theinfinityarchivist
249 posts
Latest Posts by theinfinityarchivist
I LOVE SPACE I LOVE SPACE 💯 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Boomers can navigate screens like THIS no problem in order to slurp down the next utter bullshit right-wing-tinged AI slop but can't manage to understand that waving a card in front of the screen (not the card reader) without having pressed the giant "pay now" button on a streamlined self-checkout system will not, in fact, mean they have paid for their items. And then they will be rude to you about it
Member of staff using the new pneumatic tube cash collection system, Sainsbury's, London Southgate, 1978. From the Sainsbury Archive.
my gf's laptop's audio driver's broke and she's complaining about it being slow so now i get to install linux on it :3
ultimate pickup line: wanna come install linux on a thinkpad?
Tallinn, Estonia (by Irina)
EVERYONE(!) I’m blazing this post because at this pace we might barely hit 1,000,000 signatures—or just fall short. PLEASE reblog this post, no matter where you are from, so we can reach as many EU citizens as possible and end this horrible practice!
Citing such factors as work-related stress, mortgage worries, and the ever-growing duties of parenthood and marriage, Erdman said he has finally accepted the reality that embarrassingly bad films, TV shows, and consumer products are no longer a viable source of amusement for him.
“I turn on the TV these days, and if I see something that’s unbelievably stupid and insulting to my intelligence, all I want to do is turn it off,” said Erdman, pausing to sip from a Tom Collins, a drink he began ordering in 1989 to be amusing but now orders without irony on the rare occasion when he still drinks. “What’s happened to me?”
Full Story
Somebody ate a hole in the flour.
Any idea who it could be?
Have you seen this post?
You probably have. It currently has over 120,000 notes, largely because of this addition.
Of course it's going to get reblogged, this kind of unsourced factoid does numbers on here. But something about it wasn't quite right.
A bit of searching turned up the origin of the "fact".
Alright, so it's someone who posted this on reddit 4 years ago and somehow ended up in the search hits. And the post confuses the electric eel (from South America) with the electric catfish (from the Nile, which the Egyptians would have known about).
Reminder: this is an electric eel (Electrophorus electricus). It is from South America. (image from Wikipedia)
And this is an electric catfish (Malapterurus electricus). It is from the Nile and would have been familiar to the ancient Egyptians. (image from Wikipedia)
And then of course people were speculating in the notes to that post about trade routes between South America and Egypt. Excellent scholarship everyone.
At this point I was ready to call it another made-up internet fact that gets reified by people repeating it. But something was still bothering me.
An ancient Egyptian slab from 3100 BC. What could that be...
Oh.
The Narmer palette. It's the goddamn Narmer palette. (image, once again, from Wikipedia)
So where is this "angry catfish"?
It's not the Egyptian name for the electric catfish.
It's... Narmer. It's Narmer himself.
Narmer's name is written as above (detail of top middle of the palette), using the catfish (n`r) and the chisel (mr), giving N'r-mr. The chisel is associated with pain, so this reads as "painful catfish", "striking catfish", or, yes, "angry catfish" or other similar variants, although some authors have suggested that it means "Beloved of [the catfish god] Nar".
So.
Where does this leave us?
It would appear that this redditor not only confused electric eels with electric catfish, but also confused a Pharaoh's name with the name of a fish. And then it got pushed to the top search hits by a crappy search engine and shared uncritically on tumblr.
In short, "the electric eel is called angry catfish" factoid actually literacy error. Angry Catfish, who ruled upper Egypt and smote his enemies, is an outlier adn should not have been counted.
Also the Arabic name for the electric catfish is raad (thunder) or raada (thunderer).
References
Afsaruddin, A., & Zahniser, A. H. M. (1997). Humanism, culture, and language in the Near East: studies in honor of Georg Krotkoff. Eisenbrauns.
Clayton, P. A. (2001). Chronicle of the Pharaohs. Thames & Hudson.
Godron, G. (1949). A propos du nom royal. Annales du Service des antiquités de l'Egypte, 49, 217-221.
Sperveslage, G., & Heagy, T. C. (2023). A tail's tale: Narmer, the catfish, and bovine symbolism. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 109(1), 3-319.
Scrimshawed Sailors dice holder & dice, c. 1880
“It’s targeted violence. The Schutzstaffel have been treated very unfairly for just doing their jobs. Their land was seized and turned into concentration camp museums. That’s why it’s so important that we get them all into the United States, where they can rest assured they won’t be discriminated against.” At press time, Trump was reportedly thanking senior advisor Elon Musk for bringing the plight of the Nazi people to the world’s attention.
Full Story
“Everyone saw in my face evil traits that I didn’t possess. But they assumed I did, and so they developed. I was modest, and was accused of being deceitful: I became secretive. I had a strong sense of good and evil; instead of kindness I received nothing but insults, so I grew resentful. I was gloomy, other children were merry and talkative. I felt myself superior to them, but was considered inferior: I became envious. I was ready to love the whole world, but no one understood me, so I learned to hate. My colorless youth was spent in a struggle with myself and with the world. Fearing mockery, I buried my best feelings at the bottom of my heart: there they died.”
— Mikhail Lermontov, A Hero of Our Time (trans. Vladimir Nabokov)
how would one go about cosplaying as JSTOR?
Like this but with a giant J in the middle
Poppy blooming. Nuria Martinez Marquez.
Ok this isn't a bug but I need to share - LOOK at these absolutely minuscule precious little poppies
White pygmy-poppy, Canbya candida, found in Southern California
Photos by keirmorse, mojavedon, and pokemon_master
Ok this isn't a bug but I need to share - LOOK at these absolutely minuscule precious little poppies
White pygmy-poppy, Canbya candida, found in Southern California
Photos by keirmorse, mojavedon, and pokemon_master
Worked with the lovely and skilled @hyddedraws on a refresh of the cabin emblems!
Sestroretsk, Leningrad oblast (1972)
City Palace complex, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
"Apple Blossom Twig" by Mikhail Kugach (1971)
Pousada Palácio de Estoi, Faro, Portugal
Loket Castle, Loket, Karlovy Vary Region, Czech Republic
An "Almost Everything" Sky ©
a few great films that are free on the internet archive
in decent quality too!
here is the archive collection of these films so you can favorite on there/save if desired.
links below
black girl (1966) dir. ousmane sembene
the battle of algiers (1966) dir. gillo pontecorvo
paris, texas (1984) dir. wim wenders
desert hearts (1985) dir. donna deitch
harold and maude (1973) dir. hal ashby
los olvidados (1952) dir. luis bunuel
walkabout (1971) dir. nicolas roag
rope (1948) dir alfred hitchcock
freaks (1932) dir. tod browning
frankenstein (1931) dir. james whale
sunset boulevard (1950) dir billy wilder
fantastic planet (1973) dir. rené laloux
jeanne dielman (1975) dir. chantal akerman
the color of pomegranates (1969) dir. sergei parajanov
all about eve (1950) dir. joseph l. mankiewicz
gilda (1946) dir. charles vidor
the night of the hunter (1950) dir. charles laughton
the invisible man (1931) dir. james whale
COLLECTION of georges méliès shorts
rebecca (1940) dir. alfred hitchcock
brief encounter (1946) dir. david lean
to be or not to be (1942) dir. ernst lubitsch
a place in the sun (1951) dir george stevens
eyes without a face (1960) dir. georges franju
double indeminity (1944) dir. billy wilder
wild strawberries (1957) dir. ingmar bergman
shame (1968) dir. ingmar bergman
through a glass darkly (1961) dir. ingmar bergman
persona (1961) dir. ingmar bergman
winter light (1963) dir. ingmar bergman
the ascent (1977) dir. larisa shepitko
the devil, probably (1977) dir. robert bresson
cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) dir. agnes varda
alien (1979) dir. ridley scott + its sequels
after hours (1985) dir. martin scorsese
halloween (1978) dir. john carpenter
the watermelon woman (1996) dir. cheryl dune