Ensign Ron
@grandrevans.bsky.social
Archivist/librarian. Former editor. Occasional bookbinder. Just a guy who loves books. He/him 🏳️🌈 "A library is a focal point, a sacred place to a community; and its sacredness is its accessibility, its publicness. It’s everybody’s place." –Ursula K Le Guin
There are dozens upon dozens of reasons why I love Madeleine Olnek's Wild Nights with Emily (2018). One of them is that it's such a masterful study in contrast through juxtaposition. Here's the final shot of the film, in which Susan washes Emily's body splitscreen with Mabel erasing Emily's words.
“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination” Hear Mary Oliver, in her lovely time-rasped voice, read one of the greatest poems ever written: www.themarginalian.org/2014/09/24/m...
Mary Oliver Reads Her Beloved Poem “Wild Geese”
“Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination…”
themarginalian.org
Deeply and sincerely missing the hills of New England and the coasts of the Pacific Northwest this weekend. To have two homes and yet to be so far away from either of them…
The folks who do believe this are taking the bait, all of it hook, line, and sinker. Libraries are not hurting sales. Folks not having enough money to function and flourish in a society that tells them to "pick themselves up by the bootstraps" (at least in the U.S.) is hurting book sales.
Matthew Noe@noethematt.bsky.social · 4d agoIf you genuinely believe that libraries negatively impact book sales, I don't even know what to say to you.
If you're a Dem who thinks you'll gain something by going anti-trans, look at Gallup's "most important problem" and Fox News' "most important issue" polling and see where trans issues rank. Whoever told you going anti-trans is a savvy or necessary move spends too much time on X and should be fired.
Tell me you’re gay with your most recent library checkout materials.
Trans athletes have the right to play in sports without concessions. Thats it. Thats the answer. "But it isn't fair that-" Shut up. All athletes have different bodies that help or hinder them in sports. Michael Phelps is a legitimate genetic freak & nobody had an issue.
I don't know who needs to hear this, but The Baby-Sitters Club (1990) is on Tubi.
There were (are?) several other queer archiving projects in Seattle, which I’ve been looking into this week for unrelated reasons. UW Libraries has several collections that began as community archives: archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/x... archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv...
Northwest Lesbian and Gay History Museum Project collection - Archives West
Archives West provides access to descriptions of primary sources in the western United States, including correspondence, diaries, and photographs. Digital reproductions of primary sources are availabl...
archiveswest.orbiscascade.org
micah@nemerevermore.bsky.social · 2d agoThis inspired me to look up my local queer archive organization, which is cool as hell www.comeoutseattle.org
Some suggestions: ffrpl.libraryweb.org/evelyn-bailey invisiblehistory.org/support-and-... www.glbthistory.org/donate gittings.qzap.org lambdaarchives.org/donate gerberhart.org/donatenow www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net (List is not comprehensive)
Lee Mandelo@leemandelo.bsky.social · 3d ago(Also a PSA: donate to queer history archives, in time or ephemera or cold hard cash! We are the only ones keeping our own histories, and it takes so much funding.)
"Are you selling me a solution or a dependency?" is a question I think more people should ask.
Want to spread the love to other endangered species as well? Love it! Here's a good place to do that: www.aza.org/aza-safe
SAFE: Saving Animals From Extinction
aza.org
Let it be known that my love of red panda is informed by and concerned about their conservation status.
Redpanda Drinks Red Panda
Alt: A red panda drinking water from a wooden bucket while watching the camera cautiously.
static.klipy.com
Tim@tlatshaw.bsky.social · 3d agoHappy International Red Panda Day! Red pandas are more than the pfp of so many neat, weird people on your Bsky feed. They're endangered creatures facing deforestation and poaching! It'd make my day if you helped support saving my favorite fluffballs on this rock. redpandanetwork.org/donate
Re: previous post: I am excited about the new cat. It is also important to acknowledge that the locals were aware of these cats and had already named them—which the authors acknowledge and credit in their paper describing Leopardus tilcayo: www.cell.com/current-biol...
Phylogenomics and museomics reveal five distinct species of tiger cats in South America
Lescroart, Nogales-Ascarrunz, et al. demonstrate that the contentious tiger cat species complex consists of five cryptic species. Based on analyses of 38 whole genomes from the Neotropical cat genus L...
cell.com
Better framing: Identified ✔️ The species was identified and categorized by science. It wasn't discovered. www.reuters.com/business/env...
New cat species identified in Bolivia, first in over a century
A diminutive wild cat that inhabits Bolivia's cloud forest has been identified as a previously unknown species, marking the first time a new living cat species has been formally named and described i...
reuters.com
i've been thinking a bit about killer robots in literature and how it's kind of ambiguous whether skynet is sentient. art knows that the machines don't need to think to have blood on the gears
I've spent a lot of years studying a lot of collapses, and the truth of the matter is that they're always mundane: mild climatic shifts that reduce crop yields, a dumbass in power who makes some terrible decisions, neglecting things that obviously matter but the will to fix them can't be summoned.
Dave Willner@dwillner.bsky.social · 5d agoCertain kinds of smart people tend to have a "sexy apocalypse" problem when it comes to thinking about risk. E.g. skynet turning everyone in paperclips, while bad, is also *kind of cool and fun* at the same time. Where the reality is that most actual disasters are both stupid and disappointing.
"Hiring a “litigation consultant” to conduct a market study certainly suggests... that rather than collaborate with libraries ... the publishers’ primary trade organization instead appears to be gearing up for a court battle" Read this, and demand better. Excellent work, Guy.
Guy (aka glecharles)@loudpoet.com · 3d ago“There's nothing stopping libraries from not accepting [the Big Five’s] terms right now." The Big 5 have shown their cards. I think it's time to call their bluff. www.wordsandmoney.com/in-the-libra...
Just found the oldest book in our rare book section, which is from ~1530 (no date of publication on title page). So…sorry, student who asked me at first-year orientation what is the oldest book in our collection. I was off by about 200 years.
If you are willing to sacrifice trans rights, which are human rights btw... why should I believe you wouldn't also sacrifice the rights of disabled folks? Of immigrants? Of Black folks? Of Appalachians? If you are only willing to defend rights when politically convenient... you don't deserve to win
I wonder if anyone predicted that the problem with an extremely effective vaccine is that after a few years the stupidest people around would come to believe that the success of the vaccine means that the vaccine was never needed.
Kathleen Bachynski@bachynski.bsky.social · 4d ago“On Thursday, Mr. Gorton said that “the success of the polio vaccine was a massive medical fraud” and that widespread vaccination was a “public health disaster.” He received a standing ovation… Mr. Kennedy spoke next, linking arms with the group even as measles cases continue to rise”
I highly recommend Hadestown and Beetlejuice the Musical
Seconding this and adding that when I worked in publishing (caveat: nonprofit independent trade publishing), we were thrilled by library sales. A library sale is a sale, it puts the book in front of more readers, and libraries are essential for a healthy literary ecosystem.
Matthew Noe@noethematt.bsky.social · 4d agoIf you genuinely believe that libraries negatively impact book sales, I don't even know what to say to you.