in every workplace there should be a secret button you can press and if everyone presses it the workweek immediately ends and you can go outside and play instead of sending email
Silencing students is the ultimate in bad faith. Siding/identifying with the oppressor in a genocide, then denying the chance for debate by arresting the peaceful is truly despicable.
the most important part of having a magical fantasy land is of course the magic.
in this world, magic is produced by all living things as part of their metabolism, and is vital to life. without magic a creature will swiftly die, their body consuming itself in order to restore it.
This is a major danger in any workings of a spell, so any mage learns to recognize the symptoms of low magic and immediately cease casting
magic is split up into different disciplines a person can learn, though they arent mutually exclusive and anyone can learn any or all of them given enough time effort and of course money
magic can do most of the things a typical fantasy world can, but with a few exceptions: you cant create something out of nothing (the conversion rate of say heat into magic is very high but it still has to come from somewhere), you cant raise the dead, be it fully reviving someone or creating undead its still impossible, and you cant alter time.
pulling magic from other creatures is possible, but the creature must be either dying or ill from certain diseases that can weaken your connection to your magic
this is not seen as an inherently evil act, and can even be necessary for some spell, though doing it to another sapient creature is murder and so frowned upon
there are two main types of casting spells that everything else is divided between, quick casting (spells that take under 5 minutes to perform) and ritual casting (anything 30 minutes or over) (most spells dont take more than 5 minutes and less than 30)
of the two ritual magic can be far more powerful, as you can build up and store magic over time, resulting in an extremely powerful spell when its released. it is also the only way to make permanent effects on things, and is used for many forms of magical crafting
Fun fact: the 2022 valedictorian speech at USC commencement was by a student whose family is from Ukraine. He devoted the majority of his speech to talking about Ukraine. This is an UNBELIEVABLE double standard.
She’s a South Asian muslim. We’re in full on war on terror mode.
The backlash against Tabassum, who was chosen as valedictorian by a university committee from more than 100 applicants with GPAs of 3.98 or above, was unusual, even at a time of intense campus strife between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel activists, because it didn’t involve anything she said or did. The opposition appeared to stem mostly from a link on her Instagram profile to a website she did not create.
The site, “Free Palestine Carrd,” features a photo of a woman raising a Palestinian flag above plumes of smoke during a 2018 protest near the Israel-Gaza border. A series of links explains how to “learn about what’s happening in Palestine.”
The links include statements that Zionism is a “racist settler-colonialist ideology” and that founders of Zionism thought “Palestinians needed to be ethnically cleansed from their homes.” The website explains proposals for two-state and one-state solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
[ID: Tweet by CAIR National (CAIRNational) reading: “Sign our LA chapter’s action alert calling on @USC reinstate the graduation speech of class of 2024 valedictorian Asna Tabassum, which the school cancelled in response to dishonest attacks and harassment from anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bigots.” The tweet includes a photo of Tabassum, a hijabi with brown skin in a light green abaya, smiling at the camera. Overlaid text reads “Take action: Tell USC to reinstate Muslim valedictorian’s speech, reject anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim hate. bit.ly/reinstante-asna”
*tired screaming* 🇵🇸 (@Ruth_Mensch) QRTed the tweet and added: “[all caps] she has. a minor. in genocide studies. from the USC Shoah Foundation. these bitches have lost the plot. [end caps] this is [all caps] shameful. [end caps]” End ID]
Greater Prairie Chickens (Tympanuchus cupido), displaying and engaged in ritual dance off-combat, family Phasianidae, order Galliformes, Phillips County, KS, USA
[ID: Three images. The first is a screenshot of a tweet by J Jennifer Espinoza @/sadqueer4life which reads, “transphobes love to be like ‘you can’t transition because your life will become too difficult due to the way i am going to treat you’”. The second is a highly edited image of a subway sandwich with captions in all caps that read, “transphobes be like 'transgender people have a very high suicide rate’ my brother in christ that is your fucking fault”. The third is a screenshot of a tumblr post reblogged by @/ein-kleiner from @/transmechanicus which reads, “cops love to be like 'you can’t smoke weed because it’ll ruin your life when i send you to prison for it’”. End ID.]
AHHH SHIT THIS IS ACTUALLY HARD BC WHILE I WANT TO TELL EVERYONE THEIR AN IDIOT I ALSO THINK IT WOULD BE COOL TO REPLACE STAR WARS WITH MY MIDDLE SCHOOL CREATIONS
I’m starting to think that maybe Europe just isn’t that big
no but because australia is close to the bottom of the map and the flat map is distorted to fit a square map shape, australia on the flat map is significantly smaller compared to places closer to the equator.
Thank you for being the one single person in the notes who understands map projections. Australia is big, but still significantly smaller than the US.
Australia is not significantly smaller than the mainland US, no. These are the real sizes, not a Mercator projection. I think you’re misunderstanding what yanzinator said. The US does have significantly larger island territories than Australia, though.
The continuous US (so, not counting the islands and Alaska) and Australia are roughly the same size:
US: 2,959,064.44 square miles (7,663,941.7 km2)
Australia: 2,969,907 sq mi (7,692,024 km2)
And the person above has the impact of the Mercator projection completely backwards: North America and Europe appear much larger than they actually are due to their latitudes. Most notably Greenland looks like it is bigger than Africa! (It isn’t.)
In the picture below, the pale blue is Mercator and the dark blue is actual size:
And here is Africa vs Greenland:
There is a website where you can drag and drop countries on top of each other to see the actual size comparison taking into account projection
Disney is going to stop selling DVDs and Blu-rays in Australia and to think of what this means for accessibility, residuals, quality, public libraries here etc and the precedent this will set for other studios and distributors around the world oh it’s never been more over
I was at a courthouse once, and saw an indigenous australian woman in a dressing gown very carefully and gingerly making her way down the steps outside the courthouse, surrounded by family who were helping her down the stairs. We asked if she was OK, because she looked awful. She looked like she should have been wrapped up in bed with blankets and hot soup, not on the steps of a courthouse.
One of her family told us that she had given birth yesterday evening, but that Child Protection services had taken her baby away with no warning, claiming that she wasnt prepared to look after him. What had happened, is that she’d literally only just given birth – hadn’t even passed the afterbirth yet, is holding her blood-coated, crying, newborn baby to her chest – and a nurse asked what her feeding plan was. She was tired from the birth and distracted by the brand new baby in her arms and thrown off by the timing of the question, but still, she managed to answer, and said she planned to breastfeed him whenever he was hungry.
Well apparently that wasn’t enough of a plan for the hospital staff, who reported her and claimed that she was unprepared to look after the child, and claimed that had no social supports, and that the baby was at risk if left with her. All because a brand new mother, 30 seconds after giving birth, didn’t have a PowerPoint presentation ready to go that cited the timing cycle she would feed her kid on, and instead simply said that she would feed him when he was hungry.
Child Protection services showed up, took her kid, and she was told to show up to court the next day to contest custody if she wanted her baby back.
So a woman who had given birth less than 24 hours prior was forced to rally her family and show up to court to prove that she a) had a feeding plan for the child, and b) had enough social supports to justify reclaiming her baby.
It was one of the most appalling things I’d ever seen. I don’t even know if she won her case. They didn’t know at the time we saw them, and after that brief interaction on the stairs, i never saw them again. I sincerely hope she got her newborn baby back.
That was about 5 years ago. And the exact same kind of thing is still happening today.
News broke today from a South Australian whistle-blower of the appalling treatment new mothers frequently receive, including hospital staff taking the baby away from the mother “for medical tests,” only for the mother to then be told, with absolutely no prior warning, that the baby was not going to be returned to her.
[ID: A screenshot of a 4chan thread. An anonymous user has posted the text (in all caps) “Ok 4chin (4chan) it is time for mystery box. First cloo (clue) is something green”. The post is accompanied by an image of Kermit the frog standing next to the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street, who is holding a pink box with a question mark. Another anonymous user responds (in all caps) “Weed”. The first user replies (in all caps) “It’s not fucking weed you piece of shit stoner” accompanied by an image of Kermit the frog with his mouth open, as if yelling. End ID]
“If you have time to watch Netflix you have time for a side hustle” my side hustle is relaxing so that my body and brain can heal from by this nose-to-the-grindstone bullshit. I refuse to feel guilty for being a human with the need to relax sometimes. my side hustle is no.
whenever i hear about hustle culture i always think about this post on r/antiwork
my fav trope is like, nonhuman characters not understanding human needs/customs but still being super supportive of their human companion
“look what I found while exploring this planet’s surface!” “kilrak please I’m trying to sleep” “ah yes your human circadian rhythm. *stage whispering* I am supposed to be quiet during this time in your rhythm, yes?”
“the book I purchased on ragnok V says humans require physical touch when upset. therefore, I shall engage in a ‘hug’ with you.” *supremely awkward five-armed hug ensues*
*human sneezes* “OH MY GOD SIL'EEN GET THE MEDIC OUR HUMAN IS DYING”
“this pamphlet I received recently says that humans require companions and packmates in the form of small earth creatures. you should have told me this before we departed earth, but it is no worry. we will have to stop at the next trade planet to get you one of these ‘cats’ or ‘dogs’.”
imagine the aliens really purchasing a kitten for one of their rough and world-weary scifi badass human companions and watching in helpless wonderment what ensues
“she’s been cuddling that small animal for the past fifteen minutes just going ‘kitty, kitty’. did we - did we break our human?”
a more seasoned alien puts one of their tentacles around the younger one as the rest of the team gathers to watch their human make kissy noises.
“no, kilrak,” the alien says. “we did good.”
“Human-Steve! I have heard that today is the anniversary of your hatching! According to my human culture pamphlet, it is customary to set a sugary pastry on fire while chanting your species’ growth incantation and presenting sacrifices wrapped in shiny paper. I am afraid to ask, in case this ritual is sacred and this request therefor insensitive… but may I be allowed to participate? It sounds much more fascinating than molting.”
“Human Steve, I have read about your ritual dance called ‘The Hokey Pokey,’ performed mostly at mate-bonding celebrations after the guests reach an elevated level of intoxication. But Human Steve, how do I know WHICH left foot to put in, put out, and shake all about? I do not… Human Steve, why are you laughing?”
“Human-Steve, you are… you are eating, but it is not one of your ritual fueling times. Are you dying? Is everything alright? Have you not been receiving enough sustenance? Do I need to get you better things to eat? Human-Steve, why are you trying to hide that food?”
I’m so tired of every show that takes place in the past (wild west, medieval, pirates etc) ALWAYS having so much sexual violence towards women like writers can cry “oh it’s realism” all you want but it’s very transparent how realism only applies when you want to hurt women on screen. If we’re talking staying realistic, why doesn’t everyone have brown teeth? Or bad skin? Or dying of dysentery? Just admit y'all want an excuse to brutalize women on screen lol
This pisses me off so much. A lot of the time if you mention realism would also involve women having unshaved legs or pits, or bushy eyebrows, or syphilis, the answer is often “well that’s gross, no one wants to read about/see that” and like…. If you think that women being ugly is grotesque, but brutal depictions of rape aren’t, then I don’t really know what to say to you other than stay the fuck away from me.
To add to this: The pirate captains had personal codes (rules) about what was allowed on the ship, and some of them were very clear on the subject of sexual violence
“
IX. If at any time you meet with a prudent Woman, that Man
that offers to meddle with her, without her Consent, shall suffer
present Death.
“ -From the code of Captain John Phillips
“
9th: If any p[er]son or p[er]sons shall go on board of a Prize and meet
with any Gentlewoman or Lady of Honour and should force them against
their will to lie with them shall suffer death.
“ -From the code of the company of Thomas Anstis
Or in other words, sexual violence against women was recognised as a crime punishable by death on actual pirate ships, don’t let anybody tell you it’s necessary for “realism” when the pirates themselves recognised how absolutely despicable it was.
I spy, with my little eye, a photo that was faked by an AI image generator! Can you spot the clues?
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