bonifartius 𒂼𒄄 @bonifartius@social.cleverlibre.org

No more Ye Old Fighting Cocks

reposting another fav, this one from last year - a bald-faced yellowjacket (D. maculata) who along with her sisters had been feasting on fermented late-season figs in the tree in my side yard. she had a little too much to make it home that night, so decided to sleep it off on my front porch windowsill. it's interesting to watch a wasp sleep! you can tell their depth and rate of breathing by the pulsing of their abdomen, as you can by the motion of a mammal's ribcage, and it's plain from that and their occasional stirring and settling that they go through a cycle of sleep stages rather similar to ours

do wasps dream? we don't yet know how to ask, but i see no reason to doubt that they do; while unlike ours in many ways, their brains are complex to a degree many might find surprising, and by what i've seen of their behavior social wasps in particular are considerably smarter and more thoughtful than most humans give them credit for. if dreams are an epiphenomenon of a brain at rest, why assume wasps *don't* dream? and likewise, if dreams serve some purpose as yet unclear such as memory consolidation - well, wasps remember, too, as i learned when some P. metricus foragers began to use me as a landmark when navigating to a fall webworm nest at which we spent much time together

i wonder what their dreams are like to them. are they like ours to us, or very different? quotidian, or esoteric, or both at times, or neither? perhaps i'll find out someday.

Dril book good stuff

>Did you know that 50 years ago, the average male had double the testosterone of today?
healthline.com/health/low-testosterone/testosterone-levels-by-age

>People with higher testosterone and physical fitness are more conservative and hold more right-wing beliefs:
dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2325414/Men-physically-strong-likely-right-wing-political-views.html

>New research indicates that more than half of all Danish boys develop breasts during puberty. This is a source of worry and embarrassment for many of them.
sciencenordic.com/one-two-boys-develops-breasts

>Sperm counts in the West plunge by 60% in 40 years as 'modern life' damages men's health
>Pesticides, hormone-disrupting chemicals, diet, stress, smoking and obesity have all been suggested as possible reasons behind the dramatic declines but experts say more research is urgently needed
independent.co.uk/news/science/sperm-count-west-men-health-drop-60-per-cent-years-modern-life-a7859491.html

>Study Finds Almost All Drinking Water Is Contaminated With Plastic
>Researchers find that 94 percent of U.S. drinking water is contaminated with microplastics.
popularmechanics.com/science/health/news/a28109/almost-all-drinking-water-is-contaminated-with-plastic/

>How Chemicals in Plastic Lower Testosterone
>A new study links certain toxins with low levels of the sex hormone
nextavenue.org/how-chemicals-plastic-lower-testosterone/

>So what are they poisoning us with?
academic.oup.com/humupd/article-abstract/23/6/646/4035689?redirectedFrom=fulltext
weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/most-men-in-the-us-and-europe-could-be-infertile-by-2060
>Sperm count in men from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand declined by 50-60% between 1973 and 2011
>Most men in the US and Europe could be infertile by 2060
>Surprisingly, the study, which analysed data on the sperm counts of 42,935 men, found no decline in sperm counts in men from Asia, Africa and South America

>Almost all plastic in the ocean comes from just 10 rivers
dw.com/en/almost-all-plastic-in-the-ocean-comes-from-just-10-rivers/a-41581484
>All located in China, India, or Africa

>Men's penises are half-an-inch SMALLER if they are exposed to high levels of chemicals in non-stick frying pans and fast food packaging while in the womb, study finds
archive.fo/qHM5y

>Study PROVES Chemicals In Shampoo and Toothpaste Are Altering Sex Hormones
archive.fo/bltpE

>Long-term exposure to low frequency EMF significantly decreased the diameter of the seminiferous tubules and increased number of seminiferous tubules per unit area of testes. In addition, low frequency EMF significantly reduced sperm motility and testosterone levels. However, it had no effect on the weight and size of testes, sperm concentration, and viability.
sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2305050015000044

>GMO Corn Now a Contraceptive that Attacks Sperm
archive.is/qKjkp

>Men's fertility irreversibly damaged by age of 18 thanks to Western junk food diet, study finds
telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/24/mens-fertility-irreversibly-damaged-age-18-thanks-western-junk/

Clean up the environment. This earth is dying and so are you.

[Song:Anthrazit, Die Gestorbene]

Jack Matlock, the last US Ambassador to the USSR: "Maybe I am wrong—tragically wrong—but I cannot dismiss the suspicion that we are witnessing an elaborate charade, grossly magnified by prominent elements of the American media, to serve a domestic political end. ... Actually, it seems most likely that President Putin’s goals are what he says they are—and as he has been saying since his speech in Munich in 2007." ...

https://usrussiaaccord.org/acura-viewpoint-jack-f-matlock-jr-todays-crisis-over-ukraine/

Support for different independent movement in Europe.

Map by france.maps on instagram

@furgar

@velartrill @bonifartius

@Moon @bonifartius also, you may have heard of the greek politician who was once accused of/framed for vandalizing the dicks of athens' sacred statues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcibiades

it was a huge deal at the time

@Moon @bonifartius fun historical fact, the ancient greeks (and i believe romans) saw a small penis as a masculine ideal, because they associated large cocks with a lack of sexual self-control (something that was synonymous with femininity at the time — women were generally believed to be psychologically unable to resist sexual advances by any random man, which is where much of the original humor in Lysistrata came from and probably has something to do with why classical civilizations had nothing like a modern concept of rape).

these codpieces are reminiscent of the sopiones that actors would sometimes wear in comic plays, in miniature. Lysistrata has a bit where the characters are like “see, this play is highbrow shit, we won’t just put a bunch of men with giant dicks on stage for a cheap laugh!” moments before doing exactly that

joke: buying cryptocurrency
woke: buying shiny metal
bespoke: buying durable, high-quality material capital