Alligator On Helium Reveals The Secret Meaning Of Alligator Bellows

why-animals-do-the-thing:

I found this article while researching that ‘reptilian speech’ ask, and just had to share. Yes, the scientists actually had alligators inhale helium to measure their calls. Yes, it was legit science and actually gave us really good information. It’s also just ridiculous and I adore it. TL;DR, the frequency of an alligator’s call is a reasonable indicator of the size of the animal producing it. 

I also learned from this (and the linked article within it) why helium makes your voice sound squeaky! In short, it’s actually the density of helium gas that makes the different. Helium is about seven times less dense than air, so your vocal cords can push on it faster and therefore the wavelength of the sounds they create is faster. 

Imagine how confused those alligators were, though.

Alligator On Helium Reveals The Secret Meaning Of Alligator Bellows

Senate Votes to Save Net Neutrality, Proving Shame Still Works Sometimes

ink-phoenix:

thunderboltsortofapenny:

aniseandspearmint:

deadcatwithaflamethrower:

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!  YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES.

Oh thank god

Now everyone prep for the inevitable re-try in a few months or a year

Know this, the House will not vote on this. The only way the House will vote is if the Republicans and Paul Ryan no longer hold majority in the House. They ONLY WAY THAT HAPPENS is if they are voted out in November. The earliest we can repeal the FCC ruling is in January 2019. Get registered. Go vote.

^^^ This. Read the fine print. This is a victory but the war is far from over. REGISTER TO VOTE. get your friends registered. Vote in November. It’s the only way.

Senate Votes to Save Net Neutrality, Proving Shame Still Works Sometimes

thebibliosphere:

grand-duc:

thebibliosphere:

syntaxtree:

vampireapologist:

thebibliosphere:

thebibliosphere:

thebibliosphere:

One of these days I’m going to write a YA novel and call it “Most Girls”.

It could be about a vampire who was turned in her late teens and always regretted never finishing her education formally and well, she’s too young looking for college but she could get a high school diploma, right? Something to hang up in the old tomb sweet tomb. So she talks her older looking vampire friends into pretending to be her parents and whacky hijinks ensue as she struggles to fit in and be like most girls but hilariously keeps getting told she’s not like most girls by everyone she meets, much to her annoyance.

“You know,“ he says inching closer beside me on the rooftop, the light of the moon casting an unearthly silver glow on the leaves and making his eyes shine all the brighter, “you’re not like most girls.”

I dip my head to hide my smile. They always scream so much when they see the fangs.

“No,” I agree inching away from him again, “I’m not.”

But maybe just for once, I think, I’d like to be…

Joy I’m fucking suing you for typing at verbatim every Neopets Vampire roleplay I took part in in 2003 and making me stare into my own soul

This is unrealistic because if a literal child walked into my university lecture I’d be like sure you probably belong here and would never question it. She could totally make it in college

Book two can be her realizing that to professors everyone looks like they’re 12 so enrolls in community college with her shiny new diploma.

Faux-vampire-mom-and-dad show up at graduation looking like if you crossed 50s nostalgia with the Addams family and cheering loudly for everyone, but especially for those who have no one else to cheer for them.

For them they cheer the loudest.

Because sometimes a family can be you, your fake spouse, your immortal undead daughter and the humans they adopt along the way.

Can Faux-vampire-mom-and-dad be younger than their immortal undead daughter?

Absolutely. There’s a hundred years difference at least. Clara and Arthur just happen to look like they’re in their late 30s.

thehumon:

I suffer from the second kind mentioned here. I felt a need to make this because even people I’ve known for years and who knows about my condition still get angry at me when I can’t hear what they say in noisy areas.

There’s also what’s called an auditory processing disorder, and it comes in several forms. One form is where you can hear the person clearly, but your brain doesn’t quite recognize that speech is happening, and doesn’t translate it. This usually happens due to other noise getting tangled up with the speech, or due to having a barrier in the way. It’s not a problem with volume, it’s a problem with the brain not quite registering what’s being said. I have that. I can’t understand people talking over loudspeakers, and I have a hard time understanding people who are behind me. It just sounds like noise. Sometimes, when I’m tired, conversations being had behind me sound like it’s a foreign language. 

The way to help with it is, when possible, face the person you’re talking to. If there’s background noise, projecting your voice a bit more can help. Not shouting, just speak as if the person you’re talking to is a bit further away. Really, just repeat yourself. If that doesn’t work, slow down and enunciate a bit. Don’t sound everything out really slowly like they’re an idiot, that’s sarcastic and not needed, just talk like you’re trying to get Siri to understand what you said. Rephrasing may also help. If you’ve had to repeat yourself several times, then and only then do you speak very slowly. Again, this is not because the other person is stupid or can’t understand plain English, this is a problem with the part of the brain that processes sounds. Sometimes you have to enunciate further for it to click. 

If all else fails, write it out on your phone. 

lierdumoa:

What we all need to understand about AI in a nutshell:

There’s an algorithm that can reliably predict, from aggregate facebook posts, the onset of a manic episode in a person suffering from bipolar disorder – more reliably even, than a trained psychotherapist, who only has access to the information a patient provides them in therapy sessions. 

“Won’t technology like that help people with bipolar disorder?”

Theoretically, it could. But this algorithm wasn’t designed to help people with bipolar disorder.

This algorithm was designed to sell plane tickets to Las Vegas.

[source]

systlin:

annechen-melo:

quousque:

thevideowall:

kayabebe:

aawb:

Let’s say your matrilineal line is fairly consistent and everyone has their daughter at 25. So four women in your matrilineal line are born every hundred years. In a thousand years, that’s only 40 women. Like the math is so simple and yet ? You don’t think about it. So in 2000 years, 80 women. So basically, 0 AD started roughly about 80 mothers ago. That’s it.

I’m……… i’m a little drunk n cannot deal with this right now

Yep

The advent of agriculture around 9500BC was about 450 mothers ago

you can’t just say shit like that without a warning

Many, many mothers ago, when the world was new….

Many of the notes here are saying “But women used to have kids earlier”

Okay. So, assume every woman had her daughter at 20 instead. 

That’s five mothers in a century. 

Fifty mothers in a thousand years. 

One hundred mothers in two thousand years. 

That is five hundred and seventy five mothers since the dawn of agriculture. 

Less than six hundred women, between you and the dawn of civilization. 

You are never so far from your ancestors as you think. 

thorsbian:

thorsbian:

In honor of me approaching my first 6 months mark as a flight attendant, here are some highlights from my time in this job:

  • When a lady stopped me gently to whisper that i had “mastered the art of kindness”
  • When an elderly woman told me i was “put on earth to be a flight attendant”
  • Each and every time someone complimented my nails
  • When i found an $8000 diamond watch left behind under a seat, gave it to a gate agent, only to have the passenger come running back 10 minutes later. Gate agent: man u wouldve been in trouble, huh? Man whom looked like a bond villain: i wouldve been SHOT.
  • Every lesbian ive worked with and had the nice bonding moment of “ur gay?? Im gay!!”
  • That time a man tried to get huffy with me because he wasnt in 1st class and i got to say “sir u can either sit in this seat or u can sit in a seat in the terminal while u wait to take the next flight”
  • When i had an emergency landing because the pilots lost steering and we all thought we were gonna die but then we didn’t and everyone just applauded the landing and didnt even complain about the 2 hour delay
  • When my flight was delayed for 3 hours because the plane wouldnt start so the crew and i just took a really long nap in the jetway
  • Every 4 and 5 star hotel ive stayed at for free
  • When we overnighted in the middle of nowhere in alabama and went to a sports bar at midnight. The bartender locked the door so it was just him and us and his friend, and we all got super drunk on obscure alcohols and i kicked everyones ass at pool
  • That time i had an emergency landing because one pilot had such explosive diarrhea that the other 2 pilots had to wear oxygen masks
  • When we overnighted in a casino resort in new orleans and ended up drunk on margaritas and playing blackjack with a bunch of old people at 2pm
  • Every little kid on my flights
  • Every dog i got to pet on my flights
  • When we were flying to nyc during julliard recruitments and half the seats were taken up by cellos
  • Being in airports late at night and seeing people sleep in the weirdest places because they just dont care (bathroom floors, under gate agent desks, etc)
  • When a woman forgot her actual baby on the plane
  • Woman: can i board first? Gate agent: are u special needs, active military or priority? Woman: no i just want to board first. Gate agent: maam i have 70 other people who also want to board first, im not looking for a line leader.
  • My very first working flight, when a man pointed to my necklace and said “is that a ball gag?” And, in my shock, i said “no, im gay”
  • That time a ramp agent came up to me holding up his phone and said “wanna see something weird?” and i said yes, reservedly, thinking it might be gross but then he held out his phone and it was just a picture of hundreds of paradise birds that we were apparently flying to a zoo