ms-demeanor:

official-kircheis:

official-kircheis:

image

@pabloernesto said:

I don’t get it :(

every browser except firefox runs on chromium. they are just chrome reskins. firefox is the only good browser. install firefox

Firefox does a ton of cool shit but just out of the box, fresh install it does less tracking and dataharvesting than Chrome (in that it does essentially none while chrome’s goal is to crawl all the way into your asshole and monetize the data of the unique features of your intestinal lining) and does not contribute to the chromium near-monopoly (Firefox and Safari are the only non-chromium browsers with any notable market share).

Also you know how Adobe fucking sucks and is really annoying and it’s frustrating to have to use their PDF reader? Firefox now comes with a built-in PDF reader AND editor. Check this shit out:

Screenshot of a firefox window showing a PDF that has "I wrote these words in the Firefox PDF Editor" written over the PDF in bright pink.ALT

Firefox also has a feature called Multi Account Containers that allows you to log in to accounts in different containers so that you don’t have to open up an incognito window or log out of various services to use a different account. For instance, I have my Work container and my School container and I can log in to office 365 in either one of them without having to log out of the other, or I can have seven tabs logged in to seven different tumblr accounts (not sideblogs, separate accounts) in the same window if I want to do that for any reason.

Also fuck google.

headspace-hotel:

iste-scriptor:

headspace-hotel:

dorsetgirl1:

headspace-hotel:

I agree with the idea that a lot of humans nowadays have a severe lack of curiosity about the world, but I think there has to be a solution other than shame.

I think about this every day because the fate of our world hangs on curiosity: either we will rediscover the importance and wonders of the soil and bugs and flowers and water and finally with the whole natural world, or this way will be forgotten.

People raised in the great wasteland of the suburbs and roads and buildings have never seen most of the plants and creatures that are supposed to fill every field and meadow. So many humans have never seen with their own eyes more than a scant few of the most common of hundreds of wildflowers that are supposed to surround them. Some live in biomes designated forest and have never witnessed truly mature trees. They do not know what the birds sound like. When they see an ordinary deer, they are awed and amazed by it or even afraid of it. They have never eaten any of the delicious wild fruits that grow in their homeland; all birds except starlings and robins and sparrows are so strange and beautiful that they stare in wonder. They confront insects like people on an alien planet encountering an unknown life form: What is this? Will it hurt me?

I cannot even describe the grief I feel on behalf of humans that grow up and live in the wasteland of pavement and lawn. That we are expected to live in these brutal environments, that we are expected to be content without the right or ability to live alongside living creatures, to walk among wildflowers, to hear birdsong, to feel the plush softness of moss, to see even common bees and butterflies—the fact that we live, work, and raise our children in poisonous wastes where nearly everything has been wiped out, and the simplest and most abundant of natural pleasures are rare privileges—it’s cruel. It’s a crime against the human spirit. It makes me so angry and sad.

When I started researching plants, I had no idea that I would end up expanding my mind so much that I would be virtually a different person within the year. Before I learned, I could not have imagined the diversity and beauty that exists in the world. My mind did not have the tools to come up with it.

I lived for over twenty years believing that there was only one species of firefly. I lived for over twenty years not knowing that the Southeastern US has native bamboo. I had never tasted the indescribable flavor of a pawpaw or seen the iridescent vibrance of a red-spotted purple butterfly. I had only seen a Pileated Woodpecker out the window of a car. I had never touched true topsoil, the soft, living blanket of rich, sweet-smelling earth full of mycelium, as springy and plush as a mattress. Just one year ago, I knew nothing!

Humans, as creatures, are insatiably curious and hunger for beauty. It is so cruel to deprive a human of relationship with their natural environment.

It is no wonder that we are all addicted to the internet—we have a crucial need that is unfulfilled. Compared with a forest, the world of lawns and buildings is so ridiculously flat and unstimulating. You would expect humans in such a place to feel constantly bored, restless, frustrated, and incurably sad.

I feel that lack of curiosity can be a chosen thing, but it is also a defense mechanism against a world that will feel like sandpaper on the senses of the curious.

But we need curiosity to fix this—we need the ability to notice the living things that have crept in at the edges of the wasteland and be infected and tormented by their beauty. We need to recognize the forest reaching into our cage in the form of tiny saplings. We need to discard the word “weed,” not because it is derogatory because it is fundamentally incurious—it designates a plant as needing no identity outside of its unwantedness. We must learn their names. We must wonder what their names are.

I honestly find this post a bit strange. It’s lovely for the OP that they enjoy nature, and I hear what they’re saying about the importance of preserving it, but to suggest that people who aren’t interested in the things OP is interested in have no curiosity at all is imo insulting and narrow-minded. It’s possible to have huge curiosity about things that don’t include insects and birds. I’ve never seen a firefly - I don’t even know if we have them in this country - and tbh I don’t care.

It’s really not a straight choice between “internet all day” and “live out in the middle of nowhere getting excited about plants”. There are plenty of other ways to live your life. For myself, I prefer to interact with other people rather than plants - even if that is mostly via the computer - and it’s human history that interests me rather than birds and plants, but OP seems to be preaching that the way they now live is the ideal way for everybody.

I’ve lived all my life in suburbs and I don’t find them “brutal” in the slightest. They’re safe and quiet and a reasonable compromise between living in a city and having to drive for miles to buy a pint of milk. They’re green and tree-lined and even if you don’t have a garden yourself you can walk past other people’s and you don’t have to know the names to enjoy the trees and flowers.

And just too prescriptive for words at the end there imo:

“we must wonder what their names are”

Nope. No-one who doesn’t pay my wages has the right to tell me what I MUST do.

I’ve gotten responses like this before, and what always stands out to me is that people see “nature” as another Interest to be into, like knitting or bicycling or whatever.

It’s not. “Nature” is everything alive and all of the forces and environments and creatures on this planet. Compared with the enormous range of things this noun includes, everything outside of it is just a barely-noticeable smudge on its surface. “Nature” is where you come from and where you are going after you die, “nature” is the food you eat and the air you breathe. “Nature” is not a topic of interest or hobby, it is a fundamental thing, like having a family. You don’t have to learn the names of plants, but I think it should be a kind of common courtesy, like learning the names of your neighbors. We are not alone on this planet. We have a lot of neighbors.

Curiosity about nature is really not about personal interest at all—curiosity is a basic response to the world, as automatic as sneezing, and almost everything in the world is “nature.”

I really do think the fact that this response is even humanly possible is evidence that something is horribly wrong with the current setup. You live on a planet bursting at the seams with life, but when someone suggests that it’s good to be curious about other life forms, your first thought is of “living out in middle of nowhere?”

Like, this is exactly my point. You should not have to live in a remote, isolated place to see an insect for yourself

I agree with you that there are loads of wonderful things about different environments, and I share many of your interests. But you need to stop acting like its a fundamental tragedy that people aren’t interested in the same things you are. Some people just don’t like plants, and that’s okay.

Whether someone personally “likes” plants or not, they share the world with them and they are dependent on them to continue life and for mental and physical well-being. And of course this doesn’t mean plants will be personally interesting to everyone, but access to biodiversity should still be a human right available to everyone, and participation in and caretaking of the ecosystem is to some extent a shared responsibility of humankind

Just because one person doesn’t care whether fireflies exist in their environment, doesn’t mean that it’s good for large populations to live and raise children in environments where fireflies couldn’t survive even if they were a native species. You don’t have to personally like a thing to recognize that it’s bad that it’s inaccessible to others

The destructive management practices of our living spaces need to change. More people need to be involved in growing and/or sustainably foraging their own food. More people need to be closely observing the natural environments around them.

This is, literally, important for the continued existence of our species. Having so little of our population directly involved in ecosystem caretaking is unsustainable.

But also, there’s an element of cultural devaluation of other living things—a grass or tree is alive, it is A Life, so do we not have some sort of responsibility towards it, something different than the relationship we would have toward a pencil?

I’ve been reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and she makes a powerful case that we have a societal responsibility to recognize the dignity of ecosystems and to learn about and protect them. I’m not trying to “guilt trip” anybody, but I would like everyone to be aware that the whole idea that you can simply “opt out” of ecological awareness and of caring about plants and animals is cultural, it’s a product of modern industrialized culture which has a long, destructive history of treating living things as decorations and resources and sources of capital. And this has annihilated many species from the face of the earth forever.

The destructive management practices that eliminate so much life from suburbs are cultural. They are bad for our planet and bad for human health, but we need to do the work to unlearn them.

We have to rediscover the habits of observing nature and being curious about it to survive. It is a part of being a citizen of Earth. We cannot get by with only a select portion of the population directly “involved in” or knowledgeable about nature.

A public that does not know about nature does not know what farming practices are sustainable, what mining operations will cause ecological damage, what trees to plant in their front yard, what pesticides are the responsible choice to use, what snakes are venomous. If you went to a garden center to buy a decorative shrub for your yard, would you know which ones are invasive species? If you saw a bug you’d never seen before, would you know if it had the potential to harm you or not? How would you respond to a strange mushroom popping up in your back yard? It is about how we relate to everything around us in our daily lives.

wordswithkittywitch:

explorerrowan:

aqueerkettleofish:

prismatic-bell:

dollsahoy:

oak23:

balljointsandlace:

oak23:

I hope im not just a blog you follow but also the only person with 100% correct opinions about the little mermaid

Dish those opinions, let’s hear it

My biggest issue is the absolute ice cold take of “Ariel gave up her life/voice for a boy” when the film repeatedly shows Ariel was preyed upon by Ursula. She was exploited and stalked by the literal antagonist of the film into making a really bad decision, especially when Ursula knew Ariel was at her most emotional and the least unable to reach out to her support network.

And the deal Ariel made was meant to be an impossible task that she was tricked into taking AND STILL Ariel was smart enough to almost achieve it if Ursula wasn’t playing dirty and directly interfering in with it all.

Ariel was absolutely a victim of manipulation and circumstance, and people who use this as an irredeemable flaw in her character act like they got big brain energy when their brains are smooth as fuck.

(not to mention she was 16)

Also?


URSULA is the one who says Ariel’s doing it all for the guy.


According to Ariel herself, what she wants is:


—to be where the people are

—to see dancing and walking

—to ask her questions about the human world and get answers

—to not live in the ocean

—to be part of the human world

—to explore the human world


WHERE DOES ERIC COME INTO ANY OF THIS?!


She wants to see a world she isn’t able to see! She wants to have adventures, not a boyfriend! What the hell!

I would argue that she was totally fine with the boyfriend, but Ursula was the one who forced it to be a priority.

AND ANOTHER THING

Her first impression of him is a dude who is both attractive, capable, and willing to jump back on to a burning ship to save his dog.

Later, dude climbs aboard a SHIPWRECK that’s caught in a WHIRLPOOL so that he can RAM IT into a 150-foot-tall MAGIC SEA MONSTER in order to save her.

It’s not like girl was settling.

Ariel is a field anthropologist. That she happened to fall in love with a member of the culture she was studying isn’t exactly a problem.

#Do people give Milo Thatch a hard time for giving up everything for a girl?#no because not enough people have watched Disney’s Atlantis#but that’s a secondary problem via @thebestworstidea​

Leaving gold in the tags agin, I see.