alison (she/her)

Absolutely wild to insist nobody knew WMDs were bogus.

Everyone objecting to the war (internationally too) knew it was a manipulative lie.

I nearly smashed my PE teacher with one once (because she refused to believe anyone would throw "that far"). Made alternate for regionals.

Yet another war skill turned into an athletic sport. (though even as a war skill, throwing cannon balls short distances doesn't seem that useful)

Dog with pipe in mouth (1875) attributed to the Minnesota Historical Society. A sepia toned photo of a fluffy white dog sitting on a table with a pipe in their mouth.

you KNOW this picture killed in 1875. people were busting the fuck up at a dog with a pipe. dogs don’t smoke

once again, if it's really that great, why do you need to keep telling us?

World Athletics’ mandatory genetic test for women athletes is misguided. I should know – I discovered the relevant gene in 1990 World Athletics says its genetic test for women ensures ‘the integrity of women’s sport’ – but science does not support this overly simplistic idea.

Every TERF is like 'birds and bees, it's easy, folks' and (almost) every scientist actually working on questions of sex is like 'oof guys, what can I tell you, I have been working on this question for 52 years, and frankly, I know less and less every year' theconversation.com/world-athlet...

👀

In my own personal experience of ordering from humans and getting the wrong orders, this is really not going to go well.

"I'll have A cookie and a latte please"
"Ok, one latte and 8 cookies, coming right up"
"What! No. A cookie. One cookie."
"Are you sure you didn't say 8?"

🙂 Thanks! I'm working on it.

TACO BELL HAS AN AI TAKING ORDERS?!?!

ugh no.

Given that the local McD's kiosks are regularly down so you have to talk to the human at the till, I don't foresee this going well for very long.

exactly!

"Here's your order! A grande redeye matcha latte, two pumps vanilla, one pump pumpkin spice, twelve percent milk, no foam, and extra whipped cream"

by age 30 you should have:

* strong opinions about birds
* 12 different "when i get time" projects on indefinite hiatus
* sandwich(es) you fruitlessly yearn to have again
* a growing list of obituaries you're looking forward to reading
* parasocial friendships with other people's pets

magical!

I started taking singing lessons a few months ago at age 51. I'm AMAZED at how much my singing has improved, even with the scarring in my throat from untreated reflux, and tense muscles that come with spastic CP.

Singing teacher is a friend, which helps a lot.

Life is FAR too short, do the thing!

oh, awesome!

Way to go!

We just don't see other people's errors because most of us only show off the things we're good at and proud of, not our failures, not our first attempts.

Even though well have them.

YOU may feel wildly self-conscious about being bad at something you've just started to learn, but you know what?
Everyone was bad at it when they started learning.

Every single one of us made bad art, or sewed some wonky shorts, or built a wobbly bookshelf, or wiped out on the flat ground.

Also "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" and "practice, practice, practice" are the basic tenets of any new hobby. Whether it's skateboarding or embroidery.

Stop beating yourself up about not being amazing.

Fair enough.
I think we all have our niches.
As long as we try the things we want to try.

WOW. YIKES.

This idea that people younger than [the person stating the opinion] are people with no experience of work, of suffering, of whatever, is so completely bogus and unhinged.

Just a completely groundless dismissal of anything that disagrees with his world view.

The best time to learn anything is when you're a kid. ... because a) you're not expected to be perfect (everyone knows you're a kid and learning things), and b) your brain is equipped to learn things fast.

The second best time to learn anything is as soon as you're interested in it. Try it out!

I wish more people would try new things as adults and actually TRY them. Give them a real solid effort.

(Yeah, being a dilettante can be fun, but even dilettantes have skills they've honed)

AND accept that you will not immediately be perfect. Nobody was. Even the ingenues. They just started young.

Irene Koh's thread is ON POINT.

I think there's a combination of people who just do not want to spend the time to learn a new skill.
AND people who don't realize that a lot of the "natural talents" they know of started doing the things they're talented in as kids when being bad at them was expected

I was shocked to learn how many ppl my age have not done any one sport/art/hobby in their life for minimum 10 yrs w consistency. I hope everyone finds a thing they love enough to keep at for a decade, bc reflecting on it afterwards will instantly demystify skill acquisition + the myth of Talent.

I don't know.
What have you done?

He doesn’t want to “reduce chronic illnesses,” he wants to reduce people with chronic illnesses

Gi-me-me-bit (Chordeiles minor) Following on from last month’s post on Ground Doves, my focus this month is on another bird with a sinister folkloric reputation – the Gi-me-me-bit (Chordeiles minor). Despite an alternate name for…

New post on my blog looks at Obeah beliefs surrounding the Gi-me-me-bit (Chordeiles minor) in the early 20th C. Spoiler Alert: don’t break their eggs! #MondayBlogs

natureandsupernaturalnature.wordpress.com/2025/07/21/g...

I am so sick of this shit. Keep pushing people out of their goddam jobs with subpar "AI" integrations but still expecting those same people to somehow stay paying into fucking capitalism to buy the, again, increasingly worse "AI"-infused shit. I hate it so much.

A ghostly skeletal figure peers over a curtain.

In Japan, August is ghost season so I plan to share lots of ghostly Japanese art. This print by Katsushika Hokusai (1831) is titled 'The Ghost of Kohada Koheiji' and is from the series 'One Hundred Ghost Stories.'
#JapaneseArt #ukiyoe #ghosts

Close encounter with great white shark near Halifax sparks awe, disbelief | CBC News A Dalhousie University student studying marine biology is sharing a breathtaking photo of a great white shark she took while on a recent research expedition off the coast of Halifax.

When I first saw this photo a day or so ago, I thought it was an AI-generated prank. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

AND competitive markets!

Like, sure, McD's makes good fries. But not if they're suddenly $8.