Oh, so very cool, this! Watch. There’s awe-filled delight when the finches show up! You can read all about this here. Gobi was kind enough to share a couple photos from Sugar Spin:
© Gobi, all rights reserved.
Affinity
Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
Oh, so very cool, this! Watch. There’s awe-filled delight when the finches show up! You can read all about this here. Gobi was kind enough to share a couple photos from Sugar Spin:
© Gobi, all rights reserved.
Partners Stephen Stum and Jason Hallman, collectively known as Stallman, marry their individual talent and vision to create mesmerizing three dimensional sculptures out of canvas and paint. Their newest collection of work, titled Canvas on the Edge, aims to highlight the nature of the materials by giving the impression of movement through the use of elevated structures. Different angles reveal varying perspectives that play with a range of color spectrums reflecting off the ridged canvas.
The Pacific Northwest-based duo create each sculpture in tandem, merging as one to produce something unique. Where one acts as the left side of the brain, the other becomes the right, attempting to dissolve boundaries and form a piece that is completely balanced. The two draw inspiration from the natural world, mimicking biological gradients and cellular patterns within each work.
Each multi-faceted sculpture permeates a hypnotic sense of calm, as the pair successfully modify the traditional medium of paint and canvas by adding a new, creative edge.
You can read more, and see much more of this beautiful and intensive work here.
Goldfinch, click for full size.
© C. Ford.
U.S. President Donald Trump is interviewed by Reuters in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 23, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst.
President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to build up the U.S. nuclear arsenal to ensure it is at the “top of the pack,” saying the United States has fallen behind in its atomic weapons capacity.
I’m sure that’s going to make us all sleep better. FFS, can’t someone tell him “oh, there’s terrible skit on SNL” or “oh, Celeb Whatever just sucks, but you’re busy…” and distract this fucking moron? Also on the Tiny Tyrant’s agenda, wiping out every bit of progress made on decriminalizing weed, medical weed, and not locking up every other person in prison for years over weed.
Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a lovely packet of medical weed right now. Fuck.
© C. Ford.
Marcus, the test tube the beads came in makes a great roller – you aren’t getting that one back!
Still plugging away. Took a break from rolling, these larger sections, I decided to spray prior to rolling. Still a bunch to go, but I’m out of drying room for the moment, so they’ll have to wait.
© C. Ford.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt, Spencer acknowledged that the private event had every right to revoke his credentials.
“I guess they just discovered who I was,” he stated. “And the fact is people want to talk to me, they don’t want to talk to these boring conservatives. They want to learn about ideas whose time has come and not whose time has passed.”
“They want to learn about ideas that just have so much meaning,” Spencer continued. “I think everyone recognizes that there has to be identity politics in the world, that we — white people define the United States — that we’re now experiencing an increasing minority status. And in terms of the wider culture and institution, we are, in fact, kind of a hated group. We are a group that people want to overcome, ‘Oh, we need less white people in this institution or in this movie. We need a new non-white person or a non-white male to run for president.’”
There are reasons some white people are seriously disliked, like oh…being a fucking Nazi. Even non-Nazis, when white and hetero, can be the most oblivious, obnoxious assholes, with their heads buried so far up their privilege they may as well be blind. That tends to put people off. White people can’t become a minority fast enough for me. More Turtle Island, less America. That’s a good thing. As I’ve often said, if some white people are in such an uproar over uStates not being white enough, fine, there are options: emigrate. Go buy an unoccupied island. Whatever, move, leave, go found Naziland and be happy forever, far removed from decent people.
Spencer’s whine goes on for a while, combined with a desperation laced insistence that he and his Nazi buds are the thing, oh yes they are! All the young white dudes just love him! If there’s amusement to be found, it’s in the fact that Spencer was thrilled to be at CPAC, noting that no one was punching him. It didn’t take long, after his being escorted out for him to start trash talking CPAC. CPAC is deserving of trash talk, but not from Nazi Spencer, whose increasing desire to be another Adolf is becoming a an umbrous stench wrapped around his ankles and tripping him up at every turn.
Via Raw Story.
I want one!
Made for Ikea’s Space10, this is the Growroom, specifically made for cities, it can grow a communities worth of food and herbs. I’m not urban, but I still want one. The best news? Space10 and architects Sine Lindholm and Mads-Ulrik Husum have open sourced this, so anyone can make one.
Credit: YouTube.
It’s not protesters causing trouble, it’s a cop. Again. In this case, there’s a 13 year old who is damn lucky to be alive. Let’s see what caused this shining example of “to protect and serve” to boil over, shall we?
Protests erupted in Anaheim, California on Wednesday after an off-duty LAPD officer dragged a 13-year-old boy across his yard, pulled a gun on the boy’s friends, and pulled the trigger.
According to an eyewitness, the confrontation began after a young girl walked across the lawn of an off-duty officer, who responded by calling her a “cunt.” Thirteen-year-old Christian Dorscht reportedly tried to defend the girl.
Cellphone video then shows the unnamed cop grabbing and pulling Dorscht by the arm. As a group of young people wearing backpacks looks on, the officer drags Dorscht for a few yards. Moments later, three boys rush the officer, pushing him into nearby bushes to free Dorscht. Seemingly uninjured, the cop gathers himself and drags the 13-year-old through the shrubs. After one boy tries to punch him, the officer reaches into his waistband and pulls out his gun. Everyone backs away, but the officer fires anyway. Nobody was struck by the bullet.
Oh, well, a kid cut across his lawn. Yes, that’s such an extraordinarily unusual and heinous action! There’s no such thing as the cliche of an adult, generally an old curmudgeon, shaking their fist and yelling “damn kids, get off my lawn!” Obviously, such a horrible act forced this upstanding officer to spit “cunt” at her, and what on earth was a 13 year old boy thinking, trying to defend her? Goodness, such awful behaviour, oh my yes.
Approximately 300 protesters —including young people — gathered in the streets Wednesday night, as news of the incident spread. They reportedly blocked major avenues and intersections in Anaheim, home of Disneyland, and some protesters marched to the unnamed officer’s house. People yelled “Whose streets, our streets” and “Hands up, don’t shoot” as they marched, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Some of the demonstrators threw rocks at police observing the fray, while a few people banged on the doors of the officer’s home. Riot police were eventually called to block off protesters.
Oh, I’m sure that just completely justified calling in riot cops. Having been face to face with riot cops more than once, I can say that no, protests don’t justify their presence in any way. You have a bunch of hyped-up authoritarians swaddled in battle armor, just itching to use all those nifty, lethal toys.
So, what happened to the key players, like the cop, who was an adult, at least technically, who called a young girl a cunt, assaulted a 13 year old boy, and pulled his gun and fired? Oh, nothing much, but those evil, meddling kids?
Dorscht, who sustained a line of bruises on his neck, was arrested and brought to the Orange County Juvenile Hall for battery and making criminal threats against the officer. A 15-year-old involved in the initial confrontation was also arrested for assault and battery.
According to Anaheim Police Sgt. Daron Wyatt, the officer was not arrested but was removed from the field for three days. The LAPD is currently investigating the matter.
Oh, I’m sure they are “investigating”, if that means getting stories straight, shuffling paperwork, and purging evidence. In the meantime, two victims have been dumped into the maw of the SoCal juvenile justice system, which is a remarkably ugly one, as these systems go. As for those wicked protesters, 24 of them, including 6 minors, were arrested and charged for resisting arrest, battery, and refusing to disperse. Remember, cops are the good guys!
Via Think Progress.
Women’s March on Washington (Photo: Sarah Burris/RawStory).
The myth of professional protesters continues to be spread by rethugs, and Arizona rethugs have passed legislation which would allow the cops to seize the assets of anyone who attended a protest which turned violent in any way, along with the power to arrest those who planned the protest, although they did not commit any violent acts. The rethugs are extremely unhappy with The Resistance, and are doing everything they can to shut it down. We are all going to have to stiffen our spines and our resolve, and refuse to back down in the face of blatant rights violations.
The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate has passed a bill that would let law enforcement officials seize the assets of people who participate in protests that turn violent — even if those people had nothing to do with any violent incidents.
[…]
The bill would allow police to seize assets of anyone who attended a peaceful protest that happened to turn violent, and it also gives cops the power to arrest people who planned the events, even if they did not personally commit violence.
State Sen. John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills), who supported the bill, explained to the Arizona Capital Times that it’s aimed at curtailing the activities of “professional protest” groups whose goal is to start riots and damage private property.
“You now have a situation where you have full-time, almost professional agent-provocateurs that attempt to create public disorder,” said Kavanagh, a former police officer.
Bald-faced fucking liar. :spits: I’d like to see this flaming asshole address all the violence at Black Lives Matter protests, as the violence was all perpetrated by cops. I’d like to see this asspimple address the overwhelming violence committed by cops against all those at Standing Rock. Fuck you, Kavanagh. People are marching and protesting and protecting because it’s the only recourse we have. It’s not like we can look to our government for help.
Via Raw Story.
Show that you’re a person who has learned, and sign the letter, please! We must resist, we must make our voices heard. This is an easy way to help.
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls pick them, every one
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young girls gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young girls gone?
Gone to young men, every one
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the young men gone, long time passing?
Where have all the young men gone, long time ago?
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone for soldiers, every one
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?
And where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, a long long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, every one
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time passing?
Where have all the graveyards gone, long time ago?
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Gone to flowers, every one
When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?
– Pete Seeger.
CREDIT: AP Photo/Seth Wenig.
A new study reveals something remarkable: marriage equality cuts down on teen suicide. This shows just how much social justice issues matter, and that they can be, all too often, a matter of life or death. LGB teens are prone to suicide, given that they often find themselves with no support system, no safety net, and see a bleak future in which they can all too easily envision never being accepted, and never having the same human rights as other people.
A new study found some stunning results: After same-sex marriage became legal on a state level, the rate at which young people attempted suicide in that state dropped significantly.
Published this week in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, the new study used data from the hundreds of thousands of students who participated in the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) between 1999 and 2015. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, and Boston Children’s Hospital looked at 32 different states that legalized same-sex marriage in that span of time and found a consistent drop in teen suicide attempts in each state after marriage equality arrived.
Overall, the suicide rate attempt among all high school students dropped 7 percent in the year after marriage equality arrived in a state. For students who identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or who were still questioning their orientation — a group whom the suicide attempt rate is much higher — the drop-off in suicide attempts was 14 percent after the arrival of marriage equality.
Because the effect was specific to each state as it legalized marriage equality, it cannot be dismissed as mere correlation. In fact, during the same span of time, suicide rates in the country were actually increasing across almost all age groups.
[…]
Regardless, the study offers a profound addition to the wealth of research already documenting the impact of what psychologists call “minority stress.” For example, a study published earlier this month in Australia found that LGB people who had strong social support and affirmation had normative rates of depression and anxiety, while only those who experienced rejection or had past experiences of trauma experienced higher rates. Several other studies in the U.S. have found that simply living in more conservative communities can have a negative impact.
Republicans, who so often tout themselves as being so very “pro-life”, but could not care less about the lives or health of women, and support the death penalty, are also staunchly against marriage equality. The fact that equality helps to maintain life is one which will, no doubt, not sway them in the least. For all their claims of pro-lifery, they don’t seem to be the least bit concerned with LGBT people dying. It’s rather difficult to not get the feeling they are cheering behind closed doors, so I imagine this news will be met with a renewed determination to kill marriage equality. Seeing as the Trump Regime is all set to rescind the Obama administration’s guidance protecting transgender students, which is little more than a license to harass and bully transgender kids, I’m sure an uptick in violence against transgender people and suicides will be seen. This is not a good. This is evil, absolutely evil, repulsive behaviour that any decent person should be ashamed of, and be willing to fight against, tooth and nail. Once again, the rethuglicans prove they are people who are pro-death, and they will go to any length to ostracize those they deem subhuman, and hope they will be driven to death, one way or another.
Installation view, PARADISE COVE 1.0, 2015.
At its best, Hawai’i’s art community reflects a multi-ethnic heritage as well as a critical desire to confront the legacy of colonialism that plays out in the present day against the people, land, and natural resources of the islands. For many long-time Hawai’i artists, there is an acceptance of a place where the market is not a priority. This is important work, hard work, work that must be done in the face of personal and economic sacrifice and the growing lack of institutional support, despite near-constant development and a booming tourist economy.
At its worst, Hawai’i’s art community is dated and alienating: full of the racist undertones and an underlying bitterness stemming from a lack of opportunities. Artists here can be unapologetically territorial. “Watufaka!” Given the whitewashed colonial injustices committed against Hawai’ians and throughout the Pacific, does it really come as a surprise? Meanwhile, artists trying to make a living face tremendous pressure to conform to touristic expectations and often end up sacrificing their vision to produce uninspired tropical seascapes or “designed by committee” public commissions for the state. Neither promotes meaningful engagement. Some artists go for broke and move to “the mainland,” never to be seen or heard from again. Some move home to surf or start a career, when they are jaded and tired, in their 40s. The rest just stop.
The whole essay, part of 50 States of Art, is at The Creators Project, and excellent reading. There’s more to see, too!