botany side of tumblr,

blockmind:

mdthwomp:

still-holding-minas-morgul:

cancerbiophd:

cancerbiophd:

can you confirm that the wildflower seeds from Cheerio’s #BringBackTheBees campaign aren’t invasive species in certain parts of the US?

image

thanks!

sincerely,
someone who wants to support the bees but also doesn’t want to mess up the environment 

so i’ve already found some info on california poppies from here that they may be potentially invasive in hawaii, alaska, and tennessee :

Friendly reminder that you can’t bring some plants into California (they check you if you’re driving in) because of how specific their plant ecosystem is.

Hi Guys!

So you want to support bees, but Cheerios is giving you invasive species, so you can’t use that.

Then use SEEDLES!

Seedles are little seed balls that plant wildflowers and other bee-friendly plants. They aren’t that expensive, and the best part is they’re unique to your region. They’ve worked to use plants found natively in each part of the US so that you aren’t introducing non-native or invasive species.

This is a perfect addition, almost all of the flowers included in Cheerio’s mix are guaranteed to be invasive somewhere. Cheerio’s and those plant bombs are a misguided attempt at helping when you don’t don’t understand the complexity of native ecosystems. You could end up doing much more damage in the long run if you don’t use native species. 

I checked out Seedle’s website and they make it really easy to divide what flowers you are buying by region, so go get your bee support from there! The bees and their environment will be much happier. 

Why I Refuse To Support PETA

fuckingconversations:

shoutingjar:

harostar:

ptsd-illidan:

As most of you know, PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) produces lots of sexist, racist, fatphobic, and even ableist ads. Their ideologies match, unfortunately. They are incredibly unreasonable, too, and they effectively want to remove companion animals from human contact entirely.

Members of PETA have done the following to me.

  • Attempted to take my service dog’s leash
  • Threatened to take him away
  • Sent me death threats
  • Threatened to euthanize him out of “mercy”
  • Claimed that I am a “slavedriver” and “active participant in the speciesist h*l*caust” (Ah yes, please tell the romani-german-native girl that she’s basically a Nazi. Good idea.)
  • Left threatening voicemails on my phone.
  • Scared me so badly that I had to move house at one point
  • Grabbed my service dog
  • Tried to pry my hand off of my service dog’s harness
  • Threw paint on a faux fur-lined coat I was wearing (the paint got matted in my hair to the point where I had to shave my head)
  • Speaks openly on their hatred for service dog handlers.

Adding:

Their “Adoption” services are a complete lie. Do not bring an animal to a PETA facility or allow PETA volunteers or employees to take an animal. THEY WILL KILL IT. 

Their own documentation shows that they euthanize approximately 90 – 97% of all animals they take in, on a yearly basis. This includes everything from seriously injured/ill animals, to healthy puppies and kittens.

They support Breed Specific Legislation, and call for the mass extermination of all “Pit Bull-type dogs”.

if there is anyone out there who doesn’t know this – this is really important. PETA kills and terrorizes animals. They do so for their own propaganda and in turn, profit. There is nothing ethical about their treatment of animals let alone other human beings.

Their position is, supposedly, that animals are equal to humans and as such use really ableist, racist, and wildly inappropriate metaphors that undermine real human oppression and suffering. Often just for shock value. If they applied their principle, then they are basically saying that mentally ill or struggling and homeless humans should be put to death on mass.

In addition to all of the above, they also promote the idea that dairy products cause autism.

Plus, they harassed Steve Irwin’s family while they were grieving his death. 

They’re pretty terrible.

The Humane Society of the United States and the SPCA are where it’s at, if you want broad, effective, and ethical animal rights organizations on a national scale, though you can be really effective seeking out your local no-kill shelter or wildlife refuge.

Some more sources

About why PETA

is awful

travelingmindlostsoul:

goths7:

name one native american intellectual off the top of your head, name one native american actor or actress off the top of your head, name one native american senator, one native american news anchor, or an author or a tv personality or a singer or a poet or a comedian, name a single native american teacher you’ve had, can you? probably not 

ok so now think of one native american cartoon character you know of or a sports team relating to native americans whether it’s their actual name or their team logo, or a town you live in or near with a “native” name bet a lot of these things came to you right away i bet you didn’t even have to think 

needing native representation in media, education and government are not decoy issues, the commercialization and appropriation of native cultures are not decoy issues, the lack of native representation is institutional oppression at work 

White people specifically need to reblog this, I don’t CARE if it makes you uncomfortable–that’s the point. Listen to Native voices about Native issues PLEASE

thatdinopunkguy:

allbarksomebite:

prosthetic-leg:

breelandwalker:

laughlikesomethingbroken:

muttkid:

thequantumqueer:

sissikuk:

latinagabi:

caged-freedom:

rosasdesal:

Repeat after me:
– Veganism is not affordable
– Veganism is not cruelty free
– Veganism is not the best choice for everyone

Repeat after me
-I’m an idiot and wrong.
-Veganism can be made affordable.
Veganism is fucking cruelty free. That’s what it’s all about.
– Veganism is the best choice for everyone, if everyone did it.
-I’m a fucking asshole for making this completely wrong text post and should shut the hell up now.

Exploiting undocumented immigrants, and other workers is cruelty free?
Nearly 500,000 children as young as six harvest 25 percent of US crops.

But I guess brown people don’t fucking matter. 

People are literally starving in South America because all the Quinoa crop is being exported mainly for white vegans who want to live “cruelty-free” but don’t care about brown people as much as they do about animals.

plus, 4 of the 8 most common food allergies (soy, wheat, peanuts, and tree nuts) are common vegan substitutes.

o shit

i would literally starve to death if i couldn’t eat cheese or meats because my body cannot process nuts as they are too rough on my intestines and cause inflammation

Plus there are vegan articles floating around decrying the use of honey, even though the production and harvest of honey by responsible beekeepers doesn’t hurt the bees at all and is not exploitative, and that misinformation hurts the honey industry, which is TRYING TO SAVE BEES FROM EXTINCTION.

!

Seeing as many vegans don’t think (or don’t care) about the human cruelty aspects of veganism, I’ll add that many animals are killed and habitats destroyed to produce arable crops.
Rabbits are regularly shot and killed to protect crops. If a farmer has a particularly bad rabbit problem i.e. a large, established warren, they may use a gas bomb like the Rodenator to destroy the warren and kill or relocate the rabbits. Also works well to kill rats and moles.
Harvesting crops kills or destroys the homes of many small animals like mice. Even organic farming uses pesticides to kill insects. Poison is used to protect stored food such as grains from rats and mice.
Pest control is essential for food production. Without it farmers worldwide simply would not be able to meet the demand for food.

It is literally impossible to live cruelty free in modern western society. Animals have been used as resources, exterminated as pests, and harmed indirectly by humans for millenia. Humans have exploited each other probably since before we were recognisable as humans. There’s also the environmental footprint of producing and importing food.

All we can do is reduce harm. Being vegan does not mean you are living a cruelty free life.

boys-positivity:

Making fun of a guy’s dick size is body shaming. You can’t
be pro-body positive, yet shame a guy for the size of his dick.

We can’t tread on egg shells when it comes to female
body types, but completely disrespect male bodies. That’s not how being pro-body
positive works.

dagwolf:

quinndolyns:

people seem to have trouble understanding why i’m an anti-capitalist, so i’m going to try and put it into simple, real-life terms.

i work at a restaurant. i make $12 an hour, plus tips. minimum wage where i live is relatively high for my country – the national minimum wage is $7.25/hr, and has not been raised since 2009. before taxes, working full time, my yearly income is about $22,000 a year. ($25,000 if you count tips)

at my job, we sell various dishes, with an average price of about $10-$15. we get printouts every week detailing how much money we made that week; in one week, our restaurant makes about $30,000. (one of our other locations actually makes this much on a daily basis!)

i’m not going to go into details, but after the costs of production

(payroll for employees, rent for the building, maintenance, and wholesale food purchasing) are accounted for, the restaurant makes an estimated profit of $20,000 per week.

this profit goes directly to the owner, who does not work at this location. the owner of my restaurant has actually been on vacation for a few months, but still profits from the restaurant, because they own it. i have met the owner exactly twice in my year of working here.

to put this into perspective, the owner of this restaurant earns in 2 days what they pay me in one year. and that’s just from this single location – the owner has several other restaurants, all of which make more money than the one i work at. this ends up resulting in the owner having an estimated net worth of tens of millions of dollars, even after accounting for the payroll for every single worker in their employ.

now, i have to ask you: does the owner of my restaurant deserve this income? did they earn it? did their labor result in this value being created?

the naive answer would be “yes”; the owner purchased the location and arranged for the raw ingredients to be delivered, did they not?

the actual answer is “no”. the owner may have used their initial capital to start the location, but the profit is a result of my labor, and the labor of my co-workers.

the owner purchases rice at a very low bulk price of about 25 cents a pound. i cook the rice, and within a few minutes, that pound of rice is suddenly worth about $30. the owner did not create this value, i did. the owner simply provided the initial capital investment required to start the process.

what needs to be understood here is that capitalists do not create value. they use the labor of their employees to create value, and then take the excess profit and keep it.

what needs to be understood is that capitalists accrue income by already HAVING money. the owner of my restaurant was only able to get this far because they started off, from the very beginning, with enough money to purchase a building, purchase food in bulk, and hire hundreds of employees.

that is to say: the rich get richer, and they do so by exploiting the labor of the poor.

the owner of my restaurant could afford to triple the income of every single person in their employee if they felt like it, but this would mean that they were generating less profit for themselves, so they do not.

the owner of my restaurant pays me the current minimum wage of my area, because to them, i am not a person. i am an investment. i am an asset. i am a means to create more money. 

when you are paid minimum wage, the message your boss is sending you is this: “legally, if i could pay you less, i would.”

every capitalist on the planet exploits their workers for their own gain. every capitalist, even the small business owners, forces people to stay in poverty so that the capitalist can profit.

good post

thecoffeetragedy:

elliebeanz:

hey if you’re a man i’m gonna need you to never approach a woman who’s alone at night time. don’t care what your intention is– unless it’s an emergency, don’t. you probably have no idea what the jolt of cold terror and/or the gnawing dread feels like in these situations. thanks

tip: do like that guy in my nieghbourhood. I have about half a mile to walk from the bus stop to my house, and a few weeks ago at about 11 at night, we both got off the bus at the same time. I noticed after  two blocks that he was going in the same direction, and I was fully prepared to just – take a longer route, even though it was late and super cold, just to avoid being followed by him and showing him where I live, because you never know, right? i’ve been stalked before by a guy who ended up showing up at my house, knowing where I lived because he followed me. I do not want this to happen again.

well, the guy crossed to the other side of the street, and jogged a little to make sure he was always ahead of me. I realised he lived (or was visiting) about three houses from mine, so obviously we were going to follow each other the entire way. I don’t know if he did it on purpose to make me feel safer and, well, not-followed, but it worked and I appreciated it, especially at night in the cold where you can’t see other people’s face because of the clothes.

akireyta:

thyladyx:

remus-christmasjumpers-lupin:

creative-universe:

Okay guys, I normally don’t go into politics but this is really really really really important. You might have heard of it, but the election of our next President is currently taking place in France, so I’ll write this quick words, in both English and French, in hope that a lot of you will read it.

This is me begging you to go vote on May 7th. I kept scrolling on twitter today and all I could see was hashtags terrifying me. #JamaisMacron (Never Macron) #SansMoiLe7Mai (Without me on May 7th)…
On April 25th, we voted for 2 candidates. Despite our hopes, the two names that came out were Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. You might not know them if you’re not french, but both those names held different stories.
While, yes, Emmanuel Macron is a guy that can’t keep his mind straight, change his words every five seconds, is said to be too young to be President, have some « peculiar »  and stupid ideas , he is nothing compared to Le Pen.
She is the leader of the far right, the « Front National », and she is a fraud. a political leader behind a party you should be scarred of. Racist, antisemitic, homophobic, anti-immigration, anti-multiculturalism are some of the words that could be used to describe them.

Truth is, I don’t want either of them to become my President, but we have to put pride and hatred aside. We are French, guys, we are free, we are a nation, we are a beautiful madness, WE are France.
Terrorists attacks can’t divide us. I know I’m scarred, I don’t feel safe, and I don’t trust our politicians, but never, NEVER, will I give up my freedom and my identity to elect someone like Marine Le Pen. No, she’s not Hitler, she’s not the devil, she’s just a woman, a human being, and we have the power to keep her from ruling our country. That won’t be done by sitting on your couch on May 7th, or by giving an empty envelope when you’ll go vote, or by putting the hashtag « Sans Moi le 7 Mai ».
You have more than a right to vote, you have an obligation, toward yourself and toward your country. You might not like it, you might hate Macron even, but you have a voice, and we all know one voice can change everything. So go vote on May 7th, vote for Emmanuel Macron, not because you like him, or because you like his ideas, but because giving him your voice means blocking the way to a party that will destroy our country, our beliefs and most certainly our life.
Please, please, please, don’t sit this one out. Go vote, because if you don’t, then you’ve made your choice, you chose the National Front and everything it stands for. It’s not voting for, but voting against. Who’d you rather have, a weird liberalist with no party and early alzheimer (and a very bad way with words), or a woman who’s going to destroy everything being french means ?
It is not easy, but necessary. Choose life, guys, choose France.

With all my love,
a very concerned french citizen.
——————————————————————————————————-

Salut tous le monde, je ne parle normalement jamais de politique, mais cette fois c’est vraiment, vraiment, vraiment, vraiment important.

Je vous supplie d’aller voter le 7 Mai. Toute la journée, je n’ai vue que des hashtags qui m’ont fait atrocement peur sur twitter; #JamaisMacron – #SansMoiLe7Mai …
Le 25 Avril, on a voté pour 2 candidats. Malgré nos espoirs, les deux noms qui en sont ressortis sont ceux d’Emmanuel Macron et de Marine Le Pen. Vous ne les connaissez peut-être pas si vous n’êtes pas français, mais ce sont deux noms avec deux histoires bien différentes.
Il est vrai qu’Emmanuel Macron est un homme qui n’a pas l’esprit clair, qui change de mots et d’avis toutes les cinq secondes, qui est dit trop jeune pour être Président, et qui a clairement quelques stupides idées très « particulières », mais il n’est rien comparé à Le Pen.
Elle est le leader de l’extrême droite, le Front National, et c’est une arnaque à elle seule, un leader politique derrière un partie dont vous devriez avoir peur. Racisme, antisémitisme, homophobe, anti-immigration, anti-multiculturalisme sont quelques mots qui pourraient bien les décrire.

La vérité étant que je ne veux qu’aucun des deux ne devienne mon(ma) Président(e), mais nous devons mettre de côté notre fierté et notre haine. Nous sommes français, les gars ! Nous sommes libre, nous sommes une nation, nous représentons une magnifique folie, merde, NOUS sommes la France.
Les attaques terroristes ne doivent pas nous diviser. Je sais que j’ai peur, que je ne me sens pas en sécurité, que je ne fais pas confiance à nos politiciens, mais jamais, JAMAIS, je ne renoncerais à ma liberté et mon identité pour élire quelqu’un comme Marine Le Pen.
Non, elle n’est pas Hitler, elle n’est pas le diable, elle est simplement une femme, un être humain, et nous avons le pouvoir de l’empêcher de gouverner notre pays. Ca ne se fera pas en restant assis sur votre canapé le 7 Mai, ni en rendant une enveloppe vide lorsque vous irez voter, ni même en écrivant ce fameux hashtag « Sans Moi le 7 Mai ».
Vous avez plus qu’un droit de voter, vous avez une obligation, envers vous-même et envers votre pays.
Vous n’aimez peut-être pas ça, vous détestez peut-être même Macron, mais vous avez une voix, et nous savons tous qu’une seule voix peut faire toute la différence. Alors allez voter le 7 Mai, votez pour Emmanuel Macron, pas parce que vous l’appréciez lui, ou même ses idées, mais parce que lui donner votre voix veut dire bloquer la route à un partie qui pourrait détruire notre pays, nos croyances et probablement même nos vies.
S’il vous plaît, à tous ce qui lisent ce mots et ont le pouvoir de bouger les choses, à tous les français, ne faites pas l’impasses sur ces élections. Allez voter, parce que ne pas le faire, c’est déjà faire un choix, le choix du Front National et de tous ce qu’il soutient. Rappelez vous que ce n’est pas voter pour, mais voter contre.
Qui préférez-vous, un libéraliste étrange, sans partie avec un alzheimer précoce, ou une femme qui pourrait détruire tous ce qu’être français veut dire ?
Ce n’est pas facile mais nécessaire. Choisissez la vie, les gars, choisissez la France.

Avec tout mon amour,
une citoyenne française très inquiète.

Anyone who posted about the American election needs to reblog this.

France, don’t do the same thing we did in the USA. Don’t do it. Go vote for that young guy.

The racists are voting. Go meet them at the polls