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Awkward Pigeons

@thespoot / thespoot.tumblr.com

Just things around the internet that I like :)
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radiation

Huge pet peeve in video games is when you can’t hold your breath underwater for very long or it takes a good while to regain your breath above water. Unrealistic. Like my condolences to the devs for your lack of breath support but that just could not be me…

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fortidogi

are you a frog or perhaps a turtle

i am a Saxophone player

same thing

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Book #71 - Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett

(first time read; usually fairy tale parodies/satires make me feel like someone is kicking down my inner child’s sand castles, but Discworld do be Discworld, so I don’t know why I was worried) Like………… objectively. Morally. From an ethical point of view… Greebo is horrible. But. But, and here me out on this. But. He’s also endearing. Somehow. In the stupidest possible way. I really am a cat person, huh. I find it hilarious how the witches try to break the flow of the story and then Mrs Gogol just struts in with a literal deus ex machina and it actually seems to be working until Granny looks at the situation and is like “no, this is dumb” and goes to solve the plot herself and it is…. It’s what needed to happen? In order to have a satisfying story, this book needed the confrontation between the sisters. Just solving the plot with a god wouldn’t have been satisfying. So this book about breaking stories still explicitly insists on ending its story the right way. Because it is still a story, and what it is saying is: Treat your story as a story, always. (Also, solve your local vampire problems by feeding them to a cat.) I have too many feelings about the confrontation in the mirror room, and a lot of them have to do with how I am getting unreasonably attached to an old woman who is mean to people, but one thing I enjoyed a lot is how they’re both asked the same question in the end and only Granny figures out the answer, and she does so without struggling at all, while Lilith is presumably trapped forever. The amazing thing is… All this is the second half. Solidly half this book is a travel log through rural Europe and every better known folktale thereof, and then the other half is fraught family relations and different angles on the same chosen identity and an absolute refusal of determinalism. And then it returns to travel and binds the two halfs together and I get shrimp emotions again. Also, last thing: Death running into the witches because he genuinly is just visiting this party, not there for a job or anything, and them always needing a second to realize it’s him is my new favourite thing.

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reblogged

This is Nicole. She is an amazing Canadian wood-splitting machine.

I have a huge pet peeve about people swinging axes and sledgehammers without using the kinetic chain. You have to use your entire body to get real power in your swing. And in so many movies you see actors just trying to chop things with only their arms. But Nicole has perfect form. And cute pajamas.

I'm not sure if she is technically a lumberjill. I think she just refers to herself as a wood splitter. Either way, she is badass.

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thefrogman

I am astonished to see that people are enjoying this post for other reasons than perfect axe-swinging form using the kinetic chain.

Ya'll thristy as heck.

@ziggystarlust I'm SO glad you asked!

I was definitely NOT waiting for someone to ask so I could nerd out about a super cool thing the human body is capable of.

The kinetic chain is what allows highly powerful athletic motion. It is a concept where every part of your body is linked like a chain and you can transfer energy from one chainlink to the next. That energy accumulates as it travels along your body and once it reaches the end of the chain, you can deliver explosive results.

Like gloriously splitting a giant log with one beautiful swing.

So, our lovely wood splitting hero is not just using her ample, perfectly toned arm muscles to deliver the axe blow. She is planting her feet, bending her knees, compressing her torso, twisting her shoulders, swinging her arms, flexing her wrists, and gripping the handle with her fingers.

All of that energy is transferred up the chain from her toes to her fingies. Combine that with holding the axe at the end of the handle for maximum leverage and you can make logs cleave in two like a hot knife through butter.

A major league pitcher is another great example. Randy Johnson was a very tall and lanky fellow at 6'10". He did not even have huge, powerful, super attractive muscles. Nor did he have cute pajamas. I'm not thirsty YOU are thirsty so shut up about it. But he did have a very loooong body and thus, a long kinetic chain. And by using his entire body to generate energy, he was able to pitch 100mph fastballs capable of disintegrating birds.

In conclusion... the kinetic chain is amazing!

Except for that bird maybe.

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reblogged

remember that time that spock said “this is about sex” but he couldn’t say sex so instead he said “biology” and kirk clearly knew what he meant but was awkwardly like “what kind of biology” and spock got this look on his face like ‘oh lordy i’m not dealing with this today’ and said “vulcan biology” and kirk can’t say the word sex either so he goes “u mean the biology of vulcans” and then they stood there in silence for ten seconds like a pair of fucking idiots

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star trek heritage post (September 14th, 2015)

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reblogged

Firefighter demonstrates how to put out a kitchen fire

Reblog to actually save a life

To explain. The latter works because you’re cutting off the supply of oxygen to the fire and suffocating it

as opposed to slapping oxygen inside the pan with the downward motion

Reblogging, because this is so important. When I was learning how to cook for myself in my tweens, I had at least a five years of fire safety seminars from school drilling this into my head, and I STILL had that instinctive put-the-fire-out-with-water reflex. Didn’t even think. I saw our oily burner catch fire after frying eggs, whipped around towards the sink for water, and my brain immediately screamed NO!!! NO WATER! I mean that fire safety stuff straight up bitchslapped me out of REFLEXIVELY setting my house on fire. I found a pot lid and inched it over the burner before turning off the heat. Even if you think you know this stuff, panic is powerful shit. Make knowledge more powerful.

“Even if you think you know this stuff, panic is powerful shit. Make knowledge more powerful.”

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dissonan-ce
The origins of the word anger were tied closely to physical suffering. Anger was first an 'affliction', as meant by the Old Icelandic angr, and then a 'painful, cruel, narrow' state, as meant by the Old England enge, which in turn came from the Latin angor, which meant 'strangling, anguish, distress'. Anger was a chokehold. Anger did not empower you. It sat on your chest; it squeezed your ribs until you felt trapped, suffocated, out of options. Anger simmered, then exploded. Anger was constriction, and the consequent rage a desperate attempt to breath.
And rage, of course, came from madness.

R. F. Kuang, Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution

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wingedshoes

the RF Kuang urge to write a queer character who doesn’t have time to realize they’re queer or do anything about it because they’re busy being unhinged 

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I love it when authors do this ❤️ This is one of my favorite tropes lol.

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Later, when everything went sideways and the world broke in half, Robin would think back to this day, to this hour at this table, and wonder why they had been so quick, so carelessly eager to trust one another. Why had they refused to see the myriad ways they could hurt each other? Why had they not paused to interrogate their differences in birth, in raising, that meant they were not and could never be on the same side?

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Hey, you know how you're really enjoying this heartfelt wholesome moment? This bit of golden summer and innocence? You know what would go great with it? Betrayal. Despair. Dread.

You're only a quarter of the way in, dear reader, and hoo boy am I about to torture these characters. *Chef's kiss*

(Really enjoying this book - but I swear every interaction Robin and Ramy have with someone new at Oxford I'm on edge like, are they going to be cool about us being different? Please be cool. Dammit, they weren't cool and now we're running.)

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