Adrian’s Microblog

Amazon’s Kindle Website

Warby Parker

Shop for glasses on the web. Virtual try-on. Have 5 pairs shipped to your house, pick the one you like. $95.

So many innovative parts to this model – plus the added inspiration of the charitable giving done by the business. Gonna have to watch this again.

(via @WSJ)

“Research shows it’s pretty hard to be creative in a quiet space. But, the mix of calm and commotion in an environment like a coffee house is proven to be just what you need to get those creative juices flowing. Our team has delivered the vibe of a coffee shop right to your desktop, which means when your workspace just isn’t quite cutting it, we’ve got you covered. Coffitivity Enough noise to work.”

(via @jasonfried, via Coffitivity - Increase Your Creativity!)

And for a rain-themed site, check out rainymood.com

Happy birthday Mom! :)

I am one of those who believe that a human being is not an autonomous construction with no given structure, order, status, or role. I believe that the affirmation of freedom does not imply the negation of limits and that the affirmation of equality does not imply the leveling of differences. I believe that the powers of technology and of the imagination do not require that we forget that being is a gift, that life is prior to all of us, and that it has its own laws.

I long for a society in which modernity would have its full place but without implying the denial of elementary principles of human and familial ecology; for a society in which the diversity of ways of being, of living, and of desiring is accepted as fortunate, without allowing this diversity to be diluted in the reduction to the lowest common denominator, which effaces all differentiation; for a society in which, despite the technological deployment of virtual realities and the free play of critical intelligence, the simplest words—father, mother, spouse, parents—retain their meaning, at once symbolic and embodied; for a society in which children are welcomed and find their place, their whole place, without becoming objects that must be possessed at all costs, or pawns in a power struggle.

Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service, so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint. — Collect prayer for Ash Wednesday Mass…powerful stuff.

Some insightful observations from Cardinal Arinze about the Pope’s recent announcement.

(via E, M, and CatholicNewsService)

by yours truly

davemorin:

Foundation: Dave Morin on Maintaining Genuine Relationships Via Social Networks (by revision3)

Incorporate beauty into your life. In its varieties of forms. — yours truly :)

thesciencellama:

Acoustic Levitation Using sound waves to levitate individual droplets of solutions containing pharmaceutical drugs and drying them in mid-air. Why do this? This is useful because most of the drugs on the market are either amorphous or crystalline and the crystalline form doesn’t get absorbed by the body. So levitating the solution allows the drug to be made into an amorphous state (by evaporation) because if it were to touch any surface it would simply crystallize. They call this “containerless processing”. The frequencies used are just above the audible range at about 22 kilohertz and when the two speakers are aligned they create two sets of sound waves, perfectly interfering with each other creating a phenomenon known as a standing wave. This allows the objects to levitate in areas within the waves known as nodes as the acoustic pressure is enough to cancel the force of gravity. Video Source - Argonne National Laboratory

sufficientlyantique:

Fujiyama like you’ve never seen before. Perfect clouds on the perfect mountain.

scribkin:bluepueblo:Lenticular Clouds, Mount Fuji, Japan ~photo via permsiri 

To know God and to live is one and the same thing. God is life. — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession (via marylikesbagels)

It’s not about fate…it’s about changing fate. — The Observer, from Fringe

katykelley:

How a key works. In case you were curious.

Awesome illustration!

GPS Tracker - Follow Other Phones Using GPS

When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased. — C.S. Lewis (via marylikesbagels)

Misty Mountains, an extended interpretation from the movie The Hobbit as sung Peter Hollens.

I came out singing/humming this song both times I saw the movie in theaters. Orthodox Tolkein devotees tell me the lyrics are authentic to the book. :) Official movie version is also available on iTunes.

(via G, by peterhollens)

Here ends another day,
during which I have had eyes, ears, hands,
and the great world around me.
Tomorrow begins another day.
Why am I allowed two? — G. K. Chesterton (via The Catholic Young Woman)