(via electristy)

jtotheizzoe:

Little Pink Aliens

This is Hutt Lagoon, a salt lake in western Australia that looks like a scene from another planet. Photographer Steve Back noticed its odd pink hue from the air and captured this gallery of stunningly alien waterscapes.

The really cool part is why it’s pink and red. This lake has such high salt concentration that it’s almost devoid of life. The key word there is “almost”. An algae called Dunaliella salina is able to survive in the salty environment by producing the chemical glycerol, a viscous substance that helps it not get pickled by the brine. The pink color comes from the algae’s high beta-carotene concentration, a pigment they produce in order to protect themselves from intense sunlight as these shallow pools evaporate in the Australian heat.

It’s a similar tale of algae and pigments as the story of why flamingos are pink. I think they’d have a field day at this rose-colored buffet. It’s proof again that no matter how harsh or inhospitable we view an environment, evolution’s powerful, creative hand can mold a creature able to live there. As long as a few basic ingredients for life exist, life will exist.

(via Co.Design)

FORGIVE ME SIR, FOR I MUST GO.

thedailywhat:

We Must Dig Deeper of the Day: Student Expelled For Finding Bug in School System

Ahmed Al-Khabaz, a 20-year-old computer science student at Dawson College in Montreal, Canada, was expelled last week for apparently reporting and doing a follow-up check on a major bug that he had found in the school’s student information system earlier last October. Upon initial discovery, Al-Khabaz met with the Director of Information Services and Technology François Paradis, who thanked him for his work and promised Omnivox’s distributor, Skytech, would fix the error. 

Two days after this meeting, Al-Khabaz tested Omnivox to see if the fixes had been made. Minutes later, he received a phone call from Skytech’s president who accused Al-Khabaz of orchestrating an attack against the system and threatened him with jail time if he didn’t agree to sign a non-disclosure agreement about the bug. When Al-Khabaz reluctantly signed the documents, he was promptly expelled for “unprofessional conduct,” barring him from enrollment at any other college in the region.

… what’s going on here?

Apparently some people were generous enough to grant Sharifah Zohra Jabeen an uninterrupted platform to clear the air. So she had at it, with a supposedly pre-written speech.

Here are my Cliff’s notes:

• This is supposed to be YOUR apology, not a speech of YOU forgiving a girl who did nothing other than participate in a debate, and yet you spent the majority of this statement drawing out how you have been mistreated for your conduct
• If you think your speech(es) did any favours for the ruling government you are SORELY mistaken
• Angry respondents to your actions did not damage the credibility of your “NGO” SW1M. YOUR ACTIONS damaged the credibility of SW1M
• You’re bewildered that you’re now a local phenomenon featured in remix videos, comedy acts, on T-shirts, etc, instead of a pledge that wasn’t mentioned in the video?
• Honey you are asking us to leave this alone because it’s meant to be between you and Bavhani, but you started bullying Bavhani by rallying the crowd while you yelled at, belittled and steamrollered all over her
• Bavhani, being a young student and a minority, having to tolerate your loud, merciless tear-down in a hall packed with Bumiputera peers, is our image of “an innocent woman”
• I doubt watching Parts 1, 2 and 3 would rationalize your behaviour in any way
• You being a mother is irrelevant
• Nothing about your issue is relevant to baby dumping, HIV, rape, LGBT’s, Selangor’s water crisis, etc — but I guess we didn’t expect the woman who equates educational reform to animal welfare to stay on-topic
• Muslims have found your actions offensive as well
• If you deeply regret dragging UUM into this issue, WHY ARE YOU NAME-DROPPING SPECIFIC IINDIVIDUALS FROM UUM?
• “Heinous” is pronounced “HAY-NUHS”
• “Reiterate” is pronounced “REE-IH-TUH-RAYTE
• Your apology to all Malaysians was rendered meaningless by your previous statement that UUM is the only party deserving of your sincere apology
• Please ask an educated adult to help proofread your speeches in the future. A few shining excerpts:
  “SW1M; IN SHORT, pertubuhan Suara Wanita 1 Malaysia.”
  “This kind of act of forgiveness are also extended…”
  “The harsh, insensitive, offensive YET vulgar…”
  “…and I will read to you what was the pledge read…”
  “…hatred created for some, by some, for whatsoever reason behind it.”

In short, she took this valuable opportunity to prove that even with a planned speech, her English really is that terrible, she thinks we’re all meanies and she did nothing wrong, and she thinks the only reason we took offense is because we are against the ruling government and Islam.

Backstory

newsweek:

Here is one of the letters a child wrote to President Obama asking him to take action on gun control.

Also, that P.S.

I’m no saint, but we would care a lot less if she didn’t write mean bitter accusatory love songs about them. It wouldn’t be great if they fought fire with fire, now would it.

(If you click through, there is an infographic. It is awesome. And light-hearted.)

(via fuckyeahmcadams)

shortformblog:

The tech community was quick to respond strongly to reports of Swartz’s death Saturday morning, with much written in reaction to his loss, including:

• Tim Berners-Lee The man who created the Web mourned Swartz’s death as that of a fallen comrade in a poem on the W3C listserv. “Aaron is…

(Source: caattnip, via electristy)

“…The day Alex killed himself, he wandered his apartment in a daze. The light streaming through the windows gave everything a golden glow, which had the odd effect of making the filth he’d become surrounded with seem cinematic…”

Disguised as fiction — even a metaphor, but it was almost a confession. I’m not sure I want to understand him more than this, but I will spend the rest of my life in admiration of him.

Too young, too soon. The loss is ours — an unspeakable loss we must try but never truly can replace in the fight for freedom of information.

Blessed with the capability to pursue countless profitable ventures, Swartz decided instead to focus his energy supporting the spread of free and open knowledge, fighting censorship, paid access that doesn’t benefit the original authors, reviving worthy texts — all ostensibly at no personal profit.

The least we, as mere mortals, can do to continue the fight, is to imagine the world he spent his life fighting for.

Because I do, all the time.

thisadvertisinglife:

Another GIF Tumblr I’m addicted to.

I want to turn this blog entry into pamphlets and hand them out on the streets.

missokistic:

…the US claims it doesn’t like to negotiate with terrorists, yet we are being held hostage by a comparatively small but vocal, violent and well-funded segment of the gun-owning population who repeatedly threatens an armed revolution if they don’t continue to get their way and genuinely believes the lives of 20 little kids in Connecticut, 500+ Chicago residents and 9,000+ Americans nationwide are the price we all have to pay so they can continue to plan for the day their delusions come true.

I’m pretty lucky. I have almost everything I want and trust myself to do the usual: eat healthily, exercise, sleep well, have fun, try to be a good friend, daughter, sister, person. Stay positive about love, work hard, learn new skills, read lots of books. Travel. Aside from picking up the guitar again, I achieved all my resolutions last year, and then some.

This year I’m keeping it light-hearted.

And I’m superstitious. It’s the year of the snake. Not a big year to achieve big things.

1. Save.
2. Stay under 110 lbs.
3. Read at least 5 books.
4. Now that I know how comfortable I feel on stage, keep trying at standup comedy until I achieve the perfect, bring-down-the-house (even if it’s just for 3 minutes) performance.
5. Focus on the meaningful, REWARDING friendships.
6. Less late nights with alcohol, more earlier-in-the-day drinks with great conversation.
7. Decide it’s not the year to ‘figure things out’.
8. Travel to at least 2 more new countries. UK doesn’t count, even if you never set foot outside of London that last time.

To be fair, the iTunes one is a pretty serious problem and should not be taken lightly.

(via kunstaffee)

1. Read 11 books.
2. Joined 9 junk boat trips.
3. Saw the beautiful Playa del Carmen, Puerto Morelos, 7 Bocas water caves (dived about 20 feet into one of them), swam the biggest swimming pool I have ever seen, and explored the ruins of Chichen Itza in Cancun.
4. Enjoyed a private rodeo performance, ate a raw habanero pepper, tried local Agua de Jamaica and was blown away by a purple sunset over the beautiful Chapala lake in Ocotlan.
5. Watched Mexican wrestling, ate way too many tacos, visited the Sonora witchcraft market, Chapultepec museum, and El Angel de la Independencia in Mexico City.
6. Got a free manicure, explored the Cholula pyramids, artists’ markets and 5 breathtaking cathedrals in Puebla.
7. Lost my Mexican visa, missed my 1st flight home waiting for it to get renewed, then spent 14 hours guarding luggage while reading magazines and munching on dry sandwiches in the airport, waiting for my status as a standby passenger for the next available flight.
8. Dressed up as a machine gun-toting bunny for Halloween and met 4 great girls who snuck me into an exclusive new club.
9. Rode a pony at the base of KL Tower.
10. Hosted & did all the cooking for my first ever dinner party on Chinese New Year.
11. Tobogganed down the Great Wall of China, explored Sanlitun district and learned ‘real’ archery in Beijing.
12. Visited a stone village, stone park and really weird deserted, dried out lake garden in Yunnan.
13. Used the most disgusting, worm-infested toilet ever and on a separate occasion, got really severe food poisoning. In fact the entire camera crew all got hit by food poisoning that same week. Also in Yunnan.
14. Dressed up as a cop and hosted a costume fundraiser party for our dragon boat team.
15. Raced with the dragon boat team again, in costume (girls dressed as Roman dominas and boys as gladiator slaves, complete with fake neck and wrist chains). We didn’t place, but we broke our previous speed record by a whopping 20 seconds.
16. Wrote a new song.
17. Got hired for a voice acting job.
18. Visited Ireland - Galway, Limerick, Killarney, Ring of Kerry, Blarney, Kinsale, Dublin. Everything was so breathtaking I was almost in tears.
19. Visited Zhuhai again after 10 years. Went back to Yuanming Xinyuan to watch the same performance I did in 2002. Still great.
20. Rented a stretch limo with some friends, dressed as socialites and bodyguards, to celebrate a close friend’s birthday with an epic day of cocktails, fireworks, dancing and all-round silliness in Macau.
21. Performed stand-up comedy for the very first time. Didn’t bring the house down, but didn’t blow either.
22. Caught my first ballet show, The Nutcracker, which was also my first time watching my flatmate perform. Great seats, fun show, beautiful choreography, perfect orchestra.
23. Showed my sister around Hong Kong. It had its ups and downs, but family’s family, dammit, and somehow we work it out.
24. Met some awesome new people I have a feeling I’ll be close friends with for years and years to come.
25. Met a brown-haired boy with the cutest shy smile.