Coming From Pastoral Nomadism, This Reminds Me Of The Tried Out Arguments Against Use Of Such Harvested

Coming from pastoral nomadism, this reminds me of the tried out arguments against use of such harvested material as wool & angora plus cashmere (even qiviut).

Where did it come from that Fake Fur is bad for the environment? Everything I am finding says that it is better in almost every way than real fur. This is a genuine question.

Faux fur is made of plastic. There is nothing environmentally friendly about plastic. As I motioned before, it also constantly sheds microplastics into the environment. Microplastics not only harm wildlife but also us. They’ve been found in human blood and foetuses. Faux fur also takes thousands of years to break down. Since it’s often used in cheap fast fashion it tends not to last very long and ends up sitting in landfill.

Real fur is a natural material that can biodegrade and doesn’t cause any of the problems that plastic does. Some processes for preserving fur aren’t always the best with the use of certain chemicals, but even then it’s really a very minor issue and still a far better option than plastic. The production of faux fur also uses some pretty nasty chemicals in it’s production which are carcinogenic to humans. People also tend to take better care of real fur garments and keep them for a long time as they’re very durable and long-lasting.

Anything saying faux fur is good for the environment is likely from animal rights groups who have an agenda against fur and will twist facts (or just make stuff up) to push their narrative that real fur is bad.

You know how I said before that decorative & ornamental plants can more often than not be used for more than just those? Well the above should give you at least some idea on how the often overlooked plants can be used, especially heeding the helpful properties found in them.

(Decolonizing) Science Saturday 

This Saturday we are sharing some illustrations from our first edition copy of Wendy Makoons Geniusz’s book, Our Knowledge is Not Primitive: Decolonizing Botanical Anishinaabe Teachings. The botanical illustrations are provided by the author’s sister, Annmarie Geniusz. Published in 2009 by Syracuse University Press, the book is part of their series The Iroquois and Their Neighbors. Established by the press in 1975, the publication series’ primary scope is Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) scholarship, but it also focuses on uplifting the voice of Indigenous scholars’ work in contemplating their own culture. 

As an academic raised in the Anishinaabe culture, Geniusz is particularly well suited to critically examine the Western scientific lens through which Indigenous botanical knowledge is often presented in the Academy. Genuisz, who got her undergraduate degree here at UWM, is the former director of the American Indian Studies program at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and currently teaches Ojibwe language there. 

View more of our Science Saturday posts here. 

You can find more posts on our Native American Literature Collection here.

-Olivia, Special Collections Graduate Intern

Notice how monolingualism handicaps you severely (& is often even counterproductive in understanding one another)?

there’s this post going around that’s like ‘what if alien languages had pronouns that didn’t include gender information!’ and there’s about five different enthusiastic replies and like, i get the excitement but i’m begging you to learn about languages other than english

What do you think of Joyofsatan.org? They claim to follow Amaterasu and they’re the largest Shinto group in the world.

Seeing as this is the first time I've heard of them, I don't have a view on them yet.

On top of the above, implying that any bit of you or your group can't possibly be bigoted or any form of harm isn't just erroneous, but implies that said group or yourself is of inhuman qualities (which also can attract hubris among other awful things). Just remember that bigotry & other kinds of harm can come from absolutely any direction, no matter how oppressed or 'privileged' a group or person might be. As such, homophobia & transphobia are terrible, but so are their opposites in heterophobia & cisphobia (just as much so, in fact).

So treat others with respect no matter their orientation (romantic or otherwise) or gender identity (which are actually independent of each other, which is why I'd prefer that orientations & gender identity be covered separately, especially since lumping them together wouldn't needfully be a helpful thing [such as 'non-western' societies that used to accept different gender identities as normal, but don't anymore due to colonisation, Abrahamic sways, or both] & can be quite harmful). Make no mistake, I support the trans commonships, which is one reason why I've strongly considered helping in opening up a section in medical treatment & therapy that specialises in treating trans victims of GBV in a comprehensive way within here in Mongolia (such as a one-stop service center akin to South Korea's Sunflower Center, idk if US's RAINN has any similar such services for GBV victims). Hold onto yer rights if ye can, but try to use them well.

if ur politics are centered in any way on rooting out the "bad" people in the world and then being able to live in a utopia then congratulations, uve ended up at fascism and I am not in any way exaggerating

the only way to truly and genuinely prevent harm is by first acknowledging that all human beings are capable of causing harm to others if given the right circumstances, including u

u genuinely must first understand and accept that if given the right circumstances u personally would harm others and that the only way to prevent that is to be constantly checking ur own behavior and making sure there are safeguards in place to protect people against harm. none of us are immune to propaganda, neither are we immune to causing harm

otherwise, if u believe that any innate part of u (being a woman, gay, a person of color, ect.) means that u couldn't possibly be capable of harm, then it is only a matter of time and circumstance before u hurt another person, if u aren't already

scoopwhoop.com

These Nordic Prison Cells Are So Good, You'd Want To Go To Jail Just to Live In Them

Better than our homes.

Some ways one could learn from & how they can be applied towards possible change for the better. Just since one's being punished don't needfully mean one's unworthy of humane treatment.