My experience as a nurse on Christmas Island [Article]

Worth a read  - the viciousness of recent developments from a country that ought to be magnanimous, as seen through the eyes of a nurse looking after the victims..

Mark Twain's aim at some literary greats [Article]

"Mark Twain’s Viciously Funny Marginalia Took Aim at Some Literary Greats" - notes from the margins.

How the US media would cover Thanksgiving if it happened elsewhere [Article]

The language of news when its "them".

My Big 10 inch..record of the band that played the blues [Music]

Time for unwinding - Bull Moose Jackson

Kurt Vonnegut's first public reading "Breakfast of Champions" [Audio, LInk]

This is the very first public reading by Kurt Vonnegut of the classic Breakfast of Champions, three years before it was published. Vonnegut appeared at 92Y a total of seven times and he had much admiration for the audience at the corner of 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue.  Add 92Y to your list of sites if you're interested in literature/ poetry/ biography etc.

Wheelchair inspiration [Video]

When falling off a wheelchair feels pretty good, like a cup of good coffee

A Thanksgiving letter to the family [Letters]

Margaret & Helen's blog is always full of interesting views on life. I guess it helps that in your eighties, you've seen it all before. Every year, Margaret writes a letter to the family - and is happy for the interested parties in the rest of the world to read it too. Here's the 2013 version.

For the mathematically inclined: Stop and smell the factors [Video]

A lovely explanation called "How I feel about algorithms". Even if you hate math, watch this video to see beauty in numbers.

Latest Revelations concerning the NSA, a division of the Claus Industries [Humor]

T Rob has the scoop:

It was revealed today in secret documents leaked to this reporter that the US National Security Agency (NSA) is actually a division of Claus Industries, LLC, a company synonymous with its eponymous founder and CEO, Santa Claus....Years ago, as world population rose beyond Santa’s ability to personally keep track of all of us, he first subcontracted, then eventually built his own surveillance teams.  Over the last decade, dedicated Claus Industries surveillance teams have been deployed to every country around the globe, all of them posing as government spy agencies.

The Shepherd who Twittered - [Article]

Herdy Shepherd who is a shepherd, & a late Twitter adopter, writes about his experiences with the technology. An engaging read:

If you spend your life working with sheep in the fells (what you’d call mountains) you perhaps don't really need to be 'connected' and you probably don't have time for, or need to have, fancy techno gadgets in your pocket. Our world is one of mountains, meadows, dry-stone-walls, sheep, sheepdogs and managing the landscape much as our ancestors have done over many centuries (it’s being nominated for World Heritage status because of its unique landscape culture).

Predictably Irrational: Dan Ariely [Article]

Dan Ariely sheds some great insights into what drives our irrationally rational behavior. Mr. Money Moustache links to this article from the good professor. If you have the time or inclination, I highly recommend this course, titled Introduction to Behavioral Economics

on Training [Image]

On the subject of to-do-lists [Article]

Bob Fulghum has his say:

Like most people I maintain an active Things-To-Do list.
But that’s not my only list – there are others.
Like The Things-I-Will- Do-Tomorrow-Whenever-Tomorrow-Comes list.
And the Things-I-Should-Have-Done-By-Now-But-Don’t-Want-To-Do list.
Plus the list of things I actually did, but in a half-assed way, knowing I should have got somebody who knows what they’re doing to do it.
There’s also a reality list of Things-I-Know-I’m-Never-Going-To-Do.

Conductor Erich Leinsdorf breaks the news of Kennedy's assassination [Audio]

A recording of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s live reaction (and audience reaction) to JFK’s assassination:

 “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a press report over the wireless. We hope that it is unconfirmed, but we have to doubt it. That the president of the United States has been the victim of an assassination. We will play the funeral march from Beethoven’s Third Symphony.”

This is how you die [Video]

Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable MACHINE OF DEATH edited by Matthew Bennardo, Ryan North, and David Malki

The necessary art of subtraction [Article]

Leo Babuata asks what can you let go of in your present circumstances?

The tendency of our lives, businesses, art, is to keep adding: more furniture, clothes, gadgets, tasks, appointments, features to websites and apps, words to our writing.

I have a list of things I'd like to stop doing, and I keep adding to it :)

Rejection letters sent to three famous artists [Article]

From Open Culture: Sylvia Plath, Kurt Vonnegut & Andy Warhol all received multiple rejection letters throughout their careers, and here are those that each one received.

The importance of education [Letters of note]

Alexander Coward's email to his students insisting that they turn up to class despite his colleagues going on strike has gone viral.

...do not fall into the trap of thinking that you focusing on your education is a selfish thing. It’s not a selfish thing. It’s the most noble thing you could do.
Society is investing in you so that you can help solve the many challenges we are going to face in the coming decades, from profound technological challenges to helping people with the age old search for human happiness and meaning.
That is why I am not canceling class tomorrow. Your education is really really important, not just to you, but in a far broader and wider reaching way than I think any of you have yet to fully appreciate. 

Voltaire on the Perils of Censorship, the Freedom of the Press, and the Rewards of Reading [Article]

Voltaire's birthday occurs around this time (Nov 21), & is as good a reason as any to read this.

Doris Lessing in conversation with Bill Moyers [Interview]

I'm fascinated with this lady who I'd never heard of until she passed. Listen to this interview with Bill Moyers. & her reaction to winning the Nobel Prize for Literature