More of a true link drop today…

–It’s the case in any heathy democracy that a nation’s culture dictates social direction to its government–as the people change their priorities and worldview, government inevitably follows.

I say this because there are a rash of marijuana-related stories in the news lately.  Like, all over the place.

There’s this one on how marijuana supposedly helps with videogame performance.  There’s this one on a massive plantation found south of the border.  And this one, in which an ESPN football analyst makes a series of wildly illogical and mostly non-sensical arguments about the future of the Steelers (while not directly referencing marijuana in the piece, I have to think Mr. Walker was high to file that mess).

A Denver newspaper has even hired a professional marijuana critic (video in link), as medicinal marijuana dispensaries have sprung up all over the place in that part of the country.

But none of those stories will have nearly the cultural (and, eventually, governmental) impact as this next one:  ‘Weed Wars’ is coming to The Discovery Channel.

So yeah.  Lots and lots of weed stories out there these days.  And as the U.S. inches toward outright de-criminalization (if not legalization) of the plant, there are going to be lots and lots more.

–It’s now time for a series of links that follow a theme of ‘Oh my Gawd, I would totally shit my pants’.  To wit:

—–’Great White Shark Jumps from Sea into Research Boat‘

Next thing I know I hear a splash, and see a white shark breach out of the water from [the] side of the boat hovering, literally, over the crew member who was chumming [throwing food bait] on the port side.

–A woman who almost definitely shit her pants.

—–’Leopard Killed After Mauling Six in India‘.

Check out picture two.  Gallons upon gallon of feces would be evacuated from my insides with unnatural speed.  The villagers would be deeply affected by the rate at which my bowels emptied…much more so than by the leopard.

—–’Hikers Presumed Dead After Falling Over Yosemite Waterfall‘.

A 300+ foot drop to their death.

It’d be an interesting experiment to see if, falling headfirst, the shit coming from my pants would fall at the same rate as my body or, if by virtue of the sheer force of the bowel movement, it would fall more slowly.

–Why not start today’s SQL off with a bang?

The following is a fairly brilliant stop-motion video from Mr. John Huang.  And though I’ll admit to being a Final Fantasy X partisan, this work on the legendary FF VII is just about the most impressive thing I watched all week (save for the Pittsburgh Pirates continued resurgence).

Have at it:

–Another quality video bats second in today’s lineup, and for what it lacks in geek chic it’s makes up in societal relevance.  This is a very solid piece from CNN, explaining the life of the space shuttle and where NASA goes from here.

–There’s a new movie making waves in the arena of religion and critical thinking.  It’s called ‘The Ledge’ and it was nominated for Best Drama at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

“This suspicion about people whose only crime is not believing in things until they’re proven seems weird,” Chapman said. “To me, there is something much more terrifying about voting for someone who accepts things on faith without any evidence whatsoever.”

–Atheist, Writer / Director of ‘The Ledge’, Matthew Chapman

Religion is a funny thing.

As illogical as it can seem to any modern human curious enough to think the issue through, belief in some kind of Deity serves a vital purpose early in a culture’s evolutionary process.

Religion in nascent societies serves as a foundation for rules, order, morality…and ultimately as an incubator of sorts for entire civilizations.

And the funny thing seems to be that, regardless of the specific narrative that’s created, and regardless of the logical fallacies inherent to these very constructions, Religion seems to do it’s job of keeping people in line and reproducing quite well–as it turns out, a fear of something is preferable to a fear of nothing in an early world devoid of science.

So while I, myself, have a hard time coming to terms with pretty much anything that can’t be proven, I do have a profound respect for the power of Religion–it’s a crucial tool for societies in early, volatile times enabling them to eventually advance beyond it.

–Speaking of mothers rising from the dead…

–Wrapping up today’s relatively light load of links:  a swift kick in the pants.

Hope y’all enjoyed the Independence Day festivities.

I celebrated by standing in the rain and listening to fireworks, as nothing was visible through the miasma that descended upon Southwestern PA last night.

Miasma.

I’ve prepared a bit of a rapid-fire post for today, as the long weekend has produced lots of Quality Links.

–We’ll start with a rare callback from a previous edition.

Remember the 6’8″ perv who curled up inside porta-potties to spy on women?  Well he’s back in the news, ostensibly, as an excuse to run quotes like this:

“There’s bacteria in there, but to me it’s just normal … we all have bodily fluids.  I still would have done it even if it smelled a little weird, because where there is muck, there is gold.”

–The man himself

and this:

A security guard tried to stop the feces-covered man, but he got away.

–A delighted QMI Agency writer

He’s also claiming not to be a perv…an argument that loses some steam once you’ve contorted yourself in the tank of a porta-potty to watch women go to the bathroom.

–From a pervert, we’ll head on over to a story called ‘Perverse Incentives‘–a story at The Atlantic about the growing field of Aesthetic Vaginal Surgery.

–While we’re on the subject of human genitals, here we have a story that has me wondering how and why Natural Selection has abandoned us.

The clerk said she saw the man exit the store’s office about 15 minutes later with his pants on the floor and his penis inside a plastic money deposit bag. She said the man left after an argument and handed the bag to another clerk on his way out.

–I’m sure that was one hell of an argument.

–There’s this guy, who to his credit did NOT stick his penis in a gas tank, but…

–I enjoyed this link, as it both science-y and beer-y.  Long story short–if you want some free alcohol, there’s plenty out there.  Bit of a road trip required, though.

Millar and his compatriots have estimated the size of this gas cloud at approximately 1,000 times the diameter of our own solar system; there’s enough alcohol out there, they say, to make 400 trillion trillion pints of beer.

–That’s a lot of pints. Written out, a trillion, trillion looks like this (I think): 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (48 zeros)

–That was an absurd number.  How about an absurd fad: Planking.

–A couple of health-related stories now…  Firstly, I very much enjoyed this story on doctors paying up for wasting their patient’s time.

Time is the most valuable commodity any of us will ever possess.  And wasting it sitting in an exam room or a waiting room after arriving on-time and with a scheduled appointment is, for me, torture.

IF I MAKE A 2:00 APPOINTMENT I EXPECT TO BE SEEN AT 2:00!  IT’S WHY WE AGREED ON A TIME!

Nice to see some smart docs paying up for their own lack of efficiency.

As for the second health-related story…  This may seem a little harsh, but I found this story to be deliciously ironic.  The headline: ‘Bareheaded Motorcyclist Dies in Helmet Protest’.

Contos hit his brakes, began fishtailing and lost control of his 1983 Harley Davidson. He shot over the handlebars, hit his head on the pavement and was taken to Upstate University Hospital in Syracuse, New York, where he was pronounced dead.

State police say evidence at the scene plus information from the attending medical expert indicated Contos would have survived had he been wearing a helmet as required by state law.

–There’s the Natural Selection I’ve come to know and love.  Missed you, buddy.

This whole issue  of ‘wearing a helmet is a matter of choice’ is a red herring.  It’s not a matter of choice when myriad motorcycle head injuries lead to higher health care and insurance costs for the rest of us.

–Finally, a brief story about July 5, 1943–the day of the largest Tank battle in human history.

The Jerry’s were coming off a crushing defeat at Stalingrad, but sought to stem the tide of Russian momentum by taking Kursk.

I’ll leave the rest to the story, but for a much more comprehensive look at this pivotal battle on Hitler’s eastern front, check out the Military Channel’s ‘Commanders At War’ series.  There’s are entire episodes on both Stalingrad and Kursk, each excellent.

p.s.  Thankfully  Hitler was an inflexible strategist.  I’m not sure he could’ve ever taken the Allies once the Americans got involved, but his blunders in Stalingrad and Kursk did much to torpedo any chance he had.

–We’ll start today’s SQL with a series of unfortunate events from this past weekend’s BET Awards.  Chris Brown, taking fashion cues from this man, won then lost then lost then won the Viewers Choice Award.

If that last sentence doesn’t make much sense to you, it’s because of two things–an intentional lack of punctuation for comedic effect and an complete lack of preparedness from the people at the BET Awards.  Here’s some proof on the latter:

–From one snafu to another, things in Greece are getting out of hand.

Help me out here, because I’m not sure I have this story right:

—–About 60% of Greeks didn’t pay their taxes for quite a while there, crippling their economy…which is problematic because…

—–Greece’s economy is tied into the European Union which, if not fixed, could potentially wreck the Euro…which is even more problematic because…

—–Significant damage to the The Euro would do significant damage to the global economy, which is still reeling from the Great Recession.

So, basically, Greece screwed up, didn’t have their s**t together, and they don’t want to deal with the fallout…even if it’s to the detriment of the global economy.

Is that the gist of it?

–Because humans like things in threes:  another trainwreck for your reading pleasure, completing the trio.

That the inane memoir of an imbecile’s 20-year-old daughter is deemed fit to publish to society at large is a depressing enough idea. That people will actually pay to read it is, somehow, more so.

–Slowly working from bad news to good, here’s a pair of valuable reads for those charged with the caretaking of small humans.

–Now onto some more lighthearted fare:  Watching this video of a sober Steve-O made me happy for some reason:

Good for him.  It’s the most cogent I’ve ever seen him.

–There are reports that Apple is preparing not one, but two iPhones for release this fall.

–Also of note in the realm of good tech news–the Supreme Court this week declared video games to be art, therefore granting the medium First Amendment protection.

That this issue was even in debate is kind of absurd to me, and it was reassuring to see the Court slam this decision home, 7-2.

My votes for most (and best) artistic games ever:  Ico/Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, The Zelda Franchise, Braid.

–And finally, an auspicious science story.  Unlimited energy?  Yes, please.

If it works, Science +100.