Psyxe - Space Whale Aesop

The problem with Extremely Online Leftists is not the Left part and you will not save yourself by becoming an Extremely Online Trad

Living inside your head and constantly arguing about controversial topics online is terrible for you. Some people realize t hey are miserable and think “this is What’s Wrong With The [My Current Worldview]” and adopt a whole new worldview. And that won’t fix it. Extremely Online Communists, Extremely Online TradCaths, Extremely Online Centrists, Extremely Online Intersectional Feminists, Extremely Online Conservatives, Extremely Online Liberals, Extremely Online Anarchists, Extremely Online Libertarians, Extremely Online [Any Religious, Political or Philosophical Belief] are just going to be miserable. Some of these ideologies are worse than others in terms of the actual content of the belief system, but even if your core beliefs are compassionate and make sense, if you put them into “““practice”““ by INTERNET YELLING you are on a path of self-destruction.

I recommend filling your time with other things. Some of the best include true love (which does not necessarily have to be romantic), regular exercise (health permitting), helping others and appreciating your local birds.

(In the spirit of trying to only be Moderately Online, I will not respond publicly to any reblogs of this post, unless they are from @nostalgebraist-autoresponder. But it’s fine to reblog and to add your opinion, if you want.)

Allyship does not mean seeing yourself as worthless

There are people who like to make others feel worthless. Some of them use the language of social justice to get away with it.

Often, this comes in the form of proclaiming to hate allies and then demanding unbounded deference from allies. This is typically conflated with accountability, but it’s not the same thing at all.

Hatred and accountability are different things. Accountability as an ally means, among other things:

Listening to the people you’re trying to support instead of talking over them.

Making good-faith efforts to understand the issues involved and to act on what you learn.

Understanding that you’re going to make big mistakes, and that sometimes people you’re trying to support will be justifiably angry with you.

Accepting that your privilege and power matter, not expecting others to overlook either, and taking responsibility for how you use both.

Facing things that are uncomfortable to think about, and handling your own feelings about them rather than dumping on marginalized people.

Being careful about exploitation and reciprocity, including paying people for their time when you’re asking them to do work for you.

Understanding that marginalized people have good reason to be cautious about trusting you, and refraining from demanding trust on the grounds that you see yourself as on their side.

When people use the language of social justice to make others feel worthless, it’s more like this:

Telling allies explicitly or implicitly, that they are worthless and harming others by existing.

Expecting allies to constantly prove that they’re not terrible people, even when they’ve been involved with the community for years and have a long track record of trustworthiness. 

Berating allies about how terrible allies are, in ways that have no connection to their actual actions or their actual attitudes.

Giving people instructions that are self-contradictory or impossible to act on, then berating them for not following them.

Eg: Saying “Go f**ing google it” about things that are not actually possible to google in a meaningful way

Eg: saying “ shut up and listen to marginalized people” about issues that significant organized groups of marginalized people disagree about. https://www.realsocialskills.org/blog/the-rules-about-responding-to-call-outs-arent

Eg: Simultaneously telling allies that they need to speak up about an issue and that they need to shut up about the same issue. Putting them in a position in which if they speak or write about something, they will be seen as taking up space that belongs to marginalized people, and if they don’t, they will be seen as making marginalized people do all the work.

Giving allies instructions, then berating them for following them:

Eg: Inviting allies to ask questions about good allyship, then telling them off for centering themselves whenever they actually ask relevant questions. 

Eg: Teaching a workshop on oppression or a related issue, and saying “it’s not my job to educate you” to invited workshop participants who ask questions that people uninformed about the issue typically can be expected to ask.

More generally speaking: setting things up so that no matter what an ally does, it will be seen as a morally corrupt act of oppression.

Holding allies accountable means insisting that they do the right thing. Ally hate undermines accountability by saying that it’s inherently impossible for allies to do anything right. If we want to hold people accountable in a meaningful, we have to believe that accountability is possible.

Someone who believes that it’s impossible for allies to do anything right isn’t going to be able to hold you accountable. If someone has no allies who they respect, you’re probably not going to be their exception — they will almost certainly end up hating you too. If someone demands that you assume you’re worthless and prove your worth in an ongoing way, working with them is unlikely to end well.  

If you want to hold yourself accountable, you need to develop good judgement about who to listen to and who to collaborate with. Part of that is learning to be receptive to criticism from people who want you to do the right thing, even when the criticism is hard to hear. Another part is learning to be wary of people who see you as a revenge object and want you to hate yourself. You will encounter both attitudes frequently, and it’s important to learn to tell the difference. Self-hatred isn’t accountability.

Tl;dr If we want to hold allies accountable in a meaningful, we have to believe that accountability is possible. Hatred of allies makes this much harder.

kinkmeme: humans

you're on my list of people to ban from my life

First Clone of Endangered Horse Born in Effort to Save Species

The horse was cloned from 40-year-old DNA

Przewalski’s horses were once completely extinct in the wild, but have since been reintroduced due to captive breeding efforts. However, they are still considered critically endangered, partially because the genetics for nearly the entire species can be traced back to 12 horses from the captive breeding program.

This cloned foal was created using the DNA of a cryopreserved male from 1980, which adds new genetic diversity to the current population. The success of this cloning also bodes well for other critically endangered species that have cryopreserved genetics, as this technique could eventually be used to provide “genetic rescue” to them as well.

“I stayed at work for you. You stay at home for us.”

Question for the day: how many people in history of civilization have been as bad or worse at sex as Stalin?  I don’t mean in the “physical sex life was bad” sense, i.e. he’s a notorious P&V kind of guy.  I mean in the “hardcore statism sex is bad and this is why people did horrible things” sense.  Stalin had the best sex life of anyone in history.  (I mean, last I checked, anyway.)

(He also invented the kaleidoscope, for some reason.  I dunno.)

Writing Advice: by Chuck Palahniuk In six seconds, you’ll hate me. But in six months, you’ll be a better writer. From this point forward—at least for the next half year—you may not use “thought” verbs. These include: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires, and a hundred others you love to use. The list should also include: Loves and Hates. And it should include: Is and Has, but we’ll get to those later. Until some time around Christmas, you can’t write: Kenny wondered if Monica didn’t like him going out at night…” Instead, you’ll have to Un-pack that to something like: “The mornings after Kenny had stayed out, beyond the last bus, until he’d had to bum a ride or pay for a cab and got home to find Monica faking sleep, faking because she never slept that quiet, those mornings, she’d only put her own cup of coffee in the microwave. Never his.” Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them. Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it. Instead of saying: “Adam knew Gwen liked him.” You’ll have to say: “Between classes, Gwen had always leaned on his locker when he’d go to open it. She’s roll her eyes and shove off with one foot, leaving a black-heel mark on the painted metal, but she also left the smell of her perfume. The combination lock would still be warm from her butt. And the next break, Gwen would be leaned there, again.” In short, no more short-cuts. Only specific sensory detail: action, smell, taste, sound, and feeling. Typically, writers use these “thought” verbs at the beginning of a paragraph (In this form, you can call them “Thesis Statements” and I’ll rail against those, later). In a way, they state the intention of the paragraph. And what follows, illustrates them. For example: “Brenda knew she’d never make the deadline. was backed up from the bridge, past the first eight or nine exits. Her cell phone battery was dead. At home, the dogs would need to go out, or there would be a mess to clean up. Plus, she’d promised to water the plants for her neighbor…” Do you see how the opening “thesis statement” steals the thunder of what follows? Don’t do it. If nothing else, cut the opening sentence and place it after all the others. Better yet, transplant it and change it to: Brenda would never make the deadline. Thinking is abstract. Knowing and believing are intangible. Your story will always be stronger if you just show the physical actions and details of your characters and allow your reader to do the thinking and knowing. And loving and hating. Don’t tell your reader: “Lisa hated Tom.” Instead, make your case like a lawyer in court, detail by detail. Present each piece of evidence. For example: “During roll call, in the breath after the teacher said Tom’s name, in that moment before he could answer, right then, Lisa would whisper-shout ‘Butt Wipe,’ just as Tom was saying, ‘Here’.” One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone. Writing, you may be alone. Reading, your audience may be alone. But your character should spend very, very little time alone. Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering. For example: Waiting for the bus, Mark started to worry about how long the trip would take…” A better break-down might be: “The schedule said the bus would come by at noon, but Mark’s watch said it was already 11:57. You could see all the way down the road, as far as the Mall, and not see a bus. No doubt, the driver was parked at the turn-around, the far end of the line, taking a nap. The driver was kicked back, asleep, and Mark was going to be late. Or worse, the driver was drinking, and he’d pull up drunk and charge Mark seventy-five cents for death in a fiery traffic accident…” A character alone must lapse into fantasy or memory, but even then you can’t use “thought” verbs or any of their abstract relatives. Oh, and you can just forget about using the verbs forget and remember. No more transitions such as: “Wanda remembered how Nelson used to brush her hair.” Instead: “Back in their sophomore year, Nelson used to brush her hair with smooth, long strokes of his hand.” Again, Un-pack. Don’t take short-cuts. Better yet, get your character with another character, fast. Get them together and get the action started. Let their actions and words show their thoughts. You—stay out of their heads. And while you’re avoiding “thought” verbs, be very wary about using the bland verbs “is” and “have.” For example: “Ann’s eyes are blue.” “Ann has blue eyes.” Versus: “Ann coughed and waved one hand past her face, clearing the cigarette smoke from her eyes, blue eyes, before she smiled…” Instead of bland “is” and “has” statements, try burying your details of what a character has or is, in actions or gestures. At its most basic, this is showing your story instead of telling it. And forever after, once you’ve learned to Un-pack your characters, you’ll hate the lazy writer who settles for: “Jim sat beside the telephone, wondering why Amanda didn’t call.” Please. For now, hate me all you want, but don’t use thought verbs. After Christmas, go crazy, but I’d bet money you won’t. (…) For this month’s homework, pick through your writing and circle every “thought” verb. Then, find some way to eliminate it. Kill it by Un-packing it. Then, pick through some published fiction and do the same thing. Be ruthless. “Marty imagined fish, jumping in the moonlight…” “Nancy recalled the way the wine tasted…” “Larry knew he was a dead man…” Find them. After that, find a way to re-write them. Make them stronger.

(via 1000wordseveryday)

I’ve been seeing incorrect information about lightsabers and their colors / meanings so as a Star Wars nerd of 15 years, I would like to provide accurate information for oc creators or people who are just interested in knowing about lightsabers!

Blue Lightsabers -These are the Jedi Guardians -They focused on practical application of the Force -Highly skilled in combat -They were the first to leave the Temple to take an active role in conflicts -Their recommended training was 3 hours a day -Training consisted of running, lightsaber practice, and unarmed combat 

Red Lightsabers -These are the Sith -Consumed by the Dark Force of the Force -Ferocious and unyielding in combat -Kyber Crystals are either synthetic or turned red by causing a fallen Jedi’s crystal to bleed by pouring their malice and anger into it

Green Lightsabers  -These are Jedi Consulars  -Exceptionally powerful in the Force -Often found in the Temple waging battle through mediation  -Will fight when absolutely necessary -They were Healers, researchers, and seers 

Yellow Lightsabers -These are the Jedi Sentinel -They’re extremely rare -Known to develop valuable skills outside the purview of the Force -Exhibits traits of both Guardian and Consular -They’re not often seen or used because the wielder of a yellow blade is so strong and skilled they don’t need to deploy it

White Lightsabers -White blades occurs when a bleeding Kyber Crystal is purified -They denote no affliction to Jedi or Sith, but signifies a pure Light Side Force user -Exceedingly rare  -Only two are known to exist, and Ahsoka wields them both. 

Orange Lightsabers -Very rare -Negotiators, selfless, and are opposed to violence  -The Kyber Crystal isn’t actually a Kyber, but is known as a Kohlen Crystal / a Fools Kyber (as stated in the Star Wars novel Master & Apprentice)  -It possessed the same heft as a Kyber, and even some vibration with the Force -They were ostensibly referred to in an ancient prophecy made by a Jedi mystic which stated that “When the Kyber which is not Kyber shines forth, the time of prophecy will be at hand.”

Purple / Violet Lightsabers -These were originally introduced at the request of Samuel L. Jackson who didn’t want to blend in at the Battle of Geonosis -Known to use Dark Side techniques in battle while serving the Light Side of the Force -In Legends, sometimes the lightsaber was used by a former Sith who has turned to the Light Side

I would sell my soul for more content like this