Thot Experiment: just run at it screaming

[theconcealedweapon]

[depsidase]

[igottatho-deactivated20250417]

It was said by Resmaa Menakem, and the full quote is: “Trauma decontextualized in a person can look like personality. Trauma decontextualized in a family can look like family traits. Trauma in a people can look like culture.”

This quote was taken from a podcast interview which Menakem participated in, which you can find here.

I highly recommend “My Grandmother’s Hands” for more of his thoughtful and nuanced words.

[cat-mermaid]

ooo ooo this feels like the same flavor of thing as that story about:

except that in the version i read, it was a guy asking the generations of women in a family why they cut off the ends, and the great grandma answered that it was because when she was young her family was so poor and didn't have a big enough oven to fit the entire ham in

the point was that often if you go back far enough, the origin of bizarre, backwards and even harmful traditions/rules of society were often the result of people in that time period making the best of what they had, not because they thought it was the "right" way

the family in this story now has a big enough oven to fit the whole ass ham but its tradition to cut off the ends, its just how its done and the crazy part is that two fucking generations removed don't even know why but they do it without questioning it because thats. how. we've. always. done. it.

so yeah i feel like this melds very nicely with the whole "Trauma in a people can look like culture" thing

[existennialmemes]

I don't think it's unreasonable for our public officials to be expected to prove they're alive and not in a coma to be able to retain their office.

If someone were, as a random example, say hospitalized for over two weeks with no explanation, I think that should automatically trigger a special election to replace them.

If you're still able to do your job, then prove it. And if you're not, then you're actively obstructing democracy by not stepping down.

Which is to say, that if a public official were to pass away or into a coma, and their handlers choose to obfuscate that fact, this should be seen as intentionally obstructing democracy.

And there should be, you know, consequences for the people who would do such a thing.

[thepeacefulgarden]

[mens-rights-activia]

New York City is about a lot of things. One of those things is seeing the upper limit for the size a rat can be and that limit is larger than you’d expect

[spacepsychologist]

[healingmachinewithskeletoninside]

I don't think they exist

[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.]

[whydidisavethistomyphone]

[siena-sevenwits]

Hey everyone, looks like the “cat summoned for jury duty” was ai generated - even has the ai symbol at the top. Thanks for the heads up, @cannot-all-throw-inkpots . My apologies- I did not realize when I shared it.

[theriu]

Aww dangit. Guess that makes sense, but it was so believable because I can 100% see that kind of goofup happening

[theriu]

Some positive news: There really WAS a cat summoned for jury duty back in 2010. Turns out the error was quickly corrected and the cat did NOT actually have to travel to the courthouse. But at least we can enjoy the fact that a papereork glitch did once try to give a cat jury duty XD

[penandinkprincess]

this is me just talking out of my own observations and has no research behind it (and is coming from an american pov so your mileage might vary), but i feel like one of the reasons diet culture is SO entrenched and powerful is because christianity is so soaked into mainstream culture as well.

like yeah of COURSE your body is inherently an enemy to master. that's the original sin lazy weakness in you. of course you have to go to the gym and work out until it hurts and you feel sick, especially if you sinned indulged with something of the devil bad for you. you have to repent burn those calories off.

and you have things like gwen shamblin and her weigh down workshop where the link between the two is blatant and disordered eating got a shiny rebrand as spiritual mindfulness, but even out of christian program contexts, i feel like the entire mindset of, "punish and control your body because you can't trust it and pleasure is bad for you and means you're doing something wrong" is SO fucking christian in origin even when the serial numbers have been filed off and replaced with a weight watchers logo.

[dogpuppy]

[kosmogrl]

Dont blame yourself for not having known a lesson only time could teach

[blackjame]

Madison Square Garden sues Wired over article alleging celebrity 'risk scores'

Madison Square Garden filed a defamation lawsuit against Wired Magazine over story claiming the arena tracked and assigned risk scores to ce

Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities

An MSG database tracked and categorized hundreds of celebs, famous Knicks superfans, and even some of Taylor Swift’s wedding guests. Labels

The Shocking Secrets of Madison Square Garden’s Surveillance Machine

Famously vengeful Knicks owner Jim Dolan has long spied on people at his iconic arenas. WIRED goes deep inside the operation that allegedly

Madison Square Garden Has Been Secretly Tracking Queer Musicians

The venue’s database also assigned a “high risk” label to Freddie Gibbs, Lil Jon, and other rappers

Madison Square Garden Allegedly Marked Celebs as “LGBTQIA” in Surveillance Database

New reports from 404 Media and Wired reveal a database that allegedly categorized 93 celebrity guests as “LGBTQIA.”

MSG is suing Wired over recent surveillance article

Paste Magazine is your source for the best music, movies, TV, comedy, videogames, books, comics, craft beer, politics and more. Discover you

[enbyzombies2]

[text:

Yesterday, WIRED learned that Madison Square Garden was suing us for our accurate reporting.

We stand by our reporting. That's why we're removing the paywall from two of the MSG stories they don't want you to read, making them free for everyone.

/end id]

[thepeacefulgarden]

[starrynet]

that’s his little guy!!

[littleguysdaily]

I wish I had what they have...

[lifeafterpsychiatry]

Think about why you love your friends. What comes to mind first? It probably isn't things like "I love how they have a job" or "I love how they get good grades." Instead you might be thinking about their compassion, their sense of humor, their perspective, their passion, their values, their mindset/attitude or their intelligence. So don't let yourself or anyone else reduce your worth to your productivity alone. We're all far more than that!

[venndaai]

have you guys heard about the greenland shark. some crazy shit happening there.

[venndaai]

they are sexually mature at ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OLD.

their (live!) young gestate for. wait for it. eight to eighteen (??) YEARS. can have up to 10 at a time. good grief.

longest lifespan of any vertebrate, up to five hundred years

toxic flesh

has giant eyes but is usually blind because of a weird little crustacean that's evolved to live on and eat their eyes. this doesn't seem to bother them much.

lives in deep cold water and has the lowest swim speed and tail-beat frequency for its size across all fish species. just generally lives life in extreme slow motion

largest genome of any shark

eats everything including moose and polar bears

ma'am you are delightfully strange and I'm privileged to share a planet with you

[fluorescentbrains]

this post prompted me to refresh my memory on Greenland Shark Facts and this detail about how they feed goes so hard

just vacuuming up their unsuspecting prey. whole !

[muffinlance]

Good news good news good news! Recent research suggests the eye parasites do NOT blind them!

Eye-opening research: Greenland sharks maintain vision for centuries through DNA repair mechanism

Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk sits in her office, eyes fixed on the computer monitor in front of her. "You see it move its eye," says the UC Ir

I <3 you a normal amount Greenland sharks

[softhe4rted]

self-compassion: an antidote to shame mb