1/28/2012 - Photo
cwnl:
Sunspot AR1402 Kicks Up More Solar Energy
via SOHO/SpaceWeather
Sunspot AR1402, the source of this week’s powerful M9-class solar flare, is acting up again.
On Jan. 26th between 0100 UT and 0600 UT, a sequence of C-class magnetic eruptions around the active region hurled a bright coronal mass ejection over the sun’s north pole, shown here in a coronagraph image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
The cloud is not heading toward Earth, at least not directly. This and future eruptions from AR1402 are unlikely to be geoeffective as the sunspot is turning away from our planet. By week’s end it will be on the far side of the sun, blasting its CMEs toward planets on the opposite side of the solar system.
1/27/2012 - Link
Circumcision is immoral, should be banned | Practical Ethicsa controversial issue… but should it be?
for years i figured it was ‘just the way things were’, largely because i’d only seen circumcised men. later on, i realized that it wasn’t exactly necessary, but it was the norm, and seemed acceptable for religious purposes. and it doesn’t hurt anything… right? this is probably the most popular point of view in the US.
then i remembered that female circumcision (AKA female genital mutilation) is considered unacceptable regardless of the family’s belief system. removing a girl’s genital tissue is always a crime, in no small part because it does irreparable damage to her ability to experience sexual pleasure. it’s also considered wrong because there is almost always a lack of consent - even though the girls are usually old enough to understand what’s going on and make their opinions known.
why don’t boys have the same rights to genital integrity? why aren’t more parents informed of the potential risks of circumcision? why don’t most people even question the permanent damage they are doing to their children?
is the status quo that fucking important?
(answer: no.)
- a proud intactivist
Well, I’m all for making your own choices but do you want to teach your 4 year old how to clean out their peep? Do you want to teach that same child how to properly use a condom like 10 years later? I’m not a male but I’ve been with both circumcised and uncircumcised men, generally, male life is easier uncircumcised… But like I said, do whatever you want it’s your dick, I plan on allowing my children to make a choice.
1/27/2012 - Photo
Very relevant.ACTA passed one of the several voting gates it needs to get through before becoming law.
It was ratified in Poland last night. This was the scene at Polish parliament afterwards, as (presumably) a bloc of anti-ACTA politicians expressed their displeasure and, perhaps without knowing it, foretell of the Anonymous repercussions to this bill.
EDIT: Just so we’re clear, this does not mean ACTA has been signed into international law. It means that it’s getting much closer to being signed into law.
Some things you should know:
- Online petitions are meaningless. While they are well-intentioned and organized, the signing of a digital petition takes about twenty seconds, and does not require that you leave your beanbag chair in the coal cellar. Politicians know this, and pay just as much attention to online petitions as is warranted by a “political action” that is literally less strenuous than leaving a YouTube comment.
- Nothing except direct action is going to do a goddamn thing. This means getting out in the street, it means DDoSing, it means vicious and widespread boycotts, site blackouts, and other strongarm tactics that actually impact the flow of money from corporations to lobbyists to politicians. How do you, as a tiny flailing consumer, do this? You can’t, really. You can join up with groups that are intent on doing actions that actually mean something, adding your voice to a chorus of hundreds or thousands, instead of screaming alone. You can contact celebrities, the spokespeople of our time, as ask them to leverage their followers on the issue. You can write to Tumblr and ask for more blackouts. None of these things will be very effective, so don’t be too disappointed when they don’t work, but they sure as fuck are more effective than online petitions, and the intense response to SOPA by corporations and consumers was responsible for getting it “tabled” (not dead, but dreaming lies).
- ACTA was already signed in the US by Obama in September of 2011. He had been praising the bill for over a year prior, and signed it without reservation. Most of us didn’t hear about it, and he likely used the 9/11 coverage to make sure of that.
- Eventually, one of these bills will pass, and the pro-corporate laws will go into effect. Expect it. Be prepared. Learn to circumvent this garbage and you’ll have a leg up when the feds shut down the internet as we know it.
- The best thing you can do now is install Tor and learn how to use it. Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis. In order to circumvent the coming corporate takeover of the web, we’re going to have to go underground, creating a sub-internet of encrypted nodes known as a “darknet”. It’s probably going to be like the internet was in the beginning, with most people only seeing what AOL wanted them to see, and only a small group of super-nerds existing outside of that bubble in the “real” internet. It’ll take another twenty years for them to catch up to us again.
- Welcome to the grim cyberpunk future.
How commercials interpret girls’ periods
how they really are
(Source: the-artist-anthropologist, via theatomicboom)
1/27/2012 - Video
I WOULD WALK 500 MILES
AND I WOULD WALK 500 MORE
JUST TO BE THE URUKHAI WHO WALKED 1000 MILES TO DROP SOME HOBBITS ON YOUR DOOR
(via fuckyeahlotrcast)
