norway’s curling team is appropriately dressed for valentine’s day
day 2: norway is still slaying the pants game
day 3: pants game is still on top
day 4: still impressive
day 5: another day another trouser
day 6: they have yet to wear one pair twice
Okay so I already reblogged this once but I’m reblogging again because I just watched a short documentary about these pants.
Apparently back at their first Olympics appearance, they (especially Chris Svae, the ginger who plays second) were pretty disappointed with their gear because the gear didn’t look flattering. They couldn’t change the shirts because of Norway federation sponsorships so they started looking for pants to wear. They had a hard time finding pants that both looked respectable enough for professional curling and stretchy enough to allow curling, and promptly gave up on finding pants that were both stretchy and professional.
Chris Svae ended up finding pants that were Norway-colors-ish that looked comfortable enough for curling, but had crazy patterns. People at Olympics were not happy about this because PATTERNS AREN’T RESPECTABLE ENOUGH, so they were conflicted. But the night before the opening ceremony, they were hanging out with a bunch of lady skiiers. Chris at some point just takes off his pants and put on the crazy pants they bought and asks “Do you think we should wear these pants” and the skiers were like “he’ll yeah you should totally do it”
So they wore the crazy pants to play in the Olympics, and a few days later the website where they bought the pants crashed. The owner of the website visited them in Vancouver for the Olympics, and then decided to sponsor the team.
And now, 8 years layer, the Norwegian team has a different pair of pants for each match. Including a Valentine’s day pair.
I love the feedback loop of “wow people wearing our ridiculous pants made us successful. let’s send them MORE PANTS”
So, I have an American friend named Jane who married this English guy about 7 years ago. They live in Sussex together (god rest their souls), and they had a little boy pretty much right after they got married. As he grew up, they figured he would have a mix of their accents with a heavy lean towards English (because he’d go to school with English kids and teachers and the like.)
That’s not how it fucking worked out at all though. Instead, he says individual words with either an American or an English accent. Like, one second he’ll be like, “Daddy, I’m knackered” and the next he’ll be like, “AY YO MA WHERE YOU AT???” Every time they send me a video I just fucking piss myself listening to this kid.
Ok so this is a very good example of what we call “code switching” in sociolinguistics. Without going into to too detail, this comes in a few kind of flavors. The most commonly talked about kind is the ones you see in bilingual kids and adults, where they switch languages (sometimes mid coversation!) Depending on who they are talking to or what about.
That kind is also interesting, but in this case we have a child who is budialectal. First, let me dispel a myth. Kids are VERY GOOD at learning languages when they are little. Learning two languages at once will not slow them down noticeably or cause any other issues. The same is true for dialects (or varieties, as we call them in sociolingusitcs).
Think of African American children. They are suuuuper amazing, because more than likely they acquire AAVE (African American Vernacular English) at home, and then are always told they can’t use it in school, where they are taught whatever “standard American English” is (it doesn’t reeeallly exist, but meh). And they switch between the two all the time!
Anyway, if a child is receiving input from one parent in one dialect, and a different input from they other, just like they would acquire two languages, they acquire two dialects. And they employ them depending on a bunch of factors! Who they are talking to, what about, etc!
You won’t hear a ‘blend’ because the dialects are two separate systems stored in two different grammars! And they will sound native in either!
-neighborhood linguist
I think one of my favorite things about this site is when an op goes “here’s a funny anecdote” and then suddenly the neighborhood subject matter expert shows up and explains what’s behind. Learn so much here.
Let’s say your matrilineal line is fairly consistent and everyone has their daughter at 25. So four women in your matrilineal line are born every hundred years. In a thousand years, that’s only 40 women. Like the math is so simple and yet ? You don’t think about it. So in 2000 years, 80 women. So basically, 0 AD started roughly about 80 mothers ago. That’s it.
I’m……… i’m a little drunk n cannot deal with this right now
Yep
The advent of agriculture around 9500BC was about 450 mothers ago
you can’t just say shit like that without a warning
Many, many mothers ago, when the world was new….
Many of the notes here are saying “But women used to have kids earlier”
Okay. So, assume every woman had her daughter at 20 instead.
That’s five mothers in a century.
Fifty mothers in a thousand years.
One hundred mothers in two thousand years.
That is five hundred and seventy five mothers since the dawn of agriculture.
Less than six hundred women, between you and the dawn of civilization.
You are never so far from your ancestors as you think.
In honor of me approaching my first 6 months mark as a flight attendant, here are some highlights from my time in this job:
When a lady stopped me gently to whisper that i had “mastered the art of kindness”
When an elderly woman told me i was “put on earth to be a flight attendant”
Each and every time someone complimented my nails
When i found an $8000 diamond watch left behind under a seat, gave it to a gate agent, only to have the passenger come running back 10 minutes later. Gate agent: man u wouldve been in trouble, huh? Man whom looked like a bond villain: i wouldve been SHOT.
Every lesbian ive worked with and had the nice bonding moment of “ur gay?? Im gay!!”
That time a man tried to get huffy with me because he wasnt in 1st class and i got to say “sir u can either sit in this seat or u can sit in a seat in the terminal while u wait to take the next flight”
When i had an emergency landing because the pilots lost steering and we all thought we were gonna die but then we didn’t and everyone just applauded the landing and didnt even complain about the 2 hour delay
When my flight was delayed for 3 hours because the plane wouldnt start so the crew and i just took a really long nap in the jetway
Every 4 and 5 star hotel ive stayed at for free
When we overnighted in the middle of nowhere in alabama and went to a sports bar at midnight. The bartender locked the door so it was just him and us and his friend, and we all got super drunk on obscure alcohols and i kicked everyones ass at pool
That time i had an emergency landing because one pilot had such explosive diarrhea that the other 2 pilots had to wear oxygen masks
When we overnighted in a casino resort in new orleans and ended up drunk on margaritas and playing blackjack with a bunch of old people at 2pm
Every little kid on my flights
Every dog i got to pet on my flights
When we were flying to nyc during julliard recruitments and half the seats were taken up by cellos
Being in airports late at night and seeing people sleep in the weirdest places because they just dont care (bathroom floors, under gate agent desks, etc)
When a woman forgot her actual baby on the plane
Woman: can i board first? Gate agent: are u special needs, active military or priority? Woman: no i just want to board first. Gate agent: maam i have 70 other people who also want to board first, im not looking for a line leader.
My very first working flight, when a man pointed to my necklace and said “is that a ball gag?” And, in my shock, i said “no, im gay”
That time a ramp agent came up to me holding up his phone and said “wanna see something weird?” and i said yes, reservedly, thinking it might be gross but then he held out his phone and it was just a picture of hundreds of paradise birds that we were apparently flying to a zoo
it’s facial reconstructions of prehistoric humans!!
like, look at this part-homo sapiens, part-neandertal man from well over 30,000 years ago:
doesn’t he just look like a dude you’d wanna hang out with? like he probably washes dishes in the kitchen with you, and has excellent weed
what a charming fellow. what stories he probably has to tell. i’d definitely go shoot the shit with him on Contemplation Rock after i’d finished my day’s work carving a bone flute for the autumn hunting ceremony, or whatever
people have been people ever since people first became people, i tell you what
they all had lives and histories and families and friends and dumb gossip and games they played and total bullshit in which they believed wholeheartedly
they all argued about the nature of the world, and of themselves
they all sang songs
they all drew pictures
they all buried their dead in graves, and they buried their dead in graves well before they did a lot of that other stuff. they buried their dead with flowers, with panther claws, with the bones of animals they’d killed, with the bones of family members who had died at the same time or earlier. they buried their dead with their arms folded across their chests
they fell in love
they took care of their old and their sick and their disabled, even when it cost them
they made new things, and worried about what the new things meant for people everywhere, as a whole
Oh I like him he looks like he would appreciate my jokes
Stone age toddlers may have attended a form of prehistoric nursery
where they were encouraged to develop their creative skills in cave art,
say archaeologists.
Research indicates young children expressed themselves in an ancient
form of finger-painting. And, just as in modern homes, their early
efforts were given pride of place on the living room wall.
A Cambridge University conference on the archaeology of childhood on
Friday reveals a tantalising glimpse into life for children in the
palaeolithic age, an estimated 13,000 years ago.
“Some of the children’s flutings are high up on walls and on the ceilings, so they must have been held up to make them or have been sitting on someone’s shoulders,”
There’s something really terrifying about the concept of being pursued by something that can only walk slowly after. Just slooowly following. You can chill for a while if you get far enough away but it’s still coming.
That’s called “persistence hunting” and it’s how humans hunted all sorts of megafauna to extinction, as well as what let our species become so disperse and so numerous. Our existence is a horror story told from the monster’s perspective.
So you’re telling me zombie is absolutely a valid career path
Watch the movie on Netflix called “ It Follows” lol
Basically our hunting super power is that we are really smart, good at tools and can walk/run forever.
If my roommate ran 20 miles twice in one day (possible if she does one in the morning and one in the afternoon) she would out travel a horse.
She is not FASTER than a horse, but if a horse was walking away from her for 8 solid hours, Kait could catch up to it. She could probably also walk after it for an additional 5-10 miles after the run and then stab it when it got too tired to go on.
But kait’s athletic.
I, on the other hand, am a fatty fat who weighs 210 and never exercises ever.
I once, completely spontaneously because i had no money for the train, walked 17 miles in the winter from one end of Chicago to the other. I had also not eaten and was wearing a backpack. It took me 3 hours, but I accomplished it with ease. If i wasn’t a chub goddess, and had eaten and it was summer and I wasn’t wearing a backpack with a laptop in it, imagine how far and fast I could have gone.
Now. Horses can only sustain a run for about 15 miles ( at 8-10mph it takes them a little over an hour).
If my fat ass was walking towards a horse for 3 hours and it was literally running away from me. It would become exhausted after 15 miles and unless it can recover completely in 2 hours for another lengthy sprint, I can reasonably catch up to it and stab it. (not that i would ever stab a horse. horses are terrifying and should be regarded with suspicion, respect and fear)
The longest run ever was 350 miles over 80 hours without sleep.
We are endurance monsters.
humans terrify me
“Our existence is a horror story told from the monsters perspective” is one of the coolest and most terrifying sentences I’ve ever thought about
Gentle reminder that the human eye is naturally drawn by noise and movement, so the next time you walk into a crowd or a bit late into a lecture or something like that, they’re not staring at you or judging; it’s just an instinctive reaction that has nothing to do with you doing anything wrong.
This really helps my anxiety.
oh.
It’s literally a threat assessment/food gathering instinct. The steps your brain is doing, subconsciously.
-Check to see if movement is lion in grass.
-Also check to see if possible game animal and edible.
-No it’s just Dave getting into lecture hall a few minutes late.
-That’s boring.
-Lose interest.
Well, now I’m worried that when I walk in late, I’ll be considered prey.
“The medieval warrior, realizing the consequences of his impulsive act, immediately approached the owner of the drone and offered to pay for the damage.
The owner of the drone was so impressed by the brilliant attack that he suggested organizing a competition for bringing down “dragons” with short spears next year.
Drone owners have another year to develop a unique “dragon-like” design for their flying machines.” (x)
I am 100% cooler with this knowing that the spear-thrower realized “oops maybe I shouldn’t have done that” and tried to make it right, and that the guy who the drone belonged to was cool with it
just so everyone knows, this has already been memorialized in a runestone
Everything about this post blesses those involved with a +4 on their next Today is Good Day roll
Archaeologists in Denmark have found evidence of a 3,000 year-old cooking mistake that casts some light into the everyday life of Scandinavian Bronze Age people.
Clear evidence for one of the most common mistakes in the kitchen – burning food – lay in a clay pot that was excavated in central Jutland, Denmark.
The clay vessel was found, upturned and in near mint condition, at the bottom of what was once a waste pit.
“The pot is typical for cooking vessels in this region of Denmark. It was accompanied by several other objects fitting the dating,” archaeologist Kaj F. Rasmussen from Museum Silkeborg, Denmark, told Discovery News. Read more.
[fucks up dinner and just straight-up buries the evidence] We’re Getting Ancient Pizza Tonight, Girls
one time when i was 13 i burned pudding and couldn’t get it out of the pot and i was so ashamed i buried it in the backyard so no one would know
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