The Inspiration for Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti is a Muslim Scientist From the 10th Century

beyondvictoriana:

“In Nnedi Okorafor’s Nebula Award-winning novella Binti, the eponymous main character is a young woman who is an expert at crafting Astrolabes, a device that was used to discern the position of the stars and planets around us in ancient times, useful for everything from astronomy to time keeping to horoscopes.

It just so happens, there was a woman living in 10th century Syria who was well known for creating these incredible devices.

Mariam “Al-Astrolabiya” Al-Ijiliya lived in Aleppo, Syria, daughter of a man who apprenticed with a famous astrolabe maker named Bitolus before she became his student as well. Her designs were so innovative and complex that she was employed by Sayf al-Dawla—the ruler of Aleppo—from 944 to 967. Astrolabes could be used to determine time of day, as well as location, and were often used in Muslim society to determine Qibla, prayer times, and the days to start Ramadan and Eid.”

laurenslove:

polytropic-liar:

bathsabbath:

culturallyrelevanturl:

susiephone:

astra-lux:

Not enough people talk about the fact that Leonardo da Vinci was gay. Like, he’s literally the father of modern technology and one of the smartest human beings to ever live and I never ever learned in school that he was gay.

If all the LGBT people are as “DOOMED” as the bible thumpers think we are, hell, at least we’re in good company.

I was about to say I can’t believe I didn’t know this

and then I remembered the American education system

Yes, I can fucking believe I didn’t know this.

But yeah. Leonardo da Vinci was gay. Pass it on.

Leo painted a picture of his lover as Jesus and that’s the image we use today

Oh man that is sad. I’m sorry your teachers are failing you.

Some Leonardo facts you should tattoo on your heart:

He was actually convicted for sodomy at age 24, but the allegations were dropped for lack of testimony. The charges affected him immensely, as he was by all means, a very private person.

Da Vinci’s models for Christ are unknown. The claim that he depicted his lover as Jesus most likely arose from the bullshit about Cesare Borgia being the inspiration for White Jesus™ combined with the allegations that Leonardo and Cesare were lovers…There is little to no support for these claims. However, it’s speculated his lover Gian Giacomo Caprotti was the model for his St. John the Baptist.

He was universally beloved (minus Michelangelo lollll), like the nicest, funniest, gentlest, handsomest man you’d ever meet. He was generous beyond words, treated everyone equally, and loved to play pranks.

He was also fuckin’ ripped. It was rumored he could bend a horseshoe in half with his bare hands.

Often wore pink and other vibrant colors.

Rumored to sleep approx. 2 hours a night.

Was left-handed and ambidextrous. He was dyslexic, possibly had ADD, and suffered from frequent paranoia.

He was his own worst critic and often destroyed his work. He still left behind over 13k journal pages, filled with sketches and so many dick jokes.

His last words were: “I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.”

Would buy caged animals from the market just to set them free. He was allegedly a vegetarian.

For a time he kept a pet lizard and made him a custom set of wings and horns. He would routinely scare the shit out of people with his ‘dragon.’

My all time fave: While staying in the Vatican he would invite guests into a residential room which had been filled with cleaned/dried animal intestines that he had sewn together. He fastened a bellows to the end of the intestines and proceeded to inflate them. Onlookers were so excited to see DaVinci’s new ”invention” that they didn’t even realize this asshole was just blowing up a giant balloon and pinning them to the wall holy shit I love him so much.

Where is the musical. Lin-Manuel Miranda, fix this.

Other important historical Gays.

ithelpstodream:

This!

dreadpiratekhan:

dreadpiratekhan:

A Swedish woman hitting a neo-Nazi protester with her handbag. The woman was reportedly a concentration camp survivor. [1985]

Volunteers learn how to fight fires at Pearl Harbor [c. 1941 – 1945]

Maud Wagner, the first well-known female tattoo artist in the U.S. [1907]

A 106-year old Armenian woman protecting her home with an AK-47. [1990]

Komako Kimura, a prominent Japanese suffragist at a march in New York. [October 23, 1917]

Margaret Hamilton, lead software engineer of the Apollo Project, standing next to the code she wrote by hand that was used to take humanity to the moon. [1969]

Erika, a 15-year-old Hungarian fighter who fought for freedom against the Soviet Union. [October 1956]

Sarla Thakral, 21 years old, the first Indian woman to earn a pilot license. [1936]

Voting activist Annie Lumpkins at the Little Rock city jail. [1961] (freakin’ immaculate)

Now with more awesomesauce!

Female pilots leaving their B-17, “Pistol Packin’ Mama” [c. 1941 – 1945]

The first basketball team from Smith college. [1902]

Filipino guerilla, Captain Nieves Fernandez, shows a US soldier how she killed Japanese soldiers during the occupation. [1944]

Afghani medical students. [1962] (man, screw fundamentalism.)

A British sergeant training members of the ‘mum’s army’ Women’s Home Defence Corps during the Battle of Britain. [1940]

and just to wrap up…

Nina Simone, one of the most talented vocalists of the 20th century.

johannesviii:

silverilly:

bookshop:

mydaywithd:

Julie D’Aubigny was a 17th-century bisexual French opera singer and fencing master who killed or wounded at least ten men in life-or-death duels, performed nightly shows on the biggest and most highly-respected opera stage in the world, and once took the Holy Orders just so that she could sneak into a convent and shag a nun.

(via Feminism)

bisexual opera singer who killed ten men and snuck into a convent to shag a nun.

Just so y’all know, she later set that convent on fire so she and that nun could sneak out. And she seduced one of the men she’d dueled.

Mademoiselle de Maupin (Julie d’Aubigny) has always been one of my role models. I’m so glad this post exists so more people can learn about her. The more you know, the more there’s to love. Let’s see:

Around 1678 (she was like fourteen or fifteen), she was making a living in Marseilles by doing fencing exhibitions, dressed in male clothes, with her boyfriend who was on the run because he killed a guy in an illegal duel in Paris.

Then she joined an opera company and fell in love with a young woman, but the woman’s parents decided to put her in a convent to, you know, protect her honor and all that…

…so yeah, that’s when the whole “sneaking into a convent to help a nun sneak out and also putting the room on fire” thing happened.

She wounded a guy through the shoulder with a sword in a duel because he had made fun of her clothes. They became friends after she came back a few days later to ask if he was okay.

She beat a singer who was quite famous at the time because he was being a jerk to some women from her new opera troupe in Paris.

She kissed a young woman in front of everyone at a society ball, and that angered three noblemen who were there, so she beat them all in duel and fled to Brussels. Then she resumed her opera career there.

Then she returned to the Paris opera and had yet more problems with the law because she beat up her landlord.

She retired to a convent after the death of her love Madame la Marquise de Florensac, and died at only 33 years old.

The legend says that she never got arrested for all her deeds because king Louis XIV thought she was way too entertaining to deserve death. I have no idea if that’s true. But she did sing in Versailles for the Court, so there’s that.

relevant to both your library post and archival paper post: on the west wing when the president is being sworn in, he wants to use the bible washington used, but preservationists won’t let him. he goes through a bunch of bibles he’d like to use, but the orgs that own them either have specific climate-control requirements or public access protocols, so he ends up using a gideon’s bible from a motel. BOOKS!

marbleflan:

Ok but have I never told you my FAVORITE rare book bible swearing in story???

This was told to me by the chief of rare books at LoC.

So, when Obama was sworn in he asked to be sworn in on Abraham Lincoln’s bible. This upset various Republicans bc they thought he was getting special treatment or something. So when John Boehner was going to be sworn in as Speaker of the House, he too wanted to be sworn in on a special bible.

So, an aide from Boehner’s office calls up special collections at LoC and says Boehner wants to be sworn in on the first bible printed in America. The librarian says, “Are you sure you want that bible?” and the aide gets kind of snippy and says, “We know what we want–we want the first bible printed in America,” and kind of goes off on a tear about preferential treatment, et c. et c. The librarian says fine and makes the arrangements.

So the day comes when the bible is to be taken out of special collections and the aide shows up to retrieve it. The librarian brings out the book and shows it to the aide, who throws up her hands and says “What the hell is this!!” The librarian says, “This is the first bible printed in America.” The aide says, “No it’s not. This can’t be the bible. I can’t read it.”

Because, of course, the first bible printed in America is the Eliot bible. It’s printed in Algonquin, or Massachusetts language.

To the end of my days, I will think of this unknown Republican aide who is under the impression that all bibles are in a language that she can personally read.

Incidentally, the Eliot bible predates the first English-language bible printed in America by more than 100 years.

poupon:

insearchofkobol:

beatsandblades:

anglerfishy:

theemperorsfeather:

glegrumbles:

Also the Vikings were known to be complete dandies. They sought bright colors, jewelry, imported Persian silks. Ribbons. Little mirrors sewn onto clothing, in Sweden. The men had long hair that was scandalous to Christians, and they carried combs and earspoons and such things with them. I recall seeing documents where the eastern Norse were big on baths and one of their demands in a particular negotiation was “we get to have baths drawn for us whenever we want”, which was often.

They used soap with agents designed to bleach hair to try to make themselves blonder.

SRSLY. Look at this stuff.

I’m sorry longhaired prettyboy viking men in gaudy clothing and jewelry, bleaching and combing their hair, doesn’t match with your Conan-the-Barbarian manlyman aesthetic.

…or the fact that a significant portion of the Norse were traders, fishermen, farmers, and herders, and weren’t raiding, pillaging warriors or hired Byzantine thug-bodyguards.

I also like the parts about how maybe women didn’t dress as modestly as some interpretations of the evidence suggest. And, like, putting BIG METAL CLIPS and STRANDS OF BEADS right across the breasts … kind of draws the eyes right there.

beatsandblades considering that you just posted something Viking related – thought you might be interested in this.

Oh my god, I LOVE THIS.

It also should be noted that they had tweezers and ladies used them to shape their eyebrows and keep their faces neat. It should also be noted that they had the most civilized laws toward women pre christian era in europe. Women were allowed to fight, allowed to inherit or acquire wealth, allowed to have bastard children or be raped without it being a mark against their honor and virtue. In fact, if the family of a raped woman wanted justice, they were free to kill the rapist under the law. Women were also free to divorce their husbands.

Viking men also composed POETRY as a sign of their virility and reciting poetry to a woman without her father’s permission was considered unseemly, because that was part of courtship and the young man had to take care that he wasn’t challenged or killed for doing so.

The men also had magnificent purses as status symbols, as demonstrated by the find of amazing purse cover in the Sutton Hoo burial ship, which was generally a fancy fancy archaeological windfall. And why not? This suggests most anything made of fine quality materials and made with painstaking craftsmanship could be a status symbol, with little evidence of modern gender panic about the function of ornamentation.

BONUS: after their colonization of Britian, the native menfolk thought they were unfair because they took all the women folk by being handsomely groomed and BAthiNG regularly HOW DARE THEY. There’s a post about that floating around on tumblr you could probably find if you believe in yourself hard enough.

The modern interpretation of vikings, as with most distorted views of the barbarism of previous ages, was pretty much invented by British Victorians as a combination of a sort of sensational hyper-masculine nostalgia (”remember when we were like being constantly invaded by those barbarians? That’s because they were brutes, but damn it those MEN were MEN*. I mean, they have to had been. They invaded us.”) and as a sort of self-congratulatory “well at least we aren’t like THAT any more” cultural asspat. It’s similar thing that happened with Renaissance scholars about the so-called “medieval period”, lots of facts were distorted or outright invented to make the current age and location look better. Which is not to say the Victorians also provided their own more romantic and chivalric idea of that period, too, which further distorts things. IN ANY CASE Here’s a summary and extract of a book about Victorian ideas of Vikings, in lieu of me being too lazy to find a more comprehensive or succinct paper.

*see also Weimar Republic-era German fascination and cultural connection with their own idea of “Viking”. But that had a more vengeful edge and was informed by social discontent and near-destroyed national pride. And of course NOTHING BAD EVER CAME OF THIS PROPAGANDIC VIEW OF HISTORY.

crystalgalindoart:

crystalgalindoart:

See that state in the red there? The one in Mexico? That is Puebla. The state where a great victory was won on May 5, 1862. You see, the French thought they had it made, that a swift takeover was imminent based on their army of 6000 soldiers. They were wrong. An army of INDIGENOUS folks gathered to fight back. On May 5, (yes that means Cinco de Mayo) the French sent troops in to attack the city of Puebla de Los Angeles, but were met from the North by the indigenos who would not be intimidated or taken down. When the fight was over and the French retreated, they had lost over 500 men. Puebla lost less than 100.
Cinco de Mayo isn’t a day to get wasted and dress up as a racist stereotype. This day is a celebration to remember the Indigenous Resistance that took place, and the victory that seemed impossible. Indigenous resistance continues to this day, from the top of turtle island to the tip of South America. We fight imperialism and colonialism with pride. Please do not trivialize the important celebration of La Batalla De Puebla by reinforcing racist tropes. And don’t you dare tell Mexicans “Happy Mexican Independence Day!” you’ll look like an ignorant jackass. #cincodecultura

It’s back! Please read this non- Mexicans, and apologists.

daisyskindajewish:

westsemiteblues:

enrique262:

irefiordiligi:

fotojournalismus:

Pictures of the UNESCO World Heritage site of ancient Palmyra taken following the recapture of the city by Syrian troops backed by Russian forces on March 27, 2016 show the damage made by ISIS during its 10-month occupation. In 2015 the archaeologist, Khaled al-Asaad, who had looked after the ruins for 40 years and refused to reveal the location of archaeological treasures of the city was also murdered by ISIS.

Photos taken on March 31, 2016 by Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images

This is tragic, and we shouldn’t forget Khaled al-Asaad, the archaeologist killed by ISIS because he refused to reveal where valuable artefacts had been moved for safekeeping.

Khaled al-Asaad is now part of the history he gave up his life trying to protect, please, never forget about him.

May his memory be for a blessing.

A very important post

dr-archeville:

angrywomenofcolorunited:

Today Google celebrates Shakuntala Devi’s 84th birthday. She was popularly known as the “Human Computer”, was a child prodigy, and mental calculator. She passed away on April 21 2013, she was 83 years old. Her achievements include:

In 1977 in the USA she competed with a computer to see who could calculate the cube root of 188,132,517 faster (she won). That same year, at the Southern Methodist University she was asked to give the 23rd root of a 201-digit number; she answered in 50 seconds. Her answer—546,372,891—was confirmed by calculations done at the U.S. Bureau of Standards by the Univac 1101 computer, for which a special program had to be written to perform such a large calculation.

On June 18, 1980, she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She correctly answered 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds. This event is mentioned in the 1982 Guinness Book of Records.

Happy birthday Shakuntala!

As if that wasn’t awesome enough, she also (in 1977) wrote The World of Homosexuals, the first study of homosexuality in India. The book, considered “pioneering”, features interviews with two young Indian homosexual men, a male couple in Canada seeking legal marriage, a temple priest who explains his views on homosexuality, and a review of the existing literature on homosexuality. It ends with a call for decriminalising homosexuality, and “full and complete acceptance — not tolerance and not sympathy.”

The book was largely ignored because she was famous for her mathematical wizardry, so nothing of substantial import in the field of homosexuality was expected from her. Also the cultural situation in India was inhospitable for an open and elaborate discussion on this issue.