miwa-soumen

[miwa-soumen]

Lovely people of tumblr, if I may speak with my librarian hat* on for a moment:

If you are in the US, you may be aware that librarians are Going Through It because some malicious people believe in fascism and have decided to make that our problem. Whether you are in the US or not, there is something you can do to help your local librarians out:**

Say something nice to us.

You can post on social media and tag your library, you can find the library’s main phone number and call, you can go in person, you can send a card (we display cards in our break room)! I guarantee you that you will make the day of the person you talk to, we will immediately go tell all our colleagues how lovely you were, and you will help us live to love and fight another day.

*it is a fetching piece of millinery in purple silk

**I propose we make this an international group project. Whether your librarians are going through it or not, we all appreciate a kind word.

[miwa-soumen]

Otters will forever be the most dramatic creatures on the planet🦦

[miwa-soumen]

from one chronically anxious person to another: the world is not going to go up in flames. What happens will be more slow, more bureaucratic, more boring. There is no catastrophe to end all catastrophes, no rapture, no sudden end. You can't give into the call of the void, because there is no void. So you just have to do the work to make tomorrow a better place, anyway. Because that's how it gets better.

[miwa-soumen]

we DO grow old and happy. btw.

[miwa-soumen]

Now is a good time to check if you need to renew your passport or get one for the first time.

Not even as an alarmist thing, but because you want to do it NOW before any requirements change and your get distracted by the world. It's just a good thing to have.

The full passport book is pricey ($130), but the card ($30) has all the same benefits as identification and can be used at land borders.

[miwa-soumen]

Matt if it's a boy, Mattress if it's a girl

[miwa-soumen]

shut up

[miwa-soumen]

Here's a legal PSA:

If you've committed a crime and a detective gathers everyone involved in the room, especially if he's not actually a detective and is instead a novelist, puzzle-setter, psychic, fake psychic, dog, chess grandmaster, etc. ...

YOU SHOULD NOT CONFESS.

Every year, hundreds of people are put away by non-traditional "detectives" who have either inserted themselves into the case or are working with the police in a dubiously legal capacity as advisor. In 99% of these cases, the murderer gives a full confession even though the evidence against them is circumstantial at best and often requires a long just-so story which can only guess at motive.

If this happens to you, stay quiet, do not attempt to defend yourself or talk your way out of it, only say "I want a lawyer".

Now if you find yourself being investigated by a boy genius, magician's assistant, anthropologist, classics scholar, or philosopher, it's likely that refusing to talk to the police (or investigator with no legal authority) is merely the end of the second act, and by the end of the third act they will have you dead to rights.

YOU SHOULD STILL NOT CONFESS.

Make them take it to court. Force the eccentric detective and his straight-laced police partner to take the stand and explain their methods to a jury of your peers. Have your lawyer look at the chain of custody on the evidence, especially if you believe it to have been handled by someone who has only bumbled into detective work through their natural charm and/or unique set of skills and outsider perspective that come in handy more often than they should.

Know your rights. Don't let eccentric detectives put you away.

[miwa-soumen]

'A golden ram and a stone lion, unearthed from a tomb at the ancient archaeological site of Gonur Depe in Turkmenistan, dating back to 2400-1600 BC.'

[miwa-soumen]

Someone living in Sweden during the Iron Age wore this cloak. Unfortunately, they wore it while they were murdered: forensic analysis found the holes in the cloak match how stabs would have penetrated the folds of the cloak when it was being worn.

Dating to 360 to 100 BCE, is also the oldest known example of a houndstooth pattern!

[miwa-soumen]

Senators are going to vote on whether or not we should continue to send aid to Israel on Wednesday, November 13th. Call them, bombard their phone lines with calls. Every fucking day. We have a chance of doing something about this.

[miwa-soumen]

It's really ridiculous how we had literal video proof of items being bought and distributed but GoFundMe still deleted HelpGazaChildren's campaign because there weren't any itemized receipts for the aid... Like I understand that in most other situations they're required, but how can you expect receipts from a literal warzone where people are constantly fleeing for their lives??

@abo-ataa, our friend Hussam from HelpGazaChildren, had dedicated all his time and energy into helping displaced people in Gaza, even when he himself was displaced, to the point where he doesn't even have a proper tent for him and his family.

And his personal fundraiser was also cancelled by GoFundMe, where they didn't allow him to collect the 9,000 Euros he raised!

Please try to contribute to his campaign where he's raising funds for him and his family to try and survive the harsh winter. Any amount, no matter how small, will go a long way in supporting them throughout all this.

[miwa-soumen]

People who talk about what population density is necessary to "justify" a rail system are wrong but they're wrong in the opposite way from how they think. Even in Japan which has more than twice the population density of China the rail system is not profitable. JR makes most of its profit by operating malls and collecting rent from vendors. If you blindly follow profit instead of considering the broader social benefits the result will always be putting your rail system into a death spiral of rationalization. Stop expecting public transport to turn a profit that's not what it exists for.

[miwa-soumen]

everything is truly so terrible but i just remembered doreen ketchens playing clarinet for her infant grandson and then i was kind of okay again for 36 seconds

[miwa-soumen]

There’s like 12 different kinds of tension in this image.