A blog about things I see on my dashboard and also things about Gary Busey.
A new “Buycott” application allows consumers to boycott all products tied—even indirectly—to companies like Monsanto or the Koch Brothers
May 17, 2013According to Forbes, Ivan Pardo, a 26-year-old based in Los Angeles, is the main person behind the app, which can be downloaded on the iPhone or Android.
Consumers can “scan the barcode on any product and the free app will trace its ownership all the way to its top corporate parent company, including conglomerates like Koch Industries.” The app also allows users to “join user-created campaigns to boycott business practices that violate your principles rather than single companies.”
A keynote speaker at last year’s Netroots Nation gathering pitched a similar app. According to Forbes, Darcy Burner “figured the average supermarket shopper had no idea that buying Brawny paper towels, Angel Soft toilet paper or Dixie cups meant contributing cash to Koch Industries through its subsidiary Georgia-Pacific” or “purchasing a pair of yoga pants containing Lycra or a Stainmaster carpet meant indirectly handing the Kochs your money.”
How cool is this!
(via saraahlynne)
Okay so my school just did Legally Blonde: The Musical and somehow Gary Busey became a joke amongst us crew members, and one day one of the guys on costumes just showed up with one of these that he’d photoshopped at like 2 in the morning.
He brought a new one every day.
Ed O’Neill is the only one that has aged.
(via brailleinducedseizure)
The troubling viral trend of the “hilarious” Black poor person
May 7, 2013Charles Ramsey, the man who helped rescue three Cleveland women presumed dead after going missing a decade ago, has become an instant Internet meme. It’s hardly surprising—the interviews he gave yesterday provide plenty of fodder for a viral video, including memorable soundbites (“I was eatin’ my McDonald’s”) and lots of enthusiastic gestures. But as Miles Klee and Connor Simpson have noted, Ramsey’s heroism is quickly being overshadowed by the public’s desire to laugh at and autotune his story, and that’s a shame. Ramsey has become the latest in a fairly recent trend of “hilarious” black neighbors, unwitting Internet celebrities whose appeal seems rooted in a “colorful” style that is always immediately recognizable as poor or working-class.
Before Ramsey, there was Antoine Dodson, who saved his younger sister from an intruder, only to wind up famous for his flamboyant recounting of the story to a reporter. Since Dodson’s rise to fame, there have been others: Sweet Brown, a woman who barely escaped her apartment complex during a fire last year, and Michelle Clarke, who couldn’t fathom the hailstorm that rained down in her hometown of Houston, and in turn became “the next Sweet Brown.”
Granted, the buzzworthy tactic of reporters interviewing the most loquacious witnesses to a crime or other event is nothing new, and YouTube has countless examples of people of all ethnicities saying ridiculous things. One woman, for instance, saw fit to casually mention her breasts while discussing a local accident, while another man described a car crash with theatrical flair. Earlier this year, a “hatchet-wielding hitchhiker” named Kai matched Dodson’s fame with his astonishing account of rescuing a woman from a racist attacker. But none of those people have been subjected to quite the same level of derisive memeification as Brown, Clark, and now, perhaps, Ramsey—the inescapable echoes of “Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife!” and “Kabooyaw,” the tens of millions of YouTube hits and cameos in other viral videos, even commercials.
It’s difficult to watch these videos and not sense that their popularity has something to do with a persistent, if unconscious, desire to see black people perform. Even before the genuinely heroic Ramsey came along, some viewers had expressed concern that the laughter directed at people like Sweet Brown plays into the most basic stereotyping of blacks as simple-minded ramblers living in the “ghetto,” socially out of step with the rest of educated America. Black or white, seeing Clark and Dodson merely as funny instances of random poor people talking nonsense is disrespectful at best. And shushing away the question of race seems like wishful thinking.
Ramsey is particularly striking in this regard, since, for a moment at least, he put the issue of race front and center himself. Describing the rescue of Amanda Berry and her fellow captives, he says, “I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway!”
The candid statement seems to catch the reporter off guard; he ends the interview shortly afterward. And it’s notable that among the many memorable things Ramsey said on camera, this one has gotten less meme-attention than most. Those who are simply having fun with the footage of Ramsey might pause for a second to actually listen to the man. He clearly knows a thing or two about the way racism prevents us from seeing each other as people.
Now that you know this is a thing, please stop sharing these memes. Poor Black people speaking candidly about various serious incidents isn’t a hilarious joke.
nothing to add here
And Canadians! This is deplorable!
(via pricklylegs)
“There is something in the occult world known as Sacred Geometry which is, in essence, a universal system of patterns found in the natural design of everything in the universe. Some say that these patterns are even found in music, light, and the way all things are made.
Of all the beautiful patterns and designs found in Sacred Geometry, perhaps the most perfect and complete is the Flower of Life, a geometrical figure composed of multiple evenly-spaced, overlapping circles that form a flower-like pattern with a six-fold symmetry like a hexagon. Within this pattern, the center of each circle is on the circumference of six surrounding circles of the same diameter.
This design is ancient. It is found in sacred buildings dating back to ancient Egypt. It also has been found in Phoenician, Assyrian, Indian, Asian, Middle Eastern and medieval art.
What is amazing about this design is that all other sacred patterns and symbols depicted in religious art and construction can be found within the Flower of Life. These include the Metatron Cube from which all five of the Platonic solids can be found. The Platonic designs are the tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron.
To find Metatron’s Cube, place a dot or “note” in the center of each circle, then connect each dot with a straight line. A total of 78 lines are created. When you look at the overall picture, you realize that the straight lines form a variety of interesting shapes and designs within a cube. Each of the platonic solids can be found here.
Another important image found within the Flower of Life is the Merkaba, or wheel within a wheel as described in the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel. This is said to be a divine light vehicle used by ascended masters to connect with higher realms.
More contemporary designs show the Merkaba as an inter-dimensional vehicle made up of two interlocked tetrahedral of light with a common center. One tetrahedron points upward while the other points down. The symmetric form is called a stella octangula, or a Star Tetrahedron, or three dimensional Star of David.
Yet another important and highly significant design found within the Flower of Life is the Tree of Life as depicted by the Kabbalah. This Tree, said to reflect the light of the human soul, includes ten circular centers called sephiroth connected by 22 channels or connecting paths. The central circle is Malkuth, the kingdom of the physical world on which we live. The highest point is Kether, the Crown of the universe representing the highest attainable spiritual understanding that men can achieve.
Within the Tree of Life is found the caduceus, or symbol of coiling serpents representing the Kundalini, a power symbolically coiled within each human and waiting to be unleashed. It is said to be located at the base of the spine.”
(via saraahlynne)
