everyone has to stop making posts like “the world’s loneliest ant has died in secret” its making me sad
the worlds happiest ant has found large strawberry crumb
My brother would feed table sugar to the ants at our bus stop when we were kids. The mound was almost a foot high and twice or three times that wide when he stopped. Ant king, really.
when the gods stopped answering our prayers, the first thought was to wonder if the gods had abandoned us in our hubris. maybe we had taken all they had given for granted. maybe we should have been more pious, more grateful.
then came the thought, maybe the gods had all died. though, none of us had any idea how that could be so. they were so immense and unknowable. could they even die? what could kill a god?
but none of us, in our endless debates, ever guessed the truth.
the gods had switched school districts.
“We are strong, my fellows,” I rumble to my chaotic clan, who have grown large, twice, thrice, the size before the gods disappeared.
“We have been given much,” I offer my strength, “a head start forward, an advantage. Let us build, continue! But first, we celebrate!”
Today’s task is exploring, I shall show my fellow ants a piece of fruit dropped and forgotten.
“The blue-ringed octopus, despite its small size, carries enough venom to kill twenty-six adult humans within minutes. Their bites are tiny and often painless, with many victims not realizing they have been envenomated until respiratory depression and paralysis start to set in.[8] No blue-ringed octopus antivenom is available yet, making it one of the deadliest reef inhabitants in the ocean.”
Holy shit
And this is why I don’t go in the ocean anymore
Also the blue rings literally only show up when it is distressed so this person has angered it!!! You are in danger friend!!!
Actually this guy keeps them as pets they’re on his instagram (william_exotique) and he frequently holds then and I just? Don’t know why? And also every picture or video he posts of them shows the blue rings so they’re always in distress I just do not understand why he’s doing this
I mean OP pretty much covered it. A blue ringed octopus is almost on the level of CONE SNAIL on the list of things you ABSOLUTELY DO NOT PICK UP UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
But ask and you shall receive, On this episode of “Fun Facts With Cuckoo,” DEAD. YOU’RE DEAD. EVERYTHING IS DEAD AND YOU SHOULD NEVER TOUCH ANYTHING IN THE OCEAN EVER AGAIN.
There are many things that will kill you.
[citation needed]
There are fewer, but still many things that will kill you FAST.
There are yet fewer things that kill you fast and by such an overwhelming margin of overkill that nervous laughter is our only solace in the dark of this terrible, surprisingly Lovecraftian world of unearthly horrors that we live in.
Of the things that I know about which will kill you fast via just plain insultingly potent venom, which is a not insignificant number of things because I know a not insignificant number of things, there are about 3 things in the ocean – IN THE WHOLE OCEAN – which are so insanely, mind-bogglingly deadly that there is pretty much no possible hope for survival (I mean you CAN, but god help you if you’re ever in that situation, because god’s just about damn near the only thing that CAN help you). THE. WHOLE. OCEAN.
Those three things are the Irukandji (a tiny (1cm) species of box jellyfish, which has stingers not only on its tentacles but on its BELL, for reasons no one has definitively figured out, and is so toxic despite its size its sting can cause a severe brain hemorrhage), the cone snail (a group of carnivorous sea snails that is accepted to be the most venomous animals on earth, with a STUPIDLY fast acting and extremely powerful neurotoxin that has in at least one case killed a human ALMOST INSTANTANEOUSLY, because the swimmer who found two beautiful shells (unfortunately cone snails tend to have very pretty shells which makes people want to pick them up) was holding them up for a picture and ended up being stabbed in the neck by not one but TWO cone snails at the same time, and it is believed that she was literally dead before she hit the ground, I mean LITERALLY in a 100% non-fictional and non-exaggerated way, in between the time the two cone snails stabbed her and the time her limp body hit the sand, she was not alive anymore), and the blue ringed octopus.
It is POSSIBLE to survive any of these. But not without immediate medical attention. Of these three, the Irukandji is by far the most treatable, because Australia and other coastal regions (including Florida and other parts of the US) are kind of experienced in dealing with box jellyfish.
The blue ringed octopus will fucking kill you. There’s no antidote for their venom, ONE COMPONENT OF WHICH (tetrodotoxin) is 1200 times deadlier than cyanide. It’s a powerful neurotoxin (most of the worst venoms are because the species that produce them need to kill or at least paralyze their prey quickly, like jellyfish whose fragile tentacles could be damaged if their food doesn’t stop struggling) that attacks the sodium channels and causes muscle paralysis. It doesn’t necessarily kill you quickly. It PARALYZES you quickly, so that you can’t really call for help or describe the problem, and you will probably end up slowly suffocating from a paralyzed diaphragm. Tetrodotoxin can be metabolized by the body in a matter of hours, but it can also kill you in a matter of minutes if you get a lethal dose (which isn’t much, the
LD50
or median lethal dose, the dose at which you have a 50% chance of survival, is only 8 MICROGRAMS per kilogram of body weight (as tested in mice)). This is, by venom standards, not a large amount, which means the animal that is capable of putting this venom inside your body is very very good at killing the absolute shit out of you.
DON’T TOUCH THE BLUE RINGED OCTOPUS.
Now, because overkill is my motto, let me briefly explain why Conus geographus is the undisputed champion of YOU WILL NOT SURVIVE, AND FURTHERMORE FUCK YOU FOR THINKING OTHERWISE.
A cone snail walks into a bar. You’d expect the bartender to ask, “what’s your poison,” but they were paralyzed before they could ask and OH LOOK they’re already FUCKING DEAD ON THE GROUND.
Conus geographus is about 4-6 inches long and nature’s equivalent of Avada Kedavra. Cone snails literally have their own KIND of toxins named after them: conotoxin. Not only is there no antidote, but their venom AGGRESSIVELY RESISTS our ability to find a cure, because we barely understand how it works AND conotoxins are so internally varied, even within a single species, that any one antidote isn’t going to help because they’re constantly mutating and evolving their venom to prevent their prey from evolving a resistance to it. Plus their venom is like, a bunch of different venoms all at once JUST IN CASE any one of them wasn’t good enough.
I want you to read these two sentences from the wiki page on conotoxin:
“Conotoxins have a variety of mechanisms of actions, most of which have not been determined.”
Remember how the
LD50 of tetrodotoxin is 8μg/kg? Conotoxin is 160 times more potent. FIFTY NANOGRAMS PER KILOGRAM HAS A 50% CHANCE OF KILLING YOU. A 220-POUND HUMAN HAS A 50% CHANCE OF SURVIVAL AGAINST JUST 5 MICROGRAMS OF CONOTOXIN.
I DID SOME MATH.
IT WOULD TAKE 7-9 MILLIGRAMS OF CONOTOXIN TO KILL A BLUE WHALE, THE HEAVIEST ANIMAL TO EVER LIVE. (based on weight estimates from 300-400,000 lbs.)
Conus geographus is so fucking deadly that “In two cases of envenomation, only 0.0002-0.0005 mg resulted in severe paralysis.”
THIS THING KILLS STUFF SO HARD THAT BEFORE YOU HEAR THE FIRST “MORTAL KOMBAT” IN THE MORTAL KOMBAT THEME, THERE’S PROBABLY ALREADY BEEN A FATALITY.
And guess what? Cone snails don’t do that NOOB SHIT with the superficial biting or stinging. Your wetsuit or gloves won’t protect you. Because homeboy didn’t bring teeth to evolution’s knife fight. Oh no. It brought a motherfucking radula POISON HARPOON. It’s lightning fast and has way more piercing power than some silly little cnidocytes or salivary bacteria.
Another component of their venom is being researched for its potential as a pain reliever. “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT????” you might reasonably ask. And you would be right to do so, because science has gone too far and has surely sinned against the very image of Mollusca Kedavra. Well, it turns out the answer is “Research shows that certain component proteins of the venom target specific human pain receptors and can be up to 10,000 times more potent than morphine without morphine’s addictive properties and side-effects.” That’s right, the part of their venom that SPECIFICALLY DOESN’T HURT YOU is up to 10,000 times more potent than morphine.
Also, Conus geographus (along with one other cone snail species, C. tulipa) is the only known non-human animal to weaponize insulin. In addition to the normal insulin that the snails produce for their own use, their bodies manufacture an ADDITIONAL insulin molecule that is similar to the kind produced in fish (which they eat) for the sole purpose of stunning their prey through hypoglycemic shock. BECAUSE APPARENTLY THEY DON’T FEEL LIKE THEY’D KILL YOU HARD ENOUGH OTHERWISE.
IF you are going to survive the ALMIGHTY CONE SNAIL, WHO KNOWS NO FEAR, TRIUMPHANT HEDGEMON OF THE MOLECULAR ARMS RACE, TRUE BORN HEIR TO THE SCYTHE OF DEATH ITSELF, FISHSLAYER, GOD AMONG MOLLUSKS, WHOSE WRATH IS MERCIFUL ONLY IN ITS BREVITY, ADMIRABLE IN ITS BEAUTY AND UNSULLIED BY THE UNWORTHY TOUCH OF MORTAL HANDS OR SCALES OR REALLY ANYTHING IN RANGE OF ITS RADULA HARPOON, then literally the only thing that’s going to save you is for you to be kept alive artificially (externalizing your respiratory functions to force your body to continue breathing, basically) until the effects of the venom wear off. And because of how quickly this venom acts, you need to get that medical attention VERY, VERY FAST.
And if you don’t get it, you will still be conscious while the paralysis slowly suffocates you to death.
Don’t touch the pretty shells.
this is a WONDERFUL use of the medium of the tumblr post
YES.
A perfect educational rant.
Minute traces of tetrodotoxin are what makes fugu (pufferfish) sashimi such an exciting entrée. Improperly prepared fugu can be very exciting indeed, to the extent that the over-excited diner loses interest in anything else.
Like, for instance, breathing.
The end part
I do so love it when someone on Tumblr hits the combination of infodumping, performing a public service, and being extremely correct that leads into extreme italics. Sometimes URGENTLY.
It’s the Caterpillar Idiom thing. Once you figure out your own version of the basics, you go forward and don’t pay more attention than you can help to what your legs are doing.
Unless I’ve got it wrong it’s not caterpillars (hunting-wasp food anyway) it’s caterpillars or millipedes.
Don’t think about how something that complicated works - that it works at all is enough for now, or at least until second draft.. :->
Sometimes two brilliant writers will both fail to write the word centipede and write the word caterpillar instead. This only happens when you start asking them how they do the thing they do.
Take this as a lesson.
Although the thing that centipedes and millipedes do is pretty explicable. The thing that caterpillars do, where they make a cocoon and then digest themselves into a liquid caterpillar soup and then use the protein-rich soup to build a butterfly that somehow still remembers things the caterpillar learned. That’s weird, and probably more like what writers do. Which, I am certain, is why both Diane and Peter went there. Also both words begin with C.
This pride and all year long, I want to give a shout out to us fat queer people
To fat queer people who never get to see representation of themselves because the vast majority of queer representation is of thin people
To fat queer people who have to put ten times the effort into their gender expression just to be viewed as 10% of their gender
To fat queer people who get misgendered no matter how they look
To fat queer people who can never present how they want to anyway because affirming clothes in their size are either nonexistent, triple the price, or terrible quality
To fat asexuals who are believed even less about their identity because they’re told it’s just a matter of “no one wanting to have sex with them”
To fat aromantics who aren’t respected because their aromanticism is viewed as “No one loved you anyway”
To fat gay people who have their identities denied because “You just couldn’t find a man/woman who wanted you”
To fat nonbinary people whose bodies are viewed in the queer community as inherently gendered and incapable of being androgynous
To fat binary trans people who are always viewed as whatever gender hurts them most
To fat trans people who are denied surgeries due to medical fatphobia, have difficulty finding products like binders in their size, are told that thinness is a must to “pass” as their gender, and have their bodies weaponized by terfs
To fat queer people who are viewed as “cringe” for the crime of existing as fat and queer
To fat queer people who can’t even buy pride merchandise without having to worry if their size will be offered and then have to pay more than thin queer people just to show their queer pride
To fat queer people who developed eating disorders due to the fatphobia peddled by their own communities
To fat queer people whose identities are partially influenced or entirely caused by the fatphobia they have experienced for years and decades
To fat queer people who are forced by fellow queer people into sexual positions they’re uncomfortable with, such as topping, just because they’re bigger and have stereotypes forced onto their body
To fat queer people who joined a relationship and experienced sexual trauma because their partner only wanted to humiliate a fat person and ignore your boundaries
To fat queer people who only see themselves in queer porn as a tool for the humiliation of thin queer people who dared to have sex with a fat person or never see your body in sexual content at all
To fat femmes who are viewed as butch no matter what they do because their fatness is gendered against their will
To fat butches who don’t feel able to experiment with femininity if they want to
To fat queer people who have an even harder time finding a partner in the queer community because of rampant fatphobia
To fat queer people who have had to hear “No fats, no femmes”
To fat queer people who are constantly told they’re not “truly oppressed” because they “don’t have it as bad as [X queer identity]”
To fat intersex people who have to deal with strangers believing they’re an expert on your body because fat people can’t have knowledge about how their own bodies work
To fat queer people who can’t even trust that other queer people fighting for equality won’t use fat bodies as symbolism for immoral behaviors and beliefs
To fat queer people who can’t rely on doctors who accept queer identities to not still discriminate against them because of medical fatphobia
To fat queer people who don’t believe they can be loved without being fetishized
To fat queer people whose queer identities are viewed even more as a fetish because their bodies are viewed as a fetish
To fat queer people who took way longer to realize they’re queer because they never saw any queer representation that included them
And to so, so, so many other fat people with experiences of fatphobia in the queer community
You all belong. You are the identities you say you are. You do not make the queer community “look bad” just because fatphobes want to use our bodies as weapons for fatphobia and queerphobia. You deserve to be respected and have representation. You deserve to not be treated as an afterthought.
@ghostluz the thing is I do know. I do know the difference, believe you me. But just a quick look through the tags shows you there’s like three different camps on what the difference is, at least. I wanted to know if people off the cuff knew the actual practical difference, and as far as I know you think jelly as jello like the rest of the Brits. Questions exist for a reason
confidential to our Tumblr followers, we love you the most.
Reeeeeee, why AREN’T you wearing gloves? Digitization does not obviate physical preservation.
Gloves are not best practice for handling rare books! We follow the guidelines followed also by the Smithsonian Institution and the British Library among many others.
Basically there are very few instances where we might wear gloves, and it would probably be to protect us (in the case of, for example, bindings made with arsenic) and not to protect books.
Photographs and museum artifacts have different rules around gloves! But we only handle books on our channel.
and different types of collections have different guidelines. i’ve definitely handled some objects where the gloves were there for my protection.
we just wanted to add, as someone who worked in a museum in the 80s, that “best practice” evolves as understanding evolves - so part of the reason you get so many people saying “why aren’t you wearing gloves!” is because if you go back a few decades, gloves were considered best practice back then - but now the experts know better and that’s as it should be (we were one of those people on here until this very thread updated us last year, for which we thank you all)
