We Use This Word So Often We Probably Don't Realize We're Saying It. Who Knew It Could Hurt So Much?
Things that matter. Pass ‘em on.Source: upworthy
resources, links, quotes and images intended to support me in my evolution from public servant to social entrepreneur. Biased towards the social good and equity in Toronto.
2 weeks ago
| Notes: 3735
![calmingmanatee:
[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A photograph of a baby meerkat just past the camera, standing on its hind legs. TEXT: “Okay. Look at me. Look at me. Look me in the eyes. Everything is going to work out great. You are clever and you can do this. You can do this, and you will do this. You are going to do great.”]
[Image credit.]
The calming manatee has the nicest friends.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/3ae37d98ef87503c0d3845bf9e095edb/tumblr_mnldb24Hnu1rxqd36o1_500.jpg)
The calming manatee has the nicest friends. Source: calmingmanatee[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A photograph of a baby meerkat just past the camera, standing on its hind legs. TEXT: “Okay. Look at me. Look at me. Look me in the eyes. Everything is going to work out great. You are clever and you can do this. You can do this, and you will do this. You are going to do great.”]
[Image credit.]
1 month ago
| Notes: 487
Message to a graduate – the inimitable Grant Snyder brings his brand of comic irreverence to the seasonal standby of commencement addresses and their cliches.
But not all graduation speeches are created equal: Here are some of history’s most timelessly uplifting and thought-provoking speakers: Greil Marcus, Ann Patchett, Jacqueline Novogratz, Neil Gaiman, David Foster Wallace, Ellen DeGeneres, Aaron Sorkin, Barack Obama, Ray Bradbury, J. K. Rowling, Steve Jobs, Robert Krulwich, Meryl Streep, and Jeff Bezos.
Useful lesson
Source:1 month ago
| Notes: 13
Rarer still
were broken
reeds and
layers along the
creek edge
silt and stone
and boney heads
unburied there
as small
waters swelling cut
them bare. Her
feet broadcast
ripples, the slow stream
stirring;
my head
between willow
roots, thighs across
thighs, ferns
fanned by
whispers, air
halved in passing,
those droopt hours
when day is
reclining:
lower circles of
this third sphere,
nothing higher desired.“Ring Counting,” a poem in Seasons Smooth and Unperplext by Henry Williams, reviewed at The Rumpus by Autumn Elizabeth.
Poetry about trees, sunshine and bathing in nature.
Source: photobunt.org2 months ago
| Notes: 18247
"
What kind of world do we live in when young men are so proud of violating unconscious girls that they pass proof around to their friends? It’s the same kind of world in which being labeled a slut comes with such torturous social repercussions that suicide is preferable to enduring them. As a woman named Sara Erdmann so aptly tweeted to me, “I will never understand why it is more shameful to be raped than to be a rapist.”
And yet it is: so much so that young men seem to think there’s nothing wrong with—and maybe something hilarious about—sharing pictures of themselves raping young women. And why not? Their friends will defend them, as they did in Steubenville, tweeting that the young woman was “asking for it” and that the boys were being unfairly targeted.
Women and girls are the ones expected to carry the shame of the sexual crimes perpetrated against them. And that shame is a tremendous load to bear, because once you’re labeled a slut, empathy and compassion go out the window. The word is more than a slur—it’s a designation.
"- “In Rape Tragedies, the Shame Is Ours,” my latest at The Nation (via jessicavalenti)
This has to change
(via wilwheaton)
2 months ago
| Notes: 277
Today, after seeing so much idiotic rhetoric, unhelpful conspiracy theories & bizarre distasteful segments in the news, I just needed some Arundhati Roy.
All of these have been posted onto our Facebook page for sharing there. Please like & favorite the page if you haven’t already.
(via bravenewgirls)
Source: thepeoplesrecord2 months ago
| Notes: 21652
"
Why do we have an abortion rate 20% higher than France’s (and more than twice as high as Germany’s), especially considering most doctors here won’t perform them? The answer is any country that has universal health care, where contraception is free, where child care is free or inexpensive, where there is less poverty because people don’t become bankrupt over medical bills — those societies are simply going to have fewer unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.
And there the mask gets pulled off the Bart Stupaks and the “Christians.” If the statistics show that countries with government-provided universal health care and nearly-free abortions are, in fact, the countries with the fewest abortions, then why on earth wouldn’t the Right be the first in line to support universal health care?
Because it isn’t about “universal health care.” It’s about controlling women, period. It’s about sticking your nose in other people’s business. It’s about pushing your religious beliefs on everyone else because voices in your head tell you your Jesus is The One — even though your Jesus never said one single solitary word in any of the four gospels of the Bible about abortion or fertilized eggs being human. You’ve just gone and made it up about “life beginning at conception.” Jesus never said that. The little voice in your head said that, the same little voice that wants your grubby paws on women’s uteruses. You need help. Please get some help and leave the rest of us alone, Mr. Stupak and friends.
"-
Michael Moore: My Congressman, Bart Stupak, Has Neither a Uterus Nor a Brain (via veruca-assault)
I wish I could reblog this 1,000 times.
(via evangotlib)I really hope that Stephen Harper doesn’t let his Christian-right supporters convince him that he can restrict Canadian abortion rights because the US conflict over this is really the most dire of warnings.
(via wilwheaton)
2 months ago
| Notes: 4136
Down here in The Near-Sighted Monkey Lounge while at the bar eavesdropping on someone speaking with passion about the mantis shrimp, we too fell in love.
The mantis shrimp…packs the biggest punch of any predator, with a sophisticated muscle mechanism allowing acceleration in excess of 102,000 m/s2 to be attained and a speed of 23 m/s from a standing start, about the acceleration of a .22 calibre bullet.
Because they strike so rapidly, they generate cavitation bubbles between the appendage and the striking surface.
The collapse of these cavitation bubbles produces measurable forces on their prey in addition to the instantaneous forces of 1,500 newtons that are caused by the impact of the appendage against the striking surface, which means that the prey is hit twice by a single strike; first by the claw and then by the collapsing cavitation bubbles that immediately follow.
With this ability to create extreme low pressure behind it’s extended arm, causing the water to spontaneously boil, no prey stands a chance.
This action releases intense energy, enough to break sheets of glass. Even if the initial strike misses the prey, the resulting shock wave can be enough to kill or stun the prey.
Additionally, the mantis shrimp has the most sophisticated and extensive eyes of any known creature. With their unique shape and composition, the shrimp can see in most directions simultaneously, as well as observing more of the spectrum than us humans, both at the infra-red and ultra-violet ends.
Oh and it looks fucking beautiful.
The world is marvelous
Source: kampfgruppe2 months ago
| Notes: 274
wtf, plus size clothing manufacturers?: why is the media suddenly pretending to care about fat people?
look, i do this blog for fun. i am a fat woman and wanted to make a tumblr that other fat women could laugh at and empathize with, because it’s so fucking frustrating that we don’t have access to clothing that fits us, that we can afford, that looks decent.
i was contacted by julie gordon from…
Smart woman, calling out mainstream outlets for wanting to use her to boost themselves rather than actual change the way they talk about plus sized women.
Good for wtfplus, standing up for herself and our right to refuse the opportunity for public ridicule.
Source: wtfplus