september 30, 2014

History was made yesterday. In a move that will hopefully be emulated and become the norm nation-wide, Governor of California, Jerry Brown, passed the "Yes Means Yes" law. The goal of this law is to concretely and clearly define, in legal terms, what amounts to appropriate and consensual sex. This law will help colleges and universities to handle cases of sexual assault on campuses, as well as helping to remove some of the onus and blame from victims statewide.

Let's give California some love and start encouraging our own law-makers to follow suit.

september 29, 2014

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is no stranger to most people's lists of smile-worthy things, especially recently. In the last few years, it has become popular within pop-culture politics to ask celebrities (especially young, female celebrities) whether they consider themselves to be feminist. Just Google "young celebrities denounce feminism" and you get a pretty sad list of articles. It seems to be that a lot of the aversion to the term and the title has to do with this idea that being a Feminist makes you scary, angry, bitter, and anti-men. In almost all cases, that couldn't be farther from the truth.

Last week, we had Emma Watson's beautiful remarks about this specific phenomena and the danger posed to us all by the ubiquity of this common misconception. Today, I would like to share with you a video that JGL made for his production company, hitRECord, that seeks to create dialogue through fun, collaborative projects. 

His most recent endeavor is the video below, in which he explains what feminism means to him, as a man and as a human being, and asks others to do the same. The goal is that he will put together a collaborative episode of his web show that accounts for multiple viewpoints and voices. 

We'll keep you posted!

september 28, 2014

How many of us have had this experience?  You're watching or reading the news and you come across a story that involved the police doing something that seems hard to comprehend. Just this summer we had more than one dramatic and high-profile example of this with the killing of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

In these cases, I often find myself struggling to understand how the police can be so tone-deaf, especially in their handling of situations after they have happened. The United States Department of Justice apparently feels the same way. They are releasing  a new plan for empathy training, which will hopefully become a reality for any and every person undergoing training to become a police officer in the United States.

Cpt. Johnson speaking with protesters and residents in Ferguson once he took over.

The program will start in a few pilot sites and will have three main goals:

1. Ensure that residents feel they're being fairly treated
2. Closely examine cops' bias, and it's effects
3. Create open and honest lines of communication between police and community leaders

After news stories of police forces applying to DOJ for military surplus that was competely unnecessary, this is much more in line with the kind of roll out I would like to see.  How about you?

Read the full story, via Vox.

september 27, 2014

We live in a world and in a time that focuses on news that is negative, partisan, and often hateful. We hear again and again how politicians and the nation are becoming more and more polarized in their beliefs and are finding less common ground. The coverage is filled constantly with stories of bickering, fundamentalism, and a general lack of sensitivity. The New Orleans Times-Picayune/NOLA.com wants to change that.

A few days ago, they highlighted the story of Christians who are pushing for LGBTQ rights in this country. Cole Avery, a reporter at NOLA.com, spoke with a New Orleans resident names Aaron Viles who says he feels that his faith calls him to support all people, and fight for their right to be protected and acknowledged under the law, and in society as a whole, 

"Set the culture wars aside. It drags Jesus' name through the mud. It diminishes our faith because that's what people think Christianity is about." - Aaron Viles

september 26, 2014

More celebrities speaking to UN. I give you Leonardo DiCaprio speaking to the UN about the urgent challenge of climate change after the march around the world last Sunday.

september 25, 2014

The "What's Underneath Project" is a series of videos, put out by Style Like U that asks people to remove their clothes while answering questions about themselves.

The videos begin with this message about style:

"It is not about wanting to be someone else. It's not about trends. It is your spirit."

These videos are beautiful and vulnerable. Watch more here and remember, who you are is about who you are, not the clothes you wear or the image you project on the outside. 

september 24, 2014

Buzzfeed just ran a list of all sorts of things to help restore your faith in humanity, and along with getting me all sorts of choked up, I recognized several stories that I've posted about here.

Guess I must be doing my job pretty well!

Read the full list here.

september 23, 2014

Last Sunday, 11-year-old Marquis Govan took to the national screen to speak to give many of us another much-needed message.

Marquis spoke about the necessity for fair media coverage of racially-charged news stories, such as the tragic story of Michael Brown's death last month. But he goes even deeper than that. Marquis explains, eloquently and succinctly, that there are many factors to these stories, going back years and years, and the only way to make change is to acknowledge that.

Read the full story here, via Colorlines.

september 22, 2014

Emma Watson spoke in front of the UN on Friday about a new initiative that she is helping to launch as a UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador. The initiative is called He for She, and is meant to be a solidarity movement to get as many people as possible to stand together for gender equality.

Check out her beautiful speech.

september 21, 2014

Today, millions around the world marched and met to demonstrate global support for climate change reform.

 Estimates in New York City alone numbered close to 300,000. Check out more pictures here.

september 20, 2014

A few weeks ago, John Oliver did a piece on student debt during Last Week Tonight. And as his show always is, it was very cutting. He pointed the finger especially at for-profit institutions who use some pretty abysmal tactics and prey on those who are the most vulnerable.

But there is good news! This week, NPR ran a story about a group that call themselves the Rolling Jubilee. This group, which sprung up from the Occupy movement, has made it their mission to try to help students who are being crippled by student loan debt. They buy private loans from the orginal institution and then don't require the students to pay them back. So far, they have eliminated over $15 million in student debt, primarily for students who had attended for-profit universities.

Read the whole story. It's worth it!

september 19, 2014

This is what it feels like on the inside when men give me unwanted attention. I wish I ever had a response as good as hers!

september 18, 2014

Many people saw this photo floating around the internet over the last week

The photo was released by the Philadelphia Police Department on Tuesday in connection with a brutal beating of a gay couple last week. This group is suspected of being the perpetrators of the attack.

Nothing to smile about.

But then, the internet was used for good, and a Philadelphia sports fan (of all people), may have saved the day. An anonymous Twitter user took to social media sites to investigate and identify these people. Then, rather than ruin their lives or give their names to the internet at large, this Twitter user provided them to the police.

Podcast TLDR did a very nice, and short, piece about it. Listen here.

september 17,2014

Bluegrass.

Covers.

Need I say more?

Check out these 13 bluegrass covers of pop songs right here.

september 16, 2014

We hear so many stories of pain and suffering in the news. Every day there are more headlines about war and violence around the world. Let's flip that around and see the other side of these stories. We much more seldom hear about the people who live those stories everyday and do everything they can to make the stories a little less dark.

Today, I would like to share a story of the Civil Defense Team in Syria. These are the people who spend their time acting as volunteer first-responders in Aleppo and have done so for the last year. This piece was written back in June for Medium.com and is truly moving.

september 15, 2014

It was a pretty heavy week last week. Let's check out something much lighter, maybe even as light as...helium.

Watch Andrew Huang recreate the popular song, "99 Red Balloons" using only red balloons!

I just stumbled upon Andrew's YouTube channel yesterday and found he has all kinds of awesome song challenges where he accepts ideas from his viewers and makes them a reality. Want more? Check out the Breaking Bad Theme played on items found in a meth lab.

september 14, 2014

Weekly PostSecret post! Support and read PostSecret every week to see a sharing of anonymous secrets and the amount of community support that is often poured out for those who share secrets of suffering and hurt.

september 13, 2014

Feministing highlighted the comments of James Brown last week, where he briefly discussed, with nuance and depth, the controversy surrounding Ray Rice's abuse of his fiancé (now wife) and the way that the NFL has handled this instance and other instances of domestic violence in the NFL.

I would like to post that video of him too, and hope you will watch it.

Read more here.

september 12, 2014

The Center for Research on Women and Nike are collaborating on a project called Girl Declaration. The goal is to get voices of girls around the world heard. Over 500 girls between the ages of 10 and 19, growing up in developing countries, were asked to share their dreams and concerns in order to garner awareness for issues that face young women everyday worldwide.

Advocates are hoping that projects like this one will help to sway the new United Nations' Millenium Development Goals, which they begin working on next year.

Check out the story that NPR ran to see pictures and see what the girls are talking about.

september 11, 2014

Today, I get to go see one of my favorite comedians LIVE, courtesy of my amazing boyfriend. Doug Benson is a famous comedian, podcaster, film-maker, and pothead.

His two films are called Super High Me and Greatest Movie Ever Rolled, the latter of which is streaming on Netflix. He has a weekly podcast called Doug Loves Movies where other comedians come and play movie trivia games.

So in honor of how excited I am for tonight, here is an interview that Doug did on Speakeasy with Paul F Thompkins.

september 10, 2014

If only we had had this when Abbott and Costello did their bit, we would all be less confused.

september 9, 2014

Emma Sulkowicz is a senior Visual Arts major at Columbia University. Emma was raped at the beginning of her junior year. Emma has gone to both the school and the police and gotten little support or results, despite the fact that her rapist has been accused by two other women at the University. For the remainder of her time at Columbia, she will be planning to carry her dorm room mattress with her everywhere she goes for as long as she and her rapist attend the same school. 

"A matress is a perfect size for me to just be able to carry it enough that I can continue with my day, but also heavy enough that I have to continually struggle with it."

This week, a group of students got together in show of solidarity with Emma and helped her carry her mattress around. 

The idea being that if they helped "carry the weight together" the community could demonstrate their support for victims and survivors of sexual assault, and lend voices to the cry for appropriate action from the university.

september 8, 2014

Last week, Devon Stills' name was not on the 53-name roster that the Cincinnati Bengals released to start their season. After two years on the team, this may have come as a nit of a surprise, but there was a silver lining to the story.

In June, Stills' 4-year-old daughter was diagnosed with stage-4 cancer. Rather than cut him all together, the Bengals are keeping Stills on their practice squad, which means he gets to be at his daughter's side and keep his medical insurance and a salary to help him finance his daughter's treatment.

Story via 22 Words.

september 7, 2014

A big Wandering Darling "thank you" to Lillian Weber - at age 99 she has been making a dress every day for the past few years, and is on track to finish her 1,000th dress by the time she turns 100.

Lillian says she could make 2 dresses per day, but she would rather take the time to personalize each one.

Read more about this amazing woman, right here.

september 6, 2014

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to date a Disney prince? Buzzfeed is here to show you.

september 5, 2014

Just a few days ago, I posted a link to The Oatmeal when he did chose to create a variation on Marvel's new Spiderwoman cover where he drew an equally sexualized male Spiderman in the same way. 

Today, I bring you some praise for a new set of varient covers from Marvel. Previewed were new covers that will be released in honor of National Bullying Prevention Month, which lands in October.

Click here to see more. Via Vox.

september 4, 2014

If you are a viewer of YouTube proposal videos, chances are you've seen this one,

And already know this fantastic Betty Who song. A new video was released today that will get you up and dancing like crazy!!

september 3, 2014

Watch the joy on the face of this 7 week old when he gets his first hearing aid.

september 2, 2014

Two court decisions came down to the wire this weekend, and in both cases, a move was made that helped protect abortion-access in the South - for now.

It is important to be aware of each and every move that is made in this fight, because it is one that is so essential to the health and well-being of so many women. This month, PBS is streaming the documentary After Tiller for free. The film tells the story of late-term abortion providers in the US and has received glowing reviews.

Read more here.

september 1, 2014

A few weeks ago, Marvel released a new, female, Spiderman character. Here is the photo they released.

The Oatmeal, who we always love, responded by creating a drawing of what the mail equivalent would be of this drawing. I didn't want to post it here, because it is NSFW, but click here to see it.