Feel the Love

736hundred: chemicalfreelife: GMOs + FOOD CHEMICALS: Organic...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 04:32:53 -0700

chemicalfreelife:

GMOs + FOOD CHEMICALS: Organic Fraud? Kashi’s Dirty Little Secret

Kashi cereal’s ‘natural’ claims stir anger
USA TODAY
The company defines natural as “food that’s minimally processed, made with no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives or sweeteners.” Still, some consumers say they felt duped into believing the cereal was organic and free from genetically modified ingredients…

Don’t buy shit

Love these. atavus: No globes: A smog-filled snow globe that...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 04:03:34 -0700

Love these.

atavus:

No globes: A smog-filled snow globe that highlights climate change by Dorothy.

"People will stare. Make it worth their while."

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 03:43:56 -0700

““People will stare. Make it worth their while.””

- — Harry Winston (via doomsdaymachine)

I live this nearly every day. If people are going to stare, let them. Entertain them along the way.

(via floket)

"TRIGGER WARNING: cissexism, transmisogyny, sexual assault. “Deciding to simply exclude trans..."

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 03:06:01 -0700

“

TRIGGER WARNING: cissexism, transmisogyny, sexual assault.

“Deciding to simply exclude trans women to make some cis women feel more comfortable is, in many ways, worse than patriarchal attacks on women because it’s one group of women deciding to “sacrifice” another group, doing the work of the patriarchy for it. I’ll give an example - at Pride London 2008, stewards took it upon themselves to exclude trans women from the female toilets in Trafalgar Square. THey did this the only way it really can be done - they decided to tell anyone they thought was a trans woman not to use those loos.

The upshot is that lots of trans women, who didn’t look like what the stewards expected trans women to look like used the loos anyway - I was one of them, and some cis women were, as I understood, turned away because they didn’t look sufficiently cis. However, the experiences of each group when challenged were different. I understand one butch dyke, when told to use the men’s, was let through after reacting angrily and even threatening physical violence. One trans woman, however, lacking the cis privilege to simply assert her gender identity and desperate for the toilet, went in the men’s toilet, where she was sexually assaulted.

When you exclude trans women from women’s spaces, be very clear that what you are doing is setting yourself up as the gender police, turning often vulnerable women away out of fear of a stereotype about who we are perpetuated by patriarchal society.

Exclusion of trans women is misogyny, and it hurts all women. Stop it.”

”

- Sarah Brown in this F Word comment.

I love Sarah Brown. Despite being a Lib Dem, she’s also a really good politician.

(via fuckyeahgenderstudies)

thedailywhat: CISPA Update of the Day: CISPA, the Cyber...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 02:37:27 -0700

thedailywhat:

CISPA Update of the Day: CISPA, the Cyber Information Sharing and Protection Act that passed the House in April, likely is headed for a Senate vote in early June.

To drum up opposition to the legislation, which would create “a ‘cybersecurity’ exemption to all existing laws,” Fight for the Future, Democrats.com, The Liberty Coalition, and the Entertainment Consumers Association have created a new website called Privacy Is Awesome. The site outlines the top five ways to help defeat CISPA:

Call your senators and tell them to oppose the Lieberman-Collins bill (CISPA), and ask for a constituent meeting during the Memorial Day recess to help change their mind.

Email senators offices about CISPA, expressing your opposition.

Keep calling senators until they plan a constituent meeting.

Donate to anti-CISPA organizers — the same teams that helped defeat SOPA/PIPA.

Share your opposition online — Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is spearheading opposition to the legislation, concluding a recent Senate floor speech with:

I believe these bills will encourage the development of a cyber security industry that profits from fear and whose currency is Americans private data. These bills create a Cyber Industrial Complex that has an interest in preserving the problem to which it is the solution.

Watch the full video here. It’s terrific.

[death+taxes}

thingsorganizedneatly: SUBMISSION: Knot Display at an Oregon...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 02:07:37 -0700

thingsorganizedneatly:

SUBMISSION:

Knot Display at an Oregon Coast Guard Museum

In The Magical Realm

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 01:49:26 -0700

mediapathic:

3liza:

protowilson:

portiareigns:

I have been reading books on philosophy and psychology and fanfiction on the web. I’ve also been spending a lot of time reading blogs on the internet, ranging far and wide. These things have become tangled and I think they are very much related.

My son has a friend that lives three houses away. He will text my son and arrange internet game playing. He won’t walk down the street. He won’t even use his voice on the phone. A text is preferred. I have been trying to understand this behavior, by reading.

Read More

This essay, like many of the other considerations of “the internet” by people older than 30 (or people raised in the manner of people older than 30), fails to check its very premise: that the internet is “not real”. That writing a text is somehow, magically, less authentic than, say, passing a note in class. Or even whispering in someone’s ear. That those of us raised online can’t decipher tone or feeling in even the most offhanded typing of our friends and loved ones. That our refusal to “use our voices on the phone” makes us emotional, social, even experiential cripples.

I understand the urge to simplify the new social experience this way, and at a first or even second reading it appears sound, but I deplore the almost flippant conclusions reached by our loving, well-meaning, but ultimately uninformed elders.

This assertion—that the Internet, text messages and so on aren’t “real”, that they somehow “don’t count”—doesn’t stand up to examination, except in the very biological, reductionist sense. If you stand on the belief in a sort of “chemical communication” between adjacent physical bodies, pheromones that somehow sign off on every human exchange face-to-face, stamping a big rubber [AUTHENTIC SOCIALIZING] on every bit of small talk, then sure. But what this steps over entirely is the fact that every mode of communication has its accompanying set of falsehoods, either in projection or perception of the message.

If a friend walks up to me in the street and invites me to a party the next day, my perception of the message benefits (in clarity) from the data contained in their tone of voice, their posture, and their cadence (for example), but suffers from the distraction of being outside, of being in a hurry, of having to pee, of being bored (these are my failings) and also of their lying to me, of their having a cold that makes their voice strange, of their being distracted by their own simultaneous experience there on the street. Each of these facets of the exchange are traded for ones of equal weight when the conversation is moved online. My friend sends me a text, Facebook message, wall post, or Tumblr ask, inviting me to a party. At once I am examining their message for clues—the lack of, or inclusion of capitalized letters, the use of specialized argots within our shared social group, the use of emoticons, injokes, or HTML formatting.

My ability to read—and misread—these clues is as robust, if not moreso, than when confronted with the same exchange in person. The message remains the same. My methods of reading it, of deciphering it, flow from medium to medium, but in no sense is the party invitation “less real” for having come via SMS.

The other issue here, which benefits the digital alone, is the ability to master your own expenditure of time. I just finished reading Ada again, so I’ve been considering Time for days. While my friend approaching me physically on the street is intrusive, in that we both must compromise whatever we are doing in order to fit the exchange into a sort of tyrannical bit of gristle between our separate Timestreams (not that my friend is intruding on me, or even I on them, but more that we both must see the chance to have this exchange about the party invitation, and then both must take it simultaneously in order for the conversation to occur, like two world leaders turning two keys on a nuclear launch authorization, or even a shuttle crew waiting for the right orbital window) which, briefly, allows us to talk. If my friend had sent the invitation via SMS, the message would remain perfectly preserved as it left their fingers, and crash on my shores intact, waiting for me there whenever I most wanted to read it, when I could devote the best eyes to it, when I could think about it most clearly. Digital communication, if not freeing us from Time, certainly lets out our leashes a bit.

To put it another way, digital communication allows my friend to communicate through time with me, which goes a long way towards making sure the meeting of minds occurs when both participants are at their best.

The original essay touches on this, but frames it as an “inferiority complex” issue, which leads inevitably to bullying and trolling, and that children like the author’s son cannot “handle” that the friend that lives a mere three doors down is “too real” to interact with. I think this is not giving the kid enough credit, when he’s clearly smart enough to take advantage of the flexibility in the new (and no less devoted) friendships of his generation.

And truly, the same things were said of the telegram, the telephone, the letter, the parchment, the clay tablet, the cave painting…

TL;DR

(Seriously, this is genius)

obsoletetweet: #art #design These are stunning. The innovative...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 01:22:37 -0700

obsoletetweet:

#art #design These are stunning. The innovative art of Nick Gentry. Floppy disks as your canvas. http://www.nickgentry.co.uk

So many years I’ve wanted something like...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:44:42 -0700

So many years I’ve wanted something like this…

notesfromagloe:

I’ll take 20

literateperversions: Awesome in so many ways. Who among us...

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:12:40 -0700

literateperversions:

Awesome in so many ways. Who among us hasn’t had to deal with these questions?

rebekahloves:

yourbadgrrl:

I so love this!

gpoy

ilovecharts: Beautiful, Tactile, 3D Design Click through for...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 23:20:33 -0700

ilovecharts:

Beautiful, Tactile, 3D Design

Click through for more. Also, death.

"We hold back by telling ourselves that our boss will soon give us the order to charge. It’s our..."

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 22:46:57 -0700

“We hold back by telling ourselves that our boss will soon give us the order to charge. It’s our candy.”

- http://translatingtheprintempserable.tumblr.com/post/23795343880/we-remain-unmoved-by-telling-ourselves-that-later-on

A Montreal riot cop speaking about his relish for beating the student protesters. If you don’t know what’s happening in Canada right now, it’s not surprising: just like the mass media blackout of Occupy events, the student protests against tuition rate increases (tens of thousands of protesters strong [and not all of them students, either]) in Montreal and Toronto are being covered up as best as the Canadian government and media can manage it.

I’m posting this just to demonstrate that cruel, stupid, and bloodthirsty police are found everywhere, that they are the rule and not the exception, even in “peaceful”, “socialist” Canada.

(via 3liza)

"Because equality is not a concept. It’s not something we should be striving for. It’s a necessity...."

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 22:35:01 -0700

“Because equality is not a concept. It’s not something we should be striving for. It’s a necessity. Equality is like gravity, we need it to stand on this earth as men and women and the misogyny that is in every culture is not a true part of the human condition it is life out of balance and that imbalance is sucking something out of the soul of every man and woman that is confronted with it. We NEED equality. Kinda now.”

- Joss Whedon when asked why he writes strong female characters. (via itscandidlycara)

Photo

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 22:00:25 -0700

"What’s the value of the Internet? What’s its teaching? I think there’s a realization right around..."

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 21:30:18 -0700

“What’s the value of the Internet? What’s its teaching? I think there’s a realization right around the corner: that though in one way the Internet allows us to deify an individualistic self image, in the same breath it reveals the fundamental unity of our circumstance. The big campaign for the last few hundred years has been isolated personalities, materialism, industry, and even the lone hero fighting it off that we see in say existentialism: everything that makes the perception of our scenario a solitary being in an alien cosmos. Here the holistic is a minority. But now imagine if the Internet was just you. Instead it is our collective consciousness squeezed though a tube of binary. It is our whole species’s mind bounced off of satellites and transmitted into these mirrorscreens. And we can’t stop doing it—its become a compulsion. And it’s showing us ourselves. And it’s just us, as one gent pointed out. To me it’s just what we need now. Its a karma accelerating engine: you can’t get away with shit now, it’s an inferno of consequences; and it’s a technology that enlivens the reality that we are all really one of One. It’s precisely the lesson in metaphysics that our jaded perception demands for its very ontological evolution and biological survival. So when it comes to the future, the Internet is the Agenda. It’s a living mirror facing the web of life. It’s our jubilee dedicated to the jubilee we’ve all walked in on. It’s our most developed spiritual technology thus far.”

- (via anti-teachings)

stealthbananas: Wow. Well, not actually ‘wow’ cuz I totally...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 21:11:03 -0700

stealthbananas:

Wow. Well, not actually ‘wow’ cuz I totally expect to see big protests get virtually no coverage in the media, but still, wow, no coverage of the protests in my Google news aggregator.

:(

unknownbinaries: xutraa: clitcoral: 10scenepointstothewinner: ...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 20:31:51 -0700

unknownbinaries:

xutraa:

clitcoral:

10scenepointstothewinner:

motherfuckingfaggotbrigade:

The Armadillo Lizard (Cordylus cataphractus) is a lizard endemic to desert areas of southern Africa. It is also known as the Typical Girdled Lizard, Armadillo Girdled Lizard, Golden Armadillo Lizard, and Armadillo Spiny-tailed Lizard.

The Armadillo Lizard possesses an uncommon antipredator adaptation, in which it takes its tail in its mouth and rolls into a ball when frightened. In this shape it is protected from predators by the thick, squarish scales along its back and the spines on its tail. This behavior, which resembles that of the mammalian armadillo, gives it its English common name. This behavior may have inspired tales of the mythical creature Ouroboros.

I want one

i need a wee dragon

Paging @unknownbinaries, @unknownbinaries to the babby dragon

EEEEEEE and also SWEETIE YOUR TAIL IS NOT DINNER.

skaterboytae: When a honeybee dies it releases a death...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 20:03:31 -0700

skaterboytae:

When a honeybee dies it releases a death pheromone, a characteristic odor that signals the survivors to remove it from the hive. This might seem a supreme final act of social responsibility. The corpse is promptly pushed and tugged out of the hive. The death pheromone is oleic acid [a fairly complex molecule, CH3(CH2)7CH=CH(CH2)7COOH, where = stands for a double chemical bond].

What happens if a live bee is dabbed with a drop of oleic acid?

Then, no matter how strapping and vigorous it might be, it is carried “kicking and screaming” out of the hive. Even the Queen bee, if she’s painted with invisible amounts of oleic acid, will be subjected to this indignity.

Do the bees understand the danger of corpses decomposing in the hive? Are they aware of the connection between death and oleic acid? Do they have any idea what death is? Do they think to check the oleic acid signal against other information, such as healty spontaneous movement? The answer to all these questions is, almost certainly, No. In the life of the hive there’s no way that a bee can give off detectable whiff of oleic acid other than by dying. Elaborate contemplative machinery is unnecessary. Their perceptions are adequate for their needs.

Ann Druyan & Carl Sagan, Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors: Who Are We?, What Thin Partitions

sminten: OMG!!! Oh god, I’m hearing the little sound and...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 19:42:31 -0700

sminten:

OMG!!!

Oh god, I’m hearing the little sound and everything!

duskandshiverrrr: nothing-rhymes-with-ianto: hannahmereana: fr...

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 19:11:46 -0700

duskandshiverrrr:

nothing-rhymes-with-ianto:

hannahmereana:

fruit in summer <3

I’m such a fruit-aholic. I basically like every fruit except for raspberries, which I’m not so fond of.

Squash, I will happily take all your raspberries. They are the best.