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Everything That Is The Case

@steinpratt / steinpratt.tumblr.com

people today with access to more raw information than any other period: the earth is flat

german artilleryman in 1916, who barely washes his own ass: I need to account for the curvature and rotation of the earth when plotting my firing plans

Eratosthenes, an Egyptian, in 3750 BC when fucking mammoths hadn’t even gone extinct yet: Oh hey I can use these two obelisks to calculate the earth’s entire circumference based on the length of their shadows and the Earth’s curvature. Neat.

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Erastothenes was born in 276 BCE.

The last mammoth died on in island off the northeast coast of Siberia in ~1650BCE.

And as I’ve pointed out previously, the Coriolis effect was known even earlier than that, although it may not have become important to gunnery.

I find it utterly bizarre that humans saw these megafauna.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/science/woolly-mammoth-extinct-genetics.html “ In fact, the Wrangel mammoth’s genome carried so many detrimental mutations that the population had suffered a “genomic meltdown,” according to Rebekah Rogers and Montgomery Slatkin of the University of California, Berkeley. Analyzing the Swedish team’s mammoth data at the gene level, they found that many genes had accumulated mutations that would have halted synthesis of proteins before they were complete, making the proteins useless, they report Thursday in PLOS Genetics. “ That “genomic meltdown” is one of the reasons feminism is so potentially lethal, because they keep pushing for asexual reproduction, or trying to combine ovaries, when the most likely outcome is a population running about - unable to reproduce sexually since the whole “male genocide” bit - with incredibly damaged chromosomes. Sex exists for a reason, and no, “because it’s fun” is not the answer, sorry. It works better than reproduction otherwise. Which is why every complex species uses it. Intelligence requires a lot of things to be working correctly, and if you have an all female species that is over the tipping point of idiocy, then there won’t be enough people to maintain the technology to continue to reproduce. And humans will go the way of the Wrangel beasties. Fortunately, feminists are horribly lazy bastards, so i doubt they’ll continue to get their way, but it does made for a decent plot for a dystopian fiction…

What …the fuck?

That went off the rails so suddenly like I thought I was just gonna learn something cool about mammoths and then WHOA.

I scrolled past this thinking “the earth is round, yes, something, something, mammoths…’ 

But the second time it came past I saw 

That “genomic meltdown” is one of the reasons feminism is so potentially lethal

And I think I got whiplash from that pivot. I also laughed so hard that I couldn’t breathe. 

I’m????

Point and laugh at the MRA, kids. 

How … does he think … mammoths reproduced …

Never mind, not sure I want to know.

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reblog to support Mammoth Feminism,

ignore for G E N O M I C M E L T D O W N

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I here af for my Feminist Mammoth ladies, bring the species back!

DOWN WITH GENOMIC MELTDOWN

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I… what exactly is combining ovaries supposed to achieve? 400 lazy feminist babies at the same time?

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Shhhh…you weren’t supposed to tell anyone.

FEMINISM KILLED THE MAMMOTHS

I did not think this was where I would end up

Virginia Hall (1906-1982): The Most Dangerous Spy of All 

Book 2 available here. Full entry on the website - with footnotes and citations  - available right here. Art notes after the cut.

I can’t believe I forgot to mention this (blame not sleeping all night) - her story is already in development as a film. Daisy Ridley (Rey from Star Wars) is set to play Virginia. More here.

This movie has been in various states of development for like a decade, but I think it’s got incredibly good odds of being in the current development climate.

And while we’re here, have a cute picture of Virginia and Paul (he’s the one on the right). The other two pictured are OSS reinforcements who came in along with Paul, but neither stuck around very long - so I relegated their presence in the story to a footnote.

“wouldn’t you rather earn something than have it just handed to you?”

Yeah when it comes to actual awards and fancy goods, but when it comes to basic needs, basic human decency, and accomodations, those things should always be handed to people. No one should have to “earn” those things.Value people as people, not base it on how much they produce. 

yeah but that creates a severe dependency that could be exploited easily, and creates a slippery slope @musical-clarity

Actually studies show that people who live in places with universal income (who are given money with no strings attached just for being citizens) do far better work than those who don’t and are more enthusiastic to do work.

This is because they still want nice things and will work for those but the part of their energy that was devoted to worrying about if they have enough money to pay the rent and bills this month is now freed up to do other things.

Some people will always be lazy and take advantage of the system, but they are always a tiny percentage and it seems ridiculous to me to punish the majority and severly hamstring their abilities just because a handful of people will simply live of basic income rather than work.

It’s been tested a couple times. In Canada, in some European countries, and the results are always the same. There are two groups of people who show a statistically significant (Greater than one half of one percent, or 1 in 200) increase in Not Working and living off the guaranteed income. Parents of Children under school age, and full time students. Among ALL other groups, employment actually INCREASED. Why? Because guaranteed minimum income means that homeless people can get at least a basic low end apartment. It’s hard if not impossible to get an above board job without a permanent fixed address. Also more people were able to have and maintain a BANK ACCOUNT. It is often hard to get a decent job without an account that can accept Direct Deposit for paychecks. Also, lost work time due to illness and injury decreased across the board. It turns out if people are getting a decent amount of money each month they can A> afford to eat better, and B> obtain decent medical attention both preventative and emergency. Crazy right? So why hasn’t it caught on? Because it doesn’t directly benefit the people in power, and it increases THEIR PERSONAL taxes, their CORPORATE TAXES, and thus decreases their PERSONAL INCOME. So, because Jeff Bezos and Alan Greenspan might fall from making 100 billion dollars a year to making 99.8 billion dollars a year, it’s a hard NO and we can all fucking die.. The End.

what shuri did not do:

delete the footage of t’challa getting thrown across the lab

what shuri did do:

set the footage of t’challa getting thrown across the lab to “mmm whatcha say” and post the video to the dora milaje groupchat

Constantly torn between “my sexuality is none of your business” and “lmao I hope they don’t think I’m straight god forbid”

I'm pretty sure my Trunk Club stylist thinks I'm straight (the first trunk I got is very "straight Brooklyn hipster") and I was struggling to figure out how to tell her to gay it up without saying that explicitly

(I resolved the issue by saying I wanted to dress more like Tan from Queer Eye)

I've been away from Tumblr for...a year? Maybe more? Anyway I can't believe it's 2018 and people on this website are still posting long-ass text posts without a cut

you hear that?? feminism was practically invented by kyle ron 😩 need me a freak like that!! 💯👌

When he lets you wake up in your own time before the torture session #bae

get a man who let’s you sleep in before he tortures you😍😍✨ 

some tumblr post: creative writing programs don't actually teach you anything
me, descending from your attic through a trapdoor in your ceiling: actually I feel that this kind of dismissal of the formal study of writing is directly related to the devaluing of the act of writing itself and the denial that writing is work. of course, I would never say academia is the ONLY way to learn to write but to deny that writing programs have anything to teach you is essentially to deny that writing is a skillset that can be taught and I really don't see how that's helpful to anyone.
you, waving a baseball bat: who are you. how did you get in my house.
Anonymous asked:

🔥non-dysphoric trans people

You mean trans people who’ve transitioned and now feel self-actualized in the correct gender?  I’m very happy for them!

…That’s probably not what you meant.

So I actually have a lot of trouble saying that I have dysphoria, not because I don’t want to transition, but because it’s hard for a fish to say “I’m wet.”  I’ve lived in this body and assigned gender my whole life.  I don’t necessarily notice dysphoria, except when certain events sort of rub my nose in it.  What I notice more is a glorious, soaring euphoria when people recognize me as male and when I perceive myself as male.  Is that euphoria just the way normal life feels to people who don’t have dysphoria?  I don’t know.  I’m a fish.

Therefore, I have plenty of empathy for trans people who don’t describe their experiences in terms of dysphoria because they’re like me, unable to put a label to it because they’ve never experienced anything else.

But I’m sure, because Tumblr is vast and contains multitudes, that there are some people out there who would object to that characterization, who would say that they have perfectly good insight into their own dysphoria and they seriously don’t have any, they just feel trans regardless. 

…And heck, you know what, I support them too.  I don’t think that gatekeeping who gets to be trans is ever a good thing. It doesn’t make medically diagnosed dysphoric trans people look more legitimate; it just spreads the idea that trans fakers and wannabes are a serious problem that everyone should watch out for.

Just as I think “sexuality is fluid, and many sexualities are okay” is a better narrative for LGBQ people than “we were born this way, so let’s make the necessary accommodations for our unfortunate situation,”  I think “gender is fluid, and many genders are okay” is a good narrative for trans people.

Right now, I’m in my fifth month of intensive screening for being a Fake Trans before getting any kind of medical transition treatment.  And I’ve got it easy compared to trans people in a lot of places.  I don’t think “trans people aren’t doubted enough” is a problem we need to be fighting super hard.

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Chantry folk (including templars) of who’s actions Sebastian openly disapproved of/ spoke up against:

  • Ser Alrik (His Tranquil-Solution)
  • Mother Petrice (Her attempts at starting a holy war against the Qunari)
  • Meredith (Invoking the Rite of Annulment against the entire circle as punishment for the actions of one apostate)
  • The Divine herself (on considering an Exalted March against Kirkwall just because they found the issues between mages and templars there worrying)
  • Elthina (on remaining passive and not doing anything about the growing animosity between templars and mages in Kirkwall)
  • The entire Chantry (On how they treat the elfs)

But do tell me, how he’s blindly loyal to the Chantry and how his faith only lies in the institution instead of the Maker himself.

there’s a banter where seb is like “ya know maybe we need a new knight commander” and aveline goes “no we need to support meredith”

thats in act3

like

ok

sure

SEBS the one at fault here

shit i never got that banter.

i mean he also downplays the Tranquil Solution pretty hard and makes a seriously cringeworthy reference to the Holocaust (actually the naming scheme of that whole subplot is a cringeworthy Holocaust reference, but Sebastian makes it uncomfortably explicit)

CN: rape

It is very disingenuous to say that Hillary Clinton “defended a rapist” when what’s really meant is that she “was asked by a judge to do her constitutional duty as a public defender and represent a rapist in court even though she didn’t want to.”

6) Tolkien’s hero was average, and needed help, and failed. This is the place where most fantasy authors, who love to simultaneously call themselves Tolkien’s heirs and blame him for a lot of what’s wrong with modern fantasy, err the worst. It’s hard to look at Frodo and see him as someone extra-special. The hints in the books that a higher power did choose him are so quiet as to be unnoticeable. And he wouldn’t have made it as far as he did without his companions. And he doesn’t keep from falling into temptation. A lot of modern fantasy heroes are completely opposite from this. They start out extraordinary, and they stay that way. Other characters are there to train them, or be shallow antagonists and love interests and worshippers, not actually help them. And they don’t fail. (Damn it, I want to see more corrupted fantasy heroes.) It’s not fair to blame Tolkien for the disease that fantasy writers have inflicted on themselves. […] Fantasy could use more ordinary people who are afraid and don’t know what the hell they’re doing, but volunteer for the Quest anyway. It’s misinterpretation of Tolkien that’s the problem, not Tolkien himself.

The whole point of The Lord Of The Rings… like, the WHOLE POINT… is that it is ultimately the hobbits who save the world. The small, vulnerable, ordinary people who aren’t great warriors or heroes.

Specifically, Sam. Sam saves the world. All of it. The ultimate success of the great quest is 100% due to a fat little gardener who likes to cook and never wanted to go on an adventure but who did it because he wasn’t going to let his beloved Frodo go off alone. Frodo is the only one truly able to handle the ring long enough to get it into Mordor - and it nearly kills him and permanently emotionally damages him - but Sam is the one who takes care of Frodo that whole time. Who makes him eat. Who finds him water. Who watches over him while he sleeps.

Sam is the one who fights off Shelob.

Sam is the one who takes the Ring when he thinks Frodo is dead.

Sam is the one who strolls into Orc Central and saves Frodo by sheer determination and killing any orc who crosses him. (SAM THE GARDENER GOES AND KILLS AN ACTUAL ORC TO GET FRODO SOME CLOTHES LET’S JUST THINK ABOUT THAT). And then Sam just takes off the Ring and gives it back which is supposed to be freaking impossible and he barely even hesitates.

Sam literally carries Frodo on the last leg of the journey. On his back. He’s half-starved, dying slowly of dehydration, but he carries Frodo up the goddamn mountain and Gollum may get credit for accidentally destroying the ring but Sam was the one who got them all there.

Sam saved the world.

And let’s not forget Pippin and Merry, who get damselled out of the story (the orcs have carried them off! We must make a Heroic Run To Save Them!) and then rescue themselves, recruit the Terrifying Ancient Powers through being genuinely nice and sincere, and overthrow Saruman before the ‘real’ heroes even get there.

Let’s not forget Pippin single-handedly saving what’s left of Gondor - and Faramir - by understanding that there is a time for obeying orders and a time for realizing that the boss is bugfuck nuts and we need to get help right now.

Let’s not forget Merry sticking his sword into the terrifying, profoundly evil horror that has chased him all over his world because his friend is fighting it and he’s gonna help, dammit and that’s how the most powerful Ringwraith goes down to a suicidally depressed woman and a scared little hobbit.

Everything the others do, the kings and princes and great heroes and all? They buy time.  They distract the bad guys. They keep the armies occupied. That is what kings and great leaders are for - they do the big picture stuff.

But it is ultimately the hobbits who bring down every villain. Every one. And I believe that that is 100% on purpose. Tolkien was a soldier in WWI. His son fought in WWII. (And a lot of The Lord Of The Rings was written in letters to him while he did it.)

And hey, look, The Lord Of The Rings is about ordinary people - farmers, scholars, and so on - who get pulled into a war not of their making but who have to fight not only because their own home is in danger but so is everyone’s. And they’re small and scared but they do the best they can for as long as they can and that is what actually saves the world. Not great heroes and pre-destined kings. Ordinary people, doing extraordinary things because they want the world to be safe for ordinary people, the ones they know and the ones they don’t.

Ordinary people matter. They can save the world without being great heroes or kings or whatever. And that is really important and I get so upset when people miss that because Aragorn and Legolas and Gimli and Gandalf and all the others are great characters and all but they are ultimately a hobbit delivery system.

It is ordinary people doing their best who really change the world, and continue doing so after the war is over because they have to go home and rebuild and they do.

If nothing else, I have to reblog this for the phrase “hobbit delivery system.” So accurate it hurts.

(via elenilote)

What I love too is how even the foretold king and the assorted great heroes themselves all come to recognize that their main (and by the end, only) role is to distract Sauron. To the point that by the end they’re all gathered up before the black gates of Mordor in order to keep his attention focused on them, with only the hope - not the certainty - that they can buy Frodo whatever remaining time he needs, if he’s even still alive.

One thing the movies left out but has always been such a key part of the books for me was how when the hobbits returned home, they found that home had been changed too. The war touched everywhere. Even with all they did in far-off lands to protect the Shire, the Shire had still been damaged, both property and lives destroyed, and it wasn’t an easy or simplistically happy homecoming. They had to fight yet another battle (granted a much smaller one) to save their neighbours, and then spent years in rebuilding.

(via msbarrows)