YES >:(
Some days it’s definitely like that.

@fffinnagain / fffinnagain.tumblr.com
YES >:(
Some days it’s definitely like that.
Susan Kare, the Artist who designed many of the fonts, icons, and images for Apple, NeXT, Microsoft, and IBM, 1980′s
#oh is it time to repost this susan kare photo again
Important addition y’all
We read this passage in class yesterday and I thought it might interest youse guys. The passage is from Lucian’s Dialogues of the Courtesans 5; it’s a discussion between Clonarium, a young man, and Leaena, a courtesan who had an unusual experience at a drinking party.
Eventually Megilla, being now rather heated, pulled off her wig, which was very realistic and fitted very closely, and revealed the skin of her head which was shaved close, just as on the most energetic of athletes. This sight gave me a shock, but she said, ‘Leaena, have you ever seen such a good-looking young fellow?’ ‘I don’t see one here, Megilla,’ said I. ‘Don’t make a woman out of me,’ said she. ‘My name is Megillus, and I’ve been married to Demonassa here for ever so long; she’s my wife.’ ‘Then, unknown to us, Megillus, you were a man all the time, just as they say Achilles once hid among the girls, and you have everything that a man has, and can play the part of a man to Demonassa?’ ‘I haven’t got what you mean,’ said she, ‘I don’t need it at all. You’ll find I have a much pleasanter method of my own.’ ‘You’re surely not a hermaphrodite,’ said I, ‘equipped both as a man and a woman, as many people are said to be?’; for I still didn’t know, Cleonarium, what it was all about. But she said, ‘No, Leaena, I’m all man.’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘I’ve heard the Boeotian flute-girl, Ismenodora, repeating tales she’d heard at home, and telling us how someone at Thebes had turned from woman to man, someone who was also an excellent soothsayer, and was, I think, called Tiresias. That didn’t happen to you, did it?’ ‘No, Leaena,’ she said, ‘I was born a woman like the rest of you, but I have the mind and the desires and everything else of a man.’ ‘And do you find these desires enough?’ said I. ‘If you don’t believe me, Leaena,’ said she, ‘just give me a chance, and you’ll find I’m as good as any man; I have a substitute of my own. Only give me a chance, and you’ll see.’
Translation: M. D. Macleod, Loeb, 1961.
So Megilla - who, as a side note, is from Lesbos - was born a woman but identifies as a man, going by Megillus. Still, for some reason, they* disguise themselves as a woman. The whole situation is a bit confusing but the bolded bit is clear: Megilla/Megillus is, in modern terms, transgender.
Lucian’s Dialogues are fictional, but the fact he mentions a trans person speaks for their existence at the time. Remember that whenever people claim trans people are a recent phenomenon!
*I’m using they/them pronouns because it’s unclear exactly how they refer to themselves. Greek conjugated verbs are mostly non-gendered (so what the translation renders as ‘she said’ is actually ‘he/she/they said’), but there is one participle in the feminine (οὐδὲν ἐνδέουσάν με τῶν ἀνδρῶν, I’m as good as any man) despite Megilla/Megillus asking Leaena not to refer to them as a woman. So, unclear.
Hi, I’m OP. As of the time of writing, I’m finishing up a masters degree in Ancient Greek, and the history of LGBT+ people is something I’ve studied quite a bit over the last five years. I can confidently tell you that the assumptions you’re making in your reply don’t work here.
The text I quoted, Lucian’s Dialogues of the Courtesans, starts with Leaina (latinised above as Leaena) telling her friend Klonarion (latinised as Clonarium) about an experience she had at a drinking party. The very first thing Klonarion asks is whether Megillos/Megilla, the person Leaina hooked up with, is a woman attracted to women:
Καινὰ περὶ σοῦ ἀκούομεν, ὦ Λέαινα, τὴν Λεσβίαν Μέγιλλαν τὴν πλουσίαν ἐρᾶν σου ὥσπερ ἄνδρα καὶ συνεῖναι ὑμᾶς οὐκ οἶδ᾿ ὅ τι ποιούσας μετ᾿ ἀλλήλων.
We’re hearing strange things about you, Leaina, about how the rich Lesbian Megilla loves you like a man, and you live together and who knows what you do with each other.*
The fact this person is from Lesbos isn’t coincidental at all. “Lesbian” was well-known shorthand, in the ancient world, for women attracted to women - just like it is today. In this fictional dialogue, Lucian is using it to imply that Megillos/Megilla could be a lesbian in the modern sense, thereby acknowledging that they exist. Leaina replies:
Ἀληθῆ, ὦ Κλωνάριον· αἰσχύνομαι δέ, ἀλλόκοτον γάρ τί ἐστι.
That is true, Klonarion; but I am ashamed, since it is somewhat strange.
Ἀλλόκοτος is a word meaning strange, unusual, or different. (Actually, I might almost be tempted to translate it as “queer”.) Leaina is pointing out here that Klonarion is on the right track, but there’s more to the story than that. A bit further along, the dialogue continues:
Λ. Ἡ γυνὴ δὲ δεινῶς ἀνδρική ἐστιν. Κ. Οὐ μανθάνω ὅ τι καὶ λέγεις, εἰ μή τις ἑταιρίστρια τυγχάνει οὖσα· τοιαύτας γὰρ ἐν Λέσβῳ λέγουσι γυναῖκας ἀρρενωπούς, ὑπ᾿ ἀνδρῶν μὲν οὐκ ἐθελούσας αὐτὸ πάσχειν, γυναιξὶ δὲ αὐτὰς πλησιαζούσας ὥσπερ ἄνδρας. Λ. Τοιοῦτόν τι.
L: The woman is terribly manly. K: I don’t understand what you’re saying, unless she is some sort of female courtisan. They say there are women like that in Lesbos, who look like men, who don’t want anything to do with men, but have sex with women as if they were men. L: It’s somewhat like that.
Again, Klonarion - just like modern “gender critical” people! - doesn’t understand how this person could be anything but a gender-non-conforming lesbian woman. Leaina replies that it’s almost that, but not quite. She then starts telling Klonarion what happened, and this is where the passage I quoted above comes in. The most important element is this: Megilla publicly presents as a woman, but privately identifies as a man and uses the name Megillos.
Let’s repeat that to be extra clear: Megillos is not a lesbian woman presenting as male for safety. They** are a person assigned female at birth, but who prefers to identify as male in the safety of their own home.
Leaina compares them to mythological figures in an attempt to understand better, asking if Megillos is a man disguised as a woman, like Akhilleus (whose mother hid him among the girls in the hopes that he wouldn’t be drafted to war). Megillos says no. Leaina asks if Megillos is a hermaphrodite; Megillos also says no. Lastly, Leaina mentions Tiresias, who was born female but was transformed by the Gods into a man, to which Megillos replies that they weren’t transformed in that way, but:
… ἐγεννήθην μὲν ὁμοία ταῖς ἄλλαις ὑμῖν, ἡ γνώμη δὲ καὶ ἡ ἐπιθυμία καὶ τἆλλα πάντα ἀνδρός ἐστί μοι.
I was born female like all of you, but I have the mind and the desires and everything else of a man.
This explanation has nothing to do with wanting the same rights as a man (especially since Megillos publicly presents as the female Megilla). It has nothing to do with gender-non-conforming presentation either. Megillos is very, very clearly expressing an inner sense of gender, which is male.
So let’s summarise:
This text is fictional; Megillos/Megilla never existed. However, Lucian’s dialogues reflect the everyday life and daily concerns of his era, and there’s no reason to believe that this text is an exception. In fact, if we look beyond him to the rest of the ancient world, we’d be quick to realise that people fitting the modern definitions of transgender and genderqueer - both AMAB and AFAB, and probably intersex too - are well-attested, from Inanna’s gala priests in the 2nd millennium BC to the Roman emperor Elagabalus in the 3rd century AD. It would be narrow-minded to attribute millennia of non-cisgender people to just misogyny and oppression.
Turns out that people have always been complicated, gender has always been complicated, and if you fail to recognise that, you find yourself in the uncomfortable position of being less accepting than Lucian, a man from the 2nd century AD.
*All translations are my own.
**As explained in the previous post, I’m using they/them pronouns because it’s unclear which grammatical gender Megillos/Megilla uses, despite clearly identifying as male.
Can someone please explain to me what evaporated milk is? Wouldn’t that just be gas by definition? I live in constant fear
no no it’s what left behind after the milk has been evaporated cuz only the water goes, not the other stuff
IDK ISNT MILK ITS OWN LIQUID?
It’s fat droplets suspended in water, with some nutrients and soforth dissolved in it. You know, like ranch dressing.
Evaporated milk is just dehydrated milk.
Obsessed with the user who assumed milk was its own element on the periodic table
As op I felt like I had to make this
the only question left is if it’s a metal, non-metal, or metalloid.
OP seems to have classified it as a special case of halfnium, reclassified as a lanthanide. This has fascinating implications for electron orbital geometry.
Anyway it’s a rare earth metal apparently.
Yes I definitely classified it intentionally and knew exactly what I was doing when I put it with the lanthanides because I am never wrong
I thought so, I took one look at your classification and immediately thought “this is definitely someone with a deep understanding of how the periodic table works”
I’m glad that we have reached a consensus on the expected elemental properties of milk
I’d really like to know what @derinthescarletpescatarian’s thoughts are on milk’s electron orbital geometry
That would involve writing a crash course in how suborbitals work on a post about whether water (the primary ingredient in milk) is in milk and even for tumblr that’s going a bit far
no, it is absolutely not going too far
You guys always complain that you don’t get to learn stuff in normal ways and then you come asking for this
MILK IS SEVERAL COMPOUNDS PLEASE YALL ARE KILLING ME OVER HERE
We have a container of dry milk because in addition to a little fat and sugars, it contains proteins, which settle into the pores of nitrocellulose membranes, making sure analytical proteins (specific antibodies) don’t get trapped. We could just use casein (one of the proteins in milk), but milk is much cheaper and can also be found at Walmart.
No milk is a lanthanide keep up
lanthanide?
I think you mean lactanide
I will put lego in all of your shoes
A cube of milk with 3 inches of edge length can blow up the galaxy.
Our galaxy is actually the result of such an explosion, that’s why we call it the Milky Way
this is a unique sort of thread in which you’ll find two types of people exclusively: nerds and dumbasses
Enter OCEAN EYES and NOT DEAD YET, two of the king’s most quarrelsome stablehands.
OCEAN May one explain what powdered milk doth be? Is it not gas? I live in constant fear.
NOT DEAD The water flees to air, the rest is left. The dry debris then forms the powdered milk.
OCEAN Thou sayest water doth reside in milk?
NOT DEAD Pray tell what thou believ’st the liquid is?
OCEAN Is milk not one pure substance in itself?
NOT DEAD No; ‘tis only milk-stuff mixed with water.
OCEAN Yet milk appears from living cows’ own tits!
NOT DEAD ‘Tis juice from tits, yet water still it holds. If water be in juice, then ‘tis in milk.
Enter DERIN, the scarlet pescatarian.
DERIN ‘Tis drops of fat afloat in water, As if ‘twas dressing for thy greens. With water gone, the powdered milk remains.
A NOTE attached to an arrow, written by BURNING BRAND, flies through the window.
BURNING BRAND’S NOTE Obsessed with he who foolishly believ’d That milk is element of chemistry.
The NOTE crumbles to ash. BURNING BRAND is not seen again.
OCEAN As he who instigated such a fight, I felt that this creation was my duty.
OCEAN unrolls a scroll of parchment with a flourish.
OCEAN Behold, ‘tis milk, one hundred and nineteen.
Enter JASON FUNDER BERKER, a frog.
JASON FUNDER BERKER And yet the burning question still remains: ‘Tis metal, not, or somewhere in between?
JASON FUNDER BERKER does not wait to hear the answer, and exits.
DERIN A lanthinide! A special case, I see. How fascinating, geometrically. But let us leave atomic musings be. For milk is a rare metal of our Earth.
OCEAN Of course it is, for I am always right. My choices are, of course, deliberate.
DERIN I do not doubt thou speakest truth, my lord Thy brilliant mind is utterly unmatch’d. It seems that an agreement has been reach’d.
OCEAN Of course; however, in sincerity I wish to know thy scholar-driven thoughts.
DERIN I fear ‘twould be beyond thy comprehension. To teach to thee would take this much too far.
Exit OCEAN, in a huff. Enter JESIN, BOOP BOOP, FLIPOCRITE, VELVET, and LOVELY DREAMS, curious onlookers attracted to the scene.
JESIN Do teach us, it would not take this too far!
DERIN Ye all complain of learning strangely, Then ask me baiting questions such as this!
BOOP BOOP Thy gross ineptitude shall be my death! Milk is formed of small component parts. The fat, the sugars, proteins all combine They seep through pores of membranes in this drink Unpleasant compounds all are filter’d out. All this obtained for small amounts of coin.
DERIN No, milk is lanthanide, pray keep the pace.
FLIPOCRITE The word thou mean’st is lactanide, I think.
DERIN May sharpened pain-shaped stones fill up thy shoes So that thou never know’st a moment’s peace.
VELVET A cube of milk, three inches on each side Could blow up the entire galaxy.
DERIN Our galaxy was formed in such a fashion. ‘Tis why we gave it name of “Milky Way.”
LOVELY DREAMS Thus ends our entertainment for the night Here fools and pompous scholars come to fight.
Exuent, pursued by a cow.
(Shakespearean adaptation format inspired by @mortimermcmirestinks in this post)
Youpeople have no right to be this funny on my dash so early in the morning
This is one of those threads that would go perfectly as a video set to “in the hall of the mountain king” and we all know it, I’m just not gonna be the one to make it
"There are no other idol groups that are as terrible at sports as we are." – namjoon
cr. namuspromised, jung-koook, dwellingsouls
In which some of the ARMY three patchers talk about keeping up with solo projects from BTS members and dig into favourite tracks from Indigo, because we still love it.
listen and enjoy!
Posting this while JK is live XD and i should be sleeping. That's just how it is.
As some of you may know, MXTX Diaspora May was originally started by Frost in 2021 as a means of elevating Chinese diaspora creators in fandom. At the time the event was set up, the climate in fandom was truly a hostile one, with Chinese diaspora creators routinely facing discrimination and marginalization. Adding to that were a slew of vicious hate crimes against Asian diaspora people in real life.
May is AAPI Heritage month in the US, and thus it was chosen as the posting month for the event. In other words, it was a time for us to come together, to heal, and above all, to let our voices be heard.
Since 2021, the scope of MXTX Diaspora May has evolved. Instead of solely focusing on MDZS, we now spotlight fanworks for all of MXTX’s novels. More importantly, MXTX Diaspora May has gone international in welcoming the participation of Chinese diaspora creators from not just the US, but all around the world (like me)!
At the time that Frost invited me to be a part of the mod team, I was honestly struggling to find a place in MDZS fandom. I was frequently spoken over, treated as an expendable resource for cultural information, and on the receiving end of comments that contained racist microaggressions (and sometimes, outright aggression). Dealing with these interactions was exhausting, as well as grappling with the constant feeling that I had no real right to be in the English-speaking fandom. I still feel like this, even today — works where I (subconsciously or otherwise) downplay my identity as a member of the Chinese diaspora are always substantially more well-received than works where I do not. In other words, as some commenters (helpfully) pointed out to me, it was exhausting and difficult to get into the stories I told and the viewpoints I presented, especially if they contained too many cultural markers and language code-switches.
Being part of MXTX Diaspora May changed everything for me. Creating and interacting in this space that belonged to us, that was built solely for the purpose of elevating voices like mine — it meant that for once, I could tell the stories I wanted to tell, to the likeminded people I wanted to reach, without needing to downplay, apologize, or make excuses for just how unpalatable they might be.
Personal revelations aside and back to the culture-building aspect — I truly believe that the path to disempowering racist structures in fandom (and by extension, in real life as well) lies in changing the fundamental mindsets and worldviews of people. And to achieve that, we all have to relearn the ways in which we think, feel, and operate. MXTX Diaspora May is built on this very principle — the belief that through giving a platform to marginalized voices and actively encouraging open dialogue and appreciation, we can connect with each other over our shared experiences and gradually influence the perception that others outside our immediate circle have over our culture and language. It is an active, inclusive, and sustainable way of dismantling preconceived notions and habits that allow racism to flourish in fandom.
At the same time, it is also worth acknowledging that there is also a limit to how much power we place in institutions to do the work for us. Sit with the discomfort and the exhaustion, question our preconceived notions, and challenge our hearts — and I am optimistic that as things change at the individual level, the associated structures and systems will naturally follow.
There are so many ways we can be a part of the movement to dismantle systemic racism against members of the Chinese diaspora in MXTX fandom. One of the most actionable ways would be to boost and consume works by Chinese diaspora creators. And if we’re reading, listening to, or looking at something that doesn’t immediately appeal to us, and especially if we find ourselves struggling to comprehend or relate — ask ourselves honestly if it is a failing on the part of the creator, or just our own unfamiliarity with the context of the work, and/or implicit biases coming into play. Take our time to realize it for what it is, and then decide from there whether to move on, or move ahead.
MXTX is a Chinese writer, and her works are an extension and reflection of her culture and upbringing. It is impossible to separate her identity and belonging from the stories she writes. It’s exactly the same for us Chinese diaspora creators. Wherever we are in the world, however we were raised, and whatever pieces of ourselves that we choose to share in our works — I hope that we will continue to find our peace, our pride, and our homecoming whenever we do.
i looked at queeringthemap today and had a good cry but these especially touched me
yeah.
No matter where you are in the world you aren't alone
Hi Nary! First off, thank you for your positive and impactful presence in fandom and on AO3. Both are better because you’re here with us.
Quick question: I’ve seen a lot of posts urging AO3 authors to lock their accounts for members-only to prevent AI scraping for things like sudowrite. But isn’t that like closing the barn door after the horse is already out? From your knowledge, does locking down an account starting today provide any benefit from AI issues?
Thank you for everything you do!
Ok, well, I wrote the AO3 news post that went out about that topic, and in it I did suggest that locking works is a way to potentially help avoid scraping. But I can expand on that somewhat, because it's really quite a bit more complicated. (And as always, I'm not speaking in an official capacity here, just my own personal outlook).
Fucking Christ.
IF ONLY SOMEONE COULD HAVE FORESEEN THIS.
every story like this is basically employers discovering that intent matters for job preformance.
Dear AI programmers, yes it's very cute that you have taught them to write and draw, but how about now you teach them to clean rooms and wash dishes and fold clothes? You know, the stuff people actually don't want to do?
lol yesterday i was in a little experiment with home assistant robots. it was on how safe i felt while they moved around, trundling or zooming in my direction. Im sorry to say they are still very far from being able to fold laundry, let alone pick up after us.
just yoongi defending ghosts lmao 😂
yoongi says ghost rights and ghosts jobs
It’s so fascinating to me that we’ve only been breeding Komodo dragons in captivity for thirty years. In that time, our understanding of them has actually really revolutionized the way we understand the social lives and behaviors of lizards in general, and it’s mostly thanks to this lady right here, who was born 30 years ago on September 13, 1992.
Kraken was the first Komodo to be bred in captivity. She hatched out at GMU, but was raised at the National Zoo. Her parents were wild-caught dragons- there’s still WC dragons in the AZA today- and this one specific individual probably did more to revolutionize lizard care in professional settings than any other individual lizard throughout zoo history.
Until Kraken, social enrichment wasn’t a thing people thought about. It wasn’t something anybody felt was necessary for lizards, because they were just… lizards. Sure, some keepers would play with their favorites, but it wasn’t until the National Zoo started documenting what she was doing that anybody realized how much Komodo dragons like to play with us too.
Kraken’s not in that video, but she’s the one who inspired all of the social studies that have been done on captive Komodo dragons. When she was at the National Zoo, her keepers started getting curious when, for no apparent reason, she kept gingerly stealing things from peoples’ pockets and tugging on their shoelaces. So they started giving her stuff- Frisbees, blankets, soda cans, anything she showed an interest in.
She played with them, just like a mammal might. The way play behavior is described in psychology is a given activity that’s voluntary, repeated, and conducted under “relatively benign” circumstances. Keeper staff found that her conduct during the study met all of these criteria. “Kraken,” they wrote, had clearly demonstrated “play-like behavior with objects and even with humans (tug-of-war).” Moreover, she “could discriminate between prey and nonprey” while showing “varying responses” with different items (rubber rings, shoes, etc.). (There’s an excellent book on Komodo dragons that has an entire chapter devoted to her.)
Kraken died several years ago, but her legacy continues today. There’s several of her descendants still in the AZA, and the intelligence and social needs she demonstrated led to the improvement of life for these guys- and other lizards. The Komodo dragon program has been an eye opener, not just for reptile conservation, but for understanding reptile intelligence and how this incredible clade of animals functions.