Cat Lady in Training

The first photo is from 1956. It shows a Black woman watching members of the Ku Klux Klan (a terrorist, racist, far-right organization focused on white supremacy) walking along a sidewalk in Montgomery, Alabama (USA). I couldn't find the photo's author, but most sources state that it was taken in 1956.

The second photo shows members of the Patriot Front group (a white supremacist and nationalist group, formed in 2017, that openly advocates what they call "American Fascism") traveling on the subway during the 250th anniversary of the U.S. independence in Washington D.C., while a Black woman watches them. The photo is by photographer Cheney Orr, taken on July 4, 2026, 70 years after the first photo.

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.

Spin the wheel again. That’s who’s trying to protect you.

(If you have zero idea about a name you got, spin until you see someone you recognize.)

Dende no La Croix

(+ Bonus!)

A third button has been added. everyone who presses the red button survives regardless, but if a majority press the red button, everyone else dies. If a majority of people press the blue button, everyone survives—except for anyone who presses the green button. Everyone who presses the green button gets a crisp 1 dollar bill