throwitonthepile

[throwitonthepile]

[throwitonthepile]

[throwitonthepile]

The gelatin in film stock was made from the hide, bones, cartilage, ligaments, and connective tissue of calves (considered the very best), sheep (less desirable), and other animals who passed through the slaughterhouse. Six kilograms of bone went into a single kilogram of gelatin. Eventually, the demands of photographic industries generated so much need for animal byproducts that slaughterhouses became integrated into the photographic production chain. Controlling the supply chain became key to Kodak's success. In 1882, as Kodak began to grow as a company, widespread complaints of fogged and darkened plates stopped production. The crisis almost ruined Kodak financially and resulted in the company tightly monitoring the animal by-products used in gelatin. Decades later, a Kodak emulsion scientist discovered that cattle who consumed mustard seed metabolized a sulfuric substance, enhancing the light sensitivity of silver halides and enabling better film speeds. The poor-quality gelatin in 1882 was due to the lack of mustard seeds in the cows' diet. The head of research at Kodak, Dr. C. E. Kenneth Mees, concluded, "If cows didn't like mustard there wouldn't be any movies at all." By controlling the diet of cows who were used to make gelatin, Kodak ensured the quality of its film stock. As literary scholar Nicole Shukin reflects, there is a "transfer of life from animal body to technological media." The image comes alive through animal death, carried along by the work of ranchers, meatpackers, and Kodak production workers.

—Siobhan Angus, Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography

[throwitonthepile]

sometimes i think about how i’ve effectively dug myself a grave with this blog. half my internet presence is about being queer and ukrainian, famously two things russia hates the most.

if trump proceeds with the “peaceful negotiations” that happen without ukraine even present, if he pushes to implement another leader in ukraine (meaning, of course, a pro-russian puppet) and makes my country a quote unquote neutral territory, it obviously means occupation. when there are bombs over my head, i’m at least an abstract target, i can rely on luck not to get hit. if russians come to power tho? i’m toast.

i wish i was exaggerating, but this is already happening to people in occupied parts of the country. those who had social media posts in ukrainian, about queer rights, etc. are being seeked out and threatened. my acquaintance was once on call with her friend on crimea, who had weird noises in the background. when questioned, she casually said that they were coming from russian police beating her neighbour for listening to ukrainian music.

i constantly hear from people who miraculously left the occupied territories how they had to delete everything from their phones, because russian soldiers would do random phone searches — both just on the street or when a person tries to leave the occupied city. it’s not uncommon that people get shot over it.

everything about “peaceful negotiations” and “compromises”, trading “land for a peace agreement” promises me a death sentence

[throwitonthepile]

I know it's hard to do so when you've dedicated so much time to leftist movements and found a community that's helped you and some others thrive, but you HAVE to criticize the left when it is failing groups of people. And it is 100000000% failing Jews.

Almost every single non-Jewish activist who usually posts about tragedies when they happen to numerous other marginalized groups has remained silent about the recent news about the Bibas family. Most have been entirely silent about October 7th. Even this post will likely be reblogged/liked by 95% Jews.

All your Jewish friends could have been born Israeli. It's entirely dependent on where their ancestors fled to. Half of the world's ENTIRE Jewish population lives in Israel. And you- no matter what group you belong to- could have been born Israeli. You might be in denial about it, but it's true. Anyone of us could have been born anywhere.

I roll my eyes when "I'd totally punch a nazi!" activists complain about Elon Musk maybe doing a nazi salute, yet never post about what Jews have been mourning for over a year now. Their words are empty. Elon is easy to criticize because he is a douchebag who is rightfully hated by the left. You risk no real social consequences for your posts about him. You are not a social justice advocate- you are a coward.

But what kind of world are we living in where anyone in any movement claiming to be about "justice" feels they are risking social consequences for posting about Jews who were murdered due to being Jews? Fearing your "comrades" scolding you for posting against antisemitism? They have some big antisemitism problems to deal with. Are you willing to confront them about it?

Fearing social consequences for speaking up about suffering Palestinians and suffering Israelis are two sides of the same coin of extremism. I always wonder if my posts really get through to anyone, or if I'm mostly screaming into the void. Will this post affect you? Or will you just go "ah that's kinda sad idk" and move on?

It's time to have some tough conversations with people you might be afraid to get into them with. Are you going to be a true ally to Jews or not? Are you going to fix your activist spaces to be ones centered around the principles of justice and equality? Or are you going to ignore it and claim you're not antisemitic? Because Jews have seen where indifference and denial leads to before. Spoiler alert: it's horrific.

[throwitonthepile]

[throwitonthepile]

A Tiger and His Boy

[throwitonthepile]

A company making wooden wind turbine blades has successfully tested a 50-meter-long prototype that’s set to debut soon in the Indian and European markets.

Last year, the German firm Voodin successfully demonstrated that their laminated-veneer timber blades could be fabricated, adapted, and installed at a lower cost than existing blades, while maintaining performance.

Now, Voodin has announced a partnership with the Indian wind company Senvion to supply its 4.2-megawatt turbines with these wooden blades for another trial run.

Wind power has accumulated more than a few demerit points for several shortfalls in the overall industry of this fossil-fuel alternative.

Some of these, such as the impact on bird life, are justified, but none more so than the fact that the turbine blades are impossible or nearly impossible to recycle, and that they need to be changed every 25 years.

Wind turbine blades are made from a mixture of glass and carbon fiber heated together with sticky epoxy resin, and these materials can’t be separated once combined, which means they go into landfills or are incinerated when they become too battered to safely operate.

GNN has reported that folks will occasionally find second-life value in these giant panels, for example in Denmark where they are turned into bike shelters. In another instance, they’re being used as pedestrian bridges.

But there are way more wind turbine blades being made every year than pedestrian bridges and bike shelters, making the overall environmental impact of wind power not all green.

“At the end of their lifecycle, most blades are buried in the ground or incinerated. This means that—at this pace—we will end up with 50 million tonnes of blade material waste by 2050,” Voodin Blade Technology’s CEO. Mr. Siekmann said recently. “With our solution, we want to help green energy truly become as green as possible.”

The last 15 years have seen rapid growth in another industry called mass timber. This state-of-the-art manufacturing technique sees panels of lumber heat-pressed, cross-laminated, and glued into a finished product that’s being used to make skyscrapers, airports, and more.

At the end of the day though, mass timber products are still wood, and can be recycled in a variety of ways.

“The blades are not only an innovative technological advancement but a significant leap toward sustainable wind production,” said Siekmann, adding that this isn’t a case of pay more to waste less; the blades cost around 20% less than carbon fiber.

Additionally, the added flexibility of wooden blades should allow for taller towers and longer blades, potentially boosting the output of turbine by accessing higher wind speeds.

Now partnered with Voodin, Senvion will begin feasibility analysis in the next few months, before official testing begins around 2027.

[throwitonthepile]

another one is "calling a point of view 'the truth' is a power play" i.e. "many truths exist, but i choose to echo the one i want to be real"

It's jarring when you realize, and remember

There are people that treat getting support for their side, issue or whatever as indistinguishable from just getting hype, or propaganda repeating support. They genuinely do not understand the process by which distributing facts and truth matters, and appear to just believe the ritual act or the saturation of Their Opinion magically transforms the masses into repeating what they say, and therefore, They Become Right(tm)

It's horrifying when they just throw that all out, because it says they believe truth is irrelevant in the face of the desires of the people determining priority and values. That all you need to be right is a bigger podium, a louder megaphone and the ability to silence opposition, whether what they say is truth or false in the face of whatever THEIR side believes.

This is not an anti-left or right musing. It's anti-authoritarian. It's anti-social constructionist. It's anti people that believe that the masses around them are just blank slates- tabula rasa- to reshape with repeating a narrative or a platitude to try to make it true and operating policy, whether or not it's actual true or functional. They don't care about reality, they care about the mechanism to manipulate the thoughts and behaviors of the masses around them.

Such people are never to be trusted, because they would cooperate with any censorship campaign so long as it obeyed their tenets of morals.

The reason you distribute information is to distribute the truth. But those that take a hard stance that, "truth doesn't exist," or "truth is subjective" about everything, or those that are just straight up sociopaths, will argue they still have a right to do it if it gets them what they want; which, they believe, is what's right.

And it's how you can spot people trying to feed you a romantic vision, because they will insist on repeating the message, and making it look as organic as possible. Because psychologically, you look around you to see what your peers are doing, and if everybody else is thinking it, and you aren't, "maybe the problem is you."

This conventional wisdom ignores the fact that we have college educated manipulators and schemers capitalizing on this specifically to MAKE whatever they want a new normal and impose it from the astroturf, disguised as the grass roots.

[throwitonthepile]

scientists in the 1990s, putting a Get More Purple gene attached to a harmless plant virus into an already purple petunia: please get more purple

the petunia, sensing an apparent honest to god Get More Purple Disease, using the previously undiscovered RNAi antiviral ability to shut down all other purple genes along with it just in case: you put VIRUS in petunia? you infect her with the More Purple?? oh! oh! her children shall bloom white! jail for mother, jail for mother for One Thousand Years!!!!

[throwitonthepile]

the way the ipad has undone literal decades of tech literacy is actually unforgiveable

[throwitonthepile]

reminder that digital libraries aren’t owned, also why pirating digital content is a necessity

[throwitonthepile]

[throwitonthepile]

i got vertigo just looking at it, thanks

Farmhouse stairs. What a configuration.