Rumpus bud Josh Bearman tells the tale of the Baghdad Country Club. You can preview the story before scooping it up at The Atavist and check out an excerpt here.

“Welcome to a place where even beer runs are a matter of life and death. As the Iraq War draws to an official close, Joshuah Bearman tells the funny and poignant story of the real-life Baghdad Country Club, a bar in the Green Zone during the conflict’s bloodiest years. Against all odds, its proprietors struggle to keep their raucous watering hole safe and well-stocked as the insurgency rages outside.”

The New York Times has published a fascinating (and heartbreaking) three-part examination of the life and death of professional hockey player/enforcer Derek Boogaard.

From childhood dreams to devastating addiction and brain damage, reporter John Branch’s bloody but beautiful profile of “The Boogeyman” is not to be missed.

So apparently Siri’s (the new iPhone software) inability to direct women to an abortion clinicis just an *accidental* glitch.

This ridiculous anti-piracy video (which compares bootlegging digital media to child labor & drug trafficking) is basically Reefer Madness, 2011.

Google’s revenue this year is more than the GDP of the 28 smallest countries combined… and other interesting tidbits.

Bacteria-powered lights. Bacteria-powered lights!!!

This software can tell you how dramatically a photo has been digitally altered. The editors of fashion magazines are shaking in their boots.

Apparently your printer could be hacked and set on fire.

Facebook’s about to go public.

The British Library just opened its online archive of over 300 years of newspapers. Awesome.

If you look at one internet video today, it should be this inflatable soft undulating robot.

Americans are oftentimes painted as ethnocentric and unaware of global issues,  and this interesting photo, comparing cover images of Time Magazine for U.S. residents versus the rest of the world, isn’t helping.

So now facebook has a phone.

Apple now owns several porn domains that could potentially be affiliated with the company’s trademarks. Somehow I doubt they’ll be making their own iPhone porn.

The US public is willing to accept experts’ consensus on climate change, for the most part… sadly, most of the public just doesn’t know what the consensus is.

Maybe I need this analog turntable for watching animated GIFS, yes?

“Gawker Media chief Nick Denton told All Things D this morning that Fleshbot ‘Just hadn’t fit for a long long time’ but that he held onto the property ‘because [he was] slow to realize the inevitable.’”

First of all, that’s what she said.  Secondly, Fleshbot’s for sale!

The horrifying crisis unfolding at Penn State reminds us, yet again, of the carelessness of language used when we write about sexual violence.

In an AP article printed in the New York Times the headline reads, “2 Top Officials Step Down Amid Penn State Sex Scandal.” In countless other articles across far too many publications, journalists have also used the phrase “sex scandal” to refer to Penn State’s former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, allegedly raping and otherwise sexually abusing at least eight young boys.

A sex scandal is when, for example, a politician has an extramarital affair with a young female intern or when an evangelist preacher has an extramarital affair with a young masseur or another politician has a history of visiting escorts. In any such situation, there is (consensual) sex involved and the circumstances within which that sex was had are scandalous.

When we are talking about rape, sexual abuse, or sexual assault, and/or when these terrible acts of sexual violence occur between adults and children, we are talking about scandals of sexual violence. They are rape scandals, sexual abuse scandals, or sexual assault scandals but they are not sex scandals. Sex is consensual. Rape, sexual abuse, and sexual assault, as well as violent sexual acts forced upon children by adults are not consensual. …more

“I’ll know it when I see it. That was Jobs’s credo, and until he saw it his perfectionism kept him on edge.”

Malcolm Gladwell examines (what be believes to be) “the real genius of Steve Jobs.”

Should the FCC carry the Emergency Broadcast System over to social networks? Common sense says yes.

It’s easy to forget the Internet actually comes from somewhere, namely data centers like these.

This “flirtatious” dress changes the transparency of its fabric based on the heart rate of the wearer.

It’s November, but let’s hunt for Easter eggs. Google Easter eggs, that is.

The government thinks it can track anyone using GPS 24/7 without a warrant… here’s hoping the Supreme Court says differently.

Republic Wireless unveils a new, contract-free $19/month cell plan that relies heavily on existing WiFi networks… AWESOME.

British computer whizzes begin a cutting-edge computing project… oh wait, no, they’re building a 1830′s Babbage analytical engine.

Wired is now releasing its images under Creative Commons licenses, which is rad… but reopens the debate on exactly what “some rights reserved” means.

An adhesive inspired by geckos can support the full weight of a grown man… walking up walls, here we come!

Julian Assange lost his appeal to British courts and is facing extradition to Sweden.

Hactivism fail: Even Anonymous won’t take on the Mexican cartels.

Playing video games makes you more creative.

Don’t worry about the toilet flusher … gas pump handles are way more bacteria-laden & disgusting.

“Back in the seventies, feminists touted the slogan ‘the personal is political,’ arguing that women had been trained to dismiss their own struggles as personal matters with no greater meaning. If women could share stories, they would find patterns. They could be allies instead of rivals.”

NY Mag studies how blogging has helped feminism.

NYPD reportedly telling drunks to “take it to Zuccotti.”

Some banks are renouncing their plan to charge debit cards.

Winter is coming… and also #OccupyWallStreet has “custom made bicycle generators that charge batteries.”

Not only did the protesters’ permit application get ignored by the city, but police brought in bulldozers to break up Occupy Richmond.

“OccupyHarlem: ‘Occupy Wall Street Is Not A White Thing’”

#OccupyVeterans is growing.

#OWS has a lawyer, and he’s applied to trademark the name of the movement.

“Author Steve Almond shows Marc that writers can be just as tortured and self-doubting as comedians. The two of them discuss the highs and lows of a writer’s creative process.”

Marc Maron, Rumpus friend (who has been interviewed on Rumpus Radio), features Rumpus columnist Steve Almond in his latest WTF Podcast. Steve Almond’s segment starts around 24 minutes in.

A literary novelist writing a genre novel is like an intellectual dating a porn star, right?  Well that’s what New York Times book reviewer Glen Duncan thinks.

In his Sunday Book Review of Colson Whitehead’s complex new zombie novel, Zone One, Duncan sets the parallel between dating porn stars and what he initially perceives as slumming in genre fiction, and lets the rest of the review ride on the back of this comparison.  While he’s busy offending sex workers, he also speculates that readers attracted to the story for its post-apocalyptic zombie tale will encounter so many big words as to be morally affronted.  Duncan praises the book and comes around to the idea of intellectually stimulating genre fiction, but never quite comes around to the idea of sex workers as intellectually stimulating people, concluding of his imaginary couple only that, “they look pretty good together.”

The piece came to our attention via a witty retort by Savvy stripper and staff writer over at Tits and Sass, Bubbles (whose thoughts on this issue you can read here):

Samsung now sells more smartphones than Apple.

A new anti-piracy bill would give the DOJ the power to shut down websites permanently. Scary.

Robotic Lego clock!

Google gives Google TV another go.

You can now look at the interior of (public) buildings with Google Street View.

It’s sad that he’s dead and all, but Steve Jobs might not be the best role model.

Patent lawyers have turned their sights on social networking sites.

Edible spray paint. I don’t trust it.

Another volte-face: Research now suggests that your cellphone isn’t giving you cancer.

If constantly tweeting just isn’t enough for you, maybe you need a portrait made out of your tweets.

Robots now have cat ears.

Facebook could be fined for keeping data that users have deleted.

“#OccupyWallStreet, the movement’s dominant hashtag, has never once hit the New York TTs list. Similarly, #OccupyBoston has trended all across the world, but never in Boston, which only saw the phrases ‘Dewey Sq’ and ‘Dewey Square’ trend.”

Last month, we posted a Wikileaks Ted Talks video on how the internet was not randomized (main subjects included Google and Facebook). Now, people are beginning to wonder about Twitter and their censorship (via Metafilter).