“Now, for the first time in its billions of years of history, our planet is protected by far-seeing sentinels, able to anticipate danger from the distant future–a comet on a collision course, or global warming–and devise schemes for doing something about it. The planet has finally grown its own nervous system: us.”
I don’t want to diminish the power of the above quote, but I am reblogging this because it is one of the most beautiful gifs I have ever seen.
(via we-are-star-stuff)
Have the Republicans reached peak batshit insane yet?
I worry they have not. I truly worry.
(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)
good:
Why Biking 7,000 Miles to Patagonia is Essential for Creative Living
- Jedidiah Jenkins in Global Citizenship and ExplorationIf you need conversation material at parties, I suggest planning a seven thousand mile bike ride. It gives you the ability to talk to anybody. It’s a story that spreads on its own. People will just walk right up to you and ask, “Is it true? Holy shit.”
I just turned 30, and I’ve decided to use this year to radically shape the rest of my life. I am about to leave my job and ride a bicycle for seventeen months, from Oregon to Patagonia. The need to do it (and it really felt like a need) hit me about three years ago when I read a quote from famed naturalist John Muir.
“I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news.”
That’s John Howard, Australia’s Prime Minister at the time of the Port Arthur Massacre in 1996. After the massacre, he prompted the passing of gun control laws throughout Australia. Gun buy-back programs resulted in the destruction of 600,000 guns, private sales were prohibited, guns were required to be individually registered to their owners and assault weapons were banned or heavily restricted. The result? Gun homicides reduced 59%, gun suicides dropped 65% and there have been no mass shootings since (4 or more deaths at one time).
(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)
kplu:
This list, which took the better part of four years, was inspired by those who said that jazz was limited to a certain style or type of performer. The idea behind this list was not to create a “best” albums list, but rather a extensive list of albums that covered as much of jazz history as possible.
Even after posting 1,000 albums, this list is really only a sample of the history of this great art form.
Hopefully you will find some great music you have never heard before and add to your collection.
Check out the full list!
One Must Always Reblog When Fandoms Save Each Other
OH MY GOD
omg it got
worsebetter
(via theangryviolinist)
““Ms. Norman” another kid called, “Have you heard about that rape case in Ohio? Those guys got convicted. They have to go to jail. They are going to lose their scholarships. They were going to D-1 schools!”
“Well…”I responded, feeling the heat crawl up my neck, “maybe they are going to jail for rape because THEY ARE RAPISTS!” I yelled those last three words at my kids and watched as some of them blinked in surprise. Apparently, the thought had never occurred to them that these athletes who were convicted of rape, were in fact rapists.
It is a strange thing about looking into the face of a 15-year-old, to really see who they are. You still see the small child that their mother sees. You see the man or woman they will be before they graduate. They are babies whose innocence you want desperately to protect. They are old enough to know better, even if no one has taught them.
I realized then that some of my kids were genuinely confused. “How can she be raped?” they asked, “She wasn’t awake to say no.” These words out of a full fledged adult would have made me furious. I did get a good few minutes in response on victim blaming and why it is so terrible. But out of the face of a kid who still has baby fat, those words just made me sick. My students are still young enough, that mostly they just spout what they have learned, and they have learned that absent a no, the yes is implied.
It is uncomfortable to think that some of the students you still call babies have the potential to be rapists. It is sickening, it is terrifying, but it is true. It is a reality we have to face. My students have lived in a world for fifteen years where the joke “she probably wanted it” isn’t really a joke, they need to unlearn some lessons that no one will admit to teaching them.
Standing in front of my classroom and stating that a woman’s clothing choice is never permission to rape her should not be a radical act. But only a few heads nodded in agreement. Most were stunned, like this was a completely new thought. The follow up questions were terrifying in their earnestness. “Ms. Norman, you mean a woman walking down the street naked is not her inviting sex? How will I know she wants to have sex?” A surprisingly bold voice came out of a girl in the back “You’ll know when she says, you want to have sex?!”
If you want to keep teens from being rapists, you can no longer assume that they know how. You HAVE to talk about it. There is no longer a choice. It is no longer enough to talk to our kids about the mechanics of sex, it probably never was. We have to talk about consent, what it means, and how you are sure you have it. We have to teach clearly and boldly that consent is (in the words of Dianna E. Anderson) an enthusiastic, unequivocal YES!”
-A selection from an excellent blog post by Abby Norman, a 9th grade teacher who, after introducing a poem to the class for discussion, accidentally found herself teaching them about consent.
This is why it is SO IMPORTANT to talk about consent as a yes instead of a lack of no. And why we must TEACH it instead of assuming that people already understand.
Reblogging again because I think teaching this is so important. Also, I found this post to be incredibly powerful and wish that my junior high teachers had had such frank conversations.