So Cool

Celebrity Side Projects. Neil Young and Hedy Lamarr are my favorites.

Probably not that bad

Things aren't usually as bad as we think they are (at least I hope not).

No Toy Story 2?

I'm glad to see that even some of the most brilliant people in media do stuff like this.

via The Big Find

Cool

This is just great stuff - two paralyzed people use their brains to control a robotic arm.

Don't know much about history ...

This is great - one of those classic American History is all BS stories, but Cracked.com always makes it fun to read. (Caveat: I haven't looked to see how much of this is its own BS, too, so take it however you'd like.)

Exsanguinate

to drain of blood (And no this isn't from a vampire book or story. What writer of vampire lore would actually use this word? That would be an interesting book, I think)

Wow

How deep things are. (and no, that's not a metaphor ... mostly)

via The Agitator

Word Today

interstices

(used in The Good Book, by Peter Gomes)

Defined

Pettifog
as used here: to quibble over insignificant details

Your Contrarian News of the Day

The Supreme Court's Citizens United Decision is making politics better.

Updates

I know there are only about four of you reading this, but I've updated a couple of things in the posts.

First of all, I've added "share" buttons in case you find something really interesting here and want to pass it along.

Also, I've added what Google calls "Reaction" buttons. I want to know what you (two) think of the posts, so please let me know if you like something you read here, if you love a post, or if you hate a post. This will help me know what you respond to, and hopefully post more similar subjects or even do more research on stuff you love (or tell you to get lost if you hate something I really love posting about). Oh, and these show up on all posts now retroactively, so if you are so inclined, feel free to go back through them and let me know what you think of some of the older posts.

Word I Learned Today

I read a couple of magazines whose writers like to use big, unusual words. I've never been a real vocabulary junky, so there always seems to be a word I don't know. I'm going to try to start tracking these here.

Today's word is: obeisance.

(Lest you think I'm particularly pretentious about my reading habits, rest assured that these magazines are rarely touched until I've finished my Entertainment Weekly and hand-me-down People issues.)

This is great news

Not only has bone marrow donation gotten much easier, but now people can receive compensation for it, just like donating blood.

Another One Today

Corruption at the NCAA. I had an idea, but nothing on this scale (keeping in mind this is an opinion piece, but I'm inclined to believe it).

via The Agitator.

I'm back

at least for today.

Here's another fun/scary one from Cracked.com: Creepy Progressive Parenting.

Ink Under Water

found via Pinterest...

States' Rights

Ah, red meat for southerners like me. And I consider myself libertarian on top of that, so the states' rights argument has always appealed to me on a couple of levels. I get it. I get why people down here still resent the portrayal and stereotyping of southerners. I even understand how some here can keep putting "rebel" flags up on their land or cars and tell themselves and others that it's not racist.

I've never felt the argument for states' rights against the federal government's meddling, and for secession and, therefore the Civil War, though, is a justifiable enough argument because, frankly, slavery was just too abhorrent. But I couldn't put the right words to that feeling. And there was still always something there, something in the back of my mind that hung onto this reasoning about why the Confederacy was OK and the Union wasn't, when it came to secession (though not slavery itself).

But this article tears that apart. This is such an interesting argument against the continued use of "yes, slavery was bad, but the civil war wasn't about slavery, it was about states' rights". This author also happens to make his case without being terribly insulting to southerners (not a small bonus, honestly). Though I have to admit that I'm easily swayed here because I don't like justifying the Confederacy's secession, which always feels like a defense of slavery, too, so I'm not really running this one through the intellectual ringer. The comments are also interesting, for a change, with those who both agree and disagree with the writer.

(But I still don't like calling it a "Civil War" because technically the Confederates had no interest in taking over the current federal government. They wanted their own. And they didn't want someone in Washington telling them what they could and couldn't do, or taxing the hell out of them to support things with which they didn't agree. Hmmm...)

Good News and More Good News

I stand by my declaration that I would live in no other time before now. Healthcare and technology are the two main reasons, but so are increased equality and reduced poverty. Most of those are covered in these Economist items.

Sleep, Wonderful Sleep

This is an interesting article about our natural/historical sleep patterns.

Photography (wow)

This is so cool.