Dogs are excellent in general and have amazing capabilities with their noses, but there are a few problems with how they are used. The kind of dog that is amenable to training is more than anything else a people-pleaser, and handlers have to be careful not to pass along their own prejudices to the dog.
Namely: Cueing is a thing. Dogs pick up on cues from their handlers that x person is extremely suspicious and something is wrong here and they will eagerly set about detecting a problem where no problem exists – but once the dog has cued, the police have the go ahead to jump in and search, arrest, etc.
In this way all the racial prejudice of the human cops gets enforced by “evidence” from the dog and harassment is the result. Legally IIRC a dog sniffing doesn’t count as a “search”, but it does justify a search if the dog signals that they found something. Guess who gets proportionally more searches as a result.
This famous study for the journal of Animal Cognition in 2011 tested pairs of handlers and dogs by telling the handlers drugs were planted on a scene, but in fact no drugs were placed anywhere. The dogs signaled for drugs in every single room and more often in areas the handlers had been alerted to, showing that either the handler was reading the dog’s signals wrong due to their own beliefs, or the dog was picking up on their beliefs and signaling accordingly.
If giraffes were predators they would look both hilarious and terrifying while sneaking up on their prey
I’m afraid you’ve missed the predatory giraffes by about 66 million years mate.
These guys are Azhdarchid pterosaurs, and they were some of the strangest reptiles to ever exist. They were perfectly capable of flight, but their physiology suggests that they may have spent a significant portion of their lives hunting on the ground.
The largest of them could reach over 5 metres tall while standing, and had a 10-metre wingspan. They varied greatly in body type, from the tall, spindly forms of Quetzalcoatlus and Arambourgiania (images 4 and 1-2 respectively) to the heavy brute strength of Hatzegopteryz, a species that may have used its head to bludgeon its prey (images 2 and 3).
There has never been another flying animal before or since to have reached such incredible sizes, nor any predator so intimidatingly tall. Well, not any that we know of yet.
All of these illustrations are by Mark Witton, a palaeontologist and artist who specialises in pterosaurs. This is his blog about palaeontology and the science of reconstructing extinct species. You can find out more about each of these images here, here and here.
(Oh, and by the way … these are NOT dinosaurs)
What the hell these are so intimidating, why aren’t these in any dinosaur movies
while I’m offering opinions let me just add this one, in response to some hand-wringing I read earlier today:
Yes, people should have the opportunity to rehabilitate and redeem themselves and make themselves better people after they have done wrong, but that sure doesn’t mean that after an “appropriate” period of contrition and remorse perpetrators should be handed back the positions of power and influence that they used to abuse people in the first place. Fuck that. Fuck no. Fling that notion directly into the sun and do not give these men the ability to abuse people again no matter how sad and sorry they are.
Also criticize anarchism, fine, but there’s way more schools of thought to it than just the tunglr.hell anprim bullshit and that one 9/11 truther who thinks the noble savage idea is radikewl, even though I know they make great memes and sassy gotchas in the discourse
anprims are allowed to exist so long as this meme keeps being funny:
Also criticize anarchism, fine, but there’s way more schools of thought to it than just the tunglr.hell anprim bullshit and that one 9/11 truther who thinks the noble savage idea is radikewl, even though I know they make great memes and sassy gotchas in the discourse
anprims are allowed to exist so long as this meme keeps being funny:
Giving homeless people MONEY instead of FOOD can save their lives this winter, shelters cost money, being able to sit in McDonald’s and nurse a coke for a couple hours to warm up costs money, often accessing public toilets (whether it’s to use them, wash up or just to be out of the wind) costs money.
Just give homeless people cash, just do it, no excuses, no whining about “enabling their drug habits”, if you have money to spare, give it and possibly save someone from literally freezing to death.
Absolutely. And this idea that people should live up to some sort of predetermined standard you have is really uncool – there is no standard for if people should be allowed to be alive.
You shouldn’t give anything because you expect a result, you should give because it’s a basic human value to nurture other souls and foster community.
I always like to offer them food first and if they don’t take it, they’re scammers. If they take the slightly smushed cereal bar from the bottom of my purse, they’re probably really homeless and I give them what change I have. Unfortunately some people pretend to be homeless to take advantage of the goodness of others hearts.
Wow you’re a real do gooder. Total hero. People who can’t eat cereal bars don’t exist. Homeless people are not allowed to need anything besides cereal bars. Everyone knows homelessness cures allergies and food intolerances too!
Do you know how regularly I turned down food when I was homeless bc people were offering me endless amounts of food and is had enough to eat!!! I didn’t want anymore fucking food because you are one of some billion people pulling this shit all the time!!! But shockingly, a lot of the time I wanted fucking tampons or a bed to sleep in that night or enough money on my tram ticket to get to my psych appointments/volunteer job/work
Like you aren’t filtering out any “fakers” lmao trust me there are way less people “faking” homelessness than everyone likes to make you think (and yes, some people begging aren’t homeless, they might have somewhere to live but no money to pay for literally anything else they need!!! And no way to make that money!!!! So yeah sometimes people begging on the street are just there bc they need to make money and unless they literally say “this is where I’m sleeping tonight” they aren’t lying or faking shit and if they are its probably because they??? Have to???? Because otherwise assholes like you think they don’t deserve any support??????? But 90% of what you’re accomplishing is just deciding who you think is Worth autonomy and Worth support and Worth things that are basic fucking human rights.
Okay but I have a question because hrowing up I was always told not to give homeless people money because theres the chance that they could use it to buy drugs or alcohol instead of something they need. Now Ive never really bought into this idea because mostly whats its doing is blaming homeless people for their homelessness which is awful but I’ve always just been conditioned to be scared to give monry because of this concern and told that tiving toiletries like tampons and other necessary items and food is better. Is this something I shouldnt worry about? Instead of putting together bags of toiletries for when I see homeless people should I instead just offer money?
Yes. Homeless people are sentient human beings capable of making their own decisions.
Bringing this back around because it’s really cold out there so please give money to homeless people if you have it.
give homeless people money, the myth that homeless people have to be forced to make the right decisions was begun bc lawmakers wanted voters believing that homeless life was cheery and pleasant and it was only Those Degenerates suffering due to their own bad choices BC THEY DIDN’T WANT TO INVEST IN FIXES THAT WOULD MAINLY HELP THE POOR, and you now fucking stupidly believe it’s “common sense” that people are not coping with pain or cold, but are in fact having fun and will continue choosing fun over being alive bc ???. give money punks
You know what else you can do?
Ask the person “what do you need?”
Maybe it’s money. Maybe it’s food. Maybe it’s the spare blanket in the back of your car, or the gentle fiction of letting them wash your windows for a couple of bucks if that’s what they want to do (we talk a lot of shit about capitalism on this site and a lot of it is true, but it’s also true that sitting around doing nothing sucks, and you can do someone a lot of good by letting them have a simple piece of work so they feel like they’re contributing to something). Maybe you have a book and they’d like something to read! You don’t know! ASK!
A lot of homeless people, you can do them a world of good just by sitting down and talking to them. The number of people who make me want to cry because I call them sir or ma’am and they just stare, like it’s been so long since someone’s shown them that basic sign of respect that they don’t even know how to respond to it anymore, is incredible.
I guarantee, if you ask them that question, and you’re not an asshole about it, they will tell you. Then, if you can help, you help. And yes, sometimes help means “I don’t have what you need. But I do have a smartphone, and I can look up people who can help you.” That is a resource some homeless people may have–there are smart TRACfones now, what the fuck–but a much greater number probably do not. Information is also a thing you can donate.
Giving homeless people MONEY instead of FOOD can save their lives this winter, shelters cost money, being able to sit in McDonald’s and nurse a coke for a couple hours to warm up costs money, often accessing public toilets (whether it’s to use them, wash up or just to be out of the wind) costs money.
Just give homeless people cash, just do it, no excuses, no whining about “enabling their drug habits”, if you have money to spare, give it and possibly save someone from literally freezing to death.
and it’s condescending garbage to give things people they might not need instead of money they can exchange for suitable goods and services because you have some patronizing idea that you know what’s best for them more than they do.
If a stranger misgenders you, please please please do not ever utter the phrase, “I’m a man.” It sounds very unnatural and immediately sounds overly defensive.
My advice? Just look at the person like they’re an idiot and, in the deepest voice possible, say, “Uh. Alright, then.”
Just act as though they made a huge and obvious mistake, and don’t get flustered. If you’re comfortable with it, handle the situation with humor and say something like, “Man, I know I’ve got a babyface, but I didn’t think it was that bad.”
People are saying that you should be unapologetic but the keyword here is “stranger”. You could be in danger if the person is transphobic, and you have no way of knowing their stance if you don’t know the person. So writing it off casually ensures the most low risk way of making your gender known.
Posting this again because of the new information added on.
list of go-tos for getting misgendered at work (I’ve never had a customer not apologize, or not believe me):
1. “Oh, uh, I’m a guy” with a slight chuckle
2. “I’m a guy, by the way” a few sentences after the mistake
3. just ignore it – if someone calls out “miss” or “ma’am” to get your attention, just ignore it and act like you’re not used to hearing it at all (if they call out again, act confused and then go to 1 or 2)
One of my cis best friends works at a major retailer and gets misgendered all the time. He’s got facial hair and most other go-to male sex characteristics. He gets called ma’am by other dudes. People literally just don’t pay attention at all; don’t freak out when they slip up, or it looks out of place.
my best strategy was getting offended. you know, like a cis person would.
not wildly. don’t escalate. but a simple are you fucking kidding me look helped a lot, then if necessary some kind of strong correction that indicates they have made a shitty mistake and you’re either pissed about it or letting them off this once.
i don’t know how well this translates to anyone else but i am small and unimposing and it worked for me.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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