Chaos

Learning anything about marine mammal training will make you re-evaluate so much of your relationship with your own pets. There is so much force involved in the way we handle domestic animals. Most of it isn’t even intentional, it just stems from impatience. I’m guilty of it myself!

But with the exception of certain veterinary settings where the animal’s health is the immediate priority, why is it so important to us that animals do exactly what we want exactly when we want it? Why do we have to invent all these tools and contraptions to force them to behave?

When a whale swam away from a session, that was that. The trainer just waited for them to decide to come back. If they flat out refused to participate in behaviors, they still got their allotment of fish. Nothing bad happened. Not even when 20-30 people were assembled for a procedure, and the whale chose not to enter the medical pool. No big deal. Their choice and comfort were prioritized over human convenience.

It’s almost shocking to return to domestic animal medicine afterwards and watch owners use shock collars and chokers and whips to control their animals. It’s no wonder that positive reinforcement was pioneered by marine mammal trainers. When you literally can’t force an animal to do what you want, it changes your entire perspective.

I want to see that mindset extended to our domestic animals.

world’s tiniest kitchen

photo by briscoepark

i want love

“It is literally impossible to be a woman. You’re so beautiful and so smart. And it kills me you don’t think you’re good enough. Like we have to always be extraordinary. But somehow we’re always doing it wrong. You have to be thin, but not too thin, and you can never say you want to be thin. You have to say you want to be healthy, but also you have to be thin! You have to have money, but you can’t ask for money, because that’s crass. You have to be a boss, but you can’t be mean. You have to lead, but you can’t squash other people’s ideas. You’re supposed to love being a mother, but don’t talk about you kids all the damn time. You have to be a career woman but also always be looking out for other people. You have to answer for men’s bad behavior which is insane but if you point that out you’re accused of complaining. You’re supposed to stay pretty for men but not so pretty that you tempt them too much or that you threaten other women because you’re supposed to be a part of the sisterhood but always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged so find a way to acknowledge that but also always be grateful. You have to never get old. Never be rude. And never show off. Never be selfish, never fall down, never fail, never show fear, never get out of line. It’s too hard! It’s too contradictory! And nobody gives you a medal or says thank you! And it turns out in fact that not only are you doing everything wrong but also everything is your fault! I’m just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie ourselves into knots so that people will like us.” -Gloria (America Ferrera, BARBIE)

fuck why is disco elysium so good

thank you disco elysium for the best idle animation ive ever seen

so yes he has a six year long total nervous breakdown over a divorce which does seem kind of unwarranted on the surface but the thing is that his breakdown wasn't just because of his fiance leaving him, it's because he's lived for four decades in this absolutely untenable state of being on the coattails of the revolution. the fact that dora even has the choice to pack up and fly away and leave behind the poverty and disability and addiction and misery and, as he imagines her saying, "leave him alone in hell forever" while he has no hope of ever leaving revachol or becoming anything more than what he is is what causes the breakdown just as much as her making that choice. and so that's why he sees her as dolores dei right, like yes it's because he deifies her but it's not just that, because dolores dei isn't just some ambiguous religious figure, she's specifically the innocence of moralism and the welfare state and interisolary travel. it's not dora that failed harry, it's the world that failed harry, and because dora was able to escape and moralism and the welfare state and interisolary travel were able to save her in a way they never saved him, he projects all the ways the world has failed him onto her. like harry has this breakdown because the woman he loved (rightfully) left him yes but also harry has this breakdown because he was born into poverty in a military hospital and he got polio as a child and never quite got better and all his childhood friends are dead of car accidents and drug overdoses and he's lived his entire life under a form of capitalism that allows for no self-determination, no political representation, no upward mobility. so when she leaves him it's not just a broken heart that does him in, it's the culmination of a lifetime of misery that he falsely blames her for because she was able to escape. you feel me. and that's why his breakdown is so insane and massive and disproportionate and that's why he sees her as god you feel me. like love did him in but capitalism killed him. right

She-ra Season 5 Lockscreens LQ (Part 3) Part 1 (HQ) Part 2 (LQ) ☾reblog if you saved | send your request☽

can we talk about the sheer accuracy of some of the in-game dialogue in Disco Elysium?

i’m talking specifically about the Giant Seraise Hornet, where Encyclopedia says this:

i work with honeybees in an apiary on my college campus, and i’ve taken so many yellow jackets, wasps, and hornets out of the hives. i’ve seen hives completely destroyed by wax beetles and hornets. but the thing that gets me about Disco Elysium’s off-handed analogy about the assassins is that this is literally true. 

the Giant Seraise Hornet is a direct reference to the Asian Giant Hornet (which you might know better as the “murder hornet”). 

from Penn State University:

and according to Wikipedia, the Asian giant hornet can kill 40 honeybees a minute because of their mandible size.

but it isn’t only the hornet-murdering-honeybee relationship that they got correct! they also got it right that sometimes the honeybees win:

I know that the developers must have put an incredible amount of research into this game, but as someone with a huge interest in the environment and beekeeping, it’s so cool to me that they got a real-life parallel so specifically correct. 

it’s such a direct parallel between the mercenaries and the dockworkers and the hornets and the bees. sure, the dockworkers could win, but only if they’ve coevolved. Apis mellifera, the European honeybee, didn’t coevolve with the Asian giant hornet… and those hives tend to be completely decimated.

just like the Hardie boys if Harry makes the wrong move. the mass slaughter in Martinaise depends on whether or not you as the player can learn to adapt quickly enough in seven days to save your colony. and i think it’s genius.