TUMBLR! Tomorrow, September 3 2016, is once again INTERNATIONAL VULTURE AWARENESS DAY!
If you are already a vulture PRO, it’s all good, keep scrollin’, baby. NOT A VULTURE PRO? THEN READ ON, FRIEND.
VULTURES: SOME ARE LIKELY GOING EXTINCT, RAPIDLY: As you are aware, vultures exist. But did you know that many species of vultures are so critically endangered, that researchers are worried that some might be extinct before the turn of the decade? It’s 2016, bud, so that’s in only four years. Horrifyingly, a handful of vulture species have dropped by a staggering 90% since the 1980s. The White-Rumped Vulture alone has lost 99.9% of its population since the 1990s. You know all those “You were a child of the 80s/90s if you remember ____” memes floating around? Slap some vultures in there with the words “the most abundant raptor in the world during your childhood is now one of the most endangered”. That’s right folks, in the span of your lifetime, this bird has gone from several million, to less than 9,000. Other species have seen similar declines. SO WHO CARES, THEY ARE GROSS/UGLY: First of all, how dare. Vultures are my beautiful children. But seriously, vultures are very important no matter how beautiful (or.. ugly…) you think they are. Vultures are wicked good at eating carrion, and unlike most other scavengers, vultures are a dead-end for many diseases. What this means is that when a vulture eats a carcass that has botulism, rabies, tetanus, anthrax, fusobacteria
(linked to colon cancer), clostridium, (and many more), the vulture’s digestive system KILLS these diseases/bacteria, and does not pass them in its feces. One article suggests that vulture digestive systems can kill in excess of 12,000 species of bacteria that are found in rotting carrion. Not only do vultures provide this “service”, but scientists are hopeful that by studying how vultures digest these notoriously hard to kill nasties, that it will benefit humanity directly.
I DON’T EAT CARRION, SO I WON’T GET THOSE DISEASES ANYWAY: Well no, m… most of us don’t eat carrion, but guess what? We all drink water and share the same planet. Several types of these bacteria can filter down into the water table if not “cleaned up” by vultures. And while I’m sure some of you drink chemically treated municipal water, many people still rely on wells, especially in rural areas where there is more likely to be wild animal and farm animal carrion. Plus, rabies: It’s a thing. Ever since most of the vulture population in India has been wiped out, there has been a rabies breakout. Rabies is scary, do you really want to play around with that nonsense? Not me. Eat all the carrion, PLEASE, vultures. Even if vultures were not so valuable to humans and the environment (though they totally ARE), they are worth saving anyhow. We screwed this up, let’s dang well fix it.
OKAY, I’M DOWN WITH SAVING VULTURES. HOW DO WE DO THIS? Like many conservation issues, this is tricky and the answers are not always easy. Migratory or “wandering” birds in particular are tough to help because they can fly hundreds of miles in a day, and in doing so, cross international boundaries. If you have listened to world politics at all lately, you’ll know getting two countries to agree on something (especially something as “lowly” as helping vultures) is.. well, it’s tough. Vultures may have a lot of protection in one country, then fly across the invisible boundary, only to be poisoned in the next. In Africa, habitat loss, poisoning, poaching (kill the vultures so that their circling won’t lead authorities to rotting, poached animals), power lines, and illegal trade are wiping vultures out at an alarming rate. In India and other regions, much of the same, but also mixed with the devastating use of antibiotics in cattle which is extremely fatal to vultures.
If you can’t donate (I feel ya– I know that all ages and demographics love vultures! And not all can spare money) then that’s okay. Do something for International Vulture Awareness Day. Tell someone how cool vultures are, or draw a little vulture doodle. There are a lot of really neat species to choose from. Do a vulture interpretive dance at the mall, and tell people about vultures. Yell from the rooftop, from your twitter, facebook, or tumblr, about vultures. Wear some vultures on your BODY (by which I mean a shirt. Not actual vultures. Actually, I really need to get this. Look at their faces
❤
). Tag stuff with hashtags like #IVAD and #internationalvultureawarenessday and #lovevultures and make it trend, or whatever social media magic is these days.
Down with rabies, hug a vulture! (d.. don’t, don’t actually hug a vulture. Unless it’s a plush vulture. Oh snap- that’s right, you can totally buy a plush vulture and help vultures with your vulture.)
Also.
❤
Not Ugly
❤
:
(Cinerous Vulture)
* – I’m not affiliated with any of these organizations, I just want vultures to stay on this planet
Let’s say someone is looking for porn and they put “wife caught her husband cheating,” into Google. There are a lot of porn sites (and some news sites) with that title. So Google has to decide which order to show them in, because most of the time, people pick something off the first few pages of Google.
Google wants to have the very best “wife caught her husband cheating” (or whatever else you search for) sites on the first page of the search. Google has several ways to try and decide which site are the best, but one of them is that it looks at how popular it is by seeing how many other websites link to it. If a lot of other sites are linking to it, it was probably useful to them, so Google will put it on the front page.
So if I’m a sleazy pornsite owner, I could create like a thousand websites and make them all link to my “wife caught her husband cheating” site, and act like a whole bunch of different websites thought it was pretty great. They’d be like “xdfgt .com”, “xdfgy .com”, “xdfgh .com,” just nonsense addresses nobody else was using, or whatever. I’d try to make Google think my site was awesome, because all these other websites are linking to it.
But Google has already caught on to that. Google would know “xdfgt .com” was a crappy fake website, because nobody else is linking to “xdfgt .com”. Any website that is only linked to by crap websites is also crap, as far as Google is concerned. Google won’t put it on the first pages of search results.
So instead let’s imagine the sleazy pornsite owner creates a thousand fake tumblrs instead, like “xdfgt.tumblr .com” and “xdfgy.tumblr .com” and “xdfgh.tumblr .com” and just puts one or two posts on them to add links to the “wife caught her husband cheating” porn site. Google can still tell those tumblrs are crap websites, because nobody else is linking to them. But the difference is … on tumblr, the sleazy pornsite owner can make your website link to him.
Let’s say your tumblr is “mostlyaestheticandfunny.tumblr .com”. If “xdfgt.tumblr .com” likes one of your posts, there’s link on your blogto “xdfgt.tumblr .com.” Somewhere on “mostlyaestheticandfunny.tumblr .com” it will say “xdfgt liked this” with a link from your blog to “xdfgt.tumblr .com.”
Google’s bot looks at “mostlyaestheticandfunny.tumblr .com” and it sees that your blog is a good website. People are linking to it (talking to you or reblogging from you), you write like an actual human being, you have nice pictures, you update sometimes, you aren’t a bot. So Google decides your blog isn’t a crappy scam website. Then it sees the link to “xdfgt.tumblr .com” and it thinks “oh hey, a nice website with good stuff written by a real human linked to this “xdfgt.tumblr .com” I guess maybe “xdfgt.tumblr .com” is a decent website too.”
Then it looks at “xdfgt.tumblr .com” and it sees the link to the porn site with “wife caught her husband cheating”, and it says, “well, I guess that “wife caught her husband cheating” site is a good site. I know that because there’s a good site linking to it here at “xdfgt.tumblr .com.” I know “xdfgt.tumblr .com” is a good site because “mostlyaestheticandfunny.tumblr .com” linked to it, and I know “mostlyaestheticandfunny.tumblr .com” is a good site because it is updated and writes like a real person and people talk to it and link to it.”
So basically the porn bots are using the fact that you have a good blog to make themselves look better and to try and trick Google’s bot into thinking they’re very popular and it should put them at the top of its list when people search Google for porn.
It’s really annoying! It would be really nice if the people running tumblr figured out a way to not be free advertising for every sleazy porn site on the internet
This is super insightful and it explains the porn blogs A LOT because yeah this is exactly how the Google Pagerank algorithm works.
I brought a link because this was a unit in my linear algebra class just this past term and in addition to being pretty neat stuff I’m wildly entertained that the final I took yesterday contained everything I needed to know to understand pornblog bots on tumblr dot com
Speaking of Starbound, if you play on Steam and you’d like to play together feel free to message me about my Steam name and jump in if you see me playing. I’m always open to friends in the Galaxy and I’m sure we can help each other out!
If you do decide to play with me,I do recommend picking up a few mods from the workshop (in order to prevent crashing on my ship/settled planets)
Now, I have 34 installed mods (mostly aesthetic) but I’ll only list the ones that I would think might cause the biggest issues!
Weapon and Item Frames adds exactly what’s on the tin: frames for displaying your weapons and items. Use Invisible, wooden, or metal frames to show off your cool unique gear or to display your favorite stuff. I like to hang up all of my spears (it’s a lovely collection) and I have a special shield above my bed that represents Sandkeeper’s love of Meatcutter.
Trying to travel/warp to a planet or ship that contains frames if you do not have the mod installed has been known to crash your client.
Ever feel like the regular colony deeds take away from the aesthetic of your newest project? Does that bother you to an almost absurd degree? In my case, the answer is yes. This mod adds a bunch of new colony deeds in varying aesthetics for people who have to keep a theme going. You can buy them all from the Frogg Shop.
As this adds new items that are displayed, I would bet this could cause crashing issues when warping to a ship/planet containing these deeds.
Trying to turn that Barren planet into an Ocean Planet, but think Water is for squares? Do you enjoy coffee so much that you want to make a hot tub out of it? Want to make confusing traps to fool your friends and enemies? Rainbow waters sounds like a decent mod! Craft the new dye station to turn ordinary water into all sorts of cool options. Create Soda Fountains and giant cups of coffee, let your imagination run free!
As this adds new items that are displayed, I would bet this could cause crashing issues when warping to a ship/planet containing these.
Like the aesthetics of one weapon, but not the special ability? Or is that super cool looking broadsword you got weaker than some other lame one you picked up? You can fix all of those problems with the Weapon fusion station. Pop in two weapons of the same type and select what to transfer! Consume the old weapon to make the new one better than ever.
The reason I list this is that I’m concerned that the fusion station itself is a new item and might crash clients who do not have the mod.
7) Themed Fridge Mods
There are currently four of these mods for Glitch, Hylotl, Floran, and Avian players who want to keep their general aesthetic but continue to be able to store and refrigerate food. Again, as this adds new items, higher risk for crashing exists in mismatched multiplayer servers.
Starbound’s non-unique monsters not have enough variation? Have the need to catch them all? This mod adds a ‘shiny’ variation for every non-unique monster in Starbound. Each planet will spawn either the original variation or their shiny. Explore the galaxy and see all there is to see!
The shinies are really cute and the variation makes the game feel a lot more immersive, in my opinion. Plus, how cute are these Lilodons? ((Too Cute))
What could/does your Exalt’s Anima say about that exalt?
Granny Kindertot: Eclipse, her anima, which is of a giant full plate armor clad warrior of undetermined gender holding a giant goremaul, features Granny as protector. most of her intimacies are about the family (both adopted and blood) and places that she wants to protect. It also represents a different way of protecting than how she does it. the anima is protecting through physical force. Granny protects by using her words and non-combat skills (you’re cold? Granny will knit you a scarf or a sweater or a giant blanket. You’re afraid? Granny will tell you stories to keep away the monsters or arrange for her mercenary friends to stand outside your shop stall. You’re hungry? Granny will talk to the food seller and you’ll get a premium discount traded for a skill you’re good at).
Tepet Sandara: This Zenith’s anima is of a great golden earth dragon that curls protectively around her. For her, the dragon is a representation of what could have been. If she had not exalted as a Solar, she would have exalted as an Earth Aspect. It also ties to her past life who had an anima shaped as a golden Kukla rampant. (Sandara is my oldest Exalted OC, i made her while fussing with 2e and I’m retooling her for 3e)
Sherringford “Sherrie” Yun: … Not much other than I was pulling heavily from “Elementary” and classic Sherlock Holmes when making her. Sherrie’s a Twilight detective with an anima that is a waterfall in the colors of a sun set. Hidden depths perhaps? or that she is relentless in pursuing her goals?
Obsidian Butterfly: Dawn caste. Their anima, once iconic, starts out as a cluster of day lilies, but the petals then transform/dissolve into hundreds of red-winged butterflies. Some of this is about how they was changed on their path of learning sorcery, which, for them, included being captured by some fairfolk, being changed by the wyld, and coming out of it with a new knowledge of how the world works. Death of Obsidian Butterflies is also their control spell, hence their name.
Blue-Bird: Night caste Gambler, Blue’s anima is a pair of constantly rolling dice, and the number markers on every side are various symbols for luck. this is fairly obvious, She’s a gambler, luck is her stock in trade. But for her is’s also a reminder that luck is fickle, the dice are always rolling, after all. Where they land will never be known.
At last, designs for Harrow’s circlemates and some brief write-ups. I wrote up better descriptions for everyone a week ago, with the intention to go back and proofread them before posting this, but I think I’ve gone and deleted them D: These are all written from my knowledge as a player, and are thus a bit skewed towards what Harrow has seen and thought of her fellow Solars.
Sil – they/them – 22ish – Night Caste A former member of the All-Seeing Eye, “rescued” by the organization at a young age and trained to be an assassin. They never exactly handed in a resignation, so much as they just ran halfway across Creation upon Exalting. Sil comes across as kinda creepy, and is still sort of figuring out an identity other than being a tool of the Realm, which they hate.
Nika – she/her – 14 – Eclipse Caste A young orphan from a fishing village near where the game began, now Harrow’s official Apprentice Lawgiver. Nika is often quite bubbly, and doesn’t always understand the seriousness of what we’re doing, but she’s also highly determined to protect people. She has an affinity for magic and spirits, as well as a remarkably good singing voice.
Tepet Sonorous Windsong – she/her – 19 – Dawn Caste The daughter of a minor Realm dynastic household from Whitewall, who disappointed her family by not Exalting. When her younger sister was chosen as a Fair Folk sacrifice for treason, Windsong volunteered to go in her place: Exalting as a Dawn Caste let her survive. Windsong is graceful and charming when she wants to be, but also arrogant, and prone to making snap judgements. A dedicated Crane stylist, she constantly tries to ensure no one ever gets killed in our conflicts, including the enemies.
Juliet Harrow – she/her – 37 – Eclipse Caste Harrow was a successful merchant captain and treasure hunter, specializing in finding relics of the First Age. She developed a personal fondness for the ancient Lawgivers while dabbling in ancient lore, imagining herself as their successor while relocating the wonders they’d made. Since Exalting, she’s resolved to be more careful what she wishes for next time. Harrow is commanding and self-assured, sometimes to the point of melodrama. She takes her duty as a Lawgiver very seriously, but is trying very hard not to burn herself out in the process.
After the last game, I feel like I need to point out that Windsong spent the whole month of downtime being a bratty passive-aggressive teenager because her secret crush is seeing someone else, learned Terrifying Apparition of Glory, and then switched into aggressive-aggressive as soon as she had an acceptable target (a ghost, in this case) to take things out on. At this point I’m like 60% convinced she refuses to kill just to spite the people who say she has to.
Windsong is like the least gentle pacifist I have ever encountered and I love her.
That is amazing. That is so amazing. I am soooo thrilled by those facts you don’t even know
The lifeblood of all of Creation. The makeup of everything that exists or that might exist. A grand and powerful magic that makes up everything and everyone; from the humblest rock to the mightiest of the Gods.
But what is essence, really?
How does it work? Why does it work? How is it so versatile and malleable and yet certain enough to hold shape and will?
Any Celestial Exalt or sufficiently powerful God Blood will tell you that there’s something almost innate in the use of ones personal essence. It takes little effort to put extra power behind a punch, or recalculate a just missed show of one’s bow. It takes, arguably, less effort still to form ones own essence into something entirely new; a projection of mind or will or force of being.
If a Solar Exalt pulls in enough of their essence, the resounding effect is the most glorious of these shaping techniques: the Anima. But, an Exalt has little control over their Anima’s appearance. Instead, it is a reflection of them; of their sense of being as perhaps only Essence can see them. Without words, it says a lot about the Exalt who stands before their audience. Perhaps it showcases strength, a Great Golden Lion framed by the mark of the sun. Or perhaps cunning, a crowded dinner party of masked dancers whose faces blend together with each turn of a silent song.
I have found they are unique, regardless of how they look.
With this observation, we can pose a hypothesis: that Essence can think, and consider. Perhaps, in a sense essence is alive?
But that is simply a hypothesis.
Furthermore, it’s clear that essence can be formed by essence users. Simple enough charms can be learned to morph this invisible clay into all manner of things, large and small, simply for appearances. But I have found in my research, that perhaps an exalt has an easier time forming that which is a part of her.
Clarification: an exalt with an anima of crows finds little effort in shaping crows on their own terms.
With this in mind, it stands to reason that one could shape essence into a reflection of themselves. The essence, should it have an understanding of what it is connected to, could make a near perfect copy; a phantom Exalt.
Here’s where things get interesting.
Provided they have an understanding of their essence and themselves as a weapon, Exalts can create temporary weapons that work just as well as their physical counterparts. Solid objects formed from a once invisible mesh.
Therefore, it stands to reason that an Exalt, with proper knowledge of their own essence and their self in some regard, should be able to grant their phantom a form with more physicality. An object that can be touched and that can perform work, as any weapon might.
“So, why the puppets?”
It’s easy enough to create with essence, yes, but it’s simpler still to bind essence to an object; if only temporarily. Furthermore, while any small object can be used, the Essence holds better if it can combine with the essence of the object in question. If the essence of the puppet understands its own appearance, the new essence of the Exalt will have an easier time making a convincing attachment.
You know, your best pal, your bud, who follows you everywhere, who sits on your shoulder (or maybe you sit on theirs). We’re talking Ash and Pikachu levels of companionship.
I realized I hadn’t done a thing of the entire Towersong group together yet, so I recoloured my sorcery circle picture just to get the feel for the actual colouring.
Elmira Vido (Zenith) is @mr-mercutio‘s, Lark of Clan Talon (Dawn) is @thebystanderman‘s, and Ledaal Manus (Twilight) is mine
My goodness tell me all about these fantastic and pretty people. /chinhands
Haha will do!
Elmira is from Coral originally and is fairly well-done-by by their standards. Her grandfather believed in educating and protecting her and so she is well-read and a genius crafter, mostly in woodworking and clockwork but in a host of other skills as well. She got teleported via magic clock bullshit to the city of Towersong in the north, where she has started trying to end slavery. In her spare time she crafts endlessly, is Lark’s #1 fan at the Pit, and goes around healing and helping people. She loves cats and often makes small clockwork ones, based around the fabulous clockwork artifact cat she made during her stay in Towersong. She remembers her past life better than either of her circlemates, and vividly recalls building the massive clock that forms the center of the city. She wants it back; she wants all her old things back. She is very stubborn and fierce and believes that the Sun has a reason for everything. She is a Zenith and was given the message “If it’s broken, fix it,” by the Sun, whom she prays to every day.
Lark is from a huge family, all of whom are named after birds. His mother is an Exigent of Nasamara, the Falcon of Glory, who hated the idea of her children having to fight for their lives and livelihood as she did. She worked to ensure they would never have to, and as a result they are all desperate to get out there and fight. Lark took to the fighting arena known as the Pit in his home of Towersong, where he quickly skyrocketed to the top under his pseudonym, “the Burning Fist”. He is half Karnese (viking warrior culture) and half Kreeha (forest-dwelling tribe nation) and has inherited a love of fighting from both sides. Despite being chosen as a Dawn Caste by the Unconquered Sun, he sees himself as kin to the War Gods of the North through his mother, and thus kin to any of their chosen or followers. He is a big occult nerd and loves working acts of sorcery, which he is sure can fix any problem, and he knows the trivia for every fighter to ever enter the ring in Towersong’s Pit. He is only 17 and is very short but is passionate about what he loves, and is slowly becoming an unparalleled boxer.
Ledaal Manus is the secondson of Towersong’s satrap, a shy and secretive man whom Manus adores. He has tried to emulate his father at all turns, despite Volan having worked very hard to prevent either of his children from ever coming into contact with his past as an Iselsi assassin. Manus is very much like him, a shy and secretive young prince who is painfully polite and afraid of changing the status quo. He befriended Lark, the son of his duelling tutor, and the two of them have had an unlikely friendship since they were children. He is a scholar and a bureaucrat and is happy to work within the confines of formal systems of law and organization, dedicating himself to memorizing custom and procedure. His incredible memory is devoted to categorizing and fitting the world into place in his effort to understand the movements of people and the movements of nations. He is very perceptive and erudite, and often has trouble putting his trials into terms his circlemates will find understandable, since his privileged life until recently did not engender much sympathy. As the circle’s Twilight, he devotes himself to collecting information and preparing the group for any occasion.
A Quiet Respite 