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crustydollparts: Newberry, Black Cat asleep under cover...

Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:49:27 -0400

crustydollparts:

Newberry, Black Cat asleep under cover 1940

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Thu, 20 Jun 2013 00:19:27 -0400

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 23:18:55 -0400

operationchastise: F14 Tomcat

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:59:45 -0400

operationchastise:

F14 Tomcat

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:58:45 -0400

jtotheizzoe: I’ve seen a lot of spacey photos in my time....

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:57:06 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

I’ve seen a lot of spacey photos in my time. Enough so that I catch myself occasionally making a jaded sigh, saying “Oh neat, another shot of a spacecraft in front of the moon. Been there, done that.“

Then I punch myself in the arm and tell myself to shut up because these are pictures of SPACE.

That’s what happened with Maximilian Teodorescu’s shot of the International Space Station against the face of the moon. At first I was minorly impressed, because it’s a very small thing traveling very fast, in front of a larger thing that is even farther away. But people take pictures of the ISS all the time. Big deal.

Then I realized that this one was taken during the day. At that point I lost my schnoodles. I’m betting a few of you will too.

(via Overthinking It)

artchipel: Christopher Boffoli - Big appetites | Chocolate...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 22:51:45 -0400

artchipel:

Christopher Boffoli - Big appetites | Chocolate quarry

beccatheb: stuckinabucket: Behold, birds who have lost the...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:48:54 -0400

beccatheb:

stuckinabucket:

Behold, birds who have lost the ability to can!

Just kidding, guys. These birds are just trolling the hell out of ants. I really, really wanted to show you this clip of a Galapagos finch or something harassing the shit out of formica ants and then being all “Yes, yes, bathe me in your fury! Your chemical defenses are now my own! Mwahahahaha!”, but the closest thing I could find is this video of David Attenborough pissing off some wood ants. It was basically like that, only instead of an Englishman with a stick, it was a bird stomping around with its wings spread just being an absolute asshole about everything.

This behavior is actually called anting, and there are two types of anting that birds can engage in. One is just anting, where birds will rub ants all over themselves to get that precious, precious formic acid all up in their feathers. They’ll also do it with mothballs, cigarette butts, and certain sorts of beetles and millipedes. The other one is passive anting, where a particularly lazy bird will find an anthill and just flop down on it with all their feathers spread and puffed and annoy the ants until they hop to and try to make them leave, at which point the bird rubs its wings together and goes “Yeeeeeess.”

They do this to get rid of external parasites, because external parasites are annoying. Ant-eating birds who do this are getting a two-for deal out of it, because they get the ants to empty their acid sacs in a beneficial location (the bird’s feathers) and then get to eat them without having to deal with the acid in their crops, so it’s basically like if your bug-spray or deoderant came in a bacon bottle.

Formica ants get the brunt of this, because they’re super-common and quite frequently spray the acid instead of trying to inject it, so the bird can get itself doused and then preen it into its feathers. Considering the spraying of acid is like the ant way of saying “Oh my god go away you dickhead I hate you we all hate you why are you still here jesus christ what is wrong with you,” we can be reasonably sure that they’re not super-thrilled by this bird behavior. Since the birds keep doing it, we can be reasonably sure that they don’t care about the ants’ feelings.

I can’t stop laughing at the text
Why can’t every science book be written like this?

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:36:45 -0400

jtotheizzoe: The Mad Hatterpillar The caterpillars of the Gum...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:56:49 -0400

jtotheizzoe:

The Mad Hatterpillar

The caterpillars of the Gum Leaf Skeletoniser moth have an interesting claim to fame. They wear their old heads as hats. See, as caterpillars like this grow, like many insects, they shed their exoskeletons for a new larger size. Only this one decides to keep a souvenir every round. When it matures into a moth, the heads are lost.

I particularly liked Bug Girl’s definition of a the function of moths and butterflies:

“Moths and butterflies are just flying gonads that make new caterpillars”

I wonder if it knows how a raven is like a writing desk?

(via Bug Girl’s Blog)

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:19:28 -0400

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:17:28 -0400

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Wed, 19 Jun 2013 01:13:03 -0400

rocksymom: Home is where your wi-fi connects automatically.

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:03:58 -0400

rocksymom:

Home is where your wi-fi connects automatically.

batblush: I LOVE BARN OWLS SO MUCH...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:58:45 -0400

batblush:

I LOVE BARN OWLS SO MUCH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Awwwww

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:38:58 -0400

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:38:38 -0400

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:37:06 -0400

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Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:36:26 -0400

jetgreguar: disneytrivia: In the scene in The Incredibles...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:35:59 -0400

jetgreguar:

disneytrivia:

In the scene in The Incredibles where Helen (Elastagirl) is flying the plane, her use of radio protocol is exceptionally accurate for a movie. The terminology used hints that she has had military flight training. In the director’s commentary Brad Bird says that actress Holly Hunter insisted on learning both the lingo and its meaning.

“VFR on top” means she is flying in the regime of Visual Flight Rules ‘on top’ of a cloud cover.

She requests “vectors to the initial”, or directions on how to get to the initial landing approach.

“Angels 10” is her altitude call, ten thousand feet. This is a military term. Civilian flights use the term “flight level”.

“Track east” is her direction of travel.

“Buddy spike(d)” is a US military brevity code meaning “friendly anti-aircraft radar has locked on to me, (please don’t shoot)”.

“Transmitting in the Blind Guard” is a call on the emergency frequency where 2-way communication has not been established.

“Abort” is also a military brevity code, a directive meaning “stop the action/mission/attack”.

god i love when actors/ voice actors are intent on using correct lingo for things like this

its so easy to BS this sort of thing and sometimes it might work but it’s vastly more impressive when they actually use correct terminology