SOMEONE STOLE A FUCKING SHARK FROM MY CITY’S AQUARIUM

you better sit down for this

they caught it with a net and wheeled it out of the aquarium in a baby carriage

i see the resemblance 

https://www.ksat.com/news/trio-steals-shark-from-san-antonio-aquarium-by-disguising-it-as-a-baby_

It seems the shark was returned, so yay there.

this is

is this what Team Rocket would look like in real life

socks used to cheat on civil service exams, Qing Dynasty China

it's amazing how ordinary objects can become so significant to only the owner

when my aunt's best friend passed away, my younger brother was four years old. at his funeral, my brother went up to her and gave her a nickel. he told her very solemnly that it would make her feel better. she smiled for the first time in days, and tucked it in her wallet.

when my brother was 22, his best friend passed away unexpectedly. my aunt drove three hours to be there for him at the funeral. she went up to my brother, gave him a big hug, and then gave him a nickel. it was the same nickel; she had kept it in her wallet for 18 years, and now it's on a necklace that he never takes off.

what i'm trying to say is that the love you put into the world will always find its way back to you.

Finally some good fucking food

It's currently available for a limited number of titles, but will become available on more later this year.

Heartbreaking: the worst corporation you know just did a good thing

if i tell yall what i did on the tram today yall would call it a fake tumblr story i think

oh?

so it helps to know that my mindset at the time was influenced by having been transphobically sealioned at a temping agency earlier, as well as spontaneously turning up to a different temping agency without an appointment & actually landing with them after THOSE guys turned out to be cool.

I was on the tram (crowded tram) (just after 11 AM) on my way home full of adrenaline still, and saw my dad eating a banana on the platform. I could get out of the tram to say hi, but then i'd miss the tram, or worse, hold it up. What i COULD do, however, is sprint out of the tram as soon as the door opens, take a bite from the banana my dad is holding, and SPRINT back into the tram before the doors close. So That Is What I Did.

unfortunately now roughly half of the passengers of the tram were looking at me like I was suddenly some sort of feral spirit of hunger or perhaps a strange insect of some sort.* Fortunately, the truth was also the ONE sequence of words that could make what they had just witnessed okay. I went "das ist mein papa!!!" which is german for "thats my dad!!!!!"

My dad seemed genuinely delighted by this btw. the look on his face was fucking PRICELESS

i would like to beat the little german boy accusations based on my behavior before they arise. i am in fact a tall german trans girl.

however in everything except body i AM calvin from calvin & hobbes

Marvel’s Black Panther: “UN Meet and Greet” Exclusive Deleted Scene (X)

This beautiful smile needs to leave my heart alone.

Why are all the BP deleted scenes the ones that show some real humanity and love between these characters? I want to talk to the editor right now.

NOPE CAN’T HAVE THAT IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PLOT MAN

Honestly studios these days are too afraid to make their movies too long so they end up cutting out a lot of humanity to make room for action scenes and plot furtherance forgetting that establishing who these characters are helps us care more about the plot.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa yo but like why cut this it’s perfect aaaaaa

Fandom hates ai until someone makes an audio post of their fav talking dirty. "Protect artists" "protect writers" But fuck voice actors I guess?

Like I'm just saying, some of y'all passing around posts made using AI voice acting are the same people railing against ai in writing and visual art. Where is the line? Only when your job/hobby is threatened? Come on now.

Hi. I'm a modder. I am almost certainly being referred to at least indirectly by some of the posters in the tags, as my project is somewhat well-known.

I have spoken directly to NAVA (National Association of Voice Actors) about this issue, specifically as it relates to fanworks. My commitment to the defense of transformative fanworks is as strong as my commitment to addressing this technology ethically and with sensitivity.

I have made a video discussing this issue in detail, going through the concerns and roadblocks faced by both creators and VAs and explaining concerns from both perspectives.

Main takeaways from my discussions with the president of NAVA:

- Professional VAs are more concerned with what's happening professionally; IE clauses surreptitiously inserted into contracts stipulating models can be created from their voices for additional content at no further compensation to them, etc. Heinous predatory things are happening in the industry at the moment by big hitters with a lot of money, like Disney. This is a fact.

- It is also a fact that fanworkers and the things we create are not on the same scale as Disney, nor is our focus financial. Money is not being left on the table with regards to modders and the like.

- VAs do not own the rights to characters they perform, nor to the recordings of their portrayals. These, as with every other game asset, belong to the IP holder. (In my case, this is EA.) This means that VAs cannot endorse, nor can they act against, materials made from these portrayals, which at this time includes synth models derived from performances of a specific character. Obviously, this is a sticky issue, but currently this is the legality side of it which goes some way towards informing acceptable practise. Modders cannot actually obtain permission. VAs cannot officially provide permission, nor can they deny it.

- This places non-commercial fanworks made using this technology in exactly the same category as fanfiction and fanart. It exists on the good graces of IP holders looking the other way. All fanworks exist in a grey area.

- Because modders do not own the source IP they cannot hire VAs to portray characters that the VA does not own. Contracts simply cannot be made on this basis, especially concerning SAG-AFTRA actors. It cannot be done; those of us with resources have tried.

AI is a very powerful tool that presents a lot of possibilities. It's important that we understand all avenues this technology facilitates as we draw up legislation to protect VAs. It is also important to ethically differentiate between fanworks and commercial exploitation. Where your personal line is remains up to you but we are all in no man's land with this until we're not.

The situation is incredibly complex on both sides. Please do not be so quick to judge because the discourse is "AI BAD."

Personally, I am a writer, illustrator, and 3D modeller; I'm very familiar with the concept of my own livelihood being threatened by this, and I still think there are valid use cases for it.

You can see my video on this on www.youtube.com/@hatboyproject

And here on Tumblr, @hatboyproject

I think adults need summer vacation. Like let's just close down all our jobs for three months and play outside. Please. I'm so tired.

I worked for the US side of a company where the main financial decision makers were headquartered in Spain for a while.

And in August? Basically everyone in Spain goes on vacation the entire month.

And since the financial decision makers were all gone, and my job was to ask for financial decisions, I had a much reduced workload every August.

I still had to show up to the office, which sucked.

Anyway, this is a long post to say that other countries get this. We should demand it here.

And more.

When a job says "unlimited time off" ask what their average usage is. Ensure you match it. Minimum.

When a job says "you get X days off" use them. Keep a sharp eye on roll over limits year-to-year, leave no hour behind.

These are not health or mana potions to save for a boss fight.

Do not answer your phone on vacation. Do not check your email. Do not feel the need to explain.

I took last week off because I hadn't played Super Mario Bros. 2 in a long time and I said, "This is a good week to play Super Mario Bros. 2."

I regularly take off at least 1 day to have my hair done. Hair! I could have it done on a Saturday, I don't, because Saturday's are my time. Hair time is hair time.

Sometimes I take a day off because the weather is frightfully good or frightfully bad.

Do you remember how cheap movies are during the day, during the week, around lunch time? At least once a month I take a day off to go to the movies and eat snacks and cavort slowly and casually.

To hustle is to make your boss richer.

To lazily sashay down a boulevard with a fizzy water and no plans and less thought? Divine.

Time off is not a reward.

Time off is part of your compensation.

The fancy business term for this is "Employee Value Proposition." It is the sum of the question, "why do you want to work here" -- money + benefits + etc.

If you are in an interview and someone says "why do you want to work here" and they are a suit person, say something to the effect of, "Your employee value proposition is significantly higher than your competitors. I value X, Y, Z of your compensation package, firm's reputation, product's reputation, and the current course of your management team."

If you do not have time off, or enough time off, I wish for you an expedited and profitable exit to a situation where you do.

Wait what's a buildings fire evacuation plan if you aren't supposed to use the elevator to get down

You go down the stairwell/fire escape. Is that weird?

But what if you have a walker or a wheelchair??

in america at least, in this situation, there isnt one. either your loved ones or the firemen can get you out using the emergency fire escapes or stairs, or you die 

That's fucking horrific, thank you

“fun” little story:

last summer my friend who is an amazingly talented artist and i were in this super tall building, and she’s in a wheelchair and i’m pushing her around the room. it’s an art exhibit and some of her art was chosen to be showcased there and so it’s all fine and dandy until suddenly an alarm starts going off

a FIRE ALARM

everyone starts running for the stairs and my friend just looks at me with this forlorn look on her face

“i can’t go down the stairs”

but i’m a stubborn bitch “i’ll carry you”

“what about my chair? it’s too expensive for me to be able to get another one if i can’t get this one back”

“i’ll carry that too”

and i did. we went to the stairs (by then most people from our floor were gone) and i lifted her up in a fireman’s carry over my shoulder and then lifted her chair up and used the ridiculous amount of adrenaline that was coursing through my veins to make it down approximately 20 half-flights of stairs until we met some people exiting lower floors, one of which who kindly took the chair. I changed positions so i was holding my friend bridal-style which was, somehow, easier and the person who took her wheelchair (with her permission to handle it of course) accompanied me to the ground floor and then out the doors

basically there is no real protocol for people who can’t use the stairs in an emergency. it’s up to the people with them, if anyone, to help them or the person to somehow make it down the stairs alone, unassisted

thank fuck that it was just a faulty alarm system, because if i was unable to carry her down those stairs and the building was on fucking fire???? then i don’t know what would have happened to her, but i don’t think it would have been very good.

it’s fucking ridiculous and ableist to the absolute max.

I use a cane. When I did a day-long fire safety training at my northeast American university (UMass Amherst), I asked that exact same question: “what am I supposed to do if the fire alarm goes off and I’m in my lab on the twelfth floor?” 

the fire marshal hemmed and hawed for a while and then said to take the elevator- you’re supposed to leave it free for the fire department to use and they want able-bodied people out fast not waiting for elevators. if the fire alarm has just gone off the building probably hasn’t suffered enough structural damage to make using the elevator dangerous, and modern elevator wells are heavily reinforced. many large and high-trafficked buildings on my campus have fire rated elevators that link in with the fire alarm system so they won’t let you off on a floor with a possible fire. 

if the elevator isn’t working, wait in the stairwell and call the fire department to let them know where you are. modern stairwells are also heavily reinforced- it might not be pleasant but modern building code usually requires fire-resistant stairwell doors in office and big residential buildings, also to help firefighters get in and out safely. older buildings’ stairwells may or may not be retrofitted with fire-resistant doors but a stairwell is generally the safest place to wait if you can’t get out. 

what happened to your friend was horrible, and i’m very glad you were there to help her out, but you can absolutely use the elevator to evacuate if it’s not shut down. those don’t-use-the-elevator rules are for abled people.  

This is GOOD TO KNOW. why do they not tell people this??

Okay, firefighter here. If you are not physically able to use the stairs, and the elevator is NOT compromised, use the elevator. But you MUST be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that the elevator is NOT compromised before you get into it, because there is always the chance that once you get into it, you may not exit it. Power could go out. The elevator may actually BE compromised and you just couldn’t tell from where you were until you were in there, and it suddenly shuts down on you. Something else could happen. 

Understand that once you enter the elevator, you could POTENTIALLY be taking your life into your hands there.

It is NOT LIKELY, to be perfectly honest. It’s only in a pretty catastrophic scenario - think the Twin Towers, USA, on September 11th - that the elevators will be compromised and out of service. But there is a NOT ZERO PERCENT CHANCE and you need to understand that and accept it.

As for leaving the elevators free for the firefighters, okay, here’s the deal. Unless your nearest fire station is literally right next door? Your first on scene fire truck is NOT likely to be there on scene and needing that elevator before you get to the ground. It takes us TIME to find the address, gear up, and drive to the building. Then we need to hoof it into where the elevators even ARE, so YOU HAVE TIME to use the elevator to get down to the ground floor... BUT ONLY IF THERE’S NOT A RUSH ON THE ELEVATOR! And THAT is WHY we don’t tell people this shit. That’s WHY we tell people to NEVER USE THE ELEVATOR... because every self-entitled asshole will use it because they don’t feel like walking, and then put YOU in danger by delaying the elevator’s arrival to you.

IF, however, the elevator IS compromised, or you just can’t get it to come for you, or whatever, and you either don’t have anyone with you who has the adrenaline fueled BALLS to be able to toss you over their shoulder and hoof it down the stairs with you - because, let’s face it, that is RARE AS FUCK, then HERE IS WHAT YOU DO:

You call 911 and tell the call taker that you are in the building that has a fire alarm going off, and you are not able to evacuate because of a physical disability, and you tell them what floor you are on, and EXACTLY what stairwell you are waiting at. And the very FIRST thing that the firefighters are going to do once they arrive, if it is, indeed, a REAL emergency, and not a false alarm, is come get your ass and bring you down. Whether that means carrying you down the stairs, or whether that means locking out the elevators so that no one else can override them and coming to get you themselves, they WILL come get you FIRST THING if it is a real event. And if it is a false alarm? You will probably be the first person who is not involved with the building to know, because the call-taker is going to stay on the line with you until you are under someone’s care and out of danger, or until the scene has been sorted out as real or false, and you are out of danger that way.

These are pretty standard operations in the fire service throughout the United States. There may be some minor variations based on specific municipalities, but, for the most part, this is pretty typical: LIFE BEFORE PROPERTY. So, as long as SOMEONE knows where you are - hence why you call 911 - Firefighters will come get you. You are NOT alone, and you have NOT been abandoned. I PROMISE. It’s like, our whole reason for doing the shit we do: to save lives and to break shit. Sometimes, we get lucky enough to do both at the same time.

High rise fires suck ass, and I always hated them. But the very FIRST thing I asked anytime we got one was if we had “any entrapments” - which is what we call anyone who could not self-evacuate for ANY reason. We ain’t leaving you behind. And yes, your friend who doesn’t have the stamina to carry you down can stay with you, too. Because I would never ask that of someone, honestly. 

Also, just a little FYI... MOST fire alarms are false alarms. Not to make anyone complacent or anything, but, yeah. Most of them are either system malfunctions, someone accidentally hit a pull station, or someone burned popcorn in a break room. So don’t let a fire alarm freak you out until you need it to - by smelling or seeing smoke or flames. 

i have had multiple nightmares about this very thing because NOBODY BOTHERS TO ACTUALLY TELL WHEELCHAIR USERS THIS STUFF

i know it's been said many times before but i will never get over how jacob anderson, a british man with a british accent, not only nailed a louisiana creole accent but also developed a studiously (almost eerily) generic accent that louis uses in the present AND showed the first accent bleeding into the second accent at key moments as a way of aurally externalizing his character's inner journey. what did god put in this man when she created him.

@dedalvs anything to add about jacob anderson's accent/valyrian pronunciation work?

Pardon me, but is someone praising Jacob Anderson without letting me praise him first?!

Backing up. It's October 2009, and my Dothraki is chosen as the official version for HBO's Game of Thrones. Absolutely the job of a lifetime. Conlangers were never hired to create languages for big budget productions, and language was central to A Song of Ice and Fire. The fact that this was on HBO guaranteed that it was going to be huge, and now I was going to get to be on the set of a TV show, work with actors, go to Hollywood parties, and create a language that would be as popular as Klingon.

June 2011, only one of those four things had happened, and of all things, it was going to a Hollywood party—the season 1 premiere event for Game of Thrones. It was very cool! None of the cast attended, but it was cool! But as for the rest, the idea that I would ever actually talk to any of the actors or be on the actual set was, apparently, laughable. And as for Dothraki, it had a very loyal following of about 6 or 7 people, all of whom I came to know personally. Dothraki was discussed in the press, sure, but nobody was going to learn it; there were never going to be any Dothraki conventions. It wasn't the next Klingon.

June 2012, and by this point I'd gotten used to seeing my work on screen—and by that I mean I'd gotten used to seeing it performed…so-so. Every so often it was really good, but for the most part, I got used to hearing jumbled consonants, dropped syllables, missed words… I've always been a perfectionist, so this was difficult, but I didn't have much choice. I had absolutely no control over it. I never got to work with any of the actors, so all they had were my recordings, and a series of dialect coaches who had absolutely no idea what they were doing with my stuff. (And, as I would learn later, just because an actor nails 9 out of 10 takes doesn't mean the editor won't like the one take they screwed up. Sometimes that's the take that makes it to the screen.) Basically, if someone has an English line on a TV show that goes "It looks like the mechanism got screwed up somehow", and what they say is "It locks like a manism got scroot up someho", they're going to reshoot the scene until the actor says it right. If that happens with a conlang, no one will notice or care. This was now my life.

July 2012, I get the opportunity to create High Valyrian (yay!), and then a "dialect" of High Valyrian to be spoken in Slaver's Bay. Knowing the history from GRRM's books, I knew this "dialect" was actually a full daughter language with lexical/phonological material from an extinct language (Ghiscari) that I wasn't being asked to create, so I was going to have to create two languages at once, and at least have an idea for a third one—and, in fact, there was going to be a lot of dialogue in this new daughter language. Consequently my focus was split. I can honestly barely remember creating Astapori Valyrian, because I wanted to be sure that High Valyrian was right (I knew book fans didn't care about Dothraki, but did care about HV). Despite the lack of attention, I did realize that Astapori Valyrian had a cool sound and a great flow (it really does!). I wish I'd had more time to appreciate creating it as a daughter language (I wish High Valyrian had been as complete as Dothraki was at that point), but I was pleased with the result. I was curious to see how the actors would handle it.

April 21, 2013. I am absolutely over the moon. I'd just for the first time saw a scene that I loved in the books because, for once, I predicted what was going to happen (as a reader, I'm sitting here thinking, "How do you trade your entire army to someone and not wonder if they're going to use it on you after they get it?!"), and it actually plays better in the show than the books, and it all hinges on a language I created. I still get chills watching that scene: Episode 304, Daenerys revealing she speaks Valyrian. To this day that's still the best thing I've done. The same issues I mentioned above were present, as always (watching thinking, "Did she say mebatas instead of memēbātās…?"), but they're minor. The scene is outstanding. I realized that whatever was going to happen after this, I would always have this scene. That was a good night.

April 28, 2013. After last week's episode, I wasn't really waiting for anything. In episode 305 there's only one scene with any conlang work in it—nothing really major. Introducing Grey Worm, characterization, etc. Everything in this episode is about what's going on in Westeros. At this point I'd heard a fair amount of Astapori Valyrian in Slaver's Bay. It was good! Definitely good enough. Did the trick. The prosody wasn't quite what I did with it, but it was good. I was somewhat interested in this introduction in 305. Grey Worm only speaks Astapori Valyrian at this point, so this actor wouldn't have had had any other speaking lines, and aside from one short line and saying his name at the beginning, his next line is a huuuuuge speech, comparatively speaking. I was curious to see how he would do.

Critters and gentlefolk, that night I witnessed a miracle.

NEVER had I heard ANYONE speak one of my languages better than me until that night.

Every word, every syllable, EVERY SOUND OF EVERY CLAUSE Jacob "You Heard My Name" Anderson uttered was ABSOLUTELY FLAWLESS.

I was stunned. My mouth literally hung open—probably for the rest of the damn episode, at which point I went back and watched that scene—again, and again, and again.

And so you don't have to go searching, this is Grey Worm's line (not the first two short ones—the big one [note: j is [ʒ], except in Daenery's High Valyrian name, where it's [dʒ], dh is [ð], q is [q], r is [ɾ] and y is [y], in IPA]):

That was my translation of this English line:

That is a LOOOOOOOOOONG ass line. And go watch that scene. There is nothing on the screen but his face. It's a closeup the entire time. Any slight deviation would be visible as well as audible. Take a look:

This...KING just casually dropped the greatest performance I have ever witnessed on screen at a time when I had already given up on ever seeing a truly great conlang performance on screen.

And then he proceeded to do it again and again and again and again and again for the rest of the entire show. I don't think it's a coincidence that the very last conlang line of Game of Thrones is his. They knew how much I loved him—I told them. I told anyone who would listen and twelve people who wouldn't, along with their next of kin. He didn't take my language and make it his own—no, no. He is graciously allowing me to claim that I created his native tongue—the one he's been speaking since birth. THAT'S how good he is.

So yeah, accent work? In English? I guess I'm not surprised he's pretty good at that. Something like that to this…adonis, this living, breathing Master Class™ in perfection is like yawning to an ordinary human. Jacob Anderson can walk into my house in the dead of night, take anything out of my refrigerator, and then leave the door to the fridge and the house open when he leaves. He has earned no less.

To sum up:

I saw a post saying that Boromir looked too scruffy in FotR for a Captain of Gondor, and I tried to move on, but I’m hyperfixating. Has anyone ever solo backpacked? I have. By the end, not only did I look like shit, but by day two I was talking to myself. On another occasion I did fourteen days’ backcountry as the lone woman in a group of twelve men, no showers, no deodorant, and brother, by the end of that we were all EXTREMELY feral. You think we looked like heirs to the throne of anywhere? We were thirteen wolverines in ripstop.

My boy Boromir? Spent FOUR MONTHS in the wilderness! Alone! No roads! High floods! His horse died! I’m amazed he showed up to Imladris wearing clothes, let alone with a decent haircut. I’m fully convinced that he left Gondor looking like Richard Sharpe being presented to the Prince Regent in 1813

And then rocked up to Imladris a hundred ten days later like

Some people have been wondering about the raccoon. Listen. Listennn. Don't ask about the raccoon.

But does the racoon survive the Uruk-Hai? Does he curl up on Aragorn's head, or does he go straight to Faramir? Does he bite Denethor?

My friend. My colleague. My brother my captain my king. I too have been pondering this question, and in my mind there can be only one ultimate outcome.

A few months later

All hail the High Warden of Gondor.

Epilogue: It ADORES Faramir.

I’m going to wear this on my head like a raccoon and show everyone

The heart of the joke is "it is common knowledge that every cassette tape turns into a Best of Queen cassette after a fortnight."

Because at that time, it seemed like any time you were in your own car or your friend's car, there would be a Best Of Queen cassette tape somewhere in there. In the tape player, or in the glove compartment, or under the seat. That particular tape was so popular that it was just ubiquitous. Probably your friend left it in the car during a road trip or something. But if you can't remember buying it, how did it get there? And why, really, does every car you've been in seem to have that particular tape as well? The answer must be that cars start out with a variety of tapes in them, and then every cassette tape turns into a Best of Queen cassette after a fortnight.

The closest equivalent little joke I have seen for the year 2023 was a post on Tumblr that went something like this: "I've been looking at photos of the 'man cave' rooms that men build after they get divorced. They all have certain things in common, like a big flatscreen TV, fancy video game system, movie posters on the wall - and for some reason, always a stormtrooper figurine. Where does the figurine come from? It must get handed to them with the divorce papers."

Well shit...

BLACK WIDOW (2021) dir. Cate Shortland

Tasia M S on Instagram

letter from a mother of a gay man. sent to ONE magazine, 1958.

--

This post was flagged as adult content and the original poster was deactivated so I'm bringing it back.

“Mrs R” was the pseudonym of Phyllis Shafer, a Kansas City local who helped found the Phoenix Society for Individual Freedom in 1966, a full three years before Stonewall. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, she and her son Drew operated the Phoenix House, a safe haven for queer people in the city, and a hub of national queer activism. Drew passed away due to AIDS related complications in the 1980s, and his lover, Mickey Ray, spent the rest of his life fighting to keep his memory alive, largely contributing to the creation of the Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America.

“We tend to view American history as this constant march toward progress, which is total crap,” he says. “You gotta fight for that stuff. And if you don't fight for that, you can fall backward. Like it's not just this linear history."

Good quote from the article which may be relevant right now.

Bring this bad boy back with some delicious context for pride

The exhibit that the article talks about can be seen here: