Is that a girl or a boy? And you smile because today maybe you might just pass. But then you see their eyes register no facial hair, no knot in your throat, no bulge in your pants. They say it again, louder, tauntingly.
Is that a girl or a boy. This time they know the answer and they just want to see you squirm.
And you do.
And they snicker.
“IT” performed by Kavindu “Kavi” Ade.There are no words for the emotions that this video causes.
Wow
I started to tear up
FULL BODY CHILLS.
Okay. This was purely amazing.
The green avatars represent the green-screen, a key tool in visual effects moviemaking.
Changing your avatar to a green-screen represents solidarity with the computer graphics industry which is currently being plagued by bankruptcy and layoffs (like what happened to me last week ORZ…): Digital Domain, Sony Entertainment, DreamWorks Animation, Pixomondo, Zynga, and more.
The “greenscreen movement” is largely prompted by bankruptcy of Rhythm and Hues, the company responsible for two Oscar-nominated movies this year: Snow White and the Huntsman and Life of Pi. Just weeks before the ceremonies, much of their staff (the people that made those movie!) got laid off - many of those workers picketed outside the Academy on Oscar’s night. Insult was added to injury when Life of Pi won an Oscar for ‘Best Visual Effects’ and the winner’s acceptance speech was cut short as soon as he mentioned the financial issues at R&H (it may not have been intentional, but it still read terribly!).
VFX is highly competitive. When a studio wants to make a movie, VFX houses name a price they can do the work for. Obviously, studios want lower prices and faster work, so VFX houses frequently under-bid each other and ask for unreasonable workdays. Studios thus get more demanding and drive prices into unsustainable territories. In addition, some areas provide subsidies for local VFX work - up to 30%! - meaning studios only have to pay for 70% of the movie. Taxpayers cover the rest. So globally, it’s an uneven playing field. California doesn’t give subsidies, so established Hollywood houses are losing bids that were already too low to begin with. This Reddit post does an amazing job explaining the situation.
While layoffs are familiar in project-based industry, this is a LOT in just a few months, and it brings an unhealthy business model to public light. I encourage you - if you want to work in this field or simply enjoy VFX movies - to research and appreciate the work that goes into them - and maybe we can collectively hope for change.
To get more up-to-date information, I suggest VFX Soldier: http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/.
Elizabeth Warren Asks The Most Obvious Question Ever And Stumps A Bunch Of Bank Regulators
- At 1:20, she asks the question we’ve all been wanting someone to ask FOREVER. Then a government lawyer stumbles over his words.
- At 2:20, she rattles off another one. Then a government lawyer stumbles over his words.
- At 2:55, she asks another lawyer the same question. Said lawyer then tries to not stumble over her words.
- At 3:25, she asks the same question again. That lawyer asks for some time.
- At 3:45, she gets our back and goes for the knockout punch.
- And then right after that you reward her good behavior by sharing this with everyone on the Internet. You know you want to.
My face when we elect someone to do something and they actually try and do it!
When those in charge of regulation can’t answer a direct question, it may be time to rethink who we have put in charge of regulation.
In other words, has wall street been punished for putting the world in recession? No. Instead you paid them for it. They can’t even answer a simple question.
"
Everyday, millions of innocent children are unwillingly part of a terrible dictatorship. The government takes them away from their families and brings them to cramped, crowded buildings where they are treated as slaves in terrible conditions. For seven hours a day, they are indoctrinated to love their current conditions and support their government and society. As if this was not enough, they are often held for another two hours to exert themselves almost to the point of physical exhaustion, and sometimes injury. Then, when at home, during the short few hours which they are permitted to see their families they are forced to do additional mind-numbing work which they finish and return the following day.
This isn’t some repressive government in some far-off country. It’s happening right here: we call it school.
"When he was in the ninth grade, open-access champion Aaron Swartz, who took his life last month, stood up in front of his school assembly and read this, affirming the need to change educational paradigms away from the factory model of schooling. (via explore-blog)
RIP Aaron Swartz
BREAKING: The British House of Commons has voted overwhelmingly in favor of the freedom to marry! Click “like” and share this image to support this huge step forward: http://bit.ly/11nRjD9
Yeah, I got a bit emotional on hearing this. Finally, a country I actually belong to did a thing.
Study debunks notion that men and women are psychologically distinct
The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology has dealt a devastating blow to the notion that men and women are fundamentally different when it comes to how they think and act.
“Although gender differences on average are not under dispute, the idea of consistently and inflexibly gender-typed individuals is,” Bobbi J. Carothers of Washington University in St. Louis and Harry T. Reis of the University of Rochester explained in their study. “That is, there are not two distinct genders, but instead there are linear gradations of variables associated with sex, such as masculinity or intimacy, all of which are continuous.”
Analyzing 122 different characteristics from 13,301 individuals in 13 studies, the researchers concluded that differences between men and women were best seen as dimensional rather than categorical. In other words, the differences between men and women should be viewed as a matter of degree rather than a sign of consistent differences between two distinct groups.
Suck on THAT, Suzanne “men and women are equal but different” Venker.
GOD BLESS THIS FUCKING POST
via stfusexists + ourmobileworld: The Times of India is running 1/4 page ads on why men should respect women. This is huge. There are no words for how happy I am to post this vs everything I usually reblog.
(Waiting for the NY Times to do something similar. Of course, they’d have to take time off from justifying the actions of gang rapists.)
They have it in other languages, or only English?
This is brilliant.
Prince George’s considers copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work - The Washington Post
BAD IDEA. (ht @gregpak)
A proposal by the Prince George’s County Board of Education to copyright work created by staff and students for school could mean that a picture drawn by a first-grader, a lesson plan developed by a teacher or an app created by a teen would belong to the school system, not the individual.
The measure has some worried that by the system claiming ownership to the work of others, creativity could be stifled and there would be little incentive to come up with innovative ways to educate students. Some have questioned the legality of the proposal as it relates to students.
BUT WAIT, there’s more -
It’s not unusual for a company to hold the rights to an employee’s work, copyright policy experts said. But the Prince George’s policy goes a step further by saying that work created for the school by employees during their own time and using their own materials is the school system’s property.
Emphasis mine.Also disturbing because you can’t simply claim someone else’s copyright by saying that you own it. And taking someone else’s copyright is really hard. (Which means the school board would probably lose any legal case, if they tried to claim copyright ownership of a kid’s school essay). But it’s silly…
The idea that anything you create while at school belongs to the broken crazy beast that is the education system just terrifies me. What possible benefit does it serve to any of the students or teachers? The only people it benefits would be the company.
And this is why i think corporations are dangerous, heartless beasts…
