Jerichos-reblog-repository - Askbasket

there’s nothing purer or better than how much kids enjoy being picked up and then hurled at soft surfaces

hey, don’t cry. one half flour one half yogurt knead into dough and fry for easy flatbread and dip in balsamic vinegar, okay?

Check Out These Clever LEGO Adaptations of Famous Works

I'd like to know why the minerals are hazardous!

YES I got someone to bite!

Okay, so, the two specific minerals I have in my collection that are hazardous are hazardous for different reasons.

First off, chromite.

Reason it is potentially hazardous: On its own, chromite isn’t necessarily dangerous.  It becomes dangerous when exposed to certain environmental conditions.  Under certain conditions, the chromium present in chromite changes from Cr(III) (trivalent chromium) to Cr(VI) (hexavalent chromium).  Hexavalent chromium is a known toxin and carcinogen.

Reason I still have it in my collection: You need very specific circumstances to transform the Cr(III) in chromite to Cr(VI).  Generally, those circumstances occur when chromite ore is being processed to produce chromium.  All my chromite does is chill in a jar all day.  There’s very little likelihood that my chromite has oxidized to form hexavalent chromium.

(Not to mention, despite some vigorous Google searching, I couldn’t find anything about chromite being hazardous, just that mining and processing it is hazardous, neither of which I am doing.)

My second mineral in the “Danger Jar” is uraninite, aka pitchblende.

Reason it is potentially hazardous: It’s a uranium ore, which makes it weakly radioactive.  Marie Curie (one of my role models) famously died as a result of exposure to radiation from pitchblende.

Reason I still have it in my collection: Marie Curie processed literal tons of pitchblende during her research.  I have a small specimen the size of my thumb.  Also, while it is radioactive, its form of radioactivity (alpha decay) makes the main concern internal exposure (breathing in particles, ingesting it), rather than external exposure (just being in close proximity to it).  Basically, it doesn’t give off much radiation anyways, and what little it does isn’t as hazardous as you might think.

(Not to mention, it was actually part of one of those mineral collection kits that you can like, just buy online or in a store.  Pretty sure that if it was seriously dangerous to my health, it wouldn’t be available for easy purchase.  Also, at undergrad I literally sat next to a cabinet that set off a Geiger counter because it had so much pitchblende in it, but the professors weren’t concerned at all.)

HOWEVER

Out of an abundance of caution, I keep my chromite and my pitchblende in a sealed container (as of this morning, a nice glass jar that used to house a Bath and Bodyworks candle) and store said jar not in my bedroom.  I’m 100% sure that my samples aren’t actually dangerous for me to have, but I like to take precautions anyways.  Blame my microbiology and chemistry background for that.

Bonus: I mentioned a few other minerals in the tags of my post about my Danger Jar.  Namely, cinnabar and orpiment.

Cinnabar is a beautiful red mineral that is also incredibly toxic because it’s mercury sulfide.

Orpiment is a beautiful orange-yellow mineral that is also incredibly toxic because it’s arsenic sulfide.

There are actually two other arsenic sulfide minerals that I would also like for my collection, in addition to orpiment.

Realgar

Arsenopyrite

All of these I have handled in mineralogy (I think...I can’t remember if I handled cinnabar or not).  And all the professor said was “Wash your hands before you eat, because these have mercury and arsenic in them.”

“People who didn’t live pre-Internet can’t grasp how devoid of ideas life in my hometown was. The only bookstores sold Bibles the size of coffee tables and dashboard Virgin Marys that glowed in the dark. I stopped in the middle of the SAT to memorize a poem, because I thought, This is a great work of art and I’ll never see it again.”

— Mary Karr, The Art of Memoir No 1 (via elesheva)

hi. i made some images.

feel free to take them and use for whatever you may need them for. no credit required

🌊 Types of Mermaids 🌊

please be respectful of cultural boundaries when working with mermaids from various cultures and traditions, and be mindful not to intrude.

🌊 Rusalkas - slavic in origin, disturbed spirits of the “unclean dead”, ghosts of women who died violent deaths, with a penchant for drowning young men. they live only in rivers and lakes, and are known to have green hair like aquatic plants, only appearing in the night. 

🌊 Melusina - a mermaid that walks among humans, but returns to their two-tailed form during baths and when they bathe their children. often a water spirit of a nearby lake or river. french origin. 

🌊 Siren - greek mythology. servants and companions of persephone, whom searched for her when she was abducted. they are known to sometimes have the body of a bird, and for their song, which lured sailors to their doom. cannibalism implied folklore. have the power of prophecy. 

🌊 Merrow - irish mermaid. known to have green hair and webbed fingers. particular noted love of music and their red cap, which when stolen, they will live with the thief until they find it, and then return to the water, leaving even a whole family behind. 

🌊 Ben-varrey - from the isle of man, known to bless those that are kind to them with prosperity, gifts, and even the location of treasure. 

🌊 Aicaya -  Caribbean mermaid, humans who become mermaids when they are shunned from their community and go to live in the sea. 

🌊 Amabie - japanese merpeople, with birdlike torsos and three legs and scales. they are gifted with prophecy, usually foretelling abundant harvests or epidemics 

🌊 Ningyo - “human faced fish” known to have golden scales, that brings bad weather and misfortune when caught, but when their flesh is eaten the consumer is granted youth and beauty, even agelessness. 

🌊 Finman / Finwife - magical shapeshifters that disguise themselves as sea creatures or plants to lure humans, unlike most mermaids they kidnap people from the shores to be their spouses or servants. they have a greed for jewelry and coins, particularly silver, and prefer humans over other finfolk. 

🌊 Sirena Chilota - considered the more friendly mermaids, caring for all fish life and rescuing drowned sailors to restore life to them. known for their human-like beauty and youth, according to legend they are the child of a human and a “king of seas”, tears are a powerful substance. from chilote mythology. 

🌊 Cecealia - sometimes known as “sea witches”, they are half human and half octopus. origins in native american and japanese mythology. 

🌊 Sirena / Siyokoy - the philippine version of mermaid and merman respectively. also called “magindara”, they are known to protect the waters from raiders, and protect the boy moon from sea monsters. Siyokoys can sometimes have legs however, covered with scales and webbed feet

🌊 Sea Mither - scottish/orcadian mythology, a spirit that personifies the sea during spring and summer, battles along scottish isles using storms to bring the summer about. a mother figure to all aquatic life. 

🌊 Ceasg - a fresh-water mermaid, specifically half-salmon, said to grant three wishes if captured. sometimes called maighdean na tuinne (maid of the wave) or maighdean mhara (maid of the sea). scottish. 

🌊 Selkie - though somewhat different from the typical mermaid, as they are not cold-blooded, have the body of a seal in the water and are human on land. in legends their skins are often stolen and they are kept by fishermen as spouses, or become lovers to fishermen’s wives who shed tears into the sea.  

It's simple, we build massive amounts of public housing, loosen zoning laws, replace property taxes with land value taxes, directly promote the creation of housing co-ops and community land trusts, end homelessness through housing first approaches, create a land registry to eliminate the need for title insurance, establish a national renters' bill of rights, replace the home interest deduction with a progressive tax credit on primary residences, and implement 20-30 other reforms. Housing fixed