You’re reading TheBlot Boomerang, where we bring the week’s best news from the Internet back around.
LINK: Why Do Cats Like Boxes?
File this under “Things You Were Always Curious About but Never Thought to Ask.” Wired probes the feline fascination with boxes. This article has commentary from a Dutch vet, a cat video and, of course, pictures of cute kitties in boxes. All are Internet memes in the making.
LINK: Finding Homes for Ebola’s Orphans
The recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa took the lives of more than 8,810 people. Many of them were parents who left orphaned children. National Geographic visits these children, who are now in limbo and living in temporary care centers. Meanwhile, governments and international aid workers try to find homes and surviving family for them.
LINK: There’s No Getting Off the Grid
If you have, like this author, suffered lived through a week of blizzards, freezing rain and 20-degree temperatures, you may be fascinated by this BoingBoing piece. Author Reanna Adler spent Christmas off the grid in a log cabin where the indoor temperature was about 50 degrees. But it was a magical holiday experience, and lots of people are fascinated by off-the-grid living. Adler examines its appeal and the reasons for it.
LINK: How Accurate Is Groundhog Day?
Groundhog Day came and went on Monday. Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more weeks of winter. (Gee, thanks, Phil.) He isn’t the only groundhog who acts as a living, breathing weather almanac every Feb. 2; there are other groundhogs around the country who are trotted out once a year. Phil, however, is the best-known. Because of this, The Washington Post has come up with an interactive map to determine the rodent’s accuracy. (Hawaii is included on the map. Say, isn’t Hawaii generally warm in the winter?)
LINK: Time to Retire the Term “Plus Size?”
Kit Steinkellner at Hello Giggles asks if the term “plus size” should be passe. Lane Bryant makes clothing for sizes 14 and up, but the company’s CEO, Linda Heasley, wants to replace “plus size” with “her size.” The term “plus size” itself carries negative connotations, and it doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Steinkellner suggests that “plus size” is just another way that we ignore the diversity of women’s bodies.
Robin Cook is a contributing journalist for TheBlot Magazine.
