Windcatchers are fascinating.

Also called wind towers and wind scoops, windcatchers have been used in North Africa and the Middle East for thousands of years to provide natural ventilation & passive cooling. They fell out of popularity after the introduction of HVAC systems, but are now experiencing a revival because they’re so practical and cost-effective. Here’s how they work:

Not only are they an engineering masterpiece–they’re gorgeous

Windcatchers rely on local weather instead of the electric grid, making them affordable, reliable, and eco-friendly. they’re a terrific example of how vernacular and traditional architecture is often more suited to its environment–and more livable–than modern polite architecture. 

Windcatcher Facts™

Due to the high cost and heavy CO2 emissions of electric air conditioning, windcatchers are receiving renewed interest. Specifically, architects are researching ways that windcatcher technology can be improved and adapted to modern times [4]. Long-standing issues with traditional wind towers include performance problems such as air short circuiting, and practical issues such as the ingress of dust, insects and small animals. New concept designs are emerging all the time, and some have already been built, and are being used in cities and universities throughout the Middle East.

In conclusion, be excited about windcatchers!

ko-fi / paypal

fun fact: termite mounds are often built the same way

me scrolling through the notes just to read that last comment

“The Switch” is the first transgender sitcom in history starring trans/non-binary lead cast, this is EVERYTHING

wait wait did I just watch a trailer for a show where a woman gets fired for being trans, loses her apartment and then moves in with her best friend who is an NB… environmental… assassin??

I… I need to watch this show

Okay but this looks hilarious and I wanna watch it

Okay so the first season is already out and they have to sell 100k copies to get the green light for season 2 so go here http://www.welovetheswitch.com and give them your money

Reblogging so I can find it again

“then why do you need a crossbow?”

Me in my head: well… because crossbows are fucking cool.. obviously.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire 2001, dir. Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise

Amtrak + Snow + People = ･ﾟﾟ･o（ｉДｉ）o･ﾟﾟ･｡

RUN YOU FOOLS

found footage horror movie

The volume IS the message

Anthropology major answer: “There absolutely was such a time! Modern humans and our ancestors shared territory numerous times over prehistory with cousin species like homo neanderthalensis, homo floresiensis, and many, many others!” 

Folklore student answer: “Also, almost all cultures have something like djinn, faeries, hulder, fox spirits, and other similar creatures who can appear at least human and are very, very dangerous to humans!” 

Both of these things are true, and may be connected both to the above and to each other. :D

Biology majors: it’s dead bodies guys. Corpses.

Listen I hate this take on the uncanny valley so fucking much because many subpsecies of homonids lived in the same areas but some of them got along well enough to coexist and neandertals had enough desirable genetic traits to the point where human women (see here for a blanket on female vs male choosiness) would often pass up incel homosepian for the chad neandertal.

Genetics aside, various hominid species didn’t start visually looking all that different until 50,000 years ago, while under the skin changes began as early as 89,000 years ago (ie the development of the Y chromosome but I might be oversimplifying at this point) Point being, even our non-human cousins didn’t. look. that. different. from. us. Especially comparing the diversifying of humans themselves crossing trans continental as it was. And even then neandertals still had advantagious traits for living in the Eurasian hemisphere.

Also I digress, regardless of it being intentional, and with few perserved records from that chapter in our species’ history, I don’t like the implication that the uncanny valley effect stems from humans being inherently racist (for lack of a word for hatred of non-human intelligences). I know that sounds off the wall but prejudice and sense of superiority by birthright is vastly different than othering by means of the sucess of social groups and the need to compete for territory or resources. Racism is entirely a Eurpean fabrication and it’s been proven time and time again to be a cultural outlier and purposfully designed to further the agenda of corroded theocratical religious divinity (here, here, here) and the financial benifits of the exploitation of colonism that otherwise has not been replicated by other cultures to the same degree. (this is the only example off the top of my head but I’m know there’s more.)

You know what’s older than racism?

You know what’s more flesh crawling than neandertals?

fucking rabies

You know what LOOKS like a human but doesn’t ACT human ENOUGH? Do you know what might bite you and get you sick or turn you into something that also moves about in a non human way? Brain parasites that give you painful headaches and intensifies agression and confusion.

Say you’re a monkey and one member of your troop gets bitten by something. Later he starts twitching and swaying about. He keeps stumbling out of trees but barely feels anything when he hits the ground. He won’t eat sleep or drink. He makes guttural noises that keep alerting predators and he’s in obvious writhing agony. Suddenly he’s not your friend anymore. He doesn’t recognize you and he attempts to bite and claw at anything that moves.

Up until preventitive oral medications and vaccines were developed in the 1970s there was NOTHING stopping rabies and it still prevails today and kills hundreds of thousands of people in third world countries with limited medical resources a year. There’s no cure for rabies once youve got it and the only reliable diagnostic is a brain autopsy.

Rabies. TB. Leoprosy. Syphilis. Meningitis. Toxoplasmosis. Anthrax. Mercury Poisoning. Prion disease. These are all bad and in different varying degrees can cause limps, sores, agression, confusion or dazed trances, ambled pacing, convulsions or uncharacteristic behavior in humans.

Basically everything that people are terrified of when it comes to zombies. Vampires bite. Werewolves rip people apart. Demonic possesion? Easy. Changlings take the place of your loved ones.

Also I don’t think that it’s a conicidence that the things we find uncomfortable with the uncanny valley also just happen to line up with predatory behavior, smiling too wide or staring you down, blinking too slowly or moving towards you with a slow steady speed. It’s just a danger signal to keep other monkeys in a troop from getting bitten by an infected monkey. Simple as that.

After all what’s scarier? A dead body, or moving body that will MAKE you dead?

I’m not going to be a hypocrite by pointing out racism being excused as a stemmed human behavior without claiming that the deep seated primal fear of disease doesn’t make a good excuse for ableism as well. I mean we use othering to discern friend from foe, and then at some point decided that was a good enough excuse for racism. Theres legitimate proof that ancient homonids could and would be hospitible to the disabled out of compassion. The point of having these initial fears is to guage saftey measures first, but once someone or something is proven to be harmless that normally should be the end of it. I mean if an adult wild silverback gorrilla can look at a spycam and decide it’s chill after a moment of inspection then there’s really no excuse for any of us.

Healthy othering =/= newly invented racism.

healthy fear of infectious diseases =/= excuse to hate disabled people.

But yeah rabies is more likely the reason for the uncanny valley effect thanks for coming to my goddamn ted talk.

Reblogging this version bc of sources and I personally think this makes for much more interesting (and terrifying) lore than any other post in this thread.

*sweeps all of my AU ideas under the rug* why must I be called out this way?

Yemen is facing the worlds largest hunger crisis and the world is too quiet.

And it’s the children that pay the highest price. An estimated 85,000 children have lost their lives to extreme starvation alone. Every 10 minutes, a child under 5 dies of preventable causes in Yemen. When choosing what charities or goals you want to support during the last few days of Ramadan, I urge you to keep the children of Yemen in mind. And if you’re not celebrating Ramadan, or are not religious.. you’re still human.

These are a few of charities that I know of that you can donate to:

Remember, it’s the smallest donations that build up or even just rebloging/sharing would help. May Allah smile upon us all, and relieve the children of this world of their heartache.

The entire population of Yemen is expected to die by the end of this year.

If Yemen was 100 people:

80 need aid to survive

60 have nothing to eat

58 have no access to clean water

52 have no access to health care, however since Covid-19 their healthcare system has effectively collapsed

But Yemen is not 100 people

It’s 30.5 million humans

Guys this is a whole country that’s about to be EXTICT. Let’s not fail them

Black cats are lucky. (via leahweissmuller)

MAN [IN THICK ACCENT]: Black cat bring good luck.  Not bad luck.  I have black cat - See, him face - And I am not dead today: Good luck!

“See him face”

I sure fucking do see him face

Him face

Reblog him face for good luck in 2021

So I just got some really really bad news from the vet.

Tazz has a tumor in his throat, it’s pushing on his airway and arteries. Tazz is having trouble breathing and he needs surgery.

But I can’t afford it.

I know everyone is fucked for money right now but I would appreciate anything that anyone could send to me. I’ve had Tazz since he was 8months old. He’s fifteen now. I was ten when I got him. I don’t wanna lose my boy. I’ve been crying ever since we got the news.

Here’s all of his vet costs. They don’t accept payments.

Please if anyone is able to donate to me I’m desperate. I’ll do anything to be able to make the money. My PayPal is right here. Please if you can’t donate reblog this. Because there’s a link in my post, it won’t show up in any tags on tumblr and I really need it to reach as many people as it can.

He’s such a good boy, please help me save his life.

0/5000$

We’re up to 430/5000$

Thank you so much to all who’ve donated, I literally can not express how much this means to me.

555/5000$

I’ve gotten 800$/5000$ so far. You all are incredible thank you so much for this

You’re saving his life <3

We’ve got 905/5000$, we’re getting close to 1000. If I can just get to 2500$ then I think we’ll be okay. Please keep reblogging this, it helps me so much.

We’re at 930/5000. Donations are starting to slow down, pretty please keep reblogging this. His surgery is Friday the 8th and I have to have that 4600$ deposit to get him in and the rest to take him home. If I can just get 2500$ from donations I think I can borrow the rest from my family. Please keep reblogging, even if you can’t donate.

Currently at 1045/5000$

Someone also asked to see a pic of the tumor. Which is kind of difficult since it’s inside his throat and only sticks out a little on one side, but I did my best:

His lymph nodes are fine, and only showed a minor infection that we’ve already fixed with antibiotics. The vet was hoping that the antibiotics would shrink the mass, but that was before we knew it was a tumor. After the infection was dealt with, our vet took cells from the mass to look at under a microscope, and that’s when we found the cancer cells. That vet sent us to a specialist who agreed we need to remove it right away.

So here we are. It’s growing rapidly. It popped up as a tiny little grape less than a month ago and it’s already bigger than a half dollar coin.

Every cent I get in donations is going toward his surgery on the 8th. I’ve had him for 15 years and I’m determined to keep him healthy and happy through the last years of his life. Every donation means the world to me.

for reference, this is legitimately what military hand-to-hand systems are like. It’s all snake-oil.

if vile foreign civilian aims gun at you, simply slap weak gun aside with strong american muscle hand and deliver righteous power slap to exposed head

My ideal date? You release me into the wild to hunt me for sport on your remote island BUT I’m not very good at hiding so you find me within 20 minutes. You hold the gun to my face but there is something so earnest in my eyes and hands that you cannot carry through. You pick me up and carry me back to your mansion. I am so polite and charming that you nurse me back to health. You grow to love and trust me despite the fact you’re holding me hostage after I fell of a charter vessel bound for Brazil. You buy me new clothes and have them shipped to the island. I kiss you good morning every day. You propose marriage. I accept. We skype in a priest and get married with the butler as our witness. That night I kill you and the butler. I redistribute your wealth. I live in the mansion on the abandoned island for the rest of my days. I study snail ecology. I never remarry. You were the love of my life but you were too dangerous and evil to live. I am buried next to you. The tides eventually wash our bodies away. Into the depths of the ocean, together.

id go to like, an olive garden

Look at these birbs

R O T U N D

Couldn’t Find A Better Place To Sleep 

(Source)

Matrix Gift Exchange

I had @thelivemouse​! Happy Holidays, friend! 

A Glitch in the Matrix; A Flaw in His System

Читать дальше

I have no idea what the story of this anime is, and it’s pretty obvious who the protag is, but I’m gonna add character to the girls to the left with no face

introducing these two background characters in this slice of life romantic comedy/drama - they love each other a lot, and the girl to the left is grumpy because her girlfriend to the right forgot to give her her good morning kiss.

taller girl on the right is oblivious because she was so excited when they got up because she’s treating her girlfriend to a surprise date at the amusement park that she forgot to give her a good morning kiss. they’ll have their first smooch of the day at the very top of the ferris wheel 💋

the guy to the right of the protag (with the glasses) is a simple office worker who loves his family very very much and cannot wait to get back home to his children

The guy on the far left is wanting to get home to make dinner. He lives alone, but he promised his kitten they would have some grilled fish as a treat! He loves her very much.

The tall one behind the two girls just got back from a job interview. He didn’t get the job but he’s confidant he’ll get the next one. He needs to provide for his son and two daughters after all.

Person to the left of the pink hair girl is a retired hit-man struggling to adjust to a normal life but hes recently found a woman that works at a cafe down the street from his new job and things seem to be going well.

the man on the far far right is anxious as it’s his and his boyfriend first date aniversary and that’s the longest he lasted in a relationship, he is confident that this one will last tho

This is so pure.

Everyone is the protagonist of their own story.

Everyone is the protagonist of their own story.