Uncategorized
No You’re Right This Is Legit Terrifying
This 8-minute short is kind of a PSA and kind of an ad, and it is spooky scary creepy. What is haunting the girl? Is it a murderer? Meth? A murderer on meth?
WORSE!!!!!!!1
IT’S DEBT. Boo!
Next Time You’ve Got a Craving for Some Cheap Clothes
Think of Kalpona Akter and the Bangladeshi garment factory workers: “Remember these human faces. You killed these girls.” They’re still figuring out which companies were using that particular factory, but if your favorite discount duds didn’t come from there, they came from somewhere like it. Most of my clothes are from The Gap or J.Crew, meaning most of my clothes are from companies and countries that don’t protect workers. I choose not think about that most of the time—”I’d love to buy handmade, but I’m broke,” etc., excuses—but when I do I feel weak.
And a Happy May Day to You
It’s International Workers Day! Hug a worker in YOUR life! Two things to get you pumped:
1. At Dissent, labor journalists including Sarah Jaffe, Josh Eidelson, and Nick Resnikoff share their favorite labor movement moments from the past year.
2. International Business Times has compelling photos from May Day protests around the world.
Passing Out “LIKES” Like Passing Out Cash? (No.)
Business News Daily reports how much a Facebook “LIKE” is worth to your brand ($174.17 in totally imaginary money, apparently), which is kind of an interesting question, but I’m MORE interested in the fact that BND has chosen not to distinguish between “like/enjoy” and “LIKE IN QUOTATION MARKS OR ALL CAPS OR SOMETHING/to push a thumbs up button on Facebook,” rendering the piece COMPLETELY UNREADABLE.
The MBA Program for the NFL
Can an MBA program geared towards NFL athletes—a staggeringly high amount who become insolvent within 10 years of retirement (more than 50 percent according to one report)—help them hold onto their money?
1 Thing You’re Like a Dream Come True
Thursday is a great day to do that 1 thing you don’t want to do but also don’t want to continue thinking about doing.
Today I called one of my debtors to figure out how it was possible that last month’s balance on my credit card was lower than this month’s balance on my credit card, DESPITE the fact that the card no longer exists and I do not use it.
The employee of the credit card company helped me out not at all, but what I figured out on my own after some very hard thinking and window toggling because of course I can’t just see all the numbers on one page, was that the balance I recorded last month was the balance right after I made a $250 payment … but then later that payment was rejected for “insufficient funds” (happens). THEN when I was able to make the actual payment, I only made it for the minimum, not for the inflated-I’m-trying-to-pay-off-this-card amount from earlier. So my 1 thing was spending 27 minutes learning nothing except how much I cannot wait to just be done with this mess. AND YOU?
Divestment Thing Catching On Maybe Planet Might Be Okay Afterall
Bill McKibben’s divestment project—which is aiming to get city governments and universities to divest their pension funds from fossil fuel companies—is gaining some traction. They’re now up to 10 cities that have pledged to pursue divestment, plus four institutes of higher ed. The goal is to get the largest pension funds in the country to divest. You can see if there is a campaign in your city or school here. (You can also divest your own investments but that’s basically meaningless unless you have ONE ZILLION DOLLARS. Better to work for a campaign. More here.)
The ten cities: Seattle, Wash. Madison, Wis., Bayfield, Wis, Ithaca, N.Y., Boulder, Co., Rochester, Minn., Eugene, Ore., Richmond, Calif., Berkeley, Calif., and San Francisco, Calif.
The four colleges: Unity, Hampshire, Sterling, and College of the Atlantic
