This Is My Tummy For Those Who Observe

i want to know what "more closely related" means and how that came to be and why that matters and to who

as funny as it is to say, "there's no such thing as a fish" is not actually true

"science doesn't know what a fish is" is really not true

"fish" is not a monophyletic category. there is no common ancestor of everything that we call a "fish," and none of the things that we don't

"fish" is a paraphyletic category -- and a useful one! marine biologists use it! "fish" describes a general body plan and lifestyle. it is useful to be able to talk about coelacanths and tuna in a shared category, though coelacanths are more closely related to us than to tuna.

where this bugs me is the repetition of the idea that "scientists" are hidebound and uncreative, unable to comprehend anything that doesn't conform to a specific idea of categorization -- when this is fundamentally untrue! we know perfectly well what a "fish" is. the fact that it's a paraphyletic group is only confounding to pop science, as a funny factoid, not to anyone who actually understands what a paraphyletic group is.

the twelfth doctor is a hot guy with a cool motorcycle you hide from your weird controlling boyfriend

i want to be a vapor. i want to deposit on surfaces—glass, metal, skin, skin, skin—entropy driving the folding of my surfaces upon themselves i collect in beads rolling dancing across (you) dripping dripping. i want to be wet i want to wet

AI discourse has merged with trans women in sports discourse

Lmao.

i would suck and fuck (ess and eff) your corporeal form. i would enjoy flesh, for sure

everything lost will be recovered

possums probably keep loosies in their pouches i bet