Alaska Native Manitou

I once needed to replace my Social Security card, but it was difficult because the agency had my mother's maiden name wrong. She was married twice, but it wasn't either of those names either. Just some random surname that they somehow attached to her - & probably still do.

In the 1965 book Wild Heritage, Sally Carrigar noted that ethologists (biologists who study animal behavior) have long witnessed animals which show no interest in pair-bonding or mating. It's only a small percentage. Back then it was labeled a mental problem; hopefully those scientists have a better understanding now.

An aromantic imgflip stream: https://imgflip.com/m/A-stuff

All 7000 of them?!

I'd rather listen to punk music than get married.

"Adam West" by Wally Wingert

The cherry trees are blooming again where I live, maybe due to weather fluctuations. I don't know if some trees didn't blossom before, or if the same trees are doing it again.

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(The panels read from right to left)

Frankie Stein from Monster High.

The ugly truth

Harry Belafonte, pioneering activist, singer and actor, has died at the age of 96. Harry Belafonte was born in Harlem to Jamaican immigrant parents. He is credited with popularizing Caribbean music in the U.S. with his chart-topping 1956 album “Calypso,” which included the hits “Jump in the Line,” “Jamaica Farewell” and “Day-O.” His musical success led to multiple acting offers, and he went on to star in dozens of films and TV shows. But his driving force was activism, and he leveraged his successful entertainment career to shine a spotlight on civil rights and to fund movements like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He participated in the 1963 March on Washington. Belafonte famously said, “I was an activist who became an artist, I was not an artist who became an activist.”

This year Ramadan ends on Earth Day.

Black Day

Väinämöinen is an demigod from Finland 🇫🇮. He helped in the creation of the world, also invented the zither. His playing entrances all who hear it. A single tune from Väinämöinen tames fierce beasts & raging storms, bringing peace to the entire world. He was blamed for the actions of another powerful being & stalked by a straight woman although he's asexual. In the night sky the constellation some call Orion is his scythe, & the Pleiades are his shoes. Both Gandalf & Tom Bombadil are inspired by him. You can read about him in "The Kalevala."

The main character of IV is Cecil Harvey. At the beginning of the game he is already established as a Dark Knight (the right image). During the game he comes to realize that his life has gone the wrong way; he should be helping people, not killing them. Eventually he gets the opportunity to find his true self & transforms into a Paladin with healing power (the left image).

A reminder of the rules here:

Thread locked for staff review.

The single largest holder of Native American human remains—a federally-owned power company—is taking steps to complete the decades-long repatriation of more than 14,000 Native American ancestors who were unearthed in dam construction projects across the Tennessee valley from the 1930s through the 1970s.

Ching Ming festival: April 4th. One of the most prominent festivals of the dead (it has an on autumnal counterpart in the Hungry Ghost festival), this is a time for the living to remember their deceased ancestors. As in other days in which the dead are honored, tombs are swept & cleaned, offerings of food are placed out for hungry spirits, & paper cash is burned to provide ancestral ghosts with floating-around money.

Why do many Egyptian Gods have mixed human & animal features? Long ago there were 2 kingdoms now called Upper Egypt & Lower Egypt. Each had its own pantheon of Gods. One represented the forces of nature with humanoid powers;; the other had sentient animal deities. After the kingdoms united into the country now known as Egypt, their cultures were blended, & Gods who served the same functions merged into the half & half forms seen today.

Ferdinand Magellan was killed by his own religious fanaticism. He landed on the island of Mactan & decided to convert the Native People to Christianity - but they weren't interested. He became furious & attacked them in spite of being seriously outnumbered. Whatever miracle he thought his God would provide was no match for the power of the Spirits that day.