dinotaurs

sam-clay:

Malala Yousafzai, in a 2011 interview with CNN, discussing her activism on behalf of girls seeking education in Pakistan.

I’m bringing this back because this morning it was announced that Malala Yousafzai has been officially nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Congratulations, princess.

"Wealthy musician Amanda Palmer, who last year raised $1.2 million on Kickstarter to produce and..."

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 15:12:47 -0500

“Wealthy musician Amanda Palmer, who last year raised $1.2 million on Kickstarter to produce and release a record, recently used a TED talk to expand on the idea that artists should be willing to work for free. After relaying a story about how she used to be a street performer, Palmer, who is married to a very successful author named Neil Gaiman, told an audience of people who’d paid $7,500 apiece to be there that musicians shouldn’t “make” people pay for their work, but rather “let” people pay for their work. She also explained that she found it virtuous when a family of undocumented immigrants huddled together on their couch for a night so that she and her band could have their beds, because her music and presence was a fair exchange for the family’s comfort. After about 13 minutes of explaining why she is content with people giving her things, Palmer received a standing ovation.”

- When People Write for Free, Who Pays?

FYI, this is why Amanda Palmer is a giant SHITMONSTER.

(via elizabitchez)

All while she and her fans rally around her right to perpetuate ableism and appropriate native cultures in order to sell records, and SHAME ON ANY OF US OUT THERE FOR JUDGING HER FOR IT IN ANY WAY.

(via ouyangdan)

She also recommended instead of doing product placement for money, people should do things like “ironically send money to the KKK”.

…

Yeah.

(via bankuei)

Yup. She is a shitbird.

(via nudiemuse)

She is such an asshat. Fuck her.
(via distorria)

allcreatures: Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo: an...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 14:14:26 -0500

allcreatures:

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo: an orphaned bonobo drinks after being rescued

Photograph: Junior D. Kannah/AFP/Getty Images (via 24 hours in pictures | News | guardian.co.uk)

buzzfeed: Lil’ Bear and Tala the wolf were inseparable growing...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 14:07:16 -0500

buzzfeed:

Lil’ Bear and Tala the wolf were inseparable growing up and are still best friends!

Photo

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 14:05:08 -0500

mrffahrenheit: Vera Cooper Rubin (1928 - ) Vera Rubin is...

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 14:04:45 -0500

mrffahrenheit:

Vera Cooper Rubin (1928 - )

Vera Rubin is credited with proving the existence of “dark matter,” or nonluminous mass, and forever altering our notions of the universe. By the late 1970s, after Rubin and her colleagues had observed dozens of spiral galaxies, it was clear that something other than the visible mass was responsible for the motions of the stars within them. Her calculations showed that, for the velocities measured, the galaxies must contain about ten times as much “dark” mass as can be accounted for by the visible stars. As a result of Rubin’s groundbreaking work, it has become apparent that more than 90% of the universe is composed of dark matter (as well as dark energy). Defining it is one of astronomy’s most important pursuits.

When Vera Cooper Rubin told her high school physics teacher that she’d been accepted to Vassar, he said, “That’s great. As long as you stay away from science, it should be okay.” Ignoring him, and the countless others like him, was truly a great idea.

Rubin graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1948, the only astronomy major in her class at Vassar, and went on to receive her master’s from Cornell in 1950 (after being turned away by Princeton because they did not allow women in their astronomy program) and her Ph.D. from Georgetown in 1954. Rubin made a name for herself not only as an astronomer but also as a woman pioneer; she fought through severe criticisms of her work to eventually be elected to the National Academy of Sciences (at the time, only three women astronomers were members) and to win the highest American award in science, the National Medal of Science. However, it is not the fame that Rubin values: “My numbers mean more to me than my name. If astronomers are still using my data years from now, that’s my greatest compliment.”

Rubin is also an observant Jew, and sees no conflict between science and religion. In an interview, she stated: “In my own life, my science and my religion are separate. I’m Jewish, and so religion to me is a kind of moral code and a kind of history. I try to do my science in a moral way, and, I believe that, ideally, science should be looked upon as something that helps us understand our role in the universe.”