I used to think that queer acceptance was mostly about things like marriage equality

Now I think it’s about how Chinese aunties and uncles here don’t skip a beat or care about your sexual orientation when they’re being nosy about your life, and go straight into ‘okay but what does your wife do? How did you meet? Are you planning to have kids? I heard about this thing called IVF have you considered it? Lots of my friends have gay kids too they all got IVF’

random poll, do you talk to yourself out loud? like when you are alone?
boost to distract me!

This spider is appx 1mm long, qualifying it as both "itsy" and "bitsy"

#spider #spiders #MacroPhotography

Did you know that Lego makes special kits for use in hospitals, for building models of MRI machines and radiotherapy suites, so that medics can use them to help explain scanning and treatment to children? Making the treatment process less frightening, especially if they're going to have to be in rooms with big scary machines. I saw one at the Science Museum back in May.
https://www.brusselstimes.com/170401/lego-set-makes-treatment-easier-for-child-cancer-patients-therapy-tom-depuydt
#Lego

🦁 Camera traps in Spain captured female Iberian lynxes deliberately dunking dead rabbits in water troughs — the first documented case of a wild carnivore soaking its prey.

The behavior was first recorded in August 2020 when a lynx named Naia was seen carrying a freshly killed rabbit to a water trough and submerging it for over a minute. Since then, 5 different females have been observed doing the same thing 8 times, always during the hot summer months in central Spain.

Experiments confirmed that a soaked rabbit carcass retains water for up to 40 minutes. Scientists believe the lynxes may be using the soaked meat to hydrate their cubs or ease the transition from milk to solid food. The behavior runs in family groups, suggesting these solitary cats can learn from each other.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/camera-traps-reveal-iberian-lynxes-soaking-their-prey-a-first-ever-discovery-among-carnivores-180988591/

#IberianLynx #AnimalCulture #WildlifeScience

Researchers from the University of Liverpool are looking at Trans people's understandings of transition.

Receive a free quilt kit to be part of a large quilt that explores trans people's understandings of transition. Sign up before the 20th of September as all squares need to be completed and sent in before September 30th.

Email freddysperring@liverpool.ac.uk

Mastodon tip that I saw someone post recently: you can use the search term "in:library" to specifically search among your own posts, likes and bookmarks.

This is what a real villain looks like

Happy 90th birthday to Margaret Hamilton, who led the development of the on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo Guidance Computer. Here she is in 1969, standing next to listings of the Apollo guidance software she and her MIT team produced.

We placed a tracking device in a shipment of rare books to see which AI company was buying it, and found an Amazon facility where Amazon scans and destroys books.

https://www.404media.co/we-tracked-a-shipment-of-rare-books-it-ended-at-an-amazon-ai-training-facility/

Type any key to jam. It's a browser music toy.

Press space bar to change the sound palate

https://patatap.com/

#music

Me: *donates body to science* 

Science: *donates my body to goodwill*

US regime cancelling research funding via cmd + f

Here are the lists of terms they used.

fucking yikes.

https://www.highereddive.com/news/inside-the-federal-keyword-lists-that-canceled-billions-in-research-funding/826203/

Found via #hackerNews here's the HN discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49325159

#USPol #science

:thaenkin:

#Bluesky

Dammit, I love the people here. You might think you don't make a real difference in the real lives of other people, but I'm here to tell you that you do. For many of us, it's the one thing we get to do instead of have to do.

Solar Farms Are Having An Unexpected Effect On The Environment

"Researchers with the Argonne National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (via IOPScience) [...] found that retired agricultural land can produce power while native plants thrive under and around the panels. They quickly saw an increase in the abundance and diversity of native plants and insects, especially pollinators. It's already known that solar panels are having a surprising effect on local wildlife."

Source: https://www.bgr.com/2233665/solar-farms-unexpected-ecosystem-benefits-growth/

https://flip.it/N..F.9

Oh, seems I've removed my #introduction in some fit of self-doubt/hate, insecurity or some such thing, so I guess it's time to craft a new one.

Right, let's get the annoying details over and done with. You don't need to know my age. If you do, we're not suitably matched to interact to begin with. I also give out pretty strong indicators for gender and sexuality, do with them what you will, I don't mind, just don't assume you're right, you probably are not. I mean, you could be, but what are the chances of that? I'm located near the center of the universe, which itself is mostly located in Northern Savonia. And I'm 175cm tall.

Now that you know The Basics (tm), I can also divulge that I'm on permanent disability, and when I do spend some effort on something, it usually is for autistic peer support, though I do dabble with mental health stuff too, and nowadays more and more combining the two. Sometimes you can find me behind some musical instrument too, and very rarely on a stage with one of the said instruments. Preferably in an empty hall with no lights on. And yes, I do know more than the average person about trains, and until recently, you could've bumped into me on the virtual rails too. If you did, lemme know! Also please do if you've seen me play an instrument in an empty, dark hall.

I'm kinda fifty/sixty with my toots being in English or Savonian, occasionally you might see me toot in other languages, but ignore those, they probably weren't that interesting to begin with, and are probably riddled with silly mistakes and just clunky in general. You're really better off not reading them, especially if you're fluent in those said languages.

I tend to connect best with fellow autists, and tend to stick various appendices in my mouth when trying to connect with the neuromajority, so kinda... Just bear with me ok? If you don't get something I toot, it's prolly really me and not you, don't ask me to clarify, as most likely, it already was as clear as it's gonna get. If you get a non sequitur reply from me, it's safe to not interact with it. If I don't reply to you, I've probably just out of non sequiturs, and it's nothing personal, it's not like you don't deserve one from me, you certainly do, but I mean, you can't ladle soup from an empty pot, now can you?

There ya go, and for the English-as-S2+ crowd, I trust your educational systems have given you enough grasp of the intricacies of the said language that I can be lazy and get away with just this intro. If not, may Ceiling Cat bless you on your journey through what passes as machine translation nowadays.

See ya on the flipside!

Something is happening in Anchorage with #COVID19. COVID has exploded an incredible level of 10,450 PMMoV. I'd say this might be an error, but the sewershed has reported 3 consecutive levels with huge increases. If this is true, it suggests 1 in 45 or more is infectious in that city. This would be one of the 5 highest readings ever reported on WastewaterSCAN in any sewershed. It is 12x higher than any other sewershed at present.