We are made of Stardust and Stories

Celestial Oak I painted this over a month ago and totally forgot to post it lol

I love the idea of each acorn containing it's very own universe 🌌 I've also been designing some acorn lanterns, photos coming soon!

Let’s break down this abstract really quick—

“Although boys outshine girls in a range of motor skills, there are no reported gender differences in motor performance during infancy. This study examined gender bias in mothers' expectations about their infants' motor development.”

While older children show differences between the genders in what kinds of physical activities they are capable of, no one has really seen that difference in babies, so we studied if the mothers’ beliefs about gender differences had anything to do with how those physical differences develop.

“Mothers of 11-month-old infants estimated their babies' crawling ability, crawling attempts, and motor decisions in a novel locomotor task-crawling down steep and shallow slopes.”

The way we tested this works like this: we created a play area with lots of inclines of varying steepness. We asked mothers of 11-month-old babies to estimate which inclines in the play area their baby could climb up/down. Then we let each baby play in the play area to see what they could/would do.

“Mothers of girls underestimated their performance and mothers of boys overestimated their performance.”

If the baby was a girl, pretty much every single mother (in the study) believed their baby girl was less capable than she really was. They believed inclines were too steep and that she could not crawl on them when she actually could. If the baby was a boy, pretty much every single mother (in the study) believed their boy child was more capable than he really was. They believed he could crawl on inclines that were actually too steep for him.

“Mothers' gender bias had no basis in fact. When we tested the infants in the same slope task moments after mothers' provided their ratings, girls and boys showed identical levels of motor performance.”

Not only were mothers underestimating their girl babies and overestimating their boy babies, but when we tested the babies all of them could crawl on the same steepness of incline. There was no difference in the physical capabilities between boy babies and girl babies at 11 months old.

~

Now, these are good scientists who are not going to claim causation that they haven’t proven, but this research has always left me with one really big question—

Are parents CAUSING girl children to develop less strong muscles by swooping in to “save” them from physical tasks that they assume are too difficult for the girls?

✨your thoughts unravel✨

I really wanted to see what would have happened if Hal put on the mask 👀

And I get it. Bolaire is the one we know hates Thjazi and thinks the worst of him (and the one a lot of people seem to be liking less and less versus liking Murray more and more), so it's easy to say "hah!" to him and think he's the one to prove wrong. But if they wanted those slanderous theories to stop, they had to get Murray set straight. Bolaire didn't much offer up his bad opinions of Thjazi until someone said something that prompted him to add to it. Murray kept cooking on those theories.

Hell, I think Bolaire dropped at least "working with the Sundered Houses" after the Knife & Palette Paints and learning about the Cloak, seeing as the Cloak accounts for why Thjazi and the Sundered Houses were after the same things: the Cloak watches the Houses closely to try and swoop in and get those assets for themselves.

He still seems to be on questioning the ritual, but given the caution we saw with a simple de-petrifying of Cyd, I'm inclined to think at this point it's just a professional caution of unknown/unpredictable magic. Especially a ritual in a theatre and on that large scale, given Bolaire's not-dissimilar first acts/original purpose. Plus none of the PCs or people they have access to currently designed the ritual, so they don't even know for sure what the specifics of what it does are, just theories, so again, professional caution doesn't strike me as unwarranted from Bolaire.

Murray is the one who threw out, rather apropos of nothing, that Thjazi might pop back up as a god because of the ritual since that's what a Sundered House would want for themself and she thinks Thjazi was stealing one of their rituals to do before them here. Bolaire wasn't even there for that one.

Murray did not suggest originally that Thjazi was purposefully working with the Sundered Houses. She was worried Thjazi had been tricked into working for the Sundered Houses.

She was concerned that somebody Thjazi trusted had been compromised (which had already happened at least once with Casimir) and that they had then gotten him to participate in the Sundered Houses’ plans without realizing.

At the time she first suggested this, the other two groups had not yet returned to Dol-Makjar. The Schemers just found out a ritual is even happening, they knew the paint (that they still don’t understand) is part of it, they were pretty sure the play is part of it, and that’s just about it. Murray in particular is frustrated with the lack of information— especially with Thjazi using some of his dying words to tell Hal to “help Murray” but she doesn’t know with what! She doesn’t know what Thjazi wanted her to do!

She’s frustrated and she’s scared. She’s scared that if she guesses wrong at what Thjazi expected of her (without telling her!), that she will then be responsible for a ton of innocent people getting killed and responsible for the Sundered Houses seizing more power (and therefore responsible for all the suffering they cause with that power).

And in her fear and confusion, while examining every angle trying to sus out what the correct course is, her brain goes “what if Thjazi got tricked and he was unknowingly helping the Sundered Houses??” And then, when she voices this worry as “something we need to consider”/an angle we need to prove right or wrong, Bolaire (who hates Thjazi) said it louder. And everyone reacted to Bolaire as if he were just trying to find a way for Thjazi to be a bad guy.

Murray is not as brash as her attitude sometimes indicates. Murray is a thinker— hell Murray works for an institution that is reinventing magic! They are researching and experimenting in order to create new spells. Murray takes all the information they have and turns it every which way in her brain to find ALL the possible ways the pieces might interact with each other. And she’s not afraid to take the time to consider (and hopefully dismiss) the options that no one else wants to see as a possibility.

It's rude. You're making someone take their time to read something you couldn't bother to write. You're telling them they were so unimportant you couldn't be bothered to actually take the time to say something yourself. And frankly, you're lying about it while you're at it.

tagged by @littleblackraincloudofcourse

i. favorite flower - stargazer lilies, but i never get them bc they're toxic to cats. also a fan of violets, they dotted the yard where i grew up and i loved to pick them.

ii. favorite season - fall for sure. the colors, the smells, the crunchy leaves, the breezes skirling out of nowhere.

iii. favorite soup - cheddar broccoli

iv. favorite anime - hellsing (original not ultimate)

v. favorite sport - uhhhhhhhhh. uh. uhhh. gymnastics? i admire the strength and coordination. it's a very powerful sport.

vi. favorite ships - graythrax, graydon and anybody really, bagginshield, daforge, jaime x brienne, johnlock, frostiron, joxer x ares

vii. favorite holiday - halloween still i guess. not really a holiday person but that one has the best aesthetic. thanksgiving if it's just me and my partner.

viii. favorite soft drink - diet coke

ix. favorite sea creature - manatee

x. favorite number - i don't think i have one. am i missing out?

tagging @swordkitty @the-grimsqueaker @greencheekconure27 @groceryshoppingwithaghost @cenobitic-anchorite @morriganwarrior @ankahikoibaat

Thanks @lowkeyed1 :)

1. Favourite flower? Lavender! Its my favourite scent too.

2. Favourite season? Winter! I'm now in my element with it having been winter officially for 4 days now. I'm wearing my hoodie to work and I'm comfortable and I only start sweating when one of the others in the office puts the heater on.

3. Favourite soup? Chicken. My grandma's chicken soup specifically (she's dead now, but i try and recreate it sometimes). Also pea and ham! Thats good shit. And mushroom!! OH ITS WINTER WHICH MEANS ITS SOUP SEASON :D

4. Favourite anime? I got a list, can't pick one. Fairy Tail, Assassination Classroom, Erased and Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood. I peaked in the mid 10's.

5. Favourite sport? No. I used to be obsessed with soccer as a kid but I have a movement based seizure disorder and that really puts a damper on your enthusiasm for physical activity let me tell you.

6. Favourite ships? Pirate ships 😏. But no, in earnest I'm still on the Kit x Jade from Willow bandwagon. I haven't really shipped much for a long time.

7. Favourite holiday? As a working professional in Australia I'm a fan of Christmas. I get 10 days off and only have to use 3 days of my annual leave. Its good for a quick break.

8. Favourite soft drink? Vanilla coke! But also, very niche, the limited run of lime flavoured frozen fanta that Hoyts did back in about 2013. That was amazing. I think fanta did regular lime flavoured drink for a short time too, which was also delicious, but they took it away 😠

9. Favourite sea creature? I was a fan of dolphins as a child, now I'm a fan of crabs.

10. Favourite number? 13. I think it has a bad rep. But any uneven number thats not divisible by 5 is fine by me.

Thanks @the-grimsqueaker :)

1. Favourite flower? Hibsicus, daffodils, and tulips

2. Favourite season? Honestly, I'm living somewhere with proper seasons for this first time so right now I'm still just really loving seasons.

3. Favourite soup? baked potato :)

4. Favourite anime? I uh..... really have not watched very many. SpyxFamily

5. Favourite sport? I figure skated competitively as a child, and my mom used to teach gymnastics, so I enjoy watching those most because I actually understand what it takes to be able to Do That.

6. Favourite ships? I don't really engage with content around ships the way most people do on here. I just am like "oh, this couple is interesting" while watching the media. So uh, Imogen/Laudna and Orym/Dorian are the two that come to mind first?

7. Favourite holiday? I like just about any excuse to celebrate or spend time with loved ones. Halloween is always fun, but also moving further from home has left us not usually able to visit parents for thanksgiving and the friendsgiving we've started attending is a lot of fun.

8. Favourite soft drink? I don't really drink soda anymore, but I do miss the taste sometimes of a real-sugar dr pepper, and my husband introduced me to Specher's and their cream soda is the BEST.

9. Favourite sea creature? octopuses! they're fascinating.

10. Favourite number? I don't really have one, so I always default to 42 when people ask.

Weird Al is allowed to parody everything because he's operating under copyright law, not trademark law.

Trademark governs who can "trade" under what "mark" i.e. the brand identity of a company. Companies don't own their trademarked word forever, but they maintain the exclusive right to sell things under that brand in their specific market sector. Patagonia doesn't own the name of a geographical region, they just own the right to be the only company using that name to sell clothing and outdoor gear.

A drag queen name can be a parody of a clothing and outdoor gear company.

A company's trademarked logo can be used in parody creative works, with more leeway if it's not for commercial purposes. Trademark parody is allowed! Patagonia has been aware of and allowed Pattie Gonia's trademark parody for years.

Trademarks are specific to market sector. Actress Chase Infiniti could start a makeup line named after herself and her trademark would not infringe on the Infiniti car brand because they are different markets and there is no risk of confusion. Pattie Gonia could probably trademark her name to sell frozen veggie burgers and Patagonia would not care.

Drag queen Jan Sport did a collab with JanSport bags. What Jan Sport almost certainly did not do is independently apply to register "Jan Sport" as a trademark in order to sell bags on her own, because that would infringe on JanSport's own trademark in the bag market sector.

What Pattie Gonia is not allowed to do -- the thing that Pattie Gonia actually did do and is being sued for -- is apply to register "Pattie Gonia" as a trademark to sell clothing, because apparently Pattie is in talks with North Face and HydroFlask to sell "Pattie Gonia"-branded gear. These companies probably won't finalize anything unless Pattie shows that she actually owns the trademark. Unfortunately, "Patagonia" is already a registered trademark in the clothing market sector, and these two names are too similar to exist in the same sector (see: "likelihood of confusion" legal standard).

Your drag queen name can parody a clothing company. You can parody the trademarked logo of a clothing company. But you cannot use the same name to then go on to also become a clothing company.

In order to maintain their own trademark, Patagonia must sue for trademark infringement. If they don't sue, and Pattie Gonia gets her own trademark, Pattie could sue Patagonia for infringement on her trademark. You can see why Patagonia won't be dropping this suit no matter how much you harass them.

The new conflict is from Pattie Gonia using the Patagonia imagery and the Pattie Gonia name on her own merchandise. This is the email Patagonia sent, with the images they feel conflict with the 2022 agreement.

Pattie responded to that by disagreeing that she had broken any agreement, and also obliquely threatening to expose Patagonia for making tactical gear for the US military?

Pattie selling shit with her stage name on it Really Obviously isn’t going to have any negative effect on the continued lining of Patagonia CEO pockets, as if that even fucking matters, and no amount of waxing poetic about “well they have to 🥺🥺🥺” is going to make me say anything other than “fucking stupid if true then”.

In terms of whose pockets are being lined:

Rather than selling the company or taking it public, Mr. Chouinard, his wife and two adult children have transferred their ownership of Patagonia, valued at about $3 billion, to a specially designed trust and a nonprofit organization. They were created to preserve the company’s independence and ensure that all of its profits — some $100 million a year — are used to combat climate change and protect undeveloped land around the globe.

The unusual move comes at a moment of growing scrutiny for billionaires and corporations, whose rhetoric about making the world a better place is often overshadowed by their contributions to the very problems they claim to want to solve.

At the same time, Mr. Chouinard’s relinquishment of the family fortune is in keeping with his longstanding disregard for business norms, and his lifelong love for the environment.

(NYT Gift Link)

Since 2022, 100% of Patagonia's profits have gone to climate and environmental causes. They have completely restructured the ownership of the company so that this will continue in perpetuity.

"GUESS."

I think murderbot would rage earlier in the emotion checks if it were clippy asking it

“Grace says he would like half of dome to be water.”

“Oh, is necessary for humans to have large amounts of water question?”

Small Eridian equivalent of a sigh. “No. Not needed for life. In fact Grace will die if he falls in water and does not get out.”

“Tell him we give him water in containers that won't kill him. Lots lots lots of water on Erid for Grace to drink.”

“No. Grace say he want water on ground. Also want it with excess sodium chloride compound so it will be unhealthy for drink.”

“Grace want this liquid for celebration.”

“Of course.” They scan it. “You have wrong liquid. This contain compounds which are poisonous for humans.”

“Yes yes yes. Grace say humans like feeling of being slightly poisoned.”