Rosa Parks would have turned 100 on Monday the 4th of February. Gwen Ifills corrects some misconceptions about her, & throws some more light on the spirited person who lit the fuse of the Civil Rights movement.
The Spy Novelist who knows too much [Article]
Imagine churning out 200 spy novels over a period of 50 years. You have to have either a very lucid & vivid imagination, or a great source of ideas, or both. You also are pretty old. Gerad de Villiers, a 83 year old French spy novelist was recently featured on the NYTimes as the Spy Novelist who knows too much. Discover the extent of his connections, & why he’s never become famous in the other parts of the spy novel loving world.
XKCD usually nails it, as with this one [Philosophy or Cartoon?]
Another astute observation by XKCD on herd mentality:
What we remember …[Article]
is not the same as what actually happened, says Neurologist Oliver Sacks on Memory, Plagiarism, and the Necessary Forgettings of Creativity.. We necessarily forget the sources of our information – if as humans we were to tag the sources of our information, we would soon breakdown, overwhelmed with irrelevant information.
The Church and its stance on rape [News article]
The older I get, the more the Catholic Church’s actions befuddle me. In Brazil, the Church has excommunicated the mother of a 9 year old rape victim for approving abortion, & the doctor who performed the medical procedure on the child. The man accused of the rape however has not been excommunicated. The explanation from church is, well, you make up your mind. Does progress mean embracing a newer set of superstitions?
Letter to Applebee’s boss [Letters]
You may (or may not) have missed an small but bizarre news report out of the US: When pastor Ms Alois Bell who was at an Applebee’s restaurant got the bill, instead of either leaving a tip or just ignoring it, she wrote “I give God 10%, why should you get 18%’ referring to the 18% tip printed on the bill. The poor waitress posted a picture of the bill on a social networking site (with no other reference than the customer’s signature). Applebee’s decided that the act was worthy of the watiress’ dismissal. The dismissal prompted a backlash against Applebee’s action, including this letter from a Michael T Zybura, a furious regular customer who is also a part-time pizza delivery guy.
Charles Dickens note to his youngest son [Letters]
Timesless advice from Charles Dickens to his son, Edward Bulwer Lytton, fondly referred to as Plorn, upon his departure to Australia.
Hand Sanitizer [Cartoon]
An astute observation by XKCD about hand santizers.
Google Street View Takes You on a Panoramic Tour of the Grand Canyon [Maps, Article]
Google Maps takes you on a panoramic view of the Grand Canyon. Click on the ‘behind the scenes‘ button at the top of that page, and discover how a team of 15 managed to compile this for the benefit of the rest of the world who may never get to see the Grand Canyon.
I am sorry for your loss [Letters of note]
The bulk of the medical profession separate their emotions from the patients that they treat. There are exceptions however, as this heartfelt letter from a doctor to the husband of a lady who recently passed away, demonstrates.