1. Code Switch had a great post on Neil Degrasse Tyson, looking at, among other things how he faced some roadblocks and expectations of failure on his way to becoming an astrophysicist as a black man. It reminded me of Natalie Maclees' post about some of the roadblocks she'd encountered taking math and science classes as a woman. In her post she talks about some little things other classmates could do, even if it was coming up to someone afterwords because often people don't want to challenge a teacher or professor even if that person is being a jerk. Another person I spoke to said the next wave of a lot of the school sponsored anti-bullying campaigns was about educating and empowering other students to speak out and how to safely intervene. So hopefully, the next batch of students won't be held back by expectations of failure.
2. I have heard - in historical visits no less - that beds were smaller because people were shorter and liked to sleep sitting up. But apparently the answer is really that bedposts used to be bigger.