DuskDragon39 @duskdragon39 - Tumblr Blog

thecollectibles

Frith Chronicles Bestiary Paintings by Ognjen Sporin

#Dragons

syrren

“Springtime” (Pierre-Auguste Cot, 1873)

…but make it hualian

archaeologistproblems

What the gold rush means to most people: Prospectors! Dusty mine cars on tracks in the wild west! Gold nuggets!

What the gold rush means to an archaeologist: Hmm, where on this 100-acre plot of land covered in contaminated mine tailings do I think these clowns might have buried barrels full of literal cyanide?

archaeologistproblems

How dare you leave this nugget hiding in the notes!

garden-eel-draws

Why were they burying barrels of cyanide? How and why would you even compile enough cyanide to fill multiple barrels???

archaeologistproblems

My friend let me introduce you to the terrifying process of cyanidation, wherein finely crushed ore containing traces of gold is made into a slurry by adding water, then transferred into vats known as “slime separators,” where potassium cyanide is then added to leach the gold into a liquid. Slaked lime is used to prevent the cyanide from going into full Murder Mode as hydrogen cyanide. The gold is then separated from the cyanide through one of a series of processes that I’m not really qualified to explain, but I think there are a few websites that talk about them if you want to google them.

But the key point here: from what I can tell, cyanide has been the main method of getting gold out of the ground for the last 120 years. (Yes, this process is still used today.) Before this technology came along, instead a thin coating of mercury was spread onto a copper plate, and the ore was allowed to wash over it. The gold stuck to the mercury, creating an amalgam, and then the amalgam was scraped off the plate and the mercury was boiled off (urk) to leave the gold behind.

And when processing mills shut down historically, why bother to dispose of your leftover deadly chemicals properly, when you can just bury them in your local tailings pile, which is already contaminated with mercury and arsenic? The known case of this happening in my local area was revealed through a bloom of “Prussian Blue” (ferro cyanide) on the surface of the tailings. Luckily, this is a fairly stable form of cyanide. Unluckily, geologists are crazier than archaeologists and they went ahead and dug a sample test unit right next to it, even knowing what it was, because science.

When I said to myself, “I’ll be an industrial archaeologist. It’ll be cool,” I did not foresee the terrifying knowledge it would unleash upon me.

garden-eel-draws

I’m from Goldrush Country and I didn’t know this. All the gold-mining-related historical attractions around here are about good old-fashioned panning and pick-axes. Now I’m incredibly glad I’ve never had any urge to go explore the suspiciously colorful hills left in the wake of various mining operations.

archaeologistproblems

Eek! Please don’t play in tailings piles and outflows folks, they are Bad News. “Oh but it’s lovely sand we want to take our ATVs out on it and let our kids build sandcastles” NO. DO NOT.

garden-eel-draws

Reblogging because some desert-dwellers might not know this. Yes, those pretty hills are probably within ATV driving distance of Amargosa, Ocotillo, Buttercup, Superstition or whatever other recreational area you might be camped out at, but rainbow-colored dirt is usually rainbow-colored for toxic reasons!

archaeologistproblems

Absolutely! And bear in mind too, not all tailings are brightly coloured - the ones in my area are just light grey. “Sand in spots where sand isn’t common” is sometimes the only warning sign.

archaeologistproblems

I’m reviving this post because I’m doing up a Health & Safety protocol for digging near a mining site and folks. I did the math based on some recent soil tests. The tailings near my test site contain enough arsenic that ½ teaspoon of soil (tailings) easily contains a fatal dose of arsenic for an adult. Please stay safe and wash your hands thoroughly before eating/drinking/smoking if you aren’t 100% certain what the dirt is like where you’re digging.

thatdisasterauthor

And this is why we found a whole quart of mercury in my grandparent’s basement! Old timey prospectors would really just do shit.

can-i-make-image-descriptions

[Image ID: Tumblr reply from highEmpressOfDirt reading: a different kind of Mine Sweeper /End ID]

archaeologistproblems

Thanks for the image description!

Since I’m seeing a few people tagging or commenting with the assumption that this post is about US history: this is a Canadian blog, based on my experiences in Canada, and this mine waste phenomenon is, unfortunately, a problem in much of the world. Nova Scotia, for example, had three separate “gold rush” phases from the 1860s to the 1930s.

Also, bonus content for those who are startled/fascinated by the arsenic concentrations, here’s a sample page from the Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) report by Mike Parsons et al., showing arsenic concentrations at Mooseland, which isn’t a site I’ve worked on, but is noteworthy because one soil sample was over one-quarter arsenic. The site I worked at with the “tablespoon to kill six people” calculation was less than half of that.

[Image ID: A map showing soil sample locations and numbers along the Tangier River in Nova Scotia near a historic gold mining stamp mill. The highest concentration is 256,000mg/kg, or 25.6% arsenic. To the south, a huge number of abandoned mine shafts are also shown in red.]

#Water quality tag #Noting for reasons of my own watershed(s)

speedlimit15

poolsofchrome

Breath on breath. Gravity slipping behind

sunflowersosa

Nigerian Pride 🏳️‍🌈🇳🇬

I meant to have this out yesterday. Happy belated pride. :)

#This art style is ao cool

photomatt

Tumblr Advisor Board

I think it could be cool to put together a board of the top Tumblristas in the world, that could see previews of what's coming up and advise on strategic direction. Who should be on it?

prismatic-bell

Okay, look. We're gonna do it like this, Matt. I used to work in market research. This one is free, next time I expect a month of free premium and if there's a third time I expect a job.

TO EVERYONE ELSE:

A series of ten reblogs is about to follow, since you can only have one poll per reblog. Please answer all ten polls. If you don't see them all, check the notes (this shouldn't take me long so if it's more than like, fifteen minutes since I posted this one they should all be there.)

1) What is the PRIMARY thing you do on Tumblr?

I mostly reblog others' posts

I write original posts

I make/post memes

I make/post images or gifs

I make/post videos

I run a poll blog

I run a gimmick blog

Voting ended onMar 27

prismatic-bell

2) how long have you been here?

Under twelve months

1-2 years

3-4 years

5-6 years

7-8 years

9-10 years

More than ten years

I don't remember

Voting ended onMar 27

prismatic-bell

3) how old are you?

Under 18

19-28

29-38

39-48

49-58

59-68

I'm one of the Tumblr grandparents

Voting ended onMar 27

prismatic-bell

4) thinking about the recent Tumblr feature release/rollback, what did you find most frustrating?

There was no communication before the fact

I felt like the feature didn't take Tumblr users' wants and needs into account

I felt like the feature showed a lack of understanding of Tumblr culture

I felt the feature would hurt Tumblr culture

I felt the feature would hurt Tumblr artists and small makers specifically

I wasn't bothered by the change

It happened so fast I didn't even know until it was all over

Voting ended onMar 27

prismatic-bell

5) thinking about the recent Tumblr feature release/rollback, what satisfied you most about the response?

Tumblr staff responded quickly

I felt like we were heard and listened to

It was nice to see our concerns were understood

I wasn't bothered by the change

It happened so fast I didn't even know until it was all over

Other

Voting ended onMar 27

prismatic-bell

6) thinking about features you use on Tumblr, what would you like to see improved?

The recent UI changes to reblogging are too confusing

I'd like tagging to be easier

I'd like to see the tagging system overhauled

I'd like to see the reporting/adult tagging system improved

I'd like a separate page for my communities

I'd like to be able to mark posts as for my followers only

I'd like to see the blocking system improved

I'm happy with Tumblr as it is

Other

Voting ended onMar 27

prismatic-bell

7) with the understanding that Tumblr needs to attract new users or convert more current free users to paying users in order to stay online, what do you think of Matt's "top tumblrista" idea?

Absolutely not--this is very famously the influencer-hating site

Absolutely not--this site is too diverse for that to work

Absolutely not, for other reasons

I'm actually liking this poll method

The poll method is clunky but something similar would be great

I think the panel of "top users" would be great

I have no opinion on this

Voting ended onMar 27

prismatic-bell

8) if you don't currently pay for use of a Tumblr feature, why not?

I have paid Tumblr features

The price point is too high for my wallet

The price point is too high for what's offered

There's nothing offered that I want

I wouldn't pay even if something I wanted was offered

Other

Voting ended onMar 27

prismatic-bell

In the following question, "pre-social media" refers to platforms like LiveJournal, forums, alt.net boards, early MySpace, and similar spaces.

9) thinking about the given definition of "pre-social media," how much do you agree with the statement "I think most tumblr users I know would prefer pre-social media to modern platforms like Facebook and X"?

"Strongly agree" is not strong enough

Strongly agree

Agree

Kind of maybe agree?

Neutral/I don't know enough about pre-social media to say

Kind of maybe disagree?

Disagree

Strongly disagree

"Strongly disagree" is not strong enough

Voting ended onMar 27

prismatic-bell

10) do you think Matt should just hire me to do this so I don't have to squeeze it around my break at work?

Yes, this was awesome

Sure, you're not perfect but this was way better than what they've done til now

No, but someone should do this

Honestly I'm just sad you didn't give us nuance/bald/vanilla extract/tickybox

Voting ended onMar 27

sometiktoksarevalid

creatingblackcharacters

The drama! The skill! The cinematography! It's ART! IT'S ALL ART!!

asexualbookbird

maybe going to the library will fix me

throwupgirl

i have to say it was really bold and innovative for maggie stiefvater to say. in my YA romance series centered around a dark prophecy of a girl being destined to kill her true love. the girl and her true love will actually end up being in a throuple with another guy who has absolutely fuckall to do with the prophecy. who without warning just sort of showed up when no one asked him to one day. sat in between them. and very seriously said. scoot over. i love yall.

#.... this may get me to read this thank you wryse #Trc

personsonable-deactivated201908

me holding a gun to a mushroom: tell me the name of god you fungal piece of shit

mushroom: can you feel your heart burning? can you feel the struggle within? the fear within me is beyond anything your soul can make. you cannot kill me in a way that matters

me cocking the gun, tears streaming down my face: I’M NOT FUCKING SCARED OF YOU

miaislying

Hey OP? What the FUCK does this mean?

personsonable-deactivated201908

decay exists as an extant form of life

miaislying

That’s a terrifying answer, have a nice day

haystarlight

THE ORIGINAL?!?!!!!!!!!;!!!!!!!!???

shower-thoughts-last-responder

On my dash!??!

Please hold

headspace-hotel

i might well have published a novel by now if everything I thought I knew about storytelling didn't keep getting existentially destroyed

headspace-hotel

I thought that intellectual property laws created the idea of "fanfiction."

But actually, it is not true: Intellectual property laws created the idea of original fiction. Fanfiction is the one that has always been there the whole time.

It seems possible that the idea of originality is stunting or damaging to storytelling. If there is a compelling idea or a cool character, we have to make it seem different, like we came up with it ourselves. But this means characters, worlds, and concepts are effectively siloed in their creator's work, and people who seek to write a story have to pretend to assemble these things from scratch, concealing and de-emphasizing the ways that they are derivative.

One result of this is that many "original fictions" are extremely shallow and have little iconicity or enduring capability. Characters who are "everymen" with few distinctive characteristics or abilities and not much depth or complexity proliferate. Instead of building upon what is already built, writers have to re-invent their own version of that which is iconic and compelling, and it rarely if ever is actually iconic or compelling, because someone else already "took" so many iconic or compelling ideas, and yours has to be "different from" those ones.

But, I think, building an iconic and truly captivating character, world, or idea is not easily done by a single individual.

Essentially, lots of original fiction is mired in a swamp of being required to re-iterate the basic framework of a story, instead of building a story from a collectively created framework that already exists.

#Fandom research

fictionadventurer

I love that Jules Verne asked the question "What kind of person could circumnavigate the world in 80 days?" and decided that the answer was not a groundbreaking explorer or genius inventor, but a guy who's really, really, really obsessed with train and boat schedules.

oqmemphis

my final paper for my CS degree was literally "how can we algorithmically optimise for the fastest possible circumnavigation route on commercial flights?", which incidentally required me to adopt a very good working knowledge of what flight options are available at what times (and also led to me accidentally memorising several hundred airport codes)

oqmemphis

incidentally the fastest possible route seems to be about 51 hours, if you're working from 2022 schedules like i was. if you use current schedules and are very optimistic about how quickly you can transfer between flights, you can maybe get it down to around 48 hours (also known as 25 millivernes).

fictionadventurer

The very best thing about tumblr is that you can make a post about a 154-year-old novel and get responses like this.