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I'm curious Mr Leech, what animal do you consider to be the WEIRDEST?

idk I guess the seahorse? from what I've read at least.

The seahorse has arguably the weirdest physical shape of a vertebrate, but just shape alone isn't the only way an animal can be weird, and I think maybe the weirdest animals are myxozoa??

The pustules on this fish are full of an organism similar in composition to a slime mold, a parasitic infection we considered a type of "protozoan" for generations

But myxozoa begin as a drifting spore, which ranges from a simple ball to these "anchor like" objects and even cube-shaped frames like in the top right here. These spores inject the slime stage into fish through a harpoon-like cell identical to the stingers of Cnidarians, like jellyfish, corals, anemones and man o' war. So eventually it was suspected that this wasn't just convergent evolution, and once we could genetically sequence living things, it was proven that this parasitic saltwater "slime mold" was an cnidarian after all, a jellyfish relative that reduced itself to nothing but bare cells. But it still gets weirder, because there also existed these weird "parasitic worms," Buddenbrockia, that ALSO came out of a spore stage, and also had stinging cells.

Finally it was proven that this isn't just another weird jellyfish relative, but specifically a species of Myxozoa. This isn't just slime anymore; it has multiple tissue layers and even muscle. So this is a sea creature skin disease, but it's also an animal that dissolved into a single celled form and then re-evolved a different multicellular animal body from scratch.

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My grandfather was blind and I can’t count the number of times I guided him into a bathroom stall

I’ve never thought about the added complications of finding toilet paper the stress of knowing where sinks and soap are.

I look out for accessibility in the world and have not once thought about why this level of detail is helpful in the world

This is why we need people with accessibility issues at the table.

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My god as a persons who escaped Delaware I can tell you it’s like the Bermuda Triangle weird to find then impossible to escape

hold on a fucking second. delaware is a state?? i thought it was a river? or is the river more important than the state? why don't i know this? (i should mention i don't like in america, i'm just confused)

there is delaware (state) and delaware (river) 

both are equally strange

the state is a tiny little cryptid thing

the rive is a monster that spans new york, pennsylvania, new jersey and delaware. also washington crossed it once and that was like kinda a big deal i guess. like crossing the rubicon in rome.

the state tries to me more important with its “im the first state!!!” bs (seriously its even on the fucking license plates) but we all know. its the river.

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This level of scale and disregard for humanity is both deeply real in our own world. As we see powerful and rich men decided to throw away any scrap of regard or pretense for their own selfish aims

AND

Going to be pulled into my current campaign

Once again Aabria has said something on the Fireside that has rocked me to my core in its level of depth of analysis of her character and the world.

“In the same way that Suvi’s irateness at the individualness of Orima is based on, ‘I will consider all spirits people and hold them to the same standard because I know a spirit, and I call him brother,’ that realization that Great Spirits do what they do and they're sort of beyond normal morality and applying normal lenses, is inside of Suvi now as she looks at Steel. I think that Steel as the sort of avatar of the Citadel and her disregard for the Grenaux children, like, “yeah, lots of bad things happen all the time,” she is no different than Orima in Suvi’s mind. She operates at the same scale with the same disregard for the individual, and I think if something interesting is being said about nuance, it is something about scale and size of purview, and how that can lose the importance of like individual care and how you can affect life on a singular and specific and intimate basis.”

Brennan: “…I think if you can level mountains and dry seas with the flick of a wrist, it has ceased to matter whether your origin is mortal or spirit … Maybe there's something about that level of power that removes you from the human heart of the world.”

I'm thinking lots of thoughts about this, mainly in relation to the coven witches as mortals with this level of nigh-spiritual power. Especially Hakea, who I feel really sits at that lost-in-the-sauce of scale and purview but eventually gave up and responded with apathy rather than action. But as she was awoken by Ame, she has returned to Steel- or Orima-level "Let's tear that tower down" rather than an awareness of "singular and specific and intimate" life.

It also reflects really interestingly on Grandmother Wren, as another mortal with this level of purview, likely even more so than Steel. It is her station to not remove herself from the human heart of the world; has she done that? From what we know, it seems so. But maybe being the witch of Toma was extremely important to her for keeping that level of intimate perspective. I wonder what she would have become without it. But also, we know that she had failures as a witch, and perhaps some of them did come from being too focused on the big picture of the worlds of mortals + spirits. Or alternatively, perhaps from having this extreme power but not considering the big picture enough. If you have the power to operate at this scale and pull your punches, is there something to criticize there as well? It certainly seems like the other witches think so, but I’m not sure I agree. (Thinking about “I refrain from fights I know I can win all the time”)

Also as an aside, this conversation I think dovetails beautifully with this line form EXU Calamity:

"Are all of you the heroes that you strove to be, or the villains that from time to time you might've been afraid you were becoming? In a world with this much power, what can be said to be the difference?"

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when I was a little kid at some point I got upset with my parents because I didn't have a crucifix in my bedroom and they did- I was like why do YOU get to be safe from vampires??? you're okay with me getting my blood sucked???? so we took a little trip to the catholic store but the one closest to us was run by a group of nuns that had been moved here from romania. I got a little baby pink cross and this sweet old nun was like 'aww, is this a baptism gift?' and I was like no. I need to be protected from vampires. and she immediately got SO serious and was like 'this is the best one we've got, you'll definitely be safe' and since she was literally from vampire land I was convinced she was like, van helsing. like the whole time my parents had been laughing about how cute my fear was but she literally Knew dracula and was taking my concerns seriously I held this over my parents for so long lmfao

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I don’t know what I’m going to bring to my queer pot luck this week but I’m sure it’ll be from this recipe book

When I was little my mom’s meatloaf was my favorite food. But ONLY her meatloaf. I didn’t like anyone else’s, and she told me that she would teach me how to make it when I was older. And when I was like 19? She finally taught me, but she told me never to tell anyone else and I was like weird but okay

Anyway, she was super fucking homophobic and abusive to me when I told her I was gay, so here’s the recipe

4-6 lbs of Hamburger/turkey burger

1 pk onion soup mix OR ranch mix

1 TBs ketchup

1 Tbs spicy brown mustard,

1 Tbs bbq sauce

1 Tbs steak sauce

1 egg

mix, shape into a loaf in a big pan, and bake at 350 for 2 hrs (maybe 2 and a half if you’re feeling dangerous)

You can get almost all of these ingredients at the dollar store, and have leftovers if it’s just you. The leftovers make great tacos if (taco seasoning is also like a dollar). Enjoy your revenge loaf

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Bachelor pad Thai

divorce themed restaurant menu

dessert: CUSTARDy Battle

yeah that's all i've got so far sorry

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“Ang commandment can be, and must be suspended to save human life”

This stopped me in my tracks

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Pigeons are wild. We domesticated them at roughly the same time we started making cities and lived side by side with them as honored pets for companionship and food and messaging until the 1930s when food became convenient and we didn’t need squab on our roof and just abandoned them to become pests.

Yes they’re ungovernable they’re literally living in a species-wide abandonment cycles

Further reading: Pests: How Humans Created Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire

Become Ungovernable Pigeon Print by halseywberryman

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Good lord this might be the most perfect prop work invisible corn yes and improvisational beauty in history

i downloaded this god damn episode just so everyone could watch this fukkin clip

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What I’m loving about Nif’s arc is that she was trained to do impossible tasks by Indri out of fear of death if she failed. Now she’s being given impossible tasks and told “you can do this” and “you are worthy” and most of all “you are not alone.”

Nif is the potential that exists when people are built up not broken down

Steel: We just couldn’t possibly reunite those kids with their parents, it’s too big of a task!

Nif with a fucking notebook and one child to help translate:

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Me in my cis het male life… I learned all of these things from my amazing queer framily has taught me over the years.

These are just a few of the reasons I LOVE the LGBTQIA+ community so much!

It's always important to remember what being a part of a community like this means. For me personally it means home, it means love, friendship and safety but for millions of people across the world right now it's the opposite, with everything going on in the world (especially with the recent rulings in the UK and USA) it's easy to forget that not everyone has a safe space in the world, they're being persecuted and hated for just being themselves!

Remember people, be there, be seen, be careful, be proud but above all be kind!

And on that note, if you need a friend, a place to vent or rant about anything that's going on in your life then my inbox and DMs are open to all who need a friendly face and listening ear.

If your family don't accept you then I'm your family now. Go eat, drink some water, and take your meds!

💜💜

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This 'impossible' crane shot from Mikhail Kalatozov's SOY CUBA (1964) ...

IS the greatest and quite remarkable one shot scene of them all.

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This is so deeply wholesome

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This season the Doctor pulls no punches

Doctor Who Lucky Day