#Subsist Records

[stardust-bridges]

Club Furies Premiere: Nicolò Bernardi - Silent Intention [Subsist Records]

One of our favorite platforms presents the next volume of one of its Various Artists series. Subsist Records presents the fourth volume of its Visionworks series. Initiated at the beginning of last year, when the first two volumes were released, this year the second two are here. Coordinated by Mr. Tron, this time it is ten songs from ten different artists from around the world. The sound is…

[blastdamage]

does my brother in law really have to fuckig post selfies with the deer he just killed jfc 💔💔💔

[batboyblog]

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #38

Oct 11-18 2024

President Biden announced that this Administration had forgiven the student loan debt of 1 million public sector workers. The cancellation of the student loan debts of 60,000 teachers, firefighters, EMTs, nurses and other public sector workers brings the total number of people who's debts have been erased by the Biden-Harris Administration using the Public Service Loan Forgiveness to 1 million. the PSLF was passed in 2007 but before President Biden took office only 7,000 people had ever had their debts forgiven through it. The Biden-Harris team have through different programs managed to bring debt relief to 5 million Americans and counting despite on going legal fights against Republican state Attorneys General.

The Federal Trade Commission finalizes its "one-click to cancel" rule. The new rule requires businesses to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up for it. It also requires more up front information to be shared before offering billing information.

The Department of Transportation announced that since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration there are 1.7 million more construction and manufacturing jobs and 700,000 more jobs in the transportation sector. There are now 400,000 more union workers than in 2021. 60,000 Infrastructure projects across the nation have been funded by the Biden-Harris Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Under this Administration 16 million jobs have been added, including 1.7 construction and manufacturing jobs, construction employment is the highest ever recorded since records started in 1939. 172,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during the Trump administration.

The Department of Energy announced $2 billion to protect the U.S. power grid against growing threats of extreme weather. This money will go to 38 projects across 42 states and Washington DC. It'll upgrade nearly 1,000 miles worth of transmission lines. The upgrades will allow 7.5 gigawatts of new grid capacity while also generating new union jobs across the country.

The EPA announced $125 million to help upgrade older diesel engines to low or zero-emission solutions. The EPA has selected 70 projects to use the funds on. They range from replacing school buses, to port equipment, to construction equipment. More than half of the selected projects will be replacing equipment with zero-emissions, such as all electric school buses.

The Department of The Interior and State of California broke ground on the Salton Sea Species Conservation Habitat Project. The Salton Sea is California's largest lake at over 300 miles of Surface area. An earlier project worked to conserve and restore shallow water habitats in over 4,000 acres on the southern end of the lake, this week over 700 acres were added bring the total to 5,000 acres of protected land. The Biden-Harris Administration is investing $250 million in the project along side California's $500 million. Part of the Administration's effort to restore wild life habitat and protect water resources.

The Department of Energy announced $900 Million in investment in next generation nuclear power. The money will help the development of Generation III+ Light-Water Small Modular Reactors, smaller lighter reactors which in theory should be easier to deploy. DoE estimates the U.S. will need approximately 700-900 GW of additional clean, firm power generation capacity to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Currently half of America's clean energy comes from nuclear power, so lengthening the life space of current nuclear reactors and exploring the next generation is key to fighting climate change.

The federal government took two big steps to increase the rights of Alaska natives. The Departments of The Interior and Agricultural finalized an agreement to strengthen Alaska Tribal representation on the Federal Subsistence Board. The FSB oversees fish and wildlife resources for subsistence purposes on federal lands and waters in Alaska. The changes add 3 new members to the board appointed by the Alaska Native Tribes, as well as requiring the board's chair to have experience with Alaska rural subsistence. The Department of The Interior also signed 3 landmark co-stewardship agreements with Alaska Native Tribes.

The Department of Energy announced $860 million to help support solar energy in Puerto Rico. The project will remove 2.7 million tons of CO2 per year, or about the same as taking 533,000 cars off the road. It serves as an important step on the path to getting Puerto Rico to 100% renewable by 2050.

The Department of the Interior announced a major step forward in geothermal energy on public lands. The DoI announced it had approved the Fervo Cape Geothermal Power Project in Beaver County, Utah. When finished it'll generate 2 gigawatts of power, enough for 2 million homes. The BLM has now green lit 32 gigawatts of clean energy projects on public lands. A major step toward the Biden-Harris Administration's goal of a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035.

Bonus: President Biden meets with a Kindergarten Teacher who's student loans were forgiven this week

[specialagentartemis]

Also I love when people say "For most of human history, X thing..." because 99% of the time that is just straight up not true. Humans (Homo sapiens I mean) have existed for between 200,000 and 300,000 years. At the very most conservative, humans have been behaviorally and cognitively modern for 50,000-60,000 years. Agriculture was invented 11,000 years ago max.

For most of human history, humans have been hunter-gatherers.

If you say "for most of human history" and do not follow it with something about hunting and gathering, it is just not true.

Post-Neolithic, for most of human history, most humans have been subsistence farmers (except for the ones that stayed hunter-gatherers, which a bunch did, because Neolithic farming was kind of miserable.) If you don't acknowledge subsistence farmers in your analysis of how much and what kind of work people were doing before 1600 or so, you're being disingenuous and doing bad history.

And if you want to talk about the practices of urban populations... that's valuable cross-cultural comparison, but you have to 1) clarify that, and 2) recognize that before maybe the 1700s, urban populations were a very small fraction of the whole population.

And if you argue that "human history" only means the time period that had written records, and anything before that is prehistory and doesn't count, I will graciously acknowledge that definition because it is a commonly used one for sure, and then I will launch into my argument about why I do not think that's a good way of conceptualizing history :P

[screamforyani]

sextape

warnings: smut, fluff, non-gf!au, oral (f receiving), no actual recording in spite of what the title implies

wc. 1.2k

you were officially going to die.

finals were coming up any day now and you’d spent the past couple of days drowning in homework and studying. there was currently no sunlight entering your room, merely the golden-yellowish hue of your lamp as you hurched over your desk, and you no longer felt human. you felt like a zombie. or something that subsisted solely on caffeine and energy drinks.

you jolted when ethan entering your room, but let out a relieved breath when you realized it was just him. he winced. “sorry, i didn’t mean to scare you. did i scare you? i probably scared you.”

you giggled, waving him off. “it’s fine, babe.”

“okay, cool,” ethan said, smiling sheepishly. then, he noticed the music playing from your speakers. “oh, hey. i like this song.”

you glanced over at your speakers, having completely tuned out the sound of the music, until you seemed to finally notice the deftones song playing in the background. “oh, yeah,” you hummed. “it helps me concentrate.”

“songs about sex help you concentrate?” ethan asked, a playful grin on his lips. he almost sounded teasing. 

you rolled your eyes. “it doesn’t matter what the songs about if i’m gonna tune it out anyways.”

“oh,” ethan hummed, seeming to understand. he closed your door behind himself, approaching your desk where you were sitting. “can i help you concentrate?”

“ethan, please,” you grumbled, already seeing where this was going. “all you’re gonna do is distract me.”

ethan kissed your cheek. “would that be all so bad?”

“yes,” you insisted, though when ethan wrapped his arms around your shoulders from behind your chair, you were more than a little tempted to forget the computer and heap of textbooks in front of you. god, he was such a distraction. a great one, actually, at a really awful time. “because you should be studying, too. we have to take the same exam in a week.”

“but you’ve been studying every day for two weeks straight. you need to take a break before you drive yourself crazy. all that thinking isn’t good for your pretty little head,” ethan groaned. his words simultaneously made you chortle and roll your eyes. “and besides, this song really reminds me of you.”

you mocked, “songs about sex remind you of me?”

“maybe,” ethan mumbled.

you spun around in your chair to face your boyfriend, officially distracted (with only him to blame), solely to see his dumb handsome face. you teased, “you’re really cute, you know?”

ethan immediately burst into a grin at the compliment. “you’re cuter.”

“i look like death.”

“maybe i like death.”

you were expecting him to deny it, to insist you were his cute, beautiful girlfriend like he often did, so that response caught you completely off-guard and you snorted. “you’re so weird.”

“you love me,” ethan said, beaming from ear to ear. 

you huffed, “who said that?”

“you.”

“no, i didn’t,” you denied, in spite of knowing it was far from the truth. in your head, memories of late nights spent on the phone with your boyfriend lingered on repeat. the hours ticking close to dawn and the daylight sneaking up on you as you both finally tried to get off the phone and go to bed, though not before issuing another i love you battle. which usually ended in one of you hanging up a billion years later after saying ‘i love you’ in order to get the last word.

“say it,” ethan urged, poking your arm. “say you love me. please?”

with those pretty brown eyes of his, it was impossible to say no. and it was equally impossible to lie to someone who had stolen your heart with those same pair of devilishly beautiful eyes. “i love you so much, ethan.”

“i know,” ethan replied with a giggle. 

and then he kissed you.

you didn’t know how it escalated. one second, you were kissing each other breathless in that chair, and the very next, you were essentially naked on your bed with ethan’s head between your thighs.

“fuck, ethan,” you moaned, tangling your fingers through his dark brown locks of hair. 

ethan loved the feeling of your hands tugging at his hair. he also loved hearing you calling out his name in pleasure, and the taste of you, and how you writhed from sensitivity.

the ocean takes me into watch you shaking

he had already made you cum once by now, but that was ethan. he never wanted to stop making you feel good, never wanted to stop pleasing you. he could eat you out for hours, just because he loved the look of bliss on your face and the euphoria in your shrill, high-pitched cries of his name.

“it’s… it’s too much,” you said, squeezing your eyes closed. your thighs tried to close, too, but ethan’s big hands held them firmly apart. 

“just one more time, baby. please?” he asked, looking at you with those big, brown eyes. “for me?”

fuck, he was irresistible. all you could do was nod your head, whimpering when he smiled and dipped back between your legs.

take me one more time

take me one more wave

take me for one last ride

you were so close to finishing. your second orgasm was right there in arm’s reach, dangled right in front of you, and your body was so sensitive that it couldn’t decide if it was running from its fate or if it wanted more.

moments later, you were cumming, crying out ethan’s name quite loudly (thank god your roommate wasn’t home and wouldn’t be for a while) and you trembled with orgasm, grabbing onto his hair as your vision clouded white for a while. ethan continued to suck at your clit through your high, and it drove you positively insane, all the stress fleeing from your body in numbers.

“holy fucking shit,” you panted when you came down from your high. 

holy fucking shit was right. ethan pulled back from you, lips covered in your arousal. you watched him lick it from the corners of his mouth and the sight drove you absolutely feral. 

“did i do okay?” ethan asked, glancing over at you with doe eyes.

you didn’t answer him, not verbally, just leaping up and swallowing his lips in another kiss. it was heated and passionate, and full of loving, and god was it lustful. it wasn’t long before you were throwing his shirt from above his head and he was holding your thigh as he thrusted inside you. 

the intrusion made both of you moan each other’s name, the pleasure building the deeper he went inside of you, filling you to the hilt. the heat throttled you both, making it harder to breathe, but you didn’t need to breathe as long as you had ethan - as long as you could feel his body on yours.

both of you were skin-on-skin, ethan leaning into you and pressing kisses to your neck and collarbone whilst you threaded your fingers through his hair and tugged just the way you knew he loved it. the room filled with the sound of your soft moans and your hips meeting together in perfect harmony.

the sound of the waves collide

the sound of the waves collide

the sound of the waves collide

tonight

[serpentface]

Ancient funerary cairn mounds in Wardi territories: a post:

The internal structure consists of an above-ground tomb made with bricks or large stone slabs, upon which rocks are piled. Most mounds found in the lowlands also have multiple layers of dirt piled atop, resulting in the mounds becoming covered in grass and appearing as a small unnatural hill. The entrances to the tombs are always sealed with slabs or stacked stone, though the east-facing 'windows' are left open. Pillar shaped cairns were often built on their peaks, though few of these remain standing. If one looked inside, they would find a human body laid on its back with its feet towards the door, and usually at least one khait (tacked with reins and a saddle blanket) buried in there with them. The person would be fully clothed and surrounded by grave goods, sometimes carrying weapons and almost always carrying a torch.

A how a well-preserved mound looks in the present day, with its 'window' still exposed and pillar cairn intact. The stones piled around it is the work of contemporary people, intended (more as a psychological/magical barrier than a physical one) to keep livestock out and ghosts inside.

Burial mounds are associated with one the major prehistoric material cultures found across and beyond the region. Societies that formed cairn-building material culture were probably ancestral to all proto-Wardi peoples, but the practice split and existed concurrently to others as a matter of cultural shifts (most significantly the adoption of khait for highly mobile nomadic pastoralism, with other populations retaining on-foot travel or adopting settled/semi-settled subsistence methods). Khait-nomadic populations retained this cairn grave practice, while others shifted to smaller above-ground tombs located near settlements (and eventually shifted entirely to cremation). As such, cairn mounds can be found everywhere but occur most densely in open grasslands of the interior.

The cairn-building practice gradually diminished and eventually was restricted to a few major groups, some of whom abandoned khait-nomadism while retaining the practice and some of whom even traveled short distances overseas. The last two populations who built cairn graves were clustered in the Highlands and the Elumuqi island chain to the south. The latter went culturally extinct in conflict with early proto-Jazaiti migrants by 2500 years BP, while the former went extinct in the Yellowtail River Valley and northwestern ranges of the Highlands by about ~1700 years BP. Neither was a wholesale extinction of the population itself (members likely abandoned settlements and dispersed elsewheren in small groups, resulting in the final cultural extinction), but both entailed rapid depopulation, and the Highlands remained unusually sparsely inhabited compared to surrounding lowlands when proto-Finnic migrants started arriving a couple centuries later.

The most specific (though heavily mythologized) descriptions of these people in the oral record occur in Jazait and Atig Wermani cultures. In the former, the story of their settlement describes encounters with the fierce people who inhabited the islands and built the cairns. They looked like humans, but were feathered like birds and could transform into albatross to hunt for fish. They would kidnap newborn Jazait children in the night, exsanguinate them atop the cairns to feed their dead in the underworld, and would perform horrible shrieks and screams throughout the process. The early Jazait went to war with the cairn-builders and killed their clanmother, and the rest fled as birds. This story may contain traces of the real people, as the wearing of gull and albatross feathers is likely, and the shrieking Might refer to funerary wailing practices (which are ubiquitous enough among minimally connected peoples west of the Blackmane mountains to be likely Very ancient).

The ancestors of the Atig Wermani story would have encountered their neighboring cairn-builders much more recently (relatively speaking) and their accounts are a little more grounded as a result. It describes them as a people who lived in the Yellowtail River Valley, herding horses, hunting deer, and interring their dead within the cairns. The entire people was cursed by the Yellowtail river itself after their king drowned his own brother within it. The valley was flooded and most of the people drowned. Those who fled up into the hills survived, but were transformed into feydhi khait. The Highland cairn-builders are Exceptionally unlikely to have had any form of monarchy, but the other descriptions of their subsistence may be accurate, and it is almost certain that the feydhi khait landrace largely descends from this people's herds (and were found feral and re-tamed by later proto-Finnic settlers).

---

The consensus on these mounds tends to be that they are Extremely haunted. It's well-known that they're graves, and that they contain bodies that have been left to rot (and thus are assumed to contain trapped earthbound spirits, especially dangerous given their great age). Some taboos regulating behavior around the mounds are near-ubiquitous, such as belief that one should never tread over a mound, point at a mound, or look directly at its window on a moonless night (when earthbound ghosts are considered most active). It's usually difficult to prevent free-ranging livestock from walking on them to graze, and unexplained disappearances from herds are sometimes attributed to the mounds. Other taboos tend to be localized in nature, as a matter of small communities near mounds figuring out how to coexist with the dangerous ghosts.

These tombs are generally left untouched and don't frequently suffer robbery, but are sometimes broken into to exhume and cremate the body and their associated grave goods when the spirit is blamed for grave local misfortune. This is generally considered a desperate measure and very risky maneuver, as chances are very low that earthbound spirits that old can be sent onwards by even by the best of funerals.

[quinnlarrabee]

Macron's fiery Sorbonne speech targets summering American Millennials

It’s no coincidence that Emmanuel Macron gave a fiery speech about the threats facing Europe the same week that American Millennials in New York, LA, and Miami began talking about booking their one-way flights to the continent. "There is a risk our Europe could die - we are not equipped to face the risks," Macron said, referring to the dietary allergies, alternative milk needs, and tedious conversations of trust-funded, unemployed young adults who will begin their summer in Paris to attend a museum benefit that spills into a large dinner party with several professional photographers before traveling to Puglia, Comporta, or Ibiza where they will subsist on ‘beautiful tomatoes,’ flat whites, and MDMA. 

Europe has struggled with illegal immigration for decades, and there is no more pressing illegal immigration threat than American Millennials who have decided that being unemployed in Europe is less distressing for their parents than being unemployed in Williamsburg. Google searches for ‘how long can I stay in EU without passport’ spiked in late-April among Americans who have not yet bought a Portuguese passport from a guy who used to run a turnkey Burning Man camp who is now running a Golden Visa scheme in Lisbon. “Our Europe today is mortal,” Macron said. “It can die and that depends solely on our choices,” the choices being whether or not to search and detain for ketamine at customs and how to clearly define tipping protocol in restaurants. 

“It used to be enough to spend a couple weeks in Italy in July,” observes Coco, a 34-year-old retired gallery founder who is on the board of several art-related non-profits that she instructed her unpaid interns to start. “But now it gets so hot in Europe in July that everyone is going in June and even like, May.” Coco has several weddings and dinner parties in various coastal destinations in Europe in June, but she has not yet RSVP’d nor has she booked any travel. “I know I’m going to go, but I’ve just been too busy to look at the dates or book anything,” she says, absently picking some kind of beige matter from the left eye of her toy goldendoodle. Macron at one point asserts in his speech that Europe is “too slow and lacks ambition,” referring directly to Coco’s ambivalent European travel plans. 

Uncertainty permeates the vibe in Europe right now, not because of a military threat posed by a giant, angry country with cocked nukes driven by a weak-minded Cold War relic, but because every Millennial in New York, Miami and Los Angeles has expressed their intention to occupy Europe without declaring the targets. 

“Is very stressful,” says Aldo Melpignano, the proprietor of Borgo Egnazia, a trendy boutique hotel in Puglia that for Europeans costs €120 a night and charges 30something Americans visiting from coastal zipcodes $970. “I see the hashtags on the Instagram, like, I’m coming for your @borgoegnazia,” he says. “Va bene, Allison, when you gonna come for us, and are you gonna come with that stupid capello?” says Aldo while making a pinched-fingers emoji with one hand and pointing to his head with the other. Hotel, coffee shop, organic market, and narcotics purveyors all over Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal have echoed this desire for more resolute planning and fewer hats from the demographic that funds the less productive but more desirable EU countries.  

"We must produce more, we must produce faster, and we must produce as Europeans," Macron said, a rallying cry to European DJs to sample only vocals that were recorded in native European languages.  

“Europe must show that it is never a vassal of the United States and that it also knows how to talk to all the other regions of the world," Macron said, refuting the irrefutable fact that Europe has become a summer camp for unproductive younger Americans and suggesting that they be immediately deported to Bodrum or Izmir upon landing at CDG, MXP, and LIS. 

“This is a betrayal of our values that ultimately leads us to dependency on other counties,” Macron said, making an observation about Europe’s frustration with having to work between May and August in order to show American Millennials how to correctly tap their credit card on puzzling European payment terminals.

“Europe must become capable of defending its interests, with its allies by our side whenever they are willing, and alone if necessary,” said Macron, in defense of French baristas who do not like working with oat milk. Taking a hands-on approach to ensuring the EU’s “ability to ensure our security” Macron and his wife will begin their Summer at a wedding in the Aeolian Islands in early June, float around Sicily or Puglia the following week, head to Bonjuk Bay for an appearance of prominent LA-based DJ, RICHE, and then couch-surf in Santa Gertrudis de Fruitera the rest of the summer.

[microbes-in-hats]

Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator

The species name of this bacterium contains the Latin phrase Candidatus (candidate) due to the fact that the species record has not been published in a taxonomically valid manner. It is not associated with any family, order, or class, but is included as a candidate under the phylum Firmicutes.

Candidatus D. audaxviator is a unique species, isolated from the Earth's surface for millions of years and a loner in its ecosystem. These bacteria do not need sunlight or chemical energy for their food or metabolic processes, instead subsisting on radioactive energy for their needs. They are able to fix their own nitrogen and cannot survive in the presence of oxygen.

The species name, audaxviator, is taken from Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” and means “descend, bold traveler, and attain the center of the Earth.” Photo credit: NASA (public domain)

[magnuspanoptes]

readings of the podcast which try to frame jon as having been tragically manipulated and forced through every decision by elias are of no interest to me. because it's not true, is it. when elias tells him in mag 92 "you always chose to see," he's being cruel, yes. victim blaming him, even. but to completely disregard it as an attempt at manipulation would be a mistake. much of the podcast is about exploiting people's trauma. as i've said before, jon's role as head archivist, back when it was still presented as a mundane office job to the audiences, and he hadn't developed any beholding powers yet, involved filing away statement givers' trauma without offering help of any kind. the institute subsists on this form of exploitation, in a literal sense obviously, because it's a temple to the eye. but even if you take that reveal away, it's also true in simply an administrative sense in season one. and jon used to ruthlessly dismiss every single statement giver with as much apathy as he could muster (while knowing that if a statement doesn't record digitally, then it's the truth), and note that faking skepticism was a form of coping mechanism for him, it was the choice between making statement givers feel small or making himself feel vulnerable—and is this not simply the bureaucratic version of what he does later as a supernatural avatar of the beholding, vampirically feeding on people's terror to stay alive or risk being consumed by the eye?

(Season 3) MAG 117 - "Testament" // (Season 4) MAG 142 - "Scrutiny"

of course, i'm not saying he bought it on himself, that he deserved to be put in an impossible situation later for being an arse in season one. jon too, has had his trauma exploited in the form of a guest for mr spider, an experience which eventually led him to the magnus institute where he would help fulfill the web's designs. so, in the grand scheme of things everyone was puppeteered by forces beyond their control, but would you excuse jonah for eveything he's ever done because of it? then why must jon be rendered completely non-agentic? yes, elias manipulated him, but he has never had to straight up coerce jon into anything. jon's just always done what's been expected of him. because they're alike. their shared desire for knowledge originates from fear. jon always chose to see because something had hurt him once and he needed answers, and we can assume jonah chose the beholding because it was the only entity which would expose him to information on all the other fears. knowledge is a means of survival for both of them, an inclination which later manifests literally as they become avatars who must subsist on terror. it all really comes down to letting yourself be exploited or exploiting someone else to escape that fate (you don't escape, not really, nobody does in the podcast), and jon did choose (with as much agency he could've possibly had in a story like this). the difference between them being that elias feels no remorse for his choice, but jon's character is defined by the enormous guilt he feels about the things he has done and what he must do to continue living, until he doesn't.

[kyesreadingnook]

scarecrow general relationship HCS

He runs extremely cold, which— is no surprise given he’s quite the lanky man, but he also just has such, such low iron in his system. Literally the most iron deficient man on earth, he subsists solely on mcdonald’s black coffee and the horrors.

So he’s often leeching off of your warmth, whether by putting his hands in your pockets, on your face or neck, or simply wrapping around you like a koala— you’re like his personal heater, even if you aren’t all that warm yourself.

This man loves cooking up a solid, southern cuisine. Now this can range from breakfast foods like the typical grits, eggs, pancakes, and so on. And by god he makes good grits. But his appetite is often incredibly low or just generally wonky. So when he does cook, it’s mainly for you. So, reap those rewards!

As most know, he is the least fashionable man on this planet. His clothes are often thrifted, and he’ll wear them til they disintegrate and he’s forced to buy a new pair of pants or shoes.. but with you? it doesn’t matter if you’re in a hoodie and jeans or your best going-out fit. He will admire you for hours, he just thinks you’re the peak of fashion no matter what you’re in. And his crow-like brain is just enamored with any accessories you adorn yourself with.

Though on the topic of his love languages— I briefly touched on how he leeches onto you for warmth, but he truly does enjoy physical affection in itself. Granted, it was not always that way. He used to avoid it like the plague in the very beginning of your relationship. It was a huge boundary for him, but over time (more like several months) he most certainly warmed up to the idea, and before you knew it he was all over you. Though he’s not much of the PDA type, and there are still some forms of touch that cause him to tense- He can still say with pure confidence that snuggling up with you on a chilly, Gotham night is his one of his favorite activities.

Another big love language of his is quality time— now granted, he’s not one for grand gestures in terms of romance so he doesn’t expect to be wined and dined (and frankly, you shouldn’t either.) so his ideal date with you is just on the couch, with books, perhaps a record playing, and fresh coffee. He just enjoys being in your presence, it’s the domesticity he’s internally craved his entire life— and now he has you to share that with! and granted, if you’re not in much of a reading mood or have your own activity in mind, he throughly enjoys parallel play as well.

And lastly on the topic of the ways he expresses his affection for you— he is actually quite the gift giver, again— not in any grandeur sense, he’s working on a college professors salary after all. But, he’ll often penguin pebble with his gifts. Such as bringing you any fallen feathers from his crows, or writing just small, sweet little notes in the morning before he leaves for work, preparing coffee for you before you wake up, and bringing you little trinkets that he think you’d enjoy. Of course, some of this delves into acts of service— which he also throughly enjoys, as it plays into that domestic affection factor for him.

He is fully aware that he is somewhat difficult in terms of relationships, platonic or romantic— but all he truly requires is patience, and understanding. He is not a perfect man, or a sane man, by any stretch. But, he can be as loyal as a hound if you extend him any non-manipulative love and kindness.

[beyondflashpoint]

Ladies, gentlemen, assembled nobility, people of the jury, Samantha Manson.

This is but a small sampling of her expansive wardrobe, and maybe I’ll come back and add some more outfits.

My version of Sam is confident and self assured. She knows exactly who she is and what she wants from life, and she’s willing to fight for it. She’s still a vegan, and still encourages the lifestyle, but she’s less militant about it around people who respect her diet. She’s not afraid to throw hands when people don’t respect her, or others. Those big boots aren’t called shit kickers for nothing. She’s dabbled with wicca, and collects esoteric books on the occult. She also likes using retro tech, like a Walkman and vinyl record player, mostly because it drives Tucker crazy.

She has a fascination with horror, both the classics, and more modern stuff. She’s definitely the kind of girl who wore fake fangs for a whole year, without considering the moral dilemma of being a vegan and cosplaying like a creature who subsists entirely on blood. She’s also the kind of girl to punch a homophobe.

[boopsloop363]

One of my favorite things to bring up to folks is the correlation between global flood myths across multiple ancient civilizations. How is it that all these people who've never had contact with one another all have myths about a giant flood? Do you honestly believe it was subsistence hunter cavemen who wiped out all the megafauna? They put skilled hunters on the line every time just to kill these creatures en masse? Not to mention these megafauna are all well preserved meaning they weren't even butchered for meat. How were the great planes formed?? You think the cavemen just did that too? Core samples found in Greenland show traces of nuclear glass. Glass that's only formed through intense heat. Now I'm not suggesting we were nuked back into the stone age, that's crazy talk, but have you ever wondered why ancient civilizations were so obsessed with tracking the stars? Was it cause they were just bored? Or was it because they were watching for another meteor? Have you ever thought about the fact that humans today are nearly indistinguishable from humans 65,000 years ago? They had the same capabilities as us and yet written records only begin to appear a few thousand years ago? Doesn't that seem odd to you? Have you ever thought about how you would preserve history? Hard drives? CD's? Paper? On a long enough timeline all these things decay. Oral traditions like storytelling? Now that's a good way to ensure things get passed down but things end up getting distorted along the way. A generations long game of telephone

Tldr: history has been wiped out once before and it's likely that's it's happened multiple times. This implies that it could happen again

[todaysdocument]

Cover Letter from Joseph Warren, Massachusetts Provincial Congress at Watertown, to the Continental Congress

Record Group 360: Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional ConventionSeries: Papers of the Continental CongressFile Unit: Massachusetts State Papers

In Provincial Congress, Watertown, May 3rd, 1775

To the Honorable American Continen-tal Congress, to be conven'd at Philadelphia on the tenth of May Instant. -

May it please your Honours,

The Congress of this Colony, impressed with the deepest Concern for their Country under the present critical and alarming State of its public Affairs, beg leave with the most respectful Submissions, whilst acting in Support of the Cause of America to request the direction of assistance of your respectable Assembly -

The inclosed packet containing the Copies of Depositions, which we have dispatched for London, also an Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain, and a Letter to our Colony Agent, Benjamin Franklin Esq, are humbly Submitted to your Consideration -

The Sanguinary Zeal of the ministerial Army to ruin and destroy the Inhabitants of this Colony, in the Opinion of this Congress hath rendered the Establishment of an [evidence of erasure, possibly "American" written here] Army indispensably necessary - We have accordingly passed an unanimous Resolve for thirteen thousand six hundred men to be forthwith raised 2 raised by this Colony, and proposals are made by us to the Congress of New Hampshire & Governments of Rhode Island and Connecticut Colonies, for furnishing men in the same proportion.

The sudden exigency of our public affairs precluded the possibilities of waiting for your direction in these important measures, more especially, as a considerable reinforcement from Great Britain is daily expected in this Colony, and we are now reduced to the sad alternative of defending ourselves by arms or submitting to be slaughtered.

With the greatest deference, we beg leave to suggest that a powerful army on the side of America hath been considered by this Congress as the only means left to stem the rapid progress of a tyrannical ministry. Without a force superior to our enemies, we must reasonably expect to become the victims of their relentless fury; with such a force, we may still have hopes of seeing an immediate end put to the inhuman ravages of mercenary troops in America, and the wicked authors of our miseries brought to condign punishment by the just indignation of our brethren in Great Britain.

We hope that this Colony will at all times be ready to spend and be spent in the cause of America. It is nevertheless a misfortune greatly operating to its disadvantage, that it has a great number of sea port towns exposed to the approach of the enemy by sea; from

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many of which, the inhabitants have removed & are now removing their families & effects to avoid destruction from ships of war. These we apprehend will be generally distressed from want of subsistence and disabled from contributing aid for supporting the Forces of the Colony, but we have the greatest confidence in the Wisdom and ability of the Continent to support us. So far as it shall appear necessary for supporting the common cause of the American Colonies.

We also inclose several resolves for impowering and directing our Receiver General to borrow the (missing) of one hundred thousand Pounds Lawful money and to issue his Note for the same, it being the only measure which we cond(missing) have recourse to for supporting our Forces; and we request your assistance in rendering our measures effectual by giving our Notes a currency through the Continent.

Jos Warren Presedt PT (signed)

[mostly-mundane-atla]

Inupiaq Books

This post was inspired by learning about and daydreaming about visiting Birchbark Books, a Native-owned bookstore in Minneapolis, so there will be some links to buy the books they have on this list.

Starting Things Off with Two Inupiaq Poets

Joan Naviyuk Kane, whose available collections include:

Hyperboreal

Black Milk Carbon

The Cormorant Hunter's Wife

She also wrote Dark Traffic, but this site doesn't seem to carry any copies

Dg Nanouk Okpik, whose available collections include

Blood Snow

Corpse Whale

Fictionalized Accounts of Historical Events

A Line of Driftwood: the Ada Blackjack Story by Diane Glancy, also available at Birchwood Books, is a fictionalized account of Ada Blackjack's experience surviving the explorers she was working with on Wrangel Island, based on historical records and Blackjack's own diary.

Goodbye, My Island by Rie Muñoz is a historical fiction aimed at younger readers with little knowledge of the Inupiat about a little girl living on King Island. Reads a lot like an American Girl book in case anyone wants to relive that nostalgia

Blessing's Bead by Debby Dahl Edwardson is a Young Adult historical fiction novel about hardships faced by two generations of girls in the same family, 70 years apart. One reviewer pointed out that the second part of the book, set in the 1980s, is written in Village English, so that might be a new experience for some of you

Photography

Menadelook: and Inupiaq Teacher's Photographs of Alaska Village Life, 1907-1932 edited by Eileen Norbert is, exactly as the title suggests, a collection of documentary photographs depicting village life in early 20th century Alaska.

Nuvuk, the Northernmost: Altered Land, Altered Lives in Barrow, Alaska by David James Inulak Lume is another collection of documentary photographs published in 2013, with a focus on the wildlife and negative effects of climate change

Guidebooks (i only found one specifically Inupiaq)

Plants That We Eat/Nauriat Niģiñaqtuat: from the Traditional Wisdom of Iñupiat Elders of Northwest Alaska by Anore Jones is a guide to Alaskan vegetation that in Inupiat have subsisted on for generations upon generations with info on how to identify them and how they were traditionally used.

Anthropology

Kuuvangmiut Subsistence: Traditional Eskimo Life in the Latter Twentieth Century by Douglas B. Anderson et al details traditional lifestyles and subsistance customs of the Kobuk River Inupiat

Life at the Swift Water Place: Northwest Alaska at the Threshold of European Contact by Douglas D. Anderson and Wanni W. Anderson: a multidisciplinary study of a specific Kobuk River group, the Amilgaqtau Yaagmiut, at the very beginning of European and Asian trade.

Upside Down: Seasons Among the Nunamiut by Margaret B. Blackman is a collection of essays reflecting on almost 20 years of anthropological fieldwork focused on the Nunamiut of Anuktuvuk Pass: the traditional culture and the adaption to new technology.

Nonfiction

Firecracker Boys: H-Bombs, Inupiat Eskimos, and the Roots of the Environmental Movement by Dan O'Neill is about Project Chariot. In an attempt to find peaceful uses of wartime technology, Edward Teller planned to drop six nukes on the Inupiaq village of Point Hope, officially to build a harbor but it can't be ignored that the US government wanted to know the effects radiation had on humans and animals. The scope is wider than the Inupiat people involved and their resistance to the project, but as it is no small part of this lesser discussed moment of history, it only feels right to include this

Fifty Miles From Tomorrow: a Memoir of Alaska and the Real People by William L. Iģģiaģruk Hensley is an autobiography following the author's tradition upbringing, pursuit of an education, and his part in the Alaska Native Settlement Claims Act, where he and other Alaska Native activists had to teach themselves United States Law to best lobby the government for land and financial compensation as reparations for colonization.

Sadie Bower Neakok: An Iñupiaq Woman by Margaret B. Blackman is a biography of the titular Sadie Bower Neakok, a beloved public figure of Utqiagvik, former Barrow. Neakok grew up one of ten children of an Inupiaq woman named Asianggataq, and the first white settler to live in Utqiagvik/Barrow, Charles Bower. She used the out-of-state college education she received to aid her community as a teacher, a wellfare worker, and advocate who won the right for Native languages to be used in court when defendants couldn't speak English, and more.

Folktales and Oral Histories

Folktales of the Riverine and Costal Iñupiat/Unipchallu Uqaqtuallu Kuungmiuñļu Taģiuģmiuñļu edited by Wanni W. Anderson and Ruth Tatqaviñ Sampson, transcribed by Angeline Ipiiļik Newlin and translated by Michael Qakiq Atorak is a collection of eleven Inupiaq folktales in English and the original Inupiaq.

The Dall Sheep Dinner Guest: Iñupiaq Narratives of Northwest Alaska by Wanni W. Anderson is a collection of Kobuk River Inupiaq folktales and oral histories collected from Inupiat storytellers and accompanied by Anderson's own essays explaining cultural context. Unlike the other two collections of traditional stories mentioned on this list, this one is only written in English.

Ugiuvangmiut Quliapyuit/King Island Tales: Eskimo Historu and Legends from Bering Strait compiled and edited by Lawrence D. Kaplan, collected by Gertrude Analoak, Margaret Seeganna, and Mary Alexander, and translated and transcribed by Gertrude Analoak and Margaret Seeganna is another collection of folktales and oral history. Focusing on the Ugiuvangmiut, this one also contains introductions to provide cultural context and stories written in both english and the original Inupiaq.

The Winter Walk by Loretta Outwater Cox is an oral history about a pregnant widow journeying home with her two children having to survive the harsh winter the entire way. This is often recommended with a similar book detailing Athabascan survival called Two Old Women.

Dictionaries and Language Books

Iñupiat Eskimo Dictionary by Donald H. Webster and Wilfred Zibell, with illustrations by Thelma A. Webster, is an older Inupiaq to English dictionary. It predates the standardization of Inupiaq spelling, uses some outdated and even offensive language that was considered correct at the time of its publication, and the free pdf provided by UAF seems to be missing some pages. In spite of this it is still a useful resource. The words are organized by subject matter rather than alphabetically, each entry indicating if it's specific to any one dialect, and the illustrations are quite charming.

Let's Learn Eskimo by Donald H. Webster with illustrations by Thelma A. Webster makes a great companion to the Iñupiat Eskimo Dictionary, going over grammar and sentence structure rather than translations. The tables of pronouns are especially helpful in my opinion.

Ilisaqativut.org also has some helpful tools and materials and recommendations for learning the Inupiat language with links to buy physical books, download free pdfs, and look through searchable online versions

[drdemonprince]

When other people say that they do not have enough time to get something done, they (often, if they're quite healthy) mean they are taking into account the time it takes to do the laundry and arrange new pieces of furniture and cook dinner and meet up with friends to see a movie and run to the post office or the hair dresser and take the dog for walks and do the dishes and paint their nails and drive to the store and go to their cousin's wedding and go to the barbecue their friend is throwing on the weekend

they don't winnow their life down to just spending time at the computer, working from when they wake up until they cannot focus their eyes anymore, granola bars, coffee, and bottles of water all around them because of course they did not take time to have lunch or breakfast, only dragging themselves away from work when they are truly too exhausted to do any of it anymore, and then lacking the energy to do much of anything that remains of life but to eat a tiny bit more, sponge themselves off, and go to sleep.

i just saw a video of a fursuiter on their bed, legs kicked back, head propped on their hands, delightedly announcing that after many years of hard work they had finally finished their Master's degree. And some part of me, some sick withered part, thought really? you had time to do a Master's degree while also getting a fursuit done? and going to conventions, presumably? you had time in the day to research fursuit makers, have a sona designed and drawn by someone else (or to draw it yourself), to contact a maker to make a duck tape dummy of yourself, and to have a friend over to help you make it and to cut it off of you, to send it in the mail to the maker, to then get it and make videos? you had time to set up this beautiful bedroom that i see in your video, with a soft pink sham on the bed and LED lights behind your bookshelf and lamps and all kinds of stuffed toys? you had a life? you were out playing, and dancing, and pursuing your hobbies, and you did a master's degree?

because when i was working on my doctorate, there was nothing. three layers of foam on the floor with a fitted sheet over it. a folding card table from aldi that had cost $40 that my grandparents got me. no food in the fridge. no time to even get the internet installed, just stolen wi-fi when my laptop could pick it up. i woke up, got dressed, and slunk into the office. i sat alone in the dark working until my hunger made me furious and i could not write another word. and then i walked to the grocery store, got something to subsist on, went home, ate, kickboxing video, went to sleep. every day. with almost nothing breaking the routine.

and ive gotten better, so much better, but my brain still kind of works that way. i feel like i have to quit my job and stop being a writer if i want to have hobbies. to paint my bedroom. to marinate a meat for longer than fifteen minutes. to get a driver's license again. to take a trip. but i dont want to be like that any more. how do people know when to stop? i feel like i have to give everything my absolute all until there is nothing left or else i have done nothing. i feel that i would have to treat a hobby like a job to get it done. I feel that anything that takes more than two minutes is a huge waste of time i must feel guilty for. i am working on all these things. jesus i have been working on them for years at this point. but because i have been so successful at telling people to do less, i get pulled in. interview. workshop invitation. email. urgent in the subject line. call from my agent. meeting request from my boss. new book idea, better sell it now while my sales figures still look good. recording studio session. deadline. writing. can you talk about this. can you talk about that. tag. email. book idea. deadline. long heartfelt email. still so often i have to take my own damn advice.

and this is why i am getting a fursuit made!! and going to cons! and going to leather and latex events! and making socials that are separate for these things!! i am going to let myself be silly and soft and do frivolous things. i am so sick of what i do to myself, all the pursuit of seeming like a strong mature adult.

[darkmaga-returns]

NYT just released a bombshell exposé which goes into more detail than ever before on the secret US military and intelligence operation using Ukraine as a proxy, which consisted of the combined assets from the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency working in concert with military officials to provide everything from targeting and kill-chain control, to direct frontline tactical maneuver advisement—amongst other things.https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/29/world/europe/us-ukraine-military-war-wiesbaden.html

Of course, most of it is news only to the NPCs who’ve subsisted on main courses of MSM consumption. If you’ve been a subscriber here for a while, you will have already known everything ‘uncovered’ in the above exposé—which we’ll get in to later—but it’s at least refreshing to see the admissions finally rolling out, as well as more fleshed out details of the involvement. The article was allegedly the result of more than a year’s worth of research, comprising over 300 interviews “with current and former policymakers, Pentagon officials, intelligence officials and military officers in Ukraine, the United States, Britain and a number of other European countries.”

While some agreed to speak on the record, most requested that their names not be used in order to discuss sensitive military and intelligence operations.

It begins by describing how in the early months of the war, two Ukrainian generals embarked on one of the most ‘secretive’ missions of the war, to Clay Kaserne—the HQ of US Army Europe—in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Right up front they make one of the most critical admissions of the conflict: