firehose

Design Crush

wintergrey:

shotgunparley:

txwatson:

howllor:

I’ve barely seen anything about this on tumblr at all, and the petition ends in TWO DAYS!

It’s about making an attempt of introducing unconditional base income in EU. yes, that means guaranteed income. instead of spending endless amounts of money on administration and control systems and different rates of benefits for different kinds of situations, everyone would be guaranteed an income.

This petition is not about definitely introducing this, but it’s about seriously looking into if this would be doable.

SEVEN countries need to reach the quotum, and four as so far. If you are in Netherlands, Hungary or Estonia, I especially encourage you to sign since those are the countries closest to reaching it right now.

An Unconditional Basic Income (UBI) is a recurring, universal payment to everyone - as an individual right, without means test or any obligation to work or perform other services in return, and high enough to ensure an existence in dignity and participation in society. The current social security systems are demeaning and inadequate in addressing the roots of poverty. UBI would transform social security from a compensatory system into an emancipatory system, one that trusts people to make their own decisions, and does not stigmatize them for their circumstances.

If we collect one million statements of support for Basic Income from the 500 million inhabitants of the European Union, the European Commission will have to examine our initiative carefully and arrange for a public hearing in the European Parliament.

• go here to sign/read more
• About how Swizerland are working to introduce this as well
• Another great article about the subject

recap! maybe money for everyone instead of demeaning benefits systems, TWO DAYS TO GO, and we been loads of signatures!

PLEASE REBLOG

On the off chance any of my followers live in a relevant country

First off does the official petition site have links to any of these alleged studies because while they say there are lots of them I don’t see them.

Secondly the EU couldn’t find its arse with both hands, an atlas, GPS and Magellan. They are so not the people I want implementing this.

Third, the EU is a bad level to do this on. The economies and population sizes of the EU are far too disparate. You can’t possibly compare the developed, financial service centered economy of the UK with the high tech powered economy of Ireland or the export focused production powered economy of Germany, never mind their population size disparity. And those are Europe’s developed economies. So many Eastern European are poorly developed and the hit this will make to productivity (Even if they could pay a UBI which they can’t) would mean they would take generations before they reach the level of Western Europe, if they ever made it.

Fourth this is completely untested and before 25% of the world’s global economy leaps into bed with the idea I’d like a few case studies of it being put into practice at the level of a developed democratic state.

It’s a lovely idea and that’s why I’m suspicious because lovely ideas are a red flag vis-à-vis cognitive biases and self delusion.

That said, it is an idea whose time is coming. Ever increasing automisation means not only fewer jobs but incredibly increased productivity that will not only make this feasible but positively necessary in developed economies. Transition will be very painful, especially when it throws into ever starker contrast the “Haves” of The West with the “Have Nots” of the developing world. Unavoidable however.

Yeah, I was lazy this morning in reblogging that because, well, really fucking tired right now. But this has been a pet hobby horse of mine for years, more so since the review of the Mincome study came out. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mincome

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranteed_Annual_Income

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income

The Wikipedia stuff is there for the links included at the bottom of the articles more than anything else, it’s just a convenient link dump. Agree that the EU proposal is likely a crappy idea in its current stage for a wide range of reasons—I mostly reblogged this in hopes that people would at least look into the concept. But it’s not untested, and it deserves to be tested further. Guaranteed minimum income would solve a lot of public ills—it would radically change the lot of the disenfranchised.

Most people haven’t even considered the idea. It needs more consideration, honestly. So does free or subsidized education and healthcare. We are either going to see a shift to UBI/Mincome/GAI/BI whatever you want to call it or we are going to have a very ugly class war on our hands. 

In a world where working more hours than people have ever worked is not enough to sustain a family, something has to give. This is one of the simpler and more constructive paradigm shifts. It goes along with a better minimum wage—corporations will have to give people reason to work—and a shift toward the meritocracy people like to pretend we’re living in. 

it’s like 1am and i’m price comparing storm trooper armor i need to go to bed before i made some bad financial decisions

art-of-swords:

Rare combined Axe and Matchlock Pistol

• Dated: 17th century
• Culture: South Indian
• Measurements: 86.2cm (34 inches)
• Provenance: Robin Wigington, The Arms & Armour Gallery, Poet’s Arbour

Formed with crescentic blade with reinforced rear-swept tips, the weapon has an engraved bifurcated central blade formed with an additional spike beneath. The moulded collar is chiselled with a monstrous mask on each side while the octagonal haft, also forming the barrel, is strongly swamped at the muzzle and fitted with fore-sight. The haft is engraved with scrolling foliage on the alternate faces, interrupted by a strongly moulded collar at the top, bottom and in the centre. 

Fitted with an iron pan with pivot-cover in the centre, the iron hilt is of Khandar form and has the lower portion pierced and chiselled with monsters. A similar combined axe and matchlock pistol was formerly in the collection of George Cameron Stone, preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (No. 36.25.2118. See R.Elgood 2004, p.187).

Source: Copyright © 2014 Thomas del Mar

More and more, digital board game apps are letting players compete against online opponents, and if you still crave the feel of laying out lots of pieces of cardboard, board game developers are offering ways to make traditional games into solo experiences too.

Ouya co-founder Muffi Ghadiali left his position as VP of Product Development, with his departure noted in a company statement as one of a number of "recent changes." Ouya informed TechCrunch that Ghadiali is no longer employed at the company, while ...

by sosantosweb

Sparrowvsrevolution writes "For the last year Bram Cohen, who created the breakthrough file-sharing protocol BitTorrent a decade ago, has been working on a tool he calls DissidentX, a steganography tool that's available now but is still being improved with the help of a group of researchers at Stanford. Like any stego tool, DissidentX can camouflage users' secrets in an inconspicuous website, a corporate document, or any other, pre-existing file from a Rick Astley video to a digital copy of Crime and Punishment. But it uses a new form of steganography based on cryptographic hashes to make the presence of a hidden message far harder for an eavesdropper to detect than in traditional stego. And it also makes it possible to encode multiple encrypted messages to different keys in the same cover text."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Writer Scott Lobdell has announced that "Teen Titans" #30 is the final issue of the current series; DC Comics confirmed the cancellation.

The man who oversaw Microsoft's licensing of TV, movies, and music for services including Xbox is no longer at the company. As Variety reports, former Corporate VP of Media & Entertainment Blair Westlake said Microsoft's future plans didn't align ...

Below is a brief account of recent attempts – sometimes successful – to remove critically acclaimed comics from libraries and schools. The list could even be stretched to include Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen, inasmuch as this 1970 children’s book is rendered in comic strip format. It’s been in the top 25 on the American Library Association’s list of most frequently challenged books for two decades. And it’s endured indignities that range from having librarians cover up the young boy’s penis in the illustration to actually being burned.

Fantasy novels dominated children's reading in 2013 | Books | theguardian.com:

So something in the world is going right, then. :)

Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area released a behind-the-scenes video of the heroic adventures of five-year-old Miles Scott (better known as “BatKid“) in San Francisco. It highlights all of the great challenges that BatKid overcame while keeping the people of San Francisco safe from harm for one day. The tough little dude also won his three-year fight with leukemia. Miles truly is a superhero.

What is the Batkid Fund?
Miles’ family aims to keep the spirit of Batkid alive by launching a charity fund in the tiny superhero’s name. The Fund will operate under the auspices of the San Francisco Forty Niners’ Foundation. Proceeds will benefit three charities chosen by the Scotts: a local medical center, the Ronald McDonald House, and Make-A-Wish. “It seems only fitting that following a day when the world demonstrated caring and compassion for Batkid, Batkid can now help others,” said Miles’ parents, Nick and Natalie Scott. “We were honored to receive many offers of gifts or assistance, but now that Miles’ leukemia is in remission, we want to use this moment to draw attention to other parents who are coping with serious illness.” More information can be found here.

Get in line, Congresswoman.

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is talking her favorite team today: the San Francisco 49ers. What's on your mind, Congresswoman?

Pelosi talking up Kaepernick: "We love our quarterback. The tattoos. Big arms."

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 16, 2014

Yeah, buddy. LET'S GO TO THE TAPE.

(Photo via Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images)

SHE AIN'T LYIN'.

But wait, I thought Pelosi was in favor of gun control. Well, when it comes to Kap's guns, we'll ALL make an exception, am I right? Up top.

The drawing in question concerned a police search at the home of an advisor to opposition deputy Clever Jimenez, who Correa accuses of spying and who says he has evidence of government corruption.

hodad

Look what my students are doing!!!

(first click on the first gif to enlarge all of them)

CELINE’S CAREER HAS BEEN A ROLLER COASTER RIDE AND SHE’S HAD SOME UPS AND DOWNS OF HER OWN DESPITE BEING ONE OF THE MOST HATED ARTISTS OF ALL TIME…

LIKE WHEN SHE SAID, “I DON’T WANT TO DO THE SPANISH SONG. WHAT DO THEY WANT ME TO DO NEXT? LEARN JAPANESE?”…

AND WHEN SHE HAD MORE JAMAICAN AND IRAQUI FANS THAN CANADIAN FANS…

AND WHEN SHE CUTOFF A NOTE LIKE THIS IN THE MIDDLE OF “TO LOVE YOU MORE” LIKE THIS…

AND WHEN SHE IMBIBED HER SONGS WITH MORE SCHMALTZ THAN A DISNEY PRINCESS SINGING ABOUT HER WALK THROUGH THE GARDEN…

AND WHEN SHE HAD TO RESORT TO DOING COVERGIRL COMMERCIALS BECAUSE OPERA WAS TAKING OVER THE MUSIC INDUSTRY...

AND WHEN PAULA ABDUL PULLED OUT A RANDOM STATISTIC SAYING, “LESS THAN ONE PERCENT OF THE POPULATION CAN SING LIKE CÉLINE.”

Original Source

“Sadly, Tennant failed to make much of an impression on the comics industry despite this promising start, and in 1977 left it to move onto less rewarding careers (reputedly, he has since the 1980s been making some sort of presumably frugal living in the ‘music business’ as part of a music group called ‘the Pet Shop Boys’).”

- Excellent work from the Marvel Wikia. (via tomewing)

Philly.com

Newtown gunman apparently called radio in 2011 STLtoday.com The man who carried out the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre apparently called a radio station a year earlier to discuss the 2009 mauling of a Connecticut woman by a chimpanzee. The caller believed to be Adam Lanza speaks softly on a show on ... Tape surfaces of Adam Lanza's call to radio showNewsOK.com Did Sandy Hook killer call Oregon radio station a year before rampage?KMTR NewsSource 16 Newtown gunman called UO campus radioKOIN.com all 114 news articles »

Art History, University of Toronto 

isabelasbooty:

oh no sherlock fandom ur fine totally fine keep on keepin on u do u 

rinattante:

wait

When primed to think that a black man is more educated, people are more likely to remember him as having lighter skin, according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal SAGE Open.

Researchers conducted the study in two parts: First, they flashed images at 160 university students with either the word “ignorant” or “educated,” followed by the face of a black man. After that, the researchers showed the same students pictures of that same black man’s face, but with his skin tone altered to be lighter or darker.

When asked to identify which was the man they’d seen in the first part of the experiment, those who had seen the word ‘educated’ were significantly more likely to pick a lighter-skinned version of the man — a type of racism that the researchers characterized as “skin tone memory bias.”

“When a Black stereotypic expectancy is violated (herein, encountering an educated Black male), this culturally incompatible information is resolved by distorting this person’s skin tone to be lighter in memory and therefore to be perceived as “Whiter,” main researcher Avi Ben-Zeev said.

The results of this study also gel with similar studies on the subject, along with previous research that shows people have a bias against “Afrocentric” facial characteristics — including “hair texture, skin tone, facial features, cheek bone structure, height.” The effects of the subconscious biases can play out on juries, for example, where studies have found that darker skinned women get longer prison sentences.

(HT: National Journal)

The post Study: People Remember ‘Educated’ Black Men As Lighter Skinned appeared first on ThinkProgress.

gayspacenerds:

dollymacabre:

I AM READY.

tHIS YEAR IS GONNA BE SO GAY

ephemeral-elegance:

Earrings, ca. 1920

via Bonhams