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I’m rather partial to beavers myself and was sad to learn about their demise in North America. At one point their pelts were referred to as “the coin of the rea

I’m rather partial to beavers myself and was sad to learn about their demise in North America. At one point their pelts were referred to as “the coin of the realm” https://youtu.be/8XToPq9lsOM?si=DJKedkQXuzJhSmf7 https://youtu.be/8XToPq9lsOM?si=DJKedkQXuzJhSmf7

culi 28d ago
Here's your link without the surveillance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XToPq9lsOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XToPq9lsOM I'd recommend Leila Philip's Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America. It's a great work of narrative science writing. I think we deeply underestimate the profound impact beavers had on the landscape in North America. We truly live in a post-beaver geography. The beaver hat fad in Europe was the primary driver of their population going from hundreds of millions to less than 100,000. https://www.leilaphilip.com/beaverland https://www.leilaphilip.com/beaverland
- eureka7 28d ago
  off-topic: I've made a habit of removing all those `si` or `igshid` or `unique_share_id` (thanks airbnb for making it obvious, I guess) and I wish I'd have a "middleware" that removes them when I copy something, but I'm too lazy and it would not be cross-platform. some apps have gotten sneaky though and made every shared URL an apparently unique one :/
  - culi 28d ago
    Yeah the best policy is to avoid using a "Share" button as much as possible and always just copy the URL bar. I have a browser extension that strips them automatically too but I don't think it always works. I wish my extension, instead of just stripping it, would mangle it randomly just to add some data poisoning to websites that do this
  - NamTaf 28d ago
    It's not the same, as it only works on the receiving end, but I use the ClearURLs addon for stripping that out. At least it somewhat helps, and ensures that any URL I copy from my browser doesn't have tracking IDs. https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon
  - throw0101d 28d ago
    > off-topic: I've made a habit of removing all those `si` or `igshid` or `unique_share_id` […] Also `pp`.
- pfdietz 28d ago
  Current North American beaver population is estimated to be in the range of 10 to 15 million.
  - lukas099 28d ago
    Yeah they have rebounded a lot and we should celebrate that.
  - culi 28d ago
    Yes it's heartening to see the rebound but the population reaching as low as 100k will forever place a genetic hurdle on restoration efforts. Not to mention beavers have been found to be highly cultural animals with local nuances in social interactions and even how they build their dams. There are tons of skills that beavers pass down through culture rather than genetics that have already been lost
    - pfdietz 28d ago
      I don't know about that; 100K is still a pretty big population.

culi 28d ago

Here's your link without the surveillance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XToPq9lsOM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XToPq9lsOM I'd recommend Leila Philip's Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America. It's a great work of narrative science writing. I think we deeply underestimate the profound impact beavers had on the landscape in North America. We truly live in a post-beaver geography. The beaver hat fad in Europe was the primary driver of their population going from hundreds of millions to less than 100,000. https://www.leilaphilip.com/beaverland https://www.leilaphilip.com/beaverland

eureka7 28d ago
off-topic: I've made a habit of removing all those `si` or `igshid` or `unique_share_id` (thanks airbnb for making it obvious, I guess) and I wish I'd have a "middleware" that removes them when I copy something, but I'm too lazy and it would not be cross-platform. some apps have gotten sneaky though and made every shared URL an apparently unique one :/
- culi 28d ago
  Yeah the best policy is to avoid using a "Share" button as much as possible and always just copy the URL bar. I have a browser extension that strips them automatically too but I don't think it always works. I wish my extension, instead of just stripping it, would mangle it randomly just to add some data poisoning to websites that do this
- NamTaf 28d ago
  It's not the same, as it only works on the receiving end, but I use the ClearURLs addon for stripping that out. At least it somewhat helps, and ensures that any URL I copy from my browser doesn't have tracking IDs. https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon
- throw0101d 28d ago
  > off-topic: I've made a habit of removing all those `si` or `igshid` or `unique_share_id` […] Also `pp`.
pfdietz 28d ago
Current North American beaver population is estimated to be in the range of 10 to 15 million.
- lukas099 28d ago
  Yeah they have rebounded a lot and we should celebrate that.
- culi 28d ago
  Yes it's heartening to see the rebound but the population reaching as low as 100k will forever place a genetic hurdle on restoration efforts. Not to mention beavers have been found to be highly cultural animals with local nuances in social interactions and even how they build their dams. There are tons of skills that beavers pass down through culture rather than genetics that have already been lost
  - pfdietz 28d ago
    I don't know about that; 100K is still a pretty big population.