conuly

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/artscience/2013/03/darkened-cities/

I don't know, it's pretty but a little disturbing and creepy.

On science kits through the decades:

http://nyti.ms/WCbJSs

( Read more... )

One on antivirus companies:

http://nyti.ms/130F9x2

( Read more... )

PSA: Your Default Narrative Settings Are Not Apolitical

http://fozmeadows.wordpress.com/2012/12/08/psa-your-default-narrative-settings-are-not-apolitical/


An Asperger's Guide to Neurotypicals

http://feng-shui-house.dreamwidth.org/722472.html


And a DW friending meme. I've been making a concerted effort to read my reading page there lately, that's an improvement. You know how slow I can be about change.

http://kouredios.dreamwidth.org/226094.html


As a bonus, I also have this Cracked.com link, 6 Ridiculous Lies You Believe About The Founding Of This Country.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19864_6-ridiculous-lies-you-believe-about-founding-america.html

Two Cooks and a Cabbage

First you get to see two young girls competently using an open fire to boil half a cabbage each (I should forward this one to Free Range Kids!), and then you get a good piece of advice: Never boil green vegetables in large quantities of water. Truer words were never spoken! As observed, when you do so you only end with tasteless muck and all the vitamins leached away. That goes doubly for brassicas like cabbage and kale. We love kale, but I find nearly every recipe calls for far too much water, even when the writer clearly was trying to aim low! You should have barely enough to cover the bottom of the pot when the pot is full to the brim with kale. Steam it, stir fry it, bake it, eat it raw, but never boil your greens.

(Pokeweed may be the exception to this, but given how much cooking is required to make that safely edible, is it really worth it? I wouldn't know, because I simply assume it is not.)

Visualizing word origins. (Okay, it's a link to a link. Sue me.)

Some autistic brains really are wired differently

What child prodigies and autistic people have in common

This latter is not all that well written, I think. Of course, I'm inclined to find the "all aspies are brilliant!!!" meme truly irritating, so "all brilliant people are autistic!!!" isn't much better.

Two of the top-level comments, so far, are the sort that ignore everything said in the article and only go nattering on and on about person-first language. One of them, upon being corrected, still goes "Oh, but, you know, not all people with autism will ever be able to talk!" And if they did, they'd automatically agree with her? The arrogance there is astounding, and far more annoying than the original "person first language totally rocks!!!" comments.

I'm thinking I'd be far less annoyed by the whole concept if the people insistent on it would ever, ever say something of content instead of their vapid, sanctimonious little comments.

Go read the comments to this article.

The article itself isn't that bad, about a somewhat ridiculous and tone-deaf approach to "Pardon our appearance during construction" sign. But hoo-boy, the comments! It's like everything out of a bad book on feminism in the 70s!

I've been taking the novel approach of attempting to educate people about why catcallling = bad instead of simply pointing out that there's a reason they can't get laid (because they're jackasses - and yes, if some of them could post their names and photos I'd very much appreciate it for reference purposes), not that it's likely to do any good. But still, last week I managed to explain to some internet commenter why it's inappropriate to TALK IN ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME!!!! so I'm just buoyed with my own success now. There's still a (admittedly very slim) possibility that I could convince somebody. Just one person.

(Yeah, I know, not gonna happen. Comments on articles are so useless, but they're something to do, anyway.)

Dug up this link and posted it to, in the comments, which proves the point. Some people don't want to listen, and others are trolls, and... and... okay, this is depressing. Don't click the link, it'll only upset you.

For decades, the Judge Rotenberg Center in Canton, Massachusetts has been torturing and abusing people with disabilities in the name of treatment. Residents are subject to electric shocks, food deprivation, prolonged restraint and seclusion, and forced witness of these same tactics used against other residents.

This video of Andre McCollins, then-eighteen, who has behavioral and mental health issues, has been sealed by the courts for the last eight years. Yesterday, it played in open court during his trial against the Judge Rotenberg Center.

I haven't watched the video in question. I've heard enough about the JRC that I felt that I didn't need to do so. I would like to keep my food down today. So I'm just going to assume it is triggering and move from there.

Yes, this is pretty much how the first Hunger Games book goes. But it's not as funny in long format.

Reading through this, it's obvious that the poster never read Collins' other work, the Underland Chronicles. It's ostensibly aimed for a younger audience (at least, it's shelved for a younger audience in bookstores and libraries, so make of that what you will), but in the course of five books... hell, five PAGES, you can pretty much expect people to die. They get eaten alive by carnivorous gnats, people! And when they're not dying, people are poor and life just sucks. God I love those books.

N. Korea agrees to suspend uranium enrichment, nuclear tests

Bonobos advertise their same-sex couplings. Apparently.

Filthy Surgical Instruments: The Hidden Threat In America’s Operating Rooms (I have no idea how accurate this one is.)

Little Free Libraries are taking root on lawns

That is SO cool, btw. I want one of my very own! And maybe a few to donate around....

I also have two videos:

One on how Episode 1 could've been made, well, good.

And here's an animation on evolution that's really very nifty.