Are You There World? It's Me, Margaret @calico-lilac - Tumblr Blog

“Damn! Damn! Damn! Every year he forgot. Well, no. He never forgot. He just put the memories away, like old silverware that you didn’t want to tarnish. And every year they came back, sharp and sparkling, and stabbed him in the heart. And today, of all days… He reached up, and his hand trembled as he grasped a bloom and gently broke the stem. He sniffed at it. He stood for a moment, staring at nothing. And then he carried the sprig of lilac carefully back up to his dressing room.” ― Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

mortalityplays

Americans will see someone express mild discomfort that they teach their children obliterating two civilian cities in the most horrific manner humanity has yet devised was a defensible wartime strategy and be like "to be fair,"

ninefoldrin

Fun fact! The Japanese were literally trying to surrender and were going through the Soviets (the US' allies throughout WW2) to negotiate but were only really holding out because they wanted assurances that America wouldn't execute the emperor (go figure, the leader didn't want to die because he said he gave up). America wasn't actually planning to execute him, but refused to accept anything less than unconditional surrender, and that was a condition. Regardless of conditions, Japan was going to be surrendering the moment the USSR invaded, which was planned to happen imminently. America knew this. America knew that once the USSR entered the war with Japan, they would have a seat at the negotiating table.

Anti-communist sentiments were already strong in US leadership. The US didn't want communists gaining any more ground on the world stage and nuking Japan was a way to kill two birds with one bomb: end the war before the USSR entered and show the USSR that the USA could wipe out any of their cities in the blink of an eye. People sometimes try to argue that the second bomb had to be dropped because Japan didn't surrender after the first, but Japanese leadership didn't even meet to discuss the first bomb until shortly before the second dropped. At that point, losing an entire city had little effect on leadership. They already had entire cities leveled with conventional weapons. They hadn't yet processed that Hiroshima was leveled by a single bomb. It didn't matter though. The fact that they delayed at all gave America an excuse to prove to the USSR that they could do it again. The US obliterated two cities in Japan ultimately as a shot across the bow for the USSR.

What popular history likes to gloss over is the chain of events that lead to Perl Harbor. The US initially supported Japan (along with selling resources to all sides in the European war), even as Japan committed war crimes across China and Korea. The US had good relations with Japan at that point and saw Japan's invasion of China as a way to get a foothold in a country that had a history of being restrictive of foreign trade. Japan didn't roll out the red carpet for America though; they realized that they had something that the USA wanted and planned to use that to their advantage in global politics and trade. In response, the US stopped selling steel to Japan for their war effort. US leaders/strategists were very aware that cutting Japan off from resources they'd been relying on for their war would invite retaliation, and thus Perl Harbor happened. The US only ever cared about gaining greater access to markets and labor and was willing to fight a war over it, but in such a way that Japan would make the first move.

The US might have ended up on the right side of WW2, but not for the right reasons. The war in Europe was already going in the allies' favor and the entrance of the US only really expedited the war, but it gave the US a seat at the table when deciding what happened after the war. It let the US build military bases in Europe and bring more US businesses into Europe. The US suffered the least from the war and was able to take advantage of the fact that they didn't need to rebuild entire cities like every European country did. it was politically and financially beneficial to the US to join the war late on the side that was already set up to win, especially with a little extra push.

And for the future, the US had a chance to show the world that they weren't afraid to wipe out entire cities with a single bomb. They didn't care about the children incinerated at school, or the handful of survivors who would die because of the radiation. There was no reason for the US to obliterate two cities in a single moment. The US could have chosen to end the war by then but refused to accept any conditions of surrender. The US only used those bombs to show the world how heartless they could be, and then spent decades feeding the public propaganda about how it was necessary so that no one would question why they would ever be willing to do something so horrific.

isuggestlandback

If you ever wondered why they call tattoos and piercings "unprofessional" and "unsophisticated"

Source: Lainey Molnar

thatsoup

Personally, I think it would be kinda cool to see it rain forever and never stop, but it would be an ecological disaster.

derinthescarletpescatarian

“If I had time travel I’d kill Hitler” “If I had time travel I’d stop my favourite politician getting assassinated” you’re all thinking way too small. If I had time travel I’d stop Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from dying on the moon due to Soviet sabotage, kicking off the Great Nuclear War and devastating half of the planet.

stavarosthearcane

Good Job.

derinthescarletpescatarian

#this post gets me every time

It’s from two days ago fam how many times could there have been

heroofthreefaces

do you think no one else has time travel

derinthescarletpescatarian

Happy one month anniversary to this post that has not allowed me a single day of fucking peace since I made it.

derinthescarletpescatarian

#surprise reblog!!

STOP IT’S BEEN MONTHS. MONTHS!

YOU CAN STOP.

roach-works

wow if only you had a time machine

transdaughterofthesun

Honestly having reached a billion notes I think it’s safe to say that in the Year of our lord 2041, this is the most popular tumblr post out there.

derinthescarletpescatarian

I’m killing your parents before you’re born

iforgotmyfandom

idiototheinternet

Still here, why’d you hesitate @derinthescarletpescatarian

derinthescarletpescatarian

Your mum’s ability to hold up under active gunfire was really hot. I’m your dad now.

lizyarikus

Isn’t that the plot of Terminator

anexperimentallife

Where do you think the plot for Terminator came from?

what-if-i-just-did

This is such a classic trainwreck post that has the vibes of a 2014 screenshot posted to Pinterest and then the last addition is just last Tuesday I can’t even

derinthescarletpescatarian

Imagine how I feel

mrsjdavis

POST, LIVE FOREVER!!!!!!

derinthescarletpescatarian

It doesn’t have to

smegorl

Yes it does.

bookwyrmbran

or at least until 2041!

one-time-i-dreamt

Starting 2039, March 9th is designated as a national holiday in Japan to celebrate Hatsune Miku

calico-lilac

Happy Future Hatsune Miku Day!

yuumei-art

In 2012 I painted the top image: Rise

In 2026 I am saddened to have to repaint this update: Fall

dailyclassicart

Childe Hassam - "Late Afternoon, New York, Winter" (1900)

retquits

so don't get too comfortable.

high resolution free to download [ here ]

dailyclassicart

Eyvind Earle - "Path in the Snow"

lasfloresrotasblogdepoesia

Unknown Artist, "Porte Veine", 1913.

free-my-mindd

nudityandnerdery

John Rogers, proving himself once again to be an entire vibe.

nudityandnerdery

John Rogers is the creator of two of my favorite things:

Leverage and Leverage: Redemption, show(s) about criminals who team up to punish billionaires and corporations who take advantage of regular people in ways that the law won't punish. It's a great heist show, it's hilarious, it's satisfying in a vengeance sort of way, it's deeply nerdy in sometimes subtle ways (criminals using aliases from Doctor Who, anyone?), and seeing the characters and relationships develop is really nice, too.

The following quote: "There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

gryphye

John Rogers is one third of my Rogers philosophy.

Mr Rogers: Be kind

Steve Rogers: Do the right thing

John Rogers: Billionaires steal more than all the street crime combined.

ben-shapiro-onlyfans

wikipedia is a gem

laineysbucketlist

If I’m correct, this is from the article “list of common misconceptions” which happens to be one of my favorite Wikipedia articles

xkcd-for-that

[ID in alt text]

xkcd-for-that

Happy first Tuesday in February!

parkchanwoohoo

“In 1404, King Taejong fell from his horse during a hunting expedition. Embarrassed, looking to his left and right, he commanded, “Do not let the historian find out about this.” To his disappointment, the historian accompanying the hunting party included these words in the annals, in addition to a description of the king’s fall.“

LMFAOOOOOO rip to that guy

shitacademicswrite

i thought maybe this was fake, but there’s even a citation!

Taejong Sillok Book 7. 5th year of King Taejong’s Reign (1404), February 8.

delphinidin4

Happy 618th anniversary of the day King Taejong fell from his horse!

aspiringwarriorlibrarian

Apparently the recorders were really intense about this. We have a record of King Taejong complaining about a recorder who followed him on a hunt in disguise and another who eavesdropped on him behind a screen. No one was allowed to see the records, even the king (one king did and killed five men based on what was written there, after which they took greater care to ensure it would never happen again), and changing the content or disclosing it was a capital punishment. Even when there were rival political factions trying to influence the writers, they wrote down what was a revision and what wasn’t and kept an original version with no revisions in it.

They also made sure to back up their data. They made four copies of it, then when three copies were lost in the Imrim Wars they decided to make five more copies just in case. One copy was destroyed in a rebellion, another was partially damaged in an invasion, and Japan stole one copy during their occupation and moved it to Tokyo University, where it was mostly destroyed in the Kanto Earthquake (47 books remained and were returned to South Korea in 2006). Now the whole thing is digitized, free on the internet, and translated into modern Korean for all to see.

It took centuries of meticulous recorders, justifiably paranoid copiers, absolutely determined historians, and painstaking infrastructure for this joke to be possible. Happy 618th anniversary to the day King Taejong fell from his horse.

anonymous-ivplay

Happy 619th anniversary to the day King Taejong fell from his horse!

bunjywunjy

happy 620th anniversary of the day a king fell off his horse everybody

flyingscanian

happy 621st anniversayr of the day a king fell of his horse

sqwick

Eartha Kitt's career is just so iconic because there's no way you don't know her even if you don't know you know her. You like Christmas music ok well she's Santa Baby. You like Disney animated movie ok well she's Yzma. You like Disney Channel original movie ok well she's Madame Zeroni. You like comic book ok well she is Cat Woman. She won.