‘Herman The Sturgeon’ Survives Stabbing, Kidnapping, And Now Wildfire
by Amelia Templeton
The Eagle Creek Fire has burned more than 30,000 acres in the Columbia River Gorge, torching trees and threatening homes.
The fire forced the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to evacuate three fish hatcheries in the gorge, and to release thousands of juvenile salmon into the Columbia River ahead of schedule after ash and fire debris clogged hatchery intakes.
Despite all that, ‘Herman the sturgeon’ has survived.
“Right now, Herman the sturgeon — who is a very large sturgeon, almost 11 feet long — Herman is fine,” said Michelle Dennehy, a spokeswoman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife…
“There
was a moment about 10 years ago when I was walking to the subway on the
Upper West Side. It was the Fourth of July, and I was wearing a red,
white and blue dress. I was feeling very patriotic, and it was really
tight.
I passed these two men. One appeared to be Latino, and the other
appeared to be black. The Latin guy says “Yo, mama, can I holla at you?”
And the black guy said “Yo dude, that’s an n word.” Then, the Latin
guy says “No, man, that’s a bitch.” The black guy said “No, that’s an n
word.”
They began to argue about whether I was the b word or the n word. What lovely options.
I was just standing there at the light, waiting for it to change
“Please let it change so I can cross the street”, ’cause I needed to
cross the street. At one point the Latin guy turns to me and says “You
ain’t an n word, are you?”
That moment is indicative of a lot of the street harassment that I
have had to endure. Street harassment started first because these men
found me attractive, because I’m a woman.
Then they realized that I was trans, and it became something else. It
turned into something else. So many trans women have to experience
this.
Just last month in New York City, a young girl named Islan Nettles
was walking down the street in Harlem with her friend and she was
catcalled by a few guys. They realized that she was trans, and then they
beat her to death.
In 2001, a trans woman named Amanda Milan, who I knew but not very
well, something similar happened to her in the Times Square area, and
she was stabbed to death.
Our lives are often in danger, simply for being who we are, when we
are trans women. There are a lot of intersecting identities and
intersecting oppressions that make that happen.
That moment when I was called the b or the n word, it was a moment
where misogyny was intersecting with trans-phobia, was intersecting with
some racist stuff.
The racial piece is actually really important, because I’ve talked to
a lot of white trans women who haven’t experienced quite the level of
street harassment that I have.
I’ve gotten in trouble by saying this publicly, that most of the
street harassment I’ve experienced has been from other black folks.
That’s not to suggest that black folks are more homophobic or
trans-phobic than everybody else, ’cause I don’t believe that. But there
are some homophobic and trans-phobic black folks.
I think the reason for that is there a collective trauma that a lot
of black folks are dealing with in this country that dates back to
slavery and to the Jim Crow South.
Most of us know that during slavery and during Jim Crow, black
bodies, usually black male bodies were often lynched. In these
lynchings, the men’s genitals were cut off. Sometimes they were pickled
and sometimes they were sold. There was this sort of historic fear and
fascination with black male sexuality.
I believe that a lot of black folks feel that there is this historic
emasculation that has been happening in white supremacy of black male
bodies. I think a lot of black folks dealing with a lot of
post-traumatic stress see trans, my trans woman’s body, and feel that
I’m the embodiment of this historic emasculation come to life.
So often when I am called out of the street, it’s as if I am a disgrace to the race because I am trans.
I understand that as trauma. I have love. I have so much love for my
black brothers and sisters who might call me out on the street, ’cause I
get it. I understand. They’re in pain.
I feel so often our oppressors are in a lot of, lot of pain. I think
whenever someone needs to call out someone else for who they are, and
make fun of them, it’s because they don’t feel comfortable with who they
are.
If anyone ever has a problem with someone else, I ask you to look at
yourselves first. What is it about you that you have a problem with?
What is it about you that you have a problem with? I also think it’s
important that when we talk about bullying, we understand that when kids
LGBT/QI kids are bullied, oftentimes it is because of their gender
expression.
We hear the gay slurs, the anti-gay slurs, and it’s really about
these kids not conforming to the sex that they were assigned at birth.
Gender expression is not meeting the expectations of society, so we have
to begin to create spaces where we can express our gender in ways that
are true to ourselves.
The gender binary model, most of us don’t fit that, and that’s OK. I
think too, the violence so many trans women experience, trans women of
color are disproportionately victims of violence.
Our homicide rate is the highest in the LGBT community. It went from
43% in 2011 to almost 54% of all LGBTQ homicides were trans women, and
mostly trans women of color. There is a link between the bullying that
we inflict on our LGBTQ youth, and the violence that so many trans women
experience.
What are we going to do about that? I think love is the answer.
Cornell West reminds us that justice is what love looks like in public.
I love that, because I feel that love, if we can love trans people, that will be a revolutionary act.” - Laverne Cox
I don't know who this guy is, but he's good. This is not an official NWS presentation; he appears to be a well-informed enthusiast on tropical weather. His presentation is fast and concise.
That's in contrast to the national news media reporters who have to stand out in the wind and "fill airtime" with repetitive and worthless drivel. I was pleased to see a Hurricane Harvey victim talk back to a CNN reporter:
“Yeah, that’s a lot of shit. But y’all sitting here, y’all trying to interview people during their worst times. Like, that’s not the smartest thing to do.” (“Sorry,” began Flores.) “Like, people are really breaking down, and y’all sitting here with cameras and microphones trying to ask us, ‘What the fuck is wrong with us?’ (“I’m so sorry. . . . ”) And you’re really trying to understand with the microphone still in my face. When she’s shivering cold and my kid’s wet and you still putting a microphone in my face!”
Then a day or two ago a CBS reporter on the nationally-broadcast evening news covering Hurricane Irma in the Florida Keys asked a fisherman - and I quote -
"What would it do to your bottom line if you lost your boats?"
What would it do to "your bottom line" if you didn't have boats??? She asked this question of a commercial fisherman, for fox ache.
And here is the Tropical Tidbits blog by Levi, who produced the video summary I embedded above.
Addendum: If you have family or friends on the Florida coast (or other coastline anywhere in the world apparently), you can look up their height above sea level by plugging their address into ElevationMap.
Really good piece on Gizmodo about why RSS is the best way to get news. Basically you see what the news orgs publish, not what's popular or what Facebook wants you to see (for whatever reason). Gizmodo lists popular RSS readers. Let me put in a plug for my own Electric River, which brings the power of River5 (a server app) to the desktop. You get even more control when you run the aggregator.
1. When I was six, a mummified hairless cat just sort of appeared by the house. I had to jump over it whenever I went anywhere. Nobody moved it, it was just there for a few months and then it disappeared.
2. There was a cow head just laying out back for a while. I think my gramma was feeding it to the chickens. I fucking hate the chickens.
3. Every Halloween, my mom would send me to the dead pile to get bones to scatter around the yard for decorations. I never really realized it was weird that we had things called ‘dead piles’, but there you go
4. My brain went fuzzy during a family barbecue and I don’t know what to tell you but I left for twenty minutes and came back with four other girls wearing cow pelvises and tubing as armour and claiming myself to be the ‘mighty lord magnet-tron’.
5. I found a kayak in the forest once. I brought it home, but my gramma stole it.
6. Found a cracked fish tank buried under a tree once. I took it home, but my gramma stole it.
7. There’s a lot of bathtubs in the forest and I don’t know why
8. Someone left a deer head on the porch once. Not sure why. Just the whole head, cut off at the neck. That was odd.
9. There’s just these… Weird, powdery chunks of.. I dunno, something. Just buried all over. I don’t know if they’re soft rocks or what
10. Some friends and I found something big and dead inside a garbage bag under a log, once. We told an adult but they said not to worry about it so we sort of let it go. It’s been nine years and nobody’s questioned it
11. Our rooster killed itself. Not sure how, but it did.
12. A bird carried my cat away when I was 7 and nobody told me so I spent 6 weeks looking for it. I only found half.
13. There’s a lot of skulls
14. There’s a spot out back where kitchen appliances just show up. I found a wok, a toaster, a toaster oven, and two sinks so far.
15. A bunch of porn was just… In the woods. DVDs. And a couple bible-on-casette albums. 3 pairs of prescription glasses. Someone was into some weird shit, I guess.
16. Sometimes the air smells like death and my mom just goes, ‘think it was something big?’ And I have to go find it
17. My gramma keeps collecting toilets and 4 foot tall solid wooden lawn gnomes and decorating the driveway with them
18. Every once and a while the sky just doesn’t go all the way dark at night and I’ve stopped questioning it
Okay I don’t know how this got so popular all of a sudden, but I’ve gotten a lot of messages asking if I live in Nightvale or a supernatural episode and I feel the need to clarify that while some of this stuff is kinda freaky my town is actually a rather pleasant place to live. I mean, there’s the ocassional imploded fence and something in the forest that whistles back, but we get some lovely sunsets and the sheep don’t bite
What's the NRA byline? Something like an armed society is a polite society.
A Missouri conservative admits he pointed a gun at another driver during a road rage incident over her political bumper stickers. Edward Burns, of Ozark, was charged with unlawful use of a weapon, a class E felony, in connection with the Aug. 24 encounter, reported the Christian County Headliner. Th...
So I had a lovely afternoon with my parents at the Denver Museum Of Nature And Science, and we saw the visiting exhibit on vikings, including the little exhibit on how viking helmets didn’t have horns on them because that’s a great way to get your helmet knocked off, and some speculation on how the myth got started (the first recorded instance is in a production of Wagner’s ring cycle, so it may be a costumer’s fault), But mom had her own theory:
“Well, they used horns to drink from, right? They’re smart people, they knew how to seal things up and could probably make straws. You put a horn up on each side, and you got yourself an Ancient Beer Hat- or Mead Helmet, I suppose.”
She’s going to tell our Finnish professor tomorrow. A production might be Imminent.
UPDATE: Mom told this to Mervi, who had to look up what a “Beer Hat” was because she is from Civilized Parts, and then HOWLED with laughter for like five minutes.
Mervi is disappointed that her countrymen have not thought of this sooner, and has commissioned Mom to make her one for Christmas to take back to Finland and harass her family with.
How to take care of a cat stuck in a tree the russian way.
I’m 85% sure the subtitles are accurate.
The chaos, the gross negligence, the completely unnecessary destruction of property, the massive do-not-give-a-fuck attitude, and yet it all paid off somehow, I have never seen something so Russian in my entire life!
БАРСИК БАРСИК ИДИ СЮДА
the new adaption of master and margarita looks great
the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” is actually not the full phrase it actually is “curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back” so don’t let anyone tell you not to be a curious little baby okay go and be interested in the world uwu
See also:
Blood is thicker than water The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.
Meaning that relationships formed by choice are stronger than those formed by birth.
Let’s not forget that “Jack of all trades, master of none” ends with “But better than a master of one.”
It means that being equally good/average at everything is much better than being perfect at one thing and sucking at everything else. So don’t worry if you’re not perfect at something you do! Being okay is better!
It goes to show that conformity isn’t always a good thing. And that just because more than one person has the same idea, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good idea.
what the fuck why haven’t i heard the full version to any of these
“Birds of a feather flock together” ends with “until the cat comes.”
It’s actually a warning about fair-weather friends, not an assessment of how complementary people are.
I’ve always felt like these were cut down on purpose.
I really like these phrases and plan on spreading this knowledge.
The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
I want to make designs out of these.
Funny how all the half-finished ones encourage uniformity and upholding the status-quo, while the complete proverbs encourage like…living exciting, eclectic lives driven by choice and personal passion.
The superstitions revolving around teas and their rituals, along with certain aspects of cake are at times forgotten.
Tea
The supernatural use of tea:
Protection - dry tea leaves were sometimes scattered on the front-door step of a new home to protect it from evil spirits.
Tea can be used to predict strangers - If a single stalk floats on top of a cup of tea, it means that a stranger is coming - a hard, woody stalk indicates a male visitor and a soft stalk, a female. The length of the stalk tells you whether he or she will be tall or short. To find out when they will come, lay the stalk on the back of the left hand and hit it with the right. However many hits it takes to knock it off tells the number of days before they will stand at your door.
Fortune telling with tea leaves - To tell fortunes from tea cups, the tea must be brewed with loose leaf tea and poured into the cup without using a tea strainer. The person whose future is to be divined must turn his or her cup three times in an anticlockwise direction. To do this the cup should be held in the left hand and turned by the handle. Then it is tipped upside down to drain off the last few drops of tea. It is a bad sign if there are a lot of leaves left in the bottom of the cup. But it is a good sign if the leaves are scattered evenly over the bottom and sides. The fortune teller then analyses the pictures and images that are visible in the leaves in order to foretell the tea drinker’s fate. If the leaves are deposited in the bottom foretell the distant future. The sides of the cup represent the not-too-distant future, and leaves that lie near the rim predict imminent events.
Common tea herbs & their properties:
Chamomile - It is connected to the element of water. It helps cleanse the throat chakra. It promotes calm and tranquil energies, as well as a peaceful sleep.
Vanilla - It is connected to the element of fire. It is used for confidence, love, and prosperity.
Thyme - It is connected to the element of air. It is thought to help evoke the ability of clairvoyance, as well as psychic development.
Tea superstitions:
It is a bad omen if boiling water was poured into an empty pot - that is, if the tea-maker forgot to put in any tea-leaves.
If the tea was weaker than intended, a friend will turn away from you; but if it came out too strong, a new friendship was on the horizon.
It is unlucky to stir the pot prior to pouring - it will result in a quarrel. It is also ominous to stir tea with anything other than a spoon.
To spill a little tea while making it is a lucky omen.
To put milk in your tea before sugar is to cross the path of love, perhaps never to marry.
Tea spilling from the spout of the teapot while being carried indicates a secret will be revealed.
Undissolved sugar in the bottom of your teacup means that there is someone sweet on you.
If the tag falls off the teabag while it’s in your cup, you will lose something within a week.
Cake
Birthday cakes:
The Ancient Greeks were the first to write Happy Birthday on a cake in edible writing - relating to the worship of the moon goddess ‘Artemis.’ Her birthday was celebrated by eating moon-shaped honey cakes with candles on the top. It was said that bad spirits were attracted to celebrations so it was very important to wish a person a ‘happy birthday,’ blow out the candles and read any wishes inscribed on the cake as a kind of magical protection.
Many believe that candles blown in order to make a wish are only fulfilled if they areblown in one breath. It is said by some, that the smoke from blown out candles carries their wishes to the Heavens.
Wedding cakes:
The tradition of a wedding cake comes from ancient Rome, where revelers broke a loaf of bread over a bride’s head to increase the chances of fertility.
Legend says single women will dream of their future husbands if they sleep with a slice of groom’s cake under their pillows.
Eating the crumbs of a wedding cake will bring you good luck.
In the 18th century, newlywed couples would try to keep the cake until their first anniversary to prevent them from marriage problems in the future. This is one of the reasons why cakes in the 18th century were made of fruits and blended with wine.
Christmas cakes:
People tend to save a piece of Christmas cake for New Year because not doing so is said to bring bad luck in the subsequent year.
Cutting a Christmas cakes before Christmas Eve is said to cause bad luck.
The dumb-cake was made at midnight on Christmas Eve is prepared in complete silence by the bachelors and spinsters. One who made it left their initials on the upper surface of the cake. If the silence remained unbroken, the future partner was believed to come and leave their initials on the cake. If one walked backwards to bed after eating dumb-cake, a dream about a future spouse was sure to visit them.
Other cake superstitions:
A Victorian superstition states that placing a piece of fruit cake under one’s pillow will cause a dream of their future spouse.
If food is being served at tea-time, the person to take the last piece of cake from the plate will be the first to get married.
Tipping over a slice of cake while serving a guest is said to bring bad luck.
The ancients gave cakes away on days of new beginnings and celebrations, believing they had some magical way to guarantee fertility, good luck, riches and drive away evil.
i love old science fiction because it’s all like “IT’S THE DISTANT YEAR TWO THOUSAND AND THREE AND MAN IS EXPLORING THE DEEP CORNERS OF THE UNIVERSE” like god bless you old sci-fi you had such high hopes for us
And then there’s The Running Man which starts with:
Mine know that they are not supposed to be on the laptop, but that means nothing. Just the other night, Bob managed to hit some key combo that I could not undo so I had to reboot.
He knows he can’t be on the laptop so this is his attempt to get me to pet him.
