White House Science Fair Days Are The Best Days

Beautiful Modern Agate and Raw Crystal Jewellery By Gossamer and Violet

Gossamer and Violet, a jewellery store in Etsy selling one of a kind handmade vintage inspired agate jewellery uses unrefined precious stones and delicate silver-work to create unique accessories. Specializing in adjustable agate slice rings and bold statement jewellery including necklaces, bracelets and earrings, they have a wide range of pieces to cater to different tastes. The style of the jewellery is themed around modern lines and shapes with earthly colors, textures and materials.

Gossamer and Violet, named after being inspired by delicate gold filigree chain intertwined around the violet shade of unrefined earthly stones, sells hand-crafted jewellery that has exclusive designs made with hand-selected stones. The jewellery is based around the bright colored stone, raw and jagged shaped, with thin gold or silver highlighting the piece. The maker sources only the highest quality American materials and strenuously hand assembles each piece, making sure the product leaves the hands of the maker to the wearer at the highest standard. You can find their entire collection in her Etsy shop.

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Last Week Tonight s02e24

John Oliver discusses sex education

(via Your Brain on Beer Vs Coffee)

Collection of works by Aldous Huxley, enjoy!

Aldous Huxley - Ape and Essence

Aldous Huxley - Brave New World

Aldous Huxley - Crome Yellow

Aldous Huxley - Ends and Means

Aldous Huxley - Heaven And Hell

Aldous Huxley - Island

Aldous Huxley - Jacob’s Hands

Aldous Huxley - The Art Of Seeing

Aldous Huxley - The Doors Of Perception

Aldous Huxley - The Perennial Philosophy

Aldous Huxley  -Culture and the Individual

Aldous Huxley - Drugs And Creativity

Aldous Huxley - Now More than Ever (2000)

Aldous Huxley - Time Must Have a Stop (1944)

Obama Recognizes Equal Pay Day With Call To Close The Pay Gap

Read more here.

Quick Facts: The Palestinian Nakba.

HACKberry, the open sourced 3D printed bionic hand created by Japanese company exiii, is not only more functional than some prosthetic hands, but is also obtainable at just a fraction of the price.

via exiii

What’s problematic with this caste-is-dead narrative is that not only is it incorrect and untrue but also that it benefits the savarna in ways that keep the social stratification intact. By denying the current impact of caste on the Dalit’s access to resources, the savarna uses his/her caste privilege to compete for the same set of resources while justifying his/her resentment for affirmative action policies. In so doing, the savarna leverages the widely popular anti-government stand to criticise reservation schemes but continues to reap the benefits his/her caste privilege offers him - social mobility; access to education, healthcare, and career opportunities; possession of ancestral land, property and wealth; trans-national networks and partnerships; and the ease of social acceptance for his/her lifestyle, choices, behaviour and relationships. The savarna, in effect, looks as if s/he is liberal and modern - liberal enough to criticize the state, and modern enough to not believe in the caste system. But if the savarna is indeed that modern, should we not expect him to remove the sacred thread, or not speak in a dialect that gives his/her caste away, or not be particular about marrying into the same caste, or say no to caste-based rituals and festivals? If indeed s/he is that liberal, isn’t it only logical that we expect him/her to shame the state for not addressing caste-based atrocities, or not display selective outrage for only terrorist attacks and animal torture, and show action-oriented solidarity with anti-caste movements? Shouldn’t the savarna demonstrate his/her newly discovered modern identity, which s/he claims is very different from his/her conservative parents, in ways that are more credible and believable? And more importantly, should we not expect the savarna, especially the one who wears the progressive and politicized label, to primarily question his/her privilege and his/her family’s on account of being dominant caste? Most often, the savarna, regardless of his/her social labels, does not feel the need to live up to any of the above expectations; s/he believes his caste privilege also offers him immunity from all kinds of criticism. S/He is at liberty to pick and choose aspects of his identity and lead a lifestyle that is under no compulsion to corroborate his cover story. His/Her privilege allows him to practice caste under the guise of ‘cultural roots’.

Christina Thomas Dhanaraj, “Caste, Friendship, and Solidarity” (via asianamericanfeminisms)

Constellations and the Calendar

Did you recently hear that NASA changed the zodiac signs? Nope, we definitely didn’t…

…Here at NASA, we study astronomy, not astrology. We didn’t change any zodiac signs, we just did the math. Here are the details:

First Things First: Astrology is NOT Astronomy…

Astronomy is the scientific study of everything in outer space. Astronomers and other scientists know that stars many light years away have no effect on the ordinary activities of humans on Earth.

Astrology is something else. It’s not science. No one has shown that astrology can be used to predict the future or describe what people are like based on their birth dates.

Some curious symbols ring the outside of the Star Finder. These symbols stand for some of the constellations in the zodiac. What is the zodiac and what is special about these constellations?

Imagine a straight line drawn from Earth though the sun and out into space way beyond our solar system where the stars are. Then, picture Earth following its orbit around the sun. This imaginary line would rotate, pointing to different stars throughout one complete trip around the sun – or, one year. All the stars that lie close to the imaginary flat disk swept out by this imaginary line are said to be in the zodiac.

The constellations in the zodiac are simply the constellations that this imaginary straight line points to in its year-long journey.

What are Constellations?

A constellation is group of stars like a dot-to-dot puzzle. If you join the dots—stars, that is—and use lots of imagination, the picture would look like an object, animal, or person. For example, Orion is a group of stars that the Greeks thought looked like a giant hunter with a sword attached to his belt. Other than making a pattern in Earth’s sky, these stars may not be related at all.

Even the closest star is almost unimaginably far away. Because they are so far away, the shapes and positions of the constellations in Earth’s sky change very, very slowly. During one human lifetime, they change hardly at all.

A Long History of Looking to the Stars

The Babylonians lived over 3,000 years ago. They divided the zodiac into 12 equal parts – like cutting a pizza into 12 equal slices. They picked 12 constellations in the zodiac, one for each of the 12 “slices.” So, as Earth orbits the sun, the sun would appear to pass through each of the 12 parts of the zodiac. Since the Babylonians already had a 12-month calendar (based on the phases of the moon), each month got a slice of the zodiac all to itself.

But even according to the Babylonians’ own ancient stories, there were 13 constellations in the zodiac. So they picked one, Ophiuchus, to leave out. Even then, some of the chosen 12 didn’t fit neatly into their assigned slice of the pie and crossed over into the next one.

When the Babylonians first invented the 12 signs of zodiac, a birthday between about July 23 and August 22 meant being born under the constellation Leo. Now, 3,000 years later, the sky has shifted because Earth’s axis (North Pole) doesn’t point in quite the same direction.

The constellations are different sizes and shapes, so the sun spends different lengths of time lined up with each one. The line from Earth through the sun points to Virgo for 45 days, but it points to Scorpius for only 7 days.  To make a tidy match with their 12-month calendar, the Babylonians ignored the fact that the sun actually moves through 13 constellations, not 12. Then they assigned each of those 12 constellations equal amounts of time.

So, we didn’t change any zodiac signs…we just did the math.

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Watch: Bill Nye shuts down just about every global warming myth in one video

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