#“where is Cuba on the map??????”

[minty-bubblegum]

2DAY I LAUGHED SO HARD I GIT THE HICCUPS FUCKMNG AGAIN AND I SCREAMED REALLY LOUD AND YHEN I FUCKING TOPPLED OVER

[archived-and-moving]

omg you *handshake* me: drawing instead of doing homework we are sooo the same right now we should. we should be bestest friends about this

hiiii tobi I hope you have fun with your drawing!!

sharking your hand so hard rn bestie because!! yeah i DO have a presentation I need to do tomorrow that I haven't started yet. But I want to draw my funky little guys.

And that's so silly bc we totally are the bestest of friends abt this. forget shaking your hand i'm holding your hand as we draw. this works because i'm a lefty and so we can both draw with our dominant hands as we hold the opposing hands. (assuming you are right-handed.)

If you are not into touch then I am emotionally supporting you in a different state :)

anyway. hiiii quil i hope that YOU are having a fun time with YOUR drawing!!!

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

🚨This is a Stede Bonnet season 2 appreciation post 🚨

There's not enough love for my guy Stede on my dash. Some of my favorite excellent Stede moments in season 2:

Apparently having so many dreams about Ed that his horny moaning is a major source of frustration amongst the crew

The way he kisses the bottle before tossing it into the sea still makes me fucking feral

Trying to do a little Ed voice while venting to the wanted poster and then immediately getting mad that Ricky saw him doing that ("can't a man have a little privacy?") even though he made no attempt to move out of a public area

"Sorry if that's a bit creepy-" "YOU ARE CREEPY"

Getting tf out of there when Ricky starts fooling around. Say what you want about Stede but he knows when to leave a situation

Just fucking bitching constantly while he's on Zheng Yi Sao's ship. He hates the wake up bell and he is overqualified for towels 😤

*about the wanted poster* They drew him to look like a ghoul :/

Trying to figure out Ed's location based on a map he's drawn himself and then getting confused about where Cuba is. On the map he's drawn himself

Circling "alive" on the wanted poster

The way he put his own pain and grief aside to prioritize keeping his crew safe, even when he thought some of these people who he cares about so much just killed the love of his life

The way he fondly, mournfully calls Ed a nut when he believes he is dead. The way he beats on Ed's chest to try and bring him back. The love and desperation of it all

"Don't you want your sammie?"

Continuing the trend of venting at length to anyone who asks him about how he's doing, only this time to Anne, who will weaponize this information

For what it's worth. I like your beard. the length

Describing Anne kissing him as "she jumped on my face!!!"

The way he runs in general. Limbs akimbo

His cunty little twirls in the red suit

The way you KNOW Ned Low is a dead man walking from the instant he plays with Ed's hair and insults him. Stede was never going to let him leave that ship alive

The way he immediately compliments the piece of twine Ed brought him on his breakfast tray when he realizes how much this means to Ed

Shouting "FOR LOVE" as a battle cry immediately after getting his boyfriend back

Zero hesitation when Ed asks him if he's having second thoughts about becoming inkeepers. Zero. He knows his priorities now and he knows his number one priority is Ed!

🚨 This has been a Stede Bonnet appreciation post 🚨

[reasonsforhope]

"The world's coral reefs are close to 25 percent larger than we thought. By using satellite images, machine learning and on-ground knowledge from a global network of people living and working on coral reefs, we found an extra 64,000 square kilometers (24,700 square miles) of coral reefs – an area the size of Ireland.

That brings the total size of the planet's shallow reefs (meaning 0-20 meters deep) to 348,000 square kilometers – the size of Germany. This figure represents whole coral reef ecosystems, ranging from sandy-bottomed lagoons with a little coral, to coral rubble flats, to living walls of coral.

Within this 348,000 km² of coral is 80,000 km² where there's a hard bottom – rocks rather than sand. These areas are likely to be home to significant amounts of coral – the places snorkelers and scuba divers most like to visit.

You might wonder why we're finding this out now. Didn't we already know where the world's reefs are?

Previously, we've had to pull data from many different sources, which made it harder to pin down the extent of coral reefs with certainty. But now we have high resolution satellite data covering the entire world – and are able to see reefs as deep as 30 meters down.

Pictured: Geomorphic mapping (left) compared to new reef extent (red shading, right image) in the northern Great Barrier Reef.

[AKA: All the stuff in red on that map is coral reef we did not realize existed!! Coral reefs cover so much more territory than we thought! And that's just one example. (From northern Queensland)]

We coupled this with direct observations and records of coral reefs from over 400 individuals and organizations in countries with coral reefs from all regions, such as the Maldives, Cuba, and Australia.

To produce the maps, we used machine learning techniques to chew through 100 trillion pixels from the Sentinel-2 and Planet Dove CubeSat satellites to make accurate predictions about where coral is – and is not. The team worked with almost 500 researchers and collaborators to make the maps.

The result: the world's first comprehensive map of coral reefs extent, and their composition, produced through the Allen Coral Atlas. [You can see the interactive maps yourself at the link!]

The maps are already proving their worth. Reef management agencies around the world are using them to plan and assess conservation work and threats to reefs."

-via ScienceDirect, February 15, 2024

[mapsontheweb]

Female representation in European parliaments

A map showing the proportion of women in each national parliament (specifically the lower house in countries with bicameral legislature).

Source: https://data.ipu.org/women-ranking/?date_year=2024&date_month=11 (supplemented by a Google search for the non full UN members — Vatican City, Palestine, Kosovo — and dependent territories — Jersey, Guernsey, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar).

The highest proportion in Europe is Andorra, where precisely half of the 28 elected members of the General Council are women. The lowest meanwhile is Vatican City, where just one out of the 8 appointed members of the Pontifical Commission is a woman. The lowest among elected chambers is Cyprus, where 8 out of the 56 members of the House of Representatives are women.

Worldwide, four (lower) chambers currently have over 50% women: Rwanda's Chamber of Deputies (64%), Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power (56%), Nicaragua's National Assembly (54%) and Mexico's Chamber of Deputies (50.2%). Alongside Andorra, two more have precisely half: Namibia's National Assembly and the United Arab Emirates Federal National Council (the latter due to a quota). The US House of Representatives is at 29%, China's National People's Congress at 27%, Brazil's Chamber of Deputies at 18% and India's Lok Sabha at 14%.

by Udzu/reddit

[opencommunion]

"In the twenty-first century, nothing is more indicative of U.S. empire than the global reach of the U.S. military. Much of this power comes from its approximately 800 military bases located in around eighty countries, accounting for about 95 percent of the world’s foreign military bases. No other country comes close to the U.S. level of worldwide military control. ... The United States probably has more military bases than any other empire in history, yet most Americans remain largely ignorant of their numbers and location. The history of these bases is an imperial history, tied to war, occupation, and military expansion. Wherever the U.S. military has gone bases have usually followed, giving the United States an ongoing presence long after the war or occupation is over.

The creation of bases has accompanied each wave of U.S. expansion. Military forts enabled continental conquest—255 in total—which functioned as foreign bases on land that was often still controlled by Native peoples. These forts operated as the military outposts of settler-colonialism and were targeted by Native peoples as violations of territorial integrity. The War of 1898 and subsequent occupation of overseas colonies resulted in a global basing system, and by 1938 the United States had fourteen military bases outside its continental borders in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Midway, Wake, Guam, the Philippines, Shanghai, the Aleutians, American Samoa, and Johnston Island. ... The explosion of foreign bases during World War II would be followed by surges during the Korean War, the War in Vietnam, and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, showing that wars and occupations continue to expand U.S. territory, even if the form of those acquisitions has shifted since the days of settler-colonialism and annexation. The contemporary number, which hovers around 800 to 900, is still an impressive network that places the military within striking distance of every spot on the globe. Historian Bruce Cumings calls the modern form of U.S. empire an 'archipelago empire,' small islands of U.S. control from which power can be projected anywhere in the world. It has become increasingly difficult to tell where the boundaries of the United States begin and where they end.

... For most U.S. citizens these bases are either invisible or accepted as a natural part of our national security apparatus. David Vine argues that Americans 'consider the situation normal and accept that US military installations exist in staggering numbers in other countries, on other peoples’ land. On the other hand, the idea that there would be foreign bases on US soil is unthinkable.'"

Stefan Aune, "American Empire," in At War: The Military and American Culture in the Twentieth Century and Beyond, 2018

Map source

[nerdsbianhokie]

Reading the World

In 2023, I challenged myself to watch a movie from every country in the world during the year, which I more or less succeeded. At the start of 2024 I decided to read a book from every country in the world (without the time restraint) and got a map to track my progress along with a challenge on Story Graph.

List of countries and books below the cut

Current count: 59

Afghanistan:

Albania:

Algeria:

American Samoa: Where We Once Belonged by Sia Figiel

Andorra: Andorra: a play in twelve scenes by Max Frisch

Angola: The Whistler by Ondjaki

Anguilla:

Antigua and Barbuda:

Argentina: Our Share of the Night by Mariana Enríquez

Armenia:

Aruba:

Australia: Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia edited by Alexis West

Austria:

Azerbaijan:

Bahamas:

Bahrain:

Bangladesh:

Barbados:

Belarus:

Belgium:

Belize:

Benin:

Bermuda:

Bhutan: Folktales of Bhutan by Kunzang Choden

Bolivia:

Bosnia and Herzegovina:

Botswana:

Brazil: The Words That Remain by Stênio Gardel

British Virgin Islands:

Brunei:

Bulgaria:

Burkina Faso:

Burundi: Baho! by Roland Rugero

Cambodia: Ma and Me by Putsata Reang

Cameroon: The Impatient by Djaïli Amadou Amal

Canada: The Gift is in the making: Anishinaabeg Stories retold by Amanda Strong and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Canary Islands: Dogs of Summer by Andrea Abreu

Cape Verde:

Cayman Islands:

Central African Republic: Co-wives, Co-widows by Adrienne Yabouza

Chad:

Chile: The Twilight Zone by Nona Fernández

China: The Secret Talker by Geling Yan

Christmas Islands:

Cocos Islands:

Colombia:

Comoros:

Cook Islands:

Costa Rica:

Croatia:

Cuba: I Was Never the First Lady by Wendy Guerra

Curacao:

Cyprus:

Czech Republic:

Dem. Rep. of Congo:

Denmark: The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living by Meik Wiking

Djibouti:

Dominica:

Dominican Republic:

Ecuador:

Egypt:

El Salvador:

Equatorial Guinea:

Eritrea:

Estonia:

Eswatini:

Ethiopia:

Falkland Islands:

Faroe Islands:

Fiji:

Finland:

France: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

French Guiana:

French Polynesia:

Gabon:

Gambia:

Georgia:

Germany: At the Edge of the Night by Friedo Lampe

Ghana: Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey

Gibraltar:

Greece:

Greenland:

Grenada:

Guam:

Guatemala:

Guernsey:

Guinea:

Guinea-Bissau:

Guyana:

Haiti:

Honduras:

Hong Kong:

Hungary:

Iceland: The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir

India: Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir Of Surviving India's Caste System by Yashica Dutt

Indonesia: Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan

Iran: Darius the Great is Not Okay by Abid Khorram

Iraq: Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi

Ireland:

Isle of Man:

Israel:

Italy:

Ivory Coast:

Jamaica: When Life Gives You Mangos by Kereen Getten

Japan: The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi

Jordan:

Kazakhstan:

Kenya:

Kiribati:

Kosovo:

Kuwait:

Kyrgyzstan:

Laos:

Latvia:

Lebanon: Beirut Hellfire Society by Rawi Hage

Lesotho:

Liberia:

Libya: Zodiac of Echoes by Khaled Mattawa

Liechtenstein:

Lithuania:

Luxembourg:

Macedonia:

Madagascar:

Malawi:

Malaysia:

Maldives:

Mali:

Malta:

Marshall Islands:

Mauritania:

Mauritius: The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah

Mexico: Silver Nitrate by Silvia Morena-Garcia

Micronesia:

Moldova:

Monaco:

Mongolia:

Montenegro:

Montserrat:

Morocco:

Mozambique:

Myanmar: Smile as They Bow by Nu Nu Yi

Namibia:

Nauru:

Nepal:

Netherlands: We Had to Remove this Post by Hanna Bervoets

New Caledonia:

New Zealand: Tahuri by Ngahuia Te Awekotuku

Nicaragua:

Niger:

Nigeria: Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani

Niue:

Norfolk Island:

North Korea: A Thousand Miles to Freedom: My Escape from North Korea by Eunsun Kim

Northern Mariana Islands:

Norway: Blind Goddess by Anne Holt

Oman:

Pakistan: Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H

Palau:

Palestine: The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher

Panama:

Papua New Guinea:

Paraguay:

Peru:

Philippines:

Pitcairn Islands:

Poland: Return from the Stars by Stanisław Lem

Portugal: Pardalita by Joana Estrela

Puerto Rico: Velorio by Xavier Navarro Aquino

Qatar:

Rep. of the Congo:

Romania:

Russia:

Rwanda: Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin

Saint Barthelemy:

Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha:

Saint Kitts and Nevis:

Saint Lucia:

Saint Martin:

Saint Pierre and Miquelon:

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines:

Samoa: Where We Once Belonged by Sia Figiel

San Marino:

Sao Tome and Principe:

Saudi Arabia: Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

Senegal:

Serbia:

Seychelles:

Sierra Leone:

Singapore:

Sint Maarten:

Slovakia:

Slovenia:

Solomon Islands:

Somalia: Under the Shade of a Tree: Somali Women Speak edited by Rissa Mohabir

South Africa:

South Korea: The Old Woman with the Knife by Gu Byeong -Mo

South Sudan:

Spain: Mammoth by Eva Baltasar

Sri Lanka: The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka

Sudan: The Translator: A Memoir by Daoud Hari

Suriname:

Sweden: Fire from the Sky by Moa Backe Åstot

Switzerland:

Syria: The Book Collectors: A Band of Syrian Rebels and the Stories That Carried Them Through a War by Delphine Minoui

Taiwan:

Tajikistan: The Sandalwood Box: Folk Tales from Tadzhikistan by Hans Baltzer

Tanzania:

Thailand:

Togo:

Tokelau:

Tonga:

Trinidad and Tobago:

Tunisia:

Turkey:

Turkmenistan:

Turks and Caicos Islands:

Tuvalu:

Uganda:

Ukraine:

United Arab Emirates:

United Kingdom: Poyums by Len Pennie

United States of America: Reclaiming Two-Spirits: Sexuality, Spiritual Renewal & Sovereignty in Native America by Gregory D. Smithers

United States Virgin Islands: No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull

Uruguay:

Uzbekistan:

Vanuatu: Sista, Stanap Strong : A Vanuatu Women's Anthology edited by Mikaela Nyman and Rebecca Tobo Olul-Hossen

Venezuela: Doña Barbara by Rómulo Gallegos

Vietnam:

Wallis and Futuna:

Western Sahara:

Yemen:

Zambia:

Zimbabwe: We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo

[ukdamo]

Conscientious Objector

Edna St. Vincent Millay

I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death. I hear him leading his horse out of the stall; I hear the clatter on the barn-floor. He is in haste; he has business in Cuba, business in the Balkans, many calls to make this morning. But I will not hold the bridle while he cinches the girth. And he may mount by himself: I will not give him a leg up.

Though he flick my shoulders with his whip, I will not tell him which way the fox ran. With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where the black boy hides in the swamp. I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death; I am not on his pay-roll.

I will not tell him the whereabout of my friends nor of my enemies either. Though he promise me much, I will not map him the route to anyone's door. Am I a spy in the land of the living, that I should deliver men to Death? Brother, the password and the plans of our city are safe with me; never through me Shall you be overcome.

[heretyc]

You ever see that video of that one guy who pelted Franco with every Glass bottle, Brick, and Rig-recharge in the Docks map??

(If not this is the link for context: https://youtu.be/Rya2slSMV7I?si=Vr00s_EaM4eEft32) Anyway I think it would be very cute if his beloved is patching him up after a trail with that particular reagent. Like picking glass out of his hair, icing bruises, gently disinfecting cuts, and lots and lots of kisses 🤌

I can hear some of my followers getting ready to go to this guy's house, anon 🤣😭🤣😭 I admire the guy's dedication, though. The current Barbi event has a challenge like that even though he literally doesn't do anything to me lmfao he even opens doors for me! This man doesn't deserve to be pelted. I love this idea 💓 [I do pelt Coyle though...I had to turn on the gen FIVE TIMES in Kill the Snitch two nights ago cause he wouldn't leaveeee omgggg].

"This is fuckin' bullshit."

Barbi's sigh was deep and bothered as his gloved hand held an ice pack to his head, letting you stitch up his chest; a reagent with a penchant for cruelty had pelted your poor Barbi with bricks, glass...hell, even a human heart! Where the hell did they get that from?!

A brick had struck him in the chest, and it resulted in a gash requiring stitches; his pretty pale skin was black and blue and red. The chest you laid your head upon most nights was swollen and bloodied, and it made you feel nothing but disgust. Carefully pushing a needle through his skin, you hissed, "I know, it's more than bull...am I hurting you?"

"No," he was quick to reassure, "I've had worse, doll. Gunshots in Cuba. Shot in the head by dear ol' dad." He smirked, giving you a wink. "Gettin' stitched by my sweetness is comparable to heaven, I assure you."

"Ha ha," you mocked a laugh, tying the stitches up once the gash was tightly sewn shut. The skin was red and angry, clearly displeased with your rough treatment. You're surprised he had yet to flinch...stitches were no walk in the park. "I'm still worried. They showed no mercy with you." You laid a little kiss on the stitching, uncaring of the itchy, stiff sutures. The action made him smile a bit before he made a face.

"Neither will I when I see them again," Barbi scoffed, shaking his head a little as you put the needle on the desk. "I've got enough teeth to make him into swiss cheese."

"I'd be happy to donate if you need any more," you teased, taking a wet rag coated in alcohol. He just huffed a laugh, letting you clean some dried blood on his head. God, how many bottles were thrown at him? You're surprised there were no glass shards in him.

"Enough about me, anyway," he clicked his tongue, looking at you with a brow raised, "How are your trials goin', doll?"

You sucked on your teeth, gently removing some glass residue from his hair, "Decent, I guess. Coyle's been a real pain in the ass."

"When is he not? The prod says enough about him."

Was he wrong? Not in the slightest. You chuckled, pressing a kiss to a section of his flesh that lacked bruising, before putting the rag down. Maroon and smelling of copper, you needed to remember to wash it.

Franco pulled you close, his eyes scanning yours for a moment as his occupied hand put the ice pack down. "Y'know, rabbit," he murmured, "I don't think I appreciate you enough."

"Oh, hush," you pouted slightly, pecking his lips. "You appreciate me in many ways."

"Mmmhm, sure...but not enough, in my opinion." He licked his teeth, clearing hinting to something as his eyes scanned you up and down.

You feigned a dramatic sigh, letting him pull you onto his lap. "Only you would think about sex when you're injured."

"Clearly. My sexy nurse needs a pay cheque," he teased, hugging you close. "After she patches up one more gash of mine. You forgot one."

What? You furrowed your brows, looking at his bare chest, face, neck...whatever was exposed. "But you only told me your head and chest were affected..." Surely you didn't miss anything? His suit was pristine, save for some glass and brick residue.

"No, no, my face was, too," His smirk was sly, "This gash...it's large, has a pink appendage in it, and won't shut up about how much it loves ya."

...Oh.

"Your lips aren't a gash, Barbi," you scoffed playfully, "Misuse of medical equipment is against the law."

He wanted to answer with snark until you continued, "But I'm quite fond of breaking laws, aren't I?"

The kiss that followed was heavy and passionate; not quite the kind of kiss that continues into a rough round of sex, but instead one that showed your love for each other. The concept of it didn't feel possible in this shithole.

Barbi pulled away with an amused expression, "My little law breaker," he giggled a little, booping your nose with a finger, "your lips are a remedy, I swear it."

Damn straight; you couldn't stop the blush that invaded your cheeks, and like the smug bastard that he was, he hugged you tighter. "I love the effect I have on you, sweetness...."

He looked down at the stitching the best he could, and whistled. "Damn, honey...you did better than the fuckin' doctors in this joint, that's for sure."

"Good. Now...you mentioned a pay cheque..." You smiled, your lip between your teeth. "How much?"

"I'm not a stingy bastard doll," he leaned in to whisper, "Is 20 kisses okay? Locations may vary..."

20 was more than okay.

[fatehbaz]

Growing up at the turn of the 20th century, for many American children, also meant learning to view the world through the lens of “home geography.” [...] [T]hey inevitably responded to the transnational whims of an empire that had stretched its dominion across the globe [with US forays into Panama, Cuba, Hawai'i, the Philippines, and elsewhere]. [...] [T]hey recorded far more aggressive views of “home” in terms of what/where/whom it included and what/where/whom it excluded, both within and beyond the immediate borders of the United States. Thanks to “home geography” as an imperial pedagogic tool, white, well-to-do, literate American children not only lived in the safety of homes (housing their immediate families, but also, symbolically, the nation), but many of them also learned how to identify and imagine “homes” on the map of the world. [...] On the one hand [...] “home” became ever more closely associated with whiteness, literacy, hygiene, heteronormativity [...]. This turned school geography into a site where exclusionary, exceptionalist views of the world took root in childhood. [...] [C]hildren could also imagine what other homes and non-homes looked like, could fantasize about who lived in a home [...].

Consequently, the cognitive maps children developed, to which we have access through the scant archival records they left behind (i.e., geographical puzzles they designed and printed in juvenile periodicals), show great degrees of nativism and racism. As relatively marginal scraps in a multitude of records that I understand as scripts of empire, children’s cognitive maps further mixed nativism and the logic of colonization with playful, appropriative scalar confusion, and an intimate, often unquestioned sense of belonging to the global expanse of an empire [...].

---

Dissected maps - that is, maps mounted on cardboard or wood and then cut into smaller pieces that children were to put back together - are a generative example of the ways imperial pedagogy (and the violence it promoted [...]) found its place outside formal education, in children’s lives outside the classroom. [...] In return, playing with dissected maps was designed to keep children [...] informed about the world the United States was keen on entering and colonizing; it invited children to assume a unique, complex role. Children would [...] vacillate between seeing themselves as cartographers in charge of the chaos of the various pieces and as reinscriptive cartographers who strove to restore the whole map out of its pieces. [...] After all, [...] well before having been adopted as playthings in the United States, dissected maps had been designed to entertain and teach the children of King George III about the global spatial affairs of the British Empire. [...]

---

Given the frequency with which juvenile periodicals of the time printed child-made geographical puzzles, children’s involvement in composing scripts of empire confirms that what motivated them to design geographical puzzles involved more than mere showing off of the basics of geographic literacy. [...] And this is best registered in the letters children wrote to Harper’s Young People and St. Nicholas, but also to other juvenile periodicals of the time (such as the long-livedYouth’s Companion). In these letters, we encounter American children writing about the towns and cities they come from and about their travels or studies abroad. [...] [I]t was their assumption that “(un)charted,” non-American spaces (both inside and outside the national borders) sought legibility as potential homes, as well as entry and inclusion in the American household, and that, if they did not do so, they were bound to recede into ruin/“savagery,” meaning that it would become the colonizers’ responsibility/burden to “restore” them [...].

---

Sánchez-Eppler does something particularly generative for childhood studies: [...] “Raising Empires like Children” centers the study of US Empire on childhood as an inherently political project. She convincingly argues that empires learn from and owe to childhood in their attempts at survival and growth over generations. [...] [I]t is critical to study these records to find out how empires (what I characterize as “multigenerational power constellations”) survived by making accessible pedagogical scripts that children of the white and wealthy could learn from and appropriate as times changed. [...] [T]he study of childhood as a highly politicized [...] category of dependence in the 19th century opens doors to [...] engagements with the ways childhood as an allegedly innocent, ambivalent project of growing up corroborated, was shaped by, and gave shape to the empire as an inescapably violent, racialized project.

---

All text above are the words Mashid Mayar. As transcribed in an interview conducted and published by M. Buna. “Children’s Maps of the American Empire: A Conversation with Mashid Mayar.” LA Review of Books. 11 July 2022. At: lareviewofbooks dot org/article/childrens-maps-of-the-american-empire-a-conversation-with-mahshid-mayar/ [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism.]

[olivafans]

Trump Proposes 'Gulf of America': A Name Change for Gulf of Mexico

President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America." During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on January 7, 2025, Trump stated, "We’re going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, which has a beautiful ring." He emphasized that this change would reflect the U.S.'s significant presence and influence in the region, stating, "Because we do most of the work there and it's ours."

This proposal is part of a broader set of statements from Trump where he also discussed imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada, critiqued immigration policies, and hinted at not ruling out military or economic measures for control over other territories like the Panama Canal and Greenland. The announcement has sparked a debate, with reactions varying from support among his base to criticism from others who see it as an unnecessary move or a distraction from more pressing issues.

Historically, the idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico has been floated before, notably by a Mississippi state representative in 2012 for satirical purposes related to immigration debates. However, Trump's proposal seems more serious, though it remains unclear how he would enact such a change legally or internationally.

Reaction on social media and from various news outlets has been mixed. Some posts on X have humorously or satirically supported the idea, while others have criticized it as an example of overreach or nationalism. Critics argue it could strain international relations, particularly with Mexico, where the Gulf's current name originates from the city of Mexico.

From a legal standpoint, renaming a geographical feature like a gulf involves complex international agreements and domestic legislation, potentially requiring cooperation from bordering countries like Mexico, Cuba, and the U.S. states that line the Gulf.

The practical implications of this name change, if it were to proceed, would involve updating maps, textbooks, and official documents, which could be both costly and logistically challenging.

[soup-mother]

Can you post your map with broadcast locations you've heard or would that doxx you?

oh yea sure! just keep in mind this map is from 1996, zaire has not returned.

mostly from china and south east asia, only 4 from the USA and they were all either weird religious wackos or trying to convince cuba to overthrow their government. i sometimes pick up stuff from Algeria :)

i also hear shortwave HAMs but haven't put them on as pins because I can't google where they're from. but I've heard ppl from England and france

[makeallthingsyours]

I have made another piece of Vulcan calligraphy. This time, it is a translation of 'Conscientious objector' by Edna St.Vincent Millay.

Vulcan text

[Literal translation]

Frame: Ahkhan klee'fah-su

[Warfare refuser]

1)  Dungau tev-tor nash-veh, hi nam-tor veh ek if dungi-than nash-veh na'Tevakh.

[I shall die, but that is all, which I will do for death.

2)  Zhu-tor nash-veh ish-veh fugal-tor-ik jarel t'ish-veh.

[I hear them leading their jarel. (horselike animal)]

3)  Zhu-tor nash-veh ralash fi'lan-tol t'aushfa-kel. Nam-tor ish-veh toranik.

[I hear the noise of the hoofs on the floor. They are busy.]

4)  Ma ar'kada svi'Cuba, svi'Balkans, ma wehk haishaya nash-asal.

[(they) Have tasks in Cuba, in Balkans, many demands this morning.]

5)  Hi ri'dungi-meskarau nash-veh elsaku, lu dator ish-veh aushfa.

[But I will not hold (their) tether {there is no Vulcan word meaning specifically a bridle, so I thought 'tether' an appropriate word}, when (they) prepare the animal. ]

6)  Heh lau ish-veh fi'dvun mamuk-fam, ri'dungau abru'gla-tor nash-veh.

[And they may move on {not as a phrasal verb, but rather meaning 'mount'} by themselves, I shall not help them up.]

7)  Kwul-tor pla-dor t'nash-veh, hi ri'dungau var-tor ki'sahr-tor vil-tei wilat.

[(they) Strike my shoulders, but I shall not tell where the vil'tei has run to.]

8)  K'felu t'ish-veh f'tuf t'nash-veh, ri'dungi sahr-tor ip-sut kan wilat s'alem-flash.

[With their hoof on my chest, I will not (tell) where in the mangrove forest the hiding child ran.]

9)  Dungau tev-tor nash-veh, hi nam-tor veh ek if than na'Tevakh. Ri'nam-tor dvinsu t'ish-veh.

[I shall die, but that is all, which au will do for death. I am not their servant.]

10) Ri'dungau var-tor nash-veh shul t't'hyle il t'nemutlar.

[I shall not tell the location of my friends nor my enemies.]

11) Nam-tor ugayalar t'ish-veh is-fam, ri'dungi-gluvau nash-veh yut na'ha-kel t'fan-veh.

[Their promises are useless, I will not show them the way to anyone’s home.]

12) Nam-tor nash-veh zamasu svi'panu t'sular - utvau na'tefuik sutra svi'Tevakh ha?

[Am I a spy in the world of people - reason for leading people to death? {Questions are asked differently in Vulcan. Essentially, in case of yes/no question, it is a statement followed by 'ha?'. So something along the lines of 'I am a spy in the land of living, and this is a reason for leading people to death, yes?}]

13) Pi-maat, nam-tor shar-kiht heh besan t'Kahr t'etek shar'tor k'nash-veh.

[Relative (Clan mate?), the safety codes and the plans of our city are safe with me.]

14) Worla fna'nash-veh dungau dular vash.

[Never through me shall you be destroyed. {I struggled with the adjective here, since I couldn’t find a word for 'damaged' or 'destroyed' and didn't want to substitute it with 'unmade'. I settled on using the core of the word destroy, but I'm not certain whether it was the best decision.}]

Original text:

I shall die, but

that is all that I shall do for Death.

I hear him leading his horse out of the stall;

I hear the clatter on the barn-floor.

He is in haste; he has business in Cuba,

business in the Balkans, many calls to make this morning.

But I will not hold the bridle

while he clinches the girth.

And he may mount by himself:

I will not give him a leg up.

Though he flick my shoulders with his whip,

I will not tell him which way the fox ran.

With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where

the black boy hides in the swamp.

I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death;

I am not on his pay-roll.

I will not tell him the whereabout of my friends

nor of my enemies either.

Though he promise me much,

I will not map him the route to any man's door.

Am I a spy in the land of the living,

that I should deliver men to Death?

Brother, the password and the plans of our city

are safe with me; never through me Shall you be overcome.

[reasonsforhope]

"The world’s coral reefs are close to 25% larger than we thought. By using satellite images, machine learning and on-ground knowledge from a global network of people living and working on coral reefs, we found an extra 64,000 square kilometers of coral reefs — an area the size of Ireland.

That brings the total size of the planet’s shallow reefs (meaning 0-20 meters deep) to 348,000 square kilometers — the size of Germany. This figure represents whole coral reef ecosystems, ranging from sandy-bottomed lagoons with a little coral, to coral rubble flats, to living walls of coral.

Within this 348,000 km² of coral is 80,000 km² where there’s a hard bottom — rocks rather than sand. These areas are likely to be home to significant amounts of coral — the places snorkelers and scuba divers most like to visit.

You might wonder why we’re finding this out now. Didn’t we already know where the world’s reefs are?

Previously, we’ve had to pull data from many different sources, which made it harder to pin down the extent of coral reefs with certainty. But now we have high resolution satellite data covering the entire world — and are able to see reefs as deep as 30 meters down.

We coupled this with direct observations and records of coral reefs from over 400 individuals and organizations in countries with coral reefs from all regions, such as the Maldives, Cuba and Australia.

To produce the maps, we used machine learning techniques to chew through 100 trillion pixels from the Sentinel-2 and Planet Dove CubeSat satellites to make accurate predictions about where coral is — and is not. The team worked with almost 500 researchers and collaborators to make the maps.

The result: the world’s first comprehensive map of coral reefs extent, and their composition, produced through the Allen Coral Atlas.

The maps are already proving their worth. Reef management agencies around the world are using them to plan and assess conservation work and threats to reefs...

In good news, these maps are already leading to real world change. We’ve already seen new efforts to conserve coral reefs in Indonesia, several Pacific island nations, Panama, Belize, Kenya and Australia, among others."

-via GoodGoodGood, May 2, 2024

--

Note: You can see the maps yourself by going here!

[lestcat-de-lioncourt]

My 4 year old kid: *walks into the living room, no context* I drew the entirety of the Bahamas on my drawing pad *presents hand drawn map*. This part of it is the closest to Florida. This part is closest to Cuba. And here's another map I drew of the galapagos islands."

I... so, like, this little dude can be my map guy when I obtain my dream pirate ship I've been aiming to obtain since I was 15. I just googled the shape of the galapagos islands, and he's literally drawn it, randomly, out of nowhere. He put his drawn picture on my shoulder he drew as a reference to "help me" search it up on Google as I mentioned I couldn't recall how to spell "galapagos" for sure, so thoughtful! He's teaching me even more than I already know and love about maps and geography, but he has somehow memorises every country and their flags since around June (now October). He can navigate every island nation based on their shape.

We had a map reading session after, as he wanted to introduce some more information after I praised his abundance of knowledge mixed with his capacity for art which I hope to nourish.

"We used to call Australia "Australasia" but we don't anymore" "YES that is the Japanese flag daddy" "This is Madagascar" "My favourite country is Canada but I like them all" "I want to talk about North America and South America" "cuddlesss!!!" "Take a picture of Australia" "This flag is for the Vatican City" "My favourite island is Greenland"

I love you, my lovely genius.

I shared with him that I have been to New Mexico, I asked him to point to where that was, and he did. I showed the finer details that I went particularly to Santa Fe and Albuquerque, and momentarily to the Grand Cayon. I spent more time in Taos Peublo, though and around the area and the mountains and hot springs, though, than I did those places, but those were the ones available to see on this depiction of the world map.

He already adored watching the Albuquerque hot air balloon show way before he knew I went there, same with loving dinosaurs, volcanos, tornados, black holes and a very specific bee game he picked out at a random toy store, a very long time after I stopped having it as a youth. Spooky! Very in sync.