Here’s a haphazard collection of stuff I’ve been reading the last couple of weeks.

via MK: two hilarious comics about the experience of reading Twilight.

via Cynthia: a “funny futuredance” from the 1960s German science fiction film “Raumpatrouille Orion.”

via Jeremy: two posts about the ducknapping and recovery of Pack, one of the bronze ducklings in the Boston Public Garden.

Kittywampus blogs about feminism and the sexual revolution (via figleaf).

Figleaf also offers some reflections on how one simple question can make us stop and think about how “heterosexual” is the default assumption we make, as a culture, about peoples’ sexual orientation.

Cool sexuality education resource a conference-goer tipped me off about at WAM!

Miriam at Radical Doula on the creative potential of “crisis” and change.

Surgeon and journalist Atul Gawande on why solitary confinement should be considered torture — and one evidence-based practice proven to reduce prison violence: giving prisoners greater control over their lives.

A new way to think about the concept of “political correctness.”

Given my previously acknowledged love of dictionaries, I couldn’t let this one go by unlinked. (You can view this as my salute to IA, VT, and DC).

Jesse at Pandagon on one reason why we should think twice before judging the purchasing decisions of people in poverty.

Because I linked (in my WAM! post below) to a thread on feministing about gender-neutral restrooms and trans rights, I’m including three responses from MK, queenemily, and catspaw pointing out the problems with how that conversation went down.

And finally, the now-traditional Hanna-link! This has been a feminist-heavy link list (damn; guess the secret’s out), so here are two articles on Marx: a marxist analysis of Grand Theft Auto and a commentary pointing out that Marx was in many ways a product of the very economic structure he set out to critique.