thedailywhat:

Heartwarming Tearjerker of the Day: Four-year-old comic book fan Anthony Smith is deaf in his right ear and has hearing damage in his left. He also refused to wear his hearing aid (which he calls “Blue Ear” because it is blue), because “superheroes don’t wear hearing aids.” So in a long-shot attempt to help her son, Anthony’s mom emailed Marvel for ideas.

“She didn’t know a specific person to write to here at Marvel, and even figured it might get caught in our spam filters, but she sent it in anyway, because that’s the kind of great parent Christina is,” said Marvel editor Bill Rosemann. “And it was her inspiring effort to help her son that touched so many of us here. As a fellow parent of a toddler, I can understand where she’s coming from, so I forwarded the email around the rest of Editorial, asking what we could do to help, and like when Cap yells, ‘Avengers Assemble,’ the gang leapt into action.”

Not only did Anthony receive an image of the superhero Hawkeye, who lost 80 percent of his hearing back in the ’80s and wore hearing aids — Anthony also received a drawing, by Nelson Ribeiro in Collected Editions, of a brand-new superhero: “Blue Ear.”

Now, with his hearing aid back in, Anthony is able to “fight battles and help people.” His preschool, for hearing-impaired kids, recently hosted a superhero week to inspire the students to overcome their limitations.

DON’T miss the video. It’s the best thing you’ll see all day.

[death+taxes / robot6]

thedailywhat:

Infographic of the Day: According to the CDC, meals have quadrupled in size since the ’50s — and subsequently, we’ve gained an average of 26 pounds apiece.

Sick.

Literally.

[gizmodo]

teleological:

The Ecological Footprint of Nations

The ecological footprint is a measurement of the consumption and carbon-dioxide emissions of both individuals and countries. It is expressed by Global Footprint Network (GFN), an NGO, in terms of “global hectares”—the number of hectares of land and sea required to produce the quantities consumed and emitted. This is calculated from the average productivity of six overlapping sorts of area use: arable, forests, grazing land, built-up areas, carbon sequestration and fisheries.

The GFN reckons the world had enough productive land and sea to apportion 1.8 global hectares per person in 2008, the latest year for which data are available. If that is right, humans are horribly depleting the planet. The world’s biggest guzzlers are Qataris, who account for the equivalent of 11.7 global hectares per person. Americans account for 7.2 global hectares and western Europeans weigh in at between 8.3 (Denmark) and 4.1 (Portugal). The title of the world’s most modest consumers is shared between Afghans, Timorese and Palestinians, who each consume or emit just 0.5 global hectares.

svalts:

Steampunk Samus

Created by Jason Cheng

incidentalcomics:

Dear Graduate

wilwheaton:

(via VectorBelly Webcomics)

atheistoverdose:

We need some headgear [fixed] [fixed]

follow for the best atheist posts on tumblr