Abandoned Space Elevator

landsknecht bimbofication

my translation of that laios & kabru comic from the new adventurer’s bible (sorry for the awkward localization i‘ve only done this once before)

I need the rainbow trout truck so bad

no storys are about anything btw. you cant expect someone who makes up fake people to tell you anyything about real life. kurt vonnegut? cormac mccarthy? ursula k le guin? those were just some fucked up people who had psychic links to alternate worlds. you can go to those worlds if you take my hand but you probably dont want to. just goes to show i guess

A tiny Hawaiian squid, Euprymna scolopes, has become a model for thinking about this process. The “bob-tailed squid” is known for its light organ, through which it mimics moonlight, hiding its shadow from predators. But juvenile squid do not develop this organ unless they come into contact with one particular species of bacteria, Vibrio fischeri. The squid are not born with these bacteria; they must encounter them in the seawater. Without them, the light organ never develops. But perhaps you think light organs are superfluous. Consider the parasitic wasp Asobara tabida. Females are completely unable to produce eggs without bacteria of the genus Wolbachia. Meanwhile, larvae of the Large Blue butterfly Maculinea arion are unable to survive without being taken in by an ant colony. Even we proudly independent humans are unable to digest our food without helpful bacteria, first gained as we slide out of the birth canal. Ninety percent of the cells in a human body are bacteria. We can’t do without them.

As biologist Scott Gilbert and his colleagues write, “Almost all development may be codevelopment. By codevelopment we refer to the ability of the cells of one species to assist the normal construction of the body of another species.” This insight changes the unit of evolution. Some biologists have begun to speak of the “hologenome theory of evolution,” referring to the complex of organisms and their symbionts as an evolutionary unit: the “holobiont.” They find, for example, that associations between particular bacteria and fruit flies influence fruit fly mating choice, thus shaping the road to the development of a new species. To add the importance of development, Gilbert and his colleagues use the term “symbiopoiesis,” the codevelopment of the holobiont. The term contrasts their findings with an earlier focus on life as internally self-organizing systems, self-formed through “autopoiesis.” “More and more,” they write, “symbiosis appears to be the ‘rule,’ not the exception… . Nature may be selecting ‘relationships’ rather than individuals or genomes.”

Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins

At the shore of dark skies

Photographed by Freddie Ardley - Instagram

Mr. Evrart is helping me find my gun Watch her in HD: https://youtu.be/OkXG9cyZlpo

I don't want to say "you should never listen to a non-linguist about anything involving language", but like... man, people are so wrong about language. If you are learning a language and want to know how it works, don't ask a native speaker! They don't fucking know! Ok, they do, but not in a way they can convey to you. They'll tell you some wrong shit!

"How does this grammatical construction work in your language?" — you'll get the wrong answer

"How is your language different from English" — you'll get the wrong answer

"What is unique about your language" — you'll get the wrong answer.

"Oh ho ho, I am the exception, I am a very educated person in general and I would never—"

Wrong. You don't know shit. Language doesn't work like that. The things you think about language are wrong. "I always heard it was—" wrong. "I always figured it was—" wrong. Oh my fucking god you guys you would not believe how furiously wrong everyone is about linguistics all the time. It's wild.

I finally got around to reading the iliac crest and I feel like the more I think about it the less I understand. Reading at as a tme nonbinary person I really like. Felt extreme pangs of understanding in an inarticuable way. Thanks for the rec

any time. great book