yiffmaster:

I assume everyone on tumblr is as enamored with trains as I am, and wishes that the US had a passenger rail network like Europe, China, or most parts of the world. But I also think people misunderstand the nature of modern passenger rail - that it’s intensely modern.

Europe was all-in on cars and planes in the 60s and 70s almost as bad as the US. The Shinkansen opened in 1964, but the world’s second high-speed rail line didn’t come until 1981, in France. Germany opened its first line in 1991, and China’s network only began in the 2000s. High-speed rail networks are expanding faster than ever, and speeds are still being pushed higher and higher. Interest in lower-speed lines is surging back, too, helped by HSR’s success and demands for carbon-efficient transportation. Internet access has become a massive advantage for rail over planes or cars.

Trains aren’t an age-old system that the US foolishly threw away, they’re the future, and the US is stuck in the past.

(via kastumoem)

wickedlittlecritta:

i’ve been reading a lot of books about urban naturalism recently, and the one big thing they all talk about is how you HAVE to stop seeing nature as something that happens somewhere else. nature is not just charismatic megafauna and state parks and mountain ranges. nature is that abandoned lot that’s growing native milkweed in it. nature is the murder of crows that lives in your block. nature is the moss growing on your roof and the dandelions growing in the sidewalk cracks and the song birds at your neighbor’s birdfeeder. and you should care about it! you should notice it! that’s YOUR nature!

(via kastumoem)

headspace-hotel:

Look. There’s a creek near where I live that has its own volunteer non-profit organization.

It’s just one creek. One trickle of water among millions. But people decided to care about that creek. A bunch of people, volunteers, got together and they cleaned several tons of trash out of the creek.

They got to work removing non-native plants from the creek banks and planting native trees.

They got a nearby water treatment plant to upgrade and stop polluting the creek.

They educate people and tell them about the fish and invertebrates that live in creeks and why they should care.

I think that it matters. I think that making sure your community has clean water matters. I think making sure one specific old lady’s house doesn’t flood matters. I think one stream where fish can live again matters. I think one patch of green space in a downtown area matters. If nothing else, it makes people’s lives less shitty, and that’s worthwhile in itself.

Stop asking “how do I save the world?” Start asking “can I get together several people to clean up that creek downtown?”

(via kastumoem)

butiknowiloatheyou:

dreadwedge:

you can tell things are bad when this type of article is coming back…

i’m sorry mr beast and his what now

(via cleolinda)

freebroccoli:

Me, accumulating worldly possessions: this is awesome!

Me, moving worldly possessions: this blows!

(via trainwreckgenerator)

fishgirl514:

saw a post about uncommon special interests and someone brought up a kid they work with who is into arguing. he likes to watch dance moms fight clips and likes to play pretend arguments. thats so awesome. real drama king

(via parkchanwoohoo)

toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account:

“do it scared” this “do it tired” that. well no one ever talks about the fucking insurmountable “do it with greasy hair”

(via ellynneversweet)

reversiblemiles:

putting some old tapestries up on here :^) tragically these are the only photos I have of this piece, as it sold several years ago. looking back it’s one of my most ambitious and complex tapestries, and I wish I had spent some more time with it before selling it, and taken the time to photograph it more properly.

based on this painting of a black stag in lascaux cave:

(via trainwreckgenerator)

solarpunkbusiness:

Solar panels are now so cheap, Europeans are building fences with them

The panels capture less sunlight when used as fencing than they do on roofs, but the process saves on high labour and scaffolding costs, according to analysts and posts on social media by households that have installed them.

“This is the result of solar panels getting so cheap that we’re just putting them everywhere,” said Jenny Chase, lead solar analyst at BloombergNEF. “Since installation cost — labour, scaffolding — is the vast majority of the cost of installing a rooftop PV [photovoltaic] system, it can make sense.”

“Why put up a fence when you can just put up a load of solar panels, even if they’re not aligned exactly to the sun?” says Martin Brough, head of climate research at BNP Paribas Exane. “Where the panels themselves are just incredibly cheap, the constraints become the installation costs and the sites . . . you get a bit of a DIY mentality.”

source

(via kastumoem)

homunculus-argument:

Goths aren’t “true to seed” in the sense that the biological offspring of two goths do not necessarily grow up to be goth, though inheriting the inclination for it from both parents increases the odds significantly. That is not how goths naturally reproduce.

The process is actually quite sophisticated, and requires the presence of a full-grown goth to trigger it. A pupal-stage proto-goth, at this point completely indistinguishable from any other small human child, only needs to encounter a mature specimen once - and while the initial imprinting that ensues will only take seconds, the incubation period often takes more than a decade, even several.

The first visible step of the transformation is triggered when the dormant goth suddenly gains awareness that they have free will and can do whatever they want with their appearance. While the progress may be gradual, or seem like the transformation happened all at once overnight, the initial seed was planted years ago. And now, in full bloom, a fully-fledged mature adult goth may finally be happy.

And that’s why it’s important to sometimes look goth as fuck in the grocery store. You might be seen by small child who had previously hoped to die before adulthood because everything they’ve heard about becoming a grownup is just pure misery, who will then consequently think to themselves “actually nevermind, that’s what I want to be when I grow up.”

(via kastumoem)

usefuljesbian:

ashenmind:

• “protect children” <- reactionary drivel basically every time
• “be kind to children” <-radical thinking that causes way more arguments than you would ever imagine

• “empower children” <- even more radical thinking that will get the “protect children” crowd claiming you’re the one they need to be protected from

(via kastumoem)

ayeforscotland:

ayeforscotland:

Gonna make Caveat time a full on thing. We will need escape endless caveats.

When I said I loved 煎饼馃子 last night, I also love lots of other Chinese food. My specifying of a Tianjin street food dish was not at the expense of other excellent Chinese food.

I apologise deeply for not caveating that at the time, and will do better going forward.

Yours for Scotland,

Aye

When you neglect Caveat time on Tumblr.com