It Would Be Even Weirder If It Was Also Natural (it Isn't, It Was Made In 1991)

The Middle Rodentocene: 10 million years post-establishment

Silence of the Hams: Predatory Hamsters of the Middle Rodentocene

The increase of species diversity in the Middle Rodentocene has also put pressure on food sources, with different species competing over resources and access to available niches. With so many different hamster species abundant all over the various biomes, some of the species have turned their attentions to other, more viable food sources: other hamsters.

Even the ancestral hamster species they all spawned from wasn't exempt from occasionally snacking on one another, or more infamously among pet owners, of hamster mothers devouring their own babies when disturbed. As such, predatory behavior likely first emerged as a means of getting rid of competition: but with them both disposing of rivals and getting nutritious meals as a beneficial bonus, it wasn't long until some became obligate hunters of their fellow rodents. Multiple, unrelated lineages would separately and convergently become predators, relying on a diverse array of tactics for capturing their prey.

One of the most basal lineages of predatory hamsters are the hammibals (family Pantherocricetidae) a clade of small predators that possess dentition and anatomy that physiologically resemble those of a typical rodent. However, rodent teeth are fairly well-suited for gnawing on both plants and meat, and so the hammibals specialized into a different niche while keeping their anatomy conservative. Their grisly behavior meant that they no longer had to compete with other hamsters over food -- they became their food.

The largest of the hammibals is the Leopard Hammibal (Pardocricetus lecteri), growing up to the size of a large rat. While still mostly insectivorous, a significant portion, almost half, of its diet consists of smaller hamster species which it ambushes in their burrows or pursues when they emerge to forage. Grasping forelimbs with sharp claws seize the prey in an instant, and once secured in its grasp, the hammibal begins to feast on the struggling victim, chomping away on the unlucky prey headfirst until at last the desperate squeaks fade into silence.

But while a basal rodent body plan is suitable for predation of smaller rodents, tackling bigger prey proves for more of a challenge. As such, the fearrets (family Mustelocricetidae) have specialized their body plan far more than the hammibals did, developing stabbing points on their incisors and moving their first molars forward to form shearing teeth that can easily slice mouthfuls of meat from bigger carcasses. This peculiar dentition, closely reminescent of the prehistoric Earth marsupial Thylacoleo, allows the fearrets to take on much larger prey, typically hamtelopes and jerryboas but also young cavybaras on occasion.

The largest species, the Grey Fearret (Mustelocricetus atrox), is roughly the size of a pine marten, and as of this era is currently the biggest carnivore of HP-02017. An ambush predator that specializes on hamtelopes, it hunts during the daytime, where its favored prey, the long-legged ratzelles, are most active. Fearrets hunt by using their incisors to puncture bloody wounds into a victim's neck, before quickly retreating: to avoid injury to themselves, they repeatedly lunge, attack, retreat and attack again, wearing the prey down until it eventually succumbs to exhaustion and blood loss.

Grey fearrets mate for life, and mated pairs are known to hunt cooperatively, with one partner chasing prey in the direction of its concealed mate preparing for an ambush. Each pair produces yearly a litter of 2-4 pups at a time, which are dependent on their parents for several months until they are old enough to hunt on their own.

But not all predators in this time period are active hunters that pursue and grapple with their prey. Others, such as the scabbers (family Vermicaudamuridae) rely on other tactics: namely, stealth and deception, luring their prey to them instead of expending much energy in a chase.

The mottled scabber (Vermiformicauda pettigrewi) is one such bait-hunter, preying on small rodents that live on the forest floor, primarily insectivorous ones. Its coat is mottled with light and dark spots to blend in almost seamlessly with the leaf-litter of the ground, and rolling among the fragrant dried leaves to disguise its scent. However, while it is well hidden, one part of its body is very conspicuous: the very end of its long tail, which is flexible, hairless and segmented-- bearing very close resemblance to an earthworm, a favorite meal of many forest-floor hamsters.

Hiding quietly among the dead leaves, the mottled scabber exposes the tip of its tail and twitches it in imitation of a worm. Attracted by the movement, small insectivores eagerly pounce on the wiggling lure...and right within striking range of the camouflaged hunter, which lunges in a blink of an eye and quickly dispatches its quarry with a bite to the back of the neck, crushing its spine and ceasing its struggles in an instant.

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Some handy keyboard shortcuts for Windows:

[win] + [arrow key] : snap the current window (left or right snaps the window to the corresponding half of the screen, up maximizes the window, down un-maximizes or minimizes the window; if a window is already snapped right or left, up or down will make take up the higher or lower quarter of that side of the screen)

[win] + [;] : bring up an emoji picker

[ctrl] + [shift] + [escape] : bring up the Task Manager (this used to be [Ctrl] + [alt] + [delete], but in recent versions of Windows that combination brings up several possible actions, like locking the screen or switching users, in addition to launching the Task Manager

[win] + [L] : lock the screen (so you'll need to enter the password to unlock it)

[win] + [D] : show or hide the desktop (minimizes all windows so you just see the desktop, or brings all windows back up)

[win] + [E] : launches a File Explorer window

[win] + [I] : opens Settings

[alt] + [tab] : brings up all windows and let's you cycle through them by repeatedly hitting [tab]

[win] + [shift] + [S] : take a screenshot of part off your screen

[win] + [U] : opens accessibility settings

Also in general, [tab] will cycle between selected things (eg fields on a web site or Excel cells) and [alt] will activate the menu.

Also, if you hold [shift] while pressing the arrow keys in a text field, it'll select text in the direction you press. It'll go letter by letter if you just hold [shift], but adding in [ctrl] will make it select word by word. These, combined with [home] (go to start of line) and [end] (go to end of line) let you do a lot of text manipulation without ever needing to touch the mouse or touchpad!

Same is happening to me with worldbuilding

Noticed that the porn bots are now trying to get to me by tagging their shit 'linguistics' so it appear in my normal feed because I follow the tag.

I know this is such a doomer kind of attitude but I genuinely cannot stand it when people go around talking about the ‘silent majority’ when it comes to Jew hatred. There’s two main problems I have with this statement

— Sure, these people might support Jews now, but it’s probably safe to say the majority of people in the world have deeply ingrained biases against Jews. Those biases are easily exploited, easily brought out, and easily radicalised into rabid hatred. See: large swaths of leftist spaces, who honestly seemed like sleeper agents with how fast they openly admitted raping Jews is a moral thing. There’s also the issue of a lot of these silent majority people not supporting Hamas or believing in the Aryan race or thinking that Jews have no culture and we’re just stealing it from everyone else, but still tolerating those ideas being held in other people— it shows that these people neither understand nor care about the gravity of these views, which then makes those precious biases much, much easier to show

and

— The entire point of the silent majority is that they are silent. Sure, they might chat with their Jewish friends about how bad things are, they might express sympathy in private, things like that. But when push comes to shove, when Jews are being actively murdered wide scale, they don’t show up. They leave us in the dirt. They watch quietly as the Gestappo drags their neighbours away. They look away politely as their Dhimmi shopkeeper is beaten in the street for walking on the wrong side of the pavement. They close their blinds when their friend is tied to the stake and burned alive

I know it’s comforting to think of this vague concept of the silent majority, but it’s not actually reality. I know it sucks feeling like you need to have your guard up all the time (and you don’t, just be careful), it’s going to suck a whole lot more if you put yourself into a false sense of security. The silent majority are not our friends. The silent majority are not there for us. The silent majority don’t care. We can’t just live in a nebulous idea of people who quietly tut to themselves whenever they see someone saying ‘glory to the resistance’ or ‘Jews are trying to taint the Aryan race’, we need to focus on the tangible reality, and the people who are actually present

I think this is also why I, and so many other Jews, absolutely love non-Jewish allies. There’s something so indescribably amazing to see people in this world that’s been so horrible to us standing up for us, listening to us, helping us. Allies go through a lot of shit from others because they care about us, I’ve seen it so much— they’ll get vicious hate for just associating with Jews. And they still do it. They still stick with us. Because they care, and it’s just so wonderful

Spread the love to non-Jewish allies, you are so amazing. And to the silent majority, I hope you can become the help that we desperately need

Muse Delusion - a love story with a touch of Greek mythology. 

I was a beta reader so trust me this is a great book!

It's free for a limited time only so order now!

So proud of my mother for doing her own research after I sent her that meme. A sign she hung in her car window.

The gals are feeling circular, absolute little creatures.

It is May but it is still October.

It is still October whenever another hostage's body is found. It is still October whenever another IDF casualty is announced. It is still October whenever the red alert shows up on my phone. It is still October when people chant for "intifada". It is still October when people call for our home to be destroyed. It is still October when people deny what was done to our brothers and sisters. It is still October when people show support for Hamas. It is still October when a new lie about us is believed and spread. It is still October when a former role model wishes us dead.

It is still October.

When will it stop being October?

When October 2024 arrives, will it still be October 2023?

removed twitter account from bio, updated my discord account name