bubbles & squeak

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Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:22:11 -0500

pkam: Bedrich Grunzweig - TWA Airport Lounge Geometric Floor

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:51:00 -0500

pkam:

Bedrich Grunzweig - TWA Airport Lounge Geometric Floor

kenobi-wan-obi: Milky Way Shows 84 Million Stars in 9 Billion...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:49:43 -0500

kenobi-wan-obi:

Milky Way Shows 84 Million Stars in 9 Billion Pixels

Side Note: The two images shown above are mere crop outs from ESA’s recent hit: The 9 Billion Pixel Image of 84 Million Stars. These two focus on the bright center of the image for the purpose of highlighting what a peak at 84,000,000 stars looks like.

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile have released a breathtaking new photograph showing the central area of our Milky Way galaxy. The photograph shows a whopping 84 million stars in an image measuring 108500×81500, which contains nearly 9 billion pixels.

It’s actually a composite of thousands of individual photographs shot with the observatory’s VISTA survey telescope, the same camera that captured the amazing 55-hour exposure. Three different infrared filters were used to capture the different details present in the final image.

The VISTA’s camera is sensitive to infrared light, which allows its vision to pierce through much of the space dust that blocks the view of ordinary optical telescope/camera systems.

source

bre4the-freely: aglitterofmymind: thebigsevenfive: ”This was...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:48:20 -0500

bre4the-freely:

aglitterofmymind:

thebigsevenfive:

”This was an ad made by bodyshop. But Barbie INC. found out about it and now it’s banned. Repost if you think this ad deserves to be seen.”

This is beautiful. Oh. My. God.

EDIIT: Just found this about it:

The late Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, wrote in 2001:

In 1998, The Body Shop debuted its self-esteem campaign, featuring the generously proportioned doll we dubbed “Ruby.” … …

Ruby was a fun idea, but she carried a serious message. She was intended to challenge stereotypes of beauty and counter the pervasive influence of the cosmetics industry, of which we understood we were a part. Perhaps more than we had even hoped, Ruby kick-started a worldwide debate about body image and self-esteem.

But Ruby was not universally loved. In the United States, the toy company Mattel sent us a cease-and-desist order, demanding we pull the images of Ruby from American shop windows. Their reason: Ruby was making Barbie look bad, presumably by mocking the plastic twig-like bestseller (Barbie dolls sell at a rate of two per second; it’s hard to see how our Ruby could have done any meaningful damage.) I was ecstatic that Mattel thought Ruby was insulting to Barbie — the idea of one inanimate piece of molded plastic hurting another’s feelings was absolutely mind-blowing.

Don’t usually re-blog things but this is amazing!

q’d; having my grad party ! feel free to delete this.

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Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:42:17 -0500

oliviatheelf: Learn how you can become a tree when you...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 05:33:17 -0500

oliviatheelf:

Learn how you can become a tree when you die!

There’s a biodegradable urn that contains a tree seed and absorbs the nutrients in your ashes. Gerard Moline has created the Bios Urn. It’s a biodegradable urn made from coconut shell, compacted peat and cellulose. Inside of it is a tree seed. Once the person’s remains are placed in the urn, it can be planted. If all goes as planned, the seed will germinate and begin to grow. You can even choose the type of tree you would like to have grow from your remains. So what sounds better, leaving behind a tree or a tombstone?

Small and wild: how to feed fish to the world

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 19:11:20 -0500

Small and wild: how to feed fish to the world:

“But before that happens, the most influential countries of course need to buoy those wild populations first, promoting overall ocean biodiversity by enforcing quotas that slash overfishing, protecting the ocean’s nursery habitats so that populations can grow, and putting a stop to the shocking amount of bycatch that accompanies hauls of more desirable fish.

[…]

Turning to wild ocean fish also takes some pressure off the land, where agriculture fragments habitat, and is embedded in an entire chain of unsustainable resource use.

[…]

Having a sustainable supply of more affordable fish in the sea means more people will turn away from farmed meat as their core protein, which will in turn decrease the demand for grain, and prices will go down. That will make these staples more affordable for people who have restricted access to fish”

Pentagon bracing for public dissent over climate and energy shocks

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 19:01:12 -0500

Pentagon bracing for public dissent over climate and energy shocks:

“The Pentagon knows that environmental, economic and other crises could provoke widespread public anger toward government and corporations in coming years. The revelations on the NSA’s global surveillance programmes are just the latest indication that as business as usual creates instability at home and abroad, and as disillusionment with the status quo escalates, Western publics are being increasingly viewed as potential enemies that must be policed by the state.”

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Thu, 13 Jun 2013 22:28:13 -0500

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Wed, 12 Jun 2013 19:41:51 -0500

"I still catch myself feeling sad about things that don’t matter anymore."

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:28:33 -0500

“I still catch myself feeling sad about things that don’t matter anymore.”

- Kurt Vonnegut (via winterkristall)

2headedsnake: Astroid by ropeliker

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:19:34 -0500

2headedsnake:

Astroid

by ropeliker

AC @ DC

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 00:23:13 -0500

AC @ DC

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Sun, 09 Jun 2013 21:49:35 -0500

thepeoplesrecord: camouflage-camouflage: theuppitynegras: nezu...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 21:47:21 -0500

thepeoplesrecord:

camouflage-camouflage:

theuppitynegras:

nezua:

culturenautique:

thepeoplesrecord:

Prison Labor Exposed: From Starbucks to Microsoft - A sampling of what US prisoners make & for whom
May 21, 2013

Tens of thousands of US inmates are paid from pennies to minimum wage—minus fines and victim compensation—for everything from grunt work to firefighting to specialized labor.

The breaded chicken patty your child bites into at school may have been made by a worker earning twenty cents an hour, not in a faraway country, but by a member of an invisible American workforce: prisoners. At the UnionCorrectional Facility, a maximum security prison in Florida, inmates from a nearby lower-security prison manufacture tons of processed beef, chicken and pork for Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises (PRIDE), a privately held non-profit corporation that operates the state’s forty-one work programs. In addition to processed food, PRIDE’s website reveals an array of products for sale through contracts with private companies, from eyeglasses to office furniture, to be shipped from a distribution center in Florida to businesses across the US. PRIDE boasts that its work programs are “designed to provide vocational training, to improve prison security, to reduce the cost of state government, and to promote the rehabilitation of the state inmates.”

And Each month, California inmates process more than 680,000 pounds of beef, 400,000 pounds of chicken products, 450,000 gallons of milk, 280,000 loaves of bread, and 2.9 million eggs (from 160,000 inmate-raised hens).Starbucks subcontractor Signature Packaging Solutions has hired Washington prisoners to package holiday coffees (as well as Nintendo Game Boys). Confronted by a reporter in 2001, a Starbucks rep called the setup “entirely consistent with our mission statement.”

Texas inmates produce brooms and brushes, bedding and mattresses, toilets, sinks, showers, and bullwhips.

In Texas, prisoners make officers’ duty belts, handcuff cases, and prison-cell accessories. California convicts make gun containers, creepers (to peek under vehicles), and human-silhouette targets.

A stitch in time: California inmates sew their own garb. In the 1990s, subcontractor Third Generation hired 35 female South Carolina inmates to sew lingerie and leisure wear for Victoria’s Secret and JCPenney. In 1997, a California prison put two men in solitary for telling journalists they were ordered to replace “Made in Honduras” labels on garments with “Made in the usa.”

Open wide: At California’s prison dental laboratory, inmates produce a complete prosthesis selection, including custom trays, try-ins, bite blocks, and dentures.

Constructive criticism: Prisoners in for burglary, battery, drug and gun charges, and escape helped build a Wal-Mart distribution center in Wisconsin in 2005, until community uproar halted the program. (Company policy says, “Forced or prison labor will not be tolerated by Wal-Mart.”)

On call: Its inmate call centers are the “best kept secret in outsourcing,” Unicor boasts. In 1994, a contractor for gop congressional hopeful Jack Metcalf hired Washington state prisoners to call and remind voters he was pro-death penalty. Metcalf, who prevailed, said he never knew.

Federal Prison Industries, a.k.a. Unicor, says that in addition to soldiers’ uniforms, bedding, shoes, helmets, and flak vests, inmates have “produced missile cables (including those used on the Patriot missiles during the Gulf War)” and “wiring harnesses for jets and tanks.” In 1997, according to Prison Legal News, Boeing subcontractor MicroJet had prisoners cutting airplane components, paying $7 an hour for work that paid union wages of $30 on the outside.

Full article

Hmmm….under these circumstances, having a large slave, oops I mean prison population is advantageous. What an “original” idea!

Damn, it is one thing if this was about rehabilitation and helping people gain skills and get jobs when they leave prison. Maybe pocket away some money in an account for use when a man or woman gets out of prison. At least you could argue some type of “win/win” scenario. Investment firms like Fidelity Investments fund companies and organizations that administrate these types of “programs. I do not think that is what is going on here.

It is not clear to me, at all, that rehab and helping people get back into the workforce is what is intended or going on. I have a hard time believing that inmates net any money or receive developmental assistance that translates to smoother re-entry into non-prison life. My mind is open and I will keep researching, but this just sounds like re-legalized slavery to me.

Yes, and the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution clearly spells out the intention. It’s absolutely disgusting how comfortable our society has become with this. It’s sickening.

I fucking hate this country

I think you people forgot these people are criminals. They are liars, killers, thieves, rapists. First you complain about how easy they get off. Then you complain that they arent treated humanely enough. Im totally cool with this. Theyre in prison for a reason. And its not so they can enjoy themselves. Its tobpay their debt to socoety. And if you “fucking hate this country” then get the fuck out. See if you can handle living somewhere else.

“Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free…I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.

This order of things cannot always endure. I have registered my protest against it. I recognize the feebleness of my effort, but, fortunately, I am not alone.” - American Socialist Eugene V Debs upon being convicted of violating the Sedition Act

thepeoplesrecord: Swedish train operators wear skirts as...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 21:42:39 -0500

thepeoplesrecord:

Swedish train operators wear skirts as protest to needless work uniform
June 9, 2013

Commuters on a train line in northern Stockholm were met with an unusual sight this week: male train drivers and conductors wearing skirts to work.

Train driver Martin Akersten says he and more than a dozen others at the Roslagsbanan line have started wearing skirts in the summer as a protest against the train company’s uniform policy, which doesn’t allow shorts.

The 30-year-old Akersten said Sunday the response from customers has been only positive.

Arriva, the company that runs the train line, hasn’t stopped the drivers. Arriva spokesman Tomas Hedenius says the company wants its staff to look “nice and proper,” but can’t stop men from wearing “women’s clothes” if that’s what they want because it would be discrimination.

He didn’t rule out a change of the company’s uniform policy.

Source

lepetittrianon: pigtails

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 21:40:07 -0500

lepetittrianon:

pigtails

0mnis-e: Milky Way over desolation wildernesss, By David...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 21:36:00 -0500

0mnis-e:

Milky Way over desolation wildernesss, By David Stafanda.

likeafieldmouse: Antoine D’Agata - Ice (published...

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 21:34:32 -0500

likeafieldmouse:

Antoine D’Agata - Ice (published 2012)

“…Pictures and texts in a disturbing testimony, showing the commitment of a photographer documenting drug-generated fictions…until he loses control.

In December 2007, Antoine D’Agata arrived in Phnom Penh and fell in love with Ka, a Vietnamese prostitute and drug dealer. In January 2008, they began to share a small and dirty flat downtown. Here started the oblivion.

Addiction to methamphetamines took over the photographic work and the frontiers between fiction and reality started to melt. This is where Ice came from. The horror that permeates the pages is not so much the ‘journey to the end of the night’ of a photographer as it is the violent filth and hypocrisy of a system that grinds the flesh of those who were refused speech.”

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Sun, 09 Jun 2013 21:32:31 -0500