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wtfearth123 · 8 months

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Watch what happens to Germs when you wash your hands with Soap at microscopic level. 🔬 The Soap molecules surround germ cells and disrupt their cell walls, causing them to burst.

Germ cells are surrounded by a cell wall that protects them from the environment. This cell wall is made up of a layer of peptidoglycan, which is a polymer of amino acids and sugars. Soap molecules are made up of two parts: a hydrophobic (water-fearing) tail and a hydrophilic (water-loving) head. When soap is added to water, the hydrophobic tails group together and the hydrophilic heads face outward, forming micelles. These micelles can surround germ cells and the hydrophobic tails can then disrupt the cell walls, causing the cells to burst.

The hydrophobic tails of the soap molecules can disrupt the cell wall in two ways. First, they can bind to the peptidoglycan molecules and weaken the bonds between them. Second, they can create holes in the cell wall. Once the cell wall is disrupted, the germ cells lose their internal contents and die.

It is important to note that soap only works to kill germ cells that are surrounded by a cell wall. Germ cells that do not have a cell wall, such as viruses, are not affected by soap.

The size of the soap micelles is important. Micelles that are too small will not be able to surround the germ cells. Micelles that are too large will not be able to penetrate the cell walls.

The concentration of soap is also important. A higher concentration of soap will be more effective at killing germ cells.

The temperature of the water can also affect the effectiveness of soap. Soap is more effective at killing germ cells in warm water than in cold water.

I hope this post has helped you understand the importance of handwashing and why doctors always ask you to do it regularly. Washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds is one of the best ways to prevent the spread of germs and stay healthy. So please, wash your hands often and help keep yourself and others safe!

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you found it informative and helpful. Please share it with your friends and family so they can learn about the importance of handwashing too. 😊🙏

#soap #germs #cellwall #science #biology #micelles #peptidoglycan #mechanism #explanation #education #health #safety

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alpaca-clouds · 8 months

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Solarpunk is not archievable under Capitalism

Okay, let me make one thing very clear: We will never have a Solarpunk future as long as we live under capitalism. Again and again I will find people, who have fallen in love with the idea of Solarpunk, but are unwilling to consider any alternative to capitalism. So, please, let me quickly explain what that just is not gonna work out that way. There will be no Solarpunk under capitalism. Because the incentives of capitalism are opposing anything that Solarpunk stands for.

So let me please run over a few core points.

What is capitalism?

One issue that a lot of people do seem to have is understanding what capitalism even is. The defining attribute of capitalism is that "the means of production" (e.g. the things needed to create things) are privately owned and as such the private owners will decide both what gets created through it and who will get a share in any profits created through them. The ultimate goal in this is, to generate as large as a profit as possible, ideally more and more profit with every year. In real terms this means, that most of those means of productions in the way of companies and the like are owned mostly by shareholders, that is investors who have bought part of the company.

While capitalism gets generally thaught in schools with this entire idea of the free market, that... actually is not the central aspect of capitalism. I would even go so far to argue something else...

The market is actually not free and cannot be free

The idea of the free market is, that prices are controlled by the concept of supply and demand, with the buyer in the end deciding on whether they want to spend their money on something and being able to use that power to also enact control on the supplier.

However... that is actually not what is happening. Because it turns out that the end consumer has little influence, because they are actually not actively participating in the market. The market mainly is something that is happening between multimillionaires. It is their demand (or the lack thereoff) that is the influence. Investors, mainly. Which is logical. In a system, where the power to buy is deciding, the person who can spend multiple millions is gonna have a lot more power, than the person who has twenty bucks to their name.

Hence: 99% of all people are not participating in anything resembling a free market, and the remaining 1% are not interested in such a system.

Money under capitalism

One thing everyone needs to understand is, that for the most part money under capitalism is a very theoretical concept. It might be real for the average joe, who for the most part will not have more than maybe ten grand to their name, but it is not real to multi millionaires, let alone billionairs. Something that is going to be thrown around a lot is the concept of "net worth". But what you need to realize is that this net worth is not real money. It does not exist. It is the estimated worth of stuff these people own. Maybe houses and land, maybe private jets, maybe shares in companies and other things. These people's power and literal worth is tied to them being able theoretically able to sell these assets for money.

In fact a lot of these very rich people do not even have a lot of liquid money. So money they can spend. In fact there are quite a few billionairs who do not even own a million in liquidated money. The money they use in everyday life they borrow from banks, while putting their assets up as a security.

Why capitalism won't abolish fossil fuels

Understanding this makes it quite easy to understand why the capitalists cannot have fossil fuels ending. Because a lot of them own millions, at times billions in fossil fuel related assets. They might own a coal mine, or a fracking station, or maybe an offshore rig, or a power plant burning fossil fuels. At times they have 50% or more of their net worth bound in assets like this. If we stopped using fossil fuels, all those assets would become useless from one day to the next. Hence it is not in the interest of these very rich people to have that happen.

But it goes further than that, because politicians cannot have that happen either. Because the entire economy is build around these assets existing and being used as leverage and security for other investments.

Why capitalism won't build walkable cities and infrastructure

The same goes very much for the entire infrastructure. Another thing a lot of people have invested a lot of money into is cars. Not physical cars they own, but cars manufacturing. So, if we were building walkable cities with bikelanes and public transportation, a lot less people would buy cars, those manufactoring factories becoming worthless and hence once more money... just vanishing, that would otherwise be further invested.

Furthermore, even stuff like investing into EVs is a touch call to get to happen, because the investors (whose theoretical and not real money is tied to those manufacturers) want to see dividents at the end of the quartal. And if the manufactuerer invested into changing their factories to build EVs for a while profits would go down due to that investment. Hence, capitalism encourages them not doing that.

Why capitalism won't create sustainable goods

A lot of people will decry the fact that these days all goods you buy will break within two years, while that old washing machine your grandparents bought in 1962 is still running smoothly. To which I say: "Obviously. Because they want to make profits. Hence, selling you the same product every two years is more profitable."

If you wonder: "But wasn't that the same in 1962?" I will answer: "Yes. But in 1962 the market was still growing." See, with the post war economic boom more and more people got more divestable income they could spend. So a lot of companies could expect to win new costumers. But now the market is saturated. There is not a person who could use a washing machine, who does not have one. Hence, that thing needs to break, so they can sell another one.

The market incentive is against making sustainable, enduring products, that can be repaired. They would rather have you throw your clothing, your smartphone and your laptop away every two years.

Why workers will always be exploited under capitalism

One other central thing one has to realize about capitalism is that due to the privitization of the means of production the workers in a capitalist system will always be exploited. Because they own nothing, not even their own work. Any profit the company makes is value that has in the end been created by the workers within the company. (Please note, that everyone who does not own their work and cannot decide what happens to the value created by it is a worker. No matter whether they have a blue collar or a white collar job.)

That is also, why there is the saying: All profit is unpaid wages.

Under capitalism the profits will get divided up under the shareholders (aka the investors), while many of the workers do not even have enough money to just... live. Hence, good living standards for everyone are explicitly once more against the incentives of capitalism.

Why there won't be social justice under capitalism

Racism, sexism and also the current rise of queermisia are all a result of capitalism and have everything to do with capitalist incentives. Because the capitalists, so the people who own the means of production, profit from this discrimination. This is for two reasons.

For once having marginalized people creates groups that are easier exploitable. Due to discrimination these people will have a harder time finding a job and living quarters, making them more desperate and more likely to take badly paid jobs. Making it easier to exploit them for the profit of the capitalists.

A workforce divided through prejudice and discrimination will have a harder time to band together in unions and strikes. The crux of the entire system si, that it is build on the exploitation of workers - but if the workers stopped working, the system would instantly collapse. Hence the power of strikes. So, dividing the workforce between white and non-white, between queer and straight, between abled and disabled makes it easier to stop them from banding together, as they are too busy quaralling amoung themselves.

Why we won't decolonize under capitalism

Colonialism has never ended. Even now a lot of natural ressources and companies in the former colonies are owned by western interest. And this will stay that way, because this way the extraction of wealth is cheaper - making it more profitable. Colonialism has never ended, it has only gotten more subtle - and as long as more money can be made through this system, it will not end.

There won't be Solarpunk under capitalism

It is not your fault, if you think that capitalism cannot end. You have been literally taught this for as long as you can think. You never have been given the information about what capitalism is and how it works. You have never been taught the alternative mechanisms and where and when they were implemented.

You probably look at Solarpunk and think: "Yeah, that... that looks neat. I want that." And here is the thing: I want that, too.

But I have studied economics. Literally. And I can tell you... it does not work. It will not create better living situations for everyone. It will not save the world. Because in the end the longterm goals are not compatible with a capitalistic system.

I know it is fucking scary to be told: "Yeah, change the world you know in massive ways - or the world will end." But... it is just how the things are standing.

You can start small, though. Join a local party. Join a union. Join a mutual aid network. Help repair things. Help people just deal. Our power lies in working together. That is, in the end, what will get us a better future.

#solarpunk #anarchism #anti capitalism #unions #environmentalism #save the planet #explanation #sustainability #renewable energy #end fossil fuels #communism

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batfambyval · 7 months

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okay. So.

Serious Red Robin theory coming.

Tim wasn’t put in the Lazarus Pit. But. That doesn’t mean they didn’t use it on him. The pit’s healing properties have been shown to work in small portions. Like, the healing is proportional to the amount of lw used.

The cave with the pit isn’t exactly a sterile environment. So either the pit was needed or it was an attempt to put Tim off balance, a psychological weapon. Though the White Ghost’s reaction to the assumption seems to dispute that. If the pit’s healing is proportional to the amount used it makes sense that the psychological effects are to, along with the duration of those side effects.

Ra’s had serious reasons to use the pit on Tim, between the additional room for emotional manipulation and Tim’s life threatening injury which wasn’t immediately treated and was in fact exacerbated like, a lot… yeah. Tim lost a lot of blood. He lost was stabbed in the organ that filters blood: meaning all your blood passes through your spleen. He was bleeding out, he should have died, he dragged himself and another person to a car, drove said car back to the city, and got them both up to the penthouse. Recovering from that would take a long time, he shouldn’t have survived at all. But he healed quickly and well, it isn’t an issue, it happened and it was over. I know we as a fandom like to have fun with Tim’s missing spleen and what that means but… canon didn’t and looking back I feel like there was a lot pointing at the pit being used in a much more insidious was, not just in the logistics of Tim’s recovery.

Ra’s was insanely trusting of Tim. Not just in his ability to do what he wanted but in his belief that Tim would ultimately come around to his way of thinking. Now, I can obviously see that Tim was in a very vulnerable position and if Bruce hadn’t actually been alive Ra’s could definitely have succeeded. But it feels like more than that, especially with Tim’s ensuing behavior. A lot of his time with the league is glossed over or seen from Tam’s perspective, but Tim was acting different. It’s easy to attribute this to the objectively terrible situation and the year he’s had, but his behavior isn’t the same as it was at the beginning of the run either. And the difference in behavior fades. As Red Robin Tim is more ruthless and pragmatic, mostly due to necessity. Even stealing from a museum and fighting for it makes him incredibly uncomfortable. He still did it. But he was still acting like Tim, making jokes and doing his best to diffuse the situation and keep everyone alive. After the surgery his focus gets even more single minded. He barely puts up a fight about leading the league. Of course partly for Tam, and he tried to keep killing to a minimum but cmon. He was leading the league of ASSASSINS. There were assassinations happening. People died when he blew all the league bases and he barely registered that beyond thinking that the council of spiders probably made it out, implying part of him knew death was a possibility and he didn’t care. But he didn’t think about the moral implications of that in a way that was very reminiscent of Jason’s selective morality. If he had stopped to think about it he wouldn’t have done it, but he was focused to much on beating Ra’s, on not compromising, that the complexity of the situation didn’t sink in. The obvious effects of his actions, the possible deaths and injuries of anyone inside a league stronghold wasn’t acknowledged while the underlying message sent to his opponent was the only thing he could think about. Just like when Jason attacked Tim at Titans Tower to send a message to Bruce despite his hardline stance against hurting kids.

So. The League did use the pit on Tim, just a little. Maybe two tablespoons in the wound to accelerate recovery and weaken his morals a bit. It would certainly make a lot of sense. And the writer did change when Tim came back to Gotham so it’s entirely possible that it was meant to be touched on later but was discarded.

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anonymitie · 2 months

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The Mirror, Andrei Tarkovsky

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thirdity · 6 months

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Science does not concern itself with those properties of existence to which ridiculousness belongs. Science explains the world, but only Art can reconcile us to it. What do we really know about the origin of the Universe? A blank so wide can be filled with myths and legends.

Stanisław Lem, Mortal Engines

#science #art #existence #explanation #meaning #unity #quotes #Lem #Stanisław Lem #Mortal Engines

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casualartisanninja · 10 days

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This was a long time coming.

So, first of all I’m sorry that this took me so long to make, but there was a lot of information to sift through. I’m not planning on coming back to Tumblr in any capacity beyond this but the truth needs to be out there. (And if you're curious about the profile picture/description/etc, I had to dress this blog up a bit so it didn't look like a bot and trigger any algorithms.)

Content warnings for this post:

Heavily discusses kinks and has screenshots of fetish art

References grooming/pedophilia accusations

References transphobia/harassment accusations

This is going to be an EXTREMELY long post with lots of screenshots, so the rest is under a cut.

Edit: Here is the end of the post so you can read it all at once. https://www.tumblr.com/casualartisanninja/747977941832613888/loose-ends

The incident in Hobqueer’s server

I think a good place to start would be the spark that set off this whole chain reaction.

I’m not sure how long I’d been in that server for when the NSFW in general incident happened. But one thing’s for sure - I didn’t start the conversation about NSFW topics. Like I mentioned on the Reddit post where someone had found me and started accusing me under my comment on the Janitor.AI post, I saw the people there discussing mpreg and oviposition. I looked at it and thought “wow the rules are a lot more lax than I initially thought!”. Yes, I know, looking back, that should’ve been a huge red flag. I also know that, looking back, I should never talk about NSFW in the general chat- even if everyone else is doing it. “If so-and-so jumped off a cliff” and all. I’m really sorry that I did that, and it was definitely a lesson for me. But I really wasn’t thinking about that at the time. It wasn’t my intention to hurt anyone, and I especially wouldn’t have done it if I knew minors would be there. I know it wasn’t an 18+ server, and it was just a frankly idiotic move on my part. I just saw “Sniper pregnant” and pictures of the mercs with big bellies, and let my better judgment and reasoning get clouded. However, the way that they’re portraying this incident is extremely intellectually dishonest. Gabriel failed to mention in his callout post that those minors were looking at and sharing fetish art of the mercs, leaving out most of the context for those. Thankfully one of my friends from Chipspeech (who I’ll leave anonymous) joined the server to check and see if the fetish art was still there. It was. Hobqueer and the moderators never deleted any of the discussion, and worst of all they left the fetish pictures up in full view of everybody. One person, who later admitted to being a minor in a dm, even gave a pretty graphic description of a tentacle hentai/mpreg comic. Be warned, this contains NSFW content. I blurred the names of anybody who isn't mentioned in this post.

I've run out of room for images, so I have to add the rest in another reblog. This will be a very long thread with a lot of images, so please bear with me.

#mavisposting #xxcherenkov-gremlinxx #allegations #accusations #explanation #debunking #tf2 fandom #chipspeech fandom

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classycookiexo · 3 months

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#explanation #honestly

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bi-lesbian · 1 year

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heres the thing with how queer labels work: not everyone uses them the same way. and maybe the following might be a bit obtuse of an explanation, but sometimes i work better with analogies so i hope it makes sense to others 😅

lets say youre boxing up some stuff. its mostly clothes, but also some toys and a few miscellaneous items were added in as well. (if its unclear, these "contents" are the substitution of "the specifics of someones identity" for this analogy).

the what: some people would label the box just "clothes." they know whats all in there, its not just clothing, but they just want something simple to note the majority of it. or maybe some of the other items are rather personal, and theyre not comfortable with just anyone seeing the box knowing of its existence.

some others might go more specific so its more clear whats all inside, labeling it "clothes + toys." or may even go into more specifics so its completely clear whats inside, "shirts, ties, stuffed animals, and aunties knickknacks."

some may instead just leave the box unlabeled, because it doesnt particularly matter to them to have its contents noted. or theyre not even entirely sure what one of these weird knickknacks even is, and dont feel like trying to pin it down for a label.

the where: theres also some that would rather label the box by what room it belongs in, so theyd put "bedroom" on it rather than describing whats inside.

the who: then it also comes down to if someone is labeling the box for themselves, or to let someone else know what it contains because theyre giving it away. someone would decide then if they want to go into more specifics, leave it as something simple for easy communication, or go without labeling and only maybe divulge its contents once someone specific has shown interest.

basically, labels can have different purposes.

sometimes someones identity labels are just meant for themselves, as a way to express themselves or trying to understand more of themselves and their feelings.

or maybe their labels are more about the community that they surround themself with, where they find their home.

or the labels could specifically be for communicating to someone else what they are, for if theyre looking for a potential partner.

there could even be a multitude of other ways not specified here that people may use labels for.

and, all of this was a convoluted nap-fueled thought to explain to others why some people use labels like "lesboy." boy and lesbian are just the labels on the box, a shorthand for all the various contents inside. theres quite likely more stuff going on in that gender box of theirs, like multigender stuff, genderfluidity, nonbinaryness, using terms like boy bc theyre gnc/butch, or otherwise, but boy is the prominent part the person whats to label.

i hope this can also put into perspective some reasons why people use some mspec lesbian terms, because some use both bi and lesbian as labels for their communities, or lesbian is their main label they use when telling others what theyre interested in, even if it may not encompass all of their attraction, and many many other reasons. its all about how they try to understand themselves and/or what they want to communicate!

#queer #lesboy #explanation #mspec lesbian #bi lesbian #pan lesbian #ply lesbian #omni lesbian

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cluelesshero · 3 months

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#459 Tutoring

Back in my day, you only needed two buttons

Facebook | Instagram | Shop

#Clueless Hero #webcomic #gaming #video games #tutorials #old school gaming #retro games #modern games #introduction #explanation

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liminal-velocity · 2 months

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Any questions? >ask box is open<

#liminal velocity #worldbuilding #trio #rau #furryart #furry art #explanation #borzoi #mixed media #blender 3d #I am trying SO HARD not to put full effort into these #So excuse me if the characters are often drawn crudely. My one motivation right now is to establish the concepts and characters #the void #Need some in-universe names for it huh

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alpaca-clouds · 9 months

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What actually is Eco Fascism?

A topic I do not see explained often enough in Solarpunk groups is: What actually is Ecofascism? Basically every Solarpunk group I have ever been to has the rules "No Greenwashing" and "No Ecofascism", but while Greenwashing will be explained quite well, eco fascism often isn't. So please let me explain it to you.

Naomi Klein called it "environmentalism through genocide", which is a very apt description.

In general Ecofascism links the land and its nature to the lands people - or rather the perceived people. Because, of course, for the most part it is a white supremacist ideology (though variations of it have sprung up in non-white countries like Japan), so first and foremost they link colonial land to the white settlers, not the indigenous people.

As such Ecofascism very much started out with someone being appalled by indigenous people taking care of their land, as according to this white dude this did not leave the land in its prestine condition. This dude was a bloke called Madison Grant. He wrote a book about the "Great Race". A book that Hitler later went on to call "his bible". And obviously he was like all for eugenicism and what not.

Now, I could go on and on about the history of it, but really, it is not important.

First and foremost the central believe of ecofascism goes something like this:

There are too many people living on earth right now which is the reason for environmental destruction and climate change. Hence some people need to die to save the planet.

Only certain people (most of the time they mean white people) are abled to properly take care of the environment, while everyone else is destroying it.

To put it very popculturally: Thanos is basically an ecofascist. Which is why the entire "Thanos was right" narrative is so fucking dangerous and why the Russos did horrible by making him sympathetic.

Now, of course Thanos is in so far still just a bit tamer than your average ecofascist, because he is like "equally out of every group people need to die". Meanwhile your typical ecofascists will usually very clearly say: "People from any group that is not my group need to die."

As I said: Most ecofascism is linked to white supremacism. They will usually use arguments about overpopulation and then point to China, India and Africa.

What they of course will ignore in all those arguments is, that a) historically no country has as much emissions as Europe and the US and b) that the richtest 10% of humanity emits more CO2 and other environmental pollutants than the poorest 50% combined. So, as long as the "killing too many people" does not involve those top 10%, it is not gonna make much of a ditch when it comes to the environment.

Additionally to those genocidal ideations, it basically also has the unscientific idea, that the only way to take care of nature is to leave it alone and in a "prestine" condition. Which often leads to more natural desasters and completely forgets that humans are, indeed, a part of nature.

So, yeah... It is basically just is white supremacy paired with capitalism and eugenics.

It is shitty as fuck. So, please, call it out if you see it.

#solarpunk #anti ecofascism #explanation #environmentalism

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batfambyval · 7 months

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So, the following analysis/explanation of Tim Drake’s childhood is in direct contradiction of widely accepted fanon and some of my other posts. It’s a more serious and canon complaint back story that I feel the need to put out there, just for variety.

Now, I don’t think Tim’s Bat-stalkingTM started in the lead up to A Lonely Place of Dying, he knew what he was doing, the process seemed fairly streamlined and that would have taken a lot of practice and trial and error. However. He wasn’t going out every night or anything like that, and the majority of his “research” was from newspapers and such because he couldn’t regularly stalk them in person. Why? Because he was at BOARDING SCHOOL!

Look, the Drakes were neglectful, but they weren’t callous or uncaring. They just didn’t make their child their first priority like they should’ve. They didn’t think about him enough. Once he was old enough to send to boarding school that’s what they did, probably letting the nanny go and forgetting that holidays and vacations exist. They didn’t just leave him to fend for himself, and they probably expected him to stay at school for breaks other than summer vacation which even they probably remembered and maybe even came home for. Tim was just a little shit who lied about having someone at home so he could leave campus.

Now this isn’t to say that the neglect wasn’t damaging to Tim, because it was. But it wasn’t like he was fending for himself in terms of food. He didn’t have a support system, didn’t have a stable parental figure he could rely on and probably felt very isolated. He was emotionally independent from a young age out of necessity. He relied on himself to fix problems in his life, he didn’t have an adult fixing things for him. Bullies? No choice but to deal with it himself, even if that means going to the teachers without parental support. Homework trouble? On his own. Friendship issues? Figure it out yourself. Even lacking things like simple comfort when you’re overwhelmed can be damaging for a child. Tim ended up with a confidence in his own abilities that borders on arrogance but also horrible self-worth issues and a detached and analytical view of emotions in both himself and others.

Point is, before Tim became Robin he was at boarding school and did have adult supervision and meals provided to him, even if he didn’t get much or any personal attention. Tim wasn’t running around on Gotham’s rooftops every night or even every week. And his parents weren’t quite as awful as fanon makes them out to be.

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eternalsailormom · 7 months

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Make the effort to say "nonspeaking" instead of "nonverbal." It's not nitpicking or semantics or a tiny difference. Nonspeaking autistics have words and use them, just not with their mouths. Everyone uses nonverbal speech, not everyone uses their mouths.

EDIT: Absolutely of course defer to how the person you're speaking to prefers to be described.

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philosophybits · 6 months

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Everything is being unriddled and explained. If we compare our knowledge with that of the ancients, we appear very wise. But we are no nearer to solving the riddle of eternal justice than Cain was. Progress, civilisation, all the conquests of the human mind have brought us nothing new here.

Lev Shestov, All Things Are Possible

#philosophy #quotes #Lev Shestov #All Things Are Possible #explanation #knowledge #wisdom #justice #progress

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randomvoices · 2 months

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Hello! Can you explain what being alterhuman is to me?

Disclaimer: I may be wrong, this is based off what I know and have learned. If you want a different perspective, there are alterhuman-focused blogs.

An alterhuman is someone who is not a human mentally. There are a couple different types, such as therians, which are non-human animals that are proven to exist, otherkin, which are non-human creatures that are not proven to exist, and fictionkin, which are fictional characters. For example, I am an Eldritch Polymorph, an Eldritch Horror that can change shape however it wants. I am aware that I am in a human body, however.

#alterhuman #therian #otherkin #fictionkin #randomvoices #explanation #here you go #nonhuman

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minecraft-inspo · 11 months

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Why are slimes placed as an early branch off of the kingdom Animalia?

Slimes are enigmatic. Taken at face value, they could fit anywhere or nowhere in the tree. They tick all of the boxes required to be defined as an animal, but don’t closely resemble any real phylum, though they do bear some resemblance to certain basal animal groups such as ctenophores and cnidarians.

Why is the elytra branching off from the insects?

The word elytra refers to the hard wings of beetles. This is where beetles would be placed on the tree.

Why is the shulker a mollusk?

It’s a shelled invertebrate - anything beyond this is unclear. It has a pair of shells like a bivalve, but could belong to any of a number of different related groups.

Why is the sea pickle so close to vertebrates?

The sea pickle is either based on a real life sea cucumber (an echinoderm), or a sea pickle (a tunicate). Either way, both of these groups are deuterostomes, which means they, like us, develop their anus before their mouth. Yeah.

Why are guardians labeled as manufactured?

It’s an idea I’m not totally sold on, but a theory nevertheless. It has been posited that guardians were created to guard underwater monuments and are not actually animals. I am of the opinion that if this is the case, they are still at least partially biological, as they do drop edible raw fish. In this case, they likely represent a lineage of jawless fish comparable to real life ostracoderms that was further modified for their role as temple guardians.

Why are the dragon and sniffer related? Why do they branch off the tree so early?

Both are 6 limbed, meaning they are not tetrapods, the group which includes all real terrestrial vertebrates. Instead, they may represent a different lineage of fishes which separately developed a third limb girdle and then followed a line of parallel evolution with the tetrapods. This is comparable to the various invasions of land by arthropods, in which arachnids, myriapods and insects separately evolved mechanisms of terrestrialization while also convergently evolving many of the same structures as each other.

Aren’t creepers described as “plant-like?” Why are they included with the vertebrates?

They have indeed often been described as plant-like by various developers. It is my belief that they are vertebrates with a symbiotic relationship with some form of plant, probably a moss. This is why they are also included in Bryophyta on the other side of the tree. All promotional merchandise that shows creeper internal anatomy shows the presence of bones and the general anatomy reflects a familiar yet distorted version of the common tetrapod body plan. They do not share much in common with either reptiles or mammals, and so I split them off early in the vertebrate portion of the tree. While creepers share a developmental history with pigs, they do not actually bear any synapomorphies to suggest this relationship is canon, and so I chose not to place them nearby.

Why are phantoms reptiles?

I’m honestly not sure what else they could be. The underside of the texture reminds me of the plastron of a turtle, though the wings are arguably more bat-like than anything else. Phantoms are all undead and their living version is likely now extinct, so we can’t fully understand the anatomy they would have had.

Why are striders synapsids? What is a synapsid?

Synapsids are mammals and their extinct, reptile-like ancestors. Striders have hair, like living mammals, but otherwise share very little with modern mammals, suggesting they split off early in synapsid evolution.

What is the warden/sculk?

I don’t know. It’s very purposefully the most alien life in Minecraft. Most realistically, I think it’s not from the overworld at all. However, that’s not really in the spirit of this project. Therefore, I hypothetically place it as a fungus, as fungi are capable of the sprawling growth in dark environments and possible parasitism in the case of the warden itself.

Why are blazes labeled as “manufactured?”

I haven’t got a clue what blazes could be. Are they sentient fire? Are they living creatures that mimic fire? Who knows. I finally ended up considering them to be something akin to vexes or golems - summoned by someone or something to guard nether fortresses, rather than naturally evolved creatures. This is actually supported by a really old (and likely since retconned) article from the Minecraft website. https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/visit-nether-

Why is glow lichen connected to two separate branches?

Because lichen is a symbiotic structure formed by both algae and fungi!

Why are chorus plants where they are?

They are angiosperms, meaning they bear flowers and fruit, but do not have the characteristics of either of the more derived major lineages of flowering plants.

Why are dripleaf plants alismatales?

To me, they bear a great resemblance to members of the arum family, such as elephant ear plants, arrowhead plants, and Monstera.

Torchflower?

It bears greatest resemblance to bromeliads, a group of plants related to grasses.

Why is the spore blossom placed where it is?

The spore blossom is another anomalous species. If “spore” is taken seriously, it must be a fern. However, ferns don’t have flowers, so I assumed the spores are actually just pollen. I placed it as a dicot based on the fact that dicots typically have flowers with 4-5 petals, while monocots have flowers with petals in multiples of 3.

Why aren’t vines and glow berry vines placed together?

The “vine” form has evolved dozens of times in separate lineages of plants, just like the “tree” form. It alone is not enough to indicate a close relationship. I tentatively placed vines where the grape family would go, and placed the glow berries where staff vines (Celastrus) should be.

Why aren’t dead bushes grouped with sweet berry bushes and azaleas?

Like vines and trees, “bush” is a description of a body form and not an evolutionary group. I depicted the dead bush as a real form of desert bush, a tumbleweed, specifically the Russian thistle, a common tumbleweed in the order Caryophyllales.

Sweet berries, on the other hand, are most likely based on lingonberries, a commonly grown crop in Sweden, where Mojang is based. These belong to the order Ericales along with azaleas, as well as many other common plants not yet represented in the game such as blueberries and cranberries.

Pitcher plants are real - why isn’t there a “confirmed” lineage on the tree?

Pitcher plants have evolved several times in different lineages, and there is no clear indication which ones the ones in Minecraft are. In fact, most likely, the Minecraft pitcher plants don’t belong to any real group of pitcher plants, as none of these produce “pods” nor do they have similar leaves. However, the most likely candidates are the family Nepenthaceae (order Caryophylalles) or the family Sarraceniaceae (order Ericales).

#minecraft #infographic #explanation #evolution #biology

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