We Speak For Earth
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ikenbot CWL -
mohandasgandhi Mohandas Gandhi -
realcleverscience Real Clever Science -
socialuprooting Social Uprooting -
abstractnerd Abstract Nerd -
perscientiamlibertas A Matter of the Most Pleasant Fraternal Confidence
Aurora Borealis is an 1865 painting by Frederic Edwin Church of the Aurora Borealis and the arctic expedition of Dr. Isaac Hayes. The painting measures 56 x 83 1/2 in. (142.3 x 212.2 cm) and is now owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
The artist (Frederic Edwin Church) had to convey the experience of watching the aurora without having witnessed it himself.
Returning to this article because I wanted to add how awesome it is to know whenever one of the very authors, photographers, artists, etc. who’s work you post and source on tumblr give you props for promoting their work rather than rage about it and cry about copyright and “theft” like others tend to do.
In this case I would like to return those props and respect to Meghan Ferriter who is an interdisciplinary researcher and anthropologist and the original author of the above Wikipedia article on a 1865 painting by Frederic Edwin Church which is called “Aurora Borealis” and as you can see, is quite stunning. I think I cheese just as much as they do when this happens, it’s a mutual cheesing based on celebrating the sharing of knowledge.
This is a fascinating example of cultural heritage content held at a museum being linked (literally) in a central and open access knowledge repository, then accessed and shared in a social networking space: overlapping forms of digital communication.
This was a social share of Smithsonian content; by way of an outreach and engagement event that sought to share Smithsonian collections by explaining their context and content through (or on) Wikipedia. Then that content was taken up by a user on a social media network and shared with his followers. Then his followers responded to that content by liking and reblogging and replying to the content. This Smithsonian-housed content was, therefore, literally linked to broader scientific debates via @ikenbot’s page and the Tumblr/social media sharing loop.
Also, as a leader in the science Tumblr section, @ikenbot’s decision to reference the Wikipedia article adds authority or credit to the validity of Wikipedia within that particular community of practice on Tumblr (science-focused bloggers).
Is this a case of “If you build it, they will share…”? Perhaps not, yet this instance is a powerfully persuasive example, even as a one-off. It demonstrates the realities of sourcing and sharing content in digital spaces; furthermore, it is a testament to the ways Smithsonian Institution and Wikipedia content meshes and unfolds across digital space through social and cultural behaviors in digital spaces. Plus, it was quite cool to have my own words cited and sourced as a part of the summarization of the image.
Thank you again Meghan and all other Wikipedia authors who provide worthwhile information for the public to indulge in!
W00T!! Thanks, Ken! I’m just gonna plug Wikipedia and other online/digital knowledge repositories (check out dp.la too!) as places to which YOU — yes, you! and “you” is ANYONE — can contribute and make change online that affects the things we know and do IRL.
Check out Wikipedia’s #tooFEW categories, especially, and get stuck in to challenging what we know and how we know it by making POC and women contributions more visible on Wikipedia - which stories are we missing? What’s “notable” to you? What can you add to public discourse that broadens understanding?
Linked & open knowledge is the best - make your work open, let people use it… revel and delight in finding new ways to spark learning and discovery! There’s just too much cool art/science/math/socialandcultural/information/data to keep it locked up or just possess it - get out there, #unleashtheknowledge
Kelly Mizrahi (and Leiomy) speaking about violence against gay and trans* People of Color. She highlights the disparity in the treatment and coverage for Black queer people facing the violence versus that of white people.
(via fuckyeahcracker)
The recently-opened Shimmy Club has installed the spyglass – normally associated with police interrogations – in two of its £800-a-time private function rooms.
A spokesman for the Glasgow venue, owned by millionaire entrepreneur Stefan King’s G1 Group, insists it does not allow male or mixed-sex groups to hire the rooms.
However, the Scottish Sunday Express has seen photos showing a group of young men with a clear view of women using the bathroom.
There is no sign in the toilets or anywhere else on the premises alerting female clubgoers to the fact they can be observed.
I have no words
(via sinidentidades)
A Health Ministry inspector poured bleach over pots full of food in a Sudanese restaurant in Tel Aviv Sunday night.
The inspector, from the ministry’s district office for Tel Aviv, was participating in a raid by police and municipal inspectors on illegal businesses owned by African migrants. Altogether, the raid shut down 10 businesses in the city’s Neveh Sha’anan neighborhood, confiscating their equipment and welding the doors shut. The equipment was then loaded onto vans by other African migrants who had been hired as contract workers.
Many diners saw the inspector pouring bleach on the food, and one, asylum-seeker Aladin Abaker from Sudan’s Darfur region, posted photos of the incident on his Facebook page. He also described his feelings of humiliation.
“Everyone − except the destroyers − was in tears from the humiliation,” he wrote. “The waitress told us, ‘I’ve seen very harsh things in my life, like torture in Sinai, but this humiliated me more than what happened to me in Sinai.”
Abaker accused the inspector of “insensitivity to people and their culture, which sees food as a sacred thing that must be respected,” and said the raid was aimed at “embittering our lives so we’ll return to Africa ‘voluntarily.’”
Altogether, he said, more than 200 kilograms of meat, chicken and fish and over 500 prepared meals were destroyed.
The inspectors said they didn’t know where the meat came from and therefore feared for the diners’ health, Abaker wrote. “We told them: But this is the only place we’ve eaten all our meals for four years now, and none of us ever had stomach problems. Even whites eat here.”
The Health Ministry responded that inspectors had discovered “deplorable sanitary conditions, food stored under unsuitable conditions and temperatures, and food from unknown sources. In order to preserve the public’s health and that of the diners themselves, it was decided to destroy the food immediately. As part of the process of destroying the food, chemicals suitable to this purpose are used. It should be noted that this was a routine process of food destruction that is no different from other destructions of food/meat.”
Tel Aviv’s deputy city manager, Ruby Zelof, said the raids were carried out “to eradicate the undesirable phenomenon of businesses operating illegally, with sanitation and safety problems and illegal connections to electricity and water, and sales of alcoholic beverages without permits.”
Haaretz | Photo credit: Aladin Abaker
Israel is deporting Africans and also planning to put tens of thousands into detention camps.
Knesset Member Miri Regev — a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party — called the refugees “a cancer in our body” and Danny Danon — also a Likud Knesset Member — wrote on his Facebook page referring to the Africans as “infiltrators”. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said the African asylum seekers threaten “the Zionist dream,” adding, “Jobs will root them here.”
See also:
- Why is the birth rate in Israel’s Ethiopian community declining? Ethiopian women who immigrated to Israel were coaxed into agreeing to injections of long-acting birth control drugs, or told they would not be allowed into the country
- Israeli woman has her photo taken with Africans, titles the Facebook album: “Late night tour of the Tel Aviv Safari”, captions the photo: “There are no signs forbidding taking pictures with the animals. There were no signs that forbid feeding, but we passed on that.”
(via sinidentidades)
You share pics of angry cats share this too!
Signal boost to my south florida followers
please reblog, power of the internet saves people
(via section-8-tenant)
Builders bulldoze one of largest Mayan pyramids in Belize
One of the oldest and most famous Mayan pyramids has been destroyed by a construction company in Belize, while digging for crushed rock for a road they were building.
I just read about this bullshit.
sickening.
The story of capitalism and imperialism right here.
Destroying. Fucking. Everything.
(via sinidentidades)
PSA: Help victims of the tornadoes in Oklahoma by donating $10 to the Red Cross. Text REDCROSS to 90999, or visit redcross.org.
There are already signs the growing middle class is prompting increased competition for resources in global markets for oil, food, and minerals, said Sir David King, during a talk sponsored by the Harvard University Center for the Environment. Image: Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer
Earth feels impact of middle class: Expert says problem isn’t just population, it’s lifestyle
Our most pressing environmental challenge is not how many people the planet can support, but rather how many cellphone-toting, satellite-TV-watching, gas-guzzler driving members of the middle class it can bear.
While global population growth has been important over the last century, as the number of humans climbed from 1.5 billion in 1900 to some 7 billion today, average female fertility has declined to the replacement value of 2.1 births, King said. While a significant increase of some 2 billion people is still expected as today’s children reach childbearing age, lifestyle changes are the greater challenge, he said.
The global middle class—defined as those who spend between $10 and $100 per day—has climbed rapidly, reaching 1 billion in 2000 and doubling to 2 billion just recently. The middle class is expected to reach 4.8 billion by 2050, raising the question of whether the planet has the resources to deliver the lifestyle people will expect.
“Improving Human Well-Being on a Resource-Limited Planet: Can We Do It?” was sponsored by the Harvard University Center for the Environment and was part of its “Future of Energy” lecture series. King was introduced by the center’s director, Daniel Schrag, Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology and a professor of environmental science and engineering.
There are already signs the growing middle class is prompting increased competition for resources in global markets for oil, food, and minerals, King said. Fresh water sources are strained, including both surface water and aquifers. Some water-poor nations have turned to desalinating seawater, an energy-intensive process, with the energy often provided by coal.
