Don't Forget Such Groups As The Sorbs (a.k.a. Wends), Albanians, Circassians, Gorals, Volga Finns, &

Don't forget such groups as the Sorbs (a.k.a. Wends), Albanians, Circassians, Gorals, Volga Finns, & a litany of nomadic people that were listed above (even if not all of nomadic groups are indigenous & not all of the indigenous are nomadic).

Re: the conversation on the colonialism and racism of cottagecore, it’s very clear that Europeans think indigenous people don’t exist where they live or that they’re indigenous because they’re Irish or whatever the fuck, so as a Vaqueira, I think it’s time Europeans start understanding whose land they’re on and that there are indigenous people everywhere, so i’ve made a short, incomplete list of indigenous and nomadic peoples of Europe. Feel free to look up more about them, especially if you’re living on their land:

Abazins (Russia, Georgia, Abkhazia)

Adyghe/Circassian people (Russia, Turkey)

Aromanians/Vlachs (Greece, Romania, Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria)

Ashkali Romani (Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia)

Avars (Russia)

Balkars (Russia)

Bashkirs (Russia)

Basque people (Spain, France)

Bats people (Georgia)

Bergitka Romani (Poland, Slovakia, Hungary)

Boyash Romani (Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia)

Boykos (Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland)

Calé Romani (Spain, Portugal, France)

Cascarot Romani (France, Spain)

Chechens (Chechnya, Russia)

Crimean Tatars (Crimea)

Dargins (Russia)

Erlides Romani (Greece)

Erromintxela (Spain, France)

Finnish Kale Romani (Finland, Sweden)

Gagauz people (Moldova, Ukraine)

Gorani people (Kosovo, Albania, North Macedonia)

Gurbet Romani (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo)

Hutsuls (Ukraine, Romania)

Ingush (Russia)

Irish Travellers (Ireland, UK)

Izhorians (Russia, Estonia)

Kalderash Romani (Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia)

Karelians (Finland, Russia)

Komi people (Russia)

Laks (Russia)

Laz people (Turkey, Georgia)

Lemkos (Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland)

Lezgins (Russia, Azerbaijan)

Lipka Tatars (Poland, Lithuania, Belarus)

Livonians (Latvia, Estonia)

Lom people (Armenia, Georgia)

Lovari Romani (Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Czechia, Germany)

Manouche Romani (France)

Maragatos (Spain)

Mari people (Russia)

Mingrelians (Georgia)

Mordvins (Russia)

Norwegian Travellers/Fanter (Norway)

Ossetians (Russia, South Ossetia, Georgia)

Pasiegos (Spain)

Polska Roma (Poland)

Mercheros (Spain)

Romanichal (UK)

Romanisæl (Norway, Sweden)

Ruska Roma (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus)

Sámi people (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia)

Sarakatsani (Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia)

Scottish Travellers/Indigenous Highland Travellers (UK)

Servitka Roma (Ukraine, Russia)

Setos (Estonia, Russia)

Sinti (Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Switzerland, Czechia, Netherlands, Belgium, Serbia, Croatia)

Tat people (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia)

Udi people (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Russia, Georgia)

Udmurts (Russia)

Ursari Romani (Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Serbia, Italy)

Vaqueiros de Alzada (Spain)

Veps (Russia)

Volga Tatars (Russia)

Welsh Kale Romani (UK)

Yeniche people (Germany, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg)

Also to mention:

The millions of Jews whose homes, property, and land was stolen and never returned when they were murdered in the Shoah.

The hundreds of indigenous peoples of Asian Russia which is frequently seen as part of Europe because of its colonization by Russia.

There are many peoples that are known by few. There may be very little to no information about them in English or any language besides the official language of the country they are in. They may not have a written tradition and all written accounts of them are in old print books. They may be known only by people who live near to the region where they are. I know this is certainly true for Vaqueiros and the nomadic peoples of Spain.

Indigenous and nomadic peoples of Europe may be called ‘hill peoples’, ‘nomads’, or ‘cursed peoples’. They have lived in your country for hundreds or thousands of years, but were or are still not considered proper citizens. They live in their own territory by their traditional lifestyle, or in the city as part of your society, or in diaspora across the world. They unequally face land theft and environmental racism. They are hardly represented, if at all, and face challenges like insufficient infrastructure, education, healthcare, or access to water. It’s time to learn who your neighbors are. We want to be known. We are in small numbers because of the land theft and cultural destruction by the European countries you live in.

If this description rings a bell for you, or if your group isn’t up here, feel free to add an indigenous or nomadic people in Europe you know!

DO NOT fuck around on this post or i will tear your head clean off

Disclaimer: this is NOT an April Fool's prank. No joke or pun here, but I just wanted to highlight that there ARE wasps that make honey. (I got sick of seeing those anti-wasp memes that claim they aren't beneficial). Brachygastra mellifica (left) and Parapolybia escalerae (right) are both Polistine wasps with the ability to produce a sugary substance. B. mellifica is an important pollinator of avocados, however, it is not yet known which flowers P. escalerae pollinate. B. mellifica ranges from Texas to Panama, while P. escalerae is native to Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. A big high five to honey producing wasps!

@tree-on-the-hill using this as a chance to talk about powwow etiquette in general, hopefully some of this is helpful!

so big things i think of of the top of my head that may or may not be obvious:

during grand entry (especially flag songs/indian national anthem) if you can stand, stand up. if you are wearing a hat or a non religious head covering remove it if possible during grand entry

do not cross or enter the arbor after it has been blessed. the arbor is the clear area where people will be dancing. the only time to enter the arbor is during time when guests are invited (intertribal, some honoring songs, giveaways) usually this is announced by the MC

honor the protocol of whoever’s land you are on, I have lived on salish and the plateau tribes land most of my life so i am not the best guide on this specifically.

at a lot of native events people will save there spot by putting down a blanket(or shawl), so if you see a blanket with no person around it likely belongs to someone who is either dancing or getting food, give it the same space you would if the person it belongs to was there.

seats nearest the dancing circle are reserved for dancers + their families with or without blankets.

what the dancers wear is REGALIA not costumes

do not take photos of the dancers when they aren’t dancing without permission. photos or videos should not be taken during veterans songs, flag songs, honoring songs, prayer songs, dancer initiation, or any time announced by the MC.

if you find a lost feather DO NOT TOUCH!! find someone working the event or head man or head woman dancer, or notify someone at the MC booth immediately. additionally dont touch any regalia or dancers. also probably obvious but something ive seen visitors do.

trying to keep your thoughts as positive as possible especially when you are at powwow is a great extra step, a lot of nations (including mine) have beliefs where the energy of how you feel and think can be passed to others through your physical energy, especially thru contact with hands.

no alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, vaping.

in general be respectful and kind, elders are viewed as very important in most native nations, so things like making sure you arent cutting off an elder are important but also seem like general life rules to me.

luckily a lot of MCs tend to announce a lot of these but its good to know what to expect.

Bearing News

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vice.com

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As the film adaptation of 'Twilight' turns 10, the impact of the teen vampire phenomenon on fan culture is still evident today.

As can be summed up from all of these, the series being covered changed not only vampire writing (especially such romance), but also supernatural writing by extension. It clearly sacrificed much as to leave a lot of hard to ignore flaws (including blatant racism & a decidedly mediocre performance even in the books themselves, though not as mediocre as were the movies), but it left very clear influences on many future works including the likely popularisation and/or making of sundry social media & fanfiction websites as well as fandom expression as a whole. The influences the Twilight saga has changed fandom expression & writing among other things for better & worse, but it was likely the most influential supernatural writing to have been made for quite some time, at least in the 'western world'.

Just a bunch of Useful websites - Updated for 2023

Removed/checked all links to make sure everything is working (03/03/23). Hope they help!

Sejda - Free online PDF editor.

Supercook - Have ingredients but no idea what to make? Put them in here and it’ll give you recipe ideas.

Still Tasty - Trying the above but unsure about whether that sauce in the fridge is still edible? Check here first.

Archive.ph - Paywall bypass. Like 12ft below but appears to work far better and across more sites in my testing. I’d recommend trying this one first as I had more success with it.

12ft – Hate paywalls? Try this site out.

Where Is This - Want to know where a picture was taken, this site can help.

TOS/DR - Terms of service, didn’t read. Gives you a summary of terms of service plus gives each site a privacy rating.

OneLook - Reverse dictionary for when you know the description of the word but can’t for the life of you remember the actual word.

My Abandonware - Brilliant site for free, legal games. Has games from 1978 up to present day across pc and console. You’ll be surprised by some of the games on there, some absolute gems.

Project Gutenberg – Always ends up on these type of lists and for very good reason. All works that are copyright free in one place.

Ninite – New PC? Install all of your programs in one go with no bloat or unnecessary crap.

PatchMyPC - Alternative to ninite with over 300 app options to keep upto date. Free for home users.

Unchecky – Tired of software trying to install additional unwanted programs? This will stop it completely by unchecking the necessary boxes when you install.

Sci-Hub – Research papers galore! Check here before shelling out money. And if it’s not here, try the next link in our list.

LibGen – Lots of free PDFs relate primarily to the sciences.

Zotero – A free and easy to use program to collect, organize, cite and share research.

Car Complaints – Buying a used car? Check out what other owners of the same model have to say about it first.

CamelCamelCamel – Check the historical prices of items on Amazon and set alerts for when prices drop.

Have I Been Pawned – Still the king when it comes to checking if your online accounts have been released in a data breach. Also able to sign up for email alerts if you’ve ever a victim of a breach.

I Have No TV - A collection of documentaries for you to while away the time. Completely free.

Radio Garden – Think Google Earth but wherever you zoom, you get the radio station of that place.

Just The Recipe – Paste in the url and get just the recipe as a result. No life story or adverts.

Tineye – An Amazing reverse image search tool.

My 90s TV – Simulates 90’s TV using YouTube videos. Also has My80sTV, My70sTV, My60sTV and for the younger ones out there, My00sTV. Lose yourself in nostalgia.

Foto Forensics – Free image analysis tools.

Old Games Download – A repository of games from the 90’s and early 2000’s. Get your fix of nostalgia here.

Online OCR – Convert pictures of text into actual text and output it in the format you need.

Remove Background – An amazingly quick and accurate way to remove backgrounds from your pictures.

Twoseven – Allows you to sync videos from providers such as Netflix, Youtube, Disney+ etc and watch them with your friends. Ad free and also has the ability to do real time video and text chat.

Terms of Service, Didn’t Read – Get a quick summary of Terms of service plus a privacy rating.

Coolors – Struggling to get a good combination of colors? This site will generate color palettes for you.

This To That – Need to glue two things together? This’ll help.

Photopea – A free online alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Does everything in your browser.

BitWarden – Free open source password manager.

Just Beam It - Peer to peer file transfer. Drop the file in on one end, click create link and send to whoever. Leave your pc on that page while they download. Because of how it works there are no file limits. It’s genuinely amazing. Best file transfer system I have ever used.

Atlas Obscura – Travelling to a new place? Find out the hidden treasures you should go to with Atlas Obscura.

ID Ransomware – Ever get ransomware on your computer? Use this to see if the virus infecting your pc has been cracked yet or not. Potentially saving you money. You can also sign up for email notifications if your particular problem hasn’t been cracked yet.

Way Back Machine – The Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites and loads more.

Rome2Rio – Directions from anywhere to anywhere by bus, train, plane, car and ferry.

Splitter – Seperate different audio tracks audio. Allowing you to split out music from the words for example.

myNoise – Gives you beautiful noises to match your mood. Increase your productivity, calm down and need help sleeping? All here for you.

DeepL – Best language translation tool on the web.

Forvo – Alternatively, if you need to hear a local speaking a word, this is the site for you.

For even more useful sites, there is an expanded list that can be found here.

Cats tend to only meow at humans after a certain point in their lives for the above said reasons. Even feral cats would have something like meows in the case where they'd be in contact with humans, since most of the vocalisations cats do make amongst each other are outside the human hearing range and/or are accompanied by non-verbal cues.

A large part of housecat vocalisation toward humans isn’t goal-directed communication, but rather, affiliative signaling: a simple call-and-response protocol which establishes that the participants are part of the same social unit. Amongst themselves, most housecat affiliative signaling is non-vocal, but humans aren’t really physiologically equipped to respond to such signalling in a feline fashion, and cats, well, they’re adaptable.

Which is to say that when your cat yells, and you yell back, so the cat yells again, and so forth, what you’re really saying to each other is “hiiiiii~”.