Reddit users investing in gorilla conservation https://t.co/kC8r653ePu
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 18, 2021
“Apes Together Strong” is a popular saying in Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum, and some users are taking that seriously.
Reddit users have been symbolically adopting apes and donating to foundations including The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and the World Wildlife Fund.
Some users are naming GameStop, or GME as they’re known on the New York Stock Exchange, as the adopter.
Donations have exceeded $350,000 (£250,000) in less than a week.
The foundation tweeted that the funds will go towards their field programmes where they track, monitor and study gorillas in their natural habitats…
The trend started when the user Pakistani_in_MURICA posted an adoption certificate in WallStreetBets on Friday.
The user had adopted a gorilla named Urungano and listed GameStop as its sponsor.
The post won a bevvy of awards and karma – Reddit’s way of liking content – and inspired a number of fellow users to adopt or donate.
“I have three adopted infant Gorillas now. Sorry but animals are my kryptonite,” one Redditor commented…
On the other hand, I’m not sure about giving fellow primates Zoom access…
Chimp’s zoo Zoom call: Chimpanzees at two Czech zoos go wild for video calls https://t.co/fGrFq2G2Tw pic.twitter.com/dtd4S3SIKR
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 18, 2021
Kayla Rudbek
Open thread: NASA is licensing out the Mars Rover tire technology for bicycle tires and my only two questions are: 1) how much will they cost and 2) can Mr. Rudbek get them in a configuration that will fit our tandem bicycle(s)?
Kayla Rudbek
@Kayla Rudbek: and I should have added that I see this as another piece of good news.
dmsilev
@Kayla Rudbek: When you’re ordering the tires, be sure to specify that you want the treads to spell out your initials in Morse code.
(That’s from Curiosity. Perseverance I believe has a different tread pattern)
Benw
@Kayla Rudbek: hope you find answers. Based on the linked article, the days of fixing flats on the side of the road are over once you get the SMART tires!
dmsilev
Those apes aren’t doing too badly with the whole Zoom etiquette thing. At least they’ve muted themselves and aren’t going nuts with weird backgrounds.
Omnes Omnibus
@dmsilev: WHERE ARE THEIR PANTS?!!!!?!
Ken
@dmsilev: Wait until they learn to apply filters.
schrodingers_cat
Has anyone used Glip here?
Starboard Tack
@Omnes Omnibus:
More important, where are MY PANTS!!
dmsilev
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s a question I carefully refuse to ask of my coworkers, so I’ll cut the apes some slack here.
schrodingers_cat
Also on a completely different topic I need to buy a new coffee grinder and am looking for recommendations. Thanks.
dmsilev
@schrodingers_cat: I bought a Capresso burr grinder a few years ago. Nothing fancy by grinder standards, which is fine because I’m not doing home-brew espresso, but it’s worked well so far.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: AFAIAC, pants can be one of those pre-pandemic things that fades into memory.
Underwire bras are never coming back. Fuck that shit.
Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
I use a KitchenAid BCG111OB. The first one only lasted 2 decades until SWMBO dropped it and broke the top.
the new model has cord storage in the base, so no tangles.
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: Right there with you. Never again.
Another Scott
@dmsilev: We also have a Capresso and it seems to work well. J is the coffee drinker – I just make it for her.
It does need active attention when using wet (e.g. flavored) whole beans, but that just means tapping it every few seconds to keep the grinding chamber full. I use the middle setting in the coarsest range (dunno how well it would work with flavored beans if one likes a really, really fine grind).
I grind up about 1/2 a pound at a time and keep it in a hinged-mouth mason jar (with the wire bail clip thingy). ~ 13 grams per 4 coffee cups.
Cheers,
Scott.
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: I also have a Capresso and it works well. My husband bought me a Haribo manual grinder with ceramic blades and I like that one as well, but it’s not one that I would want to use daily for making a lot of coffee.
Doc Sardonic
I am on my second Cuisinart burr grinder. First one lasted well over 10 years before it wore out. Also have a KitchenAide but that’s a blade grinder and it gets used for spices and occasionally the french press grind.
Jay
@Doc Sardonic:
I bought a second cheaper blade grinder for spices, as I don’t like cinnamon or aniseed flavoured coffee.
Doc Sardonic
@Jay: Not a worry with this one. It has three interchangeable grinding units and a motor base. Large unit for coffee and 2 smaller ones for spices, also stainless steel and washable(dunk in hot, soapy water, don’t hand wash. Damn blades are sharp).
cain
I hope it is the rainforests next! Lots of animals there – adopt every species ! Go Earth!
Omnes Omnibus
@Starboard Tack: Not my circus, not my monkey.
@dmsilev: That is entirely fair.
Suzanne
@MagdaInBlack: I put one on the other day when I left the house to run errands, and I was so uncomfortable. I can’t believe I used to do that all day, every day.
Eric S.
@Benw: i switched to Gatorskin tires years ago when bike commuting. I went from fixing a flat per month to one or year. They are very much with the upgraded costs. This will be the next evolution.
MagdaInBlack
@Suzanne: Imagine how women must have felt when they took off their corsets.
Ken
@MagdaInBlack: Didn’t corsets go out of fashion in the 1920s, after the influenza pandemic? There may be a pattern here.
cain
@Suzanne:
I honestly read it as AFLAC. quack quack
Uncle Omar
Something has come up recently which is way above my pay grade. I would appreciate any assistance the jackals can provide. It has come to my attention that there are people drifting through the interwebs who insist upon being referred to in the pronoun sense as “we/us” and “they/them” although not “you/you.” What is up with this? Is it an open admission of some sort of multiple personality disorder (or from their/their perspective a multiple personality order?) Have they/them decided to adopt the royal and papal “We” as their/their go to pronoun? Is there some deeper meaning I am missing? Or is this some new version of batshit crazy?
Suzanne
@MagdaInBlack: Ehhhh. Corsets.
Also, I put on a full face of makeup twice last week and promptly got a zit. That’s another thing that is going to be fleetingly rare.
Pete Downunder
@Uncle Omar: I think it is to avoid the gender specificity of he or she. English lacks a singular gender neutral pronoun thus the reliance on the plural “they”
Comrade Colette
@schrodingers_cat: We have a Baratza Virtuoso burr grinder and we love it. Grinds everything from sub-espresso to French press. We’ve had it at least 10 years
ETA: it doesn’t have the digital timer foofaraw on the current model, just a dial to turn it on. One less thing to break.
Uncle Omar
@Pete Downunder: Someone tried to invent one in the late 60’s or early 70’s…”hesh.” It never caught on. “It” is also a gender neutral pronoun. Why can’t they/them just use “It?” Are “they” afraid of appearing unsexed?
Jackie
@Suzanne: I stopped full makeup 30 some years ago. Mascara, blush and lipgloss is it. My complexion is very happy with me.
Comrade Colette
@Uncle Omar:
Not unsexed, dehumanized. The association of ‘it’ with animals and inanimate things is too strong, and that association has too often been deliberately used to demean.
Yutsano
@Uncle Omar: Because “they/them” is actually correct English. It’s not even a recent phenomenon. My question is why this is bothering you so much?
Jager
@Doc Sardonic: 20 years on my Cuisinart, grinds over 300 pots a year. Hell of a machine.
Anoniminous
@Yutsano:
They/Them is Third Person Plural.
Sex based pronouns goes back to Indo-European. The only “successful” – and then only/maybe, ask in about 100 years – introduction of a new non-sexed pronoun I know is the Swedish hen as an alternative to han (he) and hon (she.)
NotMax
@Suzanne
There’s an ad which sometimes runs on MSNBC in which a woman (duh!) says, “I’ll never wear a wired bra again.” Every time I hear that all I can think of is:
a) In the first place, why a bra which connects to the internet?
b) Bluetooth makes more sense, but still – why?
:)
gwangung
@Anoniminous:
Only in recent years. Singular “they” can be traced back several centuries (to the 14th Century, about a century after the plural “they”) and is a parallel to a singular “you.”
Anoniminous
@gwangung:
The last I looked it is 2021 not 1421. Yes Chaucer did us occasionally used “they” to refer to singular. He also used the minre, þi selven, and eowe pronouns.
I sympathize with the yen for genderless pronouns. Introducing massive confusion:
Jill, Bob, and Auntie went to the store.
They bought a pint of ice cream.
In the They/Them scheme to whom does “They” refer to?
isn’t the way to go
ETA for grammar
gwangung
@Anoniminous: Good enough for Shakespeare, good enough for me.
This disdain for a singular disdain is recent. That’s faddish.
They/them is PERFECTLY fine.
mrmoshpotato
@Anoniminous: They collectively bought one pint of ice cream. Such self-restraint. :)
Amir Khalid
@Anoniminous:
Well, singular they is back in style, and a lot of English users reckon it’s a vast improvement over the awkward “he or she”.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
Why are you asking more of those chimps than you do of most human Zoom users?
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: A lifetime of experience.
Amir Khalid
@Anoniminous:
When using a pronoun would cause uncertainty, as in that example, you use the person’s name.
Alison Rose
@Uncle Omar: Wow, congrats, this is the most transphobic thing I’ve read on this blog. “It” refers to objects, not people. People who exist outside the gender binary have been with us across centuries and around the world, and they deserve a fuckton more respect than you’re exhibiting here.
Omnes Omnibus
@Uncle Omar:
Why? Are you really asking? Because a group of our fellow human beings is asking us to do so and because they have been, let’s say, treated rather poorly by a large number of people for quite a while such that it would be kind of rude not to at least make the effort. If needs must, you can always focus your ire on the failure of otherwise sensible people to see the value of the Oxford comma.
The Lodger
@NotMax: Vaporwear or underware?
Alison Rose
@Anoniminous: In your stupid example, “she” would also be unclear, wouldn’t it?
And yes, it is in fact 2021, when most of us aren’t such whiny babies as to throw a temper tantrum over people wanting to be referred to in a way that makes them comfortable and accepted.
Dan B
@Uncle Omar: There are many people who do not fit neatly on the traditional male / female spectrum and expectations. They desire to make their position clear by requesting non-gendered pronouns. Many are genderqueer or not conforming to stereotypes. There are some who are quite assertive, verging on annoying.
I conform to their wishes. At the same time some sorting out will occur. It’s new and like many cultural transformations there will be twists and surprises.
In the meanwhile it doesn’t trouble me to allow people to find their own path if it hurts no one even if it is confusing.
LesGS
@Anoniminous: “Who is that person on that hill over there?”
“I don’t know, I can’t really see them.”
Common type of usage for gender neutral, singular “they/them”. It’s not new.
scav
@Anoniminous: So, you’re rather basing the first half of your rationalization on languages change (eg since Chaucer being fluid about usage) and then utterly rejecting the language changing again. Fossilize the language to reflect a theory of it rather then actively adapt it in order to better reflect the world we live in now. Nah.
Go Humpty Dumpty.
Mary G
Another pie in the filter.
Yutsano
@LesGS: To wit: “I can’t see who they are.”
It’s English. We’re fucking flexible as all hell. Plus you better believe I will respect my friend who has made that request.
Martin
@Yutsano: I don’t get to pick your name, I don’t see why I should get to pick your pronouns.
Personally I would go with Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla.
zeecube
@NotMax: Sounds like a question for an expert, like Uncle Omar.
Yutsano
@Martin:
As you were good sir.
Also: I miss the ye/you distinction.
HumboldtBlue
It’s stochastic
Sister Golden Bear
@schrodingers_cat: I’m on my second Capresso burr grinder (first gave out a month over after years of service).
I prefer the Infinity Conical grinder, which has a smaller bean container than other models, since I keep my beans in an air-tighter container until they’re used.
FWIW, the stainless steel version is studier and quieter, and worth the extra money.
Sister Golden Bear
@Anoniminous: We already use singular they/them all the time when the individual’s gender is unknown. E.g. “Someone left their phone behind. Do you think they’ll come back for it? Let’s look around and see if we can find them.”
Only difference is we’re now using it (once again) for individuals we do know, individuals whose gender doesn’t find into the gender binary.
@Uncle Omar: Honestly, I’m so incredibly sick of people kvetching about how haaard it is to change the pronouns they use for other people. I mean come on man, people have no trouble switching last names when someone they know gets married.
the pollyanna from hell
When I am describing life with my trans-daughter before her transition I use “yo” instead of “they/them” for my own clarity. No one has objected so far.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
“When you and your friends take the car on your trip, could you make sure you fill the tank when you get back?”
Singular/plural “they” has a lot in common with singular/plural “you”. I’ll admit that I had to do some personal re-training to get into the habit of using “they” in place of “he or she” (which I was trying to use to avoid defaulting to “he”), but hey, once I put in the effort, it starts to feel logical and reasonable.
Geminid
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I have no problem peoples choice of self-identifying pronouns either, and as you say, they are logical. But I sometimes think of joining Twitter, and to impersonate a hip millennial, I would designate my personal pronouns as, “Whatever.”
Gvg
@Uncle Omar: There are people who have always felt uncomfortable with the gender roles society expects everyone to fit in. They don’t fit in their own skins. Personally I am very comfortable feeling I am female but apparently I am lucky. These nonconforming people are rarer than simple homosexual and still more varied. They have experienced severe prejudice and sometimes violent oppression from us normies. Some of them have explained that regular pronouns don’t feel right to them and it is now a politeness issue to allow them to express what they or anyone prefer to be called by. Seems to be little enough when we have hurt them so much before, so some people go along, and intolerant people explode as usual.
They used to say homosexuals were around 10% of the population. I am guessing that these minorities may be 1%. That % is still a collection of not alike people. Each one you actually encounter may be the only one like that you ever meet. So you just have to figure out what that person needs and then remember.
I think the recognition that has allowed some to come out, comes from Universities and especially from psychological research. I work for a University, a large one, and have nothing to do with this, but I do know that over the decades I have worked here, the administration has put increasing importance on mental health because it has a huge impact on student success. This has meant worrying about rape counseling then stress management, then gay students coming out and so on. All of these things have increased the importance of counseling access for students and lately the inclusiveness has lead to allowing people to chose their own pronouns.
I really have not encountered a good description of what it’s like to feel like some of these pronoun choices. Sister Golden Bears descriptions of how she felt and why she changed genders plus a few other online explained enough about being trans for me to get by, but this other new area of pronouns I still don’t have a clue. I just like people to feel good, so I go along. I hope eventually to encounter some good explanations from the inside so to speak, but I haven’t yet.
It’s real, not an internet fad, but not well explained yet to the lay public. Wait and see, more to come I think.
evodevo
@Uncle Omar: You could just use “one” like the French do…”One does not like the steak…it’s too rare”
WaterGirl
@evodevo: @Uncle Omar:
Or we can show respect for human beings. If your name is Suzanne and you don’t want to be called Susan or Sue, people respect that, and if they don’t, they have shown themselves to be total assholes.
Beyond that, I find it appalling that someone would say “why do we have to call them by their preferred name?” when referring to a set of people who are clearly discriminated against.
That’s no better than wondering out loud why we can’t just refer to all black males as “thugs”.
Names are important. Call people what they want to be called. How is this not learned by everyone in kindergarten? If not then, then it shouldn’t take more than once to learn that as an adult.
J R in WV
@WaterGirl:
Well said. Love it. Thanks! So simple the way you describe it. Kindergarten, right? Right!