magnficientoarfish

[magnficientoarfish]

One last talent show to save the rec center

Ok everybody here's the deal.

My science education nonprofit, Skype a Scientist (you might know her, creator of the squid facts hotline and matcher of classrooms + scientists) has secured absolutely no grants to support general operations for 2025. But! We're selling advent calendars to fund our program! They absolutely rule. They can save our nonprofit asses. If we sell 5000, which I realize, is so many, we can fund our program for 2025. Then I can offer a bunch of programming for free. Running a nonprofit is a weird job.

Every day, counting down to frankly whatever you want (it's usually Christmas, but man, maybe you want to count down to Halloween, that's fine by me) scratch off the sparkly sparkly iridescence and reveal a fact about frogs! We have 24 top-notch frog facts here.

You should get one for every kid in your life, then get one for all the adults who still let themselves access joy in critters.

Get 'em here: https://squidfacts.bigcartel.com/

[magnficientoarfish]

how to participate in political theatre

its always been really obvious who considers genocide just another day in US foreign policy and who considers it a red line but it's really disappointing to see how easy it has been for democrats to exploit the idea of "palestinian rights or your rights? shut up about genocide or vote for trump?"

this is a false dichotomy. you are under no obligation to perpetuate it. vote for whoever you want but don't say say the biden administration supports a ceasefire because this is disinformation

white house propaganda #1: kamala has called for a ceasefire

since january the white house has rebranded a "humanitarian pause" as a ceasefire

joe biden has called for "a ceasefire" since february

in may joe biden said rafah was a red line and the US would not support the invasion of rafah (rafah has since been invaded and destroyed, after which netanyahu was invited to congress)

in early may the white house proposed a three-step plan to an actual ceasefire, which israel rejected and then killed the hamas leader they were negotiating with

the white house has not been forthcoming about israel being the one rejecting the ceasefire, nor israel's escalation within the region

the white house has not been forthcoming about the contradiction between "calling for a ceasefire" and continued weapons shipments to the people preventing a ceasefire

as such, the repeated calls for "ceasefire," just like the articles about biden's strongly worded calls to netanyahu, are political threatre to pacify the masses that have allowed a genocide to continue for ten months unabated. insofar, kamala's call for ceasefire is exactly the same as biden's call for ceasefire.

white house propaganda #2: the biden admin has actually stopped sending offensive weapons to israel

literally untrue: the US paused ONE shipment of 2,000 pound bombs and some 500 pound bombs in may after denouncing a potential rafah invasion, then resumed the 500 pound bombs in july after the invasion occurred with multiple massacres

a 3.5 billion military aid package was sent on august 9th, 2024, to be spent on pretty much whatever israel wants

previously imposed symbolic "sanctions" on only one unit of the IDF accused of crimes against humanity was overturned

imposed "sanctions" on 7 (seven!) extremist settlers were clarified to make sure they still had access to their assets

the biden admin opposed ICC warrants on israel as early as 2021, leading to consistent delays in the ICC doing its job, and rejected the announcement for warrants in 2024, which have still not been actually sought due to the US continuing to exert pressure against the ICC

the white house also criticized the advisory finding from the international court of justice that israel is an apartheid state

the white house has vetoed multiple security council resolutions calling for a ceasefire in gaza

the white house vetoed resolutions calling for the admission of palestine as a member state

the white house also called the case for genocide at the ICJ "unfounded" although the ICJ did find sufficient evidence for genocide and had imposed provisionary measures (which israel did not fulfill)

the white house has reaffirmed full backing for israel "against iran" even after its escalatory assassinations of both lebanese and palestinian political leaders, and deployed more troops, aircraft carriers, and missile cruisers to the middle east in august

therefore, while the biden admin acknowledges that israel stands in the way of a ceasefire, they are not pressuring israel to stop and instead providing both diplomatic immunity and military support to its escalatory actions in the region

white house propaganda #3: the US can't control israel, it acts on its own, and kamala can't do anything about it

once again, reagan ended the israeli invasion of lebanon with a single phone call to menachem begin, where he intentionally said "it looks like a holocaust"

since obama, every single US president has been fostering and empowering increasingly extremist elements within israel, moreso than republicans who came before them, including bush(!!)

while trump moved the capital to jerusalem, defunded UNRWA, and approved annexation of the west bank, biden... did not move the capital back, also defunded the UNRWA, and has overseen the largest theft of west bank territory since the peace process began, as well as delisting kahanist terrorists from the terror list after they joined netanyahu's cabinet.

how much does israel actually rely on US weaponry? that's impossible to tell, but national security correspondent greg myre told NPR:

The IDF is a primarily American-equipped military. Most soldiers probably still have the M-16s. And there are certain kinds of artillery and guided rocket systems that Israel produces, but, again, most of it is American. Tanks are actually made in Israel but with an American engine, and aircraft are American. These are American-made systems. [...] So Israel has its own advanced military technology. It's been a leader in drone warfare. The Iron Dome system, we noted, was developed jointly between the U.S. and Israel. A lot of cyber systems have military applications. But when it comes to the hardware - planes, artillery, guns - it does rely heavily on the U.S.

the US might not have as much influence on israel as it used to (and certainly israel would like to think so) but in the most basic compliance with international law the US can halt weapons shipments and recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC and ICJ, ending the diplomatic immunity it affords israel in the international arena to continue its genocide of gaza.

the UK is hardly much better, but it has withdrawn its intention to block the ICC warrants for israeli leaders and it has resumed funding the UNRWA, two low bar concessions that the US has refused.

these are regular political maneuvers. your civil rights should not be held hostage so the US can protect israel. it makes no sense for democrats to frame it that way while also claiming to want a ceasefire.

if kamala wants a ceasefire, why isn't she agreeing with the pro-palestine movement? their demands are all things that are in-line with wanting a ceasefire. an arms embargo is the natural step to a ceasefire, because you cannot say you want a ceasefire and then send 3.5 billion in military aid to the people who assassinated the negotiators for a ceasefire.

if kamala wants a ceasefire, and you want to vote for kamala, then you should encourage her to take the steps towards a ceasefire. otherwise you are running cover for genocide, just as biden's admin has been doing. your civil rights are not based on continued support for palestinian genocide, and they shouldn't be. to pretend otherwise is a betrayal of all the civil rights activists in the US, who knew that US foreign policy, from the war in vietnam to the iraq war, were unjust imperial wars, and they opposed them unconditionally, regardless of who was perpetrating this war.

politicians lie, but you don't have to.

[magnficientoarfish]

Why tetrapodomorphs are way cooler than you think

Tetrapodomorphs. Today, most often remembered as "that stepping stone towards tetrapods conquering land". But, if you were one of those early tetrapods in the Carboniferous, you probably wouldn't be seeing it that way.

Let me explain.

We humans have a tendency to interpret the past through the lens of the present - and, most often, of our present. This causes a teleological bias, that is, seeing past creatures as part of a "march of progress". Tetrapodomorphs destined to become tetrapods, then amniotes, etc. It's even in their name!

The truth is, evolution is far branchier and messier. And, in the swamps and rivers of the Mississippian, 330 million years ago, our ancestors cowered in fear of other tetrapodomorphs - the rhizodonts.

The group's namesake, Rhizodus, was the was the largest freshwater fish to ever exist. Seven meters long and weighing more than a ton, this ambush predator hid in a niche similar to that of crocodilians today.

Rhizodus and its kin preyed not only on fish and freshwater sharks, but also on early tetrapods resting on the shore. Their lobed fins, less flexible than those of early tetrapods, had instead became broad and paddle-like, helping them push themselves through swampy waters, and throw themselves on their shorebound prey.

Thanks to their powerful fins and long, flexible body, rhizodonts could even slither on land for tens of meters in chase of their prey, with body trails stretching over 60 meters having been discovered. Even on dry land, limbed tetrapods did not stand unchallenged.

Two fangs at the edge of their mouths, up to 20 centimeters long, allowed them to firmly take hold of their prey. While we can't know for sure what happened next, it is likely that they dragged the unsuspecting creature into the water, thrashing and death-rolling it around to eat it piecemeal.

The heyday of rhizodonts would last for the entire Carboniferous. With climate quickly changing by the end of the period, rhizodonts would go away with it. In the waters, they wouldn't be matched by actual tetrapods until the Triassic, with the rise of various clades of aquatic reptiles like phytosaurs.

[magnficientoarfish]

always sad how much chinese food has to advertise itself as no msg because of basically a racist misinformation campaign. bring back the msg i unironically want it. i want it to taste good. i would go to a place that proudly advertised its use of msg no fucking problem

[magnficientoarfish]

i have been in community with profoundly developmentally disabled peers and peers with brain damage my whole life, bc i had a childhood diagnosis. i have also been leftist my whole life; my mother was a marxist and raised me that way, and while their politics were absolute dogshit, they were lefty dogshit.

my entire life, i have seen leftist educators throw mentally disabled people away as "lost causes" because they couldn't engage with the material the way it was being presented. leftist outreach and education does, genuinely, have a massive lack of accessible material. to be blunt, people are not interested in retrofitting their leftist outreach to be accessible to people who learn best through episodes of sesame street.

as in, i have repeatedly faced outright laughter and cruelty over the idea that this could be a priority. or even something that we consider doing at all.

"people who are that mentally disabled don't need to know about these things," the kindest interpretation goes. ("people who are that mentally disabled don't interact with the world, anyway, they're all in institutions or monitored 24/7 by their parents," the uncharitable underlying assumptions go. "they wouldn't be a worker who needs a union. or a library attendee. or a member of the community garden. or a volunteer at the food bank. or or or")

the people i have seen this hurt the worst, over and over again, are profoundly mentally disabled people of color whose lack of access to accessible antiracist education is causing real danger in their lives. institutionalized disabled people of color who have learned racist ideology and behaviors from white authority, whether they were adopted by white families or incarcerated in care institutions run by white staff. who are treated lower than garbage by leftist educators, who view them as "lost causes," as unworthy of time and effort and attention, as deserving of their abuses because they... what... internalized the abuses that make up every aspect of their lives since birth?

i see people saying things in this conversation like "disability isn't an excuse for racism or transphobia or whatever, people have the obligation to improve themselves." oh, believe me, i have seen again and again how many privileged disabled people utilize their disabilities to punch down on others, try to escape accountability for their punching down by citing disability. but individual weaponization of identity is just that: weaponization of identity.

the power structures at play are what they are. it is a noble and admirable goal to want leftist outreach and education to be more accessible to all. if that is truly your goal, you must eventually reckon with the existence of people who do, actually, really need it presented in a picture book. or an episode of bluey. or a conversation where you only use examples of people they know in real life, using things that happened to them personally. the existence of people who cannot grasp forms of abstract reasoning, who need information presented as rules, or as guidelines, or as categories. the idea that yes, fully grown adults who need daniel tiger to explain racism to them are human beings who not only deserve access to that very thing, but who also deserve to be a part of leftist spaces and benefit from leftist organizing. are people for whom it might be INTEGRAL they get to be a part of leftism. are victims of racism themselves and suffering without access to antiracist spaces and community and support.

and you will need to reckon with the abject cruelty of your peers who laugh and mock the very idea of this. you need to reckon with the fact that a lot of people you respect, a lot of leftists doing genuinely good work, will respond to this by making fun of the people you're serving, even outright telling you their violent fantasies about these people. that is the experience of organizing in leftist spaces for profoundly disabled people. that is why so many of us burn out so fast. there IS a structural problem with mentally disabled people being seen as disposable and not a part of community. and it is EXTREMELY present in leftist organizing and outreach efforts.

[magnficientoarfish]

Cab Calloway - St. James Infirmary 1933

"St. James Infirmary" is an American blues and jazz standard of anonymous origin that emerged, like many others, from folk traditions. Louis Armstrong brought the song to lasting fame through his 1928 recording, on which Don Redman is named as composer; later releases credit "Joe Primrose", a pseudonym used by musician manager, music promoter and publisher Irving Mills.

By 1930 at least twenty different recordings had been released. In 1933, Cab Calloway's version anchored the classic Betty Boop cartoon Snow White and his instrumental version introduced another that featured Calloway's related hit song "Minnie the Moocher".

"St. James Infirmary" received a total of 75,9% yes votes! Previous Cab Calloway polls: #130 "Minnie the Moocher".

[magnficientoarfish]

Words cannot express how utterly disappointed I am when it comes to helping Sudan. People are hesitant to show their support. They would even dismiss it. No, I am not making this shit up. I have been talking to people about Sudan and their reaction is lacklustre!

I know anti-blackness plays a significant role, along with the lack of media coverage (which is, again, due to anti-blackness), but this is unacceptable. Many people are dying. The country going through a flooding. Homes are destroyed. Families are displaced. Famine is claiming more lives than the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) and SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) combined.

They need our help!

There is one way you can show your support! Kindly have a look at this fundraiser. It belongs to Eman Abdelrahman (@emooz-8). She is a 25 year old Sudanese and she is raising funds to evacuate. She has been campaigning since January of this year, but she struggles to receive donations to this day! The last one was made 2 DAYS AGO!

Let's pick up the pace and aim for a doable goal once again - 30K in 3 days! As of writing this (Sept 9th), 29,517 CHF has been raised! There is only 483 CHF left to go! Please check your currency exchange. It is in Swiss Franc! ($10 USD = 8 CHF)

There is also a fundraiser for her extended family. Please keep in mind that it is in Singaporean Dollars, so double check with your currency exchange! ($10 USD = $13 SGD)

You can even match me! I've given 5 CHF and $5 SGD!

Verification (#213).

Thank you!

[magnficientoarfish]

Urgent Urgent 🚨🙏

This is my brother who was injured due to the war on Gaza. He is unable to move after being hit by the Zionist bombing.😭😔

We ask you to help, stand by us and donate to save our lives from this genocide.😢🙏

[magnficientoarfish]

Alright. We’re settling this discourse once and for all.

In the tags, tell me your opinion on:

Mayonnaise

Frozen Yogurt 

Salt and Vinegar Chips

Sweet Potatoes

Kiwi

Ginger Ale

Microwave Ramen

[magnficientoarfish]

Palestine fundraisers with easily-achievable goals

By "easily-achievable", I mean in the 50-60K range and below. Once again, drawing from my pinned list of fundraisers, which have all been vetted by Palestinians on Tumblr (check that post for the proof next to each family name). I'll update this post just like the main list and the "under 1000 donations" list. Many of these are extremely close to completing their funding. Let's help get them there!

As always, donate if you can, reblog if you can't!

LAST UPDATED 9/2

10K range

Aya's family Goal: 15K 2/3 funded

The Saftawi family Goal: 16K 3147 TO GO!

20K range

The Sami family Goal: 20K Half funded

Zaen and Yehya Goal: 25K 1/4 funded

The Ismaeel family Goal: 25K 1/3 funded

Ashraf's family Goal: 25K 4019 TO GO!

30K range

Ahmed's family Goal: 30K 1/3 funded

The Alnabih family Goal: 30K 4434 TO GO!

The Khalaf family Goal: 30K 2875 TO GO!

Issam Aziz's mother Goal: 30K 4053 TO GO!

Amira's family Goal: 39K 2/3 funded

40K range

The Hor family Goal: 40K Under 1/5 funded

The Abushammaleh family Goal: 40K 1/3 funded

The Shaqoura family Goal: 45K Half funded

The Aburass family Goal: 45K 1/4 funded

Note: The Aburass campaign is in SEK, so the goal is technically 450K, but converted to USD it's closer to 45. Ultimately I decided to include this one since USD, CAD, GBP, and EUR will be more powerful here, and a huge chunk of the site's user base will pay with one of those currencies. The more hands on deck, the better.

50K range

Amal's family Goal: 50K Under 1/5 funded

Walaa's family Goal: 50K 1/5 funded

The Shorbaje family Goal: 50K 1/3 funded

The Aldeeb family Goal: 55K 2/3 funded

[magnficientoarfish]

**Majd, the Brave Little Hero**

In a small town, a one-year-old boy named Maged faced a serious challenge. Due to the war in Gaza, Maged developed a respiratory crisis from the bombing and destruction. Despite his struggles, he remained brave and hopeful.

His mother cared for him with love, and Maged drew strength from stories of heroes who overcame great difficulties. His courage inspired everyone around him, showing that even in tough times, hope and a smiling spirit can help overcome challenges

Please don't leave my little son alone

Donate & Reblog

@90-ghost @sayruq @neptunerings @flower-tea-fairies @appsa @a-shade-of-blue @schoolhater @commissions4aid-international @paper-mario-wiki @dlxxv-vetted-donations @writerqueenofjewels @the-ballerina-battle @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @just-browsing1222 @girlinafairytale @khanger @magnus-rhymes-with-swagness @maoistyuri @dykesbat @acepumpkinpatrick @thetownwecallhome @tsaricides @feluka @kordeliiius @queerstudiesnatural @the-bastard-king @aria-ashryver @malcriaada @vakarians-babe @bat-luun @mangocheesecakes @nightowlssleep @self-hating-zionist @staretes @friendshapedplant @yokohama-crackhouse @omiteo777

[magnficientoarfish]

[image description: two instagram posts that read, together: for the first time since october 2023, we just sent the last esim in our email. yes. you read this right. the last esim. yes. we have no more esims we can send to gaza. our email is completely empty. meanwhile, we are delaying our response to the esim demands in gaza. we have nothing to send. we desperately need:

nomad (regional middle east)

discount: nomadcng

simply (palestine)

truely (israel)

discount: truelycng

airalo (discover)

Send your QR code screenshot to gazaesims@gmail.com”

below both posts reads “connecting gaza” /end ID]

DONATE AN E-SIM HERE.

original post here.

[magnficientoarfish]

I think we should all fuck off. I think we should all go to the library and just fuck off.

[magnficientoarfish]

Keep a Trans Family Housed

Unfortunately we are out of luck for rent this month, we thought some money was coming in but it hasn't happened yet. So please help us cover rent while we keep trying to get funding for the new internet we're working on:

If it helps I also invented a new image format this month that I'll be posting the source code for this weekend. Also we are @rickybabyboy s moms.

Cashapp: $cmder

Venmo: AGIEF

Paypal: agieocean@gmail.com

$746/$875 raised

Edit: we can get half covered by someone else when this is raised

[magnficientoarfish]

these palestinian suvivors & their families have bravely reached out to me asking for aid & public support. please consider donating, & share this post with as many people as possible.

fadi ayyad is an 18 yr old & the son of a prominate gazan educator. there are 8 people benefitted by this urgent fundrasier, 4 of them children. (verified here)

muhammad al-habil is a father of three young children, ahmed, osama, & mira. this urgent fundrasier also provides urgent need to his his father, his mother, his wife. (verified here)

iyad sami & amal mahmoud, married for 13 yrs, are the sole caregivers of their 4 children, sami, mohammad, sarah, & saad. this family of six are seeking support via this fundraiser. (verified here)

ahmed alanqar is an accountant & the loving husband of dina alanqar. this urgent fundraiser aids their three young children zeina, eileen, & yamen. (verified here)

[magnficientoarfish]

Please do not pass. Stop, watch and post. I need your help and support for me. If you cannot donate, post to your friends. We need you. We are in Gaza. Our situation is catastrophic. We no longer have a home 🏚or a source of livelihood.You have destroyed all our hopes and the dreams of my children. Please help me spread the donation campaign..