Miscellany
I’m an avid reader of linguistic expert ozarque’s LJ, even though it feels like I can never think of anything intelligent to add to the conversation over there. She’s been discussing gender and language for the past couple of weeks and all of her posts on the subject have been absolutely brilliant. Part I-A, and Part I-B, Part II and Part III. She’s been posting research, links and asides in between the main posts, too.

Notes on Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott.

Via chiutoy: LG is going to market ”unproven” air conditioner filters covered with an anti-bacterial substance extracted from kimchi as anti-bird flu. They’d better inform their marketing department that an anti-bacterial agent won’t affect a virus....

From elke_tanzer, here: “rageprufrock did this amazing wonderful thing this month... she posted fourteen stories, each with an associated activism cause or charitable organization. The stories are wonderful, the introductions are thoughtful and thought-provoking, and the organizations are excellent. Here are all of the posts with the introductions and organizations, tagged in LJ and here is her archive’s index page for the 14 stories by themselves.”

Also from elke_tanzer: nardasarmy’s post on blogging safety prompted oulangi to also post about it.

This summer, graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will try to get an idea aloft that has intrigued people for decades: the flying car.

NYTimes; On the Go with Upgraded Ears

Wiesenthal’s Jerusalem Excavation Ignites Furor: When workers broke ground on the $200-million Museum of Tolerance on the edge of Independence Park, they unearthed what bulldozers often dig up in a city whose history dates back 3,000 years: the bones of the dead.

The End Is Near: Famine, pestilence, war, death--at Dallas Theological Seminary, the Apocalypse is the horse to bet on.

*snicker*


Abu Ghraib
I didn’t post links to archives of the original Abu Ghraib photos. However, in recent months, I’ve changed my mind about doing so. Americans should definitely be made aware of how their taxpayer dollars have gone to fund the torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners. The images at the links below are graphic and definitely not safe for work:

WashPost: “From the beginning of the Abu Ghraib scandal, when the first images of torture and humiliation from the Iraqi prison appeared, we knew there were more. And now, two years later, they’ve begun to emerge. An Australian television network has put yet more scenes of blood and savagery into circulation, circumventing both the U.S. government’s efforts to keep Abu Ghraib images out of the public eye and the gatekeeping of news organizations (including this newspaper), which have not published a substantial number of photographs they are holding.” There’s a clip of the segment on SBS’ website. Quicktime format here. An article with photos is here.

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Politics
aclipscomb has an excellent essay posted over at “A Violently Executed Blog”: “Why We Fight?” His wife Melissa’s most recent thought-provoking post, “Separate Spheres” is also quite good.

zestyping links to: “You Can’t Be A Sweet Cucumber in A Vinegar Barrel,” by eminent situationist psychologist Philip Zimbardo, founder of the National Center for the Psychology of Terrorism and known for his famous Stanford Prison Experiment in the early 70s. He talks about dehumanization and Abu Ghraib from the perspective of a trauma psychologist.

Federal officials in Dallas mistakenly disclosed classified counter-terrorism information in a breach of national security that could also threaten one of the country’s biggest terrorism prosecution cases. (Via iocaste212)

Smithsonian: A Lesson In Hate: How an Egyptian student came to study 1950s America and left determined to wage holy war