locus communis

May 25


Bike-powered bike storage. Meta.
Via rocketboom

Bike-powered bike storage. Meta.

Via rocketboom

May 22

(Source: dezireless, via abstractcannon)

On using fenugreek

Consuming a large amount of fenugreek may cause your sweat and urine to smell like maple syrup.

I will be trying this.  

May 21

Sketches of Spain, Miles Davis. brilliance.

Sketches of Spain, Miles Davis. brilliance.

May 18

Traditional Marriage: One Man, Many Women, Some Girls, Some Slaves -

And of course, even until the present day, traditional marriage has meant arranged marriage. The notion that two adults would enter into a marriage on their own volition is a radical innovation in the institution of marriage, at most two hundred years old.

Oh, and let’s not forget that in Europe and North America, marriage was considered a commercial proposition first and foremost—not a romantic one. Princes married princesses not because of fairy tales, but because their parents had political alliances to consider. Further down the economic ladder, people married for a variety of biological, commercial, and genealogical reasons—but rarely for love. (See Stephanie Coontz’s excellent Marriage: A History for more.)

Oh, and that’s right, I almost forgot about interracial marriage, which in some parts of America was seen as a crime against nature and God up until the 1960s. (Of course, Moses himself was in an interracial marriage, but the anti-miscegenation crowd overlooked that inconvenient fact.) It’s easy today for the likes of Tony Perkins to say that this change was a minor one; but let’s remember that a century ago, African Americans were not considered fully human by religious conservatives. Interracial marriage—as much as it’s disgusting to even say so today—was seen as an unnatural marriage between different species.

Oh, wait a minute, I forgot the most laughable part of this whole ludicrous spectacle: that it’s the Mormon Mitt Romney who’s insisting that marriage has “always” been between one man and one woman. Right—except that Romney’s own great-grandfather had five wives, before the LDS church, under massive pressure and persecution, reversed its doctrine on polygamy.

So, let’s see if I can total all this up. Traditional marriage is one man with multiple wives, multiple concubines, wives conquered in war and wives acquired in levirate marriage, possibly including girls under the age of ten, but definitely not including anyone of a different ethnic group, in an arranged marriage with disposition of property as its purpose. That seems very different from “one man, one woman,” does it not?

(Source: azspot)

May 11

Why The Keystone XL Pipeline will help Big Oil drive UP oil prices inside the U.S. -

To put it more literally, if a Wall Street trader or a major oil company can get a higher price for oil from an overseas buyer, rather than an American one, the overseas buyer wins. Just because an oil company drills inside U.S. borders doesn’t mean it has to sell to a U.S. buyer. There is patriotism and then there is profit motive. This is why Americans should carefully consider the sacrifice of wildlife preservation areas before designating them for oil drilling. The harsh reality is that we may never see a drop of oil that comes from some of our most precious lands.

***

With the planned construction of more pipelines from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, oil will be able to leave the U.S. in greater volumes.

May 08

ilovecharts:

How Much Water Do We Have?

ilovecharts:

How Much Water Do We Have?

May 06

[video]

May 04

thanks for all the memories and great music. 

Dead at 47, Adam “MCA” Yauch

via nevver

thanks for all the memories and great music. 

Dead at 47, Adam “MCA” Yauch

via nevver

May 02

[video]