The Holy Ones

TIL “Yankee Doodle” was written by the British to mock americans. “Doodle” is thought to come from the German “dödel”, meaning “fool” or “simpleton” and “macaroni,” a flamboyantly stylish type of dress, painting the Yankees as morons who thought placing a feather in one’s cap made them a “dandy.”

via reddit.com

i like how the button to search blast sayus BLAST

blasting the DNA sequence with my wizard beams

Brennan Center for Justice

The Campaign Finance System Americans Could Have Had

Canada shows how democracies can regulate campaign finance for the common good.

End Citizens United !!

Hey Tumblr newbies! This is your periodic reminder to not look like a bot!

Recently I've had an uptick in bot followers after a long lull, but I have ALSO had an uptick in followers who, once I click on their blogs, appear to be real, but have the default userpic, no bio, and/or "Untitled" for the blog title, and so look like bots at first glance.

Please don't forget to change your userpic - it doesn't matter what you change it to, you can turn the default one upside-down, just so it's clear a human has interacted with it! While you're at it, change the title of the blog to be literally anything other than "Untitled" and for good measure toss up a few words in your bio; naming a couple fandoms you're in is a good one that immediately marks you as real.

But if you only do one of these, change your userpic for sure. Many people will just see a default userpic and block on sight without doing any further investigation. If you have a default userpic you have probably already been blocked by a few people you followed! Is it fair that Tumblr makes you follow people when you sign up before it lets you change your userpic, and doesn't warn you that the default userpic will make people think you're a bot? No. But that's life on the hellsite.

Hugh “Lumpy” Brannum as Mr. Green Jeans, Bob Keeshan as Captain Kangaroo, and Cosmo Allegretti inside the Dancing Bear costume. An early color publicity still from Captain Kangaroo (CBS, 1955-84).

I've finally finished this one! An untidy, yet cosy fantasy/sci-fi bookshop, with a stack of old paperbacks on the counter.

Prints available here

I haven't seen this circulating here on Tumblr, so I decided to make my own post.

last saturday, in Porto, there was a pride parade going down the street and this old man was standing there, by his front door, waving the portuguese flag. most people on the parade probably thought the same: old person waving the national flag? he's probably protesting against the parade, he's a nationalist of some sort.

then the old man called for that person to come near him. the whole parade stopped. everyone just.. stopped moving. they didn't know what to expect, and most expected the worst. and that person decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and approached the old man. and then... they traded flags, he hugged the person and then he waved the pride flag happily. everyone cheered him.

such a wholesome moment. 🥹❤️🌈

This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a banger

VeryVeryVinny

“Country singer Dolly Parton wrote the songs "I Will Always Love You" and "Jolene" on the same night. When the first song was at the top of the charts in 1974, Elvis wanted to record his own version of the song. Dolly was interested until Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis' manager, said that it was standard procedure that when the king of rock and roll covered a song - half of the rights to that song would go to him in the future.

She refused it.

"I said, 'I'm really, really sorry' and cried all night. It was terrible for me, on the one hand, it's Elvis. People told me: "You are crazy." It's Elvis Presley...' but I just couldn't do it. Something told me in my heart not to do it and I didn't. I know he would rock with that song. But I couldn't. And then Whitney Houston came along with her version and I made enough money from the rights to buy Dollywood."

She grew up in severe poverty and no one famous has done more for the education of the poor than her.

In 1990, the percentage of students who did not graduate from high school in her hometown was over 30%. She introduced the "Buddy Program", where all high school graduates received a nice sum when they graduated. It wasn't just a waste of money, she personally came and explained the concept to them - everyone should find a buddy, and whoever doesn't succeed she will find one for them. Everyone had to sign that they will graduate and do everything in their power to ensure that their buddy also graduates. She taught young people about friendship and helping.

The number of school dropouts dropped to below 6% and has remained so until today.

When 900 families lost their homes in the 2016 fires, she paid each family $1,000 for the next five months. When she came to the bank to finish the paperwork, she gave each family another $5,000 to find. A total of nine million dollars.

Also, her work - Imagination Library from 1995, was inspired by her realization that young people in rural areas and poor families already fall behind when they start school and that this prevents them from pursuing higher education. The goal of her program was for every child in her district to receive one book, once a month, from birth to school, completely free of charge, without any conditions. It started as an initiative in her hometown and has spread to a huge number of countries around the world.

By 2018, over 100 million books were distributed in this way.

She is also known for her witty statements, at the beginning of her career she said: “I'm not offended by jokes about stupid blondes because I know I'm not stupid... and I'm not really blonde either.”

Anonymous

Dolly is a national treasure.