Welcome to the Wednesday Walk Around the Web, where we weave & wind through weblinks weekly. Hopefully you will find the links on offer amusing, interesting, or, occasionally, profound. Views expressed in the Wednesday Walk do not necessarily reflect those of anyone but the writer. Do you have a link you want to see featured in next week’s Walk? Email Glenn!
- A year full of cops murdering people is obviously ending with cops murdering people. Also, just like the cops who murdered Sandra Bland, and the cop who murdered Mike Brown, and the cops who murdered Freddie Gray, and the cops who murder so many people, the cops who murdered (twelve-year-old) Tamir Rice will suffer no consequences for their acts. Because we haven’t made a less grievous world yet.
- Speaking of institutionalized murder, Pakistani artists are trying to knock some semblance of empathy into the perpetrators of US drone warfare through skyward-facing portraits of victims. Now, back to the happy-fun linky-loo.
- With a Star Wars movie come the Star Wars babies. I can say this for the new one: Finn and Rey and even Poe are better names for new humans than Padme or Obi…or freakin’ Darth.
- This Week in Stereotype-Busting: you know, perusing dating & hookup apps can show you a lot about people, and not just their underwear zones. One thing you can find out about people is that a lot of them are really bad at taking selfies, and one way you can be really bad at taking selfies is to include in your selfie — that’s supposed to entice people, mind you — a huge-ass mess or some other interior decorating snafu that’s not going to turn anyone on. One need only look at a few selections of Grindr profile photos to bust the idea that gay(/pan/bi/queer) men are wizards at interior design. (NSFW, obviously, but for what it’s worth the article only features photos cropped to waist-up nudity. It’s about the design, folks.)
- This Week in Biblical Analysis: also, speaking of dicks, at least one scholar has some intriguing ideas about what kind of bone Adam gave up for Eve.
- The US interstate highway system, like any sufficiently large system, has pieces that get a little weird.
- Alert, alert, klaxon, klaxon! Morrissey has written a novel, and it has at least one award-winningly-horrible sex scene.
- This just in: culinary experts predict that vegetables, broth, hummus, and toast will be the foods of 2016. So get in on that hot toast tip if you haven’t heard of it.
- There’s a run on tutus on the horizon, so I hope you got all you needed during the holidays.
- Another hit from good ol’ JT Rozzero from Rhode Island: William Hayes, noted footballer, is a dinosaur truther. I’m assuming his major when he was playing in college wasn’t archaeology.
- Genetic analysis sheds light on the way population shifts affected ancient Ireland. Also, it seems that modern Ireland has the lowest frequency of lactose intolerance, so go on and enjoy your yummy yummy milks & cheeses, Irish folks!
- This Week in Photography: dogs, just as they’re about to catch their treats. Who’s a good dog? These are good dogs.
- If you have a kissing buddy or want to get one in the near future, but don’t quite know how do the kissing thing, never fear — Dinosaur Comics is here.
- So very much money has been spent, in the real world and especially in movies, to bring Matt Damon home.
- The Free Universal Construction Kit is comprised of a set of adapters between just about any construction toy you (or the kiddos) are going to have. Finally you can combine your Legos and your Lincoln logs and really let the creativity flow.
- I never knew that Mr. Rogers was an ordained minister. Doesn’t change the fact that the man was a saint.
- Way, way back in the Wednesday Walk I briefly mentioned the inanity of tiny-coffee-cup DRM, so that when you buy your single-cup coffee makers you can only use a particular brand of tiny coffee cups to fill your moderately-sized coffee cups. Now, Philips is rolling out a new firmware update(!) for its lightbulbs(!!) that enforces lightbulb DRM(!?!). So there’s a thing.
