some links and such

• I was very happy to see a very incisive take on my post about singular "their" over at the Economist's language blog Johnson (as in Samuel Johnson), by R.L.G. For the prosecution, we have Jen Doll at The Atlantic Wire, with an entertaining argument for the other side.
• Gawker demonstrates again why, despite the constant frustrations and obsession with juvenile nonsense, I can't write it off. Too much good media criticism, like this piece from Mobutu putting the Scientology "advertorial" and Manti Te'o hoax into the broader contest of our media.
• Bhaskar Sunkara has a typically intelligent take on the rise of deracinated technocracy on the left (or the "left"). I wrote about the folly of trying to get outside of politics and into "pure empiricism" a couple months ago.
• This Atlantic piece by Lindsay Abrams on my hometown, and two events that have shaped it within my lifetime, was perceptive, well-written, and fair.
• While Myspace has become synonymous with failure and obsolescence, I have to say, the new format is truly beautiful web design.