rowan

This is one of the oldest surviving recordings of a trans person.

Masoud El Amaratly (1897-1944) was an Iraqi trans singer who became famous in 1920s Baghdad for his folk music. He worked as a farmer before transitioning in his teens. The mustarjil, a term similar to trans man, then moved to the city and sang in cafés. A music agent discovered him there and his fame spread across West Asia.

Enjoy this 1925 recording of him singing the traditional Iraqi song, "Khadri al Chai" ("Please Make Tea"). Check out Ajam's website for more.

A caveat to this study: the researchers were primarily looking at insect pollinator biodiversity. Planting a few native wildflowers in your garden will not suddenly cause unusual megafauna from the surrounding hinterlands to crowd onto your porch.

That being said, this study backs up Douglas Tallamy's optimistic vision of Homegrown National Park, which calls for people in communities of all sizes to dedicate some of their yard (or porch or balcony) to native plants. This creates a patchwork of microhabitats that can support more mobile insect life and other small beings, which is particularly crucial in areas where habitat fragmentation is severe. This patchwork can create migration corridors, at least for smaller, very mobile species, between larger areas of habitat that were previously cut off from each other.

It may not seem like much to have a few pots of native flowers on your tiny little balcony compared to someone who can rewild acres of land, but it makes more of a difference than you may realize. You may just be creating a place where a pollinating insect flying by can get some nectar, or lay her eggs. Moreover, by planting native species you're showing your neighbors these plants can be just as beautiful as non-native ornamentals, and they may follow suit.

In a time when habitat loss is the single biggest cause of species endangerment and extinction, every bit of native habitat restored makes a difference.

“Sometimes we cling to our self-criticism. We think to ourselves: “If I stop beating myself up, I’ll get complacent and lazy, and then I’ll never change!” And then we cling to our self-judgments even more tightly - after all, these are moral issues, involving whether you are a good, decent, worthy person or a bad, disgusting, worthless person. We think: “To accept myself as I am would be to accept that I am a flawed, bad, broken person, and to abandon all hope that I could one day be better, that I could one day deserve love.” Remember that beating yourself up is the emotional One Ring equivalent of treating yourself as your own internal lion, experiencing yourself as a threat that needs to be escaped (which is impossible), conquered (which is literally self-destructive), or avoided through shutdown (which is counterproductive, to say the least). And that’s why we need self-compassion.“

- Emily Nagoski, Come As You Are, 2015

twisting and bitturning

IF YOU ARE IN NC AND YOU VOTED, CHECK IF YOUR NAME IS ON THIS LIST.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision that over 60,000 votes cast in last year’s closely contested state Supreme Court race must be verified and recounted. The ruling comes after Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin, who lost the race, challenged the eligibility of tens of thousands of 2024 voters. Those voters will now have 15 days to verify their eligibility, potentially changing the outcome of the election. Check your name here: https://thegriffinlist.com

Ruling made April 4th, 2025. This is current.

Context:

i put monterey bays live spider crab cam on the tv and my dog started growling at it. my guy i appreciate the shepherd terrier chutzpah but you cannot even begin to conceptualize what you are messing with here

been having some concerning health issues lately and my mom sent me this video

(x)

"In a major move for rivers up and down the land, last week it was announced that Sussex’s River Ouse is set to be granted its own rights. 

A new charter that has just been approved by Lewes district council officially recognises the Ouse as a living entity. Based on the Universal Declaration of River Rights, the charter gives the waterway eight rights, including the right to flow, to be pollution-free, to have native biodiversity and to undergo regeneration and restoration. 

The decision to give the Ouse legal personhood was actually made two years ago when the council passed a rights of river motion. In the two years since, the likes of Lewes district council, Environmental Law Foundation, Ouse and Adur Rivers Trust and Southwood Foundation have all worked together to create the charter. 

Matthew Bird, director of the Love Our Ouse campaign, said: ‘This is a momentous moment for the river and goes some way towards recognising that the river is an entity in its own right and that its voice needs to be represented in decisions which affect it. The river faces numerous challenges including pollution, climate change, over use and development.

‘The Charter provides a common framework through which to address these challenges which we hope the other major stakeholders on the Ouse will feel able to endorse. We hope Lewes District Council’s decision to support the Ouse Charter will encourage communities throughout the UK to pursue charters for their local rivers.’

Emma Montlake, co-director of the Environmental Law Foundation, added: ‘By supporting the Rights of Rivers, Lewes District Council has set a precedent that could transform the way we safeguard our rivers. The River Ouse is an essential part of the region’s ecosystem and cultural heritage—this decision ensures a better future for the River’s health and protection.’

The charter isn’t actually legally binding just yet. The next stage will involve working with statutory agencies, communities and landowners along the river to make sure that that the new rights are implemented."

-via TimeOut, March 3, 2025

Note: This is part of the broader Rights of Nature movement, and I believe the first natural body to be granted personhood/rights in the West. (Let me know in the comments if there have been others!) It's a whole new paradigm for how to view nature - and grants us a new set of powerful tools for legally defending nature from degradation and pollution. In other words, this is pretty exciting. Read more about the Rights of Nature movement here and here.

Opalized 80 million years old Ammonite measuring 2 ft. in diameter, discovered near Alberta, Canada

source:

(backseating you at the mortar and pestle) man you aint even squarshing it

Shinbashi Geigi 1870s. Two Shinbashi geigi (geisha) enacting a scene from the Kabuki play “Meido no Hikyaku” (Courier for Hell), about tragic lovers, Umegawa, a low-ranking courtesan, and Chūbei, a courier who steals money in order to buy her freedom. In some versions the couple are captured and killed, and in others they commit suicide.  Another carte-de-visite from the same period, shows a woman wearing an almost identical odori costume, named as a geigi from the Shinbashi geisha district in Tokyo.  Text and image via Blue Ruin 1 on Flickr