Link dump: Cheerful edition

Fascinations:

• Ever wonder where your tax dollars go? Enter a few numbers and find out using this spiffy White House form.
  
  
• Vitamin Poppers May Make Less Healthful Choices -- got my healths all covered now!
  
  
• (In)(di)visibility -- a fascinating exploration of differences in how we treat people relative to "failings" that they can be "blamed for" (e.g., weight) versus those they "can't help" (e.g., autism) and what it says about those doing the judging.

  But for most of us, achieving the state expected of us wouldn’t just be a matter of trying, it would be the equivalent of earning a Ph.D. in astrophysics while simultaneously working swing shift as a police officer and raising triplets as a single parent — and we’d never get to stop. Maybe someone can actually do this, but expecting it to be a routine occurrence is, frankly, an expectation not supported by existing evidence.

• When Did You Know Your Gender? -- another of those questions (like "when did you choose to be straight?") that make you rethink your assumptions/privilege.
  
  
• How Teens Understand Privacy -- as a much more subtle and multifaceted matter than we tend to give them credit for!
  
  
• Lost in Translation -- the experience of taking on something new, mastering it (you think), gaining humility, and learning some more... Funny and insightful.
  
  
• Top Ten Myths About the Brain

Amusements and cheer:

• A Texas letter-to-the-editor asks why we don't hold politicians to results standards like we use to "motivate" teachers (among other philosophical musings).
  
  
• Translation of General Misogyny to Uncomfortable Truth -- a web screed "translated" to expose its blindness to white male privilege. Full of truth and satisfyingly snarky along the way.
  
  
• Ben Greenman’s Museum of Silly Charts -- priceless!
  
  
• Books - That is exactly how they work -- a picture that captures the joy of reading.
  
  
• Unsuck It -- business jargon unpacked (and served with a side of snark).
  
  
• Is it possible that the national mind is open to the factual delusion of the Republican party? One can only hope...
  
  
• Speaking of which, Schumer To House GOP: You Still Own Your Vote To Privatize Medicare -- I hope they follow through!
  
  
• 10 Modern Movies That Are Better in Black and White -- fun to watch, for the visuals and for the snippets of movies you loved or never saw.
  
  
• 'No Homework' Debate Finds Support In New Jersey -- we gotta do something to find a balance for our kids!

Just plain awesome:

An amazing collaboration between Yo-Yo Ma and dancer Lil Buck -- Ma just keeps on pushing the boundary of where people think a classical cello should go. This is lovely and joyous.