Ok so I’ve been playing for 18 years and i’m a string teacher. Can i just say how IMPORTANT it is for young kids to see a BLACK, MALE-PRESENTING PERSON playing, nae, SHREDDING on a violin? I’ve know maybe 5 black people who played stringed instruments throughout my schooling and teaching (predumably because i’m an upper middle class white woman). In districts where the population is predominantly black, funding is always low, so the instruments are crappy. Kids quit, or the program is dismantled. I’ve seen very few professional string players who are black.
Obviously there are black string players. We just don’t see them because they “don’t look like” string players.
This person is the real deal. They were clearly classically trained, and seems to have some fiddle training as well. How cool is that?
The polar opposite of corporate accounts trying to come across as hip and super friendly are the ones for libraries, aquariums, parks systems and the like, that are basically just trying to get people excited about learning and the wonder of history/science by posting things like this:
if i were a respected british actor with any principles at all i would simply not agree to a project whose earnings will have material consequences for trans people but maybe i'm built differently
I would not agree to work in any capacity for anyone whose profits were about harming any group of marginalized people. Every actor who gets on their knees for JK Rowling is dead to me.
Does the rest of the world know about tides in Britain. In fact do British people know about tides in the rest of the world. The average tidal range in the British isles is like 5 metres. The average range in the USA is like 1. The highest is I think the Severn estuary which hits 15 metres?? The Mediterranean is like 30cm. Why is this island doing this to us (rhetorical don’t make me get into wavelengths)??? The tide in Morecombe Bay has a top speed of 10mph or 30mph in the surge channels (it kills people). Do people know about this?? I just assumed the whole world was like this you mean the rest of you don’t get drilled on looking up the tide times before you go to the beach???
publisher: I've been looking into tumblr, have you thought of using Blaze to promote your book?
me: NO
publisher: But it seems like an efficient way to get this in front of more eyes-
me: people on tumblr hate Blaze.
publisher: There is no algorithm and you can't pay to promote a post? I don't understand how anyone advertises anything on tumblr.
me: That's the best part. They don't. They can't.
(trying to make him understand that we do not control the attention. We just have to show something shiny and gay enough and if people are interested, they'll reblog.)
(Mrs. Victoria buys a brothel, a deconstruction of the colonialist cowboy mythos dressed up as a sapphic romance.)
How are we more than halfway through 2026?! Wasn’t it just January yesterday? 🥴 Either way, each new month brings new positive news headlines, and July was no exception! ☀️ Come recap five good news stories from July! 🩵🌺🌊
1. ❤️🩹😷 Uganda has been declared free from Ebola!
Authorities in Uganda declared the country free of Ebola following the discharge of the country’s last patient! The country reported cases in May alongside its neighbor Democratic Republic of Congo, which continues to deal with the outbreak — Uganda, however, only ever recorded 20 cases and two deaths, with authorities finding no indication of further spread within the country! Uganda responded swiftly to the public health threat, including contact tracing and postponing potential superspreader events. Part of the reason the response was so successful was due to Uganda having experience in swiftly responding to health crises like Ebola. Uganda for now can breathe a sigh of relief as it continues to educate the public on prevention measures as well as send healthcare workers to Congo to help tackle the virus!
Uganda discharged its last Ebola patient from hospital roughly two weeks ago.
2. 📍🗺️ 7 natural wonders just became UNESCO World Heritage sites — and one country gained its very first!
These newly-christened landmarks highlight Earth’s cultural and natural diversity, from the massive ancient landscape of Greece’s Mount Olympus, to climate-resilient coral reefs in Jordan, to fossils in Denmark that provide clues into the evolution of life on Earth! Joining the World Heritage List’s 26 new sites for 2026, these natural landmarks include the first ever World Heritage site in South Sudan, which annually hosts the world’s largest land mammal migration of six million antelopes!
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has followed advice from IUCN, as the official advisor on nature, to inscribe seven new sites on the Wor
3. 🚫🧪 Sweden plans to ban all forever chemicals in everyday products by 2028!
PFAs, or “forever chemicals,” are synthetic chemicals that take thousands of years to degrade and pollute the environment, all while being linked to harmful health impacts. The ban’s prohibition of PFAs in commonly-used products like kitchen appliances, clothes, and cosmetics is a victory for both the environment and human health!
Sweden plans to ban forever chemicals in kitchen appliances and clothing by 2028. When will the EU follow suit?
4. 💧🌱 Water is returning to the African Sahel!
Groundwater reserves are rising after decades of drought in the region, restoring water to dried water sources! While part of the shift unfortunately comes from increasingly stronger rainfall due to climate change, it is also largely in part to rain-water harvesting. From Ethiopia to Senegal, the drought of the 1970s and 1980s fueled hunger and disease, but as monsoons now grow stronger, today the region shows a vastly different story — near-extinct wildlife are resurging, farmers are planting thriving trees and harvesting higher-yielding crops, and wells and new ponds are filling! One of the most notable transformations can be seen in Lake Chad — one of Africa’s largest bodies of water before drying up during the droughts, the lake is now almost as big as in the 1960s, and is 10 times its mid-1980s size!
Warming has brought extreme rain to the parched Sahel, which is seeing aquifers refill as monsoons grow stronger. But heavier downpours alon
5. 💉🍼 Childhood immunization continues to grow globally!
Despite vaccine efforts being threatened by conflict and vaccine hesitancy, in 2025, 90% of infants globally received at least one dose of a diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine, and 85% completed the full three-dose series, an increase from 2024. Compared to 2024, the number of unvaccinated children with no doses fell by nearly 750,000! These numbers reflects the strides made in protecting children's health — in just the past 25 years, government investment, community efforts, and public trust have reduced the annual number of unvaccinated children by 40%!
Zero-dose children fell by nearly 750,000 in the past year, but drop-out numbers high and stagnant, increasing risk of disease outbreaks
After 10 months of dedication, I finally finished! I confess I was hesitant to post it, since I'm not a professional, but I feel I achieved a good result. by TheresaZoe
being an adult is a weird combination of wanting to sleep all the time but also reacting to it being your bedtime a little like a toddler who doesn’t want to take a nap
Have you ever been writing some historical fiction and wondered "hey, I wonder if my characters would have been able to pop an ibuprofen in 1977?" Well, you're in luck, because this post is all about when common medications became available:
Acetaminophen: 1950
Albuterol: 1969 (UK) 1982 (US)
Allopurinol: 1966
Alprazolam: 1981
Amitriptyline: 1961
Amlodipine: 1990
Amoxicilin: 1972
Amphetamine/Dextroamphetamine (together as Adderall): 1996
Apixiban: 2012
Aripiprazole: 2002
Aspirin (first NSAID): 1899
Azidothymidine (first antiviral): 1987
Barbital (first barbiturate): 1903
Bupropion: 1985
Buspirone: 1986
Calcium Carbonate (TUMS): 1930
Captopril (first ACE inhibitor): 1981
Chlordiazepoxide (first benzodiazepine): 1960
Chlorothiazide (first thiazide diuretic): 1957
Chlorpromazine (first antipsychotic): 1952
Cyclobenzeprine: 1977
Diphenhydramine: 1946
Furosemide: 1959
Fluoxetine (first SSRI): 1988
Gabapentin: 1993
Glipizide: 1984
Hydrochlorothiazide: 1959
Ibuprofen: 1969 (UK) 1974 (US)
Insulin: 1923 (though many types of insulins would become available over the next century)
Imipramine (first tricyclic antidepressant): 1959
Iproniazid (first antidepressant (MAOI)): 1952
Levothyroxine: 1927 (though desiccated pork thyroid was used for the same reasons as early as 1890)
Lisinopril: 1987
Lithium: 1949
Losartan (first ARB): 1995
Lovastatin (first statin): 1987
Naproxen: 1976 (Rx) 1990 (OTC)
Nitrogen Mustard (first chemotherapy agent): early 1940's
forgot to say that, without Howl chasing girls and Sophie resenting him for it, the film completely erases part of the point of Sophie being old. Wynne Jones is using an idea that Beauvoir talked about - that being an old woman is both tragic (as we lose male attention/attractiveness) and freeing (as we are freed from the male gaze). the idea is that with being old comes liberation, and the true meaning of what it is to be a woman, as society no longer forces gender norms on us.
Sophie is free from Howl’s attentions and therefore safe from harm (a big part of the book is the fact that Sophie believes he eats women’s hearts, and him chasing girls proves this to her). she takes solace in the fact that she’s old, and finds it freeing. when she learns more about Howl (notably: that he doesn’t eat hearts and that he’s not evil), she starts to curse her age and resent him chasing girls. BUT she remains old OF HER OWN VOLITION - Howl notes that she’s perpetuating the spell by wishing to remain “in disguise”. there are SO many layers to this, and lots to do with gender politics - if she’s still old Sophie can’t get hurt, she likes the freedom, etc. but of course on a personal level being old is her denying her feelings for Howl, and also a representation of her low self esteem - being old is a defence mechanism and protection, both on a gender level and a personal one.
and the film kinda… loses this? the only thing that remains is being old = low self esteem. which really sucks. because there’s SO MUCH MORE to Sophie being old in the book (perspective I already mentioned), and a HUGE amount of this is gender politics. that the film just erases.
Also there’s the subversion of that in the book. Sophie’s belief that she’s safe from Howl, isn’t quite true because he fell in love with her while she was under the spell (and in the book, there’s no switching between looking young and old. Sophie is looking ninety the entire time, and Howl falls in love anyway.)
Also, her belief that being old means she can’t go to her stepmother or her sisters, that they’d fail to recognize her or reject her, is also unfounded. Fanny almost immediately recognizes her at the end of the book, and hugs her and cries over her and asks why Sophie disappeared. Sophie’s belief that the love of her family, friends and even her romantic interests is somehow conditional on her appearance is shown to be completely false at the end, which I think is absolutely beautiful.
Like, there’s definitely gender politics and commentary going on about beauty and youth and age and the male gaze and male violence going on, but there’s also this message about how love, real love, transcends all of that.
I actually adore the movie on its own merits, but I think it absolutely did a disservice to Sophie as a character. When I was doing a reread last month, what hit me was that Sophie is every bit as much of a volatile emotional disaster as Howl is, and that’s pretty heckin’ great.
Howl is a pissy, dramatic asshole even when he’s at his best. He dissolves into green slime when his hair looks wrong. He deals with his problems by getting falling-over drunk and makes the walls shake every time he sneezes just so everyone will take pity on him. He’s a self-proclaimed coward who has to trick himself into taking responsibility for anything.
Movie Sophie deals with this as well as she can. She learns to look past his drama and sees his tender heart and noble intentions. She becomes the mature one in the castle, fixing everyone’s problems, essentially taking up a motherly role to all the other characters.
Book Sophie does the same… but she does it while dealing out as good as she takes. Howl is chasing after every woman except Sophie? Sophie meticulously cuts up his suit into triangles. Howl floods the room with green slime? Sophie hate-magics weed killer strong enough to melt concrete, and chucks it at Howl’s head. Howl can’t stop avoiding his problems? Meet the queen of avoidance, who clung to her curse to avoid confronting her feelings for Howl. Howl has to basically trick himself into taking action? I would like you to meet Sophie, who was too scared to leave her home her whole life, but the moment she’s under a curse is like “WELP, GUESS I’D BETTER LEAVE HOME RIGHT THIS MOMENT AND NEVER COME BACK.”
The moment of Howl and Sophie getting together in the book isn’t “Sophie fixes everything through her inherent goodness.” It’s “Sophie realizes that Howl has been secretly scheming to fix all her problems exactly the same way that she has been secretly scheming to fix all his problems because neither of them is a normal functioning adult, and they both look forward to yelling at each other for the rest of their wonderful lives.” And losing that, losing all of Sophie’s flaws and ridiculous moments as well as Howl’s efforts to fix her life as much as she’s trying to fix his, means that we’re left with a typical romance trope of a woman having to fix all of a man’s problems and be the perfect, mature one in the relationship, while he can coast purely on charm. The revelation that half of Howl’s antics were actually schemes to break Sophie’s curse or even just make her happy is important because for once it goes both ways. Not just “woman fixes man with her love,” but “people fix each other with their love, sort of, except for all the parts that will never change and that’s okay because flaws can be just as attractive as virtues, and if he laughs when you throw weed killer at him then he might be the one.”
in spite of everything, the stars @librarianoftheclayr - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
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