historicalheroines:

 I’ve created these flyers for a school activist project where I bring more attention to the women in history that have been forgotten or ignored. This blog will be an extension of those flyers where I post longer biographies of these women and other bad-ass women like them. Too often women’s achievements have been pushed aside, either by others in their lives, or else by the historians who choose to ignore them. This tumblr is dedicated to celebrating them and bringing their achievements to light!

al-spudnik:

Holy crap, the Antikythera Mechanism.

This was an ancient Greek computer - yes, computer - likely designed by Archimedes himself for predicting the movements of the heavenly bodies. Later refined and miniaturized over the centuries, fragments of a portable 1st century BCE version of the device were found in the Antikythera shipwreck at the dawn of the 20th century, but only properly understood much more recently thanks to advances in X-Ray and computer imaging.

The relationships between the thirty astronomically boggling gears are intricate and incredible; predicting the shifting elliptical movements of the moon and planets with absolute precision. The mechanism has correctly predicted the days, hours, and colors of lunar eclipses that have occurred in a sky thousands of years beyond its own creation.

These digital recreations are the dedicated work of Tony Freeth, a mathematician/filmmaker at the forefront of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project.

ornamentedbeing:

aycakes:

snickerfig:

ornamentedbeing:

“The most intriguing duel fought between women, and the sole one that featured exposed breasts, took place in August 1892 in Verduz, the capitol of Liechtenstein, between Princess Pauline Metternich and the Countess Kielmannsegg. It has gone down in history as the first “emancipated duel” because all parties involved, including the principals and their seconds were female… Before the proceedings began, the baroness pointed out that many insignificant injuries in duels often became septic due to strips of clothing being driven into the wound by the point of a sword. To counter this danger she prudently suggested that both parties should fight stripped of any garments above the waist. Certainly, Baroness Lubinska was ahead of her time, taking an even more radical take on the (at the time) widely dismissed theories of British surgeon Joseph Lister, who in 1870 revolutionized surgical procedures with the introduction of antiseptic. 

With the precautions Baroness Lubinska recommended, the topless women duelists were less likely to suffer from an infection; indeed, it was a smart idea to fight semiclad. Given the practicality of the baroness’ suggestion and the “emancipated” nature of the duel, it was agreed that the women would disrobe—after all, there would be no men present to ogle them. For the women, the decision to unbutton the tops of their dresses was not sexual; it was simply a way of preventing a duel of first blood from becoming a duel to the death.

… 

It is humorous that most recounts of this historic event fail to mention two important things: the winner of the duel (Princess Metternich) and the reason why the women came to arms in the first place—they disagreed over the floral arrangements for an upcoming musical exhibition.”

otterbeans:

The first rule of topless victorian ladies swordfighting club is that topless victorian ladies swordfighting club is not to be mentioned in mixed company.

The second rule is naught but an emphatic repeating of the first.

I’M TELLING YOU PINK IS HIDEOUS!

/WHIPS OUT SWORD.

TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT. WE’RE SETTLING THIS WITH A DUEL. 

Seriously some of the comments on this thread are epic.