TF Grognon

photo of the brass double mudfish plaque on display at museum

composite photo of 2 info labels: “From top Ìgùn Ernwwộn (brass-casting guild) artists; Court of Benin, Nigeria ca. 1540-70 Brass Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, 1991(1991.17.10); The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1965 (1978.412.309); The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Samuel Rubin, 1962 (1978.412.473); Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, 1991 (1991.17.24); Shared provenance: Commissioned by Esigie (r. ca. 1517-50) or Orhògbùà (r. ca. 1550-70), Benin City; by descent to Ovónránmwè (r. 1889-97); removed from the Royal Palace in 1897 The bà is considered a divine being who controls the forces that affect his kingdom's well-being. He was a physical and spiritual manifestation of the god Olókun, ruler of the afterlife that lies beyond the water's surface. That aspect of the obà is reflected in the extensive aquatic imagery featured in palace plaques. These visual references range from "river-leaf" patterns to seafaring Portuguese merchants. The mudfish is another such motif, appearing as the main subject on more than forty surviving works. Although these creatures live in streams and rivers, mudfish can also survive on land for extended periods by burrowing into mud and lying dormant. This ability to traverse two realms has made the mudfish a potent metaphor for the bà's divine nature.”

#FishFriday in the #AfricanArt wing of the Met 🐠:
Ìgùn ronwwộn (brass-casting guild) artists; Court of Benin, Nigeria
Two Mudfish, c. 1540-70
Brass

A 1944 map by geologist Harold Fisk charts a 40-mile stretch of the Mississippi River from Friars Point to Gunnison, Mississippi. Fisk used aerial photos and maps to estimate the past and then-present channels. Source: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/mississippi-rivers-hidden-history-uncovered-by-lidar?fbclid=IwY2xjawQYXkdleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFCZ2JBT2tWdVlXMmEzNU5Uc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHsbjW-Yuubr_o_Kfeh0Elzc94geDwfXIZmeNL7NyljEBAOEjH53m2QLSo1NF_aem__4NkCIJ_D8J6mI1e8eMByg

Rivers are living beings.

literally irony poisoning

#lrp Brown is such a POS

@JesseBrown Not seeing this obvious point made elsewhere, so here goes: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers referenced Oct 7th, a day when Jewish men, women and children were brutalized, burned alive, raped and kidnapped, then she immediately said "my heart is with the people of Palestine." This was a heartless and hateful statement. Quote Radheyan Simonpillai @JustSayRad · Mar 4 Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is returning her TFCA award best supporting performance in a Canadian film, following the organization's decision to censor her acceptance speech during Monday night's gala. Here are excerpts from Elle-Máijá's email to the TFCA, shared with permission.

If you subscribe or listen to 'Canadaland' (the biggest "progressive" podcast in the country) please know that it's founder Jesse Brown is actively attacking Indigenous women who speak out against Israel's genocide

an expanse of shitty pockmarked remnant ice, with a few exposed dirt patches. Everything is sallow and gross except for an evergreen shrub at the back

lousy smarch weather

ICE Hurts Animals, Too

Personal Me: this Minneapolis fundraiser has stalled again - it’s run by people I know and I will vouch for them. Boosts appreciated too! www.icehurtsanimalstoomn.org

slurs like wild yeast just churning everywhere looking for somewhere to settle

love that a charge of "wussification" is treated seriously

Holy SHIT that is indefensible. I'm so sorry

Hate these so much!

Proton Mail Helped FBI Unmask Anonymous ‘Stop Cop City’ Protester A court record reviewed by 404 Media shows privacy-focused email provider Proton Mail handed over payment data related to a Stop Cop City email account to the Swiss government, which handed it to the ...

SCOOP: Proton Mail provided Swiss authorities with payment data that the FBI then used to determine who was allegedly behind an anonymous account affiliated with the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta, according to a court record reviewed by 404 Media.

We need to come up with a name for the technique where disability is used to advance tech, like AI, that tends to harm equity and often people with disability, it is so transparent and infuriating. Is disabilitywashing a term yet?

The arguments about Platner are making me lose my mind. No one brings up the worst thing about him, his years occupying Iraq/Afghanistan + joining a mercenary group in 2018.

It'd be like discussing Dahmer but glossing over the murders to focus on sketchy associations.

Missing the bigger picture!

ZAM: I guess when it comes to conflict, it's not the genre that's important, it's the reader. Readers are migratory for a ton of reasons. So it's not about giving advice, it's about using the conflict in your story to purpose. Obviously, you need some conflict. People don't turn pages if you don't have any suspense at all. But your book can be a big, scary rollercoaster where you're pretty sure half the time no one will survive, or it can be like a rollercoaster that's slow, and makes frequent stops for pancakes and coffee. And bookstores. A roller coaster where here people are exactly as safe as they wish they were in real life. There are plenty of people who like a romance with a will they, won't they fall for each other conflict, and then there are those who like a will they or won't they fall for each other only to die horribly conflict. That's what makes Romantasy popular.

what is that rollercoaster simile

Need an auto-block function applied to anyone whose post includes the string "I've started using AI"

I know exactly what you mean. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

it’s 1975 and the U.S. is bombing a country to liberate it. it’s 1982 and the U.S. is bombing a country to liberate it. It’s 1991 and the U.S. is bombing a country to liberate it. It’s 2005 and the U.S. is bombing a country to liberate it. It’s 2011 and the U.S. is bombing a country to liberat

this guy has a whole page on this website detailing his known history of anti-trans activism. hes also contributed to Quillette for example

www.transgendermap.com/issues/topic...

an extraordinary piece

re 'ai' slop: Something that is not remotely sustainable and has no social benefit can't be "inevitable".

Rather, the sewage pipe that is the VC system broke, and flooded all our basements. Valuable things were damaged, but it will subside. Leaving a lot of people and organisations covered in shit.

Over dinner, he posed to me his most hypothetical questions: What sort of farmers would we be? Which historical period? Astronaut or deep-sea diver? The questions made me feel that I couldn't survive a day in the world. I wouldn't be able to grow anything to eat, couldn't live through a war or plague, would get too sick on a rocket or submarine. I told him so. I'll help you out, Manu said. We'll be fine. We walked home tipsy, talking in our own language. Let's get belligerent, Manu said. Let's get belligerent and make a scene, I replied.

There were tragedies of the highest order that upended ordinary life, the ones that ushered in deviations of kind-ness. Then there was life itself, at every turn a devastation, which nevertheless did nothing to stall its flow.

I finished Ayşegül Savas's The Anthropologists yesterday. I don't think I've read anything like it & its calm but idiosyncratic precision -- maybe some Kawakami Hiromi sifted through Lydia Davis? Concepts of native/foreigner, authority, & strange/r pulse throughout.

World needs to pay attention to the mass disenfranchisement of Indian Muslim voters. every autocrat is taking copious notes on this in order to destroy their own targets

oof. we need to rework the rhyme about which naomis youre safe with

"The trade was not that you were getting exposed to geopolitics when moving to Dubai."

Donate to Help Protect Bull Trout Habitat in the Upper Highwood River, organized by Mike Sawyer Hi my name is Mike Sawyer, and I'm fundraising for Timberwolf … Mike Sawyer needs your support for Help Protect Bull Trout Habitat in the Upper Highwood River

Please consider donating to the Timberwolves Society and Defenders of the Eastern Slope's fight against DFO approval of logging in 1100 hectares of critical habitat.

I donated in memory of Wayne Emerson Roberts, who helped launch the fight to protect Alberta bull trout in 1982. gofund.me/45130cbe3

The millions killed by US/European sanctions alone in recent decades—I mean not even counting the wars and the bombings—aren't usually counted as the death toll of a great war. In fact, they don't even rise to the level of "distraction." Mass death is just the background noise of late capitalism.

That argument exists because the lives of non-white people are cheap in imperial discourse. Mass death on the other side of the world has no reality outside of what space it takes up on the american tv news cycle. If it were otherwise, the old normal would have been as insupportable as the new

This was excellent; tysm for preserving it