This is a candleholder.
But in a bizarre way it looks almost like a toilet.
The place for the candle is the toilet!
Sort of would make a pretty scary toilet in real life if the back of it (ie. tank) has a body with arms that looks like it is reaching out to grab you as you take your royal seat.
Hey, someone let me out of here!
Ok, I have definitely been shut in too many days due to this Coronavirus thing.
I am imagining the world’s scariest toilets. 😉
(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
I came across these excellent graphics used to educate and prevent against domestic dominance and abuse.
The first wheel shows how “power and control” are used to instill fear and dominate domestic partners as well as in an overall pattern of relationships with physical and sexual violence:
– Intimidation
– Emotional Abuse
– Isolation
– Minimizing, Denying, and Blaming
– Using Children
– Male Privilege
– Economic Abuse
– Coercion and Threats
In contrast, the second wheel displays positive patterns of “equality” in relationships and nonviolence and are marked by the following attributes:
– Non-threatening behavior
– Respect
– Trust and Support
– Honesty and Accountability
– Responsible Parenting
– Shared Responsibility
– Economic Partnership
– Negotiation and Fairness
Have you ever noticed a pattern of domestic abuse behaviors that include the following?
– Constantly lecturing on political views the other person should hold.
– Keeping them away from their family and friends.
– Controlling the major life decisions.
– Hiding money and accounts.
– Demanding the partner stay home with the kids indefinitely.
– Using emotional withdrawal and/or passive aggressiveness to control.
– Requiring the other person to be available whenever they want.
Spouses and partners should be your best friend and not your servant or dog to kick when you get home.
Watch out for those who exhibit the bad behaviors and patterns of abuse and violence…and stay safe in good and healthy relationships! 😉
(Source Photo: Domestic Abuse Intervention Project – Duluth Model)
One of the scariest things for many people is not being with other people.
I don’t mean intentionally not being with others–taking time away from the hustle and bustle for yourself–but rather being left alone.
Think of the horrors of POWs kept in isolation, prisoners put in solitary, or just everyday kids icing out other children in school, adults marginalizing colleagues at work, and family members abandoning spouses and children at home.
Elizabeth Bernstein makes the distinction between being alone (a potential voluntary state) and loneliness (when you feel that you are forced into an isolated state) in the Wall Street Journal today.
It’s an awesome article that explains so much about loneliness:
– We all experience loneliness from “homesickness, bullying, empty-nesting, bereavement, and unrequited love.”
– Loneliness can occur when you are without anybody (“isolation”) or with the wrong somebody (“dissatisfaction”).
– It’s a survivalist function and evolutionary to feel scared when your alone, because when you are “too close to the perimeter of the group, [then you become] at risk of becoming prey.”
– Loneliness is also associated with memories or fears from childhood–when we were young and vulnerable–that someone wasn’t there or going to be there to take care of us.
– Too much loneliness is a “strong predictor of early death”–greater than alcoholism, 15 cigarettes a day, or obesity.
– Loneliness is on the rise, with “some 40% of Americans report being lonely, up from 20% in the 1980’s” and this is correlated with more people living alone, now 27% in 2012 versus 17% in 1970.
– Loneliness can be placated by “reminding yourself you’re not a [helpless] child anymore,” building emotional health and personal self-sufficiency, doing things you enjoy when alone, and reaching out to connect with others.
She jokes at the end of her article that when we aren’t feeling lonely, we are annoyed that people just don’t leave us alone.
This is a very real concern as well, especially with a multitude of family needs (significant others, young children, elderly parents), 24×7 work environments, and the reality of pervasive online communications and even invasive social media.
Not exclusive to introverts, too much people can make us feel put upon, crowded, and even worn out–and hence many people may even run from excessive social activity and crowds.
Yet without a healthy dose of others, people can literally go crazy from the quiet, void, boredom, as well as from the real or perceived feelings that they are in some way unworthy of love or affiliation.
So even though some people can be annoying, users, or try to take advantage of us, no man is an island, and growth, learning and personal serenity is through degrees of love and connection, for each according to their needs. 😉
(Source Photo: here)
There are over 40 million deaf or hearing disabled people in the world.
Many of these people suffer from not being understood by others and feel isolated.
Four Ukranian graduate students have created the answer for them called Enable Talk–these gloves translate sign langauge into sound.
The gloves have sensors including compass, gyroscope, and accelerometer that captures the wearer’s sign language. This is then transmitted via Bluetooth to an smartphone app that matches the sign pattens to those stored (and which can also be programmed/customized) and translates it into words and sounds.
Enable Talk gloves won the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2012 student technology competition, and was named as one of Time Magazine’s Top 25 Best Innovations of 2012.
For $175 these gloves are an amazing value for the hearing impaired who just wants to be communicate and be understood by others.
This is a great advance for the disabled, and I’d like to see the next iteration where the gloves have the translation and voice mechanism and speakers built in, so the smartphone and app isn’t even needed any longer–then the communication is all in the gloves–simple, clean, and convenient! 😉
andyblumenthal 
