...odds and beginnings... @violetfaust - Tumblr Blog

Posts

monsterbutch

this is one of my favorite reddit posts of all time

formlessdemi

God forbid Chippy do anything

randomdeinonychus

You absolutely must unmute this video.

regardo1975

...the safe

#wet beast wednesday

hometoursandotherstuff

Leave him alone, he's on vacation.

#wet beast wednesday

amnhnyc

With a duck-like bill, beaver-like tail, and the ability to lay eggs, the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) has… a lot going on. This mammal can be found in Australia, where it inhabits freshwater systems like rivers, creeks, and ponds. It can spend 12 hours a day in the water hunting for food. What’s on the menu? Insects, shellfish, and worms.

The platypus is one of the world’s only monotremes, a mammal that lays eggs and nurses its young. But avoid the urge to get too close—this critter is also venomous! Hollow spurs on the hind legs of male platypuses connect to a venom-secreting gland in their bodies. Its venom contains more than 80 different toxins. Though it isn’t fatal for humans, it can induce excruciating pain.

Photo: John Morton, CC BY-SA 2.0, iNaturalist

uss-edsall

At 1 PM on a Friday I get an email from my boss. I'm busy as hell so I don't check it immediately. Then I get a phone call from my boss, which has almost never happened before. I'm a white collar worker, a historian. There's never a 'historical emergency' requiring a phone call to kick me in the ass and get to work.

The request is so urgent my boss needs it by the end of the work week. Which, y'know, is 5 PM on a Friday. So I have four hours to do it.

It's a forwarded request. Somebody contacted a member of the donation team asking for help, "I need a map from the Vietnam War to use for a presentation." It's somebody she's trying to coax into giving a five figure donation to the museum.

The request was asked to the donation team member, who then emailed my boss, who then emailed and called me urgently.

This map required:

North and South Vietnam in it

All four areas that South Vietnam was divided into for military purposes ('Corps') clearly delineated

Four cities, all of them horrifically misspelled, and only identifiable because I know what battle the requester is asking about (it’s in III Corps on the border with Cambodia) (the requester danced around the battle but I’m knowledgeable enough to identify it)

Has Laos and Cambodia in it

Has the Ho Chi Minh Trail in it

So. I was mad about the 'you have literally four hours to find a map with a lot of requirements.'

I was then mad at myself about finding a copyright free map from Texas Tech University within half an hour, proving her right for asking me to do it.

Then, after I found a map that perfectly met the requirements, I was equally amazed, baffled, and horrified when I read further into the forwarded email chain.

The donation team team member they were speaking to used AI to generate a map.

The above put half of North Vietnam in South Vietnam, made the Ho Chi Minh Trail a country, made 60% of Cambodia part of South Vietnam, put the DMZ extremely high up in North Vietnam, completely disconnected the southern tip of Vietnam, misplaced all of the Corps zones, etc etc

At the very last second the donation team member had a moment of divine clarity, remembering there's three historians on payroll to ask for this kind of thing from. So she contacted my boss while saying, "I had fun with this, but I decided I should check for accuracy before I send it to the donor! I need a fact check by the end of the day, then I send it"

My boss, while not the most knowledgeable on the Vietnam War, does know her geography. She took one look, and knew it was so off she called me to tell me how urgent it is that I look at the email and respond

good fucking god, jesus tap dancing goddamn christ, I'm glad I was asked to look at it and then find a real map

the-murmuration-project

My fear has never been that AI would replace human intelligence. My fear has been that the people who Know Things and the people who Make The Decisions are almost never the same people.

We’re throwing real intelligence out on the street to starve while worshipping the shambling Frankenstein-ed corpse of knowledge puppeteered by those who see us as disposable assets.

kingdeath000

now, pecker means penis. and wood means boner. so of course you would make assumptions about the term woodpecker. but no. the bird

sixthrock

I LOVE hearing that other languages have so many beautifully unique ways to construct dick jokes

#peckerwood #on the other hand

spillybun-deactivated20190921

Boy ain’t that the truth

yourdndstories

I regret to inform you that the bird is the word.

Based on a submission from @little-sparrow37

#cute #and op I apologize for blorboizing #but this is why Sam wilson doesn’t use his superpower #(bird telepathy)#in the mcu

thirteensfavoritetoy

Today I learned about... suffrajitsu.

(images courtesy of Wikipedia)

"Suffrajitsu" was the name given to the self-defense technique used by members of the Women's Social and Political Union during the suffragette marches in Britain in 1913-1914.

Edith Garrud (shown in the pictures above), one of the first women in the Western world to become an instructor in the martial arts, taught the technique to her fellow WSPU members as a way to defend themselves against police when they attempted to break up their marches through violent means.

(image courtesy of Wikipedia)

She also trained the thirty women who became known as The Bodyguard (sometimes referred to as "Amazons" by the press at that time) who functioned as the personal protection force for WSPU leader Emmaline Pankhurst.

And it goes without saying...if a husband got a little, shall we say, too full of himself...

(image courtesy of Wikipedia)

Here's the link to the Wikipedia article, makes for some great reading:

paper-mario-wiki

do not forget the patron saint of these weeks that we celebrate ourselves proudly and openly in the streets

her name was Marsha P Johnson, and we have her to thank for so much.

remember, the first Pride was a riot, and she was one of the brave souls who endured it to help carve the path which so many of us walk today. she helped found several activist groups regarding LGBT safety and wellbeing. and she was absolutely radiant, too.

thank you, Marsha. we remember you.

mgsr

cats will be like please i need you to watch me wiggle around on this carpet please hey look look please look at me i’m wiggling

violetfaust

#kitties!#lychee faust

thehumantrampoline

This is your reminder today that Irene Adler in the original Conan Doyle story is literally not a criminal. She never commits a crime.

thehumantrampoline

Nor is she a seductress in any kind of negative or manipulative sense - she has a mutual relationship with a powerful man who then breaks up with her, and afterwards she keeps protection against him in the form of evidence that the relationship existed. She HAS blackmail material, she even waves it at him threateningly because he treated her like shit, but she never even uses it.

Irene Adler is not a thief, femme fatale, or blackmailer. She's just a cool lady that wants to be left alone.

thehumantrampoline

@delphi-star You do recall correctly!! She does not give a shit about that man! She's happily married! She tipped him for being a witness at her wedding!

If your Sherlock Holmes adaptation has a character whose identifying qualities are that she is a seductive criminal in love with Holmes, you have created a character that is basically the literal opposite of Irene Adler and you should name her something else.

thehumantrampoline

I think it's a little funny that there's been a trend in the tags of this lately to assume I was coming specifically for BBC Sherlock, and you're not WRONG, I'm literally always coming for BBC Sherlock, but I'm also coming for every single pastiche I've eve seen. I think I was specifically thinking of the Guy Ritchie movie here, actually, but I do even mean Elementary, I mean all of them, every single Irene Adler who does sexy crime or is attracted to Holmes. I've literally never seen an Irene in anything other than a page-accurate straight adaptation of Scandal that isn't one of those two things. Every adaptation needs to leave my girl alone