Monday Morning Links

* 21 Emotions For Which There Are No English Words.

* The better-looking are different from you and me.

* Through behavior like this, the government has turned the entire financial system into a kind of vast confidence game – a Ponzi-like scam in which the value of just about everything in the system is inflated because of the widespread belief that the government will step in to prevent losses. Clearly, a government that’s already in debt over its eyes for the next million years does not have enough capital on hand to rescue every Citigroup or Regions Bank in the land should they all go bust tomorrow. But the market is behaving as if Daddy will step in to once again pay the rent the next time any or all of these kids sets the couch on fire and skips out on his security deposit. Just like an actual Ponzi scheme, it works only as long as they don’t have to make good on all the promises they’ve made.

* “Last year was a great one for the world’s billionaires,” said John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of Red Apple Group Inc., in an email written poolside on his BlackBerry in the Bahamas. World’s 100 richest people got $241 billion richer in 2012.

* Most modern justice systems focus on a crime, a lawbreaker and a punishment. But a concept called “restorative justice” considers harm done and strives for agreement from all concerned — the victims, the offender and the community — on making amends.

* Facebook, women’s bodies, and gendered labor.

* “White House weighs broad gun-control agenda in wake of Newtown shootings.” Probably just a trial balloon, but let’s hope there’s something real here.

* Today’s indescribable nightmare: anesthesia awareness.

* Flirtation rules (1800s).

* How Tide detergent became a drug currency.

* When Hugo Gernsback invented online dating.

* And The Guardian profiles the New York Jacobin/TNI literary scene.

‘The U.S. Military Often Replaces a Working Dog’s Teeth with Titanium Fangs, Capable of Ripping through Enemy Protective Armor’

2015: Cyborg dogs augmented with body armor and titanium fangs stalk the world. This is nightmare-quality monstrous, and I’m not just talking about that “ruff justice” pun.

All Nightmares Are True

Gawker, of course you had me at “Prehistoric Hobbit Humans May Have Been Hunted by Giant Six-Foot Storks.”

Confidential to Graduate Students

Always backup, to multiple drives, including one off-site.

John Boldt is pleading for the return of his hard drive, which contains research and notes for the thesis he was writing for his master’s degree in history. He only had three chapters left to write before his paper was complete.

Unless he gets it back, Boldt will have to abandon his dream and quit at the University of Calgary.

Via Gawker.

Now I’m Just Procrastinating

* Crooks & Liars finds Christopher Brownfield arguing what I’ve been suspecting—BP is only considering containment options that protect their investment. Perhaps this is a question for Obama’s new presidential commission to take up. Meanwhile it looks as if Deepwater Horizon oil has been caught by the loop current, which means it could wind up in the Atlantic soon.

* If we weren’t living in post-racial America, a statistic showing the wealth gap between blacks and whites increasing fourfold since 1984 would be pretty worrying.

* I don’t say this often, but damn, that’s cold.

* Anesthesia awareness: just say no.

* One of the better periodic chart memes I’ve seen: The Elements of a Superhero.

* And speaking of superheroes: Feminist Hulk is on Twitter.

Wednesday Wish-I-Had-a-Snow-Day Links

* The Virginia House of Delegates is tackling the real issues.

The House of Delegates is scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would protect Virginians from attempts by employers or insurance companies to implant microchips in their bodies against their will.

The link goes on to explain how this is also protection from the Anti-Christ. It’s a two-fer.

* Somewhere, a research assistant is getting chewed out: Bernard-Henri Lévy was caught quoting a fictional philosopher in his recent book on Kant.

* ‘They are unembarrassed’: Rachel Maddow on GOP legislators who slam the stimulus in one breath and take credit for its spending the next. It’s an amazing segment; her list of hypocritical cash-and-trash Republicans seems to go on forever.

* Sherrod Brown should be on TV more. (Thanks, Kinohi!) There’s more on the Becker vote here, here, and here; this seems to have gotten people pretty riled up. Related: Obama should get angry more.

* North Carolina wants to change its history curriculum so that high school U.S. history starts in 1877. They’d miss the Civil War and slavery, but at least they’d still get to cover the Wilmington Race Riots of 1898, the only successful coup d’etat in U.S. history.

* 12 Successful SF Authors Who’ve Written Racy Fanfic. The winner? Joanna Russ of The Female Man fame.

* Gay advocacy groups cut off New Jersey Democrats.

* Being bored and having a low IQ can kill you.

* Daily Kos joins the Fire Tim Kaine caucus.

* Is American fiction dead? Is global literature? Is The Catcher in the Rye really unfilmable?

* How Palin can win the 2012 GOP primary.

* And while you may have forgotten about Peak Oil, Peak Oil has not forgotten about you.

What?

Colorado U.S. attorney Troy Eid, a Bush appointee, chose not to charge three meth addicts with high-powered rifles and a self-confessed plan with conspiracy to assassinate Barack Obama, against the suggestion of the FBI.

When police searched the hotel rooms and cars the men were using, they confiscated meth, needles, laptops, cell phones, a black mask, books indicating check fraud and forgery, bags of new clothes, tactical pants and bar coupons.

Based on the evidence, FBI special agent Robert Sawyer believed there was probable cause to charge the men with conspiracy to kill Senator Obama. However, US Attorney Troy Eid last week said there is insufficient evidence to indicate a true threat, plot or conspiracy against the senator.

The men were charged with various weapons and/or drug charges.

No true threat?

9Wants to Know has learned three men in Denver discussed assassinating U.S. Sen. Barack Obama during the Democratic National Convention in Denver by sneaking into one of his events and shooting him with a gun hidden inside of a camera.

…

Johnson, Shawn Adolf and Tharin Gartrell all thought that Obama had a suite in the third floor of the Hyatt hotel, where they were staying. In fact, Obama was staying in another Denver hotel.

The men were doing methamphetamine inside the hotel with two women on Aug. 23 discussing the plot to kill Obama, according to federal records.

Adolf said, “It would not matter if he killed Senator Obama because police would simply add a murder charge to his pending charges,” according to the records.

There were seven outstanding warrants for Adolf’s arrest.

The underage woman told law enforcement that Adolf also talked about using “a high-powered rifle 22-250 from a high vantage point” to shoot Obama during his acceptance speech at INVESCO Field at Mile High.