ThePrettiestOne

the-burden-of-atlas:

gamoradorable:

      ↳ Legendary Star-Lord #3

Oh my god what

lamardeuse:

-teesa-:

9.4.14

Michael Che speaks to Jim Gilchrist, president of the Minuteman Project, about the “invasion” of immigrant children.

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha omg. WIN.

Tony Zhou (see previously) of Every Frame a Painting created a new video essay that explores Robin Williams‘ brilliant craft in his films and how he effortlessly expressed character through movement.

Robin Williams was a genius, but he was also a dedicated craftsman who explored how an actor could express character through movement. Join me in honoring this tiny facet of his work.

fuck-yeah-feminist:

This deserves so many reblogs.

Feminism is having a wardrobe malfunction.

Does your brand of feminism remove barriers for women, or simply move them around? Does is expand options for women, or does it just shift them? You don’t liberate women by forcing them to choose option B instead of option A. What is comfortable for you might not be comfortable for someone else, and it’s entirely possible that what you see as oppressive, other women find comfortable or even downright liberating.

Some women would feel naked without a veil. Some women would find it restrictive. Some women would feel restricted by a bra. Some women would feel naked without one. Some women would feel restricted by a tight corset. Others love them. Some wear lots of clothes with a corset. Some only wear the corset and nothing else. What makes any article of clothing oppressive is someone forcing you to wear it. And it’s just as oppressive to force someone not to wear something that they want to wear.

— rosalarian

atane:

2 white construction workers who were witnesses to Mike Brown’s murder have stepped forward to say that Mike Brown was murdered with his hands up. They fear losing their jobs.

PBS Idea Channel (see previously) host Mike Rugnetta explores whether art requires distance and whether The Daily Show is a better news program than traditional evening news in a short video that briefly covers both topics.

Takin’ a little break to enjoy summer weather, but never fear, we wouldn’t leave you with NOTHING TO TALK ABOUT!!! So… here are a couple thoughts to keep your brain warm until we’re back next week. No. 1: Does an object need to have no utilitarian use to be art? No. 2: Is The Daily Show a better news program than traditional evening news?

teamsternation:

Not Labor Day anymore. But still important info. 

spitecho:

k-lionheart:

allonsyohanna:

jaclcfrost:

u think i am walking around the house with a blanket around my shoulders because i cold but in actuality it is my cloak and i am on an adventure

the fridge: there and back again

The microwave: the desolation of left overs

The liquor cabinet: an expected journey

FUCK GRAVITY.

corvuse:

On the first day of classes, when I asked rooms full of middle school students to raise their hands if they were gamers, the girls - even if they played Minecraft or CoD just as frequently and enthusiastically as the boys - would not put up their hands. They’d already learned that this would only make them the target of harassment and ridicule. They’d already learned that claiming this label meant constantly having to prove their right to exist within that space.

So why not help them reclaim it? Why not make “gamer” an identity everyone can feel comfortable with?

Because I think it’s a relatively meaningless label created by marketing executives to create a demographic they could sell energy drinks and highly-processed snack foods to. I think it was created in order to convey that playing video games somehow makes you “extreme” and “elite.” Because I think it’s a label that creates a primary identity that has nothing to do with who you are as a person, or how you treat the people around you.

Telling me that you’re a gamer tells me nothing about you as a person. And that absence of information - in and of itself - can be telling.

So, if you hope to reclaim that label, more power to you. I hope someday I’ll hear someone say that they’re a gamer and know it means they’re a well-rounded person who believes in respectful communities. In the meantime, however, I’ll keep right on being a person who enjoys playing video games.

Last week there were a bunch of great posts expounding on the staying power of blogs and RSS. It seems we’re not the only people comparing social media platforms to the open web and we gained a lot of valuable new insight.

All weekend I’ve been thinking about relevance. When Twitter first took off, it delivered. So much of my Twitter feed was filled with timely, interesting material that it became addictive.

But over time Twitter became more of a platform for self-promotion, corporate advertisement, and random, passive-aggressive posts from college roommates. It went from “check out this amazing article I read” to “look at me because I said so.” That’s just not relevant to me.

Facebook never really delivered on relevance, but it was at least new and fresh for a while. Now it feels like an obligation. Happy Birthday. Yes, I like your new hat. Congratulations on your anniversary. Oooh, she’s so cute. And, of course, buy this stuff from Nordstrom.

But blogs and RSS, like email and websites, remain. They are solely focused on delivering relevant information. Could they be better? Heck yes. Check out my queue after I spent several hours reading yesterday:

Yikes, that’s a lot of reading left to do. But that’s 2,619 posts with the highest signal to noise ratio I’m going to see all day. We’re hard at work with ideas to make that even better. And we believe that social is going to be the key in improving that ratio.

We’ll have more on that in the future. But for now, let’s all get back to blogging and reading. May your screen be filled with relevance.

the-kellephant:

david-tennants-little-fangirl:

I still laugh at this every single time I see it.

HAHAHAHAHA

sizvideos:

Video

elige:

afro-dominicano:

ethiopianbutamerican:

Forty-six million white adults today can trace the origins of their family wealth to the Homestead Act of 1862. This bill gave away valuable acres of land for free to white families, but expressly precluded participation by Blacks.

"how do I have privilege?"

Holy FUCK

The latest figures: Between January 1 and August 29 of this year, nearly 600 confirmed measles cases were reported to the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. The resurgence is the greatest the U.S. has seen since the disease was eliminated from the country in 2000.

Read more...

 
10. Capitalist corporations suffer from a personality disorder characterized by enduring antisocial behavior, diminished empathy and remorse, and are rewarded by shareholders for acting that way. If corporations could be sent to a criminal psychologist’s office they’d be diagnosed as psychopaths and locked away forever.
 

Whenever the feminist games-critic and survivor of countless outraged misogynist stalkers Anita Sarkeesian's name is invoked, there follows a flood of men who want to explain that she brought it on herself, that she isn't a gamer, that she isn't a good critic, and assorted related rubbish. Read the rest

obytheby:

applecocaine:

myjamflavouredmindtardis:

megan15:

theybuildbuildings:

vintagegal:

Girls pose by a jail that recalls the witch trials of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. Photo taken in 1945.

I recently learned that the water in Salem was contaminated with the fungus from which LSD is derived and a legitimate theory for the whole thing is that everyone in the town was tripping balls 

This might be the greatest thing ive ever seen on the internet

We did a whole massive thing on this in history. I believe the fungus in question is called Ergot and it’s terrifying. It makes your muscles spasm so when they had seizures that was the reason, not because they were possessed. One woman had to be strapped to her bed, she was seizing so bad. And, like ‘theybuildbuildings’ said, it had the same effects as LSD; as soon as you touch it, let alone consume it, it messes with your entire system. The worst thing is, you practically always had a bad trip. Many complained about bugs crawling under their skin or monsters emerging from the shadows to scratch and bite at them until they were screaming. It was a horrendous thing and the worst part is, Ergot is still around. It grows on crops and, if your wheat isn’t properly treated, it can be eaten and you’ll most likely experience the same as the women of Salem. 

god i love history

This is hella cool and almost correct… 

The effects on the people of Salem were probably from consuming bread with the fungus in it, not from contaminated water. And apparently rye is way more commonly affected than wheat. In fact, often the members of the clergy were able to afford nicer bread made from wheat and thus were not as commonly affected.

You don’t go on a spasm-y trip just by touching it. You have to consume it for weeks, which results in chronic poisoning. ( If you stop eating it early enough, you may recover. So when people suffering from these “demonic possessions” took refuge in churches and stopped eating low-grade rye bread they were sometimes miraculously healed. 

More interesting facts:

Ergot poisoning can result in convulsions & hallucinations, or it can cause gangrene, depending on which group of active alkaloids are present. (Horrifying, either way.) It killed a lot of people in Europe in the Middle Ages. 

In Europe, often there was a strong correlation between wet summers (which provide ideal conditions for ergot) and reports of witchcraft/ possession. And in Norway and Scotland, records of witch persecution are only found in areas where rye was grown and used to make bread.

And I just learned right now that one author dude translated the word “Beowulf” as “barley-wolf” which could indicate a connection to ergot. The LSD-like effects could be a valid explanation for stories of Old Norse warriors going into the a sort of trancelike battle rage.

(this is exactly the kind of stuff my herbology medicinal plants class is about, it’s so cool omfg. we had a lecture on ergot last week.)

Stating that everyone "has the right to play games, criticize games and make games without getting harassed or threatened", some of the biggest names in gaming have put their names to an open letter addressing the community conflict that's been so prominent online over the past few weeks.

Read more...

A few days ago, James Gunn posted a story he got sent from a fan whose autistic young brother was overjoyed when he realized that Drax the Destroyer was just like him: “He’s like me! He can’t do metaphors!”

Warning: Somehow, something got stuck in my eye after looking at this picture. It might do the same to you!

[Source: JUST KEEP SWIMMING SWIMMING SWIMMING | Via]

syntheticmomma:

lupusadlunam:

thechangelingmedusa:

Like seriously, why isn’t pole dancing an olympic sport? This is freakin gymnastics. This is strength and skill. This is not sexual whatsoever. Why does pole dancing have to be so stigmatised as a sexual thing that only strippers do? I have great respect for all people who can pull this off. This is art and beauty right here. 

HEY FUN FACT: pole dancing is known as something strippers do because strippers invented it. And that’s okay! It’s okay to have respect for strippers and the hard work they put into what they do! Let’s stop trying to take the stripper part out of pole dancing so upperclass white girls can do it without being ~stigmatized~ because god forbid women be sexual.

geekgirlvideo:

(via Science Club for Girls | Science Club for Girls)

Since its founding in 1994, Science Club for Girls (SCFG) has strived to provide the very best in girls-specific programming, by connecting girls in K-12 grades, especially those from underrepresented groups, with female mentor-scientists through free science and engineering programs in a fun, nurturing, interactive environment. Our leadership program for teenage girls gives them the opportunity to be role models, teach young children science, learn life skills, conduct outreach, and explore careers in science and technology. More than 1,000 girls participate annually in SCFG programs that take place in five cities in eastern Massachusetts (Cambridge, Lawrence, Boston, Newton and Fitchburg), as well as in Pokuase, Ghana.