#taiga talks

[jacob-seed]

my prints and stickers from @zaffyrr came in today! omg when i say i CRIED!! the way they draw him seriously reaches my soul, thank u so much for sharing ur gift! if ur looking for amazing far cry related products, pls check out their redbubble!

[ghoul-ishly]

I think online discourse about kids cartoons and webcomics (especially queer ones) are so so funny, like with kids shows it's obvious why cuz people will argue about how the writing is bad or there's plot holes in a show for kids, or how this specific queer rep in this kids show is bad cuz it doesn't fit with your experience. And this is a whole different conversation but so many of you need to understand that your experience is not universal, it probably isn't even national. Like you may disagree with an experience someone shared in media they made or just something they shared online, but honestly if you don't share their experience it has nothing to do with you. And I think that hating on people with other experiences is one of the shittiest things you can do. Someone young is bound to come across that experience and resonate with it and having a bunch of other queer people shitting on it is not helpful for anyone at all.

And with webcomics it's also a similar deal where it's like, if you hate a specific comic for whatever reason, especially if you're accusing an artist of queer fetishization, fucking look up the artist before you spread that shit because a good 90% of the time I see people accusing webcomic artists of fetishizing gay relationships or trans men or other queer identities they are in fact gay men or trans men or both/whatever identity theyre writing about/drawing. Anyway it's annoying when I think about it past surface level.

[pathiel]

i just finished end of the f***ing world n my heart hurts

[pastel-taiga]

A whole waiting room of people with autoimmune/rhuematologic conditions got together to help another autoimmune/rhuematologic sufferer remember a word. So it seems if enough people with poor memory get together, we can collectively remember a single word.

[taigacryptid]

decentralize and clean up your life!!! UPDATE

in case you've seen this post flying around (hi that's me) i turned it into a carrd! it's organized now! also i will be updating the carrd instead of the tumblr post since the carrd is more accessible, for me and for y'all, IMO. ADDITIONALLY if you have any suggestions or critiques, put them in the replies instead of the reblogs, please and thank you <3

Decentralize!

Do you hate ads? Do you want privacy? Do you want to own the things you pay for?

[taigacryptid]

idk when my blog mostly became one about queer theory and transmasculinity, but it's been a personally refreshing experience.

for the front half of my trans journey (so like ages 11/12 to 18) i assumed that my transness was the hard part and masculinity wasn't. masculinity was treated as the default (and being a girl was treated as something to cope with forever, something to right as if being a woman is the wrong way to live but a necessary way of life regardless), so i had to claw my way into it becoming a default way of being for me.

i assumed that being a man was easier, and i assumed all of my feelings about manhood were just misinformed. men could cry, but only behind closed doors like i did. men could have friends, but not be too close so your inevitably homophobic friends don't make gay jokes about you. men could dress however they want, but anything other than a shirt and shorts (or a suit in formal settings) was treated as a joke you obviously meant to make.

after a lot of self reflection and realizing i was nonbinary, all of those things melted away. there is no default gender and there shouldn't be one. every possible gendered thought and activity was a rule imposed by someone else.

so then why tf are so many trans people online infighting and acting as if the sex you were born as means you're going to be feminine or masculine, or have any bearing on your personality? why tf are trans people turning to BIOESSENTIALISM and TRANSMEDICALISM to put each other down. wtf are we doing.

trans people are being murdered and kidnapped, trans people are being criminalized by right-wing politicians, trans people are already at increased risk of shit like depression and being fired and kicked out. wtf are we doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[taigacryptid]

if you use generative AI despite knowing its consequences, you have no spine and you're dead to me! <3

[taigacryptid]

how to get into citizen science

what is citizen science?

it's scientists collaborating with everyday people to collect and analyze data!

why should i participate?

you can engage in science without needing a background or formal education in science. if you have passion for it, then you're all set!

it can teach you skills that you can put on a resume and take with you to use in other fields!

in some cases, you can earn service-learning/volunteer hours!

while anti-intellectualism is on the rise (especially in the US), it's more important than ever to learn about and care for the natural world, education, and academia as a whole

donations are always great, but many projects lack enough people to do the work, so that's where citizen scientists come in to help lighten the load

what can i do?

iNaturalist is probably the most popular citizen science project out there. you can take pictures of animals and plants and ID them (they have an auto-suggest feature that accounts for the appearance and location of the organism, and gives you likely species)

Merlin Bird ID from Cornell Lab is similar to iNat but only for birds, and gives the ability to record birdsong and ID birds based on that!

FathomVerse lets players ID deep sea animals from real images collected by researchers, improving the AI they use to ID! (reminder that analytical AI is great, generative AI is not!)

Zooniverse has 83 active projects ranging from subjects such as physics and biology to history and literature! pick your favorite subject and start there!

HerpMapper is like iNat but only for herps (reptiles and amphibians), and they're extra careful about sharing location data of all observations for the sake of protecting vulnerable species (this one has my herp prof on the advisory committee :D)

Smell Pittsburgh is a project aimed to track the air quality in Pittsburgh, one of the most polluted cities in the US

Sensor Community lets anyone buy an air or noise sensor to install and collect data about air or noise pollution (they have guides for assembling it and installing the necessary software)

FrogWatch USA from Akron Zoo accepts volunteers nationwide to ID frogs based on their calls during breeding season

Reef Life Survey accepts volunteers to help catalog and monitor coral reefs

WomSAT allows anyone to report wombat sightings so they can be protected! (only for Australia, of course)

Marine Debris Tracker lets anyone log marine pollution that they've cleaned up, as well as any dumping sites (they also collect data from smaller organizations including schools, so try to find a local one you can join!)

eButterfly is like iNat but just for butterflies!

Foldit is a free game where you can contribute to molecular research by learning about protein structures