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Frank Brown Cloud

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  • Why are some worms such lazy lovers, and why on Earth should we care?

    For an experienced partner, worms pull out all the stops. Okay. Gross, maybe, but okay. And yet, knowing this helps lead us to a feminist reappraisal of other animals’ behaviors … including humans.

    December 20, 2024

    Frank Brown Cloud

    Evolutionary biology
    Alberto Velando, animal behavior, animal behaviors, animal desire, animal studies, biology, care, caretaking, caretaking and sexuality, cooperative equilibrium, coral, earthworm, earthworm erotica, earthworm sex, evolution, evolutionary biology, evolutionary game theory, fish, game theory, game theory in evolutionary biology, Grove & Cowley, male care of babies, male care of offspring, Marah J Hardt, mating habits of worms, nature, parenting, paternal care, red worm, science, semicooperative equilibrium, Sex in the Sea, sex life of earthworms, sex life of worms, sperm competition, stickleback predator inspection, sticklebacks, sticklebacks stealing eggs, Velando Eiroa & Dominguez, Velando et al, weird science, worm, worm mating, worm sex
    Why are some worms such lazy lovers, and why on Earth should we care?
  • No matter how fervently we shout, judge, or legislate, children’s bodies will still have been affected by all the chemicals to which they were subjected.

    Children deserve care that helps their bodies match their brains … especially since our cavalier treatment of these children’s environment has probably helped cause the mismatch.

    December 13, 2024

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Medicine, Parenting
    Andrew Solomon, androgens, biological sex, chemical exposure, chromosomal sex, David Cole, David French, developmental biology, discrimination, endocrine disrupting chemicals, endocrine disruptors, exposure to endocrine disruptors, Far from the Tree, fetal exposure, gender, gender affirming care, gender affirming care ban, gender legislation, health, hormone replacement therapy, hormone therapy, hormones, HRT, intersex, Jim Sinclair, legislation, lifestyle, medical care for minors, parental rights, patient rights, Performance All The Way Down, poetry, puberty blockers, restricting medical care, Richard Prum, Ross Gay, sex determination, sexuality, SRY, Supreme Court, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, Tennessee, testosterone, Thank You, transgender, transphobic legislation, urgency of medical care, wellness
    No matter how fervently we shout, judge, or legislate, children’s bodies will still have been affected by all the chemicals to which they were subjected.
  • On reading Bruce Weigl’s “Song of Napalm” in jail.

    People recovering through PTSD often need our quiet understanding in the moments when their stories seem to fail them.

    November 21, 2024

    Frank Brown Cloud

    Psychology
    Bruce Weigl, discussing poetry in jail, incarceration, Life of Pi, mass incarceration, overcoming trauma, poem, poem analysis, poetry, poetry analysis, PTSD, Song of Napalm, surviving, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, Vietnam War, Yann Martell
    On reading Bruce Weigl’s “Song of Napalm” in jail.
  • Predicting that the U.S. dollar will fail is so much more convincing when you can cause its failure.

    Cryptocurrencies are inherently wasteful & subject to the whims of their developers. But if a person were in charge of both a cryptocurrency AND the U.S. government, that person could make the government worse by comparison.

    November 18, 2024

    Frank Brown Cloud

    Economics, Parenting, Politics
    2024 election, 45, 47, asset pricing, behavioral economics, Bitcoin, Bitcoins, blockchain, crypto, crypto exchange, cryptocurrency, currency, economics, finance, fungible goods, government stability, how anonymous are bitcoins?, monetary policy, parenting
    Predicting that the U.S. dollar will fail is so much more convincing when you can cause its failure.
  • When the gods grow hungry, we feed them the lives of our most gorgeous singers.

    Even a person who’s made art that we love might like to walk peacefully down the street.

    October 10, 2024

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Religion
    capacocha, celebrity, celebrity worship, Chappell Roan, drummer Lucy Ritter, fandom, Lucy Ritter, Michael Jackson, music, pop, sacrifice, Taylor Swift, worship
    When the gods grow hungry, we feed them the lives of our most gorgeous singers.
  • Yes, yes, many people are fond of James Joyce and his writing, but this bawdy BDSM erotica does better at engaging with the past.

    To be in conversation with the past, ideas have to flow both ways. With “Lost Boi,” a gritty, realist, genderqueer retelling of Peter Pan, Sassafras Lowrey pulls it off.

    October 9, 2024

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Book reviews, Mythology
    Barbara Hamby, BDSM, capon, consent, English, erotica, etymology, Ezra Pound, fantasy, genderqueer, Gillian Anderson, heroin, James Joyce, Joyce, Lost Boi, modern English, modernity, mythology, Peter Pan, poly, polyamory, puns, reviews, Sassafras Lowrey, scortatory, Shakespeare, Stephen Dedalus, T. S. Eliott, theatre, Ulysses, Want
    Yes, yes, many people are fond of James Joyce and his writing, but this bawdy BDSM erotica does better at engaging with the past.
  • By learning to fight, we can make a more peaceful world.

    By building confidence, we become better able to choose nonviolence, since we’ll be that much more likely to feel safe.

    September 26, 2024

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Mythology, Psychology
    Abdelfattah Kilito, aggression in animals, ahimsa, baboons, Babylonian mythology, Bible, biology, black belt test, black best essay, broadcast song, caretaking, Daddy Wake Up, death gods, Determined, divine aggression, dominance, dominance hierarchy, Dr. Strangelove, elephant seals, game theory, Gilgamesh, God, history, incarceration, jail poetry, John von Neumann, Joshua Rathkamp, Karate, kihap, Kilito, Korean mythology, linguistics, martial arts, mythology, nonviolence, observational biology, Origin Myth of the House God, peace, Popol Vuh, psychology, Ramayana, religion, Robert Sapolsky, Single Father, soft song, sparrow territory, sparrows, Taekwondo, tamarins, teaching in jail, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Tongue of Adam, Tower of Babel, Travis Combs, Vishnu, Whorf hypothesis, Xibalban, Yahweh, YHWH
    By learning to fight, we can make a more peaceful world.
  • Not even scale trees could save us from ourselves.

    Scale trees pulled huge quantities of carbon dioxide out of the air for millions of years … and not even they could control our planet’s climate.

    August 20, 2024

    Frank Brown Cloud

    Ecology
    24 thousand years of climate, 24 thousand years of climate change, 24000 years of climate, 500 million years of climate, 500 million years of climate change, ancient climate, atmosphere, atmospheric carbon, carbon, carbon dioxide, carbon offsets, carbon solutions, climate change, climate change solutions, climate modeling, coal, complexity, cyanobacteria, did scale trees cause climate change, extinction, fossil fuels, greenhouse gas, lepidodendron, lepidodendron extinction, lepidodendrons, Otherlands, oxygenation of our atmosphere, paleobiology, paleobotany, paleontology, petroleum, plastic dinosaur meme, scale tree, scale tree extinction, scale trees, source of fossil fuels, Thomas Halliday, timescales of climate change
    Not even scale trees could save us from ourselves.
  • After unprecedented horror, world governments offered only an arid, already-populated sliver of land to the survivors?

    Decisions made by leaders of the current Israeli government are causing suffering in Gaza, but a long history of atrocity precedes their choices.

    August 3, 2024

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Politics, Racial oppression
    anti-Jewish sentiment, antisemitism, atrocity, campus protest, founding of Israel, Gaza, genocide, human migration, Israel, Jewish nationalism, Jewish quota, Jewish quotas, Jewish state, Middle East, Palestine, Palestinians, protest, refugee, refugee crisis, resettlement, survivors of atrocity, survivors of genocide, World War 2, Zionism, Zionist
    After unprecedented horror, world governments offered only an arid, already-populated sliver of land to the survivors?
  • When your seven-year-old notices that some heroes are the pits.

    Even when a character is clearly intended to be heroic by the author, you won’t always agree.

    August 1, 2024

    Frank Brown Cloud

    All posts, Mythology, Parenting
    antihero, antiheroes, Batman, comic books, comics, dc, DC comics, Genesis, God, good versus evil, Manicheism, Matt Taibbi, moral ambiguity, moral complexity, parenting, Rama, Ramayana, Ravana, Satan, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Dark Knight Rises, the tree of knowledge
    When your seven-year-old notices that some heroes are the pits.
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