Really cool 100-episodes-of-Castle tribute.

George Takei has a wicked sense of humour. A nice discussion by George Takei of the casting as John Cho as Sulu, extending to Gene Roddenberry's philosophy and where the name Sulu came from.

My favourite musical number in any movie.  Though Heath Ledger singing Can't Take My Eyes Off You in 10 Things I ( Read more... )

Eye-witness story of police doing their bit to ensure that sexual assault is such an under-reported crime.

Ice hockey rivalry brilliantly expressed in a picture and three words.

2 cellos do Smooth Criminal and Smells like Teen Spirit.

Suppose you had a twin brother and you hadn't got around to mentioning to him that you were gay ( Read more... )

Columnist Dan Savage on the worst advice he ever gave (to Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters).

Same-sex marriages between foreigners in Canada are (hopefully temporarily) not valid.

Actor Luke Evans was out, but is now back in.

Having a queer look at US recruiting posters. More.

Amorous squids are not finicky about gender of sexual partners ( Read more... )

The difference between type C and type M arguments.

Kenan Malik takes strong exception against a European Court decision against stem cell research. One of the objections to judges weighing in on morality is that it abrogates to them an authority that is much more general.

About the intellectual career and peregrinations of Christopher Lasch ( Read more... )

About a new Canadian magazine which includes a review eviscerating John Ralston Saul’s take on the origins of Canadian democracy. And onto its second issue:
What follows is the most thorough debunking of Australia’s blame-the-pommie-bastards myth you are likely to read, written in a style at once lively and learned, by a bold Australian historian ( Read more... )

Black and white twins who raise all sorts of identity issues. About a mixed race couple who produced two sets of black and white twin daughters. More links.

Moral bankruptcy in the academic jungle: the case of historian Orlando Figes.

About (not) respecting the law:
1. What is the worst law you think people are still morally obliged to obey ( Read more... )

Commodity price index back to 1749.

Graphs allowing the comparing the fall in US spending on goods and services in 1929-33 to that during the “Great Recession”. Showing that the fall in US spending on goods and services during the Great Recession was by far the largest since 1960.

Arguing that the Copernican analogy actually shows how economics ( Read more... )

Betty Ford dies at 93.

Remembering Geraldine Ferraro.

About how American politics is affected by hopes of a transformational landslide election.

Printing a pamphlet including Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, carefully leaving out two words.

About the power of extra information and position to affect the actions of the powerful ( Read more... )

Study finds that access to Catholic schools increases the performance of minority students in the US, mainly because of how bad the local public schools were.

Mapping differences in performance between private and government schools in Sweden, with depressing evidence on the effect of home environments on education outcomes ( Read more... )

Snake dies of silicone poisoning after biting the breast of model.

An amazing husband rescues wife story from the Japanese tsunami.

Evidence of burial rites from 350,000 years ago.

About seasteading and law.

About the spreading of anti-Semitism.

Considering the lessons from the kidnapping of the son of a Russian billionaire ( Read more... )