[links] Link salad wonders if anyone got the number of that truck

Cello Wars — Um, wow. A Star Wars parody. At about two minutes in, this goes utterly over the edge. (Via the_child.)

Notes Towards a Philosophy of Sleep — Interesting. (Via tillyjane, a/k/a my mom.)

If evolution is all about survival of the fittest, why are we attracted to the cutest? — Hahahahahah.

Fruit flies offer DNA clue to why women live longer — Because science!

What If Huge NASA Mars Rover Crashes Sunday Night?

NASA chooses SpaceX to return US astronauts to space

Smooth Lumpsucker — The weird world of nature. (Via scarlettina.)

The Incidental Art Of Penn State Football — Ta-Nehisi Coates with a fascinating photo.

Progressive religious voices not irrelevant, just ignored — Who decided that the faith and ethics and values of tens of millions of people, plus the interests and well-being of tens of millions of additional people, do not matter? What is the rationale for dismissing these folks as irrelevant while hanging on every outrageous word from right-wing evangelicals? That would be Your Liberal Media in action, as always, embracing and supporting the conservative narrative.

A Message To America's Creationists From Jesus Of Nazareth — You've become so suspicious of anyone and anything you label as "intellectual" that you've actually turned ignorance into a virtue. It's not. It doesn't make you a better, more loving, more righteous person to pretend you're living in the 18th century while you take advantage of the antibiotics, airplanes, computers, and air conditioning that comes from the scientific progress of the 20th and 21st. It just makes you a tool. (Snurched from Slacktivist Fred Clark.)

11 Eye-Opening Highlights From a Creationist Science Textbook — Wow. Just wow. (Via controuble.)

Seriously - you're embarrassing me — So fellow liberals - just shut the fuck up about running CFA out of town on a rail. If they are accused and convicted of discrimination against gay people, or Muslim people, or Atheist people, THEN you can call for punitive measures. Because then they would be guilty of breaking the law. Right now the only thing they're guilty of is Level 10 Douchebaggery, which, last time I checked, was not a reason to discriminate against them, although it's an excellent reason to stop eating their chicken. Seriously - you're embarrassing me. Plus hilarious bonus graphic documenting the modern persecution of the Christians by population numbers!

Americans Want to Live in a Much More Equal Country (They Just Don't Realize It) — (Thanks to threeoutside.)

Debt, Depression, DeMarco — There has been plenty to criticize about President Obama’s handling of the economy. Yet the overriding story of the past few years is not Mr. Obama’s mistakes but the scorched-earth opposition of Republicans, who have done everything they can to get in his way — and who now, having blocked the president’s policies, hope to win the White House by claiming that his policies have failed.

David Brody says tea party isn’t ‘far-right,’ just ‘constitutional’ — Slacktivist Fred Clark documents the Tea Party in their own words. Which is of course unfair, as any conservative will tell you about confusing the issue with facts.

Romneygaffe can't even properly defend his own wife — Mmm. Olympic dressage.

?otD: What the heck happened?

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8/4/2012
Writing time yesterday: 1.0 hours (30 minutes of revisions on Other Me, 30 minutes of WRPA)
Body movement: 60 minute coastal walk
Hours slept: 5.75 (solid)
Weight: 237.2
Currently reading: The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems by Henry Petroski