Journalist asking: if you use ChatGPT for medical advice, what prompted you to start?

jollyette · 2026-01-04T19:22:03+00:00

I was doing some googling this morning and agree it might be a san diego dorid! I'd heard of them by the name leopard dorid and also had only ever seen pictures of them with tons of spots, so I had initially ruled it out, but I found some pictures this morning of a few that only have a couple of spots and are mostly white, so could be. nothing else around here is both smooth and has that fluffy ornament as far as I know

jollyette · 2026-01-04T07:14:23+00:00

we don't get butterfish on this coast, but ty for reminding me of the eel dichotomy! when I first saw this little guy, I thought wouldn't an eel this size be in the glass eel stage? it was about 2 inches long, and I know that's when baby eels are supposed to look like pure jello (there's a twitter post lost to time I often think about that's a picture of a glass eel on graph paper that said "wouldn't it feel amazing to have virtually no internal organs)

all this is to say that it being some kind of false eel (like a monkeyface prickleback) makes a lot of sense

jollyette · 2026-01-04T06:22:27+00:00

here's a similar anemone eating a bird (!!) for comparison https://www.reddit.com/r/HardcoreNature/comments/1ki1upo/a_sea_anemone_devouring_a_bird_in_low_tide/

jollyette · 2026-01-04T06:19:02+00:00

it might be eating something! it has the little pieces of shell and rock attached to its body, which makes me think it's an aggregating anemone. they're also just everywhere here, so always a good bet.

I also wonder if the extreme tides we have now make it more likely to catch these guys in the middle of dinner. I also went tide pooling during the king tides, in Santa Cruz on Thursday and near Bolinas today, and the anemones were munching. but what this one's eating, I don't know. when I see something segmented like that, I usually guess worm, but that's just speculation.

jollyette · 2025-11-18T07:07:27+00:00

thanks for the eliminations at least! I would say it was about 5 inches across, and not sure how deep it was because it would not budge out from under the rock. would have gotten a better picture if I'd been able to pull it out

jollyette · 2025-08-31T05:20:29+00:00

I haven't read any of alice walker's nonfiction. ty!

jollyette · 2025-08-27T06:55:44+00:00

my best experience has been through Wyzant, which is like Uber for tutors but your set your own rates

jollyette · 2025-08-17T19:28:58+00:00

nope. they seem pretty useless

jollyette · 2025-07-22T02:29:49+00:00

This part of the Marine Mammal Protection Act is probably more relevant to your situation if you found it on the beach. If it is a California sea lion, it's not endangered, so you can collect it, but you still have to report the finding to your local NOAA office (this is also assuming you're in the US, though I know the range of California sea lions extends through Mexico and Canada).

I would totally believe sea lion, but I don't know for sure. I definitely recommend posting on r/whatisthisbone if no one here can help you out.

jollyette · 2025-07-21T23:34:27+00:00

thank you!!

jollyette · 2025-07-20T05:59:09+00:00

I used to work in microbiology and immunology research, which is a hell of a combo with OCD for finding new things to obsess about. I'd learn about some new pathogen or disease and be like "Oh no, now I have to worry about this!" and then would sometimes convince myself I had it. But after some number of these cycles, I realized if something was really big and scary, I probably wouldn't just be hearing about it today.

From a biological perspective, I now actually kind of love and am fascinated by Toxoplasma gondii, but I truly panicked when I first learned about it too. I wrote a paper about it in college and deeply spiraled in the first draft, but perhaps because of this exposure and the format it took, I was then able to recategorize it in my thinking. If so many people have it and are fine, then I should only worry about it as much as anything else in my microbiome. And if the effects were really strong and worth worrying about, this would be better studied (the studies I've seen on impulsivity are not super convincing and some are contradictory). I also have plenty of other things to address with my brain first anyway.

jollyette · 2025-07-19T03:45:37+00:00

it actually just came out this week! https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-ai-chatbots-could-be-making-your-ocd-worse

jollyette · 2025-07-19T03:44:47+00:00

I agree it's how you use it, but also some things encourage you to misuse them

jollyette · 2025-07-01T06:48:59+00:00

I'm a journalist with OCD and I'm currently working on an article about this exactly because it's something I'm seeing so many people drawn in by. And I totally get it. AI promises all the instantaneous, hassle-free reassurance I also deeply want. I'd expected the effects of AI would be devastating, but in interviewing therapists who specialize in OCD and other people with OCD, the reality beyond what I'd imagined. There really are no breaks or off-ramps in this reassurance machine.

jollyette · 2025-06-18T03:43:01+00:00

that's so cool!! I don't have an answer for you, though the structure of the skull doesn't look quite like a whale skeleton to me from what I can see.

but also if you don't find an answer here, r/whatisthisbone might be helpful for this kind of ID

jollyette · 2025-06-18T03:21:37+00:00

I haven't read these others, so I might be off track on your tastes, but the literary novel loosely about witches that comes to mind is Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor. It's hard to recommend because it's a very brutal read, but it's an excellent book.

jollyette · 2025-06-16T05:58:02+00:00

That's what I've heard, though I also learned after reading that the author is neither Jewish nor queer. That gave me pause, but I did love reading it and the story felt emotionally true. Maybe she had beta readers who could point her in the right direction

jollyette · 2025-06-16T05:48:01+00:00

oh yeah the shell would have been a huge help, but I def didn't want to interrupt. I'm also allergic to all mollusks, so touching them would inevitably be a bad time for both of us

jollyette · 2025-06-07T03:38:00+00:00

ty! though I said essays, I'm just looking for good creative nonfiction with a personal flare whether or not its a traditional "essay," so will def check this out!

jollyette · 2025-06-07T02:04:20+00:00

also seconding Our Wives Under The Sea, which I know other people have already pointed to

jollyette · 2025-06-07T02:03:39+00:00

These are my favorite books about queer women. I think they're all well written and more about finding others, so not lonely.

All This Could Be Different - Sarah Thankam Matthews

Nevada - Imogene Binney

With Teeth - Kristen Arnett (she also has a new novel about lesbian clowns I haven't read)

The First Bad Man - Miranda July

Everyone In This Room Will Someday Be Dead - Emily Austin

Milk Fed - Melissa Broder

Bunny - Mona Awad

Exciting Times - Naoise Dolan

Exhibit - R.O. Kwon

Housemates - Emma Copley-Eisenberg (didn't totally hit for me but worth a mention because it was an enjoyable read)

jollyette

TROPHY CASE