Honestly People Can Be So Irritating About My Collections. “why Would You Want That, It’s Gross.” “why

https://www.instagram.com/thepersonalquotes/

You only have to look at how cis hetero people try to interpret being transgender to see how history and anthropology inherently biased 

“So they used to be female, but they’re now male”

“Sort of, but the thing is, he was never female. He was simply assigned the gender at birth but later recognized he was male.”

“But his records show he was female”

“I’m saying he’s never been female, he was just falsely identified as female”

“I don’t get it. So like, they used to be female but are now male biologically???”

“No… ugh, never mind, just understand they’re male”

They don’t get it because they don’t have context for it, so try to apply a context they understand. It’s not accurate, but it’s the kind of argument that becomes moot when they understand the most important details. 

That’s what happens in history and anthropology as well. 

There are existing concepts that colonial historians DO NOT HAVE ANY CONTEXT FOR and they will therefore attempt to apply their own context to those concepts, even if they are incorrect. 

I use transgender people as an example because that’s one of the many concepts largely misunderstood by early colonial historians. They don’t GET the concept of a “third gender”or a “spiritual female”/ “Spiritual male” accepted as part of the community, they don’t understand that two genders are a concept THEY have that the community they study DOESN’T. They don’t understand that the language DOES NOT HAVE GENDERED PRONOUNS thereby eliminating hangups on gender that they themselves have. 

Then they attempt to apply their own context – ie the context of a largely heterosexual, largely cis, and largely male community with pre-programmed ideas of what women are to them rather than what women are to the community they are studying. A society which, given English and other European languages, gender their pronouns in a way that isn’t done in other societies. 

It’s the historical equivalent of 4Kids Dubs changing original Japanese names from anime into weird English names. 

History and anthropology must be challenged CONSTANTLY by different outlooks less affected by white imperialist colonial mentality so that anything misunderstood in the past century or two can be remedied. 

Like the fact that Viking women were warriors and buried as warriors, among other biased misinterpretations. 

ASTONISHING, said Death.  REALLY ASTONISHING.  LET ME PUT FORWARD ANOTHER SUGGESTION: THAT YOU ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A LUCKY SPECIES OF APE THAT IS TRYING TO UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEXITIES OF CREATION VIA A LANGUAGE THAT EVOLVED IN ORDER TO TELL ONE ANOTHER WHERE THE RIPE FRUIT WAS. Fighting for breath, the philsopher managed to say, ‘Don’t be silly.’ THE REMARK WAS NOT INTENDED AS DEROGATORY, said Death.  UNDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, YOU HAVE ACHIEVED A GREAT DEAL.

Terry Pratchett, “Death and What Comes Next” (A Blink of the Screen) (Tired of dealing with philosophers but never tired of humanity as a whole.)

Cat’s Eye Nebula

So I’ve put my second badger pelt in the tumble drier just to see what happens. Will it dry nicely? Help with breaking? Will it rip? Loose hair?

Looks okay after 10min. Nice and soft. Switched it to a setting without heat so I dont heat damage the fur.

Isn’t it strange that we talk least about the things we think about most?

Charles Lindbergh (via purplebuddhaquotes)

can’t relate

In the mineralogist’s defense, that’s much tidier than trying to eat watermelon on its own.

Also being a scientist pretty much gives you a free pass to be as eccentric as you want like you’ll be at a conference and it’s like “is that guy wearing socks and sandals and plaid pants???” “Ya but he was on the team that discovered gravitational waves let him be”

I said I was sorry.

I may be awkward sometimes But

at least i did not say “neat”

I’ll have to look into that next time I’m near Lantern!

just woke up from one hell of a nightmare i need a distraction…

How does the brain learn categorization for sounds?

Photo credit: Xiong Jiang, Georgetown University

Categorization, or the recognition that individual objects share similarities and can be grouped together, is fundamental to how we make sense of the world. Previous research has revealed how the brain categorizes images. Now, researchers funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) have discovered that the brain categorizes sounds in much the same way.

To find out how the brain categorizes auditory input, the researchers invented new sounds using an acoustic blending tool to produce sounds from two types of monkey calls. The blending produced hundreds of new sounds that differed from the original calls.

Subjects listened to several hundred calls and categorized them under two arbitrary labels that were created by the researchers. The researchers used functional MRI prior to and following the training to image subjects’ brains while they listened to the sounds, but did not yet label them. The results showed that learning to categorize the sounds had increased the brain’s sensitivity to the acoustic features that distinguished one sound from another.

Researchers believe these findings reveal what may not only be a general mechanism about how the brain learns, but also about how learning changes the brain and allows the brain to build on that learning. The work has potential implications for understanding individual differences in language learning and can provide a foundation for understanding and treating people with learning disorders and other disabilities. 

Learn more here: http://bit.ly/2vri3Ij