typicallefty

[typicallefty]

Visit Norway!

[typicallefty]

A Curated List Of My Favorite Skeletons (and Skulls!)

We shall start, of course, with the obvious: Stringray!

Followed neatly by pufferfish!

gila monster skull (shh they are sleeping)

moving on to flamingos bc they have so little to work with but they stretch it so far

veiled chameleon skull (plus art by Elena Barbieri so you comprehend the importance of the sclerotic ring bone!) (bc some eyes have bones! some eyes have bones and that is so so valid)

love us a good old-fashioned mole

the tucan, always a fun classic

in conclusion, a few dainty gibbon skeletons to calm you soul, bc why the heck not <3

(yes the last one is a real vintage postcard sold in real Natural History Museum gift shops, before for some reason they reconsidered this marketing decision)

[typicallefty]

this is one of my fav tweets of all time and i think of it everytime i listen 2 the song

[typicallefty]

When farmers protest they often use signs like ZONDER BOEREN GEEN VOEDSEL or similar. Just saw a sign with ZONDER BOEREN GEEN BOERENDOCHTERS and yeah fair point

[typicallefty]

my youngest friend (he turned 1 a few weeks ago) has discovered the joy of blowing bubbles, or rather of other people blowing bubbles for him, and he has a delightful way of expressing his joy re: the sudden appearance of bubbles for no reason other than his amusement. I'll be blowing bubbles for him with the little plastic wand, and he'll reach out his grabby little hands for some and just twist his head around to watch others float away, and after a few bursts of bubbles he'll get overwhelmed with the sheer joy of existing and seeing beautiful things and he'll reach out as if to take the plastic bottle of bubble liquid from me, so I'll twist the lid back on as tight as I possible can because I know that little dude would chug the whole thing if we let him, and then I'll hand him the sealed container and he'll swing it around with delight a few times before thrusting it back toward me or dropping it straight in my lap, so that I can continue to make more bubbles happen to him. and there's just something really beautiful about this guy who has very few ways of expressing himself or communicating his thoughts finding a way to express that he loves this by taking the source of his joy only so he can hand it back to me over and over, to say this is good. good things happen when you have this. let's please keep doing this.

[typicallefty]

This might be the best police blotter I have ever read omg

[typicallefty]

“Shift” (1963) by Bridget Riley ⟲ Black triangles that trick the eye into motion

[typicallefty]

me, unloading a fitted sheet from the dryer: *squinting* what's that you've got in your mouth

fitted sheet: nothing :)))))))

me, prying open its twisted jaws: na-ah!!! give it to me RIGHT now!!

fitted sheet: *resentfully spits out a wad of 3 very damp dishtowels, a pillowcase, and a pathetically sodden washcloth*

[typicallefty]

« The culture of the 21st century – on an increasingly planetary scale – is oriented around the practical principles of utility, effectiveness and impact. The worth of anything – an idea, an activity, an artwork, a relationship with another person – is determined pragmatically: things are good to the extent that they are instrumental, with instrumentality usually defined as the capacity to produce money or things.

[…O]ur culture of instrumentality has settled like a thick fog over the idea that some activities are worth pursuing simply because they share in the beautiful, the good, or the true. No amount of birdwatching will win a person the presidency or a Beverly Hills mansion; making music with friends will not cure cancer or establish a colony on Mars. But the real project of humanity – of understanding ourselves as human beings, making a good world to live in, and striving together toward mutual flourishing – depends paradoxically upon the continued pursuit of what Hitz calls ‘splendid uselessness’.

[…N]ot all useless activity is actually good. Binge-watching television, being hooked on drugs, or spending one’s day doing nothing but eating are useless activities, to be sure. But truly splendid uselessness nourishes and elevates us spiritually, rather than simply providing a rush of mental or bodily pleasure. The output is always more than the input: the contemplation of nature, the joy of music-making, and even the study of mathematics can be rich and ennobling activities that, while also being pleasurable, reward the intellect and the soul. And the more we engage in these kinds of activities, the more we hone our sensibility and capacity for receptivity […].

While rewarding each of us internally, splendid uselessness enriches the world beyond us. Like the fertile soil of a well-kept garden, a life of splendid uselessness provides abundance far beyond one’s immediate aims, […] tends to overflow, to bring more goodness and beauty into being: one good poem can spark a dozen others […]. »

— Joseph M Keegin, "A life of splendid uselessness is a life well lived"

[typicallefty]

Would anyone like some friendly llama kisses in these trying times?

[typicallefty]

Turns out the horsemen of the Apocalypse now prefer to go by Shareholder Profit, Private Equity, Corporate Personhood, and Workforce Optimization.

[typicallefty]

Alright, I think I like tumblr now.

A pun post crossed my dash, and I reblogged it with an equally bad pun in return. A couple of my followers find it funny, it's a good day for everyone.

That was on July 7th.

Virality on Reddit was entirely algorithmic. You could garner a couple crossposts, but the success of a post was entirely dependent on whether or not it hit r/all--the main page of Reddit. If your post does that, it's immediately exposed to 10x the number of people and immediately gets upvoted.

On my pun post, I get a couple reblogs. And those reblogs get a couple reblogs--nobody really adds any content to the post, it just gets a couple reblogs here and there.

There's a specific chain of reblogs that I'd like to focus on. The most popular post on this chain has about 25 reblogs on it. Half the posts have three reblogs or fewer. Five posts in this chain have just one reblog total.

But the reblog chain keeps going. And going. It breaches containment many times over. And finally, after a chain THIRTY SIX posts long, at 9:30 AM, July 22nd this morning, it hits a popular account.

99% percent of the people who have seen the post--virtually unchanged from how it left my dash--have seen it because it was curated by 36 different people. That's insane to me.

None of those 36 people know that they're part of this chain. They saw a post, reblogged it, and moved on. If any one of these people had not reblogged, the post would have a fraction of the impact it has.

And yet, after two weeks, the post has effectively hit the main page of tumblr. It was picked up, only because people liked it enough to show it to their followers. There were no algorithms necessary.

You really, truly, cannot get this on any other website.

[typicallefty]

[typicallefty]

You are a supervillain, and everyone was surprised when you declared another supervillain to be your arch nemesis instead of one of the heroes who constantly thwart your plans.

[typicallefty]

new mouse just dropped

[typicallefty]

yesss im always saying this like sure i can give you logical advice but at the end of the day you can just do what you want to do until youre sick of it. cant move on cant switch gears til youre sick of it so go ahead and indulge

[typicallefty]

You think “oh it would be useful to learn how to identify my thrifted yarn and clothing” and before you know it you’ve been recruited by fiber witches giving out their spells willy nilly, again