for each age is a dream that is dying,

dreadelion: What if people told European history like they told Native American...

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:57:26 -0400

What if people told European history like they told Native American history?

sofriel:

The first immigrants to Europe arrived thousands of years ago from central Asia. Most pre-contact Europeans lived together in small villages. Because the continent was very crowded, their lives were ruled by strict hierarchies within the family and outside it to control resources. Europe was highly multi-ethnic, and most tribes were ruled by hereditary leaders who commanded the majority “commoners.” These groups were engaged in near constant warfare.

Pre-contact Europeans wore clothing made of natural materials such as animal skin and plant and animal-based textiles. Women wore long dresses and covered their hair, and men wore tunics and leggings. Both men and women liked to wear jewelry made from precious stones and metals as a sign of status. Before contact, Europeans had very poor diets. Most people were farmers and grew wheat and vegetables and raised cows and sheep to eat. They rarely washed themselves, and had many diseases because they often let their animals live with them. Religion infused every part of Europeans’ lives.

Europeans believed in one supreme deity, a father figure, who they believed was made of three parts, and they particularly worshiped the deity’s son. They claimed that their god had given humans domination over the earth. They built elaborate temples to him and performed ceremonies in which they ate crackers and drank wine and believed it was the body and blood of their god, who would provide them with entrance into a wondrous afterlife called heaven when they died. Many wars were fought over disagreements about the details of this religion, each group believing their interpretation was the right one that should be spread across the land.

Now imagine that is part of a textbook that has entire chapters on the Mississippian polities of the 1200s and a detailed account of the diplomatic situation of the southeastern provinces in the 1400s and 1500s, an enormous section that goes through the history of the rise of the Triple Alliance in Mexico and goes through the rule of each tlatoani and their policies, the heritage of Teotihuacan and its legacy in later Mesoamerican politics, elaborate descriptions of the trade routes that connected and drove various nations in North America. Long explanations of the rise of various religious movements such as the calumet ceremony and Midewiwin, and how they affected political agendas and artistic trends. Pages and pages and pages going through the past thousand years of American history century by century.

And these three paragraphs are the only mention of European history before the year 1500.

the millennial problem:

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:51:40 -0400

gyzym:

two millennials are barreling towards adulthood at 95 miles per hour. one of them has been coated with the most extravagant paint money can buy, but their steering apparatus is locked up until that coat’s paid off; the other’s breaks have been ripped out mid-trip, the thief yelling, “what, did you think you were entitled to these?” over their shoulder. half the tracks have been torn away to build second, third, and fifth garages for trains that are no longer running. solve for x.

tell me again how the song goes — i’m so inadequate i might forget. if we’re not informed enough then we’re apathetic morons, but if we’re too informed we’re oversensitive reactionaries; if we think we deserve more then we’re narcissistic cutthroats, but if we’re happy where we are then we’re passionless layabouts. if we’re making money then we’re materialistic automatons who only care about stuff and don’t value the important things in life, but if we’re broke then we’re disgusting, spoiled children who expect everything in life to be a handout. if we spend too much time with technology then we’re antisocial, soulless zombies who spell the end for human interaction as we know it, but if we spend too much time together we’re a dangerous, unstable element who should get real jobs already. we’re a disgrace; we’re a embarrassment; we’re a mistake; we’re a disappointment; we’re not what you wanted, however you slice it, and all of it’s our fault, right? right? oh, god, am i getting the melody wrong?

here’s what i propose, everyone who wants to open their twenty-four-hour news cycles or their pork-barrel mouths, who wants to use their filthy fucking hands to tear this generation a new one: you try it. you come up with a picture of the generation you seem to want: one that’s neither apathetic nor engaged, one that’s neither ambitious nor content, one that’s neither rich nor poor, one that’s neither technologically connected nor interpersonally involved. don’t forget to factor in the variables — the years of economic instability; the globalization of everything from communication to art; the hugely stratified individual experiences we’ve had based on things like race, sexuality, gender, and socioeconomics, on things that come with whole histories of systemic bullshit; the overwhelming burden of student debt that so many of us face; the fact that hindsight is 20/20. you write the formula for the millennial that will shut you the fuck up about all the things we should be and aren’t, about all the ways we’ve failed you, and then you bring it to me. i promise you, i will try it. anything for a little peace and quiet, right? anything to stop hearing it everywhere i go: that voice saying that, at twenty-three, i might already have flunked out of life.

(both millennials crash, spectacularly and yelling for help, into the station that never built a platform for them to pull into. onlookers stand by and shake their heads, wondering about the deplorable state of trains today. that’s what happens when nobody does the fucking math.)

sharonosbourne: madlori: I bet you did. Did you estimate what...

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:06:31 -0400

sharonosbourne:

madlori:

I bet you did.

Did you estimate what mpg your car is getting? Did you figure out how many hamburgers you could get for six bucks? Did you think about how long it would take you to get somewhere given the speed and distance? Did you plan a meal so all the components would be done at the same time? Did you encounter anything on sale? Did you figure out how many groceries you could get for how much money you had?

There are about a million other daily, unconscious tasks that use algebra or at least algebraic thinking. Just because you weren’t writing out an equation or employing variables doesn’t mean you weren’t using the skills that algebra and other math courses taught you.

Science and math aren’t important because you’re going to need to know the exact steps of photosynthesis or the quadratic formula. They’re important because they teach you scientific and mathematical literacy and rational thinking, and that is sorely needed in a world where charlatans and cheats or people with a political or religious agenda can get away with all manner of pseudoscience and bullshit because people don’t have enough scientific literacy or critical thinking skills to accurately weigh the arguments or even discern where they fail logically.

So study math and science, and art, and literature, and history, and politics, not because you’re going to need it or it’s going to do something specific for you, but because an uninformed populace is bad for the world.

cleolinda: (via Old Spock battles New Spock in the greatest car...

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:40:01 -0400

cleolinda:

(via Old Spock battles New Spock in the greatest car commercial ever)

anghraine: royalprat: wryer: Giant driftwood on the beach at...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:53:56 -0400

anghraine:

royalprat:

wryer:

Giant driftwood on the beach at La Push, Washington (2010)

this made me feel really uneasy, the ocean is terrifying.

its like when cats bring home a dead bird and drop it at your feet except the ocean is like I HAVE BROUGHT YOU THIS ENORMOUS TREE FROM THE DEPTHS OF HELL ENJOY

water is the best

tennantarse: Typical Star Trek Quotes isnpired by x (Quotes...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 22:06:54 -0400

tennantarse:

Typical Star Trek Quotes isnpired by x

(Quotes that highlight the theme of the series)

for carmelilla9

"The food movement has been slow to recognise the fact that worker rights and working conditions..."

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:59:46 -0400

“The food movement has been slow to recognise the fact that worker rights and working conditions should be a key part of any discussion about the ethics of food. Reforms to the food system need to incorporate workers and their welfare, not just better farming practices, more humane treatment of animals, and other measures focusing on food as an end product. Food is also a process, and the people involved in that process have a right to fair treatment, something they don’t have currently. The continued marginalisation of farmworkers and the focus on other issues in the food movement speaks poorly of the movement overall, and reveals some telling attitudes about labour, race, and entitlement.”

- Know Your Food System: Indigenous Farmworkers in California – this ain’t livin’ (via sinshine)

Stop threatening the HIPAA rights of people with psychiatric disabilities

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:14:50 -0400

Stop threatening the HIPAA rights of people with psychiatric disabilities:

crown-of-weeds:

Imagine the federal government holding conversations about your privacy - except yours is the only voice not at the table. This is what people with psychiatric disabilities are facing as the House Energy & Commerce Oversight Subcommittee takes up the issue of mental health and privacy rights under HIPAA.

Rep. Tim Murphy, Chair of the House Energy & Commerce Oversight Subcommittee, is holding a hearing this Friday to try and argue that the HIPAA protections that protect the privacy of people seeking mental health services are unnecessary and a threat to public safety. Regrettably, Chairman Murphy has a history of threatening the rights of Americans with psychiatric disabilities. This Friday’s hearing is a continuation of a roundtable Rep. Murphy organized last month to try and showcase the inaccurate idea that people with psychiatric disabilities are more likely to commit violent crimes. Although empirical evidence shows no such link between psychiatric disabilities and violence, the roundtable made no acknowledgement of this simple fact. Furthermore, of all of the many witnesses called to testify, not a single person with a psychiatric disability was invited to share their perspective.

When a caller on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal program asked Rep. Murphy to explain his rationale for excluding the voices of people with psychiatric disabilities from the witness panel, he dismissed the need for the voices of people with disabilities themselves, claiming they would be incapable of testifying and that the most important conversation is one about parents and families’ experiences!

There is a time and a place for discussing improvements to the availability and quality of mental health services. A conversation about violent crime is not that time nor that place. It is inexcusable for public officials to use public safety as justification for an attack on the civil rights of an already marginalized and stigmatized population. Tell Chairman Murphy and Ranking Member DeGette of the House Energy & Commerce Oversight Subcommittee that the disability rights principle of “Nothing About Us, Without Us!” apply in mental health policy too. Don’t let our voices be forgotten.

Sign the petition and shut this shit DOWN.

"I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more..."

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:02:34 -0400

“I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80, by my estimate. I always took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was. Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles - and he always fixed my car.
Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence test. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, I’d prove myself a moron, and I’d be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small subsection of that society has managed to foist itself on the rest as an arbiter of such matters.
Consider my auto-repair man, again. He had a habit of telling me jokes whenever he saw me. One time he raised his head from under the automobile hood to say: “Doc, a deaf-and-mute guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering motions with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, doc, the next guy who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?”
Indulgently, I lifted my right hand and made scissoring motions with my first two fingers. Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed raucously and said, “Why, you dumb jerk, He used his voice and asked for them.” Then he said smugly, “I’ve been trying that on all my customers today.” “Did you catch many?” I asked. “Quite a few,” he said, “but I knew for sure I’d catch you.” “Why is that?” I asked. “Because you’re so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn’t be very smart.””

- Isaac Asimov (via skinnybaras)

the aporian:: re:Dumbledore's sexuality

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 16:22:04 -0400

the aporian:: re:Dumbledore's sexuality:

gyzym:

Wow, okay, there is a lot of stuff going on in this relatively short post (and I’m really sorry for the length of this, guys — I’d cut it if I could, but tumblr won’t let me, so remember you can always hit J to skip down)! I’m sure, both from the notecount on this and from looking at…

Why you need to sleep with a teddy bear.

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:41:13 -0400

deadsunsanddyingstars:

raptorific: halfbloodbitch: raptorific: motherfuckers will say how things are “in Africa” like...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:40:26 -0400

raptorific:

halfbloodbitch:

raptorific:

motherfuckers will say how things are “in Africa” like it’s one big place that’s homogenous throughout

but god forbid you say “Britain” when you mean “England”

but a country in africa is still africa

england and britain aren’t the same things

so i feel like that’s not the same at all

The time for stupid statements is over.

(Great) Britain is an island with approximately three small countries on it. England is one of them. People flip a shit when you mix up the name of the country with the name of the island it’s on.

Africa is the second largest continent on earth, and the second most continent, second only in both regards to Asia. It has fifty-four recognized countries, hundreds of different ethnicities, languages that number in the thousands

So proportionally, England is way closer to the same thing as Britain than any individual country in Africa is the same thing as Africa

Plus, the incredibly small country of England in particular spent centuries systematically erasing the cultural identities of the people living on the continent of Africa as a justification for colonization, imperialism, slavery, and genocide

So forgive me if I don’t take people 100% seriously when they flip a shit over the distinction between a country and the island said country is on, even though they don’t give two shits about pretending dozens of countries, hundreds of ethnicities, and thousands of languages are all basically the same thing

And forgive me if I’m not exactly civil to someone who insists there’s a major enough difference between England and Britain that it’s important to make that distinction, but that it’s not comparable to generalizing an entire continent because of a reason as stupid as “a country in africa is still africa.”

rainbowrites: greenpeniwrite: dracosredemption: So here you...

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 07:18:55 -0400

rainbowrites:

greenpeniwrite:

dracosredemption:

So here you see two photos of Emma and Rupert displaying elegance and serenity—and then there’s Dan.

“I HAVE A FUCKING BRANCH ON FIRE! I’m not Daniel! I AM HARRY POTTER!”

i don’t know what makes me laugh more the comment or the photo.

this is HILARIOUS

also, they seem to represent the elements. Emma dances in the wind, Rupert strums in a boat’s hull on the sea, and Dan waves a burning branch like a crazed caveman

irenydrawsdeadpeople: Vimes wakes up in the shadow of a...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 19:13:55 -0400

irenydrawsdeadpeople:

Vimes wakes up in the shadow of a barricade and immediately assumes the worst. But then it turns out this Enjolras lad’s got all the good parts of Ned Coates and Reg Shoe with very little of the bad, and his second-in-command reminds him a little of Dr. Lawn, and it’s funny, but he gets the feeling this revolution might work out after all.

Javert, meanwhile, finds himself drawn quite against his will into a discussion of the finer points of the law with one Captain Ironfoundersson…

(You can blame this thread for the nonsense above! Don’t ask me how the timeline works, it went all wibbly-wobbly for comedic purposes, okay. ALSO LOOK, A CROSSOVER THAT DOESN’T END IN TEARS!)

quatres: Mother nature has a sense of humour, and so does Ohno...

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:43:24 -0500

quatres:

Mother nature has a sense of humour, and so does Ohno Satoshi.

mousapelli: kattunxkame: Shigeaki-kun no love letter~ This is...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 14:13:26 -0500

mousapelli:

kattunxkame:

Shigeaki-kun no love letter~

This is without a doubt the best 25 seconds in JE history.

#shigeaki-kun no love letter #this shit cracks me up every time #hikaru is the best part #his ITS TOO MUCH face #he expected so much more #REJECTED

billaba: Though this is the end of the age of heroes, it has...

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 20:21:26 -0500

billaba:

Though this is the end of the age of heroes, it has saved its best for last.

eventualprocrastination: secretninjachild: #can we just...

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 19:53:03 -0500

eventualprocrastination:

secretninjachild:

#can we just appreciate the fact that the Queen agreed to be a BOND GIRL just for one night?

What I think is totally awesome is that Daniel Craig said that the Queen was supposed to look up straight away, but she improvised the letter writing and completely blanked him, so the awkward standing there was completely realisitic. The Queen ignored James Bond because she was ACTING.

I need to become a British citizen.

"What matters is that lives do not serve as models; only stories do that. And it is a hard thing to..."

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:05:59 -0500

“What matters is that lives do not serve as models; only stories do that. And it is a hard thing to make up stories to live by. We can only retell and live by the stories we have read and heard. We live our lives through texts. They may be read, or chanted, or experienced electronically, or come to us, like the murmurings of our mothers, telling us what conventions demand. Whatever their form or medium, these stories have formed us all; they are what we must use to make new fictions, new narratives”

- Carolyn Heilbrun, Writing a Woman’s Life (1988)

25 Lives by Tongari

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 08:35:08 -0500

25 Lives by Tongari