Have things really changed for gay actors and actresses? (Hat tip to rm)

A NYC taxi driver returned a black bag carrying 31 diamond rings to a passenger who earlier had given him a 30-cent tip on an $11 ride.

Beautiful pictures of poisonous frogs

Time: 10 Questions for William Shatner

Gay Sheep Fearmongering from PETA turns out to be wrong. I still prefer this Greenpeace story.

Well, it sounds like a solid story until one reads the punch line. An Army officer who investigated possible abuse at Guantanamo Bay after some guards purportedly bragged about beating detainees found no evidence they mistreated the prisoners — although he did not interview any of the alleged victims.

Slate: Can Photographers be Plagiarists?

In Defense of Partisan Bickering

Edit: this post now contains credit corrections, thanks to quixotickitten's excellent research. This article was also posted in poor_skills here and in daily_granola here. Both communities debated the ethical arguments involved. For more, read (and feel free to reply to) quixotickitten's post on the subject.

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Far be it for me to promote something unethi-- aw screw it. This is FAR too good to pass up.

porphyre spotted a brilliant idea, originally written about in the Seattle Stranger:

”Focus on the Family, the horrid anti-gay evangelical church based in Colorado Springs that wields too much power for anyone’s good, has a store on their website that will give you books, CDs, and DVDs absolutely free of charge. Usually people pay for their items by donation, raising millions of dollars to help Focus on the Family produce more hate-propaganda featuring “experts” on homosexuality who claim it’s a curable “sickness”. (They’re practically defined by their book A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Homosexuality. Course, there’s no mention of having less kids, which is the only proven method. No, no, you shouldn’t use birth control, that would be wrong. They need more worshippers, how dare you prevent god’s will.)

It’s a little bit time-consuming, but not enough to deter me. (Nor should it you). The chance to take money out of their pockets is too useful, not to mention satisfying.

Here’s how to do it in 10 steps:

( Instructions.... )

Miscellany
I’m an avid reader of linguistic expert ozarque’s LJ, even though it feels like I can never think of anything intelligent to add to the conversation over there. She’s been discussing gender and language for the past couple of weeks and all of her posts on the subject have been absolutely brilliant. Part I-A, and Part I-B, Part II and Part III. She’s been posting research, links and asides in between the main posts, too.

Notes on Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott.

Via chiutoy: LG is going to market ”unproven” air conditioner filters covered with an anti-bacterial substance extracted from kimchi as anti-bird flu. They’d better inform their marketing department that an anti-bacterial agent won’t affect a virus....

From elke_tanzer, here: “rageprufrock did this amazing wonderful thing this month... she posted fourteen stories, each with an associated activism cause or charitable organization. The stories are wonderful, the introductions are thoughtful and thought-provoking, and the organizations are excellent. Here are all of the posts with the introductions and organizations, tagged in LJ and here is her archive’s index page for the 14 stories by themselves.”

Also from elke_tanzer: nardasarmy’s post on blogging safety prompted oulangi to also post about it.

This summer, graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology will try to get an idea aloft that has intrigued people for decades: the flying car.

NYTimes; On the Go with Upgraded Ears

Wiesenthal’s Jerusalem Excavation Ignites Furor: When workers broke ground on the $200-million Museum of Tolerance on the edge of Independence Park, they unearthed what bulldozers often dig up in a city whose history dates back 3,000 years: the bones of the dead.

The End Is Near: Famine, pestilence, war, death--at Dallas Theological Seminary, the Apocalypse is the horse to bet on.

*snicker*


Abu Ghraib
I didn’t post links to archives of the original Abu Ghraib photos. However, in recent months, I’ve changed my mind about doing so. Americans should definitely be made aware of how their taxpayer dollars have gone to fund the torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners. The images at the links below are graphic and definitely not safe for work:

WashPost: “From the beginning of the Abu Ghraib scandal, when the first images of torture and humiliation from the Iraqi prison appeared, we knew there were more. And now, two years later, they’ve begun to emerge. An Australian television network has put yet more scenes of blood and savagery into circulation, circumventing both the U.S. government’s efforts to keep Abu Ghraib images out of the public eye and the gatekeeping of news organizations (including this newspaper), which have not published a substantial number of photographs they are holding.” There’s a clip of the segment on SBS’ website. Quicktime format here. An article with photos is here.

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Politics
aclipscomb has an excellent essay posted over at “A Violently Executed Blog”: “Why We Fight?” His wife Melissa’s most recent thought-provoking post, “Separate Spheres” is also quite good.

zestyping links to: “You Can’t Be A Sweet Cucumber in A Vinegar Barrel,” by eminent situationist psychologist Philip Zimbardo, founder of the National Center for the Psychology of Terrorism and known for his famous Stanford Prison Experiment in the early 70s. He talks about dehumanization and Abu Ghraib from the perspective of a trauma psychologist.

Federal officials in Dallas mistakenly disclosed classified counter-terrorism information in a breach of national security that could also threaten one of the country’s biggest terrorism prosecution cases. (Via iocaste212)

Smithsonian: A Lesson In Hate: How an Egyptian student came to study 1950s America and left determined to wage holy war