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um

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My next book of science cartoons Physics for Cats is available to preorder now! Links here: www.tomgauld.com

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Can lyrebirds also mimic human speech like parrots or just ambient noises and other birdcalls?

yeah they can imitate full sentences! here's one complaining about no sunblock

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One thing that has made me a much more well-adjusted person is a clip I once saw of Hank Green saying that anyone can be in amazing shape as long as being in amazing shape is one of their top three priorities.

(This is obviously a generalization that isn't true for everyone. But it is true for most people and I'm proceeding from there.)

This "top three priorities" framing has genuinely reduced my tendency toward jealousy and self-comparison a lot. Now when I feel envious of someone’s spotless, aesthetic home, I think to myself, “Having a spotless, aesthetic home is probably one of their top three priorities. It’s definitely not one of mine, so I shouldn’t expect my home to look like that.”

Or when I see an influencer with a body that takes a ton of work to maintain: “Maintaining that body is obviously one of her top three priorities, because it’s her livelihood. My livelihood is my brain, so I’m never going to prioritize my body like that.”

It also helps me to identify areas that I actually DO want to prioritize more. I realized in recent years that my envy for my friends who prioritized writing more than I did was NOT going away, so I started to prioritize writing more. (Not top three, but higher priority than it has been in the past.)

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its so windy my poor poor chickens are being blown around like dry leafs they look like this

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Hi! I think you've mentioned finding canon!Obi-Wan a fascinating character and that a lot of people miss a lot of stuff about him, can you expand on what your favourite parts of his character are or what you like to explore in him?

Tbh 'fascinating' is probably vastly overstating things - he's never going to be my favorite, but I like the canon version of him a lot more than the fanon version that's so common. I also definitely think people...mh. Flanderize isn't quite the right word, since it's not just his canon traits that get exaggerated, but. woobified, basically. Fandom very clearly tries to fit him into a certain mold, and I just personally don't think it really fits.

To me, Obi-Wan is sharp and fairly aggressive once he's encountered something/someone in his way. He's stubborn and a bastard and competitive, and he fits in just as well with Bane and the rest of the bounty hunters in that arc as he does with the other members of the Jedi Council. He's also self-assured and humble but not in any way shy or retiring. He can be very grumpy when things don't go his way, and he's snarky, almost cutting, even with allies. He's ruthless when it's necessary, and overprotective of the people around him, and he has a tendency to be morose and pessimistic when things go wrong, though he always keeps going anyway. He thinks he knows how people are going to act and can be too set in his beliefs about others, and he's kind but he's not exactly gentle.

Just - I think he's so much more interesting than a lot of fandom gives him credit for. And I am aware that fandom tends to make complex characters more one-dimensional, but god, Obi-Wan gets it so bad.

Also, if I hear one more person call him a twink I'm going to end up on the news.

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How Body Language Changes When a Character Is Falling in Love (Whether They Admit It or Not)

When someone starts to fall, it shows up everywhere—not in the love confession (that’s the easy part), but in the twitch of a smile, in the silence that suddenly feels charged, in the way someone’s hand almost reaches out before pulling back.

╰ They start listening… with their whole damn body

Suddenly, they’re turned toward this person all the time. Full body facing them. Chin tilted slightly in. They lean forward during small talk like it’s breaking news. They notice things, like the rhythm of their voice, the way their lips move when they think too hard. They stop fiddling with their phone. Their knee bounces until the other person speaks, and then, stillness. They’re so present, it hurts.

╰ Their eye contact gets… weird

Sometimes they can’t stop looking. Sometimes they can’t look at all... There’s that moment—the pause, the flicker—where their eyes land on the other person’s mouth for just a second too long. Or they track their hands. Or notice how their hair falls into their face. It’s not about lust. It’s yearning, and it’s quiet and stupid and full of panic. And when the person catches them looking? Immediate eye dart. Back to their drink. To the sky. To anywhere else. Guilty. Flushed. Terrified.

╰ Their hands get stupid

They’re suddenly very aware of what their hands are doing. They fidget more. Or freeze. They keep their arms close to their body, like they’re worried they’ll accidentally reach out. If they touch the other person, even casually, it lingers. Not long enough to be noticed, but long enough to matter. Sometimes they adjust the other person’s collar or brush something off their sleeve and then have a tiny meltdown inside. That kind of touch feels too intimate. It’s not flirtation. It’s reverence.

╰ Their silence means more than their words

They trail off mid-sentence. Laugh at things they don’t usually laugh at. Start saying something and stop themselves. It’s because their brain is trying to do too many things at once—act normal, sound chill, don’t make it weird, try not to look like you’re in love. Meanwhile, the body is over here sweating, shifting, subtly turning toward the other person like a sunflower in denial.

╰ Their whole vibe gets softer

There’s a gentleness that creeps in. Even if they’re a sharp, snarky character, there’s a moment where they look at the person like they’re a planet they’ve just discovered. It’s brief. It’s devastating. It’s involuntary. And they might pretend it didn’t happen. But the reader saw it. The love interest definitely saw it. And suddenly, everything is different.

╰ Bonus: They mirror the other person without meaning to

Their arms cross when the other person’s do. Their head tilts. They laugh a beat after. This is subconscious connection at work. Their body wants to match this person. Sync with them. Be close without being obvious. And when they stop mirroring? That’s a sign too. Maybe something hurt. Maybe they’re trying to pull away. But the body always tells the truth, even when the character’s mouth is lying through its teeth.

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Drag him sis

9-1-1

S08E17 : Don't Drink the Water | dir. Jonathan Lawrence

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Rationally, I know 8x15 was an exploration of grief and the need to let go, but irrationally, the fact that the CASKET WAS EMPTY just makes me think it's foreshadowing the moment Athena gets suspicious for one reason or another in S9, goes to check Bobby's casket, and finds it EMPTY because he's NOT dead.

Delusional ideas time: shadowy government agencies secretly put Bobby's body on ice, use the lab rat to reverse-engineer the antiviral, shoot Bobby's (almost-dead) body up with the antiviral as a convenient test subject and, well. Boom. Back to life.

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the worst part about delusional ideas is when that itchy little part of your brain starts to helpfully offer up pieces of supporting evidence, like how:

Bobby was exposed to the virus around the same time Chim was, but his symptoms progressed far more slowly. This could be partially due to a lower viral load (although I'm not sure of the exact level of influence), but he tells Athena that he "started feeling it hours ago". Hours ago. Chim deteriorated in about an hour and a half, and appeared to be well into Stage 2 by the two hour mark, whereas Bobby was still able to move about and contain his coughing and sneezing. The difference is stark.

It seems there is a very, very slight chance he might be reacting to it better than Chim then - maybe someone realises this and the fact that this makes him a very interesting research specimen (using those words to describe Bobby makes my skin crawl btw).

Also, following their full decontamination of the lab, the last remaining samples of the novel virus should be in Chim, the lab rat, and Bobby. Sure, they could get a few samples from Chim and the lab rat, but they both received an antiviral whereas Bobby has not. Again, makes for a useful research specimen.

Tl;dr: I'm about 60/40 leaning towards Bobby not actually being dead. But I still think they should just follow through on this plot update (even though it felt like it happened completely without warning and was not handled with all the gravitas and meaning that it could've been).

Delusional ideas time: shadowy government agencies secretly put Bobby's body on ice, use the lab rat to reverse-engineer the antiviral, shoot Bobby's (almost-dead) body up with the antiviral as a convenient test subject and, well. Boom. Back to life.

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Delusional ideas time: shadowy government agencies secretly put Bobby's body on ice, use the lab rat to reverse-engineer the antiviral, shoot Bobby's (almost-dead) body up with the antiviral as a convenient test subject and, well. Boom. Back to life.

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What I have realised is that Ravi Panikkar is a truly a saint to chance another hang out with Evan "Eddie has a Silver Star" Buckley

8x14: Sick Day stills pt.1

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Sometimes the rats in my brain come together and start yelling “YEARNING” and in trying to appease them I ask “FOR WHAT” but they are too small so all they can say is “YEARNING” which is a very big word for such a tiny creature, even collectively

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The Choctaw-Irish Brotherhood(via)

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In an episode called "Invisible" and with a significant focus on Eddie Diaz & his relationship with his parents, my little hope is that we'll get to see how his parents (and, perhaps, his mother especially) have failed to see the true Eddie and Chris, instead overlaying their visions and expectations on them and thereby rendering them - the true them - 'invisible'.

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So, what we can conclude is that Buck Buckley is currently neck-deep in the River of Denial.

Source

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A summary of Buck's wild journey in S8E11:

Has a crisis about living in Eddie's home alone

Gets called Satan

Tries to make a new friend

Fails at making a new friend

Sleeps with his ex and somehow manages to make it all about Eddie

Gets broken up with kind of again

Loudly denies being in love with Eddie, which nobody accused him of. Twice.

Gets over his crisis about living in Eddie's home