Free Those Radicals

I see it usually in the context of “esk*mo kisses” which may pop up when people talk about their ships and their headcanon, but it means “snow eaters” in cree and is a slur against Inuit people so please just don’t use it!

This is your yearly reminder that Leg Avenue sells stolen sculpts/IP from @whitefoxhats, my boyfriend’s Etsy, which is his primary source of income. 

*If you see THESE FUCKERS RIGHT HERE, these 4 inch fawn antlers on a headband, on THIS model:

———DO NOT BUY THEM.—— 

Spirit Halloween, Google Express, HalloweenCostumes dot com, and a bunch of other big costume retailers sell this exact item. It is a recast of Whitefox Hats’ 4 inch Faun Antler Headband. 

They only have the one color and the one size, with no ears, and the Leg Avenue recasts are actually HEAVIER than the original resin antlers, which is… just completely stupid. You can even see that it’s an inverse cast. Also, unlike this knockoff, Ash’s products have improved since this sculpt!! JUST HIRE HIM, PEOPLE!!!

If you’re going to be a deer, be a dear and support the original artist!:  

As promised, more Soft Darcy Facts:

During the debate at Netherfield about what it takes to be considered an accomplished woman, Caroline Bingley lists drawing, dancing, modern languages, blah blah blah… before Darcy contributes the following: “and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.” He’s got reading on his mind, since they’ve just been discussing his own affinity for book-buying and his awesome library at Pemberley, and because Elizabeth has been sitting there being distracted from her book by all the byplay. But his specific phrasing is clearly a reference to Letters on the Improvement of the Mind by Hester Chapone, a conduct manual published in 1773 that details how girls can educate themselves through a proper program of reading.

How, you ask, has Darcy been contributing to the celebrated collection at Pemberley? FITZWILLIAM DARCY IS BUYING FEMINIST PARENTING MANUALS. Because he has a baby sister, and he wants to be the best guardian he can be.

Chapone’s book was endorsed by none other than Mary Wollstonecraft in A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Austen and many of her readers would have known this quite well.

“The National Rifle Association (NRA) has said it’s suffering from substantial financial issues that could cause the organisation to “be unable to exist”.

In a recent court filing, the powerful organisation that lobbies on behalf of gun makers, owners and campaigns against almost all gun regulations, said it had lost its media insurance coverage due to an aggressive campaign brought on by New York’s Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo. The campaign encouraged companies to cut ties with the gun lobbying group. A lack of liability insurance threatens to shut down the group’s multi-million dollar media entities, including NRATV, its own streaming channel.“

use tools

Can be taught to speak (like parrots)

Have huge brains for birds

like seriously their brain-to-body size ratio is equal to that of a chimpanzee

They vocalize anger, sadness, or happiness in response to things

they are scary smart at solving puzzles

some crows stay with their mates until one of them dies

they can remember faces

SIDENOTE HERE BECAUSE HOLY SHIT.  They did an experiment where these guys wore masks and some of them fucked with crows.  Pretty soon the crows recognized the masks = douchebag.  But the nice guys with masks they left alone.  THEN, OH WE’RE NOT DONE, NO SIR crows that WEREN’T EVEN IN THE EXPERIMENT AND NEVER SAW THE MASK BEFORE knew about mask-dudes and attacked them on sight.  THEY PASSED ON THE FUCKING INFORMATION TO THEIR CROW BUDDIES.

They remember places where crows were killed by farmers and change their migration patterns.

Every day, I would watch Buck from my window until one day I opened it and started talking to him. He was small and gangly and he couldn’t caw right. His feathers were all over the place and I felt a kinship. So I made a deal with him. I told him that if he could do it, if he could fly, then I could find the strength to get up. Well… near the end of the season, after talking with him every day, I finally saw him get out of the nest. He went to the edge of his branch, braced himself, and jumped… and just before he hit the ground, he soared back up into the sky. I cheered harder than I ever had before.

That winter, Buck left the area. I was crestfallen. I felt like I’d lost a friend. But I was so damn proud of him. 

Cut to the next spring? I’m walking up the driveway one day when suddenly I hear a sound… a broken caw. I look up, and Buck is sitting in a tree above my head. He stared at me and puffed his feathers, then hopped down in front of me and cawed again. I was so damn thrilled, and I told him how proud I was of him. He ruffled his feathers and then soared off into his old tree. 

That summer? I heard two broken caws. One from Buck… and one from his chick.

i tried to get close and take a better look and one of them dived super low and tried to attack me. so i went back in the house and chopped some sliced raw meat and tossed it at him from a distance.

a few more times later, very soon after, they could tell i was trying to help, and did not attack me. i was “allowed” to walk up close and pick him up, he couldn’t drink water properly so i had to dip my finger in a bowl and stick it in his mouth.

i did this few times a day and it went on for about a week before he disappeared, i thought he recovered and left, but he came back the next day and lands on me, and i see him around the block quite often, and he would come sit on my shoulder for a few minutes and then fly away again. i feel like i’ve adopted a son.

As a side note, I volunteered at a rehab (Hope for Wildlife), where they were rehabbing a crow with a broken wing–who was named Russell Crow. He kept pulling his bandage off so a sleeve was cut off some old clothing and put on him like a little sweater. 

regularly rides the Skytrain to get around Vancouver…

I’m sorry, this isn’t Jojo at all but I think I’ve had it for today. As a pharmacy tech, I’m tired of hearing “Well, I started to feel better so I didn’t finish them.” I always knew this but now as a Molecular and Cellular Biology major, I not only know why but how. If you’re willing to heed my advice from the title, good; be on your way. If you need to know more, keep reading.

It’s widely known–to some extent–that not completing a regiment of antibiotics can result in resistant bacteria, or even super bacteria.

But in an infection, you already have resistant bacteria lurking. Not taking antibiotics doesn’t literally create resistant bacteria. So how, then, do the antibiotics take care of the resistant ones?

A lot of antibiotics aren’t bacterialcidal: They don’t actually kill them. Many inhibit growth by some mechanism depending if the bacteria is gram negative or gram positive. For example, penicillin inhibits growth by disrupting the formation of a peptidoglycan layer on gram positive bacteria. Others target the LPS layer on gram negative ones. This keeps the non resistant bacteria at bay. So what kills the resistant ones? Your immune system. Antibiotics buy time and energy for your immune system to recognize and destroy the resistant strains. Your immune system is intelligent in that sense and can form antibodies for new illnesses. It’s important to give your immune system this time because bacteria grow, mutate, and transfer genetic material at astonishing rates. If you wanted to look at a microcosm of the mechanics that go into evolution, you’ve got it with bacteria. 

There are three methods aside from binary fission in which they transfer genes (I won’t get into the minutia of the form of informational material): Transformation, transduction and conjugation.

In transformation, a bacteria can pickup lost genes from a ruptured and dead cell.

Transduction is a way to transfer information via a viral vector.

In conjugation, genes are transferred through something called a pilus: It’s a bridge between two cells that pipes a copy of the information from one cell to another receptive cell and is the only method that doesn’t involve killing either cells. Resistant bacteria like to give around that resistance information like they’re burning a CD for their friends.

So please finish your antibiotics if you’ve been given them. It doesn’t matter if you’ve started to feel better or even great. Finish them.

Shaniqua Ogletree - Warrior - July 16, 2018  

Climatologists: