QuirkyEccentric2019

-the parts of dna that just casually detach on a physical level from the main strand, do some sick skateboard tricks in the cytoplasm, and land somewhere else with 43552342 copies

-the parts that would do A Thing if they wern’t physically spooled up so tightly that the Make Thing Happen machinery couldnt get to them

-the dna thats in ur mitochondria bc the mitochondria used to be a bacteria that our bigger, buffer cellular ancestors just vored in the primordial ooze 

-the dna that’s in chloroplasts in plants for the same reason

-rna….bitches be crazy like what is she gonna do next?? o she gonna act like a protein now and do shit?? im on the edge of my seat 

-sometimes u just gotta make more chromosomes man like sometimes u just be hanging out and u gotta make ur genome 64 sizes larger and then change ur mind only 100,000 years later and delete half of it and thats just how it is on this bitch of an earth

-random shit from like 5 BCE is just casually left over everywhere like no susan i told u to leave that gene alone we might need it to fight dinosaurs again u just never know!!!!!

 Her paper where she presented the theory was rejected 15 times before it got published. Over the next decade, her work was mocked and ignored. Now every biologist knows that she was right.

The bits of DNA that move around (“jumping genes”) were discovered by this woman, Barbara McClintock, in the 1940′s: 

Her work on them was ignored and derided for about two decades before some people started to take it seriously. In 1983 she won a Nobel Prize for it.

Scientists in the U.K. have created mini, seed-sized nuclear fuel cells that could power futuristic flower-shaped reactors on the moon as soon as 2030. The tiny new fuel cells, developed by researchers at the Nuclear Futures Institute at Bangor University in Wales, are roughly the size of poppy seeds, which are around 0.04 inch (1 millimeter) across. The mini pellets are a type of tri-structural isotropic particle (TRISO) fuel, which is made from uranium, carbon and oxygen surrounded by a hard, ceramic-like shell. The cells are much more durable and efficient than traditional nuclear fuels, which makes them perfect for space exploration. The fuel cells are designed to power the Space Flower Moon Micro Reactor, a conceptual car-sized fusion reactor designed by Rolls-Royce. Funding for the reactor was secured in early March, and the design is a leading candidate to power future moon bases as a part of NASA's Artemis program, which aims to establish a permanent base on the moon by 2030. Researchers think one of the durable pellets could power a single reactor for up to 15 years.

This shit.

So Hunchback is far and away my favorite movie from Disney’s Renaissance, and it always makes me so happy that yes, people seem to appreciate it, people seem to love it, but I’mma go into exactly WHY it’s my favorite, and WHY I think it’s so crucial, and WHY I think it should be required viewing for young boys specifically.

We all know that a huge bulk of the media we’ve grown up with consistently has that one frustrating message:  Being the hero means you’ll get the girl.  Many boys let this mentality bleed into reality.  We have “nice guys,” who feel that their niceness entitles them to romance, when obviously that discredits a female’s personal choice.  We all get this, we all know this, and a lot of us get that it’s a toxic message.

So check out our hero.

He’s an incredibly good person who isn’t conventionally attractive.

Check out our lady.

Super good person, conventionally attractive.

The movie so deliberately builds up Quasi’s hopes.  There’s a whole fucking song about it.

But Esmeralda, who is her own person with her own motivations and preferences, chooses another man, who is also good and also attractive.

A lot of people criticize this aspect of the movie, the fact that Quasi doesn’t get the girl BECAUSE of his appearance.  But my argument?  This is the best damn message a movie could ever send.

Because when things get dicey, when Esmeralda’s life in in danger, when Quasi would be putting his own life on the line, he knows that romance is no longer within the realm of possibility.  He knows he won’t be “getting the girl.”  He knows this, and he allows himself a moment of bitterness, he risks falling prey to the “nice guy” trope, and he almost succumbs.

“She already has her knight in shining armor, and it’s not me.”

BUT THEN HE DOES THE RIGHT THING.

He has NO ulterior motive for saving her life.  NO ulterior motive for opposing the man who raised him.  And he doesn’t know that he’ll get any reward, he knows he could straight up get killed for his actions, and yet he still acts.

And there’s no bitterness. There’s still so, so much love between him and Esmeralda, pure awesome platonic love, and love between him and Phoebus, and just fucking love all around, it’s amazing.

I’ve heard so many people express distaste at Quasi not ending up with Esmerelda.  Like he was cheated out of some kind of reward.  But have they watched the ending?

Does that look like a man cheated of his reward?  Does he look like he “lost” to Phoebus?  No dude, that’s a man who has everything he ever wanted, and that’s also a man who didn’t “get the girl.”

Reading about science on the internet is cool, sure, but sometimes you just want to get out there and contribute. Hundreds of citizen science projects are available across the world, both online and hands-on, and anyone who has an interest in science can have a go. I’ve compiled an incomplete list below, so check them out and get sciencing!

Biology

EterRNA: A puzzle game where players design models of DNA using four nucleotide bases, participating in the creation of a library of synthetic RNA designs

Phylo: A game that explores how DNA and RNA sequences are arranged

Foldit: A puzzle game where players fold proteins with the eventual aim of having players map the structures of unknown proteins and design new ones

Mapper: NASA gets players to analyse and tag photos from the bottoms of Pavilion Lake and Kelly Lake in British Columbia, studying microbialites and lake features in hopes of helping find life on other planets

AgeGuess: Guess people’s age in a simple game, which investigates the differences between perceived age and chronological age as a potential aging biomarker.

Natural Products Discovery Group: They’ll send you a soil collection kit to return, and they will then screen the fungi in the sample for bioactivity against a variety of diseases to help in drug development.

Animals

FrogWatch USA: Contribute to frog conservation all throughout the US

Global Bio Blitz, Amphibian and Reptile: A project that seeks to document species of amphibians and reptiles throughout the world

Center for Snake Conservation Snake Count: Tracks snake distribution across North America

Hawaii Sea Turtle Monitoring: Help NOAA monitor green and hawksbill turtles and invasive algae in Hawaii

Annual Midwest Crane Count: Join a force of thousands counting cranes across Winconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota

North American Amphibian Monitoring Program: Assesses frog and toad populations

eBird: A massive online database of bird observations that you can add to

Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count: The world’s oldest citizen science project takes place in December and January, mainly in the US and Canada but also in some places in the Western Hemisphere

Celebrate Urban Birds: Make ten-minute observations of birds in your neighbourhood to help investigate how birds inhabit urban areas

Great Backyard Bird Count: Exactly what it sounds like!

JellyWatch: Report your sightings of jellyfish, red tide, squid and other unusual marine animals throughout the world

Project Squirrel: A US and Canada census of gray and fox squirrels—upload pictures and observations of conditions

Whale Song Project: A Worldwide project where you can help analyse the recorded calls of killer whales and pilot whales

TurtleSAT: Help map freshwater turtle deaths throughout Australia

MantaMatcher: Upload observations of manta rays and work to identify them, building the first global online database for manta rays

iSeahorse: Upload your photos and observations of seahorses, help identify seahorse species, and advocate for their protection.

Insects

School of Ants: The study of ants living in urban areas all around the US (and there’s also an Australian version and an Italian version)

The Great Sunflower Project: Focused on bee conservation, participants grow Lemon Queen sunflowers and make regular observations to count bees that visit them during the blooming season

Native Buzz: Study the nesting preferences and distribution of solitary bees and wasps throughout the world

Dragonfly Pond Watch: Study the migrations of sixteen dragonfly species in North America

The Dragonfly Swarm Project: Contribute to the research of dragonfly swarms throughout the world

Butterflies and Moths of North America: This aims to collect data about butterflies and moths or their eggs, caterpillars, or cocoons or chrysalides.

The Lost Ladybug Project: Find and photograph ladybugs in your neighbourhood to help collect information about various ladybug species, especially the rapid shift in populations

Biodiversity

All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory: Document and identify plants and animals in your area across the US

iNaturalist: On this site you can share photos and details of plants and animals, and maintain lists of your discoveries worldwide

National Geographic BioBlitz: A twenty-four hour inventory of every living species in a specific area—check for an area near you.

The GLOBE Program: This project involves students of all ages and in all countries, teaching them how to collect scientific data and make scientific discoveries

Project NOAH: Document your observations about wildlife and plants around the world, and even get other people in the community to identify them

Wildlife Health Monitoring Network: Participants can help compile data about wildlife disease patterns around the world and how they might affect humans and domestic animals

Mushroom Observer: Less than 5% of the world’s fungi species are known to science, so help out by uploading images and observations of mushrooms and other fungi near you

Project BudBurst: Help collect data on plant phenology (when difference plants grow leaves and produce fruit) to show how different species in the US respond to changes in climate.

Explore the Sea Floor: Tag seafloor photos 

Atlas of Living Australia: Upload your observations to contribute to a database of biodiversity knowledge.

Track a Tree: Help record the progress of spring in woodlands across the UK. 

Project Splatter: Quantify and map wildlife roadkill across the UK

NatureWatchNZ: Upload your observations of wildlife across New Zealand

Citiclops: Upload photos of water colour throughout Europe, adding to climate and water colour data.

 Weather and Seasons

Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network: Measure rain—or lack thereof—in your area of the US to help track precipitation, predict floors, and plan for water supply and demand

Journey North: Help make observations of migrating animals in North America

IceWatch: A Canadian citizen science program, you can help by monitoring the freezing and thawing dates of freshwater lakes and rivers, thus building up data about how these cycles change 

Weather Detective: Uncover important weather records hidden in the logbooks of ships that sailed the seas around Australia in the 1890s and 1900s.

Astronomy

American Meteor Society Visual Observing Program: Meteor science is naked-eye amateurs can provide valuable data about meteors, meteor showers, fireballs and other phenomena

Galaxy Zoo: Examine real images of galaxies, classify them, and help determine how they form

Lowell Amateur Research Institute: There are a number of projects you can help out with, depending on what you’re interested in, your location, your time, and what software or equipment you have access to—most projects are aimed at serious amateur astronomers.

Moon Mappers: Analyse photos of the moon taken by the Linar Reconnaissance Orbiter

GLOBE at Night: By comparing the sky above you to charts provided by the project, you can help measure the impact of light pollution on the visibility of stars

Stardust@home: This is an online search for interstellar dust, using images of samples captured from the comet Wild 2 in 2004

Target Asteroids: Help compile information about Near Earth Asteroids (must have access to a telescope)

Planet Mercury: Mappers: Identify craters to assist in creating a global crater database

Asteroid Mappers: Map the surface of Vesta

Miscellaneous

Valley of the Khans Project: An online hunt for Genghis Khan’s tomb, examining high-resolution satellite images

Quantum Moves: Help build a quantum computer

Higgs Hunters: Help search for unknown exotic particles in the LHC data!

Zooniverse: This is a collection of projects, mostly in astronomy (like looking at infrared images to find star-forming regions, studying wind patterns on Mars, and classifying images of the Moon’s surface) but some in climate, nature and archaeology too (like transcribing papyri and classifying bat calls). Click through to read about them.

The list above was compiled with a focus on widespread projects that are available across continents and throughout the world, but there are so many more out there. Lots of them are local, so get researching and find out what else is in your area!

Yes. Writing a book is the easiest thing in the whole world. In fact, let me show you just how easy it is!

Goal: change all this paper into a book.

Eh, not that hard. I mean, you just have to read, right?

Maybe scratch a few notes in the margins as reminders.

Yeah, writing and editing isn’t time consuming or painstaking at all.

In fact, I find it quite relaxing. Good meditation. No stress whatsoever!

I mean, it’s not like writing a book involves any train of thought or decision making, like when to cut scenes, because whatever you write is perfect and there to stay!

I mean, come on, it’s not like I’m going to rewrite the first chapter 51 TIMES to make sure it’s how I want it, right? That’d be crazy.

And no, it’s not like I spent over 3,000 HOURS READING AND REVISING 14 DRAFTS OF THE BOOK to make this book readable.

No sweat, no tears, no blood, and DEFINITELY no coffee stains.

Nope, writing is the easiest job in the world. I don’t see why anyone thinks otherwise. I mean, all we do is scribble words and take a few out, right?

We feel no satisfaction AT ALL when we receive a shipment of the final product for a book signing. *yawn* BOR–ING.

Nope, we don’t get excited at all. It’s just another day in the life.

And the sequels? Bitch, please. That’s child’s play.

Every morning, when she wakes, she sees this post-it stuck onto the stone wall and makes herself read it out loud.

“Stop checking on him,” she says, arms wrapped tight around her knees. “He doesn’t miss you.” The words bring the familiar sting of pain, the familiar tightness in her chest, the accompanying breathlessness. There’s still a part of her that rebels at the thought, that clings to what he said before and not after.

She thinks she might have been happier loving a mortal, which is so in fashion these days that her mother is gallivanting about Earth like she hadn’t spent centuries chastising Persephone for the same. If she loved a mortal, she could bind them in ways that it’s impossible to bind a god.

She gets up and gets ready for her day. Being an immortal means that she can’t just spend all day in bed. That path leads to centuries of apathy and she’s still young. So very, very young.

“Go back to Olympus. I should have known better than to let a child into my kingdom.”

There was no “letting” about it. She’d been younger still and in chains and in captivity and in love. She’d beguiled and coerced so that he’d take her with him, made him free her. 

She’d thought she was shedding her chains, choosing new ones that better suited her, but she didn’t see the way her discarded shackles slipped onto him. She didn’t see what a burden she was, what a burden she would become to him, how limiting, how heavy, how stupid.

It’s been five years now and she’s still counting seasons like she has a chance of being let back in. Summer and winter, summer and winter, summer and winter, ad nauseum. Her mother had said that she’d stick to the cycle, that the Earth actually benefited from winter, but Persephone sees the way the summers are growing longer and hotter, the way the winters are short but so sharp she could cut her teeth on them.

Spring? She stopped that a long time ago. The melting of winter is good enough for mortals and gods alike. They don’t notice and, therefore, they don’t ask.

A few days ago I remarked that the way our hecklers dismiss the points of Loki’s resistance is a case of pissing on our boots and telling us it’s a rainstorm. I found myself making a mental tally of some of the dismissals I’ve seen.

We talk about Loki’s suicide attempt, partly because it’s evidence that Loki is mentally ill (rather than evil). You know, when his desperate plan had failed, his idolized father had just rejected him with finality, he had hopelessly alienated the rest of his family, he knew he was a member of a species his realm considers monstrous, and he got this stunned hopeless expression on his face and let go of the spear, falling into a wormhole. Odin, a knowledgeable wizard, said in the prelude comics that falling through that void should have scattered the bits of Loki throughout Yggdrasil.

However, we get told that this was not a suicide attempt because Loki can travel between realms.

We point out that Asgard is a racist realm. Asgardians refer to frost giants as “monsters”, Dark Elves as “creatures” and humans as “goats”. Loki was so horrified to learn that he himself was a frost giant that he responded to the news with mass murder.

We get told that this is not racism because Jotuns are a different species, not merely a different variety of the same species, and because Jotuns are not real. Well, Fantastic Racism always has its defenders.

We look at the scene in TDW where Thor nearly beats up his manacled and much smaller brother. The words the two of them exchange - “Mother wouldn’t want us to fight,” “Well, she wouldn’t exactly be shocked” - make it clear that this was not an unusual occurrence. We note that this relationship is one of domestic abuse.

We are told that calling routine assaults of one brother by another “domestic abuse” is “shoehorning” a “complex real world issue” into a story that it doesn’t really fit.

We look at Loki’s imprisonment: he is forbidden visitors. As with Earth prisoners in solitary confinement, he has no physical contact and no visitors and the only people of his own species he sees are prison guards. He can see some other prisoners in their cells, but has no way of interacting with them.

We get told that this is not solitary confinement by people who haven’t bothered to do the research on how solitary confinement works on Earth. (Also, the bit of activism a few of us have engaged in - donating to organizations that send books to prisoners, signing petitions against solitary confinement - we shouldn’t do because… um… because Loki is evil, I think. Or something.)

We look at the scene in TDW where Thor’s idiot friends smirk happily as they assault and threaten Loki. We point out the similarity between this and the behavior of playground bullies - go to any school on the planet during recess and you will see this precise scenario enacted several dozen times.

We get told that it’s not bullying because Loki has been branded a criminal (without a trial, by others who have derived great pleasure onscreen from committing murders).

We note that Odin does not need to consult any parliament, council, or anyone before condemning those who incur his displeasure to eternal imprisonment, execution, or exile. Asgardians who irritate him do not even get a trial. He also has a history of sending warriors to other realms to kill the inhabitants and steal their magical relics. We say, “Gee, that looks like a dictatorship.” Indeed, by TDW even Thor has noticed, onscreen, that his father is an evil tyrant.

We are told that Loki is the dictator, because he was forced by magical torture to pretend that he wanted to rule Earth, and that if we oppose Odin, who is a practicing, actual dictator, and suggest that there is a limit to the cruelty that can be inflicted on someone who once made highly dubious claims of wishing to be a dictator, we are supporting dictatorship.

We notice that Thor derives pleasure from killing sentient beings in Thor, that there are clear indications in canon (such as Fandral’s and Loki’s reaction when the frost giant calls Thor “princess”) that this is routine behavior for him, that he attempted to murder both Iron Man and Captain America in Avengers, and that near the beginning of TDW he was killing people on Vanaheim for no reason we are ever told, and we say, This guy is a mass murderer.

We are told that he only kills people to protect other people (like all the people that frost giant might have called princess in the future if Thor hadn’t killed him, I guess, or the scores of innocents Iron Man and Captain America would doubtless have butchered between them) and that besides, he atoned with the ordeal of three days in New Mexico finding out that Earth has bangable chicks. (The murders Thor eagerly attempted or committed onscreen since then don’t count, I guess.)

We see that Thor will not have a shred of mercy on someone who literally was loyal to him for one thousand years if they then step out of line. We say, This guy is not a good person.

We are reminded that once someone has been labelled as “evil”, there is no limit whatsoever to the atrocities that can be inflicted on that person with a clear conscience.

We list the murders, cruelties and injustices perpetrated by Odin, Thor and Thor’s idiot friends. We note that most of these actions, even the closest examination of canon cannot find any kind of evidence that they might have been undertaken with good motives. We then point out that it takes the most extraordinary circumstances for Loki to be pushed into doing anything remotely villainous and that all of his crimes have clearly canonically depicted noble intentions.

We are told that we must ignore the events that actually occur in the movies in favor of Authorial Intent. If the creators say, “These vicious mass murderers who commit torture are the Good Guys and this other guy who has canonically, onscreen, worked very hard to prevent people from getting killed is the Bad Guy,” we must accept this.

(If you believe Authorial Intent is a valid argument for accepting that characters who behave in a thoroughly evil fashion are actually good and characters who strive ceaselessly to do good and sometimes fail are actually evil, I would like to recommend the novels of H. A. Covington to you. Remember, you must accept the moral verdict of the Authorial Intent!)

Really, what are we going to believe, what TPTB tell us or our own lying eyes?

I’ve now been told at least three times that I should leave this fandom. I explained that it takes me a while to detach from things that I care about. (I am, step by step, detaching - writing meta is part of how I get it out of my system - and I will be leaving when I’m able to. And I’ll be taking Loki with me, kidnapping him and creating a fictional universe for him to occupy where the bastards at Marvel Studios can’t hurt him anymore.)

I grew up with a parent who engaged in constant gaslighting. So much so that we often questioned our own reality. 

In my personal experience the main reason people love Loki so much (and the type of people who love Loki and know he’s more than just a ‘villain’ for the ‘heroes’ to defeat) is the fact that he’s relatable.

I mean personally speaking the REASON why I identify with him and want to see him happy and loved and safe SO MUCH, is because I’ve been through some shitty times.

I’ve been emotionally and mentally abused by my parents.

I’ve always been the quiet, dark outcast who preferred reading quietly alone.

I’ve been mocked and laughed at for who I am.

And it made me SO ANGRY. Like, If I Had Powers I Would Exact Revenge angry.

And to see someone else go through that, and to experience that kind of anger and loneliness and social isolation, was HUGE for me.

Loki is honestly the only character I can think of who shows us the Ugly Side of being an outcast and a misfit; the hatred towards society, the lashing out, pushing people you love away, etc.

So yeah, I honestly believe the only people who are defending him and love him, are either people who have experienced the same kind of trauma and abuse he has, or has amazing empathy and sympathy skills (because those people do exist and they are literal angels).

Maybe I’ll make a post in the future about “The Ugly Side of being an Outcast” because it’s something I’ve only recently come to realize.

But as an aside:

DON’T LEAVE THE FANDOM! THAT’S WHAT THEY (marvel) WANT!

THEY WANT LOKI TO FADE INTO OBSCURITY.

THEY WANT US TO FORGET ABOUT HIM.

WE CAN’T LET THAT HAPPEN.

Only half of Ontario voted. If you’re part of the half that didnt, I hold you responsible for whatever hell we live through in the next 4 years. If my marriage is invalidated in Ontario? ON YOU. My wife loses her medication coverage? ON YOU. If any of my LGBTQIA family lose anything? GUESS WHAT ITS ON YOU. Mental health and addictions programs lose funding? THAT IS ON YOU.

You wanted a better Ontario but didnt want to empower the people who could give it to you? You felt not voting was the right thing to do? Or worse you walked into a polling place and DECLINED YOUR VOTE?

You are responsible for handing the leadership of this province over to a racist, sexist, homophobe with zero moral compass who would steal from his OWN FAMILY to finance his campaign. You made the decisions, but you’re not the one to live with it.

You know who will pay for it?

LGBTQIA people like me

People of color

Disabled people

People who need assistance: medical, rehab or financial

Seniors

Tony: Haha

Quill: Do you think Strange is straight?

Rocket: Those two words don’t even MATCH in the same sentence!

Groot: I am Groot!

Tony: What did he say?

Strange: Yeah, what did he say?

Rocket: BAAHAHAHAHAHA

Drax: That Strange fucks aliens.

Quill: Yeaah me too what’s wrong with that? I mean, we’re all aliens to each other.

Tony: *slowly looks at Strange*

Strange: What?

Tony: Do you really…?

Strange: I AM AN OPEN MINDED MAN

Tony: Calm down Merlin I just wa-

Strange: IT’S MY PROBLEM WHO I HAVE SEX WITH

Drax: He seems to have a kink for tentacles.

Strange: *blushes* *BLUSHES*

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