Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
The black areas represent the remaining natural dark skies in the United States
Iâve been in the middle of the ocean at night and now live in texas and it is so hard to explain to people that no, they have not ever seen the night sky. It is so hard to explain to people that what they think is a proper night sky is fucking pathetic. A disgrace.
People talk about how you canât see stars in the city and yeah, thatâs true, but their concept of âseeing starsâ is being able to make out orionâs belt.
So, so few people have see the sky in all its glory and itâs not sad. Itâs a fucking crime. Seeing a perfectly dark night, no clouds, not a hint of light pollution? Thatâs a fucking religious experience.
The sky the vast vast majority of us grew up with is not the sky that inspired us to look up. It is not the sky that inspired constellations. You canât even see most constellations.
Your ancestors looked at the night sky and said âsurely, that is where the gods must live.â And you might be lucky if you can see hardly more than a handful of stars.
The sky is full, fucking FULL, of stars, and youâve never seen them.
Light pollution must be reined in - thereâs a phenomenon in protecting any aspect of the environment: after a generation or so, people donât know what theyâre missing. Be that stars, trees, birds and lizards in their gardens, everything.
Exessive town and street lights are the enemy. Trees, and rules around external lighting help, but Buffer zones, good old fashioned green belts are so important.
I think a lot of people who seem uninspired by the night sky have never actually seen it. I recommend everyone take at least one trip to an International Dark Sky Place to see what the night sky SHOULD look like. And then, when you return to your own town, start advocating for change.
1. sylvia Plath, the unabridged journals pt. 165 || 2. Mary lambert (art by @heavensghost ) || 3. cj hauser, the crane wife || 4. julie carr, real life: with voice and rights || 5. eliot knight || 6. sufjan stevens (art by @heavensghost ) || 7. ivan turgenev, first love
they might not look like it at first glance, but conchs (pronounced âkonksâ) are actually giant sea snails!
unlike other snails though, conchs have EXCELLENT vision and can clearly pick out the details on your wetsuit when you dive down to grab one. (though maybe donât do that, theyâre delicious but thereâs not a whole lot of them left)
this sounds cool in the abstract, but in reality it means that theyâre riding the line between cute and creepy and theyâre riding it hard.
It recently came up in conversation with my toddler that some birds can talk, and this has caused her great concern.
See, we were talking about how movies are pretend and how in real life, animals don’t talk. I mentioned that there are some birds who talk a little bit, but not like the animals in movies, and she just looked at me like “???”
So I informed her that some kinds of parrots can copy sounds that people make, and can learn how to say words. I thought this would give her a giggle, as fun new facts often do, but she was just deeply perplexed and a little worried about this.
“Birds can talk?” “Do they ask questions?” “What do they say?” Why do they talk?” “Do chickens talk?” “What about Blue Jays?” “Why do some birds talk?” “How do they talk?” “Birds TALK???”
We showed her a video of a parrot doing the “Hello, pretty bird, give a kiss” thing, and she was dead silent the whole time, hugging her comfort pillow with her knees to her chest. We asked if she wanted us to turn it off, and she shook her head. But we also asked if she wanted to see another one, and she shook her head even harder.
I don’t know why it has distressed her so greatly to learn that some birds can mimic human speech; but then again, I don’t know why it doesn’t distress the rest of us more to know that some birds can mimic human speech.
I keep thinking about that post that’s like “The first person to hear a parrot talk was probably Not Okay.” Because that’s exactly what happened. She had never been introduced to the concept, and her entire worldview got SHOOK.
Part of why Ravens are considered Spooky Bad Things We Associate With The Faeries is because they can and do mimic human speech - but much, much better than a parrot. With a parrot, you can tell something is off about the sound. You can tell it doesn’t belong to a human. Ravens don’t sound like that, no, cause they’re overacheivers. (And passerines). They sound EXACTLY like the voice of whoever they are mimicking.
But more importantly they love the sound of human laughter. No one knows why. But it is totally, 100% possible, and it happens to this day, to walk along the paths in the Black Forest and suddenly hear a strange kind of giggling sound, or maybe even a very clear, definitely human sounding “hello?” “Hiiiii!” Or “let’s go!”.
However, it takes a lot of practice for them to copy sounds as perfectly as they do, so you’re equally likely to hear something that definitely sounds human-like, but the words make no sense and the sound is unlike any language you know.
Ravens at the Tower of London do this all the time. Theyre pretty sociable with humans though, so they do it quite openly. I have seen videos of people, mostly Americans, look absolutely spooked out of their skins when a big ol’ raven (mind ye, these are birds that are 2 feet tall with a 5 foot wingspan) comes waltzing up on the deck and starts talking to them.
And ravens, especially the ones there that have been bred and raised by humans for centuries, don’t just imitate - they have one of the same language processing genes we do, and they understand the way a toddler might that things, places, and individuals have names, and can string together basic sentences much like an african grey.
I know because I used to work with one, Darlene, who knew, quite well, what she wanted and how to ask for it. If you were preparing her breakfast, she would hop on up and investigate. She used to be an illegal pet, and had been taught “manners”. That is to say, if she went for something and you told her, sternly, “mind your manners missy!” She would stop, look at you, perhaps for up to a minute, and then point with her beak to what she wanted. If that did not work, she would ask, in plain English, “grape?” Or “Darl have grape?” And lord help you if you gave her anything less than what she asked for. She would throw it at you, and try to bite you, sometimes while saying “No!” In the same tone as I imagine she was reprimanded in her home.
So yeah. Parrots arent the only ones.
WHAT
Was anyone gonna tell me that ravens can talk or was I meant to read about it on a tumblr post?!
