libelula202

[libelula202]

For people who prefer audio, the podcast Stuff You Missed In History Class did an episode about the Nome Serum Run in 2014.

Show some respect, people.

#nome serum run #SYMHC podcast #dog sleds #Eskimo slur #Balto #Togo #vaccinate your fucking kids

[libelula202]

I wonder: Do Americans know about american school buses? Not their existence in general, but how they're seen overseas.

Over here, they're one of the symbols of America, on par with the Statue of Liberty, the flag, the Eagle, and well ahead of any chain restaurant you can name. People won't know any US states, but they will know these vehicles.

The thing is, here in Germany, we don't have dedicated school buses. The general idea is that kids go to school on their own. When that's not practical, they're expected to use (and given free tickets for) public transit. Public transit is designed around this requirement; there are many places where there is a bus, and anyone can get on it, but the route and timetable really only makes sense for school children. In case a dedicated school bus is really needed, that's generally subcontracted out, and the lines either use something like a Sprinter Van for smaller routes, or a normal city or interurban bus (often a used one that's a bit older). School trips are normal public transit, or a rented bus, typically a coach or regional bus.

It's not a perfect system, in the past couple of years there's been an epidemic of people bringing their kids to school in their cars instead of letting them walk, which is less than ideal. It is what it is. But building a dedicated network of public transit lines only for students, and building dedicated vehicles only for that, has never occurred to anyone here.

Of course we know about these buses, from movies and such, but they're as foreign here as cacti or pick-up trucks (actually we're seeing more and more of these here) or yellow cabs (all europeans will assume all cabs in the US are yellow until they actually visit).

You do see these buses here at times, because people still generally like the idea of the US, even if they have a lot of issues with a lot of details, and so folks bring them over, along with stretch limos and stuff (also not really a thing here). And of course, if someone goes to all that trouble, they don't do it to haul school kids, they rent it out for city tours or as a party bus or whatever.

So you see these yellow things as a symbol of faraway places, scenic vistas, some vague undefined idea of freedom that doesn't necessarily hold up to any contact with reality, and it's just a huge part of the whole US aesthetic.

And then you go to a student exchange with the US, and you finally get the chance: You yourself get to ride in one of these iconic chrome yellow buses! It looks just like in the movies! You get in, you drive in them a little…

…and you realise they're shit. Just the worst buses in the western world. Terrible suspension. Uncomfortable seats with weirdly high backs (so they don't have to put seatbelts in, they just restrict how far kids can fly in an accident). Everything made out of the cheapest materials. Turns out the reason why the US uses school buses like that instead of normal modern city buses, which the US has, is to save money and because they just hate kids.

And then it hits you why US Americans say "as American as apple pie", a dish that is made and enjoyed literally anywhere in the world, instead of "as American as yellow school buses". Of course the Americans already knew all this. They got tortured by these things forever. It would never occur to them to see this as a symbol of America, it's just a normal part of life for them. It's a symbol of school and school life and sometimes normalcy, and tells us that these actors getting out of it are supposed to be teenagers, nothing more.

But most people in Europe have, of course, never ridden on these buses. So when they see them in movies and TV, that's a giant big yellow signifier that we're not in Hessen or Wallonia or wherever anymore. A symbol of a different world, one that may be at most a once-in-a-lifetime-experience for most people, just like a picture of a tropical beach, Incan Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, or Hildesheim (there's no reason to go there twice). And I think Americans don't know that, and that's fascinating.

#school bus #bus #usamerican #never occurred to me other places wouldn’t have dedicated children movera

[libelula202]

I’ve been curious about this…

I’m trying to get a large sample, so reblog please! :)

#tumblr polls #poll

[libelula202]

An HOUR?!?!

What the fuck can I live in your reality please?!

I’m looking around 6-8

I worded it like this because I feel like a range doesn't work well if it's especially warm or windy, etc.

[libelula202]

first 5 faceless emojis are how your summers gonna go

#👍🏻💖💀💪🏻🎵

[libelula202]

Leverage 2x15 - "The Maltese Falcon Job"

#leverage #eliot spencer #jim sterling

[libelula202]

This is what a real, qualified OBGYN will tell you about what women feel when they get an abortion

Dr. Willie Parker, who is trained as a gynecologist and OBGYN, is a hero for the pro-choice movement because he’s honest about the undiscussed aspects of getting (or not getting) an abortion. Watch how he gives a consultation.

[libelula202]

Oh man Liam’s and Liam’s brother was GREAT!

This is the episode that really made me love Tara. She’s so great in this one.

And I also love how hard Hardison worked at everything. And then when he needed help cleaning up the rest of the crew abandoned him 🤣

Oh man how they got that asshole to confess to his crimes at a table full of COPS! 10/10 very satisfying.

And I also appreciate all the info we got about Nate’s dad.

Finally watching Leverage for the first time. I'm halfway through the second season already. It's been a handful of days. The Found Family of Crime has stolen my heart and attention (pun intended). Do not send help.

[libelula202]

Oooh let me know what you think of The Bottle Job.

It’s one of my fav episodes!!

Finally watching Leverage for the first time. I'm halfway through the second season already. It's been a handful of days. The Found Family of Crime has stolen my heart and attention (pun intended). Do not send help.

#leverage #nate ford #sophie devereaux #parker #alec hardison #eliot spencer #season 2 #the bottle job

[libelula202]

Imagine you leave your kid at the hospital for a treatment they have a high probability of surviving like a routine surgery or chemotherapy and you return to visit or pick them up and a nurse tells you that you have to identify their body because they opted for medical suicide after being scared by doctors about what recovery might put them through. The first you hear about this option even being explored with your child is after they have already killed them and you have only their word of honour that this is what your child actually requested and was in their right mind when it was offered to them.

That is the reality in Canada right now. Doctors killing patients on purpose is now a leading cause of death in Canada. The amount of people killed grows each year as of 2023 about 50 thousand people have been killed and they want to expand this death program to include not just people who are terminally ill...not just people who are sick and might die...but to people with mental illnesses. Which can be as simple as a depressed teenager at the hospital on the wrong day. This is legalized murder, it is genocide plain and simple.

[libelula202]

[libelula202]

I haven’t done realism in at least 5 months ugh

Reblogs appreciated lmao

[libelula202]

The master's touch...

#holy fuck #I expected a fist bump as they passed each other #but I was on the edge of my seat the entire time #video #cars passing #narrow road #narrow lane

[libelula202]

#doge

[libelula202]

Okay look. Stephanie Meyer contributed four (4) cool things to the contemporary fantasy genre, which I shall now list here in the hopes of getting it out of my system. In descending order of importance:

1. Writing a story about a girl who wants something. Plot driven by a woman’s (non-vilified) desire. Truly dreadful execution but still a good idea, sort of a literary incarnation of the “he a little confused but he got the spirit” meme.

2. The fact that when Bella becomes a vampire she can still breathe but “there’s no relief tied to the action” which I remember verbatim because it fucking slapped. The idea of human physical sensations being partially defined by our mortality and the sensations still exist after you become undead but your experience of them is fundamentally different because you no longer need any of it? Extremely cool. The closest Meyer came to taking an interesting stance on vampires being dead.

3. Werewolves are immortal but they can literally stop whenever they want. That shit’s hilarious. Curse of immortality who.

4. The fact that vampires don’t sleep or get tired so their communally-raised baby doesn’t have a crib because she is always in someone’s arms. That was extremely cute and there’s a different, better book contained somewhere in that specific concept.

#twilight #the 5 things SMeyer did that revolutionized fantasy genre

[libelula202]

Do you think the boeing hitman like takes a plane to go kill those people

[libelula202]

RIP Kabosu, who inspired one of the most influential memes of all time; Doge.

2/11/2005 - 24/5/24

#animal death #animal warning cow #doge #kabosu