Sufficiently Antique

A few items indistinguishable from magic.

[lemonsharks]

HE'S BACK, BABY

EA-NASIR IS HERE FOR US, RIPPING OFF CAPITALISTS

AS PER MY LAST TABLET

[aussieroborous]

Ea-nasir coming to be regarded as the new god of amusingly dishonest business practices is such a glorious illustration of human nature. I love it!

[krindor]

[sufficientlyantique]

[sufficientlyantique]

In celebration and recognition : Christine Jorgensen

Christine Jorgensen

(1926-1989)

American entertainer whose highly publicized gender change in the 1950s first brought widespread mainstream attention to transgender issues

Sidewalk plaque near 18th & Castro, San Francisco

[andthepeople]

always funny to remember darth vader is anakin skywalker. the adrenaline junkie chucklefuck who used to dive head first out of speeders and built a pod racer in his yard when he was like six is now upper-middle management for the evil empire. half of his appearances in the original trilogy are Meetings. vader spends like 80% of his time dealing with bureaucratic bullshit. status updates. team meetings. holo-Zooms. budget rundowns. anakin betrayed the jedi and caused the fall of the republic and his punishment is being CC'd on every email forever. and you know what. he would hate that. the punishment fits the criminal

[sufficientlyantique]

Hence his need for frequent time outs in his fortress of solitude.

The one power Palpatine would not teach him was the power of delegation.

[i-am-a-fish]

no more dichotomies. I would like to introduce you to my friends Both, Neither, and Something else entirely

[i-am-a-fish]

also my friend Sneither, who also cannot be organized into any single category

[sufficientlyantique]

Let us not forget, friends, the ever popular

And another thing...

[sufficientlyantique]

Just a thought. It's not well thought through. But I wanted to write it down before I lost it to, you know, "squirrel!"

I've recently heard a us defense leader publicly deride the phrase "diversity is our strength".

I'm casually familiar with a security strategy called "defense in depth". The theory is to layer defenses. One creates rings or boundaries at different levels or locations or distances. Different tactics and technologies are used throughout so what's inside is protected against a wide variety of attacks. Wider than any single tactic or technology could.

Defense in depth is a metaphor widely used in security and the military for quite some time. Defense in depth is fundamentally about diversity. A modern large organization uses a wide variety of technologies, tactics, and strategies to defend against malicious attacks.

A political leader vamping on a basic strategy to his entire military is ignorant. It is also a clear sign to his adversaries that his military is weak because "thinking outside the box" will win in the end.

I think I'll go have a think on a more recently developed security strategy called "zero trust."

[tokyomanjihoe]

me forcing myself to do things that make me feel better

[sufficientlyantique]

Determined Duck

If I HaVe To

But Mommmmm!

Because I said so!

[lemonsharks]

HE'S BACK, BABY

EA-NASIR IS HERE FOR US, RIPPING OFF CAPITALISTS

AS PER MY LAST TABLET

[aussieroborous]

Ea-nasir coming to be regarded as the new god of amusingly dishonest business practices is such a glorious illustration of human nature. I love it!

[krindor]

[sufficientlyantique]

I'm seeing an increase in unblockable ads and questions with only two options

Turn me into your human Cent I-pede

and

Maybe Later

Kill it! Kill it with fire!

I wish to subject the inventor and users of this pattern a very clockwork orange therapy session

[nogodsnokingsnomasters]

Kent State University

[tiredtransgal]

“The Kent State shootings (also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre)[3][4][5] were the shootings on May 4, 1970 of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio during a mass protest against the bombing of Cambodia by United States military forces. Twenty-eight guardsmen fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds, killing four students and wounding nine others, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.[6][7]”

“There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of 4 million students,[10] and the event further affected public opinion, at an already socially contentious time, over the role of the United States in the Vietnam War.[11]”

Student strike of 4 million students! Let’s do that again lol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings

[solarpunkcast]

Don’t forget that basically half the country thought the students deserved it…

[captain-rez]

Another picture from Kent State.

But it was not just Kent State, eleven days later Mississippi Police fired 150 rounds into a dormitory at Jackson State College, killing 2 and wounding 15 black protesters.

[saurons-optometrist]

Btw half of the students killed at Kent State weren’t even protesting, they were just there

[bando--grand-scamyon]

What in the absolute fuck

[wuh2k]

When the Irish guy has known about this since he was like 8, but it’s suspiciously hard for Americans to learn about…

[hekeepsmeworm]

I literally only know abt this bc my parents are hippies it’s fucked up

[jheselbraum]

I only had a vague idea of what this was and what happened until I did my own research on it.

When I was 21.

[beautifultoafault]

i never heard of this…… and i live in this country……… WTF 

[fuckyouformakingmedothis]

Welcome to America. If you want to learn some actual history, then research it yourself

[prismatic-bell]

I feel like it needs to be pointed out that to this day, nobody knows exactly what happened.

I don’t say that to absolve the National Guard, either. I say it because if you read about the minutes leading up to the shooting, it is extremely obvious the ONG was an absolute fucking mess. Orders were not being passed along correctly, unclear and contradictory orders were being given. At least part of what happened next was due to individual members of the Guard being agitated and on edge due to having no fucking idea what was going on or whether there was danger from armed students.

It’s important to know this because it’s important to understand what a breakdown in communication and discipline looks like on a military level, especially as we move into an era where military presence can be expected to increase at protests and demonstrations. I don’t know how different 4 May 1970 would have looked if the Guard had received clear and consistent orders. I do think it would have looked different, though. I think there’s a possibility nobody would have died. There were students who were out of order, yes (rocks can be considered lethal weapons, there’s a reason stoning to death is a thing), but not one of them deserved to pay for it with their lives.

If you’re going to protest in the face of the military, know what a breakdown looks like. It’s important.

[pagecommando]

Kent State was literally in our textbooks. That picture was literally in our textbooks. At a certain point you have to stop drawing sexy naruto or whatever and pay attention, and then when you graduate, you should probably keep learning about stuff. Like the Beslan School Massacre.

Beslan: The school hostage massacre that exposed Putin's weakness

The roots of Putinism were already evident after the massacre of 334 people in a school in Russia in 2004.

[afurioushawk]

“The government doesn’t want you to know about this”

[presents literally one of the most famous college photos in all American history]

[voluptuarian]

That photo of the Kent State shooting is super famous. Most textbooks discussing the 60s include it, any deeper coverage of the 60s or the counterculture of the period discusses it, it is still frequently referenced and talked about, part of the reason the Kent State “gun girl” is in such bad taste is that she was doing all that on a campus where students had been very famously gunned down within living memory and that was brought up at the time, Crosby Stills & Nash have a goddamn song about it

[sufficientlyantique]

Gently. Gently.

It's the first day for someone right now.

The posters above provide relevant information and references to this horrible and galvanizing event, and it's ongoing relevance.

[sufficientlyantique]

Survival in subalpine drylands is a triumph.

A drone's-eye view of a forest near the continental divide in the southwestern USA.

[doberbutts]

Another point that reminds me of my privilege in this world is when I think about the fact that we sell the cure for tuberculosis to people to give to their dogs for a UTI. Millions of people literally die every year because they can't access this medication and I'm giving it to people to shove down their dogs' throats to make them stop peeing in the house. It's one of the more expensive antibiotics and people always whine about the price but then it's not their daughter they have to watch slowly suffocate as bacteria turns her lungs into swiss cheese. It's not their father that coughs and coughs and coughs until he's spitting up blood.

The deadliest infectious disease in human history is cured by the same packet of chewable tabs individually packed in foil. It comes in beef flavor so your dog won't resist taking its meds as much. It's like a hundred bucks for 30 tablets on pretty much any pet pharmacy.

It makes me think about medicine scarcity and how it's all fake in order to get enough capital that you can have individuals with higher net worth than entire countries. And in the mean time, hundreds of millions of people are dead because they don't drive the bottom line.

[sufficientlyantique]

I'm reminded of a personal experience. Not exactly about TB and dogs. Related.

In the long ago times (1970's), in poor rural America, I had a bacterial infection affecting one of my toes. It lasted for many months. Long enough to affect my gait. It leaked puss. I was an ignorant child and lived with it. Chronic pain and probably systemic inflammation. When someone else finally noticed, the family eventually took me to the nearest doctor. The "treatment" was to soak the affected foot in salty water. After a month of that with no great change, part of my toe nail was removed surgically. The infection returned. More soaking. Still infected. Worse pain, because the newly regrown toenail was slicing through very tender skin with every step.

One day, I was treating the family dog for an infection it had. For some reason, something clicked and I decided to try breaking up one of the dog's antibiotic pills and soaking one of my fresh bandages/cushions in the stuff.

Lo. Within 2 days, puss production was gone. Within 5 days, the wound skin was healed and the swelling dramatically reduced. I could put weight on my foot without excruciating, stabbing pain. Everything was healed within a few weeks. And has stayed healed ever since.

My toe was saved through a topical antibiotic that my family could afford for a dog, but not a person. And i learned over time that the local "doctor" didn't think to provide cheap antibiotics in the first place.

I am sad, though unsurprised, all this is happening still.

[couldntbedamned]

If you come across anyone who starts off with "Scientists don't want you to know..." you need to understand that they're lying. They're completely full of shit and working a grift.

Because they've never met or spoke with a scientist.

Scientists WANT YOU TO KNOW. Scientists want you to know SO MUCH. Scientists would be THRILLED to teach you EVERYTHING they know in EXPLICIT DETAIL. Scientists LOVE to share information and their findings and their theories. They don't want to hide anything, ever. They are SO HAPPY to share.

[jimvasta]

"Scientists don't want you to know-"

Bitch, have you ever been in a room with a scientist and showed the slightest bit of interest in their research topic?

That's just become an ultra hard mode escape room. Good luck and may the odds be in your favour.

[sufficientlyantique]

Ask any ND person/scientist/researcher/interested party about one of their blorbos. Go ahead. I dare you. I double dog dare you.

[sufficientlyantique]

Vintage vibes

[sufficientlyantique]

Take heart, my sisters, brothers, and others.

"All of this has happened before. All of this will happen again."

Battle Star Galactica

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

as a younger person I'd sometimes get overwhelmed with the violence of the world, not just human violence but the violence done to animals and by animals, the innate violence of being an animal. because an animal is, by definition, an organism that must consume other organisms to live. and this would lodge in my spiraling young adult mind, the tragedy that to live, to be a creature, is to cause harm. that life is sustained by consuming life.

eventually I got older (and medicated), but in the meantime spending time in woodland really helped. it comforted me to be around plantlife, which feeds not on life but on sunlight, and therefore causes no harm.

anyway now I'm reading The Hidden Life Of Trees by Peter Wohlleben (incredible book) and it turns out that was a big fat LIE. forests are violent as FUCK

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

life as a tree is fucking BRUTAL. ok no they don't actually eat each other (well, not until they've been broken down and digested by microorganisms first) but competition is FIERCE. sunlight and water are finite resources. survival rates are dismal. a tree can release a million seeds in a lifetime and have only one offspring live to maturity. some species evolved ways of stealing sunlight from trees who got there first, bidding their time as a sapling then shooting out from under older canopies to hog as as much light as possible. next-door neighbors? fuck em, let em starve.

then you get shit like epiphytes that decided to just grow on top of other plants. strangler fig vines, for instance, which decided well fuck, im just gonna cling to this tree trunk and let it do the support work. maybe entangle our roots and envelope my host completely over time. oopsie my host died? that's ok I'll just cling to its corpse for eternity

equally horrifying is the honeysuckle, which preys on young trees boa-constrictor style, squeezing the life out of saplings, which grow with permanent deformities before dying prematurely (makes for a neat walking stick though)

then you get out and proud parasites like mistletoe who are happy to attach themselves to tree canopies and suck their blood extract water and nutrients. so yeah some plants do eat each other actually. gives ya some perspective on the old christmas tradition of hunting mistletoe with guns (yes that's a thing, shooting them down out of trees like squirrels. yes, unlike squirrels they deserve it). as for the romance angle, who doesn't want to kiss a lover beneath the dying corpse of a parasitic trophy kill? sexy as heck.

in conclusion, PLANTS ARE VIOLENT AS FUCK, and that's not even getting into the eternal chemical warfare they are forced to wage against insects, fungi, microbes and other enemies.

one day soon the forests will turn on us, and when that day comes I'm cheerfully betraying humanity and skipping away to cross enemy lines 🫡

kofi

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

to those who thought this post was heading in a heartwarming direction, i do NOT apologize and i DO hope the forest and its creeping mycelium tendrils crawl their way into your nightmares

[sufficientlyantique]

Re-experiencing a blorbo.

Or two.

[hellyeahanarchistposters]

Some old May Day posters from around the world

[sufficientlyantique]

May Day

Hooray