Friday Links

* Oh, JK: Harry Potter Spin-Off Movie Coming, JK Rowling Writing Screenplay.

* The “Merit Aid” Fiasco.

* “500 year flood” in Colorado. We get those every year now.

* When you can pause for a moment between waves of stomach-churning heebie-jeebies, you realize that not only are these women sympathetic characters, but they’re all the more terrifying because they have every bit of anger that makes living women sources of fear, but none of the societal restriction. The Feminist Power of Female Ghosts.

* The President and the Pipeline.

* There’s Something Wrong With America’s Premier Liberal Pollster.

* What Isaac Asimov Thought 2014 Would Look Like. Of course, he wasn’t always so optimistic.

* U-Va. should break some ties with state, panel says in preliminary report. I’m very conflicted about this — I’m not interested in UVA’s ability to “more easily increase tuition” but I would like to see it preserve its independence, and I like the idea of legislatures facing some potential political cost for destroying state university systems.

* Vladimir Putin, the most successful troll of all time.

* Shocked, shocked! Allegations of sex, pay and grade changes trouble Oklahoma State University football fans.

* Massive fire last night at the Seaside Heights boardwalk. Just terrible.

* And all that is solid melts into air: RIP, Marshall Berman. I feel like I begin half the things I write with a quote from All That Is Solid.