Almost all insects suffer from some form of parasitic mite, but certain potter’s wasps have pockets on their bodies that seem to serve no purpose other than to carry around and protect the very mites that suck their blood.
When the wasp lays her eggs, the mites pour out of the “acarinaria” ( “acarinarium” = a place for keeping mites!) and enter the nest where they feed on the blood of her developing babies, but not enough to stunt or kill them.
It’s all worth it because there are tinier, parasitoid wasps that lay their eggs inside of young potter’s wasps, which obviously DOES kill them, but as soon as a parasitoid wasp breaks into the potter’s nest, the parasitic mites switch to an aggressive territorial mode and successfully drive off or kill the majority of invaders.
Here’s another one, this time a vertebrate! The great spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius) is one of those cuckoo species that doesn’t evict all its host’s chicks from the nest. In fact, it doesn’t mind sharing, but ultimately the cuckoo chick is bigger and beggier than its “siblings” and so gets the lion’s share of the meals. The overall health of its host’s chicks (usually corvids) suffers as a result.
So how does it help its host? Turns out that baby great spotted cuckoos fire a foul liquid from their cloacas as a defense against predators. In areas where predation is high, nests parasitized by cuckoos actually have a higher survival rate for everyone involved than unparasitized nests, thus making it better to have a parasite than not!
It’s a fine balancing act to be sure, since in the absence of predators it goes back to being detrimental to the hosts. But that’s another example of parasites helping their hosts.
I actually didn’t know this and I’m so glad to know that there is a changeling baby in nature that may murder a real baby but goes on to protect its adopted family by shitting at people
On a scale of “is occasionally forced to bathe” to “Instagram model with sponsors to hoe for” how involved is your OC’s Skincare routine?
What are your OC’s food preferences (flavors/textures/spiciness/calories/ when and how they eat) and how did they get that way?
What’s something pointless/petty/unimportant that IRRATIONALLY ANNOYS THE HELL out of your OC?
What’s your OC’s response to being asked for money by a homeless person?
Does your OC get lost easily? What do they do when they do get lost?
What would STOP your OC from Doing The Right Thing in a tense situation?
Realistically, could your OC (in their normal circumstances- i.e. at thier own house/battlecamp/spaceship etc.) keep a small child alive for a week if they had to? A Dog? A Houseplant? A rock with a smiley face painted on?
If your OC had to take the S.A.T. tomorrow with one night to prep, how would they do? both emotionally and academically.
What would cause your OC to chose to do something petty/pointlessly cruel?
On a scale of “Complete and Justified nervous breakdown” to “Conquer The Entire Galaxy and become an Immortal God-Emperor”, how well would your OC handle being abducted by Aliens?
What song is 100% garunteed to get your OC beyond turnt and will be sung loudly and emabarrasingly, either in public or the shower?
What perfectly-normal-to-them-thing does your OC do that confuses/pisses off/terrifies thier neighbors?
Under what circumstances would your OC appear naked in public?
What thing did your OC’s parents do that your OC wishes they had a better explanation for?
How often does your OC “zone out” or do things on autopilot and how severe have the problems that have arisen from that been?
How strong or weak is your OC’s Impulse control? What’s the worst thing that happened becuase of thier Impulsivity or inability to be so?
How does your OC sabotage themselves?
What’s the trashiest item in your OC’s wardrobe, when was the last time they wore it and why do they still have it?
How Dehydrated is your OC right now? Are they going to fix this?
What’s your OC smell like? no, not that “Vanilla and Anxiety” evocative stuff, realistically. Body odor? what have they been touching all day? When was thier last shower? Did they put on any kind of artificial scent?
Seeing John Mulaney do his ‘Robot Test’ bit has given me a strong desire to see him play a live action Riddler.
But not like, as any character other than John Mulaney? Like, let’s make a John Mulaney version of Edward Nigma. Just this socially awkward disaster man who somehow becomes a supervillain because of a misunderstanding he couldn’t correct without ‘seeming rude’. And now supposedly he’s committed to killing Batman but he doesn’t actually want to be the cause of a man’s death so he just obfuscates things with ‘clues’ and ‘riddles’ and ‘battles of wits’ until Batman inevitably defeats him and he’s just like ‘oh thank god please don’t hit me’.
Batman’s like ‘you need help Nigma’ and he’s just like ‘yeah that’s fair, I should probably look into seeing somebody at this point, I became a supervillain because of social anxiety and that might just be a red flag you know?’
“Hey, Batman, think you’ve seen everything, huh? Well, figure out how to deal with this! You know Gotham General Hospital? Yeah? Well you’ll never guess what I let loose in there!”
“Riddle me this, what has four hooves and presents a massive health and safety violation?”
“I see you there, Batman. And I also don’t want me to be doing what I’m doing.”
I’m sorry to keep doing this but I’m running out of time. I’ve applied to several places (stores, restaurants, call centers, offices, etc) and have yet to get results. I have no intention of giving up and I’m gonna keep you guys posted but I am seriously in need of help before I run out of money.
I’ll give a full explanation of my situation below, but if you’re already familiar and able and willing to donate, here are my links:
Alrighty so here’s the thing: I am a homeless, jobless trans girl who has been without a home or steady job for nearly two years.
I am in serious need of help as soon as possible. I have shelter, but it costs $7 a night, or $49 a week. That fortunately includes meals and a shower!
However, the shelter is a Christian ministry and is filled to the brim with homophobia, transphobia, and other terrible mindsets. The others visiting are frequently violent as well so it’s quite dangerous to say the least.
This has wreaked havoc on my mental health and I’m sorry to admit I’ve attempted suicide multiple times.
I’m in a better state of mind now but I need help.
Even $50 can guarantee me safety for a week!
I’ve recently found several safe and effective ways of applying to multiple jobs at once so its just a matter of time now.
I am begging for help. I will type up a more detailed post tomorrow but if you can help me, PLEASE donate and/or reblog this! Thank you all so much, please don’t hesitate to message me if you need more information!
Tyrannosaurus was not the most dangerous animal in the park. Having imprinted on its handler since infancy, the creature maintained a docile temperament all the way to adulthood, and indeed seemed to prefer feeding from its designated trough to pursuing prey. Its interactions with staff and guests showed at most a mild curiosity, and the only real terror the beast inspired was when it snuck up on trainers to sniff their hats.
The raptors were not the most dangerous animals in the park. Hollywood had greatly exaggerated their size, first of all, and while they had a mischievous streak (one individual in particular was fond of stealin zookeepers’ wallets), they were far from the hyper-intelligent murder lizards everyone expected. Their intelligence was less of the predatory sort and more the comical intelligence of a corvid, devoted mostly to play and caring for their fellow flock members.
The mosasaur was not the most dangerous animal in the park. Though it held no loyalty to the zookeepers, it had taken to training well enough, and would dutifully move to a specific section of the tank when signaled, giving the keepers space to carry out any business they needed to accomplish in its tank without fear of harm.
No, by far the most dangerous animal in the park was the Struthiomimus. Everyone expected it to be easy – what were these animals in pop culture beyond being fodder for the carnivores? Surely the bird-mimics couldn’t be much of a hassle. Sadly, they weren’t just any bird mimics.
No, in temperament, the Struthiomimus mimicked a swan.
Highly territorial and vicious to the bone, more keepers had suffering brutal beatings by the struthis than had been hurt by the rest of the park’s fauna combined. And when they learned to chew through the fences…
Well, let’s just say the Tyrannosaurus never experienced a more terrifying day in her life.
The point of voting blue in 2018 isn’t to make the US perfect. We cannot accomplish that in one fell swoop. There’s gerrymandering, voter apathy, voter suppression, and generations of older party-line fucks we have to deal with.
Voting blue in 2018 is to make it lessimmediately threatening for PoC, LGBT+ people, the disabled, and any other marginalized demographic. It’s a stopgap against Republicans who are aligned with Nazis, white supremacists, and sexual abusers.
Correcting politics in the United States is going to take decades of new voters staying on top of politics and not falling prey to apathy, like our predecessors.
People telling you not to waste a vote on 3rd Party this midterm aren’t saying “never vote 3rd party.” Republicans have united behind one utterly heinous front.We need to unite behind Democrats, for the time being.
In Canada, splitting the leftwing vote between the Liberal and New Democratic Parties was how we wound up with almost 10 years of Stephen Harper. Holding our noses and voting for the party that had the best chance of winning was how we got Justin Trudeau, who isn’t perfect, but is leagues better than a Conservative government. Yes, it sucks to have to make sacrifices, but you need to look at your alternatives. -V
I think the most important thing people have to remember is that it’s easier to make forward progress when the people in power don’t inherently want you dead.
We’re not going to have a utopia. Let alone a utopia in our lifetime. But we can make a better society. We don’t do that by only allowing perfection. Perfectionism gets you nowhere. What we need is “good enough”. Is the bar for “good enough” really low right now? Yes. Does that change that that IS good enough? No. Good enough saves lives, helps us maintain energy to work on raising the bar, and gets us at least pointed in the right direction.
So just hold your nose and fucking vote blue. Keep voting blue. Because we can’t really raise the bar until we’ve not only made some changes – Obama made changes and we tried to raise the bar too early – but sustained those changes.
Social progress is not a sprint. It’s a marathon of lifetimes. It takes lives. Susan B. Anthony’s life went to social progress. Sojourner Truth’s life went to social progress. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life went to social progress. Marsha P. Johnson’s life went to social progress. People have fought and died for social progress, and it’s not fast or easy.
But it’s worth it.
This is the race of the tortoise and the hare, and we must be the tortoise. Even though it’s not exciting, or fun, or easy, let alone fast.
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