Crazy Ones Poster
Purchase this 10″ x 26″ letterpress poster and 100% of the profits will be donated to Acumen Fund’s mission to end worldwide poverty. Must order by December 17th, no delivery until after the holidays.
Continue ReadingAuthor: Laura Grace Weldon
Lightsaber Cello Duel
A six-year-old inspired The Piano Guys to create their most ambitious video yet. It took 70 days, more than 7,000 frames, 72 audio tracks, 24 hours of filming, 1,000 hours of editing, a few Star Wars costumes, and one lightsaber. You’ll want to see Darth Vader’s performance to find out his choice of instrument […]
Continue ReadingFood and Fellowship
We talk and laugh as we make several hundred egg rolls. Washing, chopping, and steaming vegetables actually goes too fast so we’re glad when wrapping and frying each roll slows us down. That’s because we didn’t just get together to make and freeze appetizers for the holiday season. We also wanted to hang out. Being […]
Continue ReadingSelf, Not Cooler Self
Watch this adorable math geek choose self-acceptance.
Continue ReadingYou’re In My Space
An international team of scientists recently assessed which moons and planets are most habitable. They used two different indices: an Earth Similarity Index (ESI) and a Planetary Habitability Index (PHI) to identify likely prospects. You may want to start investing in exoplanet exploration ventures.
Continue ReadingKids’ Interests Are Their Own
Snake wrangler, computer geek, vintage auto restorer. These are a few of the identities one of my sons tries on as he masters areas of interest to him. He used to patiently stalk alongside our creek and behind the woodpile to find snakes. He didn’t hurt them or even keep them for more than a […]
Continue ReadingFloppy Drive Nutcracker
An old classic plays a much older (much classier) classic, the Russian Dance from Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. Find more floppy drive tunes on Sammy1Am’s YouTube channel.
Continue ReadingWhat Do You “Tell” About Santa?
A few decades ago I indulged in some concerns about the likelihood of Santa’s existence while playing with a neighbor kid. A reasonably science-minded kindergartener, I wondered aloud how reindeer could fly without wings. I speculated about the chimney girth problem and the issue of children who lived in fireplace-free homes. And then, as if […]
Continue ReadingHow Much Do You Weigh?
I had lunch recently with a group of friends, all highly accomplished and creative women. The discussion zipped along in fascinating directions, that is, until we were given menus. Although most entrées were described by what had been subtracted—low-fat, vegan, dairy-free—that didn’t stop my friends from gasping about what they’d like to order, but wouldn’t […]
Continue ReadingThanks to Mom We Tried Turkey Farming
I offered to host Thanksgiving year after year. My mother turned me down each time. She liked hosting the family get-together even though her kids and grandkids lived close enough to visit weekly. She preferred her wedding china and linens to my mismatched dishes and homespun tablecloth. Mostly she wanted to ensure that the meal […]
Continue ReadingSkip Black Friday and Cyber Monday: Try Shift Weekend
Frenzied sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become holiday shopping traditions. Both are about grabbing up deals before someone else gets them. Not much about the spirit of giving. Not fun either. There are alternatives. They offer the satisfaction of exchanging wonderful presents while also shifting holiday gift-giving in a positive direction. […]
Continue ReadingGlorious Do-Gooder Gifts
Living simply is important to me. I also love to give gifts. I reconcile this by giving ethical presents whenever possible. You know what I mean, purchases that help out a worthy organization. You can often buy such gifts at your local museum, house of worship, or any non-profit knowing that a portion of […]
Continue ReadingIf Babbage Had Just Lived Another 140 Years
Oh Chuck. Don’t you hate it when a good idea hits too early? We know you were a mathematician, mechanical engineer, and philosopher. You cracked codes, invented the cow catcher, and developed an opthalmoscope. You were a curmudgeon who railed against organ grinders and hoop rolling. Maybe that grumpy outlook had to do with your […]
Continue ReadingYou Are Not So Smart
Metacognition (thinking about thinking) has never seemed more useful than in You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself. A few years ago David McRaney started a blog to explore self-delusion. The research he uncovered revealed “how unaware […]
Continue ReadingHuman Brain TED Dance
This human brain image is a moment in a dance by the Dutch National Ballet. An advertising agency in the Netherlands, We Are Pi, collaborated with the ballet company and Rutger Hauer to create this campaign for TEDxAmsterdam. According to the agency, “People follow TED to fill their brains with ideas. So, to celebrate […]
Continue ReadingSweetly Done: Jelly Bean Music Video
This video took 30 people and 288,000 jelly beans to make over a period of 22 months. Plus the song “In Your Arms” by Kina Grannis, of course. It’s clever enough to inspire all sorts of questions. Thank goodness we can take a positively yummy look behind the scenes. Grannis has come a long way, […]
Continue ReadingHappy Carl Sagan Day
Today is Carl Sagan Day. This popular scientist and writer awakened a generation to the wonders of our Universe through his books and TV series Cosmos. You may want to celebrate this, the anniversary of his birth, by wearing a turtleneck and looking at the stars. Or by fostering the curiosity of a child in […]
Continue ReadingWhich Teen Movie Made An Impression On You?
We all survived our teen years. Well, some of us are still in recovery. Even if you were so confident you smiled with braces on your teeth and let your geekalicious interests be known, chances are you still looked around to see what made other teens popular. There have always been plenty of examples […]
Continue ReadingCreating Tiny Libraries Everywhere
You can’t have too much of a good thing, unless you’re averse to bliss. One of life’s Very Good Things, in my book (pun!) is the library. There’s a movement afoot to augment our public libraries with other ways of spreading bookish goodwill. This doesn’t just get books into more hands, it actually builds positive […]
Continue ReadingEmphasis On Testing Cheats Everyone
SAT language scores aren’t near the levels seen in the early 1970’s. Some test-takers resort to cheating, most recently seven teens from Great Neck, NY, who hired an impersonator to stand in (well, sit in) for them. The company that administers the SAT estimates cheating, mostly by collaboration, occurs in only one-tenth of 1 percent of […]
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