erosum:

Rachel Maddow, to Republican pundits on Meet the Press (video)

CNN reports that the United States Census Bureau found that in 2010, “the earnings of women who worked full time, year-round were 77 percent of that for men working full time, year-round.” (source)

Thanks for the share.

gleemie:

Over 5000 children are currently stuck in the US foster care system because their parents have been deported. Woodcutting via bostonreview:

via Yvonne Liu

thedailywhat:

This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day: Miss Universe Canada announced yesterday that 23-year-old finalist Jenna Talackova of Vancouver was disqualified from the Donald Trump-owned beauty pageant, but didn’t provide a reason.

“She did not meet the requirements to compete despite having stated otherwise on her entry form,” competition officials said in a statement. Talackova, however, says she knows exactly why she was disqualified: She was born a man.

The 6’1” bombshell underwent sexual reassignment surgery in 2010 after living most of her life as a woman.

She wouldn’t speak with the press concerning the unceremonious scrubbing of her profile from the Miss Universe Canada website, but did take to Twitter to bemoan being “disqualified for being born.”

Many have noted that Miss Universe Canada’s only expressed requirements are that the contestant be a Canadian citizen and between the ages of 18 and 27. Nary a mention of gender confirmation surgery as being grounds for dismissal.

On Twitter, Talackova implied that she’s down but not through. “I’m disqualified, however I’m not giving up,” she tweeted. “I’m not going to just let them disqualify me over discrimination.”

[theprovince / ctv.]

alchymista:

A Blind Man Shocks Researchers with What He Sees

It is not uncommon for stroke patients to suffer brain damage, but the case of one patient was peculiar. This patient was, by his own account, completely blind. Two consecutive strokes had destroyed the visual cortex of his brain, and consequently, his ability to see. His first stroke had injured only one hemisphere of his visual cortex. About five weeks later, a second stroke damaged the other hemisphere. An assessment of his brain function revealed that after two strokes, the patient, who was in his 50s, was clinically blind.

Known as selective bilateral occipital damage, this patients’s unusual injury made him the subject of much interest while recovering at a hospital in Geneva. Researchers began examining him and discovered that despite his blindness, he had maintained the ability to detect emotion on a person’s face. He responded appropriately— with emotions such as joy, fear, and anger— to a variety of facial expressions. Observed activity in his amygdala— the part of the brain responsible for processing emotions— confirmed the curious results.

His rare condition is known as blindsight. Because his stroke damaged only his visual cortex, his eyes remain functional and as a result can still gather information from his environment. He simply lacks the visual cortex to process and interpret it. Sight has changed from a conscious to a largely subconscious experience. He no longer has a definitive picture of his surroundings, but he has retained an innate awareness of his position in the world. He is, to some degree, able to see without being aware that he is seeing.

Lorelei? Have you seen this? 

Lovely article on the praise of “crap technology”.

From the article: 

“And because the next Coby is sure to be just as mediocre, I’ll never need to upgrade—I’ve stepped off the escalators of feature creep and planned obsolescence, and all the expense and toxic e-waste that come with them. Crap technology, it turns out, is green technology.”

yukaurasaki:

Beautiful! Lantern Festival, Chiang Mai, Thailand