OMFG.
Very curious doggo
Reminder that puffins are extremely social and like to fit in with their friends, so they will adopt mannerisms and interests of the group. So there is a good chance this little guy is trying to be friends with the photographer by showing his interest in the camera.
TIL photographers are a lot like puffins, cuz we also make friends by showing interest in your camera XD
Reminds me of the time researchers were trying to get puffins to land in a specific area so the put decoys up to draw them in but the decoys only had 1 leg and
this is so fucking cute
Ireland is coming to the end of a three year pilot of Basic Income for Artists.
2000 artists received €325 a week for three years, and every euro paid to participants resulted in society receiving €1.39 in return.
Artists’ earnings from their art increased, there were more cultural activities and events and there were, unsurprisingly, huge leaps in participants’ psychological wellbeing.
Oh gods I have neglected this for far too long.
Hey peeps. 🫶🏼
I love how both corvids and parrots are in general highly intelligent, but where corvids generally have strict hierarchies, solve disagreements in the pecking order by fighting, and have a strong dislike for anything new or foreign until they figure out how to make use of it, parrots are just here to party.
The New Caledonian crow, who knows how to specifically build a tool in order to build another tool, never engages in play. These motherfuckers are smarter than some people with the right to vote, and they are Extremely Serious Birds. They don't have time to play, they got work to do and kids to raise.
And then there's the kea, straight-up titled "clown of the mountains", that has a specific vocalization for "playtime!". Scientists decided to try what happens if they play the Play Call for two fully-grown adult keas that are together in an area and can clearly see there is no other, third kea to make the call, and they just go "great idea, disembodied voice! it's TIME TO FUCKING PARTY!" and start wrestling.
Imagine working really hard in order to make it into a top university to study astrophysics, making it to your first Very Serious Class, sitting down full of serious determination, and the dude next to you is taking notes without using his hands, with a glitter pen he's shoved up his nose. And his notes are good.
It's your first day of Bird University and you already fucking hate this guy.
So there's this gene in humans called PLXNC1 or "Plexin", right? So Plexin is associated with increased neuron function and is generally thought to be correlated to human's increased cognitive ability for the use of language, i.e., "language learning". Super cool, right?
Humans aren't the only animals with advanced language learning that have Plexin in their genome. We can actually find homologous plexin between humans and PARROTS!
Using genomic alignment search tools, we can actually break down the sequence of human Plexin and directly compare it to the Plexin found in parrots. (This was actually a project I ran for an upper division genomics class, and running the program literally takes like... ten minutes.) I wanted to see how similar the plexin gene was between humans and parrots, so I queued up the human sequence against all of the available records from parrot genomes and sorted by greatest percent identity (i.e., which bird species had the closest plexin to ours?)
It was this funky dude right here:
THAT'S RIGHT BABY! The kea, notorious for being a straight up motherfucking prank god, carries Plexin with a 79.42% identity comapred to humans'.
THIS LITTLE ASSHOLE HAS A HOMOLOGOUS LANGUAGE LEARNING GENE WITH US!!!! A GENE THAT IS THOUGHT TO BE CORRELATED TO HIGHER LEVEL LEARNING AND INTELLIGENCE!!!!! AND THEY USE THEIR INTELLIGENCE TO WREAK HAVOC ON TOURISTS
Also these guys have been found to literally have predictive reasoning skills, which we consider REALLY FUCKING ADVANCED for a lot of animal species. They pass the Aesop's fable test with flying colors. They're so goddamn cool, I love them so much.
The kea really said: "I will use my superior intelligence to have a good fucking time" and that's so powerful honestly
I know I posted about Goncharov and Defunctland last night, but that was an earnest desire to see this trend examined under a microscope because it’s fascinating to see it escape containment.
However, while I know most folks are just having a bit of fun with it, the number of people complaining that others are “ruining” the joke by tagging it for unreality is too damn high.
I’ve answered far too many asks in private in the last 24 hours from folks with psychosis begging me to tell them if Goncharov is real or not because they trust me, someone they don’t know beyond my medical advocacy posts, not to lie to them.
So in case you need this: No, Goncharov is not real. It’s Tumblr having a bit of fun with a made up gangster story premise from the 1970s. Most of the gifsets you are seeing are from The Godfather and some other 70s and early 80s films. The musical scores are being composed by some very talented people here on Tumblr, as is most of the art and quotes.
I’m sorry if people are telling you it is real and are refusing to reassure you when you admit it’s causing you distress. Some people are just taking things too far for the bit and aren’t acting with kindness. I hope they will reconsider.
If you were unaware that the Goncharov is causing some people some considerable distress, that’s okay. Tumblr is huge and you can’t be expected to know everything, but please do tag all your posts and reblogs with unreality to assure people that it’s part of the site-wide joke.
If you’re one of the people complaining that tagging it with unreality “ruins” the joke, please reconsider and examine why your enjoyment of people’s distress is necessary to your enjoyment of an otherwise fun and crowd sourced bit that many people are having fun with without being cruel.
Anyway, go have fun you creative little gremlins. Just do it with more kindness.
Hey. Joy makes an important point here.
The joke isn’t “ha ha, who can we trick into thinking this is real.” I hate that joke. It isn’t funny. It’s cruel. It isn’t actually a joke.
The joke is that we are all in on the joke. The joke is that Tumblr is a silly silly land where we all bring our massive creative potential to support a bit. We are “yes-anding” with our tongues firmly planted in our cheeks.
(There are more serious things inside the joke. There always are; it’s what makes humor important. This joke is also meta commentary about social media and media criticism and fandom.)
I want everyone in on the joke because that is the joke. So: as the OP here has assured you, it isn’t real. There is no movie. Tumblr is clowning, in joyous Tumblr fashion.
On The Edge (With Joy)
We are dancing
But we are dancing on the edge of the abyss.
On the high clifftop of the present moment
eyes closed, head raised, arms outflung
We know not whether we are dancing
facing the garlanded world
of magic, crystal and light
vibrating with life
Or foot poised over the abyss.
And not knowing, we conjure each
according to the words, the vibe, the numbers
around us.
They can invent, in us,
The Abyss - dark, frightful and bottomless
roiling with anguish, anger, despair, sadness and fear.
Or they can invent in us
The World of Life.
The world of colour, vibrance,
of dolphins, sleek and swift
perpetually smiling
Of smiles, and holdings, warm and strong
Of laughter and life, well-lived.
And tomorrows filled with hope.
Do you know
We have always danced on the edge of the abyss.
Each of us steps, turns, sways, holds, lifts and turns
again
and again
facing in our turn north, south, light, dark,
hope and fear, the world and the abyss.
Dancing to the beat of the stars.
We are dancing
And we are dancing on the edge of the abyss.
(The trick is to dance)
With joy.
jw 10:00pm, 22 November 1989.
I hate that this is still relevant. 😔
My heart breaks for everyone in Colorado Springs. And everywhere, who has felt its repercussions.
I think like, the death of Vine and Rabbit, Wikipedia constantly needing to beg for money, Discord depending so heavily on venture capital, Facebook turning towards spying on users to generate a return on all the venture capital that got them started, Adobe creative suite turning into a subscription rather than a single product you buy, the strangulation of streaming entertainment as every company pulls their content and makes it exclusive to their service, are all great examples of how like, it really doesn't matter if something is legitimately useful, efficient, or beloved, it is next to impossible for a service to exist if it doesn't make shareholders increasing amounts of money year after year. Which may seem like a "no duh" type of statement, but it's a very simple window into how the profit motive makes products and services worse, not better. And how that's not just a matter of certain companies or ceos being bad and greedy on an individual level, but is an inescapable factor of an economy where existence is dependent on generating capital.
hayley atwell for the guardian
Real talk girls get asked this question repeatedly from the age of about seven. It’s also phrased as “if you could change one thing about your appearance, what would it be?”
STOP. ASKING. Stop asking stop asking stop asking.
Nope gosh dang it I have more to say. Why are girls expected to answer this question like it’s “what’s your favorite color” or something innocuous? Why is this even remotely okay? This is in quizzes, girl’s diaries + activity books, magazines, party games, and school reflections. How is that okay? Why are girls expected to have an answer to this question? Why is it supposed to be normal to decide that you hate a part of your body? Why are we teaching children this?
ectafoole
