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A close up of the Blanket Octopus during a blackwater dive with The Three P diving club , Romblon Island, Philippines. Credit: Joseph Elayani

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Mad about politics again

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Alien pulling your sleeve to get your attention: and who is this Cunt you all serve

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As someone in behavior science, this is absolutely true, and very important!

When your learner doesn't know whether they'll get an aversive (uncomfortable/unpleasant) or appetitive (desirable, pleasant) consequence for performing a specific behavior, it creates stress and conflict, and often leads to the behavior breaking down.

In our industry this is known as a "Poisoned Cue." And it's the reason we generally recommend folks choosing a NEW cue when enrolling in a recall class!

Humans experience poisoned cues all the time. Imagine your mom texts you:

"Call me"

Nothing else, just the text. And your stomach drops.

But why? She might want to tell you she bought you tickets to your favorite concert, or that she wants to drop off some cookies! What reason would you have to assume you're in trouble? Because if even ONCE that kind of text resulted in a negative experience, THAT is what your mind will conjure up first. And that is why we want to be very careful NOT to accidentally mix reinforcement with punishment, especially for important behaviors like recall which we may need to use in situations regarding safety.

And there's scientific evidence to support it!

Okay this is gong to sound condescending on several levels but:

There's a kind of cliche about training a dog - that if you want it to always come when it's called, you should never scream at or punish it when it does. Even if you just spent twenty minutes getting increasingly panicked thinking it was dead in the woods! Even if it had been trampling through the neighbors garden! It is very important that it's direct association is 'stopping whatever super interesting thing I was doing to go back to human = being praised and rewarded'. If the association is instead being screamed at or punished, the dog will be less enthusiastic to stop whatever fun thing it's doing to run to that.

I feel like a great many people would noticably improve their own lives if they started applying the same logic to how they treated other humans.

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I have a friend who has one biological and one adopted son and I found out he likes to tell people “my firstborn is six and my other child is eleven” which is hilarious.

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"But they're destroying their bodies for a fetishhhhh" wow great opinion, where did you get it from? Your mom who told you that your new tattoo you got for fun and joy ruined your sacred body?

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adhd will get you thinking "i should make this doctors appointment" every day for 7 months and counting

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There’s a bunch of right-wing people posting memes about “”DOGE”” making the government more efficient by removing funding from “”dumb bug researchers”” and I am now realizing how little the average person knows about entomology and its importance

Excuse me while I get sad .

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Young Woman With Sword by Jules-Élie Delaunay (1828-1891)

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Molinard perfume bottle in the shape of a cicada, silver and glass, c. 1900.

Inscription on the clover-shaped charm says "TOUTE LA PROVENCE, MOLINARD JEUNE, GRASSE-FRANCE".

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This is how any corporation functions. First, increasing profits is done by attracting more customers. Then, once they have all the customers they're going to get, increasing profits is done by increasing prices or cutting costs.

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I don't care what your perception of the female body has been warped into by the media and advertising prevalent in culture. eat some goddamn carbs

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The changes go into effect for the 2025-2026 academic year.

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