I was a bird in a past life. Here is some art from mee

Kiana Khansmith
sheepfilms
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
I'd rather be in outer space đž
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"

oozey mess
hello vonnie

izzy's playlists!
One Nice Bug Per Day
RMH

@theartofmadeline
almost home
Cosimo Galluzzi
AnasAbdin
Peter Solarz

if i look back, i am lost
Show & Tell

#extradirty

Kaledo Art

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@pagoo
I was a bird in a past life. Here is some art from mee
in the latest cyber-news: the internet archive has lost their case against 4 major publishing houses (verge article). theyâre going to appeal, but this is still a bad outcome. the fate of the internet is currently hanging in the balance because 4 multibillionare publishing groups missed out on like $15 of combined revenue during the pandemic because of the archiveâs online library service. itâs so fucking stupid.
for those who donât know what the internet archive is, itâs a virtual library full of media. books, magazines, recordings, visuals, flash games, websites - a lot of these things either donât exist anymore or cannot be found & bought. heard of the wayback machine? thatâs part of the internet archive. it is the most important website to exist, and i donât say that lightly. if the internet archive goes down, the cultural loss will be immeasurable.
so how can you help?
boycott the publishing companies involved in this. theyâre absolute ghouls, frankly, and donât deserve a penny. the companies involved are harpercollins (imprints), wiley (imprints), penguin random house llc (imprints), and hachette book group (imprints). make sure the websites are set to your location as it may differ worldwide.
learn to torrent. download a torrent client (i recommend transmission), a vpn (i recommend protonvpn - sign up and choose the area thatâs closest to your continent/country), and hit up /r/piracy on reddit for websites. with torrenting, you can get (almost) any media you want for free in high quality, with add-ons such as subtitles, and with no risks of loss. i would also recommend getting into the habit of watching stuff online for free. the less you can pay to a giant corporation, the better.
get into the habit of downloading and archiving materials. find a TB external hard drive, ideally the higher the better. itâll probably cost around $60 for 1TB and continue to go up, but theyâre so so useful. if you canât afford a drive, look for any GB harddrives or memory sticks you have lying around and just fill them up. videos, pdfs, magazines, songs, movies, games - anything you can rip and download and fit on there, do it, because nothing is permanent.
donate to the internet archive. this is the most important option on the list. the IA relies entirely on funding, and itâs going to need more to fight this case. whatever you can donate, do it. i promise itâs helpful.
and finallyâŠ
cannot stress enough that donating to the internet archive to help them appeal this without going broke is the most important thing you can do right now. my day job revolves around fulfilling digital article and book scan requests at an academic library and a huge part of that is borrowing from other libraries that do controlled digital lending (incl. the internet archive!). copyright law is already hugely restrictive on what we can and can't lend, and we absolutely don't have the option to pirate anything for our patrons due to being a large academic institution. it's difficult to overstate just how bad this ruling could end up being for libraries that have digital lending programs, esp ones that rely on CDR for old/archival/hard-to-find texts.
I'm incredibly fucking disappointed at the bootlickers in the comments claiming that the IA steals from small creators. Eliminating a valuable research, academic and cultural resource because you've bought into the fiction that "potential sales" are lost sales is exactly what these big corporations want. You aren't saving small creators by swatting down a non-profit, you're allowing ginormous publishing monopolies to consolidate even further while they smile a snake's smile over independent creators.
The Internet Archive is absolutely vital for my work and research. Without it, a good chunk of Welsh LGBTQ+ history would be inaccessible. The Welsh books hosted on IA are indexed and searchable, meaning any Welsh LGBTQ+ terminology can be searched for. Otherwise, me sitting down to read every. single. Welsh book ever published *just in case* it contains one of the terms in my data is an impossible task (Welsh books have been published since 1546) . In fact, this is something I refer to in my methodology for this very reason.
I'm also broke as hell rn but when I get the chance I'm gonna donate. Without IA, you can kiss goodbye to a *massive* chunk of academia. My lecturers use IA. So not just like, undergrads and PhD students, but seasoned academics will lose access to a major resource if IA stopped existing.
The argument of "potential sales lost" also makes no sense from an author's perspective. Published authors are usually paid an advance before publication. After that point, they would have to sell an obscene amount of books to qualify for extra pay from those sales, so many authors are unbothered by someone reading their book for free. Libraries allow people to read books for free and IA is essentially one giant library. It even has a feature where if you're reading a book and "check it out" for an hour, no-one else can read the book your reading until the time runs out. Just like a normal library. Potential sales lost to the company is just like when companies claim to have lost millions at a start of the year when they haven't actually lost any money at all. They just didn't earn as much money as they were predicting.
IA provides a vital service and we should be fighting to ensure it isn't lost.
Seconding all of the above -- Since the IA lost its case, I've noticed a number of books have rapidly become inaccessible for me. The negative impact this has had on my work can't be understated, as I've been left without a crucial resource for my research. I. don't believe there's a single article I've written that hasn't been impacted by this, with me often having to scrambling to get access to sources that are rare and/or our of print. I have the advantage of a well-stocked uni library that is good at ILLs, but this is a taste of what's going to come if this isn't resolved in the Archive's favor.
Of course those cowards won't show the truth.
Anyways you can go to this thread and find channels who are broadcasting it.
Got these lil guys for my lil sister
She loved these, and these tiny rock wizards are now living among the house plants đȘŽ
for those who would like to support Palestinian olive farmers, equal exchange has Palestine-sourced olive oil! they're an amazing worker owned co-op that works closely with local farmers to support sustainability and pay fair wages.
i frankly cannot afford it, but i know some folks can and would like to get some. it comes in packs of 6 bottles, so if you can get 6 friends together, each person can pay for one bottle!
they also have some of the most delicious coffee and hot cocoa mixes that i've ever gotten, and the same approach applies. given how horrific farming and labor practices are in both of those industries, i highly recommend supporting them and getting some amazing products in return if you can afford it.
Just a clip from walking today, not edited
Israel blows up Gaza's "Palace of Justice" compound which housed the Palestinian Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the Court of First Instance & the Magistrate. 100,000s of vital case documents are gone. Deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure is a War Crime!
Israel's soldiers took victory images inside the Palestinian Supreme Court before blowing it up into pieces. This proves the facility constituted ZERO danger to the Israeli military & no militants were hiding inside it at the time it was destroyed. Again, a war crime!
The Israeli army, on Monday, blew up the main courthouse in the Gaza Strip, known as Palace of Justice, located in south Gaza City, Anadolu
credits for the images:
letstalkpalestine
pretty shitty how baseline human activities like singing, dancing and making art got turned into skills instead of being seen as behaviors
so now itâs like âthe point of doing them is to get good at themâ and not âthis is a thing humans do, the way birds sing and bees make hivesâ.
I know Iâve posted this before, but it bears repeating.
This is a thing humans do; you donât have to be good at it to enjoy it.
Not to get emotional on main but Iâve been looking in second hand stores for sewing patterns, and I always find lying next to it a basket of handmade doilies, jumpers, quilts, and itâs almost more than I can bear. I knit, I crochet, Iâve given most lace types a go so I know the painstaking time that goes into each piece, and it feels so cruel to see them and to be offered them for two dollars fifty, two dollars fifty for a year of a womanâs life devoted to what she loved. Iâve been recreating my grandmotherâs lace, hoping I can find in a missed stitch the connection I missed before her memories failed. But among her projects is a yellow tablecloth, 6 segments of crocheted lace, the 6th unfinished. I donât even know if there was meant to be a 7th. You find the same in op shops, crocheted granny squares and sets of just 7, rewound wool still holding the shape of a ghost of a project. I like to imagine it holds something within it, something I could reach if only I picked it up and finished it. I wish I had time, to repair a thousand womens crafts, but Iâm so short on time, so busy with projects I only hope will sit next to the work of these artists when I pass.
LOOSE ENDS
Allow me to spread the word of Loose Ends. From their website:
âLoose Ends Project aims to ease grief, create community, and inspire generosity by matching volunteer handwork finishers with projects people have left unfinished due to death or disability.â
Submit a project, consider joining
This is such a lovely idea. I wonder if they would help me find someone to darn the holes in the socks my mom had made me.
my uterus can literally just go and fuck right off
Palestine MasterlistÂ
Introduction to Palestine:Â
Decolonize Palestine:
Palestine 101
Rainbow washingÂ
Frequently asked questionsÂ
MythsÂ
IMEU (Institute for Middle East Understanding):
Quick Facts - The Palestinian NakbaÂ
The Nakba and Palestinian RefugeesÂ
The Gaza Strip
The Palestinian catastrophe (Al-Nakba)
Al-Nakba (documentary)
The Hundred Yearsâ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017 (book)
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (book)
Nakba Day: What happened in Palestine in 1948? (Article)
The Nakba did not start or end in 1948 (Article)
Donations and charities:Â
Al-Shabaka
Electronic IntifadaÂ
Adalah Justice ProjectÂ
IMEU FundraiserÂ
Medical Aid for PalestiniansÂ
Palestine Childrenâs Relief FundÂ
Addameer
Muslim Aid
Palestine Red Crescent
Gaza Mutual Aid Patreon
Books:
A New Critical Approach to the History of Palestine
The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge
Hidden Histories: Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean
The Balfour Declaration: Empire, the Mandate and Resistance in Palestine
Queer Palestine and the Empire of Critique
From Haven to Conquest: Readings in Zionism and the Palestine Problem until 1948
Captive Revolution - Palestinian Womenâs Anti-Colonial Struggle within the Israeli Prison System
Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History
Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics
Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of The Palestinians 1876-1948
The Battle for Justice in Palestine Paperback
Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom
Palestine Rising: How I survived the 1948 Deir Yasin Massacre
The Transformation of Palestine: Essays on the Origin and Development of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
A Land Without a People: Israel, Transfer, and the Palestinians 1949-1996
The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood
A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples
Where Now for Palestine?: The Demise of the Two-State Solution
Terrorist Assemblages - Homonationalism in Queer Times
Militarization and Violence against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East
The one-state solution: A breakthrough for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock
The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinians
Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians
The False Prophets of Peace: Liberal Zionism and the Struggle for Palestine
Ten myths about Israel
Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question
Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, New and Revised Edition
Israel and its Palestinian Citizens - Ethnic Privileges in the Jewish State
Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy
Greater than the Sum of Our Parts: Feminism, Inter/Nationalism, and Palestine
Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History
Palestinian Culture:
Mountain against the Sea: Essays on Palestinian Society and Culture
Palestinian Costume
Traditional Palestinian Costume: Origins and Evolution
Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora
Embroidering Identities: A Century of Palestinian Clothing (Oriental Institute Museum Publications)
The Palestinian Table (Authentic Palestinian Recipes)
Falastin: A Cookbook
Palestine on a Plate: Memories from My Motherâs Kitchen
Palestinian Social Customs and Traditions
Palestinian Culture before the Nakba
Tatreez & Tea (Website)
The Traditional Clothing of Palestine
The Palestinian thobe: A creative expression of national identity
Embroidering Identities:A Century of Palestinian Clothing
Palestine Traditional Costumes
Palestine FamilyÂ
Palestinian Costume
Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, v5: Volume 5: Central and Southwest Asia
Tent Work in Palestine: A Record of Discovery and Adventure
Documentaries, Films, and Video Essays:
Jenin, Jenin
Born in Gaza
GAZAÂ
Wedding in GalileeÂ
Omar
5 Broken Cameras
OBAIDA
Indigeneity, Indigenous Liberation, and Settler Colonialism (not entirely about Palestine, but an important watch for indigenous struggles worldwide - including Palestine)
Edward Said - Reflections on Exile and Other Essays
Palestine Remix:Â
AL NAKBA
Gaza Lives On
Gaza we are coming
Lost cities of PalestineÂ
Stories from the IntifadaÂ
Last Shepherds of the Valley
Voices from Gaza
Muhammad Smiry
Najla Shawa
Nour Naim
Wael Al dahdouh
Motaz Azaiza
Ghassan Abu Sitta
Refaat Alareer
Plestia Alaqad
Bisan Owda
Ebrahem Ateef
Mohammed Zaanoun
Doaa Mohammad
Hind Khoudary
Palestinian Voices, Organizations, and NewsÂ
Boycott Divest and Sanction (BDS)
Defense for Children in Palestine
Palestine LegalÂ
Palestine Action
Palestine Action US
United Nations relief and works for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA)
National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)
Times of Gaza
Middle East Eye
Middle East Monitor
Mohammed El-Kurd
Muna El-KurdÂ
Electronic IntifadaÂ
Dr. Yara Hawari (suspended on X 10/25/2023)
Mariam Barghouti
Omar Ghraieb
Steven Salaita
Noura Erakat
The Palestinian Museum N.G.
Palestine Museum US
Artists for Palestine UKÂ
Eye on Palestine (suspended on Instagram 10/25/2023)
Mona Hatoum, Grater Divide, 2002 Mild steel, 204 cm x variable width and depth
Mona Hatoum is a Palestinian artist. From Artformâs 2021 Rape is a Border:
Take Grater Divide, 2002. The work is ridiculous: a standing metal cheese grater more than six feet high. Installed in a gallery, it works as a room divider, but the holes make privacy impossible. The wall is a weapon rather than a shield: A person undressing behind it could be cut as well as peeped at, opened up by sharp edges made for shredding. The work is not only an enlargement of a grater, however, but also a miniaturization of a divide, prototyping, in particular, the West Bank barrier Israel had begun to construct on appropriated Palestinian land. A person traveling through a border checkpoint may be asked to undressâstrip searches are not prohibited by Israeli law. In the United States, they have been allowed ever since the 1985 Supreme Court case United States v. Rosa Elvira Montoya de Hernandez, which originated with the cavity search of Hernandez, who was traveling to Los Angeles from Colombia. In both countries, the coercive invasion of bodies is more likely to be visited on people of color, who are disproportionately singled out for selective or heightened âscreening.â This wordâs very meaning is reframed, or enlarged, by the Grater Divide. Gloria AnzaldĂșa, the queer Chicana theorist of Borderlands/La Frontera (1987), called the United StatesâMexico border an âopen woundâ where âthe Third World grates against the first and bleeds.â All borders are graters: not solid walls but permeable ones whose pores are sharpened to pierce what passes through.
âThose who commit acts of violence are surely responsible for them; they are not dupes or mechanisms of an impersonal social force, but agents with responsibility. On the other hand, these individuals are formed, and we would be making a mistake if we reduced their actions to purely self-generated acts of will or symptoms of individual pathology of âevilâ.â
â Judith Butler, Precarious Life
A blog I'm going to return to
decolonizepalestine.com is an easy to navigate website run by two palestinians which breaks down common myths about palestine and provides a reading list organized by a wide variety of categories ranging from history and culture to media and censorship. itâs a good starting point to use if you want to learn more about the modern day situation in palestine and understand the truth behind myths that have been perpetuated about israelâs occupation of palestine.
donât just reblog this, please take time to actually read through the website. itâs the least you can do as palestinians are being killed by the thousands and world leaders are turning a blind eye to a genocide happening in real time. iâve seen the headlines about the israeli airstrike on al-ahli hospital that killed hundreds of palestinians change in real time, with western media outlets refusing to call it what it isâ a war crime. the tide seems to be shifting a little bit in regards to media making excuses for israel to commit these atrocities which is probably because of how much people are showing out for palestine.
please read and share and pray that we see a free palestine in our lifetimes.