c'est la vie

Syrup: Four types of women.

Thu, 02 May 2013 03:33:41 -0400

Syrup: Four types of women.

"Just a note to all people planning on giving blood, remember it only has a shelf life of 42 days...."

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 02:48:58 -0400

“

Just a note to all people planning on giving blood, remember it only has a shelf life of 42 days. After 9/11, so many people donated that there was a glut of blood in the system and much of it expired on the shelves, unused, because there was more than needed. ALso, if you donate right now, you will not be eligible to donate again for 8 weeks, so about a month after 9/11 there was a bit of a shortage, because many people couldn’t donate again for several weeks.

Consider delaying your donation for a week or two to insure a good steady flow of blood that will allow blood banks to replenish their inventory. Most blood banks in the United States are part of an emergency sharing system and will be shipping ready to transfuse products to Boston if they are needed. Spacing out donations insures everyone will have blood to provide their community in the coming weeks.

”

- SA forums goon Epiphyte (via vastderp)

Useful information! Please consider spacing out your donations! (and if you can, please donate)

Photo

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:11:11 -0500

superwholockgiraffe: thesulfurandthesea: Disney Cup...

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:02:59 -0500

superwholockgiraffe:

thesulfurandthesea:

Disney Cup Cover

ARE YOU SERIOUS OMFG

holy crap, that is so freaking good

Photo

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:02:51 -0500

youngbadmanbrown: lafemmedominicana: #lmfao they shipped their...

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:02:47 -0500

youngbadmanbrown:

lafemmedominicana:

#lmfao they shipped their own kids

I love JD’s fantasies later about them getting married

ktshy: faisdm: flails DO WANT! Lovely reading nooks.

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:02:42 -0500

ktshy:

faisdm:

*flails* DO WANT!

Lovely reading nooks.

the V monologues: because it seems necessary to say this:

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:48:32 -0500

the V monologues: because it seems necessary to say this::

gingerhaze:

Men’s Rights Activists, why do you think people are laughing at you?

It’s not because we think you shouldn’t have rights or that your problems don’t matter. I want men to be able to wear pink and drink fruity drinks and wear makeup and engage in other perhaps unfairly…

the-fury-of-a-time-lord: mklarimba: CATCH THE FUCK UP...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:41:41 -0500

the-fury-of-a-time-lord:

mklarimba:

CATCH THE FUCK UP AMERICA

HOLY SHIT CONGRATS UK

FUCK THAT IS AMAZING

ihititwithmyaxe: mothernaturenetwork: Harry Potter wizarding...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:40:41 -0500

ihititwithmyaxe:

mothernaturenetwork:

Harry Potter wizarding genetics decoded

If the wizarding gene is dominant, as J.K. Rowling says in her famous series of Harry Potter books, then how can a wizard be born to muggle parents (non-magical people)? And how can there be squibs (non-magical people born into wizarding lines)?

It seems these baffling genetic questions have finally been answered, thanks to Andrea Klenotiz, a biology student at the University of Delaware.

In a six-page paper, which she sent to Rowling, Klenotiz outlines how the wizarding gene works and even explains why some witches and wizards are more powerful than others.

“Magical ability could be explained by a single autosomal dominant gene if it is caused by an expansion of trinucleotide repeats with non-Mendelian ratios of inheritance,” Klenotiz explains.

What does this mean?

In school we learn the fundamentals of genetics by studying Gregory Mendel’s pea plant experiments and completing basic Punnett squares. Basically, we’re taught that whenever one copy of a gene linked to a dominant trait is present, then the offspring will exhibit that dominant trait, regardless of the other gene.

However, Non-Mendelian genes don’t follow this rule, which is the basis of Klenotiz’s argument. She says that the wizarding gene could be explained if it’s caused by a trinucleotide repeat, which is the repetition of three nucleotides — the building blocks of DNA — multiple times.

These repeats can be found in normal genes, but sometimes many more copies of this repeated code can appear in genes than is standard, causing a mutation. This kind of mutation is responsible for genetic diseases like Huntington’s Disease. Depending upon how many of these repeats occur in the genes, a person could exhibit no symptoms, could have a mild form of the disease or could have a severe form of it.

In her paper, Klenotiz argues that eggs with high levels of these repeats are more likely to be fertilized, a phenomenon known as transmission ratio distortion. She also suggests that the egg or sperm with high levels of repeats is less likely to be created or to survive in the wizarding womb.

This argument answers several questions about wizarding genetics:

How can a wizard be born to muggle parents?

Genetic mutations can randomly appear, meaning anyone could be born with the wizarding gene. However, there’s a better chance of magical offspring occurring if the parents are on the high side of the normal range for mutations.

How can a squib be born to wizard parents?

Although parents with these mutated magical genes would be likely to pass the gene on to their children, there’s still a possibility that any given offspring might not inherit the trinucleotide repeat.

How can varying degrees of magical ability be explained?

The more repeats a wizard inherits, the stronger the magical power he or she will have. If both wizarding parents are powerful wizards, it’s likely their offspring will also be powerful.

You can read Klenotiz’s full paper on wizarding genetics here.

Far and away one of the nerdiest things I’ve ever read. Love it.

thinkblack: I think it’s time to kill for our women Time to...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:37:57 -0500

thinkblack:

I think it’s time to kill for our women

Time to heal our women, be real to our women
And if we don’t we’ll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
And since a man can’t make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one

everartis: elizastar98: sinisterlava: sixseasonsandamovie: No...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:34:37 -0500

everartis:

elizastar98:

sinisterlava:

sixseasonsandamovie:

No One Hates “Twilight” As Much As Robert Pattinson: A Supercut

where has this been all my life

a round of applause for Robert

thefrogman: Photographed by takuya.baby [flickr]

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 01:56:53 -0500

thefrogman:

Photographed by takuya.baby [flickr]

thepeoplesrecord: The new Jane Crow: How hundreds of pregnant...

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 01:54:12 -0500

thepeoplesrecord:

The new Jane Crow: How hundreds of pregnant women have had their rights violated & health put in jeopardy as part of the war on choice
February 4, 2013

Regina McKnight was 21 years old when she was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison for homicide by child abuse—after she suffered a stillbirth eight-and-a-half months into her pregnancy.

The jury deliberated only 15 minutes before finding McKnight guilty of having committed “child abuse”—because of using cocaine during her pregnancy. She went to jail, and one appeals court after another upheld the conviction—until it was finally overturned eight years later on the grounds that the scientific evidence used to claim McKnight’s drug use was responsible for the stillbirth was “outdated” at the time of her trial.

Laura Pemberton was arrested while she was in active labor—for attempting to give birth at home, rather than undergo a C-section advised by her doctor. A sheriff strapped her legs together and took her to the hospital, where, at an emergency hearing, lawyers argued on behalf of her fetus. Pemberton and her husband were denied counsel during this hearing, though they were “allowed to express their views” as hospital staff prepared Pemberton for surgery.

These stories aren’t scenes out of some horror movie about a nightmarish future society. They are real-life accounts from the war on women and their rights that has been underway since the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in 1973.

In a new report titled “Arrests of and Forced Interventions on Pregnant Women in the United States, 1973–2005,” the National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW) summarizes the experiences of 413 women who have been subjected to cruel punishments or unwanted medical procedures while they were pregnant.

No state or federal law permits the arrest or detention of women specifically due to pregnancy. Yet hundreds of pregnant women—predominantly low-income women and women of color—have had their rights taken away and their health put in jeopardy because police, prosecutors, judges and even medical personnel have claimed the authority to determine what will happen to their bodies. Lynn Paltrow, one of the authors of the NAPW study, calls this phenomenon “a new Jane Crow”—in reference to author Michelle Alexander’s best-selling examination of the mass incarceration system.

The crusade against women’s reproductive rights has been led by politicians and organizations which claim to cherish the “right to life” and champion women’s role as mothers. But the reality made painfully clear by the NAPW’s report is that the anti-choice right wants women to be treated as second-class citizens, denied the right to health care, personal liberty and the right to control their own bodies and lives.

Report authors Lynn Paltrow and Jeanne Flavin say their study understates the number of incidents of incarceration or forced medical intervention against pregnant women in the decades following Roe.

No one has attempted to compile these stories before, and records of the cases are either scattered among different sources or nonexistent altogether. Often, say Paltrow and Flavin, hospital staff impose unwanted procedures without the involvement of state authorities. Plus, the decisions of family and juvenile courts are kept confidential. So the number of victims is likely to be many times greater than the 413 cases verified by the NAPW in its rigorous study.

Nonetheless, the patterns of punishment described in the report paint a frightening picture of the consequences of the right’s campaign against reproductive freedom.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

What “crimes” were committed by the pregnant women whose stories are told in the NAPW report?

In the cases the report documents, women were most often targeted not for attempting to end a pregnancy, but for attempting to carry one to term. The main reason for arrest and detention was drug use during pregnancy, but in other cases, women were punished because they suffered from sexually transmitted diseases or mental illness while pregnant. Others wanted to deliver at home, refused C-sections or failed to access prenatal care.

In several cases, women were charged with one or more felonies after they suffered a miscarriage or attempted to end a pregnancy on their own. And in one case, state prosecutors used the fact that a woman had refused an offer of sterilization in support of its charges. This case, in particular, strikes an old and deep wound, following decades of forced sterilizations of Black, Latina, Native American and immigrant women.

In all, just over half of the women whose stories are collected in the report are Black. Nearly three quarters of those facing legal charges were represented by indigent defense.

African American women have suffered a long legacy of barbaric discrimination—from the separation of families under slavery to the early 20th century eugenics movement that pushed through laws in 32 states allowing the sterilization of women judged “unfit to breed.”

Today, poor Black single mothers are scapegoated for all manner of social problems. In particular, the war on drugs has served as a vehicle for the attack, with drug convictions serving as the excuse for terminating parental rights of incarcerated mothers.

Meanwhile, the media have whipped up a moral panic over drug use during pregnancy. Thus, cocaine was the drug most often associated with the criminal charges against pregnant women documented in the NAPW report. But health professionals now recognize that cocaine use during pregnancy poses no more significant risk to fetal health than poor nutrition, lack of prenatal care or other factors commonly suffered by the poor.

In fact, in most of the cases documented in the report, authorities didn’t claim that fetuses had been harmed, only that there was a risk of harm. And even when actual harm was alleged, in most cases, there was no scientific evidence or expert testimony to substantiate the claim.

For example, Geralynn Susan Grubbs, a 23-year-old woman in Alaska, was threatened with 30 years imprisonment and therefore pled guilty to a lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide in connection with the death of her two-week-old infant. Prosecutors claimed that drug use during pregnancy had caused the infant’s death—this allegation was allowed to stand even after an autopsy revealed that there was no connection between the death of the child and fetal drug exposure.

Such punishment flies in the face of the recommendations of the medical community. Organizations like the American Medical Association have concluded that criminalizing drug use by pregnant women only discourages women from seeking prenatal care and assistance with their addiction.

Nonetheless, Paltrow and Flavin document how threats of arrest or loss of custody lead some pregnant women with drug problems to avoid medical attention, prenatal care and hospital deliveries altogether. In one particularly absurd case, 34-year-old Alma Baker was prosecuted for dealing drugs to a minor—after she gave birth to twins who tested positive for THC, a chemical found in marijuana. Baker stated that if she realized the risk of criminal charges, she would not have gone to her doctor at all.

Alma Baker is white, which makes her case highly unusual among those documented in the NAPW report. Women of all races use drugs at rates roughly equivalent to their numbers in the overall population—yet overwhelmingly those questioned, screened and punished for drug use related to pregnancy were African American.

Full article

shut-the-fuck-up-lee: feminishblog: ellakrystina: Word. Stop....

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 01:48:09 -0500

shut-the-fuck-up-lee:

feminishblog:

ellakrystina:

Word.

Stop. Re-read this. Did it blow your mind the second time? Yeah, me too.

the struggle..

First time doing a “shoot” with a sim, and first...

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:03:46 -0500

First time doing a “shoot” with a sim, and first time I’ve edited anything from the game. Not sure if I like it but meh not bad for a first shot.

sleepingbeautiescastle: acquaintedwithrask: disneytrivia: We...

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 14:13:18 -0500

sleepingbeautiescastle:

acquaintedwithrask:

disneytrivia:

We inturrupt this trivia to bring you what may just be the cutest Disney related picture ever. Jodi Benson and Pat Carroll, the voices of Ariel and Ursula in The Little Mermaid, riding Ariel’s Undersea Adventure at Disneyland.

I feel like part of my life is completed

Oh my god !!!!

thevmonologues: IF AFRICAN AMERICANS HAD BEEN GIVEN THE RIGHT...

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 23:58:11 -0500

thevmonologues:

IF AFRICAN AMERICANS HAD BEEN GIVEN THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS IN THIS COUNTRY SLAVERY WOULDN’T HAVE EXISTED

O

M

G

we didn't kill anyone. well, not yesterday.: Megaupload Returns...

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 01:49:11 -0500

we didn't kill anyone. well, not yesterday.: Megaupload Returns...:

thefourteenthdoctor:

But, I feel there is something many are not realising, and it is important to know this. Megaupload has started to use a special encryption, meaning they cannot see what you are uploading and allowing others to download. This means that they cannot be held accountable…

wilwheaton: fangirlamy: One of my favorite quotes of all...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 22:13:47 -0500

wilwheaton:

fangirlamy:

One of my favorite quotes of all time.

If this is done in one of those amazing typography things, I am so printing it out and putting it in my office next to my Cult of Done Manifesto.

c'est la vie

Syrup: Four types of women.

"Just a note to all people planning on giving blood, remember it only has a shelf life of 42 days...."

Photo

superwholockgiraffe: thesulfurandthesea: Disney Cup...

Photo

youngbadmanbrown: lafemmedominicana: #lmfao they shipped their...

ktshy: faisdm: *flails* DO WANT! Lovely reading nooks.

the V monologues: because it seems necessary to say this:

the-fury-of-a-time-lord: mklarimba: CATCH THE FUCK UP...

ihititwithmyaxe: mothernaturenetwork: Harry Potter wizarding...

thinkblack: I think it’s time to kill for our women Time to...

everartis: elizastar98: sinisterlava: sixseasonsandamovie: No...

No One Hates “Twilight” As Much As Robert Pattinson: A Supercut

thefrogman: Photographed by takuya.baby [flickr]

thepeoplesrecord: The new Jane Crow: How hundreds of pregnant...

shut-the-fuck-up-lee: feminishblog: ellakrystina: Word. Stop....

First time doing a “shoot” with a sim, and first...

sleepingbeautiescastle: acquaintedwithrask: disneytrivia: We...

thevmonologues: IF AFRICAN AMERICANS HAD BEEN GIVEN THE RIGHT...

we didn't kill anyone. well, not yesterday.: Megaupload Returns...

wilwheaton: fangirlamy: One of my favorite quotes of all...

ktshy: faisdm: flails DO WANT! Lovely reading nooks.