A Random Collection

I beg y’all please help or share 🙏🏿 Lost my job June 16 alongside 2 Black employees and I’m currently facing an urgent utility hardship. My electricity has been disconnected since June 24, leaving me without refrigeration, cooking access, or laundry.

I’ve been surviving on peanut butter sandwiches since I can’t store food, and I can’t run a fan or AC in this heat. A friend has been bringing me a charged portable charger daily so I can keep my phone on and apply for jobs. I’ve honestly been bawling my eyes out trying to get through this and figure things out.

Electric Bill: $664/$1,934.80

Venmo: Queenloki89

Goal: $40/$950

Cash App: $ Thecatqueenxo

PayPal/Venmo: Thecatqueenxo

Ko-fi: ko-fi.com/pandavillemeow

i just want us to get out, of course our other 2 kids will come with me I just need money for a couple of taxis and a hotel room please

anything anything helps please

We couldn't get my son's testosterone so he is missing his weekly shot, my daughter needs a haircut to fix what her grandpa did to her, she is worried she doesn't look like a girl anymore.

We don't have enough to go to the laundromat and we still have to afford my healthcare renewal, June's rent, cat food and a couple taxis for medical appointments and to retrieve the safe food people sent us through our throne wishlist.

My partner's ankle is hurt after his dad pulled his cane from him and made him fall.

Came across this art installation, Liza Lou's Kitchen, at the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC. It's a kitchen made of tiny glass beads, that artist Liza Lou did, taking 5 yrs. to complete, from 1991 - 1996.

My favorite part is the sink.

If you're up for helping out and want to donate, here: http://paypal.me/tormentedartifacts

Or https://ko-fi.com/tormentedartifacts/shop

Or if you wanna get something in return for helping, there's always http://tormentedartifacts.com

(during colonial contact)

Moosehide Tea Doll, creator unknown, c. 1927, held at Field Museum of Natural History, USA

Innikueu, commonly known as Innu tea dolls, are small, hand-sewn dolls traditionally made by Innu from scraps of cloth or tanned hide, sewn in the shape of a person and stuffed with dried tea, or, alternatively, with soft materials such as moss, fabric remnants, or dried grasses. These dolls were historically made by parents for their children as toys and as storage containers, reflecting everyday life in hunting camps throughout Nitassinan.

Tea Doll, creator unknown, c. unknown, held by the Peenamin McKenzie School

Tea dolls were typically faceless and had minimally detailed bodies, but contrastingly often adorned with highly detailed clothing, carefully sewn miniature versions of traditional Innu caribou-hide coats, ornamented colourful hats, hand-knit stockings, and moccasins. The name “tea doll” derives, obviously, from their use in storing extra reserve tea. Black Tea, bought/traded from European traders, was a valuable, large-volume commodity to the Innu. When family groups travelled among their hunting grounds, all were expected to carry their share of the load, including children. Their share was carried by bringing it inside their doll, holding an extra cache of tea in case the larger supply ran out. A tea doll’s multifunctional purpose, and construction from spare or natural materials, is a strong reflection of the mobility of traditional Innu life, but also a growing integration of European goods into that lifestyle.

Innu girls with their dolls, c. 1931

Meet Davy’s naked-backed bat (Pteronotus davyi)! This species, which can be found in parts of Central and South America, preys mostly on moths and flies. It uses echolocation to hunt by night, and can detect prey as small as 0.08 in (0.2 cm) in size from nearly 2.46 ft (0.75 m) away in darkness. Often feeding above water, this bat also has the ability to drink on the go—a phenomenon known as “drinking on the wing.”

AN ENIGMATIC DENTAL PLATE REVEALS A UNKNOWN EAGLE RAY, THE FIRST FOR THE CARIBBEAN AND THE ATLANTIC OF THE AMERICAS

For nearly ten years, a set of mysterious dental plates sat quietly in a small Venezuelan collection, collected by artisanal fishers off the coast of Chichiriviche. No one knew exactly what they belonged to, only that they came from an eagle ray, a group of winged, shell-crushing rays with pavement-like teeth. Now, an international team of researchers has re-examined those plates and made a surprising discovery: likely belong to the genus Aetomylaeus, a group of eagle rays never before documented in the Caribbean Sea or the entire Western Atlantic Ocean.

Using detailed comparisons with museum specimens and fossil records from the Pacific and Eastern Atlantic, the researchers analyzed the shape, arrangement, and proportions of the teeth. The results clearly set the Venezuelan specimen apart from Caribbean eagle rays like Aetobatus narinari (the spotted eagle ray) and local Myliobatis species. Instead, its closest match was with Aetomylaeus bovinus from the Eastern Atlantic and even fossil Aetomylaeus from Chile. This opens three fascinating possibilities: an unknown relict population that survived the closure of the Central American Seaway millions of years ago; a long-distance vagrant from Africa; or, less likely, a hybrid between two known Caribbean genera.

Regardless of which hypothesis proves correct, this finding rewrites a small but important chapter of marine biogeography. Most Aetomylaeus species are already classified as threatened or Data Deficient, and this first modern record in the Caribbean underscores just how little we know about the region's hidden biodiversity. The authors caution that tooth plates alone cannot give a definitive species identification, genetic material would be needed for that—but the evidence is strong enough to call for urgent, expanded surveys of Venezuela's overlooked elasmobranch fauna. In a world where even charismatic rays can go unnoticed for a decade in a museum drawer, this study is a quiet but powerful reminder: sometimes, the most extraordinary discoveries are found not in the open ocean, but in collections waiting for a second look.

Eye spy some incredible adaptations 👀

Hyperiid amphipods are a small but anatomically diverse group of shrimp-like crustaceans with remarkable adaptations for life in the ocean’s twilight zone.

A team of researchers from MBARI, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, GEOMAR, the University of Western Australia, and the Florida Museum of Natural History leveraged 30 years of video observations from MBARI’s robotic submersibles to study the evolution of eye complexity in hyperiid amphipods. The team recently published their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 📸: Karen J. Osborn/Smithsonian Institution

Hyperiid amphipods are abundant in the midwater environment. Recognizing the true abundance of free-swimming, predatory species requires scientists to reconsider the ecological role of hyperiids in midwater communities. This innovative research underscores the value of direct observations for uncovering evolutionary and ecological processes in the largest living space on Earth. 📸: Karen J. Osborn/Smithsonian Institution