Wonkblog's graphs of the year

For some reason I've really been letting this blog languish. I suspect that it's because in the age of Twitter, it is largely redundant. But I still find many interesting things out there on the web, and I guess I will continue to link to them. In any case, I've been finding the Washington Post's Wonkblog's "Graphs of the Yea.r" accessible and sometimes eye-opening. Believe me when I tell you that I am no expert when it comes to graph reading, but these are interesting even to me. The first one that caught my eye was Jonathan Franzen's graph of Causes of Annual Bird Mortality, but there are many by other famous people in all fields. The latest update as of this writing is from Vaclav Smil, graphing the prices of oil vs. natural gas. It has links to some of the others at the end, and you can find it HERE. 

Tiny home--on wheels

Not keeping up very well with this blog lately for some reason, but it's not because there's lack of amazing stuff out there. This photo-story of the ultimate small home really caught my fancy. I found it through the website TakePart. Have a look.

Vladamir Putin's Regime--a Timeline of Repression

Vladimir Putin was nominated for Prime Minister in 1999. Amnesty International has a timeline up about just how bad that's been for Russian civil liberties ever since. Although we tend to get caught up in the latest infringement-- the imprisonment of the members of Pussy Riot or  the erosion of LGBT rights as highlighted by the upcoming Olympics, sometimes its instructive to see the broader context. Check it out HERE. 

Doctors Without Borders: The Fight for Affordable Treatment

Doctors Without Borders just made this video available of a live webcast they did last week and which I watched at the time. It's a panel discussion  centering around a documentary that's coming out now called Fire in the Blood, which is about how many millions of people died in Africa of HIV/AIDS when a treatment regimen was available. I really got a lot out of listening to this cosmopolitan, congenial, and dedicated group and I think you will too.

doctorswithoutborders on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

"The bravery and foolishness of the youth is not something to be toyed with.”

"The bravery and foolishness of the youth is not something to be toyed with.”
~ Leslie Norman, ECSU student on the Rachel Maddow show 8/22/13

I was walking out of the room as I heard this said on the Rachel Maddow show. It was a bit of a sound bite and I never actually saw the speaker. This was in the context of a section of the show about the voter's rights battle in North Carolina. Nevertheless, I was struck by the precision and eloquence of the statement.

I'm not so  naïve as to think that voting is always a fair fight, but I thought that at least people would pretend to play on a level playing field.

Youth, I guess it's up to you to change that.

  

 

Case of the Vanishing Netflix queue

Netflix decided that you would rather have their ideas of what you'd like to see than your own accumulated list. And maybe that's true, but maybe it isn't. In case it isn't, Slate has very kindly posted the simple instructions for getting your instant queue back.

This was one of those rare cases where someone gave me an easy solution before I even knew there was a problem.

Jane Goodall Institute's Tchimpounga Sanctuary

Just got an email from the Jane Goodall Institute about one of their newest arrivals, a one armed orphan named Anpac. This led me to take a look over at their website, as well as to some of their videos.