karis-the-fangirl:

merinnan:

Okay, which Tumblr denizen is responsible for this? (and where can I get one?)

Infamy | Ea-Nasir Funny Vinyl Sticker

were–ralph:

viejospellejos:

Arte 😍

she served like no one else could

xreloadedx:

@historyinmemes

The Dublin Arm was invented in 1921, It was a significant advancement in artificial limb technology. It operated using a Bowden cable mechanism, where cables connected to the individuals residual limb enabled hand or hook movements. By contracting specific muscles, the user could control the cables, allowing them to grasp objects and perform various tasks with improved dexterity. This pioneering prosthetic limb set the foundation for future advancements in the field.

A lot of surfer slang consists of in-crowd jargon or outmoded antiques: grommet (an eager young surfer), hodad (a non-surfer; a poser), log (a heavy surfboard), Noah (a shark). But other terms that bubbled up in the surf towns of Southern California, Hawaii, and Australia in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s – bro, dude, Cali (for California), wipeout – are now part of the everyday vocabulary of English-speaking landlubbers who may have no idea about the words’ briny origins. One of the most widespread of these expressions, and probably the most pertinent to our interests at Strong Language, is bitchin’, an adjective or interjection meaning “excellent,” “cool,” or “admirable.” 

It took a long time for bitch and its derivatives to evolve from veterinary noun (Old English: “female dog”) to taboo slur (for a woman c. 1400; for a man c. 1500) to slightly taboo verb (early 1900s: “talk spitefully”; early 1930s: “complain”) to a word so cheerily inoffensive that it’s used in brand names that are prominently displayed in mass-market retail outlets like Costco. Along the way, bitch begat dozens of slangy spin-offs, most of them U.S. in origin and mostly pejorative, that include bitch bath (perfume instead of soap and water), bitch box (loudspeaker), and bitch light (a twisted rag soaked in grease and used for illumination). 

Bitch and its relatives were considered highly offensive from the 18th century on: In Wicked Words (1989), author Hugh Rawson notes that people resorted to euphemisms like “lady dog” even in the “proper canine context.” (Speaking of dogs, Rawson informs us that the poet John Keats coined bitchrell on the model of “doggerel.” It was naughty enough that Keats self-bowdlerized the word as B–rell–.) It wasn’t until 1962 that bitch was heard in a Hollywood movie (Advise & Consent; the speaker was Gene Tierney, saying of Washington hostesses, “They say any bitch with a million bucks can be the best”). Elton John could sing “The Bitch Is Back” in 1974, but there was still enough opprobrium surrounding bitch in 1984 that Barbara Bush, campaigning for her husband George H.W. Bush, cattily demurred when calling Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro “that four-million-dollar – I can’t say it, but it rhymes with ‘rich.’”

Twenty years later, bitch was fully out in the open. It was heard frequently on the TV series How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014): See Michael Adams’s four “Bitch Chronicles” posts, in which he posits that bitch was the solution for “tonal accuracy” in the show’s dialogue, “permissible on television, but not always in polite conversation.” Around the same time, bitch attached itself to a whole category of wines marketed at women; as I wrote in 2015, the trend began in 2004 with an Australian Grenache called simply Bitch and expanded into unrelated brands like Sassy Bitch, Tasty Bitch, and more. And 2012 brought us resting bitch face, “a facial expression that unintentionally creates the impression that a person is angry, annoyed, irritated, or contemptuous, particularly when the individual is relaxed, resting, or not expressing any particular emotion” (Wikipedia).

By then, bitchin’/bitchen had migrated from surf shacks to high streets. The earliest agreed-on appearance in print of positive bitchen is in Gidget: The Little Girl with Big Ideas, the 1957 novel by Frederick Kohner that was inspired by his teenage daughter’s experiences with the Malibu Point surf crowd: “It was a bitchen day too. The sun was out and all that, even though it was near the end of November.” The spelling gradually settled on bitchin’, eliding the g of the participle. American Speech, the journal of the American Dialect Society, included bitchin’ in a 1965 issue under “Notes on Campus Vocabulary,” observing that it could “serve both as an interjection (bitchin’, man! = ‘Great!’) and as an adjective.” The Surfin’ary, a compilation of surf terms originally published in 1991, calls bitchin’ “a sixties term for cool adopted by surfers” and adds that “it has now been replaced by rad” (from radical). But editor Trevor Gralle also inserts this unverified anecdote:

The word bitchin’, derived from bitching – as in “Quit your bitching” – may have been coined by Dale Velzy in 1949. While surfing with the Manhattan Beach Surf Club, Velzy was overjoyed after a ride and said, “That was a bitchin’ wave,” giving the word new meaning and a positive connotation.    

Velzy (1927–2005) was a pioneering Southern California surfer and surfboard maker; according to a Los Angeles Times obituary, he was “surfing’s first commercial shaper or builder.” 

I haven’t been able to confirm Velzy’s reappropriation of bitchin’, but I have found evidence for earlier positive or emphatic uses of bitch that may have laid the groundwork. As early as 1928, according to the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (HDAS), bitching could be a synonym for “whopping” or “damned,” and bitch kitty was World War II slang for “something extraordinary.” (“She’s flying right along. Bitch kitty of an airplane.”)

Today, although bitch can still skew negative – and necessitate a softened version, bish, that tones down the aggression and evades online censorship – the adjective/interjection bitchin’ has achieved full cultural integration. As proof, I point you to the U.S. trademark database, which as of this writing includes 32 registered or pending marks with adjectival BITCHIN’. Besides the aforementioned Bitchin’ Sauces – whose owners also own a record label, Bitchin’ Music Group, phone number 1-737-BITCHIN – there’s Bitchin’ Kitchen, a cooking program that launched on Canadian TV in 2010; Bitchin’ Kitten Brewery (Pennsylvania); Bitchin’ Berry beer (Nevada); Bob’s Bitchin’ BBQ (Wisconsin;, Bitchin Coffee (North Carolina); Bitchin’ Betty brown ale (also North Carolina); and Bitchin’ Digs commercial and residential design in Malibu, California, home of the original bitchin’ surfer girl Gidget.

Like bad, wicked, and sick, three other negatives-turned-slang-positive, bitchin’ has reversed course, from pejorative to enthusiastically approving. While other surfer slang has crested and ebbed — does anyone still say “quimby” or “kookster”? — bitchin’ continues to ride a long, sweet wave of acceptance by the mainstream.

hellzabeth:

moonblossom:

thejollywriter:

amorphousturtle:

delicious-dream-before-the-storm:

The band, the music, the dance.

puts on sound 📣🎶🎵

Ok, I NEED you to understand just how insane even ATTEMPTING this was for them.

1. Playing an instrument is difficult. Doing so in sync with others even more so. Don’t think I’m stepping on any toes saying that.

2. Dancing is difficult. Doing so in sync with others even more so. Still not controversial.

3. YOU AVOID, AT ALL COSTS, MOVING YOUR BODY WHILE PLAYING A WIND INSTRUMENT.  To make the correct, pleasant sounds, you need to be in the correct form. And that form involves your ENTIRE body, even your legs when sitting down.

4. “oh, but I’ve seen marching bands before and-” MARCHING BANDS HAVE ENTIRE SCIENTIFIC FIELDS DEDICATED TO FIGURING OUT HOW TO MARCH WITH MINIMUM BREAKING OF PROPER FORM. A marching band tries to be as smooth as possible while moving, so as not to jar their instrument, mouth, neck, arms, torso, or anything else.These ladies and gentlemen are BOUNCING and still playing properly, what the FU-!

5. AND ANOTHER THING! Wind instruments and dancing BOTH make demands on your breathing, so the fact that they are dancing (making you breath faster for extra oxygen) AND playing wind instruments (making you effectively hold your breath) AT THE SAME TIME is HUGE. Their lungs must be MASSIVE.

All of that also; the song is Sing, sing, sing (with a swing). If you wanna listen to some of THE SPICIEST big band ever recorded. Its a big hard song and this band does it expertly.

This is the Kyoto Tachibana Senior High School Marching Band, and they are insane. Their uniforms are so recognisable that their nickname is the Orange Devils (オレンジの悪魔, orenji no akuma).

More info in English: https://kyototachibanashsbandunofficialfanblog.wordpress.com/background-information-band/

Official website in Japanese: https://kyoto-tachibana-shsband.jp/

This is a great video of them in motion at Disneyland that really shows off exactly how mobile and fluid they are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE0FdDKvxn8

I just really love the Kyoto SHS, okay

For the love of god, look up these guys on youtube, they are STILL GOING to this day and STILL HIGH QUALITY. And get this: their band teacher insists that he does very little coaching of the band, and that most of the moves are actually decided by the kids themselves, with the older kids teaching the newer ones.

They are exceptionally high quality, and you should really see them perform while marching. They’ve toured internationally. Other schools see them coming and hope for second place. Gold standard performances.

catchymemes:

gulistan-blog:

㋡🥀

borderlands-disorder:

Bad Space Comics: The Suit

headspace-hotel:

comicgeekscomicgeek:

corvidsincorvettes:

corvidsincorvettes:

The culprits (i would die for them)

C // Amythestsparkles • Hal Brindley

Yep, I’m on the side of these superb piggies. This is play stupid games, win stupid prizes territory.

Native wild animals engaging in natural animal behaviors?!?! I’m shocked!

a group of 8 hobbits is called a hobbyte

thoughtfulfuri:

saywhat-politics:

So, thanks to President Biden’s Infrastructure Bill, remote locations on the Navajo Nation Reservation will be receiving electricity for the first time — ever.

Also, water treatment devices are being developed to help the tribe access clean running water. After decades without.

“About a fifth of homes in the Navajo Nation — located in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and southeastern Utah — do not have access to electricity, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates. Nearly a third of homes that have electricity on Native American reservations in the U.S. report monthly outages, according to the Biden administration.

The announcement comes as Native tribes in Nevada and Arizona fight to protect their lands and sacred sites amid the Biden administration’s expansion of renewable energy. It also comes days after federal regulators granted Native American tribes more authority to block hydropower projects on their land.”

…

“What these announcements do is they build hope for communities,” Smith said. “Translating these ambitions into tangible outcomes — we still have a ways to go.”

…

Kristen Parrish, a professor at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, said that the project will provide a reliable source of power to tribal citizens.

“Even more important than the fact that it’s cleaner is the fact that it’s reliable,” Parrish said of the project.

Biden administration taps $366M to fund clean energy for Native American tribes and rural areas

sukimas:

perhaps the idea that being absent for 14-18 school days over the course of the entire year counts as “chronic absenteeism” has something to do with it?

that the proportional increase is highest in the richest districts should indicate that this is less “struggle” and more “everyone has realized your standards are bullshit”

zegalba:

Hadi Rahnaward: ‘Fragile Balance’ (2023) rug sculpture created with matches

datasoong47:

redwooding:

bethanydelleman:

I had tears pouring down my cheeks while I was driving home this morning because I listened to a podcast about the Radium Girls and how hard they fought to hold their employer to account for poisoning them, even though they knew they would die regardless, because they wanted to protect the workers who came after them. Even though their community called them liars and they were in horrible pain, they fought. And then the host started talking about how the Manhattan Project used knowledge gained from the Radium Girls to protect their workers and how the ghosts of those girls and women protected people going forward…

And it made me think of all the ghosts, unnamed and unknown, who in their death protect us: the ghosts of the Titanic, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the Quebec Bridge, and so many others. Disasters that made us change laws and protect people, not just because they were horrific but because survivors and survivors families demanded that we change; kept screaming and fighting and pushing until someone listened and something was fixed.

What a debt we owe.

There’s a saying: “Regulations are written in blood.” This means safety laws get written, or tightened, after people die. The above is a good reminder that sometimes, even with the deaths, people have to fight like hell to get the laws written.

Yes, what a debt we owe.

oneheadtoanother:

vaspider:

bumblebeerror:

ampervadasz:

THE CASUALNESS OF THAT COLLIE SLIPPING RIGHT OUT OF THEIR COLLAR. That dude is a Willing Participant of this walk and by god everyone else is going to follow the RULES.

What gets me is the look in that border colliers eyes when it hands the leash over. That is a dog which has Fulfilled Its Purpose, and knows it.

LOOK AT ME, MOM. I BROUGHT BACK THE THING THAT WASN’T WHERE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE. I DID THE THING I WAS MADE FOR. DID YOU SEE ME?

coldalbion:

As a disabled person who’s loved LEVERAGE and LEVERAGE REDEMPTION since the beginning - for the characters but also the whole ethos of performing acts that help people against crap systems, it’s wonderful to be reminded that it springs from reality.

depsidase:

magitekconveyor:

mostly-funnytwittertweets:

Ma I’ve made it. I got screenshotted and posted to tumblr.

tiroirdudessus:

calocera:

calocera:

my pet mold spore

hellolovelyscientist:

everetterice:

ALT

View on Twitter

“In one of the most notable moments in sports history, Kenyan runner Abel Mutai was just a few feet from the finish line, but became confused with the signage and stopped thinking he had completed the race.

 A Spanish athlete, Ivan Fernandez, was right behind him, and after realizing what was happening, he started shouting at the Kenyan for him to continue running; but Mutai didn’t understand his Spanish. Fernandez eventually caught up to him and instead of passing him, he pushed him to victory.

A journalist asked Ivan, “Why did you do that?”

Ivan replied, “My dream is that someday we can have a kind of community life where we push and help each other to win.”

The journalist insisted “But why did you let the Kenyan win?“ Ivan replied, "I didn’t let him win, he was going to win.” The journalist insisted again, “But you could have won!”

Ivan looked at him & replied, “But what would be the merit of my victory? What would be the honor of that medal? What would my Mom think of that?” Values are transmitted from generation to generation. What values are we teaching our children? Let us not teach our kids the wrong ways to WIN.”

myjetpack:

ALT

Bicycle Disruption. (a cartoon for New Scientist from a while back)

mirriky:

mostlysignssomeportents:

Deviant Ollam is runs a physical security penetration testing company called The Core Group; in a flat-out amazing, riveting presentation from the 2017 Wild West Hackin’ Fest, Ollam – a master lockpicker – describes how lockpicking is a last resort for the desperate, while the wily and knowledgeable gain access by attacking doors and locks with tools that quickly and undetectably open them.

Ollam’s techniques are just laugh-out-loud fantastic to watch: from removing the pins in hinges and lifting doors away from their high-security locks to sliding cheap tools between doors or under them to turn thumb-levers, bypass latches, and turn handles. My favorite were the easy-exit sensors that can be tricked into opening a pair of doors by blowing vape smoke (or squirting water, or releasing a balloon) through the crack down their middle.

But more than anything, Ollam’s lecture reminds me of the ground truth that anyone who learns lockpicking comes to: physical security is a predatory scam in which shoddy products are passed off onto naive consumers who have no idea how unfit for purpose they are.

When locksport began, locksmiths were outraged that their long-held “secret” ways of bypassing, tricking and confounding locks had entered the public domain – they accused the information security community of putting the public at risk by publishing the weaknesses in their products (infosec geeks also get accused of this every time they point out the weaknesses in digital products, of course).

But the reality is that “bad guys” know about (and exploit) these vulnerabilities already. The only people in the dark about them are the suckers who buy them and rely on them.

So when Ollam reveals that thousands of American cop cars, fleet cars, and taxis can all be unlocked and started using a shared key that you can literally buy for a few bucks at Home Depot, or that most elevators can be bypassed with a similarly widely available key, or that most file cabinets and other small locks can be opened with a third key, or that most digital entry systems can be bypassed in seconds with a paperclip (or another common physical key), he’s doing important (and hilarious!) work.

He’s such an engaging speaker and the subject matter is nothing short of fantastic. There are a hundred heist novels in this talk alone. It’s definitely my must-watch for the week.

https://boingboing.net/2019/06/14/fools-paradise-lost.html

Here are some of his recent talks on youtube to watch or put on in the background:

Through the eyes of a thief (2023)

Elevator Hacking - From the Pit to the Penthouse (2022)

mortalityplays:

Unprintable: Artists Against Authority

I am absolutely beside myself with excitement to announce the launch of Unprintable.

Unprintable is an online free shop, where original artwork and arts resources are released into the public domain.

Everything listed here is free to use, copy and remix any way you like. You can print off hi-res artwork to decorate your apartment, or to use in your own projects. You can use the writing in your own zines, anthologies or performances. You can put it on a t-shirt. You can read it on the radio. You can paint it on a truck. It’s up to you, entirely and forever.

The collection will be updated continuously, on an unfixed schedule, with contributions from a wide range of named and anonymous artists and activists. You can read the FAQ for a full rundown of what Unprintable is and why it exists, but these are the really important parts:

Can I download/print/use the work listed here?
Yes.

Can I use it for [X]?
You can do whatever you want with it forever.

But what if I want to [Y]?
You can do whatever you want with it forever.

Why do this?
A few reasons:

1. We want a space to just share things, no strings attached.
We recognise that copyright is an irrational system that was designed to protect the profit interests of publishing middlemen and IP hoarders. In fact, copyright is often weaponised against the creators it pretends to protect. As long as it exists, we are unlikely to win any other form of protection for our work, and we are profoundly limited from engaging in the kind of communal artistic and storytelling practices that were the norm around the world for thousands of years.

2. Radical art is often unprintable.
Profit motives make people cautious. A lot of print-on-demand or local print shop services will refuse artwork with controversial, sensitive or political content. This is very frustrating when these themes are the focus of so much of our work (and indeed our lives). Rather than waste any more breath trying to explain why a trans artist might want to print the word ‘faggot’, we can give our work away for free. Got a printer? It’s yours.

3. It feels good.
Sharing is joyful. It’s the reason we love making things in the first place. We don’t write poems because we look forward to filleting them for consumption, or layer colours so that we can sell a canvas by the ounce. We have only ever wanted to be able to support ourselves so that we can make, but that relationship is deeply dysfunctional under capitalism. We made these things, and we want you to have them. It doesn’t need to be complicated.

I’ll write up some more posts introducing the launch collection soon. In the meantime…be free, enjoy, explore, have fun!

https://free.mortalityplays.com

dduane:

unicorn-and-bluebells:

dumbnojutsu:

Ok now I wanna embroider a sampler that says “Either chocolate fixes everything, or this is alchemy”

Also, extra points for the scream: “I KNOW IT’S OPEN!!”