My response to the original poster's call for "radical kindness":

"ultimately i think kindness is the most radical thing you can do with your pain and your anger. it’s like, you take everything awful that’s ever been done to you, and you throw it back in the world’s teeth, and you say no, fuck you, i’m not going to take this. you say this is ( Read more... )

Just watched the PBS Hamilton musical documentary, and it made me cry all over again to witness the genius that went into making this brilliant show. I got to relive in some small way that once-in-a-lifetime experience. And I realized - this right here is the parallel experience with those lucky few who got to see Shakespeare’s plays live, the ( Read more... )

UN Women's Global Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson just gave a talk to the UN at a special event for the HeForShe campaign at the United Nations' Headquarters in New York on September 20, 2014. This is a brilliant speech. Here it is:

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Some important callouts ( Read more... )

You might already knew about this, but Neil deGrasse Tyson is reprising Carl Sagan's most-awesome-ever program, Cosmos! It'll show on both the FOX network and National Geographic TV starting next spring.

More details:

"More than three decades after the debut of Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, Carl Sagan's stunning and iconic exploration of the ( Read more... )

Now for some fun, especially for those who've watched HBO's "Game of Thrones" show.

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And they've also posted Episode 2:

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For some reason, this reminds me of the movie "Heathers," which
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The revolution will not be televised. The revolution is live.This is fascinating. I've been wondering for a while now why Jabulani Leffall has not been the voice of KCUR's "Central Standard," the show he took over a couple years ago when its long-time host Walt Bodine lost his ability to think clearly (a useful trait for a talk-show host). But the ( Read more... )

This is one of the most-charming family car stories ever. My cheeks are damp ( Read more... )

Fascinating. This is the oldest piece of music known to humankind, originally engraved in cuneiform on a tablet from 1400 BCE, excavated in the early 1950s in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit. It is a hymn to the moon god's wife, Nikal. The tablets also contain detailed performance instructions for a singer accompanied by a harpist (this recording ( Read more... )

First up, new research suggests that 2.7% Of Drivers Are Stupid Jerks, Will Go Out of Their Way to Kill Turtles. This is a follow-up to another study, 2.7% of Drivers Are Stupid Jerks. Both studies find that about 2.7% of drivers intentionally swerve in an attempt to kill box turtles or other reptiles.

( Read more... )

Conservatives in the US - especially of the evangelical-Christian variety - have been wailing about our nation's plight in this week since the election proved Romney is no kind of savior. An author whose blog I watch (largely out of "I want to understand the other side" motivation) recently linked to this post by a religious teacher trying to ( Read more... )