#the industry is NOT ready

[cupidcures]

hey so! this is actually insane!

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

You may notice I frequently comment on the assumptions people make about animal facilities based on their branding. Frequently, people assume accredited facilities are inherently better for animals than unaccredited facilities, or assume sanctuaries are inherently more moral / better at caring for their animals than zoos.

I want to show you an example of why I am always, always skeptical of these assumptions.

If you’re in the California area, you might have heard about Hank the Tank - who is actually a Henrietta, btw - the 500 pound nuisance bear from Lake Tahoe who broke into 21 homes in search of food. She was recently captured by wildlife officials and moved to a sanctuary in Colorado. The Wild Animal Sanctuary has three main facilities, two in Colorado and one in TX. To give you some context, it’s the biggest carnivore sanctuary in the country - they advertise somewhere between 300-500 animals, mostly large carnivores, between their properties. It’s where most of the Tiger King cats went. It’s PETA’s preferred placement for confiscated exotic animals. So, obviously, it’s got to be great, right? Except… take a look at what they posted about Henrietta’s arrival.

Here’s their post about Henrietta’s arrival at the Refuge, the large facility in Colorado that isn’t open to the public. Let’s take a closer look at that food trough…

What do we see here? An entire rotisserie chicken that is either blackened or highly seasoned, and a whole ham. Maybe a second chicken underneath the pile, I can’t quite tell. The sanctuary gets the majority of their bear food donated from groceries stores once it’s past the sell-by date, so we know those are older meats and they’re full of a ton of salt. Then, for fruit and veg, there’s a cantaloupe, mango, corn, avocado, grapes, and apples. Maybe a pepper or two, it’s hard to tell. That’s a lot of sugar and not a lot of fiber or roughage.

But… on top of it and to the right… are those Twizzlers?

Yes.

The sanctuary confirmed on Facebook that they fed this recently rescued obese bear what looks like almost an entire pack of Twizzlers.

I don’t know of any world in which it’s appropriate to feed candy to a bear. Maybe a piece or two as a really high value reinforcer for hard behaviors (that isn’t relevant here, it’s openly against this sanctuary’s ethos to do any husbandry or medical training). An entire pack of Twizzlers is just appalling. But it’s not uncommon for this facility! I have a book written about their operations and animal care (that I bought at their gift shop this spring) which openly discusses how the bears get fed bread, doughnuts, marshmallows, and all sorts of incredibly unhealthy food that comes in with the grocery donations.

But hey, this is apparently fine for the bears, according to the sanctuary’s founder. He was quoted in that same book as saying “Bears are the only animal I know of that can eat insane amounts of sugar and it never hurts them. It does not hurt their organs. They do not get clogged arteries. They do not have high blood pressure. In the wild they eat all these sweet berries in the fall, and they convert sugar to fat… so the more sugar they get the better… we would all love to have a system like that!”

Now while it’s true that bears have physiological adaptations that modulate their insulin production and sensitivity in ways that appear to prevent them from from developing diabetes, that does’t mean it’s healthy for them to regularly eat processed carbohydrates, sugar, and general junk food. And remember - Henrietta gained her fame because of how incredibly overweight she already is, and because she was seeking out human food, According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, a healthy weight for a normal adult black bear is between 100-300 pounds. So, obviously, the best thing to do is… continue to feed her candy.

Then, later on in the book, it details how they have to bribe a camel to sit tight for a regular medical examination (since they don’t train for medical behaviors) by letting him drink a can of Mountain Dew each time.

If a zoo was known publicly to be feeding their animals Mountain Dew or a couple Twizzlers - even just once, on a rare occasion - they’d be eviscerated in the media and by public opinion. But feeding out inappropriate junk food appears to be a pretty common practice at this place, and it just goes unscrutinized because everyone assumes sanctuaries are inherently better for animals.

So, long story short, never make assumptions about the quality of a facility based on it’s branding or accreditation. (TWAS is accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries). If you have concerns about the ethics or practices of a facility, always try to put your preconceptions aside, go and see for yourself, and think critically about what you see and what you’re told.

[vorbarrsultana]

one of things that drive me insane about the grisha trilogy is the fact that nikolai consistently is a non-factor in the political calculations of both, the darkling and his father. even genya, whose job is to spy on the tsar's inner circle, is like "it's just nikolai, they call him puppy, he surprised everyone by joining the army and then left to study in kerch or something, who cares".

meanwhile nikolai in question:

was a major of the first army. a senior officer one rank away from colonel, and two ranks away from major-general!

was person no. 2 in his regiment, the one in charge of 2000+ men daily. and, considering how much colonel raevsky and his soldiers seem to love him, managed them well.

was a decorated war hero of the struggling nation perpetually at war with its neighbours.

what i mean is that there absolutely should have been the party of grand duke nikolai aleksandrovich at the court (re: the succession), opposing the party of tsarevich vasily, the official heir. the people who want him to be ravka's next tsar, bastardy allegations be damned for the good of the country.

it could have been such an easy way to explain why nikolai was exiled sent to study abroad — his military record would have made him too popular compared to his brother. and it could have explained why nikolai is so sure of himself in siege & storm: he already has his own political party, and alina throwing her support behind him simply completes the puzzle.

also, when tatiana called nikolai "puppy" in ruin &rising, i was like. m'am, hate to break the news to you, but your cute puppy hasn't been that for the last five or so years. by now he is actually a wolfhound with very long and very sharp teeth.

(very much not the point of that post, but when i find time to work on my pre-canon!darkolai fic series, i usually imagine the ravkan political landscape before alina as "the army party" (nikolai, the darkling, senior officers of both armies + probably some diplomats, who also see what's going on with shu-han and fjerda) vs "the court party". by the shadow & bone events, the first splits into nikolai's moderates & aleksander's radicals, and the latter became irrelevant after vasily's death.)

[forgetful-river]

Someone needs to hire me to design couture fashion, I have no credentials but I'm spunky and have a bitchy attitude :)

[brettdoesdiscourse]

A big argument with the pro death penalty crowd is, "well what about the people who actually are guilty?" And the answer is always, "well what about the people who are actually innocent?"

I would rather spare the lives of a 100 guilty people rather than execute 1 innocent person.

And functionally, the death penalty doesn't really do anything.

There's no evidence to suggest that states that have the death penalty see a decrease in crime, so it isn't a deterrent. The only thing it functionally does is attempt to make people feel better.

A life sentence will functionally accomplish the same thing a death penalty does, it will keep that person away from the public.

With life sentences, an innocent person has the opportunity to be found innocent and released. You can't bring an innocent person back to life if you find out after their execution that they're actually innocent.

*Stop tagging this post as pro life. I'm pro abortion, this post is pro abortion. If you like and/or reblog this post, you're pro abortion too*

[yuri-for-businesswomen]

sorry but i dont understand why they had to cast margot robbie as tonya harding. she was perfect for barbie - the quintessential tall, skinny blonde that is barbie. she was perfect as sharon tate who was also admired for her beauty. and im sure she performed great as tonya harding because she is a talented actress - but it really bothers me they cast a woman this conventionally attractive for the one leading role where the real life woman she played was „unfeminine“ and „unattractive“ by ice skating standards and was constantly pitted against her rival who got all the sponsors and better ratings despite not being the more talented ice skater. margot robbie didnt need this movie for her success but it could have been a one time chance for an unattractive womans break as an actress. instead they „uglied down“ margot robbie like they did with nicole kidman in „destroyer“.

they couldnt find other talented actresses for the roles who just look like this?

and yet there are still feminists who deny „pretty privilege“ exists because incels have negatively impacted the discussion around beauty bias. no serious feminist says attractive women have it easy but it just annoys me when people claim there are no advantages to being conventionally attractive because „beauty is subjective“ or „misogyny just takes different forms“ or „beauty shouldnt matter“ - well it does. and yes beauty can fade too and beauty standards change but weight, ability and age are also characteristics that change, they still can have an unfair advantage or disadvantage. and i understand that feminists are uncomfortable categorising women as more or less attractive, i am too, but it is also hindering real conversations about beauty and attractiveness in our society when we act „beauty blind“. there is definitely negative bias towards conventionally attractive women too but that is a product of misogyny, not their looks. whatever someone will twist this to call me insecure and petty anyways

[foldingfittedsheets]

Today there’s a portfolio event today on campus where industry people come look over our materials. I didn’t sign up but I’m still going and I’m hoping they don’t have like a guest list but that would be so silly why would they…

Not looking forward to the experience but trying to be progressive and network and do the things.

[snarp]

Countries where the medical industry NEVER bothers to hire technical artists

and it's ALWAYS just fucking improperly-angled photos taken in a public restroom in Silent Hill, UNLESS they got someone out of Plato's Fucking Cave who has never seen ITEMS before to try and fucking TRACE said photos:

United States

UK

Canada

India

The implication is clear: the UK hates technical artists specializing in the medical field and so systematically eliminated them in all their colonies, ironically dooming all English speakers to die of some kind of misapplied ointment accident. This will happen by 2046. We're fucked.

[whorejolras]

i'm saying it. i don't think joly would work in a hospital. i think his medical career would be informed by his politics + radicalisation and his + his friends regular drug use, he would be outraged at how the medical industry handles drug users, also at the medical industrial complex in general, so he would find a reputable community led harm reduction organisation to work for 🫶🏻

[ribbittrobbit]

me, vibrating out of my skin: please for the love of god let people have normal, different bodies

[yearning-gay]

sorry i moaned when you called me mom can you do it again

[poetryincostume]

Oil and water. Wasn’t meant to be

Violet von Arcane Jacket, 2021-23

Pigskin suede, lamb nappa, silk, brass

[raddest-laddest]

gonna have to bury myself in the dirt for a thousand years to recover from all this rejection

[hertwood]

the senior driver getting the upgrades a week prior is incredibly normal and not some conspiracy against logan, btw

[uglyfruit]

what’s aba

ABA stands for applied behavior analysis. It’s a super common and pervasive “treatment”/“intervention” for autistic children-- because they're showing "disruptive" distress behaviors, because their autistic traits are seen as needing to be assimilated to fit into capitalist society, because it's just seen as the thing you do with autistic kids

Basically it tries to change someone’s outward behavior using rewards or punishments. When it was first invented (by the guy also involved in creating conversion therapy!), these included slaps and electric shocks. Today, most of the methods have been made much “friendlier”, but still arguably work to make an autistic child’s behavior easier to deal with, more “normal”, more compliant.

While it often /is/ effective in changing outward behaviors, that says nothing of its potential to teach shame, masking of autistic traits, reliance upon prompts/rewards to do things, teaching that you must always obey authority figures, that your internal feelings are unimportant, the trauma of potentially aversive punishments, the fact that kids as young as 2 get recommended to spend up to 40hours a week in intensive ABA, the fact that it rarely addresses (or even worsens) the actual issues underlying distress behaviors…. and ultimately the message is that disabled people must be changed to fit into abled society, rather than abled society changing.

As that post I reblogged said, it's important to nuance to the discussion beyond "ABA=abuse", especially regarding how so many social forces shape the reality and power and experience of ABA, incl the absence of better types of care.

[tippenfunkaport]

It will never not piss me off that 80s She-Ra toys were action figures but when they went to make toys for 2018 She-Ra, they would only give us fashion dolls.

How did they learn nothing from the popularity of their own toyline?

Literally, three decades passed and somehow sexism in toys got WORSE.