Monday, August 20, 2012

Bits and Pieces - August 20, 2012

Doug Saunders makes an important point about how we too often conceptualize the Middle East.

American stereotypes mapped via Google autocomplete.

Here's a really good description of how summer camps help kids grow. I still recall my camp experiences in very much this way, but never got far enough outside them to be able to explain them the way this article does.

Why are there no popular political songs? Or are there and I'm just not paying attention?

New world record set at mobile-phone-throwing contest. Do the Finns still do their wife-carrying contest too?

I'm not particularly sympathetic to Julian Assange's latest assault on international media. Part of it seems to depend too heavily on the stereotypic "it wasn't really rape" arguments that would seem to dovetail with Todd Akin's assurances that if you get pregnant, it wasn't really rape. Here's something from someone who seems to have done some legal research, as opposed to most of what I've been seeing on Twitter.

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