The Missing Links – February 11, 2011

The Missing Links is just what it sounds like – a collection of links to interesting things I found on the interwebs this week. I hope you enjoy them. This is the third in a never-ending series and there’s a ton of links this time.

Top links of the week:


Winner: The Salty Droid on Julian Assange. (p.s. This is a site you should definitely check out and subscribe to ‘cause it’s awesome.)
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A Close Second: Dan Savage of Savage Love fame is awesome. There’s no two ways around it. Here’s his most recent column, which showcases once again how awesome he is. (via the A.V. Club)
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Best in Show: AT&T vs. Verizon! Guess what? They both lose. And so do you.
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And this week’s Crazypants Award goes to… Christine O’Donnell! Delaware represent!
Interesting Links:
In honor of raising awareness of how much paper is wasted by needless printing, Save as WWF – a file format that you can’t print – is now available for Windows and Macs. (via WWF)
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What do Donald Rumsfeld and Julian Assange have in common? They both annoy the shit out of me! No, I kid. Here’s what they really have in common – Rumsfeld’s hopes to vindicate himself with lots and lots of documents. (via Wired)
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Southeast Pennsylvania holla! The dish on the Wedge. (Thank you, mental_floss) 
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Wanna read about Scientology? Here’s this article is from the not-so-crazies at the New Yorker. And coming soon to a theatre near you (maybe) is Paul Thomas Anderson’s thinly veiled Scientology movie. More dirt on the “church” in the second link. (via the New Yorker and the A.V. Club)
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Separating fact from fiction about the Gipper. Sorry to burst your bubble, conservatives. At least now you can find someone who really exemplifies your values.
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I just downloaded GIMP this week and I’m loving it. Soon I’ll be ready to enter the world of photo manipulation. Politicians beware! Check out this WebUrbanist article on some of the more famous fake photos. (Also, to all the dictators out there, I’m not against doing freelance work for you. Hit me up when you need someone wiped out of a picture.) (Thanks again to mental_floss).
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6 things that influence our bad behavior. See, you’re not just an evil little shit. It’s nature that’s against you. (via Cracked)
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Here’s a very interesting article from mental_floss on the development of a malaria vaccine.
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The Patriot Act has not been extended! Rejoice! Everyone go tweet about the Machiavelli and Marx books you just bought online while talking to your friend Mohammed who lives in Pakistan! Wait, that’s not entirely true. Oops. Ok, comrade, Big Brother would like to have a word with you. (both links from Wired)
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Apparently, WikiLeaks has a few problems airing its own dirty laundry. A high-ranking defector brings the hammer down on Assange and Co. (again, from Wired)
Links about Finland:
Finland is attempting to rebrew a beer found in a ship wreck.
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What do we know about vaccines causing narcolepsy in Finland? That we need more research. There may be a connection, just don’t believe everything that you read.
Links on Language:
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The OLAC Language Resource Catalog makes it easy to search language archives from around the world – over 40 languages are included in more than 100,000 resources. Here’s Steven Bird’s short explanation about it on Language Log.
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Mountweazel is the new term to describe what happens when one company plants false information in their product to catch another company from copying them, as Google apparently did to Microsoft with “Hiybbprqag.” Adjust your spell checkers accordingly. Check the link for a short history on this intriguing academic bait and trap game.
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Whew, that was quite a lot of links. Now, let’s go take a nap.

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