this is a pretty good summary of what Amsterdam is like
THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON IN THIS VIDEO WHAT WAS UP WITH THE GUY RUNNING AT THE VERY BEGINNING AND THE ONE CAR HIP-CHECKING THE OTHER INTO A WATERY OBLIVION AND THE SPEEDBOAT AND AAAAAAAAAAAH
“I should warn you that the chamber we are about to pass into does not literally exist within our planet. It is a little too … large. We are about to pass through a gateway into a vast tract of hyperspace. It may disturb you.”
Arthur made nervous noises.
Slartibartfast touched a button and added, not entirely reassuringly. “It certainly scares the willies out of me. Hold tight.”
The car shot forward straight into the circle of light, and suddenly Arthur had a fairly clear idea of what infinity looked like.
Douglas Adams – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (via angelophile)
I was doing my Master’s thesis on bullying until the topic triggered me back to my own childhood so badly I dropped out of that degree program. Let me share something I know.
We haven’t quite found anti-bullying programs that stop bullying once it’s started, but we canreduce the harm bullying does. Just a few small changes to classroom culture, like limiting children’s opportunities to exclude each other, or spending time talking about respectful communication, has visible changes. Yeah, there’s still a hierarchy of popularity, but kids at the bottom of the ladder go from having no friends on average to having one or two. And that’s enough to make or break a childhood. (Sources: onetwothreefourfive)
But here’s the other thing.
There is one major factor that mediates the link between childhood bullying and adult mental illnesses (predominantly depression, anxiety, and eating disorders). It’s self-blame.
What really damages children isn’t precisely being bullied; it’s believing that they deserve to be bullied. If children don’t blame themselves for being victims, they are much more resilient and experience fewer long-term negative consequences. (Sources: onetwothreefourfive)
Society blames children for their victimization by bullies all the time. It says, “There is something about you that causes people to bully you.“ Common responses to bullied kids are things like: “Don’t give them a reaction.” (They’re bullying you because you get upset.) “They’re just jealous.” (They’re bullying you because you do well.) “Let’s teach you some social skills.” (They’re bullying you because you act weird.)
If we can just change that one thing, we could prevent a lot of damage. What bullied kids desperately need at the very least is a caring community that says: You are not alone. It’s not your fault. What they’re doing is not okay.
I was in Iraq & even in an actual theater of war,unless you were immediately fired on we had several steps to go through before kill shots. we had rules of engagement and escalation of force cards my command made us carry on us at all times with those regulations. even when a car possibly carrying explosives was barreling down on us, we were taught to exhaust several steps of warnings before killing: hand signals, flags, pop smoke/flares, warning shots to the sides, disabling shots THEN kill shots. so for the life of me, I can’t figured out why on the streets in the United States of America, police officers go immediately to murder and people are just like “well, in the heat of the moment…”
