Evening wrap, House of Balenciaga, 1949-51

Hat tip @sweetlyfez look at this OFFICE CLOAK.

huh weird.

Right click -> save as -> ancient curse

That is basically how WinRAR worked.

How Mexicans feel about duendes too.

True. Most Irish people, as Norwegians do with Trolls, will happily let the 'fairies' be a thing to make tours for tourists and idle threats to make children behave. Most Irish people will have a very normal and mature explanation of fairies as a common folk mythology that expresses some dimension of Irish culture but are not, obviously, to be taken literally.

And most Irish people, if you ask them to move a stone from a fairy circle will immoveably, flatly respond with 'absolutely fucking not'.

Construction projects have had to halt and be abandoned for it.

At work me and a couple coworkers (black, white, and mexican) had a fun discussion on whether there are more ghosts at a hospital or a cemetery.

everyone individually took a moment to specify that ghosts probably aren't REAL real. then weighed in on where and why.

for the record my position was that there's probably way more ghosts in hospitals because that's where people die horribly, but since you can only see ghosts in dark, solitary conditions, graveyards at night is where the majority of ghost sightings occur. hospitals are usually well lit and busy, so even if they're crammed with ghosts the living are too damn busy to see them. meanwhile if a cemetery has even one ghost that followed her corpse there from the hospital, she'll be spotted because that's where all the ghost hunters go to look.

this theory was received as extremely sensible, and a coworker drew the conclusion that that's why abandoned hospitals are even scarier than graveyards. once the place gets abandoned then you can tell how much ghosts got built up.

we all liked this explanation a lot and explained it to everyone else all night. and of course, none of us believe in ghosts.

[ID: Tweet from user Allie [blue checkmark] @/Cluffalo dated December 30, 2024 reading: My Norwegian grandma says "Everyone knows trolls aren't real, but everyone also knows they aren't fake" which I think is fair

Quote tweet from [red balloon emoji] [clown emoji] Pennywise Tattoo @/Bubblenoma: This is how Irish people feel about fairies /end ID]

Honestly, the bit about ghosts and hospitals makes so much sense.

Graveyards can be a little creepy. Abandoned graveyards are generally less creepy. I mean, it's all kinds of not cool as the mausoleums start crumbling and such, because sometimes that leads to exposed burials which is bad, but overall an abandoned graveyard is just... kinda sad.

Abandoned hospitals though? Wow, those are a THING. Those are some of the creepiest places you can go.

Saving this to send to my boss, who is a birder.

You see none pizza.

I see a breadstick with no beginning or end.

Antique 1920's Rat Perfume Figural Bottle from Germany ebay Diane's Clearinghouse

For a moment I thought it was a rat-shaped lightbulb.

Which would be hella awesome.

How Far From London Can You Get By Train In 12 Hours

Slime mold looking for more nutrients

Slime mold escaping London in 12 hours

Area of effect of Football hooligans

Books?

... cat fur.

I'm screwed.

Source

Video of Tama

Follow Ultrafacts for more facts

The picture in the background of the second one

Tama is boss

THE TRAINS HAVE CARTOON TAMAS ON THEM

Sad update everyone, Tama recently passed away… An estimated 3,000 people, including railway officials, attended Tama the cat’s funeral on Sunday, days after she died of heart failure aged 16. [x]

For those who haven’t read articles about it, the local shrine elevated her to a god. She’s now the Eternal Stationmaster and patron god of the station.

Beautiful.

Now I’m crying thanks

and a new cat was hired right?

yep! her name is Nitama (essentially ”second tama” or “tama II”) and she served under Tama as an apprentice before being appointed her deputy

she works very hard

Everytime this crosses my dash, I reblog. It is the law.

Law

I’m crying at 11pm over train cats

Nitama, already now a mature cat (born 2010), has a protege named Yontama (fourth Tama, b. 2016).  There is no information available for either the physical befellment or tragic self-disgrace which has removed Santama from contention.

^Nitama majestic, and below with Yontama

Yontama.

a legacy

okay but actually what happened to santama (or sun-tama-tama, which is her name because it’s a pun on santama) was that she was basically sent to train for the position in okayama and they liked her so much they refused to send her back

Every time I see this post there’s new info and it gets better

You are only allowed to scroll pass this after you pay tribute to the great Tama Station masters.

The shrine of Tama Daimyōjin (Great gracious deity Tama), next to the Kishi station where she worked.

Nitama presenting her yearly offerings to Tama Daimyōjin on the anniversary of Tama’s Death, June 23 (The offerings are presented by the company president, as Nitama is a cat and thus can’t hold the offerings herself) (Not pictured, but also present, Yontama)

you cannot pass without reblogging guys. i’m sorry, i don’t make the rules.

You can’t not reblog a goddess. It’s just what’s so. :)

So, fun fact- the manga Noragami has an arc where the main character, Yato (a minor kami/God that is down on his luck but trying to make it big time) goes to a council/conference for all the Gods in Japan.

And they are announcing the winner of the “up and coming god” award, and of course, Yato thinks it’s him.

But no-

ITS TAMA!

Fuck. Those fuckers at the store sold me No Purpose Flour again. What the fuck do I do with this

you laugh. my flour is bereft of purpose and you mock me. hell upon you, fool

With counseling, appropriate guidance, and possibly vocational training your flour can find a purpose.

You do, however, have to be supportive. That purpose may be "To grow mold" or "To become a thick paste which holds together layers of paper in a form which contains candy." One your flour finds a purpose you must encourage it even if that purpose is not one you would have chosen.

US authorities have turned to Europe for help with the country's severe egg shortage. The shortfall is due to bird flu, which has plagued the United States for several years.

The Finnish Poultry Association says it has been contacted about exporting eggs to the US. The organisation's executive director, Veera Lehtilä, told Yle on Saturday that exporting eggs does not seem to be possible at the moment because no market access negotiations have been held with US authorities. This can be a drawn-out process involving extensive inspections and studies.

According to the Danish magazine AgriWatch, the US has also requested eggs from Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.

One of Sweden’s biggest egg producers, Kronägg, told the daily Aftonbladet that it is unlikely to export eggs to the US, saying it would be difficult due to various export restrictions. Meanwhile, there is also an egg shortage in Europe.

(full article)

Eka laitetaa hirveet tullit ja muutenki törttöillää oikee olan takaa ja sit kerjätää munaa...

let it be known to the english-speaking audience that in finnish, the word for egg is also slang for penis. yes, everyone has been very hilarious about america begging europe for eggs. as they should.

They also asked Germany, and idk about our northern neighbours, but one of the reasons we don't have problems like this is that every single living chicken in Germany, including bio, tiny and backyard flocks, has to be vaccinated against both salmonella and chicken pest. The rules around bird flu are also much harsher.

These problems are self-made in the USian industry and directly related to the USian government's and public's unwillingness to support scientifically sound farming and food safety practices. And this is also the reason every time the US tries to broker free trade deals with European countries, there's mass protests over here.

Meanwhile also in Germany:

As an American liberal, this is kind of a complicated subject for me.

Okay, for starters... the egg shortage hasn't affected me, and probably won't. I get my eggs from a local creamery which is pretty careful with their stock. Ironically the result of the egg shortage right now is I get to enjoy a bit of schadenfreude: when I started ordering my eggs from these folks they were significantly more expensive than supermarket eggs, but I consoled myself that they were definitely better quality eggs and I got them delivered. Now, my eggs are cheaper than supermarket eggs while still being better quality and delivered to my door. Also, as a largely vegetarian household I could pretty much stop using eggs and only miss it a little bit. I don't want to jinx it, though, because I do like having eggs.

But anyway. This isn't really about me, it's about America as a whole. Now, the egg shortage isn't really anyone's fault per se. Bird flu is a thing which happens. Maybe America's government could have done more to limit the effect of the disease - if so, I'm not sure what. I know that the current regime wouldn't do it, though, because helping people isn't their thing. But I don't blame republicans for the egg shortage itself.

On the other hand, the fact that we cannot look to our trade partners and allies for help is definitely the current regime's fault. Biden could have asked for help in resolving this, and would have gotten as much cooperation as was feasible. But Trump? He has done his level best to alienate everyone, and it has worked. So now nobody is at all eager to help the USA, and I cannot blame them.

Frankly, I don't mind seeing republicans suffer the consequences of their actions. I would very much like for republican supporters to become aware - forcefully if necessary - that they have backed a man and an agenda which is harmful to everyone, and like it or not they are in fact a part of "everyone". I'm entirely fine with seeing republicans be worse off as a result of their positions and actions.

Unfortunately, I don't believe they will connect the dots on this, and I do not imagine they will listen when told by other people. They are going to be told this is due to those evil Europeans hoarding the eggs, and they're even destroying eggs just to spite us, and the entire egg shortage is because of the Democrats and foreigners and Trump is going to fix it any minute now, we just need to arrest a few more immigrants and suspend some more rights first. Maybe invade Nova Scotia or something. And Trump's supporters have yet to encounter a pile of bullshit from Trump that they don't cheerfully lap up.

Worse yet, their shitty policies are going to hurt a lot of people who knew better but could not stop them. I don't at all mind republicans hurting themselves. I would shed zero tears for republicans. But they've been diligently drilling holes in the boat which we're ALL using. And they're going to drag us all down with them. Hell, they're going to dunk everyone else first, because they're selfish and cruel people. And they'll continue to blame their victims. And I'm not a big fan of that.

So, I don't know. Not a big fan of America as a whole suffering, because I live here, and there are a lot of people who tried very hard to not let this be a shithole, but we haven't had much success. However, I think everyone else has every right to do what's best for them, and if that means not helping the USA, well, that's what it means.

If you look at things from the perspective of "They will take advantage of, or do anything to have an excuse to go after someone or something" it makes perfect sense.

I am thinking more in terms of "They have a very limited, virtually non-existent, theory of mind and do not emotionally register that other people exist in a meaningful way."

It largely doesn't occur to them that their actions will affect how others choose to interact with them. They expect every interaction to be a tabula rasa, and moreover that each interaction is essentially a game which they want to win by making sure the other side loses; and then if they feel like it they want to be able to reset the board and play again. Finding that previous interactions can inhibit or even preclude current and future interactions feels to them like the game is rigged against them.

Does anyone have any insight on this?

A few weeks ago I went to THE LARGEST ANTIQUE MALL IN AMERICA and picked up this book:

Food history is an interest of mine, and a 1910 cookbook, even in poor condition, is a great find.

This is a "well-loved" book, with notes from someone who clearly used it.

Buuuut...

They put stamps in the book!

Does anyone have any idea why they would do this?

The stamps seem to be cancelled - used - and grouped by country of origin.

Some pages are filled with stamps, others none at all. The stamps are not unique - often there are several identical stamps all grouped together.

I'm guessing maybe these are recording letters sent by people saying which recipes they used, but that would imply this was the personal copy of one of the authors.

I'm also wondering if I should see a philatelist to get an idea of the stamp values. The ones I've looked up would be in the $1-$2 range, which is trivial but also a considerable growth in value for 1 and 2 cent stamps.

I might know why. I've seen something similar in the past.

The original owner of that cookbook didn't care about it anymore. One of their kids (and it's usually a little kid, not much older than seven or eight) got into stamp collecting. They wanted someplace to keep their stamps.

The original owner gave them a book they didn't care about anymore to stick their stamps in.

Yeah, that's the going theory.

I had originally discounted the idea because the grouping is idiosyncratic - there are pages with many stamps, several pages with no stamps, pages with some stamps... and sometimes it's pages with several of the same stamp.

But I don't know much of anything about stamp collecting, so I have no idea what people are really trying to collect.

Incidentally, there simply doesn't seem to be any people who assess stamps anymore. I wouldn't be shocked if some of these stamps have some value, simply by virtue of their age and how exotic a few of them are, but I'd like to talk to a professional, and those... don't seem to exist anymore.

'Republicans graduating from law schools' have invalidated the Constitution, due process, and habeas corpus all to not offend First Felon and his highly illegal and morally devoid policies.

This is human trafficking. All a projection.

Asian house shrew - Suncus murinus (Japan, between 1823 and 1829) by Ishizaki Yūshi (1768–1846).

Pencil and watercolour.

Siebold collection. Naturalis Biodiversity Center.

Wikimedia.