PETA: They’d rather spend their money on publicity campaigns than on the animals in their care. PETA killed 73.8% of the animals in their care in 2015 (x)
FCKH8: Is a for-profit company that exploits oppressed groups for money. They’re also wildly uninformed, and spread misogyny, cissexism and bi/panphobia, as well as stealing their posts/designs (x)
Autism Speaks: They spend most of their money on researching a way to eliminate autism, heighten the stigma against autism and don’t have a single autistic person on their board (x)
Please support other, better charities, and feel free to add any others you can think of to this.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure: CEO makes insane amounts of money, they deny a lot of requests for wigs/help with treatment/etc., and have attempted to sue other charities that use the color pink as part of their anti-breast cancer campaign. ( xxx )
The Salvation Army: They promote the hatred of LGBT+ people, work with fundamentalist Christian groups to support conservative politics and rip off and exploit workers. ( xxx )
Wounded Warrior: They take money that should be spent on veterans and blow it on huge opulent parties for the company bigwigs. 26 million in 2014 alone wasted! ( xxx )
^ Important reminder to NOT waste any money donating to these groups
Reblogging because of the added info about Wounded Warrior.
Native Americans weren’t allowed US citizenship until 1924.
Let that sink in. We lived here first…for thousands of years. And less than a hundred years ago we were finally given citizenship.
We also fought in WWI despite not being US citizens.
In Arizona, natives weren’t granted the right to vote until 1948. Think how that type of neglect ties into resource colonization as infrastructure was developed within years prior.
In addition: the indigenous peoples of Canada were not recognized as Human Beings until the year 1960. Now let that shit sink in.
In the US it wasn’t until 1968 that the Indian Civil Rights Act was passed and allowed for the right to freedom of speech / assembly / press, a jury trial, the right to an attorney etc. It’s so fucking frustrating.
and it wasn’t until 1978 that we were legally allowed to practice our own religions. in a nation founded on religious freedoms, it was illegal to practice our own religions. in our own country. how fucked up is that?
Aaaand Native Americans weren’t entitled to their own languages (had no legal rights to teach them in their schools, use them in business) until the Native American Language Act of 1990.
I teach this to my students, because NONE of it is in a single textbook. This is and act of indoctrination
If you want to know who’s given money to California legislators, you can easily search an online database and find out. San Diego-area businessman and investor John H. Cox wants to make such information far more visible. Starting next month, he’ll begin gathering signatures for a statewide ballot initiative that would require legislators to wear the logos of their top 10 “sponsors” during public legislative sessions. He said the initiative is the first phase in a “two-step process” of reform.
What happened?
His initial attempt failed due to a lack of funding, ironically enough.
But he’s not given up! His main website, California Is Not For Sale, is still up and running: X
And here’s where you can sign the petition to get this on the ballot: X
I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason his initial run at this didn’t work out because all the news articles about it failed to link to the petition. I’m also sure that’s not a coincidence.
So long story short, this is still a thing, and if you live in California, please participate in this! It will help everyone involved, and could set an important precedence!
You should also check out his other initiative, Neighborhood Legislature: X
This fantastic reform proposal seeks to redesign how representatives are selected, to make sure more public voices are heard. This, he hopes, will increase voter turnout as people feel more fairly represented!
Circus Tree: Six individual sycamore trees were shaped, bent, and braided to form this.
Actually pretty easy. Trees don’t reject tissue from other trees in the same family. You bend the tree to another tree when it is a sapling, scrape off the bark on both trees where they touch, add some damp sphagnum moss around them to keep everything slightly moist and bind them together. Then wait a few years- The trees will have grown together.
You can use a similar technique to graft a lemon branch or a lime branch or even both- onto an orange tree and have one tree that has all three fruits.
Frankentrees.
As a biologist I can clearly state that plants are fucking weird and you should probably be slightly afraid of them.
On that note! At the university (UBC) located in town, the Agriculture students were told by their teacher that a tree flipped upside down would die. So they took an excavator and flipped the tree upside down. And it’s still growing. But the branches are now the roots, and the roots are now these super gnarly looking branches. Be afraid.
But Vi, how can you mention that and NOT post a picture? D:
I am both amazed and horrified of nature as we all should be
It’s actually extremely common for an apple tree to be two halves of different kinds of apple trees. Some apple trees make good fruit, others have strong roots. So you grow an apple tree with good roots, cut the top off, and graft a piece of fruity apple tree to it.
Waiting for Winter 