Brazil did it. Brazil elected a neo-facist, racist, homophobic asshole to govern our country and the consequences about it it’s already happening.
In less than 24h since he’s been elected it’s been hell of fucking earth in Brazil. Countless people have been reported dead all over the country, mainly LGBTQ+. Countless. People parading around cities with their fucking guns (it’s pretty much illegal in Brazil but this asshole is trying to change our law to allow guns, he’s even encouraging parents to give their kids a gun ????), shooting it into the sky in sign of victory. Did you know that one of those bullets killed a child? Yeah. One killed an old lady too. There’s been report of them invading a indigenous village and attacked them. They’ve been saying they are going to kill every single “slut”, “fag”, “dyke”, poor people, Nordestino (people that lives in Nordeste, a region in Brazil, that is mainly against this government), black and homeless people. Aka in the last 24h Brazil felt what is like to live in the fucking Purge.
There’s already people recruiting “good citizens” to erradicate Brazil of “fags and dykes, because now that their master’s been elected, there’s nothing protecting them, they’re not even people.” I kid you not. They’ve created group chats in popular apps to talk about mass shooting the LGBTQ+ community in Brazil. Yesterday there were people waiting outside a queer club to beat anyone that went outside.
Our police enforcement already started to invade college campuses and schools to destroy history books because they think our teachers are indoctrinating us in favor of communism. These history books tells about our 1964 military dictatorship (something we’re very afraid of happening again and we’re pretty sure is gonna happen with this demon in charge). They are trying to say that we choose to elect a military government back then, when in fact was a fucking coup. They’re also trying to get rid of philosophy classes and social studies because they think it only teach us to become communists as well. Basically, they’re all very ignorant and violents and they’re trying to fuck with the only fucking hope we have to our future: education.
You won’t probably hear many of the things I’m saying because I’ve been reading it on social media, and everything we (the opposition) say on social media is basically reported as “fake news” by his voters. But yeah, I can’t count how many videos I’ve saw today of women getting beaten and threatened. Of how many stories I’ve read of people walking the streets and cars pullover poiting guns at them and threaten them. Of people posting pictures of their “victory bbq” with guns spread in their tables close to their fucking meat. Of how many times I’ve cried since his pronouncement, thinking about how I’ve never felt so unsafe in my entire life. Of how I’ll have to be cautious about everything from now on, if I don’t want to become another casualty.
If you don’t believe what I’m saying, read about what foreign news are talking about us:
This is the world’s largest flying Engine of Murder marveling at the fact that it can actually have its tummy rubbed.
I feel like this is the next step up on “loose your fingers” roulette from petting a kittie’s tummy, but just below belly rubs for say a lion.
Can someone who knows birds better than I do tell me whether this eagle is as happy as it looks? Because I want it to be happy. It looks so happy. Bewildered by having a friend, but so happy.
Just popping on this thread to confirm: yes, the eagle is happy about the belly rubs. Golden eagles make this sound when receiving allopreening and similar affectionate and soothing treatment from their parents and mates. It’s the “I am safe and well fed, and somebody familiar is taking good care of me” sound. Angry raptors and wounded raptors make some pretty dramatic hisses and shrieks; frightened raptors go dead silent and try to hide if they can, or fluff up big and get loud and in-your-face if hiding isn’t an option. They can easily sever a finger or break the bones of a human hand or wrist, and even with a very thick leather falconer’s gauntlet, I’ve known falconers to leave a mews (hawk house) with graphic punctures THROUGH the gauntlet into the meat of their hands and arms, just from buteos and kestrels way smaller than this eagle. A pissed off hawk will make damn sure you don’t try twice whatever you pulled that pissed her off, even if she’s been human-imprinted.
If you’re ever unsure about an animal’s level of okayness with something that’s happening, there are three spot-check questions you can ask, to common-sense your way through it:
1. Is the animal capable of defending itself or making a threatening or fearful display, or otherwise giving protest, and if so, is it using this ability? (e.g. dog snarling or biting, swan hissing, horse kicking or biting)
2. Does the animal experience an incentive-based relationship with the human? (i.e. does the animal have a reason, in the animal’s frame of reference, for being near this human? e.g. dog sharing companionship / food / shelter, hawk receiving good quality abundant food and shelter and medical care from a falconer)
3. Is the animal a domesticated species, with at least a full century of consistent species cohabitation with humans? (Domesticated animals frequently are conditioned from birth or by selective breeding to be unbothered by human actions that upset their feral nearest relatives.)
In this situation, YES the eagle can self-defend, YES the eagle has incentive to cooperate with and trust the human handler, and NO the eagle is not a domesticated species, meaning we can expect a high level of reactivity to distress, compared to domestic animals: if the eagle was distressed, it would be pretty visible and apparent to the viewer. These aren’t a universally applicable metric, but they’re a good start for mammal and bird interactions.
Pair that with the knowledge that eagles reserve those chirps for calm environments, and you can be pretty secure and comfy in the knowledge that the big honkin’ birb is happy and cozy.
Also, to anybody wondering, falconers are almost single-handedly responsible for the recovery from near-extinction of several raptor species, including and especially peregrine falcons. Most hawks only live with the falconer for a year, and most of that year is spent getting the bird in ideal condition for survival and success as a wild breeding adult. Falconers are extensively trained and dedicated wildlife conservationists, pretty much by definition, especially in the continental USA, and they make up an unspeakably important part of the overall conservation of predatory bird species. Predatory birds are an important part of every ecosystem they inhabit. Just like apiarists and their bees, the relationship between falconer and hawk is one of great benefit to the animal and the ecosystem, in exchange for a huge amount of time, effort, expense, and education on the part of the human, for very little personal benefit to that one human. It’s definitely not exploitation of the bird, and most hawks working with falconers are hawks who absolutely would not have reached adulthood without human help: the sick, the injured, and the “runts” of the nest who don’t receive adequate resources from their own parents. These are, by and large, wonderful people who are in love with the natural world and putting a lifetime of knowledge and sheer exhausting work into conserving it and its winged wonders.
reblogged for excellent info, I’m so glad that big gorgeous birb really is as happy as it looks!
Today’s bit of positive activism: A reminder that, although the world may contain many bad and awful things, it also contains an enormous winged predator clucking happily as a human gives it a belly rub.
forgot to say that, without Howl chasing girls and Sophie resenting him for it, the film completely erases part of the point of Sophie being old. Wynne Jones is using an idea that Beauvoir talked about – that being an old woman is both tragic (as we lose male attention/attractiveness) and freeing (as we are freed from the male gaze). the idea is that with being old comes liberation, and the true meaning of what it is to be a woman, as society no longer forces gender norms on us.
Sophie is free from Howl’s attentions and therefore safe from harm (a big part of the book is the fact that Sophie believes he eats women’s hearts, and him chasing girls proves this to her). she takes solace in the fact that she’s old, and finds it freeing. when she learns more about Howl (notably: that he doesn’t eat hearts and that he’s not evil), she starts to curse her age and resent him chasing girls. BUT she remains old OF HER OWN VOLITION – Howl notes that she’s perpetuating the spell by wishing to remain “in disguise”. there are SO many layers to this, and lots to do with gender politics – if she’s still old Sophie can’t get hurt, she likes the freedom, etc. but of course on a personal level being old is her denying her feelings for Howl, and also a representation of her low self esteem – being old is a defence mechanism and protection, both on a gender level and a personal one.
and the film kinda… loses this? the only thing that remains is being old = low self esteem. which really sucks. because there’s SO MUCH MORE to Sophie being old in the book (perspective I already mentioned), and a HUGE amount of this is gender politics. that the film just erases.
Also there’s the subversion of that in the book. Sophie’s belief that she’s safe from Howl, isn’t quite true because he fell in love with her while she was under the spell (and in the book, there’s no switching between looking young and old. Sophie is looking ninety the entire time, and Howl falls in love anyway.)
Also, her belief that being old means she can’t go to her stepmother or her sisters, that they’d fail to recognize her or reject her, is also unfounded. Fanny almost immediately recognizes her at the end of the book, and hugs her and cries over her and asks why Sophie disappeared. Sophie’s belief that the love of her family, friends and even her romantic interests is somehow conditional on her appearance is shown to be completely false at the end, which I think is absolutely beautiful.
Like, there’s definitely gender politics and commentary going on about beauty and youth and age and the male gaze and male violence going on, but there’s also this message about how love, real love, transcends all of that.
I actually adore the movie on its own merits, but I think it absolutely did a disservice to Sophie as a character. When I was doing a reread last month, what hit me was that Sophie is every bit as much of a volatile emotional disaster as Howl is, and that’s pretty heckin’ great.
Howl is a pissy, dramatic asshole even when he’s at his best. He dissolves into green slime when his hair looks wrong. He deals with his problems by getting falling-over drunk and makes the walls shake every time he sneezes just so everyone will take pity on him. He’s a self-proclaimed coward who has to trick himself into taking responsibility for anything.
Movie Sophie deals with this as well as she can. She learns to look past his drama and sees his tender heart and noble intentions. She becomes the mature one in the castle, fixing everyone’s problems, essentially taking up a motherly role to all the other characters.
Book Sophie does the same… but she does it while dealing out as good as she takes. Howl is chasing after every woman except Sophie? Sophie meticulously cuts up his suit into triangles. Howl floods the room with green slime? Sophie hate-magics weed killer strong enough to melt concrete, and chucks it at Howl’s head. Howl can’t stop avoiding his problems? Meet the queen of avoidance, who clung to her curse to avoid confronting her feelings for Howl. Howl has to basically trick himself into taking action? I would like you to meet Sophie, who was too scared to leave her home her whole life, but the moment she’s under a curse is like “WELP, GUESS I’D BETTER LEAVE HOME RIGHT THIS MOMENT AND NEVER COME BACK.”
The moment of Howl and Sophie getting together in the book isn’t “Sophie fixes everything through her inherent goodness.” It’s “Sophie realizes that Howl has been secretly scheming to fix all her problems exactly the same way that she has been secretly scheming to fix all his problems because neither of them is a normal functioning adult, and they both look forward to yelling at each other for the rest of their wonderful lives.” And losing that, losing all of Sophie’s flaws and ridiculous moments as well as Howl’s efforts to fix her life as much as she’s trying to fix his, means that we’re left with a typical romance trope of a woman having to fix all of a man’s problems and be the perfect, mature one in the relationship, while he can coast purely on charm. The revelation that half of Howl’s antics were actually schemes to break Sophie’s curse or even just make her happy is important because for once it goes both ways. Not just “woman fixes man with her love,” but “people fix each other with their love, sort of, except for all the parts that will never change and that’s okay because flaws can be just as attractive as virtues, and if he laughs when you throw weed killer at him then he might be the one.”
Literally nothing you do is safe from the CIA. There are numerous full-on spyware suites developed by them, mostly for iOS and Windows, but also targeting Android, Linux, OS X, and Solaris. Apps thought to be secure (Telegram with encryption enabled, WhatsApp, Signal) were compromised as well, as were a host of other devices (ie smart TVs).
THIS DOES NOT PERTAIN ONLY TO AMERICANS.
If you live in a Shengen area country, your country likely hosts several CIA backed cyberwar experts. They came in via the US consulate in Frankfurt. If you don’t, you likely do as well, but I can’t find anything without sifting through the files myself.
“I have nothing to hide, why does this matter?”: Because there are now multiple thousand “zero hour”- ie “developers get zero hours to fix”- vulnerabilities floating around that no one had any idea existed. The vulnerabilities themselves weren’t leaked, but it’s the fact that someone knew about these and didn’t say.
I hate to make this kinda clickbait-y thing, but this is honest to God one of the most important leaks in history. Our response to this is pretty much going to be life or death for privacy in the developed world. Be loud about this, be annoying about this, and do not shut up about this. Please reblog this and other posts relating to it.
Not just any someone, this is one of the U.S. federal government’s foremost intelligence agencies, the CIA, which even mainstream media has reported operates on a black (off the record) budget, infamous for handing over “full” reports that are almost entirely redacted.
It’s a wonder that anyone out there could believe they are not the subject of surveillance—everyone has something to hide.
The USA can access personal email, chat, and web browsing history. (Source)
The USA tracks the numbers of both parties on phone calls, their locations, as well as time and duration of the call. (Source)
The USA intercepts troves of personal webcam video from innocent people. (Source)
The USA is working to crack all types of sophisticated computer encryption. (Source)
The USA monitors communications between online gamers. (Source)
The USA can set up fake Internet cafes to spy on unsuspecting users. (Source)
The USA can remotely access computers by setting up a fake wireless connection. (Source)
The USA can use radio waves to hack computers that aren’t connected to the internet. (Source)
The USA can set up fake social networking profiles on LinkedIn for spying purposes. (Source)
The USA undermines secure networks [Tor] by diverting users to non-secure channels. (Source)
The USA can intercept phone calls by setting up fake mobile telephony base stations. (Source)
The USA can install a fake SIM card in a cell phone to secretly control it. (Source)
The USA can physically intercept packages, open them, and alter electronic devices. (Source)
The USA makes a USB thumb drive that provides a wireless backdoor into the host computer. (Source)
The USA can set up stations on rooftops to monitor local cell phone communications. (Source)
The USA spies on text messages in China and can hack Chinese cell phones. (Source)
The USA spies on foreign leaders’ cell phones. (Source)
The USA intercepts meeting notes from foreign dignitaries. (Source)
The USA has hacked into the United Nations’ video conferencing system. (Source)
The USA can spy on ambassadors within embassies. (Source)
The USA can track hotel reservations to monitor lodging arrangements. (Source)
The USA can track communications within media organizations. (Source)
The USA can tap transoceanic fiber-optic cables. (Source)
The USA can intercept communications between aircraft and airports. (Source)
And this leak shows that the CIA has all of these technologies and proliferates them to other entities who want this information all the time. You need your privacy to protect yourself and your information. If you have nothing to hide, you have plenty to hide:
The line “if you’ve got nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry
about” is used all too often in defending surveillance overreach. It’s
been debunked countless times in the past, but with the line being
trotted out frequently in response to the NSA revelations, it’s time for
yet another debunking, and there are two good ones that were recently
published. First up, we’ve got Moxie Marlinspike at Wired, who points
out that, you’re wrong if you think you’ve got nothing to hide,
because our criminal laws are so crazy, that anyone sifting through
your data would likely be able to pin quite a few crimes on you if they
just wanted to.
Some of the potentially sensitive facts those records expose becomes
obvious after giving it some thought: Who has called a substance abuse
counselor, a suicide hotline, a divorce lawyer or an abortion provider?
What websites do you read daily? What porn turns you on? What religious
and political groups are you a member of?
Some are less obvious. Because your cellphone’s “routing information”
typically includes information about the nearest cell tower, those
records are also a kind of virtual map showing where you spend your time
— and, when aggregated with others, who you like to spend it with.
We simply cannot possibly know when something is going to incriminate us and the State is not above scapegoating individuals or coercing them into submission. James Duane, a professor at Regent Law School and former defense attorney, notes:
Estimates of the current size of the body of federal
criminal law vary. It has been reported that the Congressional Research
Service cannot even count the current number of federal crimes.
These laws are scattered in over 50 titles of the United States Code,
encompassing roughly 27,000 pages. Worse yet, the statutory code
sections often incorporate, by reference, the provisions and sanctions
of administrative regulations promulgated by various regulatory agencies
under congressional authorization. Estimates of how many such
regulations exist are even less well settled, but the ABA thinks there
are ”nearly 10,000.”
The complexity of modern federal criminal law, codified
in several thousand sections of the United States Code and the virtually
infinite variety of factual circumstances that might trigger an
investigation into a possible violation of the law, make it
difficult for anyone to know, in advance, just when a particular set of
statements might later appear (to a prosecutor) to be relevant to some
such investigation.
Not just the State, but anyone could draw suspicion against you if they had the right information with the right circumstances. We are entitled to our privacy, and these institutions must be held to account.
Reblogging because the links in the bulleted list were broken, as someone brought to my attention.
The other day at the mall i saw a 15 year old sitting in a Claire’s piercing booth and it took every fiber in my being to not just grab her and take her to the actual, clean and sanitary and not guaranteed to fuck up your ears tattoo shop literally next door. Like I was frantic. Snakes manifested in my house
Piercing guns almost ALWAYS cause infections
They hurt more because they jam dull jewelry into your ear
Needles from a professional are designed to allow for minimum damage thus less pain.
The people working there literally have no idea what the fuck they’re doing and just guess it with a 1 hour training video vs a professional who trained under a mentor for at least a year and has a passion in the craft
They use bad metal for healings (copper, silver, etc) that can irritate ears. Surgical grade steel should be the only thing in your healing piercings
They put them on way to tight, causing swelling issues. Swelling is normal and piercings should be large enough to allow for that
They give you shit aftercare advice and cleaner (literally just buy saline solution at Spencer’s or hot topic for 8 dollars at the most and don’t touch them at all)
If done on cartilage it can LITERALLY SHATTER YOUR EARS
Please if any young girls in your family want their ears pierced take them to actual professional and don’t trust piercing guns. If a professional says your kid is too young (I.e a fucking baby) then trust their professional judgement. It costs more but you are getting essentially a art piece from a highly trained professional who knows what they’re doing vs a part time min wage employee who had 1 hour training on how to pierce ears.
I literally wrote an entire essay in college why piercing guns should be banned with pictures and my professor told me she was so interested in my topic and had no idea and even googled the topic herself out of curiosity and was horrified on the amount of damage they case
I am a licensed piercing professional and this is all sound and accurate advice. Get your piercings done by a licensed professional at a reputable shop. Not at the mall kiosk that uses piercing guns. Not by your friend who ordered a kit off of Amazon.
Association of Professional Piercers Aftercare Guide:
2) Claire’s used to use sterling silver but now they use gold, which is just as safe as surgical steel and easier to work with
3) Yeah some tattoo parlors are really great and know what they’re doing but some of them don’t and not everyone wants to risk that because getting a piercing at a place that doesn’t clean their equipment can cause way more damage than a little bit of swelling
4) Piercings on babies is honestly a whole other barrel of fish and ultimately I’m of the opinion that nobody should be getting piercings who can’t consent to making permanent alterations on their bodies but there are tons of places that do it including “professional” establishments so this isn’t an issue to take up with Claire’s
5) Going to doctors or other medical professionals isn’t just a little more expensive, it’s ridiculously expensive, and it’s way too much money for something that’s considered a modern day beauty standard. ofc you should still go to a doctor if you want cartilage piercings but once again Claire’s doesn’t even do those
idk this whole “a bad piercing a Claire’s is going to ruin your life” bullshit seems really overdramatic to me like… myself, my two sisters, and dozens of my friends have gotten piercings there under the age of sixteen and none of us have ever had any problems that weren’t easily resolved with proper cleaning.
There’s also a huge difference between getting your ears pierced with proper metal and sterilized tools by a person who does it for a living and ordering a piercing kit off Amazon to do it yourself in the mirror. Comparing the two is kind of asinine.
The one thing you are right about is that they WAY overcharge for “cleaning solution” and it’s better to just buy saline but pretty much every corporation pulls that kind of nonsense and it’s not like the stuff they give you will actually damage your ears or anything
So, i was scrolling down my netflix page and i saw madoka. My first thought was “cool now i can binge watch madoka again” and my second thought was “yeah despite how awful it is and how much i hate the over all impact it had on the MG community, i still like madoka.”
And my third thought was “why not write a 2k essay on my feelings on madoka for my Magical Girl Essay Series?”
My only problem with this criticism of Madoka is that it doesn’t tackle the problems that the magical girl genre already has. You touched on it a little towards the end, but it’s important to emphasize that the magical girl genre has never really been about female empowerment: it’s about commercialism, and has always existed for the male gaze in many ways. Deconstructing the genre is actually necessary, the problem with Madoka is that it doesn’t really do it right.
Madoka is regressive because it claims to be genre-critical despite still exhibiting the same issues as any traditional magical girl series (commercialism, sexualization, queerbaiting, reinforcement of gender roles). Just like you said, they aren’t actually making a critique of the magical girl formula, they’re just making it darker and trying to sell it as something original. But you can’t criticize Madoka Magica for misogyny without also criticizing traditional series such as Sailor Moon, Pretty Cure, etc; it fails to identify the larger issues at play. Madoka is irritating in its hypocrisy, but it didn’t really create any problems that weren’t already there, although it may have exacerbated them somewhat.
I went through all of my witchy supplies and shelves and have found a collection of neat things that no longer call to me the way they used to that I hope I can pass along to someone who will appreciate them more.
I am going to be doing this giveaway a little differently than I have seen others do. I do not need more followers than what I have now, so this is ONLY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE FOLLOWED ME BEFORE TODAY (7/17/2018). You all have stuck by me for an awfully long time and seen me grow personally as well as my practice and I love you forever for that.
Now for the rules!
1. You MUST have been following me before today (7/17/2018). Anyone who follows me after today will not be counted even if you do reblog this. The giveaway will END ON 8/18/2018 (ideally – see bottom). I will have announced the winner within THREE DAYS of the end date on 8/21/2018.
2. You MUST reblog this post but DO NOT tag as a giveaway. You all know the run down and I don’t want to get in trouble or want it blowing up in my face for doing a nice thing. If you do tag as a giveaway I will be forced to remove you and I don’t want to do that.
3. I reserve the right to refuse entry to anyone with problematic blog content. I do a great job usually of kicking people out as time goes on but I’m sure out of 1600+ I may have missed a couple. If there’s anything racist, anti-LGBTQ, pro-Trump or problematic in general that I see (or is reported to me with proof) I will not hesitate to disqualify and block you.
4. If you live outside the continental US (think Hawaii/UK/Brazil etc.) and win you must pay your own shipping and handling because I am not a rich woman and it tends to get very very pricey when sending items anywhere outside the country.
5. I am not responsible for the potential mishandling of this package by the USPS. I plan to pack everything as best I can to prevent leaking/breaking/etc. but I cannot plan on shitty carriers doing shitty things and I will NOT be able to replace anything that I send and for that I’m sorry!
6. I am NOT responsible for any kind of potential allergic reaction you may have to anything I have included, whether it’s the herbs, the perfume oils or essential oils. Please use your noggin and do your research and use wisely!
And finally, I am not counting this as a rule, but PLEASE cut this pregnant lady some slack. I live in a very HOT very MISERABLE very WILDFIRE PRONE part of California and if I am forced to evacuate with my 4 year old and husband and the other 3 members of our immediate family like I was last year, or have been hit with a very LOW SPOON week, I may have to extend the giveaway or cut it short by the time I have stated. I will do my best to get the package shipped within 2 weeks of the end date and if anything comes up will let you know as soon as I can.
Now for the fun part! THE GOODS.
From left to right we have 1 muslin bag filled with lemonbalm and 1 filled with holy basil, 1 driftwood candle holder, 1 brand new copy of The Witching Herbs by Harold Roth, 1 gently used copy of On the Edge of Dream: The Women of Celtic Myth and Legend by Jennifer Heath, 1 brand new hardback copy of Basic Witches by Jaya Saxena and Jess Zimmerman, 1 plastic egg I found hiking that contains a lucky penny, 1 dram bottles each of ginger and angelica root essential oils, 1 small bottle each of my very own homemade dandelion oil and rosemary tincture, 1 brass fairy pin/brooch, 1 nearly full roller bottle of Enchantress (lilac and gooseberries like Yen from the Witcher), 1 nearly full roller bottle of Traveling Vardo’s Sif perfume (sweet cream and almond), 1 dram of PMS ease oil from the Inked Goddess, a miscellany of perfume samples from Traveling Vardo, Sage Goddess and Wild Witchery, a miscellany of tumbled stones, 1 velvet lined box I think is silver but might be pewter designed with roses, 1 8in Italian silver 9.25 chain, 1 carnelian beaded stretch bracelet, 1 silver plated stretch bracelet with red swarovski crystals, 1 rose quartz pendant, 1 set of butterfly wing earrings, 1 ear cuff, 3 tealights (one plain and 2 winter berry) and a cool ass collectible/decorative offering plate.
I used this for all of my blue stones for a bit.
Looks to be violet agate, obsidian arrowhead, agate, carnelian, citrine, calcite and a couple others I can’t recall.
Dragons’ Keep is sort of a sweet cinnamon musk, Nomad is an herby earthy blend, Hexe is a very strong bitter herb blend, Witches Brew is a bright herb blend and Elder Council is some seriously dark herby business.
I hope the egg brings you luck too!
The butterfly wings were humanely collected here locally.
Good luck everyone! All of my love!
Just a reminder – only 4 days left in my giveaway! ❤️ Please read entire post. ❤️
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