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reasonsforhope · 11 days

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"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule Tuesday [April 9, 2024] that will require 218 chemical plants to reduce toxic and carcinogenic airborne pollutants, aiming to reduce the number of people with elevated cancer risk by 96% nationwide.

The rulings principally address chloroprene: used to make rubber products, and ethylene oxide, used primarily for sterilizing medical supplies. Long-term exposure to these chemicals and their manufacturing have been identified as possible carcinogens, or cancer-causing agents.

According to a report in the Washington Post, this can include lymphoma, leukemia, breast cancer, and liver cancer.

Across a strip of Louisiana and Texas where half of the 218 chemical manufacturing facilities set to be affected by the new regulations are located, cancer rates of these kinds are substantially higher than national averages, leading it to be colloquially called “Cancer Alley.”

EPA Administrator Michael Regan visited Cancer Alley during the open-comment period of the proposed ruling, and said that across the 85 miles dotted with communities, he failed to meet a single person who didn’t know a loved one or friend who had either developed cancer, died of it, or knew someone who had.

Once implemented, the ruling will reduce more than 6,200 tons of toxic air pollution each year, according to the Post."

-via Good News Network, April 15, 2024

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hometoursandotherstuff · 1 month

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This 1924 New Orleans, Louisiana home was remodeled in 2021 and it's fabulous. 5bds, 5.5ba, $2.425M.

Enter a large reception hall.

The sitting room is lovely in deep blue with a white marble fireplace and wide crown molding.

Off the sitting room is a matching dining room with a lovely marble art deco fireplace.

Beautiful light gray kitchen remodel has a distinctly French look. I like the black counters and how they contrasted the island with white.

Next to the kitchen is an elevator.

Love how they hid the laundry in closet so the bath looks beautiful.

Look at the size of this shower. Love the bench.

The primary bedroom is lovely. Enough room for 2 large shelving units and a corner fireplace. I like the details over the doors and the color of the muted color of the room. There's also a very light gold pattern on the ceiling, complemented by the gold chandelier.

This beautiful bedroom is also spacious.

It has a walk-in closet with a chandelier.

And, it has a nice en-suite.

Small home office has doors to the garden.

A luxurious bath with an armoire and a chaise.

Cute smaller bedroom has a corner fireplace, too.

The baths in this home are all beautifully done.

Wonderful upper deck.

The garden is so pretty, it has to be professionally landscaped.

Behind the house is a large, gorgeous pool and a second residence.

Some may call it a guest house, but it's full sized home.

This is beautiful, I wouldn't mind living in this house.

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/6028-Prytania-St_New-Orleans_LA_70118_M72306-90619

#NOLA homes #houses #house tours #home tour

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3rdeyeblaque · 7 months

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On September 10th we venerate Elevated Ancestor, Voodoo Queen of Louisiana, & Saint, Marie Catherine Laveau on her 222nd birthday 🎉

[for our Hoodoos of the Vodou Pantheon]

Marie Catherine Laveau was a dedicated Hoodoo, healer, herbalist, & midwife who, "traveled the streets [of New Orleans] like she owned them", as the most infamous Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.

Marie C. Laveau I was born a "Free Mulatto" in today's French Quarter in what was then, New France); to a mother & grandmother who were both born into slavery & later freed via freedom papers. It is believed that she grew up in the St. Ann Street cottage of her maternal grandmother.

She married Jacques Santiago-Paris, a "Quadroon" "Free Man of Color", who fled as a refugee from Saint-Domingue, Haiti from the Haitian Revolution in the former French colony . After his passing, she became known as "The Widow Paris". She then worked as a hairdresser catering to White families & later entered a domestic partnership with a French nobleman his death. She excelled at obtaining inside information on her wealthy patrons by instilling fear in their servants whom she either paid or cured of mysterious ailments. Although she never abandoned her Catholic roots, she became increasingly interested in her mother’s African traditional beliefs. The Widow Paris learned her craft from a ‘Voodoo doctor’ known variously as Doctor John or John Bayou.

Marie C. Laveau I is said to have intiated into Voodoo career sometime in the 1820s. She's believed to be descended from a long line of Voodoo Priestesses, all bearing her same name. She was also a lifelong devout Catholic. It didn’t take long before Marie C. Laveau I dominated New Orleans Voodoo culture & society before claiming title of Queen. She was the 3rd Voodoo Queen of NOLA - after Queen Sanité Dédé & Queen Marie Salopé. During her decades tenure, she was the premier beacon of hope and service to customers seeking private consultations - to aid in matters such as family disputes, health, finances, etc, created/sold gris gris, perforemed exorcisms. While her daughter Marie II was known for her more theatrical displays of public events, Marie C. Laveau I was less flamboyant in her persona. She conducted her work in 3 primary locations throughout the city: her home on St. Ann Street, Congo Square, & at Lake Pontchartrain. Despite one account of a challenge to her authority in 1850, Marie C. Laveau I maintained her leadership & influence.

The Queen died peacefully in her sleep in her ole cottage home on St. Ann Street. Her funeral was conducted according to the rite of the Catholic Church & in the absence of any Voodoo rites. To her Voodoo followers, she's venerated as a Folk Saint. In² addition to her Priesthood in Voodoo and title of Queen, she is also remembered for her community activism; visiting prisoners, providing lessons to women of the community, & doing ritual work for those in need.

She is generally believed to have been buried in plot 347, the Glapion family crypt in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans. As of March 1st, 2015, there is no longer public access to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Entry with a tour guide is required due to continued vandalism & tomb raiding.

We pour libations & give her💐 today as we celebrate her for her love for & service to the people, through poverty, misfortune, bondage, & beyond.

Offering suggestions: flowers + libations at her grave, catholic hymns, holy water, gold rings/bracelets, money

‼️Note: offering suggestions are just that & strictly for veneration purposes only. Never attempt to conjure up any spirit or entity without proper divination/Mediumship counsel.‼️

#hoodoo #hoodoos #atr #atrs #the hoodoo calendar #conjure #rootwork #rootworkers #ancestor veneration #Marie c Laveau #Voodoo #Voodoo Queens #new orleans #new orleans Voodoo #Vodou Pantheon #Haitian Voodou

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magicalqueennightmare · 3 months

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Little Witch (Pt 4/5)

Klaus Mikaelson x Reader

When you find your mother you nearly rip yourself apart to end her

You knew the moment the barrier came down in your head that you were working against the clock. The surge in magic from you would alert the old hag that your memories were back, she'd know you were coming and she'd know it wouldn't simply end with one of you scarred this time. A death would be the only thing to end this, and one gruesome enough to ensure no chance of resurrection.

You spared a glance around the hotel room you'd been staying in. You needed to grab anything worthwhile out of it but it occurred to you nothing there mattered. The clothes were those you'd brought just to have some on your back. Every material possession that mattered still lay within your shared room with Klaus.

Your heart ached when you thought of his smile. The way so many viewed him as nothing shy of evil yet he was so gentle with Hope, with you. The memory of his laughter when Hope had covered you and Hayley both with bright pink icing at her first birthday.

You'd never meant to fall for the hybrid. Your goal when you first came to New Orleans was to be by Hayley's side for the pregnancy and birth then to ensure that a deep enough line in the sand was drawn to make anyone think twice of letting a threat towards Hope fall from their lips but your traitorous heart had other plans. He'd proven to be such a different person at his core then you'd originally thought him to be.

The Mikaelsons in general were an anomaly to you. They fought each other, daggered each other and claimed to hate each other at moments but the only thing fiercer than the Mikaelsons fighting against each other was when they were fighting for each other. That's how you knew they would be with your loss. They'd survived worse.Each member of the ancient family held a place in your heart and you hoped they knew it.

Your mother wouldn't win this fight no matter what it cost you. If mutual destruction was the only way to ensure she never crossed paths with those you loved then so be. You could make peace with it knowing you'd taken at least one threat down with you.

—-----------

You shut the door to the hotel room and walked towards the stairs. You didn't have time to wait for the elevator. There were normal humans here, on this floor alone you counted three families, two couples and a few guys on one last road trip before they graduated college. You needed to put distance between you and any collateral damage.

You made it to the first floor of the hotel and headed for the door. The moment you stepped into the cool night air you felt the stir of another's magic brush against yours but this was no witch native to New Orleans. Marcel had made the introductions himself between you and local covens to make sure there were no “misunderstandings” as he called it.

No, this magic felt familiar. Yours answered the call, flaring with long buried anger from abuse at the hands that waited at the other end of this call. “Come and get me bitch” you muttered under your breath heading for the cemetery you'd picked for this confrontation. You refused to let her have the say so as to where you fought this time.

She'd ambushed you and Elijah like the coward she was but this time you were ready. No siphoner was in the state of Louisiana. Without that added advantage she couldn't take you one on one and win. You were a lot older than when you'd given her that scar. This time you wouldn't miss.

“There's one cemetery we haven't checked. Where Hope was almost killed the day she was born. Klaus, her power draws strength from her emotions the memory of the anger she felt that day would be enough to wipe out a coven” Hayley was home with Hope considering everyone she'd be safe with was trying to find you but that didn't stop her from helping the search. Klaus relayed the idea to his siblings then started to hang up but Hayley called his name “Yes?” “Don't let our daughter lose anyone tonight. Promise me” “I promise. Come morning her entire family will be together to greet her”

He hung up and turned his attention to the matter at hand. The air hung heavier the closer they got to the cemetery in question. Magic was at use, something he at one time would've avoided. The closer he got to the cemetery in question he could feel what magic was yours, it felt familiar. As familiar as your lips brushing against his or a whisper of your voice in his ear. What he at one time despised now was a comfort. You were alive and from the feel of it putting up one hell of a fight to stay that way.

You groaned as you shoved yourself to your feet. How the hell was she this strong? You glared at her as you rotated your neck in a tight circle and got your answer. Multiple auras were around her, not just her own muddled brown one but an orange aura and two pale yellow ones. Your aunts. “You resurrected their powers but not them? You're that determined to kill me?”

You could feel energy swirling inside of her, she was building another attack “You're the biggest mistake I've ever made. I should've killed you the moment you were born but hoped getting rid of that father of yours would help” you let a smirk slip onto your face “Didn't expect his mother to come get me huh?”

You could see the stolen auras shimmer as if she was barely holding onto them. “The difference between me and you? I'll die before you walk out of this cemetery and go anywhere near the people I love” you hoped if you could keep her talking you could build a big enough blast of energy to rip her very soul to shreds.

You tossed a small amount of power at her and she staggered then grinned “I'm going to kill you then I'll siphon power off your hybrid” you felt anger roll through you at mention of Klaus but then she tilted her head and said “Then I'll drain the little tribrid dry” your vision burst in a haze of blue, your magic oozing out of you “Did you really just threaten the two most important people to me?”

You walked towards her and for the first time in your life saw true fear in her eyes “I'll tear myself apart before you hurt them because unlike you, I know what love actually is”

"I can't go in” Freya nodded to the entrance of the cemetery “She's got it warded too strongly but I can feel her Nik. She's using too much of herself. If someone with vampire blood isn't there to give it to her the moment she hits the ground she's gonna die alongside that old bitch”

“Kol stay with Freya” Rebekah ordered before nodding to her other brothers “Let's go”

—-----------

In all their years neither Mikaelson had ever seen a show of magic like what they just walked into. Every inch of your body was covered in a blue light, your magic no longer hidden within your form. Even your eyes had shifted from their usual color to a vibrant blue that glowed in the dark light. A shield was formed of your magic, blocking them from getting closer. Whatever happened now they were forced to watch.

—--------

Your vision was narrowed down on one thing, making this bitch suffer before she died. You could feel others approaching and vaguely registered that they were familiar to you but you couldn't falter and give her an opening. It was time to end this. You leant down and grabbed her around the throat before lifting her up off her feet.

Where the physical strength to hold her three feet off the ground had come from you weren't sure but you didn't care either. You looked into her eyes and smiled as a blue flame began to devour her from the inside out. “You shouldn't have come for me. You shouldn't have dragged anyone I care into it” your grip tightened on her throat before you added “and you damn sure shouldn't have threatened Klaus or Hope” you held onto her as her aura and the stolen ones of your aunts burnt under your flame “You'll die too” she tried but you simply smiled “So be it”

When the final glimmer of her flicked away it was like you'd been drained. Your vision shifted from the blue haze to a gray fog. You'd burnt a piece of yourself off to kill her and there was a chance you'd burnt off too much.

You felt your legs go out from under you and expected to hit the hard ground but two strong arms caught you and you heard a voice that fought against the darkness threatening to take you “Stay with me love” “Klaus?” You whispered before your eyes drifted shut.

“She's breathing and her wounds are healing. Your blood worked Nik. She just needs rest now” Freya stood protectively over where you were laid on one of the couches in the Mikaelson compound.

Klaus let his eyes track the movement of your chest rising and falling simply to reassure himself you were still alive. “It shouldn't have taken this much out of her. She's taken on covens before and didn't tire”

Freya glanced up at him “A mother to a witch is like a sire to a vampire. In a way she broke her sire line. That's why it took so much out of her, why it nearly killed her. A lesser witch would've burnt with her mother and had no say so over it”

Klaus flicked his eyes from his sister back to your still form. He'd nearly lost you. He'd do everything in his power to keep you safe. No one would harm you again. “Just give her space. We'll see how she's feeling come morning”

@benbarnesprettygurl @secretdreamlandmentality @svtbpbts @a-beaverhausen @snowtargaryen

#klaus mikaelson x y/n #klaus mikaelson x reader #klaus mikaelson fic #klaus mikaelson fanfiction #the originals fanfiction #tvd fanfiction

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thatwobblychair · 19 days

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CoD Baddies as Bears!

What if the bad guys were also bears! Part 3

See part 2 and 1 for 141 and good guys as bears

Even more bear facts because bears are love, bears are life. 🐻🐻‍❄️🧬

Makarov: Ussuri Brown Bear "Russian Grizzly Bear"

Ursus arctos lasiotus

Also known as the Ezo Brown bear or Black Grizzly bear, this subspecies of Eurasian Brown Bear is one of the largest, with some individuals approaching the Kodiak Bear in size.

Similar to the Kamchatka Brown Bear, it differs with an elongated skull, longer nasal bones, elevated forehead and is darker in colour with some individuals being pure black.

Siberian (Amur) tigers and other bears are it's only natural predators, with documented tiger and bear interspecific competitions. Ussuri brown bears will often scavenge tiger kills and or kill smaller tigers, while Tigers are known to hunt young and sub-adult bears (bears making a significant portion of their diet).

Graves: Louisiana Black Bear

Ursus americanus luteolus

A subspecies* of the American Black Bear (U. a. americanus), the Louisiana Black Bear has been historically found in Louisiana, Mississippi, East Texas and Arkansas.

It is not substantially different from the American Black Bear, though it has a longer, flatter, narrower skull and larger molars in comparison. It's colouration is typically black, though some individuals have been known to be brown/red-brown cinnamon. It is Louisiana's official state mammal.

*The validity of this subspecies has been repeatedly debated.

Valeria: Sloth Bear "Indian Bear"

Melursus ursinus

A native species to the Indian Subcontinent, this medium sized bear feeds on ants, termites and fruit. It is also called the "labiated bear" due to its long lower lip and palate which is used to eat insects.

It's fur is pure black aside from the white "Y" or "V" patch on its chest though this can be absent in some individuals. They are similar in size with the Asian Black Bear though distinguished with it's shaggy mane, white 'sickle' claws, and rangier build.

This species is the most aggressive to humans with the largest number of recorded attacks due to a combination of close human cohabitation and a theorised predisposition to aggressive behaviour from constant attacks by tigers, leopards, rhinos and elephants.

Captain Williamson in his Oriental Field Sports (1819) wrote of how sloth bears rarely killed their human victims outright, but would suck and chew on their limbs till they were reduced to bloody pulps.

They are not known to be man eaters despite attacking humans. One individual in Mysore (Mysuru), India was recorded to have killed at least 12 people and mutilated 24 before it's death in 1957.

Shepherd: Koala "Koala Bear"**

Phascolarctos cinereus

**not a bear

An arboreal marsupial native to Australia that feeds primarily on Eucalyptus leaves. Koalas are asocial with bonding only taking place between mothers and dependant offspring. They are largely sedentary and will sleep upwards to 20 hours a day.

The word "koala" came from the Dharug word "gula" - no water. The 'u' sound was originally written phonetically as 'oo' and then became 'oa'. The three syllable pronunciation may be erroneous as a result.

White settlers adopted the 'koala' indigenous loan word in reference to the animal, where it was also referred to as, the "native bear", or the "koala bear" due to its supposed bear-ish resemblance.

Info from Wikipedia. Please let me know if I screwed up somewhere. 🐻

#cod mwiii #cod mwii #call of duty modern warfare #call of duty #vladimir makarov #cod makarov #phillip graves #graves cod #valeria garza #valeria mw2 #general shepherd #bears #bear facts #cod mw2 #cod mw3

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notashadowbutawave · 3 months

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i almost posted this on the true detective subreddit episode thread but thought better of it:

I've gotta say… I feel like a lot of complaints people are having about this season of the show don't pass muster objectively when held up against Season 1. Melodrama, "unrealistic" dialogue, complaining about being shown too much about people's personal lives and not caring about the characters…

There is so much unrealistic dialogue in season 1. The way Marty and Rust during their video interviews just come in talking about some big philosophical idea or "life wisdom" nugget in the middle of the episode (nobody talks like that IRL). The scene with Marty's daughter and the princess crown, for example. Marty cheating on his wife multiple times isn't like, objectively "more interesting" than Evangeline's sister having mental health issues or Liz being sexually promiscuous and a mess.

I've seen season 1 probably 10 times and I adore it but a lot of the angry comparisons people are making to S1 kind of just come off as straight up misogyny at a certain point. Like it rubs people the wrong way because it's women. Complaining about Liz and Evangeline going to the dredge without backup but when Rust and Captain America Marty Hart do something like that it's believable?

I don't think anyone's obligated to like the season by any means but you can just say you aren't feeling it as opposed to trying to make these apples-to-apples comparisons to season 1 that really don't hold water; I think people are just a lot more willing to accept this type of storytelling when it's about men and kind of has a fetishization/shame angle with masculinity in general. Like S1 is very masculine but it's also a love story. idk. I'm gay so I should probably stick to Tumblr for talking about this show, ya'll are wild.

----

idk watching people who are probably white dudes complain on Reddit that we are seeing too much "native culture" on the show strikes me as really icky.

i recognize that these are reddit comments and not like, actual media criticism but i think it says a lot about how people are conditioned to understand storytelling in general. like there's still so much fucking misogyny and white supremacy in our mainstream media and i realize a lot of people wouldn't say it out loud but i think they genuinely just find it exhausting that they're being asked to contemplate the interior lives of native alaskans and women by watching this show lmao

(that's not a value judgment about how well it is doing at depicting Iñupiat culture because i'm not the person who gets to make that judgment but it REALLY rubs me the wrong way that people can't STAND even seeing it depicted)

(i think the fetishization of the American south also has a lot to do with it, like people are very willing to accept the aesthetic style of the American south as a vehicle for crime/mystery/possibly supernatural storytelling because it really doesn't challenge any conceptions they might have about the genre) (it helps that Woody Harrelson and Matthew McCounaughey are native southerners with great acting talent and natural screen chemistry who really took Season 1 to a higher level, in no small part thanks to their uncredited script doctoring. with lesser actors I think the story falls flat as hell because you need them to sell a rich relationship and complex inner lives with their performances because SO MUCH of their relationship is subtextual) (so when people see these great acting performances in the context of a police procedural set in Louisiana i think they're very pre-conditioned to elevate it to an almost mythical status in the genre because it doesn't present TOO many challenges to a conventional worldview about who has power and agency in stories)

like I said i've watched season 1 probably 10 times. it's very good. but it does MANY of the same things that people are complaining about regarding season 4/night country in terms of showing a lot of relationship/sexual drama for the leads and their Tragic Pasts. they just don't like it. which is fine. i just think it's a disingenuous angle to approach criticism of the show.

like if any actor other than McConaughey were doing Rust's monlogues in S1 it would not have been very good because it would have come off like self-serious edgelord shit, which is what it actually was (pizzolatto sucks) before it ended up in the hands of competent producers and performers. instead it really comes off like a man who has suffered and developed this worldview genuinely, within himself, not as a way to wield power over others but to protect himself from harm.

anyway....

for my part, i wanna know what the fuck is up with the spirals and the bad CGI polar bear visions and i'm going to be disappointed if it's not just some massive red herring designed to freak people out a little because that's what we deserve.

but in terms of like, the characters' lives, i generally find them very interesting. the opening scene of episode 3 with annie genuinely moved me to tears. annie seems like a fucking cool person and i would love another flashback about her.

i love that liz is a fucking asshole who is constantly being forced to confront her own behavior as racist, self-centered, impulsive, etc.

i love that evangeline is a very lonely person just barely keeping it together. kali reis is putting on an amazing performance. also, for the record, i'm VERY gay.

i wanna know more and there are only 2 episodes left and i hope it sticks the landing so i can write a big actual essay about what it did well from a storytelling perspective!

gosh i just love serialized fiction on the television

#true detective season 4 #true detective night country #night country #true detective spoilers

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vintagerpg · 7 months

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This is Cults of Cthulhu (2022), a fantastic and weirdly long overdue sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu (It’s a Call of Cthulhu kind of week!).

Why is it overdue? Well, Cthulhu is a pretty key part of the name of the game, but the big squid was really only featured in one adventure, the first CoC campaign, Shadows of Yog-Sothoth. Since then, if there is a prime antagonist of the CoC game writ large, its Nyarlathotep. That’s a cosmic entity who gets around.

With Cults of Cthulhu, we get the first serious and fairly exhaustive examination of the worldwide Cthulhu cult hinted at in Lovecraft’s story. The overview is provided in an in-universe style by two characters: Mildred Schwartz works off Professor Angell’s original research to provide a history of the cult from the dawn of history to 1930. David Eberhart’s blog builds on Schwartz’s timeline, detailing developments from the ‘30s to the present. This isn’t quite so thrilling to read as the Delta Green timeline, but it is certainly entertaining and feels a bit more usable for a game.

Following that, the book presents five cults in depth. There are two old ones, the Louisiana swamp cult and the Esoteric Order of Dagon, and three new ones, the Elevated Order of Morpheus (a Victorian occult club), the Society of the Angelic Ones (a California cult) and the Church of Perfect Science (a riff on Scientology). Those new ones are the subject of lengthy scenarios later in the book and have a thread connecting them that ends on a deliciously ambiguous note. There is also a robust guide to creating your own Cthulhu cults, something I feel like I could do indefinitely. All this is wrapped up in a handsome package, as well — I generally like Chaosium’s production values these days but this one feels a bit above their average in terms of art.

An instant classic, basically.

#roleplaying game #tabletop rpg #dungeons & dragons #rpg #d&d #ttrpg #Cults of Cthulhu #Call of Cthulhu #Chaosium

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typhlonectes · 1 year

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BIG NEWS IN SALAMANDER TAXONOMY!

Unraveling Siren (Caudata: Sirenidae) systematics and description of a small, seepage specialist

Fedler, Enge, and Moler

Abstract

For approximately four decades, scientists have known of the existence of several undescribed species of Siren in the southeastern United States Coastal Plain.

One of these species, S. reticulata, was recently described, but a small, seepage-dwelling species has remained undescribed until now.

To resolve outstanding questions concerning the phylogeny of Siren, we collected sequence and morphometric data from specimens across the range of Siren.

We found S. lacertina and S. reticulata to represent strongly supported monophyletic groups, with S. reticulata having a sister relationship to all other Siren. Additionally, we found five distinct mtDNA lineages within what has been recognized as S. intermedia. Siren lacertina and type-locality S. intermedia (lineage A) are sister mtDNA lineages, whereas S. intermedia lineages B and C show a high level of mitogenomic divergence from type-locality S. intermedia.

Analyses of two scnDNA loci revealed that S. lacertina is monophyletic but nested with low positional support in a clade including the three S. intermedia mtDNA lineages. Further study is needed to determine whether S. intermedia lineages A, B, and C represent distinct species or incompletely sorted lineages.

We restrict the range of S. intermedia to the region from the Escambia and Perdido river drainages of Florida and Alabama eastward through Virginia (the combined ranges of lineages A, B, and C).

We also elevate S. i. nettingi (lineage E) to species status and include the larger S. i. texana form in that taxon, generating a species that occurs from the Mobile Bay drainages westward through the Mississippi Basin and southwest into northeastern Mexico.

Lastly, we describe a new miniature species, S. sphagnicola, that ranges from the Florida Parishes of Louisiana eastward to the westernmost tributary creeks of Choctawhatchee Bay in the western Florida panhandle.

Read more here:

https://mapress.com/zt/article/view/zootaxa.5258.4.1

#salamander #siren #aquatic #amphibian #animals #nature #science #north america #texas #florida #herpetology

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soberscientistlife · 6 months

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Mike Johnson, a representative from Louisiana, won election on Wednesday as the 56th speaker of the House of Representatives, putting an end to three weeks of chaos that left the chamber without a leader and put Republican divisions on display.

Republicans elevated Johnson, 51, a little-known and deeply conservative lawmaker after a tumultuous fight that began after the hard right ousted then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and raged on as the divided House G.O.P. nominated and then quickly discarded three other candidates to succeed him.

A lawyer and former chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, Johnson played a pivotal role in congressional efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Tap the link in our bio to read more about the new speaker. Photo by @kenny_holston

Source: The New York Times

The last paragraph tell you all you need to know.

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ablackwomansurvivingrape · 2 years

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Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy: Our Maternal Death Rates Are Only Bad If You Count Black Women

"As conservatives across the country wage war on reproductive rights, demanding by law that women be forced to carry any pregnancy to term, regardless of the circumstances, they frequently (slash always) like to forget that they do absolutely nothing to support these people during said pregnancies or after. Mississippi, for example, where abortion will immediately become illegal if Roe v. Wade is overturned, has the highest rate of child poverty in the country and recently rejected a bid to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage. And in Louisiana, which has a similar trigger law that will go into effect upon Roe being reversed, maternal mortality rates are among the worst in the nation. But according to GOP senator Bill Cassidy, the rate at which women die during pregnancy or shortly after is not as bad as it seems—if you subtract the deaths of Black women, which apparently don’t count.

In an interview with Politico, the following words came out of Cassidy’s mouth: “About a third of our population is African American; African Americans have a higher incidence of maternal mortality. So, if you correct our population for race, we’re not as much of an outlier as it’d otherwise appear. Now, I say that not to minimize the issue but to focus the issue as to where it would be. For whatever reason, people of color have a higher incidence of maternal mortality.”

There’s a lot to unpack here. Let’s start with the idea that Cassidy—who wants to defund Planned Parenthood is all, Yes, on its face, our maternal mortality rates are abysmal, but if you only count white women, they’re not that bad! Then there’s the phrase “for whatever reason.” In fact, there is one very big reason in particular— perhaps you can take a guess? “It’s no mystery why maternal mortality rates are so high among Black women,” Michelle Williams, the dean of Harvard’s School of Public Health said in response. “They are high because of the devastating impacts of structural racism and individual bias.” As Politico notes, Black mothers are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white mothers in the U.S., which has the worst mortality rate among developed nations and where “17 mothers die for every 100,000 pregnancies in the country.” In Louisiana, Black mothers are four times as likely to die than white mothers.

Asked what how Roe v. Wade being overturned would affect maternal mortality rates, Cassidy dismissed the question. “If we’re using abortion to limit maternal deaths, that’s kind of an odd way to approach the problem,” he said. That, of course, is total bullshit. As NBC News reported earlier this month, “Research suggests the bans and restrictions would have manifold effects on maternal health. For one, if more pregnant people can’t get the abortions they seek, they’d shoulder the risk of the U.S.’s relatively high—and rising—rate of death from pregnancy-related causes, which is particularly elevated among people of color.” As Dr. Amy Addante, an ob-gyn in Illinois, bluntly put it: “There are going to be women that will die from pregnancy because of this decision, period.”

#black maternal health #black maternal deaths #black women #Louisiana state senator #Bill Cassidy #roe vs. wade #racisim #maternial death rates

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spiderh0rse · 18 days

Text

freeman's mind notes part 10, e46-50

e46

if he was hardcore... But you said TWO EPISODES AGO that you were

he doesn't mind too much that his new job seems to be killing people

mocks the xenians about earth gravity

thinks in the south, particularly florida and louisiana, you shoot at rescue helicopters to signal them. Well. i can't say anything to the contrary.

minefield >:[

tries to open ANOTHER giant metal door

haven't bombed this place enough? Well, no!

squirrel on the roof could be payback,,,

yells as he almost slips on the stairs

"this must be how old people feel about stairs..." and me! Stairs are a MENACE and a HAZARD TO SOCIETY. what is wrong with RAMPS, HUH?

we hear a sniper round impact the HEV suit

tries to pry open another large metal rolling door

"GRRAAAHHHHHHGHHHH"

not yet shot enough to take off all the orange paint

almost walks into a tripmine in plain sight. He's getting tired.

talks about snipers the way some people discuss clown husbandry

climbs on around this bullshit

figures out Xen's lower gravity

are there coyotes in new mexico? uh. probably

he thinks we'd be better at math and subsequently further along in technology if we had more fingers. I'd agree with that

MAYBE killing scared unarmed people doesn't make him the good guy

asks after a random guys finger amount

e47

he is not going to wait in this room

thinks things are just going to get worse forever

dumbfounded that this guy is afraid of a couple tripmines

either made vaguely uneasy by clowns or expects the other scientist to be afraid of em

doesn't notice the rockets as he shoots the headcrabs

sneezes :(

yeah he's realizing what's up with the rockets now. Doesn't seem too afraid though

checks a body for money. Admits the soldiers would have taken any

thinks a platform might have spikes that come out of it. Jumps onto it, wondering if he can trigger it. Sir.

considers the spike platform may be for an abattoir

squeezes on by some bars and onto the elevator

hivehand looks awful. He shoots it. No hivehand.

"BLAHHHHHHH."

surprisingly DOESN'T shoot at someone that runs towards him

"friends are like weeds that scream"

just wants a VEHICLE

always meant to learn how to hotwire a car

sobs when stuff starts shooting at him unexpectedly

the tank is NOT supposed to be here

its CLEARLY rocket launcher time

hes never joining the military

e48

new intro! a portion of On A Rail.

sobs as the tank shoots at him

"TELL REALITY TO STOP CHEATING"

grappling hook mention

boops out entry of the gladiators

ANOTHER sniper

yells at the soldiers that there's a sniper outside

can't turn off the radio. Smashes it.

he wouldn't make a good surgeon.

he likes when people call him "sir." I'd forgotten about that I just feel like being polite when I address his more insane notions.

Eddie mention! This time to sell the contents of that giant room full of ordinance

"this might be a warzone but theres money to be made here" war profiteer

can Eddie even handle this many guns? He'll sure try. He gets a sparkle in his eye. Same one he had before going to Panama. That turned out! A way!

if he knew where he were going a few hundred people would be alive rn

he's always wanted a Crown Victoria from a police auction. Drive it around with the stripes, put some fake blood on the hood...

does seem reasonably friendly towards that one guard for a bit. Not enough to wait for him but enough to be almost nice

"nee!"

"hoop bup pah!"

admits he's kind of dropped the kill everyone policy he had

he wants to train a chimp on karate to attack everyone but him

man this guy just LOVES roleplaying as Respectable Professions (Meant To Be Here optional)

shoots the guard on accident. Feels a bit bad but mostly just angry

e49

thinks soldiers are less likely to change history than any random people

...okay he can bust down large doors. Okay.

"I'M NOT ALLERGIC TO BEES, ASSHOLE" sentence you do not hear often

just taking so much electricity to the face. Yelps every time he does

wants to hook up the vortigaunts to a generator

screams when the trampoline bounces him up. does a weird little whine immediately afterwards

the last time he was juggled in the air did NOT go well

"everybody wins! :D especially me"

kills SO many snarks and avoids the nests

fucking love how he rambles when panicking

he had to deal with people shooting at him in ventilation shafts in high school

gasps multiple times when grenades are launched at him

walks right on by a battle when it doesn't affect him directly

shotgun chess! Kill them in the right order or else

doesn't really like chess because some guy can memorize board positions and guess what you'll do

DOES like memorizing chemical bonds

decides he wants the aliens to win these fights

"thank you, oh dark ones, i pay homage"

deeply panicked about the explosive-small pipe situation. Doesn't want to think that ambush is tbe only use of that pipe

just glad no puns were made

e50

likes that being stuck in this tube more than other places because it's not immediately deadly

ghost noises

he's a ghost with a shotgun!

I'm pretty sure he believes in ghosts and thinks he owes them murder now. He likes having ghosts on his side

"in the shining they let him out to kill his family but that doesn't really apply to me"

he's getting a bit silly with the ghost thing

wonders briefly if HE'S a ghost

random guard gets to join the Freeman Fan Club because the ghosts do not order his death

ITS ANOTHER LOBSTER

as always the bouncepads don't work well

jaunty "sir yes sir" to the military radio calling in

hes got time for exploding shit. He'll make time.

less communication is the best communication

very good at aiming the airstrikes

would love an airstrike map for the whole world

glad the military is going to leave him alone now

the HEV doesn't do shit against 50 tons of rock

#KHEKSHFH FELIXBINDLE IS HERE #the little blue guy (sopping wet) is felix freeman #gordon's brother from felix's mind #freeman's mind #gordon freemind #mindverse #OH YES :felixbindle: was made by the excellent artist Prinnamon #as seen on tumblr #CORRECTION: felixbindle failed to show up upon posting to my great dismay #hes adorable. check out prinnamon anyways #rmanotes

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monstersinthecosmos · 7 months

Text

September 16, 1973

Somewhere in the middle of Louisiana Daniel wonders if he should publish the transcript. Maybe it’s actually a manuscript.

His producer at the station used to tell him to put the interviews in print. He knew a guy in New York, gave Daniel his card. Daniel watches as the landscape becomes lush and green and overgrown and thinks all the way to his apartment in San Francisco, and can picture where the card was pinned to his bulletin board over his desk.

The idea had intimidated him before. Seemed like too much work. Spinning all these interviews into narratives, tinkering with them, moving around the pieces and parts of text until they made sense. A little more work than he felt like doing.

There’s no real clear path forward; he thinks ahead to New Orleans, to Lestat. Unsure what he’ll be like, how he’ll respond. If he’ll attack, the way Louis did. Unsure if he’ll survive it.

And maybe a book would be the collateral he could leave. Or some message, so that people remember him. Connie, and Jeff, and his cousin, and his mom.

He pulls off the highway at the next gas station he sees. Ain’t No Grave playing from a tinny radio in the garage. He buys smokes and tops off his tank while he has the opportunity but really stopped for the payphone. He flips through the phone book; close enough to New Orleans that he can look up some hotels. He tries to pick one that doesn’t sound fancy and calls ahead to ask about their vacancy, asks them to hold a room for tonight.

The voice on the line is disinterested, but they help him. He lights a cigarette as he hangs up, as he fishes more change from his pocket to makes another call.

Heart racing as he listens to the line ring. He turns to watch his car, making sure it’s still there, that his tapes and the transcript are safe.

And his producer isn’t there yet for the day. Early still in California, but he knows the kid who answers the phone. Enough for a friendly “Hey, it’s Molloy,” but not too friendly to have to field questions about where he disappeared to. Unsure if anyone’s noticed.

“Can you ask Mel to give me a call?”

Can you ask him to leave a message at my hotel, this is the number, can he leave me the info for that publisher he knows? Thanks man.

He’s sweating as he hangs up. And his stomach churns but he isn’t sure if it’s hunger or nerves, but he wants to keep going.

Late afternoon when he finally hits the city limits. Part of him wants to pull over and throw up, but he breathes through it. Opens the window for all the humidity to spill into the car. He tries to catch his breath but feels like he’s drowning in the heat.

Louis’s hands had been so cold. So, so cold. It must have been so visceral, meeting vampires down here. Such a balm to the oppressive warmth.

There’s a message waiting for him when he gets to the hotel. He can’t tell if the person at the desk is the one he spoke to on the phone; just as deadpan and sick of their job, but they hand the note over. The number and address for Mel’s guy. Daniel taps his foot as they grab his key for him, anxious to run up to the room and work up a cover letter.

And tomorrow he can mail it, and he can start looking up property records, try to figure out which house it is. He’s shaking again as he takes the key and heads for the elevator, but it’s excitement this time, not the panic that’s been haunting him since that night.

Tapes in the dresser drawer, typewriter on the breakfast table. He opens the window and breathes the humidity. Feels it on his skin, like the city can touch. Steamy and charged.

Sort of erotic.

Lestat it out there, he thinks, gazing out over the rooftops. Sky turning pink with twilight; Daniel wonders if Lestat still wakes at night. Is he under there, awake and suffering, aware of the time passing? Or does he sleep?

I’m here, Daniel thinks. He projects it out into the city, wondering if Lestat will hear him.

He turns back to the room. Grabs his bag from the drawer, sets the tape player on top of the dresser. He’s not sure which tape he grabs, just the first one his hand reaches, but he slips it inside and press the play button.

Louis’s voice trills through his nerves. Frightening and soothing at the same time, vivid reminder that it was real. And Lestat is out here, somewhere. Somewhere close.

“…this vampire opened his arms, his back to the flickering footlights, his auburn hair seeming to tremble as the gold of her hair fell around his black coat,” Louis says from the speaker. Daniel swallows hard. “ ‘No pain… no pain…’ he was whispering to her, and she was giving herself over.”

His hands run through his hair. His neck cracks. His thumbnail digs into the edge of the scab on his neck, harder and harder to pick every day, but he still gets the stab of adrenaline from attempting.

The pain is warm, though. Pleasant as it bathes over him, shooting to his fingertips and his nipples and his cock. He turns back to the window and presses his forehead to the glass, rubbing a hand over his chest, wondering if Lestat will hurt him.

Not just like Louis did; he wonders what happens if Lestat doesn’t stop. Imagines the teeth in his throat, and how it would feel if he drank, and drank, and drank…

“He lifted her off the boards as he drank, her throat gleaming against his white cheek. I felt weak, dazed, hunger rising in me, knotting my heart, my veins. I felt my hand gripping the brass bar of the box, tighter, until I could feel the metal creaking in its joints.”

Or, what if it were gentle? If there were no pain. He shudders.

And sex has been the last thing on his mind since he left San Francisco, but his cock throbs in his pants. He stares out, over the other buildings, down to the street, to the cars passing by, and breaks out in goosebumps when he remembers Louis’s age. Here before all of this.

He unzips his jeans, wraps his hand around his cock. Imagines the cold hands on him.

Here before all these buildings, and the paved roads, the traffic lights. Before cars, before electricity. He wonders when this part of the city was built, wonders if it was just swampland back then.

And, god. Armand, too. He had been in New Orleans with Louis. What a sight they must have been together. Daniel wonders if Armand might be here still, too. Wonders where he is. What he’s seen. He shakes, and spits down into his hand, strokes himself harder.

A couple is shouting, down on the sidewalk. Tires screech from a block away. He wonders how much worse the charge was, in the air, way back then, with nothing but wilderness to swallow you.

“I was sitting back in the chair, my mouth full of the taste of her, my veins in torment. And in the corner of my eyes was that auburn-haired vampire who had conquered her, standing apart as he had been before, his dark eyes seeming to pick me from the darkness, seeming to fix on me over the currents of warm air.”

I’m here, Lestat, he thinks. Sun almost down now, streetlights glowing. Sky electric purple.

“But there he was, soundless,” Louis says. Daniel whines, without meaning to. His free hand slips on the window frame, nails scratching against the wood. And, fuck. Fuck. The view in front of him blurs as he stares out at the horizon, gasping for the warm air, feeling the humidity on his skin again as the orgasms crests. “…beyond the curtained entrance of the box, that vampire with the auburn hair, that detached one; standing on the carpeted stairway looking at us.”

His hand twists around his shaft, pumping himself through it, painting the window with his release.

“He would have startled me, except for his stillness,” Louis says. Daniel tastes blood in his mouth. He covers up the wound with his other hand.

“…the remote dreamy quality of his expression.”

“Had he not so completely absorbed me—“

“—as if his calm were drawing off my trepidation—“

Daniel’s heart thuds in his ears. Everything electrified, and he can’t tell if it’s the orgasm or the fear. Not sure it matters as he tries to catch his breath.

I cannot exaggerate this quality in him.

Fuck.

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#vamptember #vamptember 1973 #daniel molloy #vampire chronicles #stuff i wrote #monsterfucker molloy

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