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Wanderers - a short film by Erik Wernquist

#Vimeo #wanderers #space #solarsystem #earth #mars #jupiter #saturn #uranus #miranda #enceladus #titan #europa #io #iapetus #asteroid #arturcclarke #carlsagan #kimstanleyrobinson

npr

Lance Cpl. Jasmine Abrego is an office clerk who dreams of becoming a warrior.

She’s flat on her stomach in the dirt, in full combat gear. Suddenly she pops up, slings a 44-pound metal tripod on her back and lurches forward in a crab-like run. Finally, she slams the tripod to the ground. A male Marine slaps a .50-caliber machine gun into place.

They fire imaginary bullets at an unseen target before pulling back. The exercise is over. Abrego who is just 20 years old and stands at 5 foot 2 inches explains why she volunteered for this training at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.

"Hopefully, I’ll be able to go overseas and kick bad guys butts," she says. An uncle who served in the Marines inspired her, and she wants to be a role model to her six brothers and sisters. But she knows she will have to train hard to get a slot in the infantry.

"I’ve just got to get used to it," Abrego says. "The more I do it, the better I get. A strong mind can do it."

But even a strong mind and body might not be enough. The Marines will spend the next year trying to decide whether women — who make up just 7 percent of the Marine Corps — have what it takes to serve in the tough, unforgiving world of ground combat.

Take a look at what the Marines could look like with more women joining the ranks. While you’re there, follow along with our series, “Back at Base,” a collaboration between NPR and seven public radio stations around the country to document the lives of America’s troops.

Photo credit: Travis Dove for NPR

(via Void - Imgur)

(via You're a long way from home, buddy. - Imgur)

tetw

On Keeping a Notebook by Joan Didion - A great essay about making notes that gets to the very core of the writing process Write Like a Motherfucker by Cheryl Strayed - Raw, emotional advice on the role of humility and surrender in the often tortured world of the writer Thoughts on Writing by Elizabeth Gilbert - On disicpline, hard work, rejection and why it’s never too late to start Write Till You Drop by Annie Dillard - “Do you think I could be a writer?” “I don’t know… . Do you like sentences?” Why I Write by George Orwell - On egoism, a love of beauty, the quest for truth and the desire to change the world — Orwell’s ‘four great motive for writing’. Despite Tough Guys, Life Is Not the Only School for Real Novelists by Kurt Vonnegut - A beautifully argued defence of the role of teaching in developing writers. That Crafty Feeling by Zadie Smith - A lecture by a great essayist and novelist on the craft of writing. A Place You All Know Well by Michael Chabon - On the central role of exporation in writing. The Nature of Fun by David Foster Wallace (excerpt) - DFW on what drives writers to write Uncanny the Singing That Comes from Certain Husks by Joy Williams - “Who cares if the writer is not whole? Of course the writer is not whole, or even particularly well…”

starwars

Roger, roger.

twicr

Probably the worst robot army ever.

jakubrozalski

daily spitpainting, ‘big bad wolf’… and White Wolf :), 30min

erro-crasso

History is my passion. I wanted to combine the classic motifs of cavalry, the Polish army, life in the countryside, Polish paintings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century modernist design, [and] giant robot battles in order to [present] our [Polish] history and culture [in] original and interesting ways for a contemporary audience.

Germany-based conceptual artist Jakub Różalski.