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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 44m

if there's one thing I've come away from the cultural appropriation discourse with, it's that it's difficult to draw clear boundaries about what is or isn't exploitative/inappropriate and a checklist is no substitute for thought.

whole thing needs a big "not for operation by fuckwits" sticker on it

Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 1h

when you think of a "saber-toothed cat/tiger" you probably imagine Smilodon, but the machairodontines also included scimitar-toothed cats like Homotherium.

and then there's the false saber-toothed cats (Nimravidae, relatives of true cats)

and the Sparassodonta (saber-toothed marsupial "cats")

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 1h

"if you can't be a role model be an example, and if you can't be an example at least be a cautionary tale"
-- John Sephiroth

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 1h

...but there are close relatives (congenerics!) that just grow into medium-sized trees for whatever reason!

recently showed some students that the vine and the tree have the same kind of flowers even though they grow into different shapes otherwise, had them flabbergasted.

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 12d

Ipomoea spp. are mostly twining climbers (Ipomoea is one of the most common climbers worldwide), but a few species are trees! This is I. murucoides of the seasonally dry forests of Mexico. Habit 📷: Alejandra Zayas CCBYNC4. #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Close-up photo of a leafy branch bearing a white morning-glory flower. Photo by Scott Zona CCBYNC2.

Photo of a medium-sized, roadside tree in front of a house. A few white flowers are visible on the tips of branches.

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 1h

favorite recent example I saw on blooski: sweet potatoes are the roots of a kind of morning glory vine...

🌴 Scott Zona, Ph.D. 🌴 @scottzona.bsky.social · 8d

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) originated in South America but was widely grown throughout Polynesia well before European contact. Many anthropologists cite the sweet potato as evidence that ancient Polynesians had contact with S. America. 📷: Scamperdale CCBYNC2 #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Photo of a leafy, creeping vine bearing heart-shaped leaves and a single morning-glory flower.

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 1h

large cats: Pantherinae (lions, tigers, jaguars, leopards, clouded leopards, snow leopards)

small cats: Felinae (all other living cats, including the physically large cheetahs and cougars)

saber-toothed cats: Machairodontinae (the only saber-toothed cats that are actually true cats)

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 1h

"if Walt were alive he'd hate the woke"
"no if Walt were alive he'd make Disney more woke"
Walt if he were alive and running Disney:

a man in a yellow , green , and blue jacket is screaming with his mouth open .

Alt: Harry Enfield in a garish windbreaker gesturing with a wad of cash at the red wall behind him as the words "lods of emone" appear

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃

Laprofmme @laprofmme.bsky.social · 7h

Courtesy of colleagues at Penn

A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 engraving in the Pennsylvania Gazette, published in Philadelphia, in an effort to foster cooperation among the various colonies against the tyrant king of Britain, with the American colonies replaced by the nine universities selected for special collaboration opportunities

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 3h

all the time, Faine

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 3h

I'd say sabich (an egg and eggplant sandwich common as breakfast and quick lunch) is something distinctly Israeli. Its roots are in Iraqi Jewish cuisine, but it emerged as a new dish in Tel Aviv in the 60s.

Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 3h

MUSTAAAAAAAAAAARD

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 3h

oops

bsky.app/profile/notc...

Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 3h

he's explaining how the joke is racist and points out that the people pushing it accuse Israel of being Behind It All

I really don't understand how people are having so much trouble getting it, holy cow.

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 3h

yeah a big chunk of it was written by an American teenager, essentially in English with a Scottish accent

Shock an aw: US teenager wrote huge slice of Scots Wikipedia

Nineteen-year-old says he is ‘devastated’ after being accused of cultural vandalism

www.theguardian.com

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 4h

you know the thing about Scots Wikipedia, yes?

that story just kinda hangs out in my brain.

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 4h

I gotta say it is WILD to see someone say "not beating the allegations" right after using an antisemitic slur popularized by David Literal Duke.
using Nazi rhetoric to slur someone *pointing out* Nazi rhetoric, interesting.

@dalassa.bsky.social this one's already on an "antisemites" list but...

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 6h

"you are echoing a lie about the people"
"I think that's small potatoes compared to"

mass murder is worse than spreading hateful lies but that does not give you a pass to spread hateful lies

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 6h

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraphr...

Paraphrase - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 6h

people sure are being normal in the replies, what a beautiful day on Al Gore's internet

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 6h

the meme he's criticizing is pushed by neo-Nazis to call Jews parasites with no culture of our own. he's pointing out the ugly subtext, not agreeing with it.

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 6h

"so what if I'm repeating Nazi propaganda--"

nothing after that phrase matters.

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 7h

oh no we're bringing back the chicken parm discourse

(this will do numbers if it makes it to "Shitpost the Beit Midrash")

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 8h

"I think all Middle Easterners are Arabs, and I think all Arabs are swarthy hook-nosed caricatures, just like I saw in Aladdin (1992)"
ah I see, your skull calipers are the anti-racist kind.

fun fact: for centuries, mainland Europe associated red hair with Jewishness and saw it as foreign.

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 8h

I don't understand how it's gently mocking Israelis...can you explain what the joke is?

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Gabriel S. Pumpkins 🎃 @gsjphd.bsky.social · 8h

man oh man you are not prepared for how pale a lot of Middle Easterners are. go tell musician/activist Stephen Said or the ghost of Steve Jobs or Dick Dale about it or something.

colorism is dumb. you're dumb.

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