March 16, 2015

12 Great Government GIFs

You may not be able to stop looking at these taxpayer-funded GIFs.


Spend enough time browsing government websites and you’re sure to come across a GIF*. Not the bite-sized pop-culture kind, but low-res relics of the days when a GIF was a way to spice up a Web 1.0 site without slowing down Netscape users’ dial-up connections. Here are a dozen taxpayer-funded GIFs you may not be able to stop looking at:

 

Stinky toxic sludge

EPA

Ronald Reagan meets a turkey

National Archives

This winking, whisker-wagging feline

CDC

This adorably suicidal moon meteor

NASA

This rabid raccoon

CDC

The touch-typing Data Ferrett!

US Census (sadly now defunct)

The Wright Flier

NASA

These menacingly mesmerizing neuroreceptors

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

This low-res lava lamp

NIH

Small man with small change

EPA

This guy riding a space probe

NASA

Citizens demanding more GIFs!

EPA

*It’s pronounced with a hard G, like government.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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