I was driving back home into the mountains and a giant sinkhole opened up and I fell in. Everything went black and a Windows pop up message read: You Have Died.
I walked into a pastry shop to get this super fancy bagel that they were known for. The lady at the counter keep being really mean to me cause she saw I had a loaf of bread in my bag already. I kept trying to tell her through tears that they didn’t make this kind of bread but she didn’t care and kept being really mean and threw the bagel at me when she made it and I cried harder.
I know this is a dream, but there are bagel shops here in Montreal where this sort of thing is in the realm of plausibility. I’ve gone into a bagel shop and been yelled at from behind the counter to get out of line if I wasn’t ready to order; I’ve seen people kicked out of another bagel shop, for mentioning the name of a place a few blocks over.
when i came out as trans i had an old friend from my church days message me to congratulate me and ask me for my name and pronouns. and i was shocked tbh cause he was such a head-deep-up-the-church’s ass kind of guy so i was super wary.
and after digging a little deeper i found out that he was very supportive of transness, saying that trans men are men and trans women are women
BUT
he also believed in the church’s gender roles meaning that trans women had to marry men and be submissive wives and trans men had to marry women and be strong christian husbands.
which is like ????
the weirdest and most surreal form of trans inclusive misogyny i’ve ever seen.
That cat is absolutely an orphan-generating coal baron. The mustache and top-hat are there in spirit, if not actually. Legally, that cat's name should be Reacher Gilt.
I wake up, my debt is all paid off, my bank account is full, my relationships with my family are healthy, and I’m able to travel anywhere in the world.
Let’s make this post even longer because I have even more images saved. Next up, we got:
Tsutsumagushi Disease
Chikungunya Fever!
MERS
Pertussis (whooping cough) with a horrifying (almost body horror) headpiece and flute
Dengue Fever, the image of which literally made me stop breathing for a moment when I first saw it
Japanese Encephalitis (as... idols, maybe?)
And Zika Virus (so pretty! and for what???)
And some higher res images of the ones from the video (Legionnaires’ Disease, Viral Gastroenteritis, and Rubella). Unfortunately, I could not fit Rabies because of the image limit.
Lyme disease also has an outfit that when viewed from above would be a bullseye shape, which is a characteristic first symptom of the disease visible on the skin around the site of the bite.
OK, so I've seen this image set before, and it is AMAZING! But it's only the recent discussion that made me realize that people may not be understanding many of the visual references in these images. So... with no further ado...
An epidemiologist's guide to the Disease Idol covers...
Hepatitis: Boy band of 5 guys for the 5 types of viral hepatitis A, B, C, D & E. I think Hep A might be the blond with his tongue out, since A can be passed by contaminated food. The idol boy on the lower right is probably Hep C as he has a syringe tattoo and pierced ears. The boy at 12 o’clock also has a pin of three syringes and headphones, maybe he’s Hep B (which can cause hearing loss? Also, one idol has a red spider angioma tattoo. All of them have slightly jaundiced eyes, pointing to the liver damage of chronic hepatitis.
Syphilis: A little easier to decode - it’s a sexually transmitted disease (hot girl, apple symptom of temptation) and causes chancre sores and a red spotty rash.
Chicken pox & Shingles: Fun fact - chicken pox and shingles are caused by the same virus, the varicella zoster virus! Most anyone older than about 30 probably knows about the chicken pox rash. It’s spotty, itchy and forms blisters which open up like the eyelets on the little girls’ mesh gloves. But, after the infection, the virus can live dormant in your nerve cells only to reactivate as shingles, an intensely painful red rash that causes large areas of red discoloration, like around the boy’s eyes, and I think the snake on his sweater might represent the dormant virus. If you had chicken pox as a kid getting the shingles vaccine when you turn 50 can prevent shingles!
Plague, AKA The Black Death: This one is basically a bunch of European symbols that don’t have a whole lot to do with plague, aside from the gangrenous fingers, which are a late stage symptom. Can’t tell from the drawing, but plague is spread by fleas.
Influenza: The flu really is a fuckboi! Influenza travels the world, alternating between the global south and the global north, picking up lots of mutations as it goes. The hand tattoos represent the three main types: A, B and C. We normally vaccinate against two strains of influenza A and one or two strains of influenza B, and the vaccine has to be updated every year because they’re so promiscuous. (Also, if you look at him up close, he looks so fucking tired behind those eyes, and fatigue is a major symptom.)
Measles: Another spotty rash. However, this one can cause blindness and deafness in children, both represented in the designs on his shirt and jacket. Vaccine preventable!
Lyme disease: The bullseye visual image was noted above, so I’ll just also mention that her mech is a tick and the doohickies in her ponytails look like the twists of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. And our girl here is wearing sturdy boots and white stockings, both that can help protect you from ticks, or help you notice them quickly.
COVID-19: Sits on a throne that looks like the COVID-19 virus, but the spike proteins end in hands that are using phones and handheld computers, representing how we all got through lockdown. (Note this was an October 2020 cover.) I’m not sure if the crown covering the nose is supposed to represent the loss of smell?
Tsutsugamushi disease: I actually didn’t know what this is, the internet tells me it’s a form of typhus, but not a rickettsia. Huh. 🤷♂️
Chikungunya: This is a mosquito borne disease that is notable for causing joint pain, which can become chronic. Here it’s reprinted by skeletal spines and arms, places where joints can develop long term bursitis or arthritis; the idol’s high heels are made of bones as well. It can also cause a patchy rash, as represented on the her dress.
MERS: Middle East Respiratory Syndrome was the second major coronavirus disease (between SARS COV-1 and COVID-19/SARS COV-2. First discovered in Saudi Arabia and mostly occurring on the Arabian Peninsula, it is represented here by a veiled lady, which a crown representing the “corona” of a coronavirus. While SARS COV-1 died out, cases of MERS continue to occasionally occur, the virus doesn’t spread very easily person-to-person, but it does have an animal reservoir in camels.
Pertussis: The body horror headpiece here is supposed to represent the alveoli of the lungs, inflamed and clogged with fluid. The flute is because of the high pitched wheeze of a child with pertussis struggling to breath. Pertussis kills babies! If you’re around babies or young children, please get vaccinated for their sake! (And for yours, the severe coughing can cause vomiting and broken ribs even in adults.)
Dengue: OK, so the visual similarity to Aedes albopictus has been noted above. But what’s with the datura here? She’s holding a datura and has another tattooed on her arm. I can’t figure out the connection, what am I missing? Something about atropine maybe?
Japanese Encephalitis: Don’t actually know what this is about, other than the balls they’re holding clearly represent the tight ball shape of the JEV. Not sure why this is a three girl group. But Japanese encephalitis does some nasty things to your brain for sure.
Zika: Again it’s just the mosquito here. I’m actually glad they didn’t get any deeper into a representation of Zika’s worst effects on the body because I feel like it would be pretty insensitive. There’s still a sizable cohort of Brazilian children with profound disabilities from Zika.
Legionnaire’s disease: Our dandy here must have been attending some kind of conference; Legionaries disease was discovered after a large outbreak at an American Legion convention in 1976. You can see some kind of sink contraption behind him - this is because Legionnaires is usually spread by inhaling aerosolized droplets of contaminated water.
Viral Gastroenteritis: I got nothing. All I can make of this guy is that maybe he got his abs by shitting his guts out and now he needs a boba drink to hydrate. IDK man…
Rubella: Another gentleman covered in red spots. Electron microscopy of the rubella virus does look like the little clustered seeds of the pomegranate he’s holding. The cherub on his pendant and in the background probably represent miscarried babies as rubella is quite dangerous during pregnancy.
Rabies: Is this dude the reason for that weird tumblr rabies fad? Anyway, this cover is a masterpiece, his jacket has spikes representing the spiky virus envelope, the background is people in the masks of reservoir species for rabies all playing violin, and the whole thing takes place on flooring that looks like brain tissue, where rabies causes a devastating encephalitis. If you have been bitten by an animal that could have been rabid - GET TREATMENT FAST! Post exposure vaccination is 100% successful at preventing rabies, but once you have started to get symptoms there is no going back. Rabies is inevitably fatal. But Tumblr sure loves themselves a white haired Twink.
That is the most insane thing I've heard this week
And also the 20 minute thing is an underestimate, for sure. How many are being written and the author is waiting to post until they've finished. How many have been started and the author has just kept them for themselves. HOW MANY ARE WRITTEN ON TUMBLR. HOW MANY ARE JUST SHARED WITH THE AUTHOR'S FRIENDS.
So I did a lot of math and the numbers are crazy. As of two weeks ago when I pulled the numbers:
There are approximately 365 MILLION words of GOmens fic published on ao3
The average fic length is somewhere around 5700 words and the median is closer to 2700
According to tumblr users in a poll, only about 47% of all fic written gets published on ao3
Therefore, it's actually closer to one fic every ten minutes
Or, assuming that the average fic length does not vary significantly accross time periods, 570 words written per minute or about 821k per day
In the time it took you to read this post thread, nearly a thousand words of good omens fanfiction were written somewhere in the world.
Data is under the cut if you're interested:) >more stuff like this<
poll data and math
Simplified table of average length calculations
All calculations are heavily rounded for simplification and rely on the assumption that no major changes or trends have taken place over time in the lengths of fics written. Huge thanks to @drunkhades @suzypfonne and @turquoisedata for the thread that inspired this wild data goose chase which then led to me doing a lot more data analysis than this lmao which is all on my blog. <3
[image description: two pictures, one above the other. The first image shows a statue originally from the Acropolis in Athens, now in the British Museum. The statue is a column shaped like a woman. It is labelled London. The bottom image is from the Acropolis Museum in Athens, showing the other five matching column/statues, with a space for the missing statue pointedly left open. This picture is shot from above and is labelled Athens.
image in savvysergeant’s reblog: screencap of tags from two people. Feeblekazoo’s tags read: the degree to which the Acropolis museum is designed to shame the British Museum is spectactular. butherlipsarenotmoving’s tags read: the acropolis museum is the most passive aggressive museum i’ve ever been to and i love it
/end id]
For those of you who don’t know museum drama, one of the largest and most famous parts of the British Museum’s collection is the so-called Elgin Marbles, which were looted from the Acropolis by Lord Elgin in the 18th Century. (The Acropolis is the hill in Athens, Greece which has some of the most amazing Greek ruins anywhere, the most famous of which is the Parthenon.) Elgin had (or at least claims to have had) permission from the Ottoman Empire to take stuff home with him, but a) this is one empire asking another empire if they can loot stuff from the other empire’s subjugated people, so, not exactly any moral high ground there Elgin, and b) he took a lot more stuff than the Ottomans said he could have.
Greece has been asking for those statues and sculptures to be returned since they won independence in 1832. That’s right, 1832, 190 years ago. The British Museum has had a number of excuses over the years, one of the biggies of the late 20th Century being “we couldn’t possibly give them back because Athens doesn’t have a nice enough museum to display them” and ignoring Greece’s response of “we will BUILD a museum just for them if you will just give us our damn stuff back!“
Finally, Greece said “fuck you” and built a museum at the bottom of the Acropolis called the Acropolis museum. It is huge, it is gorgeous, the collection of objects is amazing and the educational bits (“this is what it is and why it matters”) are really well done. It’s probably one of the best archaeological museums in the world; it definitely is the best collection of ancient Greek artifacts in the world, both for the size of the collection and the way it’s displayed.
Oh. And it is amazingly passive-aggressive. Every single piece of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum has an empty spot on display waiting for the piece to be returned to Greece. For example, there are a lot of pieces where Elgin took, say, the nicest (or easiest to remove) one of a set. The column/statue in the OP’s image is one of these. Friezes from the roof of the Parthenon are another example. The Acropolis Museum displays each one of these sets with space for the stolen pieces, along with a picture of what the stolen piece looks like and where it is. It is a giant middle finger at the British Museum, disguised as helpful information.
There’s no chance that the British Museum will return any of this in the next generation. It’s not up to the curators at the British Museum; they don’t get any say in this. The board of governors of the British Museum is made up of old posh English people who genuinely believe that the Empire was awesome and England has a perfect right to everything in the British Museum. They have set policies about what can and can’t be removed from the collection, and according to those policies nothing of any historical or monetary value can be given away or sold. And they actively promote the idea that their predecessors had a perfect right to loot the cultural heritage of the world, and that the museum has a perfect right to keep it forever. The only way to get anything out of the British Museum and back to its rightful place would be to completely replace the entire board of the museum with new people who think completely differently. And that’s not happening any time soon, alas.
By the way, the British argument that Greeks wouldn’t know how to care for the antiquities……. Greece has 206 archaeological museums. It’s not only incredibly demeaning as an argument, it’s also straight out false and misleading.
One thing (and with the massive caveat of I don’t disagree with the above in the slightest): the Board of Trustees isn’t like that. They’re not all white, they’re not all rich, and they’re not all English. By and large they’re academics. I was speaking to them the other week with regards to repatriation when I visited and they’re actually very much all for it (bar one or two exceptions…looking at you George) and are working on things. A group of 5 of them I can confirm actively loathe Elgin and the marbles room. The problem lies with the British Museum Act of 1968 (hereafter referred to as BMA68) which was a law created by the government to prevent anything within the BM, which the government owns but wants very little do to with unless you’re trying to repatriate fyi, being removed in the “national interest”. Repatriation is, annoyingly, illegal in the case of the contents of the BM. So the Board have been trying to change this by putting pressure in various areas to get the laws changed, and the government screws them by enforcing term limits for serving on the board and then trying to stack the board in their favour to prevent further action. It’s a game of politics and the government do not want to give up BMA68 at all.
I know we like to categorise everyone we’re up against in the fight for repatriation as “old, white, rich guys” but it’s not helpful when it is decidedly not the case. We need to be mad at the right people and focusing on efforts to change this ridiculous law. At this time, supporting projects like the International Training Partnership, which is the BM’s way of building a network of curators and training them so organisations like the British Government can’t say “hurr durr they can’t look after their artefacts” because actually they can, we trained them ourselves. The network of curators also allows them to build mounting international pressure. It’s not going to happen overnight, but the pressure is building now, I promise you.
So the problem isn’t even the people who run the museum, who are after all museum people and want museum things to be done well and respectfully, but the government, who want the museum to remind everyone of the time before they made their entire country a laughingstock.
…what even is Eurovision? I’ve never seen it outside of gifs on tumblr and I thought it was like drag race karaoke or some shit. The fact that it is like some world event and Israel, allegedly a Middle East Country is in a European thing confuses me.
Essentially it's a MASSIVE musical event in Europe that pits bands and musicians from different countries against each other, all with very out there practical effects, but it's not just European countries taking part. This is mostly because there's some complex web of broadcasting rights, that let's Australia and Israel participate.
However, they've in the past banned countries for the acts if their government. Best example is Russia, who were banned from the competition in 2022 due to the invasion on Ukraine. However, Israel is allowed to participate despite their own invasion on a debatably larger scale. The reason given was "to stay non-political", but this is just false, and contradicts their stance on Russia.
Hence the boycott, it's letting Israel play propaganda to a stage of millions, and a boycott is a fucking MASSIVE deal. I can't stress enough how popular this event is in Europe. It's in the ball park of the superbowl. This will hurt them and it will hurt them hard. Several countries like Ireland and the hosts of the year Sweden are arguing they should pull out entirely and are under pressure to do so.
kaledo-art
origamiaround
areudirty
gummygunk
ellievsbear
