tunteet on

as proved by the fact that when you say explorer, you think of a bunch of white guys walking the world and discovering it ~exotic wonders~ even though Zheng He travelled through Asia, to the Middle East, and even East Africa. But you’d likely never heard of him before.

Same reason you never heard of Ahmad Ibn Fadlan, an Arab traveller who, as early as the 10th century, went to the Volga area for diplomatic reasons. He wrote about it, much as Marco Polo would do later for his own travels, and is one of our sources on what viking were like (and by all accounts, he wrote about them more accurately than western scholars of the same period did)

Oh, or Ibn Battuta who travelled throughout Africa long before europeans did, and even went to Europe himself.

And that’s just some example of Muslim medieval travel writers

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.

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

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

I agree with most of this post (I’d swap Permian/Cretaceous because the Permian was freakin’ metal, yo, but no biggie) but you don’t get more metal than the GREAT OXYGEN CATASTROPHE

The entire surface of the earth was POISONED by a GAS that SHOULD NOT EXIST according to the basic LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS

It’s so metal that even billions of years later Earth has had to evolve entire ecosystems that METABOLIZE DEADLY POISON GAS. And survive by EATING EACH OTHER (which was probably not a thing pre-OXYGEN HOLOCAUST, you don’t need to bother eating each other if you aren’t trying to survive in a world full of IMPOSSIBLE DEADLY GAS.) Earth’s original inhabitants now have to eke out an existence in sealed-off channels in SOLID ROCK and similar places.

THAT IS AS METAL AS IT GETS.

(also there’s the nuclear fission reactions and stuff, that part’s fun. Did the dinosaurs have nuclear fission? NO.)

single-celled organisms are still not metal, though, so it remains in last place

I mean, yeah, O2, what a fucker, how is it even still around, it’s reactive as shit and eats literally everything it comes in contact with but

when 99.999999999999999999% of life on your planet gets wiped out by algae you don’t go around bragging about it

I’m just saying

LIFE

LIFE was destroyed by LIFE ITSELF

“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 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

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.