I dunno, cake?

“I thought the goddess of love would look…different.” The wrinkled old woman waved a dismissive hand, leaned closer, and smiled. “You are thinking of my daughter, the goddess of passion and romance. Dearie, I am the goddess of LOVE.”

Show some respect, people.

THANK YOU

The story of Balto is interesting. He led a team of sled dogs across the Alaskan wilderness in the dead of winter with diphtheria antitoxins to stop an outbreak in Nenana Alaska. Diphtheria is a deadly infectious disease that could wipe out a third of a town’s population. It is mostly unknown to the public today because of vaccines. Balto’s body is preserved in the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

He’s a big hero of mine!

Let’s not forget Togo! Who, at 12 years old during the serum run, lead his team 200 miles through much more dangerous conditions during the first leg of the journey before Balto ran the last 55-mile stretch.

Togo and Balto didn’t bust their asses for dying children for you to turn around and not vaccinate your damn kids

The actual story is fascinating.

The town of Nome, situated in Western Alaska, was a relative hub for even smaller communities in the region, but in winter was utterly cut off from… nearly everywhere. The harbour iced over in winter, there were no roads connecting it anywhere else, the nearest railroad line was nearly 700 miles (1000+ kilometres) away in Nenana. Air travel was still new at the time and planes couldn’t handle the inclement winter weather.

In 1924, the community had a single doctor and a few nurses who served approximately 10 000 people, including large Eskimo populations in the area (the town itself had a population of roughly 1000 people - bear in mind how few children lived in this community when you see the casualty counts). He had realized his diphtheria vaccine stock was expired and had ordered more from mainland USA months earlier. When it failed to arrive on the final ship of the season, he was a little concerned, but diphtheria was fairly rare, and he figured he’d just restock in the spring.

Of all the rotten luck, January 1925 was when a diphtheria outbreak hit the region.

There was a scramble, in the mainland USA as well as Alaska, to find a way to get the vaccine to this town in the middle of winter. There were attempts to fly a vaccine supply over, but the planes were grounded by storms. This was part of the United States in the 1920s. There was no way to get there.

Except by sled dogs, running the vaccine from that train station in Nenana, 674 miles away. Over 1000 kilometres away, in the dead of winter in Alaska, by 20 mushers (mostly native Athabaskans) and 150 sled dogs running in relay, switching off at tiny villages and rest stations along the way. It was bitterly cold. As in, -85°F (-60°C) at the coldest. There were blizzards, hurricane force winds, and at some points visibility was so poor the men couldn’t see their dogs in front of them.

No man or beast should have been out in that. You freeze in seconds if you’re not moving. Multiple dogs died from being run so hard in such cold weather. Mushers grappled with hypothermia and frostbite. One needed hot water poured over his frozen hands because he was frozen to his sled. Another’s face was black with frostbite. Some strapped themselves up and lead their packs when their lead dogs collapsed.

This relay team traveled 674 miles in 5.5 days. Togo and his owner, Leonhard Seppala, did by far the longest and most dangerous run, travelling over 260 miles (about 420 kilometres) including the initial travel to his pickup spot. Gunnar Kaasen and his lead dog, Balto, did the final 53 miles (85 kilometres) into Nome, where they were greeted as heroes.

Prior to the vaccine arriving in Nome, 5-7 children officially died of diphtheria, with dozens of confirmed cases who may well have died without treatment - but it’s suspected the surrounding Indigenous communities were much harder hit, with numbers impossible to confirm.

When you think that this happened less than 100 years ago, how desperate this community was for a vaccine, how much these mushers risked and lost to get it to this town as fast as they possibly could…

I wonder what they’d think of people today.

sorry but this is by far the biggest lie anyone has ever told on this show

the whole narrative of the show broke because castiel could never do what he was told

I was high off my ass last night and had this dream where I was in this dense ass forest and sitting there was a tall woman. She was so tall I couldn’t see her face but she was wearing gold and I was like “uh…hi?” And she said “I made you, do you know that?” And I nodded and she was like “I hear your thoughts. Why do you hate my creation? Why do you try to destroy yourself? I made you perfect as you are. Please don’t break my heart”. Then she started crying and it flooded and I woke up with fucking heart palpitations like what does it Mean™️????

polar opposite of this post

inspiration struck and would not let me go until i drew this

edit: you can now get this comic as a print!

Today on clownery from my fraternity: I started “pavlov training” this guy from my frat as a joke but now it’s actually working

Context: This guy from my frat (I’m in a coed academic frat) is really into geography, and he’s been trying to learn all the state capitals of Brazil. I happen to be Brazilian, so I’ve been helping him learn them along with pronunciations. One day I was eating a pack of m&ms and decided to quiz him. If he got the question right he got an m&m, and if he got it wrong I’d eat it. Thus a tradition between us was born. If I’m eating a snack I’ll quiz him a bit and give him a tiny treat if he’s right.

Anyways, today I was in our frat lounge eating some m&ms by myself, kinda minding my own business. I eventually got really bored and wondered what would happen if I gave everyone in a lounge an m&m except for him, so I did that. He noticed and then started dropping every Brazilian state capital he could think of, getting increasingly desperate until he just started naming random Brazilian cities. A few of them he repeated multiple times to get the perfect pronunciation. It was like watching a dog do every trick it knows in rapid succession, just hoping something would get a treat. I eventually gave him a few m&ms and started wondering what the hell I’ve done

OK, fine, the Brits can take this one W for once.

rare occurence: tfw a christian seems to have read the same book I did

Funniest bit: OP, who is deactivated, made this post expecting people to side with the corporations

Percy (office cat) is working overtime tonight

He is a baker at the office cafe.

He is GOOD and ROUND <3

F R I E N D S H A P E D

According to my uncle, I “should be outside balancing rocks in a stream somewhere.”

what kind of forgotten god are you

i wonder how much healing that one xkcd comic did to the internet with saying “you’re one of today’s lucky 10,000″ when encountering a person who hasn’t been exposed to a popular or well known thing

you’re so right

From @meredithbullofficial: "I always hoped if I had a baby they would love my cats as much as I do…. I think it’s safe Calvin definitely does. ♡

The Eiffel tower is going to be deconstructed.

Au revoir et bon débarras, espèce de connard triangulaire.