We read laments all the time about how our society places so much emphasis on female appearance that women -and girls- never feel pretty enough. As much as the world around us may be to blame, Amanda King, in a guest post at Offbeat Mama, decided to take matters into her own hands, as far as setting an example for her daughters.

I don't want my girls to be children who are perfect and then, when they start to feel like women, they remember how I thought of myself as ugly and so they will be ugly too. They will get older and their breasts will lose their shape and they will hate their bodies, because that's what women do. That's what mommy did. I want them to become women who remember me modeling impossible beauty. Modeling beauty in the face of a mean world, a scary world, a world where we don't know what to make of ourselves.

"Look at me, girls!" I say to them. "Look at how beautiful I am. I feel really beautiful, today."

I see it behind their eyes, the calculating and impression. I see it behind their shining brown eyes, how glad they are that I believe I am beautiful. They love me. To them, I am love and guidance and warm, soft blankets and early mornings. They have never doubted how wonderful I am. They have never doubted my beauty. How confusing it must have been for them to see me furrowing my brow in the mirror and sucking in my stomach and sighing.

No matter what the rest of the world tells them, parents remain a child's most lasting influence. Read the rest of the essay; it will make you smile and feel beautiful. Link -via Metafilter

(Image credit: Flickr user Gustavo Devito)

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Squirrels dancing to trap music. Who knew the little rodents were so hip! -via Daily of the Day

Redditor spoonpie tucked a note in her second-grade son's lunchbox. She later found it amended. Kids can be stubborn! Link

Coca-Cola began to be sold in glass bottles in the last years of the 19th century -for five cents, the same price the fountain servings had been for years. Those bottled Cokes sold for a nickel until 1959! Oh, it wasn't because the company just wanted to keep the price all that time, but circumstances made raising the price difficult.

The Coca-Cola vending machines were built to take a single coin: a nickel.

Levy says the folks at Coca-Cola thought about converting the vending machines to take a dime. But doubling the price was too much. They wanted something in between.

So they asked the U.S. Treasury to issue a 7.5-cent coin. At one point, the head of Coca-Cola asked President Eisenhower for help. (They were hunting buddies.) No luck.  

There were other factors involved, which you can read about at WEKU. Link -via Metafilter

The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel in Amsterdam is a $22-a-night hostel that fills up every night, possibly due to its strange advertising strategy. The website admits that its accommodation are not luxurious, or even satisfactory. The disclaimer says:

Legal note: The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel does offer cheap accommodation in Amsterdam but cheap accommodation herein describes ‘inexpensive relative to others in the sector’ but not (under hotel regulations & guides the Netherlands brief #4569. 67887. 89) ‘good’ accommodation or indeed ‘pleasant,’ ‘hygienic’ accommodation or any derivation thereof. Those wishing to stay at the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel, Amsterdam, do so at their own risk and will not hold the hotel liable for food poisoning, mental breakdowns, terminal illness, lost limbs, radiation poisoning, certain diseases associated with the 18th century, plague, etcetera.

There's even a section on their website titled "Apologies." It contains the hotel's funny advertisements. Shown here are the hotel's "eco-friendly features" from their ads.  Link -via the Presurfer

If you are in charge of finding graphics for any serious purpose, you might want to slow down and pay attention when you grab something from an internet search. In Australia's year 12 student history exam, a question involved the artwork Storming the Winter palace on 25th October 1917 by Nikolai Kochergin, which depicts the Russian Revolution. What actually ended up in the test was the illustration with a BattleTech Marauder inserted on the horizon. Looks like the revolutionaries had a bit of futuristic help!

A spokesman for the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) said the image was "sourced and acknowledged by the VCAA as coming from the Internet".

"The image has been altered but the alteration of the image won’t impact on the students’ capacity to answer the examination question," he said.

"The VCAA will monitor students' answers to ensure that any student who has been distracted by the image will not be disadvantaged."

Having an image sourced as "coming from the internet" doesn't quite make it genuine. But you already knew that -some people are just learning. Link -via Arbroath

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In this animation from StoryCorps, Nicholas Petron tells about the building his grandfather, Rocco Galasso, owned in New York City. It's not so much about the building as it is about the family. Like all StoryCorps videos, there's a possibility that you will need a hankie. Link

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Princess Leia is front and center as Disney takes over the Star Wars franchise. She'll fit right in with the other Disney Princesses -or maybe not. Lyrics are provided if you'd like to sing along. -via Pleated-Jeans

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Need a "yes man?" Maybe you should look into getting a horse! But what these critters really need is some fly spray. -via Arbroath

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Quick, get the insulin! You might die from the sweetness of 18 ragdoll kittens from four litters playing with day-old hatchling ducks. And then they put that song on top. Feel free to send this to someone who needs a smile. -via Daily of the Day

So you're serving turkey at your house this Thanksgiving, huh? Should you buy a frozen, organic, free-range, or kosher turkey? Should you marinate or rub it? Should you grill, fry, or roast it? Whew, how you know which way to go? The answers lie in a flowchart at the New York Times, which will take you through each decision step-by-step. The answers depend on your tastes, your desired result, and what you are willing to do to make your turkey special. Only the beginning of the chart is shown here. Link  -via mental_floss

Congratulations to Laughing Squid on the site's 17th anniversary! As a gift, artist Yiying Lu, who you may know as the artist behind Fail Whale, made this poster. Laughing Squid also posted some relevant links to celebrate the site's evolution since 1995. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user Scott Beale/Laughing Squid)

The preparations and mementos have more meaning than you're willing to admit, right? Laura Callaghan, also known as Laura Laura Picture Drawer, drew this sad tableau. Link -via I Love Charts

(Image credit: Flickr user Laura Callaghan)

Their nefarious plans may one day come to fruition and then we are all DOOMED! Link -via Jason Kottke

Karen Gwillim of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, saw a cormorant near the town of Craven that was struggling with something. She was surprised to find the bird with a camera strap hanging on its neck! The camera was still attached, weighing the bird down.

When she approached the bird, which weighed about two kilograms, it didn't try to flee or resist. She took the camera off, it flapped its wings and it was gone.

"I think he was relieved to have something that heavy removed," she said. "He seemed all right."

With the bird saved, Gwillim turned her attention to the camera, a point-and-shoot model that had obviously been in the water for a while.

She went home, took out the memory card, let it dry out and booted up her computer.

Fortunately, the pictures were intact. There were about 200 of them, many of them having been taken in October, 2011.

That was two months ago. Gwillim posted the pictures on Facebook, hoping to find the owner of the camera. Nothing happened until she told her story on television, then a man stepped forward who says he knows who the owner is. The camera should be returned to its rightful owner today. Link -via Arbroath