Romana the Xth

GenAI has polluted image search results, especially for animal pics. It’s now basically impossible to find accurate art references.

Enter this: a repository of open-access, AI-free images of wild & exotic taxa. Artists creating *without AI* have blanket permission for derivative/transformative use.

What I want to know is, why isn't anyone working on a way to turn kudzu (or any other invasive plant, i.e. blackberries in the PNW) into plastic? It wouldn't have to last more than a use or two, and then the trash would biodegrade. Wins all around!

Hey, cisgender friends! Please read this.

In the coming days, you're going to see a lot of people speaking about and for trans people. They will, in all likelihood, be cisgender people, not transgender. The term below will help you understand what's really happening there, and why it's a bad thing.

I fucking hate TERFs and they aren't welcome in my spaces.

Repost if you also hate TERFs.

I don’t want to be one of those creators accused of inserting a thinly veiled fetish into their work. I would like to be known for my obvious, observable, unveiled fetishes.

Quick note about resistance that I really needed to hear

What does this mean?

That the medical privacy of trans youth has no protections.

That ideologues in hospitals can play politics with kids personal medical data and there will be no consequences.

That trans Americans are second class citizens.

Get up and seize the means of seratonin production, comrade!

Trying to find a happy medium between not knowing anything that's happening in the world and being pissed off all the time

David Lynch in sunglasses saying "i hope you all are having a lot of fun working on your favorite projects"

Honor his memory by doing something strange, unraveling a riddle within yourself, and working on your favorite projects.

kyle_maclachlan Forty-two years ago, for reasons beyond my comprehension, David Lynch plucked me out of obscurity to star in his first and last big budget movie. He clearly saw something in me that even I didn't recognize. I owe my entire career, and life really, to his vision. What I saw in him was an enigmatic and intuitive man with a creative ocean bursting forth inside of him. He was in touch with something the rest of us wish we could get to. Our friendship blossomed on Blue Velvet and then Twin Peaks and I always found him to be the most authentically alive person I'd ever met. David was in tune with the universe and his own imagination on a level that seemed to be the best version of human. He was not interested in answers because he understood that questions are the drive that make us who we are. They are our breath. While the world has lost a remarkable artist, l've lost a dear friend who imagined a future for me and allowed me to travel in worlds I could never have conceived on my own. I can see him now, standing up to greet me in his backyard, with a warm smile and big hug and that Great Plains honk of a voice. We'd talk coffee, the joy of the unexpected, the beauty of the world, and laugh. His love for me and mine for him came out of the cosmic fate of two people who saw the best things about themselves in each other. I will miss him more than the limits of my language can tell and my heart can bear. My world is that much fuller because I knew him and that much emptier now that he's gone. David, I remain forever changed, and forever your Kale. Thank you for everything.

This is a beautiful tribute.

Adulthood
a poem by Steph Stark

The time has come
Once again

To wash the clothes
To wash the dishes

Why are there always dishes?
Why is there always laundry?

them: wow ur a linguist i better watch my grammar

linguists:

Screen cap from Watch Duty. After a donation ask box, text reads: Don Zirbel • Staff Reporter 9 minutes ago · Jan 11 at 9:04 AM The fire continues to move south, "chunking away" (fire is advancing in an uneven or patchy manner) paralleling the West Mandeville Fire Rd and Mandeville Canyon - per radio traffic. Five helicopters are currently working this area of the fire.

Just want to point out what great science communication happens on Watch Duty, the writer using jargon and defining it as he goes. Using the jargon communicates full detail to the more expert audience, and defining it assists newcomers. This kind of multilevel writing is essential to good #scicomm.

Dear video game devs

We’re not interested in games looking “hyper-realistic”

We’re interested in them being fun to play, cheap enough to actually buy on a regular salary, and not so large that the console can only store 7 at a time

Thanks
Gamers

Leagues. Under the sea.

Douglas Adams warned you about Genuine People Personalities 45 years ago you bozos

Mount Hood, Oregon 🌫️

"The results were miraculous. 'We used the 100 Million Brazilian Cohort (76,532,158 individuals) subset, linked to administrative mortality datasets in Brazil. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest cohort ever created to study health-related outcomes. We evaluated the impact of the Brazilian Cash Transfer Program on suicide outcomes over a 12 year follow-up [2004-15] and observed that those receiving Bolsa Familia had a 61% lower risk of being a suicide victim than non-beneficiaries. The results were more pronounced among women and young individuals. These results demonstrate that economic interventions, such as Conditional Cash Transfers, contribute to the reduction of suicide, presumably by reducing poverty-driven hardship.'"

Universal Basic Income will likely significantly reduce suicide rates according to this huge study: "Those receiving [the cash] had a 61% lower risk of being a suicide victim than non-beneficiaries. The results were more pronounced among women and young individuals."

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Jeff Bezos never wanted this cartoon to become public.

He killed it, and as a result, pulitzer prize editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit.

Make sure everyone sees this cartoon.

Big win! The Fish & Wildlife Service will expand Okefenokee Refuge by up to 22,000 acres, protecting it from a proposed titanium mine. Nearly 30,000 public comments showed how special Okefenokee is to people everywhere. Thank you to everyone who spoke up!

Its truly insane how many journalists writing about these anti trans laws don't point this out.

It has occurred to me that, for most species on this planet, an individual being held in human captivity is likely to have a longer, healthier life than one running free. The only species of which this is consistently not true is… humans.

My best DSOs taken in 2024.

#astrophotography
#astronomy

the reason an MFA doesnt improve your writing is because it cant instill in you the single most important quality for a good writer to have: being an absolute weirdo who really wants to make people understand the perverse undulations of their gremlin brain

Thanks to whoever went to the trouble of morphing me into a dromedary so I could finally fulfill my potential as "Mar🐫".

🙏 ❤️ 👍

My New Year’s Resolution.
What’s yours?

Music just makes shit better.

Meme with pictures of Michael Caine from Muppet Christmas Carol and Tim Curry from Muppet Treasure Island with the following description and reply: "The reason Michael Caine and Tim Curry are so good in their respective Muppet movies is that Michael Caine treats the Muppets as fellow actors, and Tim Curry treats himself as a fellow Muppet. Discuss." "No need to discuss,your analysis is spot on"

Obligatory: (And as noted, spot on)