January 2012
48 posts
“To protest a bill that would require women to undergo an ultrasound before having an abortion, Virginia State Sen. Janet Howell (D-Fairfax) on Monday attached an amendment that would require men to have a rectal exam and a cardiac stress test before obtaining a prescription for erectile dysfunction medication.”
—
Huff Po (via rachelfershleiser)
This is the most beautiful thing. Can we send her flowers?
(via jaimealyse)
Oh, stop. This is the best thing I’ve heard all week.
(via rachelinbrooklyn)
Slow Clap…
“Hispanics understand, either personally or through close family members, what it means to come here as an immigrant. They know how hard it is to function without a full working knowledge of English. They have often felt the sting of prejudice and the threats of gang violence. They tire of the stereotypes built by the media and some politicians. Like all voters, Hispanics respond to candidates who show respect and understanding for their experiences.”
—Jeb Bush • In an Op-Ed for the Washington Post today. The full piece is well worth reading, as it recognizes a fact which has been blindingly obvious to political science types — changing demographics in the American electorate have given Hispanics a much greater influence than ever before, and that trend will almost assuredly continue. This is obviously a big issue for the Republican Party at present — the recent defense of Mitt Romney’s immigration platform by Marco Rubio aside, people generally don’t like being made to feel like their friends, family or possibly themselves are being made targets by political power-players. One way to mend these fences is to speak and listen with earnestly, and build coalitions based on shared ideology. Bush seems to get this. source (via • follow)
“We are the girls with anxiety disorders, filled appointment books, five-year plans. We take ourselves very, very seriously. We are the peacemakers, the do-gooders, the givers, the savers. We are on time, overly prepared, well read, and witty, intellectually curious, always moving… We pride ourselves on getting as little sleep as possible and thrive on self-deprivation. We drink coffee, a lot of it. We are on birth control, Prozac, and multivitamins… We are relentless, judgmental with ourselves, and forgiving to others. We are the daughters of the feminists who said, “You can be anything,” and we heard, “You have to be everything.”
—
Courtney Martin (via air-light-time-space)
The last line is really hitting home lately.
(via glitterforbreakfast)
“You have to be everything…”
“I can’t think of a cognitive process that’s not involved in StarCraft,” says Mark Blair, a cognitive scientist at Simon Fraser University. “It’s working memory. It’s decision making. It involves precise motor skills. Everything is important, and everything needs to work together.”
—Inside the Mind of a Video Game Champ: Cognitive scientists are observing StarCraft 2 players to learn how humans multitask (via caraobrien)
The First Battle of the Internet War
In response to the United States Department of Justice shutting down the popular MEGAUPLOAD website, hacktivist group Anonymous has shut down the Department of Justice website.
I think Anonymous won the hearts of millions today.
I have a consistent eye turned sideways toward Anonymous, but this is really awesome. Don’t mess with the Internet, folks. I want that on a belt buckle.
-Jess
omg dying
Hacktivist.
“You know what I believe? I remember in college I was taking this math class, this really great math class taught by this tiny old woman. She was talking about fast Fourier transforms and she stopped midsentence and said, ‘Sometimes it seems the universe wants to be noticed.’ That’s what I believe. I believe the universe wants to be noticed. I think the universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed. And who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell the universe that it - or my observation of it - is temporary?”
—John Green (via julieheartsbooks)
