jane

[pier luigi pinna @pierpi13]

Oggi ho letto di un orangutan di Sumatra che, ferito al volto, ha fatto qualcosa che dovrebbe far riflettere profondamente la nostra specie. Gli scienziati che lo hanno studiato lo hanno chiamato Rakus.
Questo straordinario primate dopo aver riportato una grave ferita alla guancia destra, è stato osservato mentre selezionava una specifica liana medicinale della foresta tropicale, la Fibraurea tinctoria (“Akar Kuning”). Ma non si è limitato a mangiarla.
L’ha masticata lentamente fino a ricavarne una pasta, quindi ha applicato con precisione il succo direttamente sulla ferita aperta, ripetendo il gesto più volte per diversi minuti.
Successivamente ha coperto la lesione con il residuo vegetale, come una vera medicazione.
Nei giorni successivi la ferita si è chiusa senza infezioni.
Lo studio, pubblicato nel 2024 su Scientific Reports dal Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, rappresenta il primo caso documentato di un animale selvatico che tratta attivamente una ferita aperta utilizzando una pianta medicinale appropriata.
E forse la questione più importante non è soltanto biologica. Perché episodi come questo incrinano ancora una volta l’antica arroganza dell’uomo di sentirsi “padrone” assoluto del mondo naturale.
Troppo spesso abbiamo immaginato gli animali come esseri inferiori, guidati soltanto da automatismi ciechi, dimenticando che la Natura custodisce forme di intelligenza molto più profonde, antiche e sottili di quanto il nostro orgoglio sia disposto ad ammettere.
Infatti l’orangutan non sta “imitando l’uomo”. Sta semplicemente vivendo secondo una sapienza inscritta nella vita stessa.
Forse è proprio questo che oggi ci emoziona tanto: scoprire che la distanza tra noi e il resto del vivente non è così assoluta come abbiamo creduto.
Gli animali non cercano di dominare il pianeta. Lo abitano.
E forse la vera superiorità non consiste nel conquistare la Natura, ma nel riuscire a restare in armonia con essa senza distruggerla.

[Himanshu Tyagi, IFS @Himanshutyg_ifs]

Pigs are exceptionally clean. The misconception of them being dirty comes from a misinterpretation of their evolutionary adaptation.

Unlike humans, pigs have very few eccrine sweat glands over their bodies. So they can't sweat out internal heat as we do.

To make matters worse, domestically bred pigs have thicker layers of subcutaneous fat, which heats their core even more.

Wild pigs have evolved a way out --> wallowing in clean mud. The mud coating keeps them cool through evaporative cooling. It also protects their hairless skin from UV damage and parasite attack.

This urge to cool down in mud is hardwired in a pig's instinct.

The problem arises in industrial settings where proper wallowing facilities are not provided & pigs are crammed in closed pigsties.

To cool themselves down, they resort to covering themselves in their own waste.

If given clean wallowing facilities, pigs are conscious enough to keep their latrine and living areas completely separate.

The problem exists because we don't understand their biological and evolutionary needs.

[Megi @reaIsnowhite]

She’s so fucking classy

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Four pigs at Penn State learned to play a video game. They pushed a joystick around with their snouts to chase a dot on a screen, and got a treat when they hit a target. It was the kind of test usually given to monkeys and apes.

The pigs played it well. Hamlet and Omelet were Yorkshire pigs. Ebony and Ivory were a smaller breed used in research. The work began in the 1990s under a researcher named Stanley Curtis, and the paper came out in Frontiers in Psychology in 2021.

Cambridge ran a different test. They put eight pigs in a pen with a mirror for five hours. Then they hid a food bowl behind a wall and angled the mirror so the only way to spot the bowl was in the reflection. Seven of the eight pigs ran around the wall to grab the food in under 25 seconds. The eighth went behind the mirror to look.

Bristol and St Andrews tried something else. They paired pigs to search for hidden food. Only the smaller pig knew where it was, but a bigger pig would follow it around and grab the food. The smaller pig figured this out. When the bully was around, it raced to the food first. When alone, it took its time. Reading another animal's intent and adjusting your behavior is something apes and crows do. Most animals can't.

A Dutch team played music for pigs and paired it with either treats or a stressful situation. Then they brought in new pigs who had never heard the music before. The new pigs caught the mood off the trained ones, going tense and ears-back near the stressed pigs, playful and barking near the happy ones. Feelings transferred without words. That is how empathy starts.

Pigs are about as smart as a three-year-old human child. They often beat dogs on problem-solving, partly because dogs look to humans for help and pigs just keep trying on their own.

Then there's the pet trade. No breed of pig stays small. "Teacup pig" and "mini pig" are sales pitches. What's actually being sold is usually a young potbellied pig, often underfed by the breeder so it stops growing. A healthy adult ends up at 100 to 150 pounds. More than a decade ago, National Geographic estimated about a million of these pigs were living in homes in the US and Canada. Most of those homes gave up. The rescues are still full.

So yes, fully litter-trainable, clean, sharper than a dog on some tasks, and able to catch another pig's mood. Also a toddler with hooves who will hit 150 pounds and rearrange your furniture by sitting on it.

[Blake ™ @NeilNevins]

i know we're already way beyond the pale, but in any normal society, this should be pitchforks and torches type stuff

[You Know Who @MuskTillDawn]

Posting like this while defunding the forest and national park service is such bullshit, man

[Storm™ @dilophosaurid]

This should be making international headlines. Every alarm bell known to mankind should be ringing. This is dangerous and genuinely catastrophic

[FactPost @factpostnews]

Former ICE agent: I am duty bound to report the legally required training program at the ICE Academy as deficient, defective, and broken. On my first day training new cadets, I received secretive orders to teach them to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a judicial warrant. I watched ICE cut 240 hours of vital classes that teach our legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention, and the limits of officers' authority.

[Seth Abramson @SethAbramson]

This is a crime. If you read the Board of Peace charter, you understand it has nothing to do with the American government; it's a private entity Trump created for his own enrichment. This is an impeachable offense, and if this country were not broken he would be gone by tomorrow.

[This not the freedom Toussaint fought for @yourhighnessesq]

America has spent literally every second of this presidency letting us know immigrants and first generations are not American and can be removed at their whim and want to complain about people moving accordingly.

[Joshua Reed Eakle 🗽 @JoshEakle]

It’s important that you understand what happened last night.

Last night, Stephen Colbert interviewed Democratic Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, a candidate who, by all accounts, is on track in the polls to flip Texas blue.

In response, Trump’s FCC reportedly threatened CBS if the interview aired.

CBS caved and pulled the segment, citing “financial reasons.”

In modern American history, no president has been more hostile to free speech than Donald Trump.

But censorship always backfires.

Here’s the full segment Trump didn’t want you to see.

[Franklin Leonard @franklinleonard]

She gave more IN 2025 than Musk, Page, Ellison, and her ex-husband Bezos have IN THEIR LIFETIMES COMBINED!

[Ms. M @msmalarkey24.bsky @MsMalarkey24]

A 9 year old from Colombia came on a tourist visa to visit her mom in NY.

Detained for 113 days as of this letter.

“ice used me to catch my mom and now I am in a jail.”

“I felt that being here was my fault and I only wanted to be on vacation like a normal family.”

[Jesus Freakin Congress @TheJFreakinC]

🚨BREAKING: ICE agents are caught on camera threatening to violently assault a U.S. citizen for exercising their First Amendment rights, in Columbia Heights, Minnesota.

In the video, an agent is saying,

“I’m telling you right now, it’ll be the first time and last time that I tell you this… you continue to follow us, I’m going to fucking put hands on you, arrest you, and take you in.”

The person filming responds calmly, “You can’t.”

The agent screams back, “Test me. Please test me!”

Then another agent jumps in with, “You aren’t just standing around and watching. You are impeding. You understand that concept?”

Which makes one thing painfully clear… the agent does not understand that concept at all.

Filming law enforcement in public, following them at a lawful distance, and observing their actions is constitutionally protected activity.

It is not obstruction.
It is not impeding.
And it sure as hell is not grounds for arrest.

But, threatening violence and detention because someone is recording you is retaliation for protected speech.

That IS illegal.

And that is what ICE has become… agents openly admitting on camera that they will illegally use force because someone dared to watch them.

Because they are violating the constitution, and they know that.

And if this doesn’t terrify you, then stop pretending you care about free speech or the Constitution.

[Bambi Attack! @BambiAttack]

I think this is the cruelest thing the Trump administration has ever done. To kidnap innocent survivors of the genocide that have escaped the most traumatic nightmare of their lives and force them back into it. Its like putting Holocaust survivors back in the camps.

[Glenn Tunes @glenn_tunes]

THIS IS PAINFULLY TRUE 🎯💯

[Eric Nelson @literaryeric]

In 1933, Mussolini closed the national opera to “renovate” it. In 1934, Hitler closed the national opera house to “renovate” it. In 1935, Portuguese dictator Salazar closed the national opera house to “renovate” it. What a weird series of coincidences!

[Fuck You I Quit @fuckyouiquit]

We can either be a society that directly funds groundbreaking medical research for humanity or we can have billionaires. We can't have both. Having to gofundme cancer research while multinational corporations and wealthy individuals cost global governments $483 billion in lost revenue each year due to tax avoidance is a crime against humanity.

[ali @dxbestani]

We live in a world where this dude is begging for 30m to cure cancer while Charles Leclerc alone has a salary of 40m

[Jamarrius @YungxJayy]

Keith Porter’s murder wasn’t captured on camera, so it’s allowing ICE to sweep it under the rug, but we need to keep talking about him just as much as we talk about Renee Good and Alex Pretti. None of us are safe from this campaign of state violence.