digivolvin:

u know i’ve expressed my love for fake married/fake dating many, many times but like. is anything better. is anything better on this earth. does any trope or genre truly care for us quite like this one. let us reflect on a few of the gifts that fake married/dating consistently gives us:

  • character a asks “hey, will you pretend to be my date for a week for [convoluted excuse that could easily be solved without a fake relationship]?” character b, fully convinced of the futility of their DEEP AND UNREQUITED LOVE, figures this’ll be a chance to spend time with them and possibly put their feelings to rest. character b is always wrong & it is always amazing.
  • having to SHARE A LIVING SPACE FOR ARBITRARY FIC REASONS. having to see eachother in their pajamas first thing in the morning, messy haired, drowsy eyed and soft faced. going from “you can have the bathroom first” to brushing their teeth beside eachother and feeling like this closeness has always existed (at the same time, painfully aware that it won’t always). 
  • related to the last one — “”practicing”” their casual touching so that it’s easier when they’re in public. feeling SWOOPS OF ARDOR AND AGONY when they feel the brush of a hand on their neck, or an arm loop around their waist. don’t you love how fake marrieds/dates are always method actors who must FULLY INHABIT their roles. i love it. i live for it. 
  • bed sharing. :^) we all pretend we’re bigger than this but we are not. 
  • “kiss me while everyone’s looking.”
  • the character who wasn’t aware they were in love (maybe always had been) until the fake relationship is in full swing, realizing they have to sort their feelings out before their time together is up. sometimes they succeed and angst is minimal. most of the time they don’t, really.
  • telling eachother “i love you” in public and meaning it, heart aching over it, but bELIEVING THE OTHER 2 BE ACTING. my soul is still 15, this garbage still gets me. u don’t get pining better than this.
  • the days leading up to the end of the arrangement where one of them, still confused and muddy about their Feelings and unsure how to break things off, stiffens to the casual, reflexive touching and puts their walls back up. the other one accepts and respects this as the end of their agreement and squashes back down all the hope they ever had, stuffs it next to the heartbreak they’re ignoring deep in their chest. 
  • when they realize they’re actually fully and enthusiastically mutual about the way they feel and it’s, like, two parts euphoria and one part agony because they just cannOT BELIEVE, the happiness tears them in two. maybe there are weepy or laughing kisses. i don’t know but i’m usually invested like 2000%. i love fake dating/marrieds. 
  • I LOVE EM.

Beyond the Bars: Ethical Enclosures for Captive Animals (Part One)

koryos:

So! I said I was writing an article about the research behind modern animal enclosure design, ad here’s it is- well, part one. It got too long to stay as just one article. But in this installment I’ll go over why we keep animals, how animal keeping has changed throughout history, and surviving vs thriving. And I’ll do it while managing to talk about my axolotls way too much.

The next part of this series will be about enclosure space, substrate, and shelters, so look forward to it!

Beyond the Bars: Ethical Enclosures for Captive Animals (Part One)

whatagrump:

in 1986 disney changed the name of “basil of baker street” to “the great mouse detective,” which they considered less ambiguous and confusing. this really pissed off a lot of employees, including one animator who issued this fake memo.

my personal favorites include “puppies taken away,” “robin hood with animals,” and “aristocats.”

theolduvaigorge:

How your food would look if not genetically modified over millennia

“Ever wonder how your food would be without any human intervention over the course of agriculture history? For thousands of years, farmers have manipulated their crops to get the best yields and have resulted in many of the produce you see today. Also, it’s informative to note that more than 3000 grains, fruits and vegetables have been “created” in a laboratory by subjecting them with gamma rays and/or highly toxic chemicals to artificially scramble their DNA–and have since been marketed as organic, including Ruby Red grapefruits and almost of the most flavorful and top selling organic Italian pasta. Read about that here: Pasta? Ruby grapefruits? Why organic devotees love foods mutated by radiation and chemicals.”

(Source: Genetic Literacy Project via @MatthewPope on Twitter)

amarguerite:

Every so often I’ll recall that Disney made an animated version of “Notre Dame de Paris” and say to myself, “… Wtf were the executives thinking.”

Like honestly, was there a production meeting where they all went around the table asking themselves what children liked and ended up with:

  • the invention of the printing press
  • cathedrals
  • Catholicism
  • Romantic reinterpretations of the Gothic
  • the horrific treatment of the disabled in medieval Paris
  • siege warfare
  • death

“Jim,” says Bob, “there’s only one author who can give us all these things, and turn even death into a more effed up theme for the young, by linking some HAWT VIRGINS to it and insinuating death is the ultimate consummation: Victor Hugo.”

“Bob,” says Jim, “I like the way you think. Let’s get rid of the theme of motherhood and instead focus on sexual repression amongst the clergy.”

bpdachilles replied to your post:i’m gonna be 19 years old in like a week and it is…

im gonna be 18 in less than a month too I Cant Do This either

i’m honestly excited about the New Experiences of This New Phase Of My Life but it’s still something i feel quite uneasy about. i hope it’s something comparable to that feeling of when you’re a kid in an amusement park and youre finally tall enough for the Grown-up Rollercoaster and you feel kinda sick in the stomach right before you get in the cart but once it’s done and you stop screaming it ceases to be a Huge Deal and you move onto the new things Adult Life has to offer