[calvinandhobbescomic]

[doublism]

they used to make smackable technology. you used to be able to hit your tv when it didn't work good.

[mantisliberationfront]

I think venus flytraps should be intelligent and ambulatory. I think they should get into the cupboards. I think they should purr when you pet them.

[prismatic-bell]

OP there is an entire Broadway musical explaining why you don’t want that

[bbcwhereareyou]

There’s a Broadway musical about them, too.

[cipheramnesia]

There’s gotta be a better way to learn about things than Broadway musicals.

[shallow-between-stars]

Friend, you’re not going to believe me but it’s called reading and…

There’s a musical about that, too.

[jjackiebrainblast]

trans people would kill themselves less often if people were nicer to us btw. i could put it in more scientific terms but that’s what it boils down to. just be nice to each other

[libraford]

Googled something about quick hydration and it suggested big jug of water, couple tbsp pickle juice, dash of lime juice.

Its surprisingly tasty????

[libraford]

Pleased to report that after a day of this i am not longer craving caper brine and my mouth is not dry as usual. There's some good suggestions in the notes too that I want to try.

-ancient roman posca: water, red or white wine vinegar, honey, salt, herbs (coriander, mint, thyme)

-switchel: water, ginger, vinegar, sweetener, lemon, salt

-ayran: yogurt, water, salt, mint

-Agua pepino: water, cucumbers, lime, sugar, optional mint.

[libraford]

I have been reminded of:

-shrub: vinegar, sida water, elderberry (or other berry), sugar.

[libraford]

I have now been informed of

-sekanjabin: honey, vinegar, mint, water.

[libraford]

"Wow, I wonder why this post was popular this week."

-sees the reports of the heatwave in Europe-

"... ah."

[wovi]

*

the ladies’ home journal, sept 1948

[luulapants]

Story time:

In middle school biology, we did an experiment. We were given yams, which we would sprout in cups of water. We then had to make hypotheses about how the yams would grow, based on descriptions of yam plants in our books, and make notes of our observations as they grew.

Here’s what was supposed to happen: we were supposed to see that the actual growth of the plant did not resemble our hypotheses. We were then supposed to figure out that these were, in fact, sweet potatoes.

What actually happened was that every single student in every single class lied in their notes so that their observations perfectly matched their hypotheses. See, everyone assumed the mismatch meant they had done something wrong in the process of growing the plant or that they had misunderstood the dichotomous key or the plant identification terminology. And, thanks to the wonders of a public school education, everyone assumed the wrong results would get us a failing grade. We were trying to pass. We didn’t want to get bitched out by the teacher. Curiosity, learning, science - that had nothing to do with why we were sitting in that classroom. So we all lied.

The teacher was furious. She tried to fail every student, but the administration stepped in and told her she wasn’t allowed to because a 100% fail rate is recognized as a failure of the teacher, not the class. It wasn’t even her fault, really, though her being a notorious hard-ass didn’t help. It was a failure of the entire educational system.

So whenever I see crap like Elizabeth Holmes’s blood test scam or pharmaceutical trials which are unable to be replicated or industry-funded research that reaches wildly unscientific conclusions, I just remember those fucking sweet potatoes. I remember that curiosity dies when people are just trying to give their superiors the “right” answers, so they can get the grade, get the job, get the paycheck. It’s not about truth when it’s about paying rent. There’s no scientific integrity if you can’t control for human desperation.

[d8tl55c]

!!! i have a science story like this (good ending?)

you might be aware of the gene OR6A2 which, when expressed, makes “the aldehyde part of cilantro” taste like soap. there’s another one associated with broccoli. here’s a 2008 NPR article on the subject. we were very aware of it in high school Introduction to Biotechnology bc our teacher got us little test strips with one of those specific chemicals on them, and yep,

some students said soap, some students said nope.

no penalty for either side, obviously, bc the point was to be precise about your answer because we were about to test our own DNA (AWESOME) for the presence of one of the markers that controls soaptaste.

this was going to be awesome.

we had all learned muchly about DNA structure and gel electrophoresis and things and this was the big application step: hypothesize about your family members, yourself, and learn something about your internal code!!! cool!!!!!

so, to do gel electrophoresis, you need to put the whole setup in a warm bath with this protein which snips apart the DNA in specific places. DNA is magnetic, and the strands of different lengths are dragged with magnetic fields through the gel, with longer pieces being dragged more-strongly (which translates to distance traveled in the gel).

the company who gave our school the proteins fucked them up.

everyone’s results were ruined.

the whole class, indiscriminately.

so wha happened ?

teacher was honest with us, fast: turns out the only way you can know the protein supply broke for sure on tight school time is to test it on all the students :( sorry guys. so, this was an incredible opportunity to teach us the following science concept:

you can finish your report if part of the process broke.

she had us describe exactly what we saw (sad busted gels) and carefully write in our lab notebooks what we expected and what must have gone wrong and why. there were control bands that no one saw because the snipping didn’t occur, which means … this.

and then it was over. students got points just like normal, for writing out the process thoroughly.

you gotta understand how pissed i was that i couldn’t know my results—this was the coolest shit in our schedule, using our own DNA—but now i’m realizing the sense of safety i was gifted in that class. that was a good teacher, being honest about the circumstances, thinking on her feet, and teaching us how to own a failure. that’s some life knowledge. that’s some SCIENCE.

⠀

i really liked shaking the micropipettes. they have this perfect weight distribution for shakey shakey shakey by the wrist.

yeah, intro biotech ruled.

[anexperimentallife]

Also applies to "AI" "artists" and "musicians."

[frownyalfred]

I love the batman fandom because one second I’ll be digging deep into the complex ptsd of bruce wayne and how it’s reflected in his kids’ traumas and the next post I reblog will be a comic panel about that time batman fought a trash can

[calder]

vegans make peace with honey

no shut up do it

[calder]

vegans will pretend not to hear when natives tell them their agave products are unsustainable because they have whimsical feelings about, and i cannot stress this enough, the freedom of hive insects

Honey is literally murder but go off

[kasaron]

Prove it.

They literally puke their guts up to make your honey

[kasaron]

I have not seen any evidence tonsugges they are harmed or die in the process of production. They do regurgitate the nectar as part of the process to concentrate it into honey (an interesting process) but they do not suffer any injury during this process. If they did, the cost to produce honey, which is done naturally as a measure to survive over winter and through times of lower availability, would outweigh the benefits. If you kill several bees to produce enough honey to make one more bee, It makes no sense. Any animal that did that would die, even with human intervention.

Do you have any sources which suggest otherwise? I’d be interested to hear of this (relatively publicly available) information was false or misunderstood.

Bee farmers use whats called a honey maker. It’s a crude devices. It similar to a meat grinder. They force the bees in and grind them up. What comes out is a paste. That paste is later filtered into what we know as honey

[hematite2]

This is the funniest thing I’ve ever read

[leonardo-nierman]

@zoologicallyobsessed please show us pics of your bee grinder

[gemstone-gynoid]

they might be falsely thinking about a honey extractor machine. but all these do is you place the beehive frames inside and a motor rotates it at a speed that removes the honey, which is then tapped through a tap at the bottom. 

[darkenedyeastextract]

…do they think they put bees in that and spin them around until they vomit…?

[demonius-darkblade]

bee carnival

[yeah-yeah-beebiss-1]

bad and naughty bees get put into the b e e c e n t r i f u g e to extract their honey

[bastlynn]

Vegans coming after beekeepers is one of my major teeth grinding annoyances. For many reasons, because there’s so many lies. And to go one step further because it’s such a waste. You see, the strongest vegan argument is that they don’t want to exploit animals or take from them without their consent.

… but… Bees consent. NO. I’M NOT KIDDING.

How? Bee hives aren’t kept on leashes. They’re outside, the bees can travel miles every day. They follow their queen. Who is also outside, not on a leash, and can travel miles every day. If she doesn’t like the hive for any reason - for example: it got too hot, too cold, too messy, too filled with sugary stuff and they need more space… then the queen leaves. And with her the hive.

The queen stays in the hive because the hive is the best place to live. Period. Done. End of. If the hive is staying with the beekeeper it’s because the keeper is doing their job correctly and keeping them happy because the bees can, and do, leave bad beekeepers.

Of all the animals we have domesticated as livestock, bees are the ones you can most easily argue are consenting participants in their keeping.

[alicentsgf]

[mystical-mew]

Here it is. The bee post is back

[korrasera]

I feel compelled to explain the misconception part for anyone who doesn’t know anything about beekeeping and finds any of this confusing. This might be a little redundant, but I’m scratching an itch.

Harvesting honey does not murder bees.

The device pictured above does not mash up bees or their hives.

There’s no ethical concern when it comes to eating honey, it’s totally ethical as food is concerned.

Bees manufacture honey using pollen. They store it in the cells of their hive, where it’s used as food for the colony, particularly the larvae growing into the next generation of bees.

When you harvest honey, you remove parts of the hive that are being used to store the honey, without taking any bees along for the ride. Those parts of the hive are then put into a device, like the centrifugal extractor shown above by gemstone-gynoid, where the parts are spun really fast to pull extract the honey. The honey gets collected on the walls of the extractor, drips down, and can then be filtered and bottled for human use.

So.

It turns out that bees love making honey and can make more of it than they’d ever need. It also turns out that beekeepers taking care of hives and harvesting their honey keeps bees healthy and thriving, more so than they’d normally accomplish on their own. And we really need bees healthy and thriving because they help us grow an astonishing amount of food by pollinating plants.

Like, there’s no need to have a conversation about this, anyone who claims that harvesting honey requires that you kill bees is lying. Either they don’t know anything about beekeeping and are just repeating a lie someone else told them, or they know that they’re lying and they’re just straight up trying to deceive people. Neither is a good look.

[stormingchaos12]

mmmmm yes my favorite chicken nugget condiment

m a s h e d b e e

[the-haiku-bot]

mmmmm

yes my favorite chicken

nugget condiment

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[howmanyholesinswisscheese]

Biggest fuck-up ever is that people have to pay to become doctors

[howmanyholesinswisscheese]

Like unironically we should be subsidising at least 50% of their educations. What do you mean we have a shortage of doctors we should have surplus. What do you mean they’re being overworked they should be treated like royalty, they can fix human bodies

[howmanyholesinswisscheese]

I don’t care if some of them are only doing it for the money. I don’t care if all of them are only doing it for the money. Intentions don’t matter to the stitches in my nana’s leg or the ten billion other lifesaving treatments we all get at a detriment to their finances and mental wellbeing. Entire cities are kept alive by just a couple thousand of them what are we DOINGGGGG

[teaboot]

Everyone wants to live forever Everyone but the ones living for work Anyone who can pay won't pay for anything Anyone who can't pay is buried in dirt Who wants a healer to tend to their bruises? Who wants a medic to stitch up their wounds? Who will pay anyone, anyone ever? To keep the mill churning out dollars for fools

[insidestory1]

Autistic social anxiety is not "social anxiety" in the typical sense. An anxiety disorder is defined as an "irrational fear". So for example, imagine someone who is afraid to speak in case everyone looks at them and goes "what the heck are you saying you wierdo." If that person is neurotypical, then the chances are that they're very unlikely to get that response. Therefore their fears are irrational, and that is true "social anxiety". If you put an autistic person in that scenario, on the other hand, then probably the reason they're afraid of that response is because they've received it many times before. They're fear is based on repeated past experiences, therefore it is not irrational and not the simply an anxiety disorder. That's why people giving the classic social anxiety responses to autistic people is so unhelpful. "Just go out there and talk to people, it'll be fine," or "keep pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and you'll get more confident," don't work if the problem is real and not just in your head.

[just-a-bird-in-a-cage]

An unforseen symptom of fatphobia is the rampant, societal belief that since you're fat, you must be eating enough. That no matter how little you eat in a day, in a week, that it must simply be enough.

Zoom in on me, a person having to take a handful of vitamins every day because they're deficient in literally everything because they only eat roughly one(1) meal a day. And yet, I'm still over weight. So it must be enough, right?

[thestuffedalligator]

I have the baseless headcanon that Mary Poppins is Maleficent.

Maleficent reforms sometime in the fourteenth century, greatly reduced. She wanders the countryside in the shape of a harridan, another bogeyman to warn children of.

The peasantry - who remember Maleficent as the fey who inexplicably sent her minions to inspect every cradle in the kingdom - think that she is another of these goblins.

They call her La Mauvaise Paysanne.

***

She arrives in England in the eighteenth century on the back of a fairy tale.

Fairies take the shape of the stories told about them. The myth has changed, and so has she. She takes the shape of an enchantress, the punisher of naughty children, the rewarder of the good.

The English people call her the Merry Peasant.

***

By the nineteenth century, the edges of her myth have been sanded off entirely. She’s known as a fairy godmother who blesses good children.

She doesn’t mind this, but when she gets the chance to reshape her wand, she gives it a crow’s head in memory of her old familiar.

They’ve started calling her Mary Pauper.

***

By the twentieth century, Mary Poppins is more powerful than she’s been in centuries.

She’s also changed completely. She understands this to her core, and mostly she’s fine with it.

She misses it every now and then, of course. The palace, the minions, the mistress of all evil. She sniffs and says these are are ridiculous thoughts, but she thinks them nevertheless.

This is partly why she enjoys being a nanny. It’s a good compromise. She can be strict but fair with her charges, and every now and then she meets a particularly incorrigible parent who she can curse into oblivion.

[tuiskuh]

As a woman who is both gender non-conforming and who is planning a pregnancy in the near future AND who works with children, I am very invested in the conversation about the confines of femininity, the complexities of motherhood and the fascistic expectation of women to have children. I also often find it deeply frustrating.

I do not think it should need to be said, but unfortunately it absolutely is, that nobody should ever be forced to become pregnant, be a parent or carry a pregnancy to term. Ever. This requires both complete and total abortion rights & access but also the dismantling of the gendered expectation of women to want and need children. Remaining child free should not only be possible for women, it should also be normal and completely accepted. Anything else is oppressive.

However, I am deeply bothered by how many people who share these views talk about children. I have come across many posts describing children in cruel and dehumanizing ways, emphasizing how gross and terrible children are and how much of a burden they are to their parents. This, I think is also wrong.

Children are a particularly vulnerable population. They often have very little rights and autonomy and are at the whims of adults around them, which makes then particularly vulnerable to abuse. Children are real, fully realized people who have very specific needs and considerations. Constantly discussing how disgusting and terrible children are, means attacking people who have no power and cannot defend themselves, legally or otherwise. These views cannot be separated from calls to remove children from public life, like parks and transportation, the practice of which is both dehumanizing and oppressive. This goes hand in hand with the gendered oppression of women who are unfortunately still often the primary caregivers of children. Forcing children out of the public sphere means forcing mothers out of it too. And the right to not have children needs to go hand in hand with the right to have children. Women need abortion rights and access but they also need the right and access to give birth for free. They need robust childcare and child & family friendly infrastructure. Otherwise the only people who can afford to have children are wealthy elites.

The rights of women to not have children and the rights of children and mothers go hand in hand. They are not contradictory. Being a parent is a complex relationship, one wrought with a long history of violence and oppression of children and women. It is not easy to navigate, and nobody should be expected to do it. Simultaneously, the people who do decide to do it deserve help and support, not scorn or mockery. And most of all, children, all children, even the annoying, dirty and screaming ones deserve a safe loving world that sees their full humanity, respects their perspectives and their bodily autonomy. We are all a part of creating that world for them. Society should be about being good to each other, and that includes children too.

[chasm-side]

My therapist, who specializes in adults with ADHD, recently told me that all of her clients need a three day crashout period after a big life change. Finish the semester? Crashout. Change jobs? Crashout. Go on a really cool, really relaxing vacation? Crashout the moment you get home.

It's true of literally all of her clients. She works with a lot of them to put systems in place so that their crashouts are only three days. This includes the high-powered execs who travel regularly for work. It does not matter how successful or high functioning they are - they have ADHD, and a crashout is just part of the process of living with it.

I'm sharing this with all you ADHD friends out there, just in case you (like me) start shaming yourself if your crashout lasts more than one day. It turns out three days is kind of the best case scenario. Be kind to yourselves!

[homoquartz]

[gallifreyanhermit]

She's local to me, so I'm friends with her on facebook and everyone has been SO nice to her about it! I see her at cons a lot and she's done events with the group I volunteer with - she's always been absolutely lovely and I could not be happier for her!

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

she wrote a bit more about coming out on her blogspot, where she's pretty active talking about comics and pop culture

JENNY BLAKE ISABELLA

  Jenny Blake Isabella introduced herself to her online friends on Sunday, February 9, via Facebook and other social media. Better known a

this is the most recent picture she's posted since publicly coming out. she looks so happy :)