…“A lot of the students were surprised at how mathematically easy it
was to generate new maps that looked less contorted than the status quo.
That revelation, however, left them with an uneasy feeling about how
government operates.
When asked how this project shaped the way they view politics, at least three used the word “corrupt.”
“I knew the government was corrupt, but I didn’t know it was this corrupt,” said Jake Richards with a chuckle.”…
Some of these maps are hilariously obvious:
For the record, that little strip in that district is I-35. They made a little joke out of their horribly gerrymandered district
Imagine how pissed you have to be to engrave a rock
Ok but there was this guy called Ea-nasir who was a total crook and would actually cheat people ought of good copper and sell them shit instead. The amount of correspondences complaining to and about this guy are HILARIOUS.
Are you telling me we know about a specific guy who lived 5000 years ago, by name, because he was a huge asshole
More like 4000 years ago but yes. Ea-nasir and his dodgy business deals.
And we haven’t even touched on the true hilarity of the situation yet. Consider two additional facts:
He wasn’t just into copper trading. There are letters complaining about Ea-nasir’s business practices with respect to everything from kitchenwares to real estate speculation to second-hand clothing. The guy was everywhere.
The majority of the surviving correspondences regarding Ea-nasir were recovered from one particular room in a building that is believed to have been Ea-nasir’s own house.
Like, these are clay tablets. They’re bulky, fragile, and difficult to store. They typically weren’t kept long-term unless they contained financial records or other vital information (which is why we have huge reams of financial data about ancient Babylon in spite of how little we know about the actual culture: most of the surviving tablets are commercial inventories, bills of sale, etc.).
But this guy, this Ea-nasir, he kept all of his angry letters - hundreds of them - and meticulously filed and preserved them in a dedicated room in his house. What kind of guy does that?
Okay, but imagine from the other guy’s point of view. You send angry letters about how Ea-nasir shipped you half a ton of subpar copper, and then 3800 years later—
History: you are without a doubt the worst business man ive ever heard of
Ea-nasir:
a legacy is planting seeds in a garden you dont get to see
I really want people to understand this. I really want people to grasp how different and unique this response has been. It’s something we’ve never really seen before despite the amount of mass shootings we have in this country. Too often (myself included) we say nothing will be done and feel defeated - but these kids are the future. They are not letting strangers and the media tell their stories and package their narrative. We’ve never seen kids protest this way after such trauma. There won’t be instant change. There may not be change for several years - but these students are not far away from voting, joining grassroots organizations, campaigns, etc or running for office themselves. I am so proud of them.
the venn diagram of ‘people who prefer to hear a comforting lie rather than a difficult truth’ and ‘people who dislike hairless cats’ is a circle. the difficult truth is that cats look like wrinkly goblins underneath that fur and the sooner all of you accept that, the sooner society can move forward
