Los Links 8/5

Right. So. It's been a busy week: travel, work, sorting travel photos, recovering from travel, and then wonderful friends from long ago coming for a visit. That means Los Links is a bit thinner on the ground than usual, and once again no capsule descriptions. I know I've missed a ton of excellent stuff. But there's enough to keep you busy on a Monday, I think.

Science

RealClimate: “Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedback”.

Darwin's Mailbag: Guillaume's Mailbag: Why do we make odd faces when we orgasm? Part 2.

New York Times: Useless Studies, Real Harm.

Eruptions: The non-eruption at Pisgah Crater: The dangers of untrained interpretation of real-time data and Spectacular eruptions at Italy's Etna.

The Landslide Blog: Another new video of the South Korea landslides landslides and Images of landslides from the Christchurch earthquakes part 1: boulder damage to a house.

Reading the Washington Landscape: The Bottom and Shores of Lake Missoula.

Media Matters: Fox News Confused, Baffled By The Moon.

Greg Laden's Blog: "We can know nothing about the origin of life".

The Loom: The ocean microbe within us.

Bad Astronomy: No, new data does not “blow a gaping hole in global warming alarmism”.

Nature News: How to design a safer chemical.

Tetrapod Zoology: Dear Telegraph: no, I did not say that about the Loch Ness monster.

XKCD: Lanes.

Decrepit Old Fool: The weirdness of the familiar.

Georneys: Geology Word of the Week: I is for Inselberg.

MacLeans: In the company of whales.

Uncovered Earth: A Trek Into the Crater.

Bug Girl's Blog: Operation Cat Drop.

GeoSelim: Aquifers Properties: Porosity (n).

History of Geology: Are we doomed? and Hydrochemistry on the Rocks.

The Lay Scientist: Facebook will destroy your children's brains.

Not Exactly Rocket Science: Deader than dead: people in vegetative states are viewed as deader than corpses.

Scientific American: Chemistry Day at Scientific American Blog Network.

Writing

Poynter: 6 ways Twitter has made me a better writer.

Assignment: Impossible: From The Writer’s Desk: A Salon of the Mind.

The Passive Voice: How to Read a Book Contract – Agents and the Law and How to Hire an IP Lawyer.

Let's Get Digital: Agents And Publishing: A Roadmap For WritersRoadmap.

Decrepit Old Fool: Indiana Jones, James Bond and Thirteen walk into a bar… (Movie review, Cowboys and Aliens). This isn't in the wrong category - good advice for writers in here.

Atheism and Religion

Sam Harris: Dear Angry Lunatic: A Response to Chris Hedges.

Choice in Dying: The Wrong Conclusion.

Stupid Evil Bastard: Lawsuit over the World Trade Center cross causes outpouring of Christian love.

Why Evolution is True: More death threats from religious folks.

Ill-Advised: Lesson 21: Religion -- Never Write About It.

CNN: Militants hang 8-year-old boy in southern AfghanistanMilitants.

Pharyngula: Atheism is an essential part of skepticism.

Women's Issues

BBC: The subtle messages that put women off science.

Politics

Box Turtle Bulletin: Why it’s never smart for a politician to whine about how badly he’s treated.

NMA.tv: Tea Party gives Boehner a budget headache. This is hilarious.

New York Times: The Centrist Cop-Out.

Spiegel: Once Upon a Time in the West.

Society and Culture

Electronic Frontier Foundation: A Case for Pseudonyms.

Almost Diamonds: Talking About Leadership and Whose Health Is Important?

The Digital Cuttlefish: On Pseudonymity.

Lifehacker: Google+ Not Sure How To Handle Traditional Aboriginal Names.

Decrepit Old Fool: Complaining about free services.

Kitsap Sun: Suquamish Tribe approves same-sex marriage.

Good Food: Eating While Black: How I Navigate Watermelon, Fried Chicken, and Frozen Yogurt.