Space Madness

Racism would imply we’re talking about at least two different races here; colorism specifically is about racist ideals within one race, people of one race policing others appearance within their own race. 

Aishwarya Rai, Kareena Kapoor, Kangana Ranaut 

Karisma Kapoor, Shruti Haasan, Zarine Khan

All actresses/models born in India to parents who were also born in India (or Pakistan), in a narrow view of “race.” 

If a Papua New Guinean hooks up with a Swedish person all you get is a human.  There’s no new thing you’re going to get. You just get a human. 

- Bill Nye: Race is a Human Construct (and don’t look at the comments; it’s the usual cesspool of bigots) 

Ideas on “race” have been in slow development over the years, but colourism is a real thing (often with roots in imperialism, especially as Western ideas of beauty began to intrude upon countries). 

The 100 Years of Beauty: Philippines has a jarring jump where April Villanueva (who has light/medium-toned skin) gets her skin darkened for the 1910s-20s aesthetic, then becomes powder-white when US/European colonial interests make a stronger influence on Philippine society in the 1930s (more in the research video). 

Two more examples of skin tone variation between famous women in countries where colourism has become prevalent in celebrity culture (ie, it was a lot harder finding photos of a dark-skinned Korean actress than a light-skinned one): 

Koreans: Song Hye-kyo and Lee Hyori 

Filipinos: Valerie Garica and Nicole Scherzinger (active in the US; Filipino father, Hawaiian/Samoan-Russian mother) 

Variation in skin colour across a “race” is as real as variation in eye colour (”oh, you have brown eyes? I guess you’re not a real Caucasian”). 

Colourism also pervades a lot of modern beauty marketing. 

What’s underneath your dark skin? A prettier, lighter version of yourself! Everyone should strive to be more fair and lovely because only then you’ll be happy with your flesh prison!! 

A couple years ago an instructor at my college who taught basic programming courses for game design majors posted on his facebook that a bunch of his incoming freshmen didn’t know how to create a zip file. 

A lot of public schools dropped their computer literacy courses in the early 2000s because they just assumed kids would “learn it at home.” There’s a whole generation of kids who only know how to navigate a touchscreen phone/tablet. They’ve never used a laptop or desktop.

Happening right now in Hong Kong - the police is firing rubber bullets and using batons, pepper spray, tear gas and water cannons on peaceful protesters who took the streets to protest against the passing of a controversial law which would allow China to extradite people.

Protesters set up camps, gave out snacks and surgical masks before all of this started. Tanks are apparenrly out in the streets as well and people are being hurt as I write this, but they are not backing down.

Most of the protesters are young people, university students, even high schoolers.

Meanwhile, the police had since blocked other ambulance vehicles from passing through and arrested the injured.

Video of a man coughing blood 

Urgent medical supplies the protestors need:

this is ok.

it has happened before. it will happen again. it has been lost before. it will be lost again. and again. and again. and again. art and architecture are transient, and temporary, and 850 years may seem like a lot to the individual, who will live maybe 100 if they are very lucky and very healthy, but even the pyramids at saqqara have only existed for about 6000 years and that’s still not all that much, if you consider the grand scheme of things.

yes, this is terrible. as someone who is deeply religious and literally a professional historian with a focus on art and architecture, this is terrible. im mourning. im gutted. im horrified and upset and miserable. but.

it’s not over.

victor hugo wrote hunchback because notre dame du paris was in the process of collapsing and falling apart, and revitalized the entire world’s focus and love for this church, and that was not even 200 years ago. it led to it being renovated.

the roof has fallen in. the scars of fires are on its buttresses. the rose window has fallen out. the beams and piers have collapsed. the spire has toppled. the stones have suffered, and will suffer again, but it is not gone.

renovation work is essential. sometimes things collapse and burn and break and have to come back. it’s not a terrorist attack, it’s renovation, an accident, but we have so much evidence, history, carefully documented everything on one of the most studied places in the world.

Obviously everyone is shocked but here’s a few important key facts:

The roof is completely gone. Part of it dated back from the 13th century but the rest was from the 19th. The stone arch roof under the top roof is fine.

One of the three main stained glass rose windows has fallen out. Most of the other stained glass windows are okay.

The spire has fallen down and that’s the saddest part. BUT! It was in the process of being restored and the 16 statues that were there were removed just four days ago! So they’re fine.

The main structure is still here and nothing has “burned down” unlike what some people have been saying.

The “treasure” (sacred objects) is safe.

I’m seeing a disturbing amount of posts here claiming that people are not finishing their antibiotics (or not carrying on with their doctor’s intructions) in an attempt to “save” their antibiotics for later use.

DO NOT DO THIS.

If your doctor says to take your medicine for 2 weeks, take it for 2 weeks. 

Not finishing a course of antibiotics properly means the bacteria are not all dead. They may come back and you’ll have to do a full course again.

“our work should equip the next generation of women to outdo us in every field this is the legacy we’ll leave.”

I 100% went outside and spent awhile practicing kicks and swings to get more comfortable making fighting sounds for Voice Over