nonvolleyball

applefabric: natural beauty yes.

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 16:40:19 -0500

applefabric:

natural beauty

yes.

thefeministsocietyatnyu: Academic Things Men Explain to Me...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 18:20:23 -0500

thefeministsocietyatnyu:

Academic Things Men Explain to Me (Tumblr)

this is relevant to my interests (which apparently include being infuriated).

slowartday: Daria Hlazatova you draw a mermaid riding a...

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:40:24 -0500

slowartday:

Daria Hlazatova

you draw a mermaid riding a unicorn, I’m gonna reblog it…that’s just how this shit works.

HA! happy Friday, y’all.

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:20:12 -0500

HA! happy Friday, y’all.

ohhhhhhhhhh I have so much love for Zoolander, even after all...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 16:40:29 -0500

ohhhhhhhhhh I have so much love for Zoolander, even after all these years.

also, I was in Madrid a few months ago & it seemed like every museum we went to had at least one small-scale model of a building or city. & each time we encountered one, I would say “¿¡¿que es esto—un centro[/una iglesia/una ciudad/un castillo] para hormigas?!?”

I can only hope that at least one Spanish-speaker overheard it & appreciated my capacity for bilingual reference humor, because it sure stopped being funny for dudevolleyball after a while. (I, on the other hand, found it to be relentlessly amusing.)

rdreamwalker: asilookatthemoon: The Quick Brown Fox Jumps...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:56:48 -0500

rdreamwalker:

asilookatthemoon:

The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog.
I feel like I’ve been preparing for this image all my life.

The internet is over, everyone can go home

It’s just as beautiful as I always imagined.

My life is complete.

Life is over as we know it

I always pictured the lazy dog lying down, but if anything this is even more impressive.

kibblesmith: paulftompkins: John Hodgman & Andy Daly...

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 11:06:24 -0500

kibblesmith:

paulftompkins:

John Hodgman & Andy Daly helpfully leave a space into which you might photoshop yourself. (at Hotel Sax Chicago)

Cool, but rude.

hearted for the TMNT ‘shop, reblogged for the “cool but rude.”

justmermaidthings dot tumblr dot com

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 21:24:08 -0500

justmermaidthings dot tumblr dot com

latentpower: awkwardsituationist: cambridge university...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 19:48:07 -0500

latentpower:

awkwardsituationist:

cambridge university students were asked on campus why they needed feminism. here are 60 answers. click the link for over about 600 more.

This is amazing

all of these are good but the “so many people in my generation think ‘feminism’ is a dirty word” one really resonates. it’s far too common for younger people to think gender equality (& racial equality, for that matter) have been so perfectly achieved that feminism (& anti-racism) are just antiquated, unnecessary missions. & it. makes. me. so. FRUSTRATED.

A Syrian Proxy War Is Being Fought in Tripoli

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:12:38 -0500

A Syrian Proxy War Is Being Fought in Tripoli:

note-a-bear:

fursasaida:

Okay, so Vice is absolutely not at all my favorite source, but proxy wars are kind of my thing (and I appreciate that they used the term!), so here we go.

Over the past eight days, fighting between these two neighborhoods in Lebanon’s second city of Tripoli has claimed nearly 30 lives and resulted in over 200 injuries. But while Tripoli’s Sunnis may outnumber Alawites to a ratio of four to one, there is little chance of either side gaining an advantage any time soon. Instead, an ongoing battle of attrition is being played out [….]

Clashes between Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen are nothing new. The two have been going at it for decades, yet they have started clashing far more regularly since the beginning of the uprising in neighboring Syria two years ago. This latest outbreak of violence began at the same time as an Hezbollah supported assault just over the Syrian border in the strategic town of Qusair. This has only served to fuel speculation that what’s going on in Tripoli is not just linked to the Syrian civil war, but is actually a proxy of it—with the Alawites of Jabal Mohsen supporting embattled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the Sunnis of Bab al-Tabbaneh on the side of the rebels who are trying to topple him. […]

Despite the poverty of their surroundings, the fighters are armed with an impressive array of weapons. “This gun cost me $2,000,” one thick-bearded fighter tells me. “I paid for it from my own pocket.” In northern Lebanon, Sunnis are thought to have been giving logistical support to Syrian rebel forces for some time, as well as aiding in their recruitment drive. In Bab al-Tabbaneh, it isn’t hard to find men who claim to have fought in Syria. Others, like 40-year-old Abu Hamza, a driver in designer glasses, bemoan the fact they aren’t able to. “I would like to have that honor,” he says, “but I need to stay in Tripoli to defend my family and my neighborhood.”

There’s an increasing belief that Hezbollah and Assad are directing their supporters in Lebanon to engage local Sunnis in combat. That way, the reasoning goes, men like Abu Hamza are persuaded to stay home and defend their loved ones rather than join the rebels attempting to overthrow Assad’s regime. Those already fighting in Syria may also feel compelled to return from their foreign war, to face battles much closer to home.

This is just how it works in this particular area (not the Middle East as a whole, but Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, somewhat Jordan). You cannot have a fight in your own house without trampling all over the neighbors’ lawn and getting them involved. Proxy wars are passive-aggressive as all hell, and around here, there isn’t really any other kind.

The border between Syria and Lebanon is 100% artificial. It exists because the European powers were like, “look at all these religious minorities in Lebanon! Not Muslims! We’re gonna take care of y’all,” and particularly the Lebanese Christians being like “word, can you rejigger this so we can have a country where we’re a majority?” and Europe being like “sure no problem boo.” (Christians are totally not a majority anymore in Lebanon, btw, so that kind of stopped working out for them.) Most Muslims in Lebanon, for a long time, preferred the idea of still being part of Syria, and for sure Syria never once gave up the idea that Lebanon belongs to it.

This is why Lebanon has never really gotten its shit together. It’s got all these minorities with allegiances somewhere else. That doesn’t mean those are their only allegiances—for example, I do believe Hizballah are basically invested in a Lebanon that works and is stable—but there’s not much natural cohesion.

And I should make sure to be clear that that fractiousness exists for a reason: Europe looked at Lebanon, which was basically just a province of the Ottoman Empire at the time and everybody mostly went about their business, and saw, through their Orientalist bullshit, a place that was naturally prone to violence. And when they were moving in on the Ottomans’ economic monopolies, they deliberately made connections with specific minority groups and exploited that. (The French had a total Catholic boner for the Maronites Christians, and the British thought of the Druze as similar to Scottish Highlanders [???], so they, like, decided to adopt them.) Eventually, when the were powerful enough in the region, they managed to get the Ottomans to organize the regional government in a way that reflected that vision of a whole bunch of groups that hated each other and were bound to explode into carnage at any minute.

Artificial structures, no matter how artificial, do have an effect on the way people see their situations. They can’t help but react to the way they’re expected and even coerced to behave. So Lebanese people were set up to identify in a sectarian way, not in a geographic way, and then the way they’ve negotiated those identities and the way they’ve organized governments has entrenched it. Lebanese people aren’t stupid; they’re aware that this is a problem. It’s just a problem that works in some people’s interests, so it doesn’t go away. Add in the arbitrary border and you get a lot of confusion.

Since Monday morning there has been a lull in the heavy fighting, albeit a lull punctuated by occasional sniper fire. Human Rights Watch yesterday called on the Lebanese government to enforce this fragile ceasefire by deploying more security forces to the area, seizing weapons from the gunmen and arresting and prosecuting those responsible for shooting at and shelling residents. However, this is unlikely to happen. In Abu Hamza’s opinion, “The fighting here will only finish when Assad is finished—and not before.”

So everything I said up above is exactly why HRW in this paragraph is so silly and sad. The Lebanese Army can’t do shit. They haven’t been a real thing since at least the Civil War, because when the government couldn’t decide what the fuck to do all the soldiers were like “okay then peace bro” and went to fight in the various militias.

The army ceded most of Lebanon’s “rough terrain”—meaning the east close to Syria and the south—long ago; they have no standing, authority, or presence in most of these areas. Hizballah’s domination of the south came about during the Civil War, and they’ve been able to hold onto that territory as well as the Beqa’a (the east) because the borderline-pathetic army has never really tried to take it back. (In fact, most of the army’s better moments in the last couple decades have been the result of Hizballah being like “yo you want in on this? Cool, but no funny business.”) Ever since the end of that conflict, Lebanon’s been trying to put itself back together—and again, ending the sectarian system was explicitly identified as a core goal—and that means trying to put institutions, including the army, back together as well. Unfortunately, they haven’t been successful. The army is still irrelevant, and I honestly don’t know what it would take to make it relevant again.

Proxy wars: the worst!

Read this.
Really.

…geez.

crackerhell: fajazo: whatabootsecondbreakfast: filthypolak: t...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:12:04 -0500

crackerhell:

fajazo:

whatabootsecondbreakfast:

filthypolak:

thelimblesswonder:

ilekajasmine:

topographicocean:

cheesydolphins:

jinglebellrockstar:

mythic-swirl:

thattwiborg:

injectiontechnique:

aionzang:

zeurel:

World of Buttsex

do I win?

Persona 4 Buttsex

…Kaaaaanjiiiiiiii…? What did you do this time…?

Marvel Buttsex.

Team Buttsex 2.

ooc:

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Buttsex….. I don’t know what to think of that…

Fire Emblem:Buttsex

Soul Buttsex V.

Hotline Buttsex

FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL~

The Elder Scrolls V: Buttsex.

Rayman: Buttsex.

I can’t.

Dwarf Buttsex

omfg

Pokemon Buttsex

Bastion buttsex

Kingdom Buttsex: Dream Drop Buttsex <—-can I do that?

Toejam & Buttsex.

…it’s really not the same game without Earl.

sluttybitchingcunt: highwaysunset: black-footed: labmunky: Oh...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 16:36:33 -0500

sluttybitchingcunt:

highwaysunset:

black-footed:

labmunky:

Ohmygahd guys! My Facebook page This should be the Blackhawks Logo! caught the eye of one of the major newspapers here The Chicago Tribune! I just finished a phone interview with them about mascots and the Chicago Native Community! I’ll keep y’all updated :D

This is awesome! Props, homie.

That’s awesome! I hope it gets some real attention :D

see this is what i’m talking about. not only is it not racist, but it’s like infinity times more badass. i fucking love it so much i am peeing a little.

aahhhh, I love it! I was just thinking last night how unfortunate it is that the beautiful Blackhawks logo is also racist…this design does a great job of retaining what’s great about the original & then improving upon it. I would be SO happy if they changed it to this.

Powers of Ten

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:22:51 -0500

fakescience:

as someone whose young mind was absolutely blown by the real “Powers of Ten” video (posted below as a public service), this made me laugh WAY too hard.

3dprintmeafucktogive: I made a friend tonight and the name he told me was “Computer Love.” that...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:14:26 -0500

3dprintmeafucktogive:

I made a friend tonight and the name he told me was “Computer Love.”

that means you befriended an amazing Zapp & Roger song, & therefore I’m jealous.

nevver: Best Seller wow, that top cover is amazing. my old...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:54:18 -0500

nevver:

Best Seller

wow, that top cover is amazing.

my old copy is from a used book sale circa 1997 & looks like this:

…which is cool & all, but to me it conveys “psychedelic whimsy” more than “dystopic surveillance culture.”

worn-smooth: “all the waters under the ground burst forth, and the sky’s windows were...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:58:24 -0500

worn-smooth:

“all the waters under the ground burst forth, and the sky’s windows were opened”

—

Because the weather’s been pretty terrible in Massachusetts lately.

But also because we have a copy of the Brick Testament that someone gave us a gag gift before we were married, and our daughter found it and she totally loves it and wants me to read her Bible stories all the time. But they’re all from Genesis and they’re all terrifying, and God acts like a dick in every one of them, and every time I see the drowning Lego baby, it makes me really sad. Well, I guess that’s one way to make your kid an atheist.

ahhh, I used to LOVE the Brick Testament & I’d COMPLETELY forgotten about it until just now. this was my desktop background for a while in college (I love how God’s looking on all “hm yes good”):

the amount of work that went into that project is mindblowing. & also yeah, most Bible stories are really creepy & disturbing at their core, particularly when illustrated via Legos.

gpoy

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:51:03 -0500

gpoy

not2hate: awesome-everyday: Black Man with a Blood Alcohol...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:29:00 -0500

not2hate:

awesome-everyday:

~~Black~~ Man with a Blood Alcohol Content of 0.00 CHARGED WITH DUI

Can we PLEASE evacuate all the cool people and just fucking embargo the rest of those assholes? SOMETHING?

I’ve been to Surprise on many occasions & this does not…um…challenge my previous assumptions about it.

The Excel spreadsheet artist

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:04:26 -0500

jkottke:

Shortly before his retirement at 60, Tatsuo Horiuchi picked up a copy of Microsoft Excel and started making art with it. His art does not look anything like you’d expect Excel art to look:

what is this sorcery?!?!

slowartday: Street art by Mark Jenkins same guy as the last...

Tue, 04 Jun 2013 21:24:19 -0500

slowartday:

Street art by Mark Jenkins

same guy as the last post (why am I not surprised). I think I like these even better though.