The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus parts of North Africa. It is listed as least concern on the IUCN Red List. Its range has increased alongside human expansion, having been introduced to Australia, where it is considered harmful to native mammals and bird populations. Due to its presence in Australia, it is included on the list of the "world's 100 worst invasive species".
The red fox originated from smaller-sized ancestors from Eurasia during the Middle Villafranchian period, and colonised North America shortly after the Wisconsin glaciation. Among the true foxes, the red fox represents a more progressive form in the direction of carnivory. Apart from its large size, the red fox is distinguished from other fox species by its ability to adapt quickly to new environments. Despite its name, the species often produces individuals with other colourings, including leucistic and melanistic individuals. Forty-five subspecies are currently recognised,[7] which are divided into two categories: the large northern foxes and the small, basal southern grey desert foxes of Asia and North Africa.
Red foxes are usually found in pairs or small groups consisting of families, such as a mated pair and their young, or a male with several females having kinship ties. The young of the mated pair remain with their parents to assist in caring for new kits.[8] The species primarily feeds on small rodents, though it may also target rabbits, squirrels, game birds, reptiles, invertebrates and young ungulates. Fruit and vegetable matter is also eaten sometimes. Although the red fox tends to kill smaller predators, including other fox species, it is vulnerable to attack from larger predators, such as wolves, coyotes, golden jackals, large predatory birds such as golden eagles and Eurasian eagle owls, and medium- and large-sized felids.
The species has a long history of association with humans, having been extensively hunted as a pest and furbearer for many centuries, as well as being represented in human folklore and mythology. Because of its widespread distribution and large population, the red fox is one of the most important furbearing animals harvested for the fur trade. Too small to pose a threat to humans, it has extensively benefited from the presence of human habitation, and has successfully colonised many suburban and urban areas. Domestication of the red fox is also underway in Russia, and has resulted in the domesticated silver fox.
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Unjust Depths, just talking about our protagonist
I wanted to write a lil appreciation of Murati Nakara because she is a wonderful bean.
When you first meet her in the intro to Unjust Depths she almost seems kind of silly. The only things she really has going on are her girlfriend Karuniya, (they seem to have an uncomplicated and wonderful relationship) her skill at diver piloting and her ambition in the military. To be honest, early on I had thought she didn't really have any flaws, but she takes a good while to unfurl and bloom as a character.
Murati is not among the several autistic lesbians in Depths, that I know of anyway, but her staunch hard-headedness is very appealing! Much later in the series she's talking to this scientist lady who knew her parents, the famous revolutionaries the Nakaras, and she is borderline affronted when science lady says "Yeah they did a lot of great shit but they were mostly just oceanographers lol, idealists really" and it's borderline adorable. I can really respect how strongly she feels about her Mordecist beliefs and sense of justice. When she first steps off the Brigand and into an Imperial city, her moment of utter shock at a capitalist hellhole that leaves its people destitute and homeless is superb for her. Murati might be a military-strategic galaxybrain and a steadfast revolutionary, but she's also somewhat green, and her single-minded commitment to justice can sometimes cause problems, like she bothers Captain Ulyana for money to try to house these homeless guys in the Empire, holding up a critical extraction mission.
What I really want from her is more flashbacks, though. Stepping back in time about fifteen years and finding out that not only has Murati always been like this, but she was equally loud and brash about matters of her gender is a wonderful thing. She went from "good" to "great" though when she gave her adoptive parent Deshnov shit about his goofy-ass "allowed you to go on tbose medications" spiel.
It's fairly uncommon to see trans kids in fiction, unless it's some kind of Young Adult, coming-of-age story I guess, likely because the vast majority of trans people now still transition in their 20s or 30s. I'm weird though, and so the idea that an indignant, righteously angry 12 year old Murati had to lash out against Deshnov (and probably everybody else Idk) to get her way and be who she is? Wow, she just like me, fr fr. That's something I can really relate to, and even just hinting at that kind of hardship for her has me deeply invested basically for free. I feel a great affection for the First Officer, the Brigand couldn't ask for a better Diver Leader and I'm always excited when she is onscreen. Murati, my beloved β€
By the way, another good trans kid story can be found in The Orville, season 3 episode 5 "A Tale of Two Topas"
What really, in a TV show? One "created by Seth MacFarlane"?
Yes really. The Orville is unironically no fooling one of the most true to the spirit of Trek and best Star Trek shows that has ever been made.
And they put it on actual television??? Huh...
Macfarlane sold the show to Fox as a comedy parody of Star Trek and then just made a real Star Trek show instead.
The Orville is oddly really fucking good. Seth MacFarlane is a huge trekki and even ran the writer's roundtable for the tng blue ray special features. It's borderline copwrite infringement and the first season still has some seth MacFarlane stuff that feel like network demands, but overall, good star trek show
I'm sorry, the American Dad guy? My brain is not taking this onboard.
It's really fucking weird but yeah, aside from the bare minimum of family guy humor needed to get the first season aired its basically just modern tng. Its the most what you'd expect at first, like the whole first season is clearly under some demands from Fox and the first fee episodes especially but even then there's some decent ass sci fi with good politics parallels. After seeing the tng special feature where he talks to the writing staff (which there are a couple tng writers on board and Cassidy Yates is part of the main cast), it's a 2 hour special feature, he fucking LOVES tng
Cursed Contrarianism
What happens if I didn't like TNG TNG people pulled the "Oh just the first season is bad!" bit on me, which turned into "Oh the second season isn't that good either", and by the time I was nearing the end of series 3, I realised that TNG hadn't even got gud in the timespan of TOS' entire run. I like some TNG episodes, Data my beloved, but I thought to myself "what other TV series would I give the benefit of like 70 episodes before it gets gud?" I ponied up like $200 or whatever for the TNG Bluray box, so this was disappointing. I felt like TNG had all the potential elements to be good, but the scripts were just dogshit like 90% of the time.So I always thought what TNG needed was Seth MacFarlane humour, yeah...
Then can you send me a disc from that set to replace one of mine that got scratched?
Brutal, but nah my wife likes TNG, soz c:
If it's not your thing it's not your thing. I like it, and most star trek generally cause compared to lost shows it takes its damn time and I really like that when they gotta deal with a problem the first thing they do is have a comprehensive meeting, discuss the angles and come up with a plan and then execute that plan, just watching a setting where people are collaborative as well a competent and just like, the cozy vibe of the enterprise d is just generally a setting I wanna watch and think about. Looking up from my phone rn there is a 12 foot wall with 2 big shelves and the whole thing is just trek stuff. I just really like stsr trek
I liked TOS and wifey tells me there are good episodes further in, but I coulda finished Final Fantasy 6 or some shit in the time it takes TNG to git gud. I like the comfy too, and I desperately wanted to love TNG like everyone else does, but I dropped off like two episodes before The Best of Both Worlds. I just didn't have the guff to keep going, I had watched TOS and some of the Animated Series and had a buncha classic Trek novels on my ereader, it was half a special interest for a sec but there are SO MANY bad or mediocre episodes in TNG, some of which are worse than anything in TOS. Made me sad, I'm not gleeful in disliking TNG, it brings me great pain
Give ds9 a go. I think that one may meet you half way on the vibes and then get you the rest ofnthe way with what it brings to the table itself. Ds9 is by a wide degree the best trek show, it's an absolute knockout.
Murati is so pure I love her
She do be, I'm still kinda waiting on her to shoot somebody though tbh. She seems like she might have it in her :)