traveleorzea:

blackvelvetofnight:

just learned about the ginkgo trees that survived the nuclear blast in Hiroshima

an excerpt of an article that reads: 'Those trees, now dubbed “A-bombed trees,” or hibakujumoku, are still in Hiroshima today, monuments to both humanity’s capacity for destruction and nature’s ability to withstand us at our worst. But while these roughly 170 ginkgo trees are now famous for surviving the Hiroshima blast, ginkgos as a species have persisted through a 200-million-year history of close calls that laid the foundation for its ability to withstand the A-bomb attack, explains Sir Peter Crane, Ph.D., director of Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.'ALT
'In 1923, a catastrophic earthquake struck just south of Tokyo with a magnitude of 7.9, setting the city ablaze. Only about 10,000 of the ginkgos that had made their way to Japan 500 years earlier were left standing in the city. But within months, people started to notice something odd. While all the other trees died, the ginkgos had slowly begun to grow again. The bark and outer rings of the trees were scorched, but the living cells within had clung to life.'ALT
"The Japanese noted that the ginkgos survived disproportionately from other trees,” Crane says. “The living tissues of the trees were not completely damaged by the fire; the same way they weren’t damaged by the Hiroshima bomb. After the great Kanto fire when they started to replant, they focused on the gingko because they knew it was particularly resistant to fire.” A replanting effort began, wholly focused on the strange persistence of the ginkgo. Roughly 16,000 new gingko trees were planted across the country by the Japanese government, and a handful of them made their way to Hiroshima, where their will to live was tested once again just over 20 years later.'ALT
'The ginkgo trees that are currently marked at Hiroshima all stand within 2,200 meters of the center of the blast. They would have been exposed to massive amounts of radiation — even strange black rain, dark with ash and other particulates that fell in the days following the explosion. But even after being exposed to what were perhaps the most stressful soil conditions in the history of the planet, the trees survived. In the spring, the ginkgos bloomed again and continued to do so every spring after that. Today, each tree has a name and is marked by a plaque. They’re now natural memorials, reminders that evolution has equipped life to survive even the greatest catastrophes wrought by humans.'ALT

you cannot kill me in a way that matters

At Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park, you’ll also find a Parasol tree that not only survived the bombing, but has since begun to produce more trees :)

image
image
image

But my favourite exhibit has to be from the nearby Honkawa Elementary school museum, commemorating the Canna plant that became a symbol of hope for many when it was discovered sprouting up in the wreckage only two weeks after the blast…after the Americans claimed nothing would grow in Hiroshima for seventy-five years:

image

(via thecatdrinksearlgrey)

Source: inverse.com

bigsnorp:

whetstonefires:

theradioghost:

dead metaphors are really interesting honestly and specifically i’m interested in when they become malapropisms

like, the concept being, people are familiar with the phrase and what people use it to mean metaphorically, but it’s not common knowledge anymore what the metaphor was in literal reference to. people still say “toe the line” but don’t necessarily conjure up the image of people standing at the starting line of a race, forbidden from crossing over it. people still say “the cat is out of the bag” without necessarily knowing it’s a sailors’ expression referring to a whip being brought out for punishment. some metaphors are so dead we don’t even know where they come from; like, there are ideas about what “by hook or by crook” references, but no one is entirely sure. nobody knows what the whole nine yards are.

and then you throw in a malaprop or a mondegreen or two, where because people don’t know what the actual words of the expression refer to, they’re liable to replace them with similar sounding words (see “lack toast and tolerant”). so we can literally go from a phrase referencing a common, everyday part of life to a set of unfixed, contextless sounds with a completely different meaning. that’s fascinating. what an interesting piece of the way language and culture are living, changing, coevolving things.

maybe part of the reason we can’t figure out where some phrases come from is that over time the words themselves have changed! one of the theories about “the whole nine yards” is that it’s a variant of “the whole ball of wax,” which some people further theorize was originally “the whole bailiwick,” meaning just “the whole area”! the addition of “nine yards” might be related to “dressed to the nines,” which might reference the fucking Greek muses! language is so weird and cool! (and I only know any idioms in two languages!)

the point is. I just came across the words “nip it in the butt” in a piece of published, professional fiction, and now I can’t stop giggling.

someone put ‘within a hare’s breath’ in an AO3 tag and it stopped me cold. because you’re leaving the general sense of the idiom and its physical phonemes almost intact, and yet replacing the actual words and metaphor with something completely unrelated.

a hare’s breath is small in a completely different way than a hair’s breadth and works very differently as a unit of distance.

and yet the general idea of ‘small, close, tiny gap, no barrier, a near thing, almost’ remains intact, and if you didn’t know what had happened there you would never figure it out.

That specific example from @whetstonefires about ‘within a hare’s breath’ is an example of an Eggcorn

Heres a video that explains it by RobWords

But basically, an eggcorn is what happens when someone mishears a phrase or an idiom, understands the general meaning of it, and comes up with a new word to put in its place.

It’s a really interesting linguistic phenomena, because it’s basically just a really creative linguistic solution to the problem of not fuckin knowing what that person just said. You’re coming up with a word that fits both the phonology and the semantics, and it often comes out either really poetic and lovely or just fuckin silly as hell.

The word eggcorn is an example of the phenomena itself - the actual word is Acorn. But if you’ve never heard the word acorn, and you see one, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s named after being shaped like an egg.

Where this gets really interesting for me, is how much this requires the input from accents. Eggcorn to my ear sounds stilted and weird, because in my accent the vowels are wrong and the emphasis on the consonants doesn’t flow the same. But in most US American accents, these vowels are similar and sometimes the exact same, making an eggcorn a possible solution. I have a pet theory that this is a missing link in a lot of etymology research, just how much accents can change your perception of language, but I don’t know enough about etymology to confirm or deny lmao

aqueerkettleofish:

aqueerkettleofish:

macleod:

oneheadtoanother:

"Where do I stand on the -- on the WHAT? The "Transgender Question"? Well for one thing, sir, I recall the last few usages of that particular phraseology. A group of millions is not a question -- I have not yet finished speaking -- not a question, but a demographic." pic.twitter.com/Ux83tzvNEA — Gretchen Felker-Martin (@scumbelievable) June 6, 2022

ALT

View on Twitter

“Where do I stand on the – on the WHAT? The “Transgender Question”? Well for one thing, sir, I recall the last few usages of that particular phraseology. A group of millions is not a question – I have not yet finished speaking – not a question, but a demographic.“

“The Romans had their castrated priestesses, the Hindus their Hijras, but my god, let us take to the barricades because Uncle Al came to Thanksgiving in a skirt and pantyhose! It’s the province of rubes. Hayseed reactionaries and the worst effluvia of America’s suburban colon.”

“And Chapelle! My god, Chapelle. Embarrassing as only a true great can become in his declining years – I speak here with complete self-awareness; kindly hold your barbs – as he tires of innovation and falls back into the soporific cushion of the lowest common denominator!”

“One joke stretched until you can hear its joints popping like some poor bastard broken on the rack. “Oh my car has pronouns, I identify as a bird, I’m trans-Chinese.” The laziness of it – shameful. You should see the transgendered roast themselves; there’s true scorched earth.“

Brilliant.

"I had not intended to mention Gervais -- one forgets the presence of rodents about one's feet so easily -- but the man insists on rearing up onto his haunches to squeak for the camera. A gerbil which has somehow mastered the projection of smugness. Repellent." pic.twitter.com/ZQ4K5Q2ndL — Gretchen Felker-Martin (@scumbelievable) June 7, 2022

THERE’S AUDIO.

(via awful-earworm)

luimnigh:

deanwinchestergender:

deanwinchestergender:

wanna see something that drives me up the walls insane

image

the creation…………..of adam………………………..

[id: A trans man lifting his shirt above his head, displaying his chest. His chest is tattooed with the hands of God and Adam from the Michaelangelo painting “The Creation of Adam”, which reach out to each other but don’t quite touch. The tattoo covers the faint scar from the man’s top surgery. end id.]

(via rainbowbarnacle)

themythicalcodfish:

grumpyfaceurn:

alsojetwolf:

cipheramnesia:

therobotmonster:

poppy-pipopapo:

wings-liker:

do-you-have-a-flag:

wumblr:

The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise ship
The long read: Last year, three cryptocurrency enthusiasts bought a cruise ship. They named it the Satoshi, and dreamed of starting a floati
the Guardian

babe wake up a new disaster in applied libertarianism just dropped

it is already KNOWN that cryptobros are goons and always up to clownery but this is truly the FUNNIEST example i’ve seen in a long time

please take the time to at least skim the story
3 guys buying a yacht,
planning to make it into a floating town where you can only spend cryptocurrency while in the freedom of the ocean,
immediately discover that maritime laws exist,
end up blowing all their money to be three guys and a crew of 40 on an empty ship they are unable to sell for scrap,
one guy spends christmas alone on a waterslide…….. it’s incredible

like i do not feel remotely bad for them, literally any amount of research would have revealed their plan as unfeasible, they CHOSE to waste their money like this

The rooms:

Did not allow pets over 20lbs and would not allow barking for over 10 minutes (or else the pet couldn’t live on the boat anymore)

Only had a mini fridge with no microwave (the only food on the ship would be from a restaurant)

Cost $560/month for a small, windowless interior room

And the “seastead” was supposed to be in the shape of the Bitcoin sign

image

absolutely hysterical that a bunch of libertarians thought a cruise ship was the way to escape regulation

Okay, so Friedman started yammering on about libertarian seatopias in 2010, three years after Bioshock. You cannot convince me this is a coincidence.

image

Cryptocoin, cruise ships, and libertarians are like three things that are all constantly dangling by a single frayed thread over total disaster and they put all three together.

@fugicross​ I feel you would enjoy this.

The notes of this post are full of references to a town overrun with bears and I NEED someone to fill me in on that

How a New Hampshire libertarian utopia was foiled by bears
Seriously, this happened. You should absolutely read about it.
Vox

I absolutely cried laughing reading about this. I have the book on order.

(via thebibliosphere)

weaver-z:

I think the only person I’ve met in real life with 100% career satisfaction was this gal I knew who was a presenter at a children’s science museum and delivered every line like she was running a WWE match. Every time you passed the room where she was giving a presentation, you’d hear something like “WHO’S READY FOR CEPHALOPODS?!?” and the kids would go absolutely nuts cheering.

(via rainbowbarnacle)

demilypyro:

slightly punk-looking teenager on a cop show: i wont talk. i know my rights

cops behind interrogation room glass: damn. this one teenager won’t cooperate. now we’ll never catch Fuckhands the Baby Murderer. and it’s all because the police doesn’t have absolute authority. this is terrible

grandmas across the world: damn, good point

(via bigsnorp)

meckamecha:

cinna-bunnie:

meckamecha:

I got a laptop with Windows 11 for an IT course so I can get certified, and doing the first time device set-up for it made me want to commit unspeakable violence

Windows 11 should not exist, no one should use it for any reason, it puts ads in the file explorer and has made it so file searches are also web searches and this cannot be turned off except through registry editing. Whoever is responsible for those decisions should be killed, full stop.

Switch to linux, it’s free and it’s good.

u r absolutely right I have SO many complaints about Windows omg.

For anyone who’d like to follow along, I’m gonna share how to get around those things with group policies bc they’re more user friendly and descriptive than registry editor imo :3 I’ll also show how to get around needing a Microsoft account to get setup.

For the Device Setup

“OOBE” stands for Out Of Box Experience which is what that setup workflow is. But it also happens to be a folder with a little program in it that’ll let you skip connecting to the internet; this makes it so you don’t have to sign up with a Microsoft account and can just use a normal local one instead. And it already comes preinstalled! Here’s how you get to it:

  1. Hold Shift + F10, or Shift + Fn + F10 depending on your keyboard.
  2. Click inside the window that pops up, type the following and press enter afterwards to run it: OOBE\BypassNRO
  3. I believe it should restart your computer automatically, but if not then restart your computer or type: shutdown /r /t 0 /f

Now when you’re brought back to the setup workflow, the page where you connect to the internet will have a new button on it that lets you say you don’t have internet. Clicking that and proceeding through the rest of the setup lets you get around the Microsoft account thing.

Group Policies

You don’t have to know much about them, these are just a bunch of specific settings for what your computer can or can’t do that lets you decide how it works in different ways.

I’m gonna show you how to turn off the recommendations and internet stuff basically. For now bring up search and type gpedit, pick this

image

It’ll open up to Local Group Policy Editor and we can get started :3c

Start Recommendations

In the side menu, go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar. Click on Settings to sort them with all the “Turn off” ones bumped to the top.

image

Here’s what you should set:

  • Turn off user tracking: enabled
  • Turn off feature advertisement balloon notifications: enabled
  • Remove Recommended section from Start Menu: enabled
  • Remove Personalized Website Recommendations from the Recommended section in the Start Menu: enabled
  • Do not search Internet: enabled

Windows Spotlight

Back in the side menu, go down to Windows Components > Cloud Content

image
  • Turn off all Windows spotlight features: enabled
  • Do not use diagnostic data for tailored experiences: enabled

Cortana

In the side menu, this one’s back at the top under Computer Configuration. You’re gonna want to go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Search

  • Allow Cortana: disabled
  • Don’t search the web or display web results in Search: enabled

News and Interests

In the side menu go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > News and interests.

  • Enable news and interests on the taskbar: disabled

Microsoft Account Login Nudges

When you don’t use a Microsoft account they’ll nudge you repeatedly to sign in so you can “get the most out of your experience” *gag*. The group policy for turning that off has a note that suggests it might not work with Windows 11 though (implicitly), so you can close the group policy editor window now and for this last one let’s just open up the regular settings.

Go to System > Notifications > Additional settings, then uncheck all the boxes. And there ya go! (✿◠‿◠)ﾉ u are done.

Group policies are kind of a rabbit hole so while there is a lot more you could change or read into, for your own sanity’s sake I would advise against it and say call it a day lol

This is all extremely good information, thank you very much for the addition!

(via thecatdrinksearlgrey)

probablybadrpgideas:

derinthescarletpescatarian:

patrickdiomedes:

queenqueso:

thesongzebrabyonehtrixpointnever:

zerofarad:

vornskr:

tiefling-queer:

vornskr:

vornskr:

vornskr:

tiefling-queer:

it’ll never fail to amaze me that chessex, the game dice company - like if you bought your first dice set from a game store/comic shop/card shop you most certainly bought a chessex set - has such an ugly and poorly designed website. it looks like they went out of business 15 years ago.

i don’t know what’s better, the fact that they only sell five different things and felt like they needed a site map, the single uk location with the giant union jack, or simply the times new roman header which reads:

“The coolest dice on the planet.”  ™

THEY HAVEN’T UPDATED THEIR WEBSITE IN TEN YEARS????

my mistake, literally every single page you click on has a different copyright date. so far I’ve seen 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, and most recently 2012. amazing. well done chessex.

BUT LANA
HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TRY TO ORDER DICE?????

you….you have to email them your order form. oh, gods. you…have to type your credit card information. into an email. so they can charge you seven dollars in shipping or 7% of the total order cost if it’s over $100. fuck. if you have questions about the cost of air shipping, you can fax them anytime. jesus christ. oh gods. fuck. fuck me up. chessex. the coolest dice on the planet.  ™

this is another reason why I let my friendly local store make my chessex orders for me

Me: The Chessex website isn’t real and can’t hurt me:

The Chessex website:


image
image
image

The best part is that this is literally by design

image

amazing

oh my god

These are the only people doing internet sales correctly

I feel the chessex website qualifies for weird dice wednesday

(via mrsbeef)