A Dump of Links

While I've been on light-blogging duty, getting the book done and stuff, I've been bookmarking a lot of stuff for future comment. So here it all is, with sporadic and brief comment!

:: Ma Ingalls thinks I'm an asshole.

Heh. If it helps, I'm sure that Great-Grandma Ingalls thought that Ma was an asshole, too.

:: A useful history of the Gamergate fiasco.

:: Alysa Rosenberg on Black Widow and The Avengers.

I don't always agree with Rosenberg -- I find her more recent article defending Game of Thrones's focus on rape unconvincing and oddly argued -- but she generally makes interesting points, as is the case here.

:: The McDonald's Hot Coffee Lawsuit, explained.

This case has become a shorthand in referring to our overly-litigious society which is prone to frivolous lawsuits. Problem is, this case was hardly frivolous. Read it to see why.

:: The Plot Against Trains

Good article about rail travel in the United States and how its sorry state is reflective of our bizarre attitude towards effective government policy and the way we casually accept measurably poorer policy outcomes if it means "less government".

:: Woodstock's undercover lovers, identified.

:: Want to watch fifteen seconds of the most heart-stopping parkour ever filmed? Sure you do!


:: The Scoville Scale of Pepper Hotness, illustrated with cats.

:: Next time you're in Budapest, make sure to check out the town's newest bronze statue to a beloved fictional detective. No, not that one. This one.

:: Finally, The Tragedy of Jar Jar Binks. I've already gone into my thoughts on why Jar Jar was as hated as he was, in the Phantom Menace sequence of Fixing the Prequels posts, and this article seems to partially agree: Too much "Comedic hijinks Jar Jar", and not enough "Screw-up from the warrior species Jar Jar". I do like to recall, though, that when I saw Revenge of the Sith in the theater on opening day, when Jar Jar appeared for his very-brief cameo in that film, the response in the theater was mainly people who sounded glad to see the guy, however fleetingly.