Sunday night links.

* The flag at right (via MeFi) is the marriage equality flag, which only includes those states which allow gays and lesbians to marry.

* Return of a meme I haven't seen since the 1990s: the end of science.

* Krugman spills the beans on Al Franken's secret wonkitude. A reader of his books and an infrequent listener to his radio show, I can confirm this is true: he has a much sharper and more wide-ranging intellect than the press gives him credit for.

* The Nation gets excited about the rediscovery of Secular America.

Obama agreed and remained true to his word. And then came the moment approximately 50 million Americans-- who identify themselves with terms like agnostic, atheist, materialist, humanist, nontheist, skeptic, bright, freethinker, agnostic, naturalist, or non-believer -- will never forget. In his inauguration speech, Obama said, "…Our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers."

Like 50 million other Americans I tell my nonexistent children about the Great Inclusion every night. And then, together as one all across the nation, we weep from joy.

* Lev Milman, a Duke undergrad, has been named a chess grandmaster.

* Grant Morrison is apparently working on a comic that will highlight the undisguised bondage imagery that makes up to the Wonder Woman mythos. (More here and here.)

“Tell me anybody's preference in story strips and I'll tell you his subconscious desires... Superman and the army of male comics characters who resemble him satisfy the simple desire to be stronger and more powerful than anybody else. Wonder Woman satisfies the subconscious, elaborately disguised desire of males to be mastered by a woman who loves them.”
—Dr. William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman

And why not another?

But Marston was intent on more than merely fulfilling the fantasies of his male readers. In a letter to comics historian Coulton Waugh, he wrote, "Frankly, Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world." Marston believed that submission to "loving authority" was the key to overcoming mankind's violent urges, and that strong, self-realized women were the hope for a better future. Wonder Woman was very consciously Marston's means of spreading these notions to impressionable young minds. As he said to Olive Richard, "I tell you, my inquiring friend, there's great hope for this world. Women will win!" He then goes on, "When women rule, there won't be any more [war] because the girls won't want to waste time killing men...I regard that as the greatest - no, even more - as the only hope for permanent peace.”

* Also on the "comics and sex" beat: X-Men Rictor and Shatterstar are out and proud, prompting a promise from Shatterstar creator Rob Liefeld to "someday undo this."

Sunday! This time for real.

* The federal government has declared the swine flu a public health emergency. Clearly the time has come to panic.

* Nate Silver has an interesting post analyzing some counterintuitive environmental polling showing Americans tend to believe ecological crises will harm others more than themselves.

* Isaac's experimenting with 3-D comics. I couldn't get it to work—but then again I could never see the 3-D image in those "Magic Eye" posters either.

* Another proposal to fix Chess: add a "slight win."

* Nobody does media criticism like Glenn Greenwald.

The very same pundits and establishment journalists who today are demanding that we forget all about it, not look back, not hold anyone accountable, are the very same people who -- like Broder -- played key roles in hiding, enabling and defending these crimes. In light of that, what is less surprising than the fact that, almost unanimously, these very same people oppose any efforts to examine what happened and impose accountability?

* In the spirit of Dinosaur Comics, Topsy the Electrocuted Elephant. (Thanks, Denise!)

Who knows what was going through Ivanchuk's head when, on Nov. 25 in Dresden, the last day of the Chess Olympiad, he lost to Gata Kamsky? What we do know, however, is that when the game against the American ended, a judge asked Ivanchuk to submit to a drug test. Instead, he stormed out of the room in the conference center, kicked a concrete pillar in the lobby, pounded a countertop in the cafeteria with his fists and then vanished into the coatroom. Throughout this performance, he was followed by a handful of officials.

No one could convince Ivanchuk to provide a small amount of urine for the test. And because refusal is treated as a positive test result, he is now considered guilty of doping and could be barred from professional chess for two years. Via MeFi.

Hnefatafl was a chess-like game played during the Viking era in Scandinavia, notable for its asymmetry: one player's goal was to kill the opposing king, while the other player's goal was merely to escape death. The rules are (mostly) lost, though attempted reconstructions exist, which you can play some online. (via the Smugopedia entry on Go)

Followups on recent posts:

* My once and future TA Heather saw the post on Lyle Estill and Piedmont Biofuels and recognized the chess set as part of a series of Estill's. Pretty cool.

* In response to my recent self-diagnosis of Truman Show Delusion, Steve sends in a list of ten other disorders I may or may not have, including Vagabound's disease, Jumping Frenchmen of Maine disease, and cheese washer's lung.

LEGO chess sets.

Friday morning links.

* Rest in peace, Bobby Fischer. Here's the traditional MetaFilter obituary with a lot of dots, a lot of stupid chess puns, and a lot of links. And here's a post from the early days of Backwards City on Fischer's 2004 arrest in Japan, which also includes a link to the rules for "Full Chess" that Fischer devised for greater variety and challenge.

* But the link between watching football — specifically college football — and violence may not be a myth. A new study by researchers at the University of Colorado at Denver examines whether assaults and other forms of aggressive behavior increase when major college football teams play home games, and finds that they do. More strikingly, perhaps, incidences surge most when upsets occur — whether the home team wins or loses.

* Bush considering $800 bribe tax rebate to help spur economy. Money can't buy you love, Mr. President.

* In both the Washington Post (link fixed) and New York Times this week are articles pooh-poohing the Air Car, a $2500 high-efficiency vehicle scheduled to go into production in India this year. In addition to the absurd hypocrisy involved in the U.S. lecturing anyone on greenhouse gases or wasteful consumption, the greater point to take away from all this is that the decades-old Big Lie of globalization is again being exposed before our eyes. It has never and will never be the point of globalization to enrich poorer countries and bring them "up" to a Western standard of living; that's just the story we tell ourselves whenever someone reminds us that our sneakers are made by little slave kids. Now that it looks as if nations from the Global South actually could begin to made headway towards a Western standard of living, how does the West react? We recognize this moment not as the happy culmination of sixty years of economic charity and beneficence—finally, our hard work has paid off! the rising tide has lifted all boats!—but instead as a economic, environmental, and geopolitical disaster. We're terrified to be faced with the thing we always claimed we were working towards.

The Washington Post has a feature on Tom Murphy, one of Dupont Circle's chess mavens, while this week's Independent Weekly has my piece on the 12-year-old who keeps beating me at Go.

Chess tactics explained in English. Via MeFi.