For Lack of a Better Title

psdo: nyakitapioka: psdo: SEXISM IS OVER i...

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:51:09 -0600

nyakitapioka:

psdo:

SEXISM IS OVER

i feel uncomfortable seeing this o-o

Good. Tell your buddies this is what oversexualization is and why it’s a problem when it happens to female characters.

hellotailor: gaptoothbitch: DOLCE & GABBANA FW...

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:44:34 -0600

hellotailor:

gaptoothbitch:

DOLCE & GABBANA FW 2006

crying because i’ll never be rich enough to afford this perfect outfit.

wtb dude cut of this outfit tbh

Reblogging for reference

Thu, 16 May 2013 22:41:57 -0600

Reblogging for reference

theminttu: A quick little painting… thought I needed a break...

Thu, 16 May 2013 15:05:15 -0600

theminttu:

A quick little painting… thought I needed a break from all the Dunmer, heh.

dduane: call-me-dash: portablegaytardis: xandorasbox: goatkul...

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:43:49 -0600

dduane:

call-me-dash:

portablegaytardis:

xandorasbox:

goatkult:

ceorfaex:

tothedeathsheadtrue:

whiskey-wolf:

And this is what happens when a masterfully crafted katana collides with a masterfully crafted longsword.

Suck it, katana

HAH!

suck my fuckin’ diiiick

Aren’t katanas and longswords made for different overall purposes tho

Katanas are slasher weapons made for cutting masterfully through human flesh so obviously it’s not gonna get through a fucking longsword which is really fucking thick and heavy and made for beating the shit out of people as well as hacking at armour

A katana would slice the shit out of you guys so idk what the fuck you’re so smug about

^That.

this is basically like driving a ferarri into a tank.

Now /that’s/ a metaphor

And fun, too, but the above comparison between the purposes and structures of the two types of swords is simplistic and (at core) incorrect. …I’ve got things to do this morning, though, so I’ll just reblog this for the moment and ask Peter to spell it all out when he gets up.

Very briefly, though: longswords are not “really fucking thick and heavy”; this is that old Victorian-era music-hall myth about heavy swords and armor surfacing again. …I have a long posting about this from a year or so back on my own tumblr, but I’m going to excerpt out the germane part here. (With just the general note added: I am trained in iaido and the use of the katana: but these days — knowing now what I’ve learned about European weapons over the past quarter-century — if you’re going to ask me whether I’d prefer to take on a katana user with another katana or a longsword, it’ll be the longsword every time. It is a far more versatile weapon to use against a broad spectrum of opposition weaponry. The katana’s versatility is surprisingly limited.)

About longsword / broadsword weights:

I am 5 foot 7, and while I’m not at my optimum weight right now, I am by no means hefty and would be classed as petite if I were a bit shorter. In any case, here’s my broadsword.

It is an Oakeshott Type Xa made by Fulvio Del Tin of Del Tin Armi Antiche in northern Italy. Fulvio specializes in both museum-quality replicas and “hero weapons” for major motion pictures. (For example, he forged Mel Gibson’s famous hero weapon in Braveheart.) From point to pommel the sword is 39 inches long. …And there’s my hand for size comparison.

Now watch what happens when I put this sword on the kitchen scale.

It weighs twelve hundred and twenty four grams, or just under two and three-quarters pounds. This is a normal weight for a broadsword of the period. They did not weigh tons. That myth, and its fellow urban legend that armor of the period was so heavy that a knight wearing it had to be winched onto his horse and couldn’t get up again if knocked down, are the direct result of popular British music hall comedies of the Victorian period. They have no basis whatsoever in fact, as any museum’s armor curator will immediately tell you (while either groaning and tearing their hair, or snickering a lot). I mean, seriously, what possible use would there be in a weapon that either a man or woman would get too tired to use in a very short time? The people who used it would select themselves out of the gene pool in very short order. (And their relatives would select the weaponsmaker out of the gene pool immediately thereafter.)

Now, on the off chance that my relatively small hand makes this seem not very much like a broadsword to you (though I guarantee you, it is one): okay, let’s pull out our other one.

Here it is, once more with my hand for scale. This is an Oakeshott Type XIII, a so-called hand-and-a-half or “bastard” broadsword of the same general type as the first one, 48 inches long from point to pommel. (Peter got it because it was a close match to the description of Khávrinen in the Middle Kingdoms books: in fact, we used it on the new ebook cover for The Door into Fire). It was meant to be used easily either one-handed or two-handed. So now let’s weigh it.

Fifteen hundred seventy-six grams, or about three and a half pounds. Again, I have to emphasize that this is the proper weight for a sword of the period, and indeed, many of similar size were lighter because they were made of better steel. (Fulvio forges his swords of steel that will be able to cope with the mishandling inherent in use on film sets, or the much more intensive banging around that’s expected when such a sword is being used by re-enactors.) Both this sword and its smaller sibling are balanced with extra weight in the hilt and pommel so that the blade is astonishingly easy to handle… as both Peter and I know from personal experience.

…The source, I think, of these most recent katana/European sword pissing wars is that the katana has been so mythologized over the last hundred years. Peter will doubtless get into this in more detail. But the tide has been turning of late. As the many medieval- and Renaissance-period European swordfighting manuals start to seep out of the museum collections into the public consciousness, the fascinating and complex details of the old European fighting styles are starting to be better known as well. This shift of balance has been taking some of the Eastern weapons fans by surprise, and has started leaving some of the too-thoroughly-legend-invested katana fans feeling a bit exposed — as what they previously decried as a landscape bereft of any real sword technique or weapons sophistication suddenly turns out to be just thick with it — and a bit butthurt.

(sigh) Oh well. The pendulum swings.

ETA: re the downstream comment “…so Diane Duane could totally take Jo Rowling in a fight”: Likely enough. But the only place I want to take Jo Rowling is shoe shopping. :)

Another thing worth pointing out about this gif is that the longsword is braced against a hard surface, and bracketed into place. It doesn’t really matter WHAT weapon you’re holding - if you swing your sword as hard as you can, edge-on, onto a braced wedge, you’re going to damage it. This is so far from a valid test of combat durability it’s not even funny.

fyuzhn: doxian: fyuzhn replied to your post: fyuzhn replied to your post: New rule, if you… I...

Thu, 16 May 2013 03:06:36 -0600

fyuzhn:

doxian:

fyuzhn replied to your post: fyuzhn replied to your post: New rule, if you…

I should message y’all weird things when I’m on MG more often. I have an alt there. BUT THEN I COULDN’T SURPRISE YOU WITH FACE HUGGINS. WAT DOOOOOO.

I was going to say if its about Butts I’d probably know it was you, BUT THEN AGAIN

I TOTALLY switch it up. Sometimes. I think the first ~~victim~~ person was d-dino. She said she was having a rough day, so I went on a level one and face hugged, then implanted my orcish egg. For Lechie, I went spambot mode and offered a butt massage service. OHOH and for someone else I offered to level their ERP skill.

these are completely normal things to do yes

This is such a nostalgic post for me, even if it is a post about current events. Good lord.

I seem to have figured out how to actually gank. This game was...

Thu, 16 May 2013 03:00:02 -0600

I seem to have figured out how to actually gank. This game was fantastic. Suddenly I’m actually performing well in almost every role, which I’m really happy with. Gonna need to get me some rune pages before I start ranked play once I hit 30 but I’m now confident I can actually compete.

Snow whales!

Thu, 16 May 2013 02:19:48 -0600

Snow whales!

baenling: grimdorknessec: 45-70govt: boss-of-the-plains: Save...

Wed, 15 May 2013 22:58:06 -0600

baenling:

grimdorknessec:

45-70govt:

boss-of-the-plains:

Save a shell, grab a quail.

Get the fuck out of here

dude’s got like an infinity dex score

GET THE FUCK OUT WHAt

expertcosmotips: arby’s yes

Wed, 15 May 2013 21:38:41 -0600

expertcosmotips:

arby’s

yes

This'll Show Abercrombie & Fitch

Wed, 15 May 2013 21:23:05 -0600

This'll Show Abercrombie & Fitch:

paradoxdonut:

stfuconservatives:

In response to Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries not wanting “not so cool” kids or women who wear size large to wear his company’s clothes, Greg Karber has come up with a funny and creative way to readjust the Abercrombie & Fitch brand.

Yeahhhh… I have some serious issues with this #FitchtheHomeless thing. I get the idea: stick it to Abercrombie! But the method for sticking it is to say, “You want cool people to wear your clothes, so HAHAHA look at all the gross and uncool homeless people wearing them!” That’s the message you’re trying to send with this, right? That is exploitation. I am pro-giving clothes to the homeless and pro-telling Abercrombie to shove it, but this particular combination is flat-out wrong.

Instead, start giving Abercrombie clothes to the parents of teenagers. Kids are one polo-shirt-wearing soccer mom away from never going near that stank store ever again.

Yeah, I have to agree with this. On top of the points made here, this is also still considered publicity for Abercrombie, and you know what they say about publicity.

This was so ruthless I actually feel bad about it. Good lord.

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:10:41 -0600

This was so ruthless I actually feel bad about it. Good lord.

Y’know, I’ve been playing LoL forever and never really understood why people got so...

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:42:31 -0600

Y’know, I’ve been playing LoL forever and never really understood why people got so angry.

But I was playing mid, a solo role that relies on no one else.

Now that I’m trying to learn to ADC with Cait, I begin to realize why some people rage. Your performance is as much a function of the competence of your support as it is a function of your own competence. Given that I’m a pretty shit ADC right now, I REALLY notice when I’ve got a poor support. Especially when at midgame they have as much cs as me, which means I’m at like… half the gold total I should be.

Which is not a good thing for an ADC to be.

On the plus side, I just ran a Cait/Brand kill lane that was just WAY too strong. Nothing survived. It was glorious.

mybluedecember: princess-munchkin: How the fuck does Bill Nye...

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:05:45 -0600

mybluedecember:

princess-munchkin:

How the fuck does Bill Nye expect this to happen? What do you want to do, force women to enroll in science courses, regardless of whether or not they want to do it? Just for the sake of having “enough” women? Why the fuck do these fractions matter so much? It’s not like people are holding guns to our head and threatening to kill us if we become interested in science.

Maybe, just maybe, a lot of us DON’T FUCKING WANT to be scientists. Is that a crime?

Hi there, princess-munchkin. Female engineering student here.

Bill Nye is not saying that you HAVE to be a scientist, and you are right that no one is holding a gun to my head because I am interested in science, but let me tell you some of the struggles of being a woman in the STEM fields.

1) Because I am a woman, I am not expected these fields. I first fully realized this when I was in high school, on my robotics team. See, although my robotics team was about 50% female, most of the women were part of the “business administration” side of things: finance, marketting, PR, membership, etc. Was this a problem? Absolutely not. But I was there to be an engineer, and specifically, to be the robot programmer. This was met with a lot of hesitation at first from some of the other students (all of whom happened to be male. This is not necessarily a bad thing.) You see, all of the robot programmers before me were guys. Computer programming is just a thing that guys do, or so they thought. Even after I had proved myself to the mentors on the team, many of the students still underestimated my abilities. There were rumors going around that I wouldn’t have been able to program the robot at all if the lead software mentor wasn’t there to help me. This was just flat-out false, but it wasn’t until I won an award for the team that the other students actually saw my merit.

2) There is not a lot of encouragement for women to go into these fields. I first noticed this when I was in elementary school. I was always interested in math, science, you name it, but many of my teachers and family members pushed that to the side for a long time. When I asked for legos for christmas, I would get ballet slippers. In fact, for a long time, I was training to be a professional dancer. I loved to dance. I loved math more, but no one seemed to notice that about me. It wasn’t until I had a long conversation with one particular teacher in high school that I decided to look into engineering. I had never even considered it as an option before, because no one decided to encourage me to pursue my interest in science. If it hadn’t been for that teacher, I would probably not be at the school I am at right now.

3) For a long time, Engineering/Science/Math WAS a “boys only” club. Let me tell you when some of the top technical schools and societies started letting women in:

RPI, The oldest tech school in the country, founded in 1824. Started admitting women in 1942 to “replace men called to war.” Campus housing for women wasn’t constructed until 1966.

Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honors Society - Founded in 1885. Started admitting women in 1968.

Caltech - Currently rated #3 in undergraduate engineering. Founded in 1891. Started admitting women in 1970.

Georgia Tech - Currently rated #5 in undergraduate engineering. Founded in 1885. Started admitting women in 1952.

Do you see the implications of this? Engineering has been a part of our society since around the late 1800s (in the case of RPI, since the 1820s), but women weren’t even allowed in for the most part until the 1950s, regardless of their merit.

4) Because of the fact that it was a “boys only” club for such a long time, there are not a lot of women engineers and scientists to look up to. When you’re reading your physics, chemistry, and math text books, the majority of those theories were came up with by men. It is true that much of our history was written by White Men, but this does not mean that the fact that there are few women scientists to look up does not matter.

So, as you can hopefully see, princess-munckin, or anyone else that shares the opinions of princess-munchkin, Bill Nye was not arguing that women that are not interested in STEM should go into those fields anyway. But he IS arguing against all of the systematic barriers set up against women who ARE interested in engineering and science. There are several women out there who are just as good as the boys at math and science, but will never pursue their interests because it just doesn’t seem like an option. That was me for a long time. I am super grateful for the fact that I fought against that, and that I ended up where I am.

if you don’t like science, fine. Don’t be a scientist. But if one day you have a daughter and she shows interest in being a scientist, PLEASE encourage her. Because Bill Nye is right, there need to be more women scientists in the world.

"When Beethoven passed away, he was buried in a churchyard. A couple days later, the town drunk was walking through the cemetery and heard some strange noise coming from the area where Beethoven was buried. Terrified, the drunk ran and got the priest to come and listen to it. The priest bent close to the grave and heard some faint, unrecognizable music coming from the grave. Frightened, the priest ran and got the town magistrate. When the magistrate arrived, he bent his ear to the grave, listened for a moment, and said, "Ah, yes, that's Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, being played backwards." He listened a while longer, and said, "There's the Eighth Symphony, and it's backwards, too. Most puzzling." So the magistrate kept listening; "There's the Seventh... the Sixth... the Fifth..." Suddenly the realization of what was happening dawned on the magistrate; he stood up and announced to the crowd that had gathered in the cemetery, "My fellow citizens, there's nothing to worry about. It's just Beethoven decomposing."

Wed, 15 May 2013 01:13:09 -0600

sodamnrelatable:

oh my god

BEST JOKE.

THIS JOKE SHALL BE TOLD FOREVER

saving-myself-first: foreversearchingforanswers: toxicteardrops...

Wed, 15 May 2013 01:10:01 -0600

saving-myself-first:

foreversearchingforanswers:

toxicteardrops:

l-ovelynialler:

from left to right;

I am afraid to hold my boyfriend’s hand.

My friend’s parents sent her away.

I found death threats in my locker.

I submitted to electroshock therapy.

I lost half my friends after coming out.

My grandmother sends me hate mail.

My school won’t let me take my date to prom.

I am not here anymore.

My dad tried to beat it out of me.

No one is proud of me.

This showed up on my blog again. Forever reblog.

The “I am not here anymore.”

Oh my. This hit hard.

i don’t even care that this isn’t black and white.
read this

Its always the “I’m not here anymore” that gets me

azureinfinity: abagofkittens: earthgirldonna: tr4pdoor: daydr...

Wed, 15 May 2013 01:06:53 -0600

azureinfinity:

abagofkittens:

earthgirldonna:

tr4pdoor:

daydreamer-kay-em:

“This is an alternate universe where Bruce Wayne died instead of his parents. Causing His father Thomas Wayne to become Batman and his mother Martha to go insane and become the Joker. “

hold the phone.

yes

wow

I’m sorry but this is the best idea for an AU I have ever seen in the history of my life

Holy shit yes.

lechet: d-dinosaur: jamietheignorantamerican: jacketlizard: b...

Tue, 14 May 2013 21:53:06 -0600

lechet:

d-dinosaur:

jamietheignorantamerican:

jacketlizard:

battroid:

takeawaygirl:

thegreatdesutree:

Unfortunately, this is a real restaurant and that is a real response. Their page was not hacked and thus trolled (that I know of). The owners are just really crazy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6LY7TJ16pg

holy FUCK watch that video

i just watched that video (and the part 2). unbelievable

I’m like 7 minutes in and jesus christ

HOLY BALLS, I SAW THE FULL EPISODE ABOUT THIS TRAIN-WRECK OF A RESTAURANT.

GORDON RAMSAY LEFT THE RESTAURANT WITHOUT CHANGING IT BECAUSE HE SAID HE WAS SCARED AND DISTURBED BY THE PLACE AND IT’S OWNERS.

LET ME REPEAT THAT.

GORDON FUCKING RAMSAY SAID HE WAS SCARED AND DISTURBED BY HOW VICIOUS THE OWNERS ARE.

*chokes on water*

HOLY SHIT

god fucking damn

when ramsay tears into the owner for stealing the tips from the waitress omg

Holy fuck.

Normally I can watch this show (hell, normally it’s like crack that I can’t quit) but I’m having trouble making it past the THREE MINUTE MARK. I am absolutely astounded. Ramsay hasn’t even shown up yet and I’m already feeling bad for him.

prince-of-void: sourcedumal: THIS! It’s not fucking hard...

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:01:10 -0600

prince-of-void:

sourcedumal:

THIS!

It’s not fucking hard people

Wearing a warbonnet is akin to wearing a fucking purple heart you didn’t earn.

A military personnel would chew your ass out for daring to wear a medal you didn’t earn. You should expect the same from the tribes you are disgracing with your hipster bullshit.

I’m Native and I approve

mineralists: awesomedigitalart: Mineral Dragons by...

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:29:59 -0600

mineralists:

awesomedigitalart:

Mineral Dragons by Pythosblaze

artist on tumblr

These are awesome and my love for dragons is pretty big, as it is for Mineralogy! ^_^ Hope you guys don’t mind this

These are some of the best dragons ever.