I promise you your outlook on life will be so much better if you occassionally take the time to be as impressed by things as you would if you'd never seen them before in your life.

The indoor flushing toilet is a truly remarkable invention, do you ever think about that? Do you ever think about what a clever contraption it really is, and how much it revolutionised the history of the home?

And the electric toaster! Next time you use one, think about what a brilliant, clever little piece of engineering it is!

When you pour perfectly clear water over just a few spoons of hot chocolate powder, and it turns into a rich dark liquid that you can't even see through! Might as well be magic!

Pianos! Saxophones! All kinds of musical instruments! People thrpughout history put so much time and effort and trial and error JUST into inventing contraptions for the soul purpose of making a really nice noise, because it makes people feel good!

The world is incredible. Humans are incredible. Take the time to remember that.

One of my favorite presentations I ever did was about how impressive the can is as an engineering concept. A simple lever pressing down on a surface to crack it along preplanned paths, combined with an aluminum cylinder maximizing sanitation, comfortable shape, function, affordability and packing. Utterly amazing that we've made so many.

Yes!!! This is what it's all about!!!!

One of my favorite youtube channels does this with all sorts of things, from “the color brown” to “coffee makers” but i think my favorite is “pinball machines” and Pinball Machines: PART TWO!

Hey everyone, my ko-fi shop is back up for orders!!!

It took longer than expected due to feeling physically drained from Vancoufur and also having to wrangle life stuff like uni and job training, but it's finally open again for orders!!!

Some of the most important updates are:

That's it!! Misiyh/thank you for your patience!!

Source details and larger version.

The eagle-eyed might appreciate my collection of vintage eagles.

Oh man what a lovely day to be a bald Greek playwright enjoying the great outdoors! Surely nothing bad can happen!

via @p0tato-kn1shes

— Ruth Hubbard, “The Political Nature of ‘Human Nature’“ (via gothhabiba)

Yes.

Here, have a study (x) showing that mothers underestimate their daughter’s physical capacity from as young as 11 months old (though in reality it’s identical to that of their son’s at the same age). And if you think that parents acting on those expectations won’t alter their children’s development, then I have a sloped bridge to sell you.

#people always massively underestimate just how good even very young children are at reading social expectations#long before any kind of intellectual understanding has the chance to develop#and so a lot of “oh but you were so normal as a child”-nonsense is like#yeah i was “normal” because i could tell what you expected of me even if i didn’t know why#even small children learn what’s “taboo” for them really fucking early on#but people keep pretending like it’s all nature#but it’s not#there’s so many things i wanted to do as child i never did because i knew on some basal level *weren’t allowed for me*#i never even asked#i knew it wasn’t allowed#something something “playing seal” for those who get the reference#expectations have real physical effects#bias has its own gravity#and most people have a choice between orbiting or crashing#because it’s very hard to leave it altogether

screw it im not leaving this as tags after all

Witch: Ah, so you've come to me.

Maiden: Yes. I need your help.

Witch: Unwanted baby?

Maiden: No?

Witch: Want someone dead?

Maiden: What? Of course not.

Witch: That's all I know how to do. What do you need?

Maiden: I'm starting to see why you were shunned from the village.

Witch: Yes, I've killed a lot of people. What do you need?

Maiden: There's a pox in the village.

Witch: It wasn't me this time.

Maiden: I know. Can you fix it or not?

Witch: No. I'm not licensed for that.

Maiden: What do you mean you're not licensed for that?

Witch: I got kicked out of the herbalist's coven.

Maiden: For killing people?

Witch: For killing people.

Maiden: Great, now what do I do? There isn't another witch for at least three towns over.

Witch: And he's an enchanter blacksmith type. Makes protective amulets and beefs up swords. Makes really good horseshoes. Can't fix poxes. Makes a mean rabbit stew though. And...

Maiden: And is very good at sex and hard to kill, yes everyone knows that. You tell us repeatedly. Even though we kicked you out.

Witch: It's important. How are you not dead yet, by the way? You're an adult and you haven't bought anything yet so you should be dead by now.

Maiden: I'm not into people that way. Your weird sex based spells don't work on me. That's why I'm the one that came.

Witch: I would branch out but I'm barred from taking more classes at the guild. Because of the murder.

Maiden: Right, well I'm gonna go before you poison me.

Witch: What about the pox?

Maiden: I do have a mild form of it so you've been exposed too. Someone of your age is much more likely to die from it.

Witch: What?

Maiden: I'd suggest you find an accredited friend that hasn't been convicted of unnecessary murder.

Maiden: I have come a long way to find you.

Enchanter: One second. (throws a sword over his shoulder where it crashes into several metal tools and starts glowing)

Enchanter: Okay, what do you need?

Maiden: There's a pox in my town.

Enchanter: (pulls an amulet out of his pocket and holds it over her head)

Enchanter: You don't seem to have it, but it's touched you.

Maiden: I got better. Can you help?

Enchanter: I enchant swords. Why are you visiting me?

Maiden: Because the only witch in our town is...

Enchanter: Wait, don't tell me. Are you from Ravenfalls?

Maiden: Yeah.

Enchanter: Tabatha. Of course. That quack.

Maiden: She only kills people and does abortions.

Enchanter: Oh no she doesn't do abortions. She just drowns babies. I don't even think she knows what a fetus is.

Maiden: Oh.

Enchanter: Yeah. Terrible cook too. Normally herbalists are pretty good at cooking but she's just...

Maiden: The worst. I know. Do you at least know who can help? All of our elders and babies are dropping off like flies. People are strapping chickens to their arms. It's a mess.

Enchanter: (clicks tongue a few times) The nearest guy that specializes in pox is in the mountains. Not the coast range but the big angry looking pointy ones to the east. What were those called again?

Maiden: The Death Mountains?

Enchanter: Yeah, those. Unfortunate name, really. They're almost tolerable in the spring and summer. Don't know why they live there though.

Maiden: Can you teleport me there?

Enchanter: Why do people always ask that? Look I don't know what you've been hearing from Tabatha or traveling merchants but that's not safe for living creatures.

Maiden: Then what do I do? By the time I get back half the population will either be dead or still have birds strapped to their arms.

Enchanter: I hate to suggest this but you could like... with a shapeshifting dragon? And then ask for a wish?

Maiden: I'm not into people or dragons that way.

Enchanter: Then I guess I'll see if I can do something for your horse's shoes but that won't be nearly as fast.

Maiden: I have...

Herbalist: Come a very long way to see me. I know.

Maiden: How did you...

Herbalist: Everyone says that. Come sit. Do you like tea?

Maiden: I don't have time for tea. My village has a pox.

Herbalist: Which pox?

Maiden: It's mostly affecting older people and it's... purple.

Herbalist: Oh. What shade of purple?

Maiden: Very bright.

Herbalist: Oh, that's not a pox. That's a curse. Or a curse mixed with a usually just annoying pox. Someone in your area has probably pissed someone off.

Maiden: I'm from Ravenfalls.

Herbalist: In that case I think we can both guess who brought forth someone's ire. Who created it though, still remains a mystery. In any case, you can buy this bag of weeds and instruct people to boil them in small batches and inhale the steam. It won't cure anything, but it will most likely help people breathe better, which may help them survive long enough to fight it off.

Maiden: What do I do about Tabatha and the people strapping chickens to their arms?

Herbalist: My dear, some things can't be fixed completely. Plant this all over your town though and Tabatha will most likely avoid you. You can have these for free.

Maiden: I'm not going to bring some magic plant into town unless I know what it is.

Herbalist: Oh, it's not very magic. It's a cedar tree I've enchanted to grow very quickly. She's deathly allergic to cedar wood and pollen.

Maiden: Oh.

Herbalist: I really can't do anything for the chickens though. People will do strange things when they're desperate.

Maiden: Will I ever know who cursed us?

Herbalist: You may or may not. Wile you're here though, would you care to buy a love potion?

Maiden: I'm not into people that way.

Herbalist: You wouldn't fit in at the witches guild then. That's why most of us go in. It's a very good profession for swingers.

Maiden: That's why I went into city government. Well, thank you for all that.

Herbalist: And thank you for visiting. Tell the enchanter that I said hi and tell Tabatha to take a hike for me.

Maiden: I will. You have my word on that.

Enchanter: Hello.

Maiden: Enchanter? What are you doing here?

Enchanter: My name is John.

Maiden: It feels weird to call you that. You're the magic blacksmith I met on my quest.

Enchanter: I understand. So do you know who I'd talk to about renting a lot here?

Maiden: For what purpose? Oh, right. Me. Talk to me about it. I manage Lord Raven's lots and do logging and hunting permits and collect rent and whatnot

Enchanter: I want to set up my shop here. Business is better here for weapons and ever since she moved out, well...

Maiden: Was she after you?

Enchanter: She was under the impression that we were still married.

Maiden: Yes, she definitely was. Well, I think I can set you up. The village will benefit from having a reputable witch nearby. I'll get you in contact with a carpenter and scout out a spot for you.

Enchanter: Wait, I have something for you.

Maiden: An amulet?

Enchanter: For keeping away unwanted romantic advances.

Maiden: (covers her mouth and starts crying just a little bit)

Maiden: Sir, I can't...

Enchanter: You drove away a person that made my life a living hell for years. You saved your town. You drove out a murderer. You went into the Death Mountains in the middle of the winter. Take it.

Maiden: (takes it) John, did I ever tell you when we met that I desperately wanted to become friends with you?

Enchanter: No, but once I'm moved in I think we can give it a try.

Maiden: I'll get the paperwork and meet you at the tavern. Dinner's on me.

I'm so happy whenever people know exactly where I was going with something.

I forgot Cassie Animorphs and I am so so sorry

You’re a time traveller in seventeenth century England, and today you decide to swing by the local playhouse. The play they’re showing today isn’t Shakespeare, but that’s still cool, you might be watching some play that was lost to history.

And it’s good, it’s something about two alchemists and their quest to find the philosopher’s stone. But as the play goes on, you get this little. Thing in your brain that you don’t think about until the intermission.

And it’s while you’re at Ye Olde concession stand that you realize that the play you’ve been watching has been, beat for beat, the plot of Fullmetal Alchemist.

And you’re standing in the theatre with your mouth full of Ye Olde Poppéd Grains, because. What the fuck what does that mean. Is it a coincidence? Did Hiromu Arakawa base her manga off this forgotten seventeenth century English play? Is the playwright another time traveller preemptively ripping off Fullmetal Alchemist a full four centuries before it’ll ever be written? How the fuck do you respond to this

You look around the crowd processing this and see Hiromu Arakawa's little cow persona standing there in seventeenth century English garb as well. No one else is thrown off or so much as glances at the bespectacled bipedal cow in their midst. She makes direct eye contact with you and holds a single hoofed toe to her lips, before slowly turning back to the play and resuming frantically scribbling down notes.

The notes are for the actors. She's the director.

I think a very important unwritten piece of locked tomb canon is that corona and ianthe are absolutely both writing home regularly to mummy throughout the entire series - not with any helpful plot points or anything, they just want pocket money. Their mother, hatefully running a planet that she also hates, has the knack of silently wiring pocket money in an incredibly nasty and hurtful way - despite not accompanying it with a note or anything - just a sort of careful psychic warfare involving timing, amounts of money, the transfer service, etc.

(Although at at one point she asks if one of them has Babs, or if he’s dead or what. Corona ghosts her and ianthe texts back “who”)

Anyway, breaking off your meeting with god or the rebels or whatever because mummy has just sent you $465.73 in THEE bitchiest possible way

the idea that one moment Mummy and Daddy Of Ida receive official condolences from the Emperor Undying, the Kindly Prince of Death, the Necrolord Prime that both their daughters and their cavalier have tragically died during their glorious pursuit of Lyctorhood, look here are their coffins isn't this sad :( and then like an hour later a note flutters in from Coronabeth all "mummy dearest please forward my pocket money to this address, xoxo your favourite child" is, as the kids say, sending me

Boy I sure am excited for my good friend Jonathan to begin his trip! What a fantastic business opportunity for him :) I'm sure nothing terrible will happen. Also I'm sure his lovely fiancée Mina will miss him terribly, but she will be having a lovely time with her good friend Lucy, and nothing untoward or scary will happen to them either :))))

Mercymorn the First’s corporate email game must be savage

Experimental bookbinding!

A couple of years ago there was a conversation in the Renegade discord about books styled after corsetry, and I thought it would be cool to model the actual construction after corsetry, not just the aesthetics. So,

In this notebook, each section of folded pages is sewn individually. The sewing creates channels to thread the lacing through.

It took a couple of lacing attempts to get it to work. On an actual corset, the lacing would alternate being threaded out to in vs in to out, so that the corset would be able to lace completely closed. When I laced the book like this, the pages didn't stay in place--I needed the lacing to pull the pages towards the outside edge of the board at every pass through.

The pages are made of onesided graph paper, so they're blank on one side and gridded on the other. I plan to use this as a bookbinding planning journal. Technically, one could unlace the pages and replace them with a blank set when it's full.

The flat-felled seams and boning channels on the cover are purely decorative.

Lil Nas X did a cover of Jolene and Dolly Parton responded to it on twitter

Image descriptions under the cut

From Dolly’s insta:

I feel like it gets a bit lost, with how readily we meme his songs online, but Lil Nas X really does have a beautiful country singing voice. He might have the best voice for soulful, impassioned, male country vocals since Johnny Cash, and this cover really shows that off.

It's so cute how the novel fandom has all the "How can LXC recognize NMJ's abs?" jokes and the drama fandom has all the "How does LXC know JGY's body has no curse marks?" jokes

@inappropriatewenning That's exactly how everyone treats it in-universe

[image transcript: #zewu-jun is a very knowledgeable young man /End transcript.]

Death

The Nine of Cups

Justice

The Nine of Swords

The King of Swords

The Hanged Man

The Hermit

The Six of Swords

The Eight of Cups

The Five of Cups

The Sun

The Three of Swords

‘The Ghetto Tarot’: Haitian artists transform classic tarot deck into stunning real life scenes:

Welcome to the Ghetto Tarot, a project from award-winning documentary photographer Alice Smeets and a group of Haitian artists known as Atis Rezistans. The idea was to take the classic Rider-Waite tarot deck of 78 cards and create a photographic version of each card using settings and objects in the vibrant ghetto of Haiti.

As Smeets says, “The spirit of the Ghetto Tarot project is the inspiration to turn negative into positive while playing. The group of artists ‘Atiz Rezistans’ use trash to create art with their own visions that are a reflection of the beauty they see hidden within the waste. They are claiming the word ‘Ghetto,’ thus freeing themselves of its depreciating undertone and turning it into something beautiful.”

It’s available for purchase on creator’s Etsy store