tbh no april fools gag tumblr ever pulls will ever be as good as the lizard election of 2016 staff put more effort into that than the rest of this website combined and it shows

for those of you who werent here in 2016 on april fools that year the entire fucking website was transformed and there was an election for a position that wasnt even ever specified and the candidates were four lizards (or three lizards and a salamander as a scandal would later prove) and it was called decision2016

each lizard had their own 3d models and tumblr blog and campaign and there was also a tumblr blog dedicated to reporting on the election and they made like whole ass news broadcasts with a guy in front of a green screen

you could vote for your favorite candidate and there was a built-in function that let you make and post a campaign poster

in case anyone was wondering the winner of the election was mop. relatable and reliable. #Mop Could

lest we forget

This was absolutely the biggest April Fools effort I ever witnessed while on staff. I already posted about this in an ask but here’s more of the shit that went down behind the scenes.

- Like all April Fools, this was done entirely through volunteer work on Staff. No one was forced to work on April Fools, it’s always employee-initiated and driven, even if it needs approval from leadership.

- The prank almost didn’t go through because leadership felt that the lizards weren’t relatable enough, so the compromise was to give them hats.

- The video updates on the Decision 2016 blog were greenscreen Fiverr actors that were all recorded months? Weeks? in advance? I wasn’t on creative so I don’t know all the deets about how those were made.

- As mentioned in my post, the victory speech by Mop was one of our designers screaming as loud as she could in a closet near the end of the day. The full audio was never posted but staff kept passing around the scream on slack and laughing about it for months afterwards

- There was a “war room” dedicated to advancing the election narrative as votes came in, posting updates in real time and also pushing changes to code as necessary (for bug fixes and what not)

- The votes were real and the “election” was decided by real users, even if the graphics and whatnot were exaggerated for comical effect. Mop won because Mop won. Democracy at work

- Someone brought in their own lizard to celebrate the proceedings. It was a bearded dragon

- This was the culmination of what was probably the most cohesive and imaginative (and largest) creative team Tumblr ever had. Unfortunately almost all of them are now long gone, and Tumblr Creative is now just a skeleton crew compared to their peak

- Wretched Tooth Doesn’t Like To Talk About Himself

- People drew porn of the lizards and posted it on Tumblr. Staff saw it and were sending it to each other on the company Slack. We thought it was great. I mean, terrifying, but great

- This picture of David Karp is my favorite photo of David Karp I have on my phone

plants love being polyploid its one of their favorite things to be

you give animals an extra set of dna and they crumble into a little cartoon pile of ash. you give plants an extra set of dna and they say ahh finally an extra set of dna to do activities with

no other warning like this is on any of the other products on the site.

Discursos de Magia Islâmica

Enquanto Sidi Muhammad enraíza as ciências do invisível na história sagrada islâmica, as raízes históricas desse discurso remontam à Grécia antiga. E enquanto o termo “magia”, como foi definido no século XX por estudiosos de estudos religiosos, tem sido amplamente criticado, estudiosos do Mediterrâneo antigo e tardo-antigo reconstruíram uma história muito antiga da própria palavra. Kimberly Stratton, em particular, focou na produção e desenvolvimento da magia como um discurso de alteridade que visava a “outras” populações específicas enquanto impunha normas de gênero e conformidade sexual. No entanto, além dos discursos da elite, evidências materiais abundantes indicam que os greco-romanos antigos e tardo-antigos de fato se envolveram em algumas das práticas que as elites rotulavam de “magia” (mageia), criando maldições vinculativas (katadesmoi, defixiones) que depositavam em sepulturas, poços e encruzilhadas. Uma abundância de textos do século V a.C. ao século II d.C., chamados coletivamente de papiros mágicos gregos, contêm instruções e receitas para a produção de maldições e poções. Além disso, Bernd-Christian Otto apontou que alguns desses artefatos materiais indicam que os praticantes que os produziram identificaram sua própria prática como “magia”. Desde então, Otto postulou a existência de uma tradição ritual textual heterogênea, mas contínua, de “magia aprendida ocidental” do período grego até o presente. Esse “discurso de inclusão” mágico extrai sua potência e apelo do “discurso de exclusão” mantido pelas elites, e as duas tradições, portanto, se desenvolveram juntas em paralelo.

A palavra sihr em si aparece vinte e três vezes no Quran, particularmente durante o encontro entre Moisés e os feiticeiros do Faraó (Quran 7:112–26, 10:76–81, 20:57–76, 26:37–51) e em um versículo que registra como alguns mequenses acusaram Maomé de ser um poeta, um louco ou um feiticeiro (51:52). Em um versículo, os demônios descrentes (shayātīn) são descritos como tentando as pessoas ensinando-lhes feitiçaria (2:102). E embora o próprio Quran não condene sihr (embora o apresente como uma falsidade), há vários hadīth que pedem a morte de feiticeiros. No entanto, apesar dessa representação negativa de sihr no Quran e no hadith, os estudiosos mostraram que, no período ʿAbbāsid, os muçulmanos passaram a ler o termo por meio de novos estudos produzidos durante o movimento de tradução grega, o esforço multigeracional, patrocinado pelos califas ʿAbbāsid, para traduzir as obras recebidas dos gregos antigos para o árabe. A absorção dessas obras clássicas levou, em última análise, à produção de uma síntese de cosmologias e metafísicas neoplatônicas, neopitagóricas e aristotélicas. As contribuições para essa síntese filosófica e metafísica incluem as obras influentes de Abū Maʿshar (m. 886) sobre astronomia, que descreveram os efeitos causais das rotações planetárias no mundo físico e no corpo humano. Enquanto isso, seu contemporâneo e mentor, al-Kindī (m. 873), identificou esse agente causal da mudança material como os raios astrais emitidos por cada corpo celeste. Al-Kindī descreveu sihr legalmente permitido como atos que extraíam e controlavam o poder desses raios astrais. Uma obra pseudo-aristotélica do mesmo período contém um capítulo intitulado “Sirr al-asrār” (O Segredo dos Segredos), que resume as teorias de influência astral delineadas por Abū Maʿshar e al-Kindī e adiciona instruções para operacionalizar esse conhecimento na prática. Finalmente, o século X viu a produção do compêndio enciclopédico conhecido como Rasāʾil Ikhwān al-Safāʾ (As Epístolas dos Irmãos da Pureza) e o Ghāyat al-hakīm (O Objetivo do Sábio), por Maslama ibn Qurtubī (m. 964). Composto por um grupo enigmático de estudiosos devotados ao conhecimento esotérico, o Rasāʾil situa a prática de sihr como a culminância do aprendizado humano dentro do currículo aristotélico/neoplatônico e localiza o efeito causal dos corpos celestes em seus espíritos celestiais (rūhāniyyāt), para os quais eles fornecem nomes e invocações. De acordo com os Irmãos, esses seres espirituais afetam o mundo material por meio de suas correspondências com naturezas materiais ou "por meio de suas almas e volição". Enquanto isso, o Ghāyat "expande e sistematiza" tanto as teorias de causalidade encontradas nas obras de Abū Maʿshar e al-Kindī quanto as aplicações práticas apresentadas no "Sirr al-asrā r".

Sorcery or Science?: Contesting Knowledge and Practice in West African Sufi Texts - Ariela Marcus-Sells

قبة الصخرة من الداخل 🇵🇸❤️🕌 !.

I absolutely fucking love the ancient Jewish mesopotamian incantation bowls warding off Lilith like fucking look at her

🧿😇 just a little guy

Olive oil divination – one of many traditional methodologies of divination found within Judaism. 

Learn about Jewish Divination. 

There’s magic surrounding us and there is nothing quite like learning about how our ancestors turned ‘every day’ ingredients into integral parts of ritual. From fertility and love to sewing discord and creating hate, eggs have been vessels for magic in Judaism for centuries. Learn about the various forms of usage of eggs in folk magic and practices in Jewish communities.

But Judaism isn’t alone in utilizing eggs—Certain egg symbolism transcends the borders of culture and are nearly global concepts. Eggs as symbols of resurrection, immortality, life, and rebirth: these are cross-cultural beliefs that exist in many different communities and cultures, so you may see things that resonate with you, even if you’re not Jewish!

Have you witnessed or performed magic with an egg? What rituals with eggs exist in your community? And, of course, do you dip your eggs in ashes?

בבא קמא פ״ב א:י״א

ת"ר חמשה דברים נאמרו בשום משביע ומשחין ומצהיל פנים ומרבה הזרע והורג כנים שבבני מעיים וי"א מכניס אהבה ומוציא את הקנאה:

Bava Kamma 82a:11

The Sages taught in a baraita that five matters were stated with regard to garlic: It satisfies; it warms the body; it causes one’s countenance to shine; it increases one’s sperm, and it kills parasites that are in the intestines. And some say that it also instills love into those who eat it and removes jealousy from them.

Yeah no, I'm sure the country using tiktok thirst traps to legitimize it's military has nothing nefarious to hide.

A casual reminder that while Israel is pumping out propaganda through tweets and tiktoks, they have simultaneously been killing journalists at an unprecedented rate. The IDF has killed over 25 (most likely an underestimate) Journalists since Oct 7th 2023 (Source).

Earlier this year, The Committee to Protect Journalists, did a great piece on Israel's deadly pattern of killing Journalists and how no one has been held responsible.

By killing Journalists and churning out propaganda, Israel is hoping it can get away with genocide.

Hey I wonder what happened to OP

@libertineangel staff nuked them for either posting about Palestine or zi.nists mass reported them, it's unclear.

They also run @unexplained-events and they were talking on there how they woke up one day and main blog was gone. They also have their alt on there.

They're still around posting about Palestine!

Yeah I got nuked by staff along with a bunch of other pro Palestine blogs. This is my alt and I'm def not gonna stop posting about the occupation and genocide of Palestine.

And as of 11/20/23 the IDF has killed more than 48 journalists (just in the last 40 days).

As of Dec 2024 this number is now at 140+

These numbers are likely an underestimate as gathering this data has been very challenging. As of last week the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is investigating an additional 130 cases of potential killings but have been facing challenges in documenting all this under the harsh conditions.

The above linked article is worth the read

CPJ estimates this number has exceeded 175 as of March 2025

Again they emphasize CPJ is investigating more than 130 additional cases of potential killings, arrests and injuries, but many are difficult to document amid these harsh conditions.

According to the CPJ this period has been the deadliest for journalist since they started tracking such data in 1992.

Gee I wonder why a genocidal ethno state would wanna kill all the journalists it can?? /S

actually yeah, this is not the place for it, but i wanna know

ABCDEFGHI KLMNOP RSTUVWXY

23/26

Sounds like a degree from Columbia, something students pay to attain, is not the long-term guarantee it was once thought to be. Sounds like a good reason to transfer out, not apply there, and never plan to attend. If they can just take your degree away after you've already earned it, what good is it?

And to be clear: this isn't a thing. Serial killers don't get their degrees revoked. War criminals don't get their degrees revoked. This is straight up fascist nonsense that makes a degree from this institution categorically a bad investment.

Is the youths negative perception of Israel due to antisemitism or is it because israeli soldiers posted themselves on tiktok wearing palestinian women's lingerie 🤔

Is it antisemitism or is it the mangled bodies of palestinian children? Is it antisemitism or videos of soldiers making light of blowing up a school or mosque? Is it watching their government approve weapons transfers to Israel to attack a strip of land full of people with no capability to defend themselves? Is it antisemitism or the articles coming out that israeli soldiers admit running their tanks over people, using palestinian captives as human shields in buildings, or admitting they killed children? It's a tough call honestly

Is it antisemitism or is it simply recognizing that Palestinian lives (Arab lives and people of color lives in general) are human lives and being able to have empathy for them?

Is it antisemitism or is it recognizing settler colonialism and its violence against indigenous people, seeing ourselves and so many other people in the Palestinian struggle for liberation?

are you uncomfortable from your hands being dry? if you apply lotion, you can instead be uncomfortable with how greasy they are now. Subscribe for more tips!

Y’all are using the wrong kind of lotion in the wrong quantities like what the fuck is wrong with yall?