Links, Readings, Links

Go click. You can have something to talk about to your co-workers come Monday. It’s good stuff.

♦ Sepia Mutiny has a great post about PETA’s various moronic campaigns, but the latest reaches a new low in stupidity and hypocrisy. A couple of kids get wrapped in plastic and baked under a hot sun. Go read. There are some disturbing pictures. Good for a solid gasp.

♦ Laila Lalami links to this interesting piece in the New York Times on the hymen restoration business in France. She alludes to a well-known case (in France) where a Muslim man had his marriage annulled when he found out his wife was not a virgin. Laila Lalami had the following to say about it.

He asked for an annulment, and his legal case was based on the fact that she misrepresented herself, not on the substance of the misrepresentation. Naturally many Muslims and non-Muslims in France were upset with this ridiculous ruling because it leaves the door open for retrograde ways of handling the institution of marriage (more).

I have re-read the bold section above some 5 times. Does it mean that the lack of a hymen was not the original reason for the annulment? I don’t know. Unclear, I am. If you know, enlighten me.

♦ In Tanzania, albinos are getting attacked for their magical powers. This New York Times article is worth reading for the creepiness factor.

♦ William Dalrymple has an interesting review of historical texts on the erotic in Ancient India. (Source)

♦ This is cool. Molecular-ly, I mean. (Source). From Nature News. Some cancers can release a protein that awakens dormant cancer cells throughout the body, (more)

♦ I love the AV Club. Here’s a rare audio of the staff discussing M.Night Shymalan’s newest The Happening. By their account, a total failure. After paying money to see the Lady from the Water, I am not rushing to the theater on this one.

♦ A wonderful article on Jan Morris, one of the most successful journalists of the 60s who went through a sex change operation later on in life.

♦ The Michelle Obama Watch is up. (Via Feministe). According to the site, it is meant to be “a repository of all of the criticism, praise, and general chicanery thrown at Michelle Obama between now and November“. Cool.

♦ Mental illness can be language-specific. Who knew? Again. Cool.