Energy Cannot Be Created Or Destroyed

Ren | I've been here too long

[dogpuppy]

[pickledh]

i think about this a hundred times a day

[beemovieerotica]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

[interstellardragon]

I could not go ti work today therefore I draw

[interstellardragon]

I could not go ti work today therefore I draw

[what-even-is-thiss]

I keep hate-reading plague literature from the medieval era, but as depressed as it makes me there is always one historical tidbit that makes me feel a little bittersweet and I like to revisit it. That’s the story of the village of Eyam.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Eyam today is a teeny tiny town of less than a thousand people. It has barely grown since 1665 when its population was around 800.

Where the story starts with Eyam is that in August 1665 the village tailor and his assistant discovered that a bolt of cloth that they had bought from London was infested with rat fleas. A few days later on September 7th the tailor’s assistant George Viccars died from plague.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Back then people didn’t fully understand how disease spread, but they knew in a basic sense that it did spread and that the spread had something to do with the movement of people.

So two religios leaders in the town, Thomas Stanley and William Mompesson, got together and came up with a plan. They would put the entire village of Eyam under quarantine. And they did. For over a year nobody went in and nobody went out.

They put up signs on the edge of town as warning and left money in vinegar filled basins that people from out of town would leave food and supplies by.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Over the 14 months that Eyam was in quarantine 260 out of the 800 residents died of plague. The death toll was high, the cost was great.

However, they did successfully prevent the disease from spreading to the nearby town of Sheffield, even then a much bigger town, and likely saved the lives of thousands of people in the north of England through their sacrifice.

So I really like this story, because it’s a sad story, because it’s also a beautiful story. Instead of fleeing everyone in this one place agreed that they would stay, and they saved thousands of people. They stayed just to save others and I guess it’s one of those good stories about how people have always been people, for better or worse.

[auroranibley]

It gets better.

Here’s the thing. One third of the residents of Eyam died during their quarantine, but the Black Plague was known to have a NINETY PERCENT death rate. As high as the toll was, it wasn’t as high as it should have been. And a few hundred years later, some historians and doctors got to wondering why.

Fortunately, Eyam is one of those wonderful places that really hasn’t changed much in hundreds of years. Researchers, going to visit, found that many of the current residents were direct descendants of the plague survivors from the 1600s. By doing genetic testing, they learned that a high number of Eyam residents carried a gene that made them immune to the plague. And still do.

And it gets even better than that, because the gene that blocks the Black Plague? Also turns out to block AIDS, and was instrumental in helping to find effective medication for people who have HIV and AIDS in the 21st century.

Here is a lovely, well-produced documentary about Eyam and its disease resistance. It’s a little under an hour. Trigger warning for general disease and epidemic-type stuff, but also, maybe it will help you have some hope in these alarmly uncertain times.

[cryptid-deity]

[Image 1: a photo of Eyem’s abbey and graveyard.]

[Image 2: a photo of a stone basin.]

[pocket-deer-belly]

imagine if when people mentioned the netherlands people listed every colony, genocide, mass murder and warcrime the netherlands committed. that's kinda how people talk about china but tbh we should start doing that with european countries instead

[pocket-deer-belly]

let's not forget dutch cooperation with the nazis

[pocket-deer-belly]

You wanna know why apartheid is a dutch word?

[coffeeblend108-deactivated20251]

Its not a dutch word, its an afrikaans word.

[pocket-deer-belly]

You wanna know why Afrikaans is a dutch word too?

[micdotcom]

Watch: President Jimmy Carter tells Oprah America is no longer a democracy, it’s an oligarchy — and he’s not wrong.

[blondebrainpowered]

Rest In Peace

[historyarchaeologyartefacts]

This 1000 year old Katana looks as good as it did the day it was made. [3746x3024]

Source: https://reddit.com/r/ArtefactPorn/comments/f72y5g/this_1000_year_old_katana_looks_as_good_as_it_did/

[rannulfr]

Oh man… This is no longer my lane but I can’t leave this at “1000 year old sword”.

This is Mikazuki. The Crescent Moon blade.

This sword was crafted by Sanj(y)o Munechika and is older than 1000 years. (The Smith’s oldest signed work is from 987).

There are only 5 of the smith’s pieces remaining and this one exhibits one of the first times in history that the Japanese sword takes on it’s utilitarian curved shape.

This sword was owned by a laundry list of important historical figures including Oda Nobunaga’s general Toyotomi Hideyoshi who unified Japan.

You are essentially looking at a Japanese Excalibur.

I am humbled to even be able to see a picture of this sword.

[brain-d0g]

[oneheadtoanother]

[scoldedmilk]

[robinsceramics]

"not going back"

image description: a ceramic werewolf crouching low on all fours, snarling furiously upwards. Its fur is black and warm brown.

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

i love when you can feel the disdain dripping off of a wikipedia article

[canthaveshitingotham-crucified]

i hate it when i cant even write a poem about something because its too obvious. like in the airbnb i was at i guess it used to be a kids room cause you could see the imprint of one little glow in the dark star that had been missed and painted over in landlord white. like that's a poem already what's the point

[canthaveshitingotham-crucified]

you get it. you get the themes. i dont have time to do it justice. just look at it its on the ceiling

[brenna]

[teaboot]

[wheresmyphonemp3]

[fadingponycookiedream]

[andsorrowsend]

[werefeathers]

[dajo42]

using "what were YOU doing at the devils sacrament" to mean "yeah i made an embarrassing reference but you understood it which is also embarrassing" is very funny to me

[computationalcalculator]

my favorite part is that absolutely nobody says this except here. so if you use it in public, it's a dead giveaway that you spent the last ten years on tumblr. but then again, they recognized it, which means they were at the devil's sacrament

[racethewind10]

#no one wants this presidents shoelaces #so yeah we had to update the pass-phrases @ayrki these cannot be left in the tags

[planefood]

When was the last time you ate something green and NO GREEN M&M'S DON'T COUNT

[quasi-normalcy]

HOBBES vs. TIGGER cage match TO THE DEATH say goodbye to your childhood because ONE! WILL!! DIE!!!!

[quasi-normalcy]

Picturing two tiger plushies just kind of sitting there facing each other in Thunderdome

[silverwhittlingknife]

i am picturing it

[mothcrumbs]

i cant stop saying "grisp it"

[mothcrumbs]