𓃹𓃹𓃹

i know i know my theme is sparse. can you see this on mobile? huh

[squeakitties]

still thinking about the apparent 2006-2007 epidemic of rabid swarms of wii remotes descending on helpless televisions like locusts

[estrogenesis-vaporeongelion]

wii sports was invented by nefarious television manufacturers to break people's televisions

[puppygirllaika]

What a very funny joke that definitely did not happen because Nintendo definitely did not buy up almost a third of the shares of the top five TV manufacturers in the time between the announcement and release of the Wii, shares which definitely didn't skyrocket in value over the next two years due to an increase in flatscreen sales, nearly half of which independent analysts attributed to people replacing damaged TVs with newer, more expensive models from electronics stores that relied on high-pressure sales tactics to upsell people and get them to buy more expensive models on credit which they couldn't actually afford.

[fatehbaz]

[I]n colonial zoological literatures between 1870 and 1935. This was the historic period of colonial zoologists’ speculation about […] the whereabouts of the last Palestinian crocodile. […] [T]he Palestinian crocodile extinction story is intertwined with violent histories of colonial resource extraction, racialized labor exploitation, and indigenous human dispossession. […]

Clarence the crocodile drifts about lazily in the thick summer heat […] at the […] Zoological Gardens in West Jerusalem […]. Nile crocodiles once lived in Palestine’s Mediterranean coastal marshlands. The poster narrates […]: “In 1905, the last crocodile was hunted in Israel by residents of [the Palestinian village] Jisar-A-Zarka.” […] [T]he market for late Ottoman Palestine’s small and dwindling crocodile population was overwhelmingly driven by colonialists […]. [T]he […] zoo poster implies that Palestinians were responsible for Nile crocodiles’ regional extinction. This historical narrative hinges on the last crocodile’s symbolic singularity […]. Several “last Palestinian crocodiles” – that is, crocodiles hunted when the local population was at the brink of extinction – remain to this day in British, German, and Israeli collections. The last Palestinian crocodile, therefore, is a dynamic rhetorical figure rather than a singular specimen. […]

—

[We can] contextualize […] the colonial scientific archive with Palestinian-authored scholarship from this historic period, as well as […] interviews with local [Palestinian] historians […] By tracing the last Palestinian crocodile’s rhetorical circulation to 1935 – when an [Israeli] zoologist declared that Palestinian crocodiles were finally extinct –  [we  can] connect the story of Palestinian crocodile extinction with the British Mandate and Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PJCA)-led drainage and destruction of the crocodile’s former habitat and the dispossession of the Ghawarna who lived on that land. […] [I]t was only after the wetlands were drained that the PJCA transferred the Ghawarna community to Jisr al-Zarqa, newly created on a fraction of the Ghawarna’s […] lands. […]

—

The freshwater Nahr al-Zarqa, known for its clear blue waters, was used for drinking and agriculture. […] The marshlands themselves were home to two communities of Bedouin origin, ‘Arab Kabbara and ‘Arab al-Ghawarna […]. ‘Arab al-Ghawarna roughly translates to “people of the lowlands” or “marshes.” For reasons of social status intertwined with their marshland dwelling-place, the name carries a fraught and at times stigmatized history. The Ghawarna who lived in the Zor al-Zarqa/Kabbara marshlands were primarily members of the ‘Ammash and Jurban families. As recounted to me by the local historian Mohamad Hamdan and the environmental and community activist Saidah alAli – who live in Jisr al-Zarqa […] – the Ghawarna earned a living […] weaving mats from the marsh’s abundant supple, springy reeds. […]

Palestinians of Sudanese descent were also affiliated with the Ghawarna during this period. […] Their […] “darkness” […] was the subject of repeated, disproportionate fascination in the writings of colonial researchers who came to hunt crocodiles and document marshland flora and fauna. […]

—

The relationship between imperial science, natural resource extraction, and territorial expansionism during the late Ottoman and British Mandate periods is well-documented. […] Why did Palestinian crocodiles – especially the last crocodile – attract so much attention from colonialists? What did they find so intriguing about this small, localized, and rapidly dwindling (if not entirely extinct) population? […]

Lastness […]. Colonial zoologists’ fixation on the last Palestinian crocodile was in part driven by an enduring European fascination with “lastness” as a spatial-temporal construct. This fascination exemplifies the convergence of evolutionary science and imperial sensibilities […]. [I]t converged with the myth of “the last of the race” and an enduring fascination with the “rise and fall” of civilizations. […] [T]hese sentiments […] were often cloaked in an air of “imperialist nostalgia.” […]

Scarcity […]. The interlocking relationship between imperial science, capitalist exploitation, and racist dehumanization is apparent in an 1887 PEQ article by the Templer German-American researcher Gottlieb Schumacher. Schumacher did not merely represent the Ghawarna as existing outside the circuits of capital. To him, they were capital. […]

Place […]. Palestinian crocodiles’ popularity among Europeans was heightened by place-based historical associations. The crocodiles were associated by name with several archeological and geographic sites near their habitat which were connected to Hellenistic and medieval Crusader histories in Palestine. These sites included the ruins of the Greco-Roman port city Crocodilopolis and the nearby river Nahr alZarqa, which during the Greco-Roman period was allegedly known as Crocodeilon. The ruins and river attracted a broad spectrum of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europeans […]. Through their excavation and representation of Palestinian crocodiles’ placebased historical associations, colonialists perpetuated a Eurocentric interpretation of Palestine’s material history. 

The crocodile served as a reptilian conduit for rewriting – and claiming ownership over – Palestine’s past, thereby de-Arabizing the history of the coastal marshlands. […]

—

Nearly a century has passed since Bodenheimer proclaimed the Palestinian crocodile’s extinction, obscuring the violent processes of Palestinian dispossession and ecological destruction.

—

All text above by: Elizabeth Bentley, “Between Extinction and Dispossession: A Rhetorical Historiography of the Last Palestinian Crocodile (1870-1935),” Jerusalem Quarterly, Issue 88 (Winter 2021). Published by Institute for Palestine Studies. DOI: doi. org /10.70190 /jq.188.pg [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism.]

[razehider]

it's a commonly accepted fact that animals are, on the whole, cuter when sleeping. in the case of bees, they're also not bastards when sleeping, so i could get as close to this cloak and dagger cuckoo bee (Thyreus sp.) as i wanted. although my presence was unnoticed or at least deemed unimportant, it did briefly buzz when i grabbed the plant and i could feel the vibrations while holding the stem, which was neat

i don't think there was an angle of this thing i didn't photograph at the time, knowing full well all the angles in the world still wouldn't help me identify it to species. but look at its stupid eyes

(August 6th, 2025)

[radiohart]

registered nonbinary but i do caucus with women

[ot3]

the extended atla franchise is really proof for why an IP-based approach to art does not work because while it is true that michael dante dimartino and bryan konietzko Created atla, it should be clear from the quality of the rest of the installments in the franchise with their name/stamp of approval on it that they were not the deciding factor in the quality of the original show. in fact, many if not Most of the series best episodes were written by head writer aaron ehasz and his then-wife elizabeth welch. neither of theses two have the Right to make more avatar even though they're a big part of what Made It in the first place.

ehasz then went out to put out 'the dragon prince' for netflix which was not a show i was crazy about but i think i feel pretty confident in calling it better than legend of korra.

now what's also notable about this situation is that ehazs is a notorious enough misogynist to have a section of his wikipedia page devoted to his alleged professional mistreatment of women

elizabeth on the other hand has absolutely no presence online whatsoever. ATLA is her only writing credit. She wrote eight episodes of the show including Zuko Alone, The Avatar and the Fire Lord, and The Southern Raiders. She and aaron are now also divorced.

Now, if you know anything about how misogynist male creatives working in the same field as their wives operate, then you can probably reach the same conclusion I have. If a man is willing to treat female coworkers like his nanny and assistant as a baseline, imagine what he feels entitled to expect from a female coworker that is also his wife. I would not be surprised if much of the work on ATLA that ehasz was able to build his career off of would not have been nearly as good without a lot of behind the scenes assistance from elizabeth.

so of the 4 people mentioned here, the one with the absolute least claim of any entitlement to the Intellectual Property of the avatar franchise is overwhelmingly likely to be the most responsible for the meaningful character and narrative writing that caused ATLA to even earn enough accolades to be worth franchising in the first place.

[radiohart]

okay so now that i'm awake just to recap:

i very hesitantly ask roommate (who lately i have been spending days at a time emotionally supporting in ways we both know make me absolutely miserable) if ('and i know you've got a lot on your plate and i don't mean this as an attack') if they could maybe pick up the bits of trash that theyve left all over the floor of the apartment again

they ignore this text for 10ish hours despite filling me in on all the neighbor drama (i am too at work to respond and also kind of hurt)

they mention they'll get to it and ask me to accompany them on another all-day trip, except this time it's an overnighter immidiately following my (notoriously long and brutal) shift

i say i'll have to see if i can pick up overtime bc they've been mentioning every other day how they "hope" they won't be late on rent and i just want to cover my bases

they rescind the invitation and go on a whole rant about how i "didn't even check in to see if they were gonna fuck it up again" and how i'm "just like [their] parents and therapist and exes" because i don't think they're "good enough"

i apologize profusely and tell them that that wasn't my intent at all and that i don't think of them that way etc etc generally feel like shit about myself

they ask if they can pay me less rent because of how tight their money is gonna be

sure whatever i'm too guilty atp

get home and there is still trash all over the floor

start sobbing, realize they're hanging out directly outside my window, very quickly get high enough that i'm Weird instead of Catastrophically Miserable

around 10pm they say maybe they do want my company again actually (i am up with stress nightmares again but do not respond)

step on a piece of broken glass in the kitchen upon waking up to make coffee

[herpsandbirds]

This is easily one of the CRAZIEST videos I've ever gotten. I was rafting down a river when a Yellow Jacket came, landed on my bright pink waterproof phone pouch, and started drinking from the water droplets that had gathered there.

The most amazing part is how the water droplet magnifies the Hornet's mouth parts, so you get to see them up-close!!!! It was FASCINATING to witness!

Here's some of my favorite still shots from that video:

What do you think? 🥰

[radiohart]

high as a kite silently sobbing in my room car screeches past absolutely blasting the hook from icona pop's hit single 'i love it' what am i dooooooooing

[37q]

[37q]

Fast-forward 20 years and the sounds of "Lambada" are back with not one but three charting songs featuring the melody of the 1990 hit. First up was Edward Maya and Vika Jigulina's soulful dance track "Stereo Love," which entered the Hot 100 last October at No. 92 and peaked in January at No. 16, spending 28 weeks on the chart.

...

Finally, there is Jennifer Lopez's hit "On the Floor," featuring Pitbull, which sports the melodic hook of "Lambada," with Lopez singing new English lyrics to the original melody. The track peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 in May and has generated U.S. digital track sales of 2 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Cobo, Leila, "20 years later, "Lambada" still inspiring hits", Reuters, 4 Jun 2011, https://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyle/20-years-later-lambada-still-inspiring-hits-idUSTRE7530GO/. Accessed 25 Jul 2026

[secondquarrel]

so venezuela has become a usamerican colony. like that happened and everything carried on like normal

[secondquarrel]

like i know venezuela is going through a huge humanitarian crisis right now and their political regime is low in the list of priorities when tallinmg about it obviously it's just it shocked me to read trump congratulating his secretary of energy on how well he's running what used to be a sovereign country until a few months back you know

[infertilityidol]

woahhhh a floor beef clover it must be my yucky day

[milksockets]

e. garbs ad in ritual magazine no. 8

[slipping-into-madness]

[thaumbody]

Here's a source for the analysis, but it probably is not the source.

Labor share of income hits record low as corporate profits soar

Workers’ share of US economic output has fallen to its lowest level since the government began keeping records in 1947, according to data th

Some points of interest:

Corporate profits are soaring. After taxes, they now take 12.3 percent of national output, far above their postwar average of 7.3 percent.

Adjusted for inflation, hourly wages have risen 3 percent since the end of 2019, Ip noted. Corporate profits over the same period have risen 50 percent.

The Economic Policy Institute calculates that since 1979 the productivity of American workers has grown 90 percent while the pay of the typical worker has grown 33 percent. Had wages tracked output, the average worker would earn $16.40 more an hour today.

The profits are concentrated among the largest corporations. Earnings at the 500 biggest US firms rose 28 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the fastest pace since 2021, and their profit margins reached 14.8 percent. The seven technology giants known as the “Magnificent 7”—Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Tesla—grew their profits 63 percent.

In the United States, the richest 1 percent of households hold 31.7 percent of all wealth. The bottom half hold barely 2.5 percent.

[3liza]

HEY REMEMBER ALL THE RATS WHO KEPT SAYING WE WERE IMAGINING THIS

[covid-safer-hotties]

Source

[covid-safer-hotties]

Source

[gushism]

abacus valley - acrylic on 16” x 20” canvas

[antronaut]

Morphological Studies of Red Algae of the Family Cryptonemiaceae Young-meng Chiang University of California Press