Ryncoon

Mind you, I’m a sophomore at this point, working with 3 grad students and a professor. I’m at a point in my career where I can barely explain the math behind what research I’m actually doing.

This sort of thing happens all the time to me at work, only I usually end up lying about how I knew it, you know, to the other engineers, because it's always like "I hyperfixated on nerf gun manufacturing once," or "I looked it up because something in a fanfiction struck me as scientifically wrong but it turned out to be right," or "I literally learned this watching fursuiting tutorials in preparation for making a protogen headpiece."

It made me feel like an imposter for a while. But here's the thing: I actually knew that stuff. I wasn't faking the knowledge. It didn't matter that I learned it on a late-night YouTube binge started by searching a one-off line from a webcomic, or wherever else. I really know the stuff. I am smart.

I have, several times, for the purposes of having fun.

These are the first three "adult" mice from my-pick pairings of the feeder colony self-blacks. I took pics so I could ask opinions from the FMBA group, to see if I am looking for the right things when I'm picking for structural type.

I'm definitely keeping #1 because he's got the best color and I think he has ok type for an F1, and #2 I think has the best face (and DEFINITELY had the best temperament, I scooped him up by the body without needing to go for the tail at all and he was chill about it). I think #3's tiny ears and white tail-tip mean he's going to go, and his personality is lacking, but we'll see what the group says.

I have, several times, for the purposes of having fun.

and the thing is it’s really important to think about what colonization entails and how much of the white american dream is built on an incredibly destructive way of life, how much white american ideals revere exploitation, consumption, destruction. it’s important to point out that elon musk’s vision for mars combines all the worst parts of manifest destiny, disney world, and company towns: he wants to build a fucking resort there with indentured servants and he absolutely doesn’t give a shit how many people die along the way so long as he gets his money. that’s a colonialist fantasy. absolutely. fuck that.

but… i can’t believe that the human desire to travel is nothing more than the desire to colonize. that’s like saying the human desire to love is nothing more than the desire to rape. humans love to travel. countless cultures have been nomadic or migratory, and even the most stable civilizations have traders, pilgrims, tourists. we have been travelers our entire history. we love to go new places. we love to see new things. we have looked up at the stars for more than a hundred thousand years; we’ve sailed our ships by their lights for more than ten thousand years; we’ve told each other stories of going out among them for more than a century. we are so close to the edge of the universe, and we are a species of ardent travelers. of course we want to go.

some science fiction is colonial. the desire to space just to plunder everything we can get our greedy little spacesuit gloves on, by all means, let’s interrogate our motives for trying to do that kind of thing. let’s point out that this is a pretty shitty thing to do.

I have, several times, for the purposes of having fun.

The current 4H show trials involve getting the rabbits to predict the outcome of a horse race (via nibbling alfalfa out of a cup with a picture of the winning horse on it). Many rabbits can predict the horses that will run well over the course of the racing season, but you want to breed for a rabbit that can predict a specific race in the immediate future. So, it's all about narrowing that window of vision.

Which begs the question: is it animal cruelty to attempt breed prognostication into rabbits, if it reduces their quality of life so dramatically? I know some animal rights groups are lobbying to have clairvoyant rabbits barred from show. I doubt they will succeed since there is so much financial incentive to be made off breeding for clear, precise, and accurate rabbit prognostication... but I think we have to consider the ethical implications even if it remains legal.

I think my main concern with the study you mention above-- if I'm thinking about the right one (A Sense of Impending Doom: Semiotic Stress Syndrome and Prognostication in Domesticated Rabbit Populations?) is that it was, like so many studies in this area, funded by an investment firm. I feel it's not unreasonable to suggest that they might have ulterior motives in encouraging breeders to focus their efforts on refining rabbit lines that foresee exclusively abstract concepts.

Another thing I’d forgotten about this month, a request doodle for Magdalene from Dappervolk. She turned out pretty cute, I think, if slightly sinister.

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg is a self proclaimed crafter. A week ago she made a stuffed dinosaur from scraps on the space station. The little T-rex is made form the lining of Russian food containers and the toy is stuffed with scraps from an old T-shirt. While many toys have flown into space, this is the first produced in space.