something in the water

A fish swimming in the Great Lakes today may have been alive before many colonial settlements existed in the region.

A new scientific study suggests lake sturgeon may live far longer than previously believed. Using 44 years of tagging and recapture data from five Great Lakes populations, researchers estimated that male lake sturgeon may live 90 to 279 years, while females could potentially reach 99 to 427 years.

For many years, scientists estimated sturgeon age by counting growth rings in fin spines, similar to tree rings. Researchers now say that method becomes less reliable as lake sturgeon age because their growth slows and the rings become increasingly difficult to distinguish. By tracking individual fish over decades, the study offers a new way to understand how long these ancient fish may live.

The findings also align with knowledge long shared by some Indigenous communities, whose oral traditions have described lake sturgeon as exceptionally long-lived beings. In many Great Lakes cultures, sturgeon hold deep importance as part of foodways, seasonal knowledge, and relationships with waterways.

Lake sturgeon were once heavily harvested and treated as nuisance fish in the late 1800s, contributing to major population declines. According to Michigan DNR reporting, less than 1% of historic Great Lakes lake sturgeon numbers remain. Because they mature slowly and reproduce over many decades, recovery takes time across generations.

The study highlights the value of long-term monitoring and collaboration among Tribal Nations, fisheries researchers, universities, and conservation agencies. Protecting healthy rivers, spawning habitat, and connected waterways remains important for the future of this species.

Your mileage may vary with some of these, but I've tried to include things that can be used across many different living situations & budgets. I promise these things are easier than you think! Your ancestors did them for thousands of years, and you're living proof that they were doing something right.

And as a reminder: There's no act too small here. All three of the pictures below contain something that has been in my belly by this point, with varying levels of investment & effort. 👇

Gardening

Outdoor

Beginner Gardening Guide 101 - A great list of links for beginning your garden, including in urban environments.

What to Plant Now - Learn what plants are best to grow in your specific climate zone.

Common Sense Gardening Advice for the Beginner

Landscaping & Gardening in Arsenic and Lead Contaminated Soil

Best Vegetables to Grow for Beginners

Growing Vegetables in Containers - EXCELLENT page to check out if you want to use pots instead of growing directly into the ground. There's a whole list of container-happy crops and their preferred sizes.

Indoor

Indoor Gardening for Beginners: An Ultimate Guide - Pretty comprehensive guide. They discuss a lot of the different options you've got when it comes to indoor gardening.

How to Grow Vegetables Indoors (Easy Beginner's Guide)

How to Grow an Indoor Survival Garden - Yeah preppers get kinda weird with it, but this guide has some great tips on grow lights, drainage, containers, etc.

(The next few bullet points are going to be specifically on hydroponics because I'm a nerd and I LOVE hydroponic gardens. They're super easy to maintain. I have one in my kitchen for growing herbs. <3)

A Beginner's Guide to Hydroponics - VERY good place to start!

DIY Hydroponic Garden - If you don't want to buy a pre-built hydroponic garden, this is also a really solid option. It's basically just a storage tub, water bubbler, and grow light.

Preserving Food

Everything here is a huge help for cutting down on food waste!

Root Cellaring for Beginners - On the pricier end of these projects, but often worth it if you plan to grow a lot of stuff. I <3 root cellars.

Quick Pickling 101 - If you want to start pickling stuff, start here. Quick pickling is your gateway. Just keep in mind that quick pickled foods have a shorter shelf life since they aren't properly canned.

Preserving Food and Canning for Beginners - Goes over water bath and pressure canning. Water bath canning in particular is pretty easy to get into.

Curing Onions for Storage

The Dos and Donts of Harvesting, Curing, and Storing Garlic

4 Simple Ways to Dry Herbs - I often just microwave mine, lol.

Salt Curing for Beginners

Simple Homemade Staples

Yes, you can make this stuff!

Farmer's Cheese - If you have milk and vinegar, you have cheese. I make this stuff all the time, especially if I've got a lot of brine leftover from a pickle jar.

Ricotta Cheese - Milk and lemon juice. Yummm.

Vanilla Extract - Also only two ingredients. My fellow Americans, please visit a Mexican grocery store for the best vanilla beans.

Beginner French Bread - I like to recommend this to people who haven't baked with yeast before. Yeast opens up a whole world of possibilities.

The Basics of Sourdough - Full honesty here, I hate sourdough. But my sister loves it, and I like watching people treat their starter like a pet. If you've ever wanted to own a slime, sourdough might be the perfect option fro you.

Homemade Pasta Dough

How to Make Vinegar from Scratch

How to make Yogurt at Home - Infinite yogurt hack.

Homemade Butter

Failproof Homemade Mayonnaise

Animal Husbandry & Meat

I'm just linking some very basic small animal stuff here, but raising your own meat animals is awesome and I strongly encourage it if you're in a position where it's possible. Just do your research and PLEASE connect with more experienced people!

Beginners' Guide to Keeping Chickens

Raising Rabbits for Meat: A Comprehensive Guide

Quail Basics for Beginners

How to Render Fat and Why

Tanning Rabbit Hides

Foraging, Hunting, & Fishing

This is the part where I beg you to please learn about your local ecosystem and laws before you try any of this. Particularly for hunting and fishing, you NEED to get licensed and learn with someone who knows what they're doing. Also idk anything about hunting laws outside the US, so I'm very sorry but this is going to be America-centric. </3

Foraging: a How-To Guide

How to Start Foraging - Really good guide for showing how to safely & ethically forage.

US State Hunting Websites - In the US, every state is a little different about its hunting rules. Know your region, and know your seasons. Most hunting seasons will have restrictions on harvest number, permitted weapons/methods, and animal size. Game wardens do not fuck around.

(I won't go over hunting methods themselves, because that's a huge category and you probably shouldn't learn how to shoot a rifle from a Tumblr post. I'm a compound bow weirdo anyway.)

Field Dressing a Deer for Beginners - Gore warning, obviously. I will note that this guide instructs you to remove the genitals from a buck. If you're in a state that requires you to keep the sex intact, don't do that.

^ If you're not good at this and you plan on eating the meat, please just keep the whole animal intact and pay a processor to do it for you. Otherwise you are going to get deer hair all over the meat.

Butchering and Preparing Wild Ducks

8 Rules of Roadkill - Good tips on the legality & safety of harvesting roadkill.

Getting Started with Fishing for Food - This is another thing I recommend learning with someone who has more experience, but this guide is a great way to get started.

Federal Fishing Rules and Regulations by Region - Fish law. Again, game wardens do not fuck around.

Composting

Now that you've done all of the above, here's what you do with the leftovers.

Composting at Home

Composting for Beginners

The Absolute Begginer's Guide to Composting

And thus the cycle begins again!

What was he thinking to try

Roaming the lands pouring salt on god’s creatures

So with the note that I'm incredibly shallow about people's voices and also audio quality when deciding whether to stick with these, give me recommendations?

here’s another thing about orpheus: he actually did it. he made it out of the underworld without turning around. but he was so excited at the possibility of getting eurydice back that he forgot she still had to follow him out. she had not yet crossed the threshold. one more second and he might’ve gotten her back.

here’s the thing about eurydice: she knew orpheus better than anyone. she knew he was not going to make it. but she followed him the whole way, because she missed him.

BITE stands for Behavior Control, Information Control, Thought Control, and Emotional Control.

The more points a group “scores” on the model, the more of a cult it is.

I think this model is the best one for several reasons:

It’s more nuanced than “cult” or “not cult” and doesn’t make false equivalences between groups

It’s versatile, applying to groups big and small, and cults of all kinds, religious, political, financial, etc.

This is a great example of Thought Control used by cults whenever they’re confronted with criticism.

Not all high-control groups are religious. Secular cults exist.

I do not have to reinvent the wheel every time I write fanfiction

I do not have to make every chapter's word count above 1,000 in order for it to be good

It is okay if some things don't make sense

I can write whatever I want

I am writing this shit for free

If people don't like my stuff, they can block me. If they're being mean about it, I can block them.

The most important part of writing fanfiction is having fun

Writing fanfiction is supposed to be fun

I do not have to appeal to people

This shit is fun