#all three images were in the submission and i don't know the sources of the other two but the 1st happened to be on wikipedia

[critter-creature-or-beast]

Submitted for classification by @mc-cookies

"have you done a poll for anomalocaris canadensis? this weird prehistoric lad from the cambrian explosion, who was one of the first apex predators to subsist primarily on other animals, and all around a silly fellow"

Image 1 - By Junnn11 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

[best-non-english-word-torunament]

Statistics time!

So, I was procastrinating on finishing up the word descriptions (only 14 left!) and decided to do some statistics on the submitted words instead. I was expecting a lot of Indo-European languages and languages spoken in Europe, which was true. This is a bit sad, since most people on tumblr have the most exposure to Indo-European languages and I wanted to show more diversity. There is diversity, don't get me wrong, it's just heavily skewed. Let's look at some statistics! Image ID:s are in alt text.

As you see, over half of the languages are Indo-European, and three more are creoles where vocabulary is based mostly on Indo-European languages. LSF-ish is a sign language family! There are still 12 language families in 64 words, that's pretty good work!

This chart only showed languages, so let's look at the distribution of words over languages instead. The staples are colour coded with the same key as the last diagram to show language family. The order is different because I had sorted them by area instead of family

Based on this the distribution looks a little bit better: many of the Indo-European ones only have one submission while several languages from other families have more submissions. Six of the seven languages with four submissions are still Indo-European though.

Let's take a closer look at the Indo-European ones!

Only two of them are from the Indo-Aryan branch which makes up the majority of the Indo-Iranian branch, aka the Indo-European languages outside of Europe. Fun fact: Out of the 582 Indo-European languages, 320 of them belong to the Indo-Iranian branch. That is the majority. Why don't we talk about them more? (The answer is eurocentrism. Seriously, I knew they existed but not that they were this many until I started studying linguistics. The MAJORITY of the language family presented as the European one are spoken outside of Europe).

There are 8 Germanic languages in the tournament. This isn't that weird since they apparently make up 18% of Indo-European languages. I didn't know that until I made the maths right now, that's wild.

The Slavic branch is number two, but since they barely make up 4% of Indo-European languages it's a massive overrepresentation. I did not think there was such a big difference between Germanic and Slavic languages. For comparison, Romance languages make up 13%.

While still speaking of the Indo-European languages, is it a big family comparatively? According to Glottolog it's the third largest after Atlantic-Congo languages (1406 languages) and Austronesian languages (1271 languages). Notice how 587 is a much lower number? Anyway, most language families are much smaller so it's a big one.

Ethnologue on the other hand, says that Indo-European languages are number five on the list with 448 languages, after Niger-Congo languages (same as Atlantic Congo), Austronesian languages, Trans-New Guinea languages and Sino-Tibetan languages. Remember that post on what's a language and what's a dialect? This is an example of that, except that it also begs the question of how much proof you need to say a language belongs to a certain family. For example, the Trans-New Guinea family has many languages/language groups that might belong to it but linguists disagree or have too little proof. It's complicated. Honestly, I trust Glottologue more on this, it has sources and a focus on family classification.

Onto other subjects, namely geographical areas: We have established that there are lots of Indo-European languages here. But how about geographical distribution?

54% of languages in the tournament are spoken in Europe. Note that I've classified Portugese as spoken in America in this case, since the words were in the Brazilian Portugese dialect. Almost half the languages aren't spoken in Europe though, so that's still pretty good.

Unless? Let's compare this to data on the distribution of all languages and the distribution of population, data blatantly stolen from my professor's powerpoint:

Yeah. 4% of languages are spoken in Europe, yet 54% of languages in this tournament are from there. I miss African languages in particular, they make up 30% and yet there's only one in the poll (which is extra sad because many are very interesting linguistically speaking). There are also fewer Asian languages than one would suspect based on both number of languages and people. The American number needs comment too: only one of the languages in question is native american (Would that still be a correct term for a language in today's Mexico?).

Another interesting thing about the later two diagrams is Oceania: 1% of the population and 19% of the languages. At least half of New Guinea (Papua New Guinea, the Indonesian half might count as Asia?) should be included in that number, which can be part of why it skyrockets. 1050 of the world's 6500-7500 languages one one island (and the smaller islands surrounding it), most of the languages small. It's a fascinating place.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the statistical analysis! This was not meant as an attack on anyone who submitted Indo-European or European words since many of them are banger words, it was merely an observation of an expected outcome, based on the fact that the tumblr userbase is largely Western, so of course European languages will be the native language of many and overrepresented in submissions. Procastrination done, please tell me what you thought

[poisonappletales]

@automaticcheesecakenacho's Valentines + White Day Replies [1/5]

@automaticcheesecakenacho submitted the following Valentines:

She also wrote:

The first collection of Valentines (#1-10) are for you Crown Ruler and it spells out "Beauty And The War X Playing Pieces Happy Valentine's Day." Hope that's ok~ After sharing all of the first collection of Valentines, I will share the second collection of Valentines where it's to each of the same characters that I sent to last year. I apologize that I do not know how to share the 10 Valentine images here at the same time, but I did create a Tumblr post showcasing the 10 Valentine images (only for the first collection). I tried to include the URL share link under "insert/edit image" but in case it doesn't work in the submission form, here it is: 

Link: https://www.tumblr.com/automaticcheesecakenacho/741161330475679744/hi-world-its-been-a-while-since-i-posted?source=share

Here is Part 1 of the First Valentine Collection and it spells out "Beauty."

She also wrote:

Please refer to the first submitted Valentine collection description for information. This is part 2 of the first Valentine collection for Crown Ruler and this one spells out "And." (I forgot to mention for both the first Valentine collection and the second Valentine collection that I had a picture of Thunder that you drew last year hidden in all the Valentine grams as like a "Can you spot Thunder?" sort of mini game that I did for fun 😊) 

She wrote:

Part 3 of the first Valentine collection to Crown Ruler and this one spells out "The." 

She wrote:

Part 4 of the first Valentine collection to Crown Ruler and this one spells out "War." (W - Wind; A - Arsenik; R in Rosemary) 

She wrote:

Part 5 of the first Valentine collection to Crown Ruler and this one spells out "X" in "X Playing Pieces" 

She wrote:

Part 6 of the first Valentine collection to Crown Ruler and this one spells out "Playing" (P - poison, L - link, A - Arsenik, Y - you, I as in myself, N in Onyx, G for Grant) 

---

The boys' response:

"That is some recipe, Imugi. I shudder to think of you garnishing a corpse with a package of ramen noodles."

"If a Vi body can't be found, a Hulder substitute will suffice."

"You should definitely work out after a meal."

"Shouldn't you work out before a meal?"

"Well, if you were to work out after a full meal, you should wait two to three hours. But it's okay to do something light, like taking a walk. It's actually better for you!"

[sarcastically] "Thanks for the fitness advice nobody asked for."

[teasingly] "It's not what was asked for, but it's what was needed. ♥ And Sir Wind, you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to cook a dead body!"

"Who says it's cooked?"

"Sir Wind, you should be ashamed of yourself for trying to cook a raw body!"

"If you ask me, an Onyx kick is a pretty light stretch, right?"

[muttering] "Speak for yourself! I'm not doing them!"

"I don't want to do any of these because I don't like their names. I don't want to wave at Alexandrite!"

"Oh no. I'm starting to have a craving for ramen now."

"Oh, so now you want what I'm cooking."

"Um...hold everything but the ramen, please. Thank you."

[andersunmenschlich]

An excellent example of how evangelical propaganda works.

This claim is blatantly ridiculous on the face of it—to those who know anything about either 1) fetal development, or 2) the stages at which most abortions take place, or 3) what the donation and use of fetal tissue actually looks like.

The target for this propaganda, therefore, is "people who know nothing about any of those three things."

Everyone starts ignorant. There's no shame in that. The shame is in using people's lack of knowledge against them; in selling them lies to justify taking away their freedoms.

Most of my readers are now thinking, "But Isaiah, even if I didn't know anything about fetal development, when almost all non-emergency abortions happen, or how fetal tissue donation works, I still wouldn't take a claim like that at face value.

"It's so extreme. Where's the evidence? I'd have to look into it before I believed!"

That's very rational of you.

But what if your rationality had been deliberately derailed by things like, say, a set of deceptively edited and presented videos that claimed to show Planned Parenthood using pregnant people as a source for immensely valuable teeny-tiny, adorable baby parts that these baby-killers then sold to the highest bidder?

No, I know. That's an even more extreme claim, requiring even more evidence to support it—but if you're upset enough even questioning the claim feels like siding with the (imaginary) monsters you've just been presented.

This is how evangelical propaganda works.

If they can sell you a lie with high emotional impact, they can get you to agree with the lie even when it's presented with low emotional impact: your brain's now primed to provide the rationality-derailing emotion all by itself.

Facts don't care about your feelings—and your feelings don't care about facts. That's very useful for a propagandist.

In this way, they can force pregnancy onto people who don't want it (either because they never intended to be pregnant or because being pregnant is threatening their health, life, future fertility, etc).

Why would they want to do that?

How, you wonder, could these people possibly benefit by taking such an essential freedom—the ability to control your own body—away from so many Americans?

Well.

Being pregnant has many physical downsides. On the more obvious side of things, it's difficult to work while something's growing inside you: decreased energy levels alone can take you out of the workforce, even without the more flu-like symptoms (and, of course, the assumption that you shouldn't be earning money to live while pregnant).

This makes a pregnant person more likely to end up dependent on a non-pregnant person: typically someone who can't get pregnant, and so doesn't have to worry about accidentally getting knocked up.

And now this person essentially owns you.

You have no (or very little) money. You can't get money (at least, not much of it).

And when your pregnancy reaches full term and the new human tears their way out through your most sensitive bits, you can either dump the child on an already overwhelmed foster system… or rely on the person with the financial power even more than you already were.

Evangelical Christians love that.

Coverture is one of their favorite things. They hate that it's been eroded over the years, and love every bit of it that remains.

A woman (by which they mean something like 'someone whom I, as a man, find sexy and think ought to be able to bear my children') should be subordinate to her husband, obeying him as the church obeys Christ.

They love women like that—that is, women who are sweet, submissive bits of breeding stock that they get to own and control.

Which is fine for everyone who's into that kind of BDSM.

The thing is, evangelical Christians have a sincerely held belief that everyone ought to be into their specific 24/7 BDSM kink—their deity demands it, they believe, and it wouldn't be kind of them to let people who aren't into that dynamic live their whole lives outside it.

The god they worship might torture you forever if you don't conform, after all. How hateful would they have to be to want that for you?

So they must control your body.

They must force you to stay pregnant.

They must take away your freedom and force you to participate in their kink.

Yes, even those few who haven't fallen for their own lies re: fetal development—even they will insist that it's totally moral to force someone to donate their entire body to a nascent potential human, suffering permanent damage as a result… because they genuinely believe the end result will be good for everyone involved.

And so they'll tell lies like the one above.

And people who have never looked into the facts around pregnancy and abortion will fall for them.

— A few references for the intellectually curious.

Fetal development:

"Prenatal development is a continuum, with no clear defining feature distinguishing an embryo from a fetus. However, in general a fetus is characterized by the presence of all the major body organs, though they will not yet be fully developed and functional, and some may not yet be situated in their final anatomical location. In human prenatal development, fetal development begins from the ninth week after fertilization (which is the eleventh week of gestational age) and continues until the birth of a newborn." Fetus, Wikipedia

A human fetal lung at 14 weeks of gestation https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/150716160004-restricted-fetal-lung.jpg?q=x_4,y_0,h_2038,w_3622,c_crop/h_653,w_1160/f_webp Fetal tissue: How it's used in medical research, CNN [Ah Tumblr, forever you fail me—why is there no image embed option here? Well, copy and paste to see the "lung," interested reader.] .

When most abortions occur:

"In 2020, 80.9% of abortions were performed at ≤9 weeks' gestation, and nearly all (93.1%) were performed at ≤13 weeks' gestation." Abortion Surveillance Summary (2020), CDC

"In 2021, just under half (44.8%) of reported abortions occurred within the first six weeks of pregnancy. Another 36.0% happened between seven and nine weeks, and 12.7% within 10 and 13 weeks. Put another way, 93.5% of reported abortions were performed before two and half months of pregnancy." How far into pregnancy do most abortions happen? by usafacts.org (useful pie chart on linked page) .

What the donation and use of fetal tissue actually looks like:

"Fetal tissue research involves cells from dead fetuses that are harvested for the purpose of establishing cell lines or for use as transplantation material and other purposes. There are two sources of such fetal tissue—elective (or induced) abortions and spontaneous (or natural) abortions.

"…

"Fetal research involves both invasive and noninvasive techniques (some of which are no longer used) and has led to improved techniques of in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer, and to major advances in the diagnosis and treatment of conditions that threaten the survival of fetuses and pregnant women. Some of these include

tests of efficacy of rubella (German measles) vaccine;

detection and treatment of Rh incompatibility (an immune system mismatch between the mother and fetus);

development of diagnostic techniques including amniocentesis, ultrasonography, and chorionic villi sampling;

detection of genetic and metabolic diseases in the fetus and assessment of other developmental problems, including fetal lung immaturity; and

development of better techniques for obstetrical anesthesia and treatment of maternal hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes." Fetal Research and Applications, 1994

"Human fetal tissue is defined as tissue or cells obtained from a dead human embryo or fetus after a spontaneous or induced abortion or stillbirth. This definition does not include established human fetal cell lines. … The statute specifically prohibits any person from knowingly acquiring, receiving, or transferring any human fetal tissue for valuable consideration. The term "valuable consideration" is a concept similar to profit and does not include reasonable payment for costs associated with the collection, processing, preservation, storage, quality control, or transportation of these tissues." NIH Grants Policy Statement .

Some highlights from the making of the deceptive outrage-bait videos:

・Despite Daleiden's three-year effort to entrap Planned Parenthood, he "failed to succeed in convincing even a single affiliate to enter into a procurement contract with his fake company."

・Daleiden offered one Planned Parenthood affiliate $1,600 for two specimens—more than 25 times the amount of expenses affiliates typically recoup—but the affiliate never agreed.

・Planned Parenthood affiliates that participate in fetal tissue research "recover only their costs, as allowed under the federal law and our [Planned Parenthood's] guidance."

・Tissue procurement companies confirm that they reimburse Planned Parenthood only for "reasonable costs," including "processing, preservation, quality control, transportation, and storage."

・Planned Parenthood does not conduct partial birth abortions.

・The first video released by Daleiden intentionally omitted ten instances in which Planned Parenthood's Director of Medical Services, Dr. Deborah Nucatola, unequivocally stated that Planned Parenthood does not profit from tissue donations.

・A forensic analysis of the so-called "full footage" videos found that they still contain "cuts, skips, missing tape, and changes in camera angle," and "numerous intentional post-production edits."

・Daleiden created the Center for Medical Progress in 2013 with the sole purpose of entrapping Planned Parenthood.

And the court case, for those interested in that.

"Defendants [the lying video-makers] also point me to the recordings of Nguyen and Farrell from PPCG as showing evidence of illegal activity. These excerpts were reviewed by the Hon. Donna M. Ryu, who concluded they did not, in fact, contain evidents of actual criminal wrongdoing regarding the sale or transfer of fetal tissue."

TL;DR CMP: These videos show PP doing bad things! Federal Magistrate: [watches them] No they don't. .

"That the HCP videos have led to multiple government investigations (and indeed some criminal pleas from entities who are not parties in this case) does nothing to bring defendants' allegations regarding plaintiffs' illegal or unethical conduct (which, again, have not been substantiated against these plaintiffs) into the sort of 'direct relation' to the causes of actions plaintiffs' assert in this case."

TL;DR CMP: We helped turn up the fact that some other entities are doing bad things, so the people who're harassing and threatening PP employees are doing it because PP is definitely doing bad things! Judge: That's an incredibly stupid argument.

Professor David S. Cohen: Targeted harassment of individual abortion providers and the making of egregious claims against them with the implicit message that something must be done are the tactics that in the past have triggered those on the fringes of the anti-abortion movement to engage in violence. CMP: Shut up shut up shut up!

It's a decent read if you can translate legalese.

🧐🧐

[1t5br1tn3yb1tch-blog]

“Don't matter if I step on the scene or sneak away to the Philippines...”

After her divorce from Federline, Spears explored her new freedom through late nights at clubs, spotted with infamous Hollywood party girl, Paris Hilton. Tabloids would label her as a hot mess and a horrible mother, using photographs of her at her most intoxicated to slander her. The photographers captured her at her most vulnerable–photographing her stepping out of a car commando, carrying her shoes after a long night of partying, and almost dropping her child. Every mistake the twenty-something did was on display for the world to see. Celebrities are products of the culture they are from, representing the ideal citizen. The press was using her as an example of what not to be–how not to be a woman and a mother.

Sean Preston (2006) Splash News

Two of the most popular celebrity gossip blogs, Perez Hilton and TMZ, published photos and stories about Spears almost every day, criticizing and mocking her. Hilton scribbled text across these photos with phrases like “I Miss Rehab,” “Unfit Parent,” and “TRAGIC.” Hilton was notorious for this kind of press in those years, publishing stories about celebrity drug use and despair.

Perez Hilton, Britney is NOT With The Children, 8/22/2007

Tired of all of the cars and cameras following her every move, Spears wanted to take some control back. With the stress of her divorce and custody rights still on her mind, Spears “drove to Esther’s Haircutting Studio and shaved her own head” (5) . When she left the salon, she was followed by paparazzi to a nearby gas station. Spears emerged from her car and attacked a paparazzo with an umbrella. The photos of her, bald and enraged, were memified and spread all over the tabloids and gossip blogs. The photographer, Oliver Mirguet, sold the iconic image of Spears shaving her head for a large sum, reportedly around $300,000 to $500,000. (6) The photographs were plastered all over the gossip blogs she resented, mocking Spears and implying she shaved her head to avoid drug testing. Later on her website, spears wrote “If I were you I’d be unhappy too if I had to read what I’ve been reading every day. But trust me, I get it. I know I’ve been far from perfect and the media has had a lot of fun exaggerating my every move.” (7)

Shaving Her Head (2007), x17online

Attacking the Paparazzi (2007), x17online

This new Britney did not resemble the Britney she was before. This Britney was not going to let the cameras take advantage of her, she wanted to send a message to the celebrity media that she was not going to be the submissive good-girl she used to be. Other celebrities have assaulted paparazzo. Ron Galella, known as America’s first Paparazzo, asked actor Marlon Brando to take off his sunglasses for a photo. Brando “not only refused… but also punched Galella in the jaw,” resulting in the paparazzo losing five teeth. (8) Brando left the assault with an infected fist and a fine of $40,000. The next time Gaella and Brando saw each other, the paparazzo wore a football helmet. The ruthless tactics of these photographers disregards their own safety and the well-being of their subjects.

Currently, there are no set rules or standards for paparazzi, they are only limited to what they, individually, feel comfortable with. (9) Now, paparazzi will chase stars’ cars and run red lights just to get a shot. Some will even travel in packs, surrounding the celebrity’s car and slow down, until they are forced to stop, trapping them in a circle of cameras. Nicole Richie, a reality TV star, got into a car accident when two paparazzi were trying to photograph her and her children in her car. In fear of another accident, she took this issue to court and the two photographers were required to stay at least fifty feet away from the star and her children for three years. The unwritten rules of ethical photography practiced by the older generation of paparazzi has disappeared, as these photographers only want to snap “the one,” make their millions, and retire. The older paparazzi respected the space of the celebrities, giving them privacy during emotional and difficult times, such as hospital visits and funerals. Now, every moment of stars’ lives is for sale. (10)

This is not how celebrity news coverage has always been. Celebrities used to be a part of studio systems, meaning the celebrities would be protected by the company they represented. The studios had a relationship with the media, agreeing to give them news, interviews, and appearances of the stars they represent if they maintain the image of each star set by the studio. If a magazine or columnist “printed bits of unfavorable or unsanctioned,” the studio would cut off information from the magazine. (11) Once the studio system ended, the celebrities were no longer protected as they were before. All of the stars’ secrets were easily accessible to the public; extramarital affairs, homosexuality, and addiction all came to the public eye. As a result, celebrity gossip magazines, such as TMZ were created. Unlike magazines like People or Entertainment Weekly, TMZ was not afraid to spread the worst rumors, slandering the image of even the most angelic stars. In the old system, the studios would have cut off contact with these magazines, but some of these magazines have been funded by the studios representing the stars they slander.

In 2006, Emma Watson, star of the hugely successful Warner Bros. series, Harry Potter, was caught drinking alcohol on vacation while she was below the legal drinking age. Time Warner, who funds TMZ and owns Warner Bros., allowed the gossip source to publish this information because it brought in more money for them, profiting off Watson and the smear. (12) The rise of internet gossip blogs allows these companies to make more money, as these blogs receive thousands of views every week, resulting in more money from advertisers.

         5 “10 Years Later, Britney Spears’ Head-Shaving Moment Is Still Unforgettable | HuffPost.”

     6 Chéroux, Clément, Paparazzi! Photographers, Stars, Artists. 56

     7 “Britney Spears Goes Bald | PEOPLE.Com.”

     8 Murray, “Keeping the Paparazzi an Arm’s Length Away.”

     9 Chéroux, 36

     10 Murray

     11 Peterson, Anne Helen, “Smut Goes Corporate.”

     12 Ibid.