greetings guys and gentlebeings

don't forget. they/them.

[tricktster]

a good thing about having friends with kids is that you can just sow the seeds for something that you’ll never need to address again. like tonight my friend’s three year old saw me eating blue corn chips.

kid: what are you eating from that basket?

me: triangles.

kid: can i have triangles?

me: dunno, did you brush teeth yet?

kid: no

me: mhm, and are you okay with screaming really loud?

kidd: what???

me: yeah, sometimes these make you scream really loud, are you ok with that?

kid: i am not afraid of screaming.

me: you’re very brave. you can have two triangles. then why don’t you go show your dad your new power, i gotta go.

[worldheritagepostorganization]

World Heritage Post

[riverlinden]

"kung pow penis," a phrase commonly used in reblogs to indicate utter disdain for OP, has twelve letters, each of which (traditionally) must be supplied by a different user. the unanimity of disdain indicated by these twelve unrelated users has strong parallels to the requirement of unanimity for a jury—also traditionally of twelve—to arrive at a verdict. in this essay i will

[quendergeer]

"I'm not posting S and you can't make me!"

[lola-legendary]

K

[hardyparti-deactivated20250411]

U

[osvaldvvanstein]

N

[tiredmisophonicwerewolf]

G

[ecto-stone]

P

[a-selkie-abroad]

O

[kotdish]

W

[aviandaleks]

P

[dragonwysper]

E

[ultimatenutshackfangirl]

N

[ohhmichelettoohh]

I

[beetle-goth]

[throwupgirl-deactivated20240906]

[blackjackkent]

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

stolen from that social media site gay millennials and grumpy boomers use

[random-thought-depository]

This is a really good representation of one of the reasons I prefer to write sci fi that's on the harder side! If I wanted to argue against somebody who thinks commitment to scientific realism is some stick in the mud no fun allowed creativity-limiting thing, my argument might involve showing them this. It really is my impression that, ironically, the greater freedom from realism constraints enabled by a "softer" approach tends to result in more convergence. I think it's because paying attention to realism tends to interrupt a process related to "AI inbreeding" (disclaimer: I base this on some descriptions of the phenomenon I've read on Tumblr) and the thing Leviathan-Supersystem calls "fictionbrain." Speculative fiction writers tend to also be appreciators of other people's speculative fiction, and that means often one of the main inputs to their imagination is other people's fiction. As a result, if you remove other constraints, the result tends to be strong convergence on a model mostly made of genre conventions and tropes and stuff people have seen other people do before. Your fantasy has Orcs because fantasy usually has Orcs. Your sci fi has space fighters and something kinda-sorta like WWII mixed battleship/aircraft carrier naval warfare but IN SPACE cause Star Wars and Wing Commander and Battlestar Galactica and so on did that. Your spacecraft have their decks parallel to their long axis which is parallel to their direction of movement like a boat cause that's how it works in Star Trek and Star Wars and a bunch of other sci fi. Your dinosaurs look kinda like dragons cause that's how they look in old movies from the middle twentieth century and those dinosaur toys you played with as a kid and the Jurassic Park movies. It's hard to not do that cause of course your imagination is fundamentally downstream from your direct sensory experiences and the ideas you've been exposed to.

Caring about scientific realism and sociological realism gets you paying attention to a new, different sets of ideas. It gets you learning about how motion in free fall and vacuum works instead of just rolling with assumption that spacecraft will move like boats or airplanes. It gets you learning about how acceleration gravity and centrifugal gravity works instead of just rolling with the idea that spaceships have arbitrary "artificial gravity." It gets you thinking about how multiple sapient species living in close proximity to each other might have shaped each other's evolution instead of just going "Well, there's Orcs, and there's Elves, and there's Dwarves..." And so on.

[whereserpentswalk]

Also note that this applies to taking notes from folklore and history as well!

[mc-cookies]

similar vibe in tabletop rpgs, whenever i see someone say "we focus less on rules and more on story" i have to wonder if that just means they're doing a mediocre recreation of critical role's vibes. rules are fun! restrictions can inspire you!

[aevios]

Having ADHD is so fun because sometimes youre looking for something that you use regularly and definitely put away in a smart and reasonable place and you have absolutely 0 hope of remembering where and finding it. And then other times ur like "hmm I need a some kind of small pointed object. I feel like i remember seeing a paperclip under the left couch cushion a month ago, i wonder if its still there" and it is

[aevios]

"wait but if u saw the paperclip why would u just leave it there?" its the adhd. Also if i had put it away then i wouldnt have been able to find it a month later when i needed it. So. Checkmate neurotypicals.

[oakenroots]

Problem is when the ADHD catalogue is out of date, when you go to check under the couch cushion for that paperclip and it ISNT there, sometimes your brain will just give you a montage of false memories of everywhere you've ever seen a paper clip, like this

[aniseandspearmint]

yeah yeah the paperclip montage, we've all seen it

[elodieunderglass]

Today let's be grateful for our quick and accessible means of communication, no matter what we say with them

[elodieunderglass]

GOD actually this would be so hard

[hope-for-the-planet]

Using Leftover Restaurant Oyster Shells to Rebuild Oyster Reefs

From this article in the New York Times:

Summer in New England means lobster rolls, fried seafood and, of course, freshly shucked oysters. But there’s a problem. Those empty shells usually end up in a dumpster instead of back in the water, where they play a key role in the oyster life cycle. Oyster larvae attach to shells, where they grow into adults and form reefs that improve water quality, prevent coastal erosion and create habitat for other marine life. Two men in Connecticut are working to fix that. They’ve started a statewide program to collect discarded shells from local restaurants, dry them and return them to Long Island Sound for restoration projects. “We fill that missing piece,” said Tim Macklin, a co-founder of Collective Oyster Recycling & Restoration, the nonprofit group leading the effort. It’s one of several shell recycling programs that have emerged to help reverse the steep decline in oyster populations along U.S. coastlines, a drop that experts largely attribute to overharvesting, habitat degradation and disease. Some of the largest programs process more than a million pounds of shell each year.

[fishparasite]

if you don't know how to end a written work you should be able to just let the words fade out like an 80s song and not resolve anything for the reader

[teaboot]

The last 5 pages should just be in progressively lighter text until it’s no longer legible at all

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP breaks down how online influencers make form-fitting clothes look more appealing and drive sales

[starburst2000]

She went from Jessica Rabbit to Olive Oyl.

[beatrice-otter]

If you want the Jessica Rabbit look, you are much more likely to get it by strategically padding yourself out than by any other method, including a dress that looks like Jessica Rabbit on someone else.

And the thing is, up through the 19th Century, people knew it. If you want a specific silhouette, okay, fine, you use corsets and strategic padding and bum rolls and hoop skirts or whatever you need to achieve that silhouette.

Now we think that you should achieve that look by "diet and exercise" and plastic surgery.

I don't think this is a step forward ...

[my-random--thoughts-deactivated]

[abandoned-as-mustard]

[rylandsgrace]

This is cinema actually

[wizardarchetypes]

THE ALI FORESHADOWING LIKE SHE’S A WIZARD THEY’RE PREPARING TO FACE AND THEYRE WARNING US ABOUT HER LIKE BARDS.

ALI IMMEDIATELY LIVING UP TO THE BALLDS SUNG ABOUT HER.

THE FACT THAT ALL OF THEIR MAGIC COMBINED DIDN’T COUNTER HER SPELL

[bubobubosibericus]

Are you americans okay???

[punkahudsonia]

Everclear is what we have instead of universal healthcare.

[themythicalcodfish]

Wound cleaner, anaesthetic, surgical instrument sterilizer, and post-surgical cleanup, all in one convenient bottle

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Every summer I forget how much I fucking love spiders I’ve drunk one every day this week

[goblinwithblankets]

Drinking spiders??!

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

You put ice cream in a glass and pour soft drink over it. It creates a thick layer of delicious foam on top of a sweet, creamy drink with ice cream in it.

And yes I did attempt to get a picture by googling “Australia spider” like a fucking moron.

[thecybird-deactivated20250228]

I think that’s called a float in the states. Although we usually plop the icecream into the glass after the soda. Similar effect though.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

We wouldn’t be able to call it that because the word is way too easy to confuse with a floater, which is a meat pie floating in a bowl of pea soup. It is every bit as delicious as a spider though. I should get some pies and pea soup.

[kitstacean]

I would like to announce that this is not a standard Australian food, it’s exclusively a South Australian one and the rest of Australia is just as appalled as the rest of the world.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

It’s not our fault that the rest of Australia is incorrect about food.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

#WE HAVE SPIDERS IN AOTEAROA and they serve CUNT#im gonna steal ice cream from work this weekend and make spiders with it. i will steal the fizzy from work also#i fucking hate my boss 

Living your best life I see

[blatantescapism]

“average person eats 3 spiders a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in South Australia and BADLY misinterpreted our survey question,,

[mariaalenkoshepard]

[jabberding0]

Pottery troubles

[gayahithwen]

Ah, the feeling you get when you watch a blooper reel, and find yourself thinking "yeah, I could show this to someone who lived five thousand years ago, and they'd laugh, too".

[drdaanvondutch]

in law school, my mom took me to this stress retreat because my family was vaguely aware i was a suicide risk. and they didnt allow phones, so i brought this huge bag of books. and one of the options for "destressing" was this fake cave grotto thing, where they'd decorated a room to make it look exactly like an underground cave and the air was like -10 degrees, but there was a like 4ft deep pool in the middle that was kept super super hot, so you would just switch between the hot and cold. and they would bring you an endless supply of this weird syrupy drink thing that was like super caffeinated and tasted like sugar and mint. and so i spent multiple days sitting half submerged in this fake grotto drinking mystery liquid and reading. and i have to be honest i really did feel less stressed

[batsandbutch]

[gothiccharmschool]

Please please please I need to go there.

[spaceistheplaceart]

and i would've gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling... monsters???

[kayforpay]

history fucked me up

oxford was built and operational as a college before the rise of the mayans and cleopatra lived in a time nearer to pizza hut’s invention than to the pyramids being built

[kayforpay]

I need a noncomprehensive history book that covers Known World History in time periods, like “in this century, all this shit was happening concurrently” and not just all spread out so I have to piece it together like some unpaid uneducated scholar

[archaeologysucks]

You mean like this?

The Timetables of History by Bernard Grun

I grew up with this book, which is frickin’ enormous, and it was endlessly fascinating to young me to pour over the side by side comparison of events taking place concurrently under different headings and in different parts of the world.

Or if you want something you can put on your wall, there’s this:

World History Timeline

[butts-bouncing-on-the-beltway]

I had this book! My grandpa gave it to me and it was really freakin useful!!

[mckitterick]

I loved this book! Same for The Timetables of Science: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Science.

Same for The Timetables of Technology: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Technology. Great references!

[lepetitpoete]

okay but here’s an even cooler (free!) visualization that goes a step further and tracks ideas, devices, infrastructures, and systems of power

Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power Since 1500

✨️with a special focus on colonialism, militarization, automation, and enclosure✨️

You can spend hours upon hours exploring this

[parakeet]

Give a man a leaf and he will eat it. Teach a man to leaf and he will go away

[mostlyvoidpartiallyjims]