[spiteswallow]

I humbly suggest that true crime freaks should get into learning about scammers instead of serial killers. I LOVE reading about fraud and grifts and pyramid schemes. true crime ppl have all this paranoid energy about murder, which is rare in the grand scheme of things.....maybe instead that could be channeled into some productive rage toward capitalism.

[spiteswallow]

And u know a side effect of learning about scam artists is that you start to understand certain things about economics, and just how STUPID these systems are and how easily they are taken advantage of....and I'd much rather people gained a passing familiarity with economics than whatever armchair psychologist shit these true crimers get on. We need fewer people who think they're experts on "sociopaths" and more people who understand how people like Elizabeth Holmes and the WeWork guy were able to do what they did

[lindstromm]

Here are some of my favorite books about financial scams:

The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust by Diana B. Henriques.

The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis (about the 2008 stock market collapse).

The Caesar's Palace Coup: How a Billionaire Brawl Over the Famous Casino Exposed the Corruption of the Private Equity Industry by Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap. (I admit I've never finished this one; the writing is hard to read.)

The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute, by Zac Bissonette. I bought this book because of the subtitle and I have never regretted it. You must read it.

Catch Me If You Can by Frank Abagnale. They turned this one into a movie! The book was very different and is worth reading.

The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion, by Elliot Brown and Maureen Farrell. I haven't read this one yet, but it's on my tbr pile!

Opus: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy Inside the Catholic Church, by Gareth Gore. I'm reading this one right now. The author is a financial journalist who stumbled onto this story by unraveling a bank failure in Spain.

And here's a list of more non-fiction books about fraud and financial scams. The first book on this list is about Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, which I also haven't read yet.

Enjoy!

[rederiswrites]

There really really ought to be a book about how the staple crops of different civilizations shape and influence those civilizations, and I really want to read it.

[alexseanchai]

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky and A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (three are alcohol, three have caffeine) are not quite that, but may still be of interest?

[rederiswrites]

I read Salt back in the day and it's so so good, second the rec. I have heard of 6 Glasses and not read it but I am sure I would probably love it. Gotta see if the library has it. Thank you!

[pandorasquillandquotes]

Gonna throw Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert in the ring here! You'll never see the modern world the same way again.

[vaspider]

A Short History Of The World According To Sheep by Sally Coulthard blew my mind. So many things are tied to wool and sheep and weaving and so many words and phrases are tied to wool, people have no idea.

Example words which come from textiles/weaving, if not specifically wool (go look them up!): subtle, shoddy, tabby, Brazil, rocket, twit, warped, going batty, on tenterhooks, text...

[foxofninetales]

I'll throw in a rec for Pickled, Potted, and Canned by Sue Shephard - a very interesting look at food preservation and how the availability of different types of food preservation shaped cultures and cuisines.

[electronsprotonscroutons]

Sweetness and Power is this but for the topic of sugar

[magneticdeclination]

The Lost Supper: Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past might also be up your alley. It's about "forgotten" foods and staples. They talk about different types of wheat, sauces, veggies, etc and a little about the cultures from whence they come

[doctornerdington]

Also: Much Depends on Dinner by Margaret Visser. One of my favourite books.

[bitchwhoyoukiddin]

DO I HAVE A SERIES FOR YOU. University of California Press has a gift for you and it is a 80+ book series on food studies. There are even some that are open access (legally free), but the rest are in libraries.

I also highly recommend Frostbite by Nicola Twilley. It’s about the impact refrigeration has had/is having on food preservation and culture, globally. It was one of my favorite books of this last year.

[calystarose]

Also, The Rice Theory of Culture https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1172&context=orpc By Thomas Talhelm

[ariaste]

Can't believe no one's mentioned Consider the Fork yet, which is about how environment/resources shape our ways of eating, which shapes both our culture and our concepts of politeness. So interesting, really recommend!

[great-art-and-a-purple-tongue]

Seven Flowers and How They Shaped Our World by Jennifer Potter

It isn't so much about edible plants as it is about decorative ones, but I think it fits the theme of this growing list enough for me to add it.

[the-haiku-bot]

Seven Flowers and

How They Shaped Our World by

Jennifer Potter

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[jodjuya]

A Brief History of Vice by Robert Evans is a good one about psychoactive substances.

[weltenwellen]

I want to buy a lot of poetry books for myself and your blog has given me tons of good authors to look up. What do you think are some essential books to read for a confused person all alone in the world?

Ada Limón, Bright Dead Things

Richard Siken, Crush & War of the Foxes

Alejandra Pizarnik, Extracting the Stone of Madness: Poems 1962 - 1972

Mary Oliver, Devotions & Red Bird & House of Light

Louise Glück, Poems 1962-2012

Octavio Paz, The Poems of Octavio Paz

Wislawa Szymborska, View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems

Marina Tsvetaeva, Bride of Ice: New Selected Poems

Fernando Pessoa, A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems & Poems of Fernando Pessoa

Adonis, Transformations Of The Lover & Selected Poems

Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Rainer Maria Rilke, The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke & Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

Margaret Atwood, Selected Poems: 1965-1975 & Selected Poems II: 1976 - 1986

E.E. Cummings, E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962

Anna Akhmatova, Selected Poems

Czeslaw Milosz, New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001

Sylvia Plath, Ariel

Tracy K. Smith, Life on Mars

[romanceyourdemons]

i literally had my fingers over the keys to post “fuck my stupid baka life and this gay earth i will NEVER get a chance to watch cantonese opera film princess chang ping (1976) dir john woo” when i discovered that exact film on archive.org

[ruhua-langblr]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and all endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[salvadorbonaparte]

Hey did you know I keep a google drive folder with linguistics and language books  that I try to update regularly 

[salvadorbonaparte]

**UPDATE**

I have restructured the folders to make them easier to use and managed to add almost all languages requested and then some

Please let me know any further suggestions

[salvadorbonaparte]

[clockworktardis]

….holy shit. You found the holy grail.

[kittydesade]

….. is this a DIFFERENT person keeping gigabytes worth of language books on google drive? Holy crap.

[wyvyrn]

This. This here. Is why I love Tumblr.❤️❤️❤️

[bard-llama]

Update from OP:

UPDATE because apparently not everyone has seen this yet the new and improved version of this is a MEGA folder: https://mega.nz/folder/kQBXHKwA#-osWRLNCXAsd62ln8wKa8w

2411 files and 819 subfolders

[flootzavut]

Holy shit. OP you are a wonderful human being.

[surohsopsisofclouds]

O.O Linguistic Holy Grail…

[alextheweird]

Never not reblog this

[dailyflicks]

I’m sorry. I know some things shouldn’t be seen. But this is the only way I can save her. Incantation (2022) dir. Kevin Ko

[starblaster]

i know hearing people on this website love to pass around those posts with links to free sign language lessons but you know you need to actually put effort into learning about Deaf culture, too, right?

[starblaster]

if you are currently learning ASL, you need to read Introduction to American Deaf Culture by Thomas K. Holcomb

[starblaster]

resources for other Deaf cultures include, but are not limited to:

Black Deaf Culture Through the Lens of History (BASL and ASL-centric)

Understanding Deaf Culture by Paddy Ladd (which can also be found on archive.org)

Many Ways to Be Deaf: International Variation in Deaf Communities

the British Deaf Association website

directory for Deaf Australia’s “Our Deaf Ways” video podcast (presented in Auslan with audio from an interpreter and accurate closed captioning for all episodes)

The Irish Deaf Community by Patrick A. Matthews

Breaking the Silence: The Education of the Deaf in Ireland, 1816-1996

the Canadian Deaf Culture Center website

History of Hawai'i Sign Language and Hawai'i Deaf People by Barbara Earth, with Linda Lambrecht

‘We did it ourselves’: The Deaf Social Movement and the Quest for the Legal Recognition of the Libras Sign Language in Brazil

[amiibo-king]

it's come to my attention that a lot of people don't know about bluemaxima's flashpoint and genuinely think they'll never be able to play their favorite 00s internet games ever again so i just want to remind everyone that flashpoint is a huge internet flash game preservation project that allows you to play just about any internet flash game/animation despite the death of flash. if they've got it in their database (and they probably do) you can play it. go forth and drink in the 00s nostalgia

even if you think there's no way they'll have the game u want. they probably do anyway. when i first downloaded flashpoint i thought for sure theres no way they will have the obscure flash game i played for hours as a kid that was only even available on the internet for like 2 months in 2006. but you know what. they had it. seriously, download flashpoint

[trainstationgoodbye]

We’ll live through the long, long days, and through the long nights. We’ll patiently endure the trials that fate sends our way. Even if we can’t rest, we’ll continue to work for others both now and when we have grown old. And when our last hour comes we’ll go quietly.

Drive My Car 2021 dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

[lothringenn]

Entergalactic - 2022

[trainstationgoodbye]

Yam sausages, you see? You grill them… And then slice them and eat them hot. Sounds good, doesn’t it? I would have loved to eat them with you.

Tampopo | タンポポ 1985 dir. Juzo Itami

[trainstationgoodbye]

If you wanna dance the mask, you must service the composer. You gotta sublimate yourself, your ego, and yes, your identity. You must, in fact, stand in front of the public and God and obliterate yourself.

Tár 2022 dir. Todd Field

[rubyvroom]

Free horror films on Youtube: 2021 edition

Around five years ago I made a list of free horror movies you could watch on Youtube. Unfortunately none of the links work anymore and it’s much harder to get full-length films on Youtube these days.

But not impossible! Here is a brand new version with links that work as of 9/21/21 for all your Halloween marathon needs. Some of these are very old movies in public domain, others are just up on Youtube and nobody cares enough to take them down. A few are on Youtube Movies and are free with ads embedded (*). Enjoy!

The Old-School Classics

Nosferatu (original 1922 version)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Faust

The Mummy

Bride of Frankenstein

Phantom of the Opera

Night of the Living Dead

The Innocents

The Brain That Wouldn’t Die

The Blob

70s-80s-90s

The Omen

Black Christmas

Halloween

The Stepford Wives

The Stepfather

Ginger Snaps

Brahm Stoker’s Dracula

Dog Soldiers

Frailty

Horror Around the World

Diabolique

Black Sunday

M

Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog 1979 version)

Hour of the Wolf

Black Sabbath

Suspiria

Vampyr

Haxan : Witchcraft Through the Ages 

Rated V for Vincent Price

The House on Haunted Hill

The Last Man on Earth 

The Pit and the Pendulum 

The Masque of the Red Death

Stephen King made for TV corner:

Sometimes They Come Back

The Stand 

The Tommyknockers

The Langoliers

Storm of the Century

Hammer Films British Horror

The Vampire Lovers

Twins of Evil

Captain Kronos Vampire Hunter

The Evil of Frankenstein

More Older Horror Films That are A little Lesser Known but I Love Them

A Bucket of Blood

Dementia 13

Carnival of Souls

The Lodger 

Lemora: a Child’s Tale of the Supernatural

Some Recent Indie Horror Films You Really Should Really Try

Darling

Coherence

Oculus

Lake Mungo

Triangle

YouTube Films Currently Free with Ads that More or Less Fit the Bill

Trollhunters (*)

Gremlins (*)

The Silence of the Lambs (*)

Addams Family Values (*)

[evandahm]

Hi here’s another list of things I’ve read that are really important to me, on the loose theme of ‘fantasy urbanism.’ I still haven’t read Dhalgren.

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. This is the most essential thing to read if you are even tangentially interested in anything about this list i think. Revelatory to me as a pulpy-literalistic fantasist.

Imaginary Cities by Darran Anderson. Inspired by the Calvino book, an enormous overview of planned or dreamed cities that were never built.

Kalpa Imperial by Angélica Gorodischer. Some of my favorite secondary-world fiction I have ever read. Short stories from the history of an empire at the ludicrous extreme of size, depth, history. The English edition was translated by Ursula K. Le Guin who is my favorite.

A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar. Beautiful book and deals with an invented setting and urban spaces with a more densely intellectual approach than I have ever seen.

Delirious New York by Rem Koolhaas. An architectural history and “retroactive manifesto” for Manhattan, but some of the most interesting bits are about Coney Island in particular. Huge futuristic conflicts underlie every modern city.

The City & the City by China Miéville. This isn’t a lot of people’s favorites of his because its fantastic elements aren’t the loudest, but it’s so smart and bewildering and develops an allegory for emergent social strata in urban spaces that is really compelling.

The Event Factory by Renee Gladman. Just finished this; it feels loose and dreamlike and engages very clearly with real feelings of exploring new spaces, radically repurposing urban environments…

Country of Ghosts by Margaret Killjoy. Not as totally concerned with cities as the rest of the list, but a really exciting and unusual example of worldbuilding from an intentionally political/utopian perspective.

Surregional Explorations by Max Cafard. The first few essays in this book deal with Surrealist and Situationist approaches to urban space and the unconscious of cities; it’s a weird jumbled book but I liked it

[evandahm]

Addenda–

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. Definitely the most overtly allegorical and argumentative of hers that I’ve read, but it’s Le Guin so it’s done in an elegant and narratively engaging way. Modern cities are shown through the perspective of a visitor from an isolated left anarchist community, allowing for intense & emotional engagement with the inhumanity and strangeness of the extremities of urbanism and capitalism in major cities. Also deals with the fastidious class-segregation that is a central throughline in every American city I’ve ever been in.

Times Square Red, Times Square Blue by Samuel R. Delany. Not fiction, but engages with a lot of ideas this list orbits around. Most of the book is a sort of oral history of gay cruising culture in Manhattan in the 70s and 80s– this is developed into a really nuanced theory of urban development and the problems with what I think is called “new urbanism.” Part that sticks with me is the focus on interclass contact in cities and the huge cultural structures constantly being built to discourage it

[hunterschafer]

MIDNIGHT MASS + PAINTINGS

“Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan” - ILYA REPIN “Watchers in The Night” - THOMAS BLACKSHEAR “The Creation of Adam” - MICHELANGELO “Lucifer” - FRANZ STUCK “Pietà” - ANNIBALE CARRACCI

[egberts]

they're making the sims 4 base game free to play for everyone forever next month

[egberts]

it's gonna be free on every platform too, consoles and computers. October 18th

if you've never played or you've always been interested but deterred by the price NOWS YOUR CHANCE

[deactivated-blog]

you can use this tool to get all the dlcs for free, last I checked it works fine on a legal copy

and mods are half the magic. here's how to install them and here's a bunch of gameplay tweaks.

this is just cosmetic stuff but i highly recommend it:

huge directory of cc

noblu/noglo

no white outline

if you find a sims player that you like the style of, check their tumblr for a resources page. they'll often list most of what they use.

have fun and make sure you look for mod updates after each game update

[pansypr3p]

man i love the babes of tumblr*

*people who tell me how to get free shit