Lots of good things on the internet today, people, but I like this one the best:

I am spending a lot of time on-line, because it is just to unbelievably soupy to do much else. This has got to be the worst summer ever. I had the windows open for a couple of hours a couple of days ago, but it just made it like a sauna in here, so the a/c has been on for well over a week. I am going to have the electric bill of the century. I hope things are better where you are, unless you are one of the crazy people who likes this stuff. Sticky, enervating, miserable-making. Not my thing.

Update: Then there’s this:

Animated Van Goghs

Both are from Gizmodo.com

Perhaps Pippa Middleton felt she needed to get out from under her married-up sister’s shadow or maybe she’s always had an urge to create, but whatever the impulse, Middleton cranked out a book full of cooking and entertaining tips entitled “Celebrate: A Year of Festivities for Family and Friends.”

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this. Plenty of people on various tiers of celebrity have written and published books, capitalizing on their fame. The problem was that Middleton’s book was aimed at a very niche audience for which her title would be their first book on entertaining and, quite possibly, their first book ever.

Middleton’s well-meaning but entirely vapid Celebrate offered the following “tips” to would-be celebrators.

For Hallowe’en, how about pumpkin soup served in a hollowed-out pumpkin?

To stop cakes going stale, she advises storing them in something called “an airtight tin”, while hot drinks for picnics should be poured from flasks into “mugs or paper cups”.

Elsewhere, she explains the rules of a game of conkers and the correct way to toast marshmallows over a fire, a process that involves using “a long-handled fork” and “flames”.

Could it be more basic? Why not try roasting a turkey for Christmas or lighting small candles on a cake to celebrate a birthday? Hey, here’s another crazeee idea — what about making pancakes for Pancake Day?

As the reviewer notes, it’s the perfect book for someone who’s misplaced their recipe for ice. This glossy set of sub-common-sense instructions was soon being parodied by @Pippatips on Twitter. As can clearly be seen by the profile, it’s a parody account.

This account was soon dispensing pearls of wisdom on par with Middleton’s book to over 50,000 followers.

if you’re shopping on a budget, try purchasing things that cost less to buy

commuting can be a useful way of travelling between home and work, and even back home again

make it easier for your friends to enjoy TV shows they haven’t watched yet by telling them what happens

enhance the effectiveness of appliances such as dishwashers by actually turning them on

if someone suggests place mats or coasters as a present for someone smile politely and keep looking for something nice.

From Here:Pippa

So I’m watching Curiosity Quest on PBS and they are doing a show about recycling polystyrene lunch trays. What? What happened to hard reusable lunch trays? How is disposable better? How much money does it save to use all the resources to make the trays, toss or recycle, repeat? Is it the usual short-term convenience and long-term environmental disaster? Does anyone care? Why didn’t he ask about reusable last forever lunch trays? What is wrong with this picture? I think my mind has bit the dust. Again, I despair. Yes. Yes I do.

Looking for a picture for this, came up with this page instead:

lunch trays

About multiracial commercial

I sent an email to General Mills in favor of the ad, and they even responded, thanking me. Not why I sent it, I’m sure all the ‘anti-everything humanity should stand for idiots’ emailed, so I wanted to be one voice in favor of being inclusive.

This is a link.  Click on it:

Apple Commercial

I’ve always kind of had the same thought about cameras. People are so focused on getting the picture that they are missing the actual experience they are photographing or taping. I used to see this on vacation all the time. I’d be feeling the mist from the wave breaking, smelling the pine forest, whatever, and people around me were focusing on focusing their camera. Missing life. It’s kind of sad, but at the same time, if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t see snaps or film of things I would not even have known existed, or places I’ll never get to. It’s a puzzlement.

A quote (I asked permission) from a comment on another blog, slightly paraphrased:

“When people don’t have to vote, guess who votes? The ones with an extreme view. So instead of getting people elected who will contribute to the nation, you get those with extreme platforms who will suck in the voters with their extreme views…” ozdobe

This is true in all levels of government. Even school board meetings have people with agendas who go push them in at the expense of the children. Been to at least one of those, voting for reason, but not enough reasonable voters bothered to show up. It matters who you vote for, people. I cannot say this enough. You have to vote, and know who you’re voting for, or we wind up where we are right now. Right-wing fanatics, religious zealots, seemingly uneducated idiots who do not have the ability to think or reason. We get what we deserve, and if we don’t turn out for what’s right, well……

Read your history of the extreme right, and see how it works. Start small, in school boards and small town government, and work your way up until you are running most of the country. Or, spend your time thinking about what Justin Beiber did or didn’t do. Sheesh!

BTW, picture has nothing to do with post, obviously, but it’s just hot and sticky and I am sick of it.  🙂

This is kind of long, but you can skip to around 4:30 to get the real point.

Seriously? Check This Out

“Every life matters” until it needs food stamps, or affordable medical care, or a decent education. Wendy Davis may have started out in less-than-optimal circumstances, but she went on to change her life for the better. Rick Perry may have started out life as a dick, but he hasn’t changed at all. Once a ‘patronizing, condescending, holier than thou, better than you’ dick, always a ‘patronizing, condescending, holier than thou, better than you’ dick.

From here: The Backlot

Greg Gutfield on Fox News The Five calls the striking down of DOMA a conservative victory. “I feel this is a huge conservative victory, because you can no longer deprive someone of an extremely traditional value that makes your life better. Talking about myself, marriage to my wife made me a better man. I want to impose that value on others, because that’s what rightwingers do.”

Two days on 5 mg. Woke up today with all of the pain back. Very upsetting. Back to hobbling around like a 99-year old. Called the doctor, back to 7 1/2 mg for a month. One week and then drop is clearly too quick a cut-back. Don’t know what I would have done if he just wanted me to stay that way. I don’t think I could face going back to the constant pain, not being able to do anything, barely able to walk with a cane. Very, very upsetting.

I did work today. Actual, real, work. Something I’ve not been able to do since it all went to hell the Monday after Thanksgiving. A long time to be in constant pain, let me tell you. So doctor wants me to cut back to 5mg Prednisone for the next month. I hope, hope, hope that this doesn’t make the good go away again. It is so great to actually be able to do something. My homemaker and I cleaned the bedroom, redid the bed’s many mattress components (futon mattress, another futon mattress, memory foam, feather bed.) Rearranged a couple of things. I am still standing, still have energy, still ready and able to do more. I cannot even tell you how great this feels. I will never be ‘normal’ again, but functional at any degree is….wow. I want to cook. I have several things in mind that I have all the ingredients for, but most of them involve the oven, and we are in a heat, humidity, bad air situation and I am NOT turning the oven on. The air conditioner has to work hard enough as it is. Oh, well. I am a happy camper today, people. Yes. Yes I am.

1. The difference in time between when the Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Stegosaurus lived is greater than the difference in time between when the Tyrannosaurus Rex lived and now.

Awww. Who doesn’t love a little TRex?

So today I had another email from MoveOn.org letting me know that I can start a petition for free, no strings attached, should I so desire to do so. I would love to start a petition asking the government to fund schools better, with a particular emphasis on money to teach critical thinking skills, which I believe are sadly lacking in the good ole USA. But I don’t think enough people would get it. Understand it, I mean, or the reasons it is necessary.

Makes you think. Yes. Yes it does.

Feminism

From here:  http://www.thebacklot.com/meme-katy-perry-josh-duggar-family-research-council-armie-hammer-judi-dench/06/2013/

We’ve talked about 16-year-old Jake Andraka before, when he invented a cheap, accurate test for cancer. He doesn’t think he’s all that smart though. “I wouldn’t call myself smart. “I know people who are way smarter. But … I guess it’s how you use information. It’s about creativity rather than facts. I’m a creative thinker. My parents never told me answers. They told me how to think, not what to think. I disagree with our bulimic education system: learning by rote and then puking up all the facts in an exam.” A rather clueless reporter then asked him if he ever got into trouble with girls or alcohol, and Andraka didn’t even blink. “I’m gay, so no. And I wouldn’t know where to find alcohol.”

A great youtube channel.  Really.  Check it out:

Science Stated Clearly
 

Edit:  And who doesn’t love Tim Minchin?

Tim Minchin