Quote of the day

We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.

- Carlos Castaneda

(via whiskey river)

Occupy is not "visit"

Rachel Maddow gives a little history of organized protest and suppression of same in the last 50 years and how it's likely to apply to efforts to get rid of Occupy Wall Street protests in cities throughout the country. Heartening to see people returning after armed thugs chase them out; I hope she's right that this will be counterproductive.



More here on how the apparently coordinated clearings out took place and how the media is handling them. Will be interesting to see whether the country's sympathies rebound as quickly as the protesting crowds; I hope that these dictatorial actions aren't rewarded...

Planning ahead

Looking ahead to Thanksgiving with anticipation/dread? Need to figure out just the right thing to bring? Here's the perfect flowchart, covering possibilities from the college party-on to Grandma's traditional show and friendly to hostile. Hilarious.

(via a Medley tweet)

Friday frolics

A heaping helping of cheery and interesting links to unburden my browser and lighten your weekend (with apologies for how old some of them are):

Cheering/silly

• Have old books and nobody to trade them with? BookMooch might be for you!
  
  
• Matt Damon explains non-financial motivations and the education sector
  
  
• Occupy Wall Street boiled down to a humorous (but accurate) caption -- indeed!!
  
  
• A list of Obama's accomplishments to remind the nay-sayers
  
  
• Also, separately, good advice to get involved in politics, not just spectate:

  ... creating change is the responsibility of the people who desire that change. Being disappointed in President Obama or frustrated with the Tea Party is a waste of time. The only thing we really control is the amount of effort we put into getting what we want.

  Well said.
  
  
• Also well said, the now-famous quote from Elizabeth Warren on how nobody succeeds alone.
  
  
• Medicare steps up enforcement of equal visitation and representation rights in hospitals
  
  
• Malaria report sees near-zero deaths by end of 2015 -- there's a headline I didn't expect! thanks, Gates Foundation!!
  
  
• Rafe reminds us that sometimes success is just keeping going, whether or not your approach is perfect or planned to the end; adjust when you must, but show up.
  
  
• A Dutch city set up a pedestrian slide an alternative to the stairs down to the subway -- fun!!
  
  
• Here's a blog of what reasonable women's armor would look like if it were made for fighting, not titilating teenage viewers -- amen!
  
  
• Goofy photos of dogs shaking off water -- oh, the jowls!!
  
  
• I continue to find ANIMALS TALKING IN ALL CAPS absolutely inspired, from the simple and goofy to the wordy and/or profound. Rock it!
  
  
• A heap of Demotivator-style expressions of first-world angst -- most entertaining.
  
  
• The problem with averaging star-ratings - hah!
  
  
• An amusing list of cultural faux pas in New York City -- lots of insights there into cultural norms of busy places generally.
  
  
• Here's a fun cover/collaboration of the Muppet Show Theme (by Ok Go)
  
  
• I've tried to resist all these auto-tuning videos, but I love the musicality and science of this video about the matter of the universe, which features a lot of great people expressing their joy in the crazy beauty of it all... (kind of makes me teary)
  
  
• You've probably already seen this, but it's so sweet I want to bookmark it here: an elderly couple tries to figure out their webcam, with much entertaining discussion along the way...
  
  
• Here's another old couple who know how to play a duet!! wonderful.

Fascinating

• Game of Thrones visual effects -- an amazing demonstration of how real scenery can be blended into green-screen fantasies to make movie places come alive
  
  
• Amazing slow-motion video of an owl coming in for a landing.
  
  
• Spoilers don't spoil anything -- a surprising finding that knowing how a story turns out lets us relax and enjoy the trip to get there.
  
  
• Facts Don’t Persuade Climate Skeptics–So What Does? graphics!! (also, this report might have some impact...)
  
  
• Ever wonder why it's hard to speak a foreign language over the phone? Part of the answer is provided by this audio-visual illusion, in which different mouth movements make you hear different sounds from the same track. We need visual cues to put it all together well.
  
  
• Speaking of fooling your senses, apparently it's possible to make apple pie without any apples, something that came in handy during, e.g., the Civil War. Who knew?
  
  
• How to Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds -- it's not a way you probably would have thought of!
  
  
• Have an old globe? Find out how old by using this table of when different countries ceased to exist/appear on maps...
  
  
• Ever wonder why your fingers and toes wrinkle up in water (but nothing else does)? Looks like it may actually improve traction on slippery surfaces! Thanks, evolution!!
  
  
• Did you hear about that faster-than-light-speed particle that seemed to challenge Einstein's theory of relativity? A proper application of relativity made sense of things (and proved that it hadn't broken light speed after all)...
  

Pumpkin silliness

Am way behind in blogging, kid pictures, and all the rest of my non-mission-critical life, but wanted to put this out there, as it's possibly a first in Halloween revelry: the frog pumpkin (by request, of course).