#what a lovely human

[karmicbias]

Ghoul Week night 1, success!

Unmasked ghouls below the cut.

I'm exhilarated and exhausted but wow, what an evening! Scroll to the end if you're just here for the good Chris photo - I want to remember as much as I can about the night which means trying to write everything important now before I go to sleep.

Opener, Blaqk Audio? Amazing. The lead singer seemed to be pleasantly surprised by the audience's energy and got realllll up close and personal with the front row. Fun music, I'm definitely going to add them to my rotation.

Debated leaving my spot during their set in hopes of catching Chris at the bar or something but my gut said I wouldn't be able to get back easily enough and it wouldn't be good time to chat anyway, so I stayed. As soon as the opening set ended and the crew started switching around the gear for Sisters, I spotted Chris pretty much immediately, setting up his station at Doctor Avalanche. I was in about the fourth row and made heart hands up high and pointed at him and he shot me a quick grin and a peace sign.

Sisters of Mercy were great! I'd heard that the last tour was kinda a let down but there was plenty of energy tonight! Ben Christo has incredible hair and arms and got lots of cheers from the audience throughout. Their other guitarist, Kai, also got lots of cheers especially on his 12-string.

Funnily enough Chris's onstage presence is the most subdued in the band (other than the frames of his sunglasses - everyone comes out wearing them but his glow under the blacklights). He's in the back and mostly just stands there stoically while Eldritch and the guitarists sing and strut. Crowd was packed pretty tight by the end and we were all good and sweaty which tbh means we were having a great time.

Once the encore wrapped I got back outside quickly for fresh air (yay small venues) and to see if it looked likely that I'd be able to catch Chris by the tour bus. A tiny crowd, maybe a dozen folks, seemed to also be waiting and security was chatting and not running anyone off so I decided to give it a go.

Waited for maybe a half hour without much activity other than pizzas being delivered and trash being taken out when I look up from my phone and spot someone hauling a couple of armfuls of stuff to the bus - and it's Chris! I call out his name and he gives a little half wave and a gesture that seemed to mean, I'll be back in a minute. So I wait.

Next thing I know he's ambling over! I've rehearsed this enough in my head that I don't freak out. I show him the pin of his cat, Rosie, that he shipped with the album I ordered from him, which he was delighted to see, and ask if he'd mind taking a picture. He agrees immediately and slings an arm around me. I follow his lead, i guess, and put my arm around his waist??

The conversation was going really smoothly and we spent a few minutes sharing various cat photos on our phones (classic), and I even had a natural opening to mention the show at 54 Below later this week, which he said he was bummed to be missing by one night with the Sisters tour schedule. Chatted about Enter the Vortex and he had a big laugh when I mentioned I was excited to see what Mad/Dylan wears for the show.

I told him how much I was enjoying the Kitchen Disco albums and he said there's one more coming next month. We talked for a good bit about his motivation for recording them and how the project started as an EP, then grew into an album, and eventually four albums.

At some point he apologized to me repeatedly for taking a minute to respond to a text, but as far as I was concerned he was taking time out of his evening for me so it wasn't a big deal.

I'm sure we chatted about some other stuff but I have to admit that I probably don't remember all of it... I would have stayed and waited to see if Ben came out but it was getting late, and I needed to get the friend I went with home before midnight.

Regardless, I'm so so happy I went and that I waited! The music was all absolutely fantastic and I got to meet someone I really admire, and tell him how much I appreciate his work.

A very good night.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Expertise can't help you here.

[cronchy-baguette]

double posting this comic bc tbh it deserves its own post.... thinking about how elphie was definitely crying after she runs off to hide somewhere following popular... what do the two of them think about afterwards....

[wasabi-gumdrop]

local ladies man’s signature move totally useless against autistic monster enthusiast. more on Kabru’s fumble era at 6

[aterfish]

i love ways the word 'halfa' can be interpreted

[hansoeii]

⚠️‼️

[heckyeahponyscans]

The H5N1 (bird flu) virus is going around, and cats are proving especially susceptible to it. A big cat sanctuary in Washington state had TWENTY of their big cats (cougars, tigers, etc) die of bird flu.

There have also been cases of indoor-only domestic cats getting sick or even dying of bird flu after contracting it from raw cat food. And of course coming into contact with birds also puts your cat at risk.

To keep your cat safe:

Keep them away from birds, preferably keeping them entirely inside. If they are indoor-outdoor then remove any bird feeders from your yard to make cat-bird contact less likely.

Do NOT feed them raw food of any sort, including freeze-dried raw food. Freezing will not kill the virus!

A lot of raw pet food companies are using PR speak to assure customers that their raw food is safe. Remember that at the end of the day their priority is to make money and stay in business. Unless they are testing every bird carcass for the virus their assurances are meaningless, and they certainly are not testing every bird because it would be too expensive.

Cooking kills most viruses and bacteria, including H5N1.

[s0up1ta]

"so grunkle ford how do you know bill?"

"... that's not important."

[petrichara]

‘Love is the one thing that we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.’

“Eulogy from a Physicist” by Aaron Freeman, with quotes from Interstellar by Christopher Nolan, and images from NASA, Interstellar, Getty, Petrichara, and Reuters.

1- NASA: GOODS-South.

2- NASA: NGC 1850.

3- NASA: Iberian Peninsula.

4- Christopher Nolan: Interstellar.

5- NASA: From the Earth to the Moon.

6- Hannah La Folette Ryan: Subway Hands.

7- Adams Evans: Heart Nebula.

8- NASA: Exploring the Antennae.

9- NASA: Crescent Moon from the International Space Station.

10- Petrichara.

11- Getty Images.

12- NASA: SMACS 0723.

13- Reuters

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

zany to me how these um actually nihilists like to pretend that "um actually love/friendship/cooperation/kindness isn't real bc we evolved that way to benefit ourselves as a species..." um YES? that's also where tool use comes from? that's where cooking comes from? am i supposed to think social bonds & tool use & cooking aren't "real" because they evolved over time instead of appearing fully formed from the ether?

sorry u can't enjoy things. im a superior being twirling a fork in my bowl of delicious noodles whilst staring in adoration at the world

[hinamie]

subject, specimen, spectacle;

should i say that you're dead?

[heedra]

talking to preschoolers is awesome bc they have not fully differentiated stories into 'true stories' and 'imaginary stories' yet so you will tell them about something that happened you once (coyote came out of a bush right in front of you and got startled) and they will tell you about how one time their house was full of coyotes in every room 'including five in the garage' and they're not even like, aware i think of the idea that they are technically 'lying'. they are simply telling stories about coyotes bc its time to tell stories about coyotes.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

License to Kitty.

[egophiliac]

2025 is the year of the DRAGON SLIPPERS

[snek-eyes]

Can we go back to this for a sec? To Aziraphale having to explain the concept of being in love to the other angels? Because I cannot imagine what a trip it has to be, falling in love with someone when that is literally not something you are supposed to be able to do. When it is something you barely understand. When the object of whatever this is isn't supposed to be able to feel this way either, except as time goes on you start to realize it's happening to him too. And neither of you can actually talk to each other about it.

[planariaareneat]

How The Nocturnal Bottleneck and Nipples Make Us Human

Almost every post here considers what humans do have, really. It’s a little tiring; realistically every world has its harsh environments and vicious species and a sophont to match. We probably wouldn’t be unique for our adaptability or our persistence or even adrenaline

But our evolution is fucked up as hell, to put it lightly.

Mammals went through what’s been dubbed the nocturnal bottleneck essentially since the start of the mesozoic right up until the Cretaceous ended the archosaur’s exclusive hold over the daylight. We lost a lot of things from every mammal spending most of its time in either a cramped, suffocating burrow or scrounging around in the faint hours of nighttime. Our blood cells lost their nuclei to hold more oxygen while we spent time deep underground, we lost protections against ultraviolet rays in our skin and eyes, we can’t even repair our own DNA using the light of the sun. Most aliens probably wouldn’t have such traits unless their evolution followed a very similar path to ours. They’d be able to see ultraviolet and wouldn’t have to worry about sunburn and all the wonderful privileges essentially all fish, birds, amphibians, and reptiles enjoy as we speak. 

There’s also what we gained from spending so much time in the dark.

Brown fat is only found in mammals, it’s a special type of fat which bear cells with several oil droplets and are utterly jammed with mitochondria. This lets it make heat, a lot of it, fast. We don’t even need to shiver to induce this heat generation from brown adipose tissue - factor in our downright hyperactive mitochondria, and we can warm up quickly. Sure, it doesn’t have too much use in adult humans, but it keeps our infants warm and still provides a little boost the whole run we have in this universe.

Unless aliens also went through a time where their small ancestors had to face cold nights, they’d have to produce heat the old fashioned way when chilled. Aliens might have to shiver the whole time they’re in a cold room while the human watches in confusion, quite literally unshaken, and wonders if the room is a lot colder than the thermostat set to 60 says. The aliens stare at their companion in confusion, it’s just a normal temperature to shiver at after all, how is the human sitting so still?

Our small ancestors spending all their time out foraging at night is also why we have such a good sense of touch, smell, and hearing. They were more important senses than vision (we’re lucky to have even redeveloped basic color vision, frankly) at the time and place and simply ended up continuing to serve us well. Birds and reptiles rarely have acute senses of smell and the latter especially are lucky to have acute hearing, and birds rarely have impeccable hearing themselves either. Our skin is free of scales and honed to sensitivity, and our external ears and complicated ear bones provide an immense range of hearing (from 20 all the way to 17,000 hertz!).

Aliens might not be able to pin down the chirp of a cricket or the light click of a lock being picked. The human might be the only one on board a ship that can pick out the finer sounds of the engine’s constant thrum and know the critical difference between when everything is fine and when something is wrong. The human could probably pick out the sounds of an approaching enemy’s careless footsteps - they’re only as light enough for *them* to stop hearing them, after all - and be the one to see the horrified expression (well, more on that later) on their face when we get the drop on them in spite of their perceived stealth. 

But perhaps the most versatile, convoluted, amazing, and utterly unique trait we have is right on your face this instant. Lips.

Lips in most animals are a simple seal to hold in the mouth’s moisture and protect the teeth, even if they’re supple they’re NEVER muscular except in mammals, and we have only one thing to thank for it; milk and nipples. Lips evolved exclusively to allow babies to suckle, it required a vacuum to be created in the mouth, and with no other animal having anything like a nipple it never happened in other animals. Many animals make milk, to be frank, but no other animal has nipples.

Your cheeks and lips are a marvel among tetrapods, no other animal can suck like mammals can. Aliens wouldn’t have straws or even be able to sip from the edge of a glass, they’d have to have a proboscis or simply tilt the whole thing back. Aliens likely won’t have woodwind instruments or balloons you can blow into. We take so much about our lips for granted. Hell, our muscular faces are vital for expressions, we’re probably absolute facial contortionists among a cast of creatures with mandibles and beaks and expressionless scaly maws. Aliens might find us ridiculously easy to read, if anything, compared to their own kind (all the better to deceive them) - or perhaps they’d find us hard to decipher anyways, with our lack of color-changing skin or erectable crests of bright feathers. Baring teeth might not be seen as a sign of aggression in most of the universe, smiling would be all too distinctly human. 

Perhaps with how infectious we are sometimes, that’s what we’d contribute to the universe; others might have to make do with opening their mouths just enough to show their teeth or splaying their innumerable mouthparts with just the right curve, but perhaps we’d teach the galaxy to smile, one ally at a time. 

Wouldn’t that be amazing?