American Black Duck Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 2

Person with migraine aura today: Ow ow ow my head hurts and all I can see is TV static :(

Nineteenth century doctors describing migraine aura with the manic horror of a lovecraftian horror protagonist:

At first it looked just like the spot which you see after having looked at the sun or some bright object; I thought it might be an eyelash in the way, or something of that sort, but I was soon undeceived when it began to increase…

When it was in its height it seemed like a fortified town with bastions all round it, these bastions being coloured most gorgeously... All the interior of the fortification, so to speak, was boiling and rolling about in a most wonderful manner as if it was some thick liquid all alive. (Hubert Airy, 1856)

Mini Megillah Monday!

Sometimes, you just have to make it yourself. That's what Robert E. Massmann did in 1968 when he wanted a miniature Megillah. This is copy 76 of 100.

A Megillah is a scroll containing the Book of Esther. It is traditionally read during Purim (which starts this week), a Jewish holiday that celebrates how Queen Esther was able to save her people from being killed by the advisor to her husband, Haman. To celebrate Purim, many people read the Megillah, eat hamantaschen (pastries shaped like Haman's hat), and dress up in costumes.

Housed in a beautiful wooden casing, the paper comprising the scroll is over three feet long! As you can see in the video, the scroll is able to be easily rerolled using the metal handle. As someone who has helped reroll scrolls before, we definitely appreciate this technology!

Smith Miniatures Collection BS1372.3 1968

-- Hailee M.

This communal behavior is extremely rare among spiders, which are normally solitary creatures. The African social spider (Stegodyphus dumicola) is one of the few species that has been identified as a true "social spider," forming colonies and living in communal nests where the spiders work together to hunt, forage, build webs, and care for their offspring.

Above: an African social spider feeding the young spiderlings of her colony by regurgitating food for them, exhibiting a level of maternal/allomaternal care that is relatively uncommon in both spiders and insects

African social spiders can be found in various parts of southwestern Africa, where they will often build a dense silk nest in the branches of a thorn tree and/or shrub. Most of the spiders in the colony are female (more than 85%, according to some studies) and the species itself also has a female-biased primary sex ratio, as researchers have found that female embryos develop in more than 80% of the eggs that the spiders produce.

Above: a group of African social spiders working together to subdue their prey, which will be taken back to the nest so that it can be shared with the rest of the colony

There is no evidence that any dominance hierarchy or caste system exists within S. dumicola colonies. The spiders all cooperate to complete a variety of tasks, such as hunting, repairing the web, foraging, defending the colony, caring for the colony's offspring, etc. While none of them are exclusively assigned to a single task, many have a primary role that they fill, often based on their physical size and condition.

Above: close-up photo of S. dumicola

This species also engages in extreme allomaternal care, meaning that many different spiders (including both mothers and "allomothers") all share the responsibility of caring for the colony's offspring; even the unmated females help out with brood care. The mothers/allomothers tend to the eggsacs, regurgitate food for the baby spiderlings, and even engage in matriphagy, which means that they will eventually be cannibalized by the babies.

From The Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior:

Spiders of this species generally measure about 2.5 - 3.5mm long; they can be found in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho, and Eswatini.

Sources & More Info:

Drew this Caribou at the Museum of Natural History. Then headed to the. museum’s bird section and added some feathered friends in order to make my illustration less boring.

A bristle worm in the genus Tomopteris. Thanks to @quillusquillus for the ID. Filmed off the coast of California. From Deep Ocean EP 2- Lights in the Abyss (2016).

The Novel Norway Lobster

Nephrops norvegicus, better known as the Norway lobster, the Dublin Bay lobster, or in its culinary form as langoustine or scampi, is a small lobster found all along the European coast in the Atlantic ocean, from Norway and Iceland to Portugal, as well as the Adriatic Sea. They reside in muddy seabeds at up to 800 m (0.5 mi) below the surface.

Norway lobsters spend most of their time digging, maintaining, and hiding in their burrows, which are built about 20 to 30 cm (8 to 12 in) deep in the mud. When they do leave their burrows, it is only to forage or mate. Like many lobsters, N. norvegicus is an omnivore; they feed on anything they can find, including carrion, worms, fish, jellyfish, and other crustaceans. Predators include larger crustaceans, such as shore crabs, cod, stingrays, and small spotted catsharks.

The breeding period for Dublin Bay lobsters depends on the population's location and the temperature of the water, but generally takes place in late winter or spring. Females typically mate with 2-3 males, and carries 1000-5000 eggs under her tail for 8 to 9 months. After hatching, the planktonic larvae drift through the ocean for about two months, during which time they rise to the surface at night and descend to the ocean floor during the day. After settling on the bottom, juveniles undergo a molt before becoming fully mature. Afterwards, adults typically undergo 1-2 molts every year, and can live up to 10 years in the wild.

N. norvegicus is typically pink or orange in color, with a white underbelly and a darker stripe along the upper part of the claw. Adults can reach up to 20 cm (8 in) in length including the claws, which can comprise up to half that length. Its large eyes are exceptionally sensitive to light, and Norway lobsters are rarely seen during the daytime.

Conservation status: The Dublin Bay lobster is classified as Least Concern by the IUCN. It is commonly harvested for food, and populations are monitored closely.

Photos

Sue Scott

Institute of Marine Research

Hans Hillewaert

Chihiro Watanabe (渡辺千尋) - 「Untitled」, 2006

Isnad (vetted here) is an initiative that aims to provide 30 students with the means to pursue their degrees remotely. Genocide is not only through killing and starvation, but also through robbing an entire generation of their futures and their dreams.

With the donations collected through fundraising through Tumblr, Isnad has been able to provide rooms, internet access, stationery, and power supply to these students.

But just as the most recent group of students have been accepted into the initiative, Tumblr terminated Isnad's blog.

Even if you're not doing the killing yourself, if you're denying a besieged population the chance to support themselves, you're complicit in genocide.

As we try to look into getting Isnad reinstated here, please continue to share Isnad's fundraiser. I would hate for all this hard work to be lost due to staff's predictable bigotry.

After deleting our main account from the program administration, here we are back to posting from our other account, as a reminder and to continue the educational process for our students in Gaza, we must obtain $2,000 before the end of the month to pay the rent and administrative costs.

@g0at0ad @gothhabiba @feluka @buttercuparry @slydiddledeedee

@wherethatoldtraingoes2 @kiirodora @tiredguyswag @corpsenurse

@virovac

Vetted and promoted by @/nabulsi!

With the systematic destruction of Gaza's education system, the problem of scholasticide in Gaza is really concerning! Education is not only important for students' future, but also for the future of a society! Please support this fundraiser!

Currently $2,587 Raised of $67,500

You can enter my necklace raffle (2.0) if you donate to this fundraiser!

Wild Violet Sugar

Teresa & Helena Jané: Cónicos (series), 2002, ceramic, handmade face in low relief

Echinopsis 'Giant Yellow'

This is another spectacular Hans Britsch hybrid. Cactus season is here!

-Brian

irini gonou

Reminder that notes/online attention are not a reliable indicator of how well a campaign is going.

You might see fundraising posts with thousands of notes on your dash daily and think to yourself "this person must be doing fine!"

I wish that were true. I saw a post earlier referring to people with fundraisers as "those fortunate enough to have internet clout" but unfortunately internet clout is not a currency that can buy food and other necessities. It's only a testament to how much effort that person spends desperately networking in order to make ends meet, and often not succeeding at that. These people do not have an advantage.

I spotlight for @dr-anas96 and his posts consistently get a lot of notes. He's vetted here.

Here's an interview in English and Spanish he did for AJ+. and also here's a recent article about him in Spanish.

And where does that get him?

He's barely at 19% of his goal, as of today, December 13th, which marks 6 months since he started fundraising.

Anas is slowly dying of starvation and of his illnesses that he cannot currently get treated for. Don't be fooled by the amount of notes this will get. If you can spare a dollar please don't hesitate to donate here.

hello i need $15 for food today. i would appreciate anything that you send

ppal + kofi

the garden of eden

miniature from le secret de l'histoire naturelle [...], france, c. 1480-90

source: Paris, BnF, Français 22971, fol. 46r