(via shallowxgraves)
This Vintage-Looking Vending Machine Dispenses Rare Books For Just $2
A Toronto bookstore has come up with a creative way to add value to old, discount books that otherwise may clutter its storage: an antique-seeming “book dispenser” that randomly spits out old books for $2 a pop.
The Biblio-Mat combines the charm of a gumball machine with the surprise element of a raffle. The machine jumps to life once money’s inserted. With a bit of overt drama—cranking and whirring and ringing that invoke old machinery—the dispenser then releases a used title from its stock, dropping it into a slot for a happy reader to walk away with.
(via Fast Company + infoneer-pulse)
(via k0valch1k)
Keiko Fukuda: Why she kicks ass
- She was a martial artist, who was the highest-ranked female judoka in history, holding the rank of 9th dan from the Kodokan and the United States Judo Federation (USJF), and 10th dan from USA Judo, as well as being the last surviving student of Kanō Jigorō, founder of judo.
- She was a renowned pioneer of women’s judo, being the first woman promoted to 6th dan (c. 1972), and later 9th dan (2006), by the Kodokan. She is also the first and, so far, only woman to have been promoted to 10th dan in the art.
- After completing her formal education in Japan, Fukuda visited the United States of America to teach in the 1950s and 1960s, and eventually settled there. She continued to teach her art in the San Francisco Bay Area until her death in 2013.
- Fukuda, standing at only 4’ 11” (150 cm) and weighing less than 100 lb. (45 kg), became a judo instructor in 1937. She also earned a degree in Japanese literature from Showa Women’s University.
- In 1953, she was promoted to the rank of 5th dan in judo. She traveled to the United States of America later that year, at the invitation of a judo club in Oakland, California, and stayed for almost two years before returning to Japan. Fukuda next traveled to the US in 1966, giving seminars in California. At that time, she was one of only four women in the world ranked at 5th dan in judo, and was one of only two female instructors at the Kodokan (the other being Masako Noritomi, also ranked 5th dan).
- In 1966, she demonstrated her art at Mills College, and the institution immediately offered her a teaching position; she accepted, and taught there from 1967 to 1978.
- Around 1972, following a letter campaign against the rule prohibiting women from being promoted higher than 5th dan, Fukuda became the first woman promoted to 6th dan by the Kodokan. In 1973, she published Born for the Mat: A Kodokan kata textbook for women, an instructional book for women about the kata (patterns) of Kodokan judo.
- In 1974, she established the annual Joshi Judo Camp to give female judo practitioners the opportunity to train together. That year, she was one of only three women in the world ranked 6th dan in judo.
- In 1990, she was awarded Japan’s Order of the Sacred Treasure, 4th Class (Gold Rays with Rosette), and the United States Judo Incorporated (USJI) Henry Stone Lifetime Contribution to American Judo Award.
- She served as a technical adviser for US Women’s Judo and the USJI Kata Judges’ Certification Sub-committee, as a National Kata Judge, was a faculty member of the USJI National Teachers’ Institute, a member of the USJF Promotion Committee, a member of the USJF and USJI Women’s Sub-committee.
- In 2001, she was awarded a rare red belt (marking 9th dan rank) in judo by the USJF for her lifelong contribution to the art. On January 8, 2006, at its annual New Year’s Kagami Biraki celebration, the Kodokan promoted Fukuda to the rank of 9th dan—the first time it had awarded this rank to a woman. On July 28, 2011, the promotion board of USA Judo awarded Fukuda the rank of 10th dan.
- Fukuda continued to teach judo three times each week, host the annual Fukuda Invitational Kata Championships, and teach at the annual Joshi Judo Camp until her death, at the age of 99, in San Francisco, California.
- She established the Keiko Fukuda Judo Scholarship to encourage and enable women to continue their formal training in the art. Apart from teaching in the USA, she also taught in Australia, Canada, France, Norway and the Philippines.
(via professorxvx)
Stuart Wilde
kids in school try to tell me that humans are the most advanced b/c we have languages and im like bitch ants can communicate by SMELL what the fuck are you trying to say
(via inseptica)
In conclusion, the drama between the transgender community and HRC (which sadly flared up last week after Rep. Frank introduced a non-inclusive ENDA) is a forty-year-old stew flavored with historical hatred, arrogance, political miscalculations, communication failures, misunderstandings, mistrust, and Machiavellian duplicity.
HRC also has a pathetic history of refusing to deal with trans people as equals not only in terms of civil rights legislation but even in hiring talented transgender people for their organization. This historical negativity keeps transpeople from working with HRC in any capacity. (Don’t even get me started about the African-American community beefs with HRC, that’s another post.)
(Source: scaredystark, via janusjanusjanusjanus)
