The first color images of Pluto’s atmospheric hazes, returned by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft last week, reveal that the hazes are blue.
Source: New Horizons Finds Blue Skies and Water Ice on Pluto | NASA
They’ve also found water ice. And if you read the article (and you should!), there is a link toward the bottom to a high spectacular high resolution, color image of Pluto.
These images are amazing and beautiful and terrifying.
The Daily Overview presents refugee camps, environmental horror, Florida housing projects, and fields of lovely Dutch tulips.
Source: Mighty and Ominous Satellite Images of the Human Condition
It rained last night, with heavy clouds rolling in just as the eclipse was supposed to begin, so I missed watching it. But this! This is even neater. There is not only water on Mars, but it’s flowing right now, BAY-bee!
New findings from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) provide the strongest evidence yet that liquid water flows intermittently on present-day Mars.
Source: NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars | NASA
What did I tell y’all? Match. Made. In. Heaven.
Thus spaketh Tedward:
Donald Trump should be given the Medal of Freedom for speaking his mind in such a bold, honest and straight-forward manner.
Ted Nugent: ‘Donald Trump Should Be Given The Medal Of Freedom’ | Right Wing Watch.
Donald Trump is not bold. He is a bully. There is perhaps a small, but nonetheless important, difference between the two. As for honest, alas, he isn’t that either. He’s making shit up and scape-goating folks who don’t have the means to fight back. Or, you know, behaving not entirely unlike a bully.
Anyway, I really do think Donny and Tedward should retire to an angry, deserted island, where they can spend their days furiously echoing bigoted sweet nothings at each other and spend their nights spooning under the stars.
Donald Trump may be the angriest, shoutiest, ugliest human on this here Planet Earth. Tiny little manchild is brimful of raging hate. And normally I wouldn’t care, but he’s kind of difficult to ignore these days. Maybe there’s a deserted island we can send him and Ted Nugent to?
If you can vote, please do so. If you cannot, I am sorry. I voted twice as hard on your behalf. Hopefully we can get some of these infuriating voter disenfranchisement laws repealed.
If we stay on this insane course to self-destruction (fundamental transformation), America will indeed go the way of soulless collectivism, and the American Dream will become the American nightmare.
From Right Wing Watch (I refuse to link to Wingnut Daily)
It’s easy to talk about the evils of collectivism when you are obscenely rich. It’s also easy to wax rhapsodic about your right to live the American Dream when you’re part of the 1% who is able to dream. The wealthy have stacked the deck so that we cannot, and never will be able to, claw our way out of the mess THEY have landed us in, and all the while they are ridiculing us for our lack of bootstraps.
Fuck you, Ted Nugent, and the horse you rode in on.
Judge Young wrote, “In time, Americans will look at the marriage of couples such as Plaintiffs, and refer to it simply as a marriage – not a same-sex marriage. These couples, when gender and sexual orientation are taken away, are in all respects like the family down the street. The Constitution demands that we treat them as such.”
From HRC
Judge Young did not issue a stay, so marriages commenced immediately.
Of course, some counties are insisting on being giant shitheads and are refusing to issue marriage licenses. Monroe County, I am happy to report, is not one of those. Our county clerks office was immediately open for business and has already performed four marriages. (I for real started tearing up typing that.)
Also of course, Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller says he is asking for an immediate stay of the decision. He’s a special kind of asshole that way.
From in.gov.
First, from the ACLU blog, if you’re a girl in Delhi, Louisiana and you are even suspected of being pregnant, you lose your rights to bodily autonomy and privacy. You must submit to a pregnancy test. If you refuse, you will be kicked out of school. If you take the test and are pregnant, you will be kicked out of school.
This, after a “quote in a box” image that circulated on Facebook over the weekend, stating that pregnant teens need an ass whipping. Because child abuse will solve EVERYTHING.
This world is not a safe place for women, and it’s an even less safe place for girls.
Second, this world is also not a safe place for brown people. My heart goes out to the Sikh community. I am sorry an entitled, racist, hate-filled white dude had access to guns. I’m sorry that racist news media has made a business out of spreading misinformation and intolerance, adding fuel to the fire of would-be terrorists like Wade Michael Page. I’m sorry.
Third, I’m sick to death of smug “christians” who insist that it’s Just Fine to hate the sin as long as they don’t hate the sinner. They frame it as “disagreeing with” homosexuality. As if it’s just a differing of opinions. They call it a “lifestyle choice.” As if being straight were a “lifestyle choice.” They claim that it’s possible to disagree with someone’s choices, but still love that person. Well, that’s bullshit, and it’s beneath contempt. Being gay is not a fashion choice. It’s not something you can just decide to stop being. It’s an integral, interwoven part of you. JUST LIKE BEING STRAIGHT is. So when you say that you hate homosexuality, you ARE, in fact, saying that you HATE gays. HATE. And last time I checked, Jesus said we should love our neighbors, not hate them. You can’t have it both ways.
Fourth, I’m pretty well over all the ignorant, bigoted assholes who think everyone is being a big meanypants to Chick-fil-a, just because the company’s president exercised his freedom of speech. “Waaah! You must tolerate our intolerance!” This was not about freedom of speech. This was about a company that funnels millions of dollars to hate groups like the Family Research Council and pray-away-the-gay groups like Exodus International. Why would anyone with a shred of human decency give a penny to them, knowing where that money is going to go? So fuck you, Dan Cathy, and fuck the horse you rode in on, and fuck all the hate-mongering “christians” who line up to eat your bigot chicken knowing full well that they’re supporting HATE.
red paper boat 