Once the birds had learned how to initiate video interactions, the second phase of the experiment could begin. In this “open call” period, the 15 participating birds could make calls freely; they also got to choose which bird to dial up. Over the next two months, pet parrots made 147 deliberate video calls to other birds. Their owners took detailed notes about the calls and recorded more than 1,000 hours of video footage that the researchers analyzed.

[ id: screenshot from the linked article: "Two weak, older macaws, for example, became very close and even called out to one another "Hi! Come here! Hello!" from their respective screens" followed by a fucked up crying emoji man. /end id ]

Görkem Şen is a Turkish musician who wanted to create the sounds of electronic music acoustically. His invention, the yaybahar, is a string instrument connected to drums via metal coils that creates a wide variety of otherworldly music.

Ooh, spooky, I like it! It sounds kind of like if a whale was a robot.

Why not embed the video though? This guy's got a teeny tiny little channel and this video has fewer than 4k views, and if this post blew up it would be pretty unfair to him, getting lots of watchtime on his work but without the cruel youtube algorithm gods knowing about it so they can recommend it to more people.

Tumblr is really weird when it comes to video. I've found that when they are embedded from an external source, having the giant Youtube logo over the thumbnail and then having to click through to watch means that significantly fewer people actually bother to look at it. Generally I embed them myself and then make sure to cite the source. Unfortunately tumblr doesn't always carry over source links in reblogs and I try to link somewhere physically in the description as well to offset that but sometimes I forget. Apologies, I want everyone to look at Mr Şen's channel!

Ratatouille (2021)

+

"When you said you needed my help catching flies, this is Not What I Had In Mind, Jeff."

Oh this! 

I learned to speak Chinese with a Dongbei accent because I used to live not far from the OP (which definitely gets me weird looks as a white lady originally from Kansas.) Native Mandarin speakers are often SO confused by my accent. But yes...Taiwanese speakers do sound really melodic and beautiful. And I sound like I’m angry shouting all the time. 

In Germany and Austria, the Swiss are well-known for speaking Scweizerdeutsch. For reasons unknown, they use diminutive forms of a ton of nouns. The result is that Swiss people speaking German sound like if you found a city in Appalachia where it was 100% normal to baby-talk to everyone, all the time.

On the flip side, no one can understand a goddamn thing coming out of a Viennese person's mouth.

The dialect variance within the German language is insane at times

This is not exactly a new thing tho - here have a video from 1973 about it:

Beautiful addition, thank you so much!!

cc: @petermorwood

Mr. Collins was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society... Having now a good house and a very sufficient income...

I really dislike adaptations have made Mr. Collins older than his actual twenty-five years. It seems like they want to lean into the Gross Older Relation I Must Marry trope but that is NOT what is happening here and I think it’s more significant to recognize the truth.

As far as Elizabeth knows, there is nothing wrong with Collins. He doesn’t gamble (or he wouldn’t go on about it at the party), we don’t see him get drunk (Uncle Phillips is hinted to do that), he doesn’t seem violent/prone to outbursts of temper (he could have when Lydia was rude while reading), and he’s not ugly as far as we know. His manners are very formal, which isn’t really shown in adaptations either. And he’s young, he’s only four years older than Elizabeth.

The point is not that he’s a GORIMM. I think the point is that he’s fine, but Elizabeth knows she’ll never like him and that’s enough. Mr. Collins offers a good deal: domestic security, future wealth, and no danger. However, Elizabeth understands that without intellectual compatibility, she will be unhappy. This is what makes her a heroine.

By making Collins old and kind of gross, the adaptations actually erase a lot of Elizabeth’s motivations and strength. The reaction to Collins becomes more visceral than intellectual, and that’s a problem.

It also shames Charlotte for marrying him!

Charlotte's actions are practical and sensible and there is not much wrong with them. She is aware that she has little chance left of marrying for love and that she'll be happier married to a dull respectable man than as a spinster and she could do much worse than this guy. So she uses a bit of social cunning to get his attention until he rebound-proposes and voilà! Independence and social position.

But the more repulsive you make Collins, the more Charlotte comes across as a scheming gold digger, who is after the Bennet estate and is willing to submit herself to this refuse of a man for it.

Which is absolutely not the case, she's just trying to live her own life.

Elizabeth is shocked as Charlotte's behaviour, but that's because Lizzie is younger and prettier and feels like she can afford to wait around for a love match. Austen never shames Charlotte. Hers is a sensible course of action.

Hey if u like the ocean look at this its rly cool I think

unreasonably jealous rn, where’s MY dreamPratchett, i wanna hear some weird wise shit

he’s exactly right tho

Important: File a claim to cash in on the Facebook settlement

If you used Facebook between 2007 and December 2022 you have until August 2023 to file your claim in the class action lawsuit.

It's literally the easiest thing to file. If you deleted your account, you still qualify. You just need the month and year you signed up and deleted. Check the email associated with your account.

The amount you receive depends on how many months you had Facebook during this time (so if you've had Facebook since the beginning, you'll get more than people that only had it for a month).

"But Thom. Doesn't sharing this mean you get less?" Yes but this is about community. I only know because a nice guy that filed decided to share with his tiktok followers. It's the right thing to do to keep it going.

-fae

Absolutely no offense to Sokka/Suki, but I think there should be AU content where Yue becomes the Moon but then she and Sokka just... keep dating. She uses her spirit powers to hang out with him somehow and, well, the one benefit of having given your life for your people is that at least you don't have to give up your love life for them now, right? Sokka adapts easily enough to having a spirit girlfriend, because it is frankly not the weirdest thing that's happened to him.

Potential futures, ranked from most to least angsty:

Anyway, this way you get the wholesomeness of these two finding happiness and love together even after everything; the comedy of Sokka actually DATING THE MOON and probably being very chill about the weirdness; and the incredible potential of an immortal spirit Sokka.

HARD vote for Sokka being Wan Shi Tong's eternal rival, especially pre-Sokka-ascension, when Yue is dragging Just-Some-Mortal-Guy Sokka to the spirit world to attend random social functions. The owl just stink-eyeing him as Sokka does the equivalent of standing by the buffet and shoving all the food in his mouth.

Also, Boiling Rock.

Sokka: My girlfriend turned into the moon.

Zuko: That's rough, buddy.

Yue, manifesting in the balloon rail right behind Zuko: Great jump scare perks, though.

some future avatar down the line has to speak to the Spirit of Communal Knowledge™, Lover of the Moon™ and is kinda worried abt possibly offending this wise old being

and then sokka rolls up in whatever vehicle is the most "chaotic modded version of the current era's primary mechanical transportation" (shittycarmods except for cars or flying cars or starships or whatever the world's society has progressed to at this point)

like, translate the gelapi from lego ninjago into your vehicle of choice.

he rolls up in that

and the avatar was expecting him to be some scholarly quiet type, and now they expect him to be a prickly inventor type, but then he just yells "WHAT IS UP HOMIE I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN AGES :DDD"

this kind of breaks the current avatar's brain. but in, like, a good way.

this kind of breaks the

current avatar’s brain. but

in, like, a good way.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

Soo did y'all know you can get a soldering iron for 8 bucks? I didn't. I do now. I'm about to burn the shit out of myself.

it's fun to run it's fun to play, it's fun to make things out of clay it's fun to fill your car with gas

it's fun to break things made of glassss

now the burning will commence

horsey

first time doing stained glass first time using a soldering iron. It looks like shit and i could not love it more

Also i think it might be permanently attached to that table, but y'all know how it is you win some and you lose some .

the horse has been unstuck from the table and i think I'm getting better at this ^^

this post is from may 3rd so i thought I'd update it a bit.

I ended up using the glass not used in the horse to make this as my first Real stained glass thing, finished may 17th:

May 19th:

and now this is what I've been picking at on and off when i have the time to do so since:

i think... there might be a theme here.

(this was finished in March 2023,)

Anyways happy birthday to me having a mania fueled sleep deprivation and pots episode in the craft store.

and some more i can't be fucked to figure out when they were made:

anyways (I say this as someone who is deeply critical of the united states government, military, unchecked capitalism, police, etc) I am SICK of people treating america as if it has no cultural value or positives so….. I love u 85 million acres (bigger than italy) of national parks. I love u harlem renaissance. I love u groundhogs day. I love u sweet tea and fried chicken and jambalaya. I love u apple cider donuts and maizes on crisp autumn days. I love u 95k miles of coastlines and new england fisherman and hand knitted sweaters. I love u halloween where millions of people dress up and give candy to strangers and carve jack o’lanterns. I love u small talk and small towns and potlucks and bringing over casseroles to your struggling neighbors. I love u cowboys and ranch hands and arizonian cactus. I love u appalachian trail and dirtbikes and divebars. I love u sparklers and fireflies. I love u mark twain and toni morrison and emily dickinson and henry david thoreau. I love u rock n roll i love u bluegrass and hippies i love u jimi hendrix and nirvana and CCR and janis joplin. I love u victorian houses and jonny appleseed and john henry and mothman and bigfoot. I love u foggy days in the pacific northwest and neon signs and roadside attractions. I love u baseball and 1950s diners and soft serve. I love u native american art and pop art and poptarts. I love u blue jeans and barbecues and jazz musicians 

I would genuinely love to hear what a resident of china or russia loves about their home bc I’m not a fucking bigot and I know a government doesn’t define a culture but thanks for ur exposing yourself babe xoxo

OMG 😂🤣

Here’s the thing, the name is now Jeffrey. I run science shows for kids, and at the start I get them to name a prop character. 80% of the time, they name it Jeffery. I have no clue why. My co-workers have observed the same phenomenon. 

I now carry around a laminated sign that says Jeffrey, and pull it out when a kid says it. And thinking I’m some kind of psychic, they loose their shit.

theres too many pokemon games where you play as a kid whos full of life and full of potential. there needs to be a pokemon game where you play as a college dropout who lives in a shitty apartment

your starter pokemon are trubbish, rattata and glameow. which symbolise the trash you keep forgetting to take out, the rats living in your walls and the stray cat you keep trying to befriend but it keeps hissing at you.

you guys dont get it its not supposed to be dark and edgy its supposed to be living in a mundane setting and slowly rediscovering the wonder in the world by going on a journey with a magical trash bag that is your friend, its about love and recovery and coping with the stress of your adult life with your friend who is made of sentient garbage

I’ve never been so attached to literal trash before

I am similarly attached to the sentient trash. Can't wait to take him on little adventures

Pokemon Heritage Post

I just realized that apparently I never shared this series here on Tumblr??  

I call it Living Paintings, as they are recreations of extinct animals that some artists actually saw and painted from memory, a long time ago.

Patreon • Ko-fi • Facebook  • Twitter • Prints & Merch      

HONK HONK

Ok….I HAD to….you inspired me with your lovely art…hope you’re okay with this…

Where the hell had his lightsaber gone? 

He was never without it. Even in his meditation pod, it stayed firmly attached to his belt. The only time he didn’t have it on his person was while in the bacta tank, but he hadn’t had a treatment in a week. Naturally, he hadn’t realized it was gone until he was already on planet, facing a platoon of Rebels. 

He’d had to get…creative. 

Now he was landing back on the Executor, mind whirling as he attempted to recall where he might have possibly left it. 

A painful memory resurfaced. 

Next time, try not to lose it. This weapon is your life. 

He clenched his fists, waiting for the ramp to lower, and banished the memory. 

A young captain waited for him at the bottom of the ramp. He barely paid attention beyond recognizing that it wasn’t Piett, who often waited for him upon his return. He thought about asking, but the lightsaber issue was too much of a pressing concern to bother. So he resolved to ignore the man and made to move past him. 

The captain had other ideas. 

“Welcome back, Lord Vader.” He greeted, and there was a tremble to his voice. 

Vader didn’t bother even looking at him. He was too busy trying to remember the last time he’d paid attention to the weapon. 

The captain followed. “There’s a bit of a problem, milord.” 

“Talk to the Admiral about it.” The man was beginning to become an annoyance, and he was not in a forgiving mood. The last time he remembered noticing it was on the bridge… 

“Well, um, Lord Vader, he’s trying to take care of the issue, but…um. Well. The goose is armed, sir.” 

Now that was not a phrase he’d ever expected to hear. 

He stopped in his tracks so quickly, the man almost bumped into him, and he slowly inclined his head to look at him. “…The goose?” 

The captain visibly swallowed and nodded. “Yes, milord. We don’t know how it got on board.” 

He stared at the captain. Was the Goose some kind of code name for a Rebel operative he wasn’t aware of? They couldn’t actually mean a literal honking bird. 

The captain continued. “It’s stolen numerous comm links, key cards to vital areas of the ship, bitten anyone who’s tried to capture it, and now…ah, for some reason…” he winced. 

“Spit it out.” 

“…Well, milord, it has your lightsaber.” 

“…What?” 

“…And it’s figured out how to turn it on.” 

What? 

“And already severed two limbs with it.” 

Never, in all of his years, had he ever heard of something like this happening. Never had he dreamed something could be possible. Yet now it was, and the infernal creature had his weapon. 

That would be rectified immediately. 

He turned away. “Find out how the bird got on board. I want those responsible brought to me.” 

“Yes, milord.” 

He left the captain alone, already searching the Force for any signs of the Sith-aspiring bird. 

What he’d do with it when he got it…he had no idea. 

OH MY HAHAHA YOU DID IT!!! THIS IS PERFECT

Someone’s about to lose his limbs again.