I’ve been holding my tongue for months now, sworn to silence yet dying to tell the world. Pardon my shouting, but…
THE DIREWOLF IS BACK.
Extinct for more than ten thousand years, but extinct no longer, thanks to Ben Lamm, George Church, Beth Shapiro, and the rest of their team of mad scientists at Colossal, the world leader in the science of “de-extinction.”
I met them all in February, in… well, that would be telling. And I met Romulus and Remus too.
Here’s me and Romulus. (Or maybe Remus. They’re twins, and hard to tell apart.
- Grrm, NotaBlog, April 8 2025
Man, I knew these people were shameless hustlers but getting GRRM to spread their bullshit for them really is the icing on the scam.
Direwolves were a separate species in a separate genus. They are extinct. These are grey wolves which have been genetically modified to look more like what we think direwolves looked like. They are not direwolves in any meaningful way, particularly any way of relevance to conservation, and the best argument this company has come up with is “if they look the same then they’re the same species really because what even is a species, huh?”. It’s true that the concept of a species is complex, but if there’s one thing every biologist who doesn’t work for this company agrees on , it’s that “we genetically modified this relatively unrelated species to look more like the extinct one” does not mean you have “brought back” the extinct species. Jesus fucking Christ
really good explanation of this very key difference, if you’re curious.
It says a lot about society that a beach towel that actually fits me is labeled “oversized” on the packaging so that thin people can know which of a select few beach towels will make them feel all warm and cozy and small.
I already buy beach towels to dry myself off with because it’s easier than looking for bath towels that fit me, so labeling a beach towel “oversized” because this world is made solely for thin people is just added cruelty. I’ve been using beach towels to dry myself off with even when I was in the low 200s weight range.
What’s fucking wild is that 99.999999% of thin people are blissfully ignorant of what the world is like for fat people. They have no clue what it’s like to have to check the weight capacity of a chair on a website before buying it or seeing everything that’s the perfect size for you being labeled “oversized.” They don’t know what it’s like not being able to find clothes that fit you at a regular store, thrift store, online store, or even those plus size stores that only go up to a 3XL and just resize thin people clothing.
They don’t know what it’s like being thankful to learn online that Plan B doesn’t work for most fat people before you bought and assumed in a post-roe world that Plan B will be effective. They don’t know what it’s like to live in a world where everyone freely hates and discriminates against you without even having backlash from progressives and people who claim to support equality, because oppressing you is just accepted fact even to the people who fight for the rights of all of your other oppressed identities. They don’t know what it’s like to live in a world where hating you is so expected and normalized that it’s ingrained into your own people to the point that you literally cannot trust that
anyoneyou meet
not a single person
who looks like you will share solidarity.
None.
Whenever a thin person suddenly becomes fat, that is the closest we have to a person realizing they’ve been living in the Matrix. The most intense epiphany you’ll ever have is rapidly becoming fat and then seeing how this world changes for you almost overnight.
-Mod Worthy
I actually did this. I rapidly became fat (after struggling with a variety of medical issues and getting off hormonal birth control) and gained over 100lb. I am now obese, where I used to be normal-fat. And you know what? The world is totally different. Clothes don’t fit, chairs don’t fit, I don’t feel good, medicine isn’t as helpful, and guess what?? I can change that by getting back to a healthy weight. I am NOT healthy right now, and all of these factors just show how unhealthy I am. So instead of blaming the entire world for not adjusting to you, do what literally every other person ever does and adjust to the world. You can’t bring your own chair on an airplane. Too bad.
Way to underline the point of no solidarity.
“medicine isn’t as helpful” that’s the fatphobia hun. They don’t test medicine on larger bodies. Equipment isn’t avaliable for larger bodies. This is the 21st century they could do it. There is no “healthy weight” healthy is not dependent on weight- you aren’t guaranteed anything by having a certain weight. You can be thin and unhealthy. This is 101 level stuff.
Remember kids:
They can’t make chairs/clothes/whatever for us but we are an epidemic on the evening news, make it make sense.
-mod squirrel
also even if the weight = health thing was true. sick people still need clothes and chairs and most importantly healthcare. even if it was possible to lose that amount of weight and keep it down in a meaningful way, you still currently, right now, need shit to sit in, shit to wear, and meds to work.
it doesnt fucking matter if its healthy or not it matters that people are shaped that way so they need stuff that fits that shape. thats it. thats the whole thing.
if you’re gonna get into star trek you gotta understand that YES when it works it’s some of the best anything ever put to television. but you gotta understand. it absolutely does not always work. you cannot truly love star trek unless you accept the fact that while more than half of the episodes are good, a not-insignificant portion of trek episodes – especially from the most widely-beloved classic series – are actually dogshit and terrible. and I would recommend that you love those episodes too
I have an opinion about the Switch 2 price but y’all aren’t gonna like it bc it’s more nuanced than just Nintendo bad greedy
Since someone actually asked
Like corporations are bad, but there’s a bigger reason that games cost so much. I’m actually okay with mainstream games getting more expensive bc it helps raise the floor on indie game prices (which should all be higher, Stardew Valley being $15 is actually bad for indie devs everywhere bc everyone compares your indie game to SV and is like why can’t you have this much content and be this cheap. SV should be like $40-50.) bc then me an indie dev might get paid more and not be starving.
The nuance is that twin evils are at work here: 1. video game costs have kept up with inflation (as they should to pay for the higher fidelity gamers demand and to pay the bigger and bigger teams) but wages have not. Ppl should be asking why isn’t our minimum high enough I can afford a game with a few hours of work (the equivalent of less than half an extra shift if you wanted to take it once a month)?
Essentially: please gain class consciousness, bite every billionaire, demand minimum wage and thus all other wages be raised to keep up with inflation and suddenly you will have money for games and consoles, and game devs will be able to make quality products that allow them to feed their families.
Evil #2, (this evil is also why AI has gotten so big) is that art has been even further reduced to things that are solely meant to be consumed, spit out and then immediately forgotten for the next item of consumption. This conflating of art (and video games are art!) with products and consumption is the other half of the nuance here. It’s not wrong for people to ask, hell even to demand they get paid well for making good art. They should be getting paid well for it.
Either that or gamers need to lower their impossible standards.
Anyways. Corporations are evil and not your friend, that includes Nintendo, but please consider using this anger to gain class consciousness and realize that the real thing to be mad about is not that games and consoles are more expensive, but that you are not getting paid enough, are being exploited, capitalism is a failed system and all billionaires are evil and need to be forcibly divested of their money.
had a fascinating english class that resulted in the notes header “the forcefeminization of victor frankenstein”
what the people want, the people get
you see
my professor’s take is that mary shelley is feminizing victor throughout the novel, as a way of flipping gender roles and putting a male character through female experiences.
evidence as explained:
victor is creating life. he is putting his health at risk (spends two years with little sleep or socialization) to bring life forth into this world
his illness after he is shocked by the creature coming to life is akin to both ‘hysteria’ and postpartum depression
he pretty much swoons, let’s be honest
henry clerval, a man who has been characterized as manly and heroic, has to chase after damsel-in-distress victor and care for him as he convalesces
afterward, he hides what he did and went through, for fear that others will label him crazy and emotional and not believe him. sound familiar?
Victor in general is more emotional than the other characters and is constantly tempering his reactions to not be seen as irrational
the book does not otherwise have central female characters
Also, Shelley’s mother died in childbirth. It’s interesting, then, that Shelley presents the creation of life as something horrific and damaging. She parallels Victor with her mother.
in conclusion, Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley is one of the first examples of mpreg in English literature
if you have OCD that moralistic post it not about you. keep scrolling. i love you
yeah even the one that gave you that sinking terror and has you planning your penance behavior and going through your whole life trying to identify when you did whatever it said about prejudice or abuse or whatever. it’s not about you they don’t know you and they certainly don’t care about you
i got into star trek as a bit and now unfortunately ive realized its one of the most beautiful shows ever. its about love and family and exploration and warmth and possibilities and a hopeful and wonderful future. and its also so so fucking stupid
