Note: Videos may auto start with sound so be prepared.
Suicide (Employment)
This video is about Japan, but the warning signs are there for the United States too as the push to do more with fewer people and to penalize people for working normal hours grows.
http://aeon.co/video/society/overworked-to-suicide-japans-disposable-workers/
Pencils (History)
A fun article on the history of pencils and the path to the modern styles I uncovered when confirming pencil use in the Regency Era.
http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/2013/08/no-lead-in-your-pencil-thats-because-it.html
Video Blogging (Interesting People)
An interview with a young gay couple in a long-distance relationship who started sharing the videos from their visits together and became a bright light in people’s lives. (Via Facebook)
http://thehairpin.com/2013/04/when-your-relationship-has-8000-facebook-likes/
Health (Life)
While I’m generally opposed to the focus on losing weight that dominates the U.S. culture to a dangerous degree, this article looks more at ways to keep healthy (with potential weight loss as a consequence for those who are stalled at higher than they want to be). I like the suggestions, though they’re nothing new, but I especially like the matter-of-fact way of conveying them.
https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/5-unusual-reasons-youre-not-losing-weight/
Discovery (Publishing)
A review of the main ways to get discovered as an indie publisher, though some are relevant for traditional authors as well.
http://www.selfpublishedauthor.com/content/discovery-another-buzzword-we’re-wrestling-understand
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Okay, loved the link on pencils. Passing it on to the boy. (I never thought about Conté and Faber as actual people. 😛 )
Cool. Hope he enjoys it. I loved the political/economic/geographic factors in something as commonplace (now) as a pencil. And why they’re yellow.
Yeah, I’d never thought about the effect of France/England politics. I did know about breadcrumbs, though.
It does explain why they wrote crisscross on the pages rather than erasing. Can’t imagine breadcrumbs are quite as effective.
Actually, they are, but it depends on the bread consistency.
There was this great story I read once, and I can’t tell you who wrote it or the title, about this woman working in a bakery and how this one thin man would come in every day and get nothing but a loaf of bread, and how she imagined this whole life for him and imagined feelings for him… so one day, she decides to do something nice and give him more nourishment by sneaking a pat of butter into the middle of the loaf. And then he comes back later, ranting and raving about how she’s ruined him, and this art (architectural drawings, maybe?) he’s been laboring over for weeks is destroyed because of the butter, and was she put up to it by his rival?
Oh, wow. Talk about taking a tiny bit of history and turning it into a key element. Nice :).
A quick Google search…I should have guessed it was O. Henry: http://americanliterature.com/author/o-henry/short-story/witches-loaves
Cool :).