GUYS I WAS LITERALLY AT THIS SPEECH, I WATCHED HIM SAY ALL OF THESE THINGS WITH MY NAKED TWO EYEBALLS HOLY HELL
Is it me, or the closer we get to the end of Obama’s term, the more he turns into that uncle at the cook out who is quiet the rest of the year but is roasting EVERYBODY today.
I don’t know if you’ve ever seen The Animatrix, but given that now both directors of The Matrix trilogy, the ones who invented the entire franchise, have come out as transgender women, I want you to look at this sequence and think about it in the context of trans women and the transphobia that our society is steeped in. Think about this chilling commentary on what we as a species do to women who are only treated like they are not women because we, en masse, refuse to see or acknowledge their womanhood, we deny it because we simply don’t understand, and perhaps worse, we often don’t want to even try.
When you watched this scene, did you think, “oh my god, how awful, why can’t they just leave her alone?” Or did you think, “good, kill that thing, it’s not a woman anyway!”? This is a cipher for the reality of trans women. She’s walking along, minding her own business, doing no harm, without having asked to be made as she was, and she is brutally assaulted for it, and ultimately destroyed. When she is stripped of her dignity and her clothing and even her very face, do you feel sorry for her? Do you feel she got what she deserved? Do you feel defensive of her, and angry at her attackers? Or do you identify with their reaction?
The first bit of test equipment arrived for the lab.
I checked it over, and having seen nothing alarming at all (even the capacitors look in good health at the moment), I’ve tried it out. It’s within about 0.4v of what it says on the scale, which is good enough for me at the moment – on the 70V scale – but a bit far out on the 7v scale (assuming my cheap digital multimeter’s giving a fairly accurate reading, which it probably is). I’m having a quick nose at the manual to see how to calibrate it, though, because it’d be nice if on the 7v scale it read a touch more accurately. So that’s all good. Sadly the little orange neon glow I’d expect when I switch it on is lacking, which I’ll have to check out. All in all, it does seem to be working okay. But there’s a bit of a problem.
I can smell it.
Despite the fact it looks clean, remarkably so, and indeed the interior boards are amazingly dust free, it absolutely, positively reaks. It honks. It smells damn funky. Dear god, it smells like someone used it as their smoking room.
I’ve stripped off and scrubbed the case, then put it in the sun to dry, which made it smell marginally better. I’ve cleaned the interior boards with electronics cleaner. But it still smells. Apparently, there’s naught for it but to sit them out in the fresh air when it’s sunny. And wait. It has, actually, been sunny today. So it spent some time getting a tan on the deck, but until it smells at least a bit better, it has gone back into the garage…
*shudder*
Still, I should now be able to at least set up my car’s tracker / alarm so I can install it :)
mum: i don’t know how you do the things you do. if there’s a problem you just teach yourself how to fix it, and fix it. i never had that.
me: after decades of dad telling me that i can’t do things honestly 99% of my insisting on doing shit myself without his help and just working until it’s fixed is pure unadulterated spite
mum: next time he tells you you can’t do something like mow the lawn just look him square in the eye and say, “what do you think i’m going to do, set the mower on fire? only an idiot would do that” and watch his face
me: ???
mum: oh man there’s a photo you gotta see
me: holy shit was that taken in the 80s?
mum: yep
me: is he trying to put out a petrol fire with water?
mum: yep
me: this is magnificent
mum: yep
me: honestly this whole thing is making me so fucking happy but my favorite part is that you literally stopped to go and get the camera and take a picture
My buddy read an article about octopus intelligence. It was feeding time, and the handler dumped some shrimp into an octopus’ tank. Then he went into another room and sat at his desk.
A while later, a shrimp was tossed onto his desk.
The octopus, upon finding one bad shrimp in the lot, had grabbed it, escaped its tank, crossed the hall, and threw the expired shrimp at its caretaker. Not only does this showcase their problem-solving capabilities, but also that it could have escaped at any time. It just broke out this time to chuck an off shrimp in indignation at its handler. That’s not just intelligence, that’s a human-like reaction. Kinda make you wonder exactly how smart these guys can be…
OH MY GOD
I went to the aquarium once and we had a tour and we walked past the octopus tank and it was duct taped shut so I asked why and the guy was like. “Well, we had a problem before because these fish were disappearing randomly at night and we had no idea why. Turns out the octopus had memorised the night guards rounds and would creep out of its tank, crawl across the floor to the fish tank, have a little snack and be back in its own tank with the lid shut before the guard came back.” they are super smart
I love octopuses so, so much.
@_@
I am both delighted and FUCKING TERRIFIED.
Once I went to the aquarium where they had a baby pacific red octopus in a tank. I had gone there to work on a few real life sketches, obviously I wanted to do one of an octopus. So I kinda just kneeled in front of the tank, and started sketching. The octopus didn’t mind, he sat happily. Then, 5 minutes later, he started moving to the front of the tank, where I was. This tiny octopus faces me directly and starts posing. I don’t know how other to explain it but he started curlung his tentacles in this really graceful way then wouldn’t move for a few minutes. Then again, a new pose. That tiny cute motherfucker knew I was drawing him.
Basically, the only thing keeping them from taking over the world is that they don’t live very long, and they haven’t yet come up with a written language to pass what they learn between generations.
As of Thursday morning, at least 834 people had been shot and killed by American police officers so far this year.
Six-year-old Jeremy David Mardis is the youngest among them.
The autistic first-grader was sitting in the front passenger seat of a car being driven by his father, Chris Few, in Marksville, La., when city marshals “allegedly” attempted to serve the man a warrant about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday night. But when checked with the County Clerks office, no warrant could be found in the database.
Police claim Few fled, eventually turning down a dead-end street. And that Few then attempted to back his vehicle out, striking officers’ cruisers, prompting an exchange of gunfire between the officers and driver that left him hospitalized and his son dead.
However, An official briefed on the shooting said that Few was unarmed when two officers opened fire, shooting between 13 and 18 bullets combined. Five of the officers’ bullets pierced Jeremy’s body, Mayeux said, with the two fatal shots hitting him in the head and chest. That official said it is unclear if the shooting was captured on camera.
After the officers names were released, It didn’t take long for local press to uncover extensive rap sheets for both officers:
Derrick Stafford, the officer indicted for rape, also has five pending civil suits against him for various complaints of excessive force, including breaking the arm of a 14-year-old girl on a school bus as well as assaulting and pepper-spraying a 15-year-old boy at a Fourth of July celebration.
Norris Greenhouse Jr., the other officer implicated in the murder of 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis, is named in several of the same suits for acting in tandem with Stafford.
Louisiana State Police announced on Wednesday that they had launched an investigation into the incident at the request of the Marksville Police Department.
We still 28 states and territories to get through! And we have hardly covered the western states (only Nevada, which Hillary won by a hair) and the north, which tend to be more liberal!
Here’s the schedule for Democratic primaries and caucuses!
Saturday, March 26 Alaska (caucus)-20 delegates Hawaii (caucus)-34 delegates Washington (primary)-118 delegates
Tuesday, April 5 Wisconsin (primary)-96 delegates
Saturday, April 9 Wyoming (caucus)-18 delegates
Tuesday, April 19 New York (primary)-291 delegates
Tuesday, April 26 Connecticut (primary)-70 delegates Maryland (primary)-118 delegates Pennsylvania (primary)-210 delegates Rhode Island (primary)-33 delegates
Tuesday, May 3 Indiana (primary)-92 delegates
Saturday, May 7th Guam (primary)-12 delegates
Tuesday, May 10 West Virginia (primary)-34 delegates
Tuesday, May 17 Kentucky (caucus)-63 delegates Oregon (primary)-73 delegates
Saturday, June 4 Virgin Islands (caucus)-12 delegates
Sunday, June 5 Puerto Rico (caucus)-64 delegates
Tuesday, June 7 California (primary)-546 delegates Montana (primary)-27 delegates New Jersey (primary)-127 delegates New Mexico (primary)-47 delegates North Dakota (caucus)-23 delegates South Dakota (primary)-25 delegates District of Columbia-46 delegates
