I’m not going to get a government fellowship. I’ll barely make it into a mid-tier residency. I’ll die in obscurity, having handed out a few prescriptions.
The black swan (Cygnus atratus) is a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The species was hunted to extinction in New Zealand, but later reintroduced. (Source)
The long answer: if this is about my unfinished fics, I’ve had a ton of real-life obligations drop on my head, including applying for a government fellowship. Please be patient.
Last week, with little fanfare, the Graduate Center at the City University of New York did something very few private companies would ever do to protect its users’ privacy: it quietly began to purge its interlibrary loan records.
“This policy change is motivated by the idea that libraries should not keep more information about their users’ requests than necessary,” wrote Beth Posner, head of library resource sharing at the school.
Recently, it’s become more common to try to force librarians to turn over user information and compel their silence simultaneously.
As use of the law to acquire patron records since the Patriot Act has increased, librarians have become some of the US’s foremost experimenters in data security. Now they’re doing something even the most security-conscious private firm would never dream of (but have often been encouraged to do by security experts): purging sensitive information in order to protect their users.
Remember when that effeminate ass gay guy from 13 Reasons Why told Courtney, after having come out as a lesbian in front of an entire courtroom of people, that while he was happy for her he would “stage an intervention if she started wearing flannel and driving a suburu” meanwhile he’s gay, flamboyant, and limpwristed as fuck?
And anyone else notice how every lesbian character on teen drama shows are always hyper feminine and half of the time cheerleaders? Not to mention all the relationships between these cheerleader types always portray lesbianism as painting eachothers nails and braiding eachothers hair. Like lesbianism is a 6th grade slumber party just with kissing and hand holding.
Its almost like we’re teaching young people that it’s okay to be a lesbian but it’s never okay to be a dyke.
This is why we always encourage female gender-non-conformity, because if we don’t, no one else will.
A new trend I hate in ASOIAF fandom: “getting back” at old fics that crapped on Elia by blaming Lyanna and basically saying she deserves to be miserable after the Rebellion if it helps her take “responsibility” for what she did. These same people also tend to shake their fingers at her previous actions and say she was selfish or short-sighted or whatever for helping Howland, blaming Robert for his indiscretions, or fighting as the Knight of the Laughing Tree.
Lemme break it down: the percentage of blame that Lyanna should shoulder for the Rebellion is zero. None. The fact that she had a moral compass doesn’t mean she wasn’t taken for a ride by an INCREDIBLY charismatic, older married man who undoubtedly would have taken and raped her if she didn’t go (even if she perceived that she went) willingly.
Lyanna is not the other woman. Lyanna is not a spoiled brat. Lyanna is a girl probably barely a year or two into puberty who’s internalized the dictates of chivalry and publicly defended a bannerman the only way she knew how. Screw what Aerys was doing, that was incredibly brave. She is a good person. She’s not spoiled or an attention-seeker. It’s not feminist or striking back against racism to say that she is so that Elia can get a positive portrayal in fandom, and if that’s the only way you know how to get that done, then you’re doing it wrong.
She would not have deserved to be blamed for the Rebellion or forced into another marriage that would make her miserable if she’d survived. She was a teenage girl statutory-raped and brutalized through an incredibly violent birth by an older man, and she would have deserved happiness and to be left alone if she were fortunate enough to live.
(And no, Elia doesn’t have to never have a single negative feeling towards her or take her under her wing. That isn’t what I’m saying. Just, you know, have a modicum of human compassion towards a rape victim.)
Why do people want to live in the sad little world where STEM is the only thing worth doing, anyway? Is your ideal society a battleship with no windows because seeing outside is a needless luxury? Is your personal mascot a worker ant? Do you read 1984 and sigh wistfully, then throw the book away in rage because reading fiction is not Productive and writers are not Productive People?
or are you big ‘ol hypocrites who actually enjoy the fruits of art and design and liberal arts every day, but you just don’t want to admit it because then you won’t feel special for knowing how to slap together three lines of javascript
A cat can jump up to five times its own height in a single bound.
The little tufts of hair in a cat’s ear that help keep out dirt direct sounds into the ear, and insulate the ears are called “ear furnishings.”
The ability of a cat to find its way home is called “psi-traveling.” Experts think cats either use the angle of the sunlight to find their way or that cats have magnetized cells in their brains that act as compasses.
One reason that kittens sleep so much is because a growth hormone is released only during sleep.
A cat has 230 bones in its body. A human has 206. A cat has no collarbone, so it can fit through any opening the size of its head.
A cat’s nose pad is ridged with a unique pattern, just like the fingerprint of a human.
If they have ample water, cats can tolerate temperatures up to 133 °F.
A cat’s heart beats nearly twice as fast as a human heart, at 110 to 140 beats a minute.
Cats don’t have sweat glands over their bodies like humans do. Instead, they sweat only through their paws.
The claws on the cat’s back paws aren’t as sharp as the claws on the front paws because the claws in the back don’t retract and, consequently, become worn.
Cats make about 100 different sounds. Dogs make only about 10.
Researchers are unsure exactly how a cat purrs. Most veterinarians believe that a cat purrs by vibrating vocal folds deep in the throat. To do this, a muscle in the larynx opens and closes the air passage about 25 times per second.
A cat almost never meows at another cat, mostly just humans. Cats typically will spit, purr, and hiss at other cats.
A cat’s back is extremely flexible because it has up to 53 loosely fitting vertebrae. Humans only have 34.
Some cats have survived falls of over 65 feet (20 meters), due largely to their “righting reflex.” The eyes and balance organs in the inner ear tell it where it is in space so the cat can land on its feet. Even cats without a tail have this ability.
A cat can travel at a top speed of approximately 31 mph (49 km) over a short distance.
A cat’s hearing is better than a dog’s. And a cat can hear high-frequency sounds up to two octaves higher than a human.
A cat’s brain is biologically more similar to a human brain than it is to a dog’s. Both humans and cats have identical regions in their brains that are responsible for emotions.
And that’s how cats work.
I learned more about cats in this post than I did in my freshamn biology class in college
Death By Catchphrase 