I Say This In All Seriousness, A Great Way To Resist The Broad Cultural Shift Of Devaluing Curiosity

i say this in all seriousness, a great way to resist the broad cultural shift of devaluing curiosity and critical thinking is to play my favorite game, Hey What Is That Thing

you play it while walking around with friends and if you see something and don't know what it is or wonder why its there, you stop and point and say Hey What Is That Thing. and everyone speculates about it. googling it is allowed but preferably after spending several minutes guessing or asking a passerby about it

weird structures, ambiguous signs, unfamiliar car modifications, anything that you can't immediately understand its function. eight times out of ten, someone in the group actually knows, and now you know!

a few examples from me and my friends the past few weeks: "why is there a piece of plywood sticking out of that pond in a way that looks intentional?" (its a ramp so squirrels that fall in to the pond can climb out) • "my boss keeps insisting i take a vacation of nine days or more, thats so specific" (you work at a bank, banks make employees take vacation in long chunks so if youre stealing or committing fraud, itll be more obvious) • "why does this brick wall have random wooden blocks in it" (theres actually several reasons why this could be but we asked and it was so you could nail stuff to the wall) • "most of these old factories we drive past have tinted windows, was that just for style?" (fun fact the factory owners realized that blue light keeps people awake, much like screen light does now, so they tinted the windows blue to keep workers alert and make them work longer hours)

been playing this game for a long time and ive learned (and taught) a fuckton about zoning laws, local history, utilities (did you know you can just go to your local water treatment plant and ask for a tour and if they have a spare intern theyll just give you a tour!!!) and a whole lot of fun trivia. and now suddenly you're paying more attention when youre walking around, thinking about the reasons behind every design choice in the place you live that used to just be background noise. and it fuckin rules.

The best retweeted pics EVER - Part 3

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doraog

9 years ago

🎶sing us a song you're the piano man~🎶

Today’s Italy of the day is:

piano man……….

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doraog

3 months ago

What a joy to see one of my favorite people/ characters ❤ being appreciated as the badass she is

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries is so underrated. The MC is a ridiculously fashionable lady detective in 1920’s Australia. Her oldest and dearest friend is a lesbian doctor who dresses like Katherine Hepburn, she finds a girl stealing shit on a train platform and is like “well guess she’s mine now”, her hired help is two communists, a gun enthusiast butler, and a little Catholic girl afraid of telephones. She speaks like 4 languages for some reason? She’s a domestic abuse survivor. She funds a lady race car driving club. She used her diaphragm to catch a deadly spider. She can fly planes. She’s kinky as hell. She used to be an army nurse. Just character of all time.

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doraog

10 years ago

it's like watching the evolution o Markiplier

congratulations markiplier!

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doraog

9 years ago

"I felt that most children I knew would be more interested in hearing how a plant killed, how long it would take you to die if you are it and how GRUESOME AND PAINFUL THE DEATH MIGHT BE." The best sentence I have ever read

The Poison Garden

Established in 2005 by the Duchess of Northumberland. The garden contains over 100 deadly and hallucinogenic plants.

’I wondered why so many gardens around the world focused on the healing power of plants rather than their ability to kill… I felt that most children I knew would be more interested in hearing how a plant killed, how long it would take you to die if you ate it and how gruesome and painful the death might be.’

-The Duchess of Northumberland

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doraog

10 years ago

I finally know the continuation of this! At last