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the act of self creation

words inspired by julian k jarboe

cone 5.5 stoneware plate wall hanging

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monkyeon’s stickchuck has me in tears 💀

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gouache falin

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girls night ^^ (ref image under cut)

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A type of flu virus that used to sicken people every year hasn't been spotted anywhere on Earth since March 2020. As such, experts have advised that the apparently extinct viruses be removed from next year's flu vaccines. The now-extinct viruses were a branch of the influenza B family tree known as the Yamagata lineage. Scientists first reported the apparent disappearance of Yamagata viruses in 2021. At that time, experts speculated that precautions taken to stop the spread of COVID-19 — such as masking and social distancing — had not only driven the overall number of flu cases to historic lows but may have completely snuffed out this type of flu virus. 

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"Mom's not here and dad's busy, let's go on a run, Mel!" 🏃‍♀️💨

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#this is.... omggg../.

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“All the categories of transgender find a common ground in that they each break one or more of the rules of gender: what we have in common is that we are gender outlaws, every one of us. To attempt to divide us into rigid categories […] is like trying to apply the laws of solids to the state of fluids: it’s our fluidity that keeps us in touch with each other. It’s our fluidity and the principles that attend that constant state of flux that could create an innovative and inclusive transgender community.”

- Kate Bornstein

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Before Israel killed him, Palestinian scholar Refaat Al Areer wrote to his daughter:

If I must die

you must live

to tell my story

Yesterday Israel killed his daughter Al-Shaymaa along with her husband and baby.

Who is going to tell Refaat and Shayma's story? Who's going to continue to tell the world how Israel obliterated entire bloodlines?

Refaat's poem continues to say

If I must die

let it bring hope

let it be a tale

We must promise to keep the tale alive and to uphold the legacy of Refaat, Shayma and the 40,000 others who were murdered by Israel in its ongoing genocide.

Try as they might, but Palestine will never die.

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That thing about how cats think humans are big kittens is a myth, y’know.

It’s basically born of false assumptions; folks were trying to explain how a naturally solitary animal could form such complex social bonds with humans, and the explanation they settled on is “it’s a displaced parent/child bond”.

The trouble is, cats aren’t naturally solitary. We just assumed they were based on observations of European wildcats - but housecats aren’t descended from European wildcats. They’re descended from African wildcats, which are known to hunt in bonded pairs and family groupings, and that social tendency is even stronger in their domesticated relatives. The natural social unit of the housecat is a colony: a loose affiliation of cats centred around a shared territory held by alliance of dominant females, who raise all of the colony’s kittens communally.

It’s often remarked that dogs understand that humans are different, while cats just think humans are big, clumsy cats, and that’s totally true - but they regard us as adult colonymates, not as kittens, and all of their social behaviour toward us makes a lot more sense through that lens.

The like to cuddle because communal grooming is how cats bond with colonymates - it establishes a shared scent-identity for the colony and helps clean spots that they can’t easily reach on their own.

They bring us dead animals because cats transport surplus kills back to the colony’s shared territory for consumption by pregnant, nursing, or sick colonymates who can’t easily hunt on their own. Indeed, that’s why they kill so much more than they individually need - it’s not for fun, but to generate enough surplus kills to sustain the colony’s non-hunting members.

They’re okay with us messing with their kittens because communal parenting is the norm in a colony setting, and us being colonymates in their minds automatically makes us co-parents.

It’s even why many cats are so much more tolerant toward very small children, as long as those children are related to one of their regular humans: they can tell the difference between human adults and human “kittens”, and your kittens are their kittens.

Basically, you’re going to have a much easier time getting a handle on why your cat does why your cat does if you remember that the natural mode of social organisation for cats is not as isolated solitary hunters, but as a big communal catpile - and for that purpose, you count as a cat.

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Saw a tweet that said falin looks like howl and I can't stop thinking about it ever since

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falin descuido venga la alegría

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clean water is such a luxury that we tend to take for granted.

i found out that wild animals can drink dirty water only because they've been acclimated to its contaminants since birth. because of this, any changes in the water can cause outbreaks of severe illness. animals raised on clean water would have just as much trouble with wild water as we would.

anyway, unrelated but Fuck Nestle

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Mods? Take him to the stump of his favorite childhood tree.

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