Frida Kahlo - The Dream
Tag-Archive for » art «
May 29th, 2010 | Author: sarcozona
Hurricanes are going to make the oil spill that much harder to deal with.
This Is your Copilot Speaking makes me feel better and worse about flying. Also, it’s a problem when airlines treat their pilots nearly as badly as their passengers.
Another animal disappears in the 6th great extinction, this time it’s the Alaotra grebe.
Temblor Range on BPotD
We’re running out of fish very, very quickly. I expect when we finally slash fishing fleets, it will be far too late.
Challenging, painful art of Marina Abromovi?.
Denialists are scared control freaks.
A (non-snarky) list of ways men can help prevent gender violence.
Giving women power over household money means that kids are fed and father is sober.
How do invasive species affect you?
Rand Paul’s position on private businesses having the right to discriminate would sit even less well with people if the question were phrased “Should your tax dollars be used to pay police to remove people from private businesses solely because the proprietor doesn’t like the color of their skin?”
May 22nd, 2010 | Author: sarcozona
Mining companies like to claim that they’re bringing economic benefits, but cleanup and health costs far outweigh positive contributions to the economy.
After thousands of years, we’ve finally discovered what the argonaut octopus uses its shell for – it’s essentially a ballast tank.
HUGE step: we’ve synthesized life.
Autism doesn’t have anything to do with vaccines, but children of migrant parents in Europe are at higher risk.
Susan B. Anthony wasn’t anti-choice, no matter what this obnoxious group claims.
Public pressure actually changed the rainforest destroying policies of Nestlé.
Because of decades of unsustainable fishing practices, we are now faced with a very unpleasant choice: the loss of 20 million jobs now or the permanent loss of the fish.
Cypripedium fasciculatum
The BP oil spill is an American Chernobyl.
Try this fun logic puzzle with the not so fun title non-normalizable probability measures.
Ultrasound could be a good method for male contraception.
We still don’t fully understand why the bees are dying, but at least they aren’t dying everywhere, as was previously believed.
Acupuncture might not be completely useless.
Ugandan women have high rates of maternal mortality that their health minister blames on poor training for health professionals. Considering how much of that mortality is due to obstetric fistula, focusing on preventing child rape might go further than additional training for nurses.
Oh look, MORE sexism in academia.
The water crisis in Yemen continues to cause conflict and cost lives. We should expect much more of this kind of thing as the climate continues to change.
Many of the people I went to college with probably shouldn’t have gone to college. And that may have been a better strategy.
Texas is rewriting history for its public schools:
Several changes include sidelining Thomas Jefferson, who favoured separation of church and state, while introducing a new focus on the “significant contributions” of pro-slavery Confederate leaders during the civil war.
The new curriculum asserts that “the right to keep and bear arms” is an important element of a democratic society. Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through military technology.
Sculpture by Mia Liu
January 30th, 2010 | Author: sarcozona
Dollhouse is over. It was a great show.
When Americans say they want to cut NASA’s budget, they think they’re talking about a budget of more than 600 billion instead of about 15 billion.
Female orgasm described as ‘abhorent’ and banned on film in Australia along with small breasted women. Unsurprisingly, the standard does not apply to male orgasms or small penises.
Homoerotic subtext isn’t enough:
I want those main characters to fall in love and make out because it means that fans of their characters will have to come to terms with their gayness, exactly like they would have to do in real life. It’s one thing to start out a book … introducing your main characters as gay from the start. Because from the outset the reader knows, the reader can choose whether they approve, or tolerate, or whatever. They can put that book down and walk away.
But reality doesn’t let you choose. Reality is when your best friend turns to you and says, “the thing is, I’m gay,” and your entire world turns upside down.
The phenomenon of mansplaining; I am never sure whether to laugh at or smack the men that do this.
Women today aren’t more promiscuous than 60 years ago. They just don’t have to hide it.
This is what my favorite used bookstore/cafe looked like after the 3rd day of snow. Then it snowed 2 more feet and flooded the place.
Pirates buy more music. The only music I don’t buy is music from labels in the RIAA.
We know remarkably little about soil, so very cool and basic discoveries happen all the time. We just figured out that we were very wrong about which water is where when in the soil.
Suicide is labeled the #1 cause of death among Nepalese women. A better label would probably be sexism or oppression.
Late term abortions in America are almost impossible to get and very dangerous to perform, despite their legality.
Toxification of our environment is a much more serious issue than most people realize. This is just a little too close to A Handmaid’s Tale for comfort.
Michele De Lucchi
Transportation costs associated with sprawl probably contributed to the mortgage crisis.
Ghandi may have been good for India, but he was horrible for women.
Disgusting things like this are why mandatory partner notification for abortion is a bad, bad idea.
Left to my own devices, I never would have been raped. The rapist was really the key component to the whole thing. I was sober; I was wearing sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt; I was at home; my sexual history was, literally, nonexistent—I was a virgin; I struggled; I said no. There have been times since when I have been walking home, alone, after a few drinks, wearing something that might have shown a bit of leg or cleavage, and I wasn’t raped. The difference was not in what I was doing. The difference was the presence of a rapist.
Senator Jim DeMint: If we have the government making decisions about the most personal and private part of our lives, it is so naive to think that that coverage is not going to include a number of things that cause people of faith a lot of heartburn, whether it's funding abortions, whether it's rationing care, whether it's funding medical marijuana, whether it's euthanasia
October 10th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona
Japanese farmers grow the most beautiful apples. The process is incredibly labor intensive, however, and may die out in the next generation or so.
Anti-Ballistic Missile Complex
Peg Mullen, the Cindy Sheehan of the Vietnam war, died last week.
Why aren’t more women philosophers? It’s the same reason most women steer clear of computer science: the large proportion of arrogant, sexist pricks currently in the profession.
Abigail Reynolds - The Music Room
Hope you like bugs – one of their major predators is on the way out. And amphibians aren’t the only ones in trouble: 20% of mammals, 12% of birds, 5% of reptiles, and 4% of fish are in danger of extinction.
Just one more woman on a committee or in a group can make an incredible difference. I’ve been in math classes where I’m the only woman and math classes where I’m one of just a few women. FSP really captures the difference in the dynamic in her post.
On COROT-7b, it rains rocks into lava lakes.
ExxonMobil is still funding climate change denial PR. Since we’re going to hit peak oil in the next 20 years and there’s no way we can change things fast enough to prepare for that, they’ve set themselves up for some incredible profits. Unfortunately, their profits won’t help us much.
Think ecosystems don’t provide absolutely essential “services” for humanity? Check out what cutting down part of a forest has done to an entire country.
September 19th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona
Sexual assault prevention tips guaranteed to work: men, don’t rape people; women, just stop having a vagina to tempt the rapists.
Postcards from a green future by Liam Young & Darryl Chen
For as wealthy as the US is, you’d think we’d have safe drinking water. But we really don’t. Pollution is one reason why the popularity of bottled water is such a bad thing – people think that because they’re drinking bottled water they’re safe. Then they stop worrying about the tap water until it’s too late.
fush suckerbutt by snickcluck on Flickr
Churches and sexual abuse seem to go hand in hand.
I've always wondered if we'd recognize alien intelligence
Nation building is for the people who live in that nation. Also, Afghanistan has a pretty awesome (and rather long) history.
What I think when I see women in games
September 12th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona
Oh so true snippets of fundie culture.
The Princeton Guide to Ecology just went to the top of my wishlist. Yes, even above the lovely shoes I posted earlier this week.
“Government-run” health care has problems, but it still works better than private insurance:
Compared with the employer-coverage group, people in the Medicare group report fewer problems obtaining medical care, less financial hardship due to medical bills, and higher overall satisfaction with their coverage.
Conservatives freaked out about Obama’s speech encouraging kids to work hard in school, calling the action “unprecedented.” I guess they weren’t paying attention during similar speeches given by Reagan and George H. Bush. (Though perhaps if they’d paid better attention in school they would have developed some critical thinking skills and we wouldn’t have to deal with their craziness.) I think the response of the right in this situation is very telling – they disagree with Obama, so they won’t listen to anything he says. This is why Republicans have blocked health care reform at every turn, why Republicans have become the party of “no.” I’m reminded of a child being told something she doesn’t want to hear who covers her ears and yells.
There isn’t much justice in our justice system. How many innocent people have we executed?
The myth of overspending:
Whether families are spending more than they should according to some moral notion—consuming too much of the world’s resources or buying things they could easily live without—is not the issue at hand. These data give us no clue about the right amount of spending. But they give us powerful evidence that excessive consumption is not why families are going broke. There is no evidence of any “epidemic” of overspending—certainly nothing that could explain a 255 percent increase in the foreclosure rate, a 430 percent increase in the bankruptcy rolls, and a 570 percent increase in credit-card debt. A growing number of families are in terrible financial trouble, but despite the accusations, their frivolity is not to blame.
A lot of people claim that being queer is wrong because it isn’t “natural.” Weird how different cultures consider different sexualities “natural.”
Ecological/environmental refugees are becoming much more common.
A corporate sponsor of the Tea Party Express, many of whose members believe that health care reform is “a secret plot to kill old people”, is paying millions of dollars for killing old people.
A ton of feathers – why micro-inequities suck.
September 07th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona
E.O. Wilson in Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Early humans invented [the arts] in an attempt to express and control through magic the abundance of the environment, the power of solidarity, and other forces in their lives that mattered most to survival and reproduction. The arts were the means by which these forces could be ritualized and expressed in a new, simulated reality
March 14th, 2009 | Author: sarcozona
My university, like many others across the country, is facing unbelievable budget cuts (40%!!!). They’re cutting programs and employees right and left. What I don’t get is why they aren’t cutting athletics.
“Corrective rape” of lesbians in South Africa goes unprosecuted.
Incredibly bad news for women in Arizona. Come back, Janet!
Dear Famous Asshole Neurologist Who Said “Ridiculous” When I Suggested My Migraines Were Caused By Weather Changes, Fuck you.
Ever heard of Chiditarod? It’s exactly like the Iditarod except with shopping carts instead of dogsleds. Also it’s in Chicago instead of Alaska. Oh, and the costumes are way better.
Chiditarod
Remy Lidereau’s architectural photos:
Women’s bodies, food, and what people say.
What you didn’t learn in your high school history class.
We need to change the way we pay for college. It’s ridiculous that I have $30,000 in loans and have been on almost full scholarship at state schools my entire college career.
The absentminded professor: eccentric or insane?
Animal welfare is really important and something I definitely support. Animal rights activisits, on the other hand, have gone off the deep end and some are very very cruel and dangerous. A better punishment than jail, I think, would be to force them to truly live by the principles they espouse and deny them anything that’s come from human use of non-human animals – vaccines, surgeries, medicine, etc.
Must read book
Dangerous attitudes towards violence against women in the UK.
Public transportation and poverty: One more reason to invest in good public transportation.
Another wonderful post on the ecology of the sandpaper plant by Mary at A Neotropical Savanna.
September 05th, 2008 | Author: sarcozona
Biology in Science Fiction’s post on A Field Guide to Surreal Botany was featured in this month’s Berry Go Round. I am now desperate to read it:
an anthology of fictional plant species that exist beyond the realm of the real. … Fully illustrated in gorgeous full-color by Janet Chui, the specimen entries are by turns witty, hilarious, and very strange.
Also, I’ll be hosting the next Berry Go Round on September 28th. I can’t wait to see what interesting things get submitted!
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