NATHAN

It can almost certainly tell different species apart based on the shape of those air bladders. And it can tell if a fish has something weird inside it, like a metal hook. In Hawaii, false killer whales often pluck tuna off fishing lines, and “they’ll know where the hook is inside that fish,” Aude Pacini, who studies these animals, tells me. “They can ‘see’ things that you and I would never consider unless we had an X-ray machine or an MRI scanner.”

This penetrating perception is so unusual that scientists have barely begun to consider its implications. The beaked whales, for example, are odontocetes that look dolphin-esque on the outside—but on the inside, their skulls bear a strange assortment of crests, ridges, and bumps, many of which are only found in males.

Pavel Gol’din has suggested that these structures might be the equivalent of deer antlers—showy ornaments that are used to attract mates. Such ornaments would normally protrude from the body in a visible and conspicuous way, but that’s unnecessary for animals that are living medical scanners.’

I'm not sure if I ever shared this story before here, but in Curacao, when I was allowed to assist in a guest interaction programme, there was suddenly consternation in the pool behind us. A guest had entered the water and the dolphins were going crazy, paying no heed to the trainers anymore. The lead trainer that was with me gave the dolphins to me to watch over while she went to help. When she came back she told me what had happened. The guest that had caused so much uproar had left the water again and was asked if he had done anything to upset the dolphins. He hadn't, and he couldn't imagine what was wrong... until he mentioned he had a pacemaker. The younger dolphins in the pool had never seen someone with a pacemaker before and apparently it rocked their world.

when GOT was first released it was seen as grimdark for dudebros who liked gritty realism, because life isn't fair, and not for people who didn't like sexual assault used to make that point. LOTR was this pure-hearted story about friendship and the much nicer liberal fantasy.

now these arguments are all LOTR from the RETVRN crowd, depicting GRRM as the virgin worrying about cowardice in men's hearts and JRRT as the chad believing in strong white male heroes, right and wrong, Christian values, national pride against the invading hordes etc. whereas GRRM has the opposite modernist messages.

not to go all Britta Perry meme, but honestly I expected the Islamophobia. I anticipated their reaction that this is woke signalling etc. I did not expect they were upset simply because character was a woman. but that was what the comments said. refusing to read or listen to a woman, flat-out. saying they hate having to listen to bitches narrating. they had femoid protagonists dictating to them. that was a deal-breaker. I did not realise we were still unable to accept women as people in big 2026.

this was the one! finally remembered it had "conmigo" in the title, AI was absolutely no help at all in finding it and nor was tumblr blog search of course

Sometime in 2020, Miranda was infected with COVID-19 which eventually led to paralysis as a result of peripheral neuropathy. His health severely deteriorated and eventually led to Encephalitis.

and he's doing it better!

they already made that show, it was called game of thrones, and he had a whole plot arc there which explored pretty much everything it could and then ended. we already know what miserable cold lonely jon would look like. it would actually be more interesting to send him on holiday to the free cities and have him warm and relaxed for a change.