Science, Person

admonishing teacher: and would you still behave this way if the earth cracked open to reveal an unyielding tract of slavering organs ?

naughty child: i would unveil my terrible opus

moral: the child's opus is too hideous to behold

We all deserve better as workers and it starts with abolishing capitalism.

Hero

“You should be at the club.” No, I should be at the scholastic book fair.

Ok

@homophobicranch @sjwromanroy

Got curious

https://neosciencehub.com/man-spends-93-days-under-the-atlantic-sea-becoming-10-years-younger/

For a groundbreaking investigation, retired navy commander Joseph Dituri was required to submerge himself for more than three months. Researchers sought to understand the impact of submerged life in a pressurised environment on the human body. And guess what? After spending more than three months submerged in the Atlantic Ocean, scientists were astounded to discover that Dituri had become “ten years younger” when he emerged from his little pod.

Following diagnostic evaluations, it was discovered that Dituri’s telomeres—the DNA caps at the ends of chromosomes that normally shorten with age—had grown 20% longer than they had three months prior.

In addition, his stem cell count had increased and his general health had undergone a dramatic metamorphosis. Dituri also reported better-quality sleep. His inflammatory indicators decreased by half, and his cholesterol plummeted by 72 points. According to medical professionals, the underwater pressure—which is recognized to have several health benefits—caused these alterations. Dituri subsequently discussed the need for these kinds of encounters.

“One of these locations that are isolated from outside activities is what you need. The British newspaper Daily Mirror cited him as stating, “Send people down here for a two-week vacation, where they can get their feet scrubbed, relax, and experience the benefit of hyperbaric medicine.” He said that his metabolism had also significantly improved.

Rare new form of beneficial pressure discovered

old timey doctors sending you to the seaside for your health were so, so close.

There are many benefits to being a marine biologist.

“Authors should not be ALLOWED to write about–” you are an anti-intellectual and functionally a conservative

“This book should be taken off of shelves for featuring–” you are an anti-intellectual and functionally a conservative

“Schools shouldn’t teach this book in class because–” you are an anti-intellectual and functionally a conservative

“Nobody actually likes or wants to read classics because they’re–” you are an anti-intellectual and an idiot

“I only read YA fantasy books because every classic novel or work of literary fiction is problematic and features–” you are an anti-intellectual and you are robbing yourself of the full richness of the human experience.

"you are functionally a conservative" is such a good and clarifying insult

Literally right after I saw this post, I saw another post in a discord chat for BOOK EDITORS in which an outspokenly liberal editor talked about how Nabokov should have never been published because he wrote about p*dophiles and described women's bodies in ways that made her uncomfortable. She described his writing as "objectively terrible" and said she wanted to burn his books. And other editors were bringing up classics they didn't like and talking about how they wanted to throw them in the trash. This wasn't like a light "unpopular opinion!" conversation. This was actual book editors talking about how books should be destroyed and censored.

There is something so scary and toxic in global culture right now. The revival of fascism is influencing everyone's mindset and approach to art, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum.

I see far more books being censored today than when I was a kid. Librarians handed me The Catcher in the Rye, The Sexual Politics of Meat, and Animal Farm when I was literally 8-11. My mom would never have taken a book away from me. I read everything from the Tao Te Ching to the Qur'an to atheist texts under my desk at school. Teachers thought nothing of it or encouraged it. Books seemed universally acknowledged as sacrosanct to me.

Now I can't find any adults who don't hesitate or want to make exceptions when it comes to censorship. Even the most liberal social activist librarians I know go, "well except for book X..."

Functionally conservative. It's so important to have the language to express that.

Thank you for this addition!

I did a report on book banning once.

Actually, I did reports on book banning three separate times with three separate teachers, with three separate sets of parameters so I was able to write about the same topic in different ways, but this is specifically about the report I did in university. The actual specs for the report included that we were supposed to complete some kind of study or poll (this was not a science class). I put the questions out on a couple of forums I belonged to at the time and asked a few IRL friends as well. A lot of the questions were standard for this sort of thing, I think - were you ever assigned to read a banned book, did you ever read banned books on your own, did you read/were you assigned them BECAUSE they were banned or did you find out about them being banned later, what's your opinion on banning books, etc.

But there was one question I asked that ended up reshaping the entire thrust of my presentation: "Are there any books that you think SHOULD be banned, and if so, why?"

Here's the thing. Most of the forums I was posting on were fan spaces for a book series that, at the time, was one of the most banned/challenged books out there. It's a fandom that I have since entirely distanced myself from, that I one hundred percent do not recommend to anyone, that I will actively attempt to dissuade people from reading or talking about, and that I would like to not be popular anymore. I'm sure most of you reading this can guess which one I'm talking about (I won't name it or go into specifics because I don't want to trip any filters unnecessarily). But it was KNOWN that these books were banned in a lot of places. A lot of people wore the "I read banned books" badge with pride. I fully expected that the answer to that question would be a resounding "no" from the forums, and that I'd maybe get a few affirmative answers from one of the other spaces.

I was shocked. Not only did a lot of people come back with either "not exactly but I think we should keep [author] or [book] out of the hands of children" or "yes, [book]/anything by [author] should be banned because XYZPDQ", but not a single person who responded gave me the same answer. The only one I remember - keep in mind it's been almost twenty years - was that one person specifically said The Bone Collector, and for the "why do you think it should be banned" question, they only said, "No. I'm not explaining it. It's too horrible to even think about. Just believe me when I say nobody should ever be allowed to read this book."

I highlighted that last comment in my presentation, along with several other of my "favorite" official reasons for banning books - the Alabama school board that banned The Diary of Anne Frank in 1984 because it was "a real downer", the district that removed A Raisin in the Sun because it was "pornographic", the library that took Charlie and the Chocolate Factory out of circulation because it "might be hurtful to children without parents", and things of that nature - and pointed out that all of these were the same thing. This was somebody saying "I don't like this, therefore nobody should read it, and I shouldn't have to explain why." I also pointed out that if you can't give a good reason, the whole thing falls apart, and then I quoted "Smut" by Tom Lehrer:

Go back to that paragraph I mentioned earlier, about those books that I no longer recommend to anyone. Notice how I phrased that. I don't recommend them. I will tell you all the reasons why I don't think you should buy them. I will tell you all the problems with the author, with the franchise, with the writing. I wish they were out of print, I wish they were deeply unpopular, I wish nobody would ever read them again.

But I still won't advocate for banning them.

It's so easy to twist a justification. Look at what I quoted up there! A Raisin in the Sun was banned for being "pornographic". One of the websites I used as a source responded to that accusation with "Did they read the same play I did?" At the time, I thought the comment was funny. Now, twenty years later, I realize: It was a buzzword. It was a convenient label. At the time of the challenge, just saying "it's pornographic" was enough. Obviously you're not some kind of sicko who wants to hear about all the pornographic details, are you? Freak! That's pornography! And they're teaching it in schools! We should get rid of it!

A Raisin in the Sun, for anyone who didn't study it at any point or read it (or watch the movie, which was very good), is a play/movie about a black family in Chicago in the 1960s. The family matriarch has been in domestic service for years, but she's just received a very large insurance payment from her husband's death and is retiring. Wanting to give her family, especially her young grandson, a better life, she goes out and buys a house...in an otherwise exclusively white neighborhood. The head of the homeowner's association (essentially) comes to visit them and offers to pay them a substantial amount of money to not move into the neighborhood, because segregation isn't officially a thing and they can't legally stop them from moving in, but they don't want them there. There's a lot more that goes on in the play, and I highly recommend you go and read it, but the point is that there is nothing sexual or titillating in the entire thing. The closest we get is a scene where the daughter (Beneatha, a college student) is gifted a traditional African dress from her boyfriend, who's Nigerian, and he shows her how to put it on over the clothes she's already wearing, and maybe the scene where the daughter-in-law (Ruth, a laundress) accidentally reveals that, having found out she's pregnant, she's planning to have an abortion rather than bring another child into the world/have another mouth to feed.

It's not pornographic. But someone didn't want it taught in schools, so they called it that to get it banned.

It's so easy to twist labels. If you, a liberal, agree that books with X trait are okay to ban, the people who don't want books to exist will find a way to say they have X trait, and then what are you going to do, admit that you like that sort of thing? Sicko! Freak! Pervert!

You don't have to like the book, or the author, or the topic. But if you're advocating for banning them entirely, you're functionally a conservative.

People have called The Diary of Anne Frank child porn (which is now more properly called CSAM - child sexual assault material) because in the book Anne discusses her own sexuality and masturbation habits in a very direct and relatively detailed way. And since she was 14 and thus a child (except 14 year olds are not children, they're adolescents) this constituted disgusting vile child porn.

Which is ridiculous any way you look at it, but that's the justification many people have used to get that book banned. We can't let people know that minors have any kind of sexual awareness or feelings, now, can we?

"without modifying" how dare you insult the hard work of our landlords

Wizard wanders wearily

Looking for a pub

When he finds none easily

He shrinks down to a grub

If there’s no bar by leg or man

Then an insect bar will do

The drinks are cheap with human coins

But the drinks are small and few

I think that @numamazza drink there often•

•iffff ŷou seè Bobby Beetle thêre,, tell hǐm I néed thať boddle bacķ•

I’m in that bottle still, you tiny green bastard!

Oh! That's where I put you. Your boss has been calling the apartment. You might be fired.

If Gavamont doesn’t get me out of here, I might become a sazarac or martini!

Don’t worry, I’ll play some dice for your bottle.

Not everyone knows this, but as a green wizard, I have particularly good luck. This is apparent because of my great fortunes and lack of bad things happening.

wishing a very special happy birthday to this line

ppl are rlly trying to defend being on your phone during a movie in the theater what is going on

using your phone in a movie theater is a symptom of long covid

the defense of being on your phone in a movie theater is who cares? by your own admission, you should be paying attention to the movie. so why do you care what other people are doing? you’re meant to be paying attention to the movie.

the most obnoxious woman of 1913: "wearing massive hats in the Nickelodeon is a symptom of grief about the Titanic"

Country wizard at the bar, and the nights winding down

He’s just swaying with frog sorcerer, without music around

But a tender old wizard don’t need fancy songs

If he’s got his sweet toad who will dance along

And the two start to glow and they rise through the air

The toad and the wizard make a powerful pair

Their pure country loving gives them powers arcane

Look out below, cause it’s a fireball rain

your continuity is all over the place• is this a frog or a toad¿

Aren’t toads frogs? I thought it was like “all toads are frogs, not all frogs are toads”?

That's about the shape of it. Bufonidae is a clade within Anura.

Who the fuck taught this guy magic spells!?

I do leave my tomes around a lot. Along with my frog and toad books.

@guiltiest-gear

i have my first job interview in 4 years tomorrow and im pretty nervous, please send advice or encouragement >_<

itll be ok sneevil just take it slow

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

Everybody driving a car thinks they're the main character of the car. This is an ideologically bourgeois attitude. You know who doesn't ever feel like the main character of the vehicle they're in? Literally everyone on the bus. You're on the fucking bus. And the bus driver doesn't feel like the main character of the bus because she's at fucking work. The bus is the most ideologically proletarian form of transport.

You'd think that trains would be the same, but unfortunately there are world-famous detectives that can serve as the main character of the train.