Link roundup for 24 September 2008

Here's something you don't see every day -- an upside-down rainbow.

Sneaking photos in public? Two can play at that game.

Yet another Christian preacher has his own interpretation of "spare the rod, spoil the child".

In Britain, civilization retreats in the face of barbarism (sent by Mendip).

Like most forms of prejudice, anti-Americanism in western Europe is fueled by ignorance.

Problems with Chinese imports continue.

Guess who's releasing a soundtrack album!

Everyone knows the polls under-survey young people because they don't call cell phones. Trouble is, it's not true.

Joseph Cannon is running a contest for Obama supporters.

Here are the facts behind the Wasilla "paying for rape kits" story.

Pollster Kellyanne Conway, whose previous election predictions "have been eerily accurate", says McCain will win. The Obama cult seems to have settled on racism as their excuse if their man loses; see the recent wave of efforts to depict working-class swing voters as deeply racist, such as the already-notorious AP-Yahoo poll (read this too), or this essay in which frustrated pro-Obama union leaders repeatedly cry racism even though all the actual evidence cited indicates legitimate, non-racial reasons for their members' reservations about him. This is a dangerous game. The reality is principle over party. Meanwhile, downticket Democrats look to their own survival as the McCain-Palin ticket adds new appeal to the Republican brand.

Subtle media bias is revealed in how candidates' spoken words are quoted in writing.

Stonehenge may have been a kind of prehistoric Lourdes.

Here's a look at the Neanderthals and their fate.

One type of microscopic animal can survive unprotected in space, suggesting how life might spread from planet to planet.

Newly-designed, heavily-armored warships are built to evade detection and deliver their high-tech payloads directly to enemy targets. What's so special about these warships? Their size is one-thousandth the thickness of a human hair, the sea they sail is the bloodstream, and the "enemy targets" are cancer cells.

Note: I'm going to lay off electoral politics for a while -- at least until results from the debate this Friday start becoming apparent. I have other things on my mind these days, and some of the stuff I run into when exploring the subject is frankly nauseating and depressing (see the posting immediately below this one). For those who just can't get enough, don't forget: the one must-read blog on electoral politics is Cannonfire, which has consistently had the best postings I've seen on the topic -- see for example this debunking of the widely-believed "c-word" story.