pearly-everlastng

[pearly-everlastng]

being anti ai is making me feel like in going insane. "you asked for thoughts about your characters backstory and i put it into chat gpt for ideas". studies have proven its making people dumber. "i asked ai to generate this meal plan". its causing water shortages where its data centers are built. "ill generate some pictures for the dnd campaign". its spreading misinformation. "meta, generate an image of this guy doing something stupid". its trained off stolen images, writing, video, audio. "i was talking with my snapchat ai-" theres no way to verify what its doing with the information it collects. "youtube is impletmenting ai based age verification". my work has an entire graphics media department and has still put ai generated motivational posters up everywhere. ai playlists. ai facial verification. google ai microsoft ai meta ai snapchat ai. everyone treats it as a novelty. every treats it as a mandatory part of life. am i the only one who sees it? am i paranoid? am i going insane? jesus fucking christ. if i have to hear one more "well at least-" "but it does-" "but you can-" im about to lose it. i shouldnt have to jump through hoops to avoid the evil machine. have you no principles? no goddamn spine? am i the weird one here?

[pearly-everlastng]

I have a friend who is like this. Rather than try and fight her people pleasing tendencies, I began by inviting her to do things she likes. We share many interests, so it wasn't a sacrifice on my part. As she came out of her shell a bit, I'd start asking what, specifically, she felt like doing that day, as well as being more direct that she could and should take up more space around my me and my family. I'm very proud of her for how much she's grown.

(person who learned from childhood to make themself as small and unimportant as possible to avoid being a burden) yeah its okay we dont have to do my thing if you dont want i dont mind

[pearly-everlastng]

Hey, we've got another public comment period with a rapidly approaching deadline here in the United States! Short version is that the Department of Agriculture, which manages the U.S. Forest Service, has severely curtailed its obligation to public outreach and comment on its activities, to include timber sales and environmental impact reports. The foundation of a democracy is in the power of the voices of the people, and this decision circumvents our ability to give feedback on Forest Service decisions.

That means that it will be easier for the Forest Service to clearcut old-growth forests regardless of the ecological impact, and make it easier for profiteers to exploit the natural resources of these publicly owned lands. This decision was made to benefit the few, not the many, and it's blatantly obvious.

The deadline to make a public comment on this disastrous decision is August 4. Please get the word out!

[pearly-everlastng]

[pearly-everlastng]

"China has demolished 300 dams and shut down most of the small hydropower stations on a major tributary of the upper Yangtze River to safeguard fish populations as part of an effort to restore the ecology of Asia’s longest waterway.

According to a report by the state news agency Xinhua on Monday, 300 of the 357 dams on Chishui He – also known as the Red River – had been dismantled by the end of December 2024.

In addition, 342 out of 373 small hydropower stations have been decommissioned, enabling many rare fish species to resume their natural reproductive cycles, the Xinhua report said.

The Red River flows for more than 400km (249 miles) through the southwestern provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. It is regarded by ecologists as the last refuge for rare and endemic fish species in the Yangtze’s upper reaches.

Over the decades, water flows have been increasingly blocked by the dense network of hydropower stations and dams, restricting water volumes downstream and occasionally even causing some sections to dry up entirely.

This has drastically reduced the amount of suitable habitat and spawning grounds. The stations also blocked the routes of migratory fish species between breeding grounds and non-breeding areas.

Zhou Jianjun, a professor of hydraulic engineering at Tsinghua University, said that the decommissioning of hydropower stations usually referred to the cessation of electricity generation.

“The key is not whether the facilities still exist, but that, after power generation stops, the method of water control can be changed to meet ecological needs,” he said.

According to the Xinhua report, the large-scale rectification work that began in 2020 has meant that aquatic wildlife species, including the Yangtze sturgeon, have regained their habitat and vitality.

Along with the Chinese paddlefish, the freshwater sturgeon species – known as the last giant of the Yangtze – was declared extinct in the wild by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2022.

The natural population of the sturgeon has declined sharply since the 1970s, largely as a result of dam construction and the development of a shipping industry in the Yangtze River.

No naturally bred young sturgeon had been found in the entire Yangtze River since 2000, but a team of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Hydrobiology has reported promising signs of recovery, according to Xinhua.

The team, led by Liu Fei, a researcher at the institute in Wuhan, released two batches of Yangtze sturgeon into the Red River in 2023 and 2024, which have successfully adapted to the wild environment and are thriving.

This year, the researchers decided to take it a step further and examine whether the fish could migrate naturally for reproduction. In April, they released 20 adult Yangtze sturgeon into a section of the river in Guizhou.

By mid-April, they observed the fish displaying natural spawning behaviour and successfully hatching fry, the researchers said.

“This achievement indicates that the current ecological environment of the Red River can now meet the habitat and reproductive needs of Yangtze sturgeon,” Liu told the news agency.

According to the institute’s latest monitoring results, the Red River’s aquatic biodiversity is steadily improving, with a significant increase in the number of fish species collected in various sections of the river.

China has launched a series of policy measures to protect the Yangtze’s critical role as an aquatic habitat, all centred on a 10-year fishing ban imposed in 2020 and the regulation of the small hydropower stations that have affected its biodiversity.

For example, by the end of 2021, Sichuan had essentially finished rectifying its 5,131 small hydropower stations, which included shutting down 1,223 of them, according to a local official report the following year.

The local government has also strictly prohibited sand mining in the rivers in a bid to create a more favourable environment for aquatic animals to breed and reproduce.

In a communique released in August last year, Beijing announced that aquatic biodiversity had steadily improved since the fishing ban and other measures were introduced.

Fish, invertebrates and amphibians continued to recover, while the overall water quality of the Yangtze and its tributaries was rated as “excellent”, it said. The intensity of sand mining and other projects affecting fisheries had also decreased.

-via South China Morning Post, July 11, 2025. Paywall-free link.

[pearly-everlastng]

THIS RIGHT HERE

[pearly-everlastng]

I started using Head and Shoulders ten years ago for itchy scalp and dandruff, and then for ten years I have not had itchy scalp and dandruff, so I thought “why do I still buy shampoo to combat itchy scalp and dandruff when I do not have itchy scalp and dandruff,” so I stopped buying the shampoo for itchy scalp and dandruff and can you guess I have now? Can you predict what currently afflicts me? It’s alright if you can’t because apparently I fuckin couldn’t either

[pearly-everlastng]

theres bikes around the city you can rent but you have to use an app that needs your drivers license. theres buses that drive right to your destination, but if you dont have change you need the app. you can wash your car here if you sign into the app. you can go to the bathroom here you just have to unlock it with the app that needs your location on. you can order at this restaurant if you scan the code and download the app. im losing my freaking mind

[pearly-everlastng]

‘capitalism works’ factoid actually untrue. the 62 people who own half the world’s wealth are outliers and should be eaten.

[pearly-everlastng]

ENDANGERED IN MICHIGAN [redraw]

1. karner blue 2. marbled salamander 3. indiana bat 4. american chestnut 5. canada lynx 6. mitchell's satyr 7. redside dace 8. copperbelly water snake 9. spotted turtle 10. lake sturgeon 11. peregrine falcon 12*. grey wolf 13. northern riffleshell 14. michigan monkey-flower 15. painted trillium 16. hine's emerald dragonfly 17. piping plover 18. clubshell

*listed as endangered in the USA, special concern in MI

[pearly-everlastng]

Long before the introduction of color film, a Russian chemist and photographer named Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky used an innovative technique. He took three individual black and white photos, each through a colored filter (red, green, and blue), to create fully colored, high-quality pictures. The photo of this woman, taken by him, is around 107 years old!

[pearly-everlastng]

[pearly-everlastng]

There is something really funny about how by taking testosterone I am actively seen as less masculine than before in some regards because now when the general public sees me they no longer see a butch lesbian but rather a little gayboy

[pearly-everlastng]

I think generative AI is really insidious on its own, but the amount of it I have seen on indigenous history pages online lately is so disheartening & infuriating. there is already so much misinformation that spreads attached to real photos of indigenous people and this just perpetuates that further. i mean i could tell this particular one i saw was AI because the dogs were not accurate to the group they claimed to be from aside from the weird smoothness etc., but most people are not going to look for that.

and aside from the misinformation issues (and of course the stealing content and livelihood from artists issues) the amount of energy it takes to generate images with generative AI will cost the environment heavily (lots of AI energy plants are already impacting communities and predominantly BIPOC communities), again costing indigenous people their traditional cultures (especially when you consider this was an 'image' of an inuit couple with dogs and inuit are at the forefront of having their traditions decimated by climate change).

as if we haven't done enough fucking damage.

[pearly-everlastng]

Men's 38-in-one night time sickness cold & flu shampoo & conditioner toothpaste and mouthwash combo (plus nourishing skin formula with hydrating aloe)

[pearly-everlastng]

Roughly 6 months in and the US is already at the ‘full blown concentration camps’ stage.

[pearly-everlastng]

“You think every citizen should have access to free and accessible healthcare?”

Wrong!!!

I think that Asylum seekers and Migrant workers and The Undocumented and Everyone Else should get free healthcare too

I love immigration