Links

Stuff I find around the web that interests or amuses me.

The hat?!?

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No one wants to put words in J. K. Rowling’s mouth, but it’s safe to assume that when she hails her readers’ creativity, she has in mind something other than tales wherein Professor Snape is fellated by the Sorting Hat.

— from Taking Liberties with Harry Potter, an article on the explosion of Potter fanfic

(via Jason Kottke)

Great Wall of China disappearing

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This was a little distressing to read about: the Great Wall of China is falling apart.

Dong Yaohui, secretary-general of the Great Wall Society of China, delivers the wake-up call. “Believe it or not, the Great Wall is crumbling, unable to withstand natural deterioration and calamities caused by people.”

Dong, who has personally surveyed huge sections of the structure originally built as a defensive barrier against marauding invaders, says he believes that of the portion built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), less than 20 percent is still intact.

A probe of 100 sections drew the alarming conclusion that a third of the structure has already vanished, subject to the natural ravages of the weather and the encroaching Gobi Desert, as well as the attention of peasants and farmers living in its shadow.

The Great Wall is just one of the many, many places I’d like a chance to visit someday. While it’s not likely that the entire wall is going to suddenly up and disappear overnight, it’s a shame that we’re in danger of losing major portions of such an astounding monument.

Seattle Solstice

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Odd things about being a (fairly) recent Alaska transplant — this last weekend was summer solstice, and I didn’t even really notice. While I don’t think I’ll ever be moving back to Alaska, the summertimes really are some of what I miss. Seattle’s solstice (sunrise at 5:11am, sunset at 9:11pm) really pales in comparison to Anchorage’s (sunrise at 4:20am, sunset at 11:42pm)!

(Thanks to Lee LeFever for the link to the sunrise and sunset page!)

1-800-ooooops

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Another reason cars and cell phones are a bad mix:

An adulterous Finn pressed all the wrong buttons as he made love in a car — unknowingly prompting his mobile phone to call home just in time for his wife to hear his mistress moan “I love you.”

The wife, doubly enraged after recognizing her own friend’s voice, has been convicted of assault after going to her rival’s flat and striking her in the face and later attacking her husband at home with an axe, though he fended off the blow.

(via Dad)

Supreme Court Tries Sodomy…and likes it!

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Sorry, I couldn’t help the title — especially after Slate magazine’s unfortunate choice of headline (‘Supreme Court tries sodomy’) from the beginning of this trial.

The Supreme Court struck down a ban on gay sex Thursday, ruling that the law was an unconstitutional violation of privacy.

The 6-3 ruling reverses course from a ruling 17 years ago that states could punish homosexuals for what such laws historically called deviant sex.

Laws forbidding homosexual sex, once universal, now are rare. Those on the books are rarely enforced but underpin other kinds of discrimination, lawyers for two Texas men had argued to the court.

The men “are entitled to respect for their private lives,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote.

“The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime,” he said.

[…]

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

What a wonderful ruling heading into this year’s pride weekend!

(via ‘Michael Savage Weiner’, Daily Kos, and Mathew Gross)