Cannibal Transspecies Creature

It’s solar and wind and tidal and geothermal and hydropower.

It’s plant-based diets and regenerative livestock farming and insect protein and lab-grown meat.

It’s electric cars and reliable public transit and decreasing how far and how often we travel.

It’s growing your own vegetables and community gardens and vertical farms and supporting local producers.

It’s rewilding the countryside and greening cities.

It’s getting people active and improving disabled access.

It’s making your own clothes and buying or swapping sustainable stuff with your neighbours.

It’s the right to repair and reducing consumption in the first place.

It’s greater land rights for the commons and indigenous peoples and creating protected areas.

It’s radical, drastic change and community consensus.

It’s labour rights and less work.

It’s science and arts.

It’s theoretical academic thought and concrete practical action.

It’s signing petitions and campaigning and protesting and civil disobedience.

It’s sailboats and zeppelins.

It’s the speculative and the possible.

It’s raising living standards and curbing consumerism.

It’s global and local.

It’s me and you.

Climate solutions look different for everyone, and we all have something to offer.

a) everything the microbiologist is saying is totally accurate

b) I'm somehow enraged the original tiktok didn't cast any aspersions on crabs, which actually do tell us some interesting things about human evolution because crabs—aka pubic lice—are, like all lice, tightly bound to hosts without a lot of species swapping. Lice can't survive for long off the host body—they get cold and die, unlike other ectoparasites like fleas and ticks—and they're highly specialized to grip the exact diameter of hair or feathers present on the host species, so most louse phylogenetic trees closely mirror the phylogenetic trees of their host species. Human head lice and clothing/body lice—an offshoot of head lice—follow this pattern neatly: they are most closely related to chimpanzee and bonobo lice, then gorilla lice, then orangutan lice, just as we are most closely related to chimpanzees and bonobos etc.

But apes don't have pubic lice. It's not a thing. Because apes don't have pubic hair with a distinctly different texture and diameter from head hair! So what the fuck is going on with pubic lice?

Pubic lice are most closely related to gorilla lice. What this means is that a) humans became mostly hairless before pubic hair evolved, or a lineage of human lice probably would have evolved to specialize on that niche just as it later did for clothing, and b) there was some kind of close contact between human pubes and an ancestral lousy gorilla precursor that resulted in pubic lice transferring hosts, which happened while everything was nice and warm. That's.... probably the best evidence for bestiality that Tiktok girlie was going to get. (Although in fact it's equally plausible that this happened because hominids were napping in recently vacated gorilla nests while they were still fairly warm, just fyi; there really isn't a smoking gun for bestiality anywhere here and as the nice microbiologist noted, it's not great to inflict that kind of shade onto other human beings.)

anyway, I spent that video waiting impatiently for crabs to come up and nope. Missed em entirely. Best evidence she could have come up with and she didn't even know. Amazing.

I love telling my students about the gorilla lice thing. It evokes so many incredible reactions. Ancient parasitology in general is always fun to talk about.

On related note, a few years ago, the Entomological Society of America officially discontinued the use of "gypsy moth" and "gyspy ant" as common names for Lymantria dispar and Aphaenogaster araneoides. L. Dispar is now known as the "spongy moth," so named for the appearance of their eggs, but I don't think a new common name has caught on for the ant species yet.

These changes we brought about, in large part, by the advocacy of Romani people in academia. You might not think that bug names are a very serious issue, but I believe that language matters. These species became known as "gypsies" because their attributes were likened to certain stereotypes and negative perceptions of actual Roma, so the continued use of those names reaffirmed those negative associations in the public consciousness. Slurs and pejoratives can never be truly decontexualized.

In my mind, one of the biggest obstacles that Romani people face when we are trying to advocate for ourselves is a lack of recognition as a marginalized group that deserves the necessary consideration. Even for seemingly trivial matters, like bugs or comic book characters, the way that people talk about us-- and talk down to us, when we get involved-- is telling. So, I always think that changes like this are a win, because it means that people are willing to learn and grant us the dignity we deserve. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to effect change in your own field, even arts and science.

Posting due to an emergency- please share widely if you're local to Chicagoland.

If anyone in the Chicagoland area sees this, a friend's service dog prospect is in need of immediate boarding from tomorrow until May 6. Winnie is about 40 pounds and is not dog-reactive at all, but the person caring for her was hospitalized and so my buddy is looking for a short term emergency foster!

I'm available to help with any transportation (you wouldn't need to drive her anywhere!) and compensation+coverage for food/medical/etc. would be involved. You wouldn't need to pay for her stuff, just make sure she has a place to stay and walk her and call me if she needs to go to the vet.

If this is something you or someone you know could help with, please let me know. It's an emergency situation, so for the first time in... well over a year, I am opening my inbox in case this is something you can help with. Please DM me if you or anyone you know can help.

Okay, I'm not enormously sentimental, and I fully acknowledge that the XL bully issue in the UK is more nuanced than people (on either side) are willing to admit, but jfc.

We're literally DNA testing newborn abandoned pups, who've done absolutely nothing wrong, to see if we have to euthanize them just for existing. Hellworld.

Oh good, I'd hate for the pups to be a mix of a breed that's difficult to manage or anything!

The newest vet I work with loves chihuahuas and let me tell you it is a BREATH OF FRESH AIR. I'm really tired of chihuahua hate in my own damn field. Every coworker, teacher and classmate can't shut the fuck up about how they assume every chihuahua is gonna bite their head off

Her responses to chihuahua hate: "well they were upset," "it's hard being small," "they're just not treated right," "there's more nice chihuahuas than you think." YES I LOVE YOU I SHOULD KISS YOU. "I even love the mean chihuahuas." Literally marry me right now!!!

I’m not a fan of chihuahuas for very personal reasons (I’m sure they’re great dogs for other people), but I can’t help wondering if a lot of chihuahua hate is related to racism. Like, I never see anyone give the same treatment to other tiny bitey dogs, and chihuahuas JUST SO HAPPEN to be “the Mexican dog.”

Like if you’d say chihuahuas are bad because they’re bitey but you have no such opinions on Pomeranians, I question your motives a bit.

Guys…. This is literally the problem. They have a reputation for being mean because people don’t take their emotions seriously because they’re so small they just think anything they do is “cute”. ANYONE would become a rage monster if people constantly refuse to take them seriously and treat their genuine frustration and anxiety as “haha cute because smol”, not just small dogs. This is the same reason toddlers have a reputation for being angry. If y’all took others seriously in the first place this wouldn’t even be an issue.

Like yes, of course you should love them regardless. But love means taking them seriously and not calling their genuine emotions and serious concerns “ridiculous” because you think they’re cute. It’s not their fault that they’re small and cute, they’re trying to communicate and you’re being deliberately obtuse and ignoring what they’re saying because you can’t see past the smallness.

so many people do not understand that 1) animals are not people, and 2) they aren't teaching their animals what they THINK they are teaching them.

dog group on the book of faces, someone is asking for advice on how to get their dog to come to them after the dog is done relieving itself outside. The dog doesn't like coming to them an they spend ten or twenty minutes or more catching the dog each time to bring it in. Which reminded me of one of many attempts to talk a person through trying to fix exactly this same behavior in *many* other dogs over the years...

Me: So, a quick question for you... does the dog not coming to you and you having to chase them down frustrate you?

Them: Of course!

Me: So what do you do when you finally either catch the dog or get them to come to you?

Them: I give the dog a correction!

Me: So. You get hands on your dog and then you immediately punish them for allowing you to get hands on them. And you wonder why your dog has developed the habit of not coming to you?

Them: No, that's not... I'm punishing them for not coming when I call!

Me: Which was.... fifteen minutes ago, or so, you said?

Them: Yes, when I first called them!

Me: Dogs brains literally cannot link an abstract thought like that. A thought and a consequence MUST happen within 2.4 seconds of one another, or the consequence becomes linked to the most recent behavior, thought, or activity. So, tell me... how is your dog supposed to understand that you punishing them is for the event fifteen minutes ago when you have made such a concerted, if unintentional, effort to teach them that them getting close enough for you to lay hands on them in the yard means an immediate punishment?

Them: But that's not what I *meant*!

Me: Doesn't matter what YOU meant... what THEY learned is that they come to you, and they get punished. Stop punishing your dog for the behavior that you want to see more of.

Stop anthropomorphizing your animals, folks. They don't think like us. Stop setting them - and yourself - up for failure.

I was in Kansas City over the weekend for a wedding and the reception venue had gender neutral multiple stall bathrooms and it was so nice how literally nobody complained or batted an eye at it. It was such a nice bathroom just in general too. Having stalls where the doors go all the way to the floor is very nice. And alleviated my gender dysphoria so much. I went presenting as pretty gender neutral and had a great time. My dysphoria has been so bad lately but had very little this weekend. Made me very happy. Nobody questioned anything telling them my chosen name or being referred to as he/him. Conservatives really make a big deal out of gender neutral bathrooms but this told me the vast majority of people don't care, yes even the cis women had no problem with going in when there were men in there too.

if I'd known you were here I would have asked to hang! and yeah, we're decent-ish here about neutral bathrooms in big places. It's kinda weird considering our political leanings...

I was only there for a very short time unfortunately 😭 got in Friday night for a welcome party, had the wedding Saturday, and then had to skedaddle Sunday morning

But yeah I was surprised by the progressive atmosphere there. Like anywhere else in Kansas I'm in it's all trump flags and punisher skulls

the fact that "eco" and "ethical" are two separate concerns in the global north, and that "eco" is a much more popular concern, with many "eco" products being made in actual sweatshops, is a big part of why i am The Joker

if you think this is an exaggeration or splitting hairs where it doesn't matter:

i used to work at a Local Organic Produce store that's popular with the lefties in my city who are interested in food justice. i quit for a lot of reasons, mostly the boss, but something i will always remember is one of our suppliers coming in to drop off produce, being told her check wasn't ready, and her laughing and responding it didn't matter -- even a low bank account was more than enough to pay the migrants who picked her produce. i am not filling in any blanks here. she said this.

after quitting, this was a common story i told people about my time there. some then became annoyed at me, acting like i was a wokescold trying to undermine the store's "eco" mission with unrelated "ethical" concerns. but, like -- if food justice isn't for the people making food, who the fuck is it for?

like, don't get me wrong. my contention here is that the things go hand in hand, and that something which is unethical isn't actually eco. after all, humans are a part of the fucking ecosystem, and if a product can only be made by unsustainably exploiting humans, then it's unsustainable. doesn't matter which chemicals were used in making it, or whether or not animals were factory farmed.

they *cannot* be separated. a product cannot be either eco or ethical — it must be both. a product that is made through human suffering cannot be eco for the reasons you said; a product that causes human suffering by contributing to the destruction of the ecosystem cannot be ethical. it must be both and we must insist on both