[NON BLOG] Mice (mouses?)

My old computer mouse has been on the fritz intermittantly, but I've been able to cope--I know keybaord shortcuts, I could fiddle with the cord, I could clean the trackball. When I booted my computer up on Thursday evening to find that my mouse was no longer capable of moving the pointer from side to side, I had to bite the bullet. Fortunately for me, the USB-requiring Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse works wonderfully, even with the pleasant cheerful ruby glow on the underside that I'll have to make sure not to make eye contact with.

[LINK] Friday Links Roundup

Richard at 1948 takes a look at Sarkozy's recent successful entente with Libya, which may both indicate the relative weakness of Germany and French interest in Sarkozy's Mediterranean Union project.

angel80 has an series of stunning photo posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) produced during a vacation in the area of Lake Mungo in what I think counts as the Australian Outback.

Bert Archer points to a New Yorker article that traces the origins of celebrity culture in art all the way back to Gustave Courbet.

Edward Hugh at Bonoboland looks at what might be the beginning of an Italian economic meltdown, precipitated (he argues) by a wildly unsustainable public pension system that no one seems able to reform.

Centauri Dreams highlights the implications of the discovery of a planet in orbit of a red giant star for the future of our solar system's worlds.

creases' short story "Revelation of the Lamb in Four Parts" in unheimlich, as good as anything by Shirley Jackson.

Henry Farrell at Crooked Timber starts off a discussion about the alleged links of the pre-natal testing of fetuses for congenital defects and illnesses with eugenics, and goes on to social democracy, and Progressivism. It gets bogged down in a flamewar, of course.

Razib at GNXP wonders whether Confucianism is set for a revival in China.

Joe.My.God reports that Victor Willis, founder, songwriter, and original lead singer of the Village People, is going to be writing a tell-all biography wherein he claims that the Village People and their songs never had a gay subtext. (His commenters have their say.)

Jeff at the Tin Man remarks on the acceleration of information flow over the past two centuries.

[REVIEW] The Simpsons Movie

Released in 2007, The Simpsons Movie wasn't as spectacular a movie effort as it might have been had a decade and a half ago. I'm inclined to agree with Jerry--a much bigger fan of The Simpsons than me--in his feeling that the movie wasn't a movie so much as it was the equivalent of four episodes strung together. Perhaps lagom might be the right word to describe it. That said, even when the The Simpsons are lagom, the show is better than most of what's on television, and Jerry and I would have to agree with--say--Jaquandor at Byzantium's Shores that it's great fun.