“I think a lot of people don’t understand that when we talk about these issues—blackface, rape jokes, the appropriation of marginalized cultures, and so on—we are having an ethical conversation, not a legal one. There is no thought police. No one’s coming to your house and carting you off to Insensitivity Prison. But you, as a person living on this planet, get to make a choice whether you want to hurt people or help people. Whether you want to listen or shut people out. I can’t imagine why you’d choose “defensive shithead” over “nice lady capable of empathy,” but okey dokey.”
The other day I answered the door to my postman. I was signing for stuff, like you do, when my kid came downstairs with only his underwear and a t-shirt on.
Now, the postman couldn’t see him from the front door, and I scribbled my signature and said, to my son, “You need to put some trousers on.”
My postman, very slowly, looked down at his trouser-clad legs with a mixture of confusion and horror, and then looked back up at me.
When I explained I was talking to my little boy out of his line of sight, he gave a very solemn nod and said: “I thought I’d put trousers on this morning, but suddenly when you said that, I really wasn’t sure.”
Years after this, I still have the same postman. He still always wears trousers, but every time I answer the door, I’m pretty sure we both remember this incident.
This one has gotten better as I've gotten older, and more capable of telling people who want me to produce stuff that "No, THIS is what I can do and how I can do it."
being unable to focus on a task without a guideline or a set of rules for reference, and being too scared to ask for any or too overwhelmed to find your own.
Santa is on strike due to global warming. All presents this year will be delivered by Sasha the Christmas Tiger. Milk and cookies may not be sufficient.
“MUST BRING PRESENTS TO GOOD CHILDREN”
“Yes good”
“AND EAT THE BAD ONES”
“Wait no”
“EAT THEM”
“sasha no”
Just tickle her behind the ears and hope for the best…
Please remember to leave out a box for the Christmas Tiger to play in :D
People horrifically fucking up facts about evolution and genetics too support their stupid beliefs or to seem smart and “rational” is probably one of my big pet peeves
Yeah. An enormous number of racists, misogynists, homophobes and transphobes I’ve met eventually whip out something about evolutionary biology and they never, ever, ever, ever have the slightest shadow of even a half-right idea what any of it means or ever cite a claim ever actually made by a scientific study.
Here’s a quick handy reference list or anyone who isn’t sure:
Homosexuality does exist in almost all social species.
“Alpha males” are not a real phenomenon and in fact the most aggressive males tend to be the least reproductively successful.
“Survival of the fittest” simply means that the success of a species hinges on how well it “fits” its environment. It does not mean that stronger or smarter individuals are supposed to succeed. Those things can even be a detriment in nature by wasting too many resources.
“Race” is not a biological concept. Someone who looks different from you has the same human genes, just a different grab-bag of dominant traits.
Evolution is not a march towards higher complexity, more intelligence or even more adaptability. It’s just a fluctuation of characteristics dictated by environmental pressures and mutation. A slime mold isn’t “less evolved” than a hawk, just adapted for success under different parameters.
People didn’t evolve “from apes.” It’s more complicated than that. We are a category of ape, sharing a common ancestor with the other apes.
No human on Earth is “closer” to an evolutionary ancestor than any other. We all descended from the same one.
Neanderthals were also a “sibling” species of ours. We didn’t evolve from them.
Some of us did, however, cross-breed with Neandethal man. It is exclusively non-African races, such as white people, who still carry hybrid human/Neanderthal genes. Whoops, sorry “white purity” skinheads, you’re actually mixed with a whole other species.
Just had to reblog this because I am honestly so tired of people claiming that Africans are “less evolved” than everyone else
My addition to the above list:
Epigenetics does not have anything at all to do with genetic memories. It is a thing that affects characteristics like health risks, and this speculation floating around about how phobias could be related to some ancestral trauma is complete and utter nonsense.
It’s only a matter of time before such a claim is used as another pseudoscientific tool in the arsenal of people claiming that bloodlines have anything to do with the validity of one’s worship of European pantheons. “My ancestors were Swedish, and because of epigenetics I have genetic memories passed down from those ancestors, so therefore my connection with the gods is better than yours!”
Just, no. Stop. STOP.
gonna also chime in here:
saying the “male brain” works one way and the “female brain” works another way is ludicrous. for so many reasons, even beyond the obvious of imposing that tired old either/or mentality with regards to maleness and femaleness
occasionally you will read about how a study suggests that “men are naturally better at spacial reasoning” or “women are naturally better at cooperation”, but for one thing, given how early the brain wires itself and how easy it is to influence the wiring (like, disturbingly easy), and given the tremendous social expectations we face from pretty much the moment we leave the freaking womb, it’s impossible to study gender differences in a vacuum.
like, do your findings prove that “women are better at reading faces”, or do they prove that, when you are part of a group that has been socialized since birth to be “nice”, to take care of other people, and to above all avoid making folks angry, you damn well have to learn how to read the room, and read it fast.
also, the “left brain, right brain” thing is bunk. there are not, like emotion-driven people and logic-driven people. everybody is primarily emotional. that circuitry is older and reacts much faster, and this is why nobody is immune from sometimes making wildly irrational decisions.
elaienar said: That’s terrifying and I approve 100%.
WELL HERE IS THE THING, RIGHT? black holes you basically literally have to be in their gravity like pretty much on top of them to be sucked in. so that’s not really an issue. it’s TERRIFYING sure, but explains a few things which I will list:
my astronomy teacher said if you were somehow able to survive entering a black hole and reached the bottom or singularity, the way time works is that you would be able to see the entire universe laid out - like you’d know when the universe ended if you looked back outwards
which falls into line with the idea that the angels know all of time and everything except when it will all end precisely (or scientifically, the collapse of this universe is unknown, but supposing angels were black holes they would see until this unknown point)
matter falling into a black hole creates a disc of light which is probably among the literal BRIGHTEST things in the universe
there are angels which are supposed to be the wheels of God’s Chariot, so it would make sense if, according to theories, that there ARE massive blackholes at the center of all galaxies which is what cause them to rotate, and those black holes are angels which make the galaxy spin.
black holes were formed sometime after the big bang, which lines into the story of creation, that the angels came after the universe.
angels can choose to physically manifest like humans, but aren’t actually. it’s said that you cannot survive looking at them or hearing them directly. NASA says that the “note” a black hole emits is the deepest sound found in the universe. i am just guessing here but you would probably die if you heard it up close instead of a bazillion light years away. ALSO side note cool fact apparently that “note”: “…It’s worth pointing out that the “sound” in question is 57 octaves (and one semitone) below middle C, which makes it 247×2−57≈1.71×10−15Hz, or one whole cycle every 18.5 million years.” CRAZY RIGHT although apparently some sing other notes and basically if there’s anything people know about angels it is that they DEFINITELY SING. anyways you can’t see black holes but you can see the things around them and the soundwaves surrounding them.
also apparently scientists picked up a death “scream” of a star falling into a black hole but like…
anyways literally every angel is terrifying BE NOT AFRAID “haha okay but i’m crying though is that cool”
black holes are probably angels. i’m just saying.
this is exactly the kind of weird christian gnostic-empiricist apologia i like to see on my dash
“Musician and activist Kathleen Hanna has this week’s #SundayFoodForThought:
“When you speak up about any sense of injustice, you’re told that you’re overreacting, you’re too angry, too silly, shut up already. It takes a tremendous amount of fortitude to live in this world as a woman, let alone a woman who wants things to change.”
All large drawers have puzzles inside. You will need to solve these puzzles to open other drawers or find secret compartments.
Adjusting these pegs on the back of the memory board changes the tune it reads. The dark pegs represent the notes of the song.
A secret button opens the center of the desk revealing a checker pattern. If you find a way to rearrange it into a key pattern the center drawers unlocks.
when I was studying Greek I would get frustrated and annoyed because often, at the beginning of a sentence or clause – or just scattered haphazardly throughout – there would be three or four “particles” with no specific meaning. the literal translation might be “so thus and”, but of course you couldn’t put that down. they were just placeholder words, colloquial linguistic padding.
now, of course, I realize that I start sentences with “okay but like”.
you can sing the praises of the Greeks all you want, but the fact is, Plato wrote with all the elegance and grace of an off-the-cuff tumblr post.
my professor literally told us to think of all the “ἤ̂ δ᾽ ὅς”es in the Symposium as “so then he was like”
Carrie Fisher and Gary - Star Wars: The Force Awakens Premiere at Leicester Square on December 16, 2015 in London.
So, this is important. Carrie Fisher has an invisible illness and disability - severe mental illness - and she’s been really open about it. Open to the point where she has her service animal Gary out on the press tours.
Yeah, a service animal. Not a guide dog, a therapy dog. Fisher has almost died because of her illness - and the reason she could DO Star Wars is because she has accommodations that work for her.
Everyone is talking about how Gary has stolen the show - but he is *important*. He is working. He is what she needs to go out and do this shit.
Next time someone with a disability asks for you to do something simple to accommodate them I want you to think of this. This is Princess Leia and this is her accommodation for her illness.
Other people can exaggerate when telling stories and it’s an acceptable way of emphasizing something. When you try to do it, you’re “making stuff up for attention.”
if you see someone being interrupted in a conversation, acknowledge them, don’t let them be pushed to the side. if you see someone lagging behind, walk beside them. if someone is being ignored, take the step to include them. always remind people of their worth. it hurts when it feels like you’re being forgotten. that small gesture can mean a lot.
great at handling difficult situations, for example, can get his own gloves off WHILE talking to a cute girl AT the same time no problem thanks for asking
so great at witty comebacks
definitely has slept with MANY a lady because, again, Han Solo is a cool guy, and not a grumpy hermit who, were he a person in the world, would spend all his weekends alone in his apartment with his phone turned off watching Ice Truckers
definitely not a weirdo with a shitty haircut who talks to his car
no. mister cool guy. always looks so cool. so cool in a fight
so cool. never panics about everything all the time constantly.
people trust him cause he’s got that cool guy charisma
always knows what he’s doing. han solo. an expert.
in conclusion: han solo, a cool space scoundrel, not a nerd. maybe you’re the nerd around here. hmm. looks like it. check and mate
