Blind and hungry I wait

Like the fish on the dark side of the moon, I too am eyeless and listen instead to the stars as they sing. Journey with me on a circuitous road to anywhere it should go. Here might be some things that are beautiful, some things that are not, some things not safe for work, some things not safe for life, some bad metaphors and whatnot. I do not know what direction this tumblr will take. I might never know. I will probably start by reblogging things that should be reblogged. Might post some stuff of my own later. Not quite 40 yet. I also run a shibari side blog, might link it here later (you can ask if interested)

[iamthelowercase]

Hello, tumblr! I saw something on here the other day that worried me, so I decided to Do Science about it. But I can't do it alone: I need your help to build the dataset!

Here's what I need you to do:

If you see a post with a "mature content" label, and it's 2026, DM me a link to the post.

Yes, that's really it.

I am hoping to collect several thousand such posts, so that I have a decent sized dataset. I do not care what the post is about; if it's labeled as "mature content", I want to add it to my dataset.

If I get 10,000 posts in my dataset before August 31st 2026, I will post my preliminary findings then. I won't feel comfortable calling my findings "settled" before 2027, unless I get over 50,000 posts.

[iamthelowercase]

Tumblr Science FAQ, round 1

What's your hypothesis, OP?

I am not talking about that unless I have results to share. That would bias the results.

I did write them down and I did share them with a trusted contact who can prove that I wrote them down the same day I made this post. (While I did so before I made this post, I am not sure they will be able to provide proof of that, because I did so on the same day.)

OP are you interested in...?

Do you have to click through to see the post? Does the clickthrough contain the words "mature content"? Then yes.

OP are you interested if the post is about...?

I am interested in the mature content labels, not the content of the post. Is there a clickthrough that contains the words "mature content"? Then yes.

[iamthelowercase]

Tumblr Science FAQ, round 2

Should I reblog this for reach?

Yes, please. I felt really silly when I noticed I forgot to include that in the original post.

Is it okay if I send you my own posts?

Yes, those are perfect for what I'm looking for. I actually need to do some processing on a post to make it useful for testing my hypothesis, and this makes it easy.

Are you looking for "potentially mature content" also, or just "mature content"?

I want both, please. Anything that throws up a blocking screen that you have to click through. The distinctions between them are one of the things I am hoping to study.

Does it matter when the post was made originally?

Technically no. There's no way to respond to this without introducing some bias in the results, and I don't want that. However, I do collect some data on a post as part of making it useful to me, and that data is easier to collect if the post is recent.

What if I request content label review on a post after I send it to you?

I need to see the mature content label to be able to use the post. Because the mature content label hides the content of the post, it is very hard to use a post that no longer has a mature content label. You could send me a screenshot, but people could use that to lie to me.

Basically, it's more work for you to make it usable to me.

OP are you a transphobe? It would ruin the experiment for me if you're a transphobe.

I promise I'm not a transphobe and not doing this for transphobic reasons. You should still double-check that I'm not a transphobe for yourself, though. I am not sure that this study will have the useful effects you're hoping for; I am studying something specific, and it may not be what you hope.

[iamthelowercase]

Tumblr Science FAQ, round 3

posts created during 2026, or posts shared with you during 2026?

Posts shared with me during 2026.

It is easier to use a post if it was made in 2026, but it doesn't have to be made in 2026.

Some posts are labeled mature content by Tumblr, and some posts are labeled mature content by the person making the post. Won't that change the result?

That's actuality what I'm studying!

Is there a way I can follow updates, without having to follow you?

As of this FAQ post, I am using "iamthelowercase science project updates" as a tag on all my posts about it. I am considering whether to use tumblr's "community" feature to create a dedicated place to follow about it, as well.

If I'd thought about it beforehand, I'd have made a sideblog specifically for this project. Hindsight really is 20/20.

[iamthelowercase]

Tumblr Science FAQ, round 4

OP are you secretly rounding up a bunch of posts to report them and get them deleted?

This question comes in two parts. Part one: well if I were doing it secretly, I wouldn't tell you that, now would I? I promise I'm not doing that, but like, isn't that what I would say if I were lying to you?

Part two: LMAO if you think Tumblr doesn't already have the ability to nuke all posts marked "Mature Content" just as thoroughly as they nuke trans women's blogs. Now like, a mass reporting campaign targeted at this dataset could still have negative effects, if nothing else by getting employee eyes on the posts. Which is why I'm going to have to be careful who I share the full dataset with. But that's antithetical to my goal here.

What if I have tumblr set to not show me the mature content clickthrough? Do I still send you the post if I notice it?

Yes please. I am studying the clickthroughs themselves, more than the content of the post; but for the same reason I am looking at the clickthrough myself. You don't have to look at the clickthorough if you don't want to.

I am specifically comparing posts labeled "potentially mature content" to those labeled "mature content". Some people have turned the clickthrough filter back on so that they make sure to notice when posts they would not consider mature got flagged. I am very grateful to these people.

What if the post is from a few years ago?

Go ahead and send it. Some of those will prove useful to me, and some of them won't, but the only way for me to know for sure will be to check them.

I just didn't want to be getting posts from this project forever.

[iamthelowercase]

Things I've learned so far

I should have done a trial run before blazing the post. Oops.

Apparently there's some sort of scam where people need to trick you into messaging them first? And this does look like it would be one of those. I promise it's not one, but of course you have no way to know.

You can just. Tell people the null hypothesis without having to worry about it corrupting your data.

Just how much work data entry is.

I should have provided some way for folks who are interested in this project to receive updates on it without resorting to following me. Sorry if you followed me for information about this project and were disappointed in my regular posting.

Whether or not a pinned post can be a reblog (this is the test case!).

You can paste markdown into the "create post" form on web, and the formatting gets automatically applied. Handy.

That doesn't work on the Android app, though.

Tumblr uses github to track past versions of their community guidelines (good! +1 trust), but they didn't do so when they last updated the community guidelines (bad! minus a whole bunch of trust).

[thecollectibles]

Siren by Michael MacRae

[desmolbean404]

QUIZ TIME!! Take this quiz, then come back and answer the poll!

100 REAL or FAKE Pokemon

100 Different 'Pokemon' will be shown to you. Choose if you think they are FAKE or REAL. Goal is to get a high score so you can brag to ever

What Was Your Score?

0%-20%

20%-40%

40%-50%

50%-60%

60%-70%

70%-80%

80%-99%

100%! (You're one smart cookie!)

Remaining time: 5 days 4 hours

[sovietnam]

[estrogenesis-vaporeongelion]

why do cherries have to be sexual & strawberries get to be all innocent. why are we slut shaming fruit. what is the sexual valence of a blueberry

[scramratz]

It sucks there seems to be a concerted effort to distance the transfem and transmasc communities from each other. If it weren’t for trans women, I probably wouldn’t have realized I was trans until much later in life.

The cis women in my life were so miserable in their womanhood, I thought that misery was normal. Seeing trans women actually love and fight to be seen as women made me question my own misery

[loth-caatgirl]

[anarchopuppy]

Tesla has the highest rate of fatal accidents among all car brands, report shows

A new analysis of National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration auto crash data shows that Tesla has the highest rate of fatal a

holy shit

i knew teslas were bad but "literally twice as deadly as the average vehicle" is something else

[transarsonist]

Shoutout to the time I successfully convinced an insurance company to not come after me for rear ending a Tesla with the argument that "the vehicle automatically brakes without input of the pilot, at robotic speed, with a mechanically and definitionally better stopping power than non-hybrid vehicles. I think if you took me to court I could use the vehicles own logs to prove it performed an unsafe maneuver in the middle of the road, effectively brake checking me. Which is, I will remind you, not legal. As that would have legal implications about the road safety of All Tesla vehicles I advise you not to take me to court on the matter.

And then they just straight up didn't. :)

The alleged debt dropped right off my credit report

[blignick]

Weighing foster kittens..they understood the assignment..🐈🐾😍

[madgastronomer]

We got a cat scale, because one of our cats is huge and we wanted to know how heavy he was. The scale came with a liner that's a cardboard scratching mat. He immediately wanted to use it, and I had to stop him until I had the scale turned on. It wasn't this cute, but it was pretty cute.

He was 19.8 pounds.

[lesbianshepard]

if an archaeologist says an artifact was probably for “ritual purposes” it means “i have no fuckin clue”

but if they say it was for “fertility rituals” they mean “i know exactly what it was for but i dont want to say ‘ancient dildo’”

[thecringeandwincefactory-deacti]

Back in the day I worked at a certain very famous and very high caste art museum in the US as a junior curator. Part of my job was to catalog the objects in the museum database. This includes details like provenance, measurements, and a visual description of what the object looked like.

Like I said, the museum was a pretty snotty institution. It’s got a LOT of objects it’s way famous for possessing, but nobody knew about the absolutely massive collection of Moche erotic pottery it had because the curators were totally embarrassed by this stuff.

Some examples:

Pretty hot shit, right? They never, ever put any of this stuff on public view or published it in any catalogues but - we legit had like several hundred pieces of Moche ceramics in the “dirty pots” category. Anyway, I was left alone to just do my job with regard to the database for several years, ok? And I figured, well, these’re accessioned objects in the museum’s collection - better get down to bidness. 

I catalogued every goddamn bestiality, necrophiliac, cocksucking, buttfucking, detached penis, and giant vulva drinking cup in that collection. I’d be like, 

A drinking vessel in form of a standing man wearing a tunic and cap. He holds an oversized erection in his hands and stares into the distance (note I did not say “like he’s hella-constipated”). The vessel has a hole at both the tip of the penis as well as around the rim of the figure’s head, thus forcing the drinker to drink only from the penis or risk spilling wine all over themselves from the top of the vessel. Red and orange slip covers the surface of the piece.

Pretty straightforward, right? Apparently the deep seated fear of these objects that the curators exhibited was meant to spread to me as well, but - no one ever gave me that memo, because I guess Midwesterners reproduce asexually. When the curators understood that I had catalogued all of these objects in addition to the other, non-sexy pieces in the collection, they were apparently livid, but knew they had no legs to stand on in terms of getting pissed at me for it. 

I visited the museum’s online public access database a few years back and - every single description I wrote of these pieces has been totally neutered to say something like Male figural vase. 

Long story short? Just call a dildo a fucking dildo. It’s all gonna be ok, I swear.

[workfornow]

This is absolutely the MOST unusual reblog I have ever tagged with what is probably my second-favorite tag, “talk to me about your work.”

Plus it’s hilarious.

[cloudfreed]

I love ancient art history !!!!!

[clockshunddachshund]

@lowercasetrashwriter

[scrimblobimblobadimbo-deactivat]

Museums should have sections dedicated to artifacts like these with a warning that says “There’s a lot of private parts in here but we’re dedicated to displaying history so we won’t censor these. Enter at your own risk” or something. It’s prudish to deliberately hide history because of some ding dongs.

[dovewithscales]

Fucking Puritanism.

Unpopular opinion: Sex exists. Making body parts taboo is both psychologically bad for us and kinda stupid.

[eisenkrahe]

[flipocrite]

not she berry or he berry but no berry

and that is berry good

[bob-artist]

A battle between good and weevil

[penny-anna]

okay, for those interested, here is a full timeline of how we got to Count Binface:

1977: Star Wars is released, featuring, of course, Darth Vader

(Pictured: Darth Vader)

1984: Director Todd Durham releases his Star Wars parody movie, Hyperspace, featuring Darth Vader inspired villain Lord Buckethead.

(Pictured: Hyperspace poster featuring two Jawa-esque aliens flying through space in a shopping trolley.)

1987: Hyperspace is released on video in the UK, under the new title Gremloids.

(Pictured: Gremloids cover in the style of the original Star Wars poster, featuring Lord Buckethead.)

To promote the film, Mike Lee, the owner of the distributing company, ran for parliament as Lord Buckethead. He ran in Margaret Thatcher's constituency, Finchley, in order to get on TV. Lord Buckethead was representing the Gremloids party.

(Pictured: Lord Buckethead on TV with Margaret Thatcher.)

1992: Gremloids is re-released. Lord Buckethead rides again, this time against prime minister John Major in Huntingdon. (Here's a fun fact about Huntingdon: I was born there! :D) 87/92 Buckethead seems to have leaned pretty hard into the space supervillain thing, with campaign promises including 'demolish Birmingham to build a spaceport'.

(Pictured: Lord Buckethead on TV with John Major. Other notable candidates include Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony Party.)

2017: comedian Jon Harvey, having recently watched Gremloids and learned of Lord Buckethead's candidacy for parliament, decides it's a great bit. He runs against Theresa May in Maidenhead. 2017 Buckethead seems to have a wackier and also more political approach, with campaign promises ranging from nonsense like 'nationalise Adele' to gesturing at actually sensible policies with stuff like 'lower the voting age to 16 and restrict voting after age 80'.

He also made an appearance on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. As with his previous incarnation, he was a member of the Gremloids party.

(Pictured: Lord Buckethead dabbing on stage with Theresa May.)

2018: Director Todd Durham asserts his legal ownership of Lord Buckethead. Jon Harvey opted not to go to court over Buckethead and handed over the reins. Todd Durham extended an invitation to anyone who wanted to be the 'authorised' Lord Buckethead.

(Pictured: the new Lord Buckethead.)

2019: Lord Buckethead, now played by journalist David Hughes, stood against Boris Johnson in Uxbridge and South Ruislip. He ran for the Monster Raving Loony Party, the UK's pre-existing gag candidate party. He ran with a similarly silly manifesto as the 2017 incarnation, but with a bit less of a political edge. His promises included 'All doorways to be increased by 1 foot (30 cm) in height' and 'Nigel Farage to be sold for parts'.

(Pictured: Lord Buckethead and Count Binface square up.)

Meanwhile, Jon Harvey in his new persona Count Binface, also ran against Boris Johnson. Buckethead and Binface face off! Binface ran as an independent with a manifesto once again blending silly and semi-serious promises such as 'nationalising model railways' and 'giving £1 trillion a week to the NHS'. This was also I believe the debut of his promise to 'move the hand dryer in the men's toilet at Uxbridge's Crown and Treaty pub to a more sensible position'.

(Pictured: Count Binface presenting the offending hand dryer, inconveniently close to both the sink and the urinals.)

He has a point.

2021: Count Binface runs for the position of Mayor of London for the first time, with promises such as 'London to join the European Union'. He notably finished ahead of far right party UKIP.

2023: Count Binface runs in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election following Boris Johnson's resignation. He once again gets more votes than UKIP.

May 2024: Count Binface once again runs to be Mayor of London, debuting his now iconic 'build at least one affordable house' promise. Notably, he finished ahead of far right party Britain First.

(Pictured: Count Binface with Rishi Sunak. Also pictured: Monster Raving Loony Party candidate Sir Archibald Stanton with a ventriloquist's dummy.)

July 2024: Count Binface stands in the general election, running in Richmond and Northallerton against prime minister Rishi Sunak. He debuts his promise to cap the price of 99p flakes at 99p. This is his most successful election to date with 308 votes.

(Pictured: Count Binface with Andy Burnham. Also pictured: independent candidate Robert Pownell, dressed as a fox for his own reasons.)

June 2026: Count Binface stands in the Makerfield by-election against Andy Burnham, (recently) former Mayor of Manchester running for parliament with the intention of standing in the Labour Party leadership contest.

(Pictured: Count Binface on BBC's Newsnight.)

July 2026 (this week): Count Binface announces his intention to run against Nigel Farage in the upcoming Clacton by-election. He is briefly the only other candidate in the race and by the time other candidates announce themselves the narrative of 'Nigel Farage vs Count Binface' has already bedded in. And then it was now, and then I don't know what happened.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

For clarity's sake, Robert Pownall is dressed as a fox because he's an anti-fox hunting campaigner, and also he will be standing in the Farage Vs Binface election. So that's fun

[pwhl-mybeloved]

[maxmarvel12345]

A Superman short story by Scott Kurtz and Karl Kerschl (September 2, 2021)

In 2013, Scott Kurtz tweeted randomly that he had written a short Superman story. He asked if anyone wanted to take a crack at illustrating it. I said yes. Scott sent me his short script and it was great. It captured the simplicity and positivity that I always long for in a Superman story, and it was only five pages long! I started drawing it in my spare time and finally got around to finishing it eight years later. ~ Karl Kerschl

[falseknees]

Lake-Side Gallery

[djkoenig-deactivated20140905]

(◡‿◡✿)

(ʘ‿ʘ✿) “what you say ‘bout me”

(ʘ‿ʘ)ノ✿ “hold my flower”

[chronically-ill-dandy]

✿＼(｡-_-｡) “Kick his ass, baby.  I got yo flower.”

[djkoenig-deactivated20140905]

thanks for ruining my post jackass

[chronically-ill-dandy]

(￣^￣ﾒ)＼✿ "Fine, I'ma keep ya damn flower.“  

[ufo-offical]

*flies past*

[shocktherapyrecipient]

It’s the fact that

1) OP made a post that seemed interactive but then

2) Did NOT want anyone to actually engage

I remember tumblr at the time. It wouldn’t have changed OP’s post so lmao big L for OP making it weird

But best of all:

Most people didn’t realize there WAS a response until this fuckin UFO went by.

Nature is ✨️Beautiful✨️