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“She speaks more languages than anyone in the family. Because she plays with all the children in the street.” (Erbil, Iraq)

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It’s so…wonderful.

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West Wing Quote of the Day

Bartlet: ...'Joy cometh in the morning,' scripture tells us. I hope so. I don't know if life would be worth living if it didn't. And I don't yet know who set off the bomb at Kennison State. I don't know if it's one person or ten, and I don't know what they want. All I know for sure, all I know for certain, is that they weren't born wanting to do this. There's evil in the world, there'll always be, and we can't do anything about that. But there's violence in our schools, too much mayhem in our culture, and we can do something about that. There's not enough character, discipline, and depth in our classrooms; there aren't enough teachers in our classrooms. There isn't nearly enough, not nearly enough, not nearly enough money in our classrooms, and we can do something about that. We're not doing nearly enough, not nearly enough to teach our children well, and we can do better, and we must do better, and we will do better, and we will start this moment today! They weren't born wanting to do this.

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Mike Dargas

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Jee Young Lee

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Tracey Emin, ‘Life Model Goes Mad’, 1996

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Almost time to march over to MoMA for the Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon this Saturday, March 7, from 11 to 5 in the Education Building. We’ll have training sessions, child care, research support, and enthusiasm.

To most efficiently “end discrimination against women in museums, galleries and art schools,” create a Wikipedia account and check out a video tutorial before you arrive. -jt

Women in the Arts. Attention! Women Artists and Feminists! 1972. MoMA Library.

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Photo First: Light Captured as Both Particle and Wave

It’s one of those enduring Zen koans of science that we’ve all grown up with: Light behaves as both a particle and a wave—at the same time. Einstein taught us that, so we’re all generally on board, but to actually understand what it means would require several Ph.D.s and a thorough understanding of quantum physics.

What’s more, scientists have never been able to devise an experiment that documents light behaving as both a wave and a particle simultaneously. Until now.

That’s the contention of a team of Swiss and American researchers, who say they’ve succeeded in capturing the first-ever snapshot of light’s dual behavior. Using an advanced electron microscope – one of only two on the planet – at the EPFL labs in Switzerland, the team has generated a kind of quantum photograph of light behaving as both a particle and a wave. Learn more

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Not sure where this painting is going... Oil on canvas. Frustrating Late Winter of 2015.

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“I want to be in musical theater, but it’s getting harder and harder for me to go to auditions. I want to make my parents proud and validate their faith in me, but every time I talk to them, they ask me if I’ve gotten a show yet, and every time I have to tell them ‘no.’ And it’s hard to not feel foolish when you keep trying something and it doesn’t work out. I have a day job to support me while I go to auditions. But now I’m working there more than I’m auditioning, and I’m scared that I’m falling into a routine. I see a lot of people settle into a routine where nothing really upsets them, but nothing really excites them either. And I’m afraid that’s happening to me.”

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Back in 2012, something unusual got started in an alleyway in an already tightly developed part of northeast Washington, D.C.

On an 11th-of-an-acre lot next to a cemetery, behind a block of row houses, tiny houses started to go up. And not just one little house in backyard, like you might see in many places. The builders billed this as an urban tiny house community.

While the average size of new houses gets bigger every year in the U.S., some people are trying to do more with less. A lot less. Tiny houses and micro apartments are now a niche trend in the housing market. Smaller spaces are touted as more environmentally friendly, more affordable and perhaps even more communal. The idea is you might be more likely to get out and be social if you live in a smaller space.

Lee Pera, 36, co-founded Boneyard Studios, that tiny house community space in D.C. For Pera, an EPA worker who says she finds Washington a little too gray-suited at times, this was a step towards a dream: a dream of living simply, in a creative community, using underused urban space.

Living Small In The City: With More Singles, Micro-Housing Gets Big

Photo credit: Franklyn Cater/NPR

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SOMEONE FINALLY SAID IT