Obie the Witch Boy

This speech-language pathologist taught her dog 29 words, and he can even form full sentences.

They do understand our words. This is not true of all domesticated animals (horses, for example, can only manage to distinguish a relatively small number of spoken commands…but boy do they know what you’re really saying).

They don’t understand “just your tone of voice” as a lot of people think.

As of 2016 the record vocabulary for a dog demonstrating understanding of words is over 1,000.

So if you give them a way to talk back, they’re going to use it.

The development of language skills is probably a side effect of domestication and of being kept in close contact with humans. A dog that was a better hunting partner would be kept and bred and over time they developed a better understanding of language.

In other words, dogs are pretty dang smart because we need them to understand us.

Check out the owner Christina’s Instagram: one of the first things I saw was a video where the dog started barking and, when prompted by the owner, said “outside, look look look look look look look, come outside.” Which is basically exactly how one would expect a dog to speak. 

The owner described bringing an unknown package into the house, and the dog ran away to push the buttons for “help no no help help” which is also about what I expect goes on in a scared pup’s mind.

In another video, the dog tried to push a button, and the button wasn’t working. The dog paused and then pushed the buttons for “No. Help.” 

In yet another (which the owner seemed impressed by), Stella said “come eat come play.” The owner asked the dog which she wanted to do, to eat or to play? And the dog clarified “come eat.” After eating, then the dog tried to instigate play. So the dog may have been able to understand a short spoken question, and how “questions and answers” work, and also understands sequences, even if she can’t express them (”I want to eat, THEN I want to play”)

Stella can even recount short-term memories, like when her family returned from the beach for dinner and she said “water good, no eat, play”

By the way, the owner uses the buttons as well, which probably really helps reinforce their meaning. She uses them to say things like “Stella all done eat” or “Stella and Christina go outside, bye!”

Recipe => https://omnivorescookbook.com/snow-skin-mooncake-custard/

Follow for recipes

So lets say you’re researching something for a paper (or just for fun) and the research paper you want to read is behind a paywall, or the site makes you create an account first, or makes you pay to download, or limits you to only 5 free articles, or otherwise makes it difficult for you to read what you want.

do not fear! copy the link to the article

go to sci-hub.se         (the url is always changing so its best to check out whereisscihub.now.sh to find what the current url is)

slap the article link in there

This graffiti appeared overnight at 5 different job centres in Birmingham.

It’s referencing the increasingly harsh benefit sanctions in the UK which are punishing disabled people in particular.

Claimants who cannot work due to severe disabilities or chronic illnesses are being categorised as “fit for work” in order to meet targets and are not being given enough money to survive.

The majority of people who legally challenge their benefits sanctions or ‘fit for work’ decision have them overturned, but only after months without the money they need.

Estimates generally put the number of people who have died in the last few years directly due to benefit sanctions in the thousands. These include people who have died of starvation, exposure, because they couldn’t afford electricity to keep their insulin cold, or because they couldn’t afford treatment, among other things.

The DWP has even sent letters to people declaring them fit for work when in fact they have already died from their illness.

Fuck the DWP and job centres.

Would just like to bring the place I went to today to everyone’s attention. It’s called Druid’s Temple in Yorkshire, England

I spent several minutes just staring at them (and trying to convince them to bite my fingers.) When my sister’s violin lesson ended, her teacher came out to the yard and explained that these goldfish were the same small creatures that were often unfortunately sold in plastic bags at state fairs. They were only about two inches long apiece, when she bought them and put them in the new, empty pond. In essence, they were like every goldfish I had seen before, but they had been given a much larger, much richer environment in which to flourish. As a result, they had grown into some of the most remarkable, vibrant creatures my twelve-year-old self had ever met with. All because of a pond. 

Modern Male Witch Project: Masterpost

A personal project that has become very important to me: male witches in their private dens, with their belongings surrounding them that show what kind of person they are and what kind of magic they practice. I try to make every single peace emit peace and comfort, but with a magical twist!

Separate pieces

Bedroom witch | Bathroom witch | Kitchen witch | Home Office witch | Attic witch

Buy prints on Redbubble and Society6

Basically, Thomas Sanders (who, btw, is gay) used to be basically the celebrated Unproblematic Fav Uwu of Tumblr and Vine. Everyone loved him, everyone praised him for being inclusive and positive, making fun and unique vines that were appropriate and enjoyable for any age group.

Then one day he got an aphobic ask (I honestly don’t remember what this was even in response to, I think it was some really innocent one-off “I hope asexuals have a good day” type of post or something like that, idek), to which he wrote a long and sincere response that basically summed up to “Hey, that’s not a nice attitude to have, please take a moment to think about how other people must feel and why it’s so important to you to shut them down”

Within literal hours (and this is something I witnessed myself, I was online when it all went down), a smear campaign against him had started. Suddenly even people who had previously been huge fans of him were shit-talking him left and right, declaring him cringey, and grasping at straws to make “callout posts” for him. One popular argument I remember hearing was- And I shit you not, I am not making this up- He was a “pedophile” because he made videos for a family demographic and has a young-looking face, but was 29 or whatever and therefore “pretending to be a kid” or whatever the fuck. He even, gasp, made vines about high school, despite not being a high schooler himself! (Dan Green voice) That’s called “acting”, children!

His popularity never really recovered, and these days he’s mostly considered “cringey” by a large portion of the internet due to the main demographic most of his fans fall into, because you know it’s hip and cool to shame young girls and queer kids for the things that bring them joy.

1. He has tags for not quite safe for work selfies on his blog (#nsfw and #tsbutt) (not nudes or even lewds, just pictures including his clothed butt.)

2. He accepts nsfw fanart from fans, but ONLY if the artist is 18+

3. There was ONE time where an underage artist submitted a nsfw art piece and Thomas posted it, because said artist removed their age from their bio, so Thomas had no idea it was made by a minor. He deleted the post as soon as this information came to light.

But exclusionists took all of this, mashed it with their “oh but he’s so childish, he acts like a kid even though he’s nearly 30, he must be hiding something!” And ran so far with it that Thomas Sanders severely suffered for it. Even his fans got shit for liking him. A lot abandoned him out of fear that a similar campaign would start against them.