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chat thread 2021: RIP Paul Mooney

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I know we mention them often, but Blue Herons have to be top 5 non-raptor birds. They might be my top 1. Saw 7 massive ones all in the same tree on the golf course this weekend. They've nested in that same tree for years, so I think there's just one big happy family of 12+ that share the ponds on the course.

birdman, do they eat snakes? I saw one destroy a small bass the other day. Their call/honk is kinda weird though.
 
Great blue herons eat anything they can catch and fit down their throat whole. They would definitely eat a snake.
 
what up chat thread. talk of dead and company got me thinking. so not a lot of peeps on here know but right before covid last year my wife and i separated. and it sucked really bad. and then covid hit and then i lost one of my best friends to cancer. and then the dead & company concert i had tickets for got canceled right as i was going through the worst of it all. so now when they announced their new tour and the first stop is raleigh and i'm going to take this girl who i'm seeing who is awesome and i'm vaccinated af now and things are just kinda awesome for me now. vibes.

Vibes indeed. Sorry to know all you've been dealing with; glad to hear for you it's turned around.
 
I think divorce has a bad rep. It's perceived as something negative, which it is on the short term, but ultimately divorce can had a major positive impact on people's happiness once the legal and emotional turmoil is over. (Divorce with kids in the picture is more problematic though.) I am glad things are on the incline for you.

Agreed, and also agreed even when kids are in the picture. Husband left his ex because he didn't want his kids growing up without seeing real love and joy in a grownup relationship. Presence wrought with tension is not better than separate and happy (in my opinion). The huge caveat to this, though, is that the separate homes are still focused on providing love and stability to the kids first and foremost. Creating separation and then loading kids up with concerns over disappointing parents or choosing sides is worse. Keep kids out of grown up conversations, don't bad-mouth the other parent to the kids.
 
Agreed, and also agreed even when kids are in the picture. Husband left his ex because he didn't want his kids growing up without seeing real love and joy in a grownup relationship. Presence wrought with tension is not better than separate and happy (in my opinion). The huge caveat to this, though, is that the separate homes are still focused on providing love and stability to the kids first and foremost. Creating separation and then loading kids up with concerns over disappointing parents or choosing sides is worse. Keep kids out of grown up conversations, don't bad-mouth the other parent to the kids.

Yeah, to all of this. Divorce with kids makes the healing process more complicated and longer because you have to keep seeing and interacting with your ex for years and years, and you have to be a grown up and put whatever negative feelings you may retain for your ex aside when co-parenting. That's been really hard for me, especially with a kid that has significant mental health issues.
 
Good gawd… A Fungus Is Pushing Cicada Sex Into Hyperdrive And Leaving Them Dismembered

A fungus called Massospora, which can produce compounds of cathinone — an amphetamine — infects a small number of them and makes them lose control.

The fungus takes over their bodies, causing them to lose their lower abdomen and genitals. And it pushes their mating into hyperdrive.

"This is stranger than fiction," Matt Kasson, an associate professor of forest pathology and mycology at West Virginia University, tells NPR's All Things Considered. "To have something that's being manipulated by a fungus, to be hypersexual and to have prolonged stamina and just mate like crazy."

Kasson, who has been studying Massospora for about five years, says just before the cicadas rise from the ground, the spores of the fungus start to infect the bug. Once it's above ground and starts to shed its skin to become an adult, its butt falls off.

Then a "white plug of fungus" starts to grow in its place.

A "white plug of fungus" seen in cicadas infected by Massospora.
Matt Kasson

"It looks as if the backside of the cicada is being replaced either by chalk or by like one of those nubby middle school erasers," Kasson says.

The insects have no idea what's happening. The fungus, however, is "pulling the strings" and making the cicadas want to mate with everyone.

Males that are infected will continue to mate with females, but they'll also pretend to be females so they can spread the fungus to even more partners.

"It's sexually transmissible," Kasson tells NPR. "It's a failed mating attempt, of course, because there's no genitalia back there."

The fungus causes different reactions in different types of cicadas. Periodical cicadas, which take more than a decade between appearances, get sex crazy from cathinone. In yearly cicadas, the fungus makes them instead become hypersexual from psilocybin — the same chemical found in psychedelic mushrooms.

Kasson estimates Massospora probably infects fewer than 5% of cicadas. And as far as he knows, the bugs are not in any pain.

"Everybody's having a good time while they're infected," he says. "So I don't imagine there's much pain — maybe a desire to listen to the Grateful Dead or something like that, but no pain."


And we get…COVID-19.
 
I love dogs as much as the next person but people who make their dog their #1 personality trait are weird.
 
i have lost three indian colleagues in the last two months to covid

heartbreaking

I'm really sorry to hear that. My wife has lost three family members in Peru, including a cousin who was 7+ months pregnant. They managed to save the baby, but I can't imagine the heartbreak they're going through.
 
Chat thread love convo over the years:

Hoodrat hunting > dating > marriage > kids > divorce > dating

I'm disappointed we skipped "hoodrat hunting 2.0"
 
Chat thread love convo over the years:

Hoodrat hunting > dating > marriage > kids > divorce > dating

I'm disappointed we skipped "hoodrat hunting 2.0"

sadly, hoodrat hunting 2.0 would get you cancelled by the woke mob
 
sadly, hoodrat hunting 2.0 would get you cancelled by the woke mob

Hoodrat hunting 2.0 was probably some clicks on Match or whatever. No disrespect.
 
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