Photos Of Japanese Highways
Take a look at these incredible images of Japanese highways, bridges, and other road-structures. They are mind-blowing, to put it plainly.
Leah Evans’ Textiles
Via Craft, take a look at Leah Evans’ gorgeous textile art. Most of the pieces are maps. They’re all very beautiful.
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Make Your Own Squid
Emily told me about this awhile ago — it’s a fun little game where you can build your own squid and then set it free into the virtual seas. It’s pretty minimal, of course, but amusing. At the end you can play with your squid by dragging and dropping it around the screen, and you can come back later to check on it. Right now my squid has traveled zero kilometers, weighs one kilogram, and has had only one adventure (“hunting for shoes”?).
Presumably these things will change.
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Pictures Of Plankton
Take a look at these incredible images of plankton. Wow!
They’re part of an exhibition by one Dr. Richard Kirby, based in the UK. The complete group will be on display at aquariums in England next year.
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Hiatus…
So we’re on winter break and desperate to be in the company of friends — and therefore not spending much time here on the internet. Things will calm down in the next several days, at which time I, Daisy, will resume regular posting. Emily, however, will briefly cease blogging altogether while she’s out of town. When she comes back, things may or may not kick back into face-time overdrive, taking us away from the internet again…
All of which is to apologize for the silence and to inform that it will last awhile more, on and off for the next few weeks.
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Five Links That Are Actually Important, 12/19/08
1. Microcredit and “The Political Economy of Shame.”
2. Rick Warren to give inaugural invocation–Bad move!
3. So, what to do about the fact that Warren is doing the invocation. This is the message I sent to Emmett Beliveau, director of the inaugural committee:
Mr. Beliveau,
I am appalled that Rick Warren has been chosen to give the invocation at President-Elect Obama’s inauguration. This is a slap in the face to women and LGBT people. I can’t imagine that any person so callously promoting the hatred and oppression of any other groups would be chosen to have such an important role in this or any ceremony of the Obama Administration.
I thought the Obama Campaign was about change for everybody. Apparently not — bashing LGBT people and denying women control of their own bodies continue to be just fine on Obama’s watch.
Selecting Rick Warren is not an act of inclusivity. It’s a clear message that marginalized people will continue to be excluded, while the farthest fringe of anti-liberty, anti-equality, pro-theocracy fundamentalists will continue to be pandered to.
Signed,
Daisy Bond
Contact Beliveau at emmett@pic2009.org.
4. Bush Administration approves sweeping protections allowing health care workers to refuse care to patients. This is fucked up.
5. See Queen Emily and Jill for more about the horrifying effects of Bush’s new rule.
On Human Rights Violations And Punishing Criminals
I’m been reading some posts about a disturbing recent incident. In Iran, a woman was attacked by her scorned suitor turned stalker: he threw sulfuric acid on her face, blinding and permanently disfiguring her. He’s been sentenced to a punishment of having five drops of acid put in each of his eyes. The victim specifically sought this symmetrical retribution; she wants to make sure no other woman is attacked as she was.
Both the linked posts discuss the fact that this is cruel and unusual punishment, a human rights violation. They’re very right. This man has been sentenced to torture.
What struck me, though: cruel and unusual punishment relative to what? It’s very easy to sit here in the United States and say it’s barbaric to put acid into this attacker’s eyes. But what would happen to him here? He’d be thrown into a prison, where, chances are, he would be raped for years with absolutely no consequence.
Our courts don’t sentence convicts to torture. (Not that this stops our government from torturing!) No, we just let them be tortured by other convicts instead.
I’m not saying that Jill and Shaker Leigh (the authors of the linked posts) condone this. I’m sure they don’t. I’m just saying that we don’t exactly have a better system. So, I repeat: cruel and unusual relative to what? Would you rather be blinded with acid or repeatedly raped?
Strange And Beautiful Cloud Formations
Check out this series of gorgeous images of unusual cloud formations. Wow!
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