This is what happens when summer eats you

That is, you end up with a giant backlog of links and no time to really make a post out of them. Or even hope that anybody will want to sort through them. But here are a bunch of things I've caught in my net over the last few months in the category of Cheerful Bits, yay!

Happy

• College-grad sea-turtle knows all!
• Wolves discuss the Trayvon Martin case
• Death by chocolate and other dangerous desserts
• Fotoshop, the beauty regimin
• Mad Men - The Carousel scene (video)
• Teenager has never seen a record before (sigh)
• Puppets re-enact no-cameras-allowed corruption trial on the nightly news
• Happiness
• Lego man sent to space by Toronto teens
• It Just Goes On and On -- pay it forward, in action
• The Greatest Speech Ever Made - Charlie Chaplin
• That’s no ordinary rabbit. (he herds sheep!)
• Happy Birthday, William Shatner -- that first video, I just...
• Hollywood edition of SOPA
• To My Old Master
• “Spilled Semen” Amendment to Personhood Bill Offered by Oklahoma Democrat; more here, and also Ohio Bill Would Require Men Submit Affidavit From Sex Partner Confirming Impotence Before Receiving Viagra
• Top 10 Reasons Why Men Shouldn’t Be Ordained
• OMG: McDonald’s Does the Right Thing
• Slut Shaming and Why it's Wrong (teenagers, kick our butts!)
• A Note About Panther Pride
• Instapaper Placebo (sob!)
• How to get more likes on Facebook
• Laser de-printer lifts ink from paper, leaving it ready to be reused -- more efficient than recycling!
• The Free Universal Construction Kit
• THIS is why we invest in science. This.
• Man Walks All Day to Create Spectacular Snow Patterns
• Why power generators are terrified of solar; related: Germany sets new solar power record, institute says
• "It Gets Better" at BYU
• Onion: Obama Launches More Realistic 'I Have Big Ideas But We'll See How It Goes' Campaign Slogan
• Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, WA, tries new approach to school discipline — suspensions drop 85% (less Zero Tolerance, more understanding)
• A child's to-do list
• Valentine dilemma (LOL!)

Fascinating

• Eight lazy ways to lose weight
• Touch interfaces everywhere (using sound!)
• This is What Happens When You Give Thousands of Stickers to Thousands of Kids
• How Doctors Die -- It’s Not Like the Rest of Us, But It Should Be
• Can walking reduce the deficit?
• People using pseudonyms post the highest-quality comments, Disqus says -- so there!
• Stranger Danger Dispelled By Bears And Kindness
• New York City gets a Software Engineering High School
• President John Tyler's grandsons are still alive!!
• Mercenary hacker to the stars -- superorganization of organized crime
• Why Sharing Passwords With Your Girlfriend/Boyfriend Is A Spectacularly Bad Idea
• Tunnel to the Other Side of the Earth -- find out on a map what's on the opposite side
• A Swiss idea for removing space junk
• Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo -- I had it, if only for a moment...
• Tim Ferriss explains how to hyperdecant wine
• Forty-five procedures doctors don’t think doctors should do
• 7 Commonly Corrected Grammar Errors (That Aren't Mistakes)
• Feel Me, a new way to connect
• Writing Across Gender
• Gay rights in the US, state by state
• Tact Filters -- great insight
• Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is (also very insightful); follow-up here
• When Data Clashes with Common Sense
• What’s better for heating a mug of water: The stove or the microwave? (I love the Internet!) related: Burning Desire for Efficiency
• Clang -- for those who fantasize about realistic swordplay
• Perspective

When the personal is political

Am touched by this piece about the President's announcement yesterday. It's true that there are political arguments, and then there's the immensely personal moment of recognition, of participation in civic rituals as old as time.

There's something very deep about having your government declare you a stranger to its laws, defining your love as outside all respectable recognition. For my president to stand up and say that I should belong fully to my nation, that my wife and I should be considered as fully married as my brother and his wife—well, it reopens and washes out some very deeply incised sense of exclusion, a scar inflicted when, at age 15, I first panicked at the realization that I might be queer.

I still remember a friend's adapting the Jewish custom of spilling some wine at a wedding to the statement that their joy could never be complete as long as so many of their friends could never share the same moments in their own lives. Not soon in Pennsyltucky, maybe, but the stir is clearly rising...

Holiday cheer

Or, at least an end-of-year batch of cheerful and/or fascinating links to tide you through quiet afternoons of eggnog recovery. Hooray!!

Fascinating

• My political philosophy and personal philosophy are not the same
  
  
• Taxing Job Creators -- not how it's usually explained...
  
  
• Audiobooks: A Cautionary Tale -- how authors can get happier outcomes
  
  
• Insomnia drugs waking people from comas
  
  
• 2011: The Science Year in Brief
  
  
• 12 Ways to Make Congress Work -- certainly raises some interesting ideas!
  
  
• I Would Like To Help You Get Your Show Cancelled -- on life in the TV writers' world

Cheerful/hilarious!

• The Bomb Buried In Obamacare Explodes Today-Hallelujah!
  
  
• A community design success from Philadelphia
  
  
• Planting Wind Energy on Farms May Help Crops, Say Researchers
  
  
• Louis C.K.'s giant pool of money -- a great story on many fronts
  
  
• Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work! (worth repeating)
  
  
• Generation X Doesn’t Want to Hear It
  
  
• New Decoy Website Launched To Lure Away All Moronic Internet Commenters (if only!!)
  
  
• Pointlessly Gendered Products
  
  
• I’m Christian, unless you’re gay. -- a heartfelt essay about living your supposed values
  
  
• An open letter to Minnesota state senator Amy Koch (gays apologize for causing her adultery)
  
  
• xkcd presents Some new science mnemonics
  
  
• What group projects teach
  
  
• Tim Minchin: If I Didn't Have You [video]
  
  
• I Have No Words -- Mike Tyson as Herman Cain
  
  
• 18,000 People Cheer Thing Going Through Thing -- sports satire
  
  
• Fabulous dance performance [video]
  
  
• The most beautiful literary mystery in Edinburgh -- be sure to click to see them all
  
  
• Charlie Todd: The shared experience of absurdity -- some great projects from Improv Everywhere
  
  
• Turtle has some wisdom to share (in ALL CAPS)
  
  
• Holiday pupcakes are almost done (oh, the cuteness!)
  
  
• Finally, this photo just makes me happy.
  

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)...
  

Link dump: We can all use some cheery distraction edition

Informative and interesting:

• Zombie Marie Curie shares her wisdom (via xkcd): "You don't become great by trying to become great. You become great by wanting to do something, and then doing it so hard that you become great in the process."
  
  
• Bad Job Market: Why the Media Is Always Wrong About the Value of a College Degree (it's always good, even if graduates sometimes end up tending bar)
  
  
• Cowboys and Pit Crews -- more from Atul Gwande on how the culture of medicine needs to be changed before we can get to less cost and better outcomes
  
  
• Tattoo Tracks Sodium and Glucose via an iPhone -- technology could allow noninvasive monitoring of many health conditions
  
  
• Pythagoras Solar Turns Windows Into Panels Of Energy -- imagine tall buildings with full solar panel coverage!
  
  
• Soda bottles become electricity-less “light bulbs” for the poor -- no electricity required during the day!
  
  
• Less transformative, but still inspiring: 50 creations from 50 pieces of Lego!
  
  
• Behind N.Y. Gay Marriage, an Unlikely Mix of Forces -- how that political reality came to be
  
  
• Obama Administration Reaches A Compromise On Fuel Economy Proposal -- recently bailed-out car companies get behind major improvements in mileage! yay!
  
  
• The medium chill -- getting off the aspirational treadmill and enjoying the life you have

Hilarious:

• The real George Lucas has been imprisoned for 20 years while an impostor ran amok, making prequels (video "trailer")
  
  
• You gotta love that the CDC has a guide on surviving a Zombie Apocalypse!
  
  
• Muffin Films short silly bits, if you need some surreality...
  
  
• Define the Ratio of People to Cake -- a cranky journalist answers a collection of really strange interview questions
  
  
• How The BET Awards Changed My Life (by capturing the WTF face that summarizes our times)
  
  
• Plot Device -- a truly inspired little musing on what happens when plot twists get the upper hand on an afternoon
  
  
• Neil Patrick Harris' 2011 Tony Awards Opening Number for anybody who missed it -- Broadway's not just for gays anymore!!
  
  
• The Invaders Are Here! -- kitten versus apples; who will win?

Summer fun/try at home:

• What’s Scrabble When You Can Play Novelist? -- how to turn a heap of mindless summer reading into a fun party game
  
  
• Just what we've all been needing: a Make Everything Ok button!!

(a cheery toddler lunch by A Mindful Life!)

Thursday link-dump

Accidental free-time this afternoon! Let's get some recent infuriators out of the tab-heap! (with apologies for how old some of these are...)

• Your iPhone is tracking your movements. No really, and there seems to be no workaround.
  Edit: since this was discovered, it's been fixed in an operating system patch, so if you're updating, you should be ok. reminder to stay alert!
  
  
• Authorities finally admit that all three reactors at Fukushima melted down -- honesty is good but doesn't really help with damage mitigation...
  
  
• DHS documents show agency isn't sure pornoscanners are safe -- but really, everything is fine! don't look over here!!
  
  
• This is what happens when we don't vaccinate -- outbreaks, at huge public cost
  
  
• Why A Power Of Attorney Is No Substitute For Marriage When A Loved One Is In The Hospital -- imagine not being able to hold a loved one's hand in their final hours, because paperwork was being investigated several states away
  
  
• CHART: Bush Policies Dominant Cause Of National Debt -- those tax cuts have cost us more than our economic woes + ongoing Middle East wars combined!
  
  
• Chart Of The Day: For American Workers, No Economic Recovery -- suck it up, peons!!
  
  
• Schumer: Republicans’ ‘Slash-And-Burn’ Policies May Be Effort To Sabotage Economy -- win the election at the cost of the economy! sigh.
  
  
• Medicaid a Big Deal Too -- people forget how much of the elder population relies on Medicaid when nursing home time comes
  
  
• Tipping point for severe climate change already reached -- well THAT's not good news!
  
  
• Wonkbook: What a Nobel prize won’t get you -- apparently a label of "qualified" from the U.S. Senate
  
  
• Hollerin’ Season -- what it's like to be subjected to sexual harrassment (or steeled against it) everywhere you go
  
  
• The Women Men Won't See -- an amazing story of a female comics enthusiast being treated like she literally isn't present in the store
  
  
• Is Roe safe? Absolutely not. -- not a good time for complacency
  
  
• Common Hour: The Promise and Perils of Hook-Up Culture (video) -- in some ways reassuring, but paints a deeply depressing image of sexual relations on campuses today
  
  
• The Secret History of Iraq’s Invisible War -- an amazing story of immense financial investment into fancy technology to counter low-tech methods of terrorist assault
  
  
• Afghanistan, the Barking Dog -- a great visual summary of our flailings there

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.

Link dump: Latest outrages and frustrations

Man, most of these deserve a freestanding post, dissection, pull-quotes... but it's just not going to happen. Here's a heap of things that just make me want to cry in a darkened room (or maybe bite somebody).

• School Officials Often React Poorly to Student Suicides, Experts Say -- many of the classic actions to help the community mourn actually glorify the act of suicide and encourage others to consider it (!)
  
  
• Why Do Americans Pay More For Healthcare? -- summarized in visual form, and likely not the reasons you may have been told...
  
  
• Eight facts and three thoughts about Social Security -- also not what tends to get discussed, but important facts and conclusions here
  
  
• Cartoon: The Wage Gap and Women’s Choices -- seems so obvious, but...
  
  
• South Dakota Banning Abortion Without Banning Abortion?
  
  
• Scott Walker wants you to die alone if you married the wrong person -- to whom else can this putz flip the bird?
  
  
• Top Doctors Opt Out of Airport Security Scans -- make of it what you will
  
  
• Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill compared lawmakers trying to block raising the debt ceiling to "al Qaeda terrorists."
  
  
• CBO: GOP Budget Would Increase Debt, Then Stick It To Medicare Patients
  
  
• Reading Is Fundamental Funding Eliminated -- and this one is already done
  
  
• Barbour Says Everyone In Mississippi Has Access To Health Care -- But 18% Are Uninsured -- yes, folks, these are your elected representatives!
  
  
• Poll: Miss. Republicans think inter-racial marriage should be illegal -- I'm constantly amazed to learn what decade/century we live in...
  
  
• How Quickly We Forget -- race isn't the only thing driving right-wing fervor against Obama
  
  
• He Won -- bin Laden, that is; we've sold our liberties for "security" in too many ways...
  
  
• To *enter* the post office in downtown Athens, US Marshals are demanding photo ID -- what on earth?!?
  

Quote of the day (Twitter edition)

Since the media is so stuck on the passive-aggressive phrase "openly gay", can we also get them to use "current wife" for politicians?

- urbanbohemian (Brian Gray)

(via nowthis)

Keep saying it until we no longer have to

Adobe's entry in the It Gets Better movement. Man, so much experience of "if I could just get through this part..." -- we need it to get better today so everybody can "give future you a chance"!

(via NowThis)

What doth portend?

Holy crap! Obama Administration finally disavows Defense of Marriage Act, will no longer defend heterosexual privilege in court. w00t!


(via Atrios)

A good seed

Holy crap! This video made me cry, right at my desk. He's right that anybody should be proud to have him as a son, just like he's right that families are about commitments to one another, not any external characteristics. Wow.

Quote of the day *

All living souls welcome whatever they are ready to cope with;
all else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong,
or deny to be possible.

- George Santayana,
philosopher (1863-1952)

(via A.W.A.D.)

Amen

I look forward to seeing President Obama sign this one. Long overdue -- one form of sacrifice is enough for any American!



Update: worth watching the video here, which summarizes the history of DADT debate and gives some live reactions. Teary stuff.

So close...

I gotta say, this one is a nail-biter. I thought repeal of DADT was dead for some long time, now it seems possible, and yet.. and yet...

Here's hoping!

Link dump: Interesting and cheerful edition

Apparently my ability to blog is a bit broken. Or at least constipated, to judge from all the tabs I pile up with good intentions. Anyway, enough with the grumpy! Let's have some cheeful and interesting stuff from the last week or two!

• Purely uplifting (whether silly or sublime):
  
  
  1. If only we had Photoshop for the world around us, imagine how we could fix things! heh.
     
     
  2. Remember that campaign "It Gets Better"? Here's how you can make sure that happens. Always good to be reminded of little things you can do right around you.
     
     
  3. While you're at it, save your slivers of soap to help prevent disease around the world.
     
     
  4. Pentagon study: Gays could serve with no harm. Seems clear to me, but I didn't expect such a clear response, nor such a clear call to action to follow.
     
     
  5. Yay! Evidence that some hospitals, at least, are putting recent infection-prevention results into practice. Cultural change is slow, but this stuff is critical, before we're all overrun with drug-resistant bugs!
  
  
• Fascinating:
  
  
  1. Top 20 miscroscope photos of 2010 -- gorgeous as design, interesting as science.
     
     
  2. A chat with the first autistic Presidential appointee (to the National Council on Disability) reveals some interesting differences of perspective on how to deal with autistic folks in particular and the disabled in general.
     
     
  3. 311 service works -- not only on specific problems, but helping to identify wider neighborhood issues, seasonal patterns, and other things that help cities run themselves.
     
     
  4. A translation of the Lord's Prayer from the Arameic that may not sound that familiar -- some real insights there into what Jesus may have been all about!

     Create in me a divine cooperation: from
     many selves, one voice, one action.

  5. Also mind-blowing: evidence that what we're *about to experience* affects us now. Can we see the future? (or are our scientific methods really flawed?)
     
     
  6. Man makes a functional and beautiful living space in absolutely tiny outside dimensions, giving hope that we could live smarter and more economically without feeling caged...
  
  
• Laced with schadenfreude:
  
  
  1. House Dems press GOP reps to abandon their federal health benefits based on the same principles underlying their opposition to health care reform.
     
     
  2. So, when did you choose to be straight? You know, if it's a choice?
     
     
  3. The Onion: 20,000 Sacrificed In Annual Blood Offering To Corporate America (seems like more over the last couple of years...)
     
     
  
  

So much frustration, so little time

That's right, it's time for a link dump from my Grumpy Tabs file...

• Is science hard to communicate to the public, or does our society devalue intelligence and expertise to the point that people don't even *want* to hear about scientific findings?

  The problem isn't scientists learning how to tell cool stories, which is a skill of great value in any society because humans relate and learn through stories, but that America has raised generations of people to make fun of anyone who cares about shit enough to learn something complicated and be passionately engaged with their work, and marginalize and ignore what they have to say.

• Social contract lying in ashes: what happens when we replace government protection of the common good (funded by -- gasp -- taxes) with privately paid services. Ludicrous versions of justice.
  
  
• Rafe calls this Everything wrong with America in one article -- how, among other things, private prison interests are driving Arizona's draconian immigration policies.
  
  
• Of course, Rafe left out the TSA:
  
  
  1. At increasing numbers of airports, you are now offered the choice between excessively detailed imaging and invasive pat-downs designed to make you stick with the imager, radiation or not. More on this stupidity here.
     
  2. In parallel with the Arizona case above, it turns out that these new machines were brought to bear more due to lobbying by manufacturers than because of any real belief that they'll make anybody safer.
     
  3. Despair, Inc., comes through with some pithy t-shirts to capture your travel experience, if this hasn't driven you from the air entirely.
  
  
• Here's a little bit on military censorship of photos taken in the Mideast and elsewhere.
  
  
• Speaking of the military, looks like the Democrats are throwing them overboard again, planning to abandon DADT in the lame-duck Congressional session.
  
  
• Here's a little reminder that we don't live in a postfeminist era -- the language we use to describe men and women, even when giving a positive review, differs enough to create significantly different outcomes.
  
  
• The Supreme Court may be poised to end class-action lawsuits, which would have a huge impact on the ability of average folks to protect themselves and the rest of us.
  
  
• And finally, from the Department of Brash Hyprocricy, a freshman Republican who railed against healthcare reform complains at a month's delay in getting his own government healthcare. Poooor baby!

Lemonade

Man, this story was a bummer, but how absolutely fantastic, heartwarming, tear-inducing to see this great response: It Gets Better. If only that kid could have heard them in time. Heck, the same is true for any kid who feels like the "only one" -- you probably aren't, and you'll find the others if you just give yourself time. There's a niche out there for you, and it just gets better.

Link dump, several themes

I know that this stuff would be better in smaller installments, but the combination of general time-crunch with lingering jet-lag is totally killing my blogging time. Better a heap than never.

Grumpy news

• U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don't Even Know It whee
  
  
• FBI probes were improper, Justice says -- surprise! the FBI used 9/11 as an excuse to add liberal activists to terrorist watch lists. How long ago do the 1960s feel now?? Civil disobediance still scares The Man inordinately...
  
  
• Obama can learn from 'Godfather' -- being President should mean powers you can use. Of course, the author presumes that this oversight is accidental, rather than a fundamental feature of Obama's character; I think he likes to be a facilitator, not directly leverage action. Frustrating to watch!
  
  
• The wrong way to answer Ms. Velma Hart -- more on the President's falling short
  
  
• Do Not Pity the Democrats -- this takes the grim up a notch, pointing out that partisan politics are rather dwarfed by the growing and inappropriate power of corporations in modern America. A call to local organizing, whether for financial control, political reform, or just to put some counterweights out there against the monolithic oligarchy that is increasingly blind to the public at large.
  
  
• In the nonpolitical realm, 'Halfalogue': Overheard cell-phone conversations are not only annoying but reduce our attention -- our ability to think and reason are actually more disrupted by half a conversation than by having both halves in our auditory space. Interesting.
  
  
• Which is the gay one? My feeling about Don't Ask, Don't Tell in a nutshell!

Parenting bits

• Things That Never Happen -- putting the frequency of things like child abductions into perspective:

  The very definition of news is "something that almost never happens."

• Let Adults Hang Out at the Playground (Even if They Don't Have Kids) -- laws against this gut the meaning of "neighborhood"...
  
  
• related: 5 Worries Parents Should Drop, And 5 They Shouldn't
  
  
• Preschoolers use statistics to understand others -- spiffy bit of deduction there
  
  
• Fostering Your Toddler's Independent Play -- tips on gradual weaning from purely parent-led games; more here.
  
  
• Homeroom Security: a book about the insanity of zero-tolerance classroom policies, something I expect to encounter in a few years
  
  
• “What do you saay…?” Nooo Thanks! -- alternative ways to teach children polite behavior (like modelling!!)
  
  
• St. Louis' newish City Museum looks so creative and fantastical that it makes me want to invent an excuse to go back there! I wanna play too!!
  

Silliness and thoughtfulness

• I had *no* idea that the Miss Universe pageant featured an entry of extravagent national costumes, but it does, and these image collections, complete with snarky commentary, just cracked me up!!
  
  
• Dancing in the movies -- a montage that just makes you want to get out there and move! joyous.
  
  
• Repairing a Sexist Cartoon -- both frustrating and hilarious, in several takes.
  
  
• how to be alone -- a quiet video on making peace with solitude.
  
  
• Real Live Preacher offers Gentle Suggestions for Doubting Christians, nice indeed.
  
  

My barbaric yawp

I appear to have fallen into a blogging hole. Rather, the last week sort of wrung me out, physically and mentally, in a variety of ways too pedestrian to be worth enumerating, and suddenly I have a lot of tabs and no sign of blogular life. (And might I just say that this gizmo is my new favorite thing, simultaneously inflicting order and enabling procrastination to heady degrees.) Anyway, here are some things of note...

• Atrios notes a sensible policy that would help us through these challenging economic times, but probably won't even get discussed.
  
  
• It's certainly not a good sign for the recovery when people cause riots just lining up for Secion 8 housing!
  
  
• Here's a good point, about both current (infuriating) affairs and the weaknesses of the Democratic party.
  
  
• Speaking of good points, pithily put, here's one about language and Othering (or the definition of normal).
  (via NowThis)
  
  
• Here's a good essay: The Real Struggle Behind Climate Change: A War on Expertise

  As part of a more general assault on the very notion of expertise, the narrative starts with a truism that is actually true:
  
  "Not every smart person is wise..."
  
  only then extrapolates it, implicitly, to a blatant falsehood
  
  "all smartypants are unwise, all the time; and my uninformed opinion is equal to any expert testimony."

  Interesting points here about the culture of science that gets overlooked (e.g., ambitious post docs are always looking for holes in their elders' theories, in order to make names for themselves, yet the "critics" assume that everyone involved is a "sell-out" marching in lock-step)...
  
  
• Related (but funnier): If sports got reported like science... -- why do we presume it reasonable to require all sorts of esoteric knowledge in our recreation that we find unbearable in more serious matters?

Well, that clears things up a bit, and should be enough for everybody to chew on until I can get my act together a bit. Enjoy!