Good causes

THING: Color Survey by XKCD. Men and women see color differently. Everyone accepts this. But according to science!, some things about the effects of gender on color perception aren’t quite what you’d think. And other things are exactly what you’d think. So.
THING: Why Is It Always Minority Players Suffering From Lack of Hustle? by Walkoff Walk. Certain sportswriter cliches — deceptively fast, great motor, reminds me of Wes Welker — have long been suspected of being applied much more frequently to white athletes. Well, somebody finally put it to the test. As Walkoff Walk proves, at least one descriptor, lack of hustle, is almost exclusively reserved for black players. I tried Googling up some football-related racial code language. The most common recipient of Wes Welkerousness as bestowed by pro writers? Looks like it’s Golden Tate, a black player. (If we’re counting message boards, then it’s Jordan Shipley, a white player who’s taller, skinnier, much less agile, and a little slower than Welker — plus they play in very different offenses. Nevermind all that; Jordan Shipley Wes Welker is a Google suggested search at this point. I just football-nerded all over the place, and I apologize.) For whatever reason football writers seem to be less influenced by race than baseball writers. I know, I couldn’t believe it either. Fans and TV announcers, on the other hand…
THING: Local boy with cancer turns into a superhero for a day by the Seattle Times. Half the town of Seattle conspired with Make-A-Wish to give superpowers to a 13-year-old with life-threatening liver cancer. If you can make it through this article without misting up, your not-crying muscles have superpowers of their own.

Bonus

This piece is entitled “Tea with Tyson,” as in Mike Tyson, and as in discussing tea with him. The following three minutes will rank among the best fifteen minutes of your day, unless if you’ve saved Seattle from Dr. Dark today:

It was a knockout week for articles about people who are smarter than normal people.

• There are over 300 million people in the US — only 32 of them are annually selected to be Rhodes scholars. There are almost seven billion people on earth — only 32 of them are annually selected in the NFL Draft’s first round. What are the odds that one person could score both? Hey, I only graduated from relatively lowly Kennesaw State University, and even I can calculate that it’s SLIGHTLY RARE. Future NFL star/current Rhodes scholar Myron Rolle makes you and me and everyone we know all feel like big, big losers. Can you imagine the pressures of being Myron Rolle? Article’s most underrated moment: when we learn that Rolle, quite possibly the most smartest American pro athlete ever, enjoys the music of Plies, who looks like this.
• Rolle’s fellow people-who-are-smarter-than-you, Ivy Leaguers Jessica Lin, Jessica Matthews, Julia Silverman, and Hemali Thakkar, have created a soccer ball that generates energy by being kicked. Fifteen minutes of play generates enough power to run a light for three hours, meaning a whole day of running/kicking can help patch the electricity gaps third-world villages have to deal with.*
• The Atlantic’s food columnist compares Walmart’s produce with Whole Foods’, hosting a blind taste-test for 16 professional food critics. THIRD-BULLET TWIST: several critics end up “not entirely happy” to discover the produce they preferred was actually THE POPULIST PRODUCE. This changes everything! Update the class war scoreboard: Little Guy 1, Rhodes Cornerback & The Soccer Teslas… still somewhat more than 1. Ok, fine.

Ebert: common ground.

Speaking of famous intellectuals with fun jobs and a lot of money and important friends: Roger Ebert, relentless tweeter and the only movie critic known of by regular humble folk, profiled after cancer surgeries have left him unable to speak, eat, or convincingly show anger. Also, check the second-disc commentary… it’s Ebert on the article on Ebert.

*: Source site turns out to be a nonprofit’s Drupal site. For more nonprofits that use Drupal, see our list here.

(1)

I used to work with a guy named Ronald.

He was the happiest guy in the world, always joking and getting away with hitting on customers and belting out island music. We nicknamed him BADADO (all caps: essential) because that’s what his songs sounded like to us. He thought that was hilarious and started calling everybody else BADADO too. Even when he was sad because he couldn’t see his kid after his ole lady left, he still greeted us by hollering “BADADOOOO!”

I remember one night it snowed as were closing the store. He’d never seen snow before and was taking pictures of everybody in the parking lot like we’d won something.

Last I recall, he was putting himself through tech school. Ronald’s from Haiti.

(2)

In the 1800s, the U.S. had a military policy called the Monroe Doctrine. Basically, the U.S. intended to protect the many smaller islands and nations in its hemisphere from European colonization. Sure, some people involved likely didn’t have the purest of intentions, but that’s beside the point — somewhere along the line, somebody realized that neighbors have to look out for the neighborhood.

Haiti’s in our neighborhood. If you live near us in Atlanta, for example, you live closer to Haiti than you do to anything past El Paso, Texas or northwest of Aspen, Colorado.

(3)

If you can text (and Lord knows you can text), then you can kick in. Text Haiti to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross relief for Haiti.

More:

• DirectRelief International
• 9 Ways to Help Haiti Now by Mashable
• How and Where to Donate to Haiti and Avoid Scams by LifeHacker

• Even Slim Thug is feeling the recession:

  The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
  Slim Thug Feels the Recession
  www.thedailyshow.com
  Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

• Drew Carey bids $1 million dollars for @Drew Twitter handle… but it’s for a fantastic cause.
• Barack Obama wins the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, NBA MVP Award, Tony Award, 2010 Nobel Peace Prize…
  

All-around A++++ would link again great move by Microsoft: their Browser For The Better project offers to donate sixteen meals to Feeding America for every user who upgrades from IE6 to IE8.

If any tech-savvy individuals needed one more reason to encourage their grandpas and office IT guys to join the times, this is it. Don’t you sort of want to download IE6 just to upgrade it?