Day: August 15, 2018

Yosemite reopens to a surreal scene of smoke, tourists and flames in the distance

rjzimmerman:

Excerpt:

The valley reopened Tuesday after being closed since July 25 due to the deadly fire burning in nearby forestland. It was a surreal scene as thousands of visitors streamed into the nearly empty park, passing by the flames and surveying the iconic vistas shaded by a smoky haze.

Yosemite is one of several spots across California to be altered by a hellish summer of fire and heat that has left 11 people dead and destroyed more than 1,000 homes from Redding to San Diego.

The Ferguson fire has been burning for more than a month, starting July 13 from still undetermined reasons, and has scorched 96,606 acres throughout the Sierra National Forest and in Yosemite National Park. While the fire never reached the landmarks of Yosemite, the smoke was so intense that the valley had to be closed during the peak of the summer tourist season, not only wrecking travel plans but also starving local businesses.

The blaze, which has claimed the lives of two firefighters, was at 86% containment Tuesday, with the last active spot being a region between Wawona Road and the Merced River — essentially the steep, rocky hillside that visitors see when they enter the park on El Portal Road.

Visitors streaming into the valley Tuesday from Highway 140, which becomes El Portal Road once inside Yosemite, were greeted with a sign warning them they were not allowed to stop for the next seven miles, an effort by park staff to keep people from gawking at the firefighters still at work. A few lookout points nearest to the flames were cordoned off with yellow caution tape and orange cones.

Helicopters with buckets full of water from the Merced River flew over cars entering the park.

Yosemite reopens to a surreal scene of smoke, tourists and flames in the distance

queerdesert:

schnaf:

mintedpotters:

sorashige:

linguistisch:

i find the way europeans call summer a “heatwave” very cute

yeah nah it’s not normal. we usually barely get two weeks over 20°c here in northern germany. now it’s been over 2 months where it hasn’t gone below 20°c even at night and we’ve been scratching at 30°c for 2 weeks. and it’s dry as fuck, it hasn’t rained in weeks. farmers are seeing the worst harvest in a century because of it, they’re expecting a loss of at least 50% compared to last year.

I find the way people are mocking Europeans for not being used to extreme heat (yes it is extreme for them considering their normal climate) and making light of actual deaths from heatstroke/exhaustion, pretty fucking disgusting actually, OP.

it’s not just a heatwave. In February, we had -20°C – five months later, same place, it’s close to 40°C. That’s 60°C difference – 140°Fahrenheit. That’s not cute.

just some selected effects of this europe’s heatwave:

denmark: more than 1,000 wildfires in july alone, which is a typical yearly total

france: white storks suffering from malnourishment, and, unable to fly, they get injured when falling from nests

germany: 10,000lbs of fish suffocated in hamburg because rivers are unable to release heat efficiently

greece: the attica wildfires were the deadliest in living memory, with 90+ confirmed to be dead

poland: outbreaks of toxic cyanobacteria, which only formed due to the warmer weather, forced beaches to close

portugal and spain: saw almost record-breaking temperatures of 46C+/115F+ which contributed to several deadly wildfires

sweden: the government issued 1.2 billion krona (approx. $191million) in aid for farmers, as the droughts made crops and livestock at serious risk

netherlands: asphalt roads melted all over the country, which caused long-term damage as car tyres peel it away from the road

united kingdom: manchester and several other areas burned for three weeks, with effects estimated to last for 15 years

our infrastructure isn’t designed for this. stop belittling countries you know nothing about

fierceawakening:

earlgraytay:

unknought:

I guess most of the things the label of “Tumblr purity culture” gets applied to are pretty bad, but I can’t help but feel like the reaction against it (which in my circles is a lot more prevalent than the thing it’s reacting against) is building up to a culture where people feel ashamed to admit that they don’t want every moment to be one where they could unexpectedly be confronted with sexual content and that they’re taking steps to minimize that risk, or that they were grossed out by some popular piece of media, or that they like pastel desexualized depictions of lesbians. Like, it sucks when people disingenuously use the language of personal preferences and boundaries to attempt to enforce a standard of propriety on other people, but we shouldn’t let this shrink our understanding of what preferences and boundaries are acceptable to have and express.

….the trouble is that outside of the Bay Area/certain parts of the Internets, the problems tend to skew way farther in the opposite direction. and most of the people who are yelliest about tumblr purity culture- and I’m counting myself in that category, boy howdy could I rant- are from places where the pendulum swung so far in the other direction that it was hurting people.

sure, on tumblr you can randomly get your face blasted off by anime poontang and extremely creepy fetish art just by following the wrong person- but outside of tumblr, there are entire countries where the most vanilla erotica is illegal, and plenty more countries that are trying to make it that way. on tumblr, it’s BADWRONG to dislike $Popular_SJ-Approved_Show_Of_The_Week… but off of Tumblr, that same show is likely to get censored to hell and back to get rid of any questionable elements. on tumblr, there’s pastel lesbian uwu art to the point people find it sickening… but off of tumblr, there are still idiots who don’t think lesbians can have sex because there’s no pebis involved.

like… yeah, it should be okay to have whatever preferences you want. there’s nothing wrong with liking/disliking things other people don’t like/dislike. but seeing people trying to make a space that you love unsafe for you in the same ways that other people have made places unsafe is… it’s triggering, it’s scary, it’s fucking awful. 

i mean, ffs, my mother was a ‘Pokemon is evil’ kind of Christian. Seeing supposedly-progressive people saying the exact same shit she said is fucking terrifying. 

that’s why people are so rage-y about it.

That, pretty much.

rainaramsay:

ms-demeanor:

queenrinacat:

brainstatic:

Everyone’s like “those Germans have a word for everything” but English has a word for tricking someone into watching the music video for Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up.

English has a lot more words created for very specific phenomena! It’s not just rick-rolling. Language is always evolving and it’s super interesting! Here’s a list of hyper-specific/untranslatable words in English.

This happens a lot with compound words in particular. Seriously, the construction of English compound words is so fascinating; just what you’d expect from a mongrel creole fucked-up language. And here are some more English-Specific verbs.

This is either going to be the most wonderfully educational post I’ve seen all night, or else this is five (5) links to the music video for Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up.

marxferatu:

“White supremacy has taught him that all people of color are threats irrespective of their behavior. Capitalism has taught him that, at all costs, his property can and must be protected. Patriarchy has taught him that his masculinity has to be proved by the willingness to conquer fear through aggression; that it would be unmanly to ask questions before taking action. Mass media then brings us the news of this in a newspeak manner that sounds almost jocular and celebratory, as though no tragedy has happened, as though the sacrifice of a young life was necessary to uphold property values and white patriarchal honor. Viewers are encouraged to feel sympathy for the white male home owner who made a mistake. The fact that this mistake led to the violent death of an innocent young man does not register; the narrative is worded in a manner that encourages viewers to identify with the one who made the mistake by doing what we are led to feel we might all do to “protect our property at all costs from any sense of perceived threat.” This is what the worship of death looks like.”

— bell hooks (via amodernmanifesto)