gwynever

[gwynever]

If this makes you sad, please consider donating to the Saving Wildcats project.

Saving Wildcats run a breed and release programme in the Caringorms, and a Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return programme for feral domestic cats around release sites.

They released the first group of wildcats in 2023, and in May 2024 camera traps documented that the first group had kittens!

You can donate directly at the Saving Wildcats page:

If you don't have the cash to spare, you can help out the project by going through the camera trap footage to identify wildcat sightings!

Propaganda:

The Scottish wildcat has been wiped out by breeding with domestic cats

After 2000 years of isolation, a few decades of interbreeding have rendered the animal “genomically extinct”

Though it lies in ruins on the northeast coast of England, Kilton Castle was once an imposing stone fortress, home to several noble families, and—it appears—at least eight cats. Archaeological excavations in the 1960s uncovered a well, at the bottom of which lay the bones of several felines dating back to the 14th century. The animals were an odd mix: Some were domestic cats, but other, larger specimens appeared to be European wildcats, a fierce, burly species that has inhabited the continent for hundreds of thousands of years. The two species’ closeness in death was deceptive. A study published today in Current Biology finds that even though European wildcats and domestic cats overlapped in Great Britain for more than 2000 years—including at sites such as Kilton—they appear to have almost never interbred. That changed suddenly about 70 years ago, when domestic cats began to mate with wildcats in Scotland. In the span of mere decades, the genome of the Scottish wildcat—the last remaining wildcat in Great Britain—has become so corrupted that the animal is now effectively extinct, a second study in the same issue finds. The findings could complicate ongoing efforts to save the most endangered mammalian carnivore in Great Britain...

Read more: https://www.science.org/content/article/scottish-wildcat-has-been-wiped-out-breeding-domestic-cats

[gwynever]

[gwynever]

This really makes the Studios costing themselves even more money (and getting more unions involved) by prolonging the strike for the promise of free ai labor even more fucking funny. you dumb fucking bastards lol

[gwynever]

MILV (mutual id like to visit)

[gwynever]

Can confirm:

Goodreads was the future of book reviews. Then Amazon bought it.

"A prominent author’s decision to pull her new novel from publication after being ‘review bombed’ highlights Goodreads’s power in publishing — and raises questions about its longtime owner"

This Washington Post piece is paywalled, but if you click on the article via the Reddit link, you can get free access for 45 days through their partnership with Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/14qltca/goodreads_was_the_future_of_book_reviews_then/

The alternative: StoryGraph: https://www.thestorygraph.com/

[gwynever]

The studio that ‘made’ Coca-Cola’s AI Christmas advert apparently produced 85 *minutes* worth of footage of only which 15 seconds were remotely usable.

Those 15 seconds included 10 cuts because everything over 1.5 seconds probably morphed into something horrible. In the ad a bottle changes sizes constantly, vacuous Christmas imagery and some weird uncanny valley faces.

Not posting it because fuck em, but you can go see for yourself if you wish.

Yet more proof that Irn Bru is just better.

[gwynever]

PSA

[gwynever]

big pharma will try to sell u $20 cold medicine like spicy ramen doesnt cost like a dollar a pack and orgasms are free

[gwynever]

[gwynever]

[gwynever]

On November 18th 1870 a riot broke out at Surgeons Hall Edinburgh.

A direct follow on from my post last week regarding Edith Pechey and Sophia Jex-Blake.

Jex-Blake, Isabel Thorne, Edith Pechey, Matilda Chaplin, Helen Evans, Mary Anderson, and Emily Bovell were studying medicine at Edinburgh University, at a time when most of the establishment considered the idea of women undergraduates, let alone doctors, preposterous.

Several hundred male students pelted the women with mud and rubbish as they arrived. The women struggled through the crowd until a supporter unbolted a door to hurry them inside. The rioters shoved a live sheep, used by the medical faculty, into the exam hall, causing further chaos. Jex-Blake was later sued by a student, Mr Craig, who she claimed was at the root of the riot, but she defended his claim. The court awarded him one farthing instead of the £1,000 he sought in damages and the case was seen as a victory for the Edinburgh Seven. Public support for the women started to grow with a report in The Scotsman urging “all…men…to come forward and express… their detestation of the proceedings which have characterised and dishonoured the opposition to ladies pursuing the study of medicine in Edinburgh.”

The decision to allow them to study was later overturned on an appeal by Claud Muirhead, Senior Assistant Physician at the Royal Infirmary, supported by around 200 students. Unable to graduate, the battle moved to London. Jex-Blake was instrumental is setting up the London School of Medicine for Women. In 1876, the Enabling Bill gave medical examining bodies the right to admit women. Jex-Blake and Pechey did their MD in Berne, Switzerland, then sat the Irish exams with the College of Physicians in Dublin, finally becoming registered doctors in Britain. In 1877, Jex-Blake opened Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women and Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women the following year.

The pics include first hand accounts written by Sophia Jex-Blake and Edith Pechey respectively outlining the abuse received from male students.

[gwynever]

Less magic schools. More magic universities. Unlearn the simplified models of your secondary education. Discover how to reference scrolls written by a wizard possessed by a different wizard. Identify bias in the voices that whisper from beyond the veil. Have your institution be accused of promoting a Merlinist agenda. Become addicted to energy potions.

[gwynever]

Does your town/city/village/etc's name come from a (former) colonial power? (example: places in Australia that are named for British people or places)

Yes, name comes from Britain

Yes, name comes from Spain

Yes, name comes from France

Yes, name comes from another (former) colonial power

No, because I live in Britain

No, because I live in a different (former) colonial power

No, but I do live in a (former) colony

No, and I live in a country that has not (recently) been colonised

It used to, but the name has been changed

Sort of - we use the colonial name and another name

Other

I don't know/see results

[gwynever]

like i'm sorry but we as a fandom have to stay firm on our anti-AI values. we cannot suddenly start giving AI a pass when it's something we "want to see" like destiel kisses. it's not suddenly fine. we're not going to start using AI to make fanfic scenes come to life or audio AI to make characters "say" stuff we want to hear. you have GOT to be firm on your anti-AI stance. if you start making exceptions then suddenly anything will fly. fandom is for real art and creations made by real people. no AI fanfics. no AI art. no AI rendered "bonus" scenes. no AI audio. none of it has a place here.

[gwynever]

How do they keep making later and later stages of late-capitalism

[gwynever]

Mutuals do this