Friday Links!

* The UK Ministry of Defence Says Life in 2045 Will Be Unequal and Violent. That level of continuity with our present almost counts as utopian these days.

* I keep thinking about yesterday’s shooting down of a plane over Ukrainian airspace, especially the high number of children and AIDS researchers on board. And then there’s the geopolitical implications.

* Australia repeals its carbon tax because there’s just no hope.

* NSA sees your nude pix ‘as fringe benefits of surveillance positions,’ says Snowden.

* How to Answer the Diversity Question at a Campus Interview.

* I Saw a Man Get Arrested For a Sex Crime Because He Made a Scheduling Error.

* Freedom! Studies: Stand Your Ground Laws Lead To More Homicides, Don’t Deter Crime.

* Amy Poehler, then new to “Saturday Night Live,” was engaging in some loud and unladylike vulgarity in the writers’ room when the show’s then-star Jimmy Fallon jokingly told her to cut it out, saying, “It’s not cute! I don’t like it!” In Fey’s retelling, Poehler “went black in the eyes for a second, and wheeled around on him,” forcefully informing him: “I don’t fucking care if you like it.”

* How prosecutors would build a case against the Batman.

*  The Return of School Segregation in Eight Charts.

* Danish DNA could be key to happiness. Well, I’m certainly glad we solved that!

* Israel and Gaza: A Plague on One House.

* A People’s History of Tattooine.

* The ‘World Cup Is Over, Now What?’ Guide to Soccer.

* Adam soldiers on in his sustained reading of the Temporal Cold War. My inclination is always to read the threat of the future as ecological rather than financial, but otherwise I’m on board.

* Amazon announces the death of the author.

* Grad school as scummy subscription service. Disruptilicious!

* Big Bang Theory Stars Could Make $1 Million An Episode, Because There’s No Hope.

* Which early Christian heresy are you?

* A Brief History of Houses Built Out of Spite.

* Okay, okay, but just this once.

* And Slate has an urgent report on my favorite subject in the world, the only thing that really matters, Roko’s Basilisk.