ThePrettiestOne

A survey released today by the Commonwealth Fund ranks the United States dead last in the quality of its healthcare system compared to ten other developed nations. At the same time, it's also the most expensive in the world.

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Brian is a male bonobo who was born at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, but spent most of his life at the Milwaukee County Zoo. His childhood was rough, thanks to an abusive father, and as he transitioned into early adulthood, his prospects seemed grim.

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karadin:

chicklikemeblog:

justplainsomething:

hermionegranger:

Real Time with Bill Maher: 6.6.14 — Anthony Weiner, Jim Geraghety, Nicolle Wallace

#FINALLYSOMEONESAYSIT

Holy shit, Anthony Weiner actually said something important.

A million times this.  Every time I get behind a car with a bumper sticker saying something like “Where’s all that change you asked for?” I want to scream at them.  It’s like turning off the AC and then mocking people for sweating.  

He’s Right

Even broken cocks are right twice a day.

killsmewithdesire:

vegetablr:

whisperingf0rests:

artbymoga:

Most importantly: you’re stronger than you think.

WHY DOES THIS NOT HAVE MORE NOTES

wow, this is

really helpful

My best friend has given me this exact advice numerous times, he’s spot on accurate.

S E L F
C A R E

weneeddiversebooks:

Today is the start of our new summertime reading series “If you liked…, Read this next…” for diverse books. The #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign is deeply committed to increasing the visibility of the wonderful diverse books that are published. Because these books do not get the marketing and promotion that the blockbuster books get. So we want to do our part in raising the profile of diverse books and bringing them to a larger audience. Help us spread the word! We will have a new “If You LIked” every day of the summer!

The first book in our series is the YA book Akata Witch by Nnedi Okarafor. You really need to read this author who the great Ursula LeGuin said “There’s more vivid imagination in a page of Nnedi Okorafor’s work than in whole volumes of ordinary fantasy epics.” So what are you waiting for?

Buenos Aires-based digital artist Martín De Pasquale uses his mastery of Adobe Photoshop to create wonderfully surreal digital illustrations. While he creates a wide array of illustrations, many of his most amusing images are self-portraits. He has more work on his Behance portfolio.

images by Martín De Pasquale

via Illusion, Bored Panda

In May, the io9 book club read James S.A. Corey's Leviathan Wakes. Today, from 1 p.m. - 2 p.m. (PDT) Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, the two authors who collaborate as James S.A. Corey, will be here to answer your questions about Leviathan Wakes, interstellar detective stories, and anything else!

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“White men make up approximately 36% of the population, but commit 75% of mass shootings. What would be called terrorism by any other skin tone is suddenly some mysterious unnamed disease. We as a society are perfectly happy to further stigmatize mentally ill people, who are far more likely to be victims of violence than commit violence, in the service of protecting white supremacy and male entitlement.”

- (via shitrichcollegekidssay)

black-belt-in-origami:

jessehimself:

Pennsylvania Judge Sentenced For 28 Years For Selling Kids to the Prison System

Mark Ciavarella Jr, a 61-year old former judge in Pennsylvania, has been sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison for literally selling young juveniles for cash. He was convicted of accepting money in exchange for incarcerating thousands of adults and children into a prison facility owned by a developer who was paying him under the table. The kickbacks amounted to more than $1 million.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned some 4,000 convictions issued by him between 2003 and 2008, claiming he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles – including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea. Some of the juveniles he sentenced were as young as 10-years old.

Ciavarella was convicted of 12 counts, including racketeering, money laundering, mail fraud and tax evasion. He was also ordered to repay $1.2 million in restitution.

His “kids for cash” program has revealed that corruption is indeed within the prison system, mostly driven by the growth in private prisons seeking profits by any means necessary.

—-

Why might this not be a HUGE national story and his name not household? I’ll give you one guess what color those kids were.

what in the everloving fuck

Fuck the NRA.

im-just-a-lucky-boy:

kunaigirl:

claclalala:

This is for all you ladies out there.

the struggle is real

I have a trans man story about this.

Since I’m pre-t I still have my period but since I’m socially out as trans I use men’s bathrooms. One time at the college the family bathroom was taken and so I went into the men’s room to do my business. I tried opening the little pad as quietly as I could manage, but the rustling and ripping sound still happened. I froze in silence because I didn’t know if the other guy in the men’s room heard it or not.

Then after a little bit of silence I hear…

"Who has a bag of chips?"

And in a panic I just whisper back to him “I’m not sharing.”

Then I hear a huff before he finished his business and left.

Toronto, Canada cartoonist and illustrator John Martz has created “Know Your Double, a clever illustrated field guide that will help you identify your doppelgänger. This comic is part of John’s ongoing series at Medium.

via Waxy.org

book-choco-loco:

Woops, there it is. (x)

California-based glass artist Loren Stump specializes in a form of glasswork called murrine, where rods of glass are melted together and then sliced to reveal elaborate patterns and forms. While the murrina process appeared in the Mideast some 4,000 years ago, Stump has perfected his own technique over the past 35 years to the point where he can now layer entire portraits and paintings in glass before slicing them to see the final results. His most complex piece to date is a detailed interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks, which involved hundreds of glass components that were melted into a final piece. You can see more of Stump’s 2D and 3D work over on his website. (via Lost at E Minor)

ninjakato:

ruaniamh:

kaymonstar:

I keep laughing.

HERE COMES THE AIRPLANE

"EAT THE FUCKING BISCUIT MEATBAG!!!"

Even though you are reading this on a sophisticated electronic device, you are an animal. That's the most radical idea to come out of Charles Darwin's groundbreaking studies of evolution, and even today, it still freaks people out.

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This photograph is of a Creole home right off the Mississippi river in Louisiana.  It served as the home of two families who ran a sugar cane plantation, starting in 1805. I visited the home as a part of a tour of Laura Plantation and I found one architectural detail particularly interesting.  The tour guide described the two sets of double doors immediately behind the staircase as the “brise” (French for breeze, as the Creole would have spoken French). These doors were not for use by people.  They were only to let the breeze in.  They were essentially air ducts, said the tour guide and, to Creole folks, using those doors would have been as odd as entering the house through a window. Instead, according to Creole tradition, visitors were to enter through one of the doors on the far right or left of the house.  These delivered guests to the men’s and women’s quarters: one room with a bedroom, a dresser, and a desk.

All this, of course, was very bizarre to the new Americans of British descent who came to Louisiana to do business.  The front doors of their homes were in the middle of the house and they led to an entryway or reception area.  To them, it would have been very odd indeed to enter the house at one end and even more strange to enter someone’s bedroom.  Moreover, since Laura Plantation was run by women for many years, this meant doing business in a woman boudoir. How scandalous.

This is a great example of the social construction of space. Where is the proper place for a front door? What kind of activities take place in the same room? What rooms/furniture are appropriate for strangers to see? Non-Creoles had to learn how to do business in a new way — perhaps accidentally bungling their entry by knocking at the window — and, ultimately, Laura and the other female presidents of the plantation would have to negotiate their expectations, by separating the bed and office for example. Something as simple as a front door, then, turns out to be a really neat example of social construction and social change.

Cross-posted at Pacific Standard.

Lisa Wade is a professor of sociology at Occidental College and the co-author of Gender: Ideas, Interactions, Institutions. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

womxxn:

ive said it before and ill say it again

if your business can’t “afford” to pay its employees a living wage then your business should fail.  Capitalism fucking sucks but if we are going to live in a capitalist society it should actually be capitalism and not “rich people get free passes to be fucking awful at everything”

fleetofships:

elizabethian-cows:

cyberalpaca:

It’s simple to be cool with other people.

This is an unexpectedly happy comic

I wish more people would get down with this train of thought.

Candorville by Darrin Bell for June 08, 2014

“… We must remember that there’s more than one story and plot in every novel. There are at least as many stories as there are main characters, and each of these stories has to have multiple plots to keep it going – blood and bone, nerve and tissue, forgotten longing and unknown events.”

- Walter Mosley (via writingquotes)

Janelle Monáe- ‘My Message Is To Rebel Against Sexism’

Last week, Vermont's state House and Senate voted to back a constitutional convention designed to "limit the corrupting influence of money in our electoral process." The state also called to overturn the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which created super PACs able to accept unlimited donations and triggered a wave of so-called "dark money" organizations that don't have to disclose their donors. Essentially, Vermont wants to make it known it does not consider money to be the same thing as speech and thinks that a constitutional amendment sponsored by the states could reverse the flow of money into our electoral system.