your friendly neighborhood menace to society

talk to me about anything! I'm always open to make new friends she/her/they/them instagram @thecountessofcats

[roach-works]

Scientists will unleash an army of crabs to help save Florida’s dying reef

Not all heroes wear capes. Some are crabs.

GOOD NEWS FOR CRAB FANS EVERYWHERE

[fortunes-haven]

Please click through and read the article. It just keeps getting better and better.

Because the crabs are raised in a lab, they don’t have any experience with predators. So before putting them onto the reef, Spadaro and his team may have to condition them to fear things like octopuses, snappers, and groupers. One way to do this is by using puppets modeled after predators. By putting these puppets in the tanks while poking at the crabs, the crabs learn to move away from the threat. Several months ago, Mote partnered with a local elementary school and had students craft hand puppets, modeled after crab predators, to use in fear conditioning. (Fortunately, the crabs don’t have great vision.)

[chthonic-pain]

nobody warns you this but addiction happens without you noticing and one of the first things that it attacks is your ability to care. if you find yourself using recreational drugs every day, stop and take one day a week sober. if you struggle with this or if you don't see the point of the exercise, you are likely already addicted and you need help.

[chthonic-pain]

nobody ever taught me the warning signs for drug addiction, only that "it costs lots of money and destroys your life!!!1" which is not helpful if you can't recognize a developing addiction in yourself.

so here's some things to watch out for with recreational drug use:

planning your day around drugs e.g "i'll give myself an extra half hour before heading out so i can get high first"

rapidly switching emotions around drugs. you love them but you hate that you love them so much. you hate the way you feel on them but you hate being sober. feeling guilty after using even when you didn't give a crap beforehand.

caring less about spending money. if you are budgeting for drugs like they are food, you are likely prioritizing them more than is healthy.

getting high to do household chores and other unpleasant things because it would suck less and be more bearable on drugs

feeling anxious or restless while sober, not knowing what to do with oneself, feeling lost or ungrounded.

thinking about doing drugs constantly even while sober. maybe it's the first thing you think of when you wake up. maybe when you're bored or otherwise have free time, drugs are one of the first things you can think of to occupy yourself with.

going to work or school while under the influence, especially if it happens regularly and if you're seeing your performance suffer as a result.

the idea of taking a 'tolerance break' sounds good to you until it's actually break time, at which point you can come up with 20 very reasonable sounding points to explain why it wouldn't benefit you actually and you should just keep doing drugs regardless.

even if you succeed at quitting the drug, you keep your dealer's number on your phone "just in case"

you pretend to be sober when you aren't. you worry about other people noticing how much time you spend high. you make efforts to hide your drug use or minimize how much other people think you're using. you're scared of other people's judgement if they were to find out.

you have mood swings laced with self-hatred, regret, financial worries, and guilt. these mood swings are then very quickly wiped away by feelings of "but it doesn't matter, i can do what i want, and clearly i'm doing just fine while using drugs frequently". news flash, if you are rapidly switching between feeling numb-ok and hating yourself more than anything because of your drug use, you are mentally ill.

yes this applies to weed. weed is a drug and you can get addicted to it like any other substance. addiction is not the same as physical dependence; it is psychological and it can happen to anyone. you are not immune to addiction.

[ms-demeanor]

Hey kids, wanna learn what signs of botulism look like?

[ms-demeanor]

Since the sell by date wasn't for another 4 days I returned them. I was checking out at the store and I was like "i'm not sure you want to take them out of the bag" and he did and a passing manager was just like "That looks like a bomb, I'm just gonna take it to the back" and was off like a shot.

[ms-demeanor]

Okay but seriously, if you have a package of food like this or especially if you have a can that is bulging like this, it is literally full of poison, do not open it and absolutely positively do not eat it under any circumstances.

Any food packaging that is bulging has to be considered unsafe to eat. A lot of people who might be living on their own for the first time don't know what that looks like, and this is a really, really extreme example, but yeah if the top of a can has become slightly domed from internal pressure that's going to kill you, don't eat it.

[dndspellgifs]

look, I know I've talked about this essay (?) before but like,

If you ever needed a good demonstration of the quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", have I got an exercise for you.

Somebody made a small article explaining the basics of atomic theory but it's written in Anglish. Anglish is basically a made-up version of English where they remove any elements (words, prefixes, etc) that were originally borrowed from romance languages like french and latin, as well as greek and other foreign loanwords, keeping only those of germanic origin.

What happens is an english which is for the most part intelligible, but since a lot everyday english, and especially the scientific vocabulary, has has heavy latin and greek influence, they have to make up new words from the existing germanic-english vocabulary. For me it kind of reads super viking-ey.

Anyway when you read this article on atomic theory, in Anglish called Uncleftish Beholding, you get this text which kind of reads like a fantasy novel. Like in my mind it feels like it recontextualizes advanced scientific concepts to explain it to a viking audience from ancient times.

Even though you're familiar with the scientific ideas, because it bypasses the normal language we use for these concepts, you get a chance to examine these ideas as if you were a visitor from another civilization - and guess what, it does feel like it's about magic. It has a mythical quality to it, like it feels like a book about magic written during viking times. For me this has the same vibe as reading deep magic lore from a Robert Jordan book.

[liimlsan]

[myrskytuuli]

What's the power ranking- Who would win in a fight- Who's the most powerful- SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!!

There are no power rankings in the real world. An olympic medal martial artist can be taken down by a lucky guy with a sharp object. The guy who can bench press his own weight can still die by slipping during a fight and hitting his head. An experienced soldier is the most likely to die by a stray bullet.

Power-ranks are fine in the context of like....video games. But the moment you start critiquing a story that is not pokemon or mortal kombant for not having "power ranks that make sense" I lose all respect for you. Who woud win in a fight- I'm sorry to tell you but that would actually depend entirely on the environment and factors outised of the characters control. Stop it. That is the least interesting question you could ever ask about two characters.

How would these two characters fare in a Gothic haunted location that digs into their psyche on the other hand......

[junkalopes]

[weepingchoir]

Every time some fash posts about Real Art vs Duchamp's Fountain it's like lol that urinal has been kicking your ass for a hundred years

[weepingchoir]

Marcel Duchamp kicked the bucket 55 slutty, slutty years ago and you can't get him out of your head. You're half as old as he is dead and you are worshiping at his altar, you are drinking his piss. He won.

[princesskuragina]

Corset discourse really likes to talk in sensationalizing absolutes but historically speaking a corset is just a kind of garment. They could be uncomfortable and painful or they could be well fitted and supportive. They could be hyper-fashionable or they could be brutally practical. You could tightlace them or you could wear them with no reduction whatsoever. Most corsets were probably somewhere in the middle. Like bras. Or shoes. To say they were never perceived as restrictive or used as tools of enforcing dangerous/misogynistic beauty standards is like saying women's shoes never restrict freedom of movement. Patently untrue, but that doesn't mean those shoes have some deeper moral good or evil and it certainly doesn't mean we can use that fact to draw sweeping generalizations about the relationships of entire centuries of women to their own bodies. Corsets, like all clothing, exist in context.

[princesskuragina]

Refuting the "corsets were evil torture devices and vain shallow women were forcing themselves to lace themselves down to x inches so they could attract a man" narrative was never about saying "corsets are a universal good, actually". It's about considering more fully the variety of ways clothing shaped and was shaped by its culture, and affording the women of the past the dignity of agency and interiority

[fefairys]

sometimes you need to give up committing to the bit when someone genuinely can’t tell if it’s a bit or not and is getting distressed about it :/ sorry

[fefairys]

sometimes all u need to do is take one second to say "(yeah this is a bit)" if someone is genuinely asking because they genuinely can't tell, and then you can continue with the bit. i just feel like refusing to acknowledge someone saying "i cant tell if youre joking or not" and you just continue, or even say, "im not joking" then you're not being very funny, you're just being kind of mean, i think.

[fefairys]

obviously there is nuance to this and if you know someone really well sometimes going in harder on the bit will make them get that it's a bit and that's fine if you know them. but just be mindful, yknow? not everyone can pick up on stuff like that, and pushing harder on a bit by saying "im serious" when someone asks if you're joking or not can be harmful in some situations.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

actually I don't particularly give a damn if people do good things for the "wrong" reasons

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

donating just to feel good about yourself? awesome every penny is still present and helpful

doing volunteer work just to post about it on social media? cool I wish more people would, those volunteer hours really add up

being nice to people to "trick" them into thinking you're a good person? buddy you just accidentally marie kondoed your own personality.

feeding the hungry, housing the unhoused, healing the injured? do you think the hungry, the poor, the sick and the exhausted give a damn about your moral dilemmas? do you think for one second that something as flimsy as your intentions makes warm food, a safe bed, and the abscence of pain any less real to those who receive them?

doing nice things for "selfish" reasons is fine actually. especially if it encourages more people to do those things. if you are making the world a slightly better place to live in, I really don't care what your motivation is; the rest of us still have to live here.

[angelofthemornings-deactivated2]

Jewish proverb:

A rich man proudly announces his intention to build an orphanage. Later, however, he goes to his rabbi and says “Rabbi, I’ve decided not to do it. I realized I was only building the orphanage because I wanted to be seen as a philanthropist.”

The rabbi says, “What?! Build the orphanage! Do you think the orphans will care why you did it?”

[strangesmallbard]

gonna vague this “how to watch out for t*rfs effectively” post for a second. this is an unhelpful suggestion. criticizing plastic surgery can certainly be a smokescreen for transphobia, but the answer to that issue isn’t Be Inherently Wary of Everyone Who Criticizes Plastic Surgery. that’s how you eliminate nuance from your critical analysis. thinking for yourself goes a long way!

[strangesmallbard]

okay lol wait. there is absolutely a third option! the third option is critically examining what bodily autonomy even means in a patriarchal society where a woman’s “attractiveness” can literally determine their access to resources. and how how that attractiveness is often defined as proximity to whiteness. come ON

[goldcrescent]

why has everyone just decided to completely cede a ton of feminist talking points to terfs in favor of basically pretending everything is fine? No nuance whatsoever?

[citizen-zero]

I feel like this person is drawing a false equivalency between “hating and being critical of the beauty and plastic surgery industries” with “believing those things should be outlawed and restricted.” I take issue with their assertion that talking about plastic surgeons hocking their services to young girls is USUALLY code for doctors talking to patients about gender affirmation. I abhor the beauty industry and cosmetic surgery, but that doesn’t mean I think it should be banned and people shouldn’t be allowed to make the choice to participate in those things.

I want to arrive at a point where women’s bodily features aren’t commodified and made into trends; I want better awareness of the fact that these industries actively prey on women and our insecurities and create new things for us to hate about ourselves in order to profit off of us. Plastic surgery is just like any other bodily issue where making it illegal or restricted isn’t actually going to address the problem of why people seek it out.

And I agree, I wish people would stop letting TERFs have shit. We can’t become more misogynistic and anti-feminist in our efforts to advocate for trans rights, especially because so much of intersectional feminist activism overlaps with trans activism.

[petulantworm]

Bodily autonomy is about self-determination, and it's not an attack on bodily autonomy to criticize the powers outside the self that police our bodies. There are reasons why people do Kardashian make-up, relax and straighten their hair, get cosmetic weight loss surgery, get breast implants, use skin lightening cream, etc. that have nothing to do with self-determination or self-actualization. Things like racism, cissexism, fatphobia, and the intersections among them take away bodily autonomy.

Supporting individuals who use things like fashion, hair, make-up, and plastic surgery to make their body into what THEY want it to be =\= uncritically supporting any and all industries that encourage everyone to use make-up and plastic surgery to look a certain way.

The thing about TERFs is that they think these two are the same. While criticizing the beauty industry for real harm it does to women, TERFs come to the conclusion that every cis woman who has a face lift or wears high heels is a brainless slave to the patriarchy and every trans woman who wears make-up or gets a boob job is making a mockery of feminity. But the counter to TERF ideology isn't to just flip the script and support women's bodily autonomy as well as the racist/sexist beauty industry. The antidote to TERF ideology is to shatter the dichotomy by defending trans and cis women's access to body modifications that let them look how they want to look while also breaking down the power of the cultural forces that tell all women how they ought to look.

[enki2]

[catasters]

[crazy-pages]

AUDIO! ON!

[hikarisakurariver]

they are casting a level 7 Healing spell

[art-of-mathematics]

[e-the-village-cryptid]

computer science research is so overwhelming i just sit there in astonishment while my six monitors try to beam into me information about DNA, the human body, geography of the world, and heartbeat monitors with graphics only

[curlicuecal]

me, an entomologist, unable to enter nature without a full labcoat, gloves, and safety glasses, definitely using a magnifying glass appropriately

My careful scientific investigation has revealed that this is indeed a plastic cockroach in a petris dish

Double fisting my slide microscope which I am viewing through safety glasses and protective mask and my entire plastic cockroach

Is this a bird?

[tlatollotl]

textile

Cultures/periods: Chimu (?) Chancay (?)

Production date: 900-1430

Made in: Peru

Provenience unknown, possibly looted

Textile fragment; cotton plain weave ground with paired warps; camelid supplementary weft patterning; feline figure; cream and black.

British Museum

[selkielore]

i love constantly evolving into a cooler version of myself

[selkielore]

btw by cooler i don’t mean like. trendier or more conventionally attractive but a version of myself that feels more like an honest representation of myself and all the layers of myself that are shifting as i grow and learn more about myself and the world …. (which makes me hotter.)