#the right stuff articles

[keeskiwi]

So much more of the natural world feels close and accessible now. When I started birding, I remember thinking that I’d never see most of the species in my field guide. Sure, backyard birds like robins and western bluebirds would be easy, but not black skimmers or peregrine falcons or loggerhead shrikes. I had internalized the idea of nature as distant and remote — the province of nature documentaries and far-flung vacations. But in the past six months, I’ve seen soaring golden eagles, heard duetting great horned owls, watched dancing sandhill cranes and marveled at diving Pacific loons, all within an hour of my house. “I’ll never see that” has turned into “Where can I find that?”

-Ed Yong, When I Became a Birder, Almost Everything Else Fell Into Place

[hansoeii]

I just found out that screenrant published an entire article just for my good omens angels illustration and I feel very honored right now 🤧 just wow

This is so sweet!! 😭

[booasaur]

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters - 1x02

[quaranmine]

it is kind of crazy to me that we live in such a polarized, absurdly nationalistic, patriotic country and yet when evidence that nearly 50% of bald eagles, our national bird and icon of America, suffer from chronic lead poisoning and one third from acute lead poisoning there is not some massive outcry to fix this instantly. people are just like nooooooo but i wanna keep using lead fishing weights :((((( and the NRA is like over my dead body will you take our lead ammunition

like obviously this affects other types of animals too but i would've thought that the bald eagle would be THE charismatic species for the USA to take action on behalf of but. nope

[whenyoulosesmallmind]

Nicklas Bäckström & the Washington Capitals (+ nickeovi) ― Immortality, Clare Harner | insp.

credits: x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x.

[inawickedlittletown]

Sooo I started to read other articles. I didn't after reading the ones that came out right after the episode that justifiably got everyone upset.

This one from tv insider had Tim saying this:

Moving on to Buck and Tommy’s breakup, talk about your approach to it. Why was Tommy sure that Buck would break his heart?

Tommy’s older and Buck is very new to this, and whether Tommy was correct or not, I think what he felt like was exactly what he said: I’m not your last, I’m your first, which is a special thing to be, but as Tommy says, it doesn’t usually end up being the same thing. And I think based on what we know of Buck, he’s maybe not wrong. Buck’s a little impulsive when he’s feeling a certain kind of way. He’s like, move on in, bring your couch. So I just think because Tommy’s a little older and wiser or maybe at some level he feels like he doesn’t deserve Buck, I don’t know. But I think he accurately diagnosed Buck. Buck’s still figuring himself out, and boy, that would be quite risky to move in with that guy as much as you would love to.

That does seem to be Buck’s go-to, which isn’t the best.

Exactly.

Are we going to see Buck single for a significant period of time now? Is he trying to figure out what he wants really out of a relationship?

Yeah, I think that’s right. As Tommy said, you’re still figuring yourself out, and his options have increased by 50 percent of the population. So knowing Buck, that’s going to be choice overload. He’s got to navigate that with a little self-awareness.

--

So they definitely planned for this. That's what this reads like...they wanted to break them up so that they could send Buck through a period of exploration. Tim says everything Oliver said here in much nicer terms. His view of Buck is so...Idk, it's like he sees Buck as a kid that still doesn't know what he wants. And he decided to put that view right into Tommy's head too. It's a little jarring I guess but this show...has it ever been consistent?

What sucks is that 8x05 was written like they were doing so well. And then right off the back with 8x06 we have warning signs in the date scene with the girl that approaches Buck and how Tommy sort of shrugs off Buck checking her out. I really do wonder where hot waiter fit into this and I'm so glad we didn't see Tommy like checking hot waiter out or something. But I guess that scene was there to sow the seeds. We have Buck spiraling because of the Abby thing and we have Tommy maybe not realizing but reinforcing for himself that he's a stepping stone for Buck and being okay with it in the status quo.

The way that Tim speaks about Buck asking Tommy to move in, he makes it seem like Buck is just barreling in without thought...like if they went through with it Tommy might be proven right. But then what is the point of the scene with Josh where Buck is right on the cusp of an "I love you" just to then be like no actually Tommy knows how this ends and he can read Buck and knows they're not forever. But Tommy is not a mind reader.

Where there is hope is in that Tim doesn't outwardly say anything about Tommy being gone for good. As someone else pointed out the Lou interviews were done by buddie journalists with a bias so there is a question to how much that colored what we got and why they were so determined to close the door fully. Also...why did we get exit interviews in the first place for a character that only had three episodes...it's so odd.

The writers made a point of leaving this open. Do I think we'll get Tommy back any time soon. No. But after the doom and gloom and the time to mourn this a bit I want to be positive and there is really no knowing. Tim says he thinks Buck will be single for a while...okay fine...picture that being the rest of this season.

Buck won't just jump into another relationship...and Oliver gets his Buck slut era 2.0...what if S9 brings back Tommy? What if this is the long game...or at least the thing they can have in their back pocket if Lou is available later on to come back. But that's not something they can promise or that they can commit to and Lou isn't on contract clearly and Oliver wouldn't know if that's the plan...hell even Tim probably doesn't know if they'll do that. Or I'm giving him too much credit because as we've seen this season storylines have been rushed to close up at breakneck speeds so it would be an anomaly for him to prolong something like this.

All this to say, showing the network and Tim that bucktommy matters to a lot of people and that Tommy matters...it may just make a difference.

[miketownsends]

i simply do not think there is another catcher out there who is as good with their pitching staff as Cal is!

(put the full article link in the source bc Tumblr was being weird about the link)

[yepthatsacowalright]

“When I asked Phoebe Bridgers about the band's reputation for giving voice to a certain strain of middle-aged male angst, she said, ‘Something middle-aged men and teen-age girls have in common is the act of finding yourself, and being kind of self-conscious. Maybe some beliefs that vou've held on to for a long time are finally being shed. The teen-age girl in me is obsessed with The National, and feels very spoken to and seen by them, maybe for the exact same reasons that they speak to middle-aged men.”

- The Sad Dads of the National

[impzone]

anyone have recommendations of books that are about coping with mental illness? not even coping just like, works about being ill that make you feel seen. i'll take anything autobio, whether that's a novel, poetry, comic, or someone's personal blog.

[hylianengineer]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Unfair unfair why is the universe mean to me. I'm tired I hurt I want a break aaaaaaaaaah.

I don't even feel like I get to complain because one of the things I'm screaming about is my grandpa being in the hospital again which is way worse for him. But aaaaaaaaaah.

I need a break I need a break how the fuck does one ask for time off work without a good reason other than 'my mental health is falling apart I haven't had more than a day or two off in a row since March my brain is like permanently soup now and my depression has returned.' I need a break. It has to be soon or else The Big Project will resume and kick my ass some more. I should be preparing for The Big Project, phase 2, but really, it could wait a week. It could. Also, it's my project. What's gonna happen if I don't get it done? I don't get to publish a paper. That's it.

[icewindandboringhorror]

sometimes looking at like Self Help Strategies lists for the symptoms I'm having is always just like:

thing that I already do

thing I have tried 10 times

thing I already do

thing that I don't have the money to do

thing I already do

thing I've been doing since I was 10yrs old to no avail

thing that is impossible given my situation

thing that doesn't apply to me

thing that I already do

thing I have already tried

hrmm, oh wait, maybe finally- OH, yeah.. okay. thing that I already do but it was just phrased slightly differently

thing I have already done

[primeministerofantarctica]

do you think kazuki and rei ever told miri they used to be hitmen or is she just going to have a VERY interesting family research project

[isfjmel-phleg]

What if interactions between girls and boys in children's fiction were not necessarily Statements About Gender Roles to be critiqued but examinations of friendships and social development and personal growth through learning to relate to others. It's okay if Mary undergoes character development and then uses what she has learned to help someone in a similar situation who happens to be male. It's okay if Marianne rescues a friend who happens to be male and then has to loan him her pencil so he can try to return the favor in the end. It's okay if characters of any description help each other, care for each other, out of a place of genuine mutual affection. It's okay if we take these friendships in good faith instead of trying to find ways for them to be Actually Secretly Heinous.

[yidiyada]

TikTok just introduced me to this article from a few years ago that I’ve somehow never come across before and I’m gonna share some of my favorite parts from it

[…]

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[the-light-of-stars]

German Chancellor Scholz: "Israel has the obligation to defend itself and the accusations made against it are absurd" - Meanwhile Israel's Minister of Finance calls for "voluntary emigration" of all "arab" palestinians in Gaza and denies the existence of the palestinian people

"Scholz: Israel has the obligation to defend itself against Hamas. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has defended Israel's actions. Israel doesn't just have the right but "the obligation" to defend itself against the militant-islamist Hamas in the Gaza strip. It cannot be accepted that Hamas recovers and gathers weapons to attack Israel again. "The accusations that are being made against Israel are absurd" Scholz said in Berlin about for example accusations made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against Israel. The German Government will always point out that Hamas is a terror organisation and that Israel is a democracy. Scholz meets Erdogan in Berlin on friday."

_

"The accusations [about committing genocide and ethnic cleansing] leveled against Israel are absurd" meanwhile, the israeli Minister of finance: "Yeah the palestinian people doesn't exist and we want to ethnically cleanse the land they're on"

"Israel's Minister of Finance for "voluntary emigration" of Gaza residents. Israel's extreme right wing Minister of Finance has called for a "voluntary emigration" of Palestinians in the Gaza strip into multiple other countries. "The voluntary emigration and taking in of arab Gaza residents by the countries of the world is a humanitarian solution that will end the suffering of Jews and Arabs at the same time." wrote Bezalel Smotrich on the platform X, previously Twitter.

In the past Smotrich has already denied the existence of the palestinian people."

_

The german Government: "It is absurd to accuse Israel of committing a genocide and ethnic cleansing and those who accuse them of doing so are hateful antisemitic terrorist sympathisers and should be put on trial or deported!"

The israeli Government, meanwhile: "Yeah lol we're doing ethnic cleansing"

[kazz-brekker]

writing anything set in middle-earth is just an exercise in how many research tabs you can have open at any given moment