Random thingrs

[therobotmonster]

a-ha is a better band than you think.

Okay, everyone knows these Norwegian dreamboats are best known for the music video that made the 80s the 80s…

but that’s just the tip of the well coiffed iceberg… 

The Sun Always Shines on TV is beautiful a way that’s only enhanced by the questionable translation of the lyrics. I too ask that you don’t ask me to defend the shameful lowlands of the way I’m drifting gloomily through time.

The Living Daylights… great song, terrible Bond film.

If sad romantic songs are your jam, you’re going to be down for Summer Moved On…

As well as “Forever not Yours” which has an amazing music video.

[therobotmonster]

More of that sweet sad jam comes spilling out in a beautiful cover of Cryin’ in the Rain…

And we swing the tempo back up with Cry Wolf, which has one of my favorite lines in a song ever “You can tell your desperate jokes to the world that puts your love on hold.” Pus the eye-tracking effect in the video is really neat.

So take a listen and enjoy some 80s cheese.

[steve-dash-o]

For sad a-ha songs, I really like “Memorial Beach”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7AXNs6bpvI

[scarygoround-deactivated2021111]

If Giant Days ever gets optioned as a TV show, who would you want as showrunner? Whoever was behind Derry Girls seems like a good fit to me.

Giant Days has been in development, twice, and both times it became American, ie set in the USA. What I have learned from my brushes with US television (with both GD and Bad Machinery) is that you would be very surprised how talented people you have never previously heard of, or with credits on things you thought were perhaps not your cup of tea, are. I love Derry Girls (of course I do - I think it’s perfect) but all you need is someone motivated who is trusted by the network. Watching people reverse-engineer my voice and sense of humour was incredibly humbling.

If you’re really asking what TV series I see Giant Days as being like in my head, my brain doesn’t really work that way. For me, the comic is the omega form of the story. It’s a TV sitcom in comic book form. If you put it on TV, it’s just one of a thousand. In comics, it’s unusual. 

[steve-dash-o]

Interesting insights here.

[ankle-beez]

YOU HAD ONE JOB

[steve-dash-o]

But... "Be Prepared" is the best song in the story! Lyricist extraordinaire Tim Rice rhymes "sordid" with "rewarded". That practically justifies the entire movie.

[neil-gaiman]

Hey Neil I was wondering if you ever wish you could rename any of your works? Like if just didn’t age well or you came up with a better one later down the line

I sometimes wish I’d called Death: The High Cost of Living, Death: The Time of Your Life, and called Death: The Time of Your Life, Death: the High Cost of Living.

[steve-dash-o]

I feel like the titles can fit either way 'round, but yeah, that way might have been better. :)

[neil-gaiman]

In the book Golden Girls was Crowley's favourite TV show. Is that also TV Crowley's favourite or does he have a current TV show that he prefers?

I think he’d love The Good Place.

[lesbx]

david tennant: please can I use my regular accent. please can I just be scottish in this one

show director: *sprays him with a hose*

[aijoskobi]

[steve-dash-o]

Hey now, he also played a Scottish bull named Angus in "Ferdinand" (2017)!

[dduane]

[virovac]

Guilty probably

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Visiting a zoo / aquarium with a service dog? Here’s how to plan your visit.

I’ve had a couple folk ask about planning trips to the zoo with a service dog, so I though I’d post the steps I recommend folk follow as a dog trainer and also someone in the zoo world.

 Check the facility’s website for a service animal policy! Many facilities have additional information about visiting with a SD on the same page as the policy that says “service dogs only, no pets.” Sometimes they’ll ask you to check in at a specific point when you arrive, or have a map of areas that you can’t take your service dog into. 

Contact the zoo in advance, by either phone or email. I prefer phone, but if you’ve got a couple days before you go email should be fine. You’re looking for the Guest Services department - but if you can’t find that number / email, the general “contact us” information will get you to the right place. 

Ask Guest Services about these things:

What the check-in process is on arrival (even if it’s online). Find out if they’ll want you to fill out a form or provide any information. This information is generally used to put out a radio call once you enter the zoo, alerting staff that there’s a known service team on grounds and helping them identify you and your animal. 

Find out if there are any areas you can’t take your dog into (even if it doesn’t say anything online). Service animals are generally prohibited from walk-through aviaries and other exhibits where there’s no fencing between the guests and the animals, for the safety of the zoo animals. I’ve found some zoos prefer service dogs not go near the large carnivore exhibits, or through areas with flighty hoofstock. You may be asked to not approach ambassador animals. It varies by facility, so definitely ask - if there’s an animal you really want to make sure you see, there’s no harm in getting verbal confirmation you can take your dog to that area.

Find out if your dog can come with you to specific interactions you’re interested in (giraffe feeds, wildlife shows, etc) and ask how it’ll be handled. Sometimes you’ll find the answer is “I don’t know” or “It should be fine” - ask them to find out and follow up with you, if you’re comfortable with that. Don’t assume that you can’t do something if the person you’re talking to doesn’t have enough information - Guest Services knows a lot but doesn’t always have answers to that level of specifics, and it’s their job to find out.  

Ask if there are specified areas you should go to relieve your service animal. Some zoos have specifically designated potty areas with plants to pee on and and signs and potty bags, but many don’t. 

I always recommend asking if there are large areas where there’s no shade, especially as we get into summer. It’s worth knowing where you want to go early before the pavement gets too hot for paws.

When you get to the zoo, check in following their protocol. They should walk you through where you can go and where you can’t with your service dog - if they don’t, make a point of asking. There could be a temporary protocol due to a protective mama or a sick animal that you wouldn’t have known about in advance. If you’re concerned about going to something with your dog - I know a lot of service dog handlers are super conscientious about not wanting their dogs to disrupt a wildlife presentation or bother ambassador animals - I’d suggest communicating that to people at the gate and asking them to that department know here will be a dog in the audience so they can factor it into their show plan. It generally shouldn’t be a problem, but if you’re worried, communication is always a positive. 

Enjoy your day at the zoo! 

If you visit zoos with your service animal and have additional advice, please feel free to chime in! I know it can be daunting to go to a few facility because there’s not always ton of information provided online, but hopefully this guide can make that a little easier. 

[steve-dash-o]

We had one trip to a zoo with my partner’s service dog, @servicepupeager, to the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. It went OK, but when she brought him by the jaguar exhibit, the jaguar was quite fixated on Eager and even charged the glass, which was pretty scary. A few months later, that very same jaguar was the one that escaped and killed a bunch of other zoo animals. Yikes.

[akron-squirrel]

Gain

[servicepupeager]

I though we didn’t have to do math anymore?! posted on Instagram - http://bit.ly/2Y1tKPs

[steve-dash-o]

I feel bad that you can see Arcee fell over in the display case and has been lying like that for months now. Chromia's got things handled, though...

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

One of the challenges in studying tornadoes is being in the right place at the right time. In that regard, storm chaser Brandon Clement hit the jackpot earlier this week when he captured this footage of a tornado near Sulphur, Oklahoma from his drone. He was able to follow the twister for several minutes until it apparently dissipated. 

Scientists are still uncertain exactly how tornadoes form, but they’ve learned to recognize the key ingredients. A strong variation of wind speed with altitude can create a horizontally-oriented vortex, which a localized updraft of warm, moist air can lift and rotate to vertical, birthing a tornado. These storms most commonly occur in the central U.S. and Canada during springtime, and researchers are actively pursing new ways to predict and track tornadoes, including microphone arrays capable of locating them before they fully form. (Image and video credit: B. Clement; via Earther)

[steve-dash-o]

Whoa

[servicepupeager]

FETCH! posted on Instagram - http://bit.ly/2Gy0ytu

[feliicityrampant]

the athiesm of women/people of color/lgbt people is absolutely different than the athiesm of cishet white men and i feel like people forget that a lot

[paintmeahero]

how?

[windwardstar]

Don’t have spoons for long explanation - also this is only speaking for christianity - but religion has been a force of oppression for women, people of color, and lgbt+ people and the rejection of the religion is often coupled with the rejection of how religion treats them.

I’ll also say that abuse survivors are included in this because it is a reaction to and an attempt to reconcile how (christian) god would allow abuse to happen.

For straight white men atheism is usually rooted in intellectual and rational superiority complexes. It’s a “i am more rational and intelligent than you, how can you believe in something so obviously fake” thing as opposed to a reaction to a societal institution that upholds their oppression and abuse.

[bairnsidhe]

Women, PoC, Queer people, immigrants, trauma survivors, etc:  How can I believe in something that teaches you to be cruel?  How can I trust the books that tell me of peace and love, when you use your faith to hurt me?  How can a loving god allow [insert injustice of the day]?

White Men: I, as an Intellectual, eschew silly superstitions that say I might, someday, after my death, face one (1) single consequence.

[calcinator]

I am both a survivor of religious abuse and someone for whom the question “is it true” is still the most important. I watched a lot of people who were abused by the same cult that I was (WorldWide Church of God) briefly reject religion for what the cult did to them, but because it was entirely a rejection based on hurt, many were swept up by less openly virulent strains of Christianity to be further robbed and exploited. 

By all means, hate your oppressors for lying to and manipulating you. But never forget that the very idea of faith is what let them do that to you, and get rid of it. Otherwise you’re just setting yourself up for the softer scam, the one they can put enough peace and brotherhood and vague “spirituality” on so you don’t feel the sting of the tithe or the crushing weight of their social control quite so keenly.

I’m an antithiest because of what was done to me, to people I care about, and humanity in general. I’m an atheist because there’s no good reason to think a god or gods exist.  

[catchymemes]

[sombearr]

ITS NOT BLURRY. SOCIAL MEDIA AND NEWS PAPERS ZOOMED THAT SHIT IN THEMSELVES.

[sombearr]

“Most news outlets are only showing the blurry zoomed in picture of the black hole so I’m posting the entire zoomed-out image of the black hole and everything it is consuming. The tiny black spec in this image is 6.5 billion times the size of our sun. This thing is HUGE.” Dan Farr

[steve-dash-o]

This description is highly inaccurate. The person who wrote it has even removed the post from their blog at this point, presumably for that reason. To clarify: The "zoomed out" image is a *completely different* image taken by different scientists with a different telescope with a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. While it's of the same object, it is not in any way a zoomed-out version of the EHT photo. (Also the word "size" in the post is ambiguous. The black hole's *mass* is 6.5 billion times that of the Sun.)

[nsn-kit]

I just had this realization that Kit Kats used to be wrapped in foil and have paper labels and I’m reeling that I remembered this and that I lived through the transition to plastic wrappers.

[4thefirsttimein5ever]

My mind is actually blown like…I can’t complete I forgot that

[steadfast-deactivated20191017]

Whoa. You conjured memories I didn’t know I even had.

[carry-on-my-wayward-butt]

this image catapulted my consciousness into my seven year old body

[kaden-kitsu]

What the fuck is T H A T

[therobotmonster]

The sound of unwrapping one. I remember that. 

[fortunecookied]

Superman battles an army of flamethrowing robots in Max Fleischer’s The Mechanical Monsters (1941)

[steve-dash-o]

It has been YEARS since the last time I watched this, and I knew that it was incredibly beautiful, but I'm *still* dumbstruck by these gifs. It's like, no matter how many times I see it, it's just not possible to hold in my mind how masterful the work is and it always takes me by surprise.

[hyperspacecola]

me waiting to fall asleep