Is there anything more nauseating than ‘expensive heterosexual wedding’ culture?

Submitter comment: I'd like to submit this '[s]tudy of defensive behavior of a venomous snake as a new approach to understand snakebite' not for it's topic (worth studying!) but for it's insane methodology, which... well, I'll just let the researcher speak for himself:

[Q: Why did you decide to do this experiment?

A: Snake behavior has been generally neglected as a field of research, especially in Brazil. And most studies don’t examine what factors make them want to bite. If you study malaria, you can research the parasite that causes the disease—but if you don’t study the mosquito that carries it, you will never solve the problem. Up until now, the popular wisdom was that the jararaca would only attack if you touched it or stepped on it. But that was not what we found.

Q: Why did you need to be the victim?

A: The best way to do this research is to put snakes and a human together. In this case, the human was me. We put the snakes inside a ring on the floor of our lab until they got used to it, then I stepped in wearing special protective boots. I stepped close to the snake and also lightly on top of it. I didn’t put my whole weight on my foot, so I did not hurt the snakes. I tested 116 animals and stepped 30 times on every animal, totaling 40,480 steps.]

From the recent (aptly named) interview: Researcher steps on deadly vipers 40,000 times to better predict snakebites

Growing up is actually all about realizing people don’t inherently dislike you and it’s a bit odd to assume they do

Moon. Fabric and thread. Stitched from a photo my brother took.

my latest cartoon for New Scientist.

Certain words can change your brain forever and ever so you do have to be very careful about it.

Mobility assistance

obsessed with this sign i saw taped up outside the bat room at the zoo yesterday. the enthusiasm, the hand-written note, the bat drawing.

Mauro C. Martinez (American, 1986) - Trust (2022)

Ever since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to go back to bed

this is going to sound like such a little sibling ass take but i genuinely believe that being a little bit annoying is actually a greater sign of maturity and self awareness than being universally likeable and on good terms with everyone

Penguin falls down resulting in best sound ever [x]

Oh my god you freaked out your dinosaur

it’s not against halacha, technically, but it is a dick move

“why do i believe this” and “who benefits from me believing it” are the first steps to decolonization and we should all be doing this more