This is one of the thousands of reasons white supremacist Ron DEE-santis is not qualified.

The New York Times had an article about "Chonkosaurus", a very large snapping turtle spotted in the Chicago River. According to a wildlife biologist they quote, she's female and probably full of eggs, one reason she looks so...chonky. The wildlife biologist estimated her weight at 40 pounds (18kg) and her age at 50 years based on photos and video.

The article went on to say that the Chicago River had essentially been an open sewer before the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1973. Now it's a nice place to go kayaking on a sunny weekend!

But they never quite connected the dots. Ms. Chonkosaurus hatched about 50 years ago--in other words, she was born at the same time as the Clean Water Act passed. She's lived through the entirety of the river recovery. When the eggs she's carrying hatch, they will be born into a profoundly different--better!--world than she was.

I'm a little older than Chonkosaurus and the Clean Water Act. When I was a child the idea of swimming or kayaking in a metropolitan river would have been...well. Jokes about up shit creek without a paddle because the paddle dissolved in the toxic sludge? I remember seeing the oily sheen on the Ohio River in Cincinnati. It was just what a city river looked like.

Now...May 2023...there are warning on television about swimming in the Willamette River in Portland during the current heat emergency. Because the water is too cold! Jump into the water and the cold shock can paralyze you long enough to drown. But it's clean (clean snow melt fresh off the Cascade mountains, brrr).

Tina Turner, 1971

A very curious octopus.

Watch this and be blessed

“Why he smoosh my head??? Wait smoosh my head again.”

Something Good – Negro Kiss is a short film from 1898 of a couple kissing and holding hands. It is believed to depict the earliest on-screen kiss involving African Americans and is known for departing from the prevalent and purely stereotypical presentation of racist caricature in popular culture at the time it was made.

“There seemed to be something a lot more intimate and having more to do with self-presentation. And that’s unlike anything I had seen from that period when all moving picture images of African Americans were through a white lens and are distortions, misrepresentations, or pseudo anthropological. And this is none of that.”

what if public libraries were open late every night so that:

- children and teens who cant get home until a later time have a safe, warm, well lit, populated area to socialize, charge devices, rest, etc

- children and teens have a safe place to go to stay away from danger

- people who have jobs that take up most of the day would still have time ANY DAY OF THE WEEK to go use the libraries facilities (printing, computers, etc)

This is exactly what public libraries are trying to achieve - public libraries as a third place is a whole thing - it’s just that the funding isn’t there (yet).

Libraries need and deserve so much funding

I’m going to apologize if this post comes off as sounding very aggressive, but having just been through one of the most stressful experiences of my entire career in libraries: 

if you want this, you need to be at your local community government meetings. you need to be talking to your representatives.  you need to be out there Lobbying.

Just a few weeks ago, my library, me, my coworkers, we had to write letters, send emails, make phone calls, speak at council meetings, just to beg our aldermen to give us our usual funding. Which they didn’t even give to us last year.  Losing last year’s funding forced us to cut staff, hours, and all of our databases.  If we’d lost this year’s funding? two positions would have been gone and we would have likely had to close on Saturdays.  On Saturdays.  The day of the week most of y’all working M-F jobs actually have time to go to the fucking library.

And do you want to know how much money we were asking? We were asking for an increase of approximately 13 cents a person.

13.

Fucking.

Cents.

ACROSS AN ENTIRE YEAR.

No one seems to understand how libraries are funded.  It’s not just Free Stuff.  It’s your tax dollars being paid back into your community.  It’s crowdfunding.  The highest cost anyone in my community pays for the library a year is approximately $250.  Divide that up.  That’s just $4 a week.  That’s less than a coffee.  It’s the equivalent of purchasing about 10 hardcover books a year.  For that price, you could have access to every book that has ever been written, a place to go that’s not a bar, programs for kids, teens, and adults, educated staff that can help you find the answers to your questions, and so much more.

You want these late-night libraries?  You want all this stuff?  Start fighting for it.  Start showing up.  Start making phone calls.  It’s not going to come out of thin air.  Start fighting to erase the idea that taxes = evil.  Start fighting to spread the understanding that taxes are what help us build a better society.

Make sure the people who represent you know that you want this.  That this is where you want your tax dollars to go.  That this is what you want them to support.  That you are willing to see your tax bill go up a few more dollars for this.

Because otherwise?  None of this is going to happen.  Libraries are going to keep cutting their opening hours.  Keep cutting staff.  Keep cutting programs and databases and collections.

We NEED your support, and we need more than just a post on Tumblr.  We need to see people show up and speak out. 

Ever wondered how libraries are funded? Here’s a very informative post, along with a plea for our help.

Terrorism runs in the family.

Whitney Houston photographed by Fryderyk Gabowicz in Munich on October 29, 1990.

genuine props to this publication for finding such a stark, simple, provocative way to say... all of it

Re-Blog this…. if you know it too.

i love one (1) disaster wizard

It’s a good metaphor tho, because the situation is never going to get better if you don’t eventually pull the door. And afterwards, no matter what the damage was, you’ll have a working cabinet, whatever plates you could salvage, and a place to start putting new plates.

Reblogging for that comment ^

Hats off for negative jokes turned to wholesome posts

So this was me for a long time. Afraid to open the door, certain that all that I was would crash and break. That I could never be repaired.

But I opened the door.

And what fell out and crashed to the ground was not me. They weren’t my dishes.

They were other people’s dishes.

Put inside we without my permission, when I was too young to know that I could not hold them all.

I opened the door, and I’m still here.

It turns out, I’m not that fragile.

Oh damn it got better

THANK YOU TWO FOR MAKING OUR LIVES A LITTLE BETTER

requested by zombiebelieverxx

Halloween (1978) dir. John Carpenter Halloween Kills (2021) dir. David Gordon Green

literally

Scandal 2x19

New Amsterdam 2x16

[Sharpwin/Olitz Parallels]