Ramblings of a Museum Nerd

Aim for kindness, I'll do the same 

[rambling-museums]

to any and all USAmericans - and every person on the planet for that matter. I am very happy to and would be honoured to be your "friend from Canada" that you are going to visit for as long as you need to visit. `

We can communicate via Tumblr to set up our friendship history, exchange facebooks and emails and phone numbers to fake it for the boarder agents. I can also meet you at airports or boarders - to limited degrees in Western Canada - to sell it.

This offer is Trans inclusive.

` I understand as I am typing this, that this would be a potential for only a few people in need of friends at the moment due to the cost of travel and everything else. That said, I could not sit by and watch my siblings suffer today. This offer is 100 per cent earnest.

[creekfiend]

CSF leak week info from the Ehler-Danlos Society FB page ✨

[gutsygills]

mold pisses me off so much

oh you have to eat your produce the moment it leaves the store or the fuckin Hungering Dust will get it. and. poison your food

[tobiasdrake]

I ran into this post years ago and to be honest, it has completely reoriented the way I engage with food.

Like. I’ve always sorta understood that things grow moldy or stale or sour or such if left out, but I never really internalized it in a meaningful way.

But now I’m just like.

Yeah. The hungering dust. There exists omnivorous dust in the air that will eat my food if I don’t.

Those bagels have been sitting there for a week. Are we going to eat them soon or are we leaving them for the hungering dust?

Pizza’s been sitting out on the counter for an hour. Everyone’s enjoying the pizza, but if we don’t want “everyone” to include the hungering dust then we should probably put it away soon.

That’s just. That’s how food works to me now. There exists an invisible predator in the air that hungers for your yummies, and it will not hesitate to eat your food if you don’t make the effort to protect and preserve it. And eat what can’t be preserved before the dust can.

Life-changing.

[the-missing-number]

food doesn’t actually “go bad”, it just gets eaten by something else first

[the-haiku-bot]

food doesn’t actually

“go bad”, it just gets eaten

by something else first

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

[millenniallust4death]

Martin and Bosco Day Button Giveaway

Life can feel a bit bleak in 2026, so I decided my Tumblr community could use a bit of fun. I'll be giving away Martin and Bosco Day buttons! The awesome design is by @stinkybrowndogs.

I'll be covering the shipping costs, so the final number of winners will depend on postage, which I'm still working out. I'm doing my best. XD

To Enter: Reblog this post. That's it. You do not need to follow me and be subjected to my weird posts.

The fine print:

One entry per blog.

Winners will be randomly selected on June 21, 2026 at noon (Toronto time).

If you're selected, I'll contact you through Tumblr Messages to arrange shipping.

Due to shipping costs, this giveaway is limited to residents of Canada and the United States. I apologize to my international friends!

If you're selected, you'll need to share your name and mailing address with me so I can mail your button.

I'm eternally delighted that Martin and Bosco have their own Tumblr holiday.

Thank you, Laura

[teaboot]

How do you view it/its pronouns

(My mother is insisting that anyone over the age of like 20 is going to be against them because "they are racist" and I just wanted to ask because I just can't deal with her and I wanted to see if at least one adult I know (/follow) doesn't hate them)

I think that if you can significantly improve someone's quality of life and by changing a few little words in your vocabulary to denote value and respect then the effort to reward ratio is too high to reasonably refuse

[creekfiend]

This is an absolutely massive question so feel free to ignore it / answer only a little of it but I love the way you talk about dog behaviour / breed issues / relationships between dogs and their people so I feel you are the person to go to for this.

I have had a massive interest in dogs and how they Are since childhood - I keep up with the show world & know a decent amount about the history of shows/breeding in general, and despite all my political qualms with it I do pretty religiously sit down for all of Crufts on TV each year. I have however never owned a dog and know very little on a practical level about how to Be With Dogs. My dad has a largely untrained intact male labradoodle which by the grace of God has proved to be relatively unproblematic regardless of a fervent dislike for me specifically but that+brief encounters with friends' dogs as a child is the extent of my interaction with them on a personal level...

That being said: where do I start? I want to have a dog someday but I absolutely passionately believe in being as Good At Dogs as possible before getting one and I just don't know what the best way would be to go about becoming Better At Dogs before I throw myself in the deep end and (eventually when I have more money and time) bring one into my life. There's so many Dog Resources out there but likewise so many online dog people I've liked and listened to before have turned out not to have their animals' best interests at heart because they are content creators or breed nuts or what have you.

Again sorry for the extensive missive & my best regards to the household and especially Fantine (most beautiful animal in the world in my opinion)

ooooh, there's some super great books about this! "the other end of the leash" by Patricia McConnell + "plenty in life is free" by Kathy Sdao are excellent jumping off points I think. anyone else have recs?

as for getting personal experience, volunteering at a shelter can certainly give you that, but watch out and be prepared to bail if you're being tasked with things above your pay grade. which is not uncommon since many shelters lack resources, unfortunately, but it's really important to go into situations like that knowing what you are and are not willing to take responsibility for, or else you'll burn out real fast. you could probably also get on Rover or some such as a dog walker or pet sitter and get to meet people's dogs that way. but again Watch Out! you can have some great experiences on there and then some people will misrepresent their dog or not understand its behavior in ways that aren't your responsibility to clean up for them. making local friends who have dogs you can hang out with is also great. if there's local sort of casual "hiking with your dogs" groups, you could always say "hey, i don't currently have a dog but I want to get one in the future, can I attend some of your events?" etc. a lot of this depends on what is available in your specific area though :(

[thelei-nero-dogs]

If it is within your capacity, you could look at puppy raising for a service dog organization, the good ones will ensure you get the handler training to succeed.

Some will even have volunteer roles that don't need the full commitment of raising.

[thememedaddy]

[linuswatchestv]

[deadgenerations]

the reason people think LLMs are conscious is because they use natural language. we evolved to understand speech and to specifically understand speech as representative of the internal world of the speaker. the only creatures we spoke to were conscious. we evolved specifically to have greater empathy and kinship via conversation - the main way people come to understand each other and feel closer is still just talking.

all that has happened to dorkins is he has fallen into an evolutionary trap. the exact same trap that those tiktokers who believe their dog can talk to them by jumping on buttons have fallen into. because the buttons create a simulacrum of language, however crude, the listening brain itself constructs a simulacrum of the internal world of the perceived speaker. Because that is what it already evolved to do with the only available speakers in its evolutionary history!!!!!!

[no-sharks-on-the-sun]

this seems like a confused post on a lot of levels - the Clever Hans effect, where animals are capable of reacting to unconscious cues that trick people into thinking they have command of language, is a very different situation from consciousness debates in LLMs. for one, we tend to think of animals as conscious, and two, LLMs have a great deal more facility with language than any of the animals triggering the Clever Hans effect.

LLMs are not passively reflecting or reacting to things they're presented with - they are capable of things like making novel mathematical discoveries. by most definitions for most of history, they are "intelligent" and capable of "thinking". the question of how this could be possible without consciousness is what is consuming Dawkins, and contrary to whatever people seem to be reacting to, he does not actually come down hard in favor of LLM consciousness and indeed suggests alternative explanations.

[nunuisancenewt]

If you are going to claim that Bunny the Dog etc are examples of “ The Clever Hans” effect, you are going to actually back that up somehow rather than merely asserting it. And it is very unclear how it could possibly be an example of The Clever Hans Effect.

For the peanut gallery, Clever Hans was a horse that could supposedly do math, he was asked simple math problems and then would stomp his hoof a number of times equal to the answer. He wasn’t actually doing math though, he was just stomping his feat continuously until his owner gave off micro-expressions that indicated he was satisfied with the answer, and then stopping.

Maybe you could suggest, while wandering around the buttons that the dogs( or pigs or cats etc) are responding to micro-expressions from there owners, and are stopping at certain intervals and pushing certain buttons in response to that, or are tracking there owners eye movement to certain buttons. But none of that would explain why the animal is going to the buttons in the first place. Clever Hans preformed a certain behavior in response to prompting by his master, Bunny is interacting with the button’s unprompted of her own volition. It’s not the same situation.

“Clever Hans” on its own is not substantial enough to explain the phenomenon of Bunny etc, it’s a dumb thought terminating dismissal from a half-remembered case study because you saw an animal communicating with its owner by tapping its feet and decided that was enough to connect two dots together.

[kuttithevangu]

Bunny has a strong reinforcement history of knowing that her owner will engage with her if she presses a button. Of course she goes to touch the buttons of her own accord! Her owner has shaped their entire life around responding positively to Bunny hitting a button!

[creekfiend]

sorry for the dog bölls but he is dead buggin it on the couch with me rn and he's ZONKED totally asleep in this position

[twogundogonesighthound]

Can confirm. Here are my two completely unrelated pharaoh hounds.

[creekfiend]

WE LOVE TO SEE A SIGHTHOUND DEADBUGGIN IT!!!

[timefortigers]

deadbuggin it With A Pal

[creekfiend]

HEARTWARMING!

[rambling-museums]

Does a wawa count? Klaus can (p)lay with the big kids!

[thelei-nero-dogs]

Intro post: my name is Farmer, I've been on tumblr for a long time. I used to work in museums but now I train dogs!

I have two silly goobers of my own and I'm currently working in a chain training centre but I am going to continue my education and start offering foundation service dog training (think puppy kindergarten but for service dog prospects focusing on the skills they will need).

I have been offering suggestions and support to handlers for 3 years now.

I have a YouTube (mostly shorts) and you are more than welcome to send me asks or comment on videos etc.

[thelei-nero-dogs]

Intro post: my name is Farmer, I've been on tumblr for a long time. I used to work in museums but now I train dogs!

I have two silly goobers of my own and I'm currently working in a chain training centre but I am going to continue my education and start offering foundation service dog training (think puppy kindergarten but for service dog prospects focusing on the skills they will need).

I have been offering suggestions and support to handlers for 3 years now.

I have a YouTube (mostly shorts) and you are more than welcome to send me asks or comment on videos etc.

[dailynarnia]

is jake gyllenhaal gay??

why would you ask us, a narnia blog, this

[beemovieerotica]

[ororium-z]

Happy Pride!

[rootbeergoddess]

Every pride, you must reblog this. No exceptions

[thesaltofcarthage]

I love that four different people on my feed scheduled this joyous person to reblog by 8am on June 1. I look forward to seeing this a dozen more times today.

[quinnick]

It’s that time of year again so here is your yearly reminder that the world isn’t ending and people don’t hate you. The sun is just setting at 6 pm.

[mrs-delaney]

Please take your vitamin D

[bundibird]

HEY SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE GIRLIES, ITS OUR TURN TO ENDURE THE DARK DAYS NOW, BUT STAY STRONG. THE WORLD IS NOT ENDING; THE SUN IS JUST SETTING AT 5-to-6 PM. BUT SHE WILL COME BACK TO US SOON. TAKE A VITAMIN D AND HANG IN THERE.

[jerreeeeeee]

not every mutual fits neatly into an archetypal medievalism but there are some mutuals that im like yeah addressing you as “my liege” would come strangely naturally

[jerreeeeeee]

what mutual is prev

my liege lord

my loyal knight

my wise wizard

my evil advisor

my brother in arms

my lady muse

my wild mermaid friend

my fellow alchemist

my dashing rapscallion

my monstrous foe

Voting ended onJun 6