One to make you happy, one to make you mad

Her Reaction At The End (: from r/aww

Plastic rubbish being dumped into the Amazon river from r/videos

Another video (same location).  I note there is a cement block ramp at the dump site, so this is being done with some local governmental approval.

Madeline's first train ride

YouTube link.

The sheer unadulterated joy of a child having a new experience.  We have all probably had a variety of these when we were young, but that sensation is hard to replicate as an adult.  But we can share hers vicariously.

Discussion at the MadeMeSmile subreddit.

Down Syndrome couple, married for 25 years

YouTube link

The video is worth three minutes of your time. Photo below cropped from this via.

11-year old girl grants "Three Wishes" for nursing home residents

YouTube link

 Worth 3 minutes of your time.  This is her GoFundMe page.

Canine agility champions

YouTube link.

Filmed at the 2015 Westminster Kennel Club dog show.  Wikipedia has a wonderfully comprehensive article on dog agility competitions.

Dogs run off leash with no food or toys as incentives, and the handler can touch neither dog nor obstacles. Consequently the handler's controls are limited to voice, movement, and various body signals, requiring exceptional training of the animal and coordination of the handler....

Because each course is different, handlers are allowed a short walk-through before the competition starts. During this time, all handlers competing in a particular class can walk or run around the course without their dogs...

Each dog and handler team gets one opportunity together to attempt to complete the course successfully...

Dogs are measured in height at the peak of their withers (shoulders). They are then divided into height groups... Dogs are further divided into their experience levels...Dogs are not separated by breed in agility competitions... 

Lots more details re the individual obstacles and the training techniques.

Reposted from 2015 because I was inspired by watching video of the 2018 competition this week, and another video of an 8" Papillon winning this year.

Reposted once again to add this video:

YouTube link. 

And this tiny dog:

YouTube link

And if that's not enough, here's a "best of" compilation:

You Tube link.

If you watched one or more of the above, you should finish up with this one-

Related: Once an agility canine, always an agility canine (paraplegic dog).

Addendum:  Rehearsal for first dance at a wedding.

Not a dress code violation

Described as "Crazy Hair Day at school."

(related)

Reposted from 2015 to add this photo -

And this "mermaid braid" -

#trashtag is trending on social media

 

"Over this past weekend, #trashtag started trending on social media as well as reddit. People on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit were sharing before and after photos of areas they had cleared of trash. "

A gallery of photos is posted at TwistedSifter.  Another one here.

Teacher goes the extra mile

To foster a love of reading, elementary educators tell their students to read a book at night, or have someone read to them. One principal in Texas has made it personal: She snuggles into a pair of pajamas and reads to her students herself.

“I don’t know if they are read to or not at home,” said Belinda George, 42, a first-year principal at Homer Drive Elementary in Beaumont, in Southeast Texas.

George, often in a cozy onesie, opens Facebook Live on her phone each Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. As she reads a children’s book in her living room, anyone who goes to the school’s Facebook page can watch live. She calls it “Tucked-in Tuesdays,” and it’s become somewhat of a sensation at her school...

George said 94 percent of her students come from economically disadvantaged homes, and last year’s literacy tests showed that an average of just 55 percent of her third-, fourth- and fifth-graders were reading on or above grade level.

More at The Washington Post.

When you don't know you're poor

Via the Wholesomememes subreddit, where there is a discussion thread.

Recycling cut flowers

Two young women in the Twin Cities have started a nonprofit business delivering cut flowers to senior citizens.

The duo built a website Bluebirds and Blooms to organize volunteers, accept private donations and set up sources for the repurposed flowers, which come from weddings, corporate events, fundraisers and grocery stores such as Trader Joe’s and Fresh Thyme. A pool of more than 100 volunteers picks up flowers, designs the arrangements and delivers bedside bouquets twice a week to 25 suburban and Minneapolis senior memory and hospice care communities every month...

Last February, they partnered with the Edina Community Foundation to help manage the nonprofit. At that spring’s fundraiser, “we were bragging about delivering 200 bouquets,” said Hogan. “In the next few weeks, we’ll be at 5,000.”

More information at the StarTribune.

"Her cups runneth over"

About two weeks into last month’s government shutdown, Dana Marlowe, a.k.a. “The Accidental Bra Fairy,” put out a Facebook post in which she offered to help female federal employees who had no money for bras or feminine hygiene products.

Within hours, nearly 100 messages poured in...

Marlowe was better equipped than most to offer her support: She has a basement filled with bras and sanitary products that she gives away free...  Since she began her I Support the Girls nonprofit in July 2015, the 42-year-old business executive and mother of two sons from Silver Spring, Md., said she has distributed more than 500,000 bras and 2.5 million personal hygiene products to women in need.

Underwire bras, push-up bras, sports bras, maternity bras and racerback bras arrive at her house by the boxload in every hue and pattern imaginable, including pastel pink and neon green and red polka dots, winged hearts and spotted leopard. Most of them are gently used.

What started as a local project to help give a few homeless women some intimate wear has turned into an organization with an army of volunteers collecting and distributing bras, tampons and pads in 50 U.S. cities and five other countries... 

[In 2015] she went to a Soma lingerie store near her home to buy several new bras. After the sales clerk rang up her purchases, Marlowe asked what she could do with 16 perfectly good bras that no longer fit.

“The clerk told me four simple words that completely changed my direction and my life,” Marlowe said. “She said, ‘Homeless women need bras.’ ”

It had never occurred to her.

Marlowe called a homeless shelter in Washington and was told that they would gladly accept all the clean, gently used bras she could find. “What else could you use?” Marlowe inquired. “Maxi pads and tampons,” the worker said. “Women here would really appreciate those.”..

In almost any situation, she said, a new bra can signify a fresh start.

“A bra is one of many small luxuries that most women take for granted,” Marlowe said, “and if you don’t have these things, you think about them all the time. To take away that worry for as many women as possible is what keeps me going. It makes all of the long hours and hard work worthwhile.”

Kudos to this lady.  More at The Washington Post.   Photo credit D. Lag. 

Homepage for I Support the Girls.

Cheerful story of the day

"Gabriel Nobre, 19, with his mom and sister right after he found out he’d passed Brazil’s famously difficult university entrance exam. The young man had cut a deal with a prep course to clean the building in exchange for free classes to help him prepare for the exam."

Some context offered by ThatDIYcouple at the MadeMeSmile subreddit:

As a little bit of background: Brazil’s public universities are free, but you have to pass an entrance exam called the Vestibular that is very difficult. What was meant to be a measure to make the country more of a meritocracy hasn’t exactly worked in practice. Instead what happened is a bunch of private companies sprung up to tutor people to pass the exam. So young people often need to pay for the prep courses and also study full time for about a year in order to pass the exam. Naturally, it is mostly affluent Brazilian youths with family support who can afford to do this. So it ends up being less meritocratic- rich kids get the prep and training they need, and then get the university for free. When stories like this kid come out, it really captivates the public’s imagination, because he’s “made it”, the way the system was intended to work, against all odds. As a bonus, he came in 4th in his desired field, medicine, and will be studying at (arguably) Brazil’s most prestigious university.

More here (in Portuguese).

New Year's Greetings from TYWKIWDBI readers

Happy wintertime from Florida, where we don't winter very hard but occasionally do find these in our backyards...  -- Spiv, aka Wileecoyote

Life moves on so make the best of the New Year.- erin

Thank you for all that you do, congrats on surviving 2018, best wishes from our family. - Guy Byars

Many thanks for all you’ve done over the years… Professor Batty

Meeeeeeeee! Hats off and thanks for all the lepidoptera. - Bob the Scientist

Greetings from my 15-year-old tortie cat and a small dutch boy - Dave J.

Snorri the cat wishes y'all happy holidays! - Drabkikker

Happy Holiday and New Year to all readers and their families from

Jerry in and around Dallas (or variants thereof)

 
"First comment, but I have been following for a while. Cheers!" - tropicofkansas

"Knowledge is knowing that the Tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing to not to add it to a fruit salad."  -- The Slide Guy (aka Tepid Halibut)

Nolandda and son (at Glacier National Park) wish everyone a happy winter holiday of choice.

I am so glad we are all here! - Skeetmotis

 

"I don't comment, but do read religiously."  -- Susan Aprill (aka Notsu)



"Merry Christmas and thank you for all of the effort you put into the blog.  

I visit daily and always enjoy." (anonymous)

"Happy New Christmas Year" from Dutch  :-)

 Old pic [of meteorite hunters] in honor of those who, for country or for service to humanity, can't be at home this holiday season. Not quite minnesotastic myself, but grew up in northern Wisconsin and da UP so I speak the language. Merry everything, Peace and goodwill shared by all.   -- arphy




And from here at the World Headquarters of TYWKIWDBI, warm greetings to all readers of this blog - the innumerable silent "lurkers" and the invaluable commenters - from a blogger who is still trying to figure out how to make "selfies." - Stan

Joy

YouTube link.

How to do Christmas

"A bus driver in Dallas got mistaken for Santa Claus on Friday when students walked onto his bus to see that it had been filled with the presents that they wanted for Christmas.

“When I opened that door, one of the kids asked me, ‘Are you Santa?’” school bus driver Curtis Jenkins told KXAS. “Seeing those faces on the kids was more than anything I could ever do with the money.”

According to the outlet, Jenkins has worked for Richardson ISD for seven years and saved money from his paychecks this year in order to buy presents for the [70] students on his daily route. His initial idea was to host a gift exchange, but when his wife Shaneqia pointed out that the kids’s families might not all be able to afford gifts, Jenkins decided to buy each of them what they asked Santa for instead."

News video here.

'Tis the season...

YouTube link.

... for a lesson about money.

"From my experience, the people with the least give the most of what they have."

Kudos to the Starkey Hearing Foundation

YouTube link.

I encountered this video today because the Packers are playing the Cardinals.  But this isn't a sports video; it's more of a "people being bros" video - and it's the feel-good video of the week.

More information on the Starkey Hearing Foundation.

"Starkey Hearing Foundation gives the gift of hearing to people in need in the U.S. and around the world. We believe hearing is a vehicle to reflect caring and to improve the lives of individuals, their families, and communities."

The foundation has a high score on Charity Navigator.  I made a contribution to them today.

Enchroma glasses

YouTube link.

If you need something to feel thankful for on Thanksgiving, just be thankful that you have normal color vision.  Then watch the joy this man experiences when he receives Enchroma glasses.

Related: Adaptive glasses for colorblind people.

Note:  They cost about $300.

Addendum:  A hat tip to reader Vetzakske for reporting an article at Neurologica which discusses the limitations of Enchroma glasses.

I like the "Lieutenant Dan" outfit

Jenny and Forrest are good too   Context, for the culturally deprived.

Sweet

From the HumansBeingBros subreddit.