AS LONG AS YOU ARE ON EARTH, YOU CAN LEARN ABOUT GEOLOGY.
THIS NOT A BUG, THIS IS A FEATURE.
YOU CAN ALSO LEARN ABOUT ENTOMOLOGY
THIS IS A BUG
It *is* a problem that charismatic species are often focused on for conservation at the expense of less charismatic but important species, but threatened species that are the subject of a lot of public outreach and education are also typically strategically selected.
I suspect that monarch butterflies are an example of this. Milkweed is a highly valuable plant for pollinators and a host plant for like. 400+ insect species. Getting people to plant it to save monarchs is funny because you're essentially finessing people into saving a ton of other insects that they wouldn't ordinarily care about
"Save the bees" isn't misguided, it's just the version of the truth you would tell a 5 year old. If a small kid asks about the colors of the rainbow you don't start explaining that visible light has wavelengths of 400-700 nanometers
A lot of people don't even know that there are different types of bees. things like planting native flowers, stopping using insecticides, etc, benefit all bees and all insects generally
ALSO
it's actually a GOOD thing to have lots of conservation efforts focusing on "Charismatic megafauna," especially apex predators
Because big animals like tigers need a LOT of space
So creating a preserve to save tigers...saves thousands of other species, because the tigers need miles and miles of habitat to live on, and that habitat needs to be healthy to support the tigers
They're called "umbrella species" and they're a great thing.
i love inaturalist because you can post any organism and somebody with a name like “UNGULATELOVER56″ or “BIRDER4LIFE” or “havestman-man” will come identify it and then you go to their profile and its like “I’ve studied jumping spiders my whole life since i was 1 year old i know every species ive identified 80,492 photos on inaturalist id rather be a spider than a human” its charming
The weight of human knowledge is held up by a bunch of mostly autistic weirdos that only think of creatures
this post inspired me to go do some inaturalist ids and i immediately ran into the funniest thing
imagine thinking something’s a pennywort and then pennywort_man shows up to say “no the fuck it is not”
This is the standard winged nightjar and it has one singular stupidly big feather on each wing... if you even care.
Love this guy
That’s standard as in “pennant” or “banner”, not standard as in “normal”.
But it’s not a pennant-winged nightjar. THIS is a pennant-winged nightjar… if you even care.
I CARE I CARE
Plants what now
There needs to be more research done into this, and as of now we can't say why the sounds happen but. WHAT.
I knew they could hear noises but apparently they MAKE noises too
Cats knocking over houseplants just got a lot more vindictive
SHUT UPPPP
my favorite work memory from this store will always be “hey remember when the subway inside the store closed down and they let me take a bunch of their shit for free and now it lives inside my house?”
my life is a joke
the seal at the bottom of 瓷器 ciqi/chinese porcelain is handwritten
I can’t even comprehend this degree of delicacy, my own handwriting looks like I was holding the pen between my bum cheeks.
@dancinggrimm That was……that was perfect.
Maybe the video is just really old
i do im celebrating my dogs birthday
shes turning 2
I’m also celebrating your dogs birthday
celebrating tumblr user heartseeker’s dog’s birthday on the fourth everyone
On the off-chance that people don’t know this...
This style of bridge dates from the days when barges were towed by horses. When the towpath switched to the opposite side of the canal, the horse would, obviously, clippy-clop over a bridge and happily plod off again. Now, the automatic way to do this would be like this:
However, note that rope (black line) between the horse (brown blob) and the barge (red blob). If you cross the bridge the automatic way, it all goes a bit....
However, if you cross the bridge like THIS
it all works out fine!
Now, sure, you could trust people to remember how to cross a bridge. But there are a lot of numpties out there, and people were working extremely long days and were extremely tired. Also, the canals were BUSY. One boat getting snarled up was the equivalent of the Ever Given.
So, instead, the canal companies built Numpty-Proof Bridges.
They also had the benefit that the horse could be left to plod along on its own, rather than needing human guidance. (I have no idea how this worked. My horse would have her nose buried in the grass and wouldn’t go anywhere, if I left her to it.)
gideon the ninth (2019)
harrow the ninth (2020)
nona the ninth (2022)
The most horrifying aspect of parents saying "my kid could do that" about art is that they never ever ever mean "wow my kid is good enough to be in a museum" and they always always always mean "I want to disrespect you so much I'll do it by implying that this thing is just as worthless as the things my child makes with their hands" and right in front of them too. Your kids can hear you u know, and the things they make with their hands are the least worthless and most precious aspects of human life I'll kill u
Listen my three year old child handed me a picture of a “weird bug” they had drawn this morning, and the explanation about the intention for it was as deep a journey into the universe as I could ask for. I instantly wanted to send it to everybody, not even to show it off, but just to explain things a bit. Look at this way of looking at the world, before one is taught differently; before one is shaped forcibly. Look at the purity and clarity of intention (something that my favourite artists and makers strive for, and which is what I am most attracted to: clarity of intention. The ability to communicate from brain to brain across the gulf of time, death, language, background, common ground. Knowing where you’re going! Knowing what you want to achieve - and doing it! The form does not matter!)
(Also, horrible things with legs. I’ll always give them attention too.)
(This was also a horrible thing with legs.)
So much of what we search for is here, all along. So much of what we chase after is already in this bug. The child scribbles it, hands it to the baby, who obediently folds it up and puts it in their mouth; the child answers a few questions, then runs off to get sticky; you are left holding the wonder, going: somewhere in here is something we are missing, something we’ve lost track of, and I could spend quite a lot of time trying to pin it down (anthropologically, psychologically, poetically, in a very special episode of a children’s cartoon, in a degree, as an instagram account)
What the hell else is art for, if not to send you on a little journey. If an artist can do that with a scribble then you should give them your attention. You should show other people, explain it a bit. Keep it forever as evidence of something - maybe a building, a collection that makes sense. You could call it a life or even a museum.
Show us the bug!!! Or describe it at least. I want to see it so bad.
- I love it! What is it?
- this is a weird silly bug. It’s weird!
- I love the smile.
- Yes, he’s very silly.
- I love the legs. So many!
- Yes; I drewed them like that.
- What does he do?
- He’s a present for the baby. He is a tummy bug (EDITOR’S NOTE: gastrovirus) and he loves sick (Ed: vomit) HAHAHAHAHA.
- Oh wow.
- HE LOVES TO EAT THE SICK! HAHAHA
- Oh wow. Did … did you know we use the word “bug” for two things - we can use it to mean a little animals, like a woodlouse, that lives outside? But also, when we say tummy bug, we mean a germ - the little tiny things we can’t see - they’re different. Which one is he?
- Oh this is a ninvisible bug.
- A germ?
(Image: a furry bug with lots of legs, wide staring eyes, and a slightly deranged grin from eye to eye.)
- He’s the BUG that makes you sick. That’s why he has so many legs. (Ed: here I thought this was possibly influenced by the educational book they have called “see inside germs,” depicting various microorganisms with flagella and mycelium and so on.) when it’s time to be sick, he uses his legs to tickle the back of your throat to make you be sick. And then he! eats! the! sick! HAHAHA
- (Ed: at this point I helplessly let go of my attempt to teach germ theory in the face of such superior theology) oh … wow.
- He lives inside you all the time but doesn’t tickle you all the time because it isn’t always time to be sick. He’s ninvisible. He’s not an outside bug. He’s the tummy bug. that’s why him make you be sick to come up to your throat and eat the sick. See, the baby loves that bug.
- does the baby… like germs?
- he is NOT a GERM!!
LATER
- what made you choose to draw a tummy bug, to give to the baby?
- The crying was annoying to me.
- Um…. I mean, why did you draw the bug?
- I choose a bug because they’re my favourite to draw to give to the baby to help them calm down. because the crying is annoying to me.
- What makes you choose to draw a bug?
- The baby loves bugs.
- How do you know that?
- The baby always calms down and stops crying when I’m give them my bugs.
- Oh, I see.
- I’m also best at drawing bugs.
- How are you so good?
- I’m just know.
LATER
- I see that you have cut the paper?
- Yes! I’m snipped him out carefully with the white (Ed: child-safe baby’s nail cutting) scissors.
- are you happy with it?
- Yes, I’m really pleased that I m draw him all by myself. He’s all wiggly biggly. I drewed him to be wiggly and biggly.
END
Some things that interested me: the way that the knowledge you put into them is synthesized and recreated: the very Greek-philosophy-of-medicine idea of the Tummy Bug as large soft benign prawn that triggers vomiting by tickling you. We are all fascinated by AI right now, the way it spits our own things back at us; here is a juvenile human intelligence, which does the same thing, but less predictably. The way the artist is already self-proclaiming their awareness of the audience: using the baby’s nail scissors, which are Allowed Blades, and stating in advance that they did so carefully, therefore dodging the expected reflexive criticism of “please don’t use scissors without me!” Or the tiresome parental “WHERE DID YOU GET SCISSORS?” The gentle reproach that the baby, fussing mildly for five minutes while I prepared breakfast, was so ANNOYING that the poor toddler had to create an art piece to meet this unmet need.
But also: a piece of work with thoughtfulness and attention given to medium, execution, and topic. Did it do its job? Yes. Did it communicate? Yes. Did it provoke reactions? Multiple ones. Was there intentionality? Yes. Was an emotion captured? Surely. Was the mark-making technically skilled and the result admirable? Of course. What about mastery? Mastery of some topics is clearly shown here. There was a clear trajectory from the artist’s brain to the audience’s, with evidence showing that the bridge was good.
And do you know that it is good? Yes, it is good. How do you know? I’m just do.
Often you have to re-enter education to get this much to grips with art, so it’s just cool to me. What we are seeking is so often found.
Hura te ao gecko (Mokopirirakau galaxias) by Carey Knox, Aotearoa.
‘The hura te ao gecko is named after its beautiful colourings. In te reo Māori, ‘hura’ means ‘reveal’ and ‘ao’ is the light but can also relate to the world or the break of dawn. The yellow colouring around the gecko’s mouth is reminiscent of the bright sun rising as the day begins.
The hura te ao gecko was only discovered four years ago in an alpine outcrop in North Otago. So, its name also refers to the idea that the gecko has ‘revealed’ itself to us.’
Hey.
Hey, Tumblr.
Research Aid Networks is trying to crowdsource funding for a Long Covid clinical trial.
https://gofund.me/f67950ae
The trial would research the hypothesis from the April 2023 paper in the journal Frontiers in Immunology: Hypothesis: inflammatory acid-base disruption underpins Long Covid.
This research would have implications for ME/CFS as well.
Tumblr, I know that you either have LC/ME/CFS yourself or you know someone with it. This shit is fucking awful.
This hypothesis needs to be researched.
If you can't donate, please reblog. And spread it to other platforms.
No-one helps us except us. Tumblr, I bet you we can get this shit funded.
Mithraeum host club!!
I was walking home from work and thinking to myself… host club and Gideon the ninth. And here we are, many weeks later. Hope there’s a target audience out there to reach with this lolllll
“Before proceeding further, the Court notes that this case involves two extremely likable lawyers, who have together delivered some of the most amateurish pleadings ever to cross the hallowed causeway into Galveston, an effort which leads the Court to surmise but one plausible explanation. Both attorneys have obviously entered into a secret pact complete with hats, handshakes and cryptic words to draft their pleadings entirely in crayon on the back sides of gravy-stained paper place mats, in the hope that the Court would be so charmed by their child-like efforts that their utter dearth of legal authorities in their briefing would go unnoticed. Whatever actually occurred, the Court is now faced with the daunting task of deciphering their submissions. With Big Chief tablet readied, thick black pencil in hand, and a devil-may-care, laugh-in-the-face-of-death, life-on-the-razor’s-edge sense of exhilaration, the Court begins.”
— Bradshaw v. Unity Marine Corp., Inc., 147 F. Supp. 2d 668 (S.D. Tex. 2001)
Oh boy
I googled the full judgement (x) and it just… keeps going like that. The judge has no chill and also may be my new hero.
“Despite the continued shortcomings of Plaintiff’s supplemental submission, the Court commends Plaintiff for his vastly improved choice of crayon. Brick Red is much easier on the eyes than Goldenrod, and stands out much better amidst the mustard splotched about Plaintiff’s briefing. But at the end of the day, even if you put a calico dress on it and call it Florence, a pig is still a pig.”
I know some of you enjoyed reading through the recent legal debacle of a pair of attorneys using ChatGPT for research. This case occurred well before that would have been an option, and is notably more…flavorful…than most written opinions, but you can get a sense how a poorly-researched briefing is received by the court.
Also, it’s just fun read.