A research tip from a friendly neighborhood librarian! 

I want to introduce you to the wonderful world of subject librarians and Libguides. 

I’m sure it’s common knowledge that scholars and writers have academic specialties. The same is true for subject librarians! Most libraries use a tool called Libguides to amass and describe resources on a given topic, course, work, person, etc. (I use them for everything. All hail Libguides.) These resources can include: print and ebooks, databases, journals, full-text collections, films/video, leading scholars, data visualizations, recommended search terms, archival collections, digital collections, reliable web resources, oral histories, and professional organizations. 

So, consider that somewhere out there in the world, there may be a librarian with a subject specialty on the topic you’re writing on, and this librarian may have made a libguide for it. 

Are you writing about vampires? 

How about poverty? 

Do you need particular details about how medicine or hygiene was practiced in early 20th century America?

You can learn about Japanese Imperial maps, the American West, controlled vocabularies, Crimes against art and art forgeries, anti-Catholicism, East European and Eurasian vernacular languages, geology, vaudeville, home improvement and repairs, big data, death and dying, and conspiracy theories.

Because you’re searching library collections, you won’t have access to all the content in the guides, and there will probably be some link rot (dead links), but you can still request resources through your own library with interlibrary loan, or even request that your library purchase the resources! Even without the possibility of full-text access, libguides can give you the words, works, people, sites, and collections to improve your research.

Search [your topic] + libguide and see what you get!

This is…amazing. I am angry that I didn’t know about this until now. Now I can ~academically~ indulge my fascination with the 1918 flu pandemic? When I have organic chem homework and a lab report due tomorrow? I both love this and hate this.

I have terrible news. 

At a quick glance, Christopher Newport University, Goodwin College, and Harford Community College all have libguides on the 1918 flu pandemic. 

LibGuides are magic.

(also let us know if you find dead links, we can fix them!)

An even better way to search for libguides?

https://community.libguides.com

Use the libguide community site and search by topic, institution, or even your friendly neighborhood librarian! (If you have a librarian or two who you trust to put you on the right path, you might be able to get that guidance even if you don’t have time to reach out directly!) If their site says “LibGuide” it’ll show up in THAT community somewhere!

Looking to see what books are being used in a particular class in a particular university? Course specific libguides usually have those!

Interested in browsing until you find something that catches your attention? Springshare (the vendor that manages LibGuides) curates lists of interesting, amusing, and innovative libguides! (Okay some of these are boring because they’re geared towards UX and data visualization for librarians, but still…)

Interested in seeing the stuff that YOUR local or institutional librarians are trying to promote? Looking for ways to make the most of the resources that are freely available to you just down the road? Libraries from Atlantic City to Saratoga Springs to South Australia are making guides for their various resources, which describe everything from how to search databases to how to read call numbers to how to access online resources like e-books and video subscriptions!

Even major institutions like the New York Public Library have guides, on everything from genealogy to the history of New York neighborhoods!

Ooo for the glory of that which are called libguides! Awesome resources!

s/o to this skeleton babe from 1936

This is a really poignant illustration of the seductive nature of glorifying war but that is a LOOK and she is SERVING it

I've seen Death depicted as a card dealer or other sort of gambler, a guy in a suit, a farmer, a robed apparition, and any other number of things, but this? This has to be the best Death I've seen yet. An old seductress saying "hey kid, don't you wanna die in a trench for a government that doesn't give a fuck about you, just like your dear old dad?" This goes hard as fuck.

"I used to know your daddy." kicks like a mule.

#i used to know your daddy #personification

rb this with ur opinion on this shade of pink:

This is magenta, and not pink. Unlike pink, magenta doesn’t actually exist. Our brain just invents magenta to serve as what it considers a logical bridge between red and violet, which each exist at opposite ends of a linear spectrum.

TL;DR this color is fake (and also I hate it)

w

what

im

Wait til you learn about Stygean Blue

Your brain is a badly-designed hot mess of bootstrapped chemistry that will tell you that all kinds of shit is happening that has no correlation to physical reality, including time travel. It just makes things up. Your brain is guessing about what’s happening when your eyes saccade, what’s happening in your blind spot, and what the majority of the visible light spectrum looks like, and you don’t know it’s happening because it doesn’t aid your survival to become aware that a lot of what you see is fake.

The human eye only has three types of color sensitive cones, which detect red, blue, and green light. Your brain is making up every other color you perceive.

Let’s have a little fun with that thought. This is the visible spectrum of light.

You will of course note that yellow is on the chart. Yellow has a discreet wavelength, and is therefore a distinct physical color. But we can’t see it.

“Sorry, what the fuck?”

What we call yellow is just what our brain shrugs and spits out when our red and green cones are equally stimulated. We have light receptors that can pick up on the physical spectrum of light we call yellow: that’s why yellow things don’t just look like moving black blocks to us. But your brain has no fucking idea what the color yellow looks like. 

Some animals have eyes that can perceive the color yellow! Goldfish have a yellow cone in their eyes. If they could talk, they could tell us what yellow looks like. But we wouldn’t be able to understand it.

What your brain actually sees of the color spectrum:

We can measure the wavelength of light, so we know that when we see ‘yellow,’ we are seeing light in that 550-ish nanometers range. But we don’t have a cone in our eyes that can pick that up. Your brain just has a very consistent guess about what color that wavelength of light could be. We decided to name that guess ‘yellow.’ We can’t imagine what yellow really looks like any more than a dog can imagine the color red.

Here’s the funny thing: your brain is never perceiving just one photon of light at a time. Something like 2*10⁸ photons per second are hitting your retina under normal conditions. Your brain doesn’t individually process all of them. So it averages them out. It grabs a bunch of photons all coming from the same direction, with the same pattern, and goes, “yeah, that cup is blue, fuck it, next.”

That’s how colors blend in our eyes. So sure, if a photon of light with a wavelength of 550 nanometers bounces into our eyes, we see what we call “yellow.” But if we see two photons at the same time, coming from the same object, one of which is 500 nms and the other of which is 600 nms, your brain will average them out and you will still see yellow even though none of the light you just saw was 550 nms.

So how does magenta factor into this?

Well, as we’ve just established, when your brain sees light from two different slices of the visible light spectrum, it will try to just average them together. Green plus red is yellow, fuck it. If it’s more red than green, we’ll call that ‘orange.’ Literally who gives a shit, we’re trying to forage over here. There are bears out here and it’s so scary.

What happens if you take the average of blue and red light, which we perceive to be magenta? What’s the centerpoint of that line?

Fucking green.

Hey, that’s not gonna work? We live on a planet where EVERYTHING IS GREEN. If something is NOT green, that means it’s either food, or a potential source of danger, and either way your brain wants you to know about it.

So your brain goes, WHOOPS. Okay - this is fine. We already made up yellow, orange, cyan, and violet. We’ll just make up another color. Something that looks really, really different from green. 

And so it made up magenta.

So, physics-wise, is magenta “real?”

No; there’s no single wavelength of light that corresponds to magenta. But you’re rarely seeing only a single wavelength of light anyway. And even when you are, every color other than RGB is a dart thrown on the wall by your meat computer. This is the CIE Chromaticity Diagram:

Explaining this thing is a little more than I want to take on on a Saturday morning, but I’ve included a link above that goes into it a little more. The point is that only the colors that actually touch the ‘outline’ of the shape actually correspond to a specific wavelength of light. All of the other colors are blends of multiple wavelengths. So magenta isn’t special.

Given that color is just a fun trick your brain is playing on you to help you find food and avoid danger, is magenta real?

Yeah, absolutely. Or at least, it’s just as real as most of what we see. It’s what we see when we mix up blue and red. It would be disastrous from a survival standpoint to perceive that color as green, so we don’t. Because it’s not green. Light that’s green has a wavelength of around 510 nm. Stuff that’s magenta bounces back light that is both ~400 and ~700. Your brain knows the difference. So it fills in the gap for you, with the best guess it has, same as it does with your blind spot.

The perception of color exists within your brain, and your brain says you see magenta. So you see magenta.

So I googled Stygian Blue and…

Yall.

FORBIDDEN.

HOW TO SEE THE FORBIDDEN COLOURS

Hyperbolic Orange is the color my soul is

Dark tumblr show me the forbidden colors

We are back on this again.

a man self immolated in front of the israeli embassy in washington dc yesterday. not just any man. an active member of the us air force. he live streamed his death, and said that he refused to be complicit in a genocide any longer. he said that compared to what palestinians were facing every day, setting himself alight was nothing.

let me reiterate. an active duty air force member burned himself alive because he was so disgusted by what the us government was openly supporting. he live-streamed his own suicide, so the whole world could bear witness as a man in his military uniform set himself on fire to protest his government’s complicity in the horrors that we have all been forced to watch happen in real time. he became a new horror. footage of the immolation blurs him out the moment the fire catches, but you can hear him. it is over in seconds, really, but you can hear him screaming. he shouts “free palestine” until his body physically cannot make any sounds other than guttural screams of agony. and then he falls silent. a police officer arrives and points a gun at his still burning body, shouting at him to get down on the ground. and it is over.

his name was Aaron Bushnell. he was twenty five years old. and he isn’t here anymore because the political ruling class has decided that genocide is perfectly fine as long as it preserves imperialism. in the coming days, people will try to discredit him. to say that he was mentally unstable. they will try to bury his actions to save face and defend israel’s propaganda. do not let them. aaron knew what he was doing. he knew what he was doing when he put on his military uniform, set up his twitch stream, and made his final walk up to the embassy. he knew what would happen to him when he flicked that lighter. do not let them forget. aaron’s blood is on the hands of the political ruling class.

so I got into grad school today with my shitty 2.8 gpa and the moral of the story is reblog those good luck posts for the love of god

okay so i just got my dream job??? a week after applying to it?? and now i’m thinking….maybe this is the good luck post

…..not even six hours later i got an offer of a well paying full time long-term job with free room and board in queens in nyc, allowing me independence and a way to escape an abusive situation and an unhealthy environment

likes charge reblogs cast, folks, this is the good luck post

i need all the help i can get for finals

Hey so

the last time I reblogged this post right before I got a great job, in a permanent work-from-home position, with benefits, retirement, and a salary literally 3x what I was making before, doing something I really like. 

So you know. 

This might be the real one, y’all.

At this point literally anything helps.

For my upcoming mid terms, semi finals and finals. Please.

Eh fuck it let’s do this not like i’m gonna lose anything anyways

Why not?

Why not indeed

Help a family of disabled trans folks get some groceries?

*Long-suffering sigh.* I've been putting off making this post as long as humanly possible, but we are once again out of money and nearly out of food.

The free food distribution events in town don't always have things that meet my family's dietary needs (we have sensitivities, allergies, and one of us keeps kosher). We aren't able to get food stamps (yes, we try regularly). We have some shelf-stable basics (and by that I mean sacks of rice, because it's the only food people ever seem to want to buy for poor people), but we don't have any of our frozen safe-foods, any dairy, any meat, any fruits or veggies, any of the stuff that requires refrigeration. We also still have to worry about things like medications, pet food, putting gas in the car, and various other life expenses.

I say all of this because every time I have to make a begging post, people try to give advice instead of aid. I promise y'all, we've exhausted our options. Yes, I know about the subreddits, yes I know about free food groups, yes I have made Amazon grocery lists in the past for shelf-stable needs, yes I know about federal aid options. I have explored them. My wife works full-time and all four of us have side-hustles, and it's not enough. We need cash.

If you've read this far and are able/willing to help out, here are my family's pay links. If you can't help, even a reblog does a lot. <3

PayPal: paypal.me/chaosqueer Venmo: @ chaosqueer CashApp: $chaosqueer

This is a super good article and I recommend reading it. Also, the figleaf trick is literally what every conspiracy theorist who says "I'm not saying you have to believe me or that I'm right about everything, I'm just putting this out there for you to consider" is doing. For example, if a conspiracy theorist wasn't a straight-up antivaxxer trying to spread antivax beliefs, they wouldn't ask you to even consider the possibility that vaccines are being used to microchip people, alter their DNA, whatever. If a conspiracy theorist wants you to "consider the possibility," they want you to believe it and base your future choices on it, period.

This is an excellent read. I also want to share how you can prevent figleaves from landing their hooks in you, because unlike dogwhistles (which are coded messages) figleaves are a tactic of cognitive manipulation and can’t be detected by spotting the different “types.”

Instead, the way you safeguard against figleaves is to entertain ideas without accepting them.

Not only does this make it safe to think about anything and everything, it can also clue you in on how certain arguments are interfacing with your psyche. So if you find yourself somehow accepting the idea before thoroughly entertaining it, that’s cause for closer examination. Even if you’re not sure what’s going on, the fact it alerts your conscious awareness is what protects you.

I know this is helpful, because it protected me from being radicalized.

Many years ago, I befriended someone at a local event. He was intelligent, incredibly charismatic, and very receptive to me, so I was sold on building trust and rapport with him right out of the gate. When we reconnected months later, he had been radicalized by right-wing youtubers like Milo Yiannopoulos. I didn’t know this though (I was unfamiliar with indoctrination at the time) and we proceeded to have a very long philosophical discussion about our thoughts and feelings on the world.

He used figleaves throughout the conversation to get me thinking about eugenics and race-separation without me realizing. He drew logical conclusions and appealed to my love for humanity, all the while engaging with rapt attention and interest in my replies. Nothing about what he said or did ever, at any point, made me suspicious of an ulterior motive. I engaged fully, and considered his points in good faith.

What made me suspicious was the fact it was difficult to entertain his arguments without accepting them. This was uncanny. I had no idea what was going on, so I quarantined the conversation in my mind and examined it closely, more closely than I otherwise would have.

It would be years before I knew enough about biopsychology and cryptofascist indoctrination to actually identify what caused this: He tied all of his arguments to a sense of human bonding and connection, which meant rejecting his points also felt like I was denying myself a sense of belonging.

It is easy to argue against eugenics. It is hard—impossible even—to argue against the human need for belonging. Fortunately, I didn’t need to know the mechanics of his tactics to recognize his argument was doing some weird shit to my brain, and that weird shit goes in a box until we figure out what’s going on with it.

Keep in mind this isn’t bulletproof. There are always ways to subvert cognition. But the act becomes a lot harder to pull off when it risks triggering an alarm.

The last thing we should do in the face of these threats is to outright avoid exposing ourselves to any and every perspective that don’t match our own. Avoiding new perspectives out of fear of undue influence encourages us to be suspicious and hostile of people who don’t already think the same way we do, which is exactly what these racists want. If they can’t get you to be a racist, then they will at least get you to think like one.

I learned something new.

Reblogging for the article and commentary

JUNE 2021 ACTIVE LOKI BLOGS!!

Lol

Hail Loki

Hail Loki, both Father and Mother Hail Loki, bringer of Merriment and Strife Hail Loki, bearer of star-fire and lighter of hearth-fire Bless and walk with us this day

sold

this was a commission, a raven take on one of my possum mugs

❤️❤️❤️❤️

I'm late for this meme, but i don't care, tbh, I HAD to draw this.

But it's Thursday???

Who cares what day it is...please just drag me away from here, you adorable spooky balloon 💜

New artwork arrived with the mail today, I bought this as a postcard from Wolf The Red on Redbubble. There are also variations of this artwork with the trans pride and with the nonbinary pride colors, as well as a black and white one and there are lots of different products with this print available. While I really like Tom Hiddleston as the Marvel Loki (big fan of this actor, by the way) - for my spiritual practice I prefer Loki artworks which do not look like the Marvel Loki. If you are interested in this artwork or some other awesome artworks about Norse deities, here is the link to the Redbubble shop: https://www.redbubble.com/people/WolfTheRed/explore

Love this Loki artwork from Wolf the Red!

today is holocaust remembrance day. without ifs or buts and without condition.

today we remember all the Jewish people, the Rromani people, the physically and mentally disabled, political prisoners, queer people, journalists and activists, intellectuals and writers and artists, and all the common people, every single person that lost their lives or loved ones or a part of themselves to Nazifascism.

yall have got to be more normal about Southern people and I'm not kidding. enough of the Sweet Home Alabama incest jokes, enough of the idea that all Southerners are bigots and rednecks, and enough of the idea that the South has bad food. shut up about "trailer trash" and our accents and our hobbies!

do yall know how fucking nauseating it is to hear people only bring up my state to make jokes about people in poverty and incestuous relationships? how much shame I feel that I wasn't born up north like the Good Queers and Good Leftists with all the Civilised Folk with actual houses instead of small cramped trailers that have paper thin walls that I know won't protect me in a bad enough storm?

do yall know how frustrating it is to be trans in a place that wants to kill you and whenever you bring it up to people they say "well just move out" instead of sympathizing with you or offering help?

do yall understand how alienating it is to see huge masterposts of queer and mental health resources but none of them are in your state because theyre all up north? and nobody seems to want to fix this glaring issue because "they're all hicks anyways"

Southern people deserve better. we deserve to be taken seriously and given a voice in the queer community and the mental health space and leftist talks in general.

Yes. Yes.

THIS.

Though I wasn't born in Florida, I live in Florida, and gods know, I, too, am tired of all the 'Florida Man/Florida Woman' jokes 🙄

And trust me, there are just as many queer and trans folks down here as there are up North, and Resources. Are. Needed.

I am reblogging this in commiseration to highlight the serious lack of consideration, voice, mental health space, and resources available to those folks here in the LGBTQI+ community

LOGYN: MAKIN' BREAD 🥧 2

If you've given me a dollar or more this month on ☕️ you've seen this in progress over the past week. What started out as a joking response to some discourse about Sigyn being a tradwife is turning into what I think is a lovely slice of life illustration series~

Click to see the first in the series.

Love love love this series!