Harpsichordical

Harper. Museum educator. Recovering PhD biology student. About. Expect invertebrates, science, art, gardening, ecotoxicology, comics, outdoorsy nonsense, sustainable transit, paleontology, shitposts, things that make me laugh, accessibility, community science, progressivism, diversity in STEM, natural history, occasional rambling, and a smattering of fandoms.

[osabishi-yama]

アンデスネコ Andean Mountain Cat

[unnameablethings]

its extremely important to read widely and deeply in a variety of genres. read obscure self published shit that only 4 people have read. read culturally relevant works of literature that have helped shape the canon. read horror. read women's lit. read historical fiction and comedies and nonfiction and hentai and poetry and science fiction and fantasy and mysteries and romance and good things and bad things and things u hate and things you love and things you COULD like if only the author changed x y and z and things which are beautiful but not meant for you.

doing all of this reading will lay a groundwork of rich complexity in your heart. so that you can write really good porn

[inkyami]

Summer melancholy and scorching heat

Twitter | VK | INPRNT | Leave a tip

[brutereason]

“Here’s the deal. The human soul doesn’t want to be advised or fixed or saved. It simply wants to be witnessed — to be seen, heard and companioned exactly as it is. When we make that kind of deep bow to the soul of a suffering person, our respect reinforces the soul’s healing resources, the only resources that can help the sufferer make it through. Aye, there’s the rub. Many of us “helper” types are as much or more concerned with being seen as good helpers as we are with serving the soul-deep needs of the person who needs help. Witnessing and companioning take time and patience, which we often lack — especially when we’re in the presence of suffering so painful we can barely stand to be there, as if we were in danger of catching a contagious disease. We want to apply our “fix,” then cut and run, figuring we’ve done the best we can to “save” the other person.”

— The Gift of Presence, The Perils of Advice | On Being

[ceasarslegion]

I started listening to the cree radio station because its the only one left in my range that doesnt play alberta separatist ads now and those make me see red like some sort of bull, which is not safe while im behind the wheel of a vehicle going 110

Why haven't they told me about the cree all-purpose radio station sooner. They play everything from the 50s to today. Half of their ads and one of their shows is in cree which I do not speak a lick of but thats fine, they play banger music. They give me local news updates that arent dripping with UCP cocksucking. They tell me about things that affect a demographic I otherwise hear very little about by virtue of being a white guy in alberta.

We are holding hands. We are learning about other cultures. We are listening to 60s rock and roll and then an elder will tell us stories about his youth. I am enamored. I am in love.

[ceasarslegion]

Lots of people in the notes have asked me to drop the radio station im talking about here. If youre in the Edmonton area the frequency is 89.3, and when we went on a trip recently we got pretty reliable signal all the way to Ponoka. If youre outside of it or international you can get the live broadcast at ravenradio.ca

They also have a retro hour at noon every day and do language lessons for allies

[earhartsease]

89.3 The Raven

Playing a little bit of everything from the 50's to Today! Alberta's Best Rock

for easy access

[edenfalling]

@wingedflight

[lichen-soup-scribe]

exploring the world through radio rocks. been listening to Cairo's top hits station recently; I'll have to give this a try next!

[dostoyevsky-official]

new york city, the largest in the country, is almost certainly going to be the first socialist-run city in america

[comradekearney]

Actually a great many mid-westerm cities had socialists in office a century ago. They were even derrided for being "Sewer Socialists" for talking about public infrastructure all the time. Go figure

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewer_socialism

[kropotkindersurprise]

June 8, 2025 - Scenes from the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles.

[irradiatedsnakes]

you cant just say that man

[barksbog]

worms eating worms

[barksbog]

i'm so sorry to inform people that these are amphibians and contain the dumbest skull you've ever seen

[zinjanthropusboisei]

Ok I don't know if I'm losing it or what but on Regulations.gov, where you go to post public comments, I swear this used to list the NEXT three days, seven days, etc, so you can find comment periods that are still open but are closing soon. Now it's sending you to comments that are already closed. You can still use the search filters to pull up comments with due dates in a certain range, but not directly from the home page.

Aaaand: looking it up on the Internet Archive, here's a snapshot from 2023:

Boy, is that a small but sinister change. I know researchers across fields are tracking changes to databases and to public access, and I've talked with friends about some of the changes we've encountered, but "access" can still be hindered just by making the digital infrastructure harder to navigate in ways that are totally legal and hard to notice.

The erosion of transparency and the public's right to know and access basic information from government website is something that's probably happening at a far vaster scale than any of us realize even

[identitty-dickruption]

okay I’ll say it nicer:

australia was colonised according to the myth of terra nullius (or empty land). ever since the very early days of colonialism, the land has been framed as something untameable and unliveable. this has justified acts of violence against the first peoples here, in that they are seen as non-people. it has justified the destruction of sacred land in the goal of making australia look more european. (an example: our capital city contains a man-made lake that is now nothing better than a fetid carp pond. it’s disgusting and unnatural). basically, the idea of “taming australia’ has justified endless harm

“everything in australia is weird and dangerous” is not just some silly meme phrase, it is something that arcs back to the very beginning of white settlers laying claim to ‘australia’. and personally I am very sick of seeing it thrown around like it means nothing

[headspace-hotel]

Can't wait for people to stop joking about how all the wildlife in australia is scary and deadly...

[sqbr]

Yeah and like... I think there is space to talk about the ways Australia is relatively unique or at least different to other places: our snakes and spiders are more dangerous than anyone else's, but our native bees and 'bears' are safer. You might die of sunstroke but you won't die in a blizzard, earthquake, or tornado.

Australia is not especially dangerous, or unfriendly, it's just 'different', but then the question is different to what. Why should deadly earthquakes and forests full of murderous bears be seen as more normal? Why is a desert any more weird or scary than a bog or tundra? Why are cold damp places seen as the only form of natural beauty, why do people see warm dry places as dead when they are full of life, and see warm damp places as full of TOO MUCH life somehow? Why, even in Australia, do we use the aesthetics of red October leaves and Christmas snow, and not celebrations of the beautiful seasonal changes we actually see all around us? Why are white Australians so actively hostile to engaging and connecting with the local cultures that have been celebrating and working with the place we live for thousands of years, and even after hundreds of years still see our home as Strange?

[phlebasphoenician]

Rethinking Indigenous Australia's agricultural past - ABC Radio National

Historians are looking into the possibility that the first Australians practised forms of agriculture and aquaculture, writes Cathy Pryor.

The enduring myth of the hunter-gatherer

Yes, let's definitely have a conversation about why the European colonists were invested in the belief that the indigenous people didn't cultivate the land.

[sqbr]

YEAH, THAT TOO. It's important to remember that the way Indigenous Australians were and are treated would be just as unjustified if they were all hunter gatherers. But they were not, and that lie has been spread for a reason.

Also I read through the replies and people point out that exactly the same sort of exotification into a Dangerous Alien Landscape Which Must Be Tamed happens with Africa, Asia, The Middle East etc. Even like... Scotland and Italy, back in the day. And for similar reasons. And this kind of imagery is everywhere, like play any video game with multiple biomes or cultures etc (real or fictional) and see which ones are treated as Normal and which ones are Weird and Scary/Exotic.

[liz-squids]

"The Australian landscape is alien and mysterious and will kill you" has been a trope since the very first white people looked at this continent, and it's tiring.

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don't cry. 7,401 species of frog in the world, ok?

[werewolf-transgenderism]

IMPORTANT UPDATE: 7,532 species of frog in the world, ok?!

[werewolf-transgenderism]

great news! 7,556 species of frog in the world, ok?!

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don't cry, now there are 7,576 species of frog in the world, ok?!

[werewolf-transgenderism]

excellent news! 7,591 species of frog in the world, peace and love on planet earth

[werewolf-transgenderism]

guess what! 7,624 species of frog on planet earth, ok?

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don't cry, 7,645 species of frog on planet earth, ok? peace and love on planet autism

[werewolf-transgenderism]

great news! 7,653 species of frog on planet earth, ok?

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don't cry. 7,670 species of frog on planet earth, ok?

[werewolf-transgenderism]

new year new frogs! 7,678 species of frog on planet earth, ok?

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don't cry. 7,683 species of frog in the world, ok? ❤️

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don't cry. 7,698 species of frog in the world, peace and love on planet earth

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don’t cry. 7,701 species of frog in the world, ok?

[wandering-aloneo-o]

@markscherz how many of these do we get to thank you for again?

[markscherz]

95 at present, more on the way :)

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don't cry. 95 species of frog discovered by tumblr's own frog scientist dr. mark scherz, ok?

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don't cry. 7,758 species of frog in the world, yippee!

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don't cry. 7,806 species of frog in the world, ok?

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don’t cry. 7,817 species of frog in the world, peace and love on planet autism 💖

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don't cry. 7,836 species of frog in the world, ok?

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don't cry. 7,864 species of frog in the world, yay!

[werewolf-transgenderism]

hey don't cry. 7,935 species of frog in the world, yippeeeeee

[werewolf-transgenderism]

HEY DON'T CRY. 8,008 SPECIES OF FROG IN THE WORLD PER AMPHIBIAWEB AND THE 8,000TH FROG WAS DESCRIBED BY TUMBLR'S OWN FROG SCIENTIST DR. Scherz, ET AL., PEACE AND LOVE ON PLANET EARTH ‼️‼️‼️

[hyperlexichypatia]

my biggest issue w how ppl talk abt literacy on this site is the like. implicit assumption that every society that didn't communicate through written language was inherently lacking & their ways of education and politics and storytelling were inherently less complex and engaged the brain less. like theres obviously benefits to having a written language esp when it comes to having records that dont exist inside human brains. but like humans have done some incredible stuff and had incredible complex thoughts and discussions w/o ANYONE being remotely literate. like maybe its not ''literacy is required for critical thinking'' maybe its ''in a society that depends heavily on literacy as a skill, you cannot access a fuckton of information without being literate''

YES! I really have to credit the hosts of one of my favorite podcasts, Material Girls, for enlightening me on this point with the simple observation -- if literacy boosts empathy, then 17th century Europe should have been far more empathetic than the rest of the world (since mass literacy rolled out in Europe before it rolled out in many other places), and that is transparently, observably false and also, you know, racist.

Basically, I believe the following things are true about written language:

-It is an incredibly nifty, useful human invention. It makes transmitting ideas and information across time and distance a lot more efficient.

-Everyone in the world should have access to it, just as I believe everyone in the world should have access to other nifty, useful human inventions like indoor plumbing, electricity, and antibiotics.

-In the modern, post-industrial, globally interconnected, late-capitalist global society humans have built, communicating with written language is a fairly essential life skill. People who can't communicate with written language and don't have a viable accommodation are at a severe disadvantage socially and economically, and are less able to access accurate information, because our global information ecosystem is built around written language.

-Advancements in communication technology, such as written language, the printing press, radio, film, the internet, etc., have made general education and knowledge-dissemination/acquisition much easier and more efficient. The more communication technology have access to, the more you can learn. That's why communication technology, and education in how to use it, is a human right.

I reject the following claims about written language:

-It is necessary for critical thinking (the vast majority of the world for the vast majority of human history was incapable of critical thinking?).

-It is necessary for empathy (the vast majority of the world for the vast majority of human history was incapable of empathy?).

-It is necessary for emotional regulation (the vast majority of the world for the vast majority of human history was incapable of emotional regulation?).

-It is inherently superior to other forms of communication (audio, video, textural, etc) rather than just one (albeit very useful) tool among many to advance human communication.

[sissa-arrows]

In 1955 (with a generalization in 1957) during the Algerian war of liberation, France created multiple “no-go/buffer zones” in Algeria. Anyone, human or animal, no matter the age, gender or reason, who was found in these areas was executed. The built about 2000 concentration camps in these areas and “invited” the population in these camps. It was either the concentration camp or execution (and the concentration camp also came with death). The reason the French gave to explain it all was to make it easier for the French to target the ALN without targeting the civilians (a lie again as you’ll see later) and to protect the civilian from being used as human shields by the ALN (which never happened) and also protect civilians from being forced to support the ALN (that forced support also never happened). They also presented it as a way to modernize the rural villages of Algeria and make them more “modern” and “nice” for the people (again a lie)

They built a couple of them nicely with actual houses so the propaganda pics for the rest of the world would look nice. But the majority of these camps were actually tents villages surrounded by barbed wires and controlled by French soldiers. Some were allowed to build dirt houses if they had the skills. The French also called them “regrouping villages” and “safe zones for civilians” cause calling them concentration camps would have been too obvious and kept them from denying what was happening. Especially just a decade after WW2.

They displaced a total of 3.5 millions Algerians (40% of the Algerian population) and 2.4 millions of them were put in these “safe zones for civilians”. The displaced were almost exclusively from rural villages that the French had destroyed before or after the forced displacement.

The food distribution in these camps, was controlled by France who not only didn’t bring in enough food for people to be healthy on purpose but also conditioned the distribution to how submissive and obedient the population was and even then they would give just enough to avoid starvation but not enough to avoid severe malnutrition. The death rate in these camps (especially for babies and during childbirth) was much higher than in the rest of Algeria. In some cases, the French also used these concentration camps to threaten the women and children and force the men into fighting against the revolution. They would also blast propaganda messages on speakers for Algerians to hear them hoping they would blame the ALN for their suffering.

At the end of the war of liberation 87% of the people who survived were unable to take care of themselves (financially but also physically and psychically) and were supported by the Algerian government until they got better…

I’m saying all of that because this is happening again right now in Gaza as we speak. People are more uncomfortable with using the term of concentration camp than they are with what’s happening. Once again colonizers are creating concentration camps for the indigenous people and giving them a different name. Pretending it’s to help and protect the indigenous people. Once again colonizers are creating a situation where aid is needed and then weaponizing it.

But you know how it ended? With the liberation of Algeria. With the settlers leaving the fuck out. And you know why it ended that way? Because Algerians fought but also because people put pressure on France. So if you are not Palestinian your job is to NOT give up and feel hopeless. Your job is to keep fighting with all you have. Because one day Incha’Allah Palestine will be free and Zionism will be a thing of the past.

[conspiracydawg]

the funny thing about socializing cats at the animal shelter is that it can sometimes be quite difficult to tell the difference between a cat who's very scared, but unwilling to move or hiss, and will strike or bite if you touch them, and a cat who's a little scared and unwilling to move, but doesn't mind being touched. which means that sometimes I go through the whole process of acclimating a cat to my hand being in their kennel, getting them used to my hand as a moving object, slowly making my way closer and closer to them, testing which angles of approach bother them the least, and eventually making contact, only for the cat to look at me like "thanks for finally petting me. are you stupid or something?"

[creatingblackcharacters]

Welcome!

I'm going to update this list as I post more. So make sure to check periodically!

Anon Office Hours: Wed 12:30pm - Friday 6:30pm. (EST)

PLEASE CAPITALIZE THE IDENTITY OF "BLACK" IN YOUR ASKS TO ME ☺️

"Your posts are too long"- Teacher's Note

Feedback Rules

FAQs!

Lesson 1: "White Man Painted Black"?

Lesson 1.5: "Hair for Thought"- how visualizing affects your writing

Lesson 2: “That One Hairstyle? RETIRE IT!” Black Hair is an Art (pt.1)

Lesson 2.1: Addendum to Hair pt 1

Lesson 2: "It Takes HOW LONG?" Black Hair is an Art (pt.2)

Application! Examples of Protective Hair Coverings

Application! Ice's Lazy Loc Wash Routine

Application! How to: Simplified Braid

Application! Daisy E's Simplified Hair Drawing

Lesson 3: "Defying the Default"- Skin Tones and the Presence of Black Characters

Application! What are Black fans looking for in Commissions?

Lesson 4: "Do Black People Blush?" Bringing brown complexions to life

Application! Humanæ- Resource for Skin Palettes!

Lesson 5: "The Same Place As the Music" Lighting & Color

Lesson 6: "Let's Have A Talk, First" Stereotypes, pt 1

Lesson 6: “Why’s she so rude?” (She’s Not)- Stereotypes, pt 2

Lesson 6: "Is He the Threat (Or Are You?)"- Stereotypes, pt 3

Application! How to Spot a Stereotype: An Example

Lesson 7: "That's the Black one!"- Imagery and "Black-Coded" Characters

Lesson 8: “Across cultures, darker people suffer most. Why?” Multiethnic and Multicultural Blackness

Lesson 9: “Romance Will Not Solve Racism”- Interracial/Biracial/Blended Black and White Relationships and Families

Lesson 10: “The Ambiguously Brown Character™”- The Attachment to Eurocentric Beauty Standards

Lesson 11: “No, That’s Not ‘How Color Works’.” - Whitewashing

Lesson 12: “The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth” - Violence, Violent Imagery & Black Horror

Lesson 13: “It’s Giving” AAVE, and the Denied Yet Undeniable Impact of Black Culture

[fluoresensitives]

(smoking a cigarette) the average american is afraid of what is new and what is foreign, and especially of what is adult. they are trapped forever in daycares of their own design, reading books and watching shows made for children. And while there are interesting things made for children, by and large, they tend to stick to inoffensive, intensely juvenile things that won't challenge them much. And worst of all, if you suggest to your Average American that they should try to step outside of their narrow box, especially if they're trying to become artists, animators, film makers, novelists, etc, everyone acts as if you've just bombed the daycare. Wow.