In the past, I haven’t posted a lot of links in this blog (especially without substantial commentary). I’m going to try posting a set of links of the coolest things I’ve seen on the interwebs for a few weeks and see how it goes. If nothing else, it will serve as an easier way for me to keep track of all those links. I’m sure I’ll play around with the categories as I go along.
Best of the Econ Blogosphere
S&P and the USA (Paul Krugman). There were many posts in the last 24 hours about S&P’s downgrade of the US to AA+, but I thought Krugman put it best: “In short, S&P is just making stuff up — and after the mortgage debacle, they really don’t have that right. So this is an outrage — not because America is A-OK, but because these people are in no position to pass judgment.”
Academic
Myths About Fair Use (via Inside Higher Ed): “Reassure your publishers that you can use that film still, magazine cover, advertisement or cartoon (if, of course, it’s in service of your scholarly argument, not a mere decoration), without licensing it. And be persistent; you may be the first academic they’ve met who knows your fair use rights.”
Tales from the Culture Wars?
Putting an Antebellum Myth to Rest: “Though slaves could not marry legally, they were allowed to do so by custom with the permission of their owners — and most did. But the wedding vows they recited promised not “until death do us part,” but “until distance” — or, as one black minister bluntly put it, “the white man” — “do us part.””
The Evolution of the Hipster (via YouTube). One part Foucauldian genealogy, one part Lamarckian evolution, with a touch of Hegelian dialectic thrown in. Told by puppets.
Vonnegut Library Donates Copies Of ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ To School District Where It Was Banned (via HuffPo). It’s 2011, can we stop banning Vonnegut already? Also, it’s interesting how Vonnegut is portrayed as a war hero. I wonder how he’d feel about that.
Politics
Wisconsin Democratic voters targeted with Koch-funded absentee ballot notices advising them to vote 2 days after the recall election (via BoingBoing). About as gross an electoral strategy as you can get.
The most hilariously effective signs supporting gay marriage. Personal Favorite: “I liked it but I couldn’t put a ring on it.”
Humor
Obama Turns 50 Despite Republican Opposition
Drunken Ben Bernanke Tells Everyone At Neighborhood Bar How Screwed U.S. Economy Really Is (both via The Onion, which has been on fire the past few weeks.)
Mega-Shark vs. Giant Octopus: In honor of Shark Week, the most amazing clip from the monster movie of the same name.
This is how every government organization should tweet (via MSNBC): A list of funny tweets from the Australian census that come close to justifying Twitter’s existence.
Fiction
The Other Large Thing: A delightful short story by SF author John Scalzi.
Nerdy
Tonight (D&D Song). This song is far prettier than it has any right to be, and makes me a bit sad I’m not at Gen Con this week.
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Posted by Dan Hirschman on August 6, 2011
https://asociologist.com/2011/08/06/weekly-link-roundup-inaugural-edition/
A (Budding) Sociologist's Commonplace Book 
Michael Bishop
/ August 7, 2011Yay links!
Dan Hirschman
/ August 7, 2011I almost titled the post “Dan Hirschman reads the internet so you don’t have to.”