During World War II, while trying to stock a remote island in the Bering Sea with an emergency food source, the U.S. Coast Guard set in motion a classic experiment in the boom and bust of a wildlife population.

The island was St. Matthew, an unoccupied 32-mile-long, four-mile-wide sliver of tundra and cliffs in the Bering Sea, more than 200 miles from the nearest Alaska village.

In 1944, the Coast Guard installed a loran (long range aids to navigation) station on St. Matthew to help captains of U.S. ships and aircraft pilots pinpoint their locations. The Coast Guard put 19 men on the island to operate the station.

In August 1944, the Coast Guard released 29 reindeer as a backup food source for the men. Barged over from Nunivak Island, the animals landed in an ungulate paradise: lichen mats 4 inches thick carpeted areas of the island, and the men of the Coast Guard station were the reindeer's only potential predators.

The men left before they had the chance to shoot a reindeer. With the end of World War II approaching, the Coast Guard pulled the men from the island. St. Matthew's remaining residents were the seabirds that nest on its cliffs, McKay's snow buntings and other ground-nesting birds, arctic foxes, a single species of vole and 29 reindeer.

St. Matthew then had the classic ingredients for a population explosion: a group of healthy large herbivores with a limited food supply and no creature above them in the food chain. That's what Dave Klein saw when he visited the island in 1957.

Klein was then a biologist working for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He is now a professor emeritus with the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Institute of Arctic Biology. The first time he hiked the length of St. Matthew Island in 1957, he and field assistant Jim Whisenhant counted 1,350 reindeer, most of which were fat and in excellent shape. Klein noticed that reindeer had trampled and overgrazed some lichen mats, foreshadowing a disaster.

Klein did not get a chance to return to the island until summer 1963, when a Coast Guard cutter dropped him and three other scientists off on the island. As their boots hit the shore, they saw reindeer tracks, reindeer droppings, bent-over willows, and reindeer after reindeer.

“We counted 6,000 of them,” Klein said. “They were really hammering the lichens.”

The herd was then at a staggering density of 47 per square mile. Klein noted the animals' body size had decreased since his last visit, as had the ratio of yearling reindeer to adults. All signs pointed to a crash.

Other commitments and the difficulty of finding a ride to St. Matthew kept Klein away until summer 1966, but he heard a startling report from men on a Coast Guard cutter who had gone ashore to hunt reindeer in August 1965. The men had seen dozens of bleached reindeer skeletons scattered over the tundra.

When Klein returned in summer 1966, he, another biologist and a botanist found the island covered with skeletons. They counted only 42 live reindeer, no fawns, 41 females and one male with abnormal antlers that probably wasn't able to reproduce. During a few months, the reindeer population had dropped by 99 percent.

Klein figured that thousands of reindeer starved during the winter after his last visit.

With no breeding population, the reindeer of St. Matthew Island died off by the 1980s. The unintended experiment in population dynamics and range ecology ended as it began — with winds howling over a place where arctic foxes are once again the largest mammals roaming the tundra.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=198728069006496

https://www.boredpanda.com/adoptions-unites-two-best-friends/

Anyways on to the pondscum of 9strag https://9gag.com/gag/ae90j7b#comment

FIRST THE NEGATIVITY:

You know darn well he is the house "Help"

"Poor kid. 12 and already part of a gang."

"Poor kid, he lose his parents once, now he will lose his father again when he need something to smoke..."

You guys get the idea - racists and chuds spaz the frick out and nogposts like hooligans in the early moments of the post, and at first it seems like it's gonna be another Poltard thread.

Basically a torrent of racism which would make the liberals on rdrama.net lose their mind, when compared to the genuinely lukewarm chuds here on this site. Like really you guys are surrounded with reddit level civilized posts which are usually purged by jannies of all racism and chud posting, compared to 9strag.

Yet remarkably all of these racist posts are all controversial and downvoted into oblivion, whereas in usual circumstances the degenerates of 9gag would basically post endless 13/50

Instead for today all the top posts are all remarkably positive!

one post making self-aware funny joke about how 9gag morons can't fit in their racism into this particular wholesome story.

even the negative comments are downvoted.

of course 9strag wholesomeness comes with its own caveats, and their own particular r-sluration.

@Aevann pin to prove you're not racist.

Spain's Ministry of Foreign affairs has asked ministers to stop accusing Israel of conducting a genocide, because under spanish law making that accusation grants every Palestinian a right to asylum in Spain.

https://t.co/jOgu1DSmWa pic.twitter.com/P6Xx9j9f2w

— Faytuks News (@Faytuks) May 31, 2024

O'Reilly - who was in his 30s and from Athlone, County Westmeath - held convictions for burglaries and serious offences, and was regarded as a violent and dangerous criminal, according to BelfastLive.

But he was also described as having a 'heart of gold' by mourners - hence the extravagant colour of the coffin, which was carried by six men and a woman to Tina Turner's 'Simply the Best'.

Many subs talking about it:

https://old.reddit.com/r/neoliberal/comments/1d45d61/emigration_from_canada_to_the_us_hits_a_10year/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/Economics/comments/1d40xd7/emigration_to_the_us_hits_a_10year_high_as_tens/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/CanadaPolitics/comments/1d3zgoo/emigration_to_the_us_hits_a_10year_high_as_tens/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/Canada_sub/comments/1d41nid/emigration_to_the_us_hits_a_10year_high_as_tens/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1d45iaw/emigration_from_canada_to_the_us_hits_a_10year/?sort=controversial

>car breaks down, live in it

>Exchange numbers with female store employees

>Rappel into planet fitness via broken skylight (retain cash flow)

>Call in bomb threat to Andreesson Horowitz (it's part of the venture capital game)

>Take peepee pics in locker room at planet fitness

>Post on LinkedIn about not being a stalker

>Chase women for cardio x 4 hours

Sigma grindset

I Found a Tiny Starfish by Dale Anne Dodds

I found a tiny starfish

In a tide pool by the sand.

I found a tiny starfish

And I put him in my hand.

An itty-bitty starfish

No bigger than my thumb,

A wet and golden starfish

Belonging to no one.

I thought that I would take him

From the tidepool by the sea,

And bring him home to give you

A loving gift from me.

But as I held my starfish,

His skin began to dry.

Without his special seaside home,

My gift for you would die.

I found a tiny starfish

In a tide pool by the sea.

I hope whoever finds him next

Will leave him there, like me!

And the gift I've saved for you?

The best that I can give:

I found a tiny starfish,

And for you, I let him live.

https://twitter.com/stone_toss/status/1796194697246851582

https://stonetoss.com/comic/artificial-stupidity/

SupremeCourt

ModeratePolitics

This is the greatest piece of neolib pearl clutching:

As I have stated publicly, I had noting whatsoever to do with the flying of that flag. I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention. As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for severals days, she refused.

My wife and I own our Virginia home jointly. She therefore has the legal right to use the property as she sees fit, and there were no additional steps that I could have taken to have the flag taken down more promptly.

Let's take this at face value. People make sacrifices for their spouses every day. Whether it's picking up the kids from school when it's not your day, moving to a new state because your spouse got a new job, or moving across the country because your spouse got new orders.

I'm sorry, when you're the wife of a Supreme Court justice, you can't spit at your neighbor and desecrate the American flag. Too bad.

My wife's reasons for flying the flag are not relevant for present purposes, but I note that she was greatly distressed at the time...

This is a Supreme Court justice saying "women, am I right?"

I am confident that a reasonable person who is not motivated by political or ideological considerations or a desire to affect the outcome of Supreme Court cases would conclude that the events recounted above to not meet the applicable standard for recusal. I am therefore required to reject your request.

This is a Supreme Court justice saying "If you don't agree with me, you're crazy". This is a Supreme Court justice calling us buttholes.

As I said in reference to the other flag event, my wife is an independently minded private citizen. She makes her own decisions, and I honor her right to do so.

Alito wrote the Dobbs decision.

By the way, here's Donald Trump encouraging this behavior:

Congratulations to United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for showing the INTELLIGENCE, COURAGE, and “GUTS” to refuse stepping aside from making a decision on anything January 6th related. All U.S. Judges, Justices, and Leaders should have such GRIT - Our Country would be far more advanced than its current status as A BADLY FAILING NATION, headed by the Worst President in American History, Crooked Joe Biden! [Truth Social]

Desecrate the flag? Lmao

Scotus 1

Scotus 2

Scotus 3

Law 1

Law 2

Politics

Most Based Comments

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔥🔘🔘

I agree. She was a very cute girl but that photo is unflattering. Really makes me wonder why they keep choosing to use it. (-5)

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔥🔘🔘

Most of those weren't recent though, or she was shown at an off angle. This was probably the only recent one that was a close up of her face, which is what it makes sense to use in news reports especially in the days of film photos that weren't easy to enlarge. And also it was likely the only one easily accessible since they could get it from the school. It's not like they could go on her Instagram.Also that photo, while not the most flattering, is what she looked like at the time—like a lot of 14 year olds, she was going through an awkward period. Calling it dehumanizing is pretty offensive and kind of similar to the bullying she got in school. (12)

There was NO reason they couldn't have used a small slide slow of other pictures of her as well. (1)

Basedness: 🔥🔥🔥🔘🔘

No. Those are all from when she's a pre-teen at the oldest, and the bulk are from when she's like ~8 years old. Not how she looked at the time of death. (9)

And nothing stopped the creators from using a few (-5)

Angriest Comments

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡😡

No, there's photos of her because they were in Manjit's book, the same book the series claimed to use as well as Rebecca's (1)

Oh, my bad, I forgot that her father published a book about her murder before she was murdered. How prescient of him to publish childhood pictures of her in a book before her murder. (6)

Angriness: 😡😡😡😡🔘

I know. What would you call it? Looks-shaming? (0)

I'd call it reaching hard AF for a reason to feel all sanctified and holier-than-thou being mad at a photo that we have ZERO proof bothered Reena or the Virks in any way. But if OP says it's a bad picture of Reena, then let's all rage over it. Bc that's the biggest issue w/ this show.... /s (7)

Angriness: 😡😡🔘🔘🔘

Are you really going to pretend putting an unflattering photo of a brown girl up on the news is completely innocent? We know how the media works. When it's a white kid they show us all the cutest and most endearing photos of them because they want us to care. They didn't care about doing that for Reena. All the gaslighting in this thread is crazy. (1)

The only reason you people think the picture is ""dehumanizing"""" is because she doesn't have the features you want her to have. She was bullied for the way she looked, and here you people are saying,'she looks weird in this photo.' The irony. (13)

Biggest Lolcow: /u/savealltheelephants

Score: 🐮🔘🔘🔘🔘

Number of comments: 3

Average angriness: 🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘

Maximum angriness: 😡😡🔘🔘🔘

Minimum angriness: 🔘🔘🔘🔘🔘

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