My Favorite Thing About Getting A Post Massively Reblogged Is Seeing How Many People Have Negative Tagging

My favorite thing about getting a post massively reblogged is seeing how many people have negative tagging systems. I don't mean "negative" in the sense of "bad", I just mean that instead of tagging something as X, they tag it as not-Y.

Like you'll make a post about how spoons were invented in the 1720s in an ill-fated attempt to settle an argument between four of the five popes, and it gets reblogged and someone tags it "#not naruto".

And it's like, you're not wrong. That post has nothing to do with Naruto! But you can't help but feel proud your post got selected as one of the few non-naruto posts worthy of being included on their clearly heavily Naruto-themed blog.

Caption: YOUNG AMERICAN BITTERNS

Booklet Description: 1. YOUNG of the AMERICAN BITTERN The Bittern is a member of the Heron family. It hides among the marsh reeds and cattails, eating insects, frogs, fish, shellfish, and even mice. At the approach of danger, it “freezes” with its bill pointing straight up. Since its feathers are a perfect match for the marsh grass, one might look right at one of these birds and not see it! Thunder pumper, stake driver and prairie pump are all popular names for the Bittern bestowed upon it because of its booming call. This “ump-up, ump-up, ump-up” sound is familiar in the marshes of the United States. The young Bitterns in our picture will grow to 24 inches in length, and, like all herons will be dangerous when cornered–they strike lightning blows with their sharp bills at the eyes of their attacker.

Brand: View-Master Packet Title: Wild Birds of North America Reel Title: Wild Birds of North America Reel Subtitle: In Natural Habitat - I Reel Number: 895-A Reel Edition: N/A Image Number: 1 Date: 1955

if you manage to run across this line without falling into any of the adjacent states, they let you pee in the white house whenever you want

Oh this is a fantastic example of how the Great ‘Egret’ fools predators into believing it is a large bird rather than a particularly non-aquatic tubeworm! By investing resources into a plume-like spray around mid-tube, they appear almost identical to a Snowy Egret; the key to field differentiation is patience! While both tend to stand still for long periods of time, Snowy Egrets are capable of orienting their skull in a variety of placements relative to their body thanks to a flexible cervical column, whereas Great Egrets have a contiguous mineraloid tube which keeps their head in only one position.

So. You wanna see a normal bird?

Very impressed with this clever grackle snatching a minnow right out of the creek. Watching birds hunt always makes me feel like an early cretaceous naturalist observing a Utahraptor outsmart its prey.

Though not the purpose of this blog, certain experiences on this website have resulted in a substantial portion of my followerbase with a general interest in hominid body language and a particular focus on the contrasting meaning of smiles between the various hominini both inter- and intraspecific; this one’s for y’all

Because AI image generators create new images by collecting data from old ones, their understanding of what an image is supposed to look like will logically be shaped by those who most frequently upload images online. On a global scale, this means biases towards the wealthy, "western," online, urban/suburban, etc.

Medium

AI and the American Smile

How AI misrepresents culture through a facial expression.

"...seeing the relentless parade of toothy, ahistorical, quintessentially American, 'cheese' smiles plastered on the faces of every civilization in the world across time and space was immediately jarring. It was as if the AI had cast 21st century Americans to put on different costumes and play the various cultures of the world. Which, of course, it had...

In the same way that English language emotion concepts have colonized psychology, AI dominated by American-influenced image sources is producing a new visual monoculture of facial expressions. As we increasingly seek our own likenesses in AI reflections, what does it mean for the distinct cultural histories and meanings of facial expressions to become mischaracterized, homogenized, subsumed under the dominant dataset? In the AI-generated visual future, will we know that Native Americans didn’t smile for photos like WW2 U.S. Navy Officers?"