Link Archive 12/1/13 – 12/24/13

Hey, people have been doing it for 2000 years, why stop now? Right-Wing Group Seeks Help Rewriting the Bible Because It's Not Conservative Enough. As an aside, I love Conservapedia. It's the physical incarnation of Poe's Law.

"I can spank this kid. That will teach him to stop. It sure might. Just like if I want a woman to shut up, I might smack her across the mouth. Just like if I don’t like what some guy is saying to me, maybe I punch him in the throat."

"Bilbo, it turns out, makes a terrific heroine. She’s tough, resourceful, humble, funny, and uses her wits to make off with a spectacular piece of jewelry. Perhaps most importantly, she never makes an issue of her gender—and neither does anyone else."

1995 says the internet is a fad. (He does make some good and depressing points near the end)

Stross wants BitCoin to die - "BitCoin looks like it was designed as a weapon intended to damage central banking and money issuing banks, with a Libertarian political agenda in mind—to damage states ability to collect tax and monitor their citizens financial transactions"

Twisted. This is good. It's the Aladdin story, told from Jafar's point of view (much like Wicked). It is a musical, and is in turns hilarious and sad and touching. This is one of the best things we've seen this year. It is better than any Hollywood movie we've paid to see in the past 12 months. We're buying the DVD just because we feel these people deserve some money for what they've done. You can watch it free. Next time you're going to stream a movie from Netflix, or pop in a DVD, consider pulling up this instead. It's a wonderful way to spend an evening.

The true story of why NORAD tracks Santa. "Suddenly, on Christmas Eve, phone calls intended for St. Nick were being received on a top-secret NORAD line [...] “Sir?" Shoup was probably, at this point, trying not to panic. Silence on the crisis line. "Can you read me alright?” "

Let's Ban Weddings (and Baby Showers) "Try to make the life decisions your 37-year-old self would want you to make, not the ones the seven-year-old you fantasized about."

All the arguments for getting rid of pennies, summed up in handy 4-minute YouTube form.

The only good BuzzFeed article ever. :) 25 Animated GIFs That Are Actually Just The Same JPEG Of Carrot Top. Seriously.

Medieval combat. I guess those suits of armor were actually fairly mobile. And looks like a lot of combat was more about physically overpowering your opponent than fancy sword work.

Anaea Lay on the Michigan Cuddle House, which I didn't know was a thing. (As in, a professional service. I am aware of cuddle parties). Looks like we have one in Boulder too. And ours appears to still be in business.

"To be a PC, you’ve got to involve yourself in the Plot of the Story. [...] Sometimes I don’t really understand why so few people try to get involved in the Plot. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that the important things are accomplished not by those best suited to do them, or by those who ought to be responsible for doing them, but by whoever actually shows up."-- Eliezer Yudkowsky

A video smearing low-wage protesters and unions, created by ex-lobbyists for Walmart and Darden Restaurants. It's bizarre, I suspected it was a satire at first. It feels like the sort of thing The Onion would put out... it perfectly matches their editorial cartoon.

Godzilla Haiku. Some good stuff here. "Do you not yet see? The city is your prison I grant you freedom"

A six-part post by a restaurant owner who eliminated tipping in his establishment explaining why tipping makes all restaurants worse, makes the business harder to run, and why it's borderline immoral. (part 5 is particularly interesting) "I’ve become convinced that thoughtful cultures who value civil rights will make tipping not just optional but illegal." ...In time I drew the conclusion that our tipping ritual is only nominally a business arrangement. Under the surface, it is much more a convention about sex and power. ...But when attention-for-payment is removed, and the female server transforms from a kind of imitation sex worker to a fellow person with her own robust sexuality — this is now a moment of vulnerability for everyone involved. It’s a threat to the male patron who no longer has the prospect of withholding income to protect himself from rejection.

Quoting Brienne: "This baby seal makes me extremely uncomfortable. ... It learns which activities increase the odds of being pet, so it becomes cuter over time. Additionally, it makes distressed sounds if you hit it or hold it upside down. Makes sense, because we want to discourage the patients from being violent, right? ...I imagine it would learn to pretend to be injured when you aren't paying it enough attention. It would have no qualms about that whatsoever, nor would it be trying to make you feel bad, because it doesn't have any concept of "guilt". It just knows what does and doesn't cause pets [...] if I'm right, this is a very concrete example of the sort of thing that happens when an apparently benevolent intelligence has totally alien values"

All the best people are trekkies. Like MLK Jr.

What it Was Really Like to Fly in The Golden Age of Travel. Every so often I'm reminded that the past was horrible, and we should never go back.

Thorium-Fueled Automobile Engine Needs Refueling Once a Century

That oft-cited study that mice fed GMO corn got cancer at an increased rate? It's being retracted. "a treatment group of male rats receiving 33% GM corn and Roundup had no difference to the control group, and two treatment groups receiving Roundup (A and C) had the same or less incidence of cancer compared with the control group."

Christian Swingers Site. Yes, even Christians deserve fulfilling sex lives. Not surprisingly, all the christian news sites are outraged.

Lawsuit Filed Today on Behalf of Chimpanzee Seeking Legal Personhood (Technically some humans are seeking legal personhood for the chimpanzee, I don't think he's seeking it himself)