I am once again thinking about digging holes

It's so fucked up that digging a bunch of holes works so well at reversing desertification

I hate that so much discourse into fighting climate change is talking about bioenginerring a special kind of seaweed that removes microplastics or whatever other venture-capital-viable startup idea when we have known for forever about shit like digging crescent shaped holes to catch rainwater and turning barren land hospitable

Suddenly struck with a need to explain to you how boat pronouns work (I work in the marine industry).

When you're talking about the design of the boat, you say "it".

When the boat is still being built, your say "it".

When the boat is nearing completion, you can say "it" or "she".

When the boat is floating in the water you probably say "she", unless there is still a lot of work to be done (e.g. no engine yet) then you say "it".

When the boat is officially launched and operating, you say "she". If you continue to say "it" at this point you are not incorrect but suspiciously untraditional. You are not playing the game.

If you are referring to a boat you don't really know anything about you may say "it" ("there's a big boat, it's coming this way"). But if you know its name, it's probably "she" ("there's the Waverley, she's on her way to Greenock").

If you are talking about boats in general, you say "it" ("when a boat is hit by a wave it heels over")

If you speak about a boat in complimentary terms, it's "she" ("she's a grand boat"). If you are being disparaging it may be it, but not necessarily ("it's as ugly as sin", "she's a grotty old tub").

If she has a boy's name, she's still she. "Boy James", "King Edward", "Sir David Attenborough"? The pronoun is she.

If it's a dumb barge (no engine), you say it. But if it's a rowing boat (no engine), you say she.

I hope this has cleared things up so that you may not be in danger of misgendering floating objects.

a sword of sunlight. it thrusts through the window at an angle, and leaves a golden stain on the floor. when you first encounter it, at age twelve coming home from a half-day at school, it does not harm you; but fifteen years on, when a certain quality of the light recalls that moment as vividly as if you were living it again, oh, then—then it cuts deeply.

This Black History Month, reflect for a moment on the fact that George Washington Carver, famously "the inventor of peanut butter and more than 100 industrial uses for peanuts" wasn't, like, Doc Brown fucking around in his garage because he really liked peanuts but was specifically trying to introduce larger use of a nitrogen fixing legume into crop rotations against cotton monoculture which was destroying yields, livelihoods and the biosphere, and how most agribusiness farming now just destroys that topsoil on purpose and continues to grow a cotton monoculture (or soy or corn or whichever local monoculture is profitable) using petrochemical derived fertilizer, which is one element driving climate change

Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful heart surgery. He also founded the first nonsegregated hospital in America because he was keenly aware of disparate health outcomes by race which is still a problem today.

WEB Dubois was a part of the delegations for the birth of the UN. His proposal to include in the charter that "the colonial system of government … is undemocratic, socially dangerous and a main cause of wars" was not adapted for the final draft. We might see inaction against colonial violence to this day as part of the failure of others to heed his warnings there.

I feel like so often when we look at Black History Month so much of it is driven by factoids but when taken as history in context its about a direct line from decades and centuries to what is happening right now.

Friendly reminder that LGBTQ+, Queer, and LGBT+ are the preferred terms for the community (x).

Friendly reminder that Queer is approved by 72.9% of the people, and the groups who don’t prefer it’s use as an umbrella term are straight people, exclusionists, transmeds, truscums, sex-negative people, and sex work critical people (x).

Friendly reminder that aros and aces are excluded only 9.2% / 8.1% of the time respectively while being included  78.9% / 81.2% of the time (x)

Friendly reminder that exclusionists are in the minority and aro/ace people are included in the LGBTQ+ community by the people within the community.

Also, i checked out the survey the second claim sources a while back: this is not OP choosing the words truscum, exclusionist, etc. These are labels that the survey gave people the option to self-identify as. It’s self-proclaimed exclusionists who dont like the word queer, not random accusations

yeah that’s super important. 

This one gets reblogged on main. The reclassification of ‘queer’ as an inexcusable slur is a recent development which stems in part from exclusionist rhetoric. We reclaimed it decades ago. Learn our history. You are not immune to TERF propaganda, but you can absolutely choose to educate yourself to spite it.

Be kind. 💜

“friend of Dorothy” was used to say you were gay discreetly for fucking years. Where did it come from?

“You have some queer friends, Dorothy”, and she replies, “The queerness doesn’t matter, so long as they’re friends.”

Like, it was popular enough for it to be a thing in ww2.

ding ding ding!

When you’ve been cooking for long enough, you stop making recipes and start making “shit in a skillet” and “whatever soup”

You won't reach a point where you don't need references anymore 😭

Even artists who freedraw regularly still do studies, refer to their past work, keep character sheets at hand, etc

Please don't impose that expectation on yourself just because of a live demo, tiktok, or timelapses especially

I'm gonna link to the animations in case y'all either don't remember or have never heard of some of these.

A quick note: these were made in the 2000s. Comedy is subjective, there's some strong examples of dark and/or "lolz teh random" humor in these. Maybe some cultural blindness, too. That said, enjoy a time capsule of stuff made before/during the birth of Youtube, now hosted on Youtube.

Kenya

Salad Fingers, episode 2

End of Ze World

Schfifty Five

The Hamster Dance

Badgers

"Rejected" by Don Hertzfeldt

Charlie the Unicorn

The Llama Song

Peanut Butter Jelly Time

[ID: Stills from a news coverage by Al Jazeera. It shows the inside of a busy hospital, with closeups of patients and staff, young and old, and shots of people climbing up run-down stairs. Subtitles read, "The hardest part? I swear, it's the children. I can't handle them crying. One time I passed by a baby crying so desperately. I checked on her. Her name was 'Unknown 99'." End ID]

It is funny how House of Saud of Saudi Arabia Kingdom got its power literally from the British who withdrew their support from the Hashemites who then retreated from Mecca and now rule Jordan today.

It's literally a 91 years old kingdom.

Tun M is older than Saudi Arabia. Many people are older than Saudi Arabia.

Wish there's a writer ballsy enough to make a TV show about this coz like the events starting from Lawrence of Arabia up to the establishment of KSA is soo interesting and dramatic

Okay, I actually just couldn't get over the fact that the first thing Ibn Saud did when they got Mecca was to destroy graves of the Prophet's family members all because Wahabist ideology forbid the building of structures on top of graves

So today, we couldn't tell where precisely the location of certain honored figures are buried. The information is lost to time (I'm sure there are Meccan elders who know where is where but like the information won't be pry to Muslim public anymore)

I don't think people understand the impact of this on Muslim communities around the world

We gotta establish Al-Andalus again, brah. We don't need Spain.....

one of the most infuriating things about becoming an adult is when you realize that it actually is 10x easier to solve problems by making a phone call vs literally any other communication method

I’m a teacher assistant for spanish grammar and the professor was explaining epícenos (single gendered words that encompass masculine and feminine beings) and he was using iguana as an example and he said: “there is only one gender… iguana” and i had to mute my microphone

“there is only one gender… iguana”

Attached image is a cartoon iguana surfing with a speech bubble

What happens when you defend a drag show from the armed transphobes who threatened to murder attendees? In Texas, first you get arrested on bullshit charges, then a "Christian fascist fraternity" sues you for violating their "right" to attack drag queens and their fans. When two people facing this situation contacted the International Anti-Facist Defence Fund, we stepped in to help them with their legal costs, because we have the backs of anyone willing to protect people from transphobic violence. You should too, here's how: Chris' crowdfunder Aeshna's crowdfunder If you also think that having a standing fund to come to the aid of anti-fascists in emergency situations like this = a good idea, you should contribute to that fund right here!