#national level

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

[great-and-small]

One of my absolute favorite art/science collaborations in the world is a project by National Geographic and photographer Joel Sartore called the Photo Ark. The ark is a 25 year project with the goal of photographing every animal species in human care, with the hopes of saving as many endangered species as possible. The Ark turned 18 years old today and they’ve just photographed their 16,000th animal- the Santa Cruz long-toed salamander!

I really recommend any animal lovers or photography enthusiasts learn about this project and follow photographer Joel Sartore on this journey. He does an incredible job of highlighting lesser known species and his skill as an artist is staggering. The behind the scenes process of how he gets these shots of such a wide variety of species is always a technical marvel.

Also worth noting that if you’re an artist ever in need of reference photos for an obscure animal species, this is a great resource where you can look up high quality images by species name! Anyone looking to decorate their home with a focus on biology art can purchase beautiful animal prints while supporting conservation.

Here are some of my favorite shots over the years to celebrate the Ark’s birthday!

[jigsawabacustraining]

Abacus improves Math skills abacus offline & online class, abacus learning center provide all level abacus classes, also provide abacus franchise business -jigsaw abacus 

[jacketpotatoo]

The thematic implications of Caitlyn transitioning from solely a sharpshooter, to learning the ropes of hand-to-hand combat, and how it follows her growing distrust in Ambessa. If the weapon is a reflection of mentality, it prefigures Cait's mental expansion - away from narrow-minded thinking and acting from a distance. Instead of tackling from afar, she melds her skills in accuracy and deduction *with* close-up action. This is her power play. "Vision" is cait's strength (as opposed to "Might" and "Guile" and "Sacrifice") and Ambessa qualifies this with the phrase "tunnels in your eyes". Ironically, she trains Caitlyn and literally gives her the tools to pull away from her rifle-mindset. In teaching her how Noxus views strength, she offers her the keys to dismantle it

[munchiep]

This is how the encounter went, in my mind :)

(based on this post)

[hendolish]

SORRY?!

[whirlwindofcomplications]

TELL ME I'M YOUR NATIONAL ANTHEM.

I. excerpts from a book I'll never write #56, @blossomfully

II. desperation sits heavy on my tongue, @tullipsink

III. brute: poems - emily skaja

IV. "everything all of it," in 'then the war' - carl phillips

V. susan jeffers

VI. radical feminist therapy: working in the context of violence - bonnie burstow

for @gayferrari - everything always comes back to michael

[cienie-isengardu]

Zuko and Azula in "The Beach"

Lately I think a lot about "The Beach" episode [x], especially about this small detail of great teamwork Zuko and Azula have during the game.

Zuko is looking ahead, directly facing their rivals (who had the control of the ball at this moment) but his body is clearly lowered to the ground, left hand most likely touching the ground, legs bent and widely spaced - a clear contrast to Mai standing near and how he stood before on two separate occasions

which is why I think Zuko willingly create an opportunity for Azula, so she could jump higher - something she definitely used to their team’s advantage. If Azula simply jumped on her brother’s back when he wasn’t expecting it or wasn’t ready, he would probably just fall face down from the impact but as the scene shows, he had no such problem nor was angry about it in the following scenes.

During the game sequences there was no dialogue shown between our protagonists, so it is hard to determine if Azula in advance called Zuko to give her a “lift” or Zuko offered on his own, or did they were that much in sync they just acted without thinking. Regardless I like this few seconds long interaction, because for me it implies how they trusted each other despite all the rivalry and bitterness from previous episodes. Like Zuko trusted Azula won’t use that moment to hurt/humiliate him by overuse of force, the same as Azula trusted in Zuko’s strength and that he won’t mess up by losing his balance. It is a small thing but no less sweet to see them working well together when fighting for the same goal - what reminds me a bit their teamwork from the previous season finale.

Interestingly, it was also the second time Zuko assisted Azula in scoring against their rivals while not scoring himself any point on screen. The first time happened almost right at the beggining of the game (second from total five sequences)

while each girl have the solo sequence of winning a point:

Azula's first attack,

later Ty Lee landing on the net

and Mai kicking the ball (and presumably scoring)

while Zuko’s two actions are shared only with his younger sister while there is no sense of competition between the siblings, something contrasting a lot with some previous and later episodes.

Azula is bossy and competitive through most of the episode and her brother lets her be that without a complaint. Azula and Zuko get along pretty well and A) do not argue (with the exception of the campfire scene and then they argue not even for the whole scene itself) and B) don't get on each nerves the way they do in the palace, with Ozai's presence looming in the back of their mind. I absolutely adore this episode, as it humanizes all our Fire Nation characters by showing them as teenagers outside the war zone but also giving us a bit of insight into what Azula and Zuko could be if Ozai didn't pit them against each other. And they could be a great team!

[thegrlwthesytat2]

Happy National Relaxation day brought to you by the master of chill 😎

[angel---eater]

tbh the whitest trolls to me are the zahhaks and the makaras bc of what kind of internet-people equius and gamzee represented at the time. juggalo culture is predominantly white working class folks or white folks on the poverty line, and in the US bc of segregation, that meant a lot more mixing of cultures than you see in middle class and up areas. its the same with canada and the UK. so you see a lotta black influences in there bc of how US class structures have been constructed. its a melting pot made by and for the working class. a lotta irl juggalo stuff is pretty chill from what ive heard? as a movement they want to demolish class heirarchy and build community. ofc theres room for abuse in the lifestyle though, thats not unique to juggalos. gamzee as a rich white boy living a juggalo lifestyle but not getting it right and actually reinforcing what irl juggalos fight against makes perfect sense for his character

equius on the other hand is like belligerently Hegemonic White Cis Dude coded to me. he represents young white cis boys on the precipice of falling into the manosphere pipeline, imo. specifically bc theyre lonely and insecure. his spot on the hemospectrum is perfect for breeding that shit. he's been told his whole life that hes better than most of the ppl he knows. hes higher up caste wise than most of his friends, particularly nepeta, but still feels inferieor to his friends who ARE higher up than he is, which is what sparks that hyperspecfic brand of insecurity in white cis boys. their only real problem is that someone else whos even more priviledged is looking down on them. and gamzee also being white just kind of compounds that bc of the sense of 'competition' between white guys or whatever, to be The Whitest Squarest* Guy who is On Top (haha) Of All Other White Square Guys

everyone else? nah. its so obviously not whats happening. which really just highlights the fact that large swaths of fandom still believe that white is default in terms of character design. and its insane to me how ppl can say w/ their whole chest that the hemospectrum has nothing to do w/ race, its just abt class, when racism and class are intrinsically tied. like theyre horrible twin sisters, man, you cant rlly have one without the other. enforced class models in society dont work unless theres someone up top deeping someone else Deserving of having less bc theyre not the exact same type of person as them

*using the term Square here not to denote any kind of 80s movie nerddom but to try to describe hegemonically cishet (and homogenized white) normies who are toxic abt it and think everyone else should be like them

[suntails]

idolatry

[humming-fly]

This 4th of July I’m stealing the patriotism euphoria that’s usually associated with assholes idolizing the worst attributes of this country because fuck ‘em I live here too and remembering the things this country actually got Right is an important exercise when trying to rally anyone to want to defend it in November SO putting my money where my mouth is I’ll start easy and say I really like National Parks!! It’s rad how many of them there are and how they’re actual set up to preserve some of the most beautiful wild areas in our country while still letting people visit to enjoy and experience nature!! (Less important but I love how they put national parks on the quarters I think that’s real fun)

Feel free to add on if something speaks to ya!

[thefabelmans2022]

so like. oliver wants power and privilege, right? we all understand that, okay? good. oliver was born into relative privilege as the son of a middle class family who gets into the most prestigious university in the world. he will probably get a good job and make money and become upper middle class. he'll retain his relative privilege and probably get to exercise power over working class and poor people. but that's not enough. he's not the most privileged, the most powerful. he's surrounded by people who are of a higher social class than he is and they're beautiful and magnetic and they'll never have to work a single day in their lives and neither will their children or their children's children all because their great great great great great great great times seventeen grandfather owned the land where serfs farmed and then his great great something grandkids invested the inheritance in the colonies and the slave trade and now they do nothing but they're always the most powerful person in the room. that's the kind of person oliver is surrounded by at oxford and ESPECIALLY at saltburn, and no matter how much money he eventually makes the only land his family owns is a two storey house in the north of england. he wants that kind of power and privilege and it is completely unattainable except through birth. is that clear now or

[mariacallous]

Leftists blaming Biden for not being able to pardon Marcellus Williams are stupid enough, but people blaming Harris are straight up remedial. Open the fucking schools!

People understanding or caring about federalism and the distinction between federal crimes and pardons and state crimes and pardons is apparently a high bar.

[rotzaprachim]

a longer analysis needed maybe but I think we’re giving too much moral credit to white supremacists and white nationalists when we say thing like “it’s just a fight if they hate Jews or Muslims more.” They hate us both and in neither interchangeable nor neatly separable ways, just like how antisemitism and Islamophobia are neither interchangeable nor fully separable and deeply racialized ideologies that often get misunderstood as simply “religious.” What they’re actually doing is making strategic decisions about the political capital they can use. Can someone be radicalized in a given moment against Muslims, or against Jews? What is the best way to advance our movement? Can we push a broad platform of hatred towards jihadi terrorists who are going to invade western society, or get people worked up about the Zionist deep state globalists who control our government from within? What is the most effective way to radicalize someone into not only hatred but the idea entire ethnic and religious groups are at the root of all our social problems and that the nation - or the world - would be better without them? Do not assume innocence. And furthermore, do not assume you are safe from their schema of who the world would be better without, even if they aren’t saying your name, right now

[perplexingly]

Me and who