Quote
May 25, 2013
4,696 notes
"I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?"

—

Ernest Hemingway

Truer words were never spoken.  If you’re a sleep enthusiast like Ernest, you can learn more about it in our sleep episode.

(via wnycradiolab)

(Source: likeafieldmouse, via wnycradiolab)

Photo
April 25, 2013
510 notes
theweekmagazine: 9 cool things about the new $100 bill

theweekmagazine:

9 cool things about the new $100 bill

(via npr)

Quote
April 16, 2013
267 notes
"There’s a wonderful little passage that Martin Luther King had written from a jail cell where he talks about the effect of racism on young African-American children and how he can see on the face of a child the clouds of inferiority gathering as they observe some racist taunt or action. And when I think about — in some senses — the safest place to raise our children, there are many different forms of risk that we have in life."

—

Novelist Mohsin Hamid, who lives in Lahore, Pakistan, talks about how a safe place to raise children can be judged in different ways.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from A Birmingham Jail” to which Hamid refers above. You can read the entire text of the letter here.

(via nprfreshair)

Photoset
April 16, 2013
961 notes

wnycradiolab:

astronomy-to-zoology:

Water Opossum (Chironectes minimus)

Also known as the yapok, the water opossum is a species of semi-aquatic marsupial found in Mexico and parts of Central and South America. Like most opossums this species does have a pouch, but the pouch is found in both sexes a trait only found in the extinct thylacine. As its name suggests this opossum is mainly aquatic, living near riverbanks and swimming at night to catch fish and crustaceans. They are the only known extant marsupial to live this lifestyle. Living near water presents problems for a marsupial as they keep their young in a pouch, however the water opossum has a evolved a way to combat this it has a strong ring of muscle which can close the pouch and make it watertight, so the young don’t drown when the mother is swimming.

Phylogeny

Animalia-Chordata-Mammalia-Marsupialia-Didelphimorphia-Didelphidae-Didelphinae-Chironectes-minimus

Image Source(s)

What!

Link
April 03, 2013
China's CCTV Treats April Fool's Joke as Real News

When Virgin founder Richard Branson made an April Fool’s Day announcement about starting a glass-bottomed plane service, at least one major news outlet didn’t see through to the joke. China’s huge state broadcaster, CCTV, ran it as odd — but real — news.

Link
April 03, 2013
63 notes
How to Stop Unsolicited Mail, Phone Calls and Email

usagov:

Is your mailbox full of junk mail? Tired of telemarketers? Sick of spam? This guide can help you opt out of them.

Photo
March 25, 2013
156 notes
nprfreshair: Today on the show, Terry is talking with Ty Burr, the film critic for The Boston Globe and author of the new book Gods Like Us: On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame. Burr talks about the star-making machine of early Hollywood and so as a little prep-reading, I thought I’d highlight this great piece from The Hairpin about Theda Bara by Anne Helen Petersen that really gets to the strange heart of the Hollywood image factory. “Scandals of Classic Hollywood: The Most Wicked Face of Theda Bara”: This image was unlike any publicity concoction we’ve ever seen. Sure, Hollywood regularly erased stars’ histories, but rarely as boldly, and with such little concern for credibility, as it did with Bara’s. Fox didn’t just give Bara a new name or a new ethnicity, it made her a creature of the underworld. Sure, part of this was just good, old-fashioned publicity playfulness, with the majority of the American public in on the joke. But part of it — namely, the conflation of ethnicity with sexuality and “otherness” — was a manifestation of the Western obsession with “Orientalism,” sometimes known as “white people fetishizing Eastern cultures to reaffirm their own whiteness.” Her success, in other words, was part of a large-scale desire to look at otherness while simultaneously disavowing it in oneself — a complicated psychic process not unlike that of watching most reality television.

nprfreshair:

Today on the show, Terry is talking with Ty Burr, the film critic for The Boston Globe and author of the new book Gods Like Us: On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame. Burr talks about the star-making machine of early Hollywood and so as a little prep-reading, I thought I’d highlight this great piece from The Hairpin about Theda Bara by Anne Helen Petersen that really gets to the strange heart of the Hollywood image factory.

“Scandals of Classic Hollywood: The Most Wicked Face of Theda Bara”:

This image was unlike any publicity concoction we’ve ever seen. Sure, Hollywood regularly erased stars’ histories, but rarely as boldly, and with such little concern for credibility, as it did with Bara’s. Fox didn’t just give Bara a new name or a new ethnicity, it made her a creature of the underworld. Sure, part of this was just good, old-fashioned publicity playfulness, with the majority of the American public in on the joke. But part of it — namely, the conflation of ethnicity with sexuality and “otherness” — was a manifestation of the Western obsession with “Orientalism,” sometimes known as “white people fetishizing Eastern cultures to reaffirm their own whiteness.” Her success, in other words, was part of a large-scale desire to look at otherness while simultaneously disavowing it in oneself — a complicated psychic process not unlike that of watching most reality television.

Link
March 25, 2013
16 notes
USA.gov: Don't Drive or Walk Through Flooded Roads. Turn Around. Don't Drown.

usagov:

Flooding can occur in almost every part of the U.S. and during any month. In 2012, 39 percent of flood fatalities occurred from driving into flood water and 18 percent from walking into it.

If you’re driving or walking and encounter flood water, turn around. Don’t drown.

It only takes six…

Link
March 21, 2013
157 notes
USA.gov: Preserving Family Papers and Photos

usagov:

From the Preservation Division at the National Archives

This Thursday the National Archives holds its Preservation EXPO in Washington DC so you can learn more about how to preserve a whole range of media that document family history as well as our national history.

We would love to have you…

Photo
March 20, 2013
277 notes
wnycradiolab: chris-isnt-famous: “Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up. Well, maybe once.” - Isaac Asimov Reasons to envy Issac Asimov: Concetration Mutton chops Isaac Asimov’s books allowed me to understand physics and raised my interest in chemistry.

wnycradiolab:

chris-isnt-famous:

“Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up. Well, maybe once.” - Isaac Asimov

Reasons to envy Issac Asimov:

  1. Concetration
  2. Mutton chops

Isaac Asimov’s books allowed me to understand physics and raised my interest in chemistry.