L'Envolée

The problem with studying the deep ocean is that humans need light to look at things, the depths of the ocean are extremely dark, and what lives there is accustomed to spending most of its time in that darkness. So when we go down there with submersibles and turn on Big Lights to see, we invariably and dramatically alter what's going on, in the same way that it's generally difficult to observe the natural behaviors of terrestrial animals if you whip out a megaphone and shout HEY GUYS WHAT ARE YOU DOING at them first.

I put this in the comments but feel it needs a reblog- Check out some of Dr Edith Widder’s work on light in the deep sea! Among other things, she used the bioluminescence of stoplight fish to deduce wavelengths which most deep sea animals can’t perceive and used that to create light filters to be able to film with minimal disturbance! And that’s how we got 25 minutes of giant squid footage!!!!

@eddieintheocean

I get in theory why people complain about het ships or whatever, I get wanting to watch queer media I really do, but I guess where y’all lose me is like. I saw some asshole on a post about Sinners complaining it was “hetslop”—this person was specifically doing so while also claiming Remmick was a queer character and thus they were justified in caring more about him than the Black protagonists. which is a whole other disgusting can of worms that has been well addressed by others at this point. but even in the absence of that part of the argument, like, no, i actually don’t think that a hunger for queer stories is an especially good excuse to deride and dismiss a piece of landmark Black filmmaking, especially as a non-Black person. I have a post that’s been going around encouraging folks to engage with more Native stories and characters, and I had someone come onto that post saying in the tags that they’d need these stories to be queer in order to care. and I just think that, you know, sucks! like obviously as a queer Native I also want to see more of those stories too. but idk how else to put it other than to say that Black people and people of color shouldn’t have to be like you in order for you to care about our narratives and experiences. and I think some of y’all are using this disdain for heterosexuality as a cover for your unexamined racial biases. it’s not okay to be racist to people just because those people happen to be straight, and you continue to be white before you are queer.

on an even more basic level than that, also, I simply just think some of y’all NEED to learn how to interact with media and storytelling without ships and fandom in mind. like if not being able to write fic about two men kissing is genuinely going to be a dealbreaker for you I think that’s actually something you need to work on within yourself because at that point I think you’re no longer really interacting with art and themes and narrative so much as just kind of playing with toys. which is, like, fine I guess. have fun. but it wouldn’t kill you to disengage from that from time to time. especially if would allow you to actually appreciate rich and deeply moving cultural stories from communities of color that you desperately need to learn how to see as human

Thanks for the screencap, I did try to read the article but the ads on that site were insane.

i've never played dragon age and don't know anything about it but what i do know is that that solas guy looks exactly like if astarion and wulbren bongle had a baby

it's crazy how SINNERS came out this year and immediately entered vampire classics canon forever. studios need to give ryan coogler 200 million dollars to do whatever the fuck he wants every few years in perpetuity.

first of all, don't talk to me like that, you don't know me. also those directors are not, as i said, ryan coogler, and it's frankly strange you brought them up while i'm praising a black director and saying he deserves to be not only paid for his work but also given the same opportunities his non-black peers have been. sinners is significant because the deal he negotiated with the studio means ownership of the movie will revert back to him after 25 years, a landmark deal that means he will receive royalties for the rest of his life that would usually go to the studio, which is unheard of and especially important in the context of black art being stolen and repressed by white supremacy. you might think you're being funny by making your little comment but what you're doing is 1) implying that we should stop directors like him from having the freedom to make whatever they want to make, to tell the stories they want to tell that aren't just franchises and are vibrant, resonant pieces of storytelling, AND 2) essentially parroting a right-wing talking point about how we should spend less on the arts. so yes, i will reiterate: studios need to give ryan coogler 200 million dollars to do whatever the fuck he wants every few years in perpetuity.

and that is academy award winner ryan coogler to you. bitch.

It kind of fucks with me that somebody killed ötzi the iceman because ötzi himself is like whatever but the silent presence of human hands that drew back the string of the bow that shot the arrow that killed him is crazy. the idea that there were various people involved in that situation and while one of them has had his last hours painstakingly reconstructed and studied to no end, the others now only exist insofar that an arrowhead had to get into his shoulder somehow. imagine killing someone and then suddenly your entire existence is only a vague shadow implied by the fact that you killed them. much to consider

Testing the mummified bone marrow of ötzi to figure out his ancestry whole time there’s definitely another person, maybe more than one, standing in the room with us but I can never see or speak to them because I only know them through the assurance that they were there too in the form of one single arrowhead. I hate prehistory so much it’s unreal