cerebralzero:

dirty-gunz:

mixedmartialtarts:

A South African special forces reconnaissance troop relaxes during the Border War

that black face is wascist

Is that a GALIL? what rifle does he have there?

coelasquid:

thegoddamazon:

dragonsplash:

blaze-ferrari:

Evolution Simplified

This photoset should be required reading for every citizen.

FINALLY

One of the things I find to be a common misunderstanding is that people think “Adapt to survive” means life forms mutate in ways to suit their environment, when it’s really more like mutations happen and the life form adapts to accommodate it. If they find a more efficient way to live with the mutation or it allows them to spread and flourish in previously uninhabitable territory, it kicks of a process of divergent evolution. If the mutation is too harmful and impedes them too heavily before they can adapt to it, it dies out.

Mutated life forms are often reproductively unappealing to the original population! But in nature some amount of inbreeding is fairly common, and a mutation that might be recessive will become more common in an isolated population. With divergent evolution you often see a population split into groups that change until they do not wish to mate with each other and continue to change until the cannot viably mate with each other. And by then they’re different species. Like with birds, often a group of song birds will not be friendly towards song birds that sing a different tune, even if they’re the same species. One flock of birds gets separated and after a while they begin to sing slightly different songs. the two flocks will no longer socialize with each other, any genetic quirks unique to either of the two flocks will remain within that flock. Over a few generations one flock may have ended up with bigger beaks and the other flock may have loner legs, the standards for a desirable mate in each flock will have changed.

That’s also an oversimplification of the process, but you know, I feel like I see a lot of creationists get hung up on the idea that an animal would be like “it’s cold here, better evolve some blubber into my kids”, when it’s really more like “oh no I ended up with this weird blubber gene, well I guess at least it means I can hunt in colder territory and get food no one else can”

seehannah:

i just got a little smarter

beeishappy:

Film Noir photoshoot, photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair, 2007.

Diane Lane, Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Dame Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Connelly, Aaron Eckhart, Eduard Norton, Robert DeNiro, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Hudson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Adam Beach, Amy Adams, Derek Luke, Kirsten Dunst, Robert Downey.

Can we talk about how Robert Downey Jr., Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren and Jennifer Connelly look like they naturally belong in film noir? Someone cast them in something, now!

johanvandemerwe:

121-1:

soviet criminology.

(gypsy dream)

This poster was used by Soviet police in the 1970’s to track down enemies of the people.

I guess the police would think I’m Latvian

collectivehistory:

Today in History: Jan 7, 1989, Emperor Hirohito dies

Hirohito, or Emperor Shōwa, was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926 until his death in 1989. 

At the start of his reign, Japan was already one of the great powers—the ninth-largest economy in the world after Italy, the third-largest naval power, and one of the four permanent members of the council of the League of Nations. He was the head of state under the limitation of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan during Japan’s imperial expansion, militarization, and involvement in World War II. After U.S. atomic bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it was he who argued for his country’s surrender, explaining to the Japanese people in his first-ever radio address that the “unendurable must be endured.” After the war, he was not prosecuted for war crimes as many other leading government figures were, despite his involvement (a decision that remains questionable to this day).

Under U.S. occupation and postwar reconstruction, Hirohito was formally stripped of his powers and forced to renounce his alleged divinity, but he remained his country’s official figurehead until his death. However, during the postwar period, he became the symbol of the new state and Japan’s recovery, and by the end of his reign, Japan had emerged as the world’s second largest economy.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

manikmargo:

chainsaws-for-hands:

ohai-mg:

cleverurlhere:

The Best of Cards Against Humanity: It’s kind of like the extremely offensive version of Apples to Apples.

I played it for the first time this evening with my friends and here were the best ones.  (They aren’t meant to be taken seriously, of course!)

my moms always wins at this game…..

my sister bought this game for the family to play at Christmas…

paintandhate:

Awesome !