a shallow depth of field

[sallymolay]

Compton's Transgender, Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (TLGB) District is the first legally recognized transgender district in the world.

7x7 writes:

Named after the historic Compton’s Cafeteria riots in 1966 (the first known incident of collective LGBT resistance to police harassment in U.S. history), The Compton’s TLGB District will encompass six blocks in the southeastern Tenderloin and will cross over Market Street to include two blocks of 6th Street.

The intersection of Compton’s Cafeteria Way and Vikki Mar Lane (previously portions of Turk and Taylor Streets) will be a hub of services and economic opportunities for trans and gender-nonconforming communities, as well as a place to honor the community’s history.

“The lower Tenderloin is one of the most important neighborhood in America for transgender history, culture, and civil rights,” said Supervisor Jane Kim, who represents the Tenderloin. “By creating the Compton’s TLGB District we are honoring this vibrant community built by transgender people, and are sending a message to the world that trans people are welcome here.”

Read the whole story!

[thedemsocialist-deactivated2018]

Trump says America is “weak” and that we need to increase defense spending. Im like, “why?” U.S. DEFENSE SPENDING COMPARED TO OTHER COUNTRIES

[rollership]

Why? For endless weapons profits by mass murdering innocent people and children in the places they live of course!

[gabrieldreyfuss]

Awesome! They released the poster for the next Star Wars!

[mini-girlz]

Standing Figurine

Cyprus 

Archaic period (700–475 B.C.)c. 500–475 B.C.

Sandy limestone

18 9/16 x 5 1/16 x 2 ½ in. (47.2 x 12.8 x 6.4 cm)

This serene columnar sculpture may represent a goddess or votary. Conceived frontally with a flat back, the figure holds a flower to her breast with her right hand, while grasping another object at her left side. She wears an elegantly designed head cloth and necklace of Near Eastern origin. Her almond-shaped eyes and smiling expression, however, derive from Greek Archaic sculptural traditions. This mixture of styles reflects the varied political and cultural allegiances of Cyprus during the Archaic period.

> kimbellart.org

[lgbt-history-archive]

“I’m not a woman / I’m not a man / I am something that you’ll never understand.” – Prince, “I Would Die 4 U” (1984) . Picture: Prince, Metro, Boston, Massachusetts, March 17, 1981. Photo by Steve Stone, c/o The History Project. . Prince Rogers Nelson, who died one year ago today, was a cultural icon who, as Chelsea Reynolds wrote, “tried to help us understand the differences between identity (how we think of ourselves), behavior (what we do), and perception (how others think of us).” . Prince, in short, “dismantled and queered what contemporary culture has tried to bracket.” . Much has been made of an interview Prince gave to The New Yorker in November 2008 in which he discussed becoming a Jehovah’s Witness; specifically, much has been made of the following: . “When asked about his perspective on social issues—gay marriage, abortion—Prince tapped his Bible and said, ‘God came to earth and saw people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever, and he just cleared it all out. He was, like, ‘Enough.’” . Despite Prince’s indisputable contributions to the queering of society, this quote continues to haunt his legacy. . “What might strike audiences as contradictory stances on issues of sexual expression and marriage equality,” Reynolds explains, “may well be understood within their larger discursive context. Prince wasn’t merely a voice for marginalized or queer communities. . “He reigned at the confluence of a culture tipping away from disco toward hip hop. The same culture that told Mariah Carey not to announce her blackness…that demanded Michael Jackson defend his vitiligo…that produced the Down Low and expectations for rigid heterosexuality among black men in the church. . “We should agree on one thing: Identity is unstable. It is myriad. There is little logic in absolutist binaries. No straight, no gay. No black, no white. No woman, no man. No ideal Christian, no ideal atheist. At least not singularly. This is the gospel of Prince circa 1982: . ‘I just can’t believe all the things people say / Controversy. Am I black or white, am I straight or gay? / Controversy. Do I believe in God, do I believe in me? / Controversy.’” #HavePrideInHistory #Prince

[mini-girlz]

Jomon Figurine

The Jōmon period is the time in Japanese prehistory, traditionally dated between c. 1,000–300 BCE, when Japan was inhabited by a hunter-gatherer culture.

[wildcat2030]

Metrosexual, hipster, spornosexual: why do we keep redefining men?

See on Scoop.it - Knowmads, Infocology of the future

Ten years ago, men were metrosexual, but now I’ve lost track. Currently, the spornosexual, a more body conscious and sexually explicit version of the metrosexual, is vying with the check-shirted, bearded lumbersexual for top spot. Nattily dressed and neatly bearded, the “dandy wildman” and the hipster also abound, too. These are men’s consumer lifestyles. If you want to be a spornosexual, you buy gym membership, protein and some expensive photography equipment to spruce up your Instagram feed. To be a hipster, go to vintage clothes shops, buy the most obscure craft ales, and some beard oil. In the last 30 years, the number of men’s lifestyles on the market has grown exponentially. My ongoing PhD research explores this phenomenon, trying to understand and explain the appearance of new “marketed manhoods”. Having held focus groups with young men around the country, I have found new marketed versions of manhood have taken hold to vastly differing extents in different areas.

[nearlya]

Cy Twombly Leda and The Swan, 1962 (and detail)

[fundamentalpainting]

[medverf-deactivated20170502]

Sabine Tress

[celebratingamazingwomen]

Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799) was an Italian mathematician and philosopher. She was a member of the University of Bologna, and was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook, and the first in the world to be appointed as a Mathematics professor.

She was a child prodigy who could speak seven languages by age eleven, and at age nine composed and gave an hour-long speech in Latin on the subject of women’s education. The book she wrote and published was the first ever to discuss differential and integral calculus. In later life, she dedicated herself to philanthropy, and established a care home for the elderly.

[wildcat2030]

The Brain Literally Starts Eating Itself When It Doesn't Get Enough Sleep

See on Scoop.it - The future of medicine and health

The reason we sleep goes far beyond simply replenishing our energy levels every 12 hours - our brains actually change states when we sleep to clear away the toxic byproducts of neural activity left behind during the day. Weirdly enough, the same process starts to occur in brains that are chronically sleep-deprived too - except it’s kicked into hyperdrive. Researchers have found that persistently poor sleep causes the brain to clear a significant amount of neurons and synaptic connections, and recovering sleep might not be able to reverse the damage. A team led by neuroscientist Michele Bellesi from the Marche Polytechnic University in Italy has examined the mammalian brain’s response to poor sleeping habits, and found a bizarre similarity between the well-rested and sleepless mice. Like the cells elsewhere in your body, the neurons in your brain are being constantly refreshed by two different types of glial cell - support cells that are often called the glue of the nervous system. The microglial cells are responsible for clearing out old and worn out cells via a process called phagocytosis - meaning “to devour” in Greek. The astrocytes’ job is to prune unnecessary synapses (connections) in the brain to refresh and reshape its wiring. We’ve known that this process occurs when we sleep to clear away the neurological wear and tear of the day, but now it appears that the same thing happens when we start to lose sleep.

[npr]

For families spread out across the country, videos and video chats have become a meaningful way to share a baby’s first steps, a birthday party or a loved one blowing a kiss.

But for people in prison, rules limiting access to the Internet and cameras can make sharing these moments difficult. In Colorado Springs, an artist came up with a creative solution.

Like many proud parents, Nicole Garrens captured her son Zander’s first steps on her cellphone. She wanted to share the video with her husband, Roy, but he recently went to prison in Texas.

While almost anyone with a smartphone can send or receive short videos these days, prisoners still have little access to technology. So Garrens went looking online for a creative solution. She found flipbooked.com, a small company that turns short videos into flipbooks.

Flipbooks Help Prisoners Stay Connected To Their Loved Ones

GIF: Noel Black for NPR

[ithankthevirgin]

It was a very hot day, and the Hernandez sisters went to swim in the river. They were happily refreshing in the water, when suddenly their dog started barking furiously. Then they saw two horrible crocodiles approaching them. The sisters thank Saint Quiteria for they ran out of the river before being attacked by those fierce-toothed creatures.

[ithankthevirgin]

Almost all women in our family have beards. That’s why my sister and I thought that we were going to be circus phenomenons until we retire and then we would marry weird ugly men like our aunts did. Our circus routine had a big success because besides wearing beards we were very cute and funny. But we weren’t happy. One day thank to the Virgin of San Juan we found out about depilation. We got rid of our beards and married handsome men. We do not work in circus anymore.

[dreamsnufkin]

Style Bible Life Ball 2014 photos (unretouched) by Inge Prader

[nprbooks]

For years, John T. Edge has been telling the story of Southern food – its central role in Southern identity and what it owes to the African-American and immigrant cooks who have historically been left out of the standard narratives the South tells about itself.

In his new book, The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South, Edge attempts to pay down what he calls “a debt of pleasure to those farmers and cooks who came before me, many of whom have been lost to history.”

Race, Class And Paying Down Southern Food’s Great ‘Debt Of Pleasure’

Image: Shelby Knowles/NPR

[npr]

A more complete history of Southern cuisine. -Emily

[belleamira]

Alexander McQueen

Fall 2017 Ready-to-Wear