ukeaco:

thepeoplesrecord:

progressivefriends:

“Our communities are depressingly polluted, social services are being cut left and right and hunger is very real right here in America. So hearing that the United States government spends $20 billion in Afghanistan each year on air conditioning alone stings just a little. When it comes to war, the U.S. Treasury is hemorrhaging cash, yet Congress demanded that President Obama cut things like high-speed rail, United Nations support and funds for the Environmental Protection Agency from the 2012 fiscal year budget.”

1. Domestic hunger relief

2. High-speed rail transportation in the U.S.

3. Public health programs

4. Protecting the environment

5. Cleanup projects

6. Education

7. Jobs

8. Housing for low-income families & homeless

9. Scientific research

10. Organic farming

11. Wind energy

OMG Could we PLEASE just stop the war and get on with the progression of our country, please? Please.

I will admit, I’ve got a case of White Whine going on here when I say that it would be super fucking awesome to have high speed rail transportation in the US. I get excited about things like that because I love adventure. BUT everything else up there sounds amazing and I personally fanboy over such progress.

jtotheizzoe:

Measuring the Universe

Measuring things that we can touch, feel and see up close is easy. No matter the exact method, we mostly just use big rulers down here on Earth.

But how do we measure the universe? How do we tally distances on a scale of time and space so immense that our brain can quite literally not reconcile them? 

Here’s a fantastic animation by the Royal Observatory to answer that question.

(by Royal Observatory Greenwich, tip o’ the glass to thekidshouldseethis)

doctorwho:

“The Avengers: United Kingdom”

gallifreyan:

L-R

Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter
Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes
Matt Smith as The Doctor
Daniel Craig as James Bond
Philip Glenister as Gene Hunt

Avengers: United Kingdom

jtotheizzoe:

Welcome to the Anthropocene

Since the dawn of the Industrial Age, our species has affected sweeping and immeasurable change on Earth. No other creature, living or extinct, has made such a significant mark on the very core physical nature of our home planet. Many believe that our influence is on the scale of those seen in major geological eras, and have taken to calling this era the Anthropocene (although there is debate as to how appropriate that is).

Beyond those arguments among geologists, we can’t deny that our role on Earth is significant, as our our actions. Climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion … we are a planet-changer. The Anthropocene may not be used to describe fossils one day by some unknown species of alien paleontologists, but it does describe the planetary influence of a certain race of naked apes.

This video chronicles that change, from 1750 to the present. I watched the vertical axis label change throughout, demonstrating that our exponential growth has not just occurred in population, but in a myriad of effects (and many negative).

It’s a beautiful view of our planet full of reminders of changes past and opportunities future. A call to action and a source of hope lies within.

(by WelcomeAnthropocene, commissioned by Planet Under Pressure)

This video leaves me speechless.
And planning my bunker for after the collapse of civilization.

colinfirthcrazy:

Colin: [on Mamma Mia] I think it’s one of the best things I have ever done. People expect me to apologize for it and I am completely unapologetic. Right now I would say, if you asked me the three things for which I am most proud I would say it is A Single Man, The King’s Speech and Mamma Mia.
Interviewer: How hard was it to get you to do the scene that’s used for the closing credits?
Colin: You know what, that may be the reason I did the movie.
Interviewer: You have no shame.
Colin: Yes. I’m sorry, if one thing has come out of 60 Minutes is that we have discovered, we’ve unveiled the fact that Colin Firth has no shame. I am such a drag queen. It’s one of my primary driving forces in life. You cannot dangle a spandex suit and a little bit of mascara in front of me and not just have me go weak at the knees.

“There’s been a lot of talk these last couple of weeks about “hipster racism” or “ironic racism”—or, as I like to call it, racism. It’s, you know, introducing your black friend as “my black friend”—as a joke!!!—to show everybody how totally not preoccupied you are with your black friend’s blackness. It’s the gentler, more clueless, and more insidious cousin of a hick in a hood; the domain of educated, middle-class white people (like me—to be clear, I am one of those) who believe that not wanting to be racist makes it okay for them to be totally racist. “But I went to college — I can’t be racist!” Turns out, you can.”