Why Must We Fall?

One of my favorite stories in the world is a short chapter taken from Austrian author Felix Salten’s incredible 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods. The story of the little deer itself is quite a bit darker and melancholy than the Disney movie, but if you find inspiration in anthropomorphic literature, I highly recommend it. The tale is pure, moral, sterling and virtuous – all things I find rare and unfamiliar among 95% of modern novels on today’s shelves.

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indoor cat

true love

Earlier I shared a ‘redlining’ map of Baltimore from 1935 that showed the neighborhood boundaries of racially-based housing discrimination. Policies drawn using maps like that one restricted the ability of African Americans to purchase homes outside of densely populated high-crime areas such as those marked on the map in red and yellow.

This evening, wildguess and I collaborated to make a new map, combining data of incidents of riot activity in the city with the historic map of redlined Baltimore. The image you see now is stark. Despite the white flight and gentrification of the intervening decades, there is a startling similarity between the pattern of violence today and the contours of the segregated districts of the old map.

Please, look carefully. I want to illustrate—literally!—the links between institutionalized discrimination and the events of the last few days. Nothing happens in a vacuum.

Color coded pins:   Red—Looting Yellow—Fire Green—Alarm Gray—Police units requested

Riot activity data source 

Redlined map source

This is so important to understanding what is happening to Baltimore. Really great work.

this is mean and terrible but it exhausts me to be around people who haven’t finished going through their pretentious asshole phase like okay holden caulfield I know we’re all helplessly suckling at the teat of modern media but can you shut up and play some goddamn mario kart for like five minutes

A Working BMO Super Nintendo Emulator

3D print designer Mike Barretta built this amazing BMO emulator using an assortment of 3D printed pieces and Super Nintendo buttons, as well as a mixture of electronic equipment. To see this emulator in action, check out the play test of Donkey Kong Country.

You can learn to build your own BMO Emulator via Matt’s Thingiverse. Instructions, needed parts, 3D print files and everything else you need to know can be found on his page. Finally you can have your very own BMO!

whiskeyporkbuttjoints

BUBeard.

honestly this shit better be in history books 

like yknow how when you start learning about american history and you think “wow, america sure was racist”

its not “was”. it still is. this shit is absolutely 100% still happening and its disgusting and inexcusable 

pretending that racism ended in the 50s or 60s or whatever doesnt cut it anymore because you can literally see it alive and well in the year 2014

you know there’s that mr. roger’s quote about how, during disasters, we should find hope by looking to the ‘helpers’ but i’m having a hard time finding the helpers when the police are the ones causing terror

As far as I can tell, the police didn't kill anyone in the riots and protests last night so I guess that's something.

Of course, it's telling that despite gunshots and fires and rocks being thrown, those thousands of officers managed to keep from responding with further violence. Yet Darren Wilson had to fire 12 rounds at an unarmed teenager. The police out last night had been trained in nonviolent de-escalation, from what I've heard.

Which of course begs the question, why wasn't Darren Wilson trained the same way?

If anything, the takeaway is (1) that it's possible to retrain our police force to not shoot first and ask questions later and (2) there is a pressing need to do just that.

black lives matter