The Crime Museum in Washington D.C. has a great website for anyone with an interest in crime and criminology. Not only that, but they have a whole friggin library full of anything you want to know.
I mean look at this
T H E Y H A V E E V E R Y T H I N G
Need some info on famous serial killers?
YOOO I’ve never heard anything about female serial killers!
Yeah, remember the Craigslist killer?
Okay, but I want some stuff on the basics of forensic anthropology for a fic I’m wroking on. Anything?
Any time you are about to use a word, STOP! You are making a mistake. Go to this site. Put in the word you think you want to use. It will tell you that you are wrong and you should use other words. Pick one of the other words.
Remember, the number one rule in writing is show, not tell! If you use the word you mean, you are telling, not showing, and your writing will be bad.
It’s hopeful. Solarpunk doesn’t require an apocalypse. It’s a world in which humans haven’t destroyed ourselves and our environment, where we’ve pulled back just in time to stop the slow destruction of our planet. We’ve learned to use science wisely, for the betterment of ourselves and our planet. We’re no longer overlords. We’re caretakers. We’re gardeners.
Scientists are heroes again. And not just physicists and astronomers. Knowledge of biology and earth sciences matter, they’re the building blocks for a future on Earth. Scientific literacy isn’t just for academics – it’s part of daily life. People know how the things they use work, and if they don’t, they can access that information.
It’s diverse. Solarpunk is rooted in using the environment, so it looks different in different places. Alternative energy is best when specific to place (I imagine geothermal, wind, tidal, and hydroelectric energy sources are still used in certain places) so no overarching government system is needed. Communities can organize themselves, taking their own location and needs and history into account. Brazilian, Inuit, Egyptian, Pacific Northwest, and New Zealand solarpunk can all look very different, but be unified in resourceful, intentional, low impact living.
Individuality still matters. In a post-scarcity society, ingenuity and self-expression are not sacrificed on the altar of survival. With solar power there’s no reason not to go off grid, if that’s what you want to do. Communities can self-organize. You can find a community that suits you, or go live by yourself if that floats your boat.
There’s room for spirituality and science to coexist. Solarpunk is rooted in a deep understanding and reverence for natural processes. There’s room for spirituality there, be it pagan, Buddhist, Sufi, Transcendentalism – anything. There’s so much to explore, from nature worship to organized monotheistic religions, and how they interact with solarpunk.
It’s beautiful. The most common solarpunk aesthetic is art nouveau, but again there’s room for diversity, incorporating art styles from multiple cultures in respectful, non-appropriative ways. The most important aspect of solarpunk aesthetic is the melding of art and utility. The idea of intentional living is strong in art nouveau, but it’s not the only art movement with that philosophy.
We can make it happen. Now. Earthships. Permaculture. Aquaponics. Algae lighting. Compostable products that turn into fields of flowers. Buy Nothing organizations. Tiny, beautiful, efficient homes. Solar power cells you can see through. That’s all happening now. Solarpunk is within our grasp, at least on a personal level. I’m not saying there aren’t still big, ugly infrastructures devoted to unethical consumption, but we can start to tear them down. We can build a solarpunk world with stories and small changes. And small changes lead to big changes. That’s the real beauty of solarpunk. It’s not a post-apocalyptic power fantasy. It’s not a wistful daydream, or an elite future only for physicists. It’s something we can work towards right now. It’s tangible.
at the end of All Yesterdays (the extremely good book about imagining and illustrating dinosaurs in complex speculative ways i was talking about yesterday) there’s a section where they prove the point about the fact that we need to be more open to imagining skin coverings and fat/cartilage deposits by illustrating modern-day animals as if a nonhuman paleontologist from millions of years in the future reconstructed them using the just-skin-stretched-over-the-skeleton-and-muscles method that unimaginative paleoartists use with dinosaurs
with results like:
and
and
and i love it so much because it absolutely unquestionably proves the point the book is making
if you are going to do historical inaccuracy, then go big. Just take it to a whole ‘nother level.
I mean like Knight’s Tale “chanting Queen at the jousting tournament ‘foxy lady’” levels of anachronism. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters with Hansel injecting himself with insulin and Gretel wielding a multiple-shot crossbow levels of anachronism. Go for Blazing Saddles, Blackadder, Jack of All Trades, Connecticut Yankee levels of anachronism
you either have to play by the rules or throw out the book.
Go full on Xena. All of history happened at the same time. Get your legs broken by Caesar and find out Lao Tzu didn’t write that book, his wife did, and she hitting on you…all 10 years before you go meet up with Helen at Troy. Fight with Beowulf and commission Sappho within a few months of each other. Abraham and Issac? Only like 2 years before Jesus. Invent CPR and the kite during the bronze age. Watch your gal pal teach Homer how to be a better bard. Have a fucking battle of the bands in Ancient Greece. TIME IS MEANINGLESS.
A road has no special qualifiers. It connects point a to point b.
A street connects buildings together, usually in a city, usually east to west, opposite of avenue.
An avenue runs north south. Avenues and streets may be used interchangeably for directions, usually has median
A boulevard is a street with trees down the middle or on both sides
A lane is a narrow street usually lacking a median.
A drive is a private, winding road
A way is a small out of the way road
a court usually ends in a cul de sac or similar little loop
a plaza or square is usually a wide open space, but in modern definitons, one of the above probably fits better for a plaza as a road.
a terrace is a raised flat area around a building. When used for a road it probably better fits one of the above.
uk, a close is similar to a court, a short road serving a few houses, may have cul de sac
run is usually located near a stream or other small body of water
place is similar to a court, or close, usually a short skinny dead end road, with or without cul de sac, sometimes p shaped
bay is a small road where both ends link to the same connecting road
crescent is a windy s like shape, or just a crescent shape, for the record, above definition of bay was also given to me for crescent
a trail is usually in or near a wooded area
mews is an old british way of saying row of stables, more modernly seperate houses surrounding a courtyard
a highway is a major public road, usually connecting multiple cities
a motorway is similar to a highway, with the term more common in New Zealand, the UK, and Austrailia, no stopping, no pedestrian or animal traffic allowed
an interstate is a highway system connecting usually connecting multiple states, although some exist with no connections
a turnpike is part of a highway, and usully has a toll, often located close to a city or commercial are
a freeway is part of a highway with 2 or more lanes on each side, no tolls, sometimes termedexpressway, no intersections or cross streets.
a parkway is a major public road, usually decorated, sometimes part of a highway, has traffic lights.
a causeway combines roads and bridges, usually to cross a body of water
circuit and speedway are used interchangeably, usually refers to a racing course, practically probably something above.
as the name implies, garden is usually a well decorated small road, but probably better fits an above
a view is usually on a raised area of land, a hill or something similar.
byway is a minor road, usually a bit out of the way and not following main roads.
a cove is a narrow road, can be sheltered, usually near a larger body of water or mountains
a row is a street with a continuous line of close together houses on one or both sides, usually serving a specific function like a frat
a beltway is a highway surrounding an urban area
quay is a concrete platform running along water
crossing is where two roads meet
alley a narrow path or road between buildings, sometimes connects streets, not always driveable
point usually dead ends at a hill
pike usually a toll road
esplanade long open, level area, usually a walking path near the ocean
square open area where multiple streets meet, guess how its usually shaped.
landing usually near a dock or port, historically where boats drop goods.
walk historically a walking path or sidewalk, probably became a road later in its history
grove thickly sheltered by trees
copse a small grove
driveway almost always private, short, leading to a single residence or a few related ones
laneway uncommon, usually down a country road, itself a public road leading to multiple private driveways.
trace beaten path
circle usually circles around an area, but sometimes is like a “square”, an open place intersected by multiple roads.
channel usually near a water channel, the water itself connecting two larger bodies of water,
grange historically would have been a farmhouse or collection of houses on a farm, the road probably runs through what used to be a farm
park originally meaning an enclosed space, came to refer to an enclosed area of nature in a city, usually a well decorated road.
mill probably near an old flour mill or other mill.
spur similar to a byway, a smaller road branching off from a major road.
bypass passes around a populated area to divert traffic
roundabout or traffic circle circle around a traffic island with multiple connecting routes, a roundabout is usually smaller, with less room for crossing and passing, and safer
wynd a narrow lane between houses, similar to an alley, more common in UK
drive shortened form of driveway, not a driveway itself, usually in a neighborhood, connects several houses
parade wider than average road historically used as a parade ground.
terrace more common in uk, a row of houses.
chase on land historically used as private hunting grounds.
branch divides a road or area into multiple subdivisions.
Writing tumblr for 
