i no longer try to be good

🍂 Nikolai || 30's || he/they/it || queer & trans 🍂 shitposts, art, politics, horror, kink, knights, ttrpgs, formerly patchworkgargoyle, icon art by @tragicblondie, mobile banner by @mini-moss 🍁Harry Potter blogs get blocked 🍁

[lifesgrandparade]

I want you guys to all start making a bigger stink about Tumblr's Age Verification Horseshit.

[lifesgrandparade]

Like they tried to change Reblogs and people rightfully got up in arms, this is a LOT worse. In order to have access to any sort of thing dubbed mature, and We haveALL seen what they think is mature, Everything from a black and white photo of a black woman's arm, to posts about IUD recalls, to a nude painted by a 17th century artist, to anything involving the word Trans; you have to send your personal information to a third party site that WILL get hacked, and you will be doxxed. And they can say "Oh shit, well it wasn't us who sent your name address and gender identity to Moldovan teenagers, here's a couple extra minutes in the ball pit.

That's bad enough!!!!!!!! But the entire idea of needing permission from state authorities to access anything labeled mature by our friendly AI overlords is some fucking Boll shit. Die Gedenken Sind Frie baby. This is all a reaction to people getting uppity about their lowly lowly rights and is being propped up by the same bad actors tht have made life unlivable. Fuck that shit.

"Well it's only being rolled out in Brazil and UK" Yeah, to start. "Well they're being forced to do this by laws." YOu know it's always really funny when these tech giants (Or whatever you call owning tumblr dot com) get really antsy about laws considering they pick and choose which ones they abide by.

This is a breaking point and it's going to be very interesting to see how we proceed from here.

[thistlemace]

After going to a queer dating event last night, I went and woo'd my lungs out at a trans-centred drag night and felt very called out by one of the acts

Which was an emo tumblrina looking up "emo boys kissing" and commenting "i wish that was me" until the climax of Bring Me To Life came on and she ripped off her magnetic pigtails and her shirt changed from I ❤️ Yaoi to I AM Yaoi, the am being in trans flag sequins, with top surgery scars and I laughed my ass off

Ran into the performer as I left, said jokingly that I felt very called out, and they told me that was their intention

[hgedits]

The Artemis II crew naming two previously undiscovered lunar craters (one after Commander Reid Wiseman's late wife).

[thinginthedirt]

happy trans day of visibility! 🏳️‍⚧️

starting tomorrow I'll be posting monthly coloring pages on kofi, and this first one will be free! You can also support me by buying my prints

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

Writer denies it, but publisher pulls horror novel after multiple allegations of AI use

One of the first controversies of its kind.

buried in here is a warning: drop the rule of three immediately or they'll accuse you of being an LLM.

[teratocybernetics]

ai detectors are unreliable as fuck in academic settings i can't imagine the ones NY Times used for this are better

[elucubrare]

Yesterday, The New York Times published its own investigation, in which it “analyzed passages from the novel using several AI detection tools and found recurring patterns characteristic of AI generated text, like gaps in logic, excessive use of melodramatic adjectives and an overreliance on the rule of three.”

I can find a dozen novels written before they could be AI that have these patterns. “Excessive use of melodramatic adjectives” is just following a good 85% of online writing advice.

[kuttithevangu]

“If it isn’t AI, she’s a terrible writer” yes that’s very possible and it wouldn’t be the first time a terrible writer got a million dollar deal. Perhaps the publisher should raise their standards for purchase

[stjohnstarling]

The thing that's frightening about AI is that there is, in fact, no way to be completely certain what is and is not made with it by simply looking at the product. With apologies for bringing Marxist concepts into this (I am not a Marxist but I find this idea particularly useful for understanding how to approach AI) - the troubling presence of AI in commercial art is essentially a byproduct of Marx's theory of capitalist alienation.

Marx's theory of alienation describes the ways that the things you make become separated from you and your relationships because of the transactional nature of capitalism. I don't really want to get into the entire concept for just a Tumblr post, so I am just going to link to the Wikipedia article.

Of particular relevance to AI is this: when you are selling a novel, the relationship between you and the people reading your novel is transactional - you share no particular connection with the people buying your book other than that they are giving you (or your publisher) money. Your relationship is entirely abstract. The actual meaning of the story you've written - whether it’s entertainment or of importance to a particular culture - is more or less irrelevant to the transaction.

This is as opposed to, say, a story you wrote for your friends, or a cultural myth, or a fanfiction you wrote for your group chat (alienation is so deeply embedded in our culture it is difficult to come up with examples of unalienated writing that I think will resonate with most readers of this post.)

AI is the ultimate expression of this kind of abstraction. It is the total absence of meaning implied by the transaction. The way to fight back against it is by restoring cultural and social connections between people, to write stories and make art that are expressions of something shared between you and other people, as part of building a culture together. AI thrives in the gaps between us - it becomes a lot harder to use when the shared meaning of the text is what the relationship between author and reader hinges on.

Sorry OP for putting this on your post, this made a couple things click for me.

[plantsrocksthings]

Boletus sensibilis.

[belafujoshisdead]

chodestool

[tatzelwurming]

you can’t say that.

[eldritchdilf-deactivated2025061]

Contrary to popular belief the biggest beginner's roadblock to art isn't even technical skill it's frustration tolerance, especially in the age of social media. It hurts and the frustration is endless but you must build the frustration tolerance equivalent to a roach's capacity to survive a nuclear explosion. That's how you build on the technical skill. Throw that "won't even start because I'm afraid it won't be perfect" shit out the window. Just do it. Just start. Good luck.

[uroko]

おくで/Kosuke Okude

[czarnoxiestwo]

New banners! Cutting and printing done by me, sewing by my partner

[heart-like-a-grave]

[maureen2musings]

Frost and fire

patricksvisuals

[polybius-on-gameboy-deactivated]

“I think America should be taken by Canada instead” No, I think America should be returned to its Indigenous tribes, while Canada should return to the First Nations, the Inuit and the Métis.

“I think America should be taken by Denmark instead” No, I think America should be returned to its Indigenous tribes while Denmark returns Greenland to the Kalaallit, the Tunumiit and the Inughuit.

“I think Texas should be taken by Mexico” No, I think Texas should be returned to the Apache.

“I think Florida should be taken by Cuba” No, I think Florida should be returned to the Seminole.

“I think the Blue states should form their own country” No, I think the Blue states should return to the Chinook, the Yakama, the Nimíipuu, the Pomo, the Chumash, the Diné, the Wôbanaki, the Massachuset, the Haudenosaunee, the Pequot, the Lenape tribes, and the Inuit, the Unangax̂ and the Tlingit tribes of Alaska.

Stop roleplaying colonialism with a leftist coat of paint and give land back to its fucking Natives.

[spnk-diary-deactivated20260405]

Ph. Unknown

[thecuckoohaslanded]

I can’t stop thinking about crocodiles for some reason so here’s some cool pictures I found of probably the second largest one in captivity, his name is Utan:

isn’t he beautiful

listen to the SOUND when he bites

and that’s not even a real power bite, that’s mostly just heavy bone falling on heavy bone from his jaws and the air rushing out from between them

[specsthespectraldragon]

2000 pounds of Good Boy

[thecuckoohaslanded]

you get me

[thecuckoohaslanded]

I honestly expected like 5 notes, what HAPPENED here

[thecuckoohaslanded]

More tags on this ridiculous post:

[cn123017-deactivated20181204]

Wait, thats the 2nd biggest crocodile? Then what does the biggest one look like?

[thecuckoohaslanded]

That would be Cassius, a very old Saltwater crocodile who is estimated to be around 114 years old and lives at Marineland Melanesia in Green Island, Australia.  His official measurement is 5.48 meters, which makes him the largest in captivity currently.  Because Utan is only slightly smaller and much younger, (only in his 50s), he will likely break Cassius’ record eventually.  But for now, Cassius holds the title:

He is NOT, however, either the largest crocodile ever captured in Australia OR the largest ever in captivity.

A slightly larger crocodile has been reported (though not yet comfirmed) to have been captured at 5.58 meters.

And while the famous Brutus of the Adelaide River was estimated to be just slightly larger than Cassius at 5.5m, he was driven out of his territory by a younger and even larger crocodile, who as a result has been given the name, The Dominator.  He is estimated to be just over 6m.

This is Brutus, with an appropriate caption:

It is believed that he lost that arm in a fight with a Bull Shark.  

The Bull Shark lost.

THIS is the crocodile who kicked him out.  The Dominator:

And that’s STILL not the biggest.  

The largest living crocodile ever reliably measured was Lolong, who for the 1.5 years between his capture and his death was the largest crocodile ever held in captivity, at a whopping 6.17 meters (20 feet 3 inches) and 1075 kg (2,370 lbs).  He had been feeding on both humans and very large livestock in the Bunawan creek in Agusan del Sur in the Philippines.  It took 100 people all night to drag him to shore during his capture.

And here’s why:

Also, to prevent credit from getting buried on a separate reblog, I have been informed that the above image of the crocodile with the cartoon eyes and halo was made by @rashkah!  (And it is wonderful and I would like to thank him for its existence, because it perfectly captures my feelings about terrifying giant primordial reptiles.)

[sometimesihavequestions-deactiv]

@theonewhocheeps

[theonewhocheeps]

Holy fuck

[simon-newman]

As far as Brutus is concerned I was led to believe that he lost that arm when relatively young.

Since then Brutus developed a habit of hunting and eating Bull Sharks.

Here’s him with a prey.

And if you thought that you’ll be safe if you just stay out of Australia then think again!

Meet Gustave the Nile Croc.

This crocodile became almost legendary for both it’s size and the habit of hunting both livestock AND humans.

So how big is Gustave?

No one is sure. Since he was NEVER captured.

His estimated size is of at least 5,5m  but some give him over 6m.

The terrifying parts are:

1) He is still growing having only about 60 years.

2) Adult crocodiles often perform a gesture of submission to him - something usually done by young crocodiles toward adults - Gustave is just THAT BIG.

3) His sheer size makes it difficult for him to catch agile prey Nile crocs tend to feed on - hence why he developed a habit of hunting either larger prey like Hippopotamus or creatures which are not good at spotting danger in the first place like livestock and humans.

And this is NOT ALL.

Gustave actually has a noticeable scars on his body - he was shot at east 3 times and stabbed with a spear or something similar at one occasion.

He lived to tell the tale - my question is:

What happened to that one dude who attacked Gustave with a spear?

[thecuckoohaslanded]

*Crocodile Dundee voice*  Mate, that’s not Gustave:

THIS is Gustave:

And he is the PERFECT CROCODILE.  He is the perfect example of what I mean when I talk about (as I do) how the morphology of extremely large crocodiles adapts to the changing physics of their bite.

This is a typical adult Nile Crocodile:

And THIS is a god among his kind:

This is it, folks.  The Final Form.  THIS is what peak performance looks like.

Crocodiles and physics have an interesting relationship.  Crocodiles have, by a CONSIDERABLE MARGIN, the strongest bite of any animal on Earth.  EVER.  Scaled up estimates (based on Nile and Saltwater crocodiles) give the extinct Deinosuchus an estimated bite force MORE THAN DOUBLE the recently updated Tyrannosaurus bite estimates.  Living crocodiles have bite forces measured in the range of 5000 pounds per square inch, for an individual around 15-16 feet.  It is estimated that modern crocodiles in the range of 18-20 feet would have bit forces around 7-8000 psi or more.

That’s a problem.

Because a crocodile’s skull is only designed to handle so much pressure.  Go beyond that limit and the force of impact when those jaws snap shut could literally shatter their own skulls.

But evolution has spent hundreds of millions of years perfecting crocodiles, so PHYSICS ISN’T GOING TO STOP THEM.  What ends up happening in the skulls of these extremely large crocodiles is they will increase dramatically in mass to compensate for the increased forces.  A crocodile’s skull is almost exclusively solid bone, with only minimal space for nasal passages, a surprisingly advanced brain, and some slightly porous looking framework that helps the bone distribute the force over a larger area.  The effect is by far the most pronounced in Nile crocodiles, which most regularly feed on larger prey and need to make use of all that power.

Compare, 26 inch skull:

vs 29 inch skull:

Both of those are Nile crocodile skulls (or rather, replicas thereof).

And just for fun, here are the skulls of completely different (and very extinct species), Deinosuchus:

and Purussaurus:

The bigger the crocodile (within a given species), the more massive the skull needs to be to compensate for that UNBELIEVABLE bit pressure.  This is one way to see from a distance whether you are looking at a normal sized crocodile:

and a truly extraordinary individual:

One of the things about Gustave that’s so impressive is how healthy his teeth look.  A lot of large crocodiles, in their old age, have very worn down and often missing teeth.  They do replace them many times over a lifetime, but when they get very old this slows down.  Gustave, at least in every picture taken of him, had teeth that were in very good condition.

Even crocodiles much smaller than Gustave’s reported size (probably similar in size to Dominator or Lolong) tend to have smaller or more worn teeth:

than the pinnacle of his kind:

[muchymozzarella]

Lolong! It means Gramps or Grandpa, because he’s a relic of an ancient world where crocs more massive than he was walked the earth. His body is on display somewhere right now though I forgot where.

[tyrantisterror]

Every time I see this post there’s more crocodiles.  It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

[mechanical-empress]

in the pale moonlight I stand lone and bloodied. I look sick as fuck and you wish you were me

[aretasreads]

Wunmi Mosaku's BAFTA Portraits🦋

Photographed by Charlie Clift

[rhytmrocket]

shoutout ppl w tooth gaps btw. or overbites. or underbites. or crossbites. or uneven teeth. or other dental conditions. and also ppl who don’t want to/can’t afford to get that stuff changed/"fixed". ily