Quiet Discontent

An excerpt from the New York Times -

No Sound, No Fury, No Marriage

My marriage had long ago turned into the cliché of roommate-ness, and that it could suffer such a change without any emotional upheaval was revealing. In fact, the silence said it all.

The words I don’t say to my neighbors, the words that get held on my tongue, are: I wish you had heard a fight. I wish our voices had been loud enough to carry across the valley. He and I may have free speech, but we’re not so good at frank speech.

Shakespeare had it right: “My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart, concealing it, will break.” I never spoke of the anger in my heart, the mounting resentments and hurts, and neither did he. I never demanded attention or care, and neither did he. And that’s why we broke.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/22/fashion/marriage-breakups-separation.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0

Deja Vu

Valedictorian barred from high school graduation because he has a beard

Amite High School Class of 2016 valedictorian Andrew Jones was not allowed
to participate in his own graduation because of his beard. (WLTX 19 NEWS)

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/valedictorian-barred-high-school-graduation-article-1.2643541

H/T Tiff

He thought he was a terrible father until he talked to his dad.

Wood Hotline

There’s a Hotline for People With Knotty Wood Questions
Inside Wisconsin's Forest Products Laboratory, where experiments are conducted on all things wood.

By David Jester

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/theres-a-hotline-for-people-with-knotty-wood-questions?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura&utm_campaign=f2e9493ee3-Newsletter_5_19_20165_17_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_62ba9246c0-f2e9493ee3-59905913&ct=t(Newsletter_5_19_20165_17_2016)&mc_cid=f2e9493ee3&mc_eid=866176a63f

Fake Trees

An excerpt from Atlas Obscura -

A pine cell tower tree built by one of the leading companies 

in the cell tower concealment business in Tuscon, Arizona. 

(Photo: Bill Morrow/CC BY 2.0)

All over the world, there are trees that quietly carry our phone messages. They come in variety of species: palm, cypress, fir, elm, pine, cacti. Perhaps you have passed by one of these alien trees before, or spotted them sticking high above the natural treeline. From top to bottom, nothing about these trees is natural.

Despite telecommunications and utility companies' best efforts, cell phone tower trees are notoriously unattractive. The architecture of these fake trees is also not the least bit convincing. For example, the pine cell towers have metal “trunks” that lack the pliability of natural trees, and support a small tuft of branches and fake foliage that attempts to cover up the hardware underneath.

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/take-a-look-at-americas-least-convincing-cell-phone-tower-trees?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura&utm_campaign=f2e9493ee3-Newsletter_5_19_20165_17_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_62ba9246c0-f2e9493ee3-59905913&ct=t(Newsletter_5_19_20165_17_2016)&mc_cid=f2e9493ee3&mc_eid=866176a63f

Combat Juggling?

From Now I Know -

Combat juggling was created by a well-known juggler (to the extent that there is such a thing) named Jason Garfield. Garfield, per Wikipedia, "is regarded as one of the most controversial members of the juggling community" (yes, really) because he "despises the concept of 'artistic juggling,' promoting the idea that juggling should also be regarded as a form of sport." Combat juggling, which adds competition and athleticism to something typically reserved for clowns and magicians, probably fits that bill. And while it still seems like a joke, it's become increasingly popular since. As VICE reported, the sport matured enough that, in 2011, ESPN3 ended up airing a combat juggling competition, and YouTube is littered with videos of people dueling while juggling with sometimes hilarious results. (Yes, sometimes, someone gets hit in the head and no, the rules don't allow you to bludgeon your opponent.) 

http://nowiknow.com/combat-juggling/

Luma: Surround WiFi with speed, safety and security

The Product -



The Critique -



The Creator -

Epic Rant

No, not Kanye.

http://www.christies.com/features/Neal-Cassady-long-lost-letter-to-Jack-Kerouac-comes-to-auction-7393-1.aspx?sid=554654ea10defb39638b510d&wpsrc=newsletter_tis

Bucket List Ideas

Never say never.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1MJYBL/:1G!TxI1Ig:g@D-!NcP/www.roughguides.com/special-features/50-things-to-do-before-you-die

Mom's Voice is Magical

From CNN -

Study: Mom's voice works like a charm on your brain

Less than one second. That's how long it takes children to recognize their mother's voice. And that voice lights a child's brain up like a Christmas tree.

A new study from Stanford University School of Medicine studied how children reacted to mom's voice compared to a woman they didn't know. Kids were not only more engaged by mom's voice than a stranger's, scientists found, but this response was noted beyond just auditory areas of the brain.
Parts of the brain related to emotion, reward processing, facial recognition and social functioning are also amped by hearing from mom. In short, a child's ability to communicate socially is in a large way affected by how he or she reacts to mom's voice.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/18/health/mom-voice-study-trnd/index.html

Sticky Glue for Cars

From Mashable -

Google's self-driving cars haven't hit many things since they first took to the roads in 2015, but its collision avoidance technology isn't perfect. Now, it appears Google is working on some safety provisions in case one of their vehicles hits a pedestrian.

Google has patented a unique solution that puts a glue-like adhesive on the front end of the self-driving car. The patent, first seen by The Mercury News, describes the sticky covering as a way to catch pedestrians in case of a collision in order to minimize harm.

http://mashable.com/2016/05/19/google-car-stick-glue-adhesive/#rudNsLH.Agq5

Competition for Alexa

Geez Louise!

An excerpt from the Vox -

The TSA is hard to evaluate largely because it's attempting to solve a non-problem. Despite some very notable cases, airplane hijackings and bombings are quite rare. There aren't that many attempts, and there are even fewer successes. That makes it hard to judge if the TSA is working properly — if no one tries to do a liquid-based attack, then we don't know if the 3-ounce liquid rule prevents such attacks.

So Homeland Security officials looking to evaluate the agency had a clever idea: They pretended to be terrorists, and tried to smuggle guns and bombs onto planes 70 different times. And 67 of those times, the Red Team succeeded. Their weapons and bombs were not confiscated, despite the TSA's lengthy screening process. That's a success rate of more than 95 percent.

http://www.vox.com/2016/5/17/11687014/tsa-against-airport-security

Quote

"Faced with the prospect of voting for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, Mary Anne Noland of Richmond chose, instead, to pass into the eternal love of God on Sunday, May 15, 2016, at the age of 68." [Richmond Times-Dispatch]

Relationships in the Digital Age

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/are-you-sure-you-want-to-unsubscribe-from-this-relationship?mbid=nl_160517_Daily&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=8934576&spUserID=MTE0MzE0NDEyNDUyS0&spJobID=921695380&spReportId=OTIxNjk1MzgwS0

Rugby Recruiting

From Upworthy - 

http://www.upworthy.com/these-gay-rugby-players-are-dismantling-stereotypes-one-photo-at-a-time?c=upw1

No Cheating!

From The Atlantic -

Iraq’s Anti-Cheating Campaign: For the second year in a row, Iraq has ordered telecom companies to shut down the Internet in an attempt to prevent cheating among thousands of sixth-graders taking national exams this month. Human-rights activists say Iraq’s test-related blackouts violate citizens’ free-speech rights and can help governments escape scrutiny in cases of abuse. Elsewhere, blackouts or censorship are usually connected to political or military events.

Print Your Own T-Shirts

For the adventurous do-it-yourselfer.

http://www.wired.com/2016/05/burn-silkscreen-print-shirts-home/?mbid=nl_51616

Janitor Gets Degree

An excerpt from CNN -

Custodian picks up degree from college he cleaned for almost a decade

Michael Vaudreuil is used to picking things up at school. He's a custodian at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

But over the weekend, he picked up something he'll definitely want to keep: a college degree.
Vaudreuill, 54, graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from the same place where he's cleaned and emptied the trash for the past eight years.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/16/us/custodian-graduates-from-college-he-cleaned-trnd/index.html

Tea Remedies

An excerpt from Little Things - 

Eight Cozy Cups Of Tea To Soothe Your Every Affliction  

By Rebecca Endicott

Headache And Poor Circulation: Cinnamon Tea

Heeral Chhibber for LittleThings

Cinnamon is another cozy, warming spice that might conjure up images of Christmas cookies or your morning oatmeal.

This flavorful and familiar bark isn’t just good in mulled cider, though; soaking cinnamon sticks in hot water yields a rich, strong tea that can help cure a stubborn headache.

Because of its strong anti-inflammatory properties, cinnamon improves circulation and helps to reduce head pain, which is most often caused by minor swelling of the sinuses and of the facial muscles.

http://www.littlethings.com/tea-home-remedies/?utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange