I’m on a secluded island in every sense of the word and I’m screaming at its shores for someone to shine their light my way, but everyone’s light is so dim or cracked or it’s too foggy on the horizon or we didn’t catch each other in time. Even if I could release the muscles in my neck, let the sound tear into space, would anyone hear it?
Bad news is oozing into my lifeway, creating cracks in the pavement, A split at the top of his skull, through which the bad news hissingly poured; a groove in his knees, which buckled.
I’m tired of feeling let down. I’m tired of being affected by people who don’t respect me, even when I’m thousands of miles away. I’m tired of feeling misunderstood and misinterpreted, or worse, completely ignored. I’m tired of trying to fulfill someone else’s desires at the expense of my own.
At least it feels good that a piece of this Pacific ocean has entered my arteries and is now pervading my flesh, such that it’s harder to distinguish who I was, who I am, and who I am becoming. I wonder if I could stay on this island forever, letting these waves and flowing hands wash me and salt me until I become part of the reef.
Anonymous
It’s always flattering (and somewhat surprising) to know that other people are interested in the space I use as a journal and place of processing. I really appreciate it.
To be honest, though, I’m leaving to study in the Pacific Islands tomorrow morning and won’t be intent on using this space for debriefing as I usually do. Alas, someday I’m sure to use it as an artistic outburst and outlet for my many feelings.
Love to you, anonymous, for making my day sweeter.
(via airbrushmyworld)
(via skeletongarden)
"Male privilege is “I have a boyfriend” being the only thing that can actually stop someone from hitting on you because they respect another male-bodied person more than they respect your rejection/lack of interest."
- The Sociological Cinema (via alabastra)
(via artasculture)
30,000 year old flower revived.
Scientists have resurrected a flower from plant tissues found frozen in Siberian permafrost, thought to be 30,000-32,000 years old. The new Silene stenophylla is healthy and fertile, and producing viable seeds.
The experiment has excited many because it proves that material trapped in the permafrost is recoverable and usable - scientists have been working to recover other species of plant and animal life from the same area, such as the woolly mammoth.
“To look at this flourishing mass of plant life you’d think David Latimer was a green-fingered genius. Truth be told, however, his bottle garden – now almost in its 53rd year – hasn’t taken up much of his time. In fact, on the last occasion he watered it Ted Heath was Prime Minister and Richard Nixon was in the White House.
For the last 40 years it has been completely sealed from the outside world. But the indoor variety of spiderworts (or Tradescantia, to give the plant species its scientific Latin name) within has thrived, filling its globular bottle home with healthy foliage.
Yesterday Mr Latimer, 80, said: ‘It’s 6ft from a window so gets a bit of sunlight. It grows towards the light so it gets turned round every so often so it grows evenly. ‘Otherwise, it’s the definition of low-maintenance. I’ve never pruned it, it just seems to have grown to the limits of the bottle.’
The bottle garden has created its own miniature ecosystem. Despite being cut off from the outside world, because it is still absorbing light it can photosynthesize the process by which plants convert sunlight into the energy they need to grow.”
So how does it work exactly?
“Bottle gardens work because their sealed space creates an entirely self-sufficient ecosystem in which plants can survive by using photosynthesis to recycle nutrients.
The only external input needed to keep the plant going is light, since this provides it with the energy it needs to create its own food and continue to grow.
Light shining on the leaves of the plant is absorbed by proteins containing chlorophylls (a green pigment).
Some of that light energy is stored in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a molecule that stores energy. The rest is used to remove electrons from the water being absorbed from the soil through the plant’s roots.
These electrons then become ‘free’ - and are used in chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide into carbohydrates, releasing oxygen.
This photosynthesis process is the opposite of the cellular respiration that occurs in other organisms, including humans, where carbohydrates containing energy react with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, water, and release chemical energy.
But the eco-system also uses cellular respiration to break down decaying material shed by the plant. In this part of the process, bacteria inside the soil of the bottle garden absorbs the plant’s waste oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide which the growing plant can reuse.
And, of course, at night, when there is no sunlight to drive photosynthesis, the plant will also use cellular respiration to keep itself alive by breaking down the stored nutrients.
Because the bottle garden is a closed environment, that means its water cycle is also a self-contained process.
The water in the bottle gets taken up by plants’ roots, is released into the air during transpiration, condenses down into the potting mixture, where the cycle begins again.”
(via psilocymian)
