dying is easy, young man, living is harder.

"Society as we know it is at risk" yay wahoo yipee hip hip hooray!

Fortuneteller, turning over the Death card: Don't worry. It isn't literal. It simply refers to some form of change. Me: Phew Fortuneteller; turning over the Gets Eaten by the Fortuneteller While Trying to Leave card: That can also mean many things

I still think that a key function of the way we think of the concepts "adult" and "child" is to separate the human population into "people who deserve autonomy but no protection" and "people who deserve protection but no autonomy" and in the process dehumanize both groups of people. We ignore the fact that all people need both autonomy and protection, and that our society could easily be set up to provide everyone a healthy mix of both.

And to be honest much of what we label as "protection" for children and "autonomy" for adults is merely the appearance of such. We act as if dictating what children are allowed to say, think, or feel is a form of care, and as if cutting away all social safety nets for adults is a form of empowerment.

"A ship can never truly love an anchor." dude shut up. a ship without an anchor gets dashed against the rocks. it's useless, completely at the whim of the currents. a ship loves an anchor so much it carries it everywhere it goes. the anchor gives the ship the world to love. dude.

If your nose is currently unblocked and not runny, take a moment to appreciate it. Wow look at you breathing in with both nostrils and not having to blow your nose every two minutes! You must be so proud of yourself! I’m proud of you too bud, have fun with your clear nose, you deserve it.

Same energy

Lmao

Screaminggggg

In Elmo’s voice: “I only had three lines!”

Robins Williams’ laughter in the background is the most heartwarming, mood lifting thing I have ever heard.

This is literally the best thing to see first thing after I wake up 😊

I had some other work to do this morning (Figuring out some algae stuff involving 1000 L mesocosm up a mountain) so mystery species has been sitting alone in the lab all morning…..

I for one welcome our new plant, algae, or fungi overlords.

I was about to say “in a sensible lab people wouldn’t waste time with this, they’d autoclave the bottles and move on” but on reflection I can’t think of a single bio lab I’ve been in that wouldn’t immediately go “ooh, mystery algae, that sounds like a fun challenge; let’s devote multiple hours to identifying it for no reason”.

I need updates tell me about the algae

The mystery algae/plant/fungi/alien is stuck in the university growth chamber. With everything going on I probably won’t get to check in on it until September, possibly not until 2021.

So by that time it will have developed what, writing?

God I hope so, then I can train it to write my thesis!

This entire post is the most on-brand biologist thing I have seen in my entire godforsaken life. The moment this pandemic is over these guys have another crisis ready for us.

Can we get an update cause this is crazy

Update: Due to the global pandemic, the algae has been left alone in a weird hidden growth chamber for a year and will likely stay there for another year. Enjoy that information!

Sampling on Friday the 13th just confirms that the horror movie plot is unstoppable now

Remember: toe beans are the sign of a killer.

Funnily enough, I’m not 100% joking. While many animals have paw pads, the particular kind of soft, squishy beans found on housecats are an adaptation for stealth. Squishy beans mean you’re looking at an ambush predator.

These are the beans of a killer, Bella.

absolute decadence

Imagine a kindly giant of unknown species and origin just picking you up and carefully placing you in a pile of chicken nuggets