THIS POEM Transports Me Back To A Middle School Classroom, Watching Students First Realize That Poetry Can, Indeed, Inform Life.

Nothing Gold Can Stay
- by Robert Frost 

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

THE OUTSIDERS, S.E.Hinton.

Official Website. imdb. Supplemental.

JUST WATCHED PASSENGER 57 . . .

. . . You know, the one with Wesley Snipes?

And it got me thinking.

Wouldn't it be great to throw out one liners like that in real life?!?

* I can see your point, 

but I still think you're full of shit.

* I don't know what your problem is, 

but I'll bet it's hard to pronounce.

* I'm really easy to get along with 

once you people learn to see it my way.

* I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter.

* I'm out of my mind, 

but feel free to leave a message

* Any connection between your reality

and mine is purely coincidental.

* Yes, I am an agent of Satan, 

but my duties are largely ceremonial.

I Guess not.

IS IT HOT IN HERE . . .

.  .  .  On that perilous night, when I first lifted my lamp by her golden door, she was dressed in broad stripes and bright stars. I was always a sucker for broad stripes and bright stars. It happened after a long day of exceedingly hard work. Boy, was I tired from all that hard work! She knew I wanted her. And I knew she wanted me.

In a flash, our clothes fell to the floor, and she whispered huskily in my ear, "Give me your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free," and before I knew it, I saw that golden valley. Oh, the rockets' red glare! The bombs bursting in air!  In that moment of indivisible union, I screamed out, "America, America! God shed His grace on thee!"

I was hopelessly, irretrievably in love. I guess that makes me a sinner. But it also makes me a patriot.

- Jeffery Goldberg.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Technology is neither good nor bad;

nor is it neutral.

~ Melvin Kranzberg

TO PAYWALL or NOT TO PAYWALL . . .

How To Read The WSJ 

For Free 

Online.

Some useful advice from Nicholas Carlson.

Four lines of code is all it takes 

for The New York Times’ paywall 

to come tumbling down.  

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A little gem
from Joshua Benton.

More from: LifeHacker.

NOW THAT'S A HOBBY!

Minis Tirith 

by Patrick Acton

He has his own museum! That is just too cool.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Identifying lies told by powerful political leaders -- and describing them as such -- is what good journalists do, by definition.  It's the crux of adversarial journalism, of a "watchdog" press.  "Objectivity" does not require refraining from pointing out the falsity of government claims.  The opposite is true; objectivity requires that a journalist do exactly that:  treat factually false statements as false.

"Objectivity" is breached not when a journalist calls a lie a "lie," but when they refuse to do so, when they treat lies told by powerful political officials as though they're viable, reasonable interpretations of subjective questions.

The very idea that a journalist is engaged in "opinion-making" or is "taking sides" by calling a lie a "lie" is ludicrous; the only "side" such a journalist is taking is with facts, with the truth.   It's when a journalist fails to identify a false statement as such that they are "taking sides" -- they're siding with those in power by deceitfully depicting their demonstrably false statements as something other than lies. 

- Journalists angry over the commission of journalism,

by Glenn Greenwald, Salon.

(emphasis mine)

Venn diagram courtesy of: the blog TeachJ.

WOW. JUST. WOW.

The Invitation
- by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
- - (The Green Bough)

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

CAN YOU TURN OFF ALL YOUR LIGHTS TODAY FOR JUST ONE HOUR?

EARTH HOUR
is TODAY from
8pm to 9pm
(your local time).







More info at:
www.earthhour.org and www.earthhour2011.com

The concept is for as many people as possible around the world to turn off their lights for an hour.

Security and emergency lighting will remain on. Millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations around the globe turn off their lights for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America participate annually.

A voluntary rolling blackout, if you will.

On the rare occasion that we lose power for whatever reason,
I am reminded of how dependent I really am. I roam the house like a caged lion searching for escape.

But more tellingly, my mind clicks helplessly and fruitlessly through a list of activities to keep me busy until the power is restored.

One after another they are rejected because, as I'm forced to remind myself, I can't do them without power. You'd think I would dismiss them all without a thought. But no. My poor addled brain requires absolute confirmation for each activity, that it is indeed impossible.

I think I'll sit down right now and brainstorm a list

of activities that don't require electricity. 

I know there must be some . . . somewhere . . .

For all the patients with mental illness who never received flowers during their hospital stays . . .

BLOOM.

Anna Schuleit.

"A startling explosion of color, smells and sounds within drab institutional walls. Schuleit left much of what she found untouched. In some rooms, furniture is tipped over and tape dispensers, paper and other items are scattered across desks. Her vision is not limited to flora. Using the certer's 1950s era public address system, she piped in sounds recorded in the final weeks it closed: footsteps echoing in the halways, voices of patients and staff members, doors slamming shut."

- Associated Press.

Psychiatric News.

The Difference Between Pepsi and Coke

      by David Lehman

Can't swim; uses credit cards and pills to combat
   intolerable feelings of inadequacy;
Won't admit his dread of boredom, chief impulse behind
   numerous marital infidelities;
Looks fat in jeans, mouths clichés with confidence,
   breaks mother's plates in fights;
Buys when the market is too high, and panics during
   the inevitable descent;
Still, Pop can always tell the subtle difference
   between Pepsi and Coke,
Has defined the darkness of red at dawn, memorized
   the splash of poppies along
Deserted railway tracks, and opposed the war in Vietnam
   months before the students,
Years before the politicians and press; give him
   a minute with a road map
And he will solve the mystery of bloodshot eyes;
   transport him to mountaintop
And watch him calculate the heaviness and height
   of the local heavens;
Needs no prompting to give money to his kids; speaks
   French fluently, and tourist German;
Sings Schubert in the shower; plays pinball in Paris;
   knows the new maid steals, and forgives her.


from: An Alternative to Speech. Copyright 1986.

ONE HUNRED YEARS AGO TODAY . . .

 

Here is a round-up

of articles on the 

TRIANGLE FIRE, 

Saturday,

March 25, 1911.

 “I think it speaks to people because it’s about immigrant issues, women’s issues, workers’ issues, so it’s all these communities and it feels very important to them.”

- Sherry Kane, a spokesman for Workers United,

the union that today represents garment workers.

Mural by Ernest Fiene depicts the Triangle fire,

in which 147 mostly women and teenage girls were killed.

Poetry

     - by Marianne Moore

I, too, dislike it: there are things that are important beyond
      all this fiddle.
   Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it, one
      discovers in
   it after all, a place for the genuine.
      Hands that can grasp, eyes
      that can dilate, hair that can rise
         if it must, these things are important not because a

high-sounding interpretation can be put upon them but because
      they are
   useful. When they become so derivative as to become
      unintelligible,
   the same thing may be said for all of us, that we
      do not admire what
      we cannot understand: the bat
         holding on upside down or in quest of something to

eat, elephants pushing, a wild horse taking a roll, a tireless
      wolf under
   a tree, the immovable critic twitching his skin like a horse
      that feels a flea, the base-
   ball fan, the statistician--
      nor is it valid
         to discriminate against "business documents and

school-books"; all these phenomena are important. One must make
      a distinction
   however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the
      result is not poetry,
   nor till the poets among us can be
     "literalists of
      the imagination"--above
         insolence and triviality and can present

for inspection, "imaginary gardens with real toads in them,"
      shall we have
   it. In the meantime, if you demand on the one hand,
   the raw material of poetry in
      all its rawness and
      that which is on the other hand
         genuine, you are interested in poetry.


from: Others for 1919: An Anthology of the New Verse, ed. Alfred Kreymborg.

APPLIED ECONOMIC THEORY & URINAL CAKES

Dear Economist,

Whenever I go to the gentlemen’s toilet in a pub, I’m unsure how to behave. The question is: Should I urinate on the urinal cakes or not? At first, I think that if I urinate on them I’ll help to finish them earlier, thus making the publican purchase more of them, and helping the economy.

But then I think, while I’m urinating, that if the publican has to buy more tablets, eventually he will probably have to raise the price of the beer, to my huge disappointment. So the question is, where should I urinate in the gentlemen’s toilets in the pub?

Thank you,

Massimo J.

Italy

READ THE RESPONSE HERE.

by Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist (Via. Twitter!).

I confess, I found this on Andrew Sullivan's site, The Daily Dish.

For more on the analogy try: Frederic Bastiat.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"The whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence.

The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups."

-- Henry Hazlitt in Economics in One Lesson.

Applied Economic Theory & Urinal Cakes.

Frederic Bastiat, The Broken Window Allegory.

FROM ONE REMARKABLE PERSON TO ANOTHER

To S.M., A Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works     
by Phillis Wheatley

To show the lab'ring bosom's deep intent,
And thought in living characters to paint,
When first thy pencil did those beauties give,
And breathing figures learnt from thee to live,
How did those prospects give my soul delight,
A new creation rushing on my sight!
Still, wondrous youth! each noble path pursue;
On deathless glories fix thine ardent view:
Still may the painter's and the poet's fire,
To aid thy pencil and thy verse conspire!
And may the charms of each seraphic theme
Conduct thy footsteps to immortal fame!
High to the blissful wonders of the skies
Elate thy soul, and raise thy wishful eyes.
Thrice happy, when exalted to survey
That splendid city, crowned with endless day,
Whose twice six gates on radiant hinges ring:
Celestial Salem blooms in endless spring.
Calm and serene thy moments glide along,
And may the muse inspire each future song!
Still, with the sweets of contemplation blessed,
May peace with balmy wings your soul invest!
But when these shades of time are chased away,
And darkness ends in everlasting day,
On what seraphic pinions shall we move,
And view the landsapes in the realms above!
There shall thy tongue in heavenly murmurs flow,
And there my muse with heavenly transport glow;
No more to tell of Damon's tender sighs,
Or rising radiance of Aurora's eyes;
For nobler themes demand a nobler strain,
And purer language on the ethereal plain.
Cease, gentle Muse! the solemn gloom of night

Now seals the fair creation from my sight.

Phillis Wheatley was the first African American, and the third woman, to publish a book of poems.

PERCEPTION

I've posted on John Bramblitt before, 

but he and his work are so amazing.

“If the doors of perception were cleansed 

every thing would appear to man as it is, 

infinite. 

For man has closed himself up, 

till he sees all things thro' narow chinks of his cavern.”

– Blake

IMPACT, INFLUENCE, INSPIRATION, INTERCONNECTEDNESS, & CREATIVITY

from: Thirteen Ways of Looking: Poems About Birds   

    
In honor of the poem
"Thirteen Ways of Looking 
at a Blackbird"
by Wallace Stevens

from: Poets.org.


I. As Faith

Hope is the thing with feathers 
That perches in the soul, 
And sings the tune without the words, 
And never stops at all, 
  
And sweetest in the gale is heard;         
And sore must be the storm 
That could abash the little bird 
That kept so many warm.

     –from "Hope is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson

II. As Freedom

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
   When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,--
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
   But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings--
I know why the caged bird sings!

     –from "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar


III. As Nature

I will never give up longing.
I will let my hair stay long.
The rain proclaims these trees,
the trees tell of the sun.
Let birds, let birds.
Let leaf be passion.
Let jaw, let teeth, let tongue be
between us. Let joy.

     –from "Let Birds" by Linda Gregg

* * *

X. As Poet

My mother would be a falconress,
And I, her gay falcon treading her wrist,
would fly to bring back
from the blue of the sky to her, bleeding, a prize,
where I dream in my little hood with many bells
jangling when I'd turn my head.

     –from "My Mother Would Be a Falconress" by Robert Duncan


XI. As Omen

But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.
Nothing further then he uttered--not a feather then he fluttered--
Till I scarcely more than muttered "Other friends have flown before--
On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before."
               Then the bird said "Nevermore."

     –from "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe


XII. As Pest

Last night I dreamed of chickens,
there were chickens everywhere,
they were standing on my stomach,
they were nesting in my hair,
they were pecking at my pillow,
they were hopping on my head,
they were ruffling up their feathers
as they raced about my bed.

     –from "Last Night I Dreamed of Chickens" by Jack Prelutsky  


XIII. As Dinner

CHICKEN.

Alas a doubt in case of more go to say what it is cress. What is it. Mean. Why. Potato. Loaves.

     –from Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein.

OH, BY THE WAY, WHICH ONE'S PINK?

Dogs of War

- by David Gilmour

Dogs of war and men of hate

With no cause, we don't discriminate

Discovery is to be disowned

Our currency is flesh and bone

Hell opened up and put on sale

Gather 'round and haggle

For hard cash, we will lie and deceive

Even our masters don't know the webs we weave

One world, it's a battleground

One world, and we will smash it down

One world ... One world

Invisible transfers, long distance calls,

Hollow laughter in marble halls

Steps have been taken, a silent uproar

Has unleashed the dogs of war

You can't stop what has begun

Signed, sealed, they deliver oblivion

We all have a dark side, to say the least

And dealing in death is the nature of the beast

One world, it's a battleground

One world, and we will smash it down

One world ... One world

The dogs of war don't negotiate

The dogs of war won't capitulate,

They will take and you will give,

And you must die so that they may live

You can knock at any door,

But wherever you go, you know they've been there before

Well winners can lose and things can get strained

But whatever you change, you know the dogs remain.

One world, it's a battleground

One world, and we will smash it down

One world ... One world

One world ... One world

QUOTE OF THE DAY

We won't stop the problem of street harassment by asking women to cover up. As long as we cling to the lie that it is women's bodies that are the problem, it doesn't matter whether women wear burqas or bikinis in public –- we'll hold them accountable for what men to say them regardless of how much skin they're showing.

There's only one solution, and that's to start believing that all men (not just a few decent ones) have the power to control what they say and how they act.

- Hugo Schwyzer,

Spring Is No Excuse For Street Harassment

Today, March 20, marks the First Annual Anti-Street Harassment Day. 

SOME LINKS: here, here, here, & here.

WHERE'S THE CHICKEN?

WHO WAS ALAN TOURING?

He was a brilliant British mathematician who, when an Enigma code book was taken from a U-Boat captain by the British sailors who had sunk the vessel, created the machine that could decode any message intercepted. ... So Alan Turing was pivotal to the Allies' success in WWII. Then after the war, he was instrumental in developing the early computers that ultimately developed into the wonder machines we use today. He truly was a genius. And what was his reward or recognition? ...

Turing was gay, and he was prosecuted for this illegal activity. ... Before he turned 42, in 1954, he was dead of cyanide poisoning. It was ruled as a suicide, but his family believed he was murdered.

A couple of years ago, then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, issued an apology for the way Turing was treated.

 - Saved for the Nation.

from Brown's speech:  

"The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely."

More. Much, Much More:

THE ALAN TURING HOME PAGE.

ALAN TURING DOT NET: The Turing Archive for 

the history of computers.

TIME LINE.

DIGITAL ARCHIVE.

I HAVE NO WORDS . . . WAR NUMBER THREE LOOMS . . . HOW DO WE WAKE UP FROM THIS NIGHTMARE?

"U.N. okays military action on Libya"

"So, I Guess We Are At War With Libya Now"

"For Obama, a Double Conflict"

When I think of war, for me, it's by default a ... lose-lose case. I believe there's no winner in the war because, you know, the killed one dies physically and the killer dies morally. So they are both dead. - Dunya Mikhail, NPR interview.

The War Works Hard     
by Dunya Mikhail
(trans. by Elizabeth Winslow)

How magnificent the war is!
How eager
and efficient!
Early in the morning
it wakes up the sirens
and dispatches ambulances
to various places
swings corpses through the air
rolls stretchers to the wounded
summons rain
from the eyes of mothers
digs into the earth
dislodging many things
from under the ruins...
Some are lifeless and glistening
others are pale and still throbbing...
It produces the most questions
in the minds of children
entertains the gods
by shooting fireworks and missiles
into the sky
sows mines in the fields
and reaps punctures and blisters
urges families to emigrate
stands beside the clergymen
as they curse the devil
(poor devil, he remains
with one hand in the searing fire)...
The war continues working, day and night.
It inspires tyrants
to deliver long speeches
awards medals to generals
and themes to poets
it contributes to the industry
of artificial limbs
provides food for flies
adds pages to the history books
achieves equality
between killer and killed
teaches lovers to write letters
accustoms young women to waiting
fills the newspapers
with articles and pictures
builds new houses
for the orphans
invigorates the coffin makers
gives grave diggers
a pat on the back
and paints a smile on the leader's face.
It works with unparalleled diligence!
Yet no one gives it
a word of praise.

Copyright 2005. from: The War Works Hard.

 "EACH WAR IS DIFFERENT, EACH WAR IS THE SAME"

by Kevin Dooley

McQuillan walked into a bar . . .

 . . . and ordered martini after martini,

each time removing the olives and placing them in a jar. When the jar was filled with olives and all the drinks consumed, he started to leave.

"S'cuse me," said a customer, who was puzzled over what McQuillan had done. "What was that all about?"

"Nothing," he replied, "my wife just sent me out for a jar of olives." 

Rath Dé ort!

They dye the Chicago river green for St. Patrick's Day.

Did you know that? I didn't.

The things you can learn

on the interwebs!

Look! 

Rochester, N.Y. too!

 Want to learn to speak like a native?

  Go HERE.

ON A MORE SERIOUS NOTE:

I ran across a few pages explaining how to make Leprechaun traps. 

I imagine that in this economy the little guys are in more danger than ever before. They might even make it on the endangered list. 

For obvious reasons, I'm not including the links. Although here are a few pictures of the things, HERE.

[Update] HOW TO DONATE WISELY

GiveWell is a website that performs charity research,
and their advice:

We believe that

• Those affected have requested very little, limited aid. Aid being offered far exceeds aid being requested. (Details below.)
• Charities are aggressively soliciting donations, often in ways we feel are misleading (more on this in future posts).
• Any donation you make will probably be used (a) by the charity you give it to, for activities in a different country; (b) for non-disaster-relief-and-recovery efforts in Japan.
• If you’re looking to pursue (a) and help people in need all over the world, we recommend giving to the best charity you can, rather than basing your giving on who is appealing to you most aggressively with images and language regarding Japan.
• If you prefer (b), a gift to the Japanese Red Cross seems reasonable.

PHOTO: Each image is offered as a limited edition of 10 prints.The project aids Doctors Without Borders.











 

Overall, though, a gift to Doctors Without Borders seems to us like the best way to effectively “respond to this disaster”.

We feel they are a leader in transparency, honesty and integrity in relief organizations, and the fact that they’re not soliciting funds for Japan is a testament to this. Rewarding Doctors Without Borders is a move toward improving incentives and improving disaster relief in general.

GiveWell goes on to give evidence supporting their recommendations at the same link.

HOW TO DONATE WISELY

There have been many articles written on this subject,

so I'll just reiterate the most salient points.

1. Send money, not stuff - It makes it much easier to get what is needed where it's needed as quickly as possible.

2. Give to organizations that are already mobilized, and find a nonprofit you trust - This helps ensure your gift will touch those who need it as quickly and effectively as possible.

3. Give a non-earmarked or restricted gift - Nonprofits are most effective if they can choose how they spend their money, and money does not go unused in one place while there is still need in another.

4. Waiting for a while is not wrong - It takes some time for charities to figure out how best to respond, and rebuilding will be a long process, so your donations will likely be needed for a long time to come.

SOME CHOICES:

(in addition to those I've already posted)

You can donate directly to 

THE RED CROSS or SAVE THE CHILDREN In Japan, Via THIS LINK.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy, has a long list of organizations that are actively working on the relief effort at this time, including:

- - Doctors Without Borders.

- - Helping Hand (USA) For Relief and Development.

- - Shelter Box.

- - Project HOPE.

- - National Disaster Search Dog Foundation.

- - K.I.D.S.

- - Medical Teams International.

- - Mercy Corps.

I am only one, but I am one.  

I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  

And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do. 

~ Edward Everett Hale.

Spring is like a perhaps hand

      by e. e. cummings

          III

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere) arranging
a window, into which people look (while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here) and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New and
Old things, while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there) and

without breaking anything.


Copyright 1991. from: The Complete Poems: 1904-1962.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

How do I set a laser printer to stun?

No. Really. . . . how?

YOU'RE NOT A KID ANYMORE . . . BUT YOU'LL ALWAYS BE MY BABY!

Have a

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

A.

And remember,

WE LOVE YOU

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Perhaps this Lent we might make it our task to do less and to say less so that we can create the necessary space in our lives where God can speak and give and we can hear and receive.

- J. Peter Nixon.

Whether listening for the voice of God, the music of the universe, or the expression of our own soul, a quiet space is essential.

Below is a list of charities and relief organizations you can donate to in order to help bring aid to those affected by the worst earthquake in Japanese history.

 - courtesy of The Daily What.

Image: Details from Kent Ng's Tribute "Stay Strong Japan!"

• The American Red Cross has set up a special designation for disaster relief efforts in Japan. To donate, click here, or text REDCROSS to 90999 to instantly donate $10.

• International Medical Corps says it is putting together relief teams and supplies to aid Japan “and other affected countries.” Donate here.

• GlobalGiving’s Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.

• World Vision’s Disaster Response Fund.

• Click here to donate to AmeriCares’ emergency relief response.

• Save the Children’s Japan Earthquake Tsunami Children in Emergency Fund.

As always, the main Red Cross donations link is in the side bar of this blog.

[EDITED TO ADD from HufPo] 

Salvation Army personnel are organizing efforts in Tokyo and will soon send a team to help the severely damaged city of Sendai, Japan. To contribute to earthquake relief, text 'JAPAN' or 'QUAKE' to 80888 to make a $10 donation or visit SalvationArmyUSA.org. 

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is sending two three-person teams to the Iwate and Miyagi prefectures in Japan. To learn more about the organization's efforts or make a donation, visit Doctorswithoutborders.org.

Other relief organizations are also sending representatives to disaster sites, including AmeriCare and Shelterbox. 

MercyCorps is gathering donations for its overseas partner, Peace Winds Japan, which currently has personnel on the ground distributing emergency relief in Japan.

Along with an appeal for monetary donations, Operation USA has also announced efforts to collect bulk corporate donations of health care supplies. If you are interested in donating bulk medical items, visit OpUSA.org.

For any who have loved ones abroad, Google has stepped up to help. Along with a tsunami alert posted on its front page, Google has launched the Person Finder: 2011 Japan Earthquake to help connect people that may have been displaced due to the disaster. Google has also launched a crisis response page filled with local resources and emergency information.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

by John Donne

No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manner of thine own

Or of thine friend's were.

Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Today [March 8] is the 100th International Women's Day. ... Forgive me if I don't immediately start roaring in numbers too big to ignore, but I'm wondering in what sense genuine progress has been made in advancing the international status of women over one whole century, which is a lot of time in anyone's money. To put things into perspective, the Animal Cruelty Act (UK, 1911) is also 100 years old this year and the ill-treatment of animals is so rare as to cause front-page consternation in that country, unlike domestic violence.

- A Hundred Years of Platitudes, Ms Pants.

FOXY!

Animal Lipstick Art.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Activists in the sweltering heat of Egypt hold up signs praising protesters in Wisconsin while the shivering public workers in the snow of Madison talk about struggling "like an Egyptian.

Who would have thunk?" 

- Danny Schechter via. The Rag Blog.

and

Minneapolis too!

DON'T FORGET TO TURN YOUR CLOCKS AHEAD

The time/space continuum folded forward one hour
at 2:00 this morning . . .

so if you didn't do it last night before you went to bed,

you'd better see to it now.