i will ALWAYS go up to bat for the academic necessity of KYM. memes have become such an important cultural language in the past decade and losing the origins of these neo-idioms would be such a tremendous and needless loss.
Diana Wynne Jones wins big once again for understanding that the funniest way to write an isekai/portal fantasy is from the point of view of the people living in the fantasy world who look at the character who got isekai’d from our world and are like ‘WHAT is that guy’s deal???’
Howl/Howell stumbling back into his moving castle drunk after a night with his rugby bros is like the second funniest scene in that book, closely followed by poor Sophie getting reverse isekai’d and taking a day trip to Wales and suffering the terrible ordeal of a ride in a car.
Yes there is a musical!!! And it’s based entirely on the book!!!!!!!!
It was only staged twice at the seattle book-it theater which very sadly shut down due to the pandemic, but you can find most of the songs on the composer Justin Huertas’ YouTube channel and support him on patreon (maybe one day he’ll finally release a fully recorded concept album). Every song is beautiful but sophie’s song about the flowers brings me to tears every time.
Also please join me in begging him to finally upload the witch’s song because it’s my favorite from the musical (I saw both productions with a group of friends) and he still hasn’t posted it on YouTube.
Here’s a post I made about the musical previously with more details, but I’ll just add this one photo from the second production of Sophie Howl and Michael in the reverse isekai trip to wales scene:
A few years ago i asked people to send in their computer questions so that I could answer them all in one go and hopefully have a reference to use to point to and I started writing it and it almost immediately became clear that the overwhelming majority of the questions were about password managers, so I started writing a password manager guide. Since I've started writing that guide I've answered most of the questions in the guide probably about every other month because these are definitely still the questions that people have.
So yeah i think that just got bumped to the top of the list again.
been mainlining mythbusters episodes while i work on art stuff and this bit where they attempt to test sneakily entering a building through the air ducts caught me deliriously off guard
"ʻAlalā are found nowhere else on Earth, and their existence is essential in Hawaiʻi," conservation group said.
Source and more details below. Thanks for posting, OP!
"The rare ʻalalā Hawaiian crow was successfully reintroduced into the wild in Maui more than 20 years after being declared extinct [in the wild], officials announced Wednesday, December 4, 2024.
Why it matters: "ʻAlalā are found nowhere else on Earth, and their existence is essential in Hawaiʻi," per a statement from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, which worked to reintroduce the crows. "As they fly from tree to tree, these corvids disperse seeds that help grow new trees and restore native forests."
ʻAlalā "also help provide food and shelter for other indigenous wildlife that share their island," according to the the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. "Their very presence supports and even propagates their ecosystem's rich biodiversity."
The big picture: The endangered ʻalalā are sacred in Hawaiian culture and regarded as spiritual family guardians, per the Hawaiin Department of Land and Natural Resources.
They went extinct in the wild in 2002 and earlier attempts to reintroduce these intelligent birds — one of only two corvid species known to use twigs as tools to reach food — were unsuccessful.
Conservationists have now declared the introduction of five Hawaiian crows to Maui's Kīpahulu Forest Reserve last month a success so far.
What they did: "To prepare, experts raised the two females and three males in a social group to strengthen their relationship-building skills," according to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
"This approach helped the ʻalalā practice how they'd depend on each other, giving them every opportunity to succeed in native habitats. Teams also worked closely on prerelease assessments, looking at how the birds were likely to respond to predators and how they'd seek native foods like insects and fruits."
The crows were then transferred from the Maui Bird Conservation Center to a temporary field aviary on the slopes of Haleakalā before being released.
Stunning stat: There were fewer than 20 ʻalalā in the late 1990s. Now, there are more than 110 individuals due to conservation efforts.
What we're watching: "The endgame is to get to a self-sustaining population on Hawaii Island," said Michelle Bogardus, a deputy field supervisor at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to the Washington Post. "The ʻalalā are part of the natural and cultural fabric of Hawaii Island, and they belong there.""
I'm gonna reblog with some videos of people speaking various American Indian/indigenous American languages, because I think most people don't even know what they sound like. Not to be judgement of that—just, you know, I think people who want to be informed should know what they sound like!
There's a ton of material in Greenlandic on YouTube, but it's hard for me to find, because the titles and other metadata are also in Greenlandic! Of course, this represents a huge win for the language, since this is a biproduct of being in vibrant use by a community of speakers. Greenlandic has been an official language of the territory of Greenland since 1979, and the sole official language since 2009.
Here are some proceedings of the Greenlandic parliament, the Inatsisartut, which are conducted in Greenlandic.
Here is a radio show in Greenlandic, from Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa.
And here is a video of Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, Greenlandic MP in the Danish parliament (Folketing), causing some upset by speaking in Greenlandic instead of Danish.
theartofmadeline
romaincrisis
kianamaiart
andulkaphoto
gummygunk
