Lots of thalassophobia goin’ on here.  I LOVE seeing this stuff.  The natural world is AMAZING.

Just look at Pugs through the years to see what selective breeding for unhealthy traits does to dogs. They had much longer snouts and their eyes did not used to stick out like they do.
But the AKC would like to tell us that no dog should be bred unless they are as inbred as possible.

Right? I think it’s beautiful.

There is nothing even remotely nightmarish about this delightful bundle of fabric in a slow-motion washing machine. I find it delightful.

I’m even paranoid of lakes, where they don’t even live.

The elusive condom jelly fish

Luckily this thing probably wouldn’t drag you anywhere, it’d just digest you as it floated along with you tangled in its tendrils.

That’s crazy high levels of inbreeding. The average level of inbreeding in the dog breeds is comparable to the population being made up of siblings? That’s like “Spanish Habsburgs after two centuries of only marrying cousins and aunts/uncles” level of inbreeding. It’s amazing purebred dogs are even as healthy as they…

Not surprising. When I started looking at some purebred dogs a forever ago, I noticed it seemed to be common enough that they would have some ailment they are predisposed to. Plus a lack of genetic diversity just seems to be a problem with anything. Bananas, The Hapsburgs and famous pharaohs are the first things that…

Scientists later had to mix in some less inbred DNA to the dog species to save Man’s best friend leading to the Mawg.

Not that much of a surprise. 15,ooo years ago, there wasn’t over 200 breeds, there was only wolves. In that time, man has selectively bred “dogs” for specific tasks, resulting in the variety of breeds today. So thousands of years of selective breeding leads to overbreeding of some species, not that surprising at all…

And to find Arcturus, find the Big Dipper (which is easy: face north, you’ll see a dipper in the sky, it’s big). Trace the arc of the handle to the first very bright star you see.

No, but I have a suspicion that it has become more disabling than it used to be. That is to say, it’s harder for an autistic person to cope in today’s society than it was fifty years ago. That makes the symptoms more bothersome, which is what drives people to seek a diagnosis. People don’t usually go to a psychiatrist…

Dangerous thinking. What on earth makes you think that autism wasn't a trait endemic, surviving, and thriving in the population pre-healthcare? There are a lot of useful skills and traits that autistic people tend to excel in that neurotypical folk struggle with. The narrative that autistic people are somehow damaged…

Leonard “will just be about half the width of a clenched fist to the left” of Arcturus

“Greater awareness of the developmental condition is leading to more children being diagnosed and at an earlier age.”

Beyond medical supports, there need to be many more institutional supports. I work with some folks who are clearly on the spectrum, and there’s no accommodations or awareness around it.

(Caveat: I’m not 100% sure all of them have been diagnosed or identify that way, and am basing my lay diagnosis on experience with…

What we need are better resources and diagnostic options for autistic adults.  The research expanding the knowledge at the child and early diagnostic end is great, but the more we as a society learn about autism the more obvious it is that it doesn’t just evaporate once you graduate from school.  It’s great that…

Shark attacks have a survival rate of about 84%, but I don’t see these assholes jumping around with the great whites. Too bad.

The cartel even controls pictures of Canadian maple syrup