#it's just science

[marlynnofmany]

Not a biologist so not sure how well this holds up, but consider:

Humans are warm-blooded. We are constantly burning calories just to keep warm. What if to aliens we are constantly consuming food just to keep up like DC's Flash family??

Alien: "What are you doing?"

Human: "Making the best sandwich I've had in weeks!"

Alien: "But you just ate this morning."

Human: "...Yes? Like normal? Wait, how long ago did you eat?"

Alien: "Three weeks ago. Like normal."

Human: "Oh right, you guys are coldblooded! Wow, I forgot. I guess we haven't been doing much running around lately, so you probably don't need much food. Weird. Well, you're missing out on sandwiches like this."

Alien: "If we're 'coldblooded,' does that mean your blood is hot? Is that why you eat so much, to maintain it? What a waste!"

Human: "Remind me to give you a hug next time the heater breaks, and I bet you'll change your mind."

[bethanydelleman]

A Scientific Explanation of a Very Annoying Trope:

I have learned through media that women who are good at MAN things (punching, gunning, BUSINESS, tomb raiding) are incapable of cooking. There must be a reason for this highly prevalent trait in women characters only. (As seen in Tomb Raider, Miss Congeniality, Lord of the Rings (movies only), My Demon, etc. etc. etc.)

I hypothesize that in the female brain there is a specific area that is responsible for the ability to cook. A woman can only learn cool, important, manly things if they never learn how to cook, thus sparing this area for more important skills:

(This is actually Broca's area, beside a woman who has prudently saved her brain space)

Men do not have this failing. In fact, it's extremely hot when they can BUSINESS, punch, and cook.

Thank you for attending my TED talk.

[vampire-catboy]

I just think boys look better when they're on their knees, begging me to let them cum inside me

[seconds-2-midnight]

If you don't think Hazel brings the tarot cards with her to casual social outings, you're wrong.

Pulls a card in the middle of brunch like, "...According to a higher power, you're the world's biggest idiot." She didn't even read the card. She's just a conduit for shit-talking. Possessed by the ghost of bitches past.

[mariacallous]

A literal dilf will always beat a conceptual dilf.

[surfrocklee]

somewhere in an alternate universe rock lee runs a blog about me

[reecey9o5]

Oh man, do I have a new batshit theory for you!

(Which annoys me because I do not like this one half as much as the ‘Dante and Outis are Odysseus and Penelope’ theory.)

So what flight of fancy am I on this time?

Dante isn’t Dante, Dante isn’t Odysseus,

Dante is Dorian Gray.

Evidence?

Dante said bloke once

Seemed to be a dick in their former life

The golden apple being ‘for the fairest’ still applies for Dorian, as artists, upper class scumbags and Nyarlthotep all agree: Dorian Gray was a certified hottie

Dante’s power of turning back the clock and making it so that the wounds of one’s mistakes are no longer written upon one’s body lines up pretty well with the portrait

The whole ‘wish’ thing. That’s what Dorian did, and look where he ended up

Now, I don't like this one so much for a couple of reasons.

It doesn't tie back to any of the sinners like the Odysseus one and also lacks all of the bullshit evidence I ma-ay have found.

This one's really born from the question 'why isn't Dorian Gray a sinner?'. Well, who says he isn't?

True, we can ask that question about a lot of classical literature characters. So... we should.

I'll be back with more batshit theories soon!

[1d-trashcan]

when niall said “when you feel you're sinking, overthinking, time is crashing down”” I really felt it and when louis said “nothing’s ever easy, to be honest I’m not easy on myself” I sketched out a tattoo idea and called my psychiatrist.

[mutt-victim]

if i met you in real life i'd give you a great big hug and ask you to pat my head (and then bite your arm)

Oh i just KNEW it wouldn't be an ask from lil bro without threats of chomping me! I would give you a big tight squeeze and lots of headpats. And let you nom away

[endusviolence]

Rowling isn't denying holocaust. She just pointed out that burning of transgender health books is a lie as that form of cosmetic surgery didn't exist. But of course you knew that already, didn't you?

I was thinking I'd probably see one of you! You're wrong :) Let's review the history a bit, shall we?

In this case, what we're talking about is the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, or in English, The Institute of Sexology. This Institute was founded and headed by a gay Jewish sexologist named Magnus Hirschfeld. It was founded in July of 1919 as the first sexology research clinic in the world, and was run as a private, non-profit clinic. Hirschfeld and the researchers who worked there would give out consultations, medical advice, and even treatments for free to their poorer clientele, as well as give thousands of lectures and build a unique library full of books on gender, sexuality, and eroticism. Of course, being a gay man, Hirschfeld focused a lot on the gay community and proving that homosexuality was natural and could not be "cured".

Hirschfeld was unique in his time because he believed that nobody's gender was either one or the other. Rather, he contended that everyone is a mixture of both male and female, with every individual having their own unique mix of traits.

This leads into the Institute's work with transgender patients. Hirschfeld was actually the one to coin the term "transsexual" in 1923, though this word didn't become popular phrasing until 30 years later when Harry Benjamin began expanding his research (I'll just be shortening it to trans for this brief overview.) For the Institute, their revolutionary work with gay men eventually began to attract other members of the LGBTA+, including of course trans people.

Contrary to what Anon says, sex reassignment surgery was first tested in 1912. It'd already being used on humans throughout Europe during the 1920's by the time a doctor at the Institute named Ludwig Levy-Lenz began performing it on patients in 1931. Hirschfeld was at first opposed, but he came around quickly because it lowered the rate of suicide among their trans patients. Not only was reassignment performed at the Institute, but both facial feminization and facial masculization surgery were also done.

The Institute employed some of these patients, gave them therapy to help with other issues, even gave some of the mentioned surgeries for free to this who could not afford it! They spoke out on their behalf to the public, even getting Berlin police to help them create "transvestite passes" to allow people to dress however they wanted without the threat of being arrested. They worked together to fight the law, including trying to strike down Paragraph 175, which made it illegal to be homosexual. The picture below is from their holiday party, Magnus Hirschfeld being the gentleman on the right with the fabulous mustache. Many of the other people in this photo are transgender.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of a group of people. Some are smiling at the camera, others have serious expressions. Either way, they all seem to be happy. On the right side, an older gentleman in glasses- Magnus Hirschfeld- is sitting. He has short hair and a bushy mustache. He is resting one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of him. His other hand is being held by a person to his left. Another person to his right is holding his shoulder.]

There was always push back against the Institute, especially from conservatives who saw all of this as a bad thing. But conservatism can't stop progress without destroying it. They weren't willing to go that far for a good while. It all ended in March of 1933, when a new Chancellor was elected. The Nazis did not like homosexuals for several reasons. Chief among them, we break the boundaries of "normal" society. Shortly after the election, on May 6th, the book burnings began. The Jewish, gay, and obviously liberal Magnus Hirschfeld and his library of boundary-breaking literature was one of the very first targets. Thankfully, Hirschfeld was spared by virtue of being in Paris at the time (he would die in 1935, before the Nazis were able to invade France). His library wasn't so lucky.

This famous picture of the book burnings was taken after the Institute of Sexology had been raided. That's their books. Literature on so much about sexuality, eroticism, and gender, yes including their new work on trans people. This is the trans community's Alexandria. We're incredibly lucky that enough of it survived for Harry Benjamin and everyone who came after him was able to build on the Institute's work.

[Image ID: A black and white photo of the May Nazi book burning of the Institute of Sexology's library. A soldier, back facing the camera, is throwing a stack of books into the fire. In the background of the right side, a crowd is watching.]

As the Holocaust went on, the homosexuals of Germany became a targeted group. This did include transgender people, no matter what you say. To deny this reality is Holocaust denial. JK Rowling and everyone else who tries to pretend like this isn't reality is participating in that evil. You're agreeing with the Nazis.

But of course, you knew that already, didn't you?

Edit: Added image IDs. I apologize to those using screen readers for forgetting them. Please reblog this version instead.

[bluestonewings]

ACES!!! Look at this Scientific American article!!! It makes me genuinely so happy to read. We’re making it!!!!

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/asexuality-is-finally-breaking-free-from-medical-stigma/

[reasonsforhope]

If you're feeling anxious or depressed about the climate and want to do something to help right now, from your bed, for free...

Start helping with citizen science projects

What's a citizen science project? Basically, it's crowdsourced science. In this case, crowdsourced climate science, that you can help with!

You don't need qualifications or any training besides the slideshow at the start of a project. There are a lot of things that humans can do way better than machines can, even with only minimal training, that are vital to science - especially digitizing records and building searchable databases

Like labeling trees in aerial photos so that scientists have better datasets to use for restoration.

Or counting cells in fossilized plants to track the impacts of climate change.

Or digitizing old atmospheric data to help scientists track the warming effects of El Niño.

Or counting penguins to help scientists better protect them.

Those are all on one of the most prominent citizen science platforms, called Zooniverse, but there are a ton of others, too.

Oh, and btw, you don't have to worry about messing up, because several people see each image. Studies show that if you pool the opinions of however many regular people (different by field), it matches the accuracy rate of a trained scientist in the field.

--

I spent a lot of time doing this when I was really badly injured and housebound, and it was so good for me to be able to HELP and DO SOMETHING, even when I was in too much pain to leave my bed. So if you are chronically ill/disabled/for whatever reason can't participate or volunteer for things in person, I highly highly recommend.

Next time you wish you could do something - anything - to help

Remember that actually, you can. And help with some science.

[ithinkdogshouldvote]

Guardian swap au for 4/13 ^ ^

[time-woods]

badway to start a date mixed with a bit a selfsabotage

(part 3-5/?)

(<previous>) (<next part>)

[beemovieerotica]

Hey... so there now appear to be AI-generated science articles on .org websites that are giving biologically incorrect "facts" on basic, for-children topics

The title is "Are There Freshwater Octopus Species?" which should be an incredibly straightforward thing to answer: No.

The article starts out decent:

"Despite their many fascinating features, there is no evidence to suggest that octopuses can survive in freshwater environments."

Cool. Okay. Next section.

"While most people associate octopuses with the ocean, there are some species that can survive in freshwater environments."

Wait. What?

"Freshwater octopuses belong to the genus Amphioctopus, which includes several species that are found in brackish water and estuaries. These cephalopods have adapted to life in freshwater environments and have been observed in rivers, streams, and even hydrothermal vents."

NO NO NO.

One species of freshwater octopus is Amphioctopus aegina...Another species, Amphioctopus marginatus...

THESE GUYS LIVE IN THE OCEAN. [Scrolls 2 more sections]

Freshwater octopuses are still a topic of debate among scientists. While some researchers claim that they do exist, others argue that there is not enough literature to support their existence.

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[souldagger]

fun discovery from today's internet rabbit hole:

the first lesbian magazine published in the US, Vice Versa (1947-48), was entirely hand-typed by one Edythe Eyde (better known by her pen name Lisa Ben - yes, that IS an anagram for lesbian). she worked as a secretary with a ton of spare time on her hands, and her boss would tell her he didn't care what she was doing so long as she "looked busy"... so she decided to use her free time to type out copies of a home-made periodical for lesbians, writing most of the content - editorials, book/film reviews, poetry, short stories, and more - herself!

overall, the magazine ran for 9 issues, 16 hand-typed copies of which lisa would mail to friends (well, until one of them advised her she could be arrested for sending "obscene" materials) and distribute at lesbian bars :)