Diplomoceras (the clippy) and Pseudocenoceras

my fiance had a tour at campus and the faculty member showing us around was like 'it would be disingenuous of me not to show this. this is the bigass ai building because an alumnus of the school is in this bigass computer company and paid out the nose to build this and put it toward ai research'

posting just so I don't forget the name of this fantastic animal again: the land snail genus Whittenia is doing the horrible (said with deep and pure love) Nipponites heteromorph thing with its shell. maybe the worst shell on a currently living thing I've ever seen (I love it)

Pervushovisaurus and Baculites friends

listening to my own voice is so disturbing. I sound like littlefoot

you wanna see a dead body

Heartbroken to learn of Bradon's passing. He just spoke in the symposium I co-organized and hosted last month, and to say I'm shocked to learn he is gone is an understatement. Bradon leaves behind a legacy of joyful insect education, please consider donating: www.lildudesinsectacademy.com/memorial

text posts suddenly taking off online is a little terrifying. I'm never completely sure if we're all laughing together about rugby or if I'm going into some kind of Bad Rugby Takes compilation

all the queer sports romance writers out there are sleeping on rugby, where people literally rip each others' pants off during normal gameplay

I don't want to link the bad website, but Capcom is holding a design contest for the latest Mega Man game (which is exactly what they used to do for the games in the 90's and SO NICE TO SEE AGAIN) and they posted this to drive home their rules against genAI. Thank you for your service Megaman.

Does anyone have an opinion on INPRNT's stickers being (it looks like) exclusively squares as opposed to some other services where the stickers can be any shape you want? It's kind of a pain for me to make my art transparent, but I appreciate the stickers that have nice shapes to them too.

this photo of a Turkish Crayfish on iNaturalist by Serge Sidorovsky is destroying me. please he needs to be warshed

I recording myself drawing the Shastasaurus and put it up on youtube. Let me know if you would like more of these, I'm happy to share my process! www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEFP...

I don't recall seeing this anemone before. The transparent top is neat. Also Hygrosoma?, corallamorphs on a rock, & sea star. @schmidtocean.bsky.social dive 882 #argentiniandeepseeps #MarineLife #CONICET

Platecarpus & Hoploscaphites

If I understand the situation correctly, why would you use genAI for placeholder or development art anyway? Just have the programmer draw it, literally everyone loves that stuff

The IGAs Nomination Committee is officially retracting Debut Game and Game of the Year, awarding both categories to new recipients. Additionally, we are retracting one of the Indie Vanguard recipients. Full details can be found in our FAQ under Game Eligibility: www.indiegameawards.gg/faq

I couldn't find any "no dogs on grass" signs at the store so I made my own

I've never actually withdrawn anything from patreon, dealing with money makes my skin crawl. I know it's entirely voluntary and I shouldn't feel bad about getting literal donations, I should be joyful. But I can't figure out why I feel so horrible about it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about

I only have enough time to work on art when I'm unemployed...I paused my patreon because I haven't posted in years and it kind of makes me uncomfortable to have. Thank you all so much for your support! I honestly don't know what I'm going to do in the future, it kind of depends on me getting a job.

And please also, AGAIN, never forget that they are inherently unethical to use because no one gave permission for their research or writing to be used in it. It is all stolen, and if you're using the plagiarism machine, please keep that in mind.

is that a really huge lamp or is Marco Rubio like 5'

watching videos about art world drama strangely makes me more interested in manually printing and shipping more of my own stuff instead of using print on demand, because wow. at least I don't *think* I would set up three different ongoing art kickstarters and then use the money to buy a restaurant

realistic ichthyosaurs

example of the great wild beasts which find shelter in my yard and which are disturbed by presence of dog smell

One of the jobs I've applied to is literally maintaining a public park. That would be an example to me of something generally more positive than working for a museum trying to break into the world of AI. At least a park is a real place that exists and I would be picking up real trash

I still think good things are possible

since I last watched Nezha conquers the Dragon King, there's a higher quality version available online. finally I can see this happy shrimp soldier in HD

no way

neighbor's unsupervised dog (medium size pitbull kind of thing?) looked at the standard chainlink fence, crouched for a moment, and then leapt over it entirely like a deer. I feel lied to in some vague way

is this website for real

wow, it's Shonisaurus, the giant Triassic ichthyosaur!

Ta-nehisi coates'"tell them who the cowards were" www.instagram.com/reel/DQYAOFu...

god bless america

The AI grift taking over the museum world is so beyond infuriating if you have any heart whatsoever. When it all falls down, please do not forget which organizations bought into the grift and which stayed out of it. They're going to lie, like they weren't being warned every single step of the way.

the important thing is this

the kind of thinking described here slime.global/@junebug/115... has completely taken over the investor class and that investor class is the pool from which they draw all big nonprofit board members

kisses

I still have absolutely no idea how Florida Museum of Natural History plans to use AI to improve literally anything about a physical museum with an exhibit hall that people walk around in. Maybe they want the AI to vaguely summarize the experience so they won't need an exhibit hall anymore. No clue.

I am very happy to see that PRI is getting closer to meeting its fundraising goal (91% of the way to 4 million as of right now), at least one unexpectedly good thing is still happening

Gotta alt-text this one (the quoted post here itself quotes a post with a news story on "Firefox to 'evolve into a new AI browser'"):

there's a cool looking job opening working on soil myriapods in Germany, but they only want full PhDs. someone go get that and blow the pauropods a kiss for me

please do not reply to my posts complaining about my previous jobs with anything like "I hope these people incur harm" because those people ARE stalking me and likely taking screenshots of your posts to make me look bad. just remember that it's FMNH and iDigBio. thanks.

just got an email from the Florida Museum of Natural History about how they're going all-in on AI and also the crusty old man who led the push to get me fired won a big famous award from a big famous science society. thanks a lot for rubbing it in one last time you hollow-hearted ghouls

whenever I complain about living in USA, I always get someone telling me to consider leaving the country. I'm not opposed to that at all, seriously, but that's not a very easy thing to do quickly if you're not already a dual citizen. I can't just "get a visa" and go.

A cubed flat top for this southern Alabama boy.

this is the part in the job search where I am supposed to start cold-contacting institutions and labs that I have some vague connection to in order to beg for work, but this country is so cold and politically hostile that it's hard to want to go anywhere

more realistic dinosaurs

Need no flick for Gaston He's a dick, that Gaston and the point of the story's the chick, not Gaston