The sea has never been friendly to man

Over The Waves by Setsuko Matsushima

Except my phone unexpectedly broke shortly thereafter, and I lost those pictures forever. It’s been like 15 years, and I still think of that little wall hanging quilt and feel a little sad that I’ll never see it again.

Instead of a cutesie reference to film censorship it was an explicit statement of defiance of Maryland's criminalization gay sex, which was not repealed until 2002. This wasn't a guy saying "Oh they can't put what I do in the movies according to a completely voluntary industry code" he was saying "The State of Maryland wants to put me in jail for being gay and having gay sex."

Evening Dress

Girolamo Giuseffi

c.1912

This is a caspian seal, from my homecountry Kazakhstan

people in the comments will be like "okay but we could at least get rid of ticks and mosquitos because those spread disease."

we actually CANNOT get rid of ticks and mosquitos. not only do we plain lack the technology to lead a pointed extermination effort against them specifically without taking a score of other species down with them, but if we developed that technology and did eradicate mosquitos and ticks, it would be the catalyst of utter ecological collapse the likes of which i think people are not quite comprehending.

the problem is not the existence of bugs. the problem is that our current global systems ensure that specific Peoples in specific places are disproportionately impacted by zoonoses (illness spread between animals and humans).

those same populations also disproportionately lack access to preventative tools & PPE (down to things many of us take for granted so simply as effective bug spray), and crucially access to medical treatment.

the goal should not be an eradicating effort against bugs which would quite literally collapse entire ecosystems, but equitable access to healthcare, investment in medical research to improve preventative and acute treatment for zoonoses, and the destruction of systems which are currently rapidly increasing the threat of zoonoses worldwide (climate change!)

i am not defending the existence of bugs because i think they're cute and because i don't care about the devastating suffering zoonoses cause millions and millions of people.

Super disappointing to finally see artwork accurately representing my body and realize it’s being reposted on subreddits like “awful taste but great execution” and “diwhy” :( Like this is so cool