[Video: the image being discussed here — in which Albert Einstein and Marilyn Monroe somehow occupy the same face, morphing into each other depending on how closely you’re observing it — has been making its way around the Internets for a while now. The explanation comes to us courtesy of a YouTube channel called ASAP Science, “Your weekly dose of fun and interesting science.”]

From whiskey river:

Since you always lived inside your own head, you were much better at seeing the truth about others than you ever were at seeing yourself. So you navigated your life with the help of others who held up mirrors for you. People praised your good qualities and criticized your bad habits, and these perspectives — often surprising to you — helped you to guide your life. So poorly did you know yourself that you were always surprised at how you looked in photographs or how you sounded on voice mail. In this way, much of your existence took place in the eyes, ears, and fingertips of others.

(David Eagleman [source])

…and:

Ordinary Days

The storm is over; too bad, I say.
At least storms are clear
about their dangerous intent.

Ordinary days are what I fear,
the sneaky speed
with which noon arrives, the sun

shining while a government darkens
a decade, or a man
falls out of love. I fear the solace

of repetition, a withheld slap in the face.
Someone is singing
in Portugal. Here the mockingbird

is a crow and a grackle, then a cat.
So many things
happening at once. If I decide

to turn over my desk, go privately wild,
trash the house,
no one across town will know.

I must insist how disturbing this is—
the necessity
of going public, of being a fool.

(Stephen Dunn [source])

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