Fun Fact Collector

Gathering of ideas and art to ruminate on (also for fun!) ☻

[echx0]

[LIST OF ALL MY TAGS FOR ARCHIVAL PURPOSES]

[galaxycepheus]

random fun facts about brazil!

after gaining "independence" from portugal in 1822, the ruling portuguese prince nominated himself emperor and made us an 'empire' before we ever became a republic

the current president, Luís Inácio Lula da Silva (from the Partido dos Trabalhadores, workers' party, our left-wing party) was elected in 2022, and the next presidential elections are actually later this year!

brazil holds five victories at the FIFA Football World Cup since 2002 and is the only country to have as many

we have 26 states + one federal district, Brasília, which is the country's capital

slavery was abolished on May, 13 of 1888, and the event is usually attributed to Princess Isabel signing the Lei Áurea out of the kindness of her heart, but it actually was a result of the abolishment movement that had been going on for years and of international pressures

speaking of international pressures, did you know that in 1964, we underwent a military dictadorship that lasted until 1985 and was backed up by the US?

another not so fun a fact, abortion is illegal here with a penalty of up to 3 years in jail for performing one on yourself or consenting for someone else to do it

neutral pronoun usage in official documents/speeches by government entities directed at the general population was also made illegal this year

on the brighter side, gay marriage was made legal in 2011, and refusing to acknowledge legal recognition to gay couples was made illegal in 2013 (same source)

simone de beauvoir has visited us before! she passed by the then-in-construction capital of Brasília in 1960 and she fucking hated the city lmao

due to the criminalization of african spirituality and religion during the slavery period, lots of black folks disguised their talk of certain entities as catholic saints instead. for example, St. George (São Jorge in Brazil) was used as a disguise for Ogum (or Ogun, yoruba orisha), and the association still pertains to this day

you can ingress a public university for free if you have a passing grade in the ENEM, the "national exam of high school" (exame nacional do ensino médio, in portuguese). it is a two-day test with each day being one week apart on a sunday every year, held on the entire country, and consists of 180 questions pertaining to the areas of Humanities, Languages, Mathematics and Natural Sciences, as well as requiring undertakers to write a strictly-structured 7 to 30-long essay discussing the theme elected by the exam comittee. last year, the ENEM essay theme was "perspectives pertaining the aging of the brazilian population", and in the year before, it was "challenges to the valorization of african heritage in brazil". this year's theme will not be officially announced until after the exam has ended. a "passing grade" depends on the course you choose to apply for and it might change every year (usually they range in the 400-700pts zone), but the max grade is of a thousand points.

if you look at it, the brazilian flag has a small phrase written on it: it reads "ordem e progresso" (transl. order and progress)

racism is technically illegal here

unlike in countries like the US, Uganda and others, in Brazil, valentine's day is actually today :)

[madmonksandmaenads]

I wish I could make white people(and not just white Americans) understand how diverse the pre-columbian Americas were. The history, religion, culture, politics was at least as complex as Europe's. There was the full gamut of religions, from monotheists to animists to ancestral religions. There were city building empires, village farmers, nomadic traders, and so many other ways to live. This is all just based on what we know, the fragments left behind and the stories of survivors of an apocalyptic plague. All this before the most extended campaign of genocide in history was waged in an attempt to wipe out those survivors.

Over 500 years spent trying to cut down a whole trunk of human culture.

Do you understand how much poorer our whole species is because of it? Can you imagine where art, religion, and science would be if we still had these vast bodies of knowledge? The stain of the colonial project will never be fully washed clean. We owe more than just the land to those we stole from. We owe them a whole future, a future that could have been brighter for all of us. If only greed and fear weren't allowed to rule this land.

[spyglassrealms]

I booted my old laptop to find a file and was once again dealt immediate psychic damage by my desktop wallpaper

I open this thing just infrequently enough that it catches me woefully off guard every single fucking time

[putnamspuppeteer]

OP do you still have the original image. Would you be willing to share it.

[spyglassrealms]

but of course.

[valtsv]

oh my god i almost forgot to tell you all about how, while my dad was visiting, i had an infestation of every single kind of bug in my house that hasn't been a problem before or since. like i'm not kidding i evicted so many creeping crawlies that week and couldn't for the life of me stop mosquitos from stealing my blood, but as soon as he left they vanished. and i mean, sure, there's a perfectly rational explanation, because two people make more mess than one and he has a habit of leaving the windows wide open enough to fly a jet engine through day and night, but i can't help but think how symbolically on the nose it was. the ancestral rot at the heart of my family so gothic it's got ants and flies buzzing around its decaying corpse.

[valtsv]

hey so update but i haven't been harassed by a single freaky little beast since my dad left even after leaving some crumbs on the floor as an experiment to see if they attracted any ants so i think my dad might just be bugs actually

[quinnntessins]

@entities-of-posts textbook corruption example lol

[entities-of-posts]

Seconded

[seekerbr]

Some cool news for today: someone uploaded the uncut English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters to the Internet Archive!! They used to be all online, but got taken down, only 2 were avaliable for a while

Yu-Gi-Oh (Original Uncut Edition) : 4Kids Entertainment, Kazuki Takahashi : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Episodes 1-9 of the Uncut Yu-Gi-Oh Dub breifly produced by 4Kids Entertainment and distributed by FUNimation in the early 2000's.Episodes 1-

For those that don't know: This was an attempt by 4kids to make an uncensored, more accurate dub of the show, released directly on DVD, with most of the same cast of the older dub. They didn't sell very well, so there were only 9 episodes released, but we have these at least (i believe the episode 10 in the link is an fan edit)

[guelwaar]

clinical medicine is simple, basically the way it works is 99.999% of doctors don't know anything at all, so they only treat the 10–15 most common problems in their specialty. this might sound bad, but actually it's better, because 99.999% of patients don't have any complex medical problems anyway, which we know because they've never been diagnosed with anything except the 10–15 most common problems in the relevant specialty, because in order to be evaluated for something else they would have to be referred to one of the 0.001% of doctors who occasionally know something about some other condition, but they can't get that referral because they obviously don't need it because they've only been diagnosed with simple problems that the other 99.999% of doctors evaluate. so as U can see it's really about ensuring every patient gets the best possible care.

[bacteriumphage]

Thought that post was cute so i drew it

[mongeese]

The Murderbot Diaries are a power fantasy about being aromantic and still developing extremely important dedicated emotionally intimate partnerships where you are a top priority in a person's life, equal to their other family or romantic attachments despite your own emotional difficulties. And having guns in your arms

[animusbell]

celestia is such a funny character like she's constantly manipulating twilight and friends to do shit instead of just asking and you could arguably frame that as being bc she's a "god" and pushing fate to her design or whatever, except that she engages with the group like a normal and relatable person, which makes it more like villainous machinations, except 90% of this manipulation goes towards things like "I don't want my party to be boring shit again. put my little country girl blorbos in there with zero prep so they fuck it up bad"

[animusbell]

you think you've fucked anything up around princess celestia and she's like heh. no worries. all according to keikaku

[jukashi]

Celestia instantly makes more sense as a character when you ignore the princess stuff and remember that she's a 1000+ years old wizard. Of course she does manipulative trickster stuff to teach moral lessons and/or cause chaos to amuse herself, that's classic wizard behavior. Of course sometimes she's actually socially awkward and bad at personal relationships and has bad ideas that she thought were good that result in her eating shit embarrassing style, that's classic wizard behavior. Of course she lets the aristocrats and nobles run around being assholes she's still running on wizard advisor programming, she's basically trying to merlin the entire upper class of equestria instead of just a king and some knights. "Yeah uuhhh we'll release the incarnation of chaos himself from his ancient prison because we think this shy girl can be friends with him", terrible plan if you're thinking like a ruler, amazing plan if you're thinking like a wizard. Just look at Canterlot 'Castle' for five seconds and ask yourself if that's in any way a castle. No. Wizard tower, yes. Wizard.

[animusbell]

You are so right actually

[elwenyere]

-- Ted Chiang, from "Why A.I. Isn't Going to Make Art"

[oldshrewsburyian]

I'm so glad they got Ted Chiang -- a wonderful writer of science fiction and thinker about technology, in my opinion -- to write this essay. My favorite line was this:

Generative A.I. appeals to people who think they can express themselves in a medium without actually working in that medium.

[sabertoothwalrus]

maybe this is not my place to say because I am monolingual, and I'm sure it's part of a larger, more nuanced discussion about visibility and accessibility on the internet, but I think it'd be cool if people posted in their native languages more instead of in english. I see people do it way more on other platforms than on tumblr which is almost exclusively in english

[minothtime]

El problema es, como bien has dicho, la accesibilidad y la visibilidad.

Tumblr en concreto es muy anglocentrista y un gran número de los usuarios no habla más que inglés. Si quieres que tus cosas lleguen a gente con gustos u opiniones similares, escribirlo en inglés asegura que la gente por lo menos lo pueda leer. Suma a esto el hecho de que bastantes series y tal son originalmente de habla inglesa (y a veces ni se traducen a tu lengua madre), lo que crea un fandom principalmente angloparlante.

Más allá de eso, también hay que tener en cuenta las diferencias culturales que surgen entre fandoms de distintos idiomas. Por ejemplo, durante mucho tiempo el fandom de Vocaloid angloparlante y el hispanohablante han chocado con respecto a temas como la piratería. En ocasiones es complicado manejar estas expectativas, y si sabes varios idiomas, peor incluso.

A mí me gustaría subir cositas en español y encontrar a gente que comparta mis gustos, pero en Tumblr en concreto es casi imposible. Tumblr ya es de por sí mucho más «nicho» en espacios hispanohablantes que otras RRSS como TikTok o Instagram, y si tus intereses no son muy populares, despídete.

La lingüística de los espacios de fans también está hipercentrada en el inglés. No es una pareja, es un ship; no es un universo alternativo, es un AU; no es destripar, es hacer spoiler, etc. Incluso las siglas: en español es LGTB, pero lo que sueles ver es LGBT. Parece una tontería, pero esta disonancia cognitiva hace que resulte muchísimo más complicado hablar en tu propio idioma en un fandom. Por no hablar de las innumerables referencias a posts o a memes... en inglés todo, por supuesto. Como te atrevas a hacer cualquier referencia cultural no inglesa, no te entiende nadie. Pierde la gracia.

Casi todo esto se puede achacar al imperialismo cultural estadounidense. El inglés es útil para comunicarse con gente de todo el mundo, pero su omnipresencia sirve de barrera para todos los demás idiomas. Quizás habría que reflexionar un poco sobre por qué coño el resto del mundo tiene que tragarse años de clases de inglés para hablar del juego que le gusta en una red social mientras muchos angloparlantes no se dignan ni a meter un texto en un traductor automático y prefieren pasar de largo.

[guiigemar]

never met a sentence i couldn't make incredibly long

[teaboot]

And now it must be said, as many numerous things often must be, in great volume and variance breaching topics that are near enough to innumerable and certainly beyond the measure of counting, that just as anyone lucky enough to find themselves in posession of thoughts miraculously appearing in their waking mind fully-formed upon conception, both clear and concise, blessed as they are with a mastery of their language sufficient to express oneself with brevity, it is so that with equal frequency I find that I am cursed with a wholly opposing nature: to take that which is brief and succinct, simple and straightforward, and somehow find it within myself instinctive to stretch those very same thoughts and words so remarkably thin across the page that the length of any given sentence may very well rival that of a modest novel, taking any poor and pitiable reader several deep breaths to recite out loud- or, perhaps in the case of one equally blessed to be of great, strong lungs and a determined air- merely the rather long and arduous effort of enduring it.

[bedupolker]

[special-lucky-chosen-one]

I like when someone invents a new and disturbing way to Decorate Wrong

[junglejim4322]

Unironically I think the early to mid 20s age group in America has unbelievably bad consent boundaries on all levels and so much language to defend it but this makes me sound like elon musk if I say it however the commonality of someone who will be like “I had 47 panic attacks and it’s your fault” if you tell them no is insane

[junglejim4322]

I rejected someone and got called “the scariest person I’ve ever met” with so much therapy speak interspersed like alright okay alright okay alright okay

[junglejim4322]

“You just say whatever you’re thinking and I don’t know how to handle it” was verbatim part of this conversation. Also everyone hates to see an autistic bitch

[transhumanisticpanspermia]

When I was in this age bracket, there was a huge emphasis on improving consent culture via graceful rejection, and it's gone by the wayside. Which sucks.

Twice in my youth (once in high school and once in college) I was in situations where I was asking someone out and I could tell they were calculating in their heads the risks of rejecting me, and both times I said, out loud, "you can say no, I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't prepared for either answer." And then they said no. This wasn't some spark of special wisdom I had - I knew to do it because feminist conversations among my age group brought it up regularly. This isn't happening nearly enough anymore.

More recently, I was really glad when we got to "rejection sensitive dysphoria" in my IOP program and it was one of those symptoms where the therapists really emphasized how it affects others. Because it does.

Being someone who cannot handle rejection makes you much more likely to violate boundaries, and yes, that includes sexual ones. Yes, you, reader who has never hurt a fly. If you don't want to stumble backwards into sexually assaulting someone, fix your RSD meltdowns. If you keep them up it's only a matter of time. Because if you're nice enough to interact with, but are known to have RSD meltdowns, guess what happens when your friends and acquaintances need to reject you?

[couponkids]

[sexycraisinthanos]

this is my favorite comic ever i never don’t want to see it on my dash

[fullmetalfisting]

Tbh germ theory DOES sound crazy. Like if you told a regency-era nobleman that tiny creatures lived on the surface of everything and THAT’S what causes consumption, they’d be like “ah, I see you are a lunatic. Would you reside in my hermitage? Rantings and ravings do so amuse my guests”

[mysteryteacup]

But if you told a Medieval person this they would probably go "Ah, so when the miasma settles on surfaces it gains evil life. I understand."

[alarajrogers]

Yeah, actually, it would probably be pretty easy to explain germ theory to a Medieval person as tiny evil spirits that live on everything, but they can be purified by soap and water, or by alcohol, because that is why God has granted us those things. And because they can float in the air, if you cough or sneeze after they have infested you, that can cause them to infest others. And when you are sick, the angels God has deputized to defend the bodies of His beloved children are at war with the evil spirits, and, sadly, sometimes they lose, but the best way to help your angels win their battle is to rest, drink plenty (this would probably be small beer in this time period, not water, because the water was also infested), stay clean, and for the sake of God do not allow anyone to let your blood, for the angels need that blood in their war against the evil spirits. Bloodletting is good for some types of illnesses but not the kinds caused by the tiny evil spirits.

[chekhovs-raygun]

boiling as a sterilization measure is also easy to explain. water returns to the air when heated and it rises as steam back up to the floodgates of heaven; we know God created the world in seven days, He's not up there making more water every time it rains. it circulates. the returning of water to heaven also purifies the water of unclean and malign influences. you know wormy water from a muddy puddle will kill your kid. you know you wouldn't wade into a bog and have a slurp. water that remains in the low places of earth absorbs all that is unclean from our waste and it may also sponge up new diseases from hell, we're not totally sure about that one, but it seems likely. God set up the heavenly water cycle so that the earth's waters wouldn't totally fill up with gunk.

what does this have to do with boiling your surgical tools? well look, the boiling water releases bubbles of steam which carries the malign influences up to heaven. you boil a knife, you send all the miasmic particles off with the steam to heaven. if you rinse the knife off in a bucket the water isn't hot enough, the particles go into the water and then right back on to the knife. you gotta boil it to get the particles all the way away. how can a tool or rag or a bed have miasmic particles on it when you can't smell them? humans have a lousy sense of smell. look at your dog on the hunt. are there no rabbits in the woods just because you can't smell them? we know that miasma is carried on the air, and is what makes stench so dangerous, and we know that humans can't smell worth a damn compared to dogs cats horses etc. a dog can smell if a rat died in a corner of the room last week. you can't. do you think licking the spot where the rat died is going to go well for you? luckily, what humans lack in snout we make up for in brains. we have extra brains where our sniffers should have been. God set that up for a reason.

and why does a rinse with wine spirits work? man, look how fast alcohol evaporates. my guess is that because wine contains a lot more vice than water, it evaporates a whole lot faster, in sort of an equal and opposite way that a rock falls faster than a feather. if you want the miasmic particles to get off there FAST, you dunk it in something that's going back to heaven at a gallop.

what's up with honey? it just preserves things against corruption. doesn't clean them off. honey doesn't evaporate at all. probably because bees don't sin. it's not good for ridding a tool of particles-- it's sticky-- but fine for preserving anything you don't want to go to heaven OR hell. this is why you wash the wound with wine spirits or purified water FIRST, to sluice the miasma out, then slap the honey on AFTER. and boil the damn bandage, too. you wouldn't put a rotten door in a sound doorframe and expect it to keep out bandits, would you? cmon.

[sepdet]

Every time I hit a video or science book pooh-poohing the miasma theory, I want to scream. Okay, so it wasn't the smell that was transmitting disease, but they had figured out that disease could spread by air as well as physical contact, and that social distancing and masking might help.