fresnel lenses and quantum computers are eldritch yuri im quite certain
theyre girlfriends ur honor
Please wait
Source: instagram.com
the reason "robot racism" is often a really stupid metaphor is the same reason that like. discrimination against demons or vampires or whatever doesn't work, is because there's often a pretty justified reasons humans are scared of vampires or robots or whatever, in a way that doesn't apply to real life minorities, like a fantasy author will be like "the reason vampires are discriminated against is because most of them and kill and eat people for fun and pleasure, and so humans respond by trying to kill them, isn't that so sad" and like no that's a perfectly fine reason to not trust vampires i think.
sci-fi writers will be like "every robot on earth randomly decided to kill all humans for no real reason, and now people don't trust robots, and this is a metaphor for racism" and like no you just wrote a metaphor for white people actually.
Sometimes you have to take a step back and remember that same-sex marriage has only been legal in America for ten years.
I know that it seems like it's been this way forever, but when they were leaving it up to the states and Indiana legalized it for a whole 24 hours before Mike Pence got wise to it- me and a bunch of strangers ran around the city hall block with a rainbow flag because we were so happy. People were getting married on the spot because they'd been waiting so long and we didn't know if the ruling was going to stick.
It's wild to think about how much has changed just in my lifetime. Sodomy was a crime until 2003. Don't Ask Don't Tell was both enacted and repealed in my life.
The processes are slower than we want, but in retrospect- a lot has changed since the 90s.
It's very endearing to me how many people are willing to keep an eye on a video feed so they can push a button and let a fish in the Netherlands get to the other side of a dam.
It is genuinely baffling to me, in a very kind and positive way, especially coupled with the local news continually going several shades of 'wtf, this thing is a roaring success again and we don't quite get why'. They've already quadrupled their capacity for simultaneous clicks and it's still nowhere near enough and there's just... Bewilderment.
- I think people want to help the environment in small but tangible ways, which is hard right now because of.. well... because of The Horrors. And being able to say 'wow! I helped this creature cross a dam' makes you feel good.
- I also think that most people can relate to a small, helpless creature trying to get from one place to another and there's a FUCKIN WALL in the way.
But to come back to point 1- Citizen Science fills a hole in the soul that wanted to go out on adventures and discover things when we were younger, but the study of it was hard or we didn't have the money or our schools were garbage. But you don't have to have a degree to do things like... press a button or download and use an app, or count or transcribe notes.
Anyways- here's some Citizen Science links if the Fish Doorbell makes you feel happy and you yearn for more ways to help scientists do stuff:
Zooniverse is a website that hosts information on many citizen science projects
On April 16th 2025 the US federal government has proposed to change the interpretation of the endangered species act so that it no longer protects habitat.
This is open for public comment until the end of May 19th. Please comment and make your voice heard.
Wildlife need their habitat. If the ESA redefines harm so that habitat is no longer protected, the implications for wildlife would be catastrophic.
GET EM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Miniature) couch restoration
I found this couch ( with a bunch of other things I didn't care about) for 2$ at a second hand store
Finding dollhouse miniatures is kind of rare around here so I grabbed it, I thought at worst it would be a cheap MDF off of AliExpress or something and I could repaint it, but once I scraped a bit of the paint off I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice wood finish!
There was at least 3 to 4 layers of paint through (‘◉⌓◉’) (white, gray, maybe white again and finally pink)
Out of curiosity I pried up the fabric which was obviously not the original, to find another unoriginal fabric and pried that up too and that was still not the original 🤣 matroshka doll of upholstery
After huffing 99% alcohol and paint brush cleaner for probably 5 or so hours I ended up with this
I left the back and seat of the couch rough as it would be covered in fabric anyway, it looks like that maybe at some point this got sanded in a few spots? I fixed it up by finally using my furniture repair markers as intended (mostly I don't think they had mini furniture in mind)
You can see on the left half where I tried different colours to see what would match best
Now new upholstery! I only had the original couch cushion seat so I decided to just redo the whole thing in silk of corse (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧
I wanted it to look a little worn so I picked this really textured blueish green/cream dupini silk
From barbie would be embarrassed to have this in her house to Victorian centerpiece! Or well I would like to think so ;;;
ohhh incredible work, that final shot is such a shocking beauty!
The Beginning of the American Revolution
Today (April 18, 2025) is the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolution.
Tea Act of 1773—Allowed the importation of duty-free tea to Boston, gave a monopoly to the British East India Company
This lead to the Boston Tea Party, December 16, 1773. Colonists organized by men like Samuel Adams stormed the harbor disguised as Indians, seized the tea, and threw it into the harbor. This destroyed 342 chests ---10,000 pounds worth of tea. (roughly 588,600 dollars in 2007 dollars)
This led to the Intolerable Acts:
- Boston Port Act closed Boston until the British East India Company was compensated for its lost tea.
- Administration of Justice Act: Magistrates charged with crimes connected to their enforcement of British laws or suppressing riots would be tried in England; witnesses also had to be brought to England but would be compensated for expenses.
- Massachusetts Government Act: The executive council was now appointed by the King, not elected by the people. Further, many civil offices (most importantly the law-enforcing Sheriffs) were now appointed by the governor. Town meetings could only happen once a year unless the Governor approved the meeting.
- General Gage became governor of Massachusetts.
- Quartering Act: Forced local communities to find spaces for soldiers to be housed at their expense.
- Quebec Act: Enlarged the size of Quebec, created a no-assembly government with non-jury trials and full rights for Catholics.
Before the Shot Heard Round the World
First Continental Congress: This all led to the summoning of the FCC. 55 delegates from all colonies but Georgia. Sept. 5 to October 26, 1774.
Suffolk Resolves: Endorsed by the FCC. They called for the people to arm, general economic sanctions vs. Britain, and denounced the Coercive Acts.
Continental Association: Created to organize and enforce sanctions. Imports would be cut off after Dec. 1, 1774.
Whigs vs. Tories: Only a minority was ready to take up arms against Britain; most just wanted redress of grievances. But the Whigs, who counseled resistance of some kind, won out over Tories, who did not care about the fate of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts in Discord: After being appointed governor, General Gage dissolves the Massachusetts legislature. It defies him, forming the Committee of Safety to serve as executive in his place. Some communities form the Minute Men to be ready for war.
Lines are Drawn: In the winter of 1774-5, Whig organizations prepare for conflict, while Tories strive desperately to prevent it. The Whigs tend to be more effective and take control of the state governments, shutting Tories out of power.
Too Little, Too Late: Parliament resolves that Massachusetts is in rebellion, but also offers the Conciliatory Proposition: the colonies will not be taxed if they will voluntarily contribute to the Imperial coffers. It is too late to satisfy the Whigs (those Americans who support armed resistance to British demands, if not necessarily yet calling for Independence.).
April 18-19th, 1775: On the night of April 18, 700 British Regulars commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith were ordered to march by night on Concord, Massachusetts to seize guns, cannon, and ammunition being stockpiled in Concord by the Committee of Safety. They also were under orders to seize John Hancock and Sam Adams, who had fled Boston to Lexington. Unfortunately for the British, Patriot spies were watching and sent riders to swarm through the night and warn everyone. Paul Revere, a pewtersmith of Boston, happens by chance to get the route to Concord and thus becomes a Revolutionary War hero. At Lexington, early in the morning, there is a brief dust-up between the British and local Minute Men. 18 Americans are killed or wounded. This marks the beginning of the American Revolution. Hancock and Adams, forewarned, had already fled. By the time the British reached Concord, the supplies had mostly been evacuated from the Concord Armory and the British rear guard came under fire. A huge swarm of militia now boiled out of the woods and farms and harassed the British with periodic attacks along the road home. A 1000 man rescue column had to come to their aid to avoid disaster. “By the time the column reached safety, 273 British soldiers were dead, wounded, or missing. The 4,000 Americans who had shot at them along the way suffered nearly 100 casualties.” (Give Me Liberty p. 142.) Thousands of militia now descended on Boston, placing it under siege. (The British initially had 4,000 men in Boston.)
“X bodily fluid is just filtered blood!” buddy I hate to break it to you but ALL of the fluids in your body are filtered blood. Your circulatory system is how water gets around your body. It all comes out of the blood (or lymph, which is just filtered blood).
“Okay but why is it always so chemically roundabout and unnecessarily complicated” well buddy, that’s because your blood is imitation seawater. See? It’s very simple.
Blood is what now?
It’s imitation seawater what part is confusing
Buddy if anything is living in your blood (except for more parts of you) in detectable amounts then you have a serious microbial infection and need to go to the hospital.
Humans are seawater wastelands kept sterile of all but human cells, with microbial mats coating their surfaces.
Thank you that’s…very disturbing
It’s not my fault you’re human.
Ok but “It’s not my fault you’re human.” Is the best comeback ever.
You can use it against anyone except children that you biologically helped to create.
Picture this: you are a Thing That Lives In The Ocean. Some kind of small multicellular animal a long time ago, before proper circulatory systems existed. “Wow,” you think, metaphorically, “it sure is difficult to diffuse chemicals across my whole body. Kinda puts a hard limit on the size and distance of what specialised organs I can have. Good thing I have all this water around me that’s the same salinity as my cells (they have to be that way so I don’t explode or shrivel up) so I can diffuse and filter chemicals with that.”
“Wait a minute,” you say a couple of generations later, because you’re not actually a small animal but an evolutionary process personified and simplified to the point of dangerous inaccuracy for the purposes of a Tumblr post, “instead of losing all these important chemicals to the water around me, how about I put it in tubes? I can keep MY water separate from the rest of the world’s water! Anything I want to keep goes in my water! Anything I don’t, I dump back into the outside water! I’m a genius! An unthinking natural trial-and-error process that’s a GENIUS!”
“Wow,” you think a great many generations later, “being able to have such control over such high concentrations of important chemicals is so great. Look how big I’m getting. I even have a special pump to move my seawater around, and these cool filter systems to keep the chemicals in it right, and that control and chemical concentration has let me grow so many energy-intensive, highly specialised organs! Being big is so hard. I need special cells just to carry my oxygen around now, to make sure my enormous, constantly-operating body has enough of it.”
At this point you are embodying a fish, and eventually, fish start straying into water with different pressures and salinity levels. (I mean, they do that since befor ehty’er fish, but… look, I’m trying to keep things simple here.) “What the FUCK,” you think. “My inside water is at a different salinity and pressure to the outside water?? How am I supposed to deal with that? I can’t have freshwater inside my seawater tubes! My cells have a set salinity and they would explode! I need to start beefing up my regulatory and filter systems so that my inside seawater STAYS SEAWATER OF THE CORRECT SALINITY even if the outside water is different! Fortunately, adding salt to my seawater is a lot easier than removing it, and I want to be saltier than this weird outside water.” At this point you beef up your liver and urinary systems to compensate for different salinities. (Note: the majority of fish, freshwater and saltwater, have a fairly narrow band of salinities they can live in. Every fish doesn’t get to deal with every level of salinity; they are evolved to regulate within specific bands.)
You also, at some point, go out on land. This is new and weird because you have to carry all of your water inside. “It’s a good thing I turned myself into a giant bag of seawater,” you think. “If I wasn’t carrying my seawater inside, how would I transport all these important chemicals between my organs and the environment?” As you specialise to live entirely outside of the water, you realise (once again) that it’s a lot easier to add salt to water than to remove it in great quantities. Drinking seawater in large amounts becomes toxic; your body isn’t specialised for removing that amount of salt. Instead, you drink freshwater, and add salts to that. The majority of your organs are, at this point, specialised for moving your seawater around, protecting it, adding stuff to it, or taking stuff out. You have turned yourself into an intelligent bag for carrying and regulating a small amount of imitation seawater, and its salinity (and your commitment to maintaining that salinity) is based entirely on the seawater that some early animals started to build tubes around a long time ago.
And that’s what a human is!
Well, there’s another few steps, of course.
Because at some point, operating along lines of logic that worked out perfectly so far, you did decide to be a mammal.
A mammal is a machine for adapting to Circumstances. A mammal is a tremendously resilient all-terrain life-support system, with built-in heating, cooling, respiration, and incubators for reproduction. Mammals internalise everything (grudges, eggs) and furthermore are excessively, flamboyantly wet internally. Sure, everyone’s a bag of chemicals; but mammals slosh. Mammals took the concept of an internal ocean and took it in an unnecessarily splashy direction, added aftermarket mods and a climate-control system,
and just to show off, you leaned across the metaphorical gambling table and said: “my internal ocean is so good-“
“Bullshit,” said the shark, keeping it salty (ha)
“My internal ocean is so brilliantly resilient, more so than any of YOURS,” you said, holding their attention with a digit held aloft, “that for my next trick, I shall artistically recreate the ballad of evolution as a performance. I shall craft a complex chemical ballet depicting the origin of multicellular life - using some of my own material, of course-”
“Oh, ANYONE can lay an egg,” yodel the fish, and the ray adds: “ontogeny does NOT recapitulate phylogeny!!”
And you’re like, “yeah no, it’s an artistic rendition, not a literal thing. Basically I’m going to take some cells and brew them up-“
“Like an egg.”
“Like an egg. An egg but internally.”
“Yeah,” said the viviparous reptile, “yeah, like, that can work really well. I’ve always said it’s the highest test of one’s chemical know-how. It’s a lot of work. And forget about support from your family - forget about support from your PHYLUM - all you get is criticism.”
“I’m gonna do it on purpose forever,” you said. “The highest chemical, thermoregulatory, immunological, everything-logical challenge. It’s gonna be my thing.”
“I’m with you,” said a viviparous fish, stoutly. “Representation.”
You kindly don’t point out, once again, that you’re planning to do this outside the ocean, in a range of temperatures; carrying the dividing cells in a perfect 37.5• solution of saline broth in all terrains, breathing oxygen in a complicated matter, you know, bit more difficult; but you need your allies.
“It’s solid,” says the coelacanth.
“But is it metal?” says the deep-vent organism.
“Oh, it’s metal. I will feed the young,” you say, magnificently, “on an echo of the mother ocean. The first rich feast of cellular matter, the first hunt for sustenance, the first bite they sip of our liquid planet-”
Everyone waits.
“Will be a blood byproduct. My own blood byproduct.”
Everyone looks uncomfortable.
“But,” a hagfish says carefully, “don’t you outdoorsy guys still need your blood?”
You cough and explain that if you stay wet enough internally and hydrate frequently, you should be able to produce enough blood byproduct to sustain your hellish new invention until they can eat your peers.
The outrage that follows includes questions like “is this some furry shit?” And: “milk has WATER in it?”
And you won the bet. “My inner ocean is such a perfect homage to the primordial soup that I can personally cook up an entire live hairy mammal in it. And then generate excess blood byproduct from my body and give it to the small mammal until it gets big.”
That is an absolutely bonkers pitch, by the way, and everyone thought you were a showoff, even before the opposable thumbs. When the winter came, and the winter of winters, and the rain was acid and the air was poison on the tender shells of their eggs and choked the children in the shells; when the plants turned to poison, and the ocean turned against you all; when the climate changed, and the world’s children fell to shadow; your internal ocean was it that held true. A bet laid against the changing fates, a bet laid by a small beast against climate and geography and the forces of outer space, that you won. The dinosaurs fell and the pterosaurs fell and the marine reptiles dwindled, and you, furthest-child, least-looked-for, long-range-spaceship, held hope internally at 37.5 degrees. Which is another thing that humans do, sometimes.
It has been MONTHS, @elodieunderglass, and I am still mumbling “furthest-child, least-looked-for, long-range-spaceship” under my breath as a comfort phrase, and the FUCKING INDIGNITY that it came from this godforsaken post about THE HORRIBLE WETNESS OF MAMMALS!
“The horrible wetness of mammals” would make a great band name.
“hold hope, internally, at 37.5 degrees” and “Mammals internalize everything (eggs, grudges)” Now live permanently in my vocabulary
There is a photographer in our town that works for a local news feed just for our town (which I'm 90% sure is volunteer run) and I see him sometimes at things. He usually covers the town halls, school board meetings, he was taking photos at Juneteenth last year. Basically he's everywhere and I'm also everywhere, so we cross paths often.
But he also does a thing called 'My Final Photo,' which is just random day to day stuff happening in town that he thinks is cool enough to snap a photo of. Like... ongoing construction of the new buildings, when the crocuses come out, a bird landing on a lamppost. Stuff like that. He's a really talented photographer.
The Final Photo for yesterday was kind of awesome but I don't think he knows how much the caption contributed:
Because that is both
a. sick as hell
b. perfect encapsulation of the childhood experience.
Reblogged
listen i know the rest of you are going to make far superior gifsets and believe me i will reblog every single one, but i could not wait, so i threw this together bc i had to yell at you about zhang xincheng RIGHT NOW and i needed visual evidence of what i'm on about.
[clutches you by the collar very gently and whispers urgently at you]