July 8, 2023
I’m Deaf and have “perfect” speech. And I want to stop speaking.
Everywhere I go, people compliment me and say they wouldn’t have known I was Deaf if I hadn’t told them. “They say it kindly, but it’s like they’re giving me a cupcake without realizing there’s a razor blade inside it. […]
Once my friends and I have ordered, we sign up a storm, talking about everything and shy about nothing. What would be the point? People are staring anyway. Our language is lavish, our faces alive. My friends discuss the food, but for me, the food is unimportant. I’m feasting on the smorgasbord of communication ― the luxury of chatting in a language that I not only understand 100% but that is a pleasure in and of itself. Taking nothing for granted, I bask in it all, and everything goes swimmingly.”
What is God in ethly guise? One or mampus giant eyes?
PJ Harvey comes to each album more or less a different person, playing different instruments, pondering different subjects in her elliptical lyrics. If you thrilled to the strident, triumphant To Bring You My Love, you might not be prepared for the explosive joy of Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. If you loved that one, you’d still have to make an adjustment for the politically barbed Let England Shake or the ghostly White Chalk. Harvey’s tenth album, I Inside the Old Year Dying, is much the same in that it is not the same as any of the artist’s previous work. [more inside]
Monkey Business
Global network of sadistic monkey torture exposed by BBC [BBC] [CW: sadistic monkey torture; fuck people really]
ṭūbā
Like dinosaurs but flying—those be pterosaurs
"Alive! You have seen a flying creature unlike any bird or bat. It's more like a pterosaur but alive, a "flying dinosaur." What do you do? [...] The problem is not in the eyewitnesses or what they see but in the indoctrination, over generations, that all species of dinosaurs and pterosaurs must have become extinct millions of years ago. That's the problem." [more inside]
It's like playing catch with Joe Dimaggio
Tom Hanks talks to Guy Raz for two hours about his career and being Tom Hanks. That's it. That's what it is. But wow, it's really a lot!
What Did People Do Before Smartphones?
Over the years that followed, I kept clicking on my keyboard phones until eventually the iPhone replaced them. I have memories of using a Palm Treo on the train and my BlackBerry at lunch through most of the 2000s. But I can’t remember how I’d spent my idle time in the years before, on the train or at lunch or at any other time of day when we found ourselves between things. Literally, what did we do? I cannot recall. (SLAtlantic, ungated)
“I'm the strongest woman in the world!”
The Kickass Legacy of Chun-Li, the First Playable Woman in 'Street Fighter' [Vice Games] “In the midst of this digital world designed, developed, and dominated by men, Chun-Li defied expectations about women in games entirely. She wore an athletic modified qipao, combat boots, spiked cuffs around each wrist, and had massive, impressively toned muscles. Plus, she was one of the best competitive Street Fighter characters; her speed, agility, and match-ending Super Combos proved a devastating mix for her opponents, and ensured top-tier dominance throughout the series. [...] Chun-Li immediately shot to popularity as the franchise’s first playable female character. And by giving her the same depth of backstory and combat ability as every other player, Street Fighter set the bar for female characterization. From her skillful strikes and powerful air throws to her infamous Spinning Bird Kick, Chun-Li’s offensive capabilities proved she was a woman who could finally fight on an equal playing field with her male counterparts.” [more inside]
WA's new Indigenous women's ranger team help threatened golden bandicoot
WA's new Indigenous women's ranger team helps threatened golden bandicoot survive. (Text article with photos of cute bandicoots.) After 12 days surveying the bandicoots in remote bushland and a few bee stings, possum bites, and green ant invasions, the rangers returned with impressive results. "We ended up catching 94 individual golden bandicoots over the six nights of live trapping, which is just way above our expectations," AWC's Kimberley regional manager Skye Cameron said. "To see that they're flourishing in this landscape was just really heartwarming."
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