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   Basic Witch 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🖖🏼 (farah@beige.party)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:10:43 JST Basic Witch 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🖖🏼

   WHAT DO YOU MEAN VIRUSES ARE NON-LIVING??

   • Embed this notice
     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) (greenskyoverme@ohai.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:10:41 JST GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)

     in reply to

     @farah They are kind of at the border between living and not living:

     - They don’t eat and poop, not even eating sunlight and pooping O2 like plants.

     - They cannot reproduce without being in a host cell.

     - But they can move.

     - I think they have something like primitive chemical senses that also single-cell organisms have but not sure.

     - What was the fifths sign of life again?

     Scientists/doctors don’t say a virus is dead, they say inactive.

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     glasspshr (glasspusher@beige.party)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:10:57 JST glasspshr

     in reply to

     • Kierkethumbs up convincingly
     • ptoothfish (but beige)

     @ptoothfish @Kierkegaanks @farah

     You call this “living”?

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     ptoothfish (but beige) (ptoothfish@beige.party)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:10:58 JST ptoothfish (but beige)

     in reply to

     • Kierkethumbs up convincingly

     @Kierkegaanks @farah i like that we’ve thought about it a lot and now we know less

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     Kierkethumbs up convincingly (kierkegaanks@beige.party)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:11:00 JST Kierkethumbs up convincingly

     in reply to

     @farah old stringent definition of life. Since then they’ve learned more and i don’t think it’s clear cut now

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     Basic Witch 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🖖🏼 (farah@beige.party)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:11:00 JST Basic Witch 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🖖🏼

     in reply to

     • glasspshr
     • Kierkethumbs up convincingly
     • ptoothfish (but beige)

     @glasspusher @ptoothfish @Kierkegaanks Did a virus write this?

   • Embed this notice
     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) (greenskyoverme@ohai.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:12:38 JST GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)

     in reply to

     @farah There are things that are less alive than viruses but still a little bit alive: prions. The ones that cause mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jacob

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     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) (greenskyoverme@ohai.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:31:22 JST GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)

     in reply to

     • UkeleleEric

     @UkeleleEric @farah Nobody really ever tried to put fungi in either, these are 3 of the 5 realms or whatever they are called in English … though those have also been reorganized, too, I read recently

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     UkeleleEric (ukeleleeric@mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:31:23 JST UkeleleEric

     in reply to

     • GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)

     @GreenSkyOverMe @farah yeah, the distinction between living/not living isn't as clearcut as we always thought. Even humans can be in an indeterminate state at times. (Some would say Trump is already there.) Like the distinction between animals and plants: it's difficult to firmly put fungi in either.

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     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) (greenskyoverme@ohai.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:42:34 JST GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)

     in reply to

     • Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱

     @rjblaskiewicz Arguably yes, but they also get replicated once in cells, like viruses. They don’t have RNA or DNA though.

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     Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱 (rjblaskiewicz@mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 06:42:35 JST Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱

     in reply to

     • GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)

     @GreenSkyOverMe @farah I thought prions were...a sort of really awful chemistry (or geometry).

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     QCCEクリス (qccechris@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 19:29:21 JST QCCEクリス

     in reply to

     • GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)
     • Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱

     @rjblaskiewicz @GreenSkyOverMe Prions create other prions by causing deformation of proteins (which is what a prion is). Deformation of proteins causes cells to die (functionally unable to do their job). That's how prion diseases kill.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
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     Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱 (rjblaskiewicz@mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 19:29:21 JST Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱

     in reply to

     • GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)
     • QCCEクリス

     @QCCEChris @GreenSkyOverMe It's like death by origami.

   • Embed this notice
     Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱 (rjblaskiewicz@mstdn.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Aug-2026 19:29:22 JST Bob Blaskiewicz 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇬🇱

     in reply to

     • GreenSkyOverMe (Monika)

     @GreenSkyOverMe Nasty little replicators destroying in a very biological way.