This Black History Month, reflect for a moment on the fact that George Washington Carver, famously "the inventor of peanut butter and more than 100 industrial uses for peanuts" wasn't, like, Doc Brown fucking around in his garage because he really liked peanuts but was specifically trying to introduce larger use of a nitrogen fixing legume into crop rotations against cotton monoculture which was destroying yields, livelihoods and the biosphere, and how most agribusiness farming now just destroys that topsoil on purpose and continues to grow a cotton monoculture (or soy or corn or whichever local monoculture is profitable) using petrochemical derived fertilizer, which is one element driving climate change
Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful heart surgery. He also founded the first nonsegregated hospital in America because he was keenly aware of disparate health outcomes by race which is still a problem today.
WEB Dubois was a part of the delegations for the birth of the UN. His proposal to include in the charter that "the colonial system of government … is undemocratic, socially dangerous and a main cause of wars" was not adapted for the final draft. We might see inaction against colonial violence to this day as part of the failure of others to heed his warnings there.
I feel like so often when we look at Black History Month so much of it is driven by factoids but when taken as history in context its about a direct line from decades and centuries to what is happening right now.
what kills a part of my heart everytime is that civilisation literally started and flourished in these places. these cities where once centres of knowledge and beauty and art and so, so much more. people would travel the globe to learn at the hands of the scholars and artisans and go on pilgrimages and live together as one.
but we are reduced to either terrorists, extremists, always at war with eachother. we are dehumanised, seen as savages and illiterate desert dwellers. shame on you all for your ignorance and the discrimination it breeds.
how dare you accept and allow such abhorrent crimes to be committed against your brothers and sisters in humanity? what has become of the sanctity of life? of divine and man made laws?
This Tektronix 4051 vector terminal is absolutely gorgeous. But upon closer inspection, it's also been moused. As in mouse-infested. One of the unfortunate commonalities if vintage computing is that sometimes a long-abandoned machine in a basement or attic becomes a rodent nest, and mouse piss is corrosive, not to mention a ☠health hazard☠. Far too often, this has resulted in a machine with nasty internals, and in this case, it happened to a terminal far too valuable and cool to give up on.
Solution? BLAST IT WITH THE HOSE
A little bit of suds and some rinsing off later, and this machine will be ready for a complete tear-down, and hopefully, repair.
These images come courtesy of my friend CJ. He braved this nasty situation with the intent to repair an uncommon machine, and I wish him luck!
Walking around my neighborhood wearing my sick as fuck custom T-shirt that says "I STEAL EVERY FRIENDLY CAT I MEET WITH NO REMORSE I DO IT ALL THE TIME DON'T CALL IT A COMEBACK I BEEN HERE FOR YEARS KEEP THAT BEAST ENCLOSED LEST YE FACE MY LIGHTNING CAT GRASP" and smiling politely while my neighbors' indoor-outdoor cats gently trot down the sidewalk towards me as the neighbors themselves read my shirt with a growing sense of panic.
Unfollow me for cat theft all you want. You'll never catch me and you'll never stop me. Those things are this season's must-have lipgloss in an understaffed Sephora, and baby? I'm a middle-class teenage girl who's not getting enough attention at home...
People in the notes keep saying, "This is just another reason you should keep your cats inside," and I know they just mean the fact that someone in general could steal them, but I like to think they all mean that you gotta watch out for me specifically. Because you do. I'm everywhere. And I'm fast.
nothing inherently wrong with fetish art btw but trying to slap the fetish tag into art of trans people who don't conform to gender or societal norms because they are actively depicting themselves as desirable instead of bad is inherently transphobic and puritanical.
I depict GNC trans people in my art because they are often ignored, transfems with flatter chest, facial hair and body hair, trans guys who have breast and are not on T. they/we exist and I want to depict them as desirable and well loved.
Amidst all the images coming out of palestine of death and destruction created by the zionist occupation, i think it is important that we take a moment to remember palestine as it was- seen and captured through the eyes of talented photographers like Shahed @shahednhall and remember exactly what was senselessly lost in the past few months.
This is Al-Azhar university, where Shahed used to study. She was an exemplary student, and used to get regularly invited by her teachers to give lectures.
Since the university was bombed and destroyed by the IOF, all she has left are these pictures. Even through all the violence and death around her though, she still makes sure to keep up with her studies through the university's online programme.
This is a shop Shahed had visited only some time before october. She told me it was run by an artist who painted these beautiful home items, and engraved them by hand with customers names. Shahed had photographed them because they were so eye-catching and beautiful, and had sent the woman her photos so she could use them to promote the shop.
Shahed has told me this shop isnt there any more. She is currently trying to get in touch with the woman who used to run this shop again, but shahed doesn't know if she is even alive or not.
Shahed has an eye for beauty in all things, and it shows in her work and in conversation. It has taken on a different meaning now when so much of everything she knows has been stolen by the occupation from her and other palestinians like her.
In her own words:
"As you know, I like to photograph a lot, everyone liked my photography. I was filming everything because a memory can never come back again. This sentence is not understood by many. I am happy because I photograph everything."
What had been a hobby of collecting moments for her has now become something of an archive of all the things in Palestine that have been lost to the zionist occupation.
Shahed's outlook on her photography tends to colour our conversation as well. She finds it is more productive to talk to me about her hope for a better future, rather than all the bleakness around her right now.
"Yes, because I see inside every picture of new hope, I feel a great motivation that I will survive to see that life is more beautiful than what I live at the moment. I seek to return to a life that is more beautiful than the one we live now, a very difficult life because it has turned black and white."
I don't know how anyone can look at her photos and think of anything but hope
The mainstream media in the west and elsewhere can lie all they like- but we will know always that palestine was and is a land full of beautiful people. Never forget that the death, illness and destruction in palestine today was something imposed upon them by the colonizers, and has been imposed upon them for decades.
Shahed doesn't like to share images of misery with me, but please remember that she and her family are suffering right now. The happy children in the pictures, her little sisters, are suffering from severe hepatitis and are no longer recieving treatment due to overcrowding at what hospitals are left in gaza. Shahed herself has been weak and ill for days, narrowly surviving multiple massacres in just the past few days while trying to get food for her family. They all got displaced just last week due to the intense bombing in khan younis, and in doing so have lost precious funds that could have gone into food and clean water. They are starving.
Shahed is only 21 years old but the responsibility of taking care of all 17 of her family members rests solely on her shoulders.
TIME IS RUNNING OUT. PLEASE HELP SHAHED EVACUATE HER FAMILY TO SAFETY.
She has only gotten $47k/80k, and she needs to get to $50k within this week.
Have you ever experienced seeing your dream broken in front of your eyes and not being able to do … Shahed Muhammad needs your support for H
This gfm was verified and appears on hussein @/el-shab-hussein and nairuz @/nabulsi list of vetted fundraisers (#224) so please dont hesitate to donate whatever you can, and please keep sharing!!!
Take this as a call to action, please repost her her fundraiser in your discord servers, in your whatsapp groups. Repost her photgraphy and share her story on whatever social media you have reach, so that people can help because i really cant get her to her goal in time alone.
As we near shaheds short term goal of 50k, donations have already started to die down and i am sorry to say this but that CANNOT stand.
SHAHED NEEDS TO RAISE THE REST OF THE 80K AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. MAYBE EVEN WITHIN THE NEXT WEEK
This is because she has informed me that while she has already registered her siblings and father for evacuation with the hala travel agency in egypt, she has struck a deal with the travel coordinators that if she is able to collect the rest of the amount soon then the rest of the family can be evacuated together as well.
With seventeen family members, adults being priced at $5k per ticket and children at $2.5k, shahed needs to raise nearly $70,000 for their travel fee and then another 10k to account for the exorbitant commission (upto 30%) that gazan bankers demand to do the wire transfer of the money to gaza.
I know i have been saying this for weeks now, but the situation really is beyond desperate. If shahed isnt able to scrounge up these funds in time for when the egyptian border opens, most of her family including herself will have to stay behind and miss this chance to get out of gaza when they still can. And with tensions being escalated everywhere by the zionist occupation, we dont know when they will get a chance like this again.
Shahed has told me it is likely she wont be able to be online as much soon because even after getting displaced again, the bombing has followed her there too. Network outages will be expected, and i genuinely worry about when i might hear from her again. She is very sick, and very tired as well. I am really scared for her. Please dont let her go now, she needs help now more than ever.
Please spare any amount you can, and please keep sharing her fundraiser wherever you have reach outside of tumblr too. We cannot rest, and i really need you to lend me a hand in sharing her fundraiser cause again i cant do this on my own, and we cannot afford to fail her when we have gotten her so far.
Hey. I know it's easy to fire up some generative AI art for a thing™️. Here's my suggestion: don't.
In fact, draw it shittily. Photoshop it shittily from some stock photos. ms-paint that shit if you have to. I don't care, just... fucking try for 2 fucking seconds. Please.
I will respect you more for a half-assed doodle on the back of a napkin than I will if you no-ass it by employing the soulless automated plagerism machine to depict the thing you wanted to depict.
Oh, you wanted it good? Hire a damned artist. And then pay them for the effort.
i hate these motherfuckers so much. our sewer system used to be infested with them. they;d crawl out of my fucking toilet at night looking for warmth, standing up from the bowl waving their shitass little arms at me. they don’t have eyes but you can feel them staring back at you, asking for hugs or god knows what with that pathetic whine that permeates their entire way of existence. uppies! uppies! i’m not giving you uppies you wet toilet freak
everyone shut up. none of this election shit even matters. it doesnt matter who's president of the empire because its still the empire.
what matters most right now is doing everything we can to help the victims of this empire regain their dignity and their lives, starting with these five palestinians in gaza:
Siraj @siraj2024
[LINK]
Siraj is a father of three. He and his family have narrowly escaped TWO massacres in southern Gaza in the past week. His family now lives in unsafe conditions in a tent described as "a convection oven". They NEED to rebuild their home as soon as possible in order to have a safe place to live amidst Israeli bombardment.
His short-term goal for THIS WEEK is $10k CAD and he just passed $8k CAD.
[Line 219 on Nairuz and Hussein's Vetted Fundraiser List]
Wafaa @wafans-blog:
[LINK]
Wafaa is a mother and grandmother with a family of 15 people. She escaped to Egypt five months ago but couldn't take her family with her. Since then she has been working tirelessly across three platforms (Instagram, Tiktok, Tumblr) to raise money for her family. Her daughter and niece were both martyred recently and her infant grandson is facing malnutrition. Her last Tumblr account was terminated and she has been getting accused of being a scammer.
Her goal is €50k and she is currently at €40k.
@journalsforpalestine is running a raffle for Wafaa.
[Line 171 on Nairuz and Hussein's Vetted Fundraiser List]
Shahed @shahednhall:
[LINK]
Shahed is a 21 year old college student and photographer. She is the sole provider for her family, including her father (a heart patient) and five younger siblings (including youngest who is an infant). Her sisters have severe hepatitis and urgently need medical care that is no longer available in Gaza and need to evacuate as soon as they get the chance.
Her short term goal FOR THIS WEEK is $30k and she just crossed $20k.
@journalsforpalestineis running a raffle for Shahed.
[Line #224 on Nairuz and Hussein's Spreadsheet.]
Hazem @hazemfromgaza:
[LINK]
Hazem Tannera escaped to Cairo in April but was separated from his family in the process. They are 10 people, including his parents, siblings, and 3 children. He is fundraising to help them evacuate as soon as the Rafah crossing opens with his friend in Jordan.
His goal is £80k and he is nowhere near it. He's at ~£6k.
[He has been endorsed by 90-ghost and I have spoken to him.]
Ahmed @ahmedabuyamin:
[LINK]
Ahmed Alanqar and his wife Dina Alanqar are parents to 4 very young children including one newborn girl, Sawsan, who they welcomed into the world at the only maternal care facility in Nuseirat, just last month.
They are very close to their goal! €34k of €39.5k!!
do you ever tell people you’ll be going to sleep but then you don’t and you have to not do anything noticable online for the sake of it seeming as if you didn’t lie to them
