bluecrusadestranger

[bluecrusadestranger]

being anti ai is making me feel like in going insane. "you asked for thoughts about your characters backstory and i put it into chat gpt for ideas". studies have proven its making people dumber. "i asked ai to generate this meal plan". its causing water shortages where its data centers are built. "ill generate some pictures for the dnd campaign". its spreading misinformation. "meta, generate an image of this guy doing something stupid". its trained off stolen images, writing, video, audio. "i was talking with my snapchat ai-" theres no way to verify what its doing with the information it collects. "youtube is impletmenting ai based age verification". my work has an entire graphics media department and has still put ai generated motivational posters up everywhere. ai playlists. ai facial verification. google ai microsoft ai meta ai snapchat ai. everyone treats it as a novelty. every treats it as a mandatory part of life. am i the only one who sees it? am i paranoid? am i going insane? jesus fucking christ. if i have to hear one more "well at least-" "but it does-" "but you can-" im about to lose it. i shouldnt have to jump through hoops to avoid the evil machine. have you no principles? no goddamn spine? am i the weird one here?

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at some point in your life you will be boiling fruit, water, sugar, and lemon juice in a pot to make a syrup or jam. the instructions will tell you to simmer for a certain amt of time. your timer will go off and you will look at the pot and go, "hm, this doesn't look thick enough. maybe i'll let it go for another 10 minutes." this is the devil speaking. it's only so liquid right now because it is at boiling point. it will thicken when it cools down. learn from the follies of my youth and do not let this happen to you

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violence and death and dying and blood and guts and gore and violence and viscera and fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you

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I cannot get over those long-snout dog breeds that really do that nose thing. Like there's something interesting to sniff a little bit to the side, but not interesting enough to turn your whole head to sniff, and they just go

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The only thing I need from the BatMuppet story that I didn't get yet is the HIIIIIIII-YA moment where Miss Piggy karate chops Bruce Wayne.

And has no idea the significance of doing so.

Oh, no, no. She doesn't do it to Bruce. She does it to the Joker.

They're at a televised charity gala, making the rounds. All the usual glitz and glam. Miss Piggy has just left to powder her snout when the shooting starts, and cries to "get down on the ground now!" reverberate through the room. It's almost half expected that the night is going to end in a hostage situation. It's Gotham, for Christ's sake. But no one's expecting the Joker. He's supposed to be in Arkham. The Bats just put him there. He shouldn't be out already.

Bruce is stalling for time, trying to give the Boy Wonder and all his other kids time to get to them. He's stammering, hands in the air, offering to pay whatever the Joker wants if he'll let all these people go. Except the Joker doesn't take ransoms. He barely takes prisoners. And he's got a gun aimed squarely at Bruce Wayne's forehead.

But Bruce keeps trying, inching forward on his knees, hands behind his head. Trying to figure out how much he can get away with in a room full of all these fucking cameras. He's going to get shot. He already knows it. It's just a question of whether he can duck and make sure it goes through his shoulder and not his head. Christ, he fucking hates guns.

"Come on," Bruce says, trying his hardest to sound both scared and amenable. "Everyone has a price. Name yours."

The Joker laughs, gesturing grandly with his free hand. "Tell you what, Brucie-boy, you'll get a price when pigs fly!"

The sound of enraged hoofs striking off marble makes itself known. A deep, guttural squeal tears through the night. The kind that hunters of old knew the fear and keep at the end of a long spear. The Joker turns just in time to see Miss Piggy flying through the air. Eyes red. Tusks bared. Hand raised. "HIIIIIII-YA!"

Jim Gordon's outside, preparing to launch a frontal assault, when the news comes in over the radio. He listens, shouldering the radio against his ear as he pulls a cigarette case out of his pocket. "To shreds, you say? What about the henchmen? To shreds, you say..."

[bluecrusadestranger]

Those snakes aren’t cuddling. They’re not a social species.

While working with Dr. Thomas Guensburg (currently a researcher at the Field Museum of Natural History) on imagery of crinoid evolutionary chains for peer review, he revealed that he was worried how it would be received. His work was solid, clearly explained, and very clear- at the time I was confused how other researchers could reject it. It was then I learned how sometimes the truth doesn't always matter, especially when people's careers were staked on false information they based their own research on; many would fight tooth and nail to suppress evidence that things might not be true as they were invested in the former incorrect belief. It is my understanding this sort of suppression happened quite often, unfortunately.

While some of his peers did this deliberately, even with common folks it's much easier to get them to believe something false than to question their belief and change it to something true even with evidence. So far as Hognose Snakes go, from my understanding the last in depth research on these animals in the wild was done in the 1980's - which is incredibly dated. Even in recent years we've found so much of what we "knew" about reptiles was entirely wrong. Back then we "knew" reptiles couldn't see red light so it was commonly used for heating. Back then we "knew" rattlesnakes and leopard geckos were solitary animals. We now know this information is incorrect.

Reptiles can see red light, and a constant red light negatively affects their sleep cycles, health, and behavior. Leopard geckos actually live in colonies - yet some people will still argue they are solitary animals in the wild. As for rattlesnakes, Project Rattlecam livestreams and documents the lives of rattlesnakes. Do they look like solitary animals to you?

So back to Hognose Snakes. When I first got my girls I'd read up everything on them, how they were solitary, and deaf, and not that bright, and unable to feel emotion (let alone love) due to missing the part of the brain that is capable of processing that. All of those things my girls have shown me to be untrue. Snakes are not deaf, in fact my girls regularly respond to my voice. They're not stupid (at least not any more than the average human child tbh) and can be target trained as well as taught to point at things they want. As far as feeling emotion, their brains are structured like birds, not humans, so they have a different brain structure and chemical but do indeed feel happiness, emotion, and affection- I have videos on my blog of Scoria using a gesture to request being pet she learned from mimicking me petting her.

As far as being solitary- the evidence I've seen that can be repeated points to that information being untrue. Think about it, why would a solitary species dedicate one of their few words to say, "I'm friendly! Let's be nice to each other." The "twitch" is also seen in the (very much not solitary) rattlesnake to communicate with other individuals they are friendly. Contrary to popular belief this is NOT strictly to signal mating but used far more often to display friendliness- Project Rattlecam has quite a few examples between babies and adults.

Hognoses also are known to brumate together over winter in the same dens. That doesn't sound like solitary animal behavior, especially considering they tend to brumate with individuals they know. Honestly? This sounds more like loose colony behavior. A researcher very well could have seen that a hognose went to a den by themselves and thought, "Hmm, these aren't like garter snakes who cram themselves into a den like a clown car. They are solitary."

My girls don't either. Usually each will sleep in her own den- unless she's worried about the other. I've seen a few times, including when Sakura was in shed, Scoria didn't leave her sister's side. But normally they'll go to one of their favorite dens (they seem to have decided amongst themselves what belongs to who) and while they'll sometimes borrow each other's dens, like a sister staying in her sister's room, they tend to stay in their own beds for the most part. During the day, they'll seek each other out, Sakura will greet Scoria with a twitch, and they'll either play with today's enrichment activity or snuggle up together and wait for me. They didn't start out together, and the decision to house them together was NOT one I took lightly. I actually have two identical enclosures I bought for each of them, but the other never got set up because they get very upset when I separate them. After quarantining Sakura, I left one of the rocks she'd had in her enclosure on a table Scoria was playing on. Her response was dramatic, she KNEW the scent was another snake, and from that second on she was determined to find this other hognose. I was afraid of introducing them, Scoria actually found Sakura's enclosure and tried to free her by digging through the side (there's a video of this in one of my older posts.) I VERY cautiously introduced them, and after some tongue flicks and twitches, Sakura immediately started treating Scoria like her mother.

Sakura was an absolute wreck when I got her, terrified of humans- I think her breeder mishandled her as she had trauma responses and would blind panic and flail when I tried to hold her. But if Scoria was with her and I picked them both up at the same time? She'd have no hesitation. Take Scoria away and Sakura was immediately back to hiding, panicking, and flailing. If they can see each other and Sakura gets scared, such as if there's a loud sound, she immediately races over to her sister and hides her head under her chin. I've seen them both be protective of each other too, even earlier this week I startled Sakura and she hissed- Scoria came racing from where she was to check Sakura where she was then go back to whatever she was doing. And when I take one out and not the other- if one can't find their sister while we are out I will come back to her very concerned hoggie, who will check her sister over completely when I put her back to ensure she is okay before she'll relax. They BOTH do this. And so many other things. So yes, I am aware of what people say about hognoses. And I am aware of the behavior I've witnessed and repeatedly seen proven to be true with my own girls. I've had other hognose keepers echo similar things when they let their snakes play together during free time as well. The entire world might not be open to hearing what is commonly believed might not be true- let's face it, an absurd amount of reptile keepers are still using red lights and refuse to change. But regardless, I know my girls, have studied their behavior, and am doing what they've shown me is best for their health and well being. <3

[bluecrusadestranger]

Steve Harvey is the only host of anything that I can appreciate

[bluecrusadestranger]

One of the most important things to unpack and unlearn when you’re part of a white supremacy saturated society (i.e. the global north) and especially if you were raised in an intensified form of it (evangelicism, right wing politics, explicit racism) is the urge to punish and take revenge.

It manifests in our lives all the time and it is inherently destructive. It makes relationships and interactions adversarial for no good reason. It undermines cooperation and good civic order. It worsens some types of crime. It creates trauma, especially in children.

Imagine approaching unexpected or unacceptable behavior from a perspective of "how can this be stopped, and prevented" instead of "you’re going to regret this!”

Imagine dealing with a problem or conflict from the perspective of “how can this be solved in a way that is just and restorative” instead of “the people who caused this are going to pay.”

How much would that change you? How much would that have changed for you?

[bluecrusadestranger]

Janey Godley spoke for all of us.

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Just for the record, "Collective Shout" who are behind the current push to harass itch are a bunch of swerfs specifically who keep getting deployed by far right fundamentalists to give a veneer of feminist optics to their censorship crusade. They are also a national joke in Australia, where they're from. For the record to any Aussies listening: You can submit a concern to the ACNC about this being inappropriate for an organisation registered as a charity (namely harassing american based digital storefronts). Also, while you can't call mastercard or visa to complain about this from here (they'll hang up on you on the Aussie numbers) you can email them about it.

^^^

[bluecrusadestranger]

Friend group chats are fun. Today one of my friends, who keeps pet crayfish, found babies in a tank that was supposed to be a males only. No choice but to empty out the whole tank to fish out the babies of unknowable origins. But lo and behold, there was a culprit: one teeny tiny little female had somehow escaped containment, evidently specifically going out of her way to break into this all male tank to get railed by like 15 males twice her size. Possibly completely different breed, too. Monsterfucker supreme.

So for a good solid hour or so, the whole group chat was focused on. slutshaming this one specific little crustacean. With like 300 babies.

[bluecrusadestranger]

By using antibodies from a human donor with a self-induced hyper-immunity to snake venom, scientists have developed the most broadly effective antivenom to date, which is protective against the likes of the black mamba, king cobra, and tiger snakes in mouse trials. Described in the journal Cell, the antivenom combines protective antibodies and a small molecule inhibitor and opens a path toward a universal antiserum.

Continue Reading.

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Once I "made" a custom emoji for my mum by crudely drawing a hijab on it and now whenever she wants me to buy a coffee for her I get a text like this

[bluecrusadestranger]

A qinggong master

English added by me :)

[bluecrusadestranger]

ranking the best things I have heard surgeons say mid-surgery:

1. "Five second rule!" while scrubbed, after dropping a sterile scalpel on the floor (no they did NOT pick it up again but I swear everyone's buttholes puckered)

2. (spoken during the closing of a particularly long and difficult case) "Nurse - my tunes." :heavy metal starts blasting:

3. Gently to a fretful patient, pre-anaesthesia: "It's going to be okay. I promise, I've dealt with worse." As soon as the patient is unconscious: "This is literally the worst thing I've ever seen."

4. [okay this one was a med student] "Wowwww, that's so gross!!" Reg: "Please remember that [patient] is awake for this procedure." Student to patient: "Oh my god. I am so sorry, that was really unprofessional - " Patient, cheerfully, also engrossed with what's happening inside them on the screen: "Nah - it's, like, super gross, right?"

5. [another procedure where the patient couldn't be put under GA] Patient: *starts singing country roads midway through the procedure* Surgeon: *shrugs and joins in with surprisingly good harmony*