Month: January 2012

haptisms:

ladiesmakingcomics:

Modern-day Fashion Princesses by *viria

totally in love with Belle’s outfit.

I’m sort of iffy on the part where Pocahontas ends up looking like a postergirl for hipster racism chic (I’m not sure if it’s better or worse that Jasmine and Mulan …and Kida, to some extent, didn’t really get the same treatment for their respective cultural influence backgrounds), but I totally want Tiana’s dress and Aurora’s whole outfit.

dynamicafrica:

Afrikan Alphabets Book by Saki Mafundikwa

Afrikan Alphabets – The story of writing in Afrika is a book written by Zimbabwe designer Saki Mafundikwa.

“Afrikan alphabets have a rich cultural and artistic history. Many continue to be in current use today. Their story, however, is little known due largely to their past suppression by colonial powers. This book sets the record straight. Both entertaining and anecdotal, African Alphabets presents a wealth of highly graphical and attractive illustrations.

Writing systems across the Afrikan continent and the Diaspora are included, analyzed and illustrated: the scripts of the West Africans – Mende, Vai, Nsibidi, Bamum and the Somali, and Ethiopian scripts. Other alphabets, syllabaries, paintings, pictographs, ideographs, and symbols are compared and contrasted.” 

3liza:

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.

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 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.

smoteymote:

princehamlette:

startwithaseed:

Here’s what you will need for your very own table-top water garden: 

  • A glass container, bowl, wide-mouth vase etc.
  • Water plants such as taro, water lettuce, water hyacinth, duck weed, fairy moss etc.
  • Plastic pots shorter than the height of your glass vessel
  • Assorted rocks
  • Potting soil
  • Charcoal bits
  • Mosquito fish (optional)
  • Pure water

Place the taro in your plastic pot and add soil. Pack the soil down snugly and cover with rocks and pebbles. Rinse off any loose soil from the exterior of the plastic pot. Make sure your bowl/vase/container is clean and free of cracks. Take a handful of charcoal and line the base of the vessel to help against odors. Cover with aquarium pebbles. Fill the vessel with the most pure water you can get your hands on; rain water, reverse osmosis water, or distilled. Place the potted taro into the vessel. Some loose soil may escape the pot- just scoop it off the top of the water, and add more rocks to the potted plant if needed. Pull off any dead roots from the floating water plants, and give them a good rinse before adding to the bowl. If you plan on taking the water garden outside, and then bringing it back inside later, mosquito fish are a good idea. Nobody wants mosquitoes hatching in their living room! (via in words and pictures: Indoor Tabletop Water Garden)

I wish I had an apartment to myself because my entire house would be this.

THIS.

I kind of want one of these for my work desk.