Ebola: Case vs. Case

I'm reviving this somewhat moribund blog to post about some things that need no comment from me. Or the comment lies in the fact that I post them. This one will be about a Slate piece on why one Ebola victim in the U.S. is talked about in a different way than another. Here you go.

Send a message of support to victims of domestic and dating violence

Through TakePart.com, I just learned of a campaign that Verizon is sponsoring in which you send a message of support and Verizon donates three dollars towards domestic and dating violence prevention for every message sent. You can read all about it here, but don't dilly dally, because it only goes through Friday.

 Here's the message I sent:

"Don't give up on yourself, no matter how bleak the situation seems. I was just reading how Nora Barnacle was savagely beaten by her uncle for 'disobeying' him and fled from Galway to Dublin without looking back. Guess what happened to her? She met James Joyce and became one of the most famous muses of all of literature. You just never know."

What will yours be?

Adopt a black dog

I actually was quite upset to find that there may be some sort of discrimination against black animals when people are choosing pets. Or at least so says this recent Slate article . We had pets of many hues when I was growing up, including a calico cat named Mata Hari. But our dog Midnight was one of the sweetest animals, and who could forget our cats Sugarfoot and Twinkletoes? Admittedly, most of our pets came to us by happenstance rather than choice, but still--I don't remember wishing they were of some lighter hue.


I don't live in a place where I have an option to have pets and frankly I don't miss the responsibility, but something about that article really made me want to go out and get a black dog. Why isn't there some equivalent of Black Beauty to be a kind of poster child for the cause?

 

 The image is from a company called Mulberry Interior Design which apparently is not averse to using dogs in their photo shoots. A nice touch, I feel.

nickel slots

Yet another interesting piece over at the Opinionator, this time from Barbara Dafoe Whitehead. She's talking about how the advent of slot machines in more and more communities is really a detriment to the poor.


I'm not much of a gambler, and I'm not saying that that's necessarily a virtue. There are some cases where being less risk averse is better. Some might say that the losses of a gambler are on their own head. But as someone who has spent far too much time playing computer solitaire in the last couple of days, I can't really get down on anyone else's compulsions. Read the article and see if you don't feel like these businesses are preying on people's weaknesses. You can read it HERE .

A thoughtful piece by Jon Mooallam on our interaction with wildlife and how our ability and desire to intervene and not to intervene is on the Opinionater. It involves a nest of baby Bald Eagles. I think one of the most interesting aspects of it was the historical context. We tend to think that our feelings for wild animals are innate, but it seems more likely that they are just the reflection of a current fashion.

World Penguin Day

It's World Penguin Day and it turns out that these adorable creatures need our help. You can go to the Pew Charitable Trusts website to take a fun quiz on "What's Your Penguin Style?"


After that you can sign a quick petition to help them get the marine sanctuaries they so desperately need.

Here's their interactive penguin Who's Who as well.


I'm an Adele penguin, although I had to kind of fib about having any sense of style at all.

What to do about the Heartbeat bug

I just got a link from my web provider, which was not affected by the bug, to Mashable, where they have a list of popular sites that may need new password protection, and I thought I'd pass it along. Here, then,  is the Heartbeat Hit List.


Oh, yeah--and here's a concise, readable article about the problem from Mashable as well.