Invasive species are something else. They can cause active harm to an ecosystem and are crucial to look out for, especially in sensitive areas. Just because “life finds a way” doesn’t mean destroying a niche habitat is okay.

(I lived.)

Phew Thank you for that closure.

To any prospective and new parents stumbling onto this thread: Turn back. NOW.

This thread will give you nightmare fuel. You have been warned.

I accidentally slammed my picky toe into a corner once and I’m pretty sure I broke it. But I was scared to tell my parents, so I just wore socks around the house until it healed.

I don’t think it healed properly either. If I feel the edges of my picky toes, I can feel a difference between my right and left. Using standard anatomical terms of location for clarity, the toe that got injured has a pointier joint on the medial edge, with the distal bone of the pinky turning slightly more laterally than the uninjured toe bone does. It doesn’t hurt today and doesn’t cause me any issues, as far as I can tell.

It still sucks that I’m not the only one who felt the need to hide an injury as a child.

Oof, this happened when my family went tubing down the Delaware River. It was the first time in my life that I was grateful women’s bathing suits include a top, as I got burnt horribly, but I didn’t end up with as much burn as the guys in my party all did. My poor, Canadian boyfriend looked like a tomato at the end.

Even if all the original copypasta were true, they’d still be more useful and less harmful than billionaires. So if you still need something to throw rocks at…

This is a really good question. I suspect the color in the image has been enhanced. I’ve been trying to find a scientific reason that the clouds could appear blue, but haven’t found anything conclusive.

However, I did find a NASA page with raw images of Jupiter.

Here’s a raw image:

Here’s an image that’s been color-enhanced:

It’s not uncommon for space images to be color-enhanced. On the one hand, it may feel less authentic. On the other hand, the visible light levels in space may be insufficient for our expectations and uses anyway. Although I don’t know the origin of the picture at the top of this page, I know that it’s common practice for space photos to be enhanced. In fact they’re often taken in non-visible spectrums and fully converted to something humans can see and comprehend. Ever see detailed, colorful photos of galaxies? They were probably taken in X-ray and colorized in processing. Cool as it would be, you wouldn’t see those colors in real life.

I have no opinion on this, but I know someone else who does:

I know you don’t want to hear “it depends,” but there is no one rule that would cover all art. Some art is made to communicate specific ideas. Some art is made simply out of self-expression, without intent for any particular audience. Both are valid.

If I doodle in my notebook, it’s for the artist (me.) However, I also draw and paint to communicate specific emotions. I made a painting while listening to “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire, with the intent to capture the energy and joy the song sends through me. I don’t expect anyone to immediately connect the image with the specific song, but since it’s a lively concert scene, my hope is that the emotion that inspired the art comes across to an audience.

Sometimes I’ll make something more abstract, intentionally left open to interpretation. I may have my own thoughts about such pieces, but ultimately I want the viewer to find their own meaning.

In reality, everything is up to the audience. There will always be people who interpret things in their own way, independent of the artist’s intentions. We can’t control what others will think, but learning to tolerate and/or accept people who “don’t get it” is a stage all artists have to go through. I’ve come to accept that there is no one perfect mode of communication, so if I intend to communicate something specific, it’s on me as the artist to put effort into making that message clear.

We use Chromebooks at my work (along with the whole Google suite), and we are bound by the rules of HIPAA. Without a way to opt out of this AI crap, I increasingly worry about what all of this means for our clients’ privacy. Especially with this administration, with RFK deadset on targeting people with disabilities.

It makes me happy to see the phrase “lightning bug” used so often here on Lemmy. I grew up calling them lightning bugs, yet I felt like it’s been ages since I heard or saw that word. Then I started coming here, and I see it in every post about this topic. The term brings me back to my childhood, picturing the way my parents’ backyard used to light up every summer evening.

Ha, great observation. For those that don’t know - the fireflies/lightning bugs known to the east coast don’t live on the west coast.

Apparently there are species that live west of the Rocky Mountains, but they are active during the day, and even at night the light they produce is too dim for the human eye to perceive. So the west coast doesn’t get the beautiful light shows that the east enjoys.

Jellyfish that sting swimmers are just exercising their castle doctrine.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Douglas Adams always knew exactly the right words to say.

Monoposony - like a monopoly but a single buyer who can set prices and terms, rather than a single seller.

I went looking for more information about that term and wasn’t finding anything. But then the dictionary suggested Monopsony, which I figure is what you meant?

The comments are ridiculous.

People: if ThE cOuNTry sUcks, wHy doN’T aMeRiCAns dO anYthiNG aBOut iT?

Also people: LoL siLLy aMeRiCAn, AcTiviSm doESn’T wOrk

We’re damned if we do, damned if we don’t. Keep fighting the good fight. You’ve got a good decade on me, but I see you and I’m right there with you. ✊

I’m glad you had the foresight to keep yourself safe, but unfortunately not everybody is as observant or skilled in critical thinking as you are. We all started from ignorance, and no matter how well-learned a person is, they can’t possibly know everything. The least we can do is remind ourselves that we’re imperfect too, and have some compassion for those that are just discovering things that we have already learned.

I pay for an emby share personally.

I read this as “enby share” and thought, “Is that like a queer polyamorous social group? If so, I want in.”

(BTW I use emby share to pirate too, so no need to explain. My brain just expects the word “enby” first.)

I understood the comment above to be comparing how public opinion is allowed to shape itself in the fediverse, vs being censored and molded to only fit particular permitted messages in mainstream social media. We can express ourselves without worrying that we’ll get locked out of the entire fediverse for stating an opinion that mods or admins don’t like. Which makes it fair to wonder how much suppression is going on elsewhere, that we don’t see and never hear reports on, because censorship.

I’m not sure where the idea of Lemmy having an effect on public opinion at large came from. It feels like a non-sequitur, but maybe I’m just too tired and I missed something.