Creating a pinned post on here. I don’t get a lot of followers, so when people do follow me for a particular interest, I get conscious because my blog’s a whole mess of different ones LOL. And I have this thing where I hate wasting other people’s time sooo there. Whew long intro.
“Elizabeth Ann is the first cloned black-footed ferret and first-ever cloned U.S. endangered species. She was created from the frozen cells of “Willa,” a black-footed ferret that lived more than 30 years ago.“
So, why is this a big deal? Because, “All living black-footed ferrets are descended from 7 individuals, resulting in unique genetic challenges to recovering the species.” Willa died 30 yrs ago, but she wasn’t one of the 7. Her genome represents an important revival of genetic diversity.
[image description: tweet by Netchimen’s Reverie that reads “Tolkien describing places that are evil: no trees grow there” /end description]
This is doubtless because of his experience of the trenches in the Great War.
Like, this is what things looked like to soldiers who fought in that war (image in black and white of a solitary soldier walking across a muddy wasteland pocked with puddles):
Here’s Delville Wood, the site of a battle in 1916 (sepia image of a wasteland dotted with broken and dead trees):
Here’s an image from the Battle of the Somme, in which Tolkien participated (image of soldiers standing above and inside a trench or earthwork in a grey wasteland; smoke from artillery is on the horizon)
So yeah: no trees = evil was Tolkien’s own direct lived experience. It’s precisely why Mordor and the wastelands around it look like they do in his books.
the plateau of gorgoroth, the heartland of mordor, is described as being scarred by countless pits dug by orcs
the true seat of evil is full of foxholes and trenches
There’s a lesson to be learned here.
I hope Tolkien would be happy to learn that a hundred years on, trees grow again here:
is the world really such a terrible place? yesterday i asked if oat milk was extra and the barista said yes so i said ok just regular milk then and when she gave me my chai latte she whispered “i used oat milk ;)” doesnt that make u want to live another day?
here is my life philosophy: next week there might be someone ahead of you in line at the store who’s short a quarter and you have a quarter and you can give it to them. if you weren’t there, they’d have to put something back. the week after that you could be getting lunch and the waiter might ask if you want some pancakes someone else ordered and never picked up. you could find someone’s lost cat. you could watch someone’s bag while they go to the restroom. there are so many ways you are going to touch other people’s lives and they are going to touch yours and there’s no way to know when it’s going to happen. so you have to keep living!!! i wouldn’t want to die knowing that tomorrow the barista will give me free oat milk just to be nice.
When I was 11 years old - we went to Sea World for my birthday. This was to avoid the realization I had no friends, and no one to come to a birthday party and probably because someone gave my mother free tickets at work. It was kinda a shitty day despite being at a theme park full of cute animals. There was a new roller coaster there that had just opened so we decided to go on. I was nervous. I’d never been on a roller coaster.
A group of 6 college kids were ahead of us in line and started chatting with me. Full on just having a fun conversation with someone literally going through the beginning of a very awkward middle school period. I was so shocked they wanted to talk to me. I think my mom mentioned it was my birthday. They were very nice about it. When we got on the ride they told us to go ahead of them so we could sit at the front of the car since it held 8 people.
Now the ride (called Journey to Atlantis - I believe it is sadly no longer there) started with a slow ride of beautiful visuals of dolphins and oceans and computerized images of this imaginary Atlantis before going up the hill to the beginning of the coaster, where it paused for about 30 seconds, and then the ride started. The college kids must have known there would be a pause. Maybe they’d ridden it before I’m not sure.
But as we sat there on that peak, 6 people I’ve never known, and will never know again, sang a very very lonely 11 year old happy birthday. Loudly. And with gusto. They were happy and laughing and joyful. And it made me feel less alone in the world.
I am 29 years old this year, and I still remember them. I still remember that kindness. It is so important. It doesn’t go into a vacuum. It exists beside me in my daily life. And I love the idea that I have been that person to someone else too.
It’s stunningly lovely to be human when we’re kind to each other.
happy to announce that my latest bout of dreaming about tumblr induced in me the conviction that tumblr had just instituted a “pet” button that appeared below all pictures of an animal so that tumblr users could pet the animal. the most notable use of this was a post with a picture of a porcupine that had a thread of users below it saying ‘ouch’
ngl it’s driving me a little bit fucking insane that the whole conversation about image scraping for AI has settled on copyright and legality as a primary concern, and not consent. my shit should not be used without my consent. I will give it away for free, but I want to be asked.
I don’t want to be included in studies without my knowledge or consent. I don’t want my face captured for the training of facial recognition models without my knowledge or consent. I don’t want my voice captured for the training of speech recognition models without my consent. I don’t want my demographic or interest profile captured without my consent. I don’t want my art harvested for visual model training without my consent. It’s not about ‘theft’ (fake idea) or 'ownership’ (fake idea) or 'inherent value’ (fake idea). It’s about my ability to opt out from being used as a data point. I object to being a commodity by default.
Bartenders only serve drinks as a side job. Their real profession? Hunting down every bastard named Bart. You are now the last Bart alive, and they will stop at nothing until you’re dead.
“Just b/c you’re mythical doesn’t mean you don’t have to work. Werewolf? DEA. Mermaid? Seaborn search & rescue. Demon? Hostage Negotiation. Druids? Forestry. Your talents are saught after, not feared. You CAN get a job.“
🌇
What if you meet someone, get to know them, and discover that, surprisingly, they’re a rare find: someone who you know you can potentially have a deep, meaningful connection with. To the point that they can be your partner in life. But you know who they want and it isn’t you?
ALT
