WELCOME 2 ELECTRO SHOCK THERAPY

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thisistheverge:

Matterform crowdfunds a simple, well-designed 3D scanner that could arrive this summer

MakerBot has been the trailblazer when it comes to bringing 3D printing to the masses, but another company may beat it to the punch before it can do the same for 3D scanners. Matterform is looking to produce a simple, low-profile 3D scanner, and it’s launched an Indiegogo campaign in support of the effort. The Photon 3D scanner appears to be about the size of a simple printer when shut, and then unfolds to reveal a scanning surface when being used. 

(via wildcat2030)

04. April 2013

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totallyfubar:

Sky is wrong. Moss is wrong. Mint isn’t pale enough. Chlorophyll is much much brighter and more saturated than that. Avocado is wrong. Lime is wrong. Gold is horribly wrong. Salmon is wrong. Baby is wrong. Your pink is really more of a fuchsia. Blue orchids are two colors, neither of which are what’s listed here. Grape is darker than eggplant. Wine is darker than that. Cherries are darker than that. Cinnamon is brown. 

You pretty much skipped over most blues, pinks, oranges, and reds.

I am a male artist, don’t fuck with me and colors.

(via monatomic)

04. April 2013

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acrylamid:

Humor: Årets framsida.

28. March 2013

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caraobrien:

(Photo: James Nachtwey)

(Part 2/2, see Part 1)

As a result of Nicolae Ceausescu’s Decree 770, many unwanted Romanian children were placed in the country’s orphanages and institutions. Some had disabilities, often the result of botched abortion attempts. Others were abandoned by parents that could not afford to care for them, or simply did not want the burden. By 1980, more than 100,000 children were in state care.

When Ceausescu’s regime began paying back foreign loans in the 1980s, the conditions in state institutions went from bad to horrendous. Mortality rates skyrocketed, reaching as high as 50% at one facility in Cighid. Physical and sexual abuse by staff members was widespread, and the malnutrition and neglect suffered by the children caused many of those without disabilities to become developmentally disabled. Food, medicine and clothing were scarce. The children slept several to one bed, often without adequate mattresses and blankets. There were children who went for years without seeing natural light. The conditions of the institutions were hidden from the public until Ceausescu’s overthrow in 1989, though many that did know of the squalid nature of these facilities may have just been too afraid to speak out under Ceausescu’s government. “After 1989, what we saw was something like what the Nazis did in concentration camps,” said Dr. Liviu Maior, the minister of education. 

One of the most tragic results is an extremely high HIV infection rate among those that were abandoned. 10,000 children contracted the disease while in state care after being injected with blood as a nutritional supplement. Because the Romanian government did not recognize the threat of AIDS at the time, needles were re-used and the disease spread. 7,000 survived to adulthood, thanks to the use of antiretroviral therapy. However, survivors face prejudice once they leave the institution. Approximately 25% of schools will refuse admission to HIV+ students. Romanians look down upon those infected with the disease, shunning sufferers and leaving them without any support. Many now live on the streets.

The effects of neglect and abuse are still being felt by the abandoned children. Turned out on the street at the age of 18 with little education and suffering from the trauma of having lived their entire lives in institutions, many are forced into prostitution in order to support themselves. Rape and other forms of violence are commonplace. The street urchins of Bucharest spend their time sniffing glue and trying to survive on meager earnings, while the rest of the population regards them with disgust. Many are HIV+ and the syphilis rate is as high as 95% among the homeless youth. Their chances of having a normal life are severely limited due to a lack of identification papers.

Improvements in some of the institutions have been minimal since Ceausescu’s overthrow. As recently as 2006, Mental Disability Rights International published a report documenting the horrors of Romanian facilities.

Staff agreed to unwrap several of the children. One girl, who looked to be about 4 or 5 years old, was actually 17 and weighed no more than 25 pounds (about 10 kilos). As the staff removed the restraint, her skin came off with the sheet, leaving a raw open wound beneath it. Another boy looked to be the size of a baby, but was 7 years old. He too, when unwrapped, was wasting away, his legs covered with sores and his fingers chewed and swollen. – MDRI investigator

The EU has criticized Romania for the conditions of the institutions, as well as the lack of transparency and regulation of international adoptions. Human trafficking within the country and outside its borders has become routine.

This is the lost generation of Romania.

Sources:

What happened to Romania’s orphans? by Kate McGeown for BBC News, 8 July 2005

Life in Ceausescu’s institutions by Kate McGeown for BBC News, 12 July 2005

Romania’s abandoned HIV babies, 20 years on by Chris Rogers for BBC News, 22 December 2009

Orphanages, hospitals and the streets remain the homes for many of Romania’s children by Ruth Sorelle for the Houston Chronicle, 28 April 1996

Ceausescu’s Orphans by Massimo Calabresi for Time Magazine, 24 June 1996

Romania suspends international adoptions from the Associated Press, 21 June 2001

Hidden Suffering: Romania’s Segregation and Abuse of Infants and Children with Disabilities, Mental Disability Rights International, 2006

15. March 2013