Hi, I'm Catherine and welcome to my crib. This is always a science blog. Also fall out boy cause fuck yeah!

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youcantcancelquidditch:

the assassination of franz ferdinand was actually the most hilariously botched assassination attempt of all time though like i can’t even explain to you how badly it went i mean there were six guys and the first one chickened out and the second one forgot to factor in the delay on a hand grenade so it exploded like three cars past the archduke’s so the guy took a cyanide pill and threw himself into a river, but the cyanide was expired and the river was six inches deep so the police just pulled him out and took him off to jail and then everyone else basically gave up and headed home, and then the driver of the archduke took a wrong turn and the car stalled next to the last of the six guys, and he was just like “what a crazy random happenstance” and started world war one

historical-hatred:

“Don’t let us forget that the causes of human actions are usually immeasurably more complex and varied than our subsequent explanations of them.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Idiot

Almost always forgotten in history. Everything is treated as if it’s black and white - automatons making all the decisions.

It’s only recently people have factored in that, say, during the Gallipoli landings, the top feller in charge of securing the beaches and getting in-land was totally obsessed with his mistress and was in the middle of a messy break-up. Certainly explains the total lack of activity on his part - or goes towards doing so.

It’s all a bit futile - we’ll never know what drives people, and all history really is is the actions of people. We can pretend we know - but we’ll never really know why Caesar crossed the Rubicon, or any other history-making action, for that matter.

Remember it’s Historia - meaning inquiries, not Historia - meaning fact.

Big difference between ‘I’ve asked around and this seems to be the case’ and ‘this *is* the case’. Nothing worse than believing your own hype…

(Source: sunrec)

zuky:

theglitteringthings:

zuky:

callingoutbigotry:

historicporn:

Man uses American flag to assault civil rights activist. 1976.

this is like something a political cartoonist would draw as a heavy-handed metaphor for race relations in the US

except it actually happened 

This a famous photo from a Boston anti-bussing riot in 1976, when white protesters rioted against the desegregation of Boston public schools through a city bussing program. The man being attacked with the US flag isn’t exactly a civil rights activist; he’s a Black lawyer named Ted Landsmark, a Yale graduate who worked for Governor Michael Dukakis, who was on his way to work at City Hall when the anti-bussing crowd descended upon him. The picture, taken by photographer Stanley Forman, appeared on the front page of the Boston Herald American the next day, then went national the day after, then went on to win the Pulitzer prize. This is Boston, that liberal northeastern city that rioted against desegregation and attacked a random Black man with the US flag.

I read that this picture is misinterpreted. What actually happened was that the protestors were helping up the Black man who had fallen down and the man with the flag was actually taking it down from its post.

BUT IDK WE WEREN’T THERE #ARTHISTORY

Actually we do know. There’s a book, named “The Soiling of Old Glory: The Story of a Photograph That Shocked America”, that’s entirely about this photo. All people involved are interviewed and all angles of the issues are explored, including what became of the people in the photo. The Boston Globe gave the book a positive review. Here’s a shorter version.

Where did you read that “the protesters were helping up the Black man who had fallen down”? Is this source online? And have you been going around ever since making this claim about this photo? It’s an interesting position to take on a clearcut, well-researched incident.

The man with the flagpole is named Joseph Rakes. According to all people involved, including himself, he was swinging the flagpole at Ted Landsmark. He narrowly missed, but another protester managed to throw Landsmark down and break his nose. Rakes said that when he saw the photo in the newspapers the next day, he thought “Who is that lunatic with the flag? Then I realized it was me.” He was convicted for assault and battery with a deadly weapon. Apparently the court didn’t agree that the matter was up for interpretation.

(via technicolorrelays)

(Source: publius-esquire)

pinklikeme:

thethespacecoyote:

awcoffeeno:

so we found this fabric at joanns today.

ooh ymg dgod

My coworkers call this fabric:

Seventeen Seventy Sexy.

todaysdocument:

May 9, 1942: These California farm families are preparing to evacuate to internment camps, as documented by photographer Dorothea Lange.

Centerville, California. Farm families of Japanese ancestry awaiting the evacuation buses which will take them to the Tanforan Assembly center along with 595 others evacuated from this district under Civilian Exclusion Order Number 34. 05/09/1942

Dorothea Lange, photographer. From the Central Photographic File of the War Relocation Authority

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month.  You can find our past posts on Japanese American Internment & Relocation under the #Japanese American Internment tag.

unhistorical:

How to Spot a Communist

But there are other communists who don’t show their real faces… who work more silently… 

harrietvane:

1942 War-time propaganda poster, UK

#absolute all time fave prop poster - take your keep calms and your carry ons: this one was actually issued and used #delightful blend of crushing misogyny and unintentional kick-ass amounts of awesome LADY SPIES WHO WILL F*CK YOU UP where do I sign?? #you try to make it like ‘ladies are evil’ but the artist was like ‘hmm how about if we make it like ‘dudes are stupid’ instead

(via technicolorrelays)

orima-kazooie:

mister-smalls:

outerheavenuprising:

do you think like 600 years ago book nerds got real mad when the printing press was invented because filthy casuals could get books without having to copy them out themselves

Actually yes they did

and there were certain ancient Greeks who were angry when writing was invented, because it meant that literature was more accessible to the filthy casual masses

true shit, people

People never change do they

(Source: kingcyberbully, via anthrocentric)

thepanduchessofshade:

bana05:

One of the myths of the game is that Robinson was chosen by Rickey because of his forbearance, his ability to absorb slurs without hitting back.

To anyone who knew him, the notion of Jackie Robinson turning the other cheek, putting up with insults, was laughable. I have never been able to find one veteran chronicler of the early Robinson days who remembers Jackie being anything but truculent and unbending in the face of slurs and insults.

Jackie made sure you treated him as a man. He didn’t suffer fools gladly. … He was as deeply suspicious of the flatterers as he was the bigots.

Jackie wore no man’s collar. Ever. Long before Rosa Parks, he had refused to move to the back of the bus—in the Army. He was court-martialed. He was acquitted.

I remember once, in a kind of confidential exchange I had with him, I was brash enough to suggest incautiously, “But, Jackie, on the whole, wasn’t there less bigotry and intolerance out there than you expected?”

Jackie fixed me with a glare.

“There shouldn’t have been any,” he said sternly.

You never argued with Jackie Robinson. He made America live up to its promises. [x]

Boom.

welp

(via technicolorrelays)