fdelopera:

wilwheaton:

The case for not sitting out this election, in two maps

This is the number of votes per precinct that Obama won these states by in 2012. As you can see, this is a VERY small margin.

For instance, if 7 people per precinct in Florida had stayed home, or had voted 3rd party, Obama would have lost the entire state.

This is a really concrete way of showing that EVERY VOTE MATTERS!

So make sure to get out and VOTE on November 8!!!

TaekwondoForScouts.org - →

You may wish to add your name to this online petition. The letter makes its point succinctly:

“To: Boy Scouts of America
National Council
1325 West Walnut Hill Lane
Irving, Texas 75015-2079

To whom it may concern,

Many of us, scouts and former scouts believe and live by the ideals and values we learned as scouts.

We or our children are currently practicing students of Taekwondo, the Korean martial art of unarmed self defense. This art has a very strong moral culture that parallels the scouting program.

We are asking that you appoint a panel within the Boy Scouts of America to take an objective look at your position which specifically excludes Taekwondo as an approved activity for the sports merit badge.

We are aware that you have received many requests in the past to lift this restriction. Your main concern has been the safety of the scouts. Taekwondo poses no more inherent risk of injury than many of the currently approved activities. In addition, the character development and moral values taught through Taekwondo are unsurpassed by other approved activities.

We thank you for your consideration.”

imnotgoodimjustrightt:

Behind the Scenes of St Elmo’s Fire (1985)
“Love is an illusion.”
“It’s the only illusion that counts, my friend.”
I love this movie too much

Every time I think about this movie, I want to kill myself by opening all the windows and freezing to death.

Yes, it is summer.

Happy Birthday, Carl Van Vechten!

nyrbclassics:

A god, a companion to sorceresses at the Witches’ Sabbath, a beast who is royal in Siam, who in Japan is called ‘the tiger that eats from the hand,’ the adored of Mohammed, Laura’s rival with Petrarch, the friend of Richelieu, the favorite of poets…

—Carl Van Vechten, describing cats in The Tiger in the House: A Cultural History of the Cat

Writer, photographer, cat-lover, literary executor of Gertrude Stein, and author of The Tiger in the House: A Cultural History of the Cat, Carl Van Vechten was born on this day in 1880. We’re fêting Van Vechten’s birthday with some cute cat pictures from The Tiger in the House—consider them our gift to you.  

And he’s author of the great *Peter Whiffle: His Life and Works" (1922), which you may find at the Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/peterwhifflehis00vechgoog

[Sponsored Post] eBay is a great place to find thoughtful gifts for all of your loved ones!

Gina Trapani--Accused sexist: “I have a daughter” →

Declaring yourself a patriarch doesn’t absolve you from being an agent of patriarchy.

The Sixth Stage of Grief is Retro-Computing →

Or: Networks without networks

This has much to commend.  I particularly like his “honest” version of Steve Jobs’ Stanford commencement speech:

Imagine standing in front of the graduating class of Stanford and saying,

Man, I just don’t know. Wozniak wanted to show off for his nerd friends. I was ready to sell to Commodore. Xerox was so focused on the 1990s they forgot about the 1980s. NeXT, we just got further and further into the quagmire. Pixar, before Toy Story, it was the only hardware company less successful than NeXT. The iPhone launched without an App Store. But people were drawn to me, and I told them what they needed to hear in order to make each other rich. So do that: Go out there and tell people what they need to hear in order to make each other rich. When something works say that was the plan all along.

That would be a terrible commencement speech.