platypan

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[platypan]

Another highly specific resource, Travel in Times!

So how long did it take to travel somewhere in England and Wales in 1680s anyway? Or the 1830s? Or 1910s? Well, the Travel in Times project from Cambridge University is here to help.

Create a route, pick from the eras available, and see how you would get there and how long it would take.

The project currently focuses on three eras that help represent major aspects in travel systems while also giving you an idea of travel speeds during eras of horseback, stagecoach, and train.

This is an ongoing project so the hope is to expand the capabilities and add more maps and data.

(Another, similar, project is also in the works called the Early Modern Digital Itineraries project. As Nov. 22, 2024, the tool is not yet ready for the public. You can follow along with their progress on bluesky)

[platypan]

Since we keep getting "live action" CGI remakes of already perfectly adequate animated movies, and because people need to understand that animation is a medium and not a genre, I have prepared this primer about the importance of Visual Language for Conveying Information.

Can you tell what the personalities of these two mice are?

Can you tell now?

Which of these two tigers feels safer to be around?

Which of these three dogs is the funniest one?

If you can answer these questions, then you already have experience with the idea of visual language and stylistic choices being used to impart narrative meaning. If you can understand why these choices were made to impart meaning, then you can understand why animation is a medium for telling stories that has its own inherent value, and is not merely a "placeholder" for the eventual implementation of photorealistic presentation (aka "Live Action" CGI). Animation does not need to be "corrected" or "legitimized" by remaking it into the most representational simulation of observable reality.

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the concept and idea of “you can always start trying to be a better person” is extremely important to me both in media and irl and i continue to be deeply deeply disturbed by the trend on this site pushing that these ideas in media are bad writing or even morally reprehensible

because theyd rather someone stay terrible or just straight up die than become a better person 

from a compassionate point of view it’s deeply distressing and from a pragmatic point of view it’s outright frustrating

it’s fucked up. 

[platypan]

i feel like it's absolutely crucial in the social justice world to take "he a little confused but he got the spirit" and similar sentiments/situations as a Win. intent is so much more important than saying it right the first time! if someone is approaching with scuffed language and incorrect terms but they're visibly being as polite as they know how, that person is a friend and should be treated better than what their words might invite in someone else's mouth.

[platypan]

what I wish people would understand about fundraising for gaza is that while everyone is desperate and I would never say not to fundraise for or donate to individual families-- I currently fundraise to support multiple friends' families-- the overwhelming narrative I see on Tumblr that the best and most ethical thing you can do is send money to individuals and there is no option for anything else is so so incredibly damaging and inadvertently lends support to the marginalization and distrust of any remaining communal social infrastructure. the sameer project, which you should donate to, talks about this in a recent video they put out. the situation in gaza is unimaginable and everyone is in need of a huge level of support, and yet this fundraising discourse by well-meaning people in the west that donating money to individuals is the only moral way reproduces societal divides wherein resources are directed to people who speak English, who have relationships with people outside of gaza, and who have internet access while hundreds of thousands are left behind.

there ARE non-ngo locally based grassroots initiatives working to meet those needs however they can, and your small donation goes a lot further with them because they are able to buy food/water/supplies in bulk at a reduced price and reach more people with less money. again I'm not saying people shouldn't fundraise for individuals because these initiatives are so limited and many people cannot access them -- but as an example, the group I fundraise with is currently serving people fleeing north gaza who are starving and have nothing, and when we fundraise enough to do cash aid distribution there's so much need that our partners can only distribute 100-200 per large family. and then I go online and see people who have absolutely no understanding of this context at all exclusively working towards raising tens of thousands for just a few people when evacuations haven't been possible for months. it's good to do whatever you can but please consider how this narrative being reproduced among westerners trying to help that there are no other options has the potential to damage groups working towards equity and wider reach however is still possible

[platypan]

Readers, make sure you have all your favourite Ao3 fics downloaded.

Writers, make sure you have copies of all the fics you have posted on Ao3.

I don’t want to be alarming, but things could get really bad really fast. OTW shared this today on Twitter, and I'm a bit worried about it 😅

Ao3 is a non-profit organisation. If they have to start paying taxes, I have no idea what will happen.

[platypan]

by edmund dulac (october 22, 1882 – may 25, 1953)

[platypan]

I’ve connected the dots

[platypan]

Naomi Watanabe, art direction by Yuni Yoshida

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i’m not aromantic but i believe in their beliefs

[platypan]

ibuprofen is a type of angel that can live inside a bottle in your house

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pointing out that capitalist welfare states are built on imperialist superprofits gets a lot of wank on here so just wanted to point to a new example. novo nordisk, denmark's (our favourite nordic model state) largest company (its market capitalisation exceeds the size of denmark's economy) is a pharmaceutical company that saw its fortunes rise after the decades long battle that enforced international IP law on India to prevent it from re-engineering drugs as generics. quite literally extraction of super profits via enforcement of fake monopolies.

[platypan]

“I love celebrity encounters. The best was in a hotel in London. I was in the lobby and saw Lucy Liu. She’s, like, this tall. She looked up at me and saw a tag sticking out the back of my sweater. She reached up, tucked it in, and said, ‘Now you’re perfect.’ I would die on a battlefield for Lucy Liu.”

— Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland on dying for Lucy Liu. (via joanwatson)

[platypan]

LUCY LIU | V Magazine China photographed by Jack Bridgland (2024)

[platypan]

"urban indian series," 2007, chromogenic prints, depicting images of a young man, the artist terrance houle, going through his daily life dressed in dance regalia.