Zebras, and their shadows, make their way across a sandy landscape in Botswana. Every year, more than 20,000 zebras migrate through Botswana’s Nxai Pan National Park, making a 500 kilometer (310 miles) round trip journey for fresh grazing — the longest of all large mammal migrations in Africa.

See more here: https://bit.ly/3IJTO8U

-20.041667°, 24.768889°

Source imagery: Beverly Joubert / National Geographic

Plato tried to warn us about this

National Geographic: you know what’s fucking amazing? pictures of ungulates shot from straight above where you can see the shape of the animal in the shadow. never get tired of those

Here’s a thought I had about how therapy & treatment works (vs how many people imagine it works). This is based on my experience with depression and chronic illness, but I hope it applies more broadly as well.

Imagine you have to take a road trip on a deserted road alone. Halfway through the trip your engine starts to splutter and the car breaks down. What do you do?

A lot of people imagine that therapy and treatment is like calling a mechanic to come and fix your car for you. You make the call, and then you just have to wait around until the mechanic has fixed the problem, and your car is good as new! Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. There is no on-call mechanic. No-one is able to fix this car except for you.

Instead, it’s like you pull a toolbox out of the trunk, pop open the hood, and dial up the mechanic on the phone. You have to try and describe the problems as clearly as possible, and follow the advice they give you as well as you can.

Sometimes you won’t understand the advice, and you’ll need them to explain it again or suggest something else. Sometimes you’ll do what they say and the car still won’t run, and they won’t be able to explain why, only give you something new to try. Sometimes you’ll think you fixed the problem and start driving, and the car will break again two minutes down the road. No matter what happens, it’s going to be hard and messy and frustrating work.

But at the end of it, not only will your car be running again, but you’ll know how to fix it now. Which isn’t to say that you’ll never need another mechanic again, but next time you get stuck, it’ll be that little bit easier to handle.

So keep at it everyone, and good luck on your journeys!

100% still not over the fact that Black sails just… exists, as a concept. I mean, so often in TV homophobia is used as, like, a ~learning experience~; straight characters learn to be more open minded and accepting, queer characters learn to be the bigger person and forgive etc. Then there’s this fuckin pirate show where the main character’s like, nope, I’m gonna swear revenge on an ENTIRE EMPIRE for being homophobic and ruining my life, and THEY need to apologize to ME. And that’s just. The whole premise of the show. 

Roses are red, that much is true, but violets are purple, not fucking blue.

I have been waiting for this post all my life.

They are indeed purple, But one thing you’ve missed: The concept of “purple” Didn’t always exist.

Some cultures lack names For a color, you see. Hence good old Homer And his “wine-dark sea.”

A usage so quaint, A phrasing so old, For verses of romance Is sheer fucking gold.

So roses are red. Violets once were called blue. I’m hugely pedantic But what else is new?

My friend you’re not wrong About Homer’s wine-ey sea! Colours are a matter Of cultural contingency;

Words are in flux And meanings they drift But the word purple You’ve given short shrift.

The concept of purple, My friends, is old And refers to a pigment once precious as gold.

By crushing up molluscs From the wine-dark sea You make a dye: Imperial decree

Meant that in Rome, to wear purpura was a privilege reserved

For only the emperor!

The word ‘purple’, for clothes so fancy, Entered English By the ninth century

.

Why then are voilets Not purple in song? The dye from this mollusc, known for so long

Is almost magenta; More red than blue. The concept of purple is old, and yet new.

The dye is red, So this might be true: Roses are purple And violets are blue

.

While this song makes me merry, Tyrian purple dyes many a hue From magenta to berry And a true purple too.

But fun as it is to watch this poetic race The answer is staring you right in the face: Roses are red and violets are blue Because nothing fucking rhymes with purple.

Thorin in DoS. v. Thorin in BotFA

Trump picks anti-vaxxer to lead commission on vaccine safety

follow @the-future-now

50+ million are going to lose healthcare and then they’re going to weaken herd-immunity and create a spike in illness we haven’t seen in decades. 

Oh my god

I’m having a hard time articulating my thoughts right now but

as an autistic woman, I am begging my allistic (non-autistic) friends and their followers to read this and pass it on. this isn’t anything new, we’ve been dealing with antivaxxers for years, but I’m terrified seeing that monster act like my neurotype makes me a walking bubonic plague. the world already thinks I shouldn’t exist as it is. this cannot be allowed to stand.

if u ever reblog a bunch of stuff from my blog and worry about whether ive noticed all the notifications yes. i have. i have committed your url to memory. i will never forget your icon. you will be permanently assembled into my ever-growing list of “super cute and lovely people to invite to my birthday party”. welcome to your fate.

reblog if you are BISEXUAL, SUPPORT BISEXUAL PEOPLE, or REALLY HATE DONALD TRUMP

if you have never been in relationship, it’s okay. if you have never been kissed, it’s okay. if you have never had sex, it’s okay. the lack of relationship experience and the lack of sexual life don’t make you less of a person and don’t define your worth. you’re beautiful and important despite not having these things

are u the “i gotta to save everyone” protagonist or the “i did not sign up for this shit” protagonist

#like i did not sign up for this shit but i’m gotta save everyone but i’m gonna be really bitter about doing it

if i could impart one thing to everyone on tumblr it would be to remind you all that there is nothing wrong with being kind to yourself. showing yourself basic human compassion is never foolish or selfish or weak. this is true no matter what you’re going through, no matter what you’re trying to accomplish.

if i could impart two things, it would be that first point, and also someone out there should really write fic in which a couple attempts to do sexy role-play but gets so invested in the characters and storyline of their imagined scenario that they completely forget to have sex and an hour later they’re still just, like, playing pretend in their underwear.

i know i’ve talked about this before because i’ve wanted this fic to exist for years and as far as i know it still doesn’t. i don’t even care if it’s a couple i ship or a fandom i’m in; i almost never ship a couple where it would be in character for both of them. it’s not even something i want to exist for kink reasons, but i maintain in the right context it would be SO FUNNY, IT WOULD BE THE FUNNIEST GODDAMN THING 

imagine a third party accidentally walking in on them, discovering oh hey actually you didn’t just catch a horrified glimpse of those two losers having sex

you caught a horrified glimpse of those two losers…pretending to be jewel thieves? is that even an established kinky scenario?

“LET’S NEVER SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN” blurts character one

“told you sexy jewel heist wasn’t a thing,” mutters character two

character three slowly shuts the door, wishing only to forget.

but: kindness first.

show yourself kindness, get yourself into a good mindset, and then maybe with luck you will be in a place where you can write this incredibly specific fic for the sake of my own frankly inexplicable whims.

So accurate.

*me to the bartender* i want something that doesn’t taste like alcohol but has a lot of alcohol in it

Haha!!!!!

@thranduilgoogles @thoringoogles @elrondgoogles who allowed this ?

Do you remember breaking out the Dorwinion

this is thorin’s papa

There we go, just completing the trinity of nobility, inheritance and PAIN. You angsty bastards, I love each and every one of you.

Oh

fuck

His character design is fantastic and his armour is gorgeous and of course all I can think about is that he watched his father go mad and his kingdom destroyed and possibly saw his father’s death and that of one of his sons before being dragged off to the dungeons of the Necromancer AKA motherfucking Sauron and tortured for LITERALLY DECADES.

And this wasn’t for-the-hell-of-it sadism.  Thrain had the key and the map.  Sauron wanted in.

Barad-Dur is in Mordor and west of Mordor there is Gondor.  Erebor is a fortress-kingdom in a fucking huge mountain and there IS no Tower of Guard between it and the rest of Middle Earth.

Thrain saved fucking everyone’s ass and he didn’t even get any songs or tales in his honour.  He just got to die in the rank dark dungeon, his sanity too far gone to remember his own name or his son’s.

THIS. THIS exactly!