Dronestream

 NYU Masters student breaks down every known US drone strike since 2002:

There has got to be a better way to confront the issue terrorism. 

Guys And Dolls: A Four Year Old Girl's Protest Against Gender-Stereotyped Toys

Why Do All The Girls Have To Buy Princesses?

Christmas 2011. A four year old little girl Riley has made a staggering observation about toys. Riley is fed up with toy stores trying to market pink stuff to girls and "different color" stuff to boys. Listen to this tiny genius: “Some girls like superheroes, some girls like princesses. Some boys like superheroes, some boys like princesses. So why do all the girls have to buy pink stuff and all the boys have to buy different color stuff?”

Preach it sista. 

Here's To The Crazy Ones.

"Don't exist. 

Live.

Get out, explore.

Thrive.

Challenge authority. Challenge yourself.

Evolve.

Change forever.

Become who you say you always will. Keep moving. Don't stop. Start the revolution. Become a freedom fighter. Become a superhero. Just because everyone doesn't know your name doesn't mean you dont matter.

Are you happy? Have you ever been happy? What have you done today to matter? Did you exist or did you live? How did you thrive?

Become a chameleon-fit in anywhere. Be a rockstar-stand out everywhere. Do nothing, do everything. Forget everything, remember everyone. Care, don't just pretend to. Listen to everyone. Love everyone and nothing at the same time. Its impossible to be everything,but you can't stop trying to do it all.
All I know is that I have no idea where I am right now. I feel like I am in training for something, making progress with every step I take. I fear standing still. It is my greatest weakness.

I talk big, but often don't follow through. That's my biggest problem. I don't even know what to think right now. It's about time I start to take a jump. Fuck starting to take. Just jump-over everything. Leap.
It's time to be aggressive. You've started to speak your mind, now keep going with it, but not with the intention of sparking controversy or picking a germane fight. Get your gloves on, it's time for rebirth. There IS no room for the nice guys in the history books.

THIS IS THE START OF A REVOLUTION. THE REVOLUTION IS YOUR LIFE. THE GOAL IS IMMORTALITY. LET'S LIVE, BABY. LET'S FEEL ALIVE AT ALL TIMES. TAKE NO PRISONERS. HOLD NO SOUL UNACCOUNTABLE, ESPECIALLY NOT YOUR OWN. IF SOMETHING DOESN'T HAPPEN, IT'S YOUR FAULT.

Make this moment your reckoning. Your head has been held under water for too long and now it is time to rise up and take your first true breath.
Do everything with exact calculation, nothing without meaning. Do not make careful your words, but make no excuses for what you say. Fuck em' all. Set a goal for everyday and never be tired." 

— Brian Krans (A Constant Suicide)

Clouds love to talk about the shapes cities remind them of; Inside North Korea

Gravity, love, freedom, all the greatest forces are invisible. 

And only those who have been deprived of freedom have the slightest inkling of what it is.

Inside North Korea, a documentary aired in April 2013. A reporter goes undercover into a place clothed in mystery and unanswered questions: North Korea. The dark spot on a map, the ultimate Orwellian state, the never-ending hunger crisis, the brainwash machine...Only guesses, each grimmer than the previous. What's the truth? Taking us just a few steps closer to really understanding the minds of North Korean leaders and most importantly, the minds of the people, BBC Panorama Documentary.

Another thrilling story to illustrate just how difficult it is to escape the authoritarian state, the story of Hyeonseo Lee "My Escape From North Korea", a TEDtalk: 

"Fantasy. Lunacy. All revolutions are until they happen, then they are historical inevitabilities."
-David Mitchell

Your Body vs The World in 68 Seconds

Take care of your body: it's the only place you have to live in. 

And it's pretty freaking incredible. So use it to do something remarkable, that's what it's for.

“Naturally, for a person who finds his identity in something other than his full organism is less than half a man. He is cut off from complete participation in nature. Instead of being a body, he 'has' a body. Instead of living and loving he 'has' instincts for survival and copulation.” 
― Alan Wilson Watts

Painted Souls, A Thousand Splendid Paper Plates

    Photo by: Unicef UK

    From the national campaign of Unicef UK 6.6.2013:

"Hundreds of schoolchildren are heading to Downing Street this morning to put hunger on the agenda ahead of      the Nutrition for Growth event.

They'll be handing in paper plates created by schools countrywide (these are just some of them in our office!) with messages asking the PM to act. Good luck team!"

    

It's A Funny Word, Callous.

..

Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Wives, This Is For You

Fuck being a lady.

Be a boss instead.

Be fearless.


Fuck being nice.

Fuck being sweet.




Make no mistake. I love my men. In fact, I love everything about them.

But I love my girls just as much. 

Tha Conservative Male Freakout Over Working Women

The sexist male panel on FOX has gone viral in the past few days and sparked some well needed conversation on right wing gender ideology in the US. While initially I was rather offended and shocked, but willing to shrug it off as the typical kind of absurdity only the GOP extremists would articulate I decided to look deeper into the issue gender equality.

First, watch this all-male FOX panel have what I can only describe as the new Greatest Freakout Ever over the "deeply disturbing" statistics by PEW research centre on female breadwinners. The medieval universe these misogynists live is one where the male hunts and female nurtures, aka one which has not existed for some 60 000 years but that is, of course, irrelevant. The deeply disconcerting fact is that there are educated American female voters out there who agree with this bitchfest of a panel.

Nevertheless, for a moment let's take these Foxy men seriously, if only for the sake of argument. Let's say the income of women increases to the same level as that of men, or very close. I wonder what that would lead to?  Lucky for Fox, America doesn't have to face this terrifying future without any previous empirical data. It just so happens other states have already tested out the scenario and I will illustrate the results as an extended case study to uncover the chaos resulting from women leaving the kitchenette and joining the national workforce.

Ever been to Northern Europe? After spending 19 years there and some in the United States and Great Britain I cannot quite sufficiently emphasize the immense effect incorporating women into the labour force has on a country's economy and standard of living. It is no coincidence that Scandinavian and other Northern European countries such as Finland dominate the charts on smallest income gap, least corrupted, highest student performance in sciences, universally free education from kindergarten to PhD, highest rankings on the Human Development Index and rated most democratic. Growing up I often heard teachers and parents remarking how lucky I had been. How being born in Finland was like winning the lottery. As children we would all laugh and presume teachers across the world would have a similar narrative about their state. Only after spending a considerable amount of time in the States and later in Great Britain I came to see just how accurate my teachers had been in their analysis. I never felt being a woman disadvantaged me growing up and attending school in Finland, quite the opposite. My success in education was celebrated, it was so extraordinarily obvious that men and women both would join the workforce, pursue their dream profession and provide for a family together, should they choose to have one. I felt my gender made no difference whatsoever. Gender is quite literally, a non-issue in this particular part of the world. However until I left the country I was naively unaware that outside Northern Europe, I was in fact a second class citizen and ambition in a woman was something to be looked down upon. This was an entirely new experience for me and at times I still find it shocking that states so similar to my home, developed and democratic countries would actively pursue the oppression of women. It seems almost preposterous and certainly illogical. As articulated by Bill Clinton; No country will ever achieve its greatest potential by disregarding 50% of its human capital. However, the issue of working mothers can't be fully understood through partisan politics as most often or not, the vast majority of Americans are guilty of supporting traditional gender dynamics to a much greater extent than they care to admit.

Psychologists in the United States have revealed it over and over again; success and likability are positively correlated for men and negatively correlated for women. The mentality on successful women ought to be dissected and reconstructed. Obviously the arguments of this FOX panel are outlandish and ill-informed, however, these men are not the only ones to share this view. Many subconsciously agree with certain aspects of the dominant male-ideology. Even females. What most people will only reluctantly admit, powerful women make us deeply uncomfortable. No, not me, you're thinking, "I'm evolved past that". Chances are, you're not. Consider what Sheryl Sandberg sums up from studies on the subject: when men are successful they are more liked by both sexes but when women are successful they are less liked by not only men, but women as well. Women are in many ways holding themselves back. I won’t deny that these results couldn’t be replicated with the same results in Northern Europe, in fact should I ever have the chance to test them out I’d be curious to find out. The reaction to dominant females is perhaps not as visceral as in the United States, but most likely still somewhat present. But fear not! By recognizing this pattern of thinking we will eventually redefine what it means to be a successful female and surround the definition with positive connotations. Women have to redefine their mind set as well.

I'd also like to point to a debate which followed the male-panel freakout, led by none other than Megyn Kelly from FOX news.

I'm not in general one to agree with Kelly on various disputes but I have to hand it to her on this one. I'll admit it, I'm becoming a fan. She's no Rachel Maddow, but she has some serious balls. She's really made an effort to pave way to educated and intelligent Republican women recently and aided in bit by bit steering the GOP into a direction where smart women aren't forced into such cognitive dissonance over their right wing alignment. Overall, the GOP and the US as a whole desperately needs more women like Kelly to rise to the barricades and call out this lunacy, particularly considering how unwavering these WASPS remain in the face of scientific studies and facts. Watch Kelly take on the sexism of the FOX panel and prepare to clap at her professionalism in the face of unscientific absurdity: