From Charly, gorgeous shots! Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
From Charly, gorgeous shots! Click for full size.
© Charly, all rights reserved.
Blue Jay.
© C. Ford.
This is actually a fairly old one, but I came across the bottle while cleaning the studio, and took pics this time out. I had this on a high shelf, which a persistent and creative Angel finally managed to get to, mostly with persistence in scaling the wall. The food colouring had, of course, run down the wall, and when I first saw it, still mostly asleep, first reaction was “WTF, who is bleeding and how in the hell…” This evening, just picking it up, after it has sat for months, I got my fingers covered in red, which won’t come off. Damn stuff is a menace.
© C. Ford.
Angel: Jaaaaaaaffa Caaaaaaake!
© C. Ford.
Thoughts & Prayers, Thoughts & Prayers, Thoughts & Prayers, pretty much the only response of conservatives and too many christians in any crisis. Unsurprisingly, people at large have finally gotten fed up with Thoughts & Prayers, and aren’t at all shy anymore about telling the Thoughts & Prayers Parrots where to stick those thoughts and prayers. This has upset Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition something awful. He has a little petition:
…I’m writing you, along with thousands of other supporters of Faith & Freedom Coalition, to demand that Democrats stop using the lives of the 26 victims of Sutherland Springs to push a political agenda.
As Americans, we need to come together in a time of tragedy. We must focus on what unites us–not how we can score political points.
But instead, members of your party have gone on the record openly mocking Christians for offering their prayers, support, and guidance over the last few days. And worse, members of your party have exploited these victims to push radical gun laws that wouldn’t have prevented the attack in the first place. …
No one is using them as a political prop of any kind. What’s happening is anguished outrage over all those who stubbornly defend absurd and insane laws in this country, which is already drowning in guns, and refusing to acknowledge that change is desperately needed, to save lives. Of course, one of the major problems with christians is that you assholes always go on and on and on about how this life doesn’t count, it’s the one after you’re all dead and decayed.
If you all want to believe that, fine, but stop inflicting that view on everyone else. There are plenty of people who are most focused on this life, because we know it’s all we get, and time is short. It’s truly awful the way christians always find a way to disdain and disrespect life, in spite of all those Thoughts & Prayers. You support unfettered access to guns. You fight even the tiniest of regulations. You defend those men who routinely abuse their families. You protect those who sexually assault and rape. You defend the rights of rapists. You fight against women having the slightest amount of bodily autonomy. You protect those who abuse children. You support and encourage the death penalty. You support wars. Yeah, your morality just shines through all those Thoughts & Prayers.
You act as though Thoughts & Prayers are some sort of action; that they mean something. They don’t. They are just a way for you to hoist yourself into the spotlight, while actively refusing to do one thing which would make for a positive, and less blood-soaked change. Why should anyone give a damn about your parroting prayers? Are all your TweetPrayers so valuable?
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father in secret shall reward thee openly. – Matthew 6: 5-6.
I expect your little petition will be ignored; I certainly hope it will be. After all, if those Thoughts & Prayers were supposedly directed to your god, what difference does it make how others react to them? Oh, ye of little fuckin’ faith, so very frail.
You can see the whole thing here.
m&m’s Dissolving in Water – 4K from Beauty of Science on Vimeo.
We dropped m&m’s chocolate in water and discovered something really wonderful!
This 4K time-lapse video was shot with a Sony A7R M2 camera to capture the beautiful details of m&m’s dissolving. High-resolution stills:
Oh, I must get M&Ms! I have to do this myself.
Open Thread: don’t be an asshole. Thanks. Previous thread.
Art by Harry Clarke.
Heilung – Krigsgaldr. (The video is mesmerizing, don’t miss it.) If you haven’t seen them live, I recommend it, but avoid the comments.
Heilung is amplified history from early medieval northern Europe and should not be mistaken for a modern political or religious statement of any kind.
Remember that we all are brothers
All people, beasts, tree and stone and wind
We all descend from the one great being
That was always there
Before people lived and named it
Before the first seed sprouted
A series today! Black-capped Chickadee, click for full size.
© C. Ford.
Jim Bakker is yelling up a storm, again. Did you know that impeach means kill? Me neither.
“They want Trump in prison,” he said. “I thought we had an America that we were supposed to have an election and then start working together. We have an almost anti-American spirit going on.”
:Snort: The republican definition of working together: “Do everything our way, or we’ll have a yuuuuuge tantrum!” Y’know, Jim, a lot of people thought “we’ll have an election, then start working together” when Pres. Obama was first elected. Funny how there was no ‘working together’ on the conservative side. I remember assholes hollering birtherism, screaming for impeachment, etc. Now that the shoe’s on the other foot, we’re supposed to all get along?
If the Tiny Tyrant has committed crimes, then yes, he belongs in prison. Right now, I’d be happy enough with his eviction from the white house. An eviction notice shouldn’t shock him, he’s certainly served enough of them to others.
Bakker’s guest, Sharon Gilbert, agreed, saying that “Washington, D.C., seems to be the black heart of this terrible spiritual movement” because the city is filled with “men and women who serve our enemy, the enemy of Yahweh,” which is proof that opposition to Trump is “occult in nature.”
The only thing that’s proof of is word salad exists. Oh, so everyone in the resistance has to be occult now? How embarrassing, I don’t even have black candles. I do have a fabulous cloak, but it’s not black. :scribbles shopping list: I have my Ghost playlist on right now though!
“How can we want to kill a president who is trying to save America’s babies?” Bakker asked.
Who’s talking about killing him? I want him impeached. I’ve been very good, I haven’t even muttered darkly about the lack of assassins these days. Really. Let’s not pretend that all you assholes intent on ruling over all the bodies of those who can get pregnant is brand new, and some grand idea of the Tiny Tyrant’s. You’ve been working on that for decades now. There’s nothing at all wrong with ‘America’s’ babies. Most of them are just fine. All the zygotes and embryos, those are none of your business. It would be nice if you shit stirring hypocrites would pay attention to ‘America’s’ babies. Lots of families out there who could use help. Lots of hungry kids who need nutritious food. Food deserts need to be addressed. The foster system needs a reworking, and there are always lots and lots and lots of kids who need homes. There’s all manner of good works you could be doing, but no.
“Come on Christians, you had better wake up! Because the church is very sound asleep over this thing and judgment will come. I’ve read the book [the Bible]—I didn’t just read the end of the book, I read the whole book.
Which christians? Which church? The bible is made up of little ‘books’, and it’s not an Agatha Christie mystery, you dumbfuck. I have read the bible, cover to cover, more than one version. Because there are a number of versions, y’know. Did you read all the books in the Douay-Rheims? Because those are missing in the version you most likely read (KJV). Have you read the annotated SAB? You can get a lovely hardcover version of it. It has all manner of inconvenient notes and questions. Well, inconvenient to christians. There’s always some judgment or other, Jehovah is an asshole supreme. And, it appears he’s been sound asleep for thousands of years now, so that’s a rather empty attempt at a threat. You folks can’t even pray up a burning bush.
All of you asses are getting to be beyond boring. Why don’t you start up Sortes Sacrae again! That would be fun. :Gets out bible: Hmmm, 3 times gives me: The house, their horses they shall find none. Okay, it might take you a while to come up with something good, but hey, it will keep you busy. Okay, I just had to do it again, and 3 times gave me: Why respect this wisdom? Hee.
Judgment always comes when you mock God, when you curse God and we’ve cursed God in this country.”
So you keep saying. People keep mocking, or worse, giving an indifferent shrug to your nonsense and your psychopathic god. Nothing’s happened yet that is not our own doing. I’m much more concerned about the Tiny Idiot King getting his little fingers on a certain button than I am with your imaginary god. Which would be one reason I want him impeached. See how that works?
The first book in the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series by Jim C. Hines is out! Just started it, but it’s wonderful already. A small excerpt:
In Earth year 2144, nine years before the Krakau arrived on earth, a delegation from the fledgling Krakau Alliance met with four Prodryan military leaders to negotiate a truce. Their efforts failed, but records of the exchange offer insight into ongoing Prodryan hostilities. An excerpt from the transcript, translated into Human, follows.
Canon D. Major (Krakau diplomat): We understand your instinctive drive to expand and colonize. There is room enough for all in the vast ocean of space. Why waste your resources attacking other species?
Wings of Silver (Prodryan warrior): Because of our assholes.
Major: …
Farkunwinkubar (Glacidae diplomat): I beg your pardons?
Final Countdown (Krakau technician): Apologies, honored delegates. Our translation software is having difficulties with the Prodryan battle dialect. I believe the problem should now be corrected.
Major: Thank you. Wings of Silver, could you please repeat your reason for these ongoing attacks:
Wings of Silver: Because we are assholes.
Major: Dammit, Countdown!
After further troubleshooting and berating of Technician Countdown, it was determined that the second translation was in fact accurate. The Prodryan system of what we might call “ethics” is largely instinctual. The strongest drive is for species expansion and survival at all costs. The Prodryan mindset automatically classifies all other life-forms into either potential resources (food) or potential threats.
Prodryans are aware of their own nature, and openly acknowledge their selfishness, lack of empathy, and determination to destroy anyone and anything they deem dangerous or not of use to the Prodryan race.
In short, Wings of Silver was correct. Prodryans are a race of assholes who have warred against the galaxy for more than a century.
One thing I fell in love with right away was the names of the humans. When the Krakau rescued them, they realized the importance of names to humans, and compiled a vast list of names from earth sources. People chose names they liked the sound of, with no regard to gender, because that sort of thing didn’t make any sense to them. (Or the Krakau.) Favourite line so far: “I’m a computer. I’m aware of the math.”
And for those of us who are happy about this new series, but still long for more Magic ex Libris, there will be a Jeneta centered novelette, Imprinted, out on January 9th, 2018. Yay!