I’ve applauded Anonymous in the past, but this is not cool. The second you start drafting people into your cause without their knowledge, you become the thing you rail against.

Hello again grizzled langurs. Glad you’re not all dead after all.

LISA, the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, may still fly, albeit in a scaled-down version.

The argument over the leap second–what, you didn’t know there was an argument raging–continues until at least 2015.

Scientists who are researching a deadly strain of the bird flu have agreed to suspend their work for 60 days.

The weather app on my phone has stopped giving me the temperature and has started simply laughing at me. That is, when it’s not giving me the temperature in Kelvin as a way of cheering me up.

Rumpus superstar Roxane Gay takes on “The anger of the male novelist at Salon.

SOPA and PIPA are, for the moment, on hold. Clay Shirky really nails why this legislation is such a big deal when he goes into the history of the entertainment industry when it comes to control.

Oddly enough, if you want a good example why SOPA and PIPA are unnecessary, the shutdown of MegaUpload is a pretty good one.

2011 was the year of the Arab Spring, but it looks like overall, most people there aren’t much freer than they were before.

Employers who offer health insurance to their employees will have to make sure they offer birth control as part of the deal, thanks to rules put out today by the federal government. Religious nonprofits who object will have an extra year to come into compliance, but will not be given an exception.

Barbara Jane Reyes is the author of Diwata (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2010), recently noted as a finalist for the California Book Award. She was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the author of two previous collections of poetry, …more

Can’t help myself–I’m a sucker for high speed video of birds in flight. There are few things I find more elegant.

Russia’s Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt (not making that name up), is probably going to crash to earth on Sunday. Most of it is expected to burn up in the atmosphere.

Ever wonder how cosmic magnetic fields shape the solar system?

It’s not just the world’s smallest frog–it may be the world’s smallest vertebrate.

Tissue engineering is awesome.

So winter finally showed up in Des Moines this week. It’s been a nice run, what with temperatures in the 50s, but yesterday it barely got above 20, and I’ve been looking for a tauntaun to slaughter and climb inside of ever since.

Some good news for opponents of SOPA–Rep. Lamar Smith (whose website was recently outed as being a copyright violator) has stated that he will pull the DNS-blocking provision from the bill. It’s not a complete victory, but it’s a start.

SOPA’s sibling bill, PIPA (the Orwellian-named Protect IP Act) is in trouble too apparently. Keep the pressure on.

Interesting way by Barrelhouse to publish a poem–with mouseover annotations by the author. I don’t know quite how I feel about it yet–I’m not a big fan of prefatory explanations by poets at readings, and this feels like another version of that–but it is a different and potentially fascinating way to present poetry.

Sledding Crow

I agree. The “Men Can Stop Rape” ads do rock.

I don’t know what bugs me more about this story–the fact that there’s a police department which doesn’t want its officers to be too smart, or that the court upheld the policy. Not to put too fine a point on it–we as a society give police the right to use deadly force on the public, and give them the benefit of the doubt most of the time if they claim that a member of the public was killed in error. Why on earth would we not want the smartest people we can get in that job?

Independent journalists are taking to the skies, attempting to use drones to capture footage and livestream it.

Even though I’m a huge fan of tech, I’m not sure I feel this is an improvement or even a welcome development.

Scientists are trying to map electrons in action.

Very interesting way to look at the universe–the scale of everything.

Nice piece on the myth of the “girl brain.”

Okay, so a wearable tv is cool, but what I really want is the internet injected into my brain. Who’s going to make that happen?

I survived my first Iowa election season mostly intact. The secret? No television that wasn’t streamed. I think I saw one political commercial out of the corner of my eye on a screen in a restaurant, and I kept my Florida phone number when I moved here, so I dodged the pollsters. If anyone in New Hampshire wants to share their attempts to dodge primary season, I’m all ears.

Amazing photos of a Chernobyl discotheque.

How good are you at telling the difference between a real site and a fake one that’s looking to scam you?

There are so many ways in which this story is messed up I can’t even begin to list them. And for the record, I don’t buy the pharmacist’s story that they don’t sell emergency contraception to men because they’re afraid men might be giving it to rape victims.

Dahlia Lithwick lays out the history of the Montana Supreme Court decision to ignore the US Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizen’s United.

What’s the real reasoning behind the Stop Online Piracy Act? Hollywood’s unwillingness to innovate.

If you weren’t already afraid of scorpions, then you probably don’t want to hear that their exoskeleton sort of acts like one big eye.

Popular Science takes us on a tour inside Space Shuttle Atlantis.

Twenty-five bucks will soon get you a bare-bones computer capable of playing back H.264 video at 1080p.

The first fast-charging station for e-cars went live in Washington state.

Farhad Manjoo says 2011 was a horrible year for tech, and I have to admit I see validity in his argument. I don’t experience it myself because I’m pretty much a single-platform person, but if you’re like Manjoo I imagine it could get frustrating.

11 people in tech who died this year and weren’t named Steve Jobs.

Welcome to the end of the year.

This time last year, I was living in Fort Lauderdale, which was going through the coldest December on record, according to NOAA. This year I’m in Des Moines, going through a much milder winter than usual. The low then is almost equivalent to the high now. This is weird.

Terrific interview here with Kate Eichhorn, who’s archiving zines (among other things) at the New School for Liberal Arts.

Barbara Terry’s life is amazing. She’s 52 and has been a prostitute in New York for over 30 years.

Check out this retelling of Beowulf by Joshua Gray, complete with audio of Joshua reading it. Really cool.

These carved book landscapes are beautiful. Wonder what he could do with a Kindle?

The Atlantic Wire called 2011 the year of the troll. We’ve been lucky in that trolling hasn’t been a huge problem for us, but honestly, that’s in part because we try not to let it start. It’s more because our readers trend towards the awesome.

So glad that Wired Science didn’t title this piece “A Star is Born” because that would have been really cheesy.

X-Men bacteria

Comet Lovejoy is pretty badass.

The National Institutes of Health will not finance new research on chimpanzees.

Tonight, I will be geeking out hard. There will likely be evidence of this on my various other interweb presences. Klingons are involved.

Gene Marks, writing for Forbes, informed the world of how clueless he is about the lives of people in the underclass when he typed “If I was a Poor Black Kid” and some dummy let him post it. The responses were quick and cutting. I especially liked this one from Touré (whose book Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? I am currently devouring). But the current winner, for my part, is Ask a Poor Black Kid. Funny stuff.

I have mixed feelings about Christopher Hitchens, which is as it should be–he was a complex man. One might say he contained multitudes. And there were times when I hated being on the same side of an argument with him. But he was a great writer and had a powerful effect on the world, which will be a lesser place for his absence. My condolences to his friends and family.

Internet in a Suitcase is being tested at Occupy DC.

Nerdy snow sculptures. I might have to try some of these when we get some snow.

Do you know what SOPA is? Iowa Republican Steve King (or one of his staffers) finds the whole discussion tedious.

Rumpus contributor Roxane Gay’s book Ayiti was listed by the The National Book Critics Circle blog as one of their Small Press Highlights of 2011. Of Ayiti they write “The title is the Haitian Creole name for Haiti and in this brief but powerful collection of stories (most no longer than three pages), Haitians navigate their beleaguered homeland or their adopted country (the U.S.) as immigrants, refugees, and undocumented bordercrossers pining for their loved ones left ‘kneeling in a bed of sand and bones’ in one of the world’s poorest nations. Gay doesn’t shy away from critique, showing how Haiti’s misfortunes appeal to the exploitative foreign media and well-meaning though condescending outsiders: ‘Then the world intruded. It always does.’”

Congratulations, Roxane!

Harriet, aka the Poetry Foundation blog, has posted an excerpt of the Rumpus Poetry Book Club’s recent chat with T. R. Hummer. Watch as I learn what the Bald Man Fallacy is and more. Fortunately, they didn’t quote my alternate reading of the poem. I appreciate that.

Rumpus Poetry Editor Brian Spears on why he chose Amy Newman’s Dear Editor as the December selection of The Rumpus Poetry Book Club: …more

Everyone who’s been able to light their water on fire when gas companies started fracturing shale to get to natural gas just said “No shit, EPA.”

NASA scientists announced that they’ve found the closest thing to an earth orbiting a distant star. Here’s how they find exoplanets.

So you have an EV but you hate going to the trouble of plugging it in? Nissan and Mercedes are working on that problem.

Just studying to be a London cab driver can change your brain.

Rumors are still swirling about the discovery of the Higgs boson. The announcement is December 13.

I woke up yesterday, saw that the temperature outside was 36 degrees and thought “that’s not so bad.” I think I’m adjusting to the idea of winter, though it’s still early yet.

I already watch Mythbusters regularly, but I can’t wait to see this episode, given that they accidentally shot a cannonball through someone’s house.

Rick Perry’s “Strong” ad, which has spawned numerous parodies, also hit the most-hated list on YouTube, because the Perry campaign forgot to turn off the function which allows users to rate videos. How bad was it? It got more dislikes than Rebecca Black’s “Friday” video.

You have got to be kidding me. What the hell is wrong with them?

Can you tell the difference between quotes from a men’s magazine and from rapists?

A note to my fellow atheists out there: Bill Donohue, uber-jackass leader of the Catholic League, wants a Catholic to adopt you. If someone approaches me about it, I’ll tell them I’m down as long as I’m in on the inheritance, but I want the treasure stored up on earth, not the stuff waiting in heaven.

Lastly, I’d like to take a moment to remember my uncle, Bee Spears, who died unexpectedly late Thursday night. He was Willie Nelson’s bassist for over 40 years, and even though I saw him rarely, he had an incredible impact on my life. I’ll miss you, Uncle Bee.

We are no fans of Amazon here at The Rumpus. When we link to books we review, we link to small publisher websites or spdbooks.org or Powell’s. We’ve written about the online behemoth’s desire to avoid collecting sales taxes in California multiple times. The Daily Show’s John Oliver recently did a piece on how the California initiative process makes it harder for the state government to deal with fiscal crises and how Amazon is currently exploiting that process in an attempt to stop the state from forcing them to collect sales tax.

I want to emphasize that for a second–this isn’t a tax on Amazon. This is sales tax, which you would pay if you went into any store in California and purchased something. Amazon doesn’t want to collect it because it would lessen the competitive advantage they currently hold over local retailers.

But Amazon isn’t satisfied with that. Nope, they want to run local stores completely out of business, it seems. They have announced that they “will pay customers $5 to go into a local store, scan an item, walk out, and buy the same item on Amazon.” Gawker responds with “By all means use Amazon – they have amazing selection! – but there’s no need to be a tacky jerk to your neighborhood store in the process. Unless that store is a Wal Mart, Target, or American Apparel, in which case go to town (by which we mean, go out of town).” I don’t know. I get the sentiment–pit the big retailers against each other–but really, I don’t think I can bring myself to do it. Amazon can bite me.

Has CERN found the Higgs Boson?

If I actually drank mixed drinks, I might be more interested in this story about the physics of mixology. But I like the flavor of the alcohol I drink.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear meltdown was way worse than we’ve been told.

So it was a Rembrandt, then it wasn’t, and now it is again.

How long before we discover the Goldilocks planet?

So two days ago, I walked to work in the snow. Flurries–it didn’t stick except on the grass in the shade–but snow nonetheless, enough for my 8-year old self living in Big Branch, Louisiana to crap himself in glee to see. Oh, it’s going to be a long winter.

Who’s that going big-time in this month’s Poetry? Our very own Rumpus Poetry Book Club Board Member Camille Dungy, with a really amazing poem and fascinating discussion following.

Ought to throw his ass in jail just for being stupid. Seriously, we make fun of dumb criminals all the time–this is arguably more serious.

There’s a church in Kentucky that recently banned interracial couples from becoming full members. They’re rethinking that position after local outcry condemning it. It would be easy to be upset that such a thing is happening in this day and age, but I take heart in the fact that it was so roundly condemned, since I grew up in an area and era where segregation was very much practiced, even though it was against the law. The fact that this was a big deal means we’re making progress as a society.

This story really makes me sad because I always thought the Aptera was a really cool looking vehicle.

If you want to ride Jaws (where TS Quint and Brandi Svenning were married), you have until January 2, 2012. It’s shutting down.

I like Balloon Juice blogger mistermix’s take on last night’s eviction of the LA Occupiers. “There was a chance that cold weather in the North, and general boredom in the South, would cause the Occupy protesters to quietly lose interest and abandon their encampments. The work of [LAPD Chief Charlie] Beck and other movement supporters, most notably Linda P.B. Katehi and Michael Bloomberg, ensure that current Occupy protesters will stay energized, and that new recruits will be added to the Occupy encampments.”

The LA Times blog, which did some decent coverage of the arrests last night, fails miserably here when they say the protesters left their belongings and trash behind. That suggests the Occupiers just decided to head out and left their crap in the yard, as opposed to being evicted and forced to leave their things behind.

The LA Occupiers are regrouping, trying to figure out what their next move will be.

Tom Hayden on why Naomi Wolf’s conspiracy theory can’t explain the LA Occupation. Wolf’s theory can’t explain any of the occupations, frankly.

Had to happen–major corporations are trying to work Occupy into their ads, but surprise! not in a very accurate way.

HYbrid cars not only save gas–they’re safer too. Suck on that, SUVs.

So this can potentially help you learn more effectively. But can it help me write better poems?

Watch Popular Science blow up a turkey with a deep fryer. In slow-motion.

Seems that the Permian extinction only took a couple hundred thousand years instead of the much longer period originally thought.

The sad story of the English bulldog.

Happy Saturday. I hear the hot new seasoning for food this year is some kind of spray-on pepper. I’ll be looking for it in my local market.

How does the rest of the world see Thanksgiving?

It’s been clear for a long time that former Kansas Senator and current Kansas Governor Sam Brownback is a restaurant-quality asshole, but this is an impressive display by any standard. And that goes double for whichever douchebag in his office decided to go after an 18 year old for tweeting/

I’m not generally a calendar geek, but this one is impressive.

Apparently, it’s not illegal for members of Congress to engage in insider trading. Or at the very least, it hasn’t been charged yet. (Sorry I’m late on this–I don’t watch 60 Minutes.)

Wired offers some reasons you might want to wear a tinfoil hat.

Finally, since we’ve officially entered the “holiday shopping season” (and I use scare quotes because I am indeed terrified of this time of year), here’s a gift suggestion. Try a gift subscription to your favorite literary journal. I’m just saying I could use a re-up to Threepenny Review. And the people who publish those journals will thank you too.

The Rumpus Poetry Book Club chats with Claire Kageyama-Ramakrishnan about her poetry collection Bear, Diamonds and Crane. …more

Start with Juan Cole, who specializes in this area. He has a good list of links to Arab news sources and gives a well-rounded look at what’s happening right now in Egypt. Short version–the revolution is ongoing and the military doesn’t want to give up power.

The Guardian continues its stellar live coverage.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan has said Syria’s President Assad should resign.

Marwan Bishara answers three questions about the Egyptian aftershocks.

We may not do lists here at The Rumpus, but that doesn’t stop us from pointing out when people connected to us get put on them. The NY Times has released its list of 100 Notable Books of 2011, and right there on the first page are Matthew Zapruder’s Come On All You Ghosts and Tracy K. Smith’s Life On Mars, which was a Rumpus Poetry Book Club selection back in May. Congratulations to everyone included in the list.

It doesn’t really matter that this memo has come to light–someone is still going to do this. Count on it.

Two things interest me in particular about this memo. The first is the idea that “Democratic victories in 2012 would be detrimental for Wall Street and targets specific races in which it says Wall Street would benefit by electing Republicans instead.” I find this interesting because it’s not like the Democrats have been particularly hard on Wall Street. A big part of what’s driving the protests, after all, is the feeling that neither of the major political parties is interested in protecting the working and middle classes.

Here’s the second interesting part: “Well-known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where OWS protestors and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism,” the memo says. “…This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.” I’ve thought about this as well–that if OWS and the Tea Party both demanded something like a Constitutional amendment removing corporate personhood and corporate money from elections, they could potentially overwhelm the current political process.

One thing is certain, corporate America is going to do everything they can to discredit the Occupy movement. They’ve already started, and they’ll continue throughout the election season. Be ready.

You might get the impression from this piece that the NYPD isn’t interested in respecting the right of the press to cover stories involving them. That’s certainly the impression I get.

Also, NYPD, that person you’re shoving against a wall might be a former Supreme Court Judge who’s acting as a legal observer.

Police pepper-sprayed non-violent protesters at UC-Davis as well.

Video of another Marine being beaten by an Oakland police officer in full riot gear on November 2-3 has surfaced. The video is graphic.

Here’s a good story about the arrest of retired Philadelphia police Captain Ray Lewis.

Anonymous wants to shut down the Iowa caucuses. Occupiers are nonplussed. The Governor is crapping his pants.

Adam Hartung in Forbes (Forbes?!) argues that we should be paying more attention to Occupy than we do to the Tea Party.

The first time neutrinos were measured going faster than the speed of light (something heretofore thought impossible), there were questions about the way they were measured. There’s been a second test, and it seems neutrinos might actually be faster than light.

What role did volcanoes have in mass extinction events?

Computer models suggest there was once another giant planet in this solar system.

Meet the world’s lightest material.

Think you’d do the “right thing” if faced with a moral dilemma? You might not, no matter how ethical you think you are.

I’m typing this with one arm arched over a cat who refuses to move from in front of my laptop. I was at work all day and she missed me, so I can’t really be too whiney about it.

Say hello to the person who plans to kill credit cards. And he’s doing it from Des Moines.

Darth Vader wants to park his space ship in the Ukraine. No word on whether he wants enough space for a Star Destroyer or just his personal TIE-Fighter.

Teri O’Shea was a member of Rev. Jim Jones’s cult. She got out three weeks before the mass-suicide.

Evgeny Morozov argues that the net is awesome for consumers but bad for citizens.

Fun with mocked-up license plates.

Double

I drink a Belgian and explain
to my father, over the phone,
why several of his thirty-nine …more