i will never care about the met gala beacuse i know in my heart if you gave a drag queen 45$ and three days they could make something completely out of this world that out every single celeb to shame
i can answer this! the met gala is the main source of funding for the metropolitan museum’s costume institute, which houses something like 30k pieces of surviving historical clothing, shoes, accessories, etc. dating all the way back to the 15th century. the costume institute is the only department of the met that has to fund itself; ticket sales and donations are the institute’s only other sources of funding. the met gala brings in millions of dollars to the institute
i know it seems like just a bunch of rich people flaunting their wealth, but it’s actually what’s paying for the upkeep of all of these pieces of fashion history and keeping them available for public view, instead of in private collections. plus we get to laugh at rich people who don’t know how themes work
I never want to hear conservatives go on about repressive censorship in China, North Korea, and Iran ever again
To be clear to those unfamiliar: these are the companies that libraries use to lend ebooks.
They are literally cutting off library access to minors.
I lent my mom a book before I read it and apparently right at the beginning they tell a true story about all our chestnut trees dying and it made my mother SO DEPRESSED that she couldn't sleep and now she's been researching chestnut trees for the past half hour looking sick
She's right!!
Chestnut trees used to define forests in the South -- some estimates say about 1/4 trees was a chestnut tree. And they were huge! Growing more than 100 feet tall (with trunks more than 10 feet in diameter), they were called the "redwoods of the East." They were a characteristic food source of the South, too. A mature chestnut tree can produce upwards of 50 lbs of nuts a year -- many of these were gathered and eaten by poor families, or turned into chestnut flour and used to make "poor man's bread."
But, at the beginning of the 20th century, a fungus called the blight was brought over from Asia. Over the next 50 years, every single American Chestnut was infected and died. While some root systems are still alive, they're considered functionally extinct.
People cut down huge areas of forest trying to prevent the spread of the blight and save the trees -- but they failed. And now several generations have never even known the chestnut tree. We don't even know enough to miss them.
But now, with advances in genetic technology, the chestnut trees may be coming back! Through a group scientific effort led by the American Chestnut Foundation, researchers have created a "transgenic American chestnut tree with enhanced blight tolerance" called Darling 58. Darling 58 is genetically modified to be able to coexist with the blight.
Darling 58 American chestnuts are currently being reviewed by the USDA-APHIS, EPA, and FDA. But researchers hope to be able to reintroduce them soon -- one huge step towards restoring our forests.
You can follow the chestnut trees' progress (and request a Darling 58 tree when they're available) at https://acf.org/ .
Thank you I'm gonna share this chestnut revitalization news with her!
thinking about all the “small” art that’s ever existed. songs that were only ever sung in one village. stories written by children that got lost in the shuffle. personal paintings that didn’t survive the test of time. how they affected the lives of just a few, but still existed, still mattered to someone.
this is not a sad post!!!! this is a celebration!!!!! art is part of the human condition!!!!!!! we were born to create and share!!!!!!!!!!!







