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Since I paid $70 for it--a little more than I would have liked--I'm trying to not spend money on the reupholstery and just use what I already have. So no new purple velvet.

Blue and golds it is.

My money would be on the time that, after being liberated from prison by an angel, Peter went to the house where believers were gathered and asked to be let in. Only for the servant to be so excited at hearing his voice that she ran to tell the others. Who in turn said that she was either crazy, or it was his guardian angel come to announce his death. And this whole time, Peter is stuck there still knocking on the door, trying to get someone to let him in.

—

Brigadier General Cecil Lowther. Unpublished diary, dated 22 January 1915.

I’ve seen these piège à Boches (which means Boche trap as far as I can tell) in more than one picture, but I hadn’t actually come across any references to them. Lowther’s mention here is a particularly early one too. Apparently they’re a particular quirk of French trench defences, along with barbed wire over the top of a trench.

From the AWM: French Army soldiers in a trench in the La Harazee sector preparing an anti-personnel spiked fence.

You can see the metal knife rest on the back of the trench here has been cut to a point, with wire over the top.

No impaling spikes here, but still wired above and down into the trench.

"because of The Curse?"

“… and we need to actively discourage people from owning and driving cars and it should be illegal actually” — FUCK NO.

I don’t know why pro-public transit people have to be so obnoxious about this and ostracize people who would otherwise support their cause. I also find it amusing that they’re more than willing to be massive dicks to me for not hating on cars, until I mention I’m disabled and immune compromised and a lot of times not being able to go DIRECTLY from point A to point B (and limit my exposure to other people’s germs) will stop me from being able to do things and go places. At which point they usually stop engaging with me because I don’t fit the stereotype of disabled and unable to drive.

I assume it's like gun controllers who say "well, if we don't want to take away ALL the guns, then it doesn't count as taking away guns."

I still remember the pro-transit idiot who was absolutely certain that it was practical for businesses in a busy Caribbean downtown area to install showers for employees who wanted to bike in to work.

They took the mask off because they really, really want other people to be forced to upkeep a system for others that don't or won't pay into it. If and when electric cars get off the ground that need no rare earths at all, and drum brakes that collect their own brake dust, and biodegradable car paint, it's going to mean from soup to nuts, no part of the automobile will be detrimental to the earth. There won't be emissions. There won't be hazardous asbestos. There may not even be forms of plastic or composites that poison the earth.

I would like to share with you the most exquisite example of what the anti-car and walkable city/15 minute city concept looks like, and all the painfully obvious ways that it is wholly unworkable, retarded idea, that requires the presenter to try and fudge and handwave their way past said problems.

Even when they get exactly what they want: A walkable city that doesn't allow cars, with quirky little small businesses, and so on, they replace owning a car, or needing to buy groceries or buying fastfood with... uber and other gig economy delivery services.

YES ABSOLUTELY

so perforated batons are a type of paleolithic tool that was in use for THOUSANDS of years. weve found hundreds of examples across Europe and Asia of these. theyre typically made from antler or ivory, and are long batons with at least one hole thats been drilled through

at first they were called "batons of command" and the assumption was that these were ritualistic or symbolic items that represented strength or status in a group of individuals.

more modern interpretations include that they couldve been used as spear throwing tools, or that the holes couldve been used in spear or arrow making to pull them straight.

in a more recent study done on this mammoth ivory baton, which was found in Hohle Fels cave in Germany, they were specifically interested in the spiralized carvings feeding into each perforation

they studied small pieces of organic matter that were found inside the holes, and they were found to be FULL of plant fibres in way higher concentration than the other nearby soil, indicating that this baton at least was a tool used on plants. the idea came up that it could be a rope making tool

so they made a replica, and wove rope.

these tools were likely multipurpose, and we can never know the motivations of the ancient people who made them, but we have at least proven that these tools are capable of making rope very efficiently!

Medieval peasants also didn’t eat chicken very often. That’s a source of eggs. If you’re lucky enough to own a cow it’s also unlikely you’d eat it unless it’s on its way out anyways. That’s a good source of milk. It’s more advantageous to keep a cow or chicken alive than to eat them.

Fat from a fat tailed sheep makes for good cooking fat if your setting is more middle eastern or North African inspired. European settings would prefer butter, lard, or olive oil depending on where exactly they are.

The limiting factor for livestock keeping in the medieval period was winter fodder--there was enough summer grazing for the spring births in fallow fields that they fertilized with their manure , but not enough hay and grazing to get them through the winter. So the lambs--all the males and some of the females--would be butchered in the fall. A bull calf might be butchered as veal (or "baby beef", depending on timing) its first fall or might be over-wintered and butchered as beef the following fall. A few of the older ewes would be butchered as mutton, replaced with female lambs from the spring births. A female calf would be traded, sold, or kept as a replacement.

Similarly, half of the chicks born would be male, destined for spring/early summer butchering. (Or caponed, castrated, though that's much more difficult with a bird.) Chicken is a lean meat, though, and rather tough in a free-range bird, so it was usually stewed rather than roasted. Capon was a bit of a luxury food due to the difficulty of castrating them. Geese were much more popular due to the fattier meat.

“What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?

I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky.

The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing;

Rush in and die, dogs—I was a man before I was a king.”

nature is healing

Wet book rescue