don't die wondering

THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER (the best meteor shower) COINCIDES WITH A NEW MOON THIS YEAR (only happens every ~15 years), WHICH MEANS PERFECTLY DARK SKIES!!!!!!!

IT PEAKS ON AUGUST 12TH, START PLANNING YOUR CAMPING TRIPS TO AREAS WITH DARK SKIES NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER (the best meteor shower) COINCIDES WITH A NEW MOON THIS YEAR (only happens every ~15 years), WHICH MEANS PERFECTLY DARK SKIES!!!!!!!

IT PEAKS ON AUGUST 12TH, START PLANNING YOUR CAMPING TRIPS TO AREAS WITH DARK SKIES NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is really exciting news from my corner of the world! The Oregon silverspot (Speyeria zerene hippolyta) is a highly endangered subspecies of the zerene fritillary that is only found in northern California and Oregon, and once ranged in extreme southwestern Washington. It is found in coastal meadows, most of which have either been developed, or closed in by forest due to repression of natural and cultural fires.

The silverspot is an excellent example of how insect herbivores tend to have very limited diets. Plants don't want to be eaten, so they produce chemicals that deter and poison herbivores that eat them. It takes a long time and many generations for an animal species to develop a tolerance for these chemicals, so insect herbivores usually only manage to overcome a small number of toxins. Some species, like the silverspot caterpillar, can only eat the leaves of a single species of native plant, and if that plant disappears, so does the insect.

This also illustrates that "save the pollinators" isn't as simple as planting some flowers for adult butterflies and moths. You have to also consider what the caterpillars will eat, and around here planting a bunch if butterfly bush or other non-native species isn't going to cut it. If you aren't feeding the caterpillars, you certainly aren't going to get the butterflies.

Why preserve a single species that is so dependent on one other species? Well, for one thing, every species deserves to exist regardless of whether we consider them to be useful to us or not. Moreover, when we preserve habitat for these isolated species, we also preserve habitat for many others who live in the same place. And we ultimately know very little about the intricate connections species have among each other; when we lose a single species, we have no idea how far-reaching the negative impacts will be across the entire ecosystem.

A lot of people are reblogging this without the addition too which frustrates me because I feel like it's really important to bring attention to the specific sort of discrimination schizophrenic people are subject to.

People will see that you're visibly mentally ill, think that you're annoying and actively look for reasons to dislike you, leading to your presence being constantly fucking monitored and judged because everyone's looking for a concrete reason to hate you. That's what this post is about. this is not a general positivity post or a statement. This is an exasperated vent from a schizophrenic person who has been pushed to his fucking brink so many times.

This doesn't just apply to schizophrenia of course- this applies to other schizospec or psychotic disorders, this applies to personality disorders (ESPECIALLY CLUSTER B.) and this spplies to DID and OSDD and other dissociative disorders. Hell this applies to any even remotely stigmatized disorder. I've seen friends with nothing up with them except for mild autism be treated like this solely because someone found them annoying.

Get off my post. This is not what the post is about.

All psychotic people deserve your respect regardless of if they "want" or "respond" to help or not.

I literally do not care how much they "resist treatment" or "don't accept help" that's still a mentally ill person and they deserve respect, NOT for you to vent about them under my post about my own fucking experiences with schizophrenia for me, another schizophrenic person, to see.

This is exactly how my fucking family talks about me. You need to realize that people can see what you fucking put in tags.

how does a point as simple as "we should be nicer to schizophrenics" make you think that replying with "Oh I only partially agree because this specific schizophrenic is a burden on my life… not you by the way op!!! you're a perfectly fine and normal schizophrenic!! it's just that this specific schizophrenic is someone who has been a burden to me and i don't think we should be nice to them" is a good idea