A map of about every primary passenger railway in the USA for 2016, commuter rail included.

Surely there are more trains lines about than this ?!

Nope. We’re animals. I’ve only trailed by train twice in the U.S., and it was the same line, once DC to Philadelphia, and once DC to NYC for work once I discovered the train was two hours faster than flying and cabbing back into NYC.

I do forget though that you guys fly everywhere and trains might not be practical. I live on an island the size of one of your states !

Fun fact: the busiest railway station in America (Penn Station in New York City) gets fewer passengers than Liverpool Central.

I knew the US had a much less extensive rail infrastructure than us, but bloody hell, the fact that there are ENTIRE STATES that literally don’t have passenger rail is madness.

I’d still love to travel on it some time, mind.

Just imagine the jobs you could create by building a decent railway system!

Behold, the end result of graft and political corruption.

I had no idea most of the US had no regional lines? Like, I live in tiny little MA with one of those clusters of red. Does everybody else have to DRIVE???

yes. we drive. and it’s terrible.

Oh wow

I

didn’t know it was that sparse

and

i live here

The last two cities/metropolitan areas I’ve lived in have combined populations of about 6.5 million people and 0 passenger train lines going to either of them. *sighs*

Holy heck.

resource for procrastination

if you’re anything like me, working on a computer is a dangerous thing. i’ll get distracted by everything - that one email i should respond to, all the pictures of my dog, tumblr, and so on. I recently discovered an amazing resource to stop that.

it’s called writer’s block, and is free to download! 

when you open it, it shows this screen, where you can choose either a time limit or word goal

then when you start, it opens a document that fills the entire screen like this

and you cannot quit the app or open anything else until your word/time quota is filled. i just wrote half of my english speech that i’ve been putting off all morning, and it took only 20 minutes!

so yup, it’s called writer’s block and is free for both mac and windows. enjoy!

This is why I asked #WheresRey. This is why I think it matters, and why it irritates me that I was lectured by “true fans” about how Star Wars cheapened itself by having a more inclusive, diverse cast.

“Cheapened.”

No. You don’t understand. This is absolutely invaluable to me, as a parent. This means the world to my little girl, who sees herself in Rey, and to so many others.

So the Nerdist was right.

This is amazing.

And not just for my girl, no matter how cute she is in her fangirling (I admit a small amount of bias). It’s amazing for all the kids who can see themselves as heroes of this story with Rey, Finn and Poe now.

x

This.

THIS is what it is.all about. People get annoyed or frustrated that movies are “just throwing in female protagonists” for whatever’s sake or “blackwashing for no sense”. But for a five year old being brought into that movie and seeing themselves on screen, and no longer worrying about pretending to be a jedi at school and the boys discouraging her by saying that girls can’t be jedis or “you be mace windu since you’re black”. This is why feminism and casting POC in big movies is important

Hello friends!

Here is a little taste of my brand new hand-lettered & illustrated how-to zine, Art Journal Basics. It’s available here, as an instant download, from PAPERCUTS handmade. ( : : [ ♥ ] : : )

Honestly, Rick Rolling is the best practical joke ever. Like, there’s nothing offensive or mean  spirited about it. It’s just like “Oops you thought there would be something else here but it’s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’.” which isn’t even a bad song. It’s fairly enjoyable to listen to. There’s no jumpscares, no screaming, no ill will. Just Rick Astley telling you he’s never going to give you up. I think that’s great. “You fell into my trap! Here, listen to this completely benign song that will have no negative effect on you.” 

I wish this were true. There’s a really good article about the problems inherent with rickrolling here.

Very interesting. I never thought about that and now I feel bad.

Man, that sucks.

i just found a documentary called “being ginger” on netflix and some ginger dude is literally devoting an hour to explore the prejudice gingers face and specifically why women don’t want to date ginger men i’m cryin he’s interrogating random women on the street now

and he’s an american guy studying abroad in europe because of course he is

oh my god he’s whining to this girl about how hard it is to be a ginger man in british society because women reject you…calm down broni friendzoni you’re not even british, you’re just in scotland for grad school. 

then the girl says she’s into ginger men and he regrets not getting her number. this “school project” documentary is just an elaborate rouse to find girls who are willing to date him.

this tool is staging an entire documentary to handpick his own dating pool. i’m repulsed but also impressed

he used her signature from the fucking release form to look her up on facebook and now he’s reading her interests aloud…how is this relevant to anything an alternate title suggestion - A Ginger Man: The Fedora Awakens

he literally set up a date with the first and only girl he’s interviewed so far and now he’s interviewing his friends about whether or not they think she’ll stand him up. stay tuned for more Chronicles of a Nice Guy. i cannot believe this guy passed off fishing for a girlfriend as his grad school thesis about how ginger men can’t get laid

i never thought a post mocking a whiny dudebro could inspire such spirited hair color discourse

my artistic interpretation of watching “being ginger”:

seriously though reblog this, you have no idea how hard it is for disabled people to draw. i spent two hours making this

“disabled”? you don’t know real hardship. try being ginger for a day.

you come into my house…you call out my brunette privilege

Donna for the new BBC Sherlock.

I would watch the hell out of that. Make it happen please.

»build me a bridge so i can get over you« by olivia steele (+)

So ya know how anti-choice trashcans say "what if the cure for cancer lives in the mind of a fetus that gets aborted?"

But since fetuses already knowing advanced medical sciences aren’t a thing, I figured I’d provide some more valid alternatives:

What if the cure for cancer lives in the mind of someone who has a “black sounding” name and gets their school application thrown out?

What if the cure for cancer lives in the mind of someone who accidentally becomes pregnant where abortion is illegal or very difficult to access and they are forced to quit the sciences to raise the child?

What if the cure for cancer lives in the mind of a fat person whose credibility in the medical field is destroyed because they are assumed to be “unhealthy” and a hypocrite?

What if the cure for cancer lives in the mind of a person who starves to death?

What if the cure for cancer lives in the mind of someone who is murdered by drones or police?

What if the cure for cancer lives in the mind of someone who is raped and cannot continue their research due to trauma?

What if the cure for cancer lives in the mind of someone who is killed in a shooting because some below average teen boy couldn’t get laid?

I mean if you wanna talk about real life actual things that prevent scientific advancement look no further than capitalism, misogyny, ableism, racism, violence, oppression. But I guess that doesn’t allow you to control people’s bodies and push your gross agenda.

This shit needs a million reblogs

Fuck

I dunno why I bother sometimes.

Let’s just take all this yummy satisfaction and eat it for dinner. Let’s build ourselves a little house out of satisfaction and make a fire out of the leftover satisfaction to warm ourselves. I sure do love wearing satisfaction, too. 

(via co-ba-in)