The Evening World, New York, November 16, 1888

@lordwhatnot

I demand an apology

my step dad just said that Gordon Brown was “like an unmade bed” compared to Tony Blair

Honestly I’m confounded as to why we don’t talk more about the fact that during the filming of A Knight’s Tale, Rufus Sewell rented a massive house where he hosted parties that frequently devolved into orgies.

I’M ABOUT TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER, BOOK NERDS

Do you like books!?

OF COURSE YOU DO

Do you like reading books?

DUUUUUH!

Do you collect books and let them sit on your shelf!?

WHAT IS THIS!? AMATEUR hOUR? OF FUCKING COURSE! 

Do you spend WAAAAAAY too much money on books even though they’re totally worth it but holy fucking shit fifteen dollars is the median and why is the world so effortlessly cruel?

Who’s got two thumbs and an empty wallet! Yes yes and yes!

WELL HAVE I GOT A SOLUTION FOR YOU

Thriftbooks is an amazing online site that sells used books! These books are, for the most part, in great condition. I’ve used this website for everything from textbooks to fiction to everything else in between! It has a wide selection with an even wider selection of options per book!

You want softcover? They’ve got it! Hardcover? Of course! Audio? Why not!

Hell! They even sell the books in other languages!

You might say to me, humanity, why are you telling us this? We already have barnes and noble!

Because, my poor, naive friend, thriftbooks sells the majority of it’s books for under four dollars.

That’s right. You heard me. Under. Four. Dollars.

And right now, they’re having a huge deal!

2 books for $7

3 books for $10

4 books for $12

But wait! There’s more!

If you leave a book in your cart for long enough, chances are you’ll be alerted when a seller nearby, for a cheaper price, has the same book! You’ll get it cheaper and faster, with less waste of paper and time!

And prices change! That book that would have cost you $3.79 one day might be $3.45 the next, and man oh man isn’t that the best thing to see when you check up on your cart.

So what are you waiting for, book lovers! Go! Go shop!

Go and rule the world!

Be the book lovers I know you can be!

DID I MENTION THAT THERE’S FREE SHIPPING OVER 10 DOLLARS

DID I MENTION THAT THERE’S ALSO A COUPON CODE YOU CAN USE FOR A LIMITED TIME

type in the word “welcome” when you get to checkout and you’ll get 15% off!

DID I ALSO MENTION THAT THERE ARE READING REWARDS

AND THAT EVER $50 YOU SPEND THEY GIVE YOU $5 BACK.

guys

five dollars

on this site

is a book

that is the cost of an entire book

you’re literally getting a free book

I NEED Y’ALL TO SEE THIS SIDE BY SIDE THOUGH

So to prove my very real point, I went to Barnes and Noble and picked out some of my favorites books that I already have on my shelves

(also, fyi, y’all should read these they’re bangin)

AND BECAUSE THE SHIPPING IS SO INSANE, IT WAS MEAN TO COME OUT TO $47.85 (and that’s at an online price, which discounts by a few dollars)

But with shipping, handling, and the extreme cost of books, my total came to this:

$72.30

Okay. Then I went onto thriftbooks and chose the same books in the same formats (hardcover, softcover, etc.)

Keep in mind that not all books are under $4 due to size, availability, how new they are to the world yada yadayada

But this was the final shopping cart.

Look.

Look at those lovely books.

My final check out price?

$21.86

AND THAT DOESN’T INCLUDE ANY OF THE AMAZING DISCOUNTS, DEALS, AND/OR PROMO CODES.

If you do the math, I saved $50.44.

And even if Barnes and Noble had given me that free shipping, I still would have saved $25.99. Do you know what that could buy you? That could buy you four more books on thriftbooks!

Thriftbooks fucking saved my broke college ass. And I’d encourage you all to use it if you can. Shipping may take 4-14 days, but I swear to god it’s worth every dollar that I would have burned. 

THIS IS IN NO WAY AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO STOP SHOPPING AT BOOKSTORES. PLEASE DON’T. LOCAL BOOKSTORES ARE IMPORTANT AND VITAL AND SHOULD BE SUPPORTED!

I’m mostly making jabs at the big name companies, and honestly, my broke bookworm ass needs a break.

NOW YOU MAY ASK ME

HOW

HOW CAN IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!?

It can’t. There’s no way!

WELL YES IT FUCKING CAN, BOOK NERDS!

Did you ever think to yourself; I love to read. But I sure wish there was a way to read my own books while I multi-task by helping the environment, the economy, and the seemingly never-ending and growing gap between low-income schools and libraries and their availability to reading material all at the same time…

Well, there is.

It’s called shopping at Thriftbooks

And what’s more:

Boom.

Right there.

This place is fucking amazing as hell and you should use it as often as you possibly can.

Save the environment. Keep your mind running. Shop Thriftbooks.

The Daily Mail (via lordwhatnot)

i love comforting nihilism. who cares, we’re all gonna die. eat that cake. buy that eyeshadow. be nice to people. you dont owe the world shit. the stars dont care about what we do. give anyway because why spend your eighty years on this rock miserable and making other people miserable. the sun is going to blow up and we’re all gonna die someday. make the most of what time you do have. use the fine china for taco night and microwave lunch. smell the flowers. tell a stranger they are beautiful. 

ppl keep trying to correct me saying this is existentialism but like my dudes it doesnt matter and language is made up

More Top Moments in Early American History

- James Madison “accidentally” buys prostitutes for foreign ambassadors

- Jefferson eating a tomato like an apple at a dinner and everyone rushing off to find a doctor because Americans thought tomatoes were poisonous

- Washington and Lafayette falling asleep under a tree after Monmouth

- Washington cursing out Charles Lee after his retreat

- James Armistead Lafayette, who was a badass spy during the revolution and gave Lafayette vital information which led to the victory at Yorktown. Lafayette freed him and James was so grateful he took Lafayette’s last name

- Lafayette being given an alligator as a gift and, not knowing what to do with it, regifting it to John Quincy Adams

- the Constitutional Convention going out and getting turnt two days before the signing of the Constitution, and some of the additional charges being a broken chair, cups, and chamber pots

- John Hancock being smol

- Alexander Hamilton’s argument against hanging John Andrè basically being “he’s too pretty”

- Aaron Burr sleeping through Valentine’s Day

- Lafayette naming his ONLY son after George Washington

- Ben Franklin and John Adams once having to share a room with one bed and falling asleep arguing whether or not they should sleep with the window open or closed

- Ben Franklin taking “air baths” which consisted of him sitting naked in a bathtub for hours a day

- Aaron Burr having a knife hidden in the handle of his umbrella, and then LOSING said umbrella

- John Adams’ kid Charles once ran naked across Harvard Yard

- Alexander Hamilton losing his check book and having to write the bank of New York for a new one, while also requesting his account balance which he didn’t know, which he wrote in the check book, which he lost

- Aaron Burr hitting his head on the same pipe twice jfc he’s such a mess

- Thomas Jefferson getting a terrible headache for two days after behaving awkwardly in front of a girl

- John Adams naming his dog Satan

- Alexander Hamilton’s letters to his totally hetero bro™ John Laurens being censored by his descendants

- George Washington running for the House of Burgesses and getting his constituents totally smashed so they would vote for him

Source

back the fuck up

There’s another story that I like about a Chinese general who had to defend a city with only a handful of soldiers from a huge enemy horde that was in all likelihood going to steamroll the place flat within hours of showing up.

So when said horde did arrive, they saw the general sitting outside the city’s open gates, drinking tea. The horde sent a couple of emissaries over to see what was what, and the general greeted them cheerfully and invited them all to come and take tea with him.

The horde decided that this was a scenario that had “MASSIVE FUCKING TRAP” written all over it in beautiful calligraphy and promptly fucked off.

Whoever that general was, he was clearly the Ancient Chinese equivalent of Sam Vimes.

did he just invite us over for tea nah man i’m out

This just keeps getting better

I fucking love history.

ok but tbh that story misses a lot of the subtlety of the situation like ok

so this story is the Romance of Three Kingdoms, and essentially takes place between Zhuge Liang, resident tactician extraordinaire, and Sima Yi… OTHER resident tactician extraordinaire.

The two were both regarded as tactical geniuses and recognized the other as their rival. Zhuge Liang had a reputation for ambushing the SHIT out of his opponents and using the environment to his advantage, thus destroying large armies with a small number of men. Sima Yi (who kind of entered the picture later) was a cautious person whose speciality was unravelling his opponent’s plans before they began. So it was natural that the two would butt heads; however, since Sima Yi tended to have more men and resources, he started winning battles against the former. Which, y’know, kinda sucked.

On to the actual story: Zhuge Liang is all like “shit i gotta defend this city with like 10 men.” Literally if he fights ANY kind of battle here, he WILL lose; his only option for survival is not to fight. And that’s looking more and more impossible until he hears that his rival is leading the opposing army. And then he gets this brilliant idea. He basically opens all the gates, sends his men out in civilian clothes to sweep the streets, and sits on top of the gate drinking tea and chilling out and basically makes the whole thing out to be a trap

When Sima Yi comes he’s all like “yo come on in bro”

and Sima Yi is like “yeah he’s never been that obvious about his traps before. this is definitely a bluff” and he’s about to head in when he realizes

wait. he knows that i think he’s bluffing.

and so he gets it in his head that maybe, just MAYBE, Zhuge Liang has this cunning plan that will wipe out his army - recall that he has a pretty good handle on what his rival is capable of. And after a long period of deliberation (which is just like “he know that I know that he knows that etc.”), being the cautious man he is, SIma Yi eventually decides to turn his entire army around and leave.

Zhuge Liang later points out that the plan was based specifically on the fact that he was facing his rival; if it had been anyone else, there’s no way it would have worked. A dumber or less cautious person would have simply charged in and won without breaking a sweat. 

and that’s the real genius here: it was a plan formed entirely just to deceive one man, and it worked.

Zhuge Liang is the most brilliant, sneaky-ass bastard in history. One time his side’s army was out of arrows, which pretty much meant they were screwed. So Zhuge Liang goes and does the logical thing, which is build a fuck ton of scarecrows and put them all on boats. Then he makes the men hide in the boats and sail them out on the river.

Well, that day was super foggy (which Zhuge Liang had predicted. Did I mention he was also a freakishly accurate meteorologist?). So the enemy across the river sees a fleet of boats armed to the teeth with what appears to be half an army of men. They panic! and start firing arrows like crazy. 

Zhuge Liang lets this play out for a while, then he’s like, ”Ok guys that’s enough.” They calmly turn the boats around and go back to base, where they dismantle the scarecrows and pull out all the enemy’s arrows.

Zhuge Liang is legend.

I love this post. It just keeps getting better. Like seriously, I would have adored learning about this in World History.

If you want to see this in cinematic glory, watch Red Cliff.

Especially since it makes Zhuge Liang look like this:

Red Cliff is 50% bloody battles and 50% eye candy and about half of that eye-candy is due to Zhuge Liang

I fully support watching Red Cliff; it’s gloriously silly entertainment during the battle scenes.

Guess what just got moved to the top of my watch list?? :D

Rachel Johnson, writer and sister of Boris, describes how Alastair Campbell failed to persuade her seventeen-year-old son Ludo that he’d prefer state school to Marlborough.

@ruslanax @alayne-stone-heart @coldlikedeath @boris-johnsons @blamelessbourgeoisdomesticity @mandelfather @newlabour-newbritain @confettihipster @intercityditties @aceycorbynite @awesomemeowley @thecoppercow @fluffy-angsty-dave @new-labourwave @tinypurpleteacup @c0rporates @vicarofsaintalbions @vermiculated @timrous-beastie @thatpoliticsnerd @chiaracheccaglini @red-wiggle

(via hallowgirl)

[Image description:

Text - (913): (sic) id tell you what to do, but my morals (sic) dont exactly scream, “Listen to this guy!”

Prince Ernest smiles at Prince Albert

End of image description]

Hey, fellow Rufus Sewell fans! Want a chance to win a DVD of something he’s been in? Want to spread the word about Rufus’s favorite charity? Wanna do BOTH? Then reblog this post! ♥

More details are under the cut, but essentially, 1 reblog = 1 entry, multiple reblogs do not count, and if you donate to Great Ormond Street Hospital and send in a pic of your receipt here, you get 1 more entry! Winner(s) will be picked using a random number generator and will get their choice of DVD under ~$30!

Great Ormond Street Hospital is one of the world’s leading children’s (and teens’) hospitals and a pioneer of medical research into children’s illnesses in the UK and Europe. That first picture up there is of Rufus at one of their fundraisers several years ago. Most recently, he helped in a sock monkey raffle. You can find out boatloads of more information about GOSH here. Suffice to say, even if you’re not in the UK or Europe, medical research tends to benefit people world-wide! And they are doing some really cool stuff, while making comfort and accessibility a high priority.

This giveaway/donation drive will end on April 21st, 2017, and winners will be announced the next day. I also hope to collect receipts from everyone who donates to calculate a total and report that back to Rufus himself! Extra info under the cut:

Keep reading

wtf this is super cute ღ

Vicbourne 1x03/1x05

I’d just like to point this out.

In 1x03, Brocket Hall, Victoria tells Melbourne he’s the only companion she could ever desire. He has to refuse her because he knows that they aren’t in a position to marry, though they are in love with each other. So he tells her that she must keep her heart intact for someone else and that he mates for life and everything.

But.

You can just see how much he is suffering because of what he has to say and of course he knows that Victoria will suffer too.

So he takes her hands between his and tries not to hurt her with his words because he knows how fragile she is with her feelings. He tries to protect her once again.

Just in case this wasn’t heartbreaking enough, we have 1x05, An Ordinary Woman.

Victoria’s just married Albert and she is happy now, but she can’t completely forget her Lord M, so she calls him. And he is in so much pain I can’t even describe.

Do you see? Do you see his eyes staring into nothingness? He’s trying not to think about what he’s losing and to be happy for her

She tells him:

And THEN 

SHE TAKES HIS HANDS and now the situation is the opposite than in 1x03: it is Victoria who knows that he will suffer because of her and she is trying not to hurt him because she now knows how fragile HE is. 

He may seem strong and self-confident, but deep down he is actually much more fragile than she is.

And she is trying to protect him this time as he has always done for her.