Emily > Recent Status Updates

I dont know if I can finish this. With each book I'm getting more and more confused. Nothing is explained. And now im finding plot inconsistencies. This is the last book and a work friend recommendation, but is it worth finishing?

Sad to DNF this one.

DNF. Too many fat shaming comments and poorly executed female characters. The sense of humor and immature comments during serious scenes is also very off putting. The ideas are so interesting, what a shame.

Notes for myself. Spiders masterbate into web and bring sperm to fem. Cephalopods hectocotylous, spring loaded sperm grenade, transfer sperm pouches to fem. mantle. Reduced penises Argonauts have detachable hectocotylous and mate only once. Velvet worms fix sperm to fem. Sperm sinks into body, travels via bloodstream because female is full of embryos. Virgin females mate with males with sperm headcrowns.

Catfish in France 5 ft long, eat pigeons. Birds sing higher pitched songs in open areas because dense vegetation muffles higher notes. Urban birds sing higher pitched songs. For oscines, its behavior (adjusts to conditions) whereas it may be genetic for suboscines and frogs. Their song is predetermined (not learned) so harder to adjust. Song may be shorter, more spaced out notes so echoes from buildings are reduced.

Organisms in fragmented urban habitats form local genetically distinct populations. Bobcats gen. different between North and South LA, separated by highways. Genetic drift/inbreeding a concern. White-footed mice gen. diff. between each park, developed adaptations to pollution. Pigeons form darker plumage so melanin molecules bind/get rid of heavy metal pollutants. Smaller pop. able to quickly adapt.

4 reasons for urban biological richness. The luxury effect where biodiversity is higher in more affluent neighborhoods. Human settlements were formed in already bio rich hot spots (near food/water sources). Habitat loss outside city perimeter forces organisms into city refuges. Coyotes surive at higher rate in cities, less persecuted. Microhabitats, varied landscapes.

Its been way too long. Glad to pick up a new book, especially a nature book. New word: myrmecophile. Ecosystem engineers create new niches for other organisms to use (ants). Humans are important ecosystem engineers since organisms are adapting to urban environments. House mosquitoes in subway underground are different than mosquitoes aboveground and are different between each tunnel.

A thousand page book with a 436 page long sentence. What did I get myself into.

“It will once again be possible to improve the world without permission slips from the powerful.” Loving this already.

I can’t with this book anymore!!!! If I wasn’t reading this for a class I’d have DNF’d it 50 pages ago. 😭