Crowdfunding Creative Jam

The crowdfunding Creative Jam is now open with a theme of "trust and vulnerability."  Come give us prompts, or watch the conversations! 


What I Have Written

"Interspecies Relationships" is the freebie for this session.


From My Prompts

"Eggshell" by scrubjayspeaks 
Bucky has trouble articulating what he really wants from a replacement arm, and people are gentle with him anyway.

Poem: "Interspecies Relationships"

This is the freebie for the February crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from scrubjayspeaks. It also fills the "yummy" square in my 1-31-18 You Are card for the Valentines Bingo fest.

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Cleaning Products Harm Lungs

This study shows that frequent use of cleaning products impairs lung function over time in a way similar to that of smoking cigarettes. 

However, I dispute the claim that "microfiber cloths and water" do as good a job as cleaners.  No the fuck they don't.  Dude, have you tried to get fingerprints off glass with water?  That ain't happening.  Most glass cleaners use ammonia because it works.  Neither will you get rid of any dried gunk with water and a soft cloth. If I want the table free of crumbs I can wipe it with a dry napkin.  If I want the sticky spots off, I need furniture cleaner -- and the green version I bought doesn't work near as well as the chemical kind, alas.  Although I will say my favorite goo remover is based on orange oil.  The most you can do with a soft cloth is wipe up spills immediately.  Water, well, it'll remove some things if you're willing to stand over it and scrub with a scrungie for five minutes.  You got time for that?  I don't.  I doubt many people do.

I don't clean frequently, though.  I clean grudgingly when I have to.  I am darkly amused by the fact that this is good for my lung health.  :D

Hot Monkey Sex ... with Deer

In a fascinating turn of events, scientists have documented purposeful sexual activity between Japanese macaques and Sika deer.  The video is particularly hilarious.  I am intrigued for a number of reasons ...

1) Japanese macaques are known to throw super-intellects.  Imo's invention of the sand-free sweet potato and the floating rice trick have been documented.  Scientists gave the monkeys pieces of sweet potato to attract them; Imo thought of washing hers.  It made the process faster, so the scientists switched to rice.  Imo again put hers in water, skimmed off the floating rice, and had a quick snack.  

2) They have different traditions in different places.  This implies that brilliant monkeys occur repeatedly.  This is a big deal.  People tend to overlook how big a deal it is, but Homo ergaster  or African Homo erectus  had one inventor, ever.  They kept his or her brilliantly made hand-axe for about a million years ... and basically never changed it  or added any other tools based on the same principles.

3) Domestication is extremely rare outside of humans.  Social insects do it -- there are ants that farm fungi and others that herd aphids.  But what the Japanese macaques are doing is much more sophisticated.  They're selecting deer with a tolerance for monkey behavior.  Some of those deer are so phlegmatic they put up with being pulled, chewed on, and dry-humped.  Seriously, we have horses that won't put up with that much hassle.  The deer definitely get something out of the exchange: grooming and food scraps.  The monkeys are making very deliberate choices about which deer to approach.  Which means if this sticks, those tamer deer are going to get better health and better food, which boosts their reproduction, which will pass on those traits.  That means monkey sex is influencing deer sex.  You might not see the effects for a while, because this seems to be a new thing, but somewhere out there is a super-intellect who thought a deer would make a dandy fucktoy and paid for it.  Yes, the deer are effectively prostitutes.  They do make a choice -- some will walk away, others will tolerate the riding and humping for the perks.  Judging from the way one monkey was pulling on fur and antlers, it probably won't take long to figure out that you can steer  a mount that way.

Squirrel!

 A squirrel is on the hopper feeder.  :D  I haven't seen one since autumn.