Category: Uncategorized

sugarot:

my heart goes out to syrians right now, the last thing you need is useless attacks meant to strong arm radical leaders while simultaneously harming innocent lives. this was completely avoidable and not at all necessary in the slightest what syria needs is aid, financial and otherwise, to help them achieve stability. refugees need to be saved and protected, not bombed and threatened.

here are a list of charities you can donate to to help syria and its people:

theroguefeminist:

queerabed:

an abridged list of things that jkr should actually regret about the hp series, feel free to add ur own

  • albus severus potter’s name
  • no queer representation / outing dumbledore after the series was over and expecting that to be enough
  • attempting to make snape a sympathetic character and erasing the awful things he did in the name of ‘true love’
  • ginny and mrs weasley slut shaming fleur
  • remus and tonks’ relationship and not acknowledging the questionable/gross way that they got together
  • villainizing all slytherins
  • letting s.p.e.w. and hermione’s white savior complex go unexamined
  • using white people or magical creatures as metaphors for racism and other real world issues in general
  • lyncanthropy being an allegory for hiv/aids / erasing the queer history associated w/ hiv/aids
  • enforcing the belief that the only way to have a happy ending in life is to be straight, married, and have 2.5 kids
  • the entire epilogue
  • umbridge being raped by centaurs as “punishment” and making that into a joke and making hermione sign off on that
  • whitewashing lavender brown in the movies and doing nothing to protest that or speak out about that
  • lack of PoC representation
  • making the only gay character (dumbledore) have a tragic same-gender relationship so awful it caused him to be in the closet and celibate the rest of his life
  • making love a powerful/good force except when said gay character falls in love with another man
  • normalizing and never addressing the rampant bullying in hogwarts and physical and emotional abuse some faculty inflict on students

eatsleepcrap:

queerstatic:

eatsleepcrap:

queerstatic:

eatsleepcrap:

queerstatic:

tell me something nice, hit me with those positive vibess

the earliest recorded named cat lived over 3000 years ago in egypt and was called ‘nedjem’ which means sweetie

the pet cat of prince thutmose was called ‘tai miuwette’ which means ‘little mewer’

in medieval england so many cats were given the name ‘gilbert’ that the word ‘gyb’ came to mean ‘pet cat’

lindentreeisle:

satdjehuti:

hobo-logical:

tonelessmandarin:

penfairy:

bitter-badfem-harpy:

penfairy:

Okay, it’s official. I’ve found my favourite historical anecdote of all time.

So in ancient Rome they had this tradition where they had to consult the gods and check they had divine approval before they went into battle. They did this by bringing forth a flock of sacred chickens and throwing grain at them. Their behaviour would then determine whether or not the gods were on your side. If the hens didn’t eat or wouldn’t leave their cage, it was a Bad Omen and you had to postpone battle and ask again the next day. If the chickens ate happily it was a Good Omen and you could go and chop up some Gauls or Carthaginians or whoever you happened to be fighting.

Now, there are lots of little stories about these chickens, but I just found one I hadn’t seen before. In 137 BC, the consul C. Hostilius Mancinus tried to take auspices before battle, but:

pulli cavea emissi in proximam silvam fugerunt summaque diligentia quaesiti reperiri nequiverunt

the chickens once released from their cage fled into a nearby wood and even though they were sought with the greatest diligence, they could not be recovered.

Can you fucking believe that. Can you actually believe that happened. The Romans have a reputation for being so stern and sensible and stoic and that happened. Like… everyone’s ready for battle, so you turn to your assistant and say “BRING FORTH THE CHICKENS” and you throw down the grain and open up their cage and the chickens just. run. they fucking run. those tiny velociraptor bastards abscond screaming into the woods like there’s no tomorrow. Blinking in disbelief, you send soldiers into the woods to recover them but those feathered bandits are gone. Vanished. The gods have deserted you. You’re beating bushes and following the sounds of triumphant clucks. The soldiers are frantic. The chickens are gone. 

He lost the battle. It was a Bad Omen.

That sounds like the ultimate Bad Omen like at that point you go home and start drawing up an armistice bc the gods told you to go fuck yourself with chickens

That’s… pretty much what happened. The chicken omen, along with a few other Bad Omens, resulted in: 

infelici pugna, turpi foedere, deditione funesta

“a lost battle, a shameful peace treaty, and a calamitous handover.”

so yeah, he lost the battle and had to go home and sign an embarrassing peace treaty that the Romans complained about years later, and when they talk about him they curse him for his praecipitem audaciam – “reckless audacity” – and vesana perseverantia “insane obstinacy” because NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU’D LISTENED TO THE CHICKENS AND POSTPONED BATTLE LIKE THEY TOLD YOU. 

Don’t forget naval commander Claudius Pulcher, whose sacred chickens refused to eat anything before the battle of Drepana. He tossed the chickens overboard, saying if they won’t eat, then let them drink, and went into battle where he promptly lost almost all of his ships and crew. I forget if he died or returned to Rome in disgrace, but it was a freaking disaster and the sacred chickens called it.

@chiauve i think you’ll love this as much as I do

I’m not sure which phrase in this post is my favorite, “bring forth the chickens” or “this would have never happened if you listened to the chickens.”