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 thirteenth in a never-ending series. There was no Missing Links column last week because I was busy, dammit.
This will also be the last Missing Links column. I started Missing Links as a way to post more often, but it has been taking up all my time. From now on, if I see something that I think deserves mentioning, I’ll write a short post and link to it.
Winner! Pat Tillman’s brother was interviewed on Bill Maher and Dangerous Minds grabbed the video. No matter what your views on Bill Maher are, check out Tillman’s brother, Richard Tillman, who has no trouble speaking his mind, and who I believe he has every right to do. Also included is a link to their other post which has the videos for the true story behind Pat Tillman’s death and the Army’s attempt to cover it up.
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A Close Second: Does a church decorated with human skeletons sound like something from a horror story to you? Well, as they say, life imitates art because there are not one, but a couple of churches like this. Seriously creepy. Photos below and after the jump.
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Best in Show: Unsuck It, the site that translates business jargon phrases like “win-win,” “actionable,” and “reach out to” into what they really mean.
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And this week’s Crazypants Award goes to… the Republican candidates for president in 2012, who, believe it or not, all raised taxes while in office. Just my two cents, but raising and lowering taxes isn’t the answer. The answer is what you do with taxes. Do you pad the pockets of the rich? Or do you help the poor and disadvantaged? Do you piss it away? Or do you monitor the payoff?
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| A bone chandelier from the Sedlac Ossuary, a.k.a. the Eighth Level of Hell (courtesy asw909/flickr) |
I didn’t know about this study when it came out, but healthcare costs were the number one source of bankruptcy in 2009. Does anyone really think America doesn’t need healthcare reform?
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In honor of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the A.V. Club Philadelphia invented a drinking game with Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary that is sure to make you remember what all went down in those dark days – like, way better than those pesky books could ever do.
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Have you heard of the dispicable use of bear bile in traditional Chinese medicine? If you haven’t, here’s an article describing the horrifying business. The pracitice of extracting bile from living bears is worse than it sounds and worse than I can phrase here.
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The Anthology of Rap has been out for a couple of months now and is available on Amazon for under $25. The book is almost 900 pages of rap lyrics – no beats, just text. NPR sat down with a book reviewer to ask what he thought of the songs after he read the lyrics compared to after he heard the music. It’s very interesting and I want to pick up a copy, but there are too many errors in the transcriptions to warrant a purchase just yet. Waiting for the second edition…
A Language Link to Peeve You Off (Peeve? Does Anybody Say That?)
Johnson is peeved by people who insist that healthy can’t do double-duty. But guess what? It can and does. So do lots of other words, dummies.
Want another picture from the crazy bone churches? You got it, ace.
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| This is a goddam coat of arms made out of bones. Sweet dreams. (courtesy Irumiha/flickr) |
