misc reads pt. 11

The legend of the music tree, ellen rupell shell, smithsonian magazine

The depths she'll reach: freediving's alenka artnik, xan rice, longlead

Sufi Islam thrives humorous, eloquent and poetic as ever, nile green, aeon

Mars is a hellhole, sharon stirone, the atlantic

Obliterating the natural world, nathan j. robinson, current affairs

What lies beneath, julian sancton, vanityfair

A winelike sea, caroline alexander, lapham's quaterly

The centuries-long quest for the scent of god, john last, noema magazine

Hayao miyazaki and the art of being a woman, gabrielle bellot, the atlantic

The death of the ‘chic’ writer, barry pierce dazed digital

All about eve—and then some, lili anoulik, vanityfair

The archive of a vanishing world, grace linden, noema magazine

In the land of living skies, suzannah showler, harper's magazine

Daydreams and fragments: on how we retrieve images from the past, maël renouard, lithub

The haunted city, azania imtiaz khatri-patel, aeon

Princes of infinite space, kyle paoletta, baffler

Humans are overzealous whale morticians, ben goldfarb, nautilus

immortal by default, jared farmer, lapham's quaterly

Short fic:

Morning, Noon & Night, claire louise-bennett, the white review

Office hours, ling ma, the atlantic

Nights at the hotel splendido, sam munson, granta

shanghai murmur, te-ping chen, the atlantic

The hydraulic emperor, arkady martine, uncanny magazine

Goodnight, melancholy, xia jia, clarkesworld magazine

celtic languages mega drive folder

i've been meaning to share my folder of celtic language pdfs for a while now, especially since duolingo has gotten even worse. the folder has pdfs of language-learning material, as well as some stuff on literature, history, indentity, etc. this is very much a work-in-progress, as i will add to the folder as i find more resources.

my folder currently has: welsh, breton, cornish, irish, scottish gaelic, manx, béarlagair na saor, early modern irish and classical gaelic, old irish, middle welsh, old welsh, and proto-celtic (although not all of them have a lot of pdfs in their folders yet).

(also if you want online resources, fiction books, media, etc, then take a look at this website: https://www.celtic-languages.org/Main_Page - it has both free and paid resources for irish, scottish gaelic, manx, welsh, cornish, breton, old irish, and classical gaelic.)

At the risk of sounding anti-intellectual, I think that college should be free and also not a requirement for employment outside of highly specialized career fields

At the risk of sounding like an effete intellectual, I do actually think you should be allowed to just take college courses indefinitely

technically you can, if you don't care about degrees.

Free Harvard courses.

Free Courses from Stanford.

Free Courses from MIT.

Free courses from Yale.

Free courses from Princeton.

Free courses on Coursera.

Free Courses on EDx

Free Courses on Alison

For paid, there's The Great Courses+/Wonderium. 20$ a month for unlimited courses.

When searching, the phrases you're looking for are Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), or you can do a general search of say, "free online college courses."

Oh, and so you don't get surprised like I did, have an avoid: Hillsdale College is a conservative Christian site and not a valid MOOC place. Sign up with them and you will get things like THIS IS WHY THE LEFT IS TURNING YOUR KIDS TRANS AND GAY in your inbox.

@yourunderwaterskies I wanted to say thank you so much for adding these links, seriously, they've been life-changingly helpful to me-

And I also wanted to mention that humanitarian organisations have free courses too, like the Red Cross on international humanitarian law.

We have 30 days until the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) laws are rescinded. This is the 50-year bedrock of American conservation. Normally, these actions take years but the administration has provided 30 days for public comment gutting clean water and clean air. Drop what you’re doing, before you make any more calls or read any more social media posts, please populate the Federal Register with dissent.

A. Go to https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/02/25/2025-03014/removal-of-national-environmental-policy-act-implementing-regulations

B. Click on the green rectangle in the upper right corner ("SUBMIT A PUBLIC COMMENT") .

C. Fill in your comment, and info at the bottom, and SUBMIT COMMENT.

I just did that (2/27/2025), and the message on that website said:

The comment period ends March 27, not March 30!!!

I strongly suggest (in your own words) couching your dissent in Trump's (and followers') own rhetoric. Here's what I said:

Removing these regulations will make America sick again, cause neurological and intellectual impairment in children (due to less regulation of lead), and raise the level of preventable cancers in adults (due to less regulation of known carcinogens),thus reducing American productivity and greatness.

Done! It took me two seconds.

signal boost!

if you are on SSDI/Medicare, please contact the ACLU or an appropriate law firm to file a class action suit against the federal government for breach of privacy.

[image text: Attn: Treasury Secretary Scott Bressent granted representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency full access to the federal payment system!

Response post: As a SSDI and Medicare client, I filed a request for a class-action breach of privacy lawsuit request with my state ACLU today. Please file in your state]

I will be contacting the Florida ACLU tomorrow but I also submitted a form to Morgan & Morgan, because the Morgans fuckin' hate Republicans, so it could work.

This is not just about your rights (though that's obviously the most important part), but about slowing down this fascist government. We need to be suing them into oblivion.

UPDATE: I just got off the phone with a representative from Morgan & Morgan. Please contact them and describe why, as is explained in this post. The more people who sign on the better. Look, we might get little to no money if we win, and it's very likely we lose. But the point is to assert your commitment to your rights and to slow down the cogs of government fascism.

It was literally five minutes on the phone. But since it class action, we need a lot of people!

At least two major artists (Lady Gaga and Chappell Roan) making a point to vocally support trans people the Grammys is a big deal in this political climate.

Also I think it's worth highlighting that they are both cis women, because bigots want us to believe cis women and trans women/trans people are at odds with each other.

Lady Gaga has ALWAYS been like this and ALWAYS been in our corner.

She used to be slandered as a trans woman tricking the public back when she debuted, and her response was literally "and so what if I was? Would it be so terrible?", rather than the expected "no I'm not but I support them!" or honestly the more normal for the time "I'm not a freak, Ew.".

This was at her debut, btw, so when her star power was at its weakest. And she still stood by us completely unflinchingly.

Lady Gaga has ALWAYS been like this. I fuckin love her.

Yes thank you for bringing this up!!!

what do you mean elon musk did a nazi salute on live tv at the united states presidential inauguration twice and is now erasing the evidence off the internet by replacing the footage with the crowd cheering instead?

would be a shame if people reblogged this, wouldn’t it?

Its about to be real lucrative to be a snitch. Guard your information. And guard your friends information.

Fourth Riech shit.

remember, they don't pay out these rewards. they'll put a million restrictions they dont tell you about to prevent you from receiving that reward. the person who snitched on luigi got zilch and you'll get zilch too.

remember kids

Artist 🎨: @vhsdogs

Ogma. Art by Hillary D. Wilson, from the Goddesses, Gods, and Guardians Oracle Deck.