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The genetic map of Europe.
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let boys cry.
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Exquisite Animal Sculptures Made out of CDs by Sean E. Avery
Australia-based artist Sean E. Avery breathes new lives into old CDs, changing their fate from thrown away to being endearing sculptures.
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The Six Types of Middle-Earth Names
1. Characters whose Names are Secretly Insults:

Samwise: means “Half-wise” or “Half-wit.” He is Stupid Gamgee
Faramir: Boromir’s name means “steadfast jewel”, but Faramir’s name just means “sufficient jewel.”
Sufficient.
Denethor took one look at baby Faramir and thought “eh I guess he exists or whatever” which is very in character
2. Characters who Have Way Too Many Names

Examples include Aragorn son of Arathorn son of Arador heir of Isildur Elendil’s son, descendant of Numenor, Thorongill, Eagle of the Star, Dúnadan, Strider, Wingfoot, Longshanks, Elessar, Edhelharn, Elfstone, Estel, Hope, The Chieftain of the Dúnedain, King of the West, High King of Gondor and Arnor, and Envinyatar the Renewer of the House of Telcontar
Wait I’m sorry did I say “examples” plural Cuz that was all one guy 3. Characters whose parents must’ve been prophets

-Frodo means “wise by experience.” His story is about becoming wise by experience -A lady named Elwing turns into a bird (geddit)
4. Characters whose families were so lazy that they copy-pasted the same first half of a name onto multiple people

Théoden/Théodred Aragorn/Arathorn/Arador Éomer/ Éomund/Éowyn/Éorl Elladan/Elrohir/Elrond/Elros/Elwing/Elenwë/Elendil/Eldarion (the laziest family)
5.Characters whose Names are Expertly Designed so that Newbies can’t Remember Who is Who and Feel Sad
All the people mentioned in number 4 Celeborn, Celegorm, Celebrimbor, Celebrian All the rhyming dwarf names in the Hobbit Sauron and Saruman Arwen and Éowyn
6. Name so nice, you say it twice

Legoas Greenleaf: Legolas’s first name means “Greenleaf” in elvish. Legolas is Greenleaf Greenleaf (thranduil really likes green leaves ok) King Théoden’s name means King in Rohirric. Tolkien decided to name his name his king “King.” All hail King King this is what the fanbase means when we say tolkien was a creative genius with language
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The disastrous Australian Emu War.
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The Most Metal Mass Extinction Events, Ranked
in the style of The Toast
That One Unnamed Extinction Event That Happened When Blue-Green Algae Discovered Photosynthesis and Started Pumping the Environment Full of Oxygen, Which Was Toxic to All Other Life on Earth at That Point in Time
This extinction event did result in the extinction of more living organisms than any other, whether you rank by number of individuals, number of orders/genera/species, % of life, or amount of biomass, but they were all single-celled organisms, so they don’t even register on the metal scale.
The Current Slow Slide Due to Anthropogenic Environmental Modification
Habitat destruction isn’t very metal.
Late Devonian
Some super-weird shit died out, which is totally metal, but we have no idea why, which isn’t. It might not even have been an extinction event, just a decrease in the speciation rate. Jawed vertebrates totally unaffected.
End Ordovician
Second-largest extinction event after the End Permian (not counting those blue-green algae fuckers). Caused by tectonic plate shifting (kinda metal) and resulting glaciation (mildly metal).
Deep Impact
Pros: Giant asteroid hitting the earth.
Cons: Fictional.
End Triassic
Probably caused by massive volcanic eruptions, which is pretty metal, but mostly just wiped out some weird looking amphibians, which is only mildly metal.
End Permian
Greatest extinction event of all time (with the exception of that blue-green algae fiasco mentioned above), wiping out ~95% of all species: metal. Only known mass extinction of insects: metal. Probably caused by the biggest volcanic eruptions since life began (metal) which ignited massive coal beds (metal) and caused the release of methane from the ocean floor (metal) resulting in a runaway greenhouse effect that raised the average ocean temperature to 40C for several million years, essentially boiling the earth alive (super metal). Paved the way for dinosaurs to take over the earth: metal. Known as the ‘Great Dying’: totally metal.
However, most of the extinctions occurred in sessile marine organisms, which are way too boring to be metal, and for the first ~20 million years after the extinction event, land was dominated by Lystrosaurus, which is the most un-metal looking reptile you can think of.
End Cretaceous, aka the K-T Event
A GIANT FLAMING BALL OF ROCK HIT THE EARTH AND KILLED ALL THE (non-avian) DINOSAURS. ENOUGH SAID.
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Conversation
Male Scifi and Fantasy writers: Look at this !Strong! female character! She can fight and solve puzzles, and ends up with the sidekick not the hero! Isn't she a great character?
Everyone: No, she's one-dimensional and still only exists to please the hero's ego
Male scifi and fantasy writers: You're never happy! This is how characters are written! Besides, it's much harder for us to write women because we are men!
Terry Pratchett: *creates a female character who is literally the embodyment of a dog, sets her up to be the love interest of Protagonist Hero Man.* *writes her as clever, emotionally tortured, lonely and powerful* *uses her to explore difficulties of bisexuality and masculine dominated workforces*
Terry Pratchett: *Creates a pair of old witches, one of whom is a virgin and the other who has slept with lots of men.* *makes them best friends, never dismisses one lifestyle of the other, explains lifestyle choices based on characters history and personality, uses this to develop each character as the books progress*
Terry Pratchett: *Writes Sybil Rankin* *makes the powerful rich lady heavy set but beautiful, never plays her by her looks, develops her as she ages, acknowledges the way society views such people and then spits on their attitudes* *does it again with Agnes*
Terry Pratchett: *Writes a book about an entire army secretly being women, creates complex female relationships, introduces same sex relationships completely naturally*
Terry Pratchett: *takes old joke about female dwarves and uses it to explore gender identity without making it seem forced or unnatural, carefully discusses some of the issues and complextities whilst still making funny and witty observasions and maintaining genuine fantasy tropes*
Terry Pratchett: *DOES THIS ALL OVER AND OVER AGAIN, DEVELOPING CHARACTERS AS HIS VEIW OF THE WORLD DEVELOPS AND CAREFULLY APOLOGIZES FOR EARLY MISTAKES*
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From now on I want to narrate every Sherlock interview as if I'm Lemony Snicket
“If we pull this off, it’ll be television history!” Amanda said, gleefully. Amanda should not have said this, and she certainly should not have said it gleefully. What Amanda should’ve said instead is “This season includes a very talented actress who will surely impress you all.” However poor Amanda did not say this. And several months later she certainly regretted her mistake.
~
Sue’s eyes widened in shock. They did not widen in shock because Amanda had spoiled the plot of the show, or because Amanda had just hinted at what may happen in the upcoming season, but rather because Amanda had just told a massive, whopping, great big lie. And Sue was shocked.
~
“Love conquers all,” Benedict smiled sappily. Benedict did not, of course, mean “Sherlock’s romantic love of another person and their love of him conquers all their problems this season,” but rather, “In my opinion Sherlock Holmes and John Watson have been in love for over a century and I believe it is only right that they should be allowed to love each other and that I should kiss Martin.”
~
Steven hid his head in his hands. Steven did this because he thought Benedict was being cheesy and romantic, however it seemed to the audience like he did this because Ben had just give away a major point of the plot. Steven should be more careful about how his body language portrays his feelings.
~
Mark looked like he wanted to kill Benedict. This was not unusual, however. Mark always looked like he wanted to kill Benedict. And Steven. And everyone, in fact. Mark liked to think about murder.
~
“This is the best season yet,” Steven said. He was lying. I know he was lying because in reality it was filled with plot holes and glowing pictures and boys who eat out of dog bowls. But I’m not a rude person, so I left Steven to his ignorance.
~
“Who you really are, it doesn’t matter,” Mark typed. Mark should not have typed this. In fact, I wanted to hit Mark with a big stick and tell him ‘who you are REALLY matters’ but Mark would not have listened. Mark thinks he is smarter than me. He is clearly not. But who he is still matters.
~
“I’ll die if Johnlock doesn’t happen,” a TJLCer sobbed as she typed on her laptop. “RIP,” Mark replied. He did not do this to be funny. He did this because he can be a massive twat sometimes. This was one of those times.
~
"I don’t know, I don’t know, I’m just in it!” Martin squeaked. He was not trying to hide a secret, as many believed. Martin was just genuinely baffled by the new season. And by baffled I mean ‘had no idea what the plot was, what the point was, what his character was suppose to be doing and why he didn’t get to kiss Benedict.’
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i just wanna point out to you guys that there’s a thing on netflix that’s literally just a pretty train journey that’s been filmed
it’s over 7hrs long and it’s just the scenery??
im so for this?? it’s an actual series called Slow TV and they’ve got more train journeys you can experience without actually going anywhere
this is the content i’ve been looking for all this time
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Good News Roundup 2/2/17
A collection of good things to help you keep feeding the right wolf!
Spurred by Trump’s immigration crackdown, L.A. City Council moves to decriminalize street vending Councilman Jose Huizar told reporters it was “a sign to this Trump administration that we will not abide by his fear, his vilification, his scapegoating of immigrants.” (Currently, street vending is a misdemeanor, and people have been asking for it to be decriminalized for ages. But in light of the high numbers of immigrants who work as street vendors and Trump’s attitude toward “any excuse to deport,” it finally lit a fire under their butts.) 1/31/17
ACLU North Carolina just reported that the NC state senate has introduced legislation to repeal HB2, the transphobic “bathroom law.”
Representative Jason Chaffetz has officially withdrawn HR 621, which would have sold federal lands to private buyers, directly as a response to public outcry, according to his official Instagram.
jasoninthehouse I am withdrawing HR 621. I’m a proud gun owner, hunter and love our public lands. The bill would have disposed of small parcels of lands Pres. Clinton identified as serving no public purpose but groups I support and care about fear it sends the wrong message. The bill was originally introduced several years ago. I look forward to working with you. I hear you and HR 621 dies tomorrow. #keepitpublic#tbt
Big money moves slow, but people are starting to pull their money away from Dakota Access Pipeline investors in a big way.
The Seattle City Council Finance Committee voted 8-0 on Wednesday to divest $3 billion in City of Seattle money out of Wells Fargo over the bank’s role as lender for the Dakota Access Pipeline.
ABN AMRO, the Dutch bank, today announced that it will end its financing for Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) if the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) will be constructed without the consent of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, or if further violence will be used. The Dutch Fair Finance Guide, Greenpeace Netherlands and BankTrack welcome the decision of ABN AMRO, and call on other banks, including ING in the Netherlands, to follow this example and end all outstanding finance to the pipeline and the companies behind it if no agreement is reached with the Sioux Tribe about the pipeline.
Big-name American corporations are coming out against the Muslim ban, including Ford and Budweiser (in a way).
Ford releases a statement against immigration ban
Budweiser’s Super Bowl commercial is incredibly pro-immigrant
Erica Chenoweth at The Guardian has an article sharing useful resistance techniques from history, and an encouraging statistic:
It may take only 3.5% of a population to topple a dictator with civil resistance - by Erica Chenoweth
And for your funnybone, here are some people giving ol’ Trumperdink the middle finger. (Which is also useful as a resistance tactic, as it turns out, seeing as #45 is a sensitive, spoiled child who can’t stand being made fun of or overshadowed.)
Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking swipes at Trump on Twitter on a fairly regular basis, including this gem:
Terminated!
Journalist Kim Rathcke Jensen shares this clipping from a Norwegian newspaper:
I’m going to start trying to do these regularly, so if you see something you think belongs in a Good News Roundup, ping me or inbox me or send me the link via tumblr IM.
Remember: In every moment there is the possibility of a brighter future. Find it, cling to it, believe in it, work toward it. Feed the right wolf.
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This was my art school’s water fountain. Drink from them wolf tiddies
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