micdotcom:

3 reasons millennial shaming needs to stop now

At least half of older millennials aren’t getting a taste of the American Dream

Right now roughly half of 30-year-olds make more money than their parents did when they were the same age, according to a December paper on social mobility. A separate study from the Guardian published in March found that Americans under 30 are already poorer than retirees — despite the fact that they’re working.

There are two main reasons that Americans born in the 1980s face higher hurdles than their parents, the researchers found.

• The first is that throughout much of the 20th century, the U.S. economy grew a lot faster than it has in more recent years, as millennials have come of age.
  
• The second reason has to do with inequality in the way gains have been distributed among Americans. Growth alone to restore economic mobility, gross domestic product would have to increase by more than 6% each year, more than double the rate it grew in the past year.

Millennials inherited a vastly wider wage gap between the rich and poor

A separate study released on Tuesday also found that income inequality has grown far faster than previously thought: In fact, half of the country has seen stagnant wages since 1980, while the wealthiest Americans have seen incomes skyrocket.In the last 3 ½ decades, the gap between what the richest 1% makes and what the bottom 50% earns has grown nearly threefold. 

Globally, young people are increasingly subsidizing the elderly

Call it a thank you, despite the economic lot they’ve inherited: Across the globe, millennials are increasingly likelier than previous generations to pass financial resources to older groups — beyond what they receive. Read more

lookmumitsabisexual:

mllemusketeer:

inushiek:

deniedmysign:

scarletgoldenthorn:

fridjitzu:

did-you-kno:

Scientists invented fabric that makes electricity from motion and sunlight. To create the fabric, researchers at Georgia Tech wove together solar cell fibers with materials that generate power from movement. It could be used in “tents, curtains, or wearable garments,” meaning we’d virtually never be without power. Source

Y'all are fucking idiots. Clean energy will NEVER be enough to replace the energy we have now. We’d have to tear down DOZENS of forests just to fit enough windmills and solar panels to get even a QUARTER (probably less, tbh) of the energy we can produce now.

Yeah, sure, when they’ve already calculated that a few square miles of panels in the empty ass Arizona desert could power the whole nation. But ok, fracking and the diminishing petroleum supply is worlds better.

Nevermind that windmills are often most efficient off the coast. There they take up no land, impact no trees, don’t pollute the water, and are conveniently located where winds are often strongest anyway.

And solar panels can literally be built into roofs of buildings and in empty areas like deserts. The sun strikes the Earth with the same amount of energy in an hour that our civilization uses in a year.

But yeah, it would be impossible for us to ever have enough energy from clean sources.

Durr hurr technology is bad and I would rather light shit on fire than have clean energy

I can also testify to the Arizona desert being empty ass. And the California desert. And the Nevada desert. 

Wow, look! A conveniently large open space that regularly gets large amounts of sun! Wonder what we could use that for?

kuer-and-raiv:

It was a crappy, snowy day in Winnipeg, and then I found an internet meme someone left on the bus shelter and my day became 100% better.

diver5ion:

“But having a beak longer than your body does have its drawbacks. For a start, it’s tricky to keep it clean. Harder still, how do you preen your body feathers?”

counting-dollars-counting-stars:

joncolbert:

huffpostqueervoices:

A gay man who happens to look eerily similar to anti-LGBT extremist and Vice President-elect Mike Pence is putting his looks to good use ― by wandering the streets of NYC in short shorts and collecting money to benefit important organizations.

HELL YEAH!

Can we somehow switch one for the other? Or just get him there and have pence in a hole somewhere?

imtooticky:

My coworkers complain when we can’t assign homework over Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. As if somehow this interferes with their ability to teach their classes.

My coworkers complain that our Muslim students get to leave class to pray Salat at noon. Like, we have maybe one Muslim student every two or three years - thus far, all extraordinarily respectful and lovely kids! - and they slip quietly out of class to pray.

My coworkers find all this infuriating. “Imagine,” they cry, “If a Christian kid asked to do that.”

I calmly explain, every single time, that a Christian kid would never HAVE to do that, because every single Christian holy day is a day off school. Good Friday. Easter Sunday. Christmas day. Our entire country interrupts its financial and educational systems - schedules its WEEKS - around the Christian prayer customs and seasons.

God forbid we temporarily unclip the rope barrier and leave an opening for someone whose religious traditions vary from our own.