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Wed, 22 May 2013 12:38:42 -0400

glitterlion: If you’re a person of color, especially if you’re Black, and you’re hanging out with...

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:18:00 -0400

If you’re a person of color, especially if you’re Black,

and you’re hanging out with your white friend(s),

and they start talking shit about cops while the cops are in hearing distance,

you turn around and you walk as fast as you can without bringing attention to yourself in the opposite direction and you never talk to that friend or those friends ever again,

because they do not have your safety in mind.

If you can’t just throw away a friendship away like this and you try to explain to them why their actions are not okay and they don’t get it, then at least never go out in public with them. Take care of yourself, because they won’t.

I love how Tumblr can teach me more about how to survive and navigate this world in a single post than the adoptive parents who “rescued” me could in 18 years.

referencesforartists: brenanf999: dontwantyourmoneysir: anndru...

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:04:35 -0400

referencesforartists:

brenanf999:

dontwantyourmoneysir:

anndruyan:

This is a summary of college only using two pictures; expensive as hell.

That’s my Sociology “book”. In fact what it is is a piece of paper with codes written on it to allow me to access an electronic version of a book. I was told by my professor that I could not buy any other paperback version, or use another code, so I was left with no option other than buying a piece of paper for over $200. Best part about all this is my professor wrote the books; there’s something hilariously sadistic about that. So I pretty much doled out $200 for a current edition of an online textbook that is no different than an older, paperback edition of the same book for $5; yeah, I checked. My mistake for listening to my professor.

This is why we download.

Alternatives to buying overpriced textbooks

Textbooknova

Reddit

Bookboon

Textbookrevolution

GaTech Math Textbooks

Ebookee

Freebookspot

Free-ebooks

Getfreeebooks
BookFinder
Oerconsortium

Project Gutenberg

Spreading this shit like nutella because goddamn textbooks are so expensive.

not necessarily art related but as someone who couldn’t afford their textbooks this semester this is a godsend

Gaslighting

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:51:00 -0400

the-queerdo-brigade:

bastardplanet:

dickensian-werewolf:

createsomething:

Gaslighting is a form of mental abuse in which false information is presented with the intent of making a victim doubt his or her own memory,perception and sanity.^[1] Instances may range simply from the denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents ever occurred, up to the staging of bizarre events by the abuser with the intention of disorienting the victim.

Sometimes it is as literally as simple as telling someone that they’re crazy.

I didn’t like it when adults would walk in on me dressing or taking a shower. I would yell, and my adopted family told me I was crazy. Also, I cried a lot, expressed myself in “gender nonconforming” ways, and didn’t like talking to people. I got called crazy so often I believed something was really wrong with me.

The gaslighting and ableism to trans and queer adoptees especially who do not conform to adoptive families’ cissexist and heteronormative fantasies is horrific.

My adoptive mother (an anti-social narcissist) is always gaslighting my sisters and I. For her, gaslighting involves not just telling us, with certainty, what “actually” happened, but what we think and feel. If I say I need to go to the doctor, I’m not really sick. If I say I don’t want to be in a relationship, I’m told that I really do; I was in one before. If I were to tell her I wasn’t a girl, she would tell me I really was, I’m making it up. It’s horrible and pervasive, and it took me my whole life to figure out that I’m allowed to have an opinion on how I feel and who I am.

But we must be so grateful to be adopted by our SAVIORS.

chipperson: bassmatic: nbcnews: Teen’s invention could charge...

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:18:07 -0400

chipperson:

bassmatic:

nbcnews:

Teen’s invention could charge your phone in 20 seconds

(Photo: Intel)

Waiting hours for a cellphone to charge may become a thing of the past, thanks to an 18-year-old high-school student’s invention. She won a $50,000 prize Friday at an international science fair for creating an energy storage device that can be fully juiced in 20 to 30 seconds.

Read the complete story.

Interesting bit of tech for all those battery jugglers I know out there.

Get off the phone dang it!

This is the first thing (I think) I’ve ever “reblogged” using this tumblr thing.

Eesha Khare!

i love how this White Savior industry figureFUCKhead goes to all this considerable trouble of...

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:04:00 -0400

i love how this White Savior industry figureFUCKhead goes to all this considerable trouble of contacting me about my “birth mother and additional background information” when I never had a scrap of background info to begin with

but refuses to tell me unless they get to talk to me directly over the phone on THEIR terms on THEIR extremely limited bourgie ass Eurocentric schedule whilst I’m in an entirely different continent

oh sure, no big you power-tripping child-trafficking money-grubbing suck up spawned honky piece of shit

and now they’re 2 hours late for work and thus our appointment.

lol srsly it’s a wonder how these child sellers manage to turn any profit, much less multi fucking billions.

Why aren't more people freaking out about the new Venezuelan labor law?

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:55:53 -0400

dancepunksnotdead:

You know, the one that gives housewives/full-time mothers a pension— wages for housework?

It’s ONLY A HUGE VICTORY FOR FEMINISM, SOCIALISM, AND WOMEN OF COLOR. Not a big deal or anything. Tumblr is mysteriously silent about this.

http://rabble.ca/columnists/2013/05/venezuelas-new-labour-law-best-mothers-day-gift

"Women read comics. Anyone at all engaged in social media knows this. Women read comics and are a..."

Tue, 21 May 2013 22:30:28 -0400

“Women read comics. Anyone at all engaged in social media knows this. Women read comics and are a driving force behind fandom. I think I could call them the driving force behind fandom and put up a convincing argument. Just think about it: what fandoms have driven America crazy in the last decade? Could anyone dissuade me from saying that they were Harry Potter, Twilight and the Hunger Games? “Avatar” may have put butts in theater seats, but you don’t hear about it… ever. No one is immersed in the world of “Avatar” except James Cameron and people who enjoy wearing Na’vi Zentai suits. “The Avengers” was pretty darn huge and, if Tumblr is any indication, a whopping portion of the people driving that fandom online do not possess a Y chromosome. Women engage in fandom to levels that men do not. When women get behind something, their sheer numbers and passion force it into the mainstream. That’s why you can name the actor who plays that werewolf kid in “Twilight” and probably sing at least the chorus to one Justin Bieber song. What do tween boys like? I have no clue. Sports? Probably sports.”

- Brett White, Comic Book Resources (via wandrinparakeet)

and yet men remain the most marketed demographic for just about everything.

(via ohhoechno)

WHO RUN THE WORLD

also pro-tip: sports comprise a pretty intense effing fandom and if you take a second look at the folks posting mad gifs of snowboarding and football and the like guess what

akfung: Afghan Air Force 2nd Lt. Niloofar Rhmani walks the...

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:30:11 -0400

akfung:

Afghan Air Force 2nd Lt. Niloofar Rhmani walks the flightline at Shindand Air Base, Afghanistan prior to her graduation from undergraduate pilot training May 13, 2013. Rhmani made history May 14, 2013 when she became the first female to successfully complete undergraduate pilot training and earn the status of pilot in more than 30 years. She will continue her service as she joins the Kabul Air Wing as a Cessna 208 pilot. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Senior Airman Scott Saldukas)

you’ll have to forgive me if I’m a bit remiss in responding to asks & fanmail or...

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:22:00 -0400

you’ll have to forgive me if I’m a bit remiss in responding to asks & fanmail or anything

my international for-profit adoption agency is trying to get in touch with me personally with regards to my “birth mother and additional information about my background.”

which is funny because aside from the orphanages I was in and a necklace (yes I do have an orphan trinket, no I am not a TV trope), there has never been a scrap of background information to begin with. They ~~won’t even say~~ don’t even know where I was “abandoned” or how I was “found.”

I’ve cut off contact with those who should be cut off, changed my name, and travel around so much that the fact these White Savior(tm) wheelers & dealers have even managed to make me aware of their efforts is almost impressive. seriously what a fucking mindjob. my partner is lovely but bio spawned and cannot begin to grasp any of this.

I have never ever heard of an international adoptee being actively sought out by a major agency — it is ALWAYS the other way around. Someone PLEASE tell me if they’ve ever heard otherwise because I don’t know what the fuck is going on and what kind of shit these child peddlers may be trying to pull. But I am sure to be letting yall Bastards know soon as I find out…

Til then I guess. Stay glorious and eternally Ungrateful.

dickensian-werewolf: mommy-cuteella: yilduza said: also, stop writing books about how ppl with...

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:38:00 -0400

dickensian-werewolf:

mommy-cuteella:

yilduza said: also, stop writing books about how ppl with x diagnoses are evil or abusive and write books about abuse warning signs and survival that aren’t based on unreliable and ableist premises (& ignore that we get abused too)

^

Reactive Attachment Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder

Oppositional-Defiant Disorder

The list goes on…

To say little of how some of these diagnoses (especially the first and third) hugely intersect with racism and are automatically imposed upon anyone whose identity goes beyond sheltered, white Western standards (namely international &/ transracial adoptees and foster children)

Funny how Eurocentric societies believe themselves intrinsically superior and quick to deem all other cultures as less superstitious and gullible, meanwhile wallowing in their own superstitions that are actually far worse and more abusive, couched in shit-brained pseudoscientific miasma and rammed down on people with the full weight from centuries of global oppression.

"“I asked all of the gay male students in the room to raise their hand if in the past week they..."

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:17:00 -0400

“

“I asked all of the gay male students in the room to raise their hand if in the past week they touched a woman’s body without her consent. After a moment of hesitation, all of the hands of the gay men in the room went up. I then asked the same gay men to raise their hand if in the past week they offered a woman unsolicited advice about how to “improve” her body or her fashion. Once again, after a moment of hesitation, all of the hands in the room went up.

These questions came after a brief exploration of gay men’s relationship to Western fashion and women’s bodies. That dialogue included recognizing that gay men are often hailed as the experts of women’s fashion and by proxy women’s bodies. In addition to this there is a dominant logic that suggests that because gay men have no conscious desire to be sexually intimate with women, our uninvited touching and groping (physical assault) is benign.”

”

- Gay Men’s Sexism and Women’s Bodies by Yolo Akili (via ihatenietzsche)

dukeofmegadeus: myinnerfrankcastle: Remember when floppy disks...

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:30:24 -0400

dukeofmegadeus:

myinnerfrankcastle:

Remember when floppy disks could save/destroy the world?

1MB was a dangerous thing

Flatlining.

"And then I learned about the history of Europe — that as Christianity moved north, midwives, nurses,..."

Sun, 19 May 2013 01:53:00 -0400

“

And then I learned about the history of Europe — that as Christianity moved north, midwives, nurses, and so-called “witches” were sought after in a campaign of genocide — about four million women were killed by European leaders. So the reason that European men could do this to our people is because they had already cut the umbilical cord to their homeland.

I began to see the reasons for the feminist movement as a healing for white women. As Indigenous people we never experienced our men doing to us what European men had done to European women. I have never identified myself as a feminist even though we are all strong for the rights of our people.

”

- Andrea Carmen, Feminism for Real

Something to consider when people start saying that brutalization of women is mostly perpetrated by men of colour.

(via bossymarmalade)

“But liberation can only happen in the wake of OUR ~~Genocide Enslavement Colonialism Land Grabs Privatization~~ DEMOCRACY we must edumacate & SAVE these [insert non-Western descriptor] women from their culture and themselves!!!11”

#white savior industrial complex

"I just noticed something strange on Wikipedia. It appears that gradually, over time, editors have..."

Sat, 18 May 2013 22:30:31 -0400

“

I just noticed something strange on Wikipedia. It appears that gradually, over time, editors have begun the process of moving women, one by one, alphabetically, from the “American Novelists” category to the “American Women Novelists” subcategory. So far, female authors whose last names begin with A or B have been most affected, although many others have, too.

The intention appears to be to create a list of “American Novelists” on Wikipedia that is made up almost entirely of men. The category lists 3,837 authors, and the first few hundred of them are mainly men. The explanation at the top of the page is that the list of “American Novelists” is too long, and therefore the novelists have to be put in subcategories whenever possible.

Too bad there isn’t a subcategory for “American Men Novelists.”

”

- Wikipedia’s sexism toward female novelists (via explore-blog)

IMPORTANT UPDATE the author, Amanda Filipacchi, from Sunday:

“In an Op-Ed article I wrote, published on The New York Times’s Web site on Wednesday, I suggested it was too bad that there wasn’t a subcategory for “American Men Novelists.” And what do you know; shortly after, a new subcategory called exactly that appeared.

But there was more. Much more. As soon as the Op-Ed article appeared, unhappy Wikipedia editors pounced on my Wikipedia page and started making alterations to it, erasing as much as they possibly could without (I assume) technically breaking the rules. They removed the links to outside sources, like interviews of me and reviews of my novels. Not surprisingly, they also removed the link to the Op-Ed article. At the same time, they put up a banner at the top of my page saying the page needed “additional citations for verifications.” Too bad they’d just taken out the useful sources.

In 24 hours, there were 22 changes to my page. Before that, there had been 22 changes in four years. Thursday night, a kind soul went in there and put back the deleted sources. The Wiki editors instantly took them out again.”

(via glintglimmergleam)

Wikipedia is a great resource and actually a really terrible place full of awful people

(via ravenqueered)

paradigmas: Omg I can’t…. #dustoffvarnya

Sat, 18 May 2013 17:52:00 -0400

paradigmas:

Omg I can’t….

#dustoffvarnya

we-are-star-stuff: Who says North is up? Upside Down maps (also...

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:36:19 -0400

we-are-star-stuff:

Who says North is up?

Upside Down maps (also known as South-Up or Reversed maps) offer a completely different perspective of the world we live in.

Technically speaking, even referring to the earth with words like “up” or “down” or comparing places with words “above” or “below” is flawed, considering that the earth is a spherical body (it’s actually slightly “fatter” at the equator) and flying through 3 dimensional space with no reference of up or down. However, the issue of “up” and “down” does become an issue when viewing the surface of the earth projected onto a flat piece of paper (a map). And the effect of the orientation of a map is more significant than you might realize.

As all maps require orientation for reference, the issue of how to layout the map orientation is as old as maps themselves. As map orientation is completely arbitrary, it is not surprising that they differed throughout time periods and regions.

The convention of North-up is usually attributed to the Egyptian astronomer Ptolemy (90-168 AD). Justifications for his north-up approach vary. In the middle ages, East was often placed at top. This is the origin of the term “The Orient” to refer to East Asia. During the age of exploration, European cartographers again followed the north-up convention…perhaps because the North Star was their fixed reference point for navigation, or because they wanted (subconsciously or otherwise) to ensure Europe’s claim at the top of the world.

In modern times, reversed maps are made as a learning device or to illustrate Northern Hemisphere bias. Different from simply turning a north-up map upside down, a reversed map has the text oriented to be read with south up.

The famous “Blue Marble” photograph of the Earth taken from on board Apollo 17 was originally oriented with the south pole at the top, with the island of Madagascar visible just left of center, and the continent of Africa at its right. However, the image was turned upside-down to fit the traditional view.

While the orientation of a map might seem harmless, it can have a significant effect on one’s perception of the world, and the relative importance of the different place in it.

In speech, we often refer to places being “above” or “below” others. Think of how you would say you’re about to travel to the state or country to your north or south (to go “down” to Kentucky from Indiana, or “up” to Canada from the US). Without even mentioning geography, ask any grade school student whether Mexico is “above” or “below” the United States. We’re all familiar with the “land down under”. As we often correlate importance to relative height (think how a citizens of a country will fly their flag higher than all other flags), the north-up convention reinforces the idea that northern bodies are more important than their southern neighbors. Suddenly, traveling “down” to the South might have an inference much deeper than geographic location.

After looking at the map more closely, you may realize that the South-Up orientation may change your perception of the relative status of different places. For example, South America suddenly looks to have more prominence, and Africa and the Middle East completely dwarf Europe. Likewise, tucking Northern Europe, Canada, and Russia away at the bottom of the map, subconsciously takes away their status.

To summarize, unconditionally accepting the north-up map convention without at least appreciating the effect stands at odds with viewing all people and places within the world equally. x x

choirof-furies: Elementary’s Moriarty makes BBC’s Moriarty look like a confused adolescent who...

Sat, 18 May 2013 12:34:26 -0400

choirof-furies:

Elementary’s Moriarty makes BBC’s Moriarty look like a confused adolescent who occasionally robs peoples houses.

z33r0: valeriekeefe: bertoltbrechtfast: vivianvivisection: Ho...

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:55:00 -0400

z33r0:

valeriekeefe:

bertoltbrechtfast:

vivianvivisection:

Holy shit man, Sagan man, deconstructing rationalism.

it’s hilarious how much he’s considered a god by rationalists.

You can be a critic of something without saying the something is completely illegitimate, guys… so sayeth this feminist.

This always bothered me about the old Greek philosophers, Epicurus was the only one I know of who invited women, slaves, men of modest means, prostitutes and non-Athenians to learn with him in his school, the garden. The four slaves he did have he treated with respect and on his death they were given their freedom (not that this makes having slaves okay, but as evils go, this seems lesser). It always seemed odd to me that someone could be considered a great thinker without ever managing to step around the thinking conventions of their time. In my first philosophy class I was struck by the famousness of the Socratic method and the stories that went along with it, which speak of the death of a slave in terms of a property right, vs. this philosopher I had never heard of (who was actually just mentioned in passing in the textbook, we didn’t ever talk about him in class) who not only respected slaves as human beings but treated them as intellectual equals.

Funny how every faux erudite, mansplaining, rationalist layman trying to align themselves with this old Athenian circle jerk would have been enslaved by the principles they espoused.

Meanwhile Epicurus gets dismissed as a persnickety peacock far more associated with thread count and cheese spreads than substantive thought and (comparatively) democratic values, yep.

sammneiland: katsplanet: yahoo wants to buy tumblr so i’m...

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:39:32 -0400

sammneiland:

katsplanet:

yahoo wants to buy tumblr so i’m making an early prediction as to what would happen if this were to take place

so this is their plan after losing geocities.