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Posts tagged ‘sunday reading’

Jan 29

Sunday Reading: Politics, Meat Week, and Celebrity Tweets

And here we are — somehow the last week of Jterm. Well, without further ado, my weekly installment of  random findings/news/musings/things from across the internet. Please enjoy, and stay healthy in this time of lingering gastro-plague!

U.S. Navy Seals: Another reminder of just how incredible our armed forces are this week — Navy Seals this past Wednesday rescued two aid workers who had been held by pirates in Somalia for months. According to reports from NPR and the New York Times, The Seals rescued Jessica Buchanan and Poul Thisted, receiving the OK for the mission after it was determined Buchanan’s health was in decline. Nine pirates were killed; no Seals were injured.

1,000 Pounds of Butter: This year’s Pennsylvania Farm show featured a whopper 1,000 pound butter sculpture of a 4-H member receving a ribbon at the county fair for a prized calf. Coolest part? The sculpture is now going to Juniata County Dairy Farm, where when run through a methane digester to gen. 65-kWh, running the farm for three days. According to the Fair’s report, Sculptor Jim Victor of Conshohocken, Montgomery County according to the Fair’s report also creates sculptures using chooolate and cheese. (Chocolate Mead Chapel anyone?!)

Computer Glitches: Remember that nightmare when you thought your college acceptance letters were actually just mistakes; they must have mailed the wrong one?  Turns out that did unfortunately happen Friday to some Vassar College Early Applicants. According to the New York Times Report, 122 (of 254 total applicants for the early decision round) students logged in to see a ‘test letter’ that had been intended as a placeholder prior to real admissions decisions being posted. Of those 122 who logged in before the error had been discovered, only 46 had been accepted and 76 had not been. All I can say is, thank you Middlebury College Admissions and our amazing Web Designers/Programmers/everyone!

The Little District that Could?: DC this week attempted to begin its quest for statehood in New Hampshire, hoping the ‘no taxation without representation’ would resound with the state. However, according to the Washington Post report, the delegation (a mix of councilmen, DC Mayor Vincent Gray, DC Votes advocates and District residents) received quite the cold reception. The delegation is planning a trip to Florida next.

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Jan 22

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Sunday Reading: Yes, Please Do Talk Nerdy To Me

Hello everyone! So here we are at that midway point of Jterm! Whether the glass seems half-full (finally, skiing with real snow! Time for the hunt!) or half-empty (only two more weeks to deadline…), I hope this installment of Sunday Reading finds you well and fills your metaphorical glass with semi-useful information, a pause of entertainment, and smiles.

Science and Harry Potter: Scientists re-discovered a monkey previously thought to be extinct in the forests of Indonesia. The Miller’s Grizzled Langurs caught researchers by surprise, they had been hunted to near extinction for their meat and bezoar stones in the past. Harry Potter fans, according to the Washington Post, should know of Bezoars from Professor Snape’s lecture to first year students, as they “are believed by some to neutralize poison.”

Environment: As though the environmental movement isn’t young and hip enough — check out the Swap-O-Matic, an eco-friendly vending machine. And also in Environmental news, not only is Midd going to be installing a solar farm (as Middblog reported on earlier this week), but Sweden is exploring installing a four lane bike superhighway!
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Jan 15

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Sunday Reading: Twinkies, Tebow and Hipsters

Hey everybody! After a solid first week of Jterm: be it Death-by-Orgo, non-stop skiing, devoutly working on your “thesis” (watching all of Mad Men) or never leaving Ross (there’s gotta be someone…) I now bring you my weekly installment of news/random stories/whatever I think is interesting outside of the Middlebury world.

MUSIC: Remember “This is How We Do It” and Eiffel 65′s “Blue?” Me either. Thankfully, Thought Catalog’s Chelsea Fagan has assembled a list of the Top 10 Middle school dance jams. You’ll thank me later. Turn up those speakers.

BEAUTIFUL GEEKDOM: Several big ones this week.  (1) Ever wonder what Star Wars characters would look like if they were style-saavy hipsters? Apparently so has John Woo, a Hong-Kong based designer and illustrator. You can find his paintings here. My personal favorite is “Chewbacca with Outdoor Style.” (2) Collider.com reports that the Avengers will be from Captain America’s perspective. Not all too worried about whose perspective its from, just want to see more of this.

WEDDING CRASHING: Now, there’s an app for that too. Crash Corsage (be sure to watch the video demo) deftly uses all of the happy couple’s online info they post about the wedding; the app streams it into an easy-to-navigate format and helps you party the night away. Even better, you can earn points to see where you rank among fellow wedding crashers.

TWINKIES: The news that Hostess filed for bankruptcy was a filing heard round the world, soliciting response from the most prestigious to obscure of news sources. From those who tried to envision a world without Twinkies to NPR’s list of 10 things to do with Twinkies to prove how useful they are, it is clear they are an American cultural icon. Interesting finding: turns out, Twinkies do not dissolve in Mountain Dew, unlike mice (as Pepsi claims).

HAPPINESS: It’s like Thought Catalog just exists to provide me with my favorite articles. Ever wonder the Things You Need In Order To Stay Happy? Or just want confirmation someone agrees with your life philosophy? Definitely read it. Read it now. And read it once more.

TEBOW, FOOTBALL & FATE: Tebow. The amazing man, the myth, the legend. Sadly though, yesterday the Broncos were easily shut down by the Patriots, (45-10) in a highly anticipated playoff game. Blogger Patton Dodd wrote of the match-up between Tebow and Brady in advance of the game: “Brady is the guy every teenage boy wants to be. Tebow is the guy every teenage boy’s mom wants him to be.” Apparently, being a momma’s favorite didn’t serve him too well against the Patriots. The victory has led some to question if God exists, though, I’ll leave that up to you.

COLBERT: As though last week my obsession level wasn’t obsessed enough… this week he definitely deserves his own category. This past Thursday, Colbert handed over his SuperPac to Jon Stewart in order to form an exploratory committee to examine his possible run as a candidate for the President of South Carolina!

And for your video of the week, for all you thesis and ‘independent project’ workers for Jterm — this video goes to you. An oldie-but-goodie AMAZING post-it stop motion animation film about deadlines & the art of procrastination. Enjoy!

Jan 8

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Sunday Reading: Blue Ivy Carter and Resolutions

Hi everyone! Sunday Reading is a Middblog series written by Olivia Noble ’13. Brittany Gendron ’12 is going to take over the series for Jterm while Olivia is abroad.

Welcome back to Sunday Reading! Whether you stayed at Middlebury, traveled round the world or to somewhere just outside of Boston, Happy 2012 and Happy Jterm! So to catch up in case you were without internet for break, or just want to procrastinate unpacking further… let’s hit the highlights. Disclosure: I am writing this on a train, so please excuse any typos.

BLUE IVY CARTER: Generally would steer away from anything people.com but this is huge. Beyonce and Jay-Z are officially the proud parents of their baby girl, Blue Ivy Carter. Welcome to being the most adored child in the world!

POLITICS: After a riveting Iowa caucus with Mitt Romney edging out Santorum for the victory by only EIGHT VOTES AND Bachmann withdrawing her candidacy after finishing sixth of six – Romney now holds a McCain endorsement. The next few weeks, especially with the NH primary Tuesday, are sure to be interesting!

TRAVEL: The New York Times’ 45 Places to go in 2012 List is not to be missed. With everywhere from Space to Tennessee, if you don’t have a bucket list or are looking to add onto yours, this is a great place to start.

DEAR BLANK PLEASE BLANK: Welcome to the grown up, worldwide Middfesh. Just in time for jterm, share those unsaid notes y’all. Started by two Seattlite’s it’s moderated by a cat, Louie. Best part? You can sort by “How dare they,” “Hilarious,” “Umm… WTF?!” and more. Bookmark it now.

SPORTS: OMG FOOTBALL/NHL. Giants. Broncos. Capitals. Rose Bowl. (If you have yet to catch on, sports is a category I’m still working on… until I learn more for next week, find real coverage here).

COLBERT: For everyone who can never get enough Colbert, but finds it mildy eerie/awesome how he saved an Olympic Team and now owns a SuperPac, this is a really interesting piece from the NY Times that asks “How Many Stephen Colberts Are There?”  You’ll just have to read and find out!

THOUGHT CATALOG AND RESOLUTIONS: Hate ’em or love ‘em, it’s never to a new year without them! Thought Catalog, fortunately, has your back whether you’re pro or con. Great list of 20 New Years Resolutions for 20-somethings if you’re still looking or want to start again! Or find justification in skipping the resolution thing and as blogger Ryan suggests, “Make some bad decisions tonight and blame it all on me, honey.”

And for your video of the week, from our dear Olivia, check out some great Home Video Commentaries!

Dec 11

Sunday Reading: We’re Always One Step Behind

Hey everybody, so finals are here and they are here to stay.  We could all pretend for awhile that this day wasn’t coming, but, as days tend to do, it has come.  But you know… you could always procrastinate more and play guess-the-Disney-lyrics-with-no-context games on Sporcle for about an hour.  Or you could read some of these links. Your choice.

MUSIC: So I know this isn’t new news, but someone recently shared this article with me, and I think it’s wonderful- What happens when you have a world-class violinist play in the Metro in DC?

MEDICINE: Gene therapy has made significant breakthrough in curing hemophilia B.  Researchers successfully treated six patients suffering from the blood-clotting disease  by injecting them with the correct form of a defective gene.  Pretty cool stuff.

MOVIES: The newest proposed Pixar film will be set inside a girl’s mind.  ”It is about her emotions as characters, and is unlike anything you’ve ever seen.”- Sounds pretty awesome.  We’ll have to wait until 2014 to see it though… darn you animation.

PHOTOGRAPHY: In Focus releases the first part of “The Year in Photos” – some really beautiful pictures.  One shows cargo containers in Japan after the tsunami- they look like matchboxes.  And then this one of the royal family is just hilarious, check out the little girl.

TIME: Not the magazine, the concept.  DISCOVER magazine writes 10 things you didn’t know about time.  Number 4? – You live in the past.  80 milliseconds in the past, to be precise.

SLEEP: Try out the BBC sleep profiler to see how good of a sleeper you are and to get recommendations on how to improve your sleep schedule.  A good night’s sleep isn’t all about 8 hours a night these days.

 

And your video of the week: (Its another jetpack, I know, but it’s awesome)

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