Either as a proportion of population and/or proportion of species.

I read estimates that about 34000 fish species have been catalogued. I also read that spawning is the reproductive method used by a "majority", but I'd like to know if that's on the ballpark of "51%" or "99%". Thanks in advance!

Cus his dad is a fish. Whatever man I got no heat tonight

Just a sudden thought. For sea life that rely on external fertilization, would the process of speciation take longer as there isn't really control over where the sperm goes after release, especially in species that live in dense communities like reefs in early/prehistoric times. Unless it doesn't travel very far or have very selective ways to find the right eggs. 🤔

Curious as to what you guys think.

Fishes and amphibians reproduced via external fertilization while reptiles don't. So how did the reptiles come to the understanding that they must inseminate the female to reproduce rather than spawning?

#Part 5 – Mists of Pandaria

This is the fifth part of my write-up about World of Warcraft. You can read the first four by clicking the links below.

• Part 1 - Beta and Vanilla

• Part 2 - Burning Crusade

• Part 3 - Wrath of the Lich King

• Part 4 - Cataclysm

An Unexpected Trademark

It was mid-2011. The final patch of Cataclysm was on its way, and Blizzcon was just around the corner. The subject of World of Warcraft’s next expansion had begun to gain traction once again, and as was tradition, the internet became awash with leaks. Some promised Old Gods, some foresaw Kul’Tiras or Zandalar or Nazjatar, Tel’Abim or Suramar or Sargeras – in short, players made every possible prediction in the vain hope that one of them might be proven right.

But none of them were.

No one could have predicted Pandaria.

It wasn’t until the user ‘Mynsc’ went wading through the US Patent and Trademark Office website in search of info about Titan – Blizzard’s ‘open-secret’ new game in development – that they stumbled upon a recently-filed trademark by the name of ‘Mists of Pandaria’. Among all the theory-crafting and scavenging for information, it had been there a week, out in the open where anyone could find it, and yet completely overlooked.

It was immediately dismissed by many users as a book, a figurine, an in-game microtransaction perhaps. They cast it aside and turned to the more realistic leaks. But upon further inspection, the trademark was for a game, distributed on CD-ROMs with instruction manuals and guides. It had to be WoW content.

Okay, the community said. Then it was a patch.

>”they don't trademark patches. If they never did before, why now?”

Then it had to be some kind of trading-card game spin off. Definitely not an expansion.

>”The international class used in the trademark is the same as they used for previous expansions. The timing and information for the Mists of Pandaria trademark matches that of The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, and Cataclysm. If this i

This is your 15-minute Wednesday briefing in 3787 words.

##Armenian soldiers destroyed an Azeri position on January 11 | Casualties | OSCE statement | Aliyev about OSCE

OSCE urged Azerbaijan and Armenia to deescalate and engage in a meaningful dialogue over the Karabakh issue.

The statement comes amid Azerbaijan's border attack on Tuesday. Armenia lost three soldiers and two were wounded. Azeri media reported the death of at least one soldier.

Military expert Karen Hovhannisyan: the enemy sustained big losses. I'm just curious how they will present their human losses now. They can hide the armored vehicle and equipment losses, but I'm curious what they will do regarding deaths. Will they claim the soldiers died on a landmine? //

 

The clashes took place within Armenian territories where Azerbaijan had illegally encroached in May 2021. Immediately after the January 11 clashes, videos were circulated showing a burning position. Video 1 and Video 2. Armenian soldiers filmed the ammunition explosion.

The burning position is the one that's 2.4km within Armenian territory. It's 5km from Verin Shorzha village.

The Armenian position, from which the soldiers filmed the video, is 230 meters away. It is safe to suggest that one of the Azeri positions within Armenia has now been destroyed, concluded CivilNet's fact-checkers.

QP MP Khachatryan: the clashes took place after Armenian soldiers began fortifying their positions with engineering work. Azeris attempted to stop them. Armenia responded. It led to the clashes. //

Reporter: did Armenia contact CSTO after Azerbaijan's January 11 border provocation?

Foreign Ministry: we keep our international partners informed regularly about border incidents. On January 11, the Armenian forces neutralized the Azeri provocations. //

##Azerbaijan throws a tantrum at OSCE, calls it obsolete

Aliyev does not want OSCE Minsk Group to engage in Karabakh negotiations. He repeated his claim that "the conflict is resolved", and that they don't need Minsk Group anymore, and that it's time for the co-chairs to "retire".

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1072724.html https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1072725.html https://factor.am/462664.html https://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/229103 https://armenpress.a

Was inspired after reading an @indian_fact_genius post that read: “DID YOU KNOW: A fish will not sex ! Lay an egg on floorsea, a man a male fish will ejaculte on the eggs !”

It is no secret that one of the most often asked questions on this board (and one I get often asked in PM's) is "where do I start?" Another version is, "how do I become an initiate?"

Largely, the response is referring to books or following one method or another by random internet strangers who have no idea of the questioner's background or life circumstances that may prevent him/her from following one path or another.

I have held off posting this series because I was not sure how to word it suitable for a general audience so as not to invoke confusion. But through happenstance, I came into clarity to post this general post first, before discussing the three paths. Despite the names assigned to the paths below, all paths to the mountain top fall into three broad categories. As Rudolf Steiner once said in Cologne on November 30, 1906:

>"A human being acquires the capacity for gaining knowledge of the higher worlds through initiation, which consists in an intimate path of development of the soul. There are various paths to this knowledge for various people, but the truth is everywhere the same. Only after we have achieved the pinnacle of a mountain do we have an unlimited view in all directions. But it would be nonsensical for us, starting form our present location, to take any but the most direct path to the top. It is the same with initiation. When we have arrived at the goal and have truly achieved the unhindered perspective of knowledge, then this knowledge is the same for everyone."

In fact, following a path of initiation that is not appropriate to your nature can cause great harm and overall cause you to be set back on your spiritual progress. Accordingly, I must pause here to provide a warning before approaching one of the three paths of initiation.

WARNING When approaching initiation, it is imperative that you be direct and honest with yourself. You may not want to believe that you fall within a specific group, but wanting and being are two different things. Before starting on a path of initiation, contemplate the three general categories below, not their names but the nature of the category itself. Approach it without bias, without prejudgment or expectation. May people feel that they should actually be part of another path to initiation and resist the true path they belong to. Again, this can be harmful to soul development. Thus, be open minded before proceeding. Also, first, second, and third have no ranking, they are all

If your goal is food independence, then you need to learn about permaculture.

But before we talk about why you should incorporate it into your plans, let’s talk about what it actually is. In a nutshell, permaculture is an ecosystem that is completely sustainable. It doesn’t require anything external to maintain its growth cycle or to survive.

Sounds good, right? Of course it does, and it’s not that complicated to start. Of course, you CAN get fancy and invest a lot of money into it, but you really don’t need to. The idea is to create an environment in which you’re working with nature instead of against it. In other words, don’t look at each part of your system individually; look at how they work in relation to one another.

Permacultures create their own energy and dispose of their own wastes. They’re balanced and sustainable, and you may even be using at least a partial permaculture now. Though it’s most often associated with food, the philosophy will work in every aspect of your life.

And if your goal is total independence and sustainability, then that’s what you want to do.

Difference Between Organic Gardens and Permaculture

Organic gardens are simply that – gardens. They aren’t sustainable and they don’t look beyond the growth of plants in the present. Permaculture is the creation of an actual environment. Your main focus is to create an environment where the water and nutrient loop is closed by using all forms of waste, and reducing or eliminating dependence on outside sources.

Organic gardens, strictly speaking, are traditional gardens that use chemical-free soils and seeds. They don’t work to improve the soil or build a cooperative ecosystem where everything works well together. Organic gardens have a completely different focus than permaculture.

So, organic gardens have higher yields but less variety, the products ripen all at once and it’s mostly up to you to control pests and do the rest of the work.

In a permaculture environment (which may not necessarily meet the requirements to be organic based on using local sources), you have a wider range of plants and products that provide food, fuel, recreation, and habitat. It nurtures your home by deflecting wind, providing shade, and filtering air.

Everything is created by working with nature, so the shape of your garden is determined by water catchment. All sources are local and reusable and you’re sharing the workload and pest control with insects and l

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

“CIRCLE OF DEATH!”

Keira spun her greatsword in a wide arc, cleaving through both the Blightspawn in front of her and the one that had been attempting to sneak up from behind. Her blade split open mutated flesh like it was a knife cutting hot butter, scoring deep lines across the Blightspawn’s torsos that wept gray blood. Keira didn’t bother feeling triumphant – considering how effective the abominations’ regeneration was, those wounds were barely worth the 50 MP she’d spent to inflict them.

Knocking both creatures away from her, thereby giving her a much-needed moment to focus on one? Now that was worth 50 MP.

“POWER SLASH!” Keira slammed her beloved partner down onto the first Blightspawn’s back, piercing through its body and into the ground. The beast, a crocodile-thing with two heads and serrated skin, writhed frantically as it struggled in vain to escape from the slab of steel that was pinning it in place. As the second Blightspawn rallied to its friend’s aid, claws outstretched towards Keira's unprotected back, Keira used the momentum of her swing to vault herself straight over the first Blightspawn and land behind its tail. With both creatures taken off guard, and one heavily injured, Keira ripped her greatsword out of the crocodile-thing’s back and beat the everloving shit out of it until it stopped moving.

Reached Level 41!
5 Stat Points Gained!

Warrior Level Increased! 37 → 38

4 Points in Strength, 1 in Vitality. For once, her allocation choice wasn’t based solely on her personal preferences – raw power was the key to killing monstrosities that were fueled by Blight-born vitality. The remaining Blightspawn warbled in outrage as it spewed fire, breathing gusts of flame out from compressed sacks of air embedded within its skin. Danger Sense guided Keira’s steps as she jumped to the side well before its attack reached her. She eyed her MP, currently sitting at 150, and decided: fuck it.

“SPEAR OF STEEL!” Keira launched her greatsword like a javelin, crushing the Blightspawn’s head into a gooey red paste. She rushed forward as the blade reappeared back in her hand, preparing a follow-up attack to prevent the beast from regaining its footing.

Then Meyneth tore its spine out.

Keira skidded to a halt. She stared at the Dragonkin in utter bafflement, her posture frozen in the middle of executing a sword strike. Meyneth definitely hadn’t been there a moment ago. Yet there she was, tearing the Blightspawn to shreds as she bellowe

A little backstory: my SO and I have been trying to get pregnant for over a year. During that time, I continued to drink like usual (every day, anywhere from 1-6 on weekdays and binging even more on the weekends). If I went to visit family or something, I could go without drinking, though. And I did many times, but I would still crave it. I have done this for over 10 years.

I guess you could call me “high-functioning”; my drinking never affected my ability to hold down a job or pay my bills, I never drank on the job, etc…although I did go to work hungover many times and my relationship with alcohol was definitely unhealthy. I know that I used it as a coping mechanism from my stress, depression, and anxiety, as so many of us do.

We had our first fertility treatment (IUI) in December and I stopped cold turkey after the treatment in case it worked. I kept asking myself, “Is my drinking the reason I haven’t gotten pregnant yet?”

Honestly, it’s the cravings that got me. I didn’t really have any physical symptoms (no shakes, nausea/vomiting, etc.). But the instinct to reach for a bottle when I got home from work to relax was so strong, I was so irritable for the first two weeks.

I got my first positive test the day after Christmas. I’ll be 6 weeks along on Monday, which is still very early, but I can’t believe it and I am both scared and over the moon with joy.

It’s been 26 days since I last drank and I feel so proud of myself. I know we should do this for ourselves, but for me, I think I needed that “external” motivation to really convince me to stop. And I keep thinking: if this is a healthy pregnancy and I don’t drink for 8 more months…will I even want to start drinking again? Maybe this is exactly what I needed to stop for good.

Anyway, that’s my story. IWNDWYT.

Do your worst!

I'm not sure that such an animal exists, but I have vague memories of watching a video or otherwise learning about such an animal when I was a kid. By my recollection, it was a marine animal, that come mating time, floated up to the surface?, released sperm for external fertilization?, and died?

I found that corals do something similar, but the articles I read suggest that the offspring, not the parents, float to the surface, and that the males do not die in this process. Is there any other animal that could explain the strange memory I have?

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

They’re on standbi

It's been a few generations since the humans joined the wider group of sapients of the galaxy, and among the many previously thought "laws" of species development they've upended, none are more significant than their breaking of the so-called Chain of Self-Civilizing.

Initially proposed by a long-dead xenoarcheosociologist, the proposed Chain says that certain benchmarks must first be met before a proper war can take place. To have a war, you have to have a group capable of gathering the required resources & people to wage it. To have a group capable, they should necessarily need to support the group in the first place, which means agriculture of crops and/or domestication of livestock depending on the diet. And interspersed through these steps are some form of energy harvesting, be it fire, gravity, or eletricity, and some sort of intoxicant. If there's one thing most sapients can agree on, is thinking all the time & existence in general aren't fun all the time, and you have to take the edge off somehow. Each of these steps takes an exponentially shorter time to move to the next, since the benefits of all previous steps compound, with the first often taking millions of orbits to get to the second.

The first & oldest species, now translated as just Us/We, went the most so-called logical route: agriculture, booze, fire, civilization, then war. Their wars were infrequent and brief, no more than skirmishes compared to most others, and quickly saw the cause of war was scarcity and so expanded to the stars so they would never want for raw materials again.

As they expanded, they encountered other sapient life, and the pattern in general held true. Mixed around depending on the species in question, like how a carnivorous species would often find their intoxicant first with spoiled meats and fungus, then fire, then domestication, etc. A very small handful that experienced a cataclysm in their early pre-history were forced to make civilization & organization their priority to survive at all, then eventually harnessing agriculture and the rest. But all of these needed those initial Links of organization and sustainability before population growth and competition for resources necessitated the end of the Chain, the first war.

After the usual first contact hiccups were resolved was it truly realized that the humans had done things differently. Their world is fertile and vibrant with near a unheard-of diversity of life, while extremely hostile to al

Pilot on me!!

Nothing, he was gladiator.

HALT! Don’t Go There!

Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired

It should go without saying that a person in sobriety should not get Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired (HALT), but that is where we find ourselves quite often. One (or all) of these can lead to a loss of serenity, or worse… a relapse into our addiction.

Why HALT?

As an alcoholic, self-awareness was never one of my strong points. “Healthy” attitudes about moderation, isolation, anger management, and social interaction found little space in the midst of the chaos and panic that was my life. Focused on the outside world, I found little time to monitor and maintain my internal wellbeing. Many days, just getting by was a major accomplishment!

Getting sober (and staying sober), I worked on more than keeping my life as it was — minus the alcohol or drugs. Recovery brought a better way of living to all aspects of my life: mind, body, and soul.

>I can be alone in a crowd .

As I progressed along the path of recovery, looking inward was the key to a happy and healthy sober life. Keeping a watch on my internal physical, mental, and emotional self, the chaos began to settle. This newfound pattern for living was often a bit difficult to maintain. Going forward, recognizing the behaviors early is the best thing I can do to keep building towards a better life!

HALT! Who Goes There?

At some point, everyone will find themselves Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. It is a basic truth of being a human! Sober living is about how we respond to those challenges and make our lives better!

Living life on life’s terms means that we can clearly see what is going on in our world and take steps to correct what we can. HALT is all about changing parts of our lives that we can control.

Hungry

“Hunger” can come in many forms beyond simply a lack of food. As sober addicts and alcoholics, we often find ourselves hungering for acceptance and understanding. There is a need that we find unfulfilled in our lives.

Improving this situation can be as simple as building a plan to eat regularly. At times — especially early in sobriety — eating may stretch our budgets beyond the breaking point. Making your recovery a priority means doing what it takes to find resources available (including public assistance) to you in your community. AA / NA meetings are a great place to find information about food banks and other options open to you.

Beyond the physical lack of food, defining a hunger for something missing in your life

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.