LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL LITTLE THING OH MY GOD
Pretty sure that cat is using its magical powers to turn the plants around itself orange for camouflage. Yup, that’s it.
They say Aslan is on the move.
it’s the color of a fucking nacho cheese dorito
did you know the longer you have a cold the more orange you become
im surrounded by orange peels. i cant remember what my life was outside of citrus
horse ppl r so wild my horse friend was like “this is jenny shes the gentlest horse around shes so chill” and then jenny the horse immediately gave her a concussion
-choking on nothing but air and spit
-asking ‘what?’ and then immediately processing what you said
-making a fool of myself trying to get wild cats to let me pet them
-compensating for hours of procrastination with minutes of panic and superhuman speed
confession: i am Not sick of uptown funk at all i still throw down every single time i hear it and will for the entire rest of my life. catch me at 100 years old hearing “DUP. DUT DOODOOT DUT DOODOOT,” launching out of my wheelchair and screaming WOOAHHH THIS HIT THAT ICE COLD
Sources: VOX, Wired, A Wealth of Common Sense, Goodnet, Good News Network, Human Rights Watch, Medium
1) Extreme poverty is falling. 35.9 percent in 1990 to only 10 percent in 2015 … it estimates that the 2018 rate will be about 8.6 percent.
2) Child mortality is falling.
The global under-five mortality rate fell from 93 per 1,000 [1990] to 39 to
1,000 [2017], meaning it fell by over 58 percent. We don’t have data for 2018
yet, but given the change just between 2015 and 2017, it’s likely there
was a further decline.
3) We’re getting better at preventing preventable diseases.
A new technology that could be able to radically control or outright eliminate malaria — gene drive mosquitos — are almost ready
and foundations like Gates and Open Philanthropy Project are devoting huge sums to fund its development and testing.
4) Clean energy is getting cheaper. Solar and wind are now cheaper per megawatt hour than gas or oil, though better batteries are needed if the two are to become primary sources of energy.
5) Nepal’s endangered tiger population has doubled. In 2009, there were only 120 wild Bengal tigers in Nepal, but that figure has almost doubled since then. The country’s government has pledged to double numbers by 2022, and is on track to meet that target.
6) We’re interstellar once again.
In December 2018, Voyager 2 became the second space craft to leave the heliosphere and it’s still in good shape.
7) The Nobel prize for physics went to a woman for the first time in 55 years.
Only three women have ever won the Nobel prize for physics. Donna Strickland from Canada’s
University of Waterloo was awarded a share of the prize for her work on
using powerful lasers to study tiny particles.
8) Hospitals have created their own drug company to fight back against high costs. A new company Civica Rx, was announced in January 2018 and a third of the country’s [USA] hospitals have either committed to participate or expressed interest. The company CEO Martin Van Trieste is not taking a salary.
9) There are more scientists in politics
[USA].
There’s one new senator, and eight new members of Congress with a STEM
background, including computer programmers, engineers, and an
oceanographer.
10) Fewer war deaths. The proportion of people killed annually in wars is less than a quarter
of what it was in the 1980s, one-seventh of what it was in the early
1970s, one-eighteenth of what it was in the early 1950s, and 0.5% of
what it was during World War II.
11) Fewer weapons of mass destruction. The world’s nuclear stockpiles have been reduced by 85% since the Cold War.
12) Better crop yields. Between 1961 and 2009 the amount of land used to grow food increased by
12%, but the amount of food that was grown increased by 300%.
13) Increased literacy. The global literacy rate is currently 83%.
It’s estimated that by the end of the century this number will be close to 100%.
14) Access to clean water:
Between 1980 and today, global access to safe water sources has increased from 58% to 91%.
15) Protected nature reserves. In 1962, there were 9,214 protected nature reserves worldwide. Today, there are over 200,000.
16) Plastic bag use slashed [AUS].
After two of Australia’s biggest supermarket chains announced that they
would stop offering single-use plastic bags to their consumers, the
initiative has heavily contributed to an 80% drop in plastic bag
consumption across the nation.
17) Post-surgical spray gel to prevent cancer recurrence. A UCLA-led research team has developed a spray gel that is embedded with immune-boosting nanoparticles. The substance was successful half of the time in awakening lab animals’ immune systems to stop the cancer from recurring following tumor removal.
18) Norway bans palm oil biofuels that lead to deforestation.
The majority of the Norwegian parliament agreed to
ban their biofuel industry from buying palm oil and other dangerous
biofuels that are linked to deforestation and harmful environmental
practices.
19) Drastic decrease in child labor.
Since 2000, the number of children in child labor globally fell by 94 million, a drop of more than one-third.
20) Suicides down over one-third. Global suicide rates have dropped by 38% since 1994,
i want to run away…but like in ghibli movie. like i take a block of cheese a loaf of bread and some apples and wander through the flower-specked mountains wrapped up in a shawl and i happen to wander into a moving castle and fall in love with a cute wizard
me (deep in the woods, dragging dufflebag of Kraft Singles™
and hopelessly lost): where’s totoro
i want to run away…but like in ghibli movie. like i take a block of cheese a loaf of bread and some apples and wander through the flower-specked mountains wrapped up in a shawl and i happen to wander into a moving castle and fall in love with a cute wizard
me (deep in the woods, dragging dufflebag of Kraft Singles™
and hopelessly lost): where’s totoro
When I was doing Twilight there was a moment when it was snowing and hailing in the middle of the set and I couldn’t finish shooting the scene, so I went behind a tree and cried for like 30 seconds and came back and then went ‘right we’re going to do this and this’. On that film I never went over budget, never went over schedule, never fired people or yelled at people, nothing. But I get told that I’m emotional and difficult and cried on sets.” She laughs. “Listen I’ve been on sets where male directors have fired the crew, gone over schedule by a month, two months, even three, gone over budget by millions, come in unprepared, not even had a shot list, yelled and got into physical fights with people or, you know, brought hookers to set… No one says they’re difficult. Or I’ve also seen a big man, a former football player, who cried on set and you know what happened? People gave him a round of applause and said he’s so sensitive… If somebody says there’s not a gender bias, that there’s not a double standard, then they do not have their eyes open.”
Does she believe that double standard has had a knock-on effect on her career? “I said in print after Twilight came out that I’d love to do a superhero movie – did anyone call? Not one person, but we won best action sequence at the MTV awards and Twilight had just made $400m (£257m). Let’s just admit that any guy who’d done that every studio would have called them and been like ‘lets do a three-picture deal. What’s the next movie you want to make?’ For me it was radio silence. I refused to give up so I called up about a script I’d loved with loads of action sequences and said I’d love to meet on it and they came straight back and said ‘no we want a guy’. The guy they eventually hired had no box office close to what I’d done but they wanted a guy because it was action.”
dear universe;
hello. i am writing to let you know you did good job on the stars, and also on cats.
yours respectfully,
me
dear universe,
in the original post of this, it says “dogs” where it now says “cats”. i do not know when (or how) it got changed, but i am glad that someone loved cats enough to do that, because i love my dog and i also love my cats and i felt bad about not mentioning it that first time. i’m also glad for all the tags where people told me what i should have added (like libraries and waffles and maple syrup) and i am glad for all the comments about how much they love their pets (and some people have such cool pets!)
i kind of think, universe, if we are your children, this is our macaroni art. see, see, see, you gave us a little bit of the stars, and we’ve made our own constellations. we tried to give back to you by making art and music and books and bad poetry and our laughter and our love and our tv dramadies. we took pictures of the night sky and pictures of sunsets and pictures of dew, we fell in love with space and the rivers and the rain. i personally have my desktop background as a picture of one of your nebulas. your hair looked great that day.
i think…. you did a good job, universe, on the stars, and what the stars became, because you put us together and yes, yes, things might be terrible - but good gracious did we make so many things worth loving, worth writing to you about, worth telling you - thank you, i’m taking the spark you put in me and using it to be kind, to be alive, to be wildly fierce about our gardens and gentle about our pets.
so hello. i amend my previous memo. i am writing to let you know you did a good job on the stars, and on my dog and my cats and the lizard i kept illegally in my apartment. and universe, i hope you’re watching, because some of the people you made? they’re great, universe, and they’re full of love, just endlessly capable of loving. and they give me hope.
and through them, universe, that’s you. that’s how the stars sing.
yours respectfully,
me
Griffin: Have you guys ever made up ice cream lyrics?
Travis, clearly eager to make up ice cream lyrics: No!
Griffin, voice light with sadism: Juice, you wanna try making up some ice cream lyrics?
Justin, who clearly did not want to make up ice cream lyrics: …I’d love to.
