confused toad

trying to make sense of the world. it's not going great.

[confusedtoadsworld]

Sifu Yik Chan (@sifuyik)

52 websites worth more than most college degrees: 1. Coursera. org – University courses completely free to audit 2. Brilliant. org – Inter

I haven’t vetted this list, (chatgpt is on there ffs) but there are many on here I’m excited to explore.

52 websites worth more than most college degrees:

1. Coursera. org – University courses completely free to audit

2. Brilliant. org – Interactive math and science learning

3. Wolfram Alpha – Answers any mathematical or factual question

4. GitHub. com – Learn coding from real world projects

5. Investopedia. com – Finance and investing explained simply

6. Archive. org – Access millions of free books and old websites

7. Project Gutenberg – 70000 free classic books

8. Duolingo. com – Learn any language for free

9. Notion. so – Organise your entire life and learning

10. Our World in Data – Every global statistic visualised

11. Statista. com – Data and statistics on everything

12. OpenLibrary. org – Borrow millions of books online free

13. Sifuyikchan. com – AI tips and news for free

14. NASA. gov – Space science and research for free

15. PubMed. gov – Access real scientific research papers

16. Edx. org – Free courses from Harvard MIT and more

17. TED. com – Best ideas from the world's best thinkers

18. Anki – The most powerful memory tool ever built

19. Canva. com – Design anything without being a designer

20. Skillshare. com – Creative and practical skill learning

21. Readwise. io – Remember everything you ever read

22. Google Scholar – Search real academic papers

23. Codecademy. com – Learn to code completely free

24. ChatGPT – AI tutor available 24 hours a day

25. Figma. com – Learn professional design for free

26. Replit. com – Code anything from your browser

27. Huberman Lab Podcast – Science based health education

28. Mindmeister. com – Mind mapping for better thinking

29. NerdWallet. com – Personal finance made simple

30. Quizlet. com – Study smarter with flashcards

31. Gapminder. org – See the real state of the world

32. PhET Simulations – Interactive science experiments online

33. Numbeo. com – Cost of living data for every city on earth

34. 23andMe. com – Understand your own genetics

35. Zapier. com – Automate your work without coding

36. Lesswrong. com – Deep rational thinking and decision making

37. Documentaryheaven. com – Thousands of free documentaries

38. Trading Economics – Economic data for every country

39. Perplexity. ai – AI powered research tool

40. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – Every philosophical idea explained

41. Librivox. org – Free audiobooks of classic literature

42. Zooniverse. org – Participate in real scientific research

43. Futurelearn. com – Free short courses from top universities

44. Typing. com – Learn to type properly and fast

45. Drawabox. com – Learn to draw from absolute scratch

46. Grammarly. com – Write better in every situation

47. Khanacademy. org – Free world class education for everyone

48. Desmos. com – The most powerful free graphing calculator

49. Stellarium. org – Explore the night sky from your screen

50. Psychologytoday. com – Mental health and psychology explained

51. Worldometers. info – Real time global statistics on everything

52. Notion. so/ templates – Free templates to organise your entire life

[twilightofthesandwiches]

…Okay, so a thematic argument that one could make in favor of the GO3 Ending is that sure, Crowley and Aziraphale have already been very Human, but the kind of Human life they’ve been living is the one only two Humans before them even had the chance to live.

Their lives have been kind of a Modern Eden, full of basically limitless Earthly Pleasures and free of most of the actual inconveniences of Human existence - most importantly, death. While also being still trapped under the thumb of Divine Authority. Asa and Anthony are what happens when they bite the apple and get cast out of Eden; an actual human life without endless affluence and immortality, but with actual freedom and actual Free Will.

And, like, that might’ve been the intent, and that might’ve been real poignant if it was actually, y’know, well written, but I think there’s also a bunch of counter-arguments you can make against it. Like, just because that idea makes sense thematically, still doesn’t mean it makes sense narratively. And there’s plenty of thematic ways to challenge it as well.... But the specific thematic complaint I keep getting stuck on when it comes to this reading comes down to a pretty simple question. If Asa and Anthony are what happens when Aziraphale and Crowley bite out of the apple, why didn’t they ever get a chance to even just savor the first bite?

Like, y’know, the metaphor of the Forbidden Fruit is generally about authority trying to restrict you from some tempting pleasure, the original book basically ended with a passage about how ‘There never was an apple, in Adam's opinion, that wasn't worth the trouble you got into for eating it’. It’s about the joy of rebelling against authority, that the forbidden pleasures are worth the punishments you might get for your disobedience. But Crowley and Aziraphale get ‘cast down from Eden’ by refusing their pleasures, denying themselves the things they want for the Greater Good, and just kinda going quietly and miserably into that good night.

There’s hardly any sense that they’re really rebelling against God, or that they’re really doing anything She didn’t want them to do. (I mean, sure, the implication in ‘Good Omens’ has always been that God secretly wanted Adam and Eve to bite that apple, but the fact they did so against God’s explicit orders is a vital piece of that narrative! It’s a huge contrast to GO3 God giving Crowley and Aziraphale an open-ended question to suggest anything they want about the world without any implication that there is a ‘wrong’ answer). If they really are supposed to be sticking it to God, why not give them a moment to relish that rebellion? To at least enjoy the fact that She’s not going to be part of that new Universe either? Why is there no joy or pleasure in biting that apple? If they’re going to go, why can’t they at least go with style?

If this was a story where Crowley and Aziraphale chose each other, were both the other’s Forbidden Fruit, and then were turned Human as a 'punishment', or if they chose to remake the world without Heaven and Hell while turning all the Angels and Demons into Humans because it was the only way they could live freely together there would at least be some thread of thematic parallel. Instead the whole metaphor is meddled by Crowley and Aziraphale resolving to deny themselves pleasure, and then also the ‘forbidden fruit’ of being together not seeming so forbidden with God shipping it heartedly. Are Asa and Anthony being together a symbol of them having Free Will and independence from God, or a subtle hint that She’s still pulling strings?

It also all feels very discordant with the fact the ‘apple’ is supposed to be the Fruit of Knowledge. After all, this interpretation would kinda depend on Crowley and Aziraphale being Anthony and Asa on some level, and yet so much of their resolution leaves them in ignorance. Crowley and Aziraphale die totally unaware of the possibility of reincarnation or Cosmic Echos or whatever, Anthony and Asa live totally unaware of their past lives, of the ways they have hurt each other and never truly resolved, of all the things they lost and gained by becoming Human, of the metaphysical realities of this world. If this is life after biting the apple, why is it that Crowley and Aziraphale are much more aware and informed, while Anthony and Asa seem to make a case for blissful ignorance?

(And then also, in all of this thematic mess, there’s the fact that in this through-line supposedly about the value of Free Will and rebelling against God/authority no matter what the consequences might be and how it’s worth sacrificing for freedom… the result of Anthony and Asa living a life in a seemingly supportive and more ‘free’ environment also means that they seem be considerably less Rebellious than the Rock Star Demon and the Angel who lied to God’s face... They're the versions with Real Free Will but it seems to be mostly expressed by how much happier they are being 'Free' from having to make the kind of hard Choices Crowley and Aziraphale had to make...)

It all feels like yet another point where any sort of thematic resonance GO3 is trying to go for is seriously hampered by its dedication to make the Sacrifice feel like Maximum Tragedy OMG so sad and beautiful and selfless. Biting the Forbidden Fruit has almost always had that element of Pleasure to it, the last time Good Omens had explicitly talked about ‘biting the apple’ it was about it was worth it despite the consequences. But GO3 also wants Aziracrow to ‘turn human’ while they are at their most miserable and absolutely sure they are selflessly giving their life away.

Its also emblematic of the way the GO3 Ending seem to mush together all of these Biblical parallels without managing to actually cohere them into any sort of meaningful through-line, and in fact, often having them clash against each other. Crowley is the new Eve, leaving his own eternal Garden of Eden in the name of Free Will… but he is also the New Job, so he had to be utterly miserable and lose everything before he gets to that point, so actually neither he nor Aziraphale have been actually living that Modern-Day Eden Lifestyle of endless Earthly Pleasures for quite a while before they were supposedly ‘cast away from it’.

But then also he’s the New Jesus so instead of either being rewarded like Job or being punished but feeling that it was worth it like Eve (or like Adam Young), he has to Sacrifice his life nobly in the name of his universal selfless love for all mankind… But then also because he’s also still the New Job, his life has been so utterly miserable lately that he seemed to be basically suicidal, so is it really sacrificing your life if you don’t want to live anymore?

It’s all just a mess, really (and it’s even worse when you think about what little role Aziraphale plays in all of these allegories…)

[iforgiveyouprime]

‎Another one of the pointless and stupid parallels in the third season.

‎It's like the beginning of the movie, where Crowley's at the casino trying to win his Bentley back. He's drunk, and that gangster's daughter (I think her name is Misty?) approaches him, and he says, "Come on, Misty! Tell us about gorillas... And dolphins."

‎What the fuck?

‎Did the people who wrote this even understand that the whole point of Aziraphale and Crowley's conversation about gorillas and dolphins in season 1 was that ALL living beings would die in the Armageddon? Big and small, those with mountains of brains, and those who just wanted to eat bananas and enjoy life, and so on. A LOT of meaningless deaths! Dolphins, gorillas, and whales would die! This is wrong, it's not fair, why should they die, what did they do? - that's the essence of their drunken conversation at the beginning of the s1.

‎And the ending blatantly ignores this idea.

‎So why bring up this conversation at all? To remind us once again how miserable Crowley is because Aziraphale left him? It seems to me, we already fucking have understood that. There's no need to insert this pointless parallel, which doesn't lead to anything worthwhile and doesn't have the same great meaning from the first season.

[throo]

Wh-what do you mean it’s from a birthday cake

[throo]

We could have been eating him

[ahsoka-in-a-hood]

It's so deeply embedded in how Murderbot sees itself that it exists in a society with both construct and human slavery, and that it's role has frequently been that of overseer of human slavery. There are so many layers to it's own identity within an oppressive system when it's been both a victim and an enforcer. It calls itself Murderbot. It doesn't remember how many people it's killed, because of the mindwipes. It identifies itself with the word the people who are afraid of it would use. The thing that pushed it to hack it's governor module and the thing that haunts it the first two books is that it doesn't know if it killed a specific bunch of people on purpose or not. Because it does have hate for humans and it does take pleasure in violence sometimes. It's been the very real monster in people's stories. It's been the boot on their kneck. That's under it's skin. It can't just sort the world into humans and constructs. It knows what it's like to crush a human. It knew that before it knew much else.

It doesn't trust it's own kind. That's not just because it's internalized a lot of predjudice. It doesn't entirely trust itself either.

It's so... it's not just that it wants good people to exist. It's that it can only look for them and find them outside of the system it came from. It's so contemptuous in it's own narration of the people on the ship bound for a indentured servitude, but Mensah picks up on the truth anyway. "You wanted to help those people" "I couldn't have helped them" It's not a revolutionary. It doesn't imagine dismantling the corporation rim. It just wants to neither be hurt or made to hurt people. It tries not to get attached to lost causes. Sometimes it does anyway.

Everything it is, everything it does, has been forged out of being the oppressed and the oppressor at the same time. and anyway I think about that sometimes

[phantomrose96]

Really cool how we've sprung back to heroin chic for the girlies but now with the fun modern twist of the boys are on black-market drugs. #genderequality

[phantomrose96]

Long considered a female-dominated field, we are finding new and gender-diverse ways to market "beauty obsession to the point of massive and long-term damage to the body" to a wider market. Click through for our story of how these 15-year-old lookmaxxer boys ordering steroids from unregulated sources are proving that society's insatiable bloodlust for targeting and tearing down teenagers over their fragile self-worth isn't just for the girls anymore.

[theonion]

[ingravinoveritas]

(CW: Neil Gaiman mention.) It seems that GO 3 co-writer Michael Marshall Smith has just published an article on Substack (a conversation with horror writer Lisa Morton) in which his work on Good Omens was mentioned.

The full article does not directly relate to Good Omens, but Morton asked MMS at one point about writing for/condensing the finale, and this was his response:

It is now abundantly clear that we (the audience/fans) were deliberately misled about Neil's involvement with the finale in terms of what happened following his "removal" from the project after the allegations against him came out.

MMS states above that all of them (he, NG, and Peter Atkins) have known each other for 30 years, and we know they have worked together previously. So despite Neil being "firewalled" (a turn of phrase that frames NG as a victim of the situation and seems entirely dismissive given the circumstances that led to his removal in the first place) from the production, it is more than reasonable to believe that his interests and what he wanted to have happen were being represented by these writers.

I'm particularly galled by the sentence above, "It was seeking--against a strong headwind--closure for beloved characters." Because Aziraphale and Crowley are beloved queer characters, and yet three straight men set to work removing every scrap of visible affection from them, acting as if the chemistry and attraction between them never existed, and denying them any chance at meaningful communication.

I can also think of nothing that embodies stunted emotional development more than deciding that "Better to erase all of history and everyone in it than to talk about our feelings" is an optimal form of closure. The question then becomes, closure for whom, exactly? This is something MMS conveniently left out of the article above, as his comments sharply contradict the sentiments coming from so much of the fandom. So if it wasn't closure for the characters (I'd say not) and if it wasn't closure for the fans (which it sure as hell wasn't), then who was it for?

Because here we are all, two months later, still trying to reckon with what we were given. Still trying to work our way through confusion, disappointment, through an ocean of duplicitous double-talk and seeking--against a strong headwind--some scrap of understanding about both everything that we saw on screen and what we were told by those in the know.

Yet the one thing I understand more now is that this finale was never for us, or for Michael and David, or anyone who was so invested in Aziraphale and Crowley. And what closure we have been left to find will not ever come from the finale writers. It has to come from ourselves...

[victusinveritas]

On This Day In History: July 20, 1969

[thisbisexualbrainrot]

And they really thought they ate with this ending like it’s so crazy…

Y’all literally Job’d the fuck out of us.

[casual-kas]

It's a rule - I see it on my dashboard, I reblog

[hometoursandotherstuff]

This 2002 estate on a serene private pond looks like a country house in Lowndesboro, AL, but I wasn't prepared for the interior that is made to look like a French Arcadian-style castle (I don't even know what that is). 6bds, 10ba, 17,000sqft, $3.5m.

Actually, it looks more like a modern farmhouse than a castle.

Check this fanciness out, though. This is the grand entrance.

And, rooms are off this hallway.

The main reception room.

Details of the ceiling.

The grand ballroom looks like it's lined with fireplace mantles.

Maybe this is a dining room?

Hallway.

This looks like it could be a sun room.

Gigantic, ugly, (I think), kitchen with a TV area in front of the island. The ceiling looks like they bought gold picture frames and glued them up.

Unimpressive.

The ridiculously large primary bedroom features a kitchenette.

Ugly ensuite. Good luck selling this monstrosity.

Here's another huge bedroom.

Bathroom with laundry. What's up with the little toilet booths?

Sun room? Summer ballroom?

Another suite. These bedrooms are ridiculously big.

This must be the kitchen for the ballroom or, maybe a party room for a buffet? Check out the door- they made a sliding barn door out of the flooring.

Baths are fancy, but small.

What is going on with all of these kitchens?

This looks like maybe a laundry room? It must get hot in here, the fan blades are melted.

Don't know what this room is for.

Bedroom suite.

Very large closet. I guess it's a pantry.

113 acres of land.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3166-Highway-80-E-Lowndesboro-AL-36752/113732659_zpid/?

[confusedtoadsworld]

This has to be built by the owner of an “architectural reproduction” product company, using their own home as a design showcase. I will entertain no other explanation.

[mayahart]

THE GOOD PLACE (2016—2020) cr. Michael Schur

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

i get so freaked out by like. pictures of really big rope

[clintwaffle]

I’d like to say that’s normal but I’m a frayed knot

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

i’m so fucking annoyed at this, just for that you don’t get photos of the rope

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

i changed my mind, this is just too horrifying not to share

it’s called a Hawser and is the thick cable or rope used for towing/mooring a ship

in conclusion, i have nightmares beyond description

[arithmeticanimaniac]

NO it would NOT be cool

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

well i fucken disagree

[goeswiththeflo]

@scumrunner do you have any cursed facts about hawsers to share ?

As a fiber nerd, i am personally very enthusiastic about them….

[scumrunner]

Ohhohohoho DO I EVER. Meet the “snapback zone,” not an area with cool hats, but instead the unintuitive range at which a hawser can kill you if it breaks under tension.

[cloud-and-proud]

What if we kissed in the snap-back zone? 😳 😳 😳

[talus-the-broken]

I don’t think you guys understand how much force this is, a tow rope used to move a 20 foot boat snaps under tension with enough force to dent metal, shatter glass and seriously injure anyone in its way. A Hawser on the other hand… Well I’ve seen a concrete pier with a chuck the size of a sedan ripped out of it by a line failure, and anecdotally, I’ve heard of a 2 ton heavy cargo forklift being skidded sideways, then knocked over. These lines snap with enough force to noticably dent the hull armor of navy ships.

This is a line designed to hold in place a moving object that can be easily in excess of 10000 tons. AND THEY CAN BREAK FROM THAT TENSION ALONE.

THESE THINGS ARE TERRIFYING RUBBER BANDS FROM HELL.

[butch-of-the-blades]

Nope Rope

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

NOPE ROPE

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

I’m once again reminded of its much smaller cousin, the haywire.

You’ve heard of the term, “Going haywire,” right? Ever spared a thought to why that term exists?

See, time was there was a prototype automatic hay-baler. But this was in that magic period juuust before we really got into standardized sizes. So calibration of the machine was handled manually - a mix of guessing and learning from the results of guessing. If you’ve read Raising Steam by Sir Terry Pratchett you know that many people don’t get to learn from the results of their own guesses, due to being dead.

A poorly calibrated hay-baler had the mechanical strength to smush the hay into a tight bundle, wrap the wire around it, and tie that wire off to maintain the bale’s form. But the pressure of the over-packed hay was a constant outward force. Each bale made by an over-tight baler was potential energy in physical form. We have a word for “potential energy in physical form” and that word is “bomb.”

So sometimes, a man would toss a hay bale and it would land with a twang and the man who’d been reaching down to pick it up where it landed was dead.

And that is what “haywire” means.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

oh nice. i knew hay bales occasionally spontaneously combust, didn’t know they used to have an explosion factor too

[marlynnofmany]

I am learning multiple things today

Normally I’d expect wet plant matter to be less likely to go up in flames, but not hay bales! Those pesky bacteria really like to party in damp conditions. And by party I mean “create heat.”

[prokopetz]

Question 7: Assuming that the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation is correct, estimate how tall Christ our Lord must have been in order for His body to furnish all properly consecrated Communion wafers consumed to date. Justify your assumptions.

[quantum-mechan1c]

Great work everyone

[prokopetz]

[quantum-mechan1c]

Loving the crowdsourced sacrilege on display here

[the-defiant-fluffball]

I asked maths boy for his input

[prokopetz]

#ok but are we assuming average human density here or can we have a black hole jesus #will there be a noticeable gravitational effect from standing too close to our lord and savior #can i - and this is critical - can i be spaghettified by jesus (via @dreadful-puns-and-finger-guns)

[confusedtoadsworld]

[do-not-u-dare]

let’s talk about how they made it impossible to function without a phone and digitalised everything and then turned around and went “actually! these phone things aren’t safe for kids but it’s magically ok once you’re eighteen. guess you’ll have to have your life dictated by your parents now lol cause we’re gonna take the devices away from you. IT’S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD WHY ARE YOU COMPLAINING”

[do-not-u-dare]

ok my apologies. take away my ability to buy anything too ig because these fuckass stores don’t accept cash anymore. take away my ability to communicate with people outside my house and school because I can’t text and I can’t email and I cant drive to them either and I can’t even fucking get public transport without a phone either. can’t order at a fucking restaurant without being asked to get a membership and install an app and also very sorry but you can only order through our online menu now! have you ever considered that it’s not just about instagram?

[mizgnomer]

David Tennant Year in Review - 2025

David’s television, film, convention, charity, and other appearances from 2025, all in one convenient photoset. With extra-special thanks to Georgia and her excellent Instagram posts that give us a tiny glimpse into the Tennants' home life.

Happy New Year!

Please see my [ David Tennant Year In Review tag ] for prior year-end posts dating back to 2014