a tourist in the waking world

smoke&song: She was punctual at the bridge, but found Peter there before her. His...

Sat, 25 May 2013 14:31:05 -0400

smoke&song: She was punctual at the bridge, but found Peter there before her. His...:

She was punctual at the bridge, but found Peter there before her. His obsolete politeness in this respect was emphasized by the presence of Miss Flaxman and another Shrewsburian, who were sitting on the raft, apparently waiting for their escort, and looking rather hot and irritable. It amused…

a grey eyed girl: “I won’t offer you a revolver to take to bed with you, but I have an...

Sat, 25 May 2013 14:30:45 -0400

a grey eyed girl: “I won’t offer you a revolver to take to bed with you, but I have an...:

agreyeyedgirl:

“I won’t offer you a revolver to take to bed with you, but I have an idea that from now on you, and at least one other person, may be in some danger of attack. That may be imagination, but if this joker is alarmed and bottled up for a bit—and I think she has been alarmed—the next outrage may be a…

agreyeyedgirl: “What do you want me to do, Peter?” “Chuck the ball back to me if it runs out of the...

Sat, 25 May 2013 14:27:56 -0400

agreyeyedgirl:

“What do you want me to do, Peter?”

“Chuck the ball back to me if it runs out of the circle. Not obviously. Just exercise your devastating talent for keeping to the point and speaking the truth.”

“That sounds easy.”

“It is—for you. That’s what I love you for. Didn’t you know?”

novemberfuck:

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:29:20 -0400

novemberfuck:

"You don’t ever have to feel guilty about removing toxic people from your life. It doesn’t matter..."

Thu, 23 May 2013 14:17:33 -0400

“You don’t ever have to feel guilty about removing toxic people from your life. It doesn’t matter whether someone is a relative, employer, romantic interest, friend or new acquaintance. You don’t have to make room for people who cause you pain or make you feel small. It’s one thing if a person owns up to their behavior and makes an effort to change. But if a person disregards your feelings, ignores your boundaries, and continues to treat you in a harmful way, they need to go.”

- Diane Koepke (via theladycheeky)

Jo Walton reviews Gaudy Night.

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:45:06 -0400

Jo Walton reviews Gaudy Night.

frivolityness: “We shall know what things are of...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:38:56 -0400

frivolityness:

“We shall know what things are of overmastering importance when they have overmastered us.”

“I imagine you come across a number of people who are disconcerted by the difference between what you do feel and what they fancy you ought to feel. It is fatal to pay the smallest attention to them.”

“I gather that he nearly knocked you down, damaged your property, and generally made a nuisance of himself, and that you instantly concluded he must be some relation to me.”

“To subdue one’s self to one’s own ends might be dangerous, but to subdue one’s self to other people’s ends was dust and ashes. Yet there were those, still more unhappy, who envied even the ashy saltness of those dead sea apples.”

Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

belonely: “All of them are quite alone, some involuntarily,...

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:30:19 -0400

belonely:

_{“All of them are quite alone, some involuntarily, some by their own hand, some without realizing it, but none of them come to the study room table with the emotional advantages held by that mythical creature known as ‘a normal person.’ … The good news is, being messed up doesn’t mean the story’s over. It means the story’s just starting, and in the end, we all find out we’re not alone, or maybe that we’re all alone and united in our loneliness.” — Dan Harmon}

Why Community is (or was) more than just another sitcom.

"A man once asked me … how I managed in my books to write such natural conversation between men when..."

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:32:57 -0400

“A man once asked me … how I managed in my books to write such natural conversation between men when they were by themselves. Was I, by any chance, a member of a large, mixed family with a lot of male friends? I replied that, on the contrary, I was an only child and had practically never seen or spoken to any men of my own age till I was about twenty-five. “Well,” said the man, “I shouldn’t have expected a woman (meaning me) to have been able to make it so convincing.” I replied that I had coped with this difficult problem by making my men talk, as far as possible, like ordinary human beings. This aspect of the matter seemed to surprise the other speaker; he said no more, but took it away to chew it over. One of these days it may quite likely occur to him that women, as well as men, when left to themselves, talk very much like human beings also.”

- Dorothy L. Sayers (via fullmetalfeminist)

indypendent-thinking: “Books…are like lobster shells, we...

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:30:35 -0400

indypendent-thinking:

“Books…are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with ‘em, then we grow out of ‘em and leave ‘em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.” - Dorothy L. Sayers (1893 - 1957), The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, 1928

(via 45 Incredible Pictures to tickle your funny bone)

Busman's Honeymoon (and other Dorothy L. Sayers ebooks) at Project Gutenberg Canada

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:30:05 -0400

Busman's Honeymoon (and other Dorothy L. Sayers ebooks) at Project Gutenberg Canada:

arcanities:

These are legally public domain in Canada, because Canadian copyright law is somewhat less ridiculous than the U.S.’s!

In How I Came to Invent the Character of Lord Peter Wimsey,^[5] Sayers wrote:

Lord Peter’s large income… I deliberately gave him… After all it cost me nothing and at the time I was particularly hard up and it gave me pleasure to spend his fortune for him. When I was dissatisfied with my single unfurnished room I took a luxurious flat for him in Piccadilly. When my cheap rug got a hole in it, I ordered him an Aubusson carpet. When I had no money to pay my bus fare I presented him with a Daimler double-six, upholstered in a style of sober magnificence, and when I felt dull I let him drive it. I can heartily recommend this inexpensive way of furnishing to all who are discontented with their incomes. It relieves the mind and does no harm to anybody.

[source: thx Wikipedia]

motherjones: theamericanprospect: The Making of a Dead...

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:26:41 -0400

motherjones:

theamericanprospect:

The Making of a Dead Zone

Knowledge.

"Where the inspirational figure is selected for us, and the gap between their life and ours is too..."

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:33:44 -0400

“

Where the inspirational figure is selected for us, and the gap between their life and ours is too great, the effect is not one of encouragement but of disillusionment - especially if their story is told in terms of personal qualities like bravery or persistence.

Knowing a famous person has the same impairment as you can be reassuring, but only in the vague way that hearing of a successful distant relative is reassuring.

Most of us will never scale Everest, compete for our country at sports or have a showbiz career. This doesn’t mean we’ve failed.

”

- For BBC’s Mental Health Awareness Week, Mark Brown questions the value of glorifying role models who share our own disabilities and pathologies.

A flipside of the same coin to consider is the perilous “tortured genius” myth of creativity, which implies that depression, addiction, and other mental health issues that plagued some successful creators were central to their genius. The human antidotes to this mythology are worthy role models.
(via explore-blog)

mapsontheweb: Major Mythological Traditions of the World

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:15:14 -0400

mapsontheweb:

Major Mythological Traditions of the World

mapsontheweb: 1955 Cold War map of travel restricted zones for...

Tue, 21 May 2013 18:12:41 -0400

mapsontheweb:

1955 Cold War map of travel restricted zones for Soviet citizens in the US.

"The question is how we react to this great prejudice against women. The rule of law and social..."

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:28:53 -0400

“

The question is how we react to this great prejudice against women. The rule of law and social activism certainly are crucial. But no matter how strong the social structure, there is always that cheek-slapped moment when you are alone with the anti-woman prejudice: the joke, the leer, the disregard, the invisibility, the inescapable fact that the moment you walk through the door you are seen as lesser, no matter what your credentials.

I have no guidance for women who want to rise through the ranks into technical management. I have led a peripatetic life, moving on when a project was done or the next thing intrigued me.

And I am not advising younger women (or any woman) to tough it out. You can lash back, which I have done too often and which has rarely served me well. You can quit and look for other jobs, which is sometimes a very good idea.

But the prejudice will follow you. What will save you is tacking into the love of the work, into the desire that brought you there in the first place. This creates a suspension of time, opens a spacious room of your own in which you can walk around and consider your response. Staring prejudice in the face imposes a cruel discipline: to structure your anger, to achieve a certain dignity, an angry dignity.

”

- Pioneering software engineer Ellen Ullman, author of the fascinating Close to the Machine, on how to be a ‘woman programmer.’ Pair with Margaret Atwood on literature’s ‘woman problem’ and Caitlin Moran on how to be a woman. (via explore-blog)

explore-blog: Be realistic, ask the impossible. Put even more...

Tue, 21 May 2013 13:27:44 -0400

explore-blog:

Be realistic, ask the impossible.

Put even more beautifully: Imagine immensities.

I don’t think we take enough time to appreciate the periods in our life when our noses aren’t...

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:49:59 -0400

I don’t think we take enough time to appreciate the periods in our life when our noses aren’t runny. Is your nose runny right now? No? Think about that. Honestly reflect on it. Enjoy this era of peace. There are dark times on the horizon

qualitymind: adimals: ave-atque-vale: pagesofyourlines: thecu...

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:53:59 -0400

qualitymind:

adimals:

ave-atque-vale:

pagesofyourlines:

thecuteoftheday:

turtle cosies

(via http://imgur.com/gallery/t5SmU)

HELPHELP HELP MEEE HELP

THIS IS THE CUTEST THING OF EVER

HELP

…someone needs to knit these for Clyde.

TURTLE COZIES

I’m pretty much just reblogging this for the Clyde reference.

YES.

Discovery, Animal Planet, and History Channel exposed for killing animals for profit

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:11:18 -0400

Discovery, Animal Planet, and History Channel exposed for killing animals for profit:

jtotheizzoe:

climateadaptation:

These channels are failing the spirit of conservationism and education. They are failing inspiring awe in young people. Failing much needed inspiration in a very confused and conflicted world.

These shows are failing their core values, their main purpose, which is leadership in environmentalism and cultural education. Far worse, they are failing millions of young people - millions - who look up to them.

Please join me in asking Discovery, Animal Planet, and the History Channels to stop, apologize, and correct.

That’s an important read up there, folks. These “reality” shows are feeding an outdated and unscientific view of predator species. These are channels founded on principles of education and conservation (TLC, of course, left the building years ago). Are they willing to sacrifice that for what appears to be gratuitous bloodsport?

Like any media, you can vote with your eyeballs. And if you support any kind of rights for wild animals and natural spaces, you can not support these programs. If the account above is true, shame on these networks.

It speaks to part of a larger issue with nature films. The amazing footage we see in shows like Africa, Planet Earth, and Frozen Planet is rarely the result of serendipity. It involves years of careful research and preparation to maximize the chances of capturing nature’s majesty on camera, and what is captured is highly edited to create story, drama and emotion. These are uniquely human interests, and nature doesn’t include them in her original script.

That’s not to say we are being fleeced all the time. People like Sir David Attenborough take these concerns very seriously, and constantly strive to find the balance between entertainment and true nature in every varying instance. What we watch is real. But is it REAL?

I wonder how many people realize that, for instance, the famous polar bear birth scene from Frozen Planet was filmed in a zoo? Disney’s adorable Chimpanzee movie was not a documentary, but rather spliced together to create an emotional tale of adoption. Jason Goldman put together a great collection of opinions on the matter.

How far can we take allowances to deliver good edutainment before we are delivering bad science? The “reality” shows surely fail the test. But the others? What do you think?