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Here are two 19th Century “cross written” letters. Cross writing was a technique to save paper when paper was scarce.  Every scrap mattered at one time (one of these is dated 1823) so the writer, upon reaching the end of the page, would turn the paper 90 degrees and add a second layer of text.  Once it becomes familiar, the mind adapts easily and cross written letters are surprisingly legible.  Charles Darwin famously used the technique.    

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Perfectly aware that I should focus on resting and probably get back to bed, I instead made a humanoid gallop run cycle.

Fun fact: that is the distinctive run style of a cheetah, most animals (with the exception of the above human) do not run that way because it requires a specialized spine!

This has been your unnecessary animal fact of the day.

Good news! It gets worse!

I think it's the galactic orbit thing that really did me in

One fallacy, I think, of anti piracy arguments is that a lot of them seem to assume that if I'm unable to pirate something I'm going to pay for it instead rather than going "oh! that's a terrible shame" and then quickly forgetting about it

"If you were not pirating [media] you'd be paying for it and therefore piracy is evil 😡" actually if I were not pirating that media I would be thinking about something else. I have made the decision to not spend any money on this and even god himself could not shake it

the research on this was already done decades ago and then quickly squashed because the record labels did not like the finding that people who pirated music were spending way more money on actually buying music legally than people who did not pirate music. it turns out people who care enough to pirate media are generally big fans of that media and willing to spend money on it if they have the money to spend

article is from 2009 so we have known this for a LONG time.

I have just learned that Mountain Goats are NOT, in fact, actual Goats.

I have never heard of this band. I AM in fact referring to the animal.

But wait, there’s more!

but you know what IS a goat? a musk ox

WHAT

Actually there is! Monasteries had large vegetable gardens; one of the major tasks of a monk was to tend the garden. You know who loves to eat low-growing fruits and vegetables and aromatic herbs? Snails. The monks were constantly battling the snails more figuratively to keep them out of their garden plots.

Even nowadays, gardeners share tips online on how to keep the number of snails in their garden in check. And based on how much more wildlife was close to human dwellings back then, they had Even More Snails.

I always thought that “woman pulls something out of her cleavage” was really just sort of a cliche historically

But nope

I’m reading this incredibly niche book about the history of pockets, and there is a picture of a pair of stays from the 18th century that someone sewed a giant pocket inside of

It was apparently a big thing for women who wanted to keep their money safe or to steal it off of other people and hide it quickly

INCREDIBLE

cinematographers need to stop being so afraid of lighting. like i get it your movie is grim and serious, but i promise it would be even more grim and serious if i could actually see what was happening

My very sweet and VERY Catholic coworker: this new abortion law… they’re saying God doesn’t believe in killing the innocent babe to save the wicked mother…. Well I have some news for them about what he did to his own son.

Me: oh my god.

Her: honey. Exactly.

#*snort*#what a nice lady#also OP’s tags say said co-worker is a former nun#which is just delightful

if a hand kiss isn’t done with either reverent trembling and closed eyes or with a certain slow sensuality and direct ‘fuck me’ eye contact, you are wasting my time and everyone else’s

broke: The Great British Bake Off has no conflict

woke: while The Great British Bake Off is refreshingly devoid of the usual man vs. man conflict, it is filled with conflict of other varieties, notably man vs. self (the contestants vs. their knowledge of baking) and man vs. nature (the contestants vs. the time limit)

Man vs. the forces of evil (the contestants vs. Paul Hollywood)

noah fence but a rogue stormtrooper inciting a rebellion and then becoming a jedi is a way more compelling redemption story than a privileged white boy who murders his father in cold blood then pouts about it because he feels a little bad