All Hail Birb

✨️I'm here to ruin the mood and eat out of the garbage and friend, I'm all out of garbage✨️

[space-aronaut]

Wow it’s almost like the oversexualisation of queerness is one of the reasons why asexuals, non-binary folks and aromantics are not seen as queer enough to be part of the community

[quousque]

OH

[maja-paja]

[retro-only-darling]

Joan Crawford being given her (rather unflattering) portrait by cartoonist Jorge Delano Fredrick

[holdbirbgentlelikehamburger]

If someone gave me a picture where I look like a power puff girl villain i would make it my profile picture on everything

[sparrowlucero]

dinosaur discourse

[gallusrostromegalus]

I am going to spoil the joke under the cut, but in service of giving some additional context that makes it even funnier:

If you're having trouble telling what the difference is between the two dinos, the joke is that there is virtually no difference, save for a feature we have no actual physical evidence for (unless there's been a big update I missed, we don't have any conclusive evidence of what large therapods were colored like).

This does not stop every paleoart subreddit or twitter/bsky artist following from being full of the most utterly miserable bickering pedants having wildly disproportionate reactions to minor and purely theoretical... I can't even call them arguments. Just different ideas.

Meanwhile, the paleoartists I know from my master's program- the people who are doing the illustrations for real museums like the smithsonian and university teaching materials- are out there having fun and going "How much can I make this Tyrannosaur look like a flamingo? It's not like there's anything to suggest they were NOT bright pink :)"

[sario528]

Hey Gallus, as an Actual paleoartist, what do you think of this?

[gallusrostromegalus]

So my master's is in Botanical Illustration, not Paleontological Illustration, but I did Email this to my profs that would make redditors explode and they offered the following notes:

Overall: The vibes are immaculate, but Probably Not

We have some fossil evidence to suggest juvenile Rexes were downy, but adults were almost certainly not

Especially not like this, because sparrows are floofy because they're little animals that live in temperate climates with cold winters, and T-Rex was a Very Large Animal living in tropical climates. It did not need the insulation.

That's a pose a T-rex could strike but not it's natural habit. The artist has also fudged the proportions a bit, in a very plausible way so always double-check your measurements and reference sources to make sure you're not making stuff up

T-rex would have had no need for flight feathers like depicted on the wings and tail, and it comes from earlier in the evolutionary tree than flighted dinosaurs so it wouldn't have them vestigially either

HOWEVER:

It's extremely valid and compelling to consider how feathering might have radically changed the silhouettes, especially in terms of camouflage and insulation for some of the smaller and midsize dinosaurs

Patterning and cryptic camouflage are also very valid interpretations, even on a giant non-aquatic predator, because a ton of animals are paler on the underside

The little bright cheek puffs are something that might have shown up as skin pigmentation, esp given that Rexes had extremely good vision and probably fairly sociable so communicative coloration would be a very valid and reasonable choice

They think its very cute and funny and they're all emailing this image to each other and printing it to put it on office doors

[gallusrostromegalus]

I'd like to address these tags by @eclipseyeger real fast:

YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT NEED A MASTERS DEGREE TO BE A SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATOR!!

I don't actually have one! What I have is a master's certification of botanical illustration from the Denver Botanic Garden's Illustration Program. It's not an accredited degree, but it is just as if not more respected as a master's degree from a university. And a hell of a lot cheaper! I just call it a master's because it gets the concept across and is shorter to type.

And I don't technically need that! Anyone can take on an art commission for scientific purposes! Anyone can join any of the illustration guilds regardless of education! There are people with no formal art training making a living at this because all you actually need is a strong portfolio and the ability to network.

To that end, I recommend at least some formal art training and classes in how to draw with the kind of accuracy educational institutions are expecting, to build the skills necessary and to meet fellow illustrators, because 90% of the commissions you get come from your fellow sci ill people recommending you to a client because they're booked.

But yeah, you can just jump right in! Email the paleontology department of a university with your portfolio! Hand out business cards to grad students looking to spruce up a paper! Join an Illustration guild! There is no gatekeeping here, we are actively trying to herd new people in!!

[atelier-tamamoland]

"you cannot have a category of person that stops being a person or everyone that someone wants to get rid of is going to end up being put in that category" and other really fucking obvious and basic observations that everyone ignores in favor of putting people they want to get rid of into a category they think makes them stop being a person

[lacefuneral]

the word empathy is WIDELY misused, even in mental health spaces. 

empathy:

is responding to a person’s emotions by experiencing the same emotion as them (i.e. feeling sad when something sad happens to that person, or happy when something happy happens to that person.)

is an automatic response that cannot be controlled

cannot be learned

sympathy:

is recognizing that another person is in pain, even if you do not experience that pain, and offering comfort to that person

is something a person must actively choose to do

can be learned

compassion:

is showcasing care and support via words and actions

is something a person must actively choose to do

can be learned

if you need an example of a person with no empathy who practices sympathy and compassion, look no further than data from star trek: the next generation. he doesn’t have emotions at all, but he’s still kind to people and wants to help them.

stop telling people that they’re evil because they don’t experience empathy. stop equating empathy with morality. stop equating empathy with caring. stop saying that cruel people “lack empathy.” stop throwing neurodivergent and mentally ill people under the bus. 

[holdbirbgentlelikehamburger]

I might be a cold bastard at times (in the privacy of my head, empathy shuts off if I'm overwhelmed or burnt out) but damn me if I'm not still trying to make people feel just a little better.

[podcastwizard]

LIKES TO CHARGE REBLOGS TO CAST

[the-goddess-of-annoying]

you people aren't CASTING

[the-goddess-of-annoying]

NO

[sniperct]

tumblr waiting for news on mitch mcconnell (image source)

[swan2swan]

SNIPER HOLY F****!!!!!

[sniperct]

the crabs trying to find Mitch McConnell's rave and ending up at Lindsey Graham's

[whimsical-catacombs]

[nymph1e]

On Discomfort and Morality

My father finds gay men uncomfortable.

He's told me before that it's like a knee-jerk for him. Something he doesn't consciously control. He sees two men behaving romantically, and his body reacts with mild discomfort.

In the 1960s, when he was in high school, most of the boys in his form thought he was gay on the simple fact that he wasn't homophobic. He wouldn't participate in insulting queer people, he didn't care if someone was gay, he wouldn't have a problem hanging out with gay people. So people thought he was gay. That's how prevalent homophobia was in his formative years.

When I was 10, my dad told me very seriously that Holmes and Watson were gay. That it was obvious from the literature and the time period that they were meant to be a gay couple. When I was 14 and I came out to my parents as bi, when my mum was upset my dad ripped into her for it. Told her that she was being stupid, that it was my life to live how I wanted to and that she needed to get over herself.

My dad formed my views on censorship: that being that it was completely ridiculous and thoroughly evil. He didn't believe in censorship of any kind. If I asked him a question about sex, he answered it honestly. When I was 12 and I asked him about homosexuality, still young and uncertain, he told me that there was nothing wrong with it. That it was just how some people were. That there was likely an evolutionary reason for it. And that for some people it was uncomfortable on an instinctual level.

He taught me that just because you're uncomfortable with something, doesn't make it wrong. He also taught me that most people don't understand this.

I see a lot of this on the internet as of the last few years. The anti shipping movement, the terf movement, the anti ace movement. It all stems from discomfort that people have crossed wires into believing means wrong. Really every -ism and -phobia out there stems from this same fundamental aspect of humanity.

The next time you see something and you automatically think it's disgusting, or wrong, or immoral, I invite you to ask yourself: is this actually wrong or does this just make me uncomfortable?

[necrotranscjk]

An important tweet

[sighinastorm]

This is such a "common sense" way of putting it. Everybody memorize this for spitting it back out whenever needed.

[skin-slave]

Never thought I'd have the opportunity to say this again: Reducing women and girls to their vaginas and then forcing them to show those vaginas to strangers is not a feminist ideal.

[ashubii]

This is why I have TikTok

[plushdablush]

Random thing for people to consider is that since Laika is the saint of one way trips should Felicette be known as the saint of safe landings since she did make it back to the ground safely

[somefishycat]

tu LANCES félicette ? tu lances son corps comme la fusée ? oh ! oh ! prison pour les scientifiques ! prison pour les scientifiques pendant Un Mille Ans !

[bug-yogurt]

You can understand the French perfectly fine with only context but the English translation I got still had me floored

[libraford]

Are YOU gonna let THE GOVERNMENT tell YOU what YOUR GENDER is? That doesn't sound like Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness to me! PROTECT your individual FREEDOMS and call your senator: we want the GOVERNMENT to stay OUT OF OUR PANTS! GENDER FREEDOM NOW!

[libraford]

Two men in your neighborhood are married... to EACH OTHER? Congratulate them for exercising their AMERICAN RIGHT to follow the footsteps of our FOUNDING FATHERS! They've got a fully AMERICAN spirit of FREEDOM and REBELLION! GOD BLESS THE USA.

[libraford]

Your coworker has a different RELIGION from yours? Well, that's just INTERESTING and you should talk about it on your UNION-APPROVED LUNCH BREAK. The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA was FOUNDED on Freedom of Religion and ANYONE should be allowed to seek the AMERICAN DREAM!

[libraford]

You think someone might be in this GREAT country ILLEGALLY? NO YOU DON'T! No one is in this country illegally! The minute anyone steps on our SOVEREIGN SOIL they're your FELLOW AMERICAN and where they come from is NO ONES BUSINESS.

[rosslynpaladin]

it's funny yeah, but guys this is actually how you reach the people who prefer these terms to frame all things Good and Correct.

[rosszulorzott]

[deadpowol]

[holdbirbgentlelikehamburger]

He's got the spirit

[divorcedwife]

studying history is like. here's to another beautiful day of not being pregnant and of having no obligation to ever be. thank you women who fight for abortion and contraception and independance from men for another beautiful day of not being pregnant and of having no obligation to ever be

[spaceshipsandpurpledrank]

[puppybotz]

TL;DW

the image of the voodoo doll as a magic doll you stab to hurt people actually comes from a practice by english pagan witches of making poppets. the poppet would be made in the shape of someone you hate and filled with their hair and then stabbed with big needles repeatedly. and the poppets got conflated with voodoo dolls later on.

voodoo dolls were actually a way of keeping records when black people were prevented from reading or writing. a voodoo priest who would serve as a communities doctor would make a doll that looks like the patient, and stick a pin in it where the patient was experiencing symptoms, this would let the doctor keep track of who was having what issues. for example if a patient has a headache, the voodoo priest puts a pin in the dolls head. the priest gives the patient a treatment, when the patient comes back the priest knows which doll is theirs because it looks like them, and they know they're dealing with a headache because the doll has a pin in it's head. when the symptoms resolve the pin is removed, until then the doctor has a reminder that this is an ongoing issue for a specific patient.

I wrote this because when I saw it this post had a TL;DW that conflated the information about poppets and the information about voodoo dolls, creating new and original misinformation about voodoo dolls that comes from confusing them with poppets so like don't reblog that one maybe.

also someone else in the chain included this freeze frame so you can read it