fidius

[fidius]

德化白瓷 Déhuà báicí/dehua white porcelain

Dehua County, located in Quanzhou, Fujian, China, is renowned for its white porcelain.

Its kilns flourished during the Tang (618-907 CE) and Song dynasties(960–1279 CE), peaked in the Yuan and Ming periods, and remain famous today, particularly for their white porcelain. Fired at high temperatures, the unglazed porcelain exhibits a smooth, jade-like texture, appearing crystal-clear and pure white.

Dehua white porcelain is renowned for its "high-toughness thin-bodied高韧薄胎瓷衣" technique, a breakthrough in ceramic craftsmanship that achieves exceptional strength in ultra-thin structures. This technology enables the creation of porcelain pieces with egg-shell thinness (0.2–0.5 mm) while maintaining remarkable durability, making it a hallmark of Dehua's artistry. However, not every piece of Dehua white porcelain employs this technique, as it involves significantly higher production costs.

[fidius]

Andrew Moore, Golden Valley Norwegian Lutheran Church, Perkins County, South Dakota, 2013

[fidius]

10 Female Written Short Stories Everyone Should Read

I have seen a post circulating for a while that lists 10 short stories everyone should read and, while these are great works, most of them are older and written by white men. I wanted to make a modern list that features fresh, fantastic and under represented voices. Enjoy!

1. A Temporary Matter by Jhumpa Lahiri — A couple in a failing marriage share secrets during a blackout. 

2. Stone Animals by Kelly Link — A family moves into a haunted house.

3. Reeling for the Empire by Karen Russell — Women are sold by their families to a silk factory, where they are slowly transformed into human silkworms. 

4. Call My Name by Aimee Bender — A woman wearing a ball gown secretly auditions men on the subway. 

5. The Man on the Stairs by Miranda July — A woman wakes up to a noise on the stairs. 

6. Brownies by ZZ Packer — Rival Girl Scout troops are separated by race. 

7. City of My Dreams by Zsuzi Gartner — A woman works at a shop selling food-inspired soap and tries not to think about her past. 

8. A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor — A family drives from Georgia to Florida, even though a serial killer is on the loose. 

9. Hitting Budapest by NoViolet Bulawayo — A group of children, led by a girl named Darling, travel to a rich neighborhood to steal guavas. 

10. You’re Ugly, Too by Lorrie Moore — A history professor flies to Manhattan to spend Halloween weekend with her younger sister.

[fidius]

"these researchers published a paper on something that literally any of us could have told you 🙄" ok well my supervisors wont let me write something in my thesis unless I can back it up with a citation so maybe it's a good thing that they're amplifying your voice to the scientific community in a way that prevents people from writing off your experiences as annecdotal evidence

[fidius]

“First We Take Manhattan” by R.E.M. (Words/Music: Leonard Cohen, Album: I’m Your Fan: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, Atlantic 1991) Perhaps my favorite cover song of all time, R.E.M., at the height of their popularity during the Automatic For the People era, bring some grit and attitude to the Leonard Cohen song originally recorded by Jennifer Warnes (oh, and Stevie Ray Vaughan played guitar on the Warnes version). Particularly of note is the dual vocal track with Michael Stipe speaking and singing the lyrics which gives it a somewhat more haunting feel. They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom For trying to change the system from within I’m coming now, I’m coming to reward them First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

[fidius]

back when I dated men I was dating this guy who was studying filmmaking and as a result ended up hanging out with some of his classmates. this one guy was the Film Bro Final Boss and he really looked down on me because I didn’t know much about films. you know the kind of guy I mean. the one everyone makes jokes about because they’re so insufferable.

one night I’d had enough, and I’d had a few drinks, so I asked him if he’d seen “The Last Road to California”, a documentary made by a couple riding a motorcycle through the Nevada desert in the late 70s.

he said yes.

I started describing a part that I found really moving; “The Last Road to California” is about learning to cope in difficult circumstances. my favourite part is the part where the motorcycle breaks down and they have to flag down help, and despite it being a documentary and you know they both survive, it’s genuinely tense. this guy said he agreed, he really liked that part.

the thing is, “The Last Road to California” doesn’t exist

I was reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, had watched Thelma and Louise the night before, and my mum had told me about a book she’d been reading about trailer parks in America

in short, I made it up

and I am a really, really good bullshitter

this guy was so annoying and thinking he was better than me so I bullshitted an entire 1970s documentary on the spot while I was drunk, and rather than call me on it, he chose to go along with it because it was better than being wrong on the off-chance. fuck you, Edward

[fidius]

Jaipur Rug constructed a full-sized tennis court with their rugs

[fidius]

Japanese has a lot of of ways to say I, used by different kinds of people in different circumstances. The first two sentences don't use pronouns at all, which is pretty common for this kind of post because it's obvious, and the overall energy is like feminine but not girly-cute. Then 俺, the unshaven Japanese first-person-pronoun with a cigarette dangling from the corner of its mouth slaps his palm on the table and shouts at you to return his FRIEND.

This is the best I can do to convey what it's like:

It's wild to me that girls fall in love with their friend's boyfriend, cause I hate all of my friend's boyfriends and all.

Give me back my fucking friend!

[fidius]

This is the old chapel at St Viator High School, which was replaced some time ago. The architect was 修澤蘭 (Xiu Zelan / Hsiu Tse-Lan), who did a lot of school and government building in Taiwan in the 50s-70s. She tried to blend modernism with traditional Chinese styles like the palace style and others,and some of the results are pretty nice. She also really liked round buildings:

Her most famous building is probably the Zhongshan Building:

Pretty much everyone is Taiwan is carrying around at least one picture of it.

A postcard showing a "Catholic Boy School Church" in Taichung, Taiwan. I wonder if it's still there.

[fidius]

plants that look like they're dying immediately after you forget to water them one (1) time but also recover immediately after you do are my best friends actually. very clear signals, hold no grudges, that's a relationship that works for me

[fidius]

[fidius]

Like how they incorporated the pattern of the tiles in the stained glass.

[fidius]

More landscapes

[fidius]

[fidius]

imagination (1963) - harold ordway rugg

"chekhovs cat / schrödingers razor / occams gun"

[fidius]

palais de justice de charleroi // charleroi ville-haute

architects: simon brigode, jaques depelsenaire

art in architecture: andrè hupet, marie-henriette bataille, claire lambert &paul timber, èmile tainmont, olivier strebelle, charles de rouck, antoine-fèlix bourè, boris tellegen

completion: 1969

the charleroi courthouse is a prime example of belgian post-war modernism and the international ttyle. while the buildings themselves are not easily accessible, the extensive grounds can be entered from any side of the complex. this allows visitors to discover the buildings' different façade designs and the art on them, as well as the sculptures in the park. the complex is also a tranquil place compared to the surrounding streets.

der justizpalast von charleroi ist ein paradebeispiel der belgischen nachkriegsmoderne und des internationalen stiles. in die gebäude kommt man nicht ohne weiteres, aber die weitläufigen parkanlagen lassen sich von jeder seite des komplexes betreten und so kann man die gebäude mit der unterschiedlichen fassadengestaltung und der darauf befindlichen kunst und die im park stehenden skulpturen entdecken. außerdem ist die anlage ein ort der ruhe, zu den umgebenden straßen.

[fidius]

by a_guy_named_eric