via @randomdeanna

If you're a Kindle owner, xkcd has invented what you need for the ultimate read-in-bed-and-fall-asleep experience. Check it out.

Here's a wonderful story about 2 girls who made a huge difference in their community.

Think one or two people can't make a difference?

Then you don't know about Amanda Huhman and Libby Burks.

The two animal lovers double-handedly rallied an entire community to support a cause they believe in. Because of their efforts, the deteriorating, crammed-full Central Missouri Humane Society won a nationwide shelter-makeover contest Monday worth up to $1 million in cash and services.

Did I mention yet that Amanda and Libby are 13 years old? [...]

The seventh-graders, who have been volunteer dog-walkers and kitty-cuddlers at the shelter since age 9, got it into their heads in January that their coming-apart-at-the-seams shelter was the perfect candidate for the Zootoo makeover contest they read about in a magazine. They approached the shelter director to get her blessing and then they got to work.

The rest, as they say, is history.

But that's not to suggest it was easy.

By the time the girls had learned about the contest, conducted by Zootoo, an online community of animal lovers, it had already been going on for months. Late-starter CMHS was in 859th place in mid-January.

The article goes on to outline all the girls did and their activities could serve as a guide for any successful community effort.

Is there a chance this could have happened without the efforts of the two girls? "That's a big, fat, absolute no," [shelter director] Forister declares. The two teens were a compelling catalyst who presented a case in ways officialdom couldn't.

The girls are "personable and professional," says Forister, and "their enthusiasm was absolutely infectious." [...]

Forister regards all that has happened in four short months as an object lesson for parents ... for the world, really. "If a child wants to do something she's passionate about, supporting that effort and watching it bloom can bring unimaginable reward."

Way to go girls. Congratulations to you and to your parents who gave you a terrific foundation of values and support from which to act.

Here's an interesting post by a former law clerk of Justice O'Connor.

An interesting look at the daily routines of writers, artists and assorted other creatives and charismatic leaders.

It's delightful.

Her Morning Elegance
Directed by: Oren Lavie, Yuval & Merav Nathan
Featuring: Shir Shomron
Photography: Eyal Landesman
Color: Todd Iorio at Resolution
© 2009 A Quarter Past Wonderful

"Her Morning Elegance" written and produced by Oren Lavie, from the Oren Lavie album The Opposite Side of the Sea
© 2009 A Quarter Past Wonderful/Adrenaline under license from Tuition

I watched this all the way through 3 times in a row. I thought the digital touchups at the end were most interesting. It should be required viewing for all young American girls.

This photoblog post reminds me of Wisconsin winters. There is beauty and if you're dressed for the weather, you can even stand to be out in it and enjoy it. Though I do have to say that standing outside for 5 hours during cross-country ski races waiting for my kids to come in did stretch the comfort end of it a little.

Looks like they were bored in the print shop. [via]

Totally frivolous and yet not. Here's this morning's interviews with the two immigrant designers who were surprised to see Michelle Obama wearing their designs yesterday.

The fact that Obama discovered Wu by herself and called him to design a ball gown made the moment special, he said.

"That's so magical," Wu told Vieira. "As an immigrant, that's such an important thing to me. I'm living a dream that so many people have."

Here's some perspective from fashion insiders about Michelle's choices.

Ran across this website, largehearted boy, while googling for a solution to something else.

It's a blog focused on music and dvds and includes among other things, weekly lists of free and legal music releases to download, dvds to be released, etc. I found it via this post which mentions all the places that he's been written up.

Looks like a good place to spend a few hours.

NORAD tracks Santa. Too bad this wasn't around when my kids were awaiting Santa.

And the history of this 50-year tradition:

Last year, NORAD's Santa tracking center answered 94,000 calls and responded to 10,000 e-mails. About 10.6 million visitors went to the Web site, which can be viewed in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese and Chinese.

NORAD's holiday tradition can by traced to 1955, when a Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears, Roebuck & Co. ad telling children of a phone number to talk to Santa. The number was one digit off, and the first child to get through reached the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.

Col. Harry W. Shoup answered.

Shoup's daughter, Terri Van Keuren, said her dad, now 91, was surprised to hear that the little voice on the other end thought he was Santa.

"Dad thought, `What the heck? This must be some kind of code,'" said Van Keuren, 59.

Shoup, described by his daughter as "just a nut about Christmas," didn't want to break the boy's heart, so he sounded a booming "Ho, ho, ho!" and pretended to be Santa Claus.

Enough calls followed that Shoup assigned an officer to answer them while the problem was fixed. But Shoup and the staff he was directing to "locate" Santa on radar ended up embracing the idea. NORAD picked up the tradition when it was formed 50 years ago.

Swedish scientists have demonstrated one of the brain's more unusual abilities: the brain, "when tricked by optical and sensory illusions, can quickly adopt any other human form, no matter how different, as its own."

The technique is simple. A subject stands or sits opposite the scientist, as if engaged in an interview.. Both are wearing headsets, with special goggles, the scientist's containing small film cameras. The goggles are rigged so the subject sees what the scientist sees: to the right and left are the scientist's arms, and below is the scientist's body.

To add a physical element, the researchers have each person squeeze the other's hand, as if in a handshake. Now the subject can see and "feel" the new body. In a matter of seconds, the illusion is complete. In a series of studies, using mannequins and stroking both bodies' bellies simultaneously, the Karolinska researchers have found that men and women say they not only feel they have taken on the new body, but also unconsciously cringe when it is poked or threatened.

In previous work, neuroscientists have induced various kinds of out-of-body experiences using similar techniques. The brain is so easily tricked, they say, precisely because it has spent a lifetime in its own body. It builds models of the world instantaneously, based on lived experience and using split-second assumptions -- namely, that the eyes are attached to the skull.

The article goes on to discuss possible therapeutic applications, using results developed from virtual reality studies to outline what might be possible.

This is almost unbelievable. Talk about creative in a whole new dimension.

This is pretty amazing video.

Same video replayed a few more times with more information delivered in a slightly snarkier tone courtesy of Countdown.

For the first time, astronomers have captured images of a distant planet in a different galaxy.

Pretty cool stuff.

Miriam Makeba collapsed while giving a concert in Italy on November 9th and died shortly after. People have been remembering her over the last few days. She was more than just a beloved musician. She stood up and spoke out against injustice. Here's a video of her appeal to the United Nations to help her people suffering under apartheid in South Africa.

And I've collected some of the songs that were posted. Here's a live rendition of Under African Skies with Paul Simon:

Miriam Makeba singing her hit "Pata Pata" in 2007

Miriam Makeba with Hugh Masekela- South Africa Freedom Song

Soweto Blues written by Hugh Masekela

As one commenter put it, here's "One of the sexier band introduction segments I have ever seen!"

Here's another song from that appearance at Bern's Salonger: Miriam Makeba - Mayibuye

And another song titled Kilimanjaro

Forbidden Games (lyrics)

When I've Passed On

The African National Anthem: N'Kosi Sikeleli Africa - With Miriam Makeba

[via hairylarry and Deoliver47]

I saw a couple of references to St. Martin's Day on November 11th which is Veteran's Day in the US and I wondered what it was. The Local which provides "Germany's News in English" offers this delightfully-written Q&A on the origin and customs of St. Martin's Day.

The medieval help desk ... users haven't changed. Via David Brin's website

One of my sister-in-laws is a scrapbooker and she's done some wonderful books like the one for our in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary. She even goes away to a scrapbooking house for scrapbooking weekends -- that is, a house specially furnished for scrapbookers who bring their own meals, sleep in dorm style accommodations and spend their days/evenings creating at tables spread all around the communal areas, chatting and drinking wine at night. At any rate, that's my point of exposure to the world of scrapbooking and all the stuff that goes into it.

So my curiosity was piqued when I followed the link for the 7-year-old blogger Stas who got a letter from President-elect Obama about his blogging and encouraging people to vote for Obama. [via]

Clearly the pictures on Stas's blog were not done by Stas and in one of the posts, the following credit appears.

(LO & Photo by Ann Hetzel Gunkel; Digital supplies from Scrap Girls)

So I went to check out Scrap Girls and I'm not sure what to think. Looks like you can pretty up pictures as Stas's mom did for his blog but what else do you do with what you create in digital scrapbooks? Print them?

Unfortunately, you won't learn from this website. Though access to the "raw materials" is there, both free and for a price, there does not appear to be any explanation or FAQ of what one does with digital scrapbooking for people who just wandered across the website without any prior knowledge of the subject. And that's unfortunate, because it looks like it could be interesting for those who are creative or not-so-creative and willing to purchase the building blocks of creative layouts from others.

An interesting history lesson on the White House, here's the original White House television tour conducted by Jackie Kennedy. Huffington Post is polling whether or not Michelle Obama should do another White House tour. [via]