QOTD

A great deal of our suffering comes from having too many thoughts. And, at the same time, the way we think is not sane. We are only concerned by our immediate satisfaction and forget to measure its long-term advantages and disadvantages, either for ourselves or for others. But such an attitude always goes against us in the end. There is no doubt that by changing our way of seeing things we could reduce our current difficulties and avoid creating new ones.

        ~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Life imitates Internet Traditions

Treasury Sec. Henry Paulson (on the left above) and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke (at right) are getting grilled right now by the Senate Banking Committee on their proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout, and things aren't going exactly smoothly.

Museum Day 2008 (free museum admissions on Saturday)

Via Get Rich Slowly:

This Saturday (the 27th) is Museum Day 2008, sponsored by Smithsonian Magazine. Your admission card provides free general admission for you and a guest (with some restrictions) to participating sites. Details at the above link to Get Rich Slowly or at smithsonianmag.com. Go to the magazine's website to download your free admission card and search a list of participating museums.

Locally, the list includes (but is not limited to) the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore and the Heritage Farm Museum in Sterling. You folks in California have a wider selection, including the Exploratorium, Chabot Space & Science Center, and the Dr. Willella Howe-Waffle House and Medical Museum. (I have no idea what that last is, I just love the name. I keep parsing it as "Dr. Willella Howe" "Waffle House and Medical Museum" though, which is a disturbing mental image.)

Also for the locals, this Saturday is the National Book Festival downtown on the Mall--IMO pretty much the only good thing to come out of the Bush (43) administration. Thanks, Laura! Neil Gaiman will be reading in the Teens & Children Pavilion 11:45-12:15 and then doing a signing from 1-3.