That was my initial gripe with the other commenters. Nobody ever likes the one-size-fits-all software platforms. It's always got too much of what you dont want and not enough what you do. All these social platforms are free., why mix them when we can use the ones we want. Installing Lemmy and Bluesky apps is easy, but if you later decide you dont want Bluesky, you just uninstall. If all those people would come here, you'd have to get people to defederate or you have to pack up and leave for another instance. That seems a lot more hassle to me than just using a second app.

Lemmy is great as-is. Let's be proud of it. It gives me a day's worth of content as it stands now....probably more than I actually should use it already!

I'm always surprised the variety of things I see owls actually eat. If it's meat and fits down their mouth, there's not too much I haven't heard of being found in an owl's tummy at this point!

Yup, I just replied to another comment, what's so bad about having a place that's just regular people? I enjoy having my comments actually read here and getting to know some of you to some level. I'd lose interest in this place if it turned into new Twitter. I can't compete with Taylor or Beyonce or whoever the flavor of the week is. We can have both platforms if we so choose, so why wreck one for the sake of another?

Exactly. For all the things that typically get complained about: one product trying to do everything, people coming in to monetize things, feeling like your voice gets lost in oceans of comments, it seems like people forget that when it comes to the Fediverse.

The same guys that spent all that time being mad about potential federation with Threads are mad that this place isn't going to be Twitter 2.0? It doesn't make sense to me. If you want ads and celebs, go see them at their place. Keeping this just place us regular people doesn't need to be a negative. There's room for both.

I saw the mention of it protecting abortion rights, but I was confused about that because as far as I know, nowhere requires someone to be married for abortions or any type of healthcare.

The quotes and comments I saw made it sound like the stance was this doesnt happen enough we should risk losing any rights unnecessarily, but I feel there should have been some specifics mentions what those rights they're protecting actually were. The stats seem all over the place too, from as low as IIRC around 50 child marriages since 2019 to an estimated 1600.

This all seems like something people should have some real facts and figures on, but that I cant find them is really raising my eyebrows for a number of reasons.

I don't disagree that what you're saying shouldn't be controversial, but after the crying they've had about athletes taking a knee, a one-off promotional beer can, and whatever other snowflake stuff I've repressed memories of, it just sounds extremely risky.

Lethal response training as a whole definitely needs work, but it's something beyond the abilities of volunteer vets and animal handler. It feels like a psychological issue more than an educational one I obviously care about the animals, but shooting people is a greater priority, and reducing that should in turn help the doggos also.

We're here for fun. Celebs are on social media as part of their brand. It's them doing business, and they're going to use what the feel will reach the largest audience with the least effort on their part, and something with corporate backing likely has customer support for moderation, hacking, and whatever else. They're not here for a digital revolution, they're here to keep their name and income stream out there.

I imagine it's the same reasoning why a business will pay for Red Hat when they could run Linux for free. It may or may not be the best option, but they feel it offers tangible benefits.

Rescues have no guaranteed funding. I have not encountered one anywhere in the world that gets a single cent of public money. They also get free help rescuing animals on occasion from police. Even the hint of going after them politically I can guarantee would get them a Bud Light style boycott and nobody wants to be the private business or donor that supports the shelter that hates cops. They don't have time or resources to deal with that. Drama is the last thing a rescue needs.

I've been thinking about how Ukraine has been able to hold out against Russia for so long, but the US just surrendered to them without a fight. Never thought I'd see the day. But at least our pending top intelligence person already has contacts inside the Kremlin... SMH

Looks like even the smartest birds aren't too hard to trick with a little diversion. 😜

Whatever keeps them happy and healthy!

Speaking of doctor shout outs, I didn't think it was enough for a post, but I remember @[email protected] had expressed interest in the teams taking care of Oz, the rare Pennsylvania Long Eared Owl with a broken wing. He is still doing well!

Oz update. 🥰
Oz is recovering well. 🙂
He will be going back to Radnor Veterinary Hospital Friday for a recheck. Oz will likely be with us for a couple of months to assure the best possible release back into the wild.

They did an amazing job! That fence really swiss cheesed this unlucky hooter.

I didn't see an update on it yet, but I was curious about the duct tape. Thankfully that was answered in an adjacent post on another bird:

Bald Eagle 24-933 was admitted to our hospital over the weekend with open fractures of her right carpometacarpus, a bone near the distal end of the wing that is the avian version of the bones humans have in our hands. This injury was preventing her from flying and hunting, and she was very underweight and dehydrated when she arrived. Even in her debilitated state, though, 24-933 weighed more than our healthy Bald Eagle Ambassador Animal, Olivia, and now that 24-933 has begun eating again and putting on weight, we are all amazed by how enormous this bird is!

24-933 will be undergoing surgery this week now that she is stable enough for our veterinarian to attempt this tricky repair. In the meantime, the fracture is stabilized with a splint and a wing wrap, which you can see in this photo. The tabs of duct tape are only touching the bandages, not her feathers, and they give 24-933 something to pick at that will still keep the wrap fully intact! If you take a closer look at the tabs on the front edge of her wing, you can see some little bite marks on one of them...but the structure of the wrap itself is still untouched!

A wing wrap this large requires a lot of bandaging material, and we would love to receive donations of some of the supplies on our hospital wish list. We've moved some of the items that this Bald Eagle requires- Tegaderm rolls, vet wrap, Durapore silk tape, SAM splint material - to the top of our list to make them easy to find! You can find our hospital's Amazon wish list here.

I can't help but smile when they match their tree so perfectly! 🥰

My first thought was what's up with California?

I could find a bunch of articles talking about the usual stuff like conservatives and evangelicals arguing in favor of avoiding a ban, but Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are also frequent supporters of avoiding a ban on child marriage. The only reasoning I could find was "we don't have enough data," but I'm struggling to think of any positive things about allowing it. From the articles, it sounded like fringe religious beliefs and questionable things regarding immigration laws, but I am skeptical the pros of allowing child marriage for those outweigh a number of cons I could name.

I wasn't able to find any actual articles from PP or ACLU themselves about it, so does anyone have any insight? This seems a bit out of character for both orgs.

If it was this little fella' on the line, I just might hear it out... 🥰

Bob Ross taught us to turn these things into happy accidents. Sometimes what seems like a mistake can lead to something wonderful. ☺️

I went to look at your comment. I'll be polite and summarize it instead of sharing the exact quote.

I was 18 and had a 17 year old girlfriend and we had a ton of sex. That's what 17 year olds do.

If you don't understand how the power dynamics are different between 2 nobodies of similar age vs a 17 year old and a 38 year old federal representative and his local gov buddy, you may want to read some things written about consent written in the last decade.

When I was 17, someone almost 40 was considered old as hell.

Edit: Article on coercion vs consent

They had her out of state, where she likely didn't really know where she was, likely had no one to get help from if she felt she was in a bad situation, and was there with very much more adult authority figures, and there were drugs at the party, so she may have also been under the influence.

You also can't fault someone for taking time to want to testify. She probably felt at least partially responsible, and he is a national figure. It takes time to get up courage to open yourself up to the whole world getting a chance to say things like you must have wanted it or did something to deserve it.

It is unfortunate. I try and be mindful around new people to look visibly happy, or at least not in a bad mood. But I can't fault anyone for playing it safe. Especially since being harassed isn't something you can undo or something anyone should have to build a tolerance for. They may have also been in a previous incident that we don't know about.

If they're overreacting or not isn't really a strangers' business. We start to venture into egocentrism to think their behaviors have anything to do with us. It's just a live and let live thing. There's plenty of people over been nice to, and they still never liked me for one reason or another, but it's no biggie.

If it was a repeated thing, like they saw you every day and actively avoided you, that's a somewhat different story, but some person we only see once, it's not worth the mental energy to worry about it to me.

They do have principles, however oddly flexible they may be.

My family and the gf's are probably 90% conservative. They know I'm not, and to an extent they treat me differently. But I don't think they'd wish anything bad on me as they might a stranger.

You see this in the face eating leopard articles where they're always like "I never wanted them deported, they're one of the good ones.". Once they get to know someone, they see they're really not so different at the core and that they're good honest people like they see themselves.

I really think it's just some bad wiring in the empathy part of the brain. Most of these people still have a chance to learn better views on the issues. Some may truly be hateful misanthropes, but I feel that is a very small minority.

It's easy to hate conservatives right now, and I won't say anyone is wrong to be angry. The only non-violent way we preserve rights though is by getting people to understand strangers and develop that empathy.

Most of us probably know a number of hard to love people right now, but it's taken time to make them ignorant and hateful, so we can give up on them or we can put time into undoing what has been done to them. I can't tell anyone what is right for them, but it's something we all need to bear in mind.

I didn't get it at first, but once I looked it up, the cover art could not be more perfect!

The tour shirt with the talons is awesome as well.