amazing what technology can do - put you back in pompeii!  watch the destruction of pompeii as they believe it happened.  i was captivated!

an amazing a cappella rendition of "loch loman," which makes me yearn HARD for my live music on saturday nights at favorite irish pub in atlanta.

it also makes me yearn hard for more travel.  mexico for a week this summer is potentially in the works, but i need to get back to europe soon.

well, i cried my way through this one: my wife and i are (both) pregnant.  beautiful!

exam day procrastination

all politicians lie.  some lie more than others.

coincidence that the democrats are at the bottom of the list?  i think not.  now bernie, 28% isn't good, but i'll take it in comparison to some of the others on this list...

how to lose weight in 4 easy steps (not safe for work)

hilarious and beautiful, and not what you're expecting.  read it!

a beautiful chart, and a great list of 21st century books to read.  i've read (and loved!) a lot of books on this list!

the fact-based sassiness of this article pleases me: what donald trump was up to while john mccain was a prisoner of war

the late, great stephen colbert - this is a truly remarkable article.  interesting in what you learn about how he's transitioning to the late show, but don't read it for that.  read it for the second half, where he talks about love and loss and being grateful.  i don't think i'll ruin things by sharing the last paragraph:

The next thing he said I wrote on a slip of paper in his office and have carried it around with me since. It's our choice, whether to hate something in our lives or to love every moment of them, even the parts that bring us pain. “At every moment, we are volunteers.”

or sharing this, from a few paragraphs earlier:

I asked him if he could help me understand that better, and he described a letter from Tolkien in response to a priest who had questioned whether Tolkien's mythos was sufficiently doctrinaire, since it treated death not as a punishment for the sin of the fall but as a gift. “Tolkien says, in a letter back: ‘What punishments of God are not gifts?’ ” Colbert knocked his knuckles on the table. “ ‘What punishments of God are not gifts?’ ” he said again. His eyes were filled with tears. “So it would be ungrateful not to take everything with gratitude. It doesn't mean you want it. I can hold both of those ideas in my head.”

beautiful and thoughtful.  read this article.

this is my life:

chilly at work?  office formula was designed for men

except not right now.  the air conditioning broke in my office, so right now i have fans (plural) aimed at me while they order a new part that they need.  ugh.

a fascinating article: this is what happens to your heart when you dive into the sea.

"The moment your face submerges in the sea’s salty waters, a Hulk-like metamorphosis will trigger. Blood will begin rushing from your hands and feet, up your legs and arms, and into your core; your heart rate will reflexively lower 25% its normal rate; your mind will enter a meditative, almost dreamlike-state. If you choose to dive deeper, the transformation will grow more profound until you bear only a passing resemblance to your terrestrial form. You will become a water animal — a fish, essentially. Scientists call this transformation the mammalian dive reflex or, more lyrically, the Master Switch of Life."

"Human blood has a chemical composition 98% similar to seawater. An infant will reflexively breaststroke when placed underwater and can comfortably hold his breath for about 40 seconds, longer than many adults. We lose this ability only when we learn how to walk."

exam week procrastination

7 travel inventions i'd love to see (but probably never will) - i am totally entertained.

you draw it: how family income affects children's college chances - this is both fascinating and not surprising.

how to create a cheese plate for every possible occasion - more funny than instructive...but also instructive.

last!  day!  with!  students!  (until august 17.)

HILARIOUS - i was laughing out loud, which either means it is truly funny or i am truly weird.  two medieval monks invent dinner parties

(one instance of bad language, so be slightly warned.)

preach it, mark bittman: let them eat foie gras

(vegetarian rant over.)

love this! a dad is hilariously illustrating the things his 3-year-old says

fascinating - 150 people is it! forget facebook, abandon instagram, move to a village

i love this - 51 of the most beautiful sentences in literature.  i can't even pick a favorite.

your internet procrastination for the day:

baby + dog in the same costumes = adorable

brooklyn magazine thinks these are the best books to represent each state - i love it!  i've read 19 of them, which makes me think i should become best friends with the author of this piece, since we have similar taste in books.  i'm adding a few from this list into my amazon wishlist!

i found this article fascinating - who knew i would want to read all the way to the end of a long-ish article about bananas? how the global banana industry is killing the world's favorite fruit

archeology is amazing: richard III really ate (and drank) like a king

really interesting, and something i hadn't thought of: the cold, hard truth about the ice bucket challenge

how to tell someone's age when all you know is her name

fivethirtyeight hits it out of the park with this one - i love it!  statistics + pop culture = awesome.