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DnD/TTRPG Nerd. Local Ace Menace. Multi-fandom obsessed and thiccly blessed. She/her BLM Cuban. 20s

[C @TheBookwormGal]

God, Never thought I would have to do this.TLDR: My work is refusing to pay me for the time I was out on a work related injury, & I don't have enough money to cover bills. Paypal is https://t.co/FauJjdYXoi Goal at 0/2,000. Please donate several of my bills are due in a few days

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Orcas eat great white sharks. They hunt seals, dolphins, and baby whales. They have never killed a single human in the open ocean. Not once, in all of recorded history.

An orca's brain weighs up to 15 pounds. Yours weighs about 3. They have roughly double the brain cells we do in the regions that handle complex thought. A neuroscientist at Emory named Lori Marino put an orca brain in an MRI and found these animals can tell different species apart underwater. They do it by sending out clicks that bounce off everything around them and come back as a kind of 3D sound map (this is called echolocation). From 500 feet away, an orca knows you're a human and not a seal. It skips you on purpose.

The answer is culture. Orcas around the world are divided into at least 10 separate populations, each with its own food rules, its own language, and its own way of hunting. All of it learned from their mothers. One population eats only fish. Another eats only marine mammals like seals and sea lions. These two populations can live in the exact same water and never swap a single meal. A baby orca learns what food is from its mother, and that list stays the same for life.

In the Pacific Northwest, one population called the Southern Residents eats almost nothing but Chinook salmon. Scientists have documented them killing harbor porpoises 78 times over six decades, carrying the dead porpoises in their mouths, and never once eating them. Even when the group was starving. A 2023 study in Marine Mammal Science looked at all 78 cases and concluded it was play. These orcas would rather go hungry than eat something their culture says isn't food.

Researchers studying whale behavior in 2001 found that orca cultural traditions "appear to have no parallel outside humans." Each family group has its own dialect, its own version of the language. Calves spend about two years just learning how to make all the sounds their family uses. Mothers will slow down a hunt on purpose so their young can watch.

In 2005, a 12-year-old kid was swimming in Helm Bay, Alaska when an orca came at him full speed. At the very last second, the orca seemed to realize it was charging a human. It bent its entire body in half and turned back to open water. In captivity, it goes differently. SeaWorld's Tilikum killed three people during his life in a concrete tank. Research from 2016, published in the journal Animals, traced it to psychological collapse from being locked away from the family bonds orcas need to stay stable.

I think calling this a "mystery" undersells the science. Orcas decide what to eat based on culture, not instinct. No orca mother has ever taught her calf to hunt humans, so no orca hunts humans. Only about 75 of those salmon-eating Southern Residents are still alive. Their pregnancy failure rate is 69% because we've destroyed their salmon runs. They won't break their food culture to survive. Whether we care enough to protect theirs is the part that actually matters.

[Tau e Tshehadi @D_Molatoli]

I bought and read Alison Botha's book, and cried tears. One thing that stayed with me, was how, as she pushed her intestines in her stomach and tightened them with her jean jacket, fighting to survive, she managed to write the names of her attackers on the sand, because they kept mentioning each other's names during the attack. That is how the attackers were found and arrested.

She also drew a ❤️ on the sand, and wrote "I love you Mum", for her Mother to at least be left with a beautiful memory of her. 🥰

I subsequently invited her to our Women's Day celebrations event in 2009 when I was working for the South African Civil Aviation Authority. There was no dry eye in the room that day. 😥❤️

A great motivational speaker, a survivor, a symbol of strength of the human spirit. She allowed us to take a closer look at the wound on her neck, which was amazingly barely noticeable. Another miracle was that she was able to have a baby tears later, despite the trauma of stab wounds on her abdomen. I hope she's well and thriving where she is. 🙏🏽💖

[Qadi @Bigqadi]

Civil Rights Movement wasn’t random anger, it was disciplined, militant organizing. Trained activists used strategic nonviolence to dismantle Jim Crow. Never forget their skill and courage.

[sugamummy 🧚🏽‍♀️ @ceraliza]

I was at a bar alone yesterday when the bartender said, “Hey, check this message from my sister.” He showed me his phone and it read, “Under no circumstances should you get into a conversation with the guy sitting on your right.”

Men, if you’re ever in a position to do something like this,please do it.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

74% of abducted children who are killed die within the first 3 hours. 44% within the first hour.

I have a 4-year-old. When I found that FBI stat, I stopped what I was doing and started teaching him four things that afternoon.

1. Phone number. Memorized, not stored in a device. A kid who can recite a parent’s number to any adult with a phone becomes findable in seconds.

2. Code word. Any adult who says “your mom sent me” gets tested. If they don’t know the word, he runs. A 4-year-old can learn this in one conversation.

3. Stop, stay, yell. This one overrides the freeze response. FBI data shows 80% of initial contact between an abductor and a victim happens within a quarter mile of the child’s home. The quiet, compliant kid is what predators count on. A kid trained to scream on reflex changes the math. Every decibel is a witness.

4. Find a mom with kids. A small child can’t judge whether a stranger is safe. But a woman already watching her own children in public is the closest thing to a guaranteed safe adult. She’s the person most likely to act in seconds.

460,000 children are reported missing in the U.S. every year. One every 69 seconds. Recovery rate is above 97%. What separates the 97% from the 3% is almost always what happened in the first few minutes.

In nearly 60% of abduction homicide cases, more than two hours passed between when someone realized the child was missing and when police were called. The reporting delay alone eats most of the survival window. Every one of these five skills attacks that gap.

Four rules a 4-year-old can memorize. Each one turns hours of panic into seconds of correct action.

[Kelly @broadwaybabyto]

And Keith Porter.

And Ruben Ray Martinez.

And Geraldo Campos.

They tried to kill Marimar Martinez. Shot her five times but she miraculously survived.

We won’t ever forget.

We will keep demanding justice.

[Tiferet ⚙️ REARMS Android @TiferetEvocatus]

Holy smokes. It's rare to see spear combat in just about anything since swords get all the glory

[meredith @noyeahobviously]

“Testing positive for pregnancy” is an in interesting way to say “being raped and impregnated by ICE agents”

[Henry VIII @SussexHenryVIII]

A guy I went to college with came out and his parents immediately cut him off, told him to never come home. He struggled but made it through school...

Years later when they were kicked out of their church due to his father's long standing alcoholism (you can't make this shit up) they came back. Told him he could come home as long as he "forgot" about the last few years. They were shocked when he told them to kick sand.

[Kia 🧸ྀི @xevekiah]

my niece was assaulted by a coworker at a company offsite.

not a misunderstanding. not “mixed signals.” she told him no. more than once. he cornered her anyway. she left early, shaking, and reported it the very next morning.

HR thanked her for “coming forward.” said they would handle it discreetly.

a week later she was placed on “temporary leave during the investigation.” paid at first. then unpaid. they said it was to “protect team morale.”

he stayed. kept his badge. kept his projects. kept laughing in meetings.

people started whispering that she must have “misread the situation.” leadership said there was “insufficient evidence.” her word against his.

when she asked to return, they told her her role had already been filled because the team “needed stability.”

she lost her job. her income. her health insurance.

he got to keep his.

and they still posted about supporting survivors.

[✧ @cessonmute]

My mom’s older brother passed away a few years ago. He was the quiet type. Lived in the same modest house for decades. Wore old flannels. Fixed his own car. No one ever thought of him as “well off.”
After he died, we learned he had been buying small life insurance policies over the years. Not for himself. For his nieces and nephews.
In his will, he left each of us a payout that would only be released for one thing: education, starting a business, or a down payment on a first home.
No speeches. No “remember me” letter. Just paperwork and signatures.
Turns out he had also been anonymously paying for one cousin’s trade school tuition when their parents couldn’t afford it. None of us knew.
He never posted about helping anyone. Never brought it up at dinner.
He just quietly positioned the next generation a few steps ahead.
Sometimes love looks like preparation no one sees coming.

[💗 @ma1ybe]

Karen Mulder, the Dutch supermodel, bravely spoke out in 2001 against powerful men in fashion and elite circles who allegedly raped and exploited young models.
Her public accusations on a French talk show were an act of pure integrity, not gossip, aimed at exposing abuse and protecting others.
Instead of accountability, she was swiftly institutionalized in a Paris psychiatric clinic for months, heavily medicated, and effectively silenced.
Her career was destroyed overnight, her reputation smeared as “unstable,” and even one of the accused reportedly helped fund her treatment, turning punishment into control….How unjust that Karen Mulder's life was ruined-career destroyed, & she was reported for being mentally “unstable”-simply for whistleblowing on elite abuse networks later tied to Epstein. Meanwhile, many of the powerful men she accused, and others in the same web, still roam free.

[Sassington, M.C. @MissSassbox]

I don't know this person, but the 'farewell' made me stop scrolling. And then I got sad because I wasn't expecting it to be so human and deep in that moment. It felt important to pause and honor that and the artist's life. So I wanted to give others a chance to as well. This is also their desk and I thought it was really dope to see where they created. You can tell they truly loved creating and it showed. Hoping their art will live on for a long time and that they made it to their next destination.

Art is human. Art is life. We can never let it become anything other than this.

[bonky @shesbonky]

today my 11yo went ice skating with her siblings

a 17yo boy followed her around, telling her she belonged on epstein island. she has no idea what that is. she has baby teeth and got dolls for xmas

my 20yo son stepped in and got the boy kicked out of the rink

i am gutted

[ɴᴀᴅɪᴀ. @luvblessingz]

If you don't pick a day to rest, your body will pick it for you.

[Kelly @broadwaybabyto]

Years ago, I stumbled into an ER on New Year’s Day with a high heart rate, severe dizziness and chest pain.

Dr: “How much did you drink last night?”

Me: “I don’t drink”

Dr: “Tell the truth or we can’t help you”

Me: “I don’t drink, please help me”.

Dr: “Don’t lie”