Viorel Mărginean Pas Rea Phoenix 1990
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taylor price
NASA
Peter Solarz
Misplaced Lens Cap
Sade Olutola
Today's Document
Monterey Bay Aquarium
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
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2025 on Tumblr: Trends That Defined the Year

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Stranger Things
Sweet Seals For You, Always
Game of Thrones Daily
trying on a metaphor
todays bird
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"

@theartofmadeline
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open

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@flffytakei
Viorel Mărginean Pas Rea Phoenix 1990
when I was young and learned about "think tanks" I really wanted to work for one because I loved the idea of being paid to think about things because I hadn't yet realized that most of them pay you to think about evil things
The real impact of AI at university level that I've watched in real time is how so many students come onto courses now - including Masters level - who straight up don't know how to analyse/evaluate things anymore. They just accept whatever they first read/hear completely uncritically. Every time you point it out you have to coax them into Actually Thinking.
I've spotted a huge decline over the last two years. What's upsetting is how so many of our current third years have declined since their first year. I did a seminar with them the other day, on the topic of the environmental impacts of different diets. One guy told me confidently that there would be no additional agricultural lands if we all went vegetarian.
"Cool," I said. "What's your source for that?"
"I'm sure I read it," he said.
"Fair," said I, "go and look it up. Find an academic source, let's assess it to see if it's robust."
The first thing he did was go to Google, and then read the AI summary.
"That's not a source," I said. "Find me a source."
Five minutes later, he happily tells me that a Guardian article says so, and mentions the World Economic Forum.
"Okay," I said. "Neither of those are academic sources, and the WEF is secondary anyway. Go to Google Scholar, and find a journal article."
Ten minutes later, he tells me he can only find articles that say it's a very complex issue in spite of pop cultural received wisdom, and we don't actually know.
A THIRD YEAR. This man has a dissertation due in THREE MONTHS. This is a skill we taught him in first year, and it's all dribbled out of his ears in the quest for easy summaries from an autocomplete algorithm. And I dearly wish I could say he's an exception, but Jesus Christ, that would be a lie.
I'm currently writing a lecture for the second years for their research methods module, and I normally wouldn't need to do this. But I'm having to re-introduce them to the basic concepts of how to actually analyse findings rather than lazily take whatever they seem to say at face value. I'm trying to find a good paper that had Surprising findings, because I want to show them a research question and a set of results and then get them to speculate and research on why they found something so different, but that's a difficult thing to search for.
Ngh. Yelling at the choir here, I know, but NNNNGH
A HAMMERHEAD????
I attended a campfire presentation by a park ranger who described Osprey as "both the pickiest and least picky eaters of all time."
They're the pickiest because they only eat things they can catch by plunging into at least six feet of water feet-first and are as close to their maximum carrying capacity as possible, to maximize calories-per-trip.
They're the Least Picky because so long as something fits those parameters, Osprey will go for it.
The ranger then showed us an extensive slide show of the local osprey in flight with their catches, which included: trout, carp, snakes, bass, eels, small sharks, ducks, surprisingly large catfish, a nerf football, muskrats, a summer sausage that fell off a boat, sneakers, a fish previously thought to be extinct in the area, a Barbie Doll, and another osprey.
Since they aren't credited to the artist and his watermarks have been cropped out and the videos mirrored in this post, these videos are by the incredible Florida wildlife photographer Mark Smith.
He's captured truly stunning images and video of ospreys over the years! You can check out his videos here: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkSmithphotography
Here's more of the osprey with the shark (a bonnethead, not a hammerhead), too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahXFtVJ2QCk
And more of the pelican trying to steal from the osprey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwo4jgfmkms
Thank you for the credit! Helped me find his stuff and learn the osprey that was tangled in fishing line was ok
have we considered the possibility that this bird is running a skydiving service for fish and fish-adjacent creatures
it exists to divide the working class. All labour is skilled labour. Yes including that one. Yes, including that one too.
Do you know what's unskilled labour? Owning capital. There's no labour involved, thus requires no skill. And you can tell because people can be born into owning capital.
you've heard of death of the author, now get ready for death of the audience: where instead of basing your reaction on a thousand uninformed opinions online, you actually read the text and engage with it
girl help there's people on this post who can't actually read my text
My favorite mossy road
paper and pen seems so powerful now. on account of all the. surveillance
If you love something, let it go. If it comes back to you, its yours forever…
When I get blood samples at work sometimes they’re still warm from being imminently inside the patient’s veins and my hands are always cold because all the labs Ive work in are in the basement and they keep it kinda cold for whatever reason (and I’m also just a chilly kid).
And I clutch the little warm tubes of blood and feel this sick person warming my hands and I think about how kind you might be and how I wish I could hold your hand and how badly, how really really badly, I want you to get better and stay warm and hold someone’s hand again.
And anyway sometimes it’s better to not think so vividly about the people I’m doing tests for. I’m a good little cog in a vast machine of people all trying to heal and cure, and my cog feels so fucking small sometimes. But I hope the blood I prepare for you helps you breathe better and laugh and wake up feeling well rested.
We’ve never met but you warmed my hands and I want you to know I love you and I’m rooting for you.
god, this is so sweet
A Sunny Day in Winter Fritz Müller-Landeck
We rly need to bring back the term “acquaintance” like into regular and frequent use. So many high drama community squabbles and feelings of betrayal could be avoided if people just admitted there’s a step between “stranger” and a full on friend whose friendship you have a commitment to continuing and fostering. Like sometimes you’re just aquatinted with someone and you might decide you don’t like them after getting to know them a bit better…that’s very normal
no amount of budgeting will make up for the fact that we simply do not make enough money
no amount of therapy will make up for the fact that we simply do not make enough money
no amount of working will make up for the fact that we simply do not make enough money
lol wanted to call my state rep to be like "do you see what's happening in kansas? don't let that shit happen here. we're pushing for protecting gay marriage in the state; let's protect this too"
but instead i started with "pop quiz: do you know which books the nazis burned first? yeah, don't worry, most people don't. there was this gay jewish guy who created the Institute of Sex Research where, among many other sex-related services, he interviewed people from all walks of life, collected scientific data on the topic of sex, sexuality, and gender expression, and performed transition surgeries, even made an effort to hire his trans patients so they could have stability. anyway it was this institute's books on what we now call LGBTQIA+ people that was the first casualty, and the institute itself was shut down"
then i hit him with the "everyone's comparing the kansas law to nazi germany and how jewish people had their documents invalidated, but that was in 1938, and it's only 'similar.' the truth is that in 1933, the nazis invalidated trans people's documents. yup, five years earlier. yup, not just 'similar' but exactly what kansas did, invalidated documents that allowed trans people to live as safely as possible"
so then i threw in my pet bugbears (education enhancement, marginalized narratives, etc.) and said we need legislation that queer history must be included in the curriculum when teaching about ww2 bc i think it's fucking STUPID to be like "nazis are bad bc they burned books" but never even know WHICH books. don't @ me. i'm right. it's stupid and should be included along with everything else bc we're a part of everything else. i'm tired of still fighting an uphill battle for gay rights bc idiots think we used to not exist or whatever. ditto trans rights. ditto people who are like "white people are the only innovators" bc like?? they just have personally never heard of any innovators that weren't white. like we can't keep fighting against total and utter incomprehension of basic reality
anyway. then i obviously finally got around to "yeah, so make sure that kansas shit doesn't happen here."
(my reps' phone people must LOVE me. /s)
but i feel like i had a good productive phone call that took the guy taking calls completely off-guard and really engaged him intellectually by leading with that question, so i feel like i've upped the chances of him advocating the concern properly to the representative
it's a question that he, like just about everyone else, wasn't even AWARE he didn't know the answer to, and he sounded quite panicked as he realized for the first time in his life, in real time, on the spot, that that's a ridiculous gap to have in your knowledge
reblogging after that other post just as an example of how you can be creative, innovative, and have fun with civil engagement. it doesn't have to be a chore or a terrifying gauntlet; it can be a project or a hobby
it can be a fucked up little behavioral experiment with you as the mad scientist and your reps and their staff as the lab rats
the older i get the more it's terrifying to me how much child surveillance is normalized. scared for your child's mental health? here's more tools that will make them feel even more watched at all times. child is experimenting with their gender identity while away from you? we made it this other adult's job to surveil them for you. kid is "enjoying" their "free time" instead of doing homework? we've put parental controls on the things that they like so that you can monitor their private time. like can we fucking stop
it took me until 24 to realize that my parents don't deserve to just waltz into my room while i'm asleep and that me thinking this was fucking terrifying behavior wasn't actually unreasonable at all
unrestricted internet access is good for children because the alternative is that their parents are fucking inescapable. surveilling your child is abuse.