Hi Shmoopy! WHY?

May 17

But what about Ripley? I know, there are examples here and there of female characters who take up that ring or big damn gun or quest and run with it into their own proverbial sunset (or don’t). But they’re still far from the norm in fiction. And, more importantly, there are certain types of characters who are practically never written as women. Captain Jack Sparrow. Ford Prefect. Loki. Jonathan Strange. Gandalf. In fact, that’s a whole other dilemma, but one that still demands investigation.

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/05/break-the-ya-monopoly-give-us-female-heroes-for-adults

This got me thinking, especially after I read a response to this article that basically said, “Well, what about urban fantasy?” Great! It’s awesome to have strong female characters in two genres I don’t read much of.

But this quote in particular gave me ideas. Grand ideas. About the type of character that’s never written as a woman. Ooooo, the ideas I have now…

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gettingcrazywiththecheezewhiz:

The dad cat liked to hang out in the sink by himself

AND THEN THE KITTENS FOUND HIM

HE LOOKS SO ANNOYED

I DIDN’T SIGN ON FOR THIS SHIT.

In general I find that cats look more annoyed than anything else with their kittens. But most cats also look pretty annoyed most of the time.

(via jebsutton42)

May 8

athenaltena:

from cleolinda’s recaps

This is more or less what I say whenever we see Dr. Lecter making or serving anything, regardless of how tasty it looks.

Which makes me wonder why I’m not reading Cleolinda’s Hannibal recaps…

(Source: vorobey008)

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erikkwakkel:

Medieval eye candy

This manuscript is one of the treasures of Leiden University Library. It was made around 1200, likely in the north of England, and was used by the French king Louis IX (1214-70). Not when he was king, mind you, but as a child. As was common practice in medieval times, the Psalms were used for learning to read, and that is the reason why royal hands once held the object. These spectacular miniatures are found in front of the book. They are fit for a king to be: eye candy with a great historical past.

Pics: Leiden University Library, BPL 76 A (c. 1190). Photography: Julie Somers (pic 1-4), UB Leiden (pics 5-8).

I can’t even with these colors. Gorgeous!

May 7

jtotheizzoe:

We never sit here under the weight of all this air, the 5 x 10^18 kg of atmosphere that sits above everyone on Earth, and say “Gosh, that sure is heavy!”

You don’t realize just how powerful that 1 bar (~100 kPa) of pressure is until a train car is filled with steam, allowed to cool, and then implodes ohmygod did that just happen?

For more implosion goodness, check out this awesome video from Veritasium.

‘MPLOSIONS!

(Which are the awkward opposite sibling to “‘splosions”.)

May 1

erikkwakkel:

Brilliant Damage

Parchment often contains some kind of imperfection. Holes, for example, are a common occurrence on the page of a medieval book. The parchment maker’s knife, scraping off hair and fleshy bits from the animal skin, was sometimes handled with too much pressure, producing holes such as the one seen in this brilliant image. That a drawing of a dragon should perfectly align with such a hole is a coincidence. What I like about it is the view it opens to the next leaf. I can just imagine how the heartbeat of the medieval reader sped up when he saw that a dragon was about to be introduced into the story. Parchment damage as a sneak preview: excitement coming to a chapter near you.

Pic: Bamberg, Universitätsbibliothek, Msc. Nat. 1 (9th century)

April 21

doomedchildrenofthetvgeneration:

The best reoccurring Kids In The Hall skit. Period.

EVIL, EVIL! IMPOLITE AND EVIL!

Hehe. Love these guys. Them and the Two Clearly Insane People.

(Source: wearethedoomedchildren, via greybanshee)

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Public Shaming: The Definitive "People Who Thought Chechnya was the Czech Republic" Collection

publicshaming:

Two brothers from Chechnya. That was the official word early morning on Friday April 19th, 2013 as to who were behind the Boston marathon bombings. “Chechens.”

So, naturally, who do some brilliant citizens of the United States of America blame? The CZECH REPUBLIC, of course!

Here are those…

April 14

Camelot, but Cowboys

GOOD. GAWD. HOW friggin’ much of “The Dark Tower” series is based on Arthurian legend? Seriously, jut ran across a T.S. Eliot poem called “The Waste Land”. DT is based on a Browning poem, and the fourth book in the series basically wants to be “Camelot: But With *Cowboys*” (and succeeds in the horrible representation of women part).

Anyway, it’s Modernist poetry which mean’s I’m powerless and must read it, but not at 11:30 at night. So, Note To Self, read this shit: http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html

And probably also this shit, because you are absolutely terrible with poetry and need some hand-holding to get through most things that aren’t written by Sylvia Plath: http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/eliot/

March 31

colchrishadfield:

The Richat Structure. A giant gazing eye upon the Earth.