[luciferpussy-deactivated2017110]

"Dread Nation" Is Post-Reconstruction Story About Zombies And Racism — COVER REVEAL

A nation divided, politics, and oh yeah — zombies. I know what you're thinking, but this novel is not about the current White House administration. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, out April 2018 from Balzer + Bray, is a novel set in post-Reconstruct

“It’s about zombies and racism,” Ireland says. “Jane grows up on a plantation. There’s a law that when you’re 12, you have to go to combat school. It’s only for Negro and Native kids. All Jane wants to do is finish her education and go home. She doesn’t want to be part of society… but then people start going missing, and she’s caught in the middle of this conspiracy. Like Odysseus, everything goes wrong, and everything conspires against her.“A nation divided, politics, and oh yeah — zombies. I know what you’re thinking, but this novel is not about the current White House administration. Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, out April 2018 from Balzer + Bray, is a novel set in post-Reconstruction America… with one big twist: the entire country is beset by a plague of zombies that have risen from Civil War battlefields. The novel isn’t out until next year, but Bustle has the exclusive cover reveal below — and it is stunning.

“I wrote [Dread Nation] many moons ago, after I read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,” Justina Ireland tells Bustle. “Sure, you have well-to-do white women fighting, but it didn’t seem realistic. It would’ve been black women fighting in the streets.”

That train of thought led her to an idea — what about a school for black and Native girls who train in the art of combat to kill the swarms of undead that populate their country? That idea proved to be the beginning of this book.

“It’s about zombies and racism,” Ireland says. “Jane grows up on a plantation. There’s a law that when you’re 12, you have to go to combat school. It’s only for Negro and Native kids. All Jane wants to do is finish her education and go home. She doesn’t want to be part of society… but then people start going missing, and she’s caught in the middle of this conspiracy. Like Odysseus, everything goes wrong, and everything conspires against her.”

[aiweirdness]

When A.I. gets into birding

[Bird illustrations by the talented Carin Powell (10000badframes.tumblr.com  http://carinpowell.wixsite.com/sheanimates)]

I train computer programs called neural networks to imitate datasets of human things. Basically, I give the neural network a long list of things like band names or guinea pig names to look at, and it does its best to figure out the rules that will let it generate more.

The neural network starts with a fresh slate every time, and becomes the World’s Biggest Fan of whatever it’s given - if I give it Pokemon names, it will invent Pokemon after Pokemon; if I give it Star Wars names, it will invent new characters like Darth Tina and Ban Sand.

There was one time when I gave the neural network a list of 37,000 common names of fish, and it invented fish that were, well, honestly no weirder than existing fish names. Fish names are That Weird.

Since that day, and even before, I have been hearing from birders. Any of you who know birders or are birders yourselves will not be surprised. Not only are birders very eager to find out what a neural network would make of bird species, they are also very organized. There is, for example, a downloadable checklist of about 32,000 birds, 14,000 of which have English common names. Big thanks to Kaija Gahm, Dana Terry, and Emily Davis, who sent me this and similar datasets.

The neural network, after reading intently through the entire list about 7 times, is now a dedicated birder.

I asked it to generate some birds. Not too wild - plausible.

Ecuadorian Helmeted Parrot Slaty White-throated Fairy-bellied Ground-Tyrant Tree Sunangel Lazuli Cuckooshrike Brown-headed Spadebill Cape Babbler Three-toed Wren-Babbler

Ground-Tyrant, I asked? Cuckooshrike? It turns out, yes. There are 57 cuckooshrikes, including a Cerulean Cuckooshrike and a Blue Cuckooshrike, but not an actual Lazuli Cuckooshrike. Similarly, that ground-tyrant would pass as plausible among birders.

Fine, I said. What does actual weird look like? I upped the neural network’s creativity level to 1.0, the highest level I usually use.

Nukh’s Dull Gull Banded Spectacled Snake-Eagle Thick-knee Bunticus Gray-chinned Laughingthrush Ecuadorian Strange-tailed Cuckoo Violet-throated Tyrant-Eagle Horned Yellow Flycatcher Rusty-browed Highlark Red-capped Lynert’s Leafbird Dead Flycatcher Potland Bustard Beautiful Pulpertory Fairy Warbler Hottled Duck Rufous-fronted Grassy Owl Chestnut-bellied Ged Parrot-Weaver Brown-breasted Leaftosser Green-hooded Hawk Burrowing Guineafowl Unicolored Painted Blue-cowled White-browed Cave-Magpie

Ha, I said. Banded Spectacled Snake-Eagle? That’s hilarious.

Yes, the neural network would have replied (if it was equipped for conversation as well as for birding enthusiasm). Banded AND Spectacled? Ha!

It turns out there are 6 snake-eagles, 41 spectacled birds, and 106 banded birds, but nothing that’s banded AND spectacled.

I turned the creativity up to 1.2, a point at which for other datasets, the neural network is emitting unpronounceable strings of letters with only a vague resemblance to the original. Here’s what the birding neural net produced:

Violet-footed Macaw Blue-winged Cruz White Kiwi Buttlebird Red-faced Imperial-Pigeon Marabor Island Sooty-Whistler Cornell’s Palm-Goose Olive Stonechat Rus Efricans Puffbird Ringed Wattle-eye Northern Narrow Lark Indigo Mungletoe-Tyrant Wilson’s Blue-eared Hummingbird Eyebill Kingfisher Crinete Bor-billed Mountain-eater Pygmy Sea Shag Laughing Fig-Warbler Perplexaquail-Dove

Granted, even I am registering some of these as weird. Mountain-eater? The neural network made that up. But Wattle-eye, puffbird, stonechat, and shag are all real things. Apparently an *Olive* stonechat is just that weird.

At creativity 1.4 the results get stranger but not as strange as you’d think.

Humboldn’s Cuckoo-Eagle-Parrot Adbau Mungle-Flycatcher Forest Tern Red Frogmouth Freckled Love Temetai African Pope Catbird Dufous Partridge Fawn-bellied Flowerpecker Lavaranean Hawk Hothell’s Hummingbird Eastern Shove Crake Long-tailed Honey-buzzard Iceland Reedhaunter Blood Flycatcher Mungleh’s Wattle-eye Slender-eared Chat

For reference, this is what a neural network trained on pie produces at creativity 1.4:

Dibble Ice Fraini Pien Daria Futgo Crustdamamatsna-LiGmeat Pieb Pe sivle Hed Rice Frozen Mincemeat Mop shb Impossible Titer: Fiag Caramel Apple Wime Figl’s Topped Sugrum’s Pumpar

The birders are probably nodding in agreement with the neural network, though. “FOREST Tern? That’s unutterably silly.”

Finally, once I have increased the creativity to 1.6, I declare the neural network’s names to be Obviously Strange.

Maddeel’s Woodhaunter African White-capped Hocky Owl Fairy-collared Barblering Bush-Roe Hyra Dusky Sicky-faced Petrel White-throated Sukbird Koopa paucosian Rivetpecker Hoaly Titco’s Badwinch Snowy Mourning Heron-Robin Javan Clamper Leafbird Dog-winged Buczardle Red-bellied Pale-tufted Junkletar Moustached White Owl Pacific Three-hong-toed Thick-dee Buttmanxwecir Mar Punybill Ledt’s Cockadoo Mountain-rumpting-Finch warn-winged Wood-banded-Black-breasted Stesing-Patein-fronted Crimsonwing

I generated even more birds at even higher creativity levels - if you’d like them, sign up here and I’ll email them to you. I went all the way up to creativity level 1.8, at which point it generated a bird simply called “Strange”.

[quarticmoose]

Inktober, Day 4

Aaah, I've wanted to draw a seahorse for a while, and now I finally have! Yay!

[resistdrumpf]

Enrollment for 2018 Affordable Care Act (ACA / Obamacare) starts November 1 and ends December 15. Trump (what an asshole) reduced the ADVERTISING funds by 90% to announce when people can enroll. Spread the word.

[odinsblog]

And to make registration even more difficult, Trump will also be shutting down the ACA registration website on Sundays “for maintenance” during peak registration times. Plan ahead. Get registered.

[akhunty-deactivated20240130]

IF YOURE EGYPTIAN AND LGBTQ+ GET OFF ANY QUEER DATING SITES, THE POLICE ARE TRACKING AND HUNTING PEOPLE DOWN AGAIN. DELETE YOUR ACCOUNTS.

[salty-red-mage]

This is very real.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/amp/human-rights-groups-urge-egypt-halt-crackdown-gays-n806641

[lesbianrey]

current as of oct 2nd 2017

[zinge]

Please be careful!!

[boycub]

if a teenager is at your door and they are wearing a costume!! please give them candy!! they are still in it for the halloween spirit and it honestly no different from a little kid in a costume. they are just as excited and happy as all the other lil tykes and dont you dare tell them they are “too old for trick-or-treating” because that will literally break their hearts and that’s not cool.

[boycub]

Its getting close to Halloween again so I just thought I’d reblog this again

[archdemonsblood]

And if “don’t be rude to teenagers over a stupid jawbreaker” isn’t enough for you, consider 

You can’t tell how old a kid is just by looking. I’ve known multiple 5th graders who were taller than I am, and I’m 25 years old. With their faces hidden by masks, you won’t be able to tell they’re elementary schoolers, but they still are. 

Lots of older siblings are expected to take their younger siblings trick-or-treating, and they only get paid in candy. 

You don’t know if that teenager is developmentally disabled. 

You don’t know if that teenager spent most of their childhood in a hospital or sick and has never had the traditional trick-or-treat experience before.

You don’t know if this is that teenager’s first Halloween in America, and they just want to experience a piece of American culture.

You don’t know if that teenager ever gets candy any other day of the year. 

You don’t know if that teenager has eaten anything at all today. 

And those are just things I can think of off the top of my head. 

[dea-certe]

Also, my niece had her first Halloween at 16 because her family converted from Jehovah’s Witness to standard Christian (Pentecostal, I think). That was also the year my 32 year old uncle had his first birthday party and we had our first fully inclusive family Christmas. So yeah, let the older kids celebrate.

[zinge]

My dad’s wife, my stepmom (wow), is in her late 30’s but she lived in Spain her entire life until she started dating my dad and moved to the US to marry him.

Her first Halloween in America, he took her trick-or-treating because she’d never “done” Halloween before.

Everyone in town was happy to give her candy, and that warms my heart. If someone in a costume, or just a festive outfit, comes to your door and trick or treats, don’t be sour.

Give them a candy! 🍫🍬🍭

[quarticmoose]

I’m only slightly late to the Inktober party! It’s not too late to jump in!  Maybe it’s never too late, but I know last year I didn’t pick up on the fact that it was inktober until three weeks in, and at that point I didn’t have the motivation to join. Anyway! Here, have a quick tree swallow sketch!   ~ Q Moose

[mysharona1987]

Never mind the “Who shot first?” stuff; THIS is the defining moment of the Han Solo character:

Everyone else was just like: “Oh, fuck: It’s Vader!” and standing around in shock and terror when Vader was revealed. Even Chewie.

Most people, I suspect, would have that reaction. 

Meanwhile, Han’s first reaction, instinctively, in less than a second, was to grab a gun and try to flat-out end the guy.

He failed, of course. But God Damn if you can’t appreciate the effort. 

[mandatheginger-deactivated20170]

Also, he grabs his girl’s hand. Not only is he going to end Vader, he’s going to do so while reassuring the woman he loves that this monster who tortured her won’t hurt her again as long as he’s there to do something about it.

[mysharona1987]

The point of this scene:

Han was nothing to Vader. Not really. Han was just a normal, average guy. Vader didn’t think too much of him. 

“I have superpowers; you don’t!”

But then: doesn’t Han show more love, affection, guts and courage in this moment than any Jedi warrior ever could? 

Thus, Vader is shown up.

[cumaeansibyl]

Attempting to kill an evil wizard with a regular gun is one of the most Han Solo things ever. I don’t think most people would even bother trying, because you can’t just shoot Darth Vader, right? Of course not. But Han’s gonna goddamn try it anyway.

[mysharona1987]

Yeah, basically’ Han tried.

Sometimes that’s all you can ever ask of someone. 

[kittykat8311]

Just one of many reasons I love this man

[deathpigeon]

With Han, you never have to wonder, “Why didn’t he just shoot them?” Whenever you’d think that, he shoots them.

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Han Solo is a practical soul and if he’s got the chance to just shoot them he’s gonna take it

[peerieweirdo]

i love when ur writing an essay and u all of a sudden get a burst of inspiration or find the perfect source to back up ur point and it’s like the clouds have parted and everything’s clear and ur not gonna have to drop out

[peerieweirdo]

never mind everything sucks essay writing is horrible i have no clue what im doing im gonna drop out and become a street performer

[peerieweirdo]

NEVER MIND IM THE KING OF ACADEMIA IM GONNA GET 100% IM GONNA FINISH ON TIME AND HAVE A WELL STRUCTURED ARGUMENT AND IT’S GONNA BE AWESOME

[peerieweirdo]

never mind.

[medievalpoc]

Maybe this is a crazy question, but how did Europeans know what Africans looked like? I know that some of the paintings here are of North Africans/Middle Easterners, but others clearly depict people born south of the Sahara. I've heard of Prester John but I never imagined that medieval Europeans were aware that Prester John would have had brown skin. Am I missing something?

Like. There are a lot of things I could say here. But I’m just going to do my best to answer your question, and the answer is either very simple or very complicated, depending on your current point of view.

1. “They” knew what people with brown skin looked like because people with brown skin had been there literally THE ENTIRE TIME. Some (and father back, ALL) of “them” had brown skin themselves.

2. “People with Brown Skin” and “Europeans” are not separate and mutually exclusive groups.

3. No matter how far back you go, the mythical time that you’re looking for, when all-white, racially and culturally isolated Europe was “real”, will continue to recede from your grasp until it winkles out the like imaginary place it is.

We can just keep going back. In every area, from all walks of life, rich and poor, kings and peasants, artists and iconoclasts, before there were countries and continents, before there were white people.

Russia, 1899:

Switzerland, c. 1800:  [fixed link here]

Netherlands, 1658:

Poland, 1539:

Germany, 1480s:

Spain, 1420s:

France, 1332:

Scotland, England, France, 1280s:

France, 1220s:

England, 1178:

Belgium, 1084:

Greece, c. 1000:

Spain, 850s:

Throughout Europe, 800s-500s:

England, c. 300 AD:

Scotland, c. 100 AD:

Italy, 79 AD:

Greece, 170 B.C.:

Greece, 300 B. C.:

Greece, 400s B.C.

Greece, 500s B.C.:

Egypt, 1200s B.C.:

Crete (Minoan), 1600 B.C.:

Crete (Minoan), early 2000s B.C.:

Romania, 34,000 B.C.:

The time when “EVERYONE” in Europe was White does not exist. They knew what people with brown skin looked like because they were there. They knew what “Africans” looked like because they were there, and they weren’t “they”, they were us, or you. I think what you’re missing is something that never existed.

[clarknokent]

Y'all gotta understand that this narrative that black people weren’t in Europe was created due to white people trying to erase black people from history. Antiblackness and racism is found in every part of the globe thanks to colonization by European(mostly white) nations.

I know it sounds like this is just hate against white people but it’s a statement of fact. When you research history from non-eurocentric viewpoints you learn so much. I learned more about history in a semester long African diaspora class than I did in all my history classes to that point.

[gael-garcia]

(x)

[believeinprongs-blog]

[pieceofchocolate]

DANIEL RADCLIFFE IS MY FAVORITE PERSON ALIVE

[descendedintospace-deactivated2]

100,000,000,000 POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR

[conventionally-unattractive]

I mean, buuuuuuuuuuuurn but that’s also super depressing

[softboiledmemes]

[necromancer-deactivated20190530]

future girls make do

[zizibutik]

i cant believe we made future woman with corn have meaning… after all these years

[taakeyou]

Europe - inspired by (x)

[thessalian]

It’s going to be sad and off-balance when the UK leaves this particular photoset.

[raceofhearts]

This is Europe, not EU. Unless you guys plan some super-villain level operation with tectonic plates involved, I don’t think this will change. :D

[maxknightley]

How come period pieces are almost always dramas, anyway? I want to watch a sitcom about a dude in renaissance-era Tuscany trying to get rich quick by scamming the local merchant princes.

[prokopetz]

The time that Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli teamed up to steal a river would make an excellent buddy comedy, and nothing will convince me otherwise.

[chadbono]

[zvcruvolo-deactivated20200724]

He just shit on your whole life, bitch.

[iceey-ent]

I don’t get it

[colgek]

He’s thanking her for her criticism because that’s the polite thing to do when being judged for something you are pursuing a career in. She showed her complete and total lack of class and tact by misinterpreting his thanks as an acceptance of a compliment. It put her in her place in a very discreet yet sick as hell way. Basically, he revealed that she is trash in a very polite way.

[antielricest]

"I don't support it in real life"

Then stop normalizing it Then stop romanticizing it Then stop pretending it’s “hot” Then stop pretending it’s “cute”

[barrenwomb]

will you ever understand that fiction is NOT reality

[antielricest]

the brain reacts to fictional situtations they same way it does with real situations

a collection of links to articles about how fiction affects reality

but yeah, fiction totally doesnt impact reailty

[futurestarfleetcaptain]

concept: the sabotage scene from beyond but with faith of the heart from enterprise

[static-warp-bubble]

Somebody please make this

[weyoun-five]

[ekjohnston]

this is actually the first time I’ve heard the whole song.