Good Things in the World

[Teelie]

This move by the UK government stands in stark contrast to what's happening in the United States. In Missouri, for example, a proposed bill would require schools to "alert" parents when evolution is taught.

The headslap is strong with is.

 

[Marvolo]

Teaching Creationism As Science Now Banned In All UK Public Schools

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/church-academies-model-documents

Some good news out in the UK, we should be so lucky to ever get something that rational passed here in the states

Great news for the UK, and Im extremely jealous.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

This One Little Programming Tweak Will Save Thousands of Lives

One of the best technological advances in the past year didn't involve any new technology at all — the advance is the result of an ingenious programming tweak developed by the National Weather Service. It will ultimately save thousands of lives over the coming years.

The programming tweak consists of two modifications called SAILS and AVSET. They are designed to dramatically cut down on the amount of time it takes a weather radar to perform a sweep of the skies, giving us more than double the coverage of the atmosphere just above the ground than we currently have.

Weather radar works by scanning the atmosphere at up to fourteen different levels, or "tilts," measured in degrees above the horizon relative to the radar itself. The lowest level it scans is 0.5°, which gives us the best look at what's going on closest to the ground. The highest level it scans is 19.6°, which lets us look inside storms that are practically sitting on top of the radar site. All fourteen radar tilts together give us a thorough look inside thunderstorms to see what they're doing.

For example, here's what a line of severe thunderstorms looked like as they were pushing through Grand Rapids, Michigan earlier this afternoon. This is the 0.5° tilt that we're all familiar with:

And this is the 19.5° tilt at the same time, showing the mid-levels of the thunderstorm immediately around the radar site:

When you look at a radar image online or on television, you're almost always looking at the 0.5° tilt. Since it's the level closest to the ground, it's obviously the most useful to us. It gives us the most representative look at what precipitation is actually reaching the ground, and it also lets us see rotation in a storm which could indicate the presence of a tornado.

How it works

Under normal circumstances, the weather radar will scan the 0.5° tilt first, then the 0.9° tilt, and so on up until it reaches 19.5°. Once it completes that scan, it will trace back down to 0.5° and start the process over again. This takes time — about 4 minutes and 10 seconds' worth, plus the time it takes to process the images and transmit them online.

This is an eternity in severe weather situations. As we've seen many times before, small tornadoes could form and dissipate in between these radar sweeps and we'd never know they were there until we hear reports of damage. Now, we have a way to hopefully stop that from happening.

AVSET

Weather radars measure precipitation in decibels (dBZ). When you look at the legend on the side of a radar image, the units of the numbers are in decibels. Higher decibels equate to stronger returns — heavy precipitation, debris, bugs, birds, airplanes, anything that reflects more of the radar beam back registers a higher number.

AVSET stands for Automated Volume Scan Evaluation and Termination. This programming tweak tells the radar to stop scanning the upper levels of the atmosphere once it stops detecting precipitation heavier than a set amount. We'll use the example of 20 dBZ, which is the equivalent of a light rain shower. The radar will continue scanning each tilt until it stops registering returns higher than 20 dBZ. Once the radar detects that the precipitation is lighter than the threshold, it will jump back down to the lower levels and start scanning again.

This cuts down the amount of time it takes to make a complete sweep of the atmosphere by a full minute.

SAILS

SAILS stands for Supplemental Adaptive Intra-volume Low-level Scans. When SAILS is activated, the code tells the radar to scan the lowest 0.5° tilt twice in one sweep, giving us a low-level scan about every 2 minutes and 20 seconds. The radar proceeds to scan the atmosphere as normal, but around the fourth tilt (usually on either side of 3.1°), the radar jumps back down and scans the lowest level again.

Since SAILS allows the radar to scan the 0.5° tilt twice, we get a low-level sweep about every 2 minutes and 20 seconds. This is extremely helpful in severe weather situations.

AVSET & SAILS

When both SAILS and AVSET are activated, it gives us a low-level sweep about every 1 minute and 45 seconds. This is a far cry from the almost 5 minutes we have to wait during normal operations.

How many more low-level scans do SAILS and AVSET provide us?

Under normal operations, we get a low-level scan 14 times per hour. When both AVSET and SAILS are activated, we can get more than double that number, clocking in between 24 and 32 low-level scans per hour. That is an incredible advance in the availability of low-level products, and it is already showing major success.

Well anything that can save lives is good in my book. It really does sound much better than the current method

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Soldier Will Get His Dog Back After His Evil Ex Sold It On Craigslist

Robby Gabbert, a soldier currently deployed to Afghanistan, was heartbroken to find that his ex-girlfriend, who was supposed to be taking care of his dog, Baxter, had sold the Shiba Inu on Craigslist. After a widespread internet campaign, though, Baxter is headed back to Robby's family.

Gabbert posted this message to Craigslist last week:

I am currently deployed and my ex sold my dog. I just found out and I am trying to find the people (person) who bought him. I will pay anything to get him back. His name is Baxster and he is an Shiba Inu. I do not have my phone with me. You can email me. The phone number is my mom's she is helping me locate him. If you have any information PLEASE give us a call or an email.

The posting tugged at people's heartstrings, and a Facebook campaign aided by a Colorado-area Shiba Inu rescue helped figure out where Baxter had gone. Unfortunately, the family who bought him was reluctant to give him back. After just one week, their kids had become "attached" to the dog.

The story made the local news and, by Monday, Robby's friends and supporters raised $1,400 to offer the family as a reward for Baxter's return.

Although several sources are reporting that the family who purchased Baxter is still clinging to the dog, it looks like they've agreed to give him back to Robby's family, where he'll stay until Robby comes home.

Colorado news station KOAA 5 posted this update on Facebook:

We just got word from organizers of the "Help Bring Baxter Home 2014" Facebook page that they have the family's word that Baxter will be returned to Robby. They are still reaching an agreement, but the Facebook page has been removed at the family's request.

A happy ending for Baxter and Robby, but a sad one for the family who thought they were legitimately adopting a Shiba Inu.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...LD-Craigslist-new-owners-wont-return-him.html

His ex is freaking *****! And that family is kinda of jerks too, your kids will love any freaking dog you bring them. That one belongs to a soldier fighting for his country. The fact that they had to be bribed with that much cash makes me mad. If they were decent people they would give it back for the same price they got it for

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

They are their schools now
So of course it is their rules,
Yes, they are dumb fools.



Got me a black-belt in haiku

Why would they be fools for teaching the correct way that we as a species came to be? Like the article said even most in the Catholic church don't have a problem with evolution. I consider myself a Christian and have absolutely no problem with evolution and a big problem with people teaching the bible as fact in such matters. Why wouldn't God give us the tools to learn as much as we can to help ourselves?

 

[Alex_Spider]

http://inhabitat.com/brad-pitts-make-it-right-to-build-20-leed-platinum-homes-for-sioux-and-assiniboine-tribes-in-montana/

Brad Pitt's Make It Right to Build 20 LEED Platinum Homes for Sioux and Assiniboine Tribes in Montana

Read more: Brad Pitt's Make It Right to Build 20 LEED Platinum Homes for Sioux and Assiniboine Tribes in Montana | Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

The Make It Right nonprofit founded by Brad Pitt is partnering with the Sioux and Assiniboine tribes of Fort Peck, Montana, to build sustainable homes, buildings and communities on their reservation. In addition to 20 LEED Platinum certified homes, the project will develop a sustainable master plan for the entire reservation, which covers thousands of acres and is home to more than 6,000 Native Americans.

Make It Right was set up in 2007 to provide housing for people in need. All Make It Right projects are LEED Platinum certified, Cradle to Cradle inspired, and designed by renowned architects in collaboration with the community involved. For the current project, architects and designers from GRAFT, Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative, Architecture for Humanity, Method Homes, and Living Homes spent four days meeting with tribal members before developing their designs.

Related: Brad Pitt’s “Make It Right” Transforms Historic School into LEED Platinum Affordable Housing

Currently, more than 600 people are waiting for housing on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Overcrowding is a chronic problem, with multiple families commonly living together in two-bedroom homes due to lack of accommodation. The solar-powered homes will have between three and four bedrooms, two to three bathrooms and be available to tribal members whose income levels are at or below 60 percent of the Area Median Income.

“As a tribal designer working in Indian Country, I feel we have an obligation to design and build housing that is tied to the culture, community and place of Fort Peck,” says Joseph Kunkel, Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellow from the Sustainable Native Communities Collaborative. “We’re excited about the potential impact this project may offer the Assiniboine and Sioux community, along with provide a national precedent for Indian Housing nationwide.” Construction on the Montana project begins this year.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Always cool when superstars use their power for good

 

[Alex_Spider]

http://inhabitat.com/germany-smashes-three-solar-energy-records-in-just-two-weeks/

Germany Smashes Three Solar Energy Records in Just Two Weeks!

In just two weeks Germany has managed to break three solar energy records! First the Fraunhofer ISE solar energy research institute that monitors solar output in the country noticed a rise to a record 24.24 gigawatts around midday on June 6, 2014. During the same week, solar power systems around Germany generated a total of 1.26 terawatt-hours of energy, and on the following Monday, German solar power took center stage once again by accounting for 50.6 percent of total electricity demand, which means half the total energy powering the country came from photovoltaic panels.

This news marks an amazing step forward for solar energy, but even more so because Germany receives some of the world’s least intense sunlight. According to an energy map produced by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Germany sees average solar irradiation levels worse than even the U.S. Northwest and Alaska, with an average of 1,000 kilowatt-hours per square meter for the duration of a year.

RELATED: Germany Sets 23.9 GW Solar Power Generation Record!

Despite this lack of intense sunlight, Germany Trade & Invest’s Tobias Rothacher said the country has over 1.4 million photovoltaic systems. These systems even produce surplus solar energy on particularly sunny days, and an additional 4,000 battery storage systems have been added to the system due to an incentive for residential lithium-ion battery systems implemented roughly one year ago.

If a country with such poor solar resources can be a shining beacon for green energy there’s no reason America and other places around the world can’t do the same.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Professors Prank Their University to Protest Crappy Education System

College is incredibly expensive, but the quality of undergraduate classroom experiences has gone downhill. That's because universities aren't spending any money to hire professors. Now, a group of Canadian professors have become overnight legends for pulling a prank that called attention to this sorry situation.

Here's the backstory. Indira Samarasekera, the president of the University of Alberta, is about to leave her job. It pays roughly half a million Canadian dollars, which is equivalent to about 4 full professor salaries. That's why 56 Canadian professors applied as groups of 4 to replace Samarasekera. Their stunt, led by the "gang of four" pictured above, was designed to call attention to the outrageous pay disparities between university administrators and professors, and it worked. Their story caught the attention of the Canadian media, and revealed one major failure mode in today's higher education system.

Over at Slate, Rebecca Schuman explains why academics had reached a boiling point:

The stunt comes on the heels of recent revelations that some of the United States' highest-paid college presidents also oversaw some of the biggest increases in student debt (and, in some cases, increased hiring of low-paid adjunct faculty). Most notoriously, E. Gordon Gee received a nearly $6 million retirement package when he "retired" in disgrace from Ohio State University. (Don't feel too bad for him, though.) If Gee had selflessly capped his buyout at, say, a meager $1 million, the university could have offered $10,000 scholarships to 500 additional students (or hired 100 new faculty at $50,000 each, give or take). Hot on Gee's heels is James Milliken, chancellor of the CUNY system, who can now draft emails about that pesky adjunct rebellion in supreme comfort from his free $18,000-a-month apartment.

Cawsey and her colleagues decided they'd skewer the University of Alberta's comparatively modest participation in the top-heavy university economy, and have a few laughs while they were at it.

"As you will see from our CVs," the group writes, "we are eminently suited to fill this position. Indeed, we believe that by job-sharing this position, we would be able to do a better job than any one person could do—and the salary is certainly ample enough to meet the needs of all four of us. Indeed," they continue, "for many of us one-fourth of your proposed minimum salary would double or triple our current wage." They are quick to point out the advantages of a four-for-one deal, quipping: "We will even share one academic gown."

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat...pply_for_vice_chancellor_s_job_in_clever.html

This is great stuff, 3 cheers for these 4!

 

[Alex_Spider]

http://www.trueactivist.com/a-man-found-a-dead-fox-in-the-street-on-his-way-to-work-when-he-returned-on-the-way-home-he-could-not-believe-what-he-saw/

A Man Found A Dead Fox In The Street On His Way To Work. When He Returned On The Way Home, He Could Not Believe What He Saw

A man was biking to work one day when by the side of the road he noticed a poor fox that lay dying. Here is his account of what transpired:

“This morning on my bike ride into town I came upon this fox that had just been hit by a car. His eyes were slowy opening and closing, he was shaking out of control and his heart was beating out of his chest. All I wanted to do was help him but I quickly realized there was nothing I could do so I sat down next to him and gave him the warmth and company that I think I would appreciate if I was in that situation. His eyes closed for good, the shaking was down to a minimum and as I rubbed his little head to comfort him, I literally watched his last heart beat. RIP little guy the world will miss you.”

But then…8 hours later…the man returned and the incredible happened. The fox was still alive!
Somehow the fox had found the strength to keep going, and so the man scooped him up to take him to the closest veterinary hospital. There the fox is recovering and the rest of his story remains to be told!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Charity Creates Life-Sized Super Mario For Boy Battling Cancer

Video games offer their players a much-needed chance to escape the stresses of real life, however temporarily. One ten year-old boy in Saskatchewan, Canada needed this kind of relief more than most to help cope with the fact that he's living with a terminal form of brain cancer. So rather than just handing Patrick a video game console, a charity in the city of Prince Albert teamed up with a local theater and other members of the community to create a playable life-sized form of Super Mario Bros.

Patrick's story is tragic and inspiring. But it's also a beautiful note about how deeply rooted people's love of games like Super Mario Bros. really are. Along with the sheer thrill of getting a glimpse at some cute Mario-style cosplay, it's a great example of how an entire community can team up thanks to the simple joy of playing games together in a novel way.

http://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=384056

Vid at the link

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

House of Worship for Muslims, Christians, and Jews Proposed In Berlin

A new proposal in Berlin is seeking donations for its so-called House of One, a multi-purpose house of worship for Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The building will hold a synagogue, a church, and a mosque all under the same roof.

A competition for the design of the unified house of worship was held and architect Wilfried Kuehn's team won with its simple building design that features a tall, centered tower.

Via the BBC:

"Each of the singular spaces is designed according to the religious needs, the particularities of each faith. . . . There are for instance two levels in the mosque and the synagogue but there's only one level in the church. There will be an organ in the church. There are places to wash feet in the mosque."

Kuehn's team, when designing the building, discovered that the three different religions share a lot in their architectural history.

"What's interesting is that when you go back a long time, they share a lot of architectural typologies. They are not so different," Kuehn says. "It's not necessary for instance for a mosque to have a minaret - it's only a possibility and not a necessity. And a church doesn't need a tower. This is about going back to the origins when these three faiths were close and shared a lot architecturally".

To discourage arguments, each section of the building is exactly the same size.

The rabbi in the project, Rabbi Tovia Ben Chorin, says building the House of One in Berlin is historically significant. He told the BBC, "From my Jewish point of view the city where Jewish suffering was planned is now the city where a centre is being built by the three monotheistic religions which shaped European culture."

Donations are now being accepted, though perhaps the timing is off for all this peace and harmony. A new statistic showed that anti-foreigner attacks in Germany rose 20 percent last year to its highest level since 2006.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27872551

Such a great idea, would be cool if this kind of thing took off all over the world. I think it would go along way for all the religions to play nice with each other

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Man Inserts His Dog in Classic Jurassic Park Scene With Perfect Result

[YT]ebqVjZB0mmM[/YT]

This fifteen-second video perfectly captures what it would have been like if, instead of a dinosaur, this Jurassic Park scene featured a very large bulldog named Wally.

You can't say that it doesn't!

 

[Teelie]

House of Worship for Muslims, Christians, and Jews Proposed In Berlin

Spoiler

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27872551

Such a great idea, would be cool if this kind of thing took off all over the world. I think it would go along way for all the religions to play nice with each other

All it takes is an extremist lunatic from any one (or comedic yet unfortunately, all three) to decide this is wrong and do something stupid like try to bring it down.

I do applaud the idea and hope it goes somewhere positive though.

 

[Spade]

This whole thread could be /r/UpliftingNews.

Speed Demos Archive is holding another fundraiser stream, this time for Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières). Earlier this year during their Awesome Games Done Quick 2014, they raised one million dollars for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. The stream is here, and if you want to be a part of a good thing, there's a donation page here. They've raised over 33 thousand so far. This marathon started yesterday, and won't end until the 29th.

I've been a proponent of DWB/MSF for a while now. They give selfless humanitarian effort to people who otherwise would be diseased and displaced in their own homelands. They're currently struggling to deal with the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, and unlike other humanitarian efforts, over 80 percent of all donations go straight to the neglected. If you're sitting around on this lazy Sunday, why not have a good time and support an amazing organization all at once?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Sting Is Stingy, Won't Give Six Kids Any Trust Fund Money

In a news story more boring than the music of Sting itself, Sting told The Mail in London that all his money is going away and he won't have any left to give to his six kids in a trust fund. He doesn't want the money to hang around their necks like an albatross, he says.

From the Associated Press:

The singer-songwriter who grew up in a shipbuilding community in northeast England says he told the kids, "there won't be much money left because we are spending it!"

"People make assumptions, that they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, but they have not been given a lot," he was quoted as saying.

According to the Sunday Times Rich List, Sting's wealth is estimated at $306 million and his songs are estimated to be mostly zzz.

The original article in which this riveting tidbit appears also goes on to note that Sting has over 100 people on his payroll. One wonders is if he signs his checks Sting or Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, the artist's real name.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/pop-icon-sting-says-his-kids-wont-get-trust-funds

Good for him, instead of raising a bunch of trus fund snobs he will give it charity and his kids will forge their own path. I'm sure they will have the best education and he does lot's of charity work so I'm sure he instilled in them the importance of giving back to the community

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

8 Tiny Sculptures You Can Only See With an Electron Microscope

When art and science collide, beautiful things happen. That's the case with the Wim Noorduin's nanosculptures. For the past few years, this Harvard materials scientist has been using basic chemistry to create beautiful forms so small, you need an electron microscope to see them.

These delicate flower-like forms are smaller than the width of a human hair, but that doesn't make them any less beautiful. The simplicity of the process Noorduin takes to create them actually makes them even more impressive. He simply mixes chemicals in a beaker to create tiny colorful crystals that grow into a variety of shapes, though he's developed ways to manipulate the process.

"Over the years, I've been growing thousands of these samples, and I've tried many ways to stack structures on top of each other, and to sculpt them while they're growing," Noorduin told The Creators Project recently. "I notice, of course, that with all these experiments, some things aesthetically simply work better than others. That's how I started to develop a sort of style in which most of the structures started to look like flowers."

It's kind of a bummer they're so small, actually. Electron microscopes are hard to come by! Then again, size doesn't matter.

http://www.cnet.com/news/sculpting-flowers-smaller-than-a-human-hair/

That is pretty astonishing

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Silicon Valley Giants Just Handed Out $15M in Prizes to Mathematicians

The Breakthrough Prize Foundation, which is funded by the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and investor Yuri Milner, just doled out five $3 million awards to cutting edge math projects (which you almost certainly won't understand).

The Breakthrough Prizes—there have been two previously, for life science and fundamental physics—are designed to raise awareness of math and make it a more compelling career choice for the young. Sure, $15 million will do that, but really anything that makes people stop and think about how crucial math is to the technology that surrounds us is a good thing.

So, what were the prizes awarded for? Well, pause for one moment to realize that "raising awareness" doesn't equal "making accessible," then brace yourself. Ready? So, they went to:

Simon Donaldson, Stony Brook University and Imperial College London, for the new revolutionary invariants of 4-dimensional manifolds and for the study of the relation between stability in algebraic geometry and in global differential geometry, both for bundles and for Fano varieties.

Maxim Kontsevich, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, for work making a deep impact in a vast variety of mathematical disciplines, including algebraic geometry, deformation theory, symplectic topology, homological algebra and dynamical systems.

Jacob Lurie, Harvard University, for his work on the foundations of higher category theory and derived algebraic geometry; for the classification of fully extended topological quantum field theories; and for providing a moduli-theoretic interpretation of elliptic cohomology.

Terence Tao, University of California, Los Angeles, for numerous breakthrough contributions to harmonic analysis, combinatorics, partial differential equations and analytic number theory.

Richard Taylor, Institute for Advanced Study, for numerous breakthrough results in the theory of automorphic forms, including the Taniyama-Weil conjecture, the local Langlands conjecture for general linear groups, and the Sato-Tate conjecture.

If those projects mean much to you, then you are doing very well indeed. These five winners now automatically form part of the committee who will pick the next winners.

https://breakthroughprize.org/

I have no idea what any of that means but I know it's a good thing! Would anyone who understands this care to elaborate for us non-mathy folks?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

​Cool Pope Stops Car on Highway to Bless Disabled Woman

[YT]oVCrfNqQLWQ[/YT]

Perhaps to make up for his uncool stance on legalizing weed, Pope Francis ordered his driver to stop his car on Saturday so he could bless a disabled woman and her family, who were waiting alongside the highway for the pope to pass

The family lives in a southern region of Italy called Calabria, near Cassano allo Jonio, where Cool Pope spoke out against Mafia violence earlier that day.

From the Catholic News Agency:

The Vatican's news.va website reported that family members waited with banners reading, 'Please Pope stop here to see an angel who has been waiting for you', and 'Please come and bless little Roberta'.

When the Pope saw their signs, he asked for his car to stop, and immediately went to greet and bless the people.

Once the vehicle stopped, the Holy Father descended, approached the woman, who was laying on a moving stretcher, blessed her, kissed her and greeted her family and the children around her.

After receiving the pope's blessing, the family took to Facebook to share the news. "I still can't believe it, thank you Holy Father...I thank the Pope for having given us a moment of great joy," the woman's sister wrote.

A family friend who witnessed the blessing commented on the post.

"It was very emotional to see how Pope Francis greeted Roberta" the friend wrote. "There are gestures in life that are worth more than speeches, much more than you would think...Pope Francis is unique."

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/pope-francis-stops-car-to-bless-young-disabled-woman-28467/

So much awesome with this Pope, I can forgive his stance on bud. The world isn't ready for a mind blowingly awesome Pope like that yet

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Cop Saves Woman From Train Tracks Just in Time

[YT]2taRsZDiM_g[/YT]

On Sunday, Richmond, Texas police officer Ramon Morales saved a woman sitting on train tracks from an oncoming train. The footage, captured by the dash camera in his squad car, shows he got there just in time.

According to KPRC, a citizen alerted Morales early Sunday morning that a woman was sitting on the train tracks. After reporting to the scene, Morales switched on his lights, which automatically started his dash camera. You can see he drags the crying woman off the tracks just moments before the train passes.

Morales didn't want to speak to press about the incident, but Richmond Sgt. L. Neinast had this to say to KPRC:

He got there just in time. Saved this woman's life without regard for his own. ... As the video goes on, she asked him if he's the one that pulled her off the tracks and he said, "Yes I am of course." She said, "Why did you do that?"

He was a little shaken up over the circumstances. I think even more so after he saw the video realizing how close it was. He's a hero. He went way above and beyond the call of duty to save someone else's life.

The New York Daily News notes that Morales, 27, is a former Marine who's only been on the force for 10 months.

http://www.click2houston.com/news/o...-tracks-seconds-before-train-arrives/26623100

The officer is a true hero and a shining example of how many officers risk their lives for civilians

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Vader Suitcase Can Even Squeeze Into a TIE Fighter's Overhead Bins

Even though it's designed for kids, it's going to be hard for adult Star Wars fans not to trade in their carry-on luggage for this awesome 3D Vader suitcase—even if they are Yoda-sized.

Recommended for kids ages three and up, this $40 rolling suitcase can easily accommodate a week's worth of clothing for a toddler, or a single pair of adult pants. But who cares? With a 3D relief of Vader's helmet on the front, and light-up wheels that power themselves as they roll, you'll be happy to pay luggage fees since you'll have to travel with three or four of them.

http://www.disneystore.com/luggage-...rolling-luggage-star-wars/mp/1353893/1000366/

Do want

 

[Alex_Spider]

Child falls into pit of 450 pounds gorilla at zoo - What happens next is amazing

[YT]N05CItceEdg[/MEDIA]

Lion's reaction to the woman who saved him.

[YT]hld81D0Vlxo[/YT]

Gorilla reunites with man that saved him

[YT]z5oznbdFqaQ[/YT]

Eh, animals are good for 3 things only. Food, entertainment and pet

 

[Alex_Spider]

http://www.trueactivist.com/list-of-top-10-documentaries-watch-online-for-free/

List of Top 10 Documentaries – Watch Online For Free

1. Zeitgeist: The Movie
The Movie is a 2007 documentary film by Peter Joseph. It asserts a number of conspiracy theory-based ideas, including the Christ myth theory, alternative theories for the parties responsible for the September 11th attacks and that bankers manipulate the international monetary system and the media in order to consolidate power.

2. Zeitgeist: Moving Forward
Zeitgeist: Moving Forward, by director Peter Joseph, is a feature length documentary work which presents a case for a needed transition out of the current socioeconomic monetary paradigm which governs the entire world society. This subject matter transcends the issues of cultural relativism and traditional ideology and move to relate the core, empirical “life ground” attributes of human and social survival, extrapolating those immutable natural laws into a new sustainable social paradigm called a “Resource-Based Economy”.

3. Food Inc
The current method of raw food production is largely a response to the growth of the fast food industry since the 1950s. The production of food overall has more drastically changed since that time than the several thousand years prior. Controlled primarily by a handful of multinational corporations, the global food production business – with an emphasis on the business – has as its unwritten goals production of large quantities of food at low direct inputs (most often subsidized) resulting in enormous profits, which in turn results in greater control of the global supply of food sources within these few companies. Health and safety (of the food itself, of the animals produced themselves, of the workers on the assembly lines, and of the consumers actually eating the food) are often overlooked by the companies, and are often overlooked by government in an effort to provide cheap food regardless of these negative consequences.

4. Religulous
Bill Maher interviews some of religion’s oddest adherents. Muslims, Jews and Christians of many kinds pass before his jaundiced eye. Maher goes to a Creationist Museum in Kentucky, which shows that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time 5000 years ago. He talks to truckers at a Truckers’ Chapel. (Sign outside: “Jesus love you.&#8221 He goes to a theme park called Holy Land in Florida. He speaks to a rabbi in league with Holocaust deniers.

5. The Corporation
Provoking, witty, stylish and sweepingly informative, THE CORPORATION explores the nature and spectacular rise of the dominant institution of our time. Part film and part movement, The Corporation is transforming audiences and dazzling critics with its insightful and compelling analysis. Taking its status as a legal “person” to the logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist’s couch to ask “What kind of person is it?”

6. Thrive
THRIVE is an unconventional documentary that lifts the veil on what’s REALLY going on in our world by following the money upstream — uncovering the global consolidation of power in nearly every aspect of our lives. Weaving together breakthroughs in science, consciousness and activism, THRIVE offers real solutions, empowering us with unprecedented and bold strategies for reclaiming our lives and our future.

7. Zeitgeist: Addendum
Zeitgeist: Addendum premiered at the 5th Annual Artivist Film Festival in Los Angeles, California on October 2, 2008, winning their highest award. It was released free online on October 4, 2008. Director Peter Joseph stated: “The failure of our world to resolve the issues of war, poverty, and corruption, rests within a gross ignorance about what guides human behavior to begin with. It addresses the true source of the instability in our society, while offering the only fundamental, long-term solution.

8. Earthlings
EARTHLINGS is a feature length documentary about humanity’s absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called “non-human providers.” Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix (GLADIATOR) and features music by the critically acclaimed platinum artist Moby narrate the film.

9. Kymatica
Evolution is a term to define only one organism and that’s the self. The self is the universe, the self is the alpha and omega, god, and infinity, and that’s the only thing that evolves because we are all part of the self. Nothing goes through an evolutionary process alone or without direct benefit to the whole. So when you begin to think that there’s this controlling elite, this controlling hand behind the curtains leading the planet to destruction.

10. Inside Job
‘Inside Job’ provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry, which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. It was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I want to eat the Bill Murray burger every day for the rest of eternity

It doesn't have anything to do with Bill Murray, but I want to eat it anyway: The patty is "seared on the outside, medium rare on the inside, with a molten core of melted cheese and creamy sous vide egg yolk." I want to get sucked into a Groundhog Day time warp hole and eat this every day for the rest of eternity.

http://pornburger.me/2014/06/15/bill-u-murray-me-burger/

Looks delicious

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Soon Your Local Library Could Let You Borrow the Internet

Forget dog-eared copies of Fifty Shades of Grey: Library visitors will soon be able to check the entire Internet out from their local branch.

The Knight Foundation announced grants for programs at the Chicago Public Library and the New York Public Library to lend wireless hotspots to residents. If these programs take off, other libraries will likely adopt similar lending systems.

The Chicago Public Library's "Internet To Go" program will offer Wi-Fi hotspots from six libraries located in communities with low broadband adoption rates, lending for three weeks at a time. In New York, the "Check Out The Internet" project offers year-long hotspot rentals, also focusing on households without Internet access. People who want to participate just to have an extra hotspot handy should hold off: Right now, the programs are honed in on getting people without home access a chance to log in from their couch instead of a sticky library chair.

These are the first large-scale initiatives of their kind in the U.S., but the NYPL is already collaborating with the state libraries of Kansas and Maine to see how a similar program could work in less densely populated areas.

Google and Facebook both have wide-scale, lofty projects aimed at establishing universal Internet access (Google with Project Loon and Facebook with Internet.org). They want to deliver access to people in remote or underdeveloped regions, by balloon, drone, laser, or any means necessary.

With two of the most high-profile tech companies championing universal Internet access, it's jarring that these library projects are necessary in the country where both Google and Facebook started. Even in countries with highly developed infrastructure, like the U.S., substantial pockets of the population lack Internet access.

http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/20...about-to-start-lending-wi-fi-hotspots/373233/

More people being able to access the net is always a good thing