Hi, everyone! I hope this lovely spring day has been treating all of you well.
I'm making this GA to celebrate one more weary year on this planet, completing one more year of college, and vanquishing (or rather surviving) organic chemistry. Anyways, how is life going for all of you, o lovely people?
if you'd like to make me happy, I love pictures and videos of arthropods (I'm studying to be an entomologist), and appreciate genuine thoughts on video games you think I may enjoy, or perhaps recommendations based thereupon. I really don't enjoy generic copy-paste style ''thanks'', and find them to be more bothersome than endearing.
One of our native insects in NZ. They love carrots <3
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Have you personally interacted with a Wetale? I've only seen preserved specimens, but have heard that they will brandish their back legs over their bodies, in order to ward off birds.
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Weta. Yes I have. Adorable! Yes they do. It's a smaller one, but you get the idea
Some of the alpine species are even capable of a frozen hibernation (like, they literaly freeze) over winter, then thawing again in spring. "The New Zealand weta, Hemideina maori, is shown to withstand freezing, below its supercooling point, for at least 5 h at −9°C and for at least 8 h at −8°C. The lower lethal temperature is about −10°C."
Unfortunately our Department of Conservation considers 16 of the 70 species at risk of extinction.
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Weta, yes. I don't know what happened with my typing in the above comment.
I've seen timelapse videos of their hibernation, and have heard that in some particularly intemperate parts of NZ, they can freeze and thaw on a nightly basis.
It's a shame that so many are endangered. I'm guessing that rats are one of the reasons they're so close to extinction, yes?
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That and loss of habitat through human intervention and animals like deer. They're also preyed on by cats and hedgehogs.
The Auckland Zoo has had success with breeding the giant weta (previously only found on Little Barrier Island) and releasing them into the wild. Since 2014 there are three natural breeding populations of giant weta on different islands off the coast.
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It's not easy to get arthropods to mate, and then there are so many variables to account for in egg care. Rearing is an impressive feat, and I'm glad it's worked out for them thus far. Somewhat reminiscent of the Lord Howe Island stick insect breeding program's success. Your part of the world has some of the most wonderful insects.
To shift to a slightly different topic, I noticed that your profile picture is an origami butterfly. Do you enjoy folding, too?
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Yep! That photo in particular was part of photography concept of folding origami plants and animals and then photographing them in their 'natural' habitat. I'm currently working on a batch of 1000 Cranes to post to Japan for the Hiroshima Peace Memorial
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holy cow
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As a fan of science, I'd think you might find Waking Mars particularly entertaining. It's one of the best examples of emergent systems in video games that I've encountered. Kindof a "wow" type game for me as I played it.
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Thank you for the recommendation - it looks really fun, and i quite like the notion - it's pretty much extraterrestrial restoration biology.
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Thank you
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Hai! Yes, I guess :D
Be strong :P, same goes for me (learning for the finals).
I really enjoyed Bastion.
It's a single player based indie game with beautiful art style, story line and music.
Bastion - Official Trailer
[and Thank you for the GA ;D]
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Thanks for the recommendation. Bastion seems quite an interesting game, though I've only played through the demo. The fact that everything is destructible was something I thought was quite clever, and the little of the soundtrack that I heard was quire pleasant. I'll keep it in mind, on account of your recommendation.
Best of luck to you in your finals. What is your current course of study, if I might so inquire?
I quite appreciate your picture of ocelli - they're such a striking part of an arthropod's anatomy. Especially those on a cicada, gleaming ruby-red upon the pale forehead of a freshly-molted adult.
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History, Hungarian Grammar, Literature, Information Technology (oral presentations)
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ᴛʜᴀɴᴋs ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʜᴀɴᴄᴇ!
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This comment was deleted 1 year ago.
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