Someone named Christopher Russo just posted this on my Facebook wall:
“Hi I love your page a lot by the way I am a hero because I saved someone that got stuck in a subway train door please share this too so that everyone knows I am a great person.”
When I clicked on his profile picture, I saw that he’d won several medals in the Special Olympics. So it seems that not only is Christopher a hero and a great person, but he’s also a great athlete. Here’s your post, Christopher. You’re awesome.
(via spikedsweettea)
“What happened?”
“It has to do with alcohol. I haven’t really told the story to anyone.”
“Will you tell me?”
“…well, I’d been drinking everyday for several years. In 2009 I tried to quit. So I stopped drinking for two days, and I got so sick that I couldn’t eat or sleep. But I still decided to try to go to work. I got so weak that I passed out in the BART station while I was waiting for the train. When I woke up, I was paralyzed from the waist down.”
“Oh man.”
“You want to know the sad part?”
“What’s that?”
“I’m still drinking. Because of the loneliness.”
(San Francisco, CA)
(via mercurialmagic)
Woman Photographs Herself Receiving Strange Looks in Public
“I now reverse the gaze and record their reactions to me while I perform mundane tasks in public spaces. I seek out spaces that are visually interesting and geographically diverse. I try to place myself in compositions that contain feminine icons or advertisements. Otherwise, I position myself and the camera in a pool of people…and wait.
The images capture the gazer in a microsecond moment where they, for unknowable reasons, have a look on their face that questions my presence. Whether they are questioning my position in front of the lens or questioning my body size, the gazer appears to be visually troubled that I am in front of them.”
Photographer: Haley Morris-Cafiero
Project: Wait Watchers
Thought this was actually really cool and I’d share it with you guys! Takes a lot to get up there and do something like this. Love it!
(via hamdoullahcava)
white privilege radically changes the appearance of Tsarnaev bros
This is how brofiling actually works in real life. The Week Magazine ran with this image as their cover sketch.
Just so it is said, clearly and unambiguously: the Tsarnaev brothers are white guys. They are white. The FBI’s own wanted poster for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev lists his race as “white”, but you would never know it from the cover image on The Week.
Hold up the cover to someone else, and ask them how many white people they can see on the cover. Chances are they will identify Gabby Giffords on the top left and the image of the Boston policemen (all white men) on the top right, but how about those two guys in the center? Nope, not a chance that anyone would say these caricatures look white.
Why? Because in addition to being white they are also “Muslim”, which is the current dehumanizing “Other” that whiteness has constructed as a sanctioned target for violence in US popular culture.
This is how white privilege works in media representations and everyday life: when the criminal suspects are demonstrably white men, seize upon any aspect of difference and magnify it such that they become Othered, non-white, and menacing. If it is too hard to do so, simply dismiss them as aberrations and isolated cases of insanity. This is also how white culture, specifically the process of whiteness in conjunction with white privilege, portrays several non-white identities, including those that are now considered white but at one time were decidedly not so. For example, see here for how the Irish were depicted as violent apes or lazy drunks in the late 1800s to early 1900s.
(via salolisayonarabitch)
Jose was a top math scholar and dreamt of being a mechanical engineer.
He was awarded a full scholarship to Arizona State University. When Jose graduated in 2011, there was a shortage of mechanical engineers in his state, but he could not apply for the jobs his other classmates were seeking because he is undocumented.
man :(
(Source: spideybutt, via hamdoullahcava)
All spills in order of occurrence:
March 11 – 21: Gwagwalada Town, Nigera
A week-long leak of Kilometer 407.5 NNPC (Nigeria National Petroleum Corp) pipeline. No official number of barrels spilled released, however the spill saturated a hectare (10,000 sq metres) of marshy ground near a major water source.Tuesday, March 19: Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories Canada
Enbridge Norman Wells Pipeline leaks 6,290 barrels of crude oilMonday, March 25: Fort MacKay, Alberta Canada
Suncor tar sands tailings pond leaks 2,200 barrels of toxic waste fluid into the Athabasca RiverWednesday, March 27: Parker Prairie, Minnesota U.S.
CP Rail train derails and spills 952 barrels of tar sands crude oilFriday, March 29: Mayflower, Arkansas U.S.
Exxon Mobil’s Pegasus Pipeline suffers a 22 foot-long rupture, spilling at least 12,000 barrels of diluted tar sands bitumenSunday, March 31: A power plant in Lansing, Michigan U.S.
16 barrels of an oil-based hydraulic fluid spills into the Grand RiverTuesday, April 2: Nembe, Nigeria
After suffering a reported theft of 60,000 barrels of oil per day from its Nembe Creek Trunkline pipeline, Shell Nigeria shuts off the pipe for nine days to repair damageWednesday, April 3: 350KM southeast of Newfoundland, Canada
A drilling platform leaks 0.25 barrels of crude oilWednesday, April 4: Chalmette, Louisiana U.S.
0.24 barrels (100 lbs) of hydrogen sulfide and 0.04 barrels (10 lbs of benzene) leak at an Exxon refineryMonday, April 8: Esmeraldas, Ecuador
The OPEC-managed OCP pipeline leaks 5,500 barrels of heavy crude oil, contaminating the Winchele estuaryTuesday, April 9: 29KM NE of Nuiqsut, Alaska U.S.
Human error during maintenance spills 157 barrels of crude oil at a Repsol E&P USA Inc pipeline pump stationVisit EcoWatch’s ENERGY page for more related news on this topic.
wooooops
(via tsisqua)
Another sad day for Bangladesh
Ordinary people join forces on a rescue mission along with firefighters, doctors and armed forces personnel after a commercial building collapses on its own in northern Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh.
The nine-storied building housed more than one garments factory with thousands of workers present during the deadly collapse. Official accounts mark the death toll to be around 140 so far with more than 600 accounted to be injured, while scores more remain trapped and missing. Reports indicate that a major crack was discovered on the building just days ago; yet according to the survivors, the authorities apparently “made it mandatory for the workers to be present at work”. Other businesses, including a bank, however evacuated the building earlier due to obvious safety concerns.
The owner of the building, known to be a political leader affiliated with the ruling party, is still at large.
— April 24, 2013.
Photos courtesy of The Daily Star Facebook page, and GMB Akash.
(via biggadjeworld)
