January 2012
milkeemountainmama:
here’s the other thing. do you see the difference between:
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, oh, and btw, you should be checking out what woc have to say cuz they said it first—
AND—
this is what angela davis says, and then this is what alexis pauline gumbs says, but then this is Leah Lakshimi Piepzna-Samarasinha says—and then this what INCITE! says, but then i was...
December 2011
Insurance markets in everything →
Afghan shopkeeper Nasratullah Niazai has developed a brisk new business over the past year. For about $2 a pop, he uploads into customers’ cellphones a collection of Taliban songs and ringtones. A skinny 22-year-old who operates a one-room computer store on the outskirts of the Afghan capital, Mr. Niazai is no Taliban. Neither are most of his customers. Instead, the songs and ringtones...
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“The 2011 color of the year, PANTONE 18-2120 Honeysuckle, encouraged us to face...”
– Pantone Color of the Year for 2012: Tangerine Tango PANTONE 17-1463
Injustice in Murder Cases - NYTimes.com →
In most American counties, some indigent criminal defendants are represented by a public defender, and others by a private court-appointed lawyer. A new RAND study focusing on Philadelphia exposes a vast difference in how clients fare depending on the kind of lawyer they are assigned.
The startling findings show that merely providing an indigent defendant a lawyer, as the Constitution requires...
“I love Los Angeles. I know a lot of people go there and they see just a huge...”
– David Lynch, Catching The Big Fish (via mlee525)
having just spent the afternoon lying around in the light, this is hard to argue with.
Science and Censorship - A Duel Lasting Centuries... →
The specter of censorship loomed over science last week with news that a federal advisory panel had asked two leading journals to withhold details of experiments out of fear that terrorists could use the information to make deadly flu viruses — the first time the government had interceded this way in biomedical research. But science and secrecy go back centuries, their conflicting agendas often...
Wild Unicorn Herd: notyourkinddear: blackamazon:... →
midwestmountainmama:
but…i’m mostly thinking here about legacy—and who is entitled to have one. like—who is entitled to be given that old “thomas jefferson” treatement—well, she did awful things, but also great things! and we have to see that you can do really awful things while also creating powerful change!
i mean, why are people like ***MOI*** and black amazon considered *unforgivable*? why...
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‘Yes we know it’s Christmas’ say African musicians... →
After 28 years of silently tolerating it, a group of unemployed local musicians have joined forces to release a Christmas single, entitled ‘Yes we do,’ in response to the Bob Geldof inspired Band Aid song, ‘Do they know it’s Christmas?’. Speaking at the launch of their song, the musicians praised Geldof’s relentless quest for an answer and said they hoped their collaboration would free the...
Economists are Grinches →
recent research with the economist Elaina Rose, published in August in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, has looked at a real-life public goods situation faced by students at the University of Washington. During our study period (1999 to 2002), when students went online to register for classes each quarter, they were asked if they wanted to donate $3 to support WashPIRG, a...
oh god let's hope so →
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xoJane: Love Me, Love My Footnotes →
meloukhia:
In which I get, if I may say, PRETTY FUCKING HARDCORE about footnotes.
in which s.e. gets a FOOTNOTE TATTOO on ou’s FOOT to commemorate love of footnotes because ou is pretty much the absolute coolest.
Cr4Bdbgs: TOTALLY TEENPOP XMAS →
cureforbedbugs:
DOWNLOAD IT!
PRETTY EXCITED ABOUT THIS LET ME TELL YOU.
“And if someone says, “I don’t drink,” it might really be that simple. I...”
– I’m Not In Recovery. I Just Don’t Drink. | xoJane
GPOY.
music i listened to this year that was awesome
artists:
kelly clarkson
miranda lambert
yelawolf
beyonce
britney spears
ke$ha
the weeknd
tracks:
yelawolf - daddy’s lambo, billy crystal, wanna party
britney spears - til the world ends
tech n9ne - worldwide choppers
the weeknd - high for this, life of the party
beyonce - countdown, schoolin life
miguel - sure thing
gilbere forte w maluca - blackin out
big KRIT f luda &...
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what i read this year that was awesome
FICTION
The Scorpio Races, Maggie Stiefvater a beautiful, poetic, and terrifying young adult book about a modern island blessed and cursed by the mythical water horses. i enjoyed every words of it and was transported into that world.
The Distant Hours, Kate Morton history and mystery and literary history and english country manors and castles, oh my. lots of switching time periods and portions...
things that are the absolute worst
driving in slippery snow
the end.
"I'm Sorry, You're Too Stupid To Collect... →
The [House GOP’s proposed] GED requirement [where unemployment insurance recipients without high school diplomas would be required to enroll in a GED program], on the other hand, is a new way to communicate that if you lack a job you must be in some way deficient. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m as concerned as the next guy about the fact that the high school graduation rate...
What Happens to the Unemployed if There’s No Deal... →
About 1.8 million Americans will face a cutoff in unemployment benefits in January if Congress doesn’t extend emergency federal unemployment insurance (UI) before returning home for the holidays, according to estimates from the National Employment Law Project (NELP). The NELP report (which includes state-specific estimates) says that the 1.8 million workers affected in January include:
Over...
Mind blown part 2
We are watching a college basketball game in the Coors Event Center and it is not possible to buy a beer. What?
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Why Is the N.Y.P.D. After Me? →
We need change. When I was young I thought cops were cool. They had a respectable and honorable job to keep people safe and fight crime. Now, I think their tactics are unfair and they abuse their authority. The police should consider the consequences of a generation of young people who want nothing to do with them — distrust, alienation and more crime.
We Have Reached Peak Gosling
ilyagerner:
We all know Feminist Ryan Gosling.
And Film Studies Ryan Gosling.
Now witness Public Policy Ryan Gosling.
This must stop.
Has anyone asked Ryan gosling about all this? Is there a tumblr of Ryan gosling being adorably humble and modest about all of this, like “hey girl, I know I’m the face of a number of subject area memes, bit they’re inherently constrained by...
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How the A.B.A's Rules are Helping to Raise... →
If you want a diploma blessed by the A.B.A. — and you don’t have rich parents, a plum scholarship or an in-state public law school with lots of taxpayer support — you are pretty much out of luck. And that is not just a problem for would-be attorneys. The lack of affordable law school options, scholars say, helps explain why so many Americans don’t hire lawyers.
“People like to say there are too...
As Wars End, Young Return to Scant Jobs →
In Afghanistan, Cpl. Clayton Rhoden earned about $2,500 a month jumping into helicopters to chase down improvised explosive devices or check out suspected bomb factories. Now he lives with his parents, sells his blood plasma for $80 a week and works what extra duty he can get for his Marine Corps Reserve unit.
Corporal Rhoden, who is 25, gawky and polite with a passion for soldiering, is one...
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the commenter on year-end best of lists that was...
my knee-jerk, uncontainable, “fuck chris brown” reaction. have thus far managed not to respond that way to individual lists but it’s getting harder.
brief thoughts on that kmart layaway article
(here)
yay, that feels good to read
funny how poor people (or poor people’s children) “deserve” things like toys and video games at christmas but at no other time during the year
individual solutions to systemic problems
people should be making donations like this throughout the year, not just around the holidays
i cut out all the parts of the article talking about how this...
Anonymous donors pay off Kmart layaway accounts →
Most of the donors have done their giving secretly.
Dona Bremser, an Omaha nurse, was at work when a Kmart employee called to tell her that someone had paid off the $70 balance of her layaway account, which held nearly $200 in toys for her 4-year-old son.
“I was speechless,” Bremser said. “It made me believe in Christmas again.”
Dozens of other customers have received...
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VINDICATED
talked to date, who also got sick last night! so i’m not that girl who gets puke-y on a date, we’re that couple who went on a date to a place that gave us food poisoning. much less shameful!
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best way to impress on a second date:
come down with the stomach flu halfway through, requiring being taken home immediately while concentrating really really hard on not throwing up in date’s car.
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Low-income schools shortchanged in funding →
Being proven right is usually a cause for some self-satisfaction, but U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan was troubled Wednesday when he announced results of a new Department of Education study on Title I and other high-poverty schools.
“Today, we’re releasing key findings that confirm an unfortunate reality in our nation’s education system,” said Duncan during a phone call with journalists....
A Few Notes on Those New Sexual Assault Statistics... →
Chances are, this morning, that you’ve seen the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control statistics on sexual violence and domestic violence. Most notably, you’ve probably seen the new statistic that almost 1 in 5 women have experienced rape in their lifetimes.
That’s a terrifying statistic, though not a surprising one to those of...
“My wife and I are thinking of adopting and shockingly found in Texas, the cost...”
– The price of babies, by color | Chris Blattman
Rape in Prison Isn’t Funny →
Laughing about men raping men in prison continues to be disturbingly normative. Consider for example David Letterman’s top 10 list about former Illinois Governor Blagojevich. Two of the ten are references to the hilarious possibility that Blagojevich will be sexually assaulted by other inmates, ha ha ha. It is to laugh. Not. The former Governor should go to prison as punishment for the awful...
Global Comment: Is Department of Justice Action on... →
The groundwork has been laid for voter suppression of massive proportions when it matters most, as the country prepares to take to the polls to elect a new President, or reelect the existing Commander in Chief. It stands to reason that the initiative and referendum system used in many states will be heavily abused in 2012, particularly by conservatives, with measures on topics like fetal...
A rash of tuba thefts at Southland high schools →
The thefts, band leaders say, are probably attributable to Southern California’s banda music craze and to the high prices the brass instruments fetch on the black market.
“Obviously, we set the pace early with my all-time wins record and the...”
– Excited Mike Krzyzewski: Duke Squad Hasn’t Been This Unlikable In Years | The Onion Sports Network
The Unaddressed Link Between Poverty and Education... →
We desperately need a […] reminder of the relationship between economic advantage and student performance.
The correlation has been abundantly documented, notably by the famous Coleman Report in 1966. New research by Sean F. Reardon of Stanford University traces the achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families over the last 50 years and finds that it now far exceeds...