Quality links, late workday

[skreidle]

From chite, in case you're the activist sort: Chinese Workers Pay for Wal-Mart's Low Prices

Rants by profworm on

What the Founding Fathers would think about mandatory Pledges of Allegiance

Public uproar about JacksonBoob, but no mention of the sexual nature of every song sung during hte halftime show

Elections run and won by the Mediocracy

Quality links from jazzfish, as usual:

NewScientist: For Want of a Word.

Imagine how different politics would be if debates were conducted in Tariana, an Amazonian language in which it is a grammatical error to report something without saying how you found it out - as Alexandra Aikhenvald tells us its speakers tell her. Tariana is in danger of dying. With each such disappearance we risk losing insights into different ways of thinking. Aikhenvald told Adrian Barnett about the race to record languages

Very interesting if you're into linguistics and cultural history; still interesting even if you're not. :)

StAugustine.com: Public records audit. "Public officials, ignorant of the law or paralyzed by suspicion, regularly thwart citizens exercising their constitutional right to inspect public records, a statewide audit has found... But the governor's office was the only one of six state agencies audited that failed to comply with the public records law."

Edmunds.com: Confessions of a Car Salesman. Huzzah for investigative journalism! (It's long--I'm still reading--but apparently it's pretty darn cool. took me until 11:21 to finish, though I made breakfast in the middle of reading--and it really is a great article. Good writing, informative, entertaining, and ultimately helpful. :)


And via thehunter, because I know some of my readers will be thrilled to pieces: Billy Boyd, singing "Beyond the Sea." :)

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Was running a little late this morning, but got a text message from a coworker saying "In about 2". I replied "Minutes or pm?" but got no response. I'm assuming 'pm' based on previous cryptic messages. :)