Cool beans

Heyo! This is a blog full of random stuff, mostly languages and things that I find funny/ interesting/ important. Sadly there aren't that many bored llamas. So, um, follow me if you want! Side-langblr: learningnewthingsatleastitry

[t4tvampireisms]

Hot take maybe, but I don’t think white people from any western country/power have the right to lecture Americans of color on their standing as citizens of the imperial core. I don’t care if you’re not an American citizen, you as a white person from any given western nation have more privileges than the average person of color in ANY part of the world; you have no right to lecture people on their place on the food chain, when you yourself can’t even criticize your own.

[t4tvampireisms]

This isn’t to say that you can’t talk about how Americans of color still benefit from imperialism simply by being born in America whatsoever; I’m a Black/Mexican American communist. I just find it particularly ironic when white people from France or Australia think they have any room to try and take the high ground over us in these conversations. I don’t take half of you guys seriously, not sorry to say.

[hagiomoto]

That's because the barrier to being right-wing is basically nonexistent...you just have to hate minorities. Being a leftist has a much higher entry bar. Some people just take shortcuts: they haven't really gotten the whole "don't hate minorities" part of the ideology. Plus, a lot of leftist currents are also nationalist, xenophobic, and more reformist than revolutionary. And "leftism" can mean almost anything anyway, so the label "leftist" can mean almost anything too.

[systlin]

Getting down on my knees and thanking the humans who invented dishwashers and washing machines.

[marzipanandminutiae]

Josephine Cochrane (first commercially scalable dishwasher)

several people were involved in developing washing machines, and none can be as easily pointed to as Cochrane with the dishwasher, so here is a Wiki entry to read about that in its entirety

[systlin]

There should be statues of her in every major city. Bless you, Ms. Cochrane.

[ndnbutch]

I get in theory why people complain about het ships or whatever, I get wanting to watch queer media I really do, but I guess where y’all lose me is like. I saw some asshole on a post about Sinners complaining it was “hetslop”—this person was specifically doing so while also claiming Remmick was a queer character and thus they were justified in caring more about him than the Black protagonists. which is a whole other disgusting can of worms that has been well addressed by others at this point. but even in the absence of that part of the argument, like, no, i actually don’t think that a hunger for queer stories is an especially good excuse to deride and dismiss a piece of landmark Black filmmaking, especially as a non-Black person. I have a post that’s been going around encouraging folks to engage with more Native stories and characters, and I had someone come onto that post saying in the tags that they’d need these stories to be queer in order to care. and I just think that, you know, sucks! like obviously as a queer Native I also want to see more of those stories too. but idk how else to put it other than to say that Black people and people of color shouldn’t have to be like you in order for you to care about our narratives and experiences. and I think some of y’all are using this disdain for heterosexuality as a cover for your unexamined racial biases. it’s not okay to be racist to people just because those people happen to be straight, and you continue to be white before you are queer.

[not-your-average-url]

I miss when ads were a single click and then they’re gone. Now every ad has a minimum of three phases where you watch a video, exit the still frame of fake gameplay, and then exit the app download. That doesn’t even touch on the ones that forcibly take you to another app after opening a tab in safari without you ever touching the screen.

I hate advertising. I hate that you can’t do anything without companies jumping down your throat with mostly bullshit ads. I hate that billboards exist. I hate that every company unanimously decided to make their ads longer and longer. I hate that ad blockers try to charge you money and there are in app purchases to remove ads. I hate that my attention has become commodified. I hate that there’s nothing I can do about it.

[fleshmesh]

Break the stereotype* of tumblr sexyman always being a skinny guy in a suit. It’s time for hairy muscled short fat muscular men with big beards to shine. Vote senshi. tumblr sexyman is whoever tumblr says is the sexyman. bring in the new era

He’ll make you bread

*(people keep poiinting out that sans won who is not a skinny suit wearer. i am not saying he did not win. i'm saying it's the common stereotype of what a tumblr sexyman is. sans winning only further proves my point that senshi can win)

[wizardarchetypes]

getting my labs done today i was thinking about years ago when i went to the doctor and i was like 'i've been to another doctor already but he wouldn't listen to me. something's wrong. i've never been this tired in all my life. i know i'm in college and i know i have depression but this is different. please you have to try something.'

so the doctor (back then) ordered labs and it turned out my vitamin d level was like 5 or 7 and i've never seen a doctor so elated about lab results in my entire life. she said, 'it's never. vitamin d. but it is this time. we can fix this. you're going to feel better.'

she was literally like

[aubrey-plaza]

[ariminiria]

I CAN’T BREATHE

[creeket]

YALSo lOcKEd miAUt O De fECKIn cAr

[richardstabbert]

Idaho banned Pride flags. Boise’s mayor wrapped the flagpoles in rainbow instead.

Idaho Governor Brad Little signed HB 561 into law last week, prohibiting government buildings from flying non-official flags, with fines of $2,000 a day for non-compliance. Boise had been flying a Pride flag for over a decade.

Within a week, Boise Mayor Lauren McLean had the city’s flagpoles wrapped in Pride colours. The rainbow wrapping sits on the pole itself, not as a flag. The city is also displaying a large “Creating a city for everyone” sign on City Hall and rainbow lighting around the building at night.

The city’s response was precise: “The city of Boise remains in compliance with the law and is not flying any city official Pride flags on our properties.”

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Ted Hill, has openly stated his bill was specifically designed to target Boise for flying the Pride flag. The mayor’s response: comply with the letter of the law, and ignore its spirit entirely.

“To our LGBTQ family, friends and neighbours, you are an essential part of Boise,” McLean said. “You are welcome here. You are valued here. And no law can or will change that.”

[literallyaflame]

I live in Dallas, TX. It’s a sleek and corporate-looking city, way less yee-haw than you might imagine (that’s Fort Worth’s job, for all that they’re fake-ass city-slickers). We have a gayborhood, and our gayborhood used to have a rainbow crosswalk. You may have seen, recently, that Texas outlawed ‘political’ crosswalks such as these. Thank god, right? Texas is saved. Glad we’re focused on the real problems.

I went to “the club” for the first time recently—the gay kind, in the gayborhood, because I have no business going to “the club” anywhere else. Coincidentally, this was a few days before they painted the crosswalk over. I remember staring down, sad, thinking, “damn, they’ll be painting that over soon.” Sure enough, it was gone before the end of the weekend.

A week or so later, I happened to drive down that street while eking out my sad little delivery driver shift. I looked at the crosswalk. As much as someone got themselves arrested trying to fix it (based, btw), the rainbow was gone. Alas.

Then I looked up.

Every building on the street was decked out like a pride parade had fucking exploded. A lot of the people were decked out as well. It was even gayer than it had been before. I looked into the window of one of the bars and their TV was playing a series of graphics that basically said “they took our fucking crosswalk away, the bastards,” in a sea of what I can only imagine was every fucking rainbow flag they could find. I almost cried laughing.

So, yeah. We’re not going anywhere. Yee-haw, lmao

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

OP: Why couldn’t traditional Chinese Yinpiao银票/silver drafts be forged if they were merely slips of paper? (cr大明宝钞，渐越)

Traditional Chinese yinpiao/silver drafts were paper vouchers issued by private banks starting from the Song Dynasty(960–1279). People could exchange these slips for physical silver at bank branches across the country.

Silver drafts were made in multiple copies with matching serrated seal edges. One copy went to the customer and others stayed at the bank. All edges had to fit perfectly together to withdraw silver. The unique split edge marks were almost impossible to copy.

This mechanism is known as qifeng骑缝 (split-joint seal) in China. It first originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046–771 BC). The Rites of Zhou records that contracts were written on bamboo or wooden slips in duplicate. Notches and marks were carved in the middle before splitting the slips, with each party keeping one half. The two halves would be matched by their notches for verification.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods (770–221 BC), this idea evolved into hufu虎符/tiger tally tokens. A military tally was split into two pieces with identical inscriptions carved along the split edge. Troops could only be deployed if the patterns and characters on both halves perfectly aligned, serving as a metal version of the split-joint anti-counterfeiting system.

The technology matured in the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Government documents and private contracts commonly used split-joint seals stamped across the dividing line. The Chinese character "hetong合同" (contract) was written across the middle before the paper was torn apart, so the complete characters would only appear when the two halves were put together. This split-coupon system was later adopted for Song Dynasty (960–1279) jiaozi paper money and yinpiao/silver drafts of the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1912).

Official Song dynasty paper money (Jiaozi交子) was abolished in 1107. Private silver drafts issued by Qing-era piaohao票行 (ancient exchange banks) vanished completely in 1951, hit hard by modern banks and currency reforms. Nowadays silver drafts no longer circulate as currency. Their collectible value depends on their rarity and physical condition.

Split-joint seals (骑缝章qifengzhang)are still widely used on important paper documents in modern China, an anti-tampering technique passed down from ancient times. They are applied across the edge of multi-page contracts, bidding documents and official archives. If any page is removed or replaced, the broken seal pattern can prove the file has been altered.

[ariaste]

OMG I got so excited about this because they used a really similar (though far less refined) version of this for contracts in the European medieval period!

First they were called "chirographs", but later the word "indenture" (in its earliest meaning as just a legal document of any kind between two people) came to be used, originating from the practice of a contract being written twice on a single piece of parchment and then cut in half with serrated edges (as in dent, "teeth" -> indents -> indenture) in order for each party to take one half, so they could later piece them together and verify that there had been no forgery -- same as the Chinese silver drafts!

(Charter of the Clerecía de Ledesma, 1252, showing the serrated indents at the top -- presumably they are cutting rather than tearing because they're using parchment, which I expect is much harder to tear than wood-pulp paper like the Chinese were using)

Delights me when human beings find similar ways to solve the same problem at two different ends of the world. <3

[paranoidpaleandroid]

so we're doing propaganda eh

VOTE SENSHI! VOTE SENSHI!

Senshi is love senshi is life! Senshi cares for his friends and nature! Senshi is humble and nurturing! Senshi is a great comic relief without losing depth of character!

Senshi is very caring and passionate about his love of culinary, nutrition, even the hierarchy of the dungeon itself. Senshi's well endowed shape can survive many winters. Senshi helps and teaches others regardless of reward. He is strong and capable of eliminating this year's Sexyman Victim! Senshi is foreveer

We've come so far already! We can do this! Vote Senshi!

@mimosa-sexypeople-contests-2026

[bonivers]

“at least i have a man” is always the weakest flex bc 80% of the time their man sucks and no one else wants him anyway

[bonivers]

“at least i have a man” and i give you my condolences but what does that have to do with anything ever

[vincentbriggs]

I made a useful bag to put things in. It's heavy cotton twill with woven stripes in off white & navy, and I don't remember how many years ago I found it at the thrift store, but I know I wouldn't have bought it nowadays because I don't particularly like these colours. Nice to have used most of it up for a non-clothing item! I sewed it at work on the industrial, on a few days when I finished early. Some years ago I made a similarly very large bag, and I sometimes wish I had more than one, and now I do. It's just right for holding large amounts of fabric or clothing, especially if your friend has borrowed your one and only IKEA bag.

[cannibalchicken]

[s6sh6]

[ejacutastic]

[vyrkann]

[adulthoodisokay]

[eraserheadadult]

seeing weird responses to chuck tingle talking about his gender has reminded me how the concept of "my gender is being gay" or "i'm not a woman i'm a lesbian" etc. feels like basic kindergarten shit from my perspective but actually this kind of thing makes a lot of peoples heads explode

[eraserheadadult]

i think there's also a tendency to interpret gay men having any sort of complicated feelings about their gender as being automatically trans women (some of them are!! but yknow) or that they must present in a feminine way to be nonbinary. idk man i've met bears who take estrogen and masc jock they/thems there are more genders in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy

[what-even-is-thiss]

How can I get a full time job as the wandering stranger that comes into town and gets by on odd jobs and has their face partially obscured by a hood and/or cowboy hat

[what-even-is-thiss]

Apparently there’s still people who live as wanderers and do odd jobs for a living without an online job or anything and I’d like to know their secrets. Is there a cork board somewhere with freelance bounty hunting jobs on it somewhere that I just haven’t noticed?

[thehumantrampoline]

This is your reminder today that Irene Adler in the original Conan Doyle story is literally not a criminal. She never commits a crime.

[thehumantrampoline]

Nor is she a seductress in any kind of negative or manipulative sense - she has a mutual relationship with a powerful man who then breaks up with her, and afterwards she keeps protection against him in the form of evidence that the relationship existed. She HAS blackmail material, she even waves it at him threateningly because he treated her like shit, but she never even uses it.

Irene Adler is not a thief, femme fatale, or blackmailer. She's just a cool lady that wants to be left alone.

[thehumantrampoline]

@delphi-star You do recall correctly!! She does not give a shit about that man! She's happily married! She tipped him for being a witness at her wedding!

If your Sherlock Holmes adaptation has a character whose identifying qualities are that she is a seductive criminal in love with Holmes, you have created a character that is basically the literal opposite of Irene Adler and you should name her something else.

[tzikeh]

She's also -- and I cannot stress this enough -- from New Jersey. IMO this is the single most important detail missing from all the adaptations -- IRENE ADLER IS FROM NEW JERSEY.

Please just once in my life I would like to see this adapted faithfully it would be the funniest fucking thing ever.