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Bats.
Posted 16 years agoIt seems as time passes, complications occur and disappear with the few things they complicate as natural and engineered solutions are found and administered.
White-nose syndrom is a terrifying fungus that has a very simple way of disturbing our ecosystems. As we all should know, bats are the #1 consumer of night-time flying insects. Bats also pollinate various flowers, some exclusive to bats! The removal of bats on these specific and well developed ecosystems would be drastic! And for these reasons, people have been calling WNS an ecological catastrophe.
Bats hibernate in damp, cold caves. This is the perfect environment for a myriad of fungi, which bats have been living along side, unharmed, for centuries. This newly introduced fungi thrives on the hairless portions of bats. When first discovered, the fungi had been growing on the noses and muzzles of bats, hence the token name. WNS, as any fungus growing on live tissue, irritates the creature it is on. Anyone who's had athlete's foot could agree that it not a comfortable condition.
When hibernating, bats will wake 4-5 times through the winter to groom then go back to sleep. However, the fungus growing on them irritates and itches, causing bats to wake quite often during the hibernating season to itch. A bat's fat stores cannot sustain the constant waking, and bats will grow hungry and leave the cave in mid winter to find food, usually dieing of starvation, dehydration, or just the freezing cold.
Unfortunately, this is a wildfire of a disease. If bird flu infected a chicken farm, there'd be a perimiter around the farm and all chickens in that perimeter would be exterminated and the grounds purged. This wildfire is a bit different though. There are many species of fungi in the affected caves, as well as other creatures which may or may not only live in 2 caves in the entire world. These complications make a simple purging unsustainable. What's worse is that the infection has been spreading south, toward the southeast and midwest. In particular are the endangered Indiana bats.
I've always been enthusiastic about conservation. This event, research and all that I've put into it, has introduced me to Bat Conservation International, or BCI. As such, I immediately became a member. Perhaps I'll become more physically involved in the future, rather then just using my mind from a great distance. We shall see.
White-nose syndrom is a terrifying fungus that has a very simple way of disturbing our ecosystems. As we all should know, bats are the #1 consumer of night-time flying insects. Bats also pollinate various flowers, some exclusive to bats! The removal of bats on these specific and well developed ecosystems would be drastic! And for these reasons, people have been calling WNS an ecological catastrophe.
Bats hibernate in damp, cold caves. This is the perfect environment for a myriad of fungi, which bats have been living along side, unharmed, for centuries. This newly introduced fungi thrives on the hairless portions of bats. When first discovered, the fungi had been growing on the noses and muzzles of bats, hence the token name. WNS, as any fungus growing on live tissue, irritates the creature it is on. Anyone who's had athlete's foot could agree that it not a comfortable condition.
When hibernating, bats will wake 4-5 times through the winter to groom then go back to sleep. However, the fungus growing on them irritates and itches, causing bats to wake quite often during the hibernating season to itch. A bat's fat stores cannot sustain the constant waking, and bats will grow hungry and leave the cave in mid winter to find food, usually dieing of starvation, dehydration, or just the freezing cold.
Unfortunately, this is a wildfire of a disease. If bird flu infected a chicken farm, there'd be a perimiter around the farm and all chickens in that perimeter would be exterminated and the grounds purged. This wildfire is a bit different though. There are many species of fungi in the affected caves, as well as other creatures which may or may not only live in 2 caves in the entire world. These complications make a simple purging unsustainable. What's worse is that the infection has been spreading south, toward the southeast and midwest. In particular are the endangered Indiana bats.
I've always been enthusiastic about conservation. This event, research and all that I've put into it, has introduced me to Bat Conservation International, or BCI. As such, I immediately became a member. Perhaps I'll become more physically involved in the future, rather then just using my mind from a great distance. We shall see.
Old.
Posted 16 years agoThis song really touched me. Kind of scurry to think about really.
When I grow old
And my memory
Leads me deep into the fog where it abandons me
Will you remind me
Of who I used to be
When I was younger?
When I am old
And the hands of time
Have ravaged all the remnants of my fragile mind
Will you still tell me
Of how it used to be
When I was stronger?
If time is cruel
And it takes away
All the recollections of my younger days
Please help me reminisce
Of all these past events
When days were brighter
And years from now
When I can't recall
The faces and the names I used to know so well
Promise you'll help me
Regain those memories
When my load was lighter
When we were young
And the world seemed
Full of nothing else but possibility
I still remember
Blankets of whispers
That said 'Forever'
But if autumn comes
And your love for me
Has withered like the leaves that fall from every tree
Will you lie to me
So I can still believe
That you still love me?
That you still love me?
-Assemblage 23
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0uIiIb6Cv0
When I grow old
And my memory
Leads me deep into the fog where it abandons me
Will you remind me
Of who I used to be
When I was younger?
When I am old
And the hands of time
Have ravaged all the remnants of my fragile mind
Will you still tell me
Of how it used to be
When I was stronger?
If time is cruel
And it takes away
All the recollections of my younger days
Please help me reminisce
Of all these past events
When days were brighter
And years from now
When I can't recall
The faces and the names I used to know so well
Promise you'll help me
Regain those memories
When my load was lighter
When we were young
And the world seemed
Full of nothing else but possibility
I still remember
Blankets of whispers
That said 'Forever'
But if autumn comes
And your love for me
Has withered like the leaves that fall from every tree
Will you lie to me
So I can still believe
That you still love me?
That you still love me?
-Assemblage 23
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0uIiIb6Cv0
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lame King
Posted 16 years agoso uh, yeah. I've gotten back into the game and hopefully will have a new keyboard by next week so I can move back and forth without tweaking. 'w' and 's' keys no longer work on this laptop's keyboard.
so anyway, I've been going through Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader 10 mans with pugs and downing all the recently released content. By my standards, it's too easy, but whatever. Hence lame-king. Hopefully Icecrown will be as difficult as sunwell plateau when it first came out.
I'll make a post sometime about my character, who has a rolling storyline that I've simply failed to put on paper.Everyone likes a middle aged druid that's taken one too many hard hits to the head.
so anyway, I've been going through Ulduar and Trial of the Crusader 10 mans with pugs and downing all the recently released content. By my standards, it's too easy, but whatever. Hence lame-king. Hopefully Icecrown will be as difficult as sunwell plateau when it first came out.
I'll make a post sometime about my character, who has a rolling storyline that I've simply failed to put on paper.Everyone likes a middle aged druid that's taken one too many hard hits to the head.
Big Toe, Broken Toe!
Posted 16 years agoWell, St. Patties was my 21st burfday, so I got drunk.
Apparently I'm quite the talkative, analytical, funny drunk.
Went to a dive called Fannies in southern California, as my Mom's boyfriend was playing there. Cool guy, base player in the band called Big Toe, link to website will be below.
Came home, crashed at Mark's place.
Woke up in the morning all groggy with a slight headache, brushed a foul taste out of my mouth and fixed my hair only to walk back through the hallway and smash my foot into a lovely amp. Broke my toe, second from the outside on the right foot. It's a lovely purple and black and says Hi to the readers of this journal.
So anyway, broken toe made friends with the toe next to it and I taped them together, with a little seperater thing to keep them from doing naughty things to each other. I've heard from various sources that if you tape two toes together and don't keep them separated, they tend to undress each other of their skin. Hawt.
Anyway, that's my week! :D
Apparently I'm quite the talkative, analytical, funny drunk.
Went to a dive called Fannies in southern California, as my Mom's boyfriend was playing there. Cool guy, base player in the band called Big Toe, link to website will be below.
Came home, crashed at Mark's place.
Woke up in the morning all groggy with a slight headache, brushed a foul taste out of my mouth and fixed my hair only to walk back through the hallway and smash my foot into a lovely amp. Broke my toe, second from the outside on the right foot. It's a lovely purple and black and says Hi to the readers of this journal.
So anyway, broken toe made friends with the toe next to it and I taped them together, with a little seperater thing to keep them from doing naughty things to each other. I've heard from various sources that if you tape two toes together and don't keep them separated, they tend to undress each other of their skin. Hawt.
Anyway, that's my week! :D
