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[harpsicalbiobug]

there's a post where someone said "can you respect trans women who look like men" and someone responded something like "hell yeah I love people who fuck with gender!" and like... yeah that's cool, but in a lot of spaces "trans woman who looks like a man" is a lot less likely to be someone who is intentionally comfortably presenting masculine, and a lot more likely to be a girl who hasn't started transition, or can't safely, or just didn't or couldn't put in the effort to pass as fem today, and a lot of them will just look like schlubby dudes and not a radically presenting queer person. and you should be able to respect that.

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A lot of sentiments I see online about "just standing up for yourself" fall apart when considering that a common consequence of "standing up for yourself" is losing a key part of your current support network. It's hard to tell someone to stop being transphobic to you when you carpool with them to work, and it'll get a lot more expensive without them. Can your budget tolerate that cost, or is it the expense that stretches you too far? It's hard to tell someone that they need to be more polite to you when they're the one who helps walk you through legalese. Can you find someone else to do it for you, or are you left floundering? It's hard to tell someone to stop being sexist to you when they're the one writing your reference letter. Do you have someone else who can be your reference, or are they the only one whose letter would be accepted?

In order to be able to stand up for yourself, you need to be able to bear the potential consequence of that person leaving. You need to either have redundancy in your network, or be able to pay for what they did for you. Safety is about more than if someone will hit you.

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A horseshoe crab being a home to other sea creatures!

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Review of this book from the New York Times:

Heat, according to the journalist Jeff Goodell, has a branding problem — though unlike the desperate politician whose P.R. flack is on speed dial, heat doesn’t need to be better liked; it isn’t loathed nearly enough.

In his fast-paced new book about climate change, “The Heat Will Kill You First,” Goodell denounces the term “global warming” for sounding “gentle and soothing, as if the most notable impact of burning fossil fuels will be better beach weather.” He says that the word “hot” has too many pleasing connotations: sexy, winning, in demand. Sure, hell is supposed to be hot, too; but for those who can afford it, air-conditioning has sapped the metaphor of its power, allowing a hellish heat to seem like a matter of intermittent discomfort instead of eternal damnation.

As this terrifying book makes exceptionally clear, thinking we can just crank up the A.C. is a dangerous way to live. Goodell, who has written about climate change for more than a decade, is currently based in Texas, where “every heat wave is a nail-biter” — including, coincidentally, the one that is happening right now. In addition to the viciousness of the climate-control cycle — we cool ourselves on a warming planet by making the planet warmer — powering all those air-conditioners is like playing chicken with the electrical grid: “If power goes out for long on a hot day, businesses shut down, schools close and people die.”

Goodell’s stripped-down style suits his subject. This is a propulsive book, one to be raced through; the planet is burning, and we are running out of time. Death is a common refrain, and it doesn’t apply only to humans. “When it gets too hot, things die,” an agricultural ecologist tells Goodell. Or, as Goodell writes of creatures that adapt by moving to cooler places: “If they can’t find refuge, they die.” A hotter world puts the most vulnerable at risk — the old, the sick, the poor.

[harpsicalbiobug]

Don’t get your sex ed from fanfiction!

Get it from

Scarleteen

[harpsicalbiobug]

Ideal work schedule:

I show up and am given a list of cognitively engaging but achievable tasks

I complete the list

I leave immedietly

[harpsicalbiobug]

hey. personality quiz right here right now. What did you do at recess. :)

[harpsicalbiobug]

Ode to the Microbe

Prints

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things haven't been great but i think they will be. eventually 🌻🌼🩷

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i just wanna say, as a feeding tube haver, that it's so much more possible to get used to invasive medical devices than you might fear.

i grew up horrified by even being reminded organs exist. i was just so severely grossed out by human anatomy. i got a lot better about it through years of chronic illness, since you just have to get used to it. but that's the baseline i started from originally, in case you are also squeamish and wonder if it's possible for that to change.

so when i needed a feeding tube, i was pretty distressed by the idea. having a tube sticking through a new hole in my abdomen was a seriously horrifying concept, and i couldn't imagine coping with having a stoma (the hole) and caring for it etc. i did it because i needed it to survive but thought i might never get used to it.

and yeah, it freaked me out at first. but eventually i did just get used to it. it just feels normal now. i even feel affection towards it, because it is keeping me alive.

[harpsicalbiobug]

Black movies that are not about trauma, slavery, or being accepted by white people >>>>>>

[harpsicalbiobug]

Here's a finch eating a flower petal. I've had the worst day of anticipatory anxiety I'm so furious. Birds are good.

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North American friends, please don’t mistake UK “let our native weeds grow freely” as blanket permission to claim US non-native weeds as equally beneficial. They don’t have the same value to our native pollinators

No Mow May is a huge case study on cross-Atlantic mistranslation

Listen to Dr. Sheila Colla, NA native bee expert, instead of UK honeybee people:

“Coming back from the biodiversity crisis will require active stewardship, not neglect, of altered landscapes.”

I permanently keep this article open as a tab on my phone because I reference it so much

yes, something flowering is better than nothing, but all this money, research, PR, and literal seeding of weeds going on could instead be used to support our actual native bees, instead of offering them non-native, poorly nutritious diets that can literally lead them to canibalize their own eggs

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Anyone else think the “phantom cat shaver” might be an inside cat vigilante trying to send a message? This is already making some Brits say they’ll keep their cats indoors.

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I was gonna make a jokey post about how Rachel Animorphs is a great character because "what if the most fashionable it girl at your school discovered a passion for war crimes" is just inherently interesting to watch, and you know, that's true

But I think the real thing that makes her interesting is that while the other Animorphs have the "what if you were in a situation where you had to do violence and it was hard" thing covered from a variety of angles, Rachel's arc is "what if you were in a situation where you had to do violence and it was entirely too easy?"

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every single day I think about how american black vultures are known for engaging in allopreening (preening between different species)

and they have a specific relationship with crested caracaras, in which the black vultures assist them by not only preening them after meals but also leading them to food in the first place— due to their superior sense of smell— while the caracaras assist the black vultures by acting as a warning signal in case of danger

and while this is more typical of black vultures, this is not common at all for any member of the falconidae family— it’s a special bond!

yet another post in favor of vultures everyone , hope you enjoy:) and I implore you to do some more research on these incredible birds !!

[harpsicalbiobug]

The most hera to ever hephaestus. I miss her a lot i hope she comes back from the war