no neurodivergent infighting here

ID: text over a black and white photo of a bald man squatting and making a shushing motion with a finger. text says "a real [screenshot of the Wikipedia page for ASD] never speaks ill of [screenshot of the Wikipedia page for schizophrenia]"

believe it or not some female characters don’t have to be mothers. some female characters shouldn’t be mothers. some female characters have a history of expressed disinterest in being mothers. some female characters would have to do a complete 180 in characterization in order to be mothers.

Guys, the liquid stuff you use when you make a pen mistake so you have to cover it over, what’s it called?

White out

Okay that’s what I thot too,

But apparently it’s “Wite out” 😳😳😳 hello??????

Mandela effect *X-file music plays*

Views from an alternate dimension

Wite-Out is a brand of white out/correction fluid/liquid paper. The colloquial ‘white-out’ probably derives from the Wite-Out brand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correction_fluid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_Paper

More importantly:

New Zealand math classroom, circa 2019

this post just shot me in the face like ten times

Lookit-!

*I hold a small red sapling in a big flower pot*

*He headtilts and leans in to glance at the strange sapling, looking it over while Dewdrop keeps an eye on you* V: it's a tree sapling-?

It's a Bloodbark tree sapling. When it's fully grown the sap resembles blood and causes hallucinations

*Void stares at the sapling with concern and morbid curiosity* V: and you want me to see this why..?

I thought I could transfer some adults and plant them on the outer regions of the forest. That way they can keep humans out by acting as a sort of bait

V: I don't mind I guess.. just keep them away from my kin, I don't want them getting affected by it.. *He looks at Dewdrop and the other sprites in his chest*

Pretty sure it only affects humans, since it evolved this way to defend against deforestation

*The present sprites look at the sapling with unease* V: maybe..? Its hard to tell with trees so far from here..

I'm sure it'll be fine

V: If you're sure- what place did you get this from..? *Void gently holds the sapling, studying it*

One of the worlds I explore for study

V: that's encouraging.. *He watches the tree sapling warily* I'll make sure to try planting it near the edges..

Thanks Void

Lookit-!

*I hold a small red sapling in a big flower pot*

*He headtilts and leans in to glance at the strange sapling, looking it over while Dewdrop keeps an eye on you* V: it's a tree sapling-?

It's a Bloodbark tree sapling. When it's fully grown the sap resembles blood and causes hallucinations

*Void stares at the sapling with concern and morbid curiosity* V: and you want me to see this why..?

I thought I could transfer some adults and plant them on the outer regions of the forest. That way they can keep humans out by acting as a sort of bait

V: I don't mind I guess.. just keep them away from my kin, I don't want them getting affected by it.. *He looks at Dewdrop and the other sprites in his chest*

Pretty sure it only affects humans, since it evolved this way to defend against deforestation

*The present sprites look at the sapling with unease* V: maybe..? Its hard to tell with trees so far from here..

I'm sure it'll be fine

V: If you're sure- what place did you get this from..? *Void gently holds the sapling, studying it*

One of the worlds I explore for study

this company is so frustratingly misleading. They did not bring back the direwolf (Aenocyon dirus). They modified a modern grey wolf (Canis lupus) into having some direwolf morphology. There has been no de-extinction. This is pure hype slop. As a friend said "these are dire wolves the same way La Croix is a fruit".

I still think this tech has the potential to be helpful in a conservation context.... but it says a A LOT that these "dire wolves" look far more like something you'd see in Game of Thrones than any of the most likely reconstructions proposed by scientists who've studied the fossil record.

These pups might get more robust as they age, but right now I'm not seeing anything to get excited about. I just can't help but suspect that this species was chosen specifically bc the public already has the idea of "dire wolf = gray wolf + big", and that this company is using relatively minor CRISPR editing to give the false impression that they're recreating anything that might have conceivably lived 10,000 years ago.

Again, I think this tech is interesting and merits further development (and if jurassic park is the only way they can do that, then, I guess that's what's happening), but it's still extremely misleading to parade these animals around like they've actually 100% cloned a dire wolf.

Really reminds me of Jurassic Park. In the books, Crichton made it very clear that they didn't actually clone dinosaurs. They just combined DNA to make an animal that looked like what people EXPECT a dinosaur to look like, because it turned out that actual cloned dinosaurs were really quite dull and spent most of their time hiding.

Aencyon dirus isn't closely related to modern wolves at all either so it doesn't make any sense to start with a gray wolf. (According to wikipedia they were isolated from the gray wolf lineage for over 5 million years.) we thought they were in genus Canis but turns out it was just convergent evolution and they are a whole other thing

now that I actually read the article, I realize that the lede was buried-- they genetically modified this wolf, and they also cloned 4 critically endangered red wolves

I think the TIME article is really irresponsible in acting like the pups are dire wolves when they don't contain any dire wolf DNA. The "dire wolf" pups are literally just gray wolve engineered to look more like the creatures on Game of Thrones (literally--one of the pups is named Khaleesi)

I remain cautiously optimistic though, because it seems like they are doing actually useful research for preserving existing animals and then putting a Jurassic Park type spin on it for the media.

The Dire wolf thing honestly might just be an attention-grabber to get money off of people that know nothing about ecosystems, and the red wolf might be the actual real purpose of the research. If they've figured out the genetic basis of body size and certain "wolfy" behaviors in wolves, they could make it possible to bring coyote-red wolf hybrids into the red wolf breeding pool without sacrificing the wolf traits

Y'all, just think about guys like Elon Musk. Rich tech bros with a 5 yr old boy's idea of what is cool. This stuff is perfectly calibrated to siphon off some of those techbro's billions, while on the side, being helpful to conservation

Just look at the traits of the altered pups that are highlighted in the article: snout, jaw and limb thickness and heaviness, vocalizations, body size. All key traits that separate red wolves and coyotes.

Here's what the article says:

They're using this technology to bring genetic diversity from red wolf/coyote hybrids back into the red wolf gene pool. As soon as I read "red wolves" I suspected this might be what was happening, and I was right. This could help fix the genetic bottleneck in red wolves and make a real chance for the species to actually return.

this approach is honestly genius

It's like those researchers who have made huge strides in lake ecology with funding they get by "searching for the Loch Ness Monster"

yup exactly

just a quick search of this Bridgett vonHoldt demonstrates that she is a BIG DEAL in the world of canine evolution and genomics. she's worked on groundbreaking publications that have hundreds of citations in some of the most renowned scientific journals. She's the real deal.

whether Colossal is serious and knowledgeable or not, they're working with people who are.

There's a lot of furious people in the notes who clearly did not read the article because they are yelling "THEY COULD BE USING THIS TECHNOLOGY TO SAVE CRITICALLY ENDANGERED RED WOLVES"

Well you see, that's exactly what they're doing

I'm not happy with the confusion caused by calling the modified gray wolf a dire wolf, it further obscures what dire wolves actually were with Game of thrones pop culture bullshit. But I think that it's a solid strategy for sucking up the money of rich idiots who wouldnt otherwise care about animals

maybe im a stupid asshole but one of my biggest tumblr pet peeves is when i see a popular post that DEFINITELY got posted to r/curatedtumblr or put in a funniest tumblr posts video or whatever and the post is the 3 or 4 original reblogs that make up the og post and then like 25 reblogs in a row of different people all saying some variation of "I CANT BELIEVE I FINALLY FOUND IT" or mentioning hellsite-hall-of-fame or something

this is so valid but i’m so sorry, we (the tumblr masses) could do the funniest thing here

@hellsite-hall-of-fame

Oh my god I finally found the post

IVE ONLY SEEN THIS POST IN SCREENSHOTS

IT'S IN MY DASH?????? SUCH A HONOUR

I'VE ONLY EVER SEEN THIS ON PINTEREST OR INSTAGRAM

Wait did fame @ themselves

yes, yes I did

She’s just trying to sell her wares

Lookit-!

*I hold a small red sapling in a big flower pot*

*He headtilts and leans in to glance at the strange sapling, looking it over while Dewdrop keeps an eye on you* V: it's a tree sapling-?

It's a Bloodbark tree sapling. When it's fully grown the sap resembles blood and causes hallucinations

*Void stares at the sapling with concern and morbid curiosity* V: and you want me to see this why..?

I thought I could transfer some adults and plant them on the outer regions of the forest. That way they can keep humans out by acting as a sort of bait

V: I don't mind I guess.. just keep them away from my kin, I don't want them getting affected by it.. *He looks at Dewdrop and the other sprites in his chest*

Pretty sure it only affects humans, since it evolved this way to defend against deforestation

*The present sprites look at the sapling with unease* V: maybe..? Its hard to tell with trees so far from here..

I'm sure it'll be fine

HE’S GONNA DO IT!

me (user since 2010) everytime this site is in a 50/50 situation of being nuked every 3 years

For the ones that need it today

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine // S0605: Favor the Bold

Scientists shouldn't have to pretend they're bringing back the dire wolf. Geneticists should be able to say "I want to make wolves larger for no reason", and we should have the resources to say "that sounds cool as hell. Here's a billion dollars"