Music Gadgets

No Need For Red Lights?

http://www.itworld.com/article/3045942/car-tech/mit-hopes-to-eliminate-traffic-lights.html?google_editors_picks=true

Smart People

An excerpt from The Washington Post -

Why Smart People Are Better Off With Fewer Friends

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"The effect of population density on life satisfaction was therefore more than twice as large for low-IQ individuals than for high-IQ individuals," they found. And "more intelligent individuals were actually less satisfied with life if they socialized with their friends more frequently."

Let me repeat that last one: When smart people spend more time with their friends, it makes them less happy.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/18/why-smart-people-are-better-off-with-fewer-friends/?wpisrc=nl_rainbow

Legos for Gardens

FLOTUS in Pictures

From The Root - 

Wicked smart.  Funny.  Poised.  Gracious.  Powerful.  Beautiful.

This is why we love her.

Check out the slideshow about midway down the page.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/lists/2016/03/michelle_obama_is_dope_these_pictures_explain_why.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

"Working" Piglet

Faded Sounds

From The Museum of Endangered Sounds -

http://savethesounds.info

It opens to a retro page giving directions.  You simply have to click on the icons to listen, click again to stop them.  Click close this page and enter the museum.

Enjoy!

Medal of Freedom Winner

The 1st Fifteen

From the Root -

Last week, in response to the lynching photo found at a Joe’s Crab Shack in Minnesota, I wrote a piece explaining “post-racial racism” (which has also been referred to as “Chad Crow”—Jim Crow’s laid-back cousin):

In post-racial 21st-century America, no one actually wants to admit to being racist. They’ll do racist things, say racist words, think racist thoughts, support racist business, vote for racist politicians and even willingly benefit from racist policies and business practices, but the moment you actually bring up racism, they’re like, “Who, me? Never! I can’t be racist. Andre Iguodala is my favorite athlete, and my best friend almost had a black girlfriend in 2004!” And they do this because owning up to it and letting everyone know exactly who they are could be social suicide. ...

[Post-racial racism] is an evolved form of racism that allows people to exist ensconced within racism’s confines while never having to complete a registration form ...

I then listed 13 examples of this type of racism. But there are so many more that I decided to extend that list to 35:

1. “Racism doesn’t really exist” racism;

2. “You’re the real racist for thinking and talking about racism” racism;

3. “I don’t have a racist bone in my body” racism;

4. “It’s a class thing, not a race thing” racism;

5. “If black people want to get over racism, they need to stop segregating themselves” racism;

6. “I know what’s good for you better than you do” racism;

7. “I hate the NBA” racism;

8. “I’m not a racist; I’m a realist” racism;

9. “Look how cool and witty and ironic I am when I do this remarkably offensive thing” racism;

10. “Can you provide some evidence that the racist thing that happened was actually racist and not just happenstance?” racism;

11. “Let’s talk about diversity and have panels about diversity and invite the media to these panels about diversity but never actually make a real effort to be more diverse” racism;

12. “I know what happened was racist, but my feelings were hurt when you pointed it out, and we need to talk about my feelings instead of the racist thing now” racism;

13. “I don’t think anyone is paying attention, so let me sneak this really racist thing in real quick, like a cheat day for my no-racism diet” racism.

14. “I have a black boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife, so I can’t be racist” racism;

15. “I had sex with a black person and that sex resulted in a black child, so I can’t be racist” racism;

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/03/_35_types_of_post_racial_racism.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

A Novel Approach

From The Atlanic - (bold is mine)

But this vision of homogenous, altruistic Nordic lands is mostly a fantasy. The choices Nordic countries have made have little to do with altruism or kinship. Rather, Nordic people have made their decisions out of self-interest. Nordic nations offer their citizens—all of their citizens, but especially the middle class—high-quality services that save people a lot of money, time, and trouble. This is what Americans fail to understand: My taxes in Finland were used to pay for top-notch services for me.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/bernie-sanders-nordic-countries/473385/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=March%2017%2C%202016&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All

Good News From Chicago

From Vox -

Chicago’s City Council voted unanimously yesterday to get rid of the sales tax on tampons and pads, becoming one of the first major US cities to do so.

The council voted to reclassify the feminine hygiene products as "medical necessities," exempting them from taxation. Right now they are subject to a 10.25 percent sales tax, a combination of city and state taxes.

http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/3/17/11253628/chicago-tampon-tax

Make Your Own App

http://www.lifehack.org/374267/10-ways-make-your-own-app?mid=20160315&ref=mail&uid=789627&feq=daily

Frederick Douglass in Pictures

From The Washington Post -

Who’s the most photographed American man of the 19th Century? HINT: It’s not Lincoln…

Born into slavery in 1818, Frederick Douglass would become one of the most well-known abolitionists, orators, and writers of his time. He understood and heralded not only the power of the written or spoken word, but also the power of the visual image — especially, his own likeness. He therefore sat for portraits wherever and whenever he could. As a result, Douglass was photographed more than any other American of his era:  160 distinct images (mostly portraits) have survived, more than Abraham Lincoln at 126. Many of these rare, historically significant images are published for the first time in “Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American,” by John Stauffer, Zoe Trodd and Celeste-Marie Bernier.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2016/03/15/douglass/?hpid=hp_no-name_photo-story-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Made With Legos

From Wired - 

Exquisite Lego Versions of the World’s Most Famous Buildings

BECOMING A LEGO Certified Professional is a bit like becoming a master sommelier. To be inducted is to join the ranks of the nonpareil, to be a member of the 0.0001 percent with absolute devotion to mastery of one’s subject. But of the two, the cadre of Lego elite is the most exclusive. There are 147 people on the Court of Master Sommeliers, but there are just 14 Lego Certified Professionals in the world.

Adam Reed Tucker is one of them, and he has an exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Brick by Brick features 13 of his creations, each a model of some of the world’s most famous architectural works. The Golden Gate Bridge, the Colosseum, and One World Trade Center are rendered in miniature. That’s something of a relative term, here: The “miniature” Lego version of the Golden Gate Bridge comprises 64,500 Lego bricks, took 260 hours to build, and is 60 feet long. That’s as big as some of the dinosaurs on display the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

http://www.wired.com/2016/03/exquisite-lego-versions-worlds-famous-buildings/?mbid=nl_31516#slide-1

Plain Hot Water

This article peaked my interest because it reminds me of my surprise when I first arrived in the UAE that folks don't drink cold water, even though it's hot as a raging furnace throughout much of the year.

Now with over four years under my belt living here, I too, shy away from cold water and reach for the room temperature bottle more often than not.

Another case of "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

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Another great find from the New York Times What We're Reading -

China's go-to beverage? Hot water. Really.

China's annual legislative sessions are in full swing in Beijing. Thousands of delegates are convening daily at the Great Hall of the People to listen to speeches, discuss government work reports, and review economic plans for the next five years.

Essential to keeping things moving? Hot water. Brigades of young women (and a few men) are toting thermoses around the massive building all day, pouring drinks for delegates. Some use the steaming hot liquid to make tea in paper cups that read "Great Hall of the People," but many others simply drink it straight.

For many Westerners, the idea of drinking plain hot water is odd. But most Chinese (among others) think Americans' habit of chugging ice water is equally bizarre, and even unhealthy.

As the daughter of a traditional Chinese doctor, I am a devoted hot water drinker.

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-china-hot-water-20160313-story.html

Changing Lives

Some Hard Truths

An excerpt from The Atlantic -

Nina Simone's Face

The upcoming biopic about the singer proves that the world still isn’t ready to tell her story.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Simone was able to conjure glamour in spite of everything the world said about black women who looked like her. And for that she enjoyed a special place in the pantheon of resistance. That fact doesn’t just have to do with her lyrics or her musicianship, but also how she looked. Simone is something more than a female Bob Marley. It is not simply the voice: It is the world that made that voice, all the hurt and pain of denigration, forged into something otherworldly. That voice, inevitably, calls us to look at Nina Simone’s face, and for a brief moment, understand that the hate we felt, that the mockery we dispensed, was unnatural, was the fruit of conjurations and the shadow of plunder. We look at Nina Simone’s face and the lie is exposed and we are shamed. We look at Nina Simone’s face and a terrible truth comes into view—there was nothing wrong with her. But there is something deeply wrong with us.


We are being told that Nina Simone’s face bears no real import on the new eponymous movie about her life, starring Zoe Saldana. “The most important thing,” said Robert Johnson, whose studio is releasing Nina, “is that creativity or quality of performance should never be judged on the basis of color, or ethnicity, or physical likeness.” This is obviously false. Saldana could be the greatest thespian of her time, but no one would consider casting her as Marilyn Monroe. Indeed Nina’s producers have gone to great ends—tragicomic ends—to invoke Nina Simone’s face, darkening Saldana’s skin, adorning her with prosthetics. Neither the term blackface nor brownface is entirely appropriate here. We are not so much talking about deliberate mockery as something much more insidious.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/03/nina-simone-face/472107/?utm_source=atl-daily-newsletter

Punished for Wearing "Black Brilliance"

An excerpt from The Root -

If You Don’t Love Our Kids, Stay Out of Our Schools

Black children deserve to be in schools with teachers who lift up their emotional well-being, not who display their own resentment.

Nine-year-old Kaedyn G. goes to a private school in New Jersey. Last week at school, Kaedyn wore a hooded sweatshirt with the words “black brilliance” plainly displayed on the front of her hoodie. She was not in violation of the school’s dress code and had not broken any of the school’s rules regarding appearance. Yet as she walked down the hall, a white teacher instructed Kaedyn to turn her hoodie inside out. The teacher told Kaedyn that her hoodie was “causing problems” and questioned the 9-year-old, asking, “How would you feel if I wore a shirt that said ‘white brilliance’ on it?”

What happened to Kaedyn illustrates a critical disconnect on both a cultural and emotional level between educators and many of the young people they are charged to instruct, support and protect. All children have individual needs, but black and Latino learners have a not-so-nuanced experience in educational environments that can often leave them feeling shut out, shunned or not as good as their white peers. Navigating this journey requires a sincere commitment from school administrators to invest in the creation and maintenance of culturally competent school environments.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/03/if_you_don_t_love_our_kids_stay_out_of_our_schools.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

A Graphic Look at Friendships

From Upworthy -

http://www.upworthy.com/10-awkward-friendships-you-probably-have-we-all-have-a-9?c=upw1

Freestylin' Frenzy