A Free-for-All of Facts

No reputation to maintain...

[scorchroots]

I've never loved anyone as much as I love Ursula Le Guin

[oldbutchdanielmolloy]

omg you people can do anything

[plaguedocboi]

So every year, my aquarium does a captive lobster hatchery project (hence all the loblings). The reason we’re doing it is because in the wild, loblings only have a 1 in 25,000 chance of surviving their larval phase. They’re plankton as babies and everything eats them. Additionally, as the Gulf of Maine warms, they are having even lower survival rates because the blooms of copepods they feed on as babies are happening earlier in the year, and they’re missing it.

Obviously, the goal of this experiment is to grow the lobsters until they’re big enough to settle to the seabed and then release them, because they have a much higher likelihood of surviving to adulthood when they’re able to hide. Ideally, captive lobster hatcheries can boost the wild population and keep things stable, so we don’t have a major crash in a decade or two.

The first year we tried this was pretty bad. We had a lot of eggs, but very few babies. It turned out that the CO2 levels in the building spiked as more guests visited throughout the summer, and that settled into the water and threw off the pH and caused a chemical reaction that prevented a lot of the eggs from hatching. I think we ended up releasing three baby lobsters (which is still better than their wild survival rate but not great).

The second year was a little better. We added a de-gasser to the aquarium and got a ton of larval lobsters, but right as they were settling to the bottom we had a disease outbreak that killed most of them. We ended up releasing four babies at the end of the season.

But this year? Oh boy. We have so many lobsters that we had to release the first round early (usually we wait till September or October so guests can see them). We just released a total of FIVE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE baby lobsters, and we still have over a hundred who haven’t settled to the bottom yet. I genuinely don’t even have words to explain how cool this is. OVER FIVE HUNDRED. We just added hundreds of lobsters to the wild population that wouldn’t have been there otherwise.

Conservation is so fucken sick

[hotvampireadjacent]

https://twitter.com/birdtickler/status/1552657242909904897?s=21&t=q4JEDIALmV-cAjcoEOypdw

[littlemisspipebomb]

ok so I looked it up, and it turns out they made a track out of PVC pipes, down a hill. The owner didn't realise PVC expanded in the heat, so on a turn the track just fell apart and the dude inside went over a fucking free way and into a swamp.

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

The funniest part is that the inspector was watching the whole time, and once the ball stopped he left without saying anything. Park management just shut it down then and there.

[baronfulmen]

"The ball cleared a small hill, briefly going airborne, then zipped right across Route 94, the two-lane road splitting the park. Cars honked and slammed on their brakes. If there had been opposing traffic, Frank would have become part of a real-life game of Pong, volleying from one bumper to another.

Still in pursuit, we followed the ball toward a small lake in Motor World that had been earmarked for a fleet of tiny bumper boats for children. The area wasn’t open yet, but the empty boats were being tested and floated on the surface. The ball soared over the grass and smashed into several of them, scattering the others with rippling waves from the impact, which launched some of the boats several feet in the air.

Charlie and Ken waded into the water looking for the hatch. After some difficulty, they got it open. Charlie pulled Frank out by grabbing him under his armpits like a baby. Frank crawled up the bank, coughing and sputtering. He splayed across the grass as we all stared at the ball, which bobbed in the water like it was attached to a fishing lure.

We did not ask for the inspector’s report, nor did we ever hear of one being filed. Ken Bailey returned to Canada. The snow-makers cleared away the PVC. Told to dispose of the Bailey Ball, they rolled it into the woods, where it remained for many years."

I don't know that this beats the teeth story, but it's pretty great.

[crimethinc]

Some people have described the movement against police and white supremacy that emerged into the public eye in May 2020 as a "failure" because it didn't win legislative changes.

But the Twin Cities have been able to stand up to ICE because of networks that developed at that time.

Changing a system that exists to perpetrate oppression is the work of decades. What is needed is not a minor reform that can be implemented politicians, but the kind of structural change that requires long-term grassroots struggle.

https://crimethinc.com/antipolice2025

[thenatsdorf]

Enya, as intended. (via lilmissshitpaws)

[encyclopydia]

I’m so confused as to how this was filmed

[sephonenorth]

They taped the camera to the drum, then Had it spin, and held the cat through the hole. It makes it look like the kitty is spinning, in reality, it’s just the camera.

[pati79]

Sublime

[warcrimesimulator]

[oneheadtoanother]

[homunculus-argument]

Not book smart or street smart but a secret third thing.

[luckyletd0wn]

supid

[homunculus-argument]

supid.

[pseudospectre]

So it turns out you can just buy old x-rays off ebay

[voidofaworld]

Does a horror podcast/audio drama with women as the main characters exist or is this a male dominated field

[fictionfrequency1]

There are so many female-lead horror podcasts! And they’re so good!!

Primordial Deep is technically a science fiction/thriller but it is scary. A marine biologist is tasked with researching prehistoric monsters that are rising from the deep. If deep water and the vast things that could be living there freak you out, this is for you.

You Are the Ghost in This House is a little slow-paced, but it’s got very gothic, descriptive, Shirley Jackson vibes. Two women move back in to the rotting Manor House where they grew up. Obviously, the house is haunted.

The Silt Verses follows two worshippers travelling along a great black river, on a pilgrimage for an outlawed god. Just brilliant.

The Holmwood Foundation is slightly more fun and Scooby-Doo feeling, but still very dangerous. Also, it’s got two leads, and only one is a woman. In this modern-day sequel to Dracula, two staff members of a vampire research foundation go on the run across the Yorkshire moors after their workplace (and everyone in it) is destroyed. They don’t have their phones, they’re possessed by the ghosts of Mina and Jonathan, and they’re carrying Dracula’s disembodied head.

Mockery Manor is a mystery, but it’s fun and murderous and spooky. The villain is MESSED UP. The two protagonists are twin sisters, spending their summer working at a weird UK theme park.

Mabel is a fairy-tale classic with terrifying sound effects. A live-in carer tries to get in touch with Mabel, her patient’s granddaughter. Mabel isn’t picking up her calls…

Hi Nay follows Filipina immigrant Mari Datuin as she stops dangerous supernatural events in Toronto. This podcast has frightening entities, long-term arcs and a great ensemble cast.

Alice Isn’t Dead is a great horror about a truck driver searching for her wife across America. Made by Night Vale Presents, it’s got an amazing story and loads of strange, unexpected events.

[botanycrewmember]

"We keep ploughing on, through the dark and polluted waters—my prophet and me."

Happy pride month but specifically to the Widow of Wounds and her Rootkeeper! This is a commission piece by the fantastic Stes @anthureums, who took my frenzied powerpoint presentation of vague references and ramblings and turned them into this achingly beautiful masterpiece. Go check out their art on twitter at @/alamangoes!

@thesiltverses remains one of my favorite audio dramas of all time, and the bond between Paige and Hayward has been living in my brain rent-free even years after the story has come to an end. I adore the way they depend on and inspire each other, and Stes captured that awful tenderness between them beautifully.

Some design notes under the read more:

Paige's outfit is inspired by mourning dresses, armor, and hazmat suits, as she is the Widow leading a rebel faith in what's basically TSV's Chernobyl site

Hayward's outfit is a blend of scavenging survivor and knight; you can see how his elements are matching with Paige (blows 3000 kisses to Stes for fleshing out these design details)

The flowers on the Wound Tree are based on crocus flowers BUT a bit more flesh colored, as they are ultimately feeding off of flesh and blood

The whale bones surrounding the two of them are a direct reference to season 2, chapter 12, where a whale gets caught in the emergence of the Wound Tree

[memecucker]

anyway remember when the US government commissioned a study on dangers of pornography and when the commission returned with a report saying it doesn’t pose a danger and recommending removing restrictions the US government denounced its own study

[segamascott]

[bi-astolfo]

Yes, investigation claimed at least 1,200 detainees 'dropped off the grid' from 'Alligator Alcatraz'

The claim is not new — the Miami Herald published its findings in summer 2025.

[standwithdaanes]

source for the congresswoman thing as well, because i hadn't heard about that:

Rep. LaMonica McIver Faces 17 Years in Prison Over ICE Jail Inspection

The Trump administration has repeatedly attempted to restrict or thwart congressmembers’ access to ICE jails.

[cock-holliday]

https://archive.is/20260404100138/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/us/politics/lamonica-mciver-immigration-congress-trump.html

A non-paywall version of an April update about how her shit dem colleagues are failing to stand with her

[isuggestrevolution]

i have a suggestion

[rosplosion]

About 6 months ago my partner was Tracking all the Unlisted Flights Out of the US. He had to stop because it was driving him actually mad.

[death-420]

does anyone have that gif of a penis growth ad thats a guinea pig that stretches out rly long and a girl says “hot!” and the guinea pig spins around pls i need it

[raeuberkotzenrotz]

I gotchu

[death-420]

YES!!! YES!! YES!!!!!

[tastefullyoffensive]

25 Of The Most Retweeted Tweets That Rocked Twitter Over The Weekend

[swan2swan]

Where's that tweet about how American chants are "let's go [team name] and some other country (Irish?) fans are "I've made up a song about the other team's drinking problem to the tune of London Bridge Is Falling Down one two three"?

[luimnigh]

[ladydevoir]