Eudaemonia

casual-isms: stringsdafistmcgee: blackamazon: strugglingtobeh...

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:43:07 +0200

stringsdafistmcgee:

blackamazon:

strugglingtobeheard:

caramelblackness:

ubuntuliberation:

Did you know that there were Human Zoos on display in Europe and America from the 1870’s to the 1950’s? These public exhibits of humans,often called Negro Villages, usually showed indigenous people in a so-called natural or primitive state. The displays often emphasized the cultural differences between Europeans of Western civilization and non-European peoples.

Above is a photo from Amsterdam Holland around 1890, of an African child in one of these Human Zoo exhibits,being fed like an animal by white spectators.

What in all the fucks?!

Reasons why that pet my hair shit and all that isn’t cute. I didn’t know these places existed until the 50s tho, jeez. Fucking sick. And that baby is just a beautiful child that’s so terrible

Why you can’t pet my hair

Why you aren’t bringing me in to shit

Why the rhetoric of curating and introducing grown as people is iffy as FUCK

Please note 1950 as a date of continuance. They were doing this while my mom was ALIVE. And while civil rights was started.

Holy crap! What the fuck!? People are kind of still doing it to many ‘native people’ though. If you ‘preserve’ your culture and entertain me with it and let me fetishize it, then I’ll give you money and food. Oh, you want to become a scientist? Tough shit, my need to study and love your culture is more important.

ilovecharts: This chart suddenly feels a lot more appropriate,...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:43:06 +0200

ilovecharts:

This chart suddenly feels a lot more appropriate, given recent events.

For more details about the calendar, see the campaign here. Thanks!

secretpassage: This has not been photoshopped in any...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:38:08 +0200

secretpassage:

This has not been photoshopped in any way.

Hahaha.

Anatomical model of a pregnant woman by Jules Talrich, late...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 07:32:55 +0200

Anatomical model of a pregnant woman by Jules Talrich, late 19th century, Paris

Also

Weirdest porn pic ever.

residualwill: United States Government: lying to the world for...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:55:19 +0200

residualwill:

United States Government: lying to the world for as long as it can get away with it.

imnotcaradelevingne: What a world where calling out sexism...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:54:41 +0200

imnotcaradelevingne:

What a world where calling out sexism gets you accused of “playing the gender card” or “igniting a gender war”, but rampant sexism from males in politics is allowed to run wild, unscrutinised.

Just last night, a menu from a Liberal Party fundraising event came into the spotlight:

Yet this example of vile, horrendous sexism about our female Prime Minister, endorsed by the Liberal Party, gets not even a shred of the outrage that Julia Gillard’s comments did.

What hope do we have in achieving equality when such appalling double standards exist and are promoted by two of the most powerful forces in society: the media, and political figures.

These repulsive examples just prove why sexism needs to be called out.

And until we can do that without being accused of using it in some selfish way and “playing the gender card”, something is desperately fucking wrong.

humansofnewyork: “Every nickel I have goes to rent and student...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:48:02 +0200

humansofnewyork:

“Every nickel I have goes to rent and student loans. You know what I eat every day? Half a dozen eggs and four cans of these beans.”

Oh god. That’s my life. Only I eat frozen peas instead.

tlaloc4kids: I was gonna do the “after” image of him panicking...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 07:25:25 +0200

tlaloc4kids:

I was gonna do the “after” image of him panicking because he didn’t know what to do but then I got tired…

Famous last words. I would be very angry at him if he were a real immigration inspector. Luckily it’s a game so I was laughing my butt off. Love the BFFS picture in the background btw, nice touch!

thepoliticalnotebook: A current shot of Taksim Sqaure, where...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 07:53:58 +0200

thepoliticalnotebook:

A current shot of Taksim Sqaure, where clashes are ongoing. Via @BowenBBC.

[Twitter Link]

thedailywhat: Fixed That For You of the day: NSA’s Ugly...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 07:52:18 +0200

thedailywhat:

Fixed That For You of the day: NSA’s Ugly Slideshow Gets a Makeover

You’d think the National Security Agency could afford a decent designer with their vast resources and classified budget, but as you may have already noticed, the recently leaked slideshow on the PRISM program suggests quite the contrary. So freelance designer Emiland De Cubber took it upon himself to help out the clandestine agency with their horrible design choices by redoing the entire presentation, which is available for public viewing on the presentation site SlideShare. After learning it the hard way that they can’t always keep their top secrets remain top-secret, perhaps the NSA won’t skimp on that part of the budget next time around.

kellyangel: What are you doing Microsoft?

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 07:50:05 +0200

kellyangel:

What are you doing Microsoft?

Video

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 07:49:15 +0200

androphilia: Rape of Iraqi Women by US Forces as Weapon of...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 07:30:20 +0200

androphilia:

Rape of Iraqi Women by US Forces as Weapon of War: Photos and Data Emerge | Asian Tribune

By Daya Gamage, US National Correspondent Asian Tribune

October 3, 2009

In March 2006 four US soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division gang raped a 14 year old Iraqi girl and murdered her and her family —including a 5 year old child. An additional soldier was involved in the cover-up.

One of the killers, Steven Green, was found guilty on May 07, 2009 in the US District Court of Paducah and is now awaiting sentencing.

The leaked Public Affairs Guidance put the 101st media team into a “passive posture” — withholding information where possible. It conceals presence of both child victims, and describes the rape victim, who had just turned 14, as “a young woman”.

The US Army’s Criminal Investigation Division did not begin its investigation until three and a half months after the crime, news reports at that time commented.

This is not the only grim picture coming out of Iraq U.S. forces being accused of using rape as a war weapon.

The release, by CBS News, of the photographs showing the heinous sexual abuse and torture of Iraqi POW’s at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison opened a Pandora’s Box for the Bush regime wrote Ernesto Cienfuegos in La Voz de Aztlan on May 2, 2004.

Journalist Cienfuegos further states “Apparently, the suspended US commander of the prison where the worst abuses took place, Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, has refused to take the fall by herself and has implicated the CIA, Military Intelligence and private US government contractors in the torturing of POW’s and in the raping of Iraqi women detainees as well.”

Brigadier General Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, described a high-pressure Military Intelligence and CIA command that prized successful interrogations. A month before the alleged abuses and rapes occurred, she said, a team of CIA, Military Intelligence officers and private consultants under the employ of the US government came to Abu Ghraib. “Their main and specific mission was to give the interrogators new techniques to get more information from detainees,” she said.

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He later confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph in May 2009.

The London newspaper further noted “graphic nature of some of the images may explain the US President Obama’s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.”

Maj. Gen. Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President’s decision, adding: “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.

“The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.”

In April, Mr. Obama’s administration said the photographs would be released and it would be “pointless to appeal” against a court judgment in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

But after lobbying from senior military figures, Mr. Obama changed his mind saying they could put the safety of troops at risk.

In May, he said: “The most direct consequence of releasing them, I believe, would be to inflame anti-American public opinion and to put our troops in greater danger.”

In April 2004, new photographs were sent to La Voz de Aztlan from confidential sources depicting the shocking rapes of two Iraqi women by what are purported to be US Military Intelligence personnel and private US mercenaries in military fatigues. It is now known, Cienfuegos wrote in May 2004, that hundreds of these photographs had been in circulation among the troops in Iraq. The graphic photos were being swapped between the soldiers like baseball cards.

Asian Tribune carries here three of the ‘Rape’ photographs which have brought criticism that the U.S. forces in Iraq have used rape as a weapon of war.

Copyright © 2009 Asian Tribune.

[Related articles:
- Women, Men and Children Are Routinely Tortured and Raped in Iraqi Prisons. The Perpetrators Walk Free | iraqispringmc, November 27, 2012
- Privileges of New Democratic Iraq: Rape & Torture of Innocent Women in Maliki’s Prisons | uruknet.info, February 6, 2013
- For Iraqi women, America’s promise of democracy is anything but liberation | guardian.co.uk, February 25, 2013
- Iraq, 2013: The Horrors Remain the Same — Rape, Executions and Torture Abound | Alternet, March 18, 2013
- Reports surface of rape and torture in Iraq | Women Under Siege Project, March 20, 2013]

I wonder what kind of sick training these people get as well. Something along the lines of ‘this is your job’ and ‘at any cost’. A country that prosecutes teenagers in love, but doesn’t prosecute gang-rapers and the people pulling their strings..

"The New York Senate has passed a bill making it illegal to “harass” a police officer by “any type of..."

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 22:37:12 +0200

“

The New York Senate has passed a bill making it illegal to “harass” a police officer by “any type of physical action” — even action that does not otherwise constitute interference, obstruction or assault. Given that “obstruction” and “interference” are famously broad, it’s hard to imagine what conduct the police and the NY Senate believe they need to control by statute, though there’s a clue in the statutory language, which makes it a felony to “harass, annoy, or threaten a police officer while on duty.”

In other words, if you cause any physical contact with a police officer, even unintentionally, even if the contact does not rise to the level of assault or obstruction or interference, you can be convicted of a felony and imprisoned if the officer can show that your conduct “annoyed” him. This is the kind of statute that seems calculated to allow the police and prosecutors to put people in jail for very long stretches (remember that 97% of people indicted for felonies in the USA plead guilty under threat of decades of prison should they fight and lose) just because they don’t like them very much.

”

- New York Senate makes it a felony to annoy a police officer - Boing Boing

So, it’s alright for the NYPD to harass, threaten and annoy people on the street based on race, but don’t you dare flip them any shit in the process.

(via jenn2d2)

What the fuck ny

(via americandementia)

Great, just fucking great. More laws for them to fall back on when those assholes unjustly jail us up. They were already placing us in jails for stupid reasons, now they’re gonna straight up have the time of their life with this.

(via kenobi-wan-obi)

nightmareframe: i absolutely do not swoon and imagine this...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 07:47:20 +0200

nightmareframe:

i absolutely do not swoon and imagine this everytime sips closes an episode nope nope nope

~~please catch me for the next one like a princess carry kind of catch pls OTME~~ sighs dreamily

Hahahahahaha.

“you just can’t trust hair past the age of 30”...

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 01:41:00 +0200

“you just can’t trust hair past the age of 30” -sips

pleatedjeans: Women struggling to drink water. via Hahahaha....

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 21:39:35 +0200

pleatedjeans:

Women struggling to drink water. via

Hahahaha. These poor ladies.

cameov9: Really fat! I can’t be the only person who found...

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 19:21:38 +0200

cameov9:

Really fat!

I can’t be the only person who found Sjin’s latest Feed the World funny enough to pause mid-video and giggle over for a solid 12 minutes, then proceed to draw a picture of before having even finished watching the entire thing.

No? Just me? Oh..alright then.

Anorexic Sjin is slipping into bulimia. The predictable arch of the eating disorders.

Can you hear me now? Metadata, civil liberties and homeland security

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 17:05:24 +0200

thepoliticalnotebook:

While there has been due outrage about the news regarding the NSA’s Verizon surveillance program, there has also been a loud echo of Senator Lindsey Graham’s “I am a Verizon customer. It doesn’t bother me one bit for the NSA to have my phone number.” See this Twitter account for a collection of such reactions in the Twitterverse. These responses range from Senator Feinstein’s “It’s lawful” and “It’s just metadata” to “It’s a necessary means of protecting the nation” and “It’s been in place for a long time.” And finally, the oldie but goodie, “If you aren’t a terrorist, what are you even afraid of.” None of those are valid defenses of a program of this scope, particularly not when paired with the follow-up news of PRISM, the program that tracks online activity through partnerships with Google, YouTube, Facebook, Apple, Skype, Yahoo!, Microsoft, AOL, and PalTalk, or the news that information gleaned from data collection has been shared with British security agencies.

Infringements and violations of rights don’t happen in a vacuum, they have real effects. Whether or not this is now ingrained practice and technically legal don’t make it good policy - either in the sense that it is an effective and appropriate way of maintaining national security, or in the sense that it has legitimacy, constitutionality or morality. As Cole and Dempsey note in Terrorism and the Constitution (a good read if you want to be paranoid but very well-informed), the American homeland security model has long rested upon the practice of assigning suspicion to particular ideologies and political affiliations and perceives advocacy and violence as ends of a spectrum. So, yes, people who aren’t terrorists certainly have cause for worry over what erroneous links might be drawn between nonviolent advocacy or political affiliations and perceived potential for violence and criminal activity.

And yes, this is metadata. This isn’t en masse wiretapping, but as Susan Landau, a mathematician and former Sun Microsystems engineer, points out in this Jane Mayer post over at The New Yorker, imagine all the information that can be pieced together with metadata. It’s potentially more dangerously informative on a larger scale than content mining.

As to whether or not this has been worth it, what is arguably a massive breach of one version of security (the 4th amendment: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures…”) for another, I refer you to @emptywheel’s Twitter commentary from yesterday: “Remember: Mike Rogers said the Section 215 dragnet justified bc ONE terror attack thwarted. ONE. In 7 years.” This is referencing Rep. Mike Rogers, the House Intel Committee chair, who cited one unspecified terrorist attack that he says the program thwarted. Sen. Rand Paul (yes, I know) in a Guardian op-ed today quoted then-Senator Obama on FISA in 2008…

We can give our intelligence and law enforcement community the powers they need to track down and take out terrorists without undermining our commitment to the rule of law, or our basic rights and liberties.

Yes. That civil liberties are in constant and inevitable tug of war with our safety is so axiomatic that it becomes the default explanation for rights and privacy violations. That understood tension between rights and safety seems to have been taken to mean that if a policy invades the privacy of millions, it must be working extra well. Sometimes rights are at odds with safety, to an extent, but it’s never so simple as a sacrifice of X amount of civil liberties for an equal amount of safety. Often, that trade-off is not worth it. Being asked (and by being asked, I really mean, being grudgingly told its been done for years) to trade this information en masse for limited evidence that harm has been prevented or could be prevented by these means is not a fair trade-off.

For some further evisceration of data dragnet, see The New York Times editorial from yesterday. They spare the administration nothing.

Short version of this blog post: I can’t believe I actually mostly agree with Rand Paul about something.

How Far is it to Mars?

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:49:32 +0200

How Far is it to Mars?:

sciencecubed:

In this visual it is showing the distance to mars in pixels.