i miss them (fictional character i think about literally every single day)
Also remember that Labor Day being in September and not on May 1st (which the US made "Loyalty Day" during the first red scare) was a deliberate attempt to deradicalize the USAmerican labor movement and separate it from the international working class and socialism.
It’s so fascinating to me that we’ve only been breeding Komodo dragons in captivity for thirty years. In that time, our understanding of them has actually really revolutionized the way we understand the social lives and behaviors of lizards in general, and it’s mostly thanks to this lady right here, who was born 30 years ago on September 13, 1992.
Kraken was the first Komodo to be bred in captivity. She hatched out at GMU, but was raised at the National Zoo. Her parents were wild-caught dragons- there’s still WC dragons in the AZA today- and this one specific individual probably did more to revolutionize lizard care in professional settings than any other individual lizard throughout zoo history.
Until Kraken, social enrichment wasn’t a thing people thought about. It wasn’t something anybody felt was necessary for lizards, because they were just… lizards. Sure, some keepers would play with their favorites, but it wasn’t until the National Zoo started documenting what she was doing that anybody realized how much Komodo dragons like to play with us too.
Kraken’s not in that video, but she’s the one who inspired all of the social studies that have been done on captive Komodo dragons. When she was at the National Zoo, her keepers started getting curious when, for no apparent reason, she kept gingerly stealing things from peoples’ pockets and tugging on their shoelaces. So they started giving her stuff- Frisbees, blankets, soda cans, anything she showed an interest in.
She played with them, just like a mammal might. The way play behavior is described in psychology is a given activity that’s voluntary, repeated, and conducted under “relatively benign” circumstances. Keeper staff found that her conduct during the study met all of these criteria. “Kraken,” they wrote, had clearly demonstrated “play-like behavior with objects and even with humans (tug-of-war).” Moreover, she “could discriminate between prey and nonprey” while showing “varying responses” with different items (rubber rings, shoes, etc.). (There’s an excellent book on Komodo dragons that has an entire chapter devoted to her.)
Kraken died several years ago, but her legacy continues today. There’s several of her descendants still in the AZA, and the intelligence and social needs she demonstrated led to the improvement of life for these guys- and other lizards. The Komodo dragon program has been an eye opener, not just for reptile conservation, but for understanding reptile intelligence and how this incredible clade of animals functions.
GOOD RIDDANCE
#I love binging as much as the next person but the thing about binging is that you can do is when the series/season is finished #it's always there. but the community and weekly discussion that is fostered by weekly releases is unreplaceable (via cabeverian)
bat at hornets nest maybe but "there is no ethical consumption under capitalism" refers to low income communities needing to choose between survival vs being eco friendly. not you continuing to watch the harry potter movies
it makes me uncomfortable how frequently attempts to raise awareness about adhd and autism in girls emphasize these kids as quiet, well-behaved, and not noticeably different from their peers. neurodiverse girls who successfully mask and suffer invisibly deserve empathy, of course, but so do the girls who grow up labeled aggressive, inappropriate, or “weird.” a lot of nd girls have meltdowns and social difficulties which are labeled as anger issues and behavioral problems. nd girls are often perceived as “bad kids,” especially if factors like poverty or race are already priming both adults and their peers to see them that way. i don’t think it’s honest or socially responsible to present silently blending in as the only or even primary way developmental differences manifest in girls.
i have to carefully avoid thinking too hard about any time period before like the 1900s because i start thinking about all the dead babies and i fucking lose it
like!!!! i trully cannot countenance any argument that the past was better when nearly HALF of all young children died.
whenever I wonder about why humanity started getting so much nicer in the second half of the 20th century I conclude that it may be related to the fact that we weren’t constantly surrounded by tiny skeletons.
yeah.
the messed up thing is that I’ve heard literal history teachers (and my own parents) say that the people of the past were used to it and that it didn’t have as big an effect on them as it would have had on us…which is absolutely untrue and so, so freaking dehumanizing - see the 14th century poem ‘Pearl’, in which a father mourns the loss of his infant daughter, with palpable pain
Since in that spot it slipped from me I wait, and wish, and oft complain; Once it would bid my sorrow flee, And my fair fortune turn again; It wounds my heart now ceaselessly, And burns my breast with bitter pain. Yet never so sweet a song may be As, this still hour, steals through my brain, While verity I muse in vain How clay should her bright beauty clot; O Earth! a brave gem thou dost stain, My own pearl, precious, without spot!
I think…that some people have difficulty comprehending the sheer scale of death in the past and so, choose to believe that the ones experiencing it were different from them
oh man, Pearl fucked me up so bad when I first read it in university. We know nothing about the Pearl poet (who also wrote Gawain and the Green Knight, plus two other poems, called Patience and Cleanness), though we have four of their poems, and based on the vivid language and the subjects of the poems it’s tempting to infer things about the poet’s life. and I have a really really hard time imagning the Pearl poet was not a parent, bc Pearl is this beautifully wrought poem, with intricate alliteration and repetition and a really thoughtful exploration of the theology that is supposed to comfort us (was supposed to comfort them) when contemplating the death of someone beloved–and at the end of the poem, in this vision where the father is beholding his dead daughter in the paradise of the New Jerusalem in heaven, when she turns to go he can’t help but dive into the stream that separates them, whereupon he suddenly wakes and finds himself alone.
Sometimes the values of the past are a bit strange to us and we have trouble imagining ourselves caring about the things they care about, and sometimes the common bond of humanity shines through in medieval or ancient literature so bright that it astounds you. Pearl definitely belongs in the latter category for me.
number one priority is being comfy
literally this is at the top of my list of priorities at all times
Identity theft is not a joke
Dog and sog
Katie Leung (aka Cho Chang’s actress) said fuck the police and fuck JK Rowling
the exciting sequel:
My favorite episodes of spongebob are the ones were spongebob gets genuinely pissed off. Like, spongebob is a character who only rarely gets angry, and only for good reasons after being pushed too far, and it's fucking iconic when he does. The episode where squidward quits his job and crashes at spongebob's house and ends up bossing him around, when spongebob fucking loses it at the end of the episode, it's the best thing. I feel that. "LISTEN YOU CRUSTACEOUS CHEAPSKATE-" while ringing krabs's neck. King shit.
I think one of the greatest realizations I ever made was that I didn’t have to choose between masculinity and femininity
The sooner you realise that you can do literally whatever you want as regards to your gender presentation (or lack thereof) and just take whatever bits and pieces you like from wherever, the sooner you can start enjoying life.