Cosmic Monkey

An alien tribe of monkey space pirates.

[anarchopuppy]

Anarchist tip: if you need some piece of equipment, or anything really, look up if there are any alternatives designed in or otherwise for exploited countries. People have invented many of the necessities for renewable power, medicine, machining, internet - all the comforts of modern life really - in ways that are low-tech, small-scale, often made of recycled or abundant materials, using little to no electricity, and best of all, absurdly cheap

Like a microscope and centrifuge made of paper that cost less than a dollar together, and a non-electric sun tracker for solar panels that costs about 1/30 what a commercial sun tracker does

Great for squats, occupations, communes, mutual aid, personal independence, etc.

[unbossed-deactivated20251218]

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com

[beccap]

“But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work. We’ve been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don’t have. We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing.”

— Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed

[ghuncha-deactivated20180903]

If you are interested in Afghan history (even as far back as the 1890′s) I recommend looking through Mohammad Hassan Kakar’s website. He published his books for free and was one of the most respected, reputable and renowned historians on Afghanistan. You’ve probably seen his last name in footnotes of books about Afghanistan. 

[the-more-u-know]

24 Invaluable Skills To Learn For Free Online This Year

Here’s an easy resolution: This stuff is all free as long as you have access to a computer, and the skills you learn will be invaluable in your career, and/or life in general. 

1. Become awesome at Excel.

Chandoo is one of many gracious Excel experts who wants to share their knowledge with the world. Excel excellence is one of those skills that will improve your chances of getting a good job instantly, and it will continue to prove invaluable over the course of your career. What are you waiting for?

2. Learn how to code.

littleanimalgifs.tumblr.com

Perhaps no other skill you can learn for free online has as much potential to lead to a lucrative career. Want to build a site for your startup? Want to build the next big app? Want to get hired at a place like BuzzFeed? You should learn to code. There are a lot of places that offer free or cheap online coding tutorials, but I recommend Code Academy for their breadth and innovative program. If you want to try a more traditional route, Harvard offers its excellent Introduction to Computer Science course online for free.

3. Make a dynamic website.

You could use a pre-existing template or blogging service, or you could learn Ruby on Rails and probably change your life forever. Here’s an extremely helpful long list of free Ruby learning tools that includes everything from Rails for Zombies to Learn Ruby The Hard Way. Go! Ruby! Some basic programming experience, like one of the courses above, might be helpful (but not necessarily required if you’re patient with yourself).

4. Learn to make a mobile game.

If you’re not interested in coding anything other than fun game apps, you could trythis course from the University of Reading. It promises to teach you how to build a game in Java, even if you don’t have programming experience! If you want to make a truly great game, you might want to read/listen up on Game Theory first.

5. Start reading faster.

Spreeder is a free online program that will improve your reading skill and comprehension no matter how old you are. With enough practice, you could learn to double, triple, or even quadruple the speed at which you read passages currently, which is basically like adding years to your life.

6. Learn a language!

With Duolingo, you can learn Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, or English (from any of the above or more). There’s a mobile app and a website, and the extensive courses are completely free.

Full disclosure: BuzzFeed and other websites are in a partnership with DuoLingo, but they did not pay or ask for this placement.

7. Pickle your own vegetables.

Tired of your farmer’s market haul going bad before you use it all? Or do you just love tangy pickled veggies? You too can pickle like a pro thanks to SkillShare and Travis Grillo.

8. Improve your public speaking skills.

You can take the University of Washington’s Intro to Public Speaking for free online. Once you learn a few tricks of the trade, you’ll be able to go into situations like being asked to present at a company meeting or giving a presentation in class without nearly as much fear and loathing.

9. Get a basic handle of statistics.

UC Berkeley put a stats intro class on iTunes. Once you know how to understand the numbers yourself, you’ll never read a biased “news” article the same way again — 100% of authors of this post agree!

10. Understand basic psychology.

Knowing the basics of psych will bring context to your understanding of yourself, the dynamics of your family and friendships, what’s really going on with your coworkers, and the woes and wonders of society in general. Yale University has its Intro to Psychology lectures online for free.

11. Make your own music.

Step one: Learn how to play guitar: Justin Guitar is a fine and free place to start learning chords and the basic skills you’ll need to be able to play guitar — from there, it’s up to you, but once you know the basics, just looking up tabs for your favorite songs and learning them on your own is how many young guitar players get their start (plus it’s an excellent party trick).

Step two: A delightful free voice lesson from Berklee College Of Music.

Step three: Have you always thought you had an inner TSwift? Berklee College of Music offers an Introduction to Songwriting course completely for free online. The course is six weeks long, and by the end of the lesson you’ll have at least one completed song.

Step four: Lifehacker’s basics of music production will help you put it all together once you have the skills down! You’ll be recording your own music, ready to share with your valentine or the entire world, in no time!

12. Learn to negotiate.

Let Stanford’s Stan Christensen explain how to negotiate in business and your personal life, managing relationships for your personal gain and not letting yourself be steamrolled. There are a lot of football metaphors and it’s great.

13. Stop hating math.

If you struggled with math throughout school and now have trouble applying it in real-world situations when it crops up, try Saylor.org’s Real World Math course. It will reteach you basic math skills as they apply IRL. Very helpful!

14. Start drawing!

All kids draw — so why do we become so afraid of it as adults? Everyone should feel comfortable with a sketchbook and pencil, and sketching is a wonderful way to express your creativity. DrawSpace is a great place to start. (I also highly recommend the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain if you can drop a few dollars for a used copy.)

15. Make your own animated GIF.

BuzzFeed’s own Katie Notopoulos has a great, simple guide to making an animated GIF without Photoshop. This is all you need to be the king or queen of Tumblr or your favorite email chains.

16. Appreciate jazz.

reddit.com

Have you never really “gotten” jazz? If you want to be able to participate in conversations at fancy parties and/or just add some context to your appreciation of all music, try this free online course from UT Austin.

17. Write well.

Macalester College’s lecture series is excellent. If you’re more interested in journalism, try Wikiversity’s course selection.

18. Get better at using Photoshop.

Another invaluable skill that will get you places in your career, learning Photoshop can be as fun as watching the hilarious videos on You Suck At Photoshop or as serious as this extensive Udemy training course (focused on photo retouching).

19. Take decent pictures.

Lifehacker’s basics of photography might be a good place to start. Learn how your camera works, the basic of composition, and editing images in post-production. If you finish that and you’re not sure what to do next, here’s a short course on displaying and sharing your digital photographs.

20. Learn to knit.

Instructables has a great course by a woman who is herself an online-taught knitter. You’ll be making baby hats and cute scarves before this winter’s over!

21. Get started with investing in stocks.

If you are lucky enough to have a regular income, you should start learning about savings and investment now. Investopedia has a ton of online resources, including this free stocks basics course. Invest away!

22. Clean your house in a short amount of time.

Unf$#k Your Habitat has a great emergency cleaning guide for when your mother-in-law springs a surprise visit on you. While you’re over there, the entire blog is good for getting organized and clean in the long term, not just in “emergencies.” You’ll be happier for it.

23. Start practicing yoga.

Most cities have free community classes (try just searching Google or inquiring at your local yoga studio), or if you’re more comfortable trying yoga at home, YogaGlohas a great 15-day trial and Yome is a compendium of 100% free yoga videos. If you’re already familiar with basic yoga positions but you need an easy way to practice at home, I recommend YogaTailor’s free trial as well.

24. Tie your shoelaces more efficiently.

It’s simple and just imagine the minutes of your life you’ll save!

[warkadang-deactivated20170205]

Amir Abdur Rahman Khan was the most brutal ruler Afghanistan has ever had. At the end of the 19th century, he ordered the genocide of Hazara Shias in central Afghanistan. He had his chief mufti issue a fatwa that declared Hazaras as ‘infidels’ (like what the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have done to Hazaras and other Shias in the recent decade). He also declared jihad against the former pagan inhabitants of Nuristan, Kunar, Nangarhar and Laghman, who are collectively known as ‘Nuristanis’ today. He forced them to convert to Sunni Islam, and those who refused, were either killed or enslaved. The same applied to Hazaras. 

Although the Amir was Pashtun, he was very ‘tribalist’ and oppressed Pashtuns who weren’t from his own tribe, like the Ghilzais and Shinwaris. He forced the Ghilzais and Shinwaris to pay taxes like the Hazaras. In addition to destroying their properties and killing them, he forced thousands of Pashtuns (often from the south) to settle in the central and northern provinces, in lands that originally belonged to Hazara, Tajik, Uzbek and Turkmen people. This was a punishment for those Pashtuns who revolted against him, but also a ‘plan’ to defend Afghanistan’s northern borders in case the Russians invaded (i.e. the Pashtuns would have to defend the borders). This is why you can find Pashtun communities in provinces like Kunduz, Baghlan and Faryab. But the Amir favored Pashtun nomads and distributed pasturelands in Hazarajat (Hazara areas) to them – the consequences of which exist today. 

The Amir also signed an agreement (the Durand Line Agreement) with the British which gave the British colonists control over vast Pashtun and Baloch lands that originally belonged Afghanistan. These areas became part of British India after the agreement was signed (and after 1947, they were annexed into Pakistan). This allowed the British to establish discriminatory, colonial laws in these areas (which exist even today, in Pakistan) and bomb the inhabitants with little or no regard to the laws of war that existed at the time. 

There is very limited information about the Amir and his campaigns, but I’ll post more about this when I find more sources. I encourage all Afghans to look into this part of Afghanistan’s history (but beware of wrong or little credible information from websites – look more into books/journals). 

[cosmic-monkey]

observations of a first-generation refugee:

why isn’t bargaining a thing?

what is this thing they call news on TV. isn’t that in reality just propaganda to advance patriarchal, imperialist, colonial, white supremacist hegemony?

what is up with all these options at grocery stores, like do i really need to choose between ten different brands of water?

why don’t we know anything about the original people of this land? are ever going to talk about what happened to 95 percent of the Native population?

so as long as i am making career choices that are in line with capitalism, im considered ‘successful,’ right?

why are there so many liquor stores and fast food chains in lower income neighborhoods?

but wait, aren’t the real thugs in Wall Street and on board of directors of multinational corporations?  

[saywhat-politics]

What?!? Private prisons suing states for millions if they don't stay full

Low crime rates bad for business for white-owned private prisons; they demand states keep them full

The prison-industrial complex is so out of control that private prisons have the sheer audacity to order states to keep beds full or face their wrath with stiff financial penalties, according to reports. Private prisons in some states have language in their contracts that state if they fall below a certain percentage of capacity that the states must pay the private prisons millions of dollars, lest they face a lawsuit for millions more.

And guess what? The private prisons, which are holding cash-starved states hostage, are getting away with it, says advocacy group, In the Public Interest.

In the Public Interest has reviewed more than 60 contracts between private prison companies and state and local governments across the country, and found language mentioning “quotas” for prisoners in nearly two-thirds of those contracts reviewed. Those quotas can range from a mandatory occupancy of, for example, 70 percent occupancy in California to up to 100 percent in some prisons in Arizona.

[soycrates]

Hi! I'm really looking into turning vegan & honestly the only reason I haven't at this point is because of my family and my health condition, but the other day a kid in my class did a presentation on global warming, and he brought to our attention that cows produce a HUGE amount of methane gas, which is terribly damaging to the earth, and therefore a lot of people say it's better for the planet if you do eat meat, just in moderation? Just wanted to know your thoughts on this as I'm confused x

If eating less meat is good for the planet, then it means that eating meat is not good for the planet. People talk about “eating meat in moderation” because they want to continue eating meat while feeling like they contribute positively to ethical or environmental matters. But it stands that the most ethical and environmental choice you can make is to not eat, or exploit, any animal in any way.

Most people have a strong attachment to the lifestyle they believe is most convenient and pleasurable, even at the expense of others. When confronted with the reality that their choices are not just “personal choices” and that their own actions have serious consequences, they’re extremely likely to talk about what they can do to maintain that harmful lifestyle while reducing their feelings of guilt or responsibility.

As for the environmental sustainability of meat in any context, I have a few points in my FAQ that deal with that, like:

It is environmentally destructive, says the UN, the vegan society, VeganOutreach, chooseveg.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), chemical and animal waste runoff from factory farms is responsible for more than 173,000 miles of polluted rivers and streams.

Animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation.

About 70 percent of all grain produced in the United States is fed to animals raised for slaughter. The 7 billion livestock animals in the United States consume five times as much grain as is consumed directly by the American population. “If all the grain currently fed to livestock were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million,” says David Pimentel, professor of ecology at Cornell University.

All animal agriculture (not just meat, but also industries such as the dairy industry) is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all forms of transportation combined. The best way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the short AND long term is to reduce demand for animal agriculture: fewer animals bred for livestock means fewer animals contributing to GHG emissions. And the best way to reduce demand for products derived from animals is to simply stop purchasing them altogether. The world isn’t full of vegans currently, so it makes sense that those who are willing to change their lifestyle do as much as possible to reduce their own impact. The environmental situation is extremely critical in our century, and it’s long past the time where apathy is an acceptable response.

[fullpraxisnow]

Or we could go ahead and destroy capitalism and capitalist commodification of animals.

[cannibality-deactivated20250227]

if your feminism isn’t working towards indigenous sovereignty and the destruction of the nation-state your feminism is colonial

[12yearsaking-deactivated2015081]

Lets look at Tupac's life.

Spent his childhood running from the FBI due to the actions of the Shakurs.

At 16 became the youngest national Chairman of the New African panthers, himself then getting FBI attention. His FBI file, only 104 pages out of 4000 are released to the public, the rest 3896 pages are censored for “National Security”.

Quit the New African Panthers when he believed the Nation of Islam infiltrated it, the next leader after Shakur was surprise surprise, a member of the NOI.

Got into a constant war of words with the Nation of Islam throughout his rap career. They would follow him everywhere, trying to make it look like they where associated with him. To get his approval, because he was a Shakur. Tupac hated the Nation of Islam because his family where connected to Malcolm X, and his family blame the Nation for his assassination.

Became famous to the general public when released 2pacalyspe now, becoming the legendary rapper. Immediately denounced by the Vice President Dan Quayle due to its anti-american political content. It was obvious they knew who he was by his second name, even if the average rap fan didn’t.

Gets mentioned by name at the Republican Nation Convention

From the help of Mutulu Shakur from prison, starts a movement entitled “Thug Life”. Tupac helps enforce truces between rival gangs, including the bloods and the crips under “Thug Life”. The plan was to get them to stop killing each other, unite, police their communities, and eventually fight the government. He was seducing gang bangers and trying to turn them into soldiers. After that his life turns to shit and seems to be getting arrested and targeted by police on a weekly basis, most of which is was baseless, but people only remember him getting arrested, not acquitted. His “out of control” image increases.

Two Police officers are beating a black motorist. Tupac approaches them and they fire shots at him. Tupac goes back to his car and gets his gun and returns fire, hitting both officers, one in the thigh and one in the buttocks. The charges are dropped against Tupac when it turns out both officers are intoxicated, and the gun they used to fire against Tupac was stolen from an evidence locker. Everyone else just remembers “Tupac shot two cops”.

From the help of Dan Quayle and other Republicans, they persuade family members of slain cops to sue Tupac over his music, stating that his music causes the violence. Seriously, here is even a court video of one of the cases against him in 1995

The republicans convince Time Warner to drop interscope records due to Tupac being one of their artists.

Two criminals, Haitian Jack and James “Henchman” Rosemand try to extort Tupac. He tells them to fuck off and ends up on their hit list. Both later turn out to be working for the FBI since the late 80s until the late 90s.

Haitian Jack (The FBI Agent) introduces Tupac to a woman, the same woman accuses Tupac of rape and sexual assault.

Tupac gets shot by the orders of James Rosemand (another FBI Agent) 5 times in 1994, survives.

Goes to prison for sexual assault, but found innocent of rape. Released after 11 months when new evidence helping prove his innocence is found. The prosecution states they “lost it” and it was not deliberate.

The Jewish Defense League (JDL) threaten to kill Tupac due to his family’s politics. He tells them to fuck off. This is in Tupacs (released) FBI files.

Tupac refuses to remain silent about Jimmy Henchman and Haitian Jack, announces them as FBI informers, and publicly humiliates any other rappers being extorted by them, or associated with them (Biggie, Puffy, etc).

The causes many east coast rappers and street gangsters to dislike Tupac.

Just some of the main frictions in his life, only scratching the surface. Between Political Parties, Terrorist groups, gangsters, FBI, police officers, gang bangers, Tupac had a lot of enemies. Dare I say it, he was born to die. And he knew it.

[warkadang-deactivated20170205]

WAKHAN CORRIDOR, AFGHANISTAN. Kyrgyz children near the camps of Tchelab and Muqur in spring. 

Photographs by Matthieu Paley. 

[cybergata]

[rat-planet-deactivated20170717]

kropotkitten

[neurosciencestuff]

Researchers Reveal Climbing a Tree Can Improve Cognitive Skills

Climbing a tree and balancing on a beam can dramatically improve cognitive skills, according to a study recently conducted by researchers in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Florida.

The study, led by Drs. Ross Alloway, a research associate, and Tracy Alloway, an associate professor, is the first to show that proprioceptively dynamic activities, like climbing a tree, done over a short period of time have dramatic working memory benefits. Working Memory, the active processing of information, is linked to performance in a wide variety of contexts from grades to sports.

The results of this research, recently published in Perceptual and Motor Skills, suggest working memory improvements can be made in just a couple of hours of these physical exercises. “Improving working memory can have a beneficial effect on so many areas in our life, and it’s exciting to see that proprioceptive activities can enhance it in such a short period of time,” said Tracy Alloway.

The aim of this study was to see if proprioceptive activities completed over a short period of time can enhance working memory performance. Proprioception, the awareness of body positioning and orientation, is associated with working memory. It was also of interest whether an acute and highly intensive period of exercise would yield working memory gains.

The UNF researchers recruited adults ages 18 to 59 and tested their working memory. Next, they undertook proprioceptively dynamic activities, designed by the company Movnat, which required proprioception and at least one other element, such as locomotion or route planning.

In the study, such activities included climbing trees, walking and crawling on a beam approximately 3 inches wide, moving while paying attention to posture, running barefoot, navigating over, under and around obstacles, as well as lifting and carrying awkwardly weighted objects. After two hours, participants were tested again, and researchers found that their working memory capacity had increased by 50 percent, a dramatic improvement.

The researchers also tested two control groups. The first was a college class learning new information in a lecture setting to see if learning new information improved working memory. The second was a yoga class to see if static proprioceptive activities were cognitively beneficial. However, neither control group experienced working memory benefits.

Proprioceptively dynamic training may place a greater demand on working memory than either control condition because as environment and terrain changes, the individual recruits working memory to update information to adapt appropriately. Though the yoga control group engaged in proprioceptive activities that required awareness of body position, it was relatively static as they performed the yoga postures in a small space, which didn’t allow for locomotion or navigation.

“This research suggests that by doing activities that make us think, we can exercise our brains as well as our bodies,” said Ross Alloway. “This research has wide-ranging implications for everyone from kids to adults. By taking a break to do activities that are unpredictable and require us to consciously adapt our movements, we can boost our working memory to perform better in the classroom and the boardroom.”

(Image credit)

[cosmic-monkey]

A Plea to Love

where to locate my breath,

when the colonizer is inhaling and holding the air hostage?

if the drones are drops of acid rain,

how might we stop holding our breath? Love, i am here. come find me.

would you still look for me in this thick haze of murder and mayhem?

don't leave me here

                          alone

                          with them

merica

[fullpraxisnow]

The Haunting Story of Filipinos Locked in a ‘Human Zoo’ | FilipiKnow

While we’ve known for a fact that our ancestors were often looked down upon by their colonizers as dark-skinned uneducated savages, the lowest point of this centuries-old discrimination came in the form of America’s human zoos in the early 1900s.

This is when thousands of Filipino tribesmen were taken from their homeland and displayed in exhibits for the American people to gawk at.

To put this shocking story in context, the 19th and early 20th century were periods of expansion by Western powers who were eager to display just how advanced their civilization were compared to the rest of the world. While exhibits featuring people from conquered territories have been recorded as early as 1400, the modern human zoo kicked off with infamous showman P.T. Barnum’s exhibition of Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker on February 25, 1835.

Going by this logic, the US government—also eager to justify its reason of annexing the Philippines—imported 1,300 indigenous Filipinos from different tribes to the tune of $1.5 million and displayed them at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904. There the tribespeople—introduced to visitors as primitive dog-eating headhunters to emphasize the US government’s stance that Filipinos were not ready for self-government—were made to live out their daily lives in full view of the public.

Of course, a few enterprising Americans looking to make some money also brought in their own tribesmen. With the official sanction of the government, medical/showman/former lieutenant governor of Bontoc Truman Hunt brought with him a troupe of Igorots in 1905 to the US mainland where they travelled around and put on human exhibits. He was rivalled in his endeavor by another American, former cigar salesman Richard Schneidewind who was married to a Filipina. As rivals, both tried to outdo each other in showmanship by doing as many tours as they could.

(Read Full Text)

[indigenousandangry]

#DearNonNatives: Pocahontas was twelve. TWELVE. Her story is one of mental, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her kidnappers. Disney turned her story into an animated musical where she's older and consenting and falls in love with a white man and everybody lives happily ever after. And then they marketed that story and geared it towards children. Do NOT argue with Natives about why they hate that movie.

[aphroditeinfurs-deactivated2017]

Living Beneath the Drones (2015) // a documentary about the psychological effects of American drone strikes on Afghans. watch here.