JE SUIS CHARLIE

Let's take a moment at the start of this blog post today to honor the people who were slaughtered by terrorists in Paris this week. There have been many fine tributes to the brave souls of Charlie Hebdo, Jon Stewart among them:

"Comedy shouldn't be an act of courage."

I also like this from famed street artist, Banksy:

Je suis Charlie.

LE HOLIDAY FEAST

I thought we were done with clever Christmas videos but when Joan McMullen emailed this from the pet food company, FreshPet, I had to make an exception. I'm sure glad I wasn't assigned to be the animal wrangler on this project.

FIVE PEOPLE BORN IN THE 19TH CENTURY ARE STILL LIVING

A piece at Raw Story about the people born in the 19th century and still alive whose age has been verified caught my attention.

Misao Okawa and Gertrude Weaver were both born in 1898, the same year as M.C. Escher, George Gershwin, C.S. Lewis, and Golda Meir, Raw Story tells us. Three others, all women, were born in 1899.

You can read more at Raw Story and you can see a list of the 100 verified oldest people in the world at Wikimedia.

KANYE WEST INTRODUCES PAUL MCCARTNEY TO THE WORLD

Multi-talented rapper, entrepreneur, etc. Kanye West has collaborated with former Beatle Paul McCartnery to record West's song, Only One.

This caused some consternation among younger music fans and new-ish TGB reader, Paul Schatzkin who blogs at Cohesion Arts sent along this Twitter exchange he found:

There has been some suggestion that these are just trolls who perfectly well know who McCartney is. Whether or not, this cartoon someone published further down the same Twitter timeline gave me a laugh - I know a couple of guys like this.

KEVIN SPACEY AND OTHERS HONOR BILLY JOEL

Speaking of old-timey music, back on 19 November 2014, piano man Billy Joel was presented with the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song from the U.S. Library of Congress.

A lot of celebrities, including Kevin Spacey and Tony Bennett, were on hand to help out Joel with Piano Man. Wish I'd been there.

You can read more here.

GLAMOROUS SPA DAY FOR LITTLE GIRLS

I don't recall where I ran across this video of little girls being indoctrinated into the ways of American beauty rituals. I'm uncomfortable with it at their age. See what you think.

BECAUSE WHO IS PERFECT?

Here is something with a different take on looks and beauty. The Because Who Is Perfect? campaign was created to highlight the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and it certainly would get your attention if you were walking by the storefront on Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich's main downtown street.

You can read more in the Daily Mail.

IS CANCER DUE TO BAD LUCK?

The scientists involved in this research sound fairly certain. The Guardian reports:

”Two-thirds of adult cancers, say the researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in the United States, are caused by random mutation in the tissue cells during the ordinary process of stem cell division. In the other third, our genetic inheritance and lifestyles are the main factors.

[…]

“The scientists say that bad luck plays a stronger role in some cancers than in others. In two-thirds of the cancers – 22 cancer types – random mutations in genes that drive cancer could explain why the disease occurred.

“The other nine cancers occurred more often than the random mutation rate would predict, suggesting that inherited genes or lifestyle factors were the main cause. They included lung cancer, where smoking is the major cause, and skin cancer, which can be triggered by sun exposure.”

Of course, all this is in the might/maybe stage of preliminary findings so who knows. But if it turns out to be so, it will confirm my long-held secret belief that life is nothing more than bad joke. You can read more here.

HOW TO STAY WARM IN WINTER

It has been a brutally cold weather week in much of the United States. This woman, all 18 seconds of her video, has the right idea.

A BABY PANDA THINKS A SNOWSTORM IS GREAT IDEA

Bao Bao, the youngest panda at the U.S. National Zoo was caught on camera this week playing in her first-ever snow storm along with mama Mei Xiang. That's all you need to know to enjoy this kind of cute:

There are more photos of Bao Bao and Mei Xiang in the snow here along with African lion cubs, a gray seal and a wolf.

Interesting Stuff is a weekly listing of short takes and links to web items that have caught my attention; some related to aging and some not, some useful and others just for fun.

You are all encouraged to submit items for inclusion. Just click “Contact” in the upper left corner of any Time Goes By page to send them. I'm sorry that I won't have time to acknowledge receipt and there is no guarantee of publication. But when I do include them, you will be credited and I will link to your blog IF you include the name of the blog and its URL.