gossamerthreads - Tumblr blog

[gossamerthreads]

Idk, sometimes the cues animals choose on their own aren't desirable, and I can see these buttons being a good idea for some owners. For example, my last dog would paw at the door when he wanted to go outside, but if you were upstairs you wouldn't hear him until he started barking. So I bell trained him- teaching him to ring a bell attached to the door instead of pawing at things.

Do you think those cat/dogs learning to talk with buttons thing is actually accurate? I know even primates apparently dont know how to parse human words (with regards to sign language) so i struggle to understand why dogs or cats suddenly understand complex english

They don’t actually understand what the buttons mean. These animals aren’t capable of processing language like we humans do and they tend to react more to your tone and visual cues then the actual words you’re saying. 

The buttons are just very basic operant conditioning. I very basic form of cognition in animals. They press the buttons because they are rewarded for doing so, not because they actually understand the meaning behind the buttons.

You can see in those videos (they do usually edit it out, but sometimes the creator of these videos just outright admits it) that it can take their pet something like 15 - 20 minutes to respond via the buttons.

Claims that the pets are asking questions ect. feel very staged / trained (like the below for example). Remember these videos are all coming from people on tiktok and people will do anything for a bit of internet fame. Scientific research has shown that dogs do not pass the “mirror test” but the mirror test is a very outdated way to show self-recognition in animals.

You compare this to the language studies done by Pepperberg with African Grey Parrots like Alex; in which they were able to ask questions they weren’t already trained to ask, form sentences they weren’t previously trained to do, display self-recognition (via asking what colour they were), could understand syntax and form their own words eg. Alex called apples “banerries”,  a combination of "banana" and "cherry", two fruits he was more familiar with.

I prefer not to touch on koko the gorilla because that research is already pretty widely criticised with a lack of actual data, and there was evidence of the Clever Hans effect (her trainers' unconscious cues were prompting her to display specific signs). 

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Some of my fave Black Fae Day lewks:

Slays.bySarah on IG

Etoilesroses on IG

Phleshe on IG and maybe on here? 

Feycrafts on twitter

KSHAW_tv on Twitter

Kagoneko on twitter

Hotboybebop on Twitter 

Queer_Elf_Club on Twitter 

And Thorns_and_Flames who lives in  my head rent-free

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With my kid getting into 18 in dolls I had been looking at my old AG stuff and bemoaning the state of the historical dolls (Samantha's BeForever outfit was terrible. No I am not taking other opinions). So even tho I'm not in the market for new dolls at this time, I'm excited about this.

Does this mean they are rereleasing the books with illustrations?

WHAT'S GOING ON

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when you wanna show off your dolls looking beautiful and elegant but your decorations are shit

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Mizi Doll, Tales of The World: The Brides of Dracula, Mina, 2020 🍷🧛🦇🏰

Just like Lucy, Mina is based on Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker from Bram Stoker's Dracula, both movie and the novel, and honestly she's stunning. Absolutely beautiful! I got worried for a second though, because it took them such a long time to deliver her, I started to think they have lost her in the mail! But luckily everything's fine!

I originally thought that Lucy was my favorite, because of my inclination towards readheads, but now I'm not so sure 😂

The only complain, for me personally, is the articulation in the chest is nonexistent, so yet again I wonder why put a joint there if we can't use it 🤷

Otherwise, the doll is just *chefs kiss* ❤

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When will Mattel design asian dolls that actually appeal to asians

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NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg is a self proclaimed crafter. A week ago she made a stuffed dinosaur from scraps on the space station. The little T-rex is made form the lining of Russian food containers and the toy is stuffed with scraps from an old T-shirt. While many toys have flown into space, this is the first produced in space.

Photos: Karen Nyberg, via CollectSpace

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A self-drafted pattern success! The top gapes a bit, and I'm not sure how to fix that, but it looks cute and the button band turned out really nice! I'm really excited about the customization options for this.

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Tried out one of the old Pleasant Company patterns. This is Molly's Jumper with a modified skirt. I'm actually really pleased with this! It turned out pretty good, and design is really classic. It looks surprisingly modern with the horse print.

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Omigosh this is gorgeous. Especially as a knitter, I can't imagine how long this took! It looks so good!

Commission: oversized SD sweater for @sicktress is done and being blocked! Thank you💖 If you’d like your own custom sweater for your doll, please DM me!

#dollknits #dollknitting #bjdknitting #cablesweater #bjdsales https://www.instagram.com/p/CNjCBMsjpE3/?igshid=40ar13p19vpx

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My first time seeing Rainbow High dressed in this style, and it works? I would have thought they'd be too modern for the frills and poof, but she's super cute!!!

Bella in the Aliexpress dress.

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Ironing around my little always made me really worried. The phase where you can tell them not to touch the hot thing, but they don't understand or retain that knowledge, so you absolutely cannot trust them to ACTUALLY NOT TOUCH the hot thing was really hard for me. I ended up sewing a bunch of projects at the same time, piling them in a basket, and then doing a bunch of ironing at once while distracting someone with Daniel Tiger, and then moving the off-but-still-hot iron to another room after I was done. It took SO LONG to finish anything, but it was the only way I could do it.

Now that they are older, it's easier. But practice really helped the anxiety for me. Start by doing it on your own and get a number of ironing-sessions-without-any thing-going-wrong under your belt. See if you can find an area you feel comfortable putting the warm iron out of reach (for me it was the kitchen counter next to the knife block) When you feel comfortable ironing alone, you can start trying to balance ironing with watching kids. You've got this. And even if it takes a while, it will get easier.

I used to iron the shit out of all my projects while I was sewing; my iron was pretty much always on and standing by.

Now that I have little kids, though, I hate turning the iron on. I'm always so worried they'll somehow touch it or worse pull it down on themselves. Now I will only iron when they're completely in another gated off room with someone else. This puts a real crimp in my operations.

And I'm finding now that even when I'm completely alone, I'm hesitant to get the iron out. Like the anxiety persists.

Do any of y'all with pets or kids feel this way?

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Trying to make a pillowcase dress for an 18in doll. I think I went too tight on the arm holes this time... Time to take out some stitches and try again...

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Sewing sewing sewing...

I've got the bug, so let's see how much I can get done. 😆

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I once read a doll book with a story about how, in the early 1970s, Takara tried to bring Licca to the US

but

their perception of the US market was that people wanted lower costs/the ability to buy more dolls more than they wanted dolls of good quality and accompanying higher costs

so they dolls they brought to the US market were vastly inferior to Japanese Licca dolls

and kids themselves rejected them

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This reads as true to me. I keep thinking about something I saw someone post (don't remember who right now) about how the clothes that Mattel makes for Barbie aren't clothes that Barbie would actually wear. That Barbie has always been about fashion, but they don't even make interesting fashion packs anymore, much less dolls with unique outfits. All the fashionistas have the same vibe- bright colors and simple shapes, half-print dresses and motifs that were cool years ago.

Anyway toys suck nowadays because people designing them arent toys which are responding to current trends rather than existing for the sake of existing

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Anyway the idea Barbie being a glamorous pink infested blonde woman with material excess and a billion careers was a direct result of the 80s and its return to super conservative values and gender conformity, hyper capitalistic greed and second wave feminism having women be visible in the workplace.

The reason why Barbie still gets associated with that image is because Mattel can't seem to understand that Barbie needs to be broken down to a molecular level, and be reimagined for the 2020s without her being a patchwork monster of 80s Barbie with consecutive years of traits added upon her.