In order to allow you into my confidence, I needed to get a sense of you.

DEVASTATING!: local queer finds out her best friend since third grade is majoring to be a cop

I like when factions are evil for no good reason but I do not like having to say that while I loathe the Enclave and Caesar’s Legion they’re my favorite factions

abbott's gonna abbott

yoooo I remember reading varjak paw as a kid. I honestly don't remember much about it other than his like spinning(?) cat fighting technique (???)

HE SUPER DID HAVE THAT, god, slow time moving circles shadow walking has been stuck in my head literally since elementary school, the VIBES of that whole book were absolutely impeccable

i remember being scared shitless by the Gentleman's pair of black not!cats and just absolutely hit by a truck about the

"I Am Very Well Thank You Please"

'stuffed toys' reveal, the ILLUSTRATIONS just. WHOO. OKAY. i feel absolutely zero compunctions putting this one up there on the "short stories you read that alter your brain chemistry" shelf tbqh

apparently there was a second one, which i didn't know about until i tripped over it at a library book sale and you bet your ass it came home with me, i still haven't read it yet but like. [long string of eyes emojis]

“What you are describing is not a case, it is a wild goose chase. Only at the end of a proper goose chase, you get to eat a delicious goose.”

-Sherlock Holmes

im scared bc now that i’m essentially getting this public school job i know my body and mind have begun to settle into its fugue state where i have no thoughts and make no progress and waste literally all the time in the world because i just can’t imagine any other options it’s how i wasted four years with my major it’s how i ended up joining gr**k life it just feels like this is it and i trap myself

I’m still so hurt that they took a picture of Lucius Verus and passed it off as a Marcus Aurelius pic in that one Elementary ep... Guess we gotta add ‘using Google Image’ to the list of things the great Sherlock Holmes can’t do.

己が實何と　云ふ物ぞ　元より在らぬ 唯一時に　群がれる　小粒共のみ 脆き體に　籠れたる　生きの儚さ 亂れに依りて　蝕まれ　無へと歸すべし

[Kana transliteration]

おのがみなにと　いふものぞ　もとよりあらぬ たゞひとゝきに　むらがれる　こつぶどものみ もろきからだに　こもれたる　いきのはかなさ みだれによりて　むしばまれ　むへときすべし

[Classical transliteration]

Ono ga mi nani to / ifu mono zo / moto yori aranu Tada fito-toki ni / muragareru / ko-tubu-domo nomi Moroki karada ni / komoretaru / iki no fakanasa Midare ni yorite / musibamare / mu fe to ki-su besi

[Modern transliteration]

Ono ga mi nani to / iu mono zo / moto yori aranu Tada hito-toki ni / muragareru / ko-tsubu-domo nomi Moroki karada ni / komoretaru / iki no hakanasa Midare ni yorite / mushibamare / mu he to ki-su beshi

[English translation]

Essence—no such thing ever hath existed to begin with ‘Tis naught but a temporary cluster of particles Immured within the brittle body is the ephemeron of life Devoured by entropy it shall return to nihil.

The Best Children's Picture Books About Ancient Egypt!

Treat your child (and yourself!) to these wonderful living books on Ancient Egypt!

Mummies, Pyramids, and Pharaohs: A Book About Ancient Egypt by Gail Gibbons This book is excellent! It’s long, but my six year-old did not want me to stop reading it because it held her interest so well. It covers lots of topics in lots of interesting detail. This book is full of great info, but is not overwhelmingly long, so it’s still a great choice for the younger crowd. You Wouldn’t Want to…

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I waited until you'd gone, and then I approached, as Tony from Long Island, with the intention of steering the conversation towards you. Now, we didn't end up discussing you so much as…

Jesus Christ Sherlock.

ik this is known but no successful settler colony has reached relative "internal stability" without genocide. north america is the first example of this that comes to mind: during the early years all up to the 19th cent., wars and attacks between native americans and settlers were frequent. and yes, while the settler armies were more well armed and more powerful, the native americans were a great force against the european invasions and did cause casualties among white populations, "including civillians", and halted expansion and development for many of the colonies.

this was met in 2 ways:

federal programs sponsored by the colonial states (violent deculturation, seperation from families through residential & boarding schools, expulsion from ancestral lands and destruction of the indigenous identity)

and unofficial, "individual" settler and enlistee actions of massacres upon indigenous populations. these events obviously were never prosecuted because they worked in tandem with the colonial powers, supported and encouraged by them.

the extermination of the american indigenous people wasn't just a facet of american success but the foundation of it. if they weren't subject to the genocide, the wealth and vast land in north america wouldn't have reached the white populations and the continent would be unrecognizable today, with canada and the united states not slightly as globally influencial as they are today. imagine a usa reliant on tourism.

and ik this is all elementary level information, but israel mirrors this entire process in eery similarity, with ancient, ancestral lands seized from palestenians exploited and destroyed for capital gains following violent expulsions (the nakba created israel). palestinians remaining within the israeli border endure lynchings and attacks by settlers as well as repression and persecution under federal law. israel was founded on the same colonialist principles that america and other european settler colonies (algeria, mozambique, kenya) were: their survival just depended on how far they would go to destroy the indigenous population.

what im dreading is that israel is on course to go further and proceed with that destruction. we are currently is a uniquely horrifying moment: 2,600 dead palestenians and 6,000 in hospitals with 0 supplies and 0 power - and the ground assault following the impossible evacuations is looming. the massacres about to sweep palestinian lands with the gifting of the ten thousand rifles to settlers. the unprovoked, unwarned and constant airstrikes. the monolithic, hysteric nature of mainstream western media. the army's sentiment of hunting animals. the global unrepentant backing. the repeated promise of complete victory.

what would complete victory mean? you cannot quell palestenian resistance without exterminating palestine. the palestenian people are a tortured people, hungry, radicalized simply from their day to day life: not one gazan hasn't watched corpses being pulled from the rubble, not one gazan doesn't have murdered family, not one gazan doesn't have something to mourn. their friends and family disappear or lose limbs on the daily now, building on grief from the previous 7 decades deep destruction. the homesickness is constant. the sounds of explosions is never far. of course there would be resistance movements, of course there would be revenge attacks, of course it will be bloody, because no humans in the world could silently endure these conditions. if hamas was entirely destroyed tomorrow, the next generation of palestinian youths would simply form another. for a complete, permanent victory, you would need to raze palestine.

this is why i balk at people hoping for coexistence. coexistence goes against the very founding strategy of israel. it goes against every principle and long term plan israel has for itself. israelis themselves do not want coexistence, they want gaza flattened and the west bank annexed, they want palestine destroyed and the palestenian people extinct. any sympathy with israel is a transgression on humanity.

Hello, CT! I had a patient today who had this talisman I'm hoping you can help me identify. She has been wearing it since her husband passed away many years ago, but she does not know what it means! If you're familiar with these symbols, then I'd love to relay their meaning to her. (Given her husband was French, I assume the cross is a Cross of Lorraine.)

Thanks for your time! Any input would be fabulous

Got it!

Its from Raphael's ancient manuscript of talismanic magic, containing nearly one hundred rare talismanic diagrams, seals of spirits, charms, magical squares, and pentacles for orations and invocation of elementary spirits, and the magical ritual of their conjuration. Explaining their influence and hidden powers. Recondite wisdom, by Raphael.

Page 56 a Talisman of Mercury and Wednesday.

The English definitely threw me off at first. This looks like a Solomonic talisman, but its actually far later. This is from Francis Barrett's English translation of the Book of Raphael, a mish-mash collection of Jewish/Christian/Islamic clerical magic from the late 15th century. The central inscription, alfa et omega, is a Christian thing, but the words around the inner circle are Hebrew names of god, including the literal word "tetragrammaton" which is kinda funny.

The second ring is names of planetary angels, two for each classical planet. I cannot for the life of me read what's printed on the outer ring, even in the original text I'm having trouble making out the cursive.

The second side is on page 64 of the same text, a "Talisman for Success in Hade." Not a clue what that means.

Round 1

Propaganda Under Cut

Joan Watson

How were BBC Sherlock shippers so rancid about a WOMAN who wasnt even in the SAME SHOW?????

Lucy Liu real life victim of yaoi despite being on a DIFFERENT TV SHOW. And everyone was so busy hating her for getting in the way of johnlocke that they ignored the massive yuri potential of Elementary :(

she wasn't even in the same SHOW as the yaoi I've been convinced she deserves to win the entire poll. I was a Johnlocker but I did watch the first season of Elementary and it was fine????? It was totally okay????? Especially in hindsight given how hard Sherlock season four flopped. Also Lucy Liu is a queen and deserved zero vitriol for *checks notes* playing a character???? A fucking fictional character???????? Oh my god we were all SO mean to this show and we (or at least I) thought it was like The Good Fight™️, like we were defending BBC Sherlock against copyright infringement and straightwashing and Jonny Lee Miller's bizarre scarf, (it wasn't a good scarf I do stand by that) but then Elementary didn't make Holmes and Watson a couple either???? And also it didn't insult its audience constantly etc etc we've all seen the Hbomberguy Sherlock is Garbage video. This is really long sorry hashtag justice for Joan Watson.

Mipha

Honestly she's not just a victim of yaoi, tbh. Basically: she canonically had a massive crush on the protagonist, Link, which consistently gets swept under the rug or ignored entirely in favor of shipping Link with her brother Sidon, their fellow champion Revali, or Zelda herself. She deserves nice things and so many people just... completely overlook her??

She has a crush on Link, but so does her younger brother Sidon, who is much more affable and outgoing. Link/Sidon is the more popular ship. Mipha gets a lot of flak for being a weak female character who's only defined by her romantic relationship to the protagonist. That's not really fair; she has her own storyline about being the golden girl from her town who everyone looks up to, and the hole that's left in the town after her death. It is unfortunate that she is better remembered as the less compelling corner of a love triangle.

The princess of the Zora, sweetheart of the Zora's Domain. Champion pilot of the Divine Beast Vah Ruta. Master healer, cut down in her prime by an ancient evil. But you wouldn't know it, because she's reduced to someone who was in love with Link (the game's protagonist), and therefore has to be sidelined and villainized to ship Link with her younger brother Sidon or her fellow Champion Revali.