Angry Alliterations

valscrapbook:

“Human beings are the only animals who have to work, and I think that is the most ridiculous thing in the world. Other animals make their livings by living, but people work like crazy, thinking that they have to in order to stay alive. The bigger the job, the greater the challenge, the more wonderful they think it is. It would be good to give up that way of thinking and live an easy, comfortable life with plenty of free time. I think that the way animals live in the tropics, stepping outside in the morning and evening to see if there is something to eat, and taking a long nap in the afternoon, must be a wonderful life. For human beings, a life of such simplicity would be possible if one worked to produce directly his daily necessities. In such a life, work is not work as people generally think of it, but simply doing what needs to be done.”

Masanobu Fukuoka

(Source: perzeve, via lazy-lightning)

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

Manfred von Richthofen, 1892-1918

You probably know this guy. But let’s talk about him anyways. Because honestly. The Red Baron? You can’t get much better than this. Not only does he have an excellent brand of frozen pizza named after him, but this badass motherfucker is generally accepted to be the best ace fighter of the entirety of World War One, having won (officially, it could be more for all we know, this fucker was sly) 80 air battles. Richthofen was born into the Prussian aristocracy, and while in some countries being nobility means lying around on cushions being fed grapes all day in Prussia they get shit done and our boy Manfred began his military training at eleven. When WWI began Richthofen signed up with the cavalry, but one day he saw a plane and was all ‘that looks nice’ and joined the air service. He didn’t really expect to get in but apparently those recruiters could sense the badass in this guy just waiting to claw its way out and they admitted him. Richthofen was initially not an awesome pilot, and crashed on his first flight, which only goes to show that the whole ‘if at first you don’t succeed’ thing is not total bullshit because a few months later he shot down his first plane and apparently decided never to stop shooting stuff.

And so you might think of the Red Baron as a brutish dude barrelling around firing randomly but my friend, you are mistaken. Richthofen was one tactician to rule them all and he basically rocked the proverbial socks off of any plane that came near him. And plus, he took measures to make sure he and his fellow pilots were as safe as they could be. Although he is most well-known on his own, he was an excellent squadron leader of his men, who were nicknamed ‘The Flying Circus’. Whatta guy.

Richthofen was finally shot down in April of 1918, taking a bullet to the chest, and despite his heart/lungs/general vital organs failing, managed to make a nicely controlled landing amid an Australian regiment. His plane wasn’t even damaged, despite Richthofen, you know, DYING as he landed it. Serious props.

So he shot down about 80 Allied planes, but the respect demanded by Richthofen’s sheer badassery was so universal that the Australian unit buried him with full military honours and ceremony. You don’t just put “To Our Gallant and Worthy Foe” on the tombstone of any old dude. This one was special, man.

I would list all of his medals but they would make you feel insecure and inadequate because please. Can’t touch this.

agent-bartowski:

#you piece of shit

(via iwouldratherbbc)

monetizeyourcat:

thegreensage:

stefanhayden:

This is Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. She worked for UNIVAC in 1949 who made some of the first computers ever. In 1951 she discovered the first computer “bug.”. In 1952 she had an operational compiler. “Nobody believed that,” she said. “I had a running compiler and nobody would touch it. They told me computers could only do arithmetic.”

You might not know what a compiler is, but it’s the reason you have an Operating System with programs on or a phone with apps. There would be no Windows or Apple or facebook or twitter or tumblr without her.

Today 14% of engineers are female. Some thing when wrong. Grace Hopper is a BAMF and more people should know.

GRACE HOOPER ROCKS!!!

personality tests were developed in the 60s in response to widespread unease in academia and the research industry with how many programmers and computer operators were women; the modern image of the programmer as having male-leaning antisocial traits was basically developed by HR managers during the johnson administration

when grace hopper was young she was basically typical of her profession and now people like her are systematically excluded

(via professorsparklepants)

(Source: wanderingastray, via respiringsteam)

necroluste:

J.R.R Tolkien, looking at flowers.

(Source: flying-dutchwoman, via maybefox)

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

While not exactly considered physically attractive by most, my history crush is Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, famous french post-impressionist painter, print-maker and illustrator and generally a pretty funny guy. Born Nov 24th, 1864 and especially well known for his paintings that centered on the Moulin Rouge and the surrounding area of Monmarte. Also credited with creation of a few cocktails and culinary inventions. Died Sept 9, 1901 at 36 from syphilis and alcoholism.

‘Ugliness, no matter where it is, always has a beautiful side. It’s fascinating to uncover beauty where no one else can see it.’-Henri Toulouse-Lautrec

knowhomo:

LGBTQ* Quotes on Coming Out (You Might Have Missed)

Mika, on coming out, in an interview with the Advocate.

I think it’s first and foremost important to say it’s OK to be conflicted and it’s OK to be afraid but that’s not the way it has to be. And also I will say that I truly benefited from a tolerant environment.

via Buzzfeed

notcuddles:

collective-history:

Mary Smith earned sixpence a week shooting dried peas at sleeping workers windows.

A Knocker-up (sometimes known as a knocker-upper) was a profession in England and Ireland that started during and lasted well into the Industrial Revolution and at least as late as the 1920s, before alarm clocks were affordable or reliable. A knocker-up’s job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time.

The knocker-up used a truncheon or short, heavy stick to knock on the clients’ doors or a long and light stick, often made of bamboo, to reach windows on higher floors. Some of them used pea-shooters. In return, the knocker-up would be paid a few pence a week. The knocker-up would not leave a client’s window until sure that the client had been awoken.

There were large numbers of people carrying out the job, especially in larger industrial towns such as Manchester. Generally the job was carried out by elderly men and women but sometimes police constables supplemented their pay by performing the task during early morning patrols.

Photograph from Philip Davies’ Lost London: 1870 - 1945.

I am delighted by this.

(Source: collectivehistory, via amandapalmer)