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girlsgetbusyzine:

dashuri96:

http://www.inglotcosmetics.com/nails/products/141

this retailer sells a halal nail polish. this allows for oxygen and water to go through the nail, which makes it acceptable to wear during prayer. spread the word. 

“Being a relatively modern creation, nail polish remains obviously unaddressed by early Islamic sources. But the general consensus in the Islamic community is that praying with nail polish is impermissible because of the waterproof barrier it creates on nails, which prevents the wudu ritual from being completed five times a day.” (source)

Female Occidental College students, faculty and alumni say in a federal complaint that the Los Angeles school failed to take campus sex crimes seriously by improperly reporting and adjudicating sexual assaults and covering up rapes. The 250-page complaint filed by a group of 37 Thursday with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights says the school maintained a hostile environment for sexual assault victims and their advocates and violated federal Title IX laws against sexual discrimination. Even when the school’s investigations have found wrongdoing, punishment has been light, the complaint says. One student found responsible for raping a woman was given the punishment of writing a five-page book report, according to the complaint. —

Occidental College Sexual Assault Response Subject Of Federal Complaints

Today, Occidental Faculty voted No Confidence in the campus attorney and Dean of Students. 

(via robot-heart-politics)

metal, pop, and innocence: diva-viva: the other day one of my friends mentioned that they were...

diva-viva:

the other day one of my friends mentioned that they were kind of afraid to hang out with me without other people around bcs they did not know what to do in the event of a seizure, so i feel like i should spread some general knowledge. did u know that seizure first aid is misrepresented about 80% of the time on tv? not cool right

HERE ARE SOME FACTS and then there are no excuses you have to hang out with me

stuff u should do for generalized tonic/clonic seizures i.e. grand mals:

1. try to speak and act in a calm, reassuring manner, inform people nearby they should do the same—no yelling or screaming or general freaking out. i know it’s scary and u don’t want me to get hurt, ty i appreciate, but there is a pretty good chance i am going to be in a state of complete panic and terror, and it’s v. helpful to know someone is there for me and knows what to do

2. clear area of sharp/hard objects and help me lie down

3. if i have glasses? remove them. if i’m wearing a tie? loosen it.

4. put something soft under my head lol yes u probably aren’t carrying a pillow around so like a jacket or something is fine

5. gently turn me on my side that will help keep my airway clear

6. stay with me until i am fully awake, be friendly and reassuring as i return to consciousness again i know u are scared, but don’t worry in the game of scared i have won there is no middle ground

7. time my seizure! if it lasts more than 5 min, if i appear to have difficulty breathing, if my recovery seems slow, if i have a second seizure, if i appear to be in pain or injured as i awake, call 911 (or whatever the number for your emergency service is) this addendum is here bcs fucking health insurance is fucking terrible. IF U KNOW SOMEONE HAS A SEIZURE DISORDER pls ask what they prefer u to do in the event of a seizure

8. if i still seem confused/out of it, offer to call a friend or family member to come get me, or call a taxi

and there is also!

stuff u should not do:

1. DO NOT TRY TO RESTRAIN ME OR STOP MY MOVEMENTS

2. DO NOT STICK ANYTHING IN MY MOUTH i promise it’s physically impossible for me to swallow my tongue

3. DO NOT OFFER ME FOOD OR DRINK UNTIL I AM FULLY CONSCIOUS AND AWARE

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE

stuff u should do for absence seizures (usually manifests as blank staring, loss of awareness, involuntary facial movements like blinking or chewing:

1. speak calmly and reassuringly

2. gently guide me away from and block access to dangers, again DO NOT PHYSICALLY RESTRAIN ME

3. if i appear agitated, stay some distance away, but still close enough to protect me if need be yy u are gonna be my knight in shining armor frand

4. stay with me until i am fully conscious and alert, offer to call whomever etc etc

yup those were some facts. and there are many more kinds of seizures, they come in all flavors. these are just the ones i am personally familiar with! so if you want to know more, always always ask your frand, they will probably appreciate knowing that u are there looking out for them

The Racist Myth of MSG and ‘Chinese Restaurant Syndrome’

zuky:

This is the story of a racist myth that began with a light-hearted letter to the New England Journal of Medicine in 1968 and subsequently exploded in North American culture — in direct opposition to every shred of scientific evidence — becoming so prevalent that credulous eaters buy into it to the point of experiencing its effects on a purely psychosomatic basis. 

It’s often been called “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” and its premise is that MSG in Chinese food results in unpleasant allergic reactions. Interestingly enough, higher quantities of MSG in non-Chinese foods are not reported to have the same effects. MSG is a naturally occurring amino acid, and some of the highest levels of MSG a North American consumer is likely to ingest come in vine-ripened tomatoes, aged cheese, and dry-aged steak — yet there is no reported medical phenomenon known as “Italian Food Syndrome” or “American Steakhouse Syndrome”.

Monosodium glutamate was first isolated from the seaweed kombu, commonly used in the Japanese broth dashi, by biochemist Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University in 1908. He named its taste umami because it differed from the five conventional flavours of sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and spicy. Ikeda patented his discovery and MSG became commercially available in 1909. It was found to enhance flavours with one third of the amount of sodium as traditional salt, i.e. sodium chloride. In this sense, monosodium glutamate is probably healthier than sodium chloride because it achieves flavour with reduced sodium levels.

MSG was immediately popular in Asia and became common in the North American food industry after World War II, used in baby food, canned soup, vegetable juice, frozen food, as well as seasoning mix brands such as Accent. Yet somehow in the 1960s, this popular food additive became associated with Chinese food and deemed a health hazard. Why? Because Chinese people, culture, and food have been targeted by widespread and effective racist hate campaigns in North America since the 19th century, buttressed by wild claims that the Chinese are “unclean”, carry diseases, are sexually-deviant opium addicts, inscrutable and sneaky, a Yellow Peril. 

The 1968 letter to the New England Journal of Medicine which solidified the myth of MSG was actually written by a Chinese immigrant named Robert Ho Man Kwok, who described “numbness at the back of the neck, gradually radiating to both arms and the back, general weakness and palpitation” after eating in American Chinese restaurants. The letter opened the floodgates to a barage of letters and related articles complaining of headaches, dizziness, paralysis of the throat, tingling in the temples, tightness of the jaw, irregular heartbeat, depression, hyperactivity, and all manner of digestive ailments. 

Given this preponderance of anecdotal evidence, numerous scientific studies have been performed since then attempting to identify this “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome”. The funny thing is that no study has ever been able to do so. When people don’t know that they’re consuming MSG, they don’t suffer adverse reactions. All national and international food safety bodies have concluded that MSG is perfectly safe. People in Japan eat MSG every single day and the Japanese have the longest life expectancy in the world.

Fear of MSG is a racist remnant of the Chinese Exclusion era which exists only in North America and has been thoroughly debunked by science. Yet racist socialization is so powerful that people actually experience physical effects such as headaches, depression, and indigestion based solely on their indoctrinated fear of Chinese people and Chinese food. Think it over next time you eat parmesan cheese or a vine-ripened tomato.

(tw: r*pe/sexual assault) Stories of cops propositioning, harassing, and sexually assaulting women turn up every week around the country. February 18 saw the arrest of Houston officer Victor Chris for allegedly telling two women he would tear up their traffic tickets in exchange for sexual favors, according to the Houston Chronicle. On February 25, police charged Sergio Alvarez, an officer from West Sacramento, California with allegedly kidnapping and raping six women while on duty between October 2011 and September 2012. And March 1, Denver cop Hector Paez got eight years in prison for driving a woman he’d arrested to a secluded spot and forcing her to perform oral sex on him. “Police sexual misconduct is common, and anyone who maintains it isn’t doesn’t get it,” says retired Seattle police chief Norm Stamper, author of the book Breaking Rank. —

Cops Gone Wild (via aboriginalpressnews)

fucking absurd. 

(via zenjamaican)

i feel like a large amount of cops do this and get away with it and an even larger know about it but do nothing… they do this to qtpoc sex workers regularly too. =(

(via strugglingtobeheard)

this is standard for the chicago police department.

(via themodernistwitch)

Yep. Most of high school involved dodging creeper cops and a lot of interactions with CPD since have been the kind that would qualify as street harassment.

(via karnythia)

linadivorceeofl:

lundsdotter:

The strongest ‘pound for pound’ muscle is the uterus: it weighs around 2 pounds but during childbirth can exert a downward force of 400 Newtons, which is one hundred times as strong as gravity and equivalent to the power in a fully extended modern longbow. 

Gentlemen.

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

Kiyoshi Kuromiya was a Japanese-American who did a lot of amazing things.

From wikipedia:

To protest of the use of napalm in Vietnam in 1968, he announced that a dog would be burned alive in front of the University of Pennsylvania’s Van Pelt Library. Thousands turned up to protest, only to find a message from Kuromiya: “Congratulations on your anti-napalm protest. You saved the life of a dog. Now, how about saving the lives of tens of thousands of people in Vietnam.”

3 percent of the decision-making in media comes from women. That means 97 percent of how women are portrayed is decided on by men. —

Independent Lens, PBS
“Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines” (via ihopeyoucontinue4ever)

It also means that 97 percent of how men are portrayed in media are decided on by men. Something to remind MRAs and their ilk of when they complain about the stereotype of men as inept slobs, bad fathers, etc in media and advertising.

Men have the power. So when we men are shat on by the powers that be you don’t get to try and blame women for that.

(via karethdreams)

heistdoc:

The Results of Drug Tests on Welfare Recipients in Florida:

Drug testing only benefits the testing company. Typical on conservatives to waste time and money trying to stop a fake issue.

You have to love how they pander to the “everyone on welfare is a mooch and a druggie” types in order to get public support for such a wasteful program - that did nothing bu line the pockets of the owners of drug testing facilities. 

fylatinamericanhistory:

Today In Latin American History

The Battle of Puebla, which has become a popular holiday in the United States under the name Cinco de Mayo, took place on May 5, 1862, when a Mexican army led by Ignacio Zaragoza (who was born in what is now the state of Texas) defeated a much larger French army during the time of the French Intervention in Mexico. A significant victory, it nevertheless failed to put and end to France’s designs on the country, and French military forces were able to take over the Mexican capital some time later. Napoleon III eventually installed the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph as Emperor Maximiliano I of Mexico in 1864. French involvement in the country would continue for the next few years, with a definitive end arriving with the ouster and eventual execution of Maximiliano I in 1867. Future Mexican president Porfirio Díaz was a military officer during the Battle of Puebla, and the holiday is said to have gained greater prominence in the country—and, eventually, in the neighboring United States—during his rule at the turn of the century, although the day is also said to have been celebrated by Mexican miners in California in the 1860s. The anniversary of the Battle of Puebla is currently considered a regional event in Mexico, celebrated in the state of Puebla. In the United States, the holiday is often confused with the date of Mexican independence, which is celebrated on the 16th of September.

A dying language has been uncovered here in Hawai’i. Researchers are calling its existence ground breaking especially since it became so close to being lost forever.

Hawai’i Sign Language is one of only two known surviving sign languages in the United States—the other is American Sign Language. HSL is believed to have originated among the Deaf population here in the 1800’s – long before ASL arrived in the 1940s. Researchers have identified 40 Native signers of Hawaii Sign Language.  Most are in their 70’s or older, which is why linguists say without this effort to restore HSL—the language would’ve died with this generation. Linguists say this is the first time since the 1930s a previously unknown language, spoken or signed, has been documented in the U.S.  They believe Hawai’i Sign Language may be the last of America’s undiscovered languages.

When Reckitt Benckiser brought its Veet hair-removal cream to China in 2005, sales were sluggish. The biggest problem: Most Chinese women don’t have much body hair, and those who do didn’t worry about it. So the company embraced a new marketing plan. Reckitt Benckiser rolled out ads equating hair-free skin with health, confidence, and “shining glory.” In the process, the company has helped make many Chinese women more conscious of every stray follicle. “It’s not how much hair you have, it’s how much you think you have,” says Aditya Sehgal, the company’s China chief. “If your concern level is high enough, even one hair is too much. —

From ‘Convincing Women In China They’re Too Hairy’, BusinessWeek.com (via thegist)

Corporate fuckery

(via muninandhugin)

vomits

(via searchingforknowledge)

sarahfonseca:

The next time you see someone with jewelry that says “trust no man,” don’t judge them for their “man hating” or “bougie” ways. Rather, commend them for their superb taste in music.

“Trust no man” is actually a reference to a reference to a 1926 song of the same name by Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, a Georgian and African-American pioneer of blues music. 

I want all you women to listen to me

Don’t trust your man no further than your eyes can see

I trusted my man with my best friend

But that was a bad bargain in the end

A feminist before there was really a term for it, Rainey was also notorious for getting into trouble with small-town authorities over her “women-only parties.” She was a brazen lady-lovin’ badass well-worthy of a 21st century signal boost.

bait-thoughts:

Yuri Kochiyama is a Japanese American human rights activist, but often remembered for her work in The Black Panther Party.

In 1960, Kochiyama and her spouse moved to Harlem in New York City and joined the Harlem Parents Committee. She became acquainted with Malcolm X and was a member of his Organization of Afro-American Unity. She was also present at Malcolm X’s assassination on February 21, 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, and held him in her arms as he lay dying.

In 1977, Kochiyama joined the group of Puerto Ricans that took over the Statue of Liberty to draw attention to the struggle for Puerto Rican independence.

Over the years, Kochiyama has dedicated herself to various causes, such as the rights of political prisoners, freeing Mumia Abu-Jamal, nuclear disarmament, and reparations to Japanese Americans who were interned during the war.

In 2005, Kochiyama was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize through the “1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005” project.

Source

nativeamericannews:

Tiny Horrors: A Chilling Reminder of How Cruel Assimilation Was—And Is

For such small objects, the child’s handcuffs are surprisingly heavy when cradled in the palms of one’s hand. Although now rusted from years of disuse, they still convey the horror of their brutal purpose, which was to restrain Native children who were being brought to boarding schools. “I felt the weight of their metal on my heart,” said Jessica Lackey of the Cherokee tribe as she described holding the handcuffs for the first time.