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"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
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Cosmic Funnies
Jules of Nature
Product Placement
oozey mess
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
Three Goblin Art
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$LAYYYTER
ojovivo
Kaledo Art
Andulka
Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
Peter Solarz
taylor price
tumblr dot com
will byers stan first human second
RMH
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@thalia1832
This is cinema actually
THE ALI FORESHADOWING LIKE SHE’S A WIZARD THEY’RE PREPARING TO FACE AND THEYRE WARNING US ABOUT HER LIKE BARDS.
ALI IMMEDIATELY LIVING UP TO THE BALLDS SUNG ABOUT HER.
THE FACT THAT ALL OF THEIR MAGIC COMBINED DIDN’T COUNTER HER SPELL
Are you americans okay???
Everclear is what we have instead of universal healthcare.
The writings of children who studied at the New-York African Free-School did not differ substantially from the responses in 1834 of African American pupils in Cincinnati, who answered the question “What do you think most about?” Their responses reveal concerns about their enslaved contemporaries. A seven-year-old child addressed the question in an epistolary manner with the salutation “Dear school-mates.” At the outset, the brief letter mentions buying a farm, working, studying, and visiting family members. The remainder of the letter concentrates on the long-range ambitions of growing to manhood and “get[ting] the poor slaves from bondage.” That goal was overshadowed by a more immediate concern—the news of a boat sinking with “two hundred poor slaves.” That subject, he wrote, “grieves my heart so that I could faint in one minute.” The young boy’s sense of distress was embodied in the thought of an immediate loss of consciousness, a temporary respite from reality. [...] Another letter from a ten-year-old pupil in the Cincinnati school, is laden with anxiety about enslaved family members. The missive begins with a statement of fact and registers despair about two cousins who were living in slavery. He claimed that his cousins, whose owner had died, were “entitled to their freedom.” He wrote, “They have done everything that the will requires” but the heirs of their former owner “wont let them go.” It was not unusual for descendants of slave-owners or others to contest a will, especially when property, real and personal, was at stake. Obviously interested in financial gain, the heirs were threatening to sell the slaves “down the river” rather than execute the will. The possibility that the will would be scuttled, thus removing the opportunity of immediate freedom for his relatives, distressed the schoolboy, who remained focused on his relatives. “If this was your case,” he asked, “What would you do?” The child did not end the letter with the question but added an anxious plea, “Please give me your advice.” This elevated the assignment from a classroom exercise to a personal concern that had serious consequences for the enslaved children and their cousin. The teacher, to whom the letters were addressed, may have responded in the margins as he evaluated the assignments. Instructors in Cincinnati and New York urged children to think about slavery and freedom. It is also likely that the teachers helped shape what the children thought and wrote. A cache of letters written in the 1850s and 1860s by African American boys at the Societe Catholique pour l’instruction des orphelins dans l’indigence in New Orleans provides a virtual cornucopia of data about the teachers’ instructions and the students’ comprehension of historical and political events. A study of these letters by historian Mary Niall Mitchell argues that the assignment educated the children about the possibility of establishing themselves as prospering citizens in places far away from the slave environment in New Orleans. The students’ knowledge of black emigration from the United States after the passage of the Compromise of 1850 and its threatening fugitive slave clause made Haiti and Mexico their destinations of choice.
Wilma King, Stolen Childhood: Slave Youth in Nineteenth-Century America
Cats getting caught doing crimes
it takes quite a bit of social intelligence for a creature to understand:
I know what I am doing is wrong
I know there is an activity that looks similar that is not wrong
If I am quick I can plausibly pass one off as the other
these cats are displaying remarkable theory of mind skills by not only registering that the humans can perceive them but actively trying to manipulate that perception! that requires one to be aware that other individuals have complicated interior thoughts of their own, to know that those thoughts are not always based on truth, and to quickly decide on the best possible “lie” for the situation. this is why I despise animal intelligence tasks based on obedience— some of the most clever moments stem from intelligent disobedience.
Did you know that the english word “star” and the japanese word 星（ほし）don’t actually mean the same thing?
Language does not simply name pre-existing categories; categories do not exist in 'the world'
— Daniel Chandler, Semiotics for Beginners
I read this quote a few years ago, but I don’t think I truly understood it until one day, when I was looking at the wikipedia article for “star” and I thought to check the Japanese article, see if I could get some Japanese reading practice in. I was surprised to find that the article was not titled 「星」, but 「恒星」, a word I’d never seen before. I’d always learnt that 星 was the direct translation for “star” (I knew the japanese also contained meanings the english didn’t, like “dot” or “bullseye”, but I thought these were just auxiliary definitions in addition to the direct translation of “star” as in "a celestial body made of hydrogen and helium plasma").
To try and clear things up for myself, I searched japanese wikipedia for 星. It was a disambiguation page, with the main links pointing to the articles for 天体 (astronomical object) and スター（記号）(star symbol). There was no article just called 「星」.
It’s an easy difference to miss, because in everyday conversation, 星 and star are equivalent. They both describe the shining lights in the night sky. They both describe this symbol: ★. They even both describe those enormous celestial objects made of plasma.
But they are different - different enough to not share a wikipedia article. 星 is used to describe any kind of celestial body, especially if it appears shiny and bright in the night sky. “Star” can be used this way too (like Venus being called the “morning star”), but it’s generally considered inaccurate to use the word like this, whereas there is no such inaccuracy with 星. You can say “oh that’s not actually a star, it’s a planet”, but you CAN’T say 「実はそれは星ではなく惑星だよ」 (TL: that’s not actually a hoshi, it’s a planet). A planet IS a 星.
星 is a very common word, essentially equivalent to “star”, but its meaning is closer to “celestial body”. I haven’t looked into the etymology/history but it’s almost like both english and japanese started out with a simple, common word for the lights in the sky - star/星 , but as we found out more about what these lights actually were, english doubled down on using the common word for the specific scientific concept, while japanese kept the common word generic and instead came up with a new word for the more specific concept. If this is actually what happened, I’d guess that kanji probably had something to do with it - 星 as a component kanji exists inside the word for planet, 惑星, and in the word for comet, 彗星, and in the scientific word for “star”, 恒星, so it makes sense that it would indicate a more general concept when used standalone.
This discovery helped me understand that quote - categories don’t exist in the world, we are the ones who create them. I thought that the concept of “star” was something that would be consistent across all languages, but it’s not, because the concept of “star” is not pre-existing. Each language had to decide how to name each of those similar star-like concepts (the ★ symbol, hot balls of gas, twinkling lights in the sky, planets, comets, etc), and obviously not every language is going to group those concepts under the same words with the same nuance.
Knowing this, one might be tempted to say that 恒星（こうせい） is the direct translation for “star”. But this isn’t true either. In most of the contexts that the word “star” is used in english, the equivalent japanese will be simply 星. Despite the meanings not lining up exactly, 星 will still be the best translation for “star” most of the time. This is the art of translation - knowing when the particulars are less important than the vibe or feel of a word. For any word, there will never be an exact perfect translation with all the same nuances and meanings. Translation is about finding the best solution to an unsolvable problem. That's why I love it.
Something I think ppl who aren't used to it struggle with when it comes to ancient history is that frequently 'we do not and cannot know this' is the only truthful response a historian can give. People severely overestimate how much we actually know about Ancient Rome.
I remember talking to someone at a party once about the debate over Septimius Severus's ethnicity (whole other can of worms) and they asked if genetic testing of his remains was not a way to settle it and I was like oh. Oh okay you are under the impression we have the physical remains of Roman emperors from the second century AD alright then. (We. Do not.)
Can't stress how much of high level study of Ancient History is devoted to trying to make sense of what actually factually happened. When I was at university (10+ years ago now) the discipline was embroiled in the lengthy and ongoing process of trying to unpack not just the biases in ancient sources but the centuries & centuries of biases within the field itself. I don't imagine this process is ever going to Stop. It's not uncommon for historical accounts to be so garbled & contradictory that it's not possible to reconstruct the real events behind them.
Once in an introductory lecture one of my professors was talking about this problem and articulated it very simply as 'we know real things happened between real people, but we aren't sure what they were'. Sums it up really!!
"Sys how is your decent into fiber arts hell going"
Glad you asked. I have arrived at 'modern flax is Bullshit compared to what we had in historical textiles, the flax widely available for handspinning is basically the tow that would be discarded from textile creation and used with tar to caulk ships back in the day'
This naturally led me down a hole of 'why is the staple length of this stuff a bullshit 6 inches' and the answer is 'we have bred modern flax more for the oil than the fiber because cotton usurped the place of everyday textile thanks to slavery and the cotton gin'
Anyway, THIS led me to a rabbit hole that culminated in me finding flax seed bred for proper 30 inch tall plants for fiber, sold by some fellow minded nerds on a website that has not been updated since 1998 and you have to email them to buy anything.
Anyway how are all of you doing.
I FAILED YOU ALL here is the site. You can also buy flax fiber from them. The PROPER shit, not the hot garbage ass tow fiber sold as flax top for handspinners.
Representations of Female Suicide by Drowning in Victorian Culture by Valerie Meessen
When I was a kid, maybe 14 or so (which is, you know, 20+ years ago), I belonged to a Yahoo! mailing list for an anime called Gundam Wing. It was mostly populated by other teens, of varying ages, as it was started by a teen and her friends. Eventually it migrated, when Yahoo! groups started as forums, and even branched off into non-GW related stuff in a second forum.
One of the things I remember the most clearly is the oldest person in the group. Her name was Steelsong. She was a 40-something Dom with a sub whose name we knew even though we knew nothing else. She ran her own fanfic archive because the web was still handmade HTML and navigated in webrings and I’m pretty sure Google didn’t exist or was only barely, barely launched and not well known. She was kind and patient and we loved her. She treated everyone on the group with the respect given any adult, even though most of the rest of the world was still treating us like we were children. Not teenagers even, but children. She never once condescended to any of us, never made our youth a barrier to her respect, never treated us like we were incapable of being full people or like we were less than her because we were young.
I remember that she hosted our fanfiction, as absolutely terrible as it was (and I still have some of it, I am WELL aware of how cringingly terrible it is, just absolute nonsense garbage), right there alongside of other fic that was soul-achingly beautiful. Not a separate section for her friends or for kids, just right there like we were good enough to feature alongside other authors. I never once received crit from her that I didn’t ask for, only support. Only love. I am still writing today partly because Steel was so kind about our fic, fanfic and original.
I remember that when I started doing clay sculpture, she commissioned a tiny pair of dragons from me, to support me doing artwork. She sent a check my mom cashed for me, and my mom helped me mail it when it was finished. It broke in transit, and Steel assured me that she mended it and that it was still beautiful. It was a small gold dragon curled up with a small silver dragon.
I remember that her patience knew no bounds. I remember that she was there for us, regardless of reason. When we wanted to know silly things like what to do with a single AA battery, she answered. When we had serious questions about sex, she answered. When we had questions about writing, she taught us. When one of our group members, a young gay teen in Australia, ended up in the hospital and then stopped making posts, and we all knew what had happened, she let us talk to her about it because we couldn’t go to our own parents, even though we had just lost a friend.
She was not a replacement to my parents, but she was an extra parent, in some ways. A friend, certainly, but someone that had been through more life than we had and was willing to pass on knowledge if we asked for it. Someone older that we trusted with things that were too uncomfortable to go to our parents or teachers or whatever about, because we already knew she wasn’t going to judge us or something, and that we would get an honest answer.
I don’t know why I’m remembering this so hard tonight, and I’m not sure if there’s a point to sharing this, except that I know she’s gone now. She was ill the last time we spoke, and her site went down a long time ago, and I miss her. She was a huge influence on my life, then and now. She was hope, for me, that life as an adult didn’t have to be boring, it wouldn’t have to mean giving up the things I loved and Becoming Only Responsible With No Fun. Her presence meant I had hope I could still write and play with friends even when I wasn’t ‘a kid’ anymore. And she’s gone, and I miss her, and I wanted to share her from the perspective of youth, and the perspective over twenty years later has provided me.
And I think of her, when people go off about older folks being in fandom with younger folks. I’m an older folks now, or at least middle aged folks because there are certainly folks older than me still, but I wasn’t always. I’ve been here since i was a younger folks, and I know how much Steel’s presence and support meant to me, how much she helped not just me but everyone on that group. And I think of the people saying older folks don’t belong in fandom, and that they shouldn’t interact with younger folks at all, and I just think… I can’t agree. I needed that kind of solid presence in my life back then and even at the age I am now, I need the folks older than me to stay. I want them here.
So I guess, like, if you’re here and you’re 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 or 80 or whatever, I want you here in fandom with me, still. Your presence here is a comfort. It is hope. It is a reminder that life will continue to be fun, even as I get older, myself. And if you’re younger and you have this sort of elder in your groups, I hope that they are like Steel. I hope they are kind and patient and supportive, and that knowing them gives you hope for your own future. I hope in twenty years you look back and remember them fondly.
Magneto the holocaust survivor, my beloved. A man whose entire motivation is that such an event will never happen again. You will forever be my blorbo.
#myzaidymagneto
When I was training to be a battered women’s advocate, my supervisor said something that really blew my mind:
“You can always assume one thing about your clients; and that is that they are doing their best. Always assume everyone is doing their best. And if they’re having a day where their best just isn’t that great, or their best doesn’t look like your best, you have to be okay with that.”
Any now whenever anyone in my life, either a friend or a client, frustrates me, disappoints me, or pisses me off, I just tell myself They are doing their best. Their best isn’t that great today, but I have days where my best isn’t that great either.
Op I’d like to thank you for sharing this. Ever since the first time I’ve read it I’ve held it in my mind and it really has helped me to be kinder to others and to myself.
yeah actually we removed the big bad wolf from the little red riding hood story because portraying violence against minors is really messed up. yeah. yeah also the wolf narrative was really predatory and had had some icky grooming vibes and a fable meant for literal children shouldn’t have implied p*do shit and grape so now little red riding hood goes into the woods and nothing happens and she goes to grandma’s house. don’t worry our kids will still stick to the path and know not to follow to wolves implicitly because we told them to and children should always do as their told. just like little red riding hood does now.
Okay guys, so on the eve of getting rid of our fucking authoritarian leader, I will tell you how we did it, despite the governments overwhelming media presence and fucking undercover operations against the opposition.
It was actually said best by a Hungarian comic, I'm paraphrasing a bit: If your house is on fire, you can't be like 'well that's not the fireman I imagined'.
I know it's been said a thousand times before, I know everybody is raging against having to vote for a less than ideal candidate, but today has proven that it fucking works. It's the only thing that works. And if the new guy is just a step closer to what you want? That's a fucking win. That's a fucking step in the right direction.
Is Péter Magyar going to usher in gay marriage and UBI? No. But he's not going to ban pride, like Orbán tried. Is he going to cut all ties with Russia? Probably not, but is he going to make sure that we stay in the EU? Fuck yeah. And over Orbán, that's a fucking improvement, and I will take it gladly.
““When I was about 20 years old, I met an old pastor’s wife who told me that when she was young and had her first child, she didn’t believe in striking children, although spanking kids with a switch pulled from a tree was standard punishment at the time. But one day, when her son was four or five, he did something that she felt warranted a spanking–the first in his life. She told him that he would have to go outside himself and find a switch for her to hit him with. The boy was gone a long time. And when he came back in, he was crying. He said to her, “Mama, I couldn’t find a switch, but here’s a rock that you can throw at me.” All of a sudden the mother understood how the situation felt from the child’s point of view: that if my mother wants to hurt me, then it makes no difference what she does it with; she might as well do it with a stone. And the mother took the boy into her lap and they both cried. Then she laid the rock on a shelf in the kitchen to remind herself forever: never violence. And that is something I think everyone should keep in mind. Because if violence begins in the nursery one can raise children into violence.””
— Astrid Lindgren, author of Pippi Longstocking, 1978 Peace Prize Acceptance Speech (via jillymomcraftypants)
In 1978, when she received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Lindgren spoke against corporal punishment of children in a speech entitled Never Violence! After that, she teamed up with scientists, journalists and politicians to promote non-violent upbringing. In 1979, a law was introduced in Sweden prohibiting violence against children in response to her demands. Until then there was no such law anywhere in the world.
What a legacy. We’re so lucky to have had her.
NEW EARTH PHOTO JUST DROPPED FROM ARTEMIS II
thats my home
you can see the atmosphere. that halo around the edge, that's my air. the green on the upper right is my aurora borealis. those are my clouds, my sunlight.
and its yours! this is your home. this is the home of everyone you ever heard of and everyone you will ever meet. every animal you've been curious about. every plant you've ever picked, and sniffed. its mine and its yours and its theirs. everything is here. its all that i have. its all that you have too.
this is killing me it's so cute
@funnier-when-objectum
something i think would make a lot of historical romance more accurate & interesting is the realization that people are less likely to totally disparage the ethical & social values of their time than they are to use those values to defend whatever it is they want to do
a woman is less likely to go "it's stupid that women are expected to be modest" than she is to go "there is nothing immodest about a woman going out without a chaperone" or even "i can go out without a chaperone because i am so modest"
people also seem less likely to see someone's shitty behavior as reflecting a shitty society than they are to view that behavior as being out of accordance with that society - e.g. a father who's excessively controlling of his daughters' marriage prospects isn't, in her mind, acting that way because he lives in a repressive patriarchal culture, but is actually outdated in his values - his cruelty is unmodern, ungentlemanly, stuck in the past, barbaric. we might think he's upholding the values of his culture perfectly, but the people around him who took issue with his behavior probably wouldn't see it that way
white cannibalism reading list so far
columbus and other cannibals jack forbes
the delectable negro vincent woodard
nature's wild andil gosine
cannibalism, the first crusade, and the genesis of medieval romance geraldine heng
edible people the historical consumption of slaves and foreigners christian siefkes
Since you already have Geraldine Heng's work, let me suggest a few other specifically medieval white cannibalism articles:
Eating People and the Alimentary Logic of Richard Coeur de Lion (Nicola McDonald): Discusses the Crusades romance as a vector for concepts of racialized cannibalization, specifically as reflected in medieval and post-medieval European dishes like the Turk's Head, the Schwartzkopf, the Möhrenkopf and the tête de nègre.
The Tafurs in the Chanson d’Antioche and Estoire d’Antioche (Jennifer Markey): An excellent overview of the rumors / literary treatments of the Tafurs' acts of cannibalism during the First Crusade.
Desperate with hunger’: Food, Eating, and Cannibalism in Narratives of the First Crusade (Hannah Louise MacKenzie): Engages with the concept of hunger within Crusades narratives, and how Crusaders who committed acts of cannibalism remained situated within a communal Christian identity. The author also identifies the othering function of being eaten in both the primary sources and later romances.
