grimeclown:

pictures-of-dogs:

proud dog showing off ALL FOUR of his paws at once

TWENTY DABLOONS

mulletmarcy:

4 dabloons

wearemage:

qwertee:

“Let’s Sacrifice Toby” is today’s tee on https://www.qwertee.com/ekar1ljnd going live in just 15 minutes!

Get this great design now for the super price of £9/€11/$12 for 24 hours only.

Be sure to “Like” this for 1 chance at a FREE TEE today, “Reblog” it for 2 chances and “Follow” us for a 3rd chance (if you’re not already:) Thanks Guys!

A T-shirt for Alarin…

futurismnews:

Robots Are Preparing to Fill 200,000 Vacant Construction Jobs

futurismnews:

Blockchain and Renewable Energy Are Utterly Disrupting Society as We Know It

joannalannister:

Taboos fascinate many writers and artists because we are rebels at heart. We’re drawn to the forbidden, the denied, the unacceptable. In order to show the world in all its beauty and grossness, we portray both the sacred and the profane, sometimes in the same sentence […]

Once you examine taboos, it’s easier to break down traditional controls on your thinking, and learn to think more freely. […] Fiction is obviously a terrific tool for teaching people to question, understand, and think for themselves. By engaging people’s imaginations, you help them see alternate realities; you can substitute your fictional world for the real one. Your readers will see a world they otherwise couldn’t. […]

speculative fiction is particularly well equipped to examine taboos. Taboos and boundaries are where society breaks down, and SF/F shines when exploring damaged societies. When you write about taboos, you’re writing about the things we hide in an effort to seem civilized; the way we distance ourselves from our animal origins. […]

So through speculative fiction, you can pry into our fundamental societal habits, and consider what the world would be like without them. Of course, in doing so, you’re actually teaching the world about what the world is like with them, as speculative fiction is fundamentally about our world in the end. By digging into humanity’s depths, a writer can explore what it means to participate in a society—or to flout that society without complying. A talented writer can influence the reader’s worldview about what is acceptable and what isn’t. The taboo has power; your blades will cut deeply.

This is the power of the taboo: you tap into the darkest emotions we possess—the feelings which we do not dull with repeated daily use, but rather tuck away and forget in the unexamined corners of our minds. These stories hurt, and that’s why they move us. […] By skirting the edge of what’s acceptable, we immerse the reader deeply in the story, and that’s what most of them want to experience. […]

taboos are potent. They speak to the raw, the naked, the bleeding parts inside ourselves. They have the power to grab the reader by the lapels (or if necessary, the bare collarbones) and shake him or her into a new understanding of the world. Creativity thrives when pressed against boundaries; like an octopus hiding in a jar, eyeballs get squished against tentacles, and we see the reality from new angles. By tearing the world apart, we can reconstruct it into something new, something amazing and brilliant.

So why explore the taboo? Because you shouldn’t, and that’s why you must.

–“You’re Not Supposed To Write That: Taboos in Speculative Fiction”

the-future-now:

When it comes to upholding the Paris climate agreement, America’s mayors are leading the way

• Trump might not be convinced the planet is warming, but the fight to combat climate change on the local level is heating up without his help.
• In spite of an uncooperative U.S. government — and despite Trump’s June decision to withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris climate agreement — mayors around the world are working together to set the agenda on climate change.
• On Tuesday, a “global covenant of mayors” convened for the first time in Brussels, Belgium, to reaffirm its members’ shared goal of reducing emissions and doubling down on the ambitious goals outlined in the Paris accord. Read more (6/28/17)

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char-portraits:

Forerunner Cover by Tyler Jacobson

the-future-now:

Inside the dangerous operation to smuggle free information into North Korea

In most of the Wi-Fi-enabled world, thumb drives are already a throwback; the latest Apple laptops don’t even come with a way to plug them in. But in the insular and rogue state of North Korea, USB drives have become a symbol of resistance.

Human rights groups based in South Korea, the United States and elsewhere load the flash drives with hours of foreign films like Titanic and TV shows like Friends, along with South Korean dramas and religious texts. Then they smuggle them north using drones, helium balloons or a secretive underground network of smugglers.

The hope is that thousands, if not millions, of North Koreans will get their hands on foreign media on a scale so large it could someday undermine the same regime that’s trying to brainwash them.

But in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a land where people often turn to the black market to make money, watching a foreign film or reading an independent newspaper could bring terrible consequences.

It could mean paying a bribe to an officer or spending time in one of the nation’s many gulags — or, in some cases, even worse. Read more (6/28/17)

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