved in these species.

    While the “death feedback” of From the New World might seem like a harsh punishment for aggression, it’s not too far off from the truth. A species whose individuals engage in wanton violence is not a species that would last long. In the words of Lorenz, “a raven can peck out the eye of another with one thrust of its beak, a wolf can rip the jugular vein of another with a single bite. There would be no more ravens and no more wolves if reliable inhibitions did not prevent such actions.”  In other words, violent escalation of conflict is undesirable for the individual, and by extension for the species. Natural selection is real-life “death feedback,” isn’t it?

  Lorenz also had a theory that less-powerful animals such as doves or rabbits have not evolved such inhibitions because they aren’t as necessary — except in captivity, where individuals are forced to confront each other with no possibility of escape. And what of us normal, Cantus-less humans, then? Lorenz describes us as "a dove which, by some unnatural trick of nature, has suddenly acquired the beak of a raven." In From the New World, the supposed “greatest danger to society” comes in the form of humans with weak or nonexistent Cantus — these individuals are not burdened with attack inhibition or death feedback. In short, individuals like you or me. Humans are a curious species, even without Cantus. Our use of tools bypasses conventional evolutionary pathways. We have not had time to adapt, but will we? Are war and conflict an inevitable byproduct of our aggressive tendencies? Both Lorenz and From the New World have one common thing to say: that there are no easy answers to this. 

    Golden Kamuy and Conservation Ecology

    Golden Kamuy is an ecologist’s paradise. Manga creator Satoru Noda packs pages with everything from delicate drawings of local flora to elaborate footnotes on the pooping habits of bears, really bringing early 20th-century Hokkaido to life. On the surface, Golden Kamuy is a classic gold rush western, a wild tale of conflict between the protagonists (ex-soldier Sugimoto and Ainu hunter Asirpa) and various other parties in search of lost Ainu gold. Beneath lies a greater conflict: humanity versus Hokkaido itself.

  Hokkaido is Japan’s largest prefecture, and one of its least-populated, accounting for 22 percent of Japan’s land area but only 4.4 percent of the population. Hokkaido is an island, physically separated from mainland Japan to the south by the Tsugaru Strait. This physical separation is known as Blakiston’s Line (after English explorer Thomas Blakiston). Several plants and animals found north of Blakiston’s Line (in Hokkaido) won’t be found south of it (in mainland Japan), and vice versa. So you have black bears and flying squirrels on the mainland but brown bears and chipmunks in Hokkaido. 

  Into this unique environment stepped modern human civilization in the form of settlers from mainland Japan and beyond — mostly ranchers, gold prospectors, and prisoners. In short, the majority of the Golden Kamuy cast. Although the Ainu people had lived in Hokkaido for a long period of time, their impact on the environment was minimal, as they lived sustainably off the land. The settlers were a different bunch, altering the environment in many ways. One of those ways was through farming. The Meiji government sought to modernize agricultural techniques in the country and brought in advisers from the West to do so. One of them, in particular, would change the landscape of Hokkaido for good — a certain Ohio rancher named Edwin Dun, who you might recognize as Eddie Dun from Golden Kamuy.

    Well before his first appearance in Volume 7, Dun’s role in de-wilding Hokkaido was hinted at in Volume 3 — Noda mentions an American rancher responsible for driving the Hokkaido wolf to extinction. Brought in to introduce scientific agricultural methods in 1873, Dun realized horse ranching in Hokkaido faced a significant hurdle: predation. Hokkaido wolves were slaughtering a good portion of horses and foals, so Dun took it upon himself to exterminate wolves from Hokkaido. His method of poisoning horse carcasses, combined with a bounty hunting system, worked a little too well — the last record of the Hokkaido wolf is from 1896.

  The other major way settlers impacted the environment of Hokkaido was through the very foundation of Golden Kamuy’s plot: gold mining. It has been well documented that even small-scale gold panning at rivers has serious consequences for fish populations — the mining activity disturbs the riverbed and increases the amount of sediment in downstream waters. This sediment contains greater levels of mercury and other trace minerals that can impact fish. The Hokkaido gold rush endangered the salmon of Hokkaido — one of the most important species of the ecosystem as a food source to bears and Ainu alike.

  Ultimately, Golden Kamuy is as much a study of human-nature conflict as it is of conflict between humans. Each of the three main factions of people — settlers, soldiers, and Ainu — view nature differently. To settlers like Eddie Dun, nature is an inconvenient hurdle to be tamed. To soldiers like Lieutenant Tsurumi, nature is a powerful hazard to their daily lives that is to be feared. And to Ainu like Asirpa, nature is an equal, meant to be treated with respect.

    MUSHI-SHI and Community Ecology

    MUSHI-SHI's central concept of enigmatic life-forms — called mushi — that flit on the edge of existence, enables it to tackle a whole bunch of ecological themes, but central to it all is what is known as community ecology. Community ecology studies the way different organisms interact at various scales in space and time. At the core of this field are interspecific interactions — how different species interact with each other. An interaction between two species could be anywhere between mutualism (where both parties benefit) or parasitism (where one exploits the other).

  The depiction of parasitism is extremely close to real life. Some mushi take over the host’s ears, some take over the eyes. Some take control of the entire body, leaving but a husk of a person behind. This horrifies us because, as humans, we aren’t really accustomed to parasites aside from the occasional hair lice or intestinal worms. To see the worst of parasitism, one needs to look at other species. Parasitoid wasps will "drug" large insects by stinging them before laying eggs inside them, when the young hatch, they can eat the host alive from the inside out. Why not outright kill the host? To keep them fresher for longer.

  The most intriguing parasites are those that alter the host’s behavior to their benefit. In Episode 3 of MUSHI-SHI The Next Passage, we encounter a man who seems to shun warmth of any kind, embracing the cold of winter. The most notable thing is the fact that he is not truly cold-resistant — his body is suffering from the effects of exposure, yet he seems not to notice. Unbeknownst to him, he is infected by a cold-loving mushi. This is textbook behavior alteration. Behavior-altering parasites have some of the most complex life-cycles of any organism. Toxoplasma, a small microorganism, infects rats. However, its true host (the one in which it can reproduce) is the domestic cat. To ensure that it reaches a cat, the Toxoplasma alters the behavior of its rat host, making it braver and less fearful of cats. Once this foolhardy rat is eaten by a cat, the Toxoplasma can finally reproduce, releasing spores via the cat’s droppings, ready to be eaten by — you guessed it — a rat. Thus the cycle starts over. This isn’t an isolated case — there are hundreds of such parasites, some with even more complex life cycles.

    No episode of MUSHI-SHI better encapsulates the ecology of parasitism than the Rosemary’s Baby-esque “Cotton Changeling” (Season 1, Episode 21). We encounter a mother and her strange, green-skinned, near-identical children. These "children" are not human — they are merely mushi pretending to be human. While the first "children" are barely able to walk, later generations are impressively human-like, with fully developed speech and intelligence. They resist protagonist Ginko's attempts to convince the mother to stop caring for them. This generational improvement mirrors nature, where parasites are engaged in an evolutionary arms race with their hosts. The hosts change to counter the parasite, and the parasite must keep pace too. A classic example can be seen with that most classic of parasites: the cuckoo. Over time, host birds learn to recognize cuckoo eggs or chicks and throw them out. In response, the cuckoo begins to lay eggs that are more similar to those of their host.

  If you thought parasitism was solely about harming the host, you’d be wrong — MUSHI-SHI understands this. In many episodes, mushi infection actually confers a benefit upon the infected person, who are sometimes unwilling to be cured by Ginko. Once again, this isn’t far off from real life. Researchers now believe there is a spectrum between mutualism and parasitism. In fact, many mutualisms began as parasitic interactions. One of the most widespread parasites — bacteria called Wolbachia that infect insects — confers benefits like viral immunity and insecticide resistance upon its host. Some insects are incapable of breeding without Wolbachia infection. But if you thought the Wolbachia was doing this out of benevolence, you’d be wrong again — Wolbachia is simply committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure its own survival. If the host dies, so does the parasite.

  Host-parasite interactions are cyclic, and MUSHI-SHI is all about such cycles. Shots of humans and mushi are contrasted with long shots of the forest floor, where leaves decay and rot, returning to soil, fueling the web of life. Mushi exploit humans, who exploit mushi, and the cycle continues. At the center of it all is Ginko, an ecologist if I’ve ever seen one. To Ginko, the mushi are neither good nor evil, they simply exist. Everything is only the way it should be, nothing more or less. Taking on the role of a neutral observer rather than an exterminator, he goes from place to place, motivated as much by his own curiosity as he is by a desire to help people. It is through Ginko that MUSHI-SHI shows us what it means to be an ecologist.  

  The Power of Fiction: A Personal Story

    I mentioned earlier that fiction has the power to make us interested in things we aren’t interested in. It also has the power to make us regain interest in things we lost interest in. I was once an ecologist-in-training. Since childhood, I had been fascinated by the natural world, and becoming an ecologist seemed like the natural culmination of such interests.

  It didn't pan out that way, sadly. I hated college. By the end of my long and protracted Master’s degree, I no longer had any love for ecology. I actively shied away from scientific discussions with my more illustrious colleagues and no longer made an effort to keep myself informed about current research. Me and ecology, we were finished. Or so I thought. I began to explore anime and manga — longtime interests of mine — more deeply as a sort of escape from my "failures" in academia. It was through the three titles discussed above that I was able to reconcile with the subject. My ecological knowledge actively enhanced my watching and reading experience and I suddenly felt a desire to rediscover what it was that made me love the subject so much in my early days. I was genuinely grateful for everything I'd learned because it helped me better appreciate such fine works of art. While I may never return to academia, I no longer feel the need to forget my time there, to push it out of my memory. I no longer feel that shame. It goes to show that anime and manga not only have the power to teach us about our world but can also touch our lives in strange and unexpected ways.  

By: Manas B. Sharma

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

[nova-network]

pokemon professors teaching actual college classes

Professor Oak: Mostly teaches introductory-level classes for undergraduates. Big fan of projects and papers, and by far the most likely professor to have his students give group presentations as their final instead of taking a sit-down exam. He’s very dedicated to his classes and will make sure he gets there to teach even if he has to show up in his pajamas or call in from the big evolution conference in Sinnoh. He also gives a LOT of feedback when grading papers. Also please stop asking to battle him. He’s not gonna do it.

Professor Elm: Knows his material like no one else... but this doesn’t exactly translate into being a good lecturer. Elm puts together his lectures and exams at the last minute and is prone to not giving back graded homework for months at a time just because he was too busy researching Pokemon embryo development or something. His tests are fair, though, and he gives a lot of extra credit. The most likely to have to bring in a substitute teacher. He talks very quickly when he lectures, but if you can keep up, he’s actually very informative.

Professor Birch: He’s the field trip guy. Ecology is his specialty, and a lot of his classes have students doing field work instead of sitting in a lecture hall. The homework he gives is mostly related to said field work. Very casual lecturer. Can and will show up to teach in shorts and sandals. He also has a tendency to assign his own books as textbooks. Very helpful teacher and a pretty easy grader, but he’s also quite informal and doesn’t always plan things out beforehand. Might call in Norman to give a guest lecture.

Professor Rowan: Very strict. Deadlines are deadlines, no, you don’t get an extension, and no, you don’t get extra credit for bringing him candy, what kind of professor would do that? (He’d still eat the candy, though.) That said, he’s actually a very helpful and dedicated professor as well, and wants to see all of his students succeed. The most likely to sit overtime in his office hours making sure you actually understand the material and get the help you need. He gives out a lot of homework and long exams, though.

Professor Juniper: Very enthusiastic professor, and a pretty easy grader. She just loves teaching, and doesn’t care too much about being caught up in the details. She just wants you to love the material she teaches as much as she does, and wants to make the class fun. She’s hard to keep up with, though, because she has a tendency to change plans at the last minute and suddenly you’re listening to 30 minutes of discussion on the potential origins of Victini when the rest of the class was about the development of multicellularity.

Sycamore: The easiest grader. The friendliest teacher. The one who actually will give you extra credit for bringing him food. There’s just one problem -- you won’t actually learn a damn thing in Sycamore’s classes. He loves talking to his students, but he probably won’t actually teach you very much unless you specifically insist on hearing about Zygarde or the Rotom Dex or whatever. Serious students hate him, casual learners love him, and he can and will give a lecture while teleconferencing in from a cafe.

Kukui: He’s very passionate about what he teaches, and is another professor who likes field trips and projects more than homework or tests. He really, really likes group activities, and is kind of unorthodox in the way he teaches -- he’d rather have students learn via Pokemon battles and working out problems on a white board than just sitting in the classroom listening to his lectures. He likes to put unconventional problems on his tests that require some out-of-the-box critical thinking, but they’re never too hard for the class level.

Magnolia: She is very fair, but also a very harsh grader. Her feedback is brutally honest, she can and will call you out if you try to skip class, and in the end she has to stick a huge curve on the grades because oops, it turns out that Biophysics of Dynamaxing has a class average grade of 56%. She expects you to take the material seriously, no matter what. She’s the anti-Sycamore. But she’s also very accommodating if you have real issues. Can’t focus in class due to ADHD? Missed a deadline because you got sick? Magnolia is here to help.

#pokemon #pokemon professor #pokemon sword and shield #professor oak #professor sycamore #professor magnolia #humor #college #all my professors are magnolias now