streets and sodium lights

Almoloya Cichlid (Maskaheros regani), family Cichlidae, order Cichliformes, found in rivers along the Atlantic Slope of southern Mexico

Aragorn and Legolas managed to compose an absolutely epic lament for Boromir in the time it took to get Boromir’s body down to the river and arranged all nicely in the boat, 

or Aragon just started singing on the spur of the moment and Legolas took over for the second verse while Aragorn quickly made up the third. 

he is very dead what do

Consider, it’s likely there are a couple existing templates for elegies in terms of tune, so they just needed words, and if ‘dialogue with the winds’ is also a common poetic device, the song basically just requires plugging in some suitable rhymes. Aragorn could totally hack that together in the time it took to pile up all the orcs’ weapons and arrange Boromir nicely in the boat and all that.

‘You left the East Wind to me,’ said Gimli, ‘but I will say naught of it.’ ‘That is as it should be,’ said Aragorn. ‘In Minas Tirith they endure the East Wind, but they do not ask it for tidings.

i know the thing is that the east wind comes from mordor and they’re leaving it out for that reason. but this also sounds like

That being said, I imagine Aragorn didn’t really intend for Legolas to start singing either, he just kind of did and it would have been more disrespectful to pick a fight about it so he went with it. Legolas’ verse has this interesting equating of the sea with death, which makes sense for him, as an Elf who was probably born in the third age. Everyone he ever knew who went to the sea probably never came back, and the concept of Valinor is probably more of a theoretical to him than to many older Elves. Sailing probably seems more like the Doom of Men to him than it really is.

This is, however, not really a cultural concept that Gondorians are likely to share, with their multiple coastal cities and specific history regarding the sea. The foundering of Númenor, while clearly still alive in their cultural memory, was still the event that led to the inception of their nation, and in other poetry regarding Gondor, such as the song about the Palántiri that Gandalf sings to Pippin, it is treated as a beginning, and not an end.

#elves are absolutely the sort of people who WOULD spontaneously make up songs like that tho #and have the innate sort of music-in-their-souls thing where even a silly flibbertigibbet like legolas could absolutely jump-in like that #and follow someone’s lead even when they start singing in an utterly unfamiliar style and concept #half the conversations in mirkwood are probably spontaneous songs rather than talking #(remember the tra-la-lally elves in the hobbit? elves just do this shit) #(the world was formed from song and elves are tied to the world more than anyone else they are music and music is them yadda yadda) #and aragorn is both a: well-travelled enough and b: familiar enough with elves in general to be unsurprised when legolas jumps in #because OF COURSE he does? he’s an elf and someone is singing a lament for a shared friend OF COURSE HE SINGS TOO? that’s what you DO

#did aragorn deliberately leave an opening for legolas to take the second verse because he knows enough about elves to know he probably woul #or was it a surprise that he just rolled with? idk #but it honestly fits both those characters very well that they would do this like this #(gimli could ABSOLUTELY make up spontaneous songs like this too; but dwarf-songs are very different and probably have more rules) #(at least more rules than wood-elf songs which are probably pretty willy-nilly compared to gondor’s cultural structures) #and the fact that aragorn’s verses sound like something Traditionally Gondorian and probably are drawn from existing frameworks #while legolas’s goes more towards the sea (the sea! he hasn’t even heard the gulls yet and already it’s seeping into his songs! my HEART!) #is exactly the sort of depth and nuance of language i expect from tolkien tbh

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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.