Best of the Week #33

This week was not exactly my best...but it’s finally Friday and as the weekend looms I get happier and happier. I have a girls night dinner tonight, then a Greek festival and house party tomorrow – fun! Any good plans on your end?

My most popular post this week was Running v. Jogging. It's a little older, but feel free to continue to weigh in with your opinions - I read all comments!

Extreme Tidying from NPR. I don’t know if this is real or not, but either way it’s interesting! Pretty much the total opposite of my life.

Last night I saw Machine Gun Preacher, the new Gerard Butler movie. I thought it was controversial but also pretty good – go see it and let me know what you think! I spend a lot of work-time thinking and learning about the area in the movie (northern Uganda and South Sudan).

Machine Gun Preacher is the inspirational true story of Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing criminal who undergoes an astonishing transformation and finds an unexpected calling as the savior of hundreds of kidnapped and orphaned children.

This post shows what sounds animals make in different languages. So for example, in America ducks say “quack quack.” In China they say “gua gua.” And in Hebrew they say “ga ga ga.”

I love spoken word poetry. Omekongo performed at my office yesterday and it was really powerful. I can’t find video of the poem he did, but watch this video of one at a rally I attended in front of the White House back in July. (The poem starts at 1:30.)

From The Economist, The World’s Biggest Employers. Top three are US Department of Defense, China’s People’s Liberation Army, and Walmart.

This one may be old news, but I just found it and I’m amused. BP Spills Coffee. 

These pictures show Japan just after the earthquake contrasted with how the area looks now.  It starts off showing you the “After Quake” view, click on the “Now” button on the top right to see how things have changed.

Random and yet adorable: Slow Loris Getting Brushed. Go here to watch it.


This is random and hilarious - Amish mugshots! "Outlaw Gang ‘The Amish Eight’ Jailed For Failing to Adhere to Basic Buggy Safety Laws."

From the comments: "And we're sure these guys aren't really hobbits, right? I guess with the facial hair and all, they might be dwarves instead. Whatever the case may be, I believe they should be extradited back to Middle Earth."

I have certain friends to whom this type of technology might be relevant…"New emotion detector can see when we're lying.”

British scientists have developed a new lie detection test using a heat camera that records the flow of blood around the eyes.

And finally, The world’s funniest analogies from the Annual English Teachers' awards for best student metaphors/analogies found in actual student papers. Some of my personal favorites:

• The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
• From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30.
• The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

Alright, enough is enough. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on Monday!