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headspace-hotel · 3 months

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The knowledge of some common plants

Since many people don't know most of the plants around them, this is information on some plants that are commonly seen in many places throughout the world

This is Lamium purpureum, also called Purple Deadnettle.

It's called deadnettle because it looks like a nettle but it doesn't sting you

This plant is a winter annual—it grows its leaves in the fall, lasts through the winter, and blooms and dies in the spring

Its pollen is reddish orange. If you see bees with their heads stained reddish orange, it is likely because they have visited Purple Deadnettle

This is Trifolium repens, white clover

It is a legume (belongs to the bean family) and fixes nitrogen using symbiosis with bacteria that live in little nodules on its roots, fertilizing the soil

It is a good companion plant for the other members of a lawn or garden since it is tough, adaptable, and improves soil quality. According to my professor it used to be in lawn mixes, until chemical companies wanted to sell a new herbicide that would kill broadleaved plants and spare grass, and it was slandered as a weed :(

It is native only to Europe and Central Asia, but in the lawns they are doing more good than harm most places

Honeybees love to visit clover

Four-leaf clovers are said to be lucky

This is Achillea millefolium, Common Yarrow

It has had a relationship with humans since Neanderthals were around, at least 60,000 years, since Neanderthals have been found buried with Yarrow

Its leaves have been used to stop bleeding throughout history, and its scientific name comes from how Achilles was said to have used Yarrow to stop the blood from the wounds of his soldiers. A leaf rolled into a ball has been used to stop nosebleeds

It is a native species all throughout Eurasia and North America

This is Cichorium intybus, known as Chicory

The leaves look a lot like dandelion leaves, until in mid-spring when it begins growing a woody green stem straight up into the air

Like many other weeds, it has a symbiotic relationship with humans, existing in a mix of domesticated or partially domesticated and wild populations

It is native to Eurasia, but widespread in North America on roadsides and disturbed places, where it descended from cultivated plants

Its root contains large amounts of inulin, which is used as a sweetener and fiber supplement (if you look at the ingredients on the granola bars that have extra fiber, they usually are partly made of chicory root) and has also been used as a coffee substitute

A large variety of bees like to feed upon it

This is Phytolacca americana, known as Pokeweed

It is easily identified by its huge leaves and its waxy, bright magenta stem

It can grow more than nine feet tall from a sprout in a single summer!

If you squish the berries, the juice inside is a shocking magenta that is so bright it almost burns your eyes. For this reason many Native American people used it for pink and purple dye.

It is a heavy metal hyperaccumulator, particularly good for removing cadmium from the soil

All parts of the plant are poisonous and will make you very sick if you eat them, however if the leaves are picked when very young and boiled 3 times, changing out the water each time, they can be eaten, and this is a traditional food in the rural American Southeast, but I don't want to chance it

British people have introduced it as a pretty, exotic ornamental plant. I think that is very funny considering that here it is a weed associated with places where poor people live, but maybe they're right and I need to look closer to see the beauty.

If you see magenta stains in bird poop it is because they ate pokeweed berries- birds can safely eat the berries whereas humans cannot

This is Plantago lanceolata, Ribwort Plantain

It grows in heavily disturbed soils, in fact it is considered an indicator of agricultural activity. It is successful in the poorest, heaviest and most compacted soil.

The leaves, seeds, and flower heads are said to be edible but the leaves are really stringy unless they are very young. Of course, it is important to be careful when eating wild plants, and make sure you have identified the plant correctly and the soil is not contaminated

I have also heard the strings in the leaves can be extracted and used for textile purposes

and that's some common plants you might often see throughout the world

#just remembered i had this in my drafts #i forget why i didn't post it immediately #anyway #plants #the ways of the plants

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hqkalon · 7 months

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FOR MY SERVICE, DARLING.

♱ KINKTOBER DAY 1 — BONDAGE | kinktober m.list

pairings : soldier könig x cadet reader

summary : close proximity while sharing a room with könig… headquarters knew better than placing a man and woman together.

content : nsfw, handcuffs/bondage, squirting, overstimulation,, petnames, shared room, manhandling/rough, size kink, dacryphilia & creampie

to ever think you’d be deployed overseas from your main base in america to europe. walking through headquarters where you were stationed, trying to find the room number you were assigned— it was hard trying to find your way around with no detour.

“excuse me we are you lost?” a low voice crept upon the hallway walls, flashing red each second. “nope just headed to my assigned room.” you responded turning around as your eyes widened in surprise seeing a broad man tower over you. his face hidden behind a long cloth with holes cut out near the eyes.

wow. he was like a giant, quite literally. you could trace the veins down his ripped arms, admiring the t-shirt hugging his tone body as your eyes traced his abs through his shirt. fuck was he the man a delusional girl would dream of? yes.

there was a silence as you continued walking, hearing his footsteps behind you, “can i help you?” you scowled, why was he following you? you already knew most men in the hq couldn’t get their fun from time to time, but preying on you already was the upmost insane. “no i’m headed to my base as well.” he bluntly said, walking at the pace. “oh okay.” you pressed your lips together while speeding up, looking for the number 505 before accidentally padding the door. you reached out towards the handle opening the door, seeing one occupied twin bed and another untouched one— you trailed the room seeing a portrait of a handsome man smiling with his family before realizing your roommate was a man. your heart dropped as you tried to understand how could hq mix you up with a man.

your hands roamed through clothing on his bed trying find his name badge on his uniform. könig, you read aloud in your head.

clack.

your heart dropped as you heard the door knob open. no fucking way. and that was the day where everything between you two started— headquarters knew better than to place a woman and a man together in a room.

shared time together created a platonic bond, a platonic bond which no within the base knew about. what happened behind closed doors, stayed behind closed doors.

your arms bonded behind your with your back arched— face down ass up as könig bully his cock through your poor folds. “f-fuuckk könig.” you cried into the sheet of his mattress, broken moans fell from your drooling mouth. he was huge in more than one way, the way his large calloused hands gripped your waist as he repeatedly slammed into you with his low grunts, sending euphoric waves throughout your body as you trembled in pleasure. “i know baby, i know.” he cooed, angling his hips deep against your sweet spot inside you squelching pussy.

your eyes rolled to the back of your head as he stretched your pussy out so perfectly— sinful clapping noises of skin to skin contact filled the room as his hips met your ass. your fingers fidgeted together, yanking against the cuffs as heated pleasure ran up your thighs. “s-shitt are you close darling?” he hummed in pleasure as you squeezed around him, grabbing onto the cuffs around your wrist as you winced at the action— feeling you skin rub against the steel.

"oh my god!" his other hand deepened your arch making your tummy tighten as the head of his cock began pressing into your spongy g-spot, "that's itt, just a bit more." but back a moan with his shaky voice, speeding ip his thrusts as his mind clouded with the thought of reaching his high. "nghh w-wait königgg!" you sobbed, skin tingling with warm buzzes, “s-sorry… fuckk i’m close.” he hovered over your tiny body, pushing your head deeper into the soft mattress with his hand the size of your head.

“gonna cum for me baby?” he growled into your ear as your body shuttered. you loved this side of könig, he made you feel submissive in the perfect way. you whined, feeling your cunt drool with pleasure. “y-yess! g’na cum!” whining into the mattress as he fucked into your used hole at an animalistic pace. “let’s cum together.” he lustfully ached for a release.

your heart raced throughout your body, feeling light-headed as your vision burned white— feeling helpless being unable to do anything, but take what was given babbling incoherent words— drowning in pleasure as your body completely broke down. “fuck fuck fuckk!” you wailed, there was a feeling completely different from the times you usually orgasm— this feeling was stronger, more intense and unexplainable. “i-i’m gonna pee, wait!” you choked up words as könig’s cock dragged along your sensitive walls, “yeah? go ahead and squirt for me baby.”

his lips brushed against your nape, licking a wet stripe up your neck before pecking a kiss. your body began shaking as your body instantly shot through intense pleasure , “cummingg oh my god— !!” your vision blurred with tears streaming down your pretty face— swallowing könig’s cock whole, wetting the sheets in your heat. “s-shitttt.” he threw his head back, heavily thrusting into your hole as it milked him dry.

his warm seed filled your tummy as his strokes simmered down, cooling off the both of your highs as he unlocked the cuffs around your wrist. “this time let’s try rope.” he flipped your weakened body over as you were know lying on your back, his thick fingers traced along the bruises of your wrist before pressing soft kissing against them.

tagging : @luvfaries @blkkizzat @iamtootiredtopost @lik0 @ichigoswifey @bluebutterfly1248 @unknown5029 @forgottenfroggy @zarihaaa @n0cturnalism @lilvampirina @satocidal @v3nxxs @emonaculate @deluluvibes @midnightartist @charbunxxi @yeagerzprettyblnt @eggytm @hayati17 @bimboedu @tsurie

apology to the urls which didn't work on my end, feel free to direct message :(

#♱ sintober #kinktober 2023 #call of duty #konig x reader #cod x reader #könig x reader #könig smut #konig smut #cod smut #konig mw2

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zvaigzdelasas · 2 months

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You can’t buy the Seagull in the US. But I bet you wish you could.

A small hatchback around the size of a Mini Cooper, the Seagull is a fast-charging electric car and claims a range of up to 250 miles [...] BYD, its Chinese manufacturer, claims it can go from 30 percent to 80 percent charged in a half-hour using a DC plug. It’s hardly a luxury car but it’s well-equipped, with a power driver’s seat and cruise control. “If I were looking for an inexpensive commuter car … this would be perfect,” veteran car journalist John McElroy said after taking a drive.

The best part? Its base model costs about $10,700 in China.

That’s about a third of the cost of the cheapest EV you can buy in the US. In South America, it’s a little pricier, but still fairly affordable, at under $24,000 for a top-trim version. Even in Europe, you can get an entry-level BYD for under €30,000. These are absolutely screaming deals — exactly the kind of products that could turbocharge our transition away from gas and toward electric vehicles.[...]

The problem for Americans? The Biden administration is hell-bent on preventing you from buying BYD’s product, and if Donald Trump returns to office, he is likely to fight it as well.

That’s because the BYD cars are made in China, and both Biden and Trump are committed to an ultranationalist trade policy meant to keep BYD’s products out. [...] Shipments to Europe have increased astronomically; Chinese companies sold 0.5 percent of EVs in Europe in 2019 but they’re already over 9 percent as of last year. Companies like BYD make cheap, reasonably good-quality cars people are eager to buy.

In 2018, Trump imposed, and Biden has since continued, a special 25 percent tax on Chinese-made autos, on top of the ordinary 2.5 percent tax on foreign-made cars.

That has so far prevented BYD and its Chinese peers from trying to enter the US market. US customer tastes are different enough that Chinese manufacturers would probably prefer to make cars tailored to them — but US policy has been so hostile toward cheap Chinese EVs that so far, the companies haven’t wanted to bother.

So, the result is that we’re left out of the bounty of cheap EV options created by BYD and others. “If you’re a consumer right now, the best place to be right now is China, because you have the best choice of EVs,” Ilaria Mazzocco, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and an expert on Chinese EVs, says.[...]

Still, China’s price advantage is big enough that even the extreme Trump-Biden import tax might not be enough to deter companies like BYD from entering the US market. Even with the tariffs, Chinese cars might be cheaper than their rivals. “Subsidies most likely won’t be enough; Mr. Biden will need to impose [more] trade restrictions,” climate journalist Robinson Meyer predicted recently. The Biden administration is already making noise about imposing even more draconian taxes or trade restrictions against these vehicles. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has described Chinese-made cars as a national security threat, and recently announced an investigation into the vehicles’ data collection abilities and the possibility they could send movement data to Beijing.

On the one hand, Biden is offering Americans up to $7,500 per vehicle to buy EVs (provided they meet certain made-in-North America rules). On the other hand, he’s imposing massive taxes to keep Americans from buying EVs. It’s a bizarre policy that makes no sense from a climate perspective.[...]

[The Biden Administration] has proven shockingly willing to sabotage its own climate policy if it gets to stick it to the Chinese in the process.

“There’s almost an across-the-board apprehension about Chinese EVs, even though they would make an important contribution to [lower] CO2 emissions,” Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a veteran trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says.[...]

Realistically, Helveston argues, BYD might not sell something like the Seagull in the US because it’s smaller than most cars Americans buy. They’d probably build plants in the US instead, or its free-trade zone partners Canada and Mexico, to build vehicles tailored for Americans. “If you’re going to really enter a market, you have to make it locally,” Helveston explains. “US automakers like GM sell and make millions of cars in China to sell in China.” BYD would do the same. Indeed, it’s already reportedly scouting sites for factories in Mexico.

If they ever were to set up shop in North America, BYD and other Chinese car companies would still have a major price advantage versus American EVs. They have years more experience and a much more successful track record of building batteries and EVs at low cost.

“Part of why they’re so successful is they’ve been thinking outside the box on cost reduction for a long time,” Mazzocco says. They took the “opposite of the Tesla approach”: starting not with luxury vehicles but ultra-cheap cars fit for taxi fleets and not much else, and constantly improving their early inexpensive prototypes. The result is that Chinese firms have gotten extremely good at making inexpensive EVs, at a time when Ford, by contrast, lost $28,000 for every EV it sold in 2023.[...]

“If you have more affordable EVs in the United States, no matter where you come from,” Gopal says, “that’s better for the climate.”

Still, the Biden administration reportedly wants to restrict Chinese car companies’ access to the US even if they do set up shop in North America. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that the Biden administration is formulating rules that would limit US sales of Chinese-made parts, even if they’re in vehicles ultimately assembled in the US or Mexico.[...]

But the Biden administration’s objections to Chinese EVs are also ideological. The Biden administration represents the victory of a protectionist, trade-skeptical wing of the Democratic party that was relegated to the sidelines during the Clinton and Obama years.[...]

[O]ver 90 percent of American households have a car, and surging car prices were a huge contributor to the 2021–2023 rise in inflation.

Barriers to importing cheap cars make inflation worse and reduce the real incomes of the middle class.

Not only are the administration and other left-leaning institutions opposed to Chinese EVs, but hardline conservatives at places like the Heritage Foundation are calling for outright bans on Chinese EVs as well. Their rationale is security, another theme the Biden administration evokes often. On Thursday, the Commerce Department announced it was beginning a process to “investigate the national security risks of … PRC-manufactured technology in [internet-connected] vehicles.”

6 Mar 24

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txttletale · 6 months

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niceys positive anon!! i don't agree with you on everything but you are so clearly like well read and well rounded that you've helped me think through a lot of my own inconsistencies and hypocrises in my own political and social thought, even if i do have slightly different conclusions at times then u (mainly because i believe there's more of a place for idealism and 'mind politics' than u do). anyway this is a preamble to ask if you have recommended reading in the past and if not if you had any recommended reading? there's some obvious like Read Marx but beyond that im always a little lost wading through theory and given you seem well read and i always admire your takes, i wondered about your recs

it's been a while since i've done a big reading list post so--bearing in mind that my specific areas of 'expertise' (i say that in huge quotation marks obvsies i'm just a girlblogger) are imperialism and media studies, here are some books and essays/pamphlets i recommend. the bolded ones are ones that i consider foundational to my politics

BASICS OF MARXISM

friedrich engels, principles of commmunism

friedrich engels, socialism: utopian & scientific

karl marx, the german ideology

karl marx, wage labour & capital

mao zedong, on contradiction

nikolai bukharin, anarchy and scientific communism

rosa luxemburg, reform or revolution?

v.i lenin, left-wing communism: an infantile disorder

v.i. lenin, the state & revolution

v.i. lenin, what is to be done?

IMPERIALISM

aijaz ahmed, iraq, afghanistan, and the imperialism of our time

albert memmi, the colonizer and the colonized

che guevara, on socialism and internationalism (ed. aijaz ahmad)

eduardo galeano, the open veins of latin america

edward said, orientalism

fernando cardoso, dependency and development in latin america

frantz fanon, black skin, white masks

frantz fanon, the wretched of the earth

greg grandin, empire's workshop

kwame nkrumah, neocolonialism, the last stage of imperialism

michael parenti, against empire

naomi klein, the shock doctrine

ruy mauro marini, the dialectics of dependency

v.i. lenin, imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism

vijay prashad, red star over the third world

vincent bevins, the jakarta method

walter rodney, how europe underdeveloped africa

william blum, killing hope

zak cope, divided world divided class

zak cope, the wealth of (some) nations

MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES

antonio gramsci, the prison notebooks

ed. mick gidley, representing others: white views of indigenous peoples

ed. stuart hall, representation: cultural representations and signifying pratices

gilles deleuze & felix guattari, capitalism & schizophrenia

jacques derrida, margins of philosophy

jacques derrida, speech and phenomena

michael parenti, inventing reality

michel foucault, disicipline and punish

michel foucault, the archeology of knowledge

natasha schull, addiction by design

nick snricek, platform capitalism

noam chomsky and edward herman, manufacturing consent

regis tove stella, imagining the other

richard sennett and jonathan cobb, the hidden injuries of class

safiya umoja noble, algoriths of oppression

stuart hall, cultural studies 1983: a theoretical history

theodor adorno and max horkheimer, the culture industry

walter benjamin, the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction

OTHER

angela davis, women, race, and class

anna louise strong, cash and violence in laos and vietnam

anna louise strong, the soviets expected it

anna louise strong, when serfs stood up in tibet

carrie hamilton, sexual revolutions in cuba

chris chitty, sexual hegemony

christian fuchs, theorizing and analysing digital labor

eds. jules joanne gleeson and elle o'rourke, transgender marxism

elaine scarry, the body in pain

jules joanne gleeson, this infamous proposal

michael parenti, blackshirts & reds

paulo freire, pedagogy of the oppressed

peter drucker, warped: gay normality and queer anticapitalism

rosemary hennessy, profit and pleasure

sophie lewis, abolish the family

suzy kim, everyday life in the north korean revolution

walter rodney, the russian revolution: a view from the third world

#ask #avowed inframaterialist reading group #i obviously do not 100% agree with all the points made by and conclusions reached by these works #but i think they are valuable and useful to read

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fatehbaz · 4 months

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In fact, far more Asian workers moved to the Americas in the 19th century to make sugar than to build the transcontinental railroad [...]. [T]housands of Chinese migrants were recruited to work [...] on Louisiana’s sugar plantations after the Civil War. [...] Recruited and reviled as "coolies," their presence in sugar production helped justify racial exclusion after the abolition of slavery.

In places where sugar cane is grown, such as Mauritius, Fiji, Hawaii, Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname, there is usually a sizable population of Asians who can trace their ancestry to India, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and elsewhere. They are descendants of sugar plantation workers, whose migration and labor embodied the limitations and contradictions of chattel slavery’s slow death in the 19th century. [...]

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Mass consumption of sugar in industrializing Europe and North America rested on mass production of sugar by enslaved Africans in the colonies. The whip, the market, and the law institutionalized slavery across the Americas, including in the U.S. When the Haitian Revolution erupted in 1791 and Napoleon Bonaparte’s mission to reclaim Saint-Domingue, France’s most prized colony, failed, slaveholding regimes around the world grew alarmed. In response to a series of slave rebellions in its own sugar colonies, especially in Jamaica, the British Empire formally abolished slavery in the 1830s. British emancipation included a payment of £20 million to slave owners, an immense sum of money that British taxpayers made loan payments on until 2015.

Importing indentured labor from Asia emerged as a potential way to maintain the British Empire’s sugar plantation system.

In 1838 John Gladstone, father of future prime minister William E. Gladstone, arranged for the shipment of 396 South Asian workers, bound to five years of indentured labor, to his sugar estates in British Guiana. The experiment with “Gladstone coolies,” as those workers came to be known, inaugurated [...] “a new system of [...] [indentured servitude],” which would endure for nearly a century. [...]

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Bonaparte [...] agreed to sell France's claims [...] to the U.S. [...] in 1803, in [...] the Louisiana Purchase. Plantation owners who escaped Saint-Domingue [Haiti] with their enslaved workers helped establish a booming sugar industry in southern Louisiana. On huge plantations surrounding New Orleans, home of the largest slave market in the antebellum South, sugar production took off in the first half of the 19th century. By 1853, Louisiana was producing nearly 25% of all exportable sugar in the world. [...] On the eve of the Civil War, Louisiana’s sugar industry was valued at US$200 million. More than half of that figure represented the valuation of the ownership of human beings – Black people who did the backbreaking labor [...]. By the war’s end, approximately $193 million of the sugar industry’s prewar value had vanished.

Desperate to regain power and authority after the war, Louisiana’s wealthiest planters studied and learned from their Caribbean counterparts. They, too, looked to Asian workers for their salvation, fantasizing that so-called “coolies” [...].

Thousands of Chinese workers landed in Louisiana between 1866 and 1870, recruited from the Caribbean, China and California. Bound to multiyear contracts, they symbolized Louisiana planters’ racial hope [...].

To great fanfare, Louisiana’s wealthiest planters spent thousands of dollars to recruit gangs of Chinese workers. When 140 Chinese laborers arrived on Millaudon plantation near New Orleans on July 4, 1870, at a cost of about $10,000 in recruitment fees, the New Orleans Times reported that they were “young, athletic, intelligent, sober and cleanly” and superior to “the vast majority of our African population.” [...] But [...] [w]hen they heard that other workers earned more, they demanded the same. When planters refused, they ran away. The Chinese recruits, the Planters’ Banner observed in 1871, were “fond of changing about, run away worse than [Black people], and … leave as soon as anybody offers them higher wages.”

When Congress debated excluding the Chinese from the United States in 1882, Rep. Horace F. Page of California argued that the United States could not allow the entry of “millions of cooly slaves and serfs.” That racial reasoning would justify a long series of anti-Asian laws and policies on immigration and naturalization for nearly a century.

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All text above by: Moon-Ho Jung. "Making sugar, making 'coolies': Chinese laborers toiled alongside Black workers on 19th-century Louisiana plantations". The Conversation. 13 January 2022. [All bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

#abolition #caribbean #imperial #colonial #ecology #plantation

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gothhabiba · 1 year

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What makes most "uninhabited wilderness narratives" more similar to like. The European settlement of the Americas than the Polynesian exploration of islands. Like I also get that vibe but I can't form a coherent ideological reason and you seem like maybe you could put it to words.

You’re getting it backwards if you think that the criticism of the “terra nullius” narrative consists of “it’s unethical to go to, poke around, or settle a place that was actually previously uninhabited by human beings.”

Rather, "terra nullius" is a set of concepts and frameworks created and disseminated by Europeans over the course of European settler-colonisation. It consists, roughly, of ideas about land (it is inactive, to-be-acted-upon, eternally stagnant if not acted upon; it must be 'worked' and this work is backbreaking, unpleasant, and a moral and religious duty; 'working' the land completely transforms it; the land is valuable and ownable insofar as it is worked and transformed; land can be bought, sold, and traded)—

—ideas about exploration (another way to act upon land, which is to-be-acted-upon, is by 'exploring' it; 'exploring' land, naming it, mapping it, viewing it from above, even painting landscapes of it. are activities that give you authority and ownership over the land; 'exploration' produces knowledge about land, which only Europeans can produce and disseminate)—

—and ideas about Indigenous peoples (they have not 'worked' the land or claimed ownership in a way we recognise; thus they have no control, authority, or ownership of the land; because of this they are the land, part of the flora, fauna, and landscape to be explored, mapped out [as in linguistics and anthropology], controlled, moved, worked [read: enslaved], and killed; and, crucially, in a final move, once they have been moved or killed, they were never here in the first place).

These ideas arose variously in European scientific, literary, religious, legal, and literary discourses; in sermons, in travel narratives, in paintings, in memoirs and folk stories written by settler-colonists and sailors and traders. They arose partly as a development of things that had already been happening in Europe in the transition to capitalism (enclosure and other forms of primitive accumulation that rendered once-public resources, including land, private property), and partly as a response to the fact that this land was not empty of human life.

Plainly, there were people in the Americas, in Oceania. In fact, they had altered the land in various ways. The scientific and anthropologic majority, at least in Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries, even held that they were descended from the same stock as Europeans were (though there was debate on that score). Nevertheless, there were resources and money and land (among other things) to be gained through colonisation and genocide.

The idea that these lands, then, were terrae nullius, empty lands, arose as justification for said settling and genocide. There were never people here, and if there were, then they didn't really have the right to be here; they didn't claim the land in ways that Europeans or their descendents legally recognised (in other words, Europeans created property laws on purpose in such a way to deny Indigenous peoples property rights); perhaps they didn't work the land because they were inherently lazy, or promiscuous, or gluttonous, or savage, and that's how a legal discourse becomes a 'racial' one.

So the answer to your question is basically: because Europeans are the ones who wrote "uninhabited wilderness narratives." Because (the peoples who would become) Polynesians in 3000 BC did not invent a bunch of related popular, religious, scientific, legal, and literary discourses in order to deny or justify the fact that they were enslaving, driving off, or slaughtering millions of human beings, this just has nothing to do with them.

#terra nullius #colonialism #imperialism #colonization

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fillejondrette · 2 months

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can we stop acting like being born in the US is the worst possible fate that can befall a person? i understand it's partly a reaction to conservatives constantly repeating that america's the only good/free country on earth, but the US is in fact an imperialist power and just being born as a US citizen gives you a better quality of life than in many places in the world. the fact that people don't even see that is evidence of the US's power and influence.

obviously the issues mentioned in this comment are legitimate and need to be addressed, and we shouldn't accept the status quo just because it could be worse. but please try to remember that places other than western europe, canada, and the united states exist, and being born in the US is not a uniquely terrible fate.

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skaldish · 1 year

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What is Norse Heathenry?

Norse Heathenry is a contemporary pagan spirituality derived from the beliefs, customs, superstitions, and folklore of the pre-Christian Norse people. It is one of a few different kinds of Heathenries, which include Slavic Heathenry and Teutonic (Germanic) Heathenry.

The word "heathen" means "of the heaths." However, it's not a word the Old norse people themselves used. They didn't have a word for their spiritual belief system, as they didn't distinguish this from all other aspects of their lives. Rather, "Heathen" was coined by Christian writers to refer to Scandinavian pagans (this is also why it's sometimes used interchangeably with the word "heretic").

Nowadays, Norse Heathenry is referred to by many names, which reflects different developing iterations of it. Amongst these names are Norse Paganism, Asatru, and Forn Sidr / Forn Sed.

Where does Norse Heathenry come from?

Norse Heathenry comes from the Nordic countries of Europe: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. These places are also known as the homelands of the vikings. But despite their shared origins, Norse Heathenry is not the religion of the vikings. This very large misconception has a very long, complex history behind it, owed to a combination of commercialization and fascist tampering. The Heathenry we see in America is extremely muddied from these influences. Fortunately, we now have the means to disambiguate it, thanks to increasingly accessible cultural exchange.

The following explanation is a product of ongoing anthropological, theological, and cultural research, in combination with what we know about the historical.

Norse Heathen Beliefs

Unlike organized religions, Norse Heathenry is (and has always been) a decentralized belief system. This means it has no universal doctrines, no orthopraxy or orthodoxy, no holy texts, and no religious figurehead governing it. When you hear people say "There's no 'right' way to practice Heathenry," this is generally what they're referring to.

However, Norse Heathenry does have a distinct way of thinking about and viewing the world, and it's very different from what we usually see here in the US. If you're feeling stuck trying to figure out how to "do Heathenry," this would be why.

Animism

A staple of Norse Heathen epistemology is Animism.

Usually, Animism is defined as the belief that all things have a spirit or vital essence to them. But this is only one definition of many, and not the definition that applies here.

The Norse concept of Animism is "the awareness that all things are part of an interdependent ecosystem." This changes how we engage with everything around us. We understand that when we interact with the forces of this world, they will interact back on their own merit. Our relationship with all things is a social one, and we're not spectators in our environment, but active participants at all times.

This stands is stark contrast to the way the USAmericans typically view the world: As a landscape to either test or be tested by, with the forces of the world acting as the means through which this is done.

Additionally, there's no separation between the sacred and the profane.

Immanence

Faiths that focus on spiritual ascension, enlightenment, or attaining a good afterlife are known as transcendent faiths.

While Norse Heathenry has some transcendent elements, it's ultimately an immanent belief system, which means its focus is on living life for the sake of living, as opposed to living life to receive a good afterlife. A good afterlife is already guaranteed.

(Some Heathens may strive for a specific kind of afterlife, however, which do have certain conditions for accessing. But these are elective rather than required, and different as opposed to superior. It's all a matter of preference, at the end of the day.)

The Norse Gods

Many people are already familiar with the Norse gods, such as Thor, Odin, Loki, and Freyja, but not many people are familiar with how they operate as gods.

In Hellenism and Religio Romano, the gods are divine lords who preside over different domains of society. It's a reflection of what the ancient Greeks and Romans highly valued in their civilizations: Law and political/civic involvement.

In Norse Heathenry, however, gods don't operate in a lordship capacity. Instead, they're more like celebrities in that they're celebrated figures everyone knows about.

While they don't rule over one thing or another, the Norse gods often act as allegorical representations of worldly phenomena. Thor is to thunderstorms as Loki is to "random-chance odds." SIf is to wheat-fields as Odin is to the old wandering beggar. Frey and Freyja represent masculine and feminine principles, Skadi the driven snow and foggy winter, and so on. The gods exist as worldly experiences inasmuch as they exist as ideas.

Lastly, but importantly, the Norse gods don't distribute rewards or punishments in accordance with on one's actions or deeds, nor do they tell us how we ought to live our lives. The way they interact with us depends on our individual relationships with them, which can be just as diverse as the ones we have with each other.

Myths & Folklore

What people often refer to as the "Norse Myths" are stories found in two old Icelandic texts called the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda. These texts are special because they're the oldest and largest collection of tales featuring the Norse deities.

However, these texts represent just one region's period-specific interpretation of Norse folklore. They also only represent a fraction of the tales that still circulate within Nordic oral traditions, so not only are they not "canon" in the usual sense of the word, they're also just a sample.

This is all to say that Norse Heathenry doesn't have a hard body of mythology. It certainly has a defined one, but its definition is built from local legends, fairy tale humor, songs, customs, superstitions, and family folklore in addition to what survives on runestones and parchment. The corpus of Heathenry is very much a living, breathing thing.

Spirits

Norse Heathenry recognizes a wide variety of different beings, the likes of which can be found all around us. Some of these beings are like how we typically imagine spirits, in that they're incorporeal or otherwordly, while others are physical but may play tricks on you so you can't see them.

Like many things pertaining to Heathenry, there isn't a universally-shared classification system for Norse beings. But generally-speaking, beings are defined by their natures and the manner in which they relate to the rest of the world, rather than their morphology. For example, Trolls can take the appearance of rocks, trees, and also living people, but they can also be incorporeal spirits. This is all, however, the same kind of Troll, rather than being different types of trolls.

This is also why the lines between "spirit", "god," and "ancestor" can become very blurry at times. In English use, these are all typically labeled under the category "vaetter." Sometimes "wight" is used to refer to spirits of various types, but isn't often used to refer to gods.

Typically, the way people interact with spirits entirely depends on what kind of spirit they're dealing with, as well as their disposition towards human beings. Some spirits may enjoy a personal relationship, while others are best when left unbothered.

Values & Morality

Because Norse Heathenry has no doctrine and is immanent in nature, it has no fixed value system. Just like the stories were decentralized, so were the Norse people's values.

This is a feature as opposed to a flaw, and a fact as opposed to a theory. But it also has a habit of making Americans very uncomfortable.

For this reason, Heathens sometimes choose to construct their own value system to observe as part of their practice. But what those values are is up to each individual, and individual community, if applicable.

Anyone claiming Norse Heathenry has a universal value system is either new to Heathenry, or selling something.

Veneration

Heathen veneration is not just limited to gods, but also includes ancestors and even certain kinds of spirits, such as nisse/tomte.

Like most things in Norse Heathenry, what, who, and how a Heathen chooses to venerate is their choice to make. One popular observance across the globe is to craft altars, shrines, or similar sacred spaces for the entities one venerates. If a Heathen lives in a house that has a nisse (similar to a gnome), they might leave porridge (with butter) by the hearth for him, and he'll in turn bless the house with good luck and fortune.

Oftentimes, relationships with entities are very interpersonal. Heathenry's animistic and immanent nature means entities are rarely cold and distant, including the gods.

Misconceptions!

A list of misconceptions off the top of my head:

The practice known as 'Odinism' is an invention of the Germanic Volkish movement, which was the social precursor to Nazi Germany. This is also, unfortunately, the first kind of "heathenry" to be brought to the US, back in the 1970's. It was spread through the country via one of the fastest-moving networks at the time: The US prison system.

The Black Sun is a Nazi symbol, not a Heathen one.

No, Norse Heathenry is not a closed practice.

No, you don't have to have Scandinavian heritage to practice Norse Heathenry. Blood quantum is not a thing.

The rune alphabets are old, but the method of runecasting is new.

So is the use of magical bindrunes.

Bindrunes are also different from Galdrastafir. The latter is actually a form of Jewish-Christian-Norse syncretism and needs to be taught orally since it's a mystery tradition. You can still slap the Helm of Awe on things and look cool about it though.

Norse Heathenry is not the same as being a viking, and Norse Heathens are not vikings. However, some Heathens partake in viking reenactment as an extension of their practice.

There's no good or bad gods in Norse Heathenry. All the gods are capable of great good and great bad, just like people. They're fallible, and that's what makes them relatable.

Odin and Loki aren't at odds with one another.

You don't need to wait for a god to pick you to start venerating them.

If you're interested in learning more about any of these in-depth, check out the website I've built on Norse Heathenry, located in my pinned post!

#norse heathenry #norse paganism #asatru #heathenism #norse polytheism #heathenry

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uncharismatic-fauna · 1 year

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Open Your Home to the Common House Centipede

A common sight in homes throughout Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Australia the common house centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata) is a medium-sized species of centipede originally from the Mediterranean. In the wild, they prefer grasslands and deciduous forests where they can hide under rocks, logs, or leaf litter. These insects have also adapted well to urban development, and are frequently found in basements, bathrooms, and garages, as well as gardens and compost piles.

Like other centipedes, the common house centipede has less than 100 legs; in fact, they only have 15 pairs, with the front pair used only for holding prey or fending off threats. All those legs let the common house centipede move up to 0.4 meters per second (1.3 ft/s) over a variety of surfaces, including walls and ceilings. The actual body of S. coleoptrata is only 25 to 35 mm (1.0 to 1.4 in) long, but the antennae are often as long as the body which can give this insect a much larger appearance. However, they can be hard to spot, especially in their natural environments; their tan and dark brown coloration allows them to blend in seamlessly to surrounding vegetation.

Though they pose little threat to humans, house centipedes are predatory. Their primary food source is other arthropods, including cockroaches, silverfish, bed bugs, ticks, ants, and insect larvae. S. coleoptrata is a nocturnal hunter, and uses its long antennae to track scents and tactile information. Their compound eyes, unusual for centipede species, can distinguish daylight and ultraviolet light but is generally used as a secondary sensory organ. When they do find prey, house centipedes inject a venom which can be lethal in smaller organisms, but is largely harmless to larger animals. This makes them important pest controllers. In the wild, house centipedes are the common prey of rodents, amphibians, birds, and other insects.

The mating season for S. coleoptrata begins in the spring, when males and females release pheromones that they can use to find each other. Once located, the male spins a silk pad in which he places his sperm for the female to collect. She then lays fertilized eggs in warm, moist soil in clutches of 60-150. These eggs incubate for about a month, and the young emerge with only four pairs of legs. Over the next three years, juvenile house centipedes molt 7 times, each time gaining new pairs of legs. After they grow their last pair of legs, immature house centipedes molt an additional 3 times, at which time they become sexually mature. If they can avoid predation, individuals can live up to 7 years in the wild.

Conservation status: The common house centipede has not been evaluated by the IUCN, as it is relatively common both in the wild and in urban areas. Although they have been introduced to areas outside their native range, no detrimental environmental effects have been associated with their spread.

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Photos

Joseph Berger

David Paul

Conrad Altman via iNaturalist

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leroibobo · 6 months

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some notes on specifically "middle eastern" (mashriqi + iran, caucuses, and turkey) jewish communities/history:

something to keep in mind: judaism isn't "universalist" like christianity or islam - it's easier to marry into it than to convert on your own. conversions historically happened, but not in the same way they did for european and caucasian christians/non-arab muslims.

that being said, a majority of middle eastern jews descend from jewish population who remained in palestine or immigrated/were forced (as is the case with "kurdish" jews) from palestine to other areas and mixed with locals/others who came later (which at some point stopped). pretty much everywhere in the middle east and north africa (me/na) has/had a jewish population like this.

with european jews (as in all of them), the "mixing" was almost entirely during roman times with romans/greeks, and much less later if they left modern-day greece/italy.

(none of this means jewish people are or aren't "indigenous" to palestine, because that's not what that word means.)

like with every other jewish diaspora, middle eastern jewish cultures were heavily influenced by wherever they ended up. on a surface level you can see this in things like food and music.

after the expulsion of jews from spain and portugal, sephardim moved to several places around the world; many across me/na, mostly to the latter. most of the ones who ended up in the former went to present-day egypt, palestine, lebanon, syria, and turkey. a minority ended up in iraq (such as the sassoons' ancestors). like with all formerly-ottoman territories, there was some degree of back and forth between countries and continents.

some sephardim intermarried with local communities, some didn't. some still spoke ladino, some didn't. there was sometimes a wealth gap between musta'arabim and sephardim, and/or they mostly didn't even live in the same places, like in palestine and tunisia. it really depends on the area you're looking at.

regardless, almost all the jewish populations in the area went through "sephardic blending" - a blending of local and sephardic customs - to varying degrees. it's sort of like the cultural blending that came with spanish/portugese colonization in central and south america (except without the colonization).

how they were treated also really depends where/when you're looking. some were consistently dealt a raw hand (like "kurdish" and yemenite jews) while some managed to do fairly well, all things considered (like baghdadi and georgian jews). most where somewhere in between. the big difference between me/na + some balkan and non-byzantine european treatment of jews is due to geography - attitudes in law regarding jews in those areas tended to fall into different patterns.

long story short: most european governments didn't consider anyone who wasn't "christian" a citizen (sometimes even if they'd converted, like roma; it was a cultural/ethnic thing as well), and persecuted them accordingly; justifying this using "race science" when religion became less important there after the enlightenment.

most me/na and the byzantine governments considered jews (and later, christians) citizens, but allowed them certain legal/social opportunities while limiting/banning/imposing others. the extent of both depend on where/when you're looking but it was never universally "equal".

in specifically turkey, egypt, palestine, and the caucuses, there were also ashkenazi communities, who came mainly because living as a jew in non-ottoman europe at the time sucked more than in those places. ottoman territories in the balkans were also a common destination for this sort of migration.

in the case of palestine, there were often religious motivations to go as well, as there were for some other jews who immigrated. several hasidic dynasites more or less came in their entirety, such as the lithuanian/polish/hungarian ones which precede today's neutrei karta.

ashkenazi migration didn't really happen until jewish emancipation in europe for obvious reasons. it also predates zionism - an initially secular movement based on contemporaneous european nationalist ideologies - by some centuries.

most ashkenazi jews today reside in the us, while most sephardic or "mizrahi" jews are in occupied palestine. there, the latter outnumber the former. you're more likely to find certain groups (like "kurds" and yemenites) in occupied palestine than others (like persians and algerians) - usually ones without a western power that backed them from reactionary antisemitic persecution and/or who came from poorer communities. (and no, this doesn't "justify" the occupation).

(not to say there were none who immigrated willingly/"wanted" to go, or that none/all are zionist/anti-zionist. (ben-gvir is of "kuridsh" descent, for example.) i'm not here to parse motivations.)

this, along with a history of racism/chauvinism from the largely-ashkenazi "left", are why many mizrahim vote farther "right".

(in some places, significant numbers of the jewish community stayed, like turkey, tunisia, and iran. in some others, there's evidence of double/single-digit and sometimes crypto-jewish communities.)

worldwide, the former outnumber the latter. this is thought to be because of either a medieval ashkenazi population boom due to decreased population density (not talking about the "khazar theory", which has been proven to be bullshit, btw) or a later, general european one in the 18th/19th centuries due to increased quality of life.

the term "mizrahi" ("oriental", though it doesn't have the same connotation as in english) in its current form comes from the zionist movement in the 1940s/50s to describe me/na jewish settlers/refugees.

(i personally don't find it useful outside of israeli jewish socio-politics and use it on my blog only because it's a term everyone's familiar with.)

about specifically palestinian jews:

the israeli term for palestinian jews is "old yishuv". yishuv means settlement. this is in contrast to the "new yishuv", or settlers from the initial zionist settlement period in 1881-1948. these terms are usually used in the sense of describing historical groups of people (similar to how you would describe "south yemenis" or "czechoslovaks").

palestinian jews were absorbed into the israeli jewish population and have "settler privilege" on account of their being jewish. descendants make up something like 8% of the israeli jewish population and a handful (including, bafflingly, netanyahu and smoltrich) are in the current government.

they usually got to keep their property unless it was in an "arab area". there's none living in gaza/the west bank right now unless they're settlers.

their individual views on zionism vary as much as any general population's views vary on anything.

(my "palestinian jews" series isn't intended to posit that they all think the same way i do, but to show a side of history not many people know about. any "bias" only comes from the fact that i have a "bias" too. this is a tumblr blog, not an encyclopedia.)

during the initial zionist settlement period, there were palestinian/"old yishuv" jews who were both for zionism and against it. the former have been a part of the occupation and its government for pretty much its entire history.

some immigrated abroad before 1948 and may refer to themselves as "syrian jews". ("syria" was the name given to syria/lebanon/palestine/some parts of iraq during ottoman times. many lebanese and palestinian christians emigrated at around the same time and may refer to themselves as "syrian" for this reason too.)

ones who stayed or immigrated after for whatever reason mostly refer to themselves as "israeli".

in israeli jewish society, "palestinian" usually implies muslims and christians who are considered "arab" under israeli law. you may get differing degrees of revulsion/understanding of what exactly "palestine"/"palestinians" means but the apartheid means that palestinian =/= jewish.

because of this, usage of "palestinian" as a self-descriptor varies. your likelihood of finding someone descendent from/with ancestry from the "old yishuv" calling themselves a "palestinian jew" in the same way an israeli jew with ancestry in morocco would call themselves a "moroccan jew" is low.

(i use it on here because i'm assuming everyone knows what i mean.)

samaritans aren't 'jewish', they're their own thing, though they count as jewish under israeli law.

#jewish #mizrahi #palestinian jews #info #my posts #repost with more info #sorry if this isn't the best time to post it (?) then again this is my blog and i'm not indebted to anyone so (shrugs)#i've been seeing a lot of misinfo too so

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star-anise · 2 years

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You just posted like ten different things about potatoes in the span of maybe five minutes, and I gotta know your take on "The Martian".

Like, the (fictional) man alone on a planet literally only survives because of potatoes shrink-wrapped in plastic for a Thanksgiving meal. If they weren't slated to be on Mars for Thanksgiving, he would have died.

And Andy Weir (author of the original novel) did such a good job with the science of every other element to the story, I honest-to-god believe that potatoes could actually manage to grow in Martian soil (even if that's not been proven for certain afaik).

Which means..... could potatoes terraform Mars into sustaining life??? Are potatoes the key to the universe???

Haha sorry for going so hard on them! Those were mostly all posts from 2020 when gardening and fantasy worldbuilding were lockdown fixations for me. One of them blew up recently so I wanted to give The People more of the content it seemed they were looking for. I don't actually know a lot about potatoes. I just think they're neat.

I do not want to take apart the concept of "colonizing Mars" as some kind of woke gotcha. I want to take your question seriously and charitably. However, I just am the kind of person who's like "Hmm, 'colonize', we should really stop and unpack that word," so let's do that, without forgetting the potato element.

(What "I don't know a lot" means: Potatoes were a crop my family grew several acres of for a few years on our farm before we switched our focus to sheep. I am about 50% as reliable as a horticultural brochure on various potato diseases and growing condition issues. I have listened to two University lectures and read perhaps four historical journal articles beginning-to-end on how the Columbian Exchange affected early-modern Europe, that and half as much again on medieval and early modern European farming practices and population changes, and perhaps three science/history articles specifically on the domestication and proliferation of the potato. I am a white Canadian who actively seeks out information and training in Indigenous history and culture in the Americas, but that's probably still only equal to like, two Native Studies classes in university. I know more than the average person on this topic, but I am also not an expert compared to people who have devoted serious time to learning about this.)

But I have some intuitions in a couple of ways:

The Martian is probably being wildly over-optimistic about its potatoes. They would probably have been irradiated into sterility before being vacuum-packed, and I don't think you can split and propagate them that quickly or successfully. However, potatoes can definitely grow in all kinds of conditions (including under my sink).

They might not be the world's healthiest or happiest potatoes, tho. Soil quality definitely affects the end product. Presumably Watney, being a botanist studying Mars' soil composition, knew how much he had to ameliorate his soil with latrine compost (which would definitely have needed a LOT of processing, since human waste is generally not good for plants, but maybe he used chemicals to speed that up?) to get good soil. However, we would probably need to add a LOT of shit to Mars' soil (and air, and water) for it to host plant life.

Mark Watney makes a joke about having "colonized Mars" because "colony" is Latin for "farm" and he farmed on Mars so haha, funny joke! And we talk about colonies on Mars partly because that's what science fiction did, and a lot of science fiction has been into that colonialism aesthetic. But colonialism and empires actually aren't great, not just because they necessitate huge amounts of racism, oppression, and genocide—I know, you asked me a fun question about potatoes and did not sign up for this, I'm not here to drag you, hear me out—but because they're also really sucky models for agriculture and successful societies generally.

My British ancestors tried to be colonial farmers in a place that is sometimes colder than Mars (Canada's Treaty Six), and let me tell you: IT SUCKED. Most of the crops and herbs and vegetables and flowers that settlers here brought from home and are used to? DON'T FUCKEM GROW. For the Canadian prairies to become conventional farmland, farmers and scientists had to scramble to find, or produce, cold-hardy varieties of everything from wheat to roses. A lot of flowers and plants that are unkillable invasive zombie perennials in other climates don't survive our winters no matter hard we try. The trees and flowers that hold cultural or sentimental attachments for us often don't grow here. The climate is so harsh and population is spread so thin that we cannot do the 100 mile diet and eat foods we're familiar with, and can hardly even manage the 1000 mile diet. (Not that I try, but, my family did once look into it)

A huge number of colonial homesteads, where the pioneers go out on their little covered wagon and build little houses on the prairie? Failed miserably and got bought up by land speculators. My own family came out to Alberta in the 1880s and moved around from land assignment to land assignment, like, six times before settling at their current place in the early 1900s.

Meanwhile: POTATOES

Potatoes are less than ten thousand years old! I am not any kind of expert on archaeology, please nobody throw things, but humans showed up in the Andes (think: high, cold mountains) of South America roughly 9,000 years ago. There are hundreds of wild potato varieties, but they generally produce fairly tiny tubers. It took active work of Indigenous Andean people around 8,000 years ago around Lake Titicaca to cultivate specific strains of potato, doing oldschool genetic modification to make them bigger, more delicious, and hardier. From that cultivation effort around a single species of wild potatoes, they produced thousands of cultivated potato varieties.

Ancient Andean farmers and botanists also played a big part in cultivating quinoa from wild amaranth, as well as producing modern food crops you probably haven't heard of, like oca, olluco, mashua, and yacon, and also coca, which may get a bad rap because it's what cocaine and coca-cola are made from but you cannot deny it's got kick.

Basically, Indigenous people of the Americas (South, Central, and North) went all in on botany and plant cultivation. Plants that we take for granted now have mostly been developed by Indigenous people in the past few thousand years: Tobacco, sunflowers, marigolds, tomatoes, pumpkins, rubber, vanilla, cocoa, sweetcorn, maize, and most kinds of pepper except peppercorn. These things were not found; they were made, by careful cultivation of the world as it was.

This gives us a vision of the future. Colonization, and industrial agriculture, both lean us towards the vision of a totally uniform end product, with the same potato varieties grown on each farm because we have made every farm the same. Instead we could embrace biodiversity and focus on privileging local knowledge and considering the interactions of environment, plants, microbiota, and people. We could create potatoes that were happy on Mars. We could create Mars that is happy to have us. We could create a society that can accept what Mars has to offer.

A lot of why we dream about colonizing Mars is the idea that the Earth itself is dying, that we are killing it, and we need to abandon this farmstead and seek out a new frontier. I acknowledge that shit is bad, but I don't agree with that framing. I am increasingly persuaded that there is a third path between ecological destruction and mass exodus, and I think we need to reject European colonial mentality that creates the forced choice. I find far more use in privileging the knowledge of people who live on and with land than their landlords and rulers, and I especially find value in Indigenous knowledge of land management practices and food production.

I am absolutely not saying that Indigenous people were or are wonderful magical ~spiritual beings~ who frolicked in an Edenic paradise that only knew death and disease once white people showed up. This isn't noble savage bullshit, nor am I invoking people who existed once but whom I have never met. I am saying that I have Indigenous neighbours, colleagues, relatives, and elected representatives. I have learned about mental health, leatherworking, botany, and ecology from Metis and First Nations elders and knowledge-keepers. And like. They have good and useful shit to say.

This is about culture, not race. It is not that their biological DNA means that they know more than me about how to get food from this landscape. It's about cultural history and what we learn from our heritages. What have our cultures privileged? Like, Europe has historically been super into things like metallurgy, domesticating livestock, and creating dairy products. If I want to smelt iron or choose animals to make cheese from, European society would have a lot of useful information for me! And what Indigenous cultures in the Americas have historically focused on instead of cows and copper* include 1) getting REAL familiar with your local flora and figuring out how to make sure you have lots of the herbs and grains and roots and berries you need, and 2) how to make a human society where people can live and have good lives, but do not damage the environment enough to impair the ability of future generations to have the same sort of life.

*Several indigenous American cultures did practice various forms of metallurgy. It's just one of those proportional things, about what societies really go for

Conclusion

I think we could use the processes that formed the potato to find and foster forms of life that could survive on Mars. It would involve learning to think that botany is a sexy science, and understanding just how rich and complicated the environment is. To oxygenate the atmosphere, we'd have to get super enthusiastic about algae and lichen and wetlands. We would have to learn to care deeply about the microorganisms living in the soil, and whether the potatoes are happy.

We'd have to create an economy that counts oxygen and carbon dioxide production on its balance sheets. To learn how to wait for forests to grow back after a fire, instead of giving up in despair because the seedlings aren't trees yet. To do the work now and be hopeful even though we might not see the payoffs for decades, or our victories might only be witnessed by future generations.

So yes, I think we could totally plant potatoes on Mars

But I also think that if we ever got there, we'd have turned into the kind of people who could also save Earth in the first place.

Which makes it a good enough goal in my opinion.

#staranise original #agriculture #potatoes my beloved

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outsideratheart · 1 year

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Finalissima (Leah Williamson x reader)

A/N: In honour of the lionesses wining the Finalissma here is a little fic. I’m not sure if it can be classed a sequal but it does take place in the same universe as Welcome to Colney. I hope you guys like it.

When you arrived at Wembley Park the sight of the stadium brought goosebumps to your skin. The stadium was legendary and as you looked up the steps at the end of Wembley way you saw the video montage advertising the historic match between the Champions of Europe and the Copa de America champions. A sense of pride fills you when you see the moment Leah lifts the trophy. You may not have known her at that point but hearing the way she described that day makes you feel like you were there. Then it showed you and the rest of the Brazilian team lifting your town trophy and you are reminded why you are there. You have a job to do and there it just so happened that the person standing in your way was also your girlfriend.

You were looking forward to the press conference because it meant you got to see Leah. Having just arrived for their MD -1 training, Leah and Sarina were already outside the conference room by the time you and Pia arrive.

“Don’t worry, you’re not late” You hear Leah say when she sees you reach into your pocket for your phone

It had only been four days since you had since Leah but boy was she a sight for sore eyes.

You didn’t know what to do. With both Sarina and Pia standing close by you couldn’t greet the blonde you way you truly wanted to so you settle a hug which doesn’t half as long as you wished and subtly place a kiss to her neck as not to get caught by the women in front of you.

The four of you make small talk until a member of the media team tell you that the press conference is ready to begin. You and Leah enter side by side but are soon split up with you being placed at one end of the table and Leah at the other.

“They have to seperate us” Leah says earning a laugh from the journalists

The blonde jokingly holds up her fists, a gesture which you respond.

“I’ll do my fighting on the pitch”

Your competitive nature is something that Leah admired, now less so considering she was on the opposite end of it.

The first couple of questions were for the coaches and whilst you tried your hardest to listen and take in what they were saying, your focus remained on your girlfriend. No words were exchanged put plenty was said with your eyes.

“Focus Y/N” your coach whispers whilst Sarina answer a journalist’s question.

“I am”

“On the press, not on your girlfriend”

When you and Leah officially started dating you didn’t hide it. The fans soon noticed the way you were always together. They caught the moments when you hand rested a little bit too low on Leah’s back or how she was wore clothes that struck a striking resemblance to yours.

“I’m playing mind games”

“No, you’re letting her in your head. Parar agora”

Pia was right. Leah had been sending you teasing messages all day about how Wembley is her house and nobody will beat her there. She had access to your head that nobody else had and although you wouldn’t admit it, she was breaking you down from the inside.

You wait for the question that you know is coming. It just a matter of whether you or Leah gets asked it.

“Y/N, Leah” you both look at each other “Tomorrow you will be marking each other. Do you think this is will be easier or harder given that you are team mates?”

Leah waits knowing that you will want to answer this question.

“Before coming to Arsenal I knew that Leah was one of the the best centre backs in the world. In the last few months I have seen the reason why she rightfully has this title. As for tomorrow, what’s the saying? Iron sharpens Iron. I know Leah will bring her A game but there’s nothing I want more than to walk away from Wembley tomorrow Finalissima champions and being the first team to beat England under Sarina Wiegman”

She knew you meant it but the emotionless tone of your voice worried Leah. You were her team mate and girlfriend yet the way you talked about was as if she was just another opponent.

“Thanks Y/N” Leah jokes “Tomorrow is going to be difficult. Brazil has the reputation they have for a reason. Their playing style is like no other and we welcome the challenge. I admire Y/N’s optimism but we are playing at Wembley, these are our fans and we won’t let them down, they will see us lift another trophy”

The tension between the two of you grew thick and heavy within seconds.

“As you can see our captains are ready for battle” Pia jokes.

When the press conference ends you have an uneasy feeling in your gut. Ever since this fixture was announced you and Leah joked about going head to head but now that it’s the day before the game things have changed, there is no longer room for jokes.

The four of you leave the conference room, Pia says she will meet you back in the hotel stating that you need to be back for team meal and Sarina tells Leah to meet her on the pitch in ten minutes.

Once you are alone you sink down the wall, Leah soon join you. When she is by your side your hand rests on her thigh and she leans her head against your shoulder.

“Are you ok?” Leah asks.

“It’s a lot” you place a gentle kiss to the side of her head “I hate that one of us has to lose tomorrow”

“It’s all part of the game Y/N, the game you love so much. That competitive fire the burns in there” Leah taps your heart “is why you care so much and it’s why you feel the way you do”

“It is going to be really fun to beat you tomorrow”

“I’m being supportive and you’re ruining it”

“I know, I’m sorry”

Abruptly, Leah stands up and for a small moment you think she is mad at you so you avoid eye contact, instead choosing to play with the laces on your trainers. You feel Leah kick your foot gently in attempt to get your attention, it works. She holds her hands up and helps you to your feet.

“Tomorrow is going to be incredible, win or lose. We are making history and there’s no one I would rather do it with. We are going to lead our teams out to a sold out Wembley stadium and then at the end of the game I want you to come and find me, ok?”

It amazed you how Leah knew exactly what to say to make you feel better, no matter the circumstance.

“Come here”

You greet her the way you wanted you before the press conference but your kiss is cut short when you hear someone clearing their throat. Much to your annoyance Leah pulls away but you pull in and steal one more kiss.

Playing in front of a sold out Wembley stadium is something many few can say they have done especially in the women’s game and it is a moment you will tell your children about in the future but right now the screams of the home fans make you realise the challenge at hand will be anything but easy.

The first half ends with England up 1-0, the home side was proving that Wembley was in fact their house but it wasn’t over yet and you were determined to play your heart out for the next 45 minutes. Despite the absence of Marta and Debinha, you are Geyse are putting the England defenders through it and they are struggling to keep up with your pace and Brazilian flair. They are starting to get desperate as the second half is all Brazil.

Just as you are through on goal your ankles get clipped and given where you are on the field you know exactly who is responsible for it.

“Watch it baby, being cute only gets you so far” you whisper as she helps you to your feet.

This is how to game goes and as the clock counts down Brazil get’s closer and closer to getting the equaliser. It’s not matter of if, it’s a matter of time and that time comes in 93rd minute. The moment you hit the ball you know it is going into the back of the next. You quickly celebrate before grabbing the ball so that the game can restart as soon as possible but there isn’t enough time for a second goal as the final whistle is blown.

Penalties.

Both teams have strong penalty takers so it comes as no surprise when the fifth and final penalty determines the game. The referee gave you the ball and the boos that followed were deafening. You could feel your heart beating rapidly but it didn’t change a thing. You had taken countless penalties over your career and the key is to treat each one the same, the crowd & venue didn’t matter.

You weren’t predicable when it came to placement from the spot yet somehow Mary is able to get her fingers to the ball and sends it over the bar. She did it, she had saved your shot and you had cost your team the Finalissima.

You couldn’t believe it. The sounds of the crowd became muffled almost as if you were underwater. Your gaze remains on the goal, which was now empty as Mary Earps has long left to celebrate with her team, you were in shock and you mind replays the shot over and over again. The shame you felt was overwhelming and you wasn’t ready to face your team yet but you knew they would be on their way to you.

Leah watched from a distance as you crouched down with you head hanging between your legs. She is torn between celebrating with her team and going to comfort you. In the end she chooses the latter knowing that she has all night to be with her friends.

“Give her a minute” Rafaelle stands in front of her blocking the way.

“I just want to see if she is alright” Leah didn’t want to challenge her team mate and your friend.

“Y/N has never missed a penalty in her entire career and to do it now, in front of all these people and in a final. She felt a lot of pressure for this game”

“We all did and for it to go to penalties isn’t what any of us wanted”

Leah tries to explain that they all felt pressure given the stakes but Rafaelle still tries to explain your point of view. She knows by past experiences that there’s no way you will talk about what you felt today and what this loss means to you.

“You see the number she wears” Rafaelle point to where you are now stood and more so the the 10 on the back of your shirt “That 10 means a lot in Brazil and she will feel like she failed not only us but everyone back home. She says it’s her job to score goals and today she did that but she won’t be happy with one because she knows if she would have scored two then we would have won”

“I won’t say anything Rafa, I just need her to know that it is ok”

“Leah I know you are her girlfriend and she loves you but I’m her best friend so listen to me when I say give her some time and wait for her to come to you. This will hurt Leah”

The blonde didn’t hear a word the Brazilian said after ‘she loves you’. You and Leah hasn’t said those words said but she wanted to.

Eventually you rejoin your team and congratulate the opposition on their win. You interaction with Leah is short and you keep your game face on, you couldn’t let Leah see through your facade.

“You played really well Y/N” After her discussion Leah didn’t know what to say to you.

“Not good enough but congratulations Leah”

For a brief moment Leah thinks are you going to kiss her and it gives her peace knowing that you are ok but you move to side at the last minute, the kiss is placed on her cheek instead of her lips.

She watches as you walk into the tunnel with your medal in your medal in your hand instead of round your neck.

An hour or so later you stood at the balcony on the rooftop of your hotel as you watched the England fans on the street below you. It hurt knowing that you let your team and country down but what you hate the most if that no matter how hard you try you cannot be happy for your girlfriend.

“I’m surprised to see you here” the sound of Geyse’s voice brings you out of your trance.

“Where else am I suppose to be?”

“We thought you would be with Leah” Rafa and few of the other girls join you.

“No” you shake her head “I don’t think she wants to see me, I wasn’t the best girlfriend earlier”

“Y/N you were being a captain who tends to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders”

“It’s my job and today I failed—“

“You didn’t fail us and we wouldn’t be mad if you wanted to spend the night with your girlfriend especially when we leave for Germany tomorrow”

“I don’t know where she is”

Just has you finish your sentence you phones goes off.

“Leah?” Rafa asks and you shake your head.

It wasn’t Leah but it was someone that could help you find her but it came with one condition, an exchange of shirts. You double check that the team are happy for you to leave and they all but push you towards the door.

Meanwhile at a restaurant within Wembley Stadium the Lionesses are celebrating the win with their families but Leah cannot help but think about one person that isn’t with her. She stares at her phone screen with her thumb hovering over your contact. She knew Rafaelle was right but she needed to know if you were ok.

“Still thinking about your hot Brazillian girlfriend?” Beth asks. Although she wasn’t playing in the game she still showed up the support them.

“Rafa said to wait until she comes to be but I don’t know I can wait that long”

“Well it looks like you won’t need to” Beth turns her team mate around to where you have just entered the restaurant.

You were still dressed in your team tracksuit and the look of defeat was there but barely visable to anyone that didn’t know you. She sees your eyes scan the room and a smile appears on her face when you find her. The closer you get to her the bigger the smile gets and Leah knows the one her face mirrors yours.

“Minha Linda” your arms wrap around her tightly.

“What are you doing here?” Leah asks before kissing you quickly.

“I’m here to support and celebrate my girlfriend because that is what she deserves” your arms fall to her waist.

“How did you know where we were?”

You hold up your match worn shirt and watch as a look of guilt washes over Leah’s face.

“Baby, I swapped with Rafa” Leah didn’t know what to say. If she had known you wanted to swap shirts with her than she wouldn’t have given hers to her fellow centre back.

“This isn’t for you. It’s for Mary” Leah eyes widen at her keeper’s name “I know, she’s got guts but I think her performance makes her deserving, don’t you?”

“She put an end to your streak” Leah couldn’t help it as a smirk tugs her lips. She hates that it was against your but Mary’s save won them trophy and she was proud of her.

“She did but next time we play I want your shirt, deal?”

“Deal”

You quickly made go over to Mary who upon seeing you enter already has her shirt ready. The two of you sign them before posing for a photo and you make sure to congratulate the keeper on her exceptional performance, Mary Earps had earned your respect in that game and you wanted to make sure she knew that.

Having shared you enough, Leah pulls you back over to where her family are seated and introduces you to the entire Williamson family.

Leah saw you relax as the night went on but she remembered what she was told earlier on and she couldn’t let it go. She hates the amount of pressure you put on yourself, she saw the way you were with Arsenal but with Brazil it grew tenfold and you needed you to know you weren’t alone.

“Y/N” Leah tapped you thigh softly as you listened to what her mum and brother were talking about. Upon hearing your name you turn your attention to your girlfriend “I want you to know that you’re not alone anymore. I’m here if you want someone to talk to about the pressure you feel about representing your country. I know it’s a little bit different for you but I understand what you’re going through”

“Leah I know that I have you and it means a lot. I knew you understood me the day we first met and it’s why I feel the most at peace when I’m with you. Today was hard and losing the game was tough but it’s moments like this with you that I know win or lose everything will be ok”

You had spent the past couple of days stressing about the outcome of this game and what it would mean for you and Leah, in the end it didn’t change a thing. If anything you both respected each other more and it became a memory that you will both remember for a long time to come.

#woso x reader #woso imagine #woso one shot #leah williamson x reader #leah Williamson one shot #leah Williamson imagine #engwnt x reader #engwnt imagine #engwnt one shot #awfc x reader #awfc imagine #awfc one shot

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theemporium · 6 months

Note

how about 💰with famous!eddie? he could be a rockstar or maybe he’s made it big in the hockey world! whatever creative licenses you want to take is perfect!

maybe something with them having been apart for a little while and just wanting to spoil his girl now that he’s back? fancy dinner and nice music, some good old romance and fluff. <3

- 🦇

thank you for requesting!🫶🏽

“Eddie, this is too much.”

“Nonsense.”

“There aren’t even prices on the menu,” you murmured in a hushed voice as you leaned over the table, staring at him with wide eyes. The restaurant was dimly lit and intimate, and far fancier than you could ever imagine choosing—let alone affording. “The food is all written in French!”

“Calme-toi, mon amour,” Eddie grinned back at you, the French passing past his lips with ease. But you guessed after a world tour or two, it would make sense that he would pick up a few phrases in other languages here and there. “Just enjoy it.”

“Ordering a pizza would have been fine too,” you said to him, something in your stomach twisting at the idea that maybe he expected you to want this.

“But then I wouldn’t get to see you in that killer dress, baby,” Eddie retorted. “And that would have been a tragedy.”

Eddie Munson, a joker at heart even if his name was blasted over billboards and stadiums across the world.

Eddie Munson, your dinner date even when he had half the world throwing themselves at his feet of the most renowned rockstar in the music industry today.

He had just finished the North American stint of his tour and he had a gap between he headed down to South America and then Europe. And as much as he begged and pleaded, you couldn’t join him around the country which led to a very needy boy who was desperate to spend every possible moment with you.

But the boy never did anything half-assed. He was never one to flaunt his money or throw it around, but when it came to you? The boy pulled all the stops. He dolled you up a new outfit he bought earlier that day, treated you with more gifts than you could count before dragging you to the fancy restaurant uptown that you couldn’t even afford to step foot in, let alone dine.

But this was Eddie Munson and he wanted to give you the world.

“I would’ve worn it for you at home,” you told him, the words light-hearted but the truth still lacing your voice. “All you had to do was ask.”

His eyes darkened. “That is all I have to do?”

“If you asked nicely, I might’ve even let you pick what I wore underneath,” you teased as you reached for the glass of wine, taking a sip as your gaze caught his over the rim.

“Don’t do this, baby,” Eddie groaned, though there was a smile on his face. “You’re gonna make me ask for the bill before the starters come out.”

You grinned. “Maybe that was a part of my plan.”

He raised his brows. “You have a plan?”

“A girl’s guide to seducing a rockstar,” you told with him a nod of your head. “So far, it’s been working out quite well. I might make the thing my autobiography.”

Eddie’s face broke out into a massive grin and it made your chest feel funny. “If you want a quote, I can happily tell you how effective methods have been.”

“I’ll be sure to mention it in a chapter if I have the space,” you retorted.

Eddie couldn’t help himself as he reached over the table, taking one of your hands in his as he placed a chaste kiss on the back of your palm. “Have I ever told you how lucky I am to have you?”

Your cheeks burned. “Eddie—”

“No, I mean it, baby,” he said, the sincerity of his emotions evident in his eyes. “All of it wouldn’t be worth it without you. The fame and the touring and the music—you keep me grounded. You make it easy.”

Your chest tightened as you squeezed his hand. “I wanna keep being that for you.”

“Oh I’m not letting you go anytime soon,” Eddie said with a laugh, placing another kiss on your knuckles. “You’re my inspiration. Which artist gets rid of their muse?”

“An artist that takes their muse to a restaurant where the bread rolls cost more than her rent,” you retorted playfully.

“Yeah, it’s a bit much,” Eddie laughed before giving you a look, a hint of mischief sparkling in his eyes. “What do you say I pay the bill and we ditch this place? Get some pizza on the way back to eat so I can enjoy that dress of yours when we get home.”

“I’d say you’re gonna have to carry me because these heels are killing my feet.”

Eddie grinned. “Anything for my muse.”

#cece's slumblurb party #eddie munson #stranger things #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson fic #eddie munson one shot #stranger things x reader #stranger things x you #stranger things x y/n #stranger things fic #stranger things one shot

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