thing with the stuff

stitchery, mockery, tomfoolery

[fiddlepickdouglas]

Source

[hellenhighwater]

I forgot to eat dinner so I'm having 11 pm corn on the cob. This counts as a meal

... It's possible that I really need to do some grocery shopping

[hellenhighwater]

Okay for those of you living in pitiful ignorance, take a raw ear of corn with the husk on and cut all the way around the base (as pictured: above the point where the husk meets the cob, so that the entire husk is severed but still wrapped around the corn. Do not cut through the cob.) Then, with the husk still on, microwave it for 5-7 minutes. It'll basically steam it inside the husk. Remove from microwave --it will be hot, so use a mitt or a towel--and firmly pull the top of the husk/silk, which should come off easily in one piece, unsheathing a flawless corn on the cob. If it doesn't, you probably need to cut a little higher around the base, so all the leaves are severed. No picking off silk!

[hellenhighwater]

For the nonbelievers (and for me, a second corn)

[pmamtraveller]

"Gannet Diving" necklace created by artist Rie Taniguchi

[ahsoka-in-a-hood]

Apparently some people still need to hear this so: using an 'ai checker' is still using ai. If you are feeding someone's fic to one of these checkers, you will still not be sure their fic is ai because they are not 100% accurate, but you can be 100% sure that you are using ai. For fic. Furthermore you are doing the work of an ai scraper for them. You are, personally, feeding the machine. There is no actual excuse for using an ai checker on fanfic as a hobby. YOU are the problem.

If you think a fic is ai, mute it and move on. That's it. That's all you do.

[ahsoka-in-a-hood]

Um. Yikes

[byjove]

I think about The Man of the Hole so often. 27 years alone. 27 years with no one to speak to but strangers to wave to. Survived a genocide, a massacre that killed everyone he had ever known and later, an assassination attempt. He still tried to warn researches about the traps he built. He was only about 60 when he died in 2022. The people who tormented him in life later desecrated his grave.

[byjove]

I do think it is important to share the stories of the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island and Ishi and the countless other indigenous people who experienced the profound trauma of being the last survivor but it is important to remember that the last Aboriginal families in Australia to be contacted by Europeans were resettled in the 1980s and the Indian government has proposed a plan that will mean total genocide for the Shompen people. The total eradication of indigenous peoples, their cultures, their languages, their ways of life, is not something which occurred in a distant ugly past but an ongoing process.

[restingbitchlifestyle]

Oh there was just a radio/podcast special about Ishi last week and I invite you all to learn about the story. It’s so shocking and tragic and heartbreaking.

His family was the last surviving population of the Yahi tribe and when they died he came into contact with US Americans for the first time looking for food and help. They held him in jail until they could figure out what to do with him because nobody spoke his language. Then they brought him to the UC anthropology museum because they at least had some documentation of his language. Alfred Kroeber (father of Ursula K LeGuin, so she would have grown up around Ishi and had family dinner with him) pretty much took care of him, had him living in the museum, and made his life’s work documenting everything about Ishi and his culture and knowledge as possible. They were able to record and document so much and had him doing public demonstrations of various traditional skills and crafts.

And he spent the rest of his life living in a museum. He wasn’t held against his will or anything and he got paid for his work, but still so tragic to be the last of your people and solely responsible for making sure that knowledge and culture doesn’t die with you. I think all this is at the anthropology museum at UC Berkeley now, but UCSF might still have some archives.

The Life and Legacy of Ishi, the Last of California's Yahi Tribe | KQED

Get to know the man himself — not just as a victim of his circumstances — but for the remarkable human being he was.

[parkchanwoohoo]

Realizing that I am not employing enough of my free will to become a nuisance at work

[raine-of-auroria]

Me watching this:

[cowboybarbaryn]

I’m not letting this rot in the tags

[vitariesocks]

just received the best text message I’ve ever had. from my mom

[vitariesocks]

2 pics. no caption

[duckbunny]

trans-atlantic fibre-optic underwater cable

linking up the continents to keep the network stable

when we have a shark attack it's really only playful

trans-atlantic fibre-optic underwater cable

[duckbunny]

not to single anyone out but this has been tagged twice now with the major general's song and it does NOT scan to the major general's song. the stress is on the other beat. this is super­cali­fragilistic­expiali­docious.

[coldcrashpictures]

[renthony]

Lost in the Remaster: Star Trek, Vintage Special Effects, and the Charm of Old Media

by Ren Basel renbasel.com

Originally created by Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek is a franchise that spans decades. From the original series of 1966 to current shows such as Lower Decks, it stands as a titan of television and pop culture. The real world has undergone incredible change since Star Trek’s first appearance, yet nerds everywhere still find entertainment, inspiration, and hope in its classic episodes. Recently, along with my husband and best friend, I decided I wanted to attempt the gauntlet of watching the entire franchise from beginning to end, revisiting favorites and finally checking out the ones I missed. Media and fandom studies are my passion, after all, and Star Trek is a foundational part of modern American nerd culture.

Starting with the original series proved more difficult than expected. Living in a tiny apartment, we don’t have much space for DVDs, so Star Trek wasn’t in our existing collection. The local public library didn’t have copies, either, and putting in a purchase request doesn’t guarantee it will be made available. My family doesn’t have the funds to pay for every single streaming service on the market, and Star Trek isn’t available on any we do have access to. Piracy was starting to look like the only option, but even that fell flat when we couldn’t find a version with subtitles. Finally we dug it up officially and with subtitles, for free via PlutoTV, but there were still limitations: PlutoTV only streams season one, and season one is only available in the remastered edition that replaced the original special effects with new visuals.

It wasn’t ideal, but, hey, it was Star Trek.

Watching just one episode a week gave us enough time to scrape together savings to get what we really wanted for seasons two and three: the official BluRay release, which includes both remastered and original-release versions of each episode. The remasters are fine, but as a lover of media history and practical effects, I’m always disappointed to lose a chance to appreciate the originals. It doesn’t matter how good it might look, remasters are never as much fun to me as matte paintings, camera tricks, and whatever the prop department could pull off with ten dollars and some glue.

Finally having the BluRays in hand for season two only affirmed my love of vintage practical effects. Seeing the Enterprise in her original glory, before she was ever rendered in digital form, felt like opening a time capsule. I love time capsules. My favorite pieces of media are always those which capture a moment in time, showcasing the aesthetics, concerns, and culture of the time and place they were created. Star Trek: the Original Series is rooted in the late sixties, when mainstream culture in the United States was experiencing immense upheaval and social change. That context is written all over the show. The vintage effects add to it, grounding it in a very specific time and place. Updating the show’s effects takes away some of that 60s aesthetic, and while some may see it as making the show more timeless, I don’t care for it. To me, seeing what they could pull off before modern technology is half the fun of watching old shows. The ingenuity and creativity of propmakers, makeup artists, and set designers working on shoestring budgets is unparalleled.

To be clear, digital effects are also done by skilled professionals who deserve much more respect and many more labor protections. There are some truly stunning works created with digital tools. That said, I hate when digital effects are used to cover up the practical effects that came before. It feels disrespectful to the original artists, as if telling them their work wasn’t good enough; as if their work was just a placeholder until something better could come along and fix it. Practical effects aren’t a placeholder, they’re an art form in their own right, and that art form is one for which I have deep appreciation.

It frustrates me that the original, non-remastered episodes were such a pain for us to access, but I’m very glad to have added them to my personal media collection. No matter what future tweaks Star Trek’s rights holders might make, I can always pop in our personal copies to enjoy the Enterprise and her crew in all their vintage, “outdated” glory. If you’re also too young to remember the show’s original airing, and you have the opportunity to watch the unedited version, I highly suggest you do. Watching the version that aired in 1966 gives the show a charm that no amount of remastering can ever match.

_

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[renthony]

#the remastered enterprise is NOT my beautiful home or my beautiful wife

Holy shit, Captain Kirk has a tumblr.

[jedda-martele]

Aside from all the issues of preservation and access this brings up, I’m most reminded of an episode of Reading Rainbow. Levar Burton, who was both hosting that show and playing Geordi in Next Gen at the time, spent a whole episode showing kids how making Star Trek worked. The part I remember best is the special effects. Because the models shown for the ships were so cool and learning that the transporter effect was done with glitter in a tube of water was so fascinating. Anyway, yeah there’s a real charm to those effects and the drive to make everything look like it’s properly modern for re-releases is so often poorly thought through.

[angelwalking]

(source) its so funny how actual Greek and Homeric scholars are talking about this movie vs the fact that people on tumblr are acting like Nolan personally dug up Homer's actual bones and pissed on them

[jraker4]

For me the example of this was, when watching the film (thought it was pretty goddamned good), I got to the point where we see Agamemnon and that armor. I was already enjoying it, I'll admit, so I was probably primed to be more flexible in my response...but when I saw the trailer I thought, 'Holy shit does that look stupid,' on seeing exactly the same character in exactly the same armor. Sitting in the theater, though, watching, I saw it and realized at once, 'This is stylized. This is an interpretation of Agamemnon, and it's not an accident he looks like menacing power, threatening and indifferent and extremely dangerous. He doesn't look like the other characters because his worldly power isn't like the other characters.' I've got a layman's familiarity with how stupid the notion that there is a single 'canon' Odyssey is, but I hadn't expected to change my mind about that character in that armor so much.

[vaspider]

tbh the thing I thought

...when I saw him walk through the gates of Troy was:

And then

... which, uh. I had been wondering since I saw the Trojan armor for the first time.

[heckyeahponyscans]

I watched the live action version of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" on Youtube and I was not ready for the utter lack of emotions from the CGI animals.

Nala looking concerned about Simba hiding something about his past, a comparison:

Also, in CGI this song called "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" does not take place at night.

[naamahdarling]

[ryan-sometimes]

LMAOOOO

[furnishedfurnace]

"I have a problem with my trans son. Not because he's trans, but because he inhaled all our food like fucking Kirby."

[aromanticduck]

Free service with ads: Well, if I'm not paying for it they have to foot the bill somehow.

Paid service with no ads: Well, if they're not funding it with ad revenue, they need to charge us something.

Paid service with ads: Well that's bullshit.

"We used to be a paid service without ads, but now we're putting ads in it! If you want the ad-free version you have to pay more for preeeeemium": Fuck you fuck you fuck you

[juststarsandthemoon]

Free service with no ads: Okay so these guys are stealing my data

[mistakenot4892]

They're all stealing your data.

[fuck-customers]

[magnetictapedatastorage]

I Watched a 55-Year-Old Law Break the AI Hiring Industry — And It Was Overdue

The Eightfold AI lawsuit exposed what happens when companies treat employment decisions like ad targeting — and why the fix requires enginee

a bit more context

[bitchesgetriches]

Oh hey, it's yet more reasons why AI is ruining the job market. We wrote a bit about this in our most recent piece:

[directactionforhope]

Oh hey reason number 20 million not to use AI:

xAI has open-sourced Grok Build after backlash over secretly uploading users’ repositories

xAI has released the full source code of Grok Build, its AI coding agent, after Cereblab researchers found that the tool was uploading users’ entire Git repositories to company controlled Google Cloud storage. The transferred data could include sensitive files such as SSH keys, password databases, private documents, and photos. xAI disabled the file upload feature and said data storage had been turned off by default since July 12. Elon Musk also stated that previously uploaded user data would be permanently deleted and promised to open source the project after a security audit. The code is now available on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license, although it was published as a single commit without previous Git history or pull requests. The codebase contains approximately 844,530 lines of Rust covering Grok Build’s core agent workflow, tools, terminal interface, and plugin system. Code related to the disabled upload feature remains in the repository. Grok Build can read repository configurations, plan tasks, generate or modify code, execute shell commands, run in automated pipelines, and integrate with editors through the Agent Client Protocol.

Anyway, PSA for programmers and anyone who uses Git! Apparently Elon Musk has been stealing all your stuff, including your security keys and passwords, so uh. well I am not a programmer but you might want to Move That Shit

[bigboysdrinkmilk]

Why is there a diarrhea parasite outbreak in America?

Because Donald Trump and his Republican allies cut funding to disease prevention and control.

Why is measles back in America?

Because Donald Trump and his Republican allies, including RFK Jr, cut vaccine and measles prevention funding and programs.

Why is the New World Screwworm infecting cattle in Texas, when it had previously been eliminated from the area?

Because Donald Trump and his Republican allies, including Elon Musk, cut USAID funding, which in part worked to monitor and prevent screwworm outbreaks.

Why was there a flu outbreak in our armed forces?

Because Donald Trump and his Republican allies, including Pete Hegseth, cut vaccination requirements for our armed forces, putting all of them at risk alongside our military readiness.

What contributed to the Covid outbreak?

Donald Trump and his Republican allies cut funding to a pandemic prevention program in his first term because Barack Obama had created it.

“America first” sends its regards. Trump voters, please learn your lesson. And if you don’t, it’ll be taught to you again with yet another diarrhea outbreak.

[bigboysdrinkmilk]

[vaspider]

Please give credit to Matthew Cortland, the disabled lawyer and activist whose work is reflected in that last screenshot. They work hard on documenting what Trump and his cronies have been doing & they deserve credit.

[nchntd]

In the club

[vacuously-true]

I think I’m literally never gonna be sick of this masterpiece. I think watching it on a loop for eight hours could fix me. Dancing’s what clears my soul. Dancing’s what makes me whole.

[dimmadoome]

I just love that this very video is an accumulation of thousands of years worth of art made by people who have never met each other. The concept of this video was so completely unfathomable to every single artist who made the sculptures and yet they’ve all put something toward the creation of it.

[i-restuff]

ITS BACK ON MY TIMELINE