The US women's soccer team (did you watch that final; so great), and Serena Williams. In their own and different ways, fantabulous.

I saw this on the news like it was some scandal, but count me on the UPS guy's side. Keep your dog under control, or it gets kicked. (I'll concede he probably shouldn't have pushed the owner.)

Have I mentioned the story of one worker at the NM hospital shooting another's dogs? She'd been attacked in the past by other dogs (stray dogs everywhere). These 100+ lb. dogs got out, startled her on a trail at dusk, and whammo, she shot them both. One lived. The only thing she did wrong was not tell anyone about it, so we thought some nutcase with a quick trigger was walking the trails, until about a year later when the owner, having gotten wind, finally said, "Did you shoot my dogs?" And she tearfully confessed.

Writing about interior decorating is tricky, since you are probably insulting so many lovely people, and the horror of their house is truly not a big deal. They're lovely people. So if you're one of those lovely people, you probably shouldn't click through this exactly right perfectly spot-on link about bad wood finishes.

Instead you could talk about Greece or Cosby or something more substantial.

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and teach them to kiss on the lips.

...we found no evidence that the romantic-sexual kiss is a human universal or even a near universal. The romantic-sexual kiss was present in a minority of cultures sampled (46%). Moreover, there is a strong correlation between the frequency of the romantic-sexual kiss and a society's relative social complexity: the more socially complex the culture, the higher frequency of romantic-sexual kissing.

This seems pretty nuts. A judge sent three kids to juvie for refusing to have lunch with their dad, who is involved in a custody fight with their mom. It was crazy enough that I google around, because surely there's another side to the story. And there's this as background (from the dad), and even if we take that all as true--that he's a great dad and the mom is a headcase--who the hell thinks that locking up the children is going to solve anything? It sounds like the judge was fed up and had a tantrum.

Dairy Queen sends in this link "For Halford".

Among Americans' periodic periods of panic over the corrosiveness of pop culture, the 1980s campaign to vilify heavy metal music stands out for the decibel level of both the music and the protests.

With dramatic testimony in courtrooms and at Congressional hearings, concerned parents and even government officials warned that groups like Iron Maiden and Metallica were enticing our teenagers into moral and spiritual darkness--up to and including devil worship.

So now that three decades have passed since this alleged attempt by Satan to infiltrate young brains via eardrum-shattering sounds, how are those headbangers doing? Did their punishingly loud and intense music send them spiraling into lives of despair?

DID THEY???!!!

Whatever crazy sport you were dreaming up, here it is.

One of our own presidents is negotiating a custody agreement of their kids right now. They may speak up, but I'm going to keep this very generic. Those of you who have been through the trenches: advice?

Obviously the agreement must align with the personalities involved, so it would be helpful to say a word as to how your recommendation meshed with any key personality traits involved, so that our president can filter out or pay special attention accordingly.

United Airlines and the NYSE shut down within hours of each other due to unexplained technical glitches...I'm pretty sure the bible says something about this and the end days. Until I find that reference, it's best to blame the Chinese.

Wow, this is some epic trollery from Vox: George W. Bush was a much better president than liberals like to admit. The case seems to be that he saved more lives with his anti-HIV/AIDS program than were lost in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I can't put my finger on it, but I feel like he's leaving some things out.

Via Benquo, over there.

J, Robot writes: The FBI agent is named Rock Stone. If that's not Unfogged material, I don't know what is. And McAllen is where Atul Gawande did that great piece on medical overcharging.

Heebie's take: I have a deep affection for the valley, despite not having spent much time there. Or maybe because of that. There's not much reason to go besides regional academic conferences. The most striking thing about the various towns is that you feel like distance has warped and you're in some isolated, distant forgotten land, instead of just two hours south of San Antonio. (It's a really dreary two hours, though.) Or maybe I'm romanticizing it unnecessarily.

My parents gave us a ceramic knife. I'm led to believe that this will be a transformative experience. I've got celery ready to go.

Just just just just just just just. Just just. Semantic satiation. Just just.

(Obviously this article is one of those silly things where hey! if it correlates with the group that has less power, then let's admonish that group to stop doing it!)

Just just just.

Try not to waste too much time playing this game. (Is the game Monument already well-known? The website makes it look so.) I barely like any games, but little puzzles like this are fun.

It won't be hard not to waste too much time playing this game, because the code fits in 144 characters. Still!

Well, we finally listened to the Adnan Syed season of Serial on the road last week. It started out great, but by the end I was unimpressed...

I guess it's still spoilers? Under the cut.

1. This is when it started to fall apart for me: "The thing about Jay is that he lied about small things all the time, but he would never lie about something like this."

That is not how liars work.

2. Once you bring in The Innocence Project, I really only want to hear what they're doing. I no longer care that you have now disproved the 2:36 phone call in fifteen different ways, whereas last week you had only disproved it in ten different ways.

3. Sarah Koenig, your endless ruminations are not sufficiently fascinating to justify that much airtime. It all seemed a bit narcissistic that we'd care so much about her journey to find out the truth, instead of just the actual content of the case. Why did you start recording episodes before having the resolution from the Innocence Project? It all seemed very egotistical to me that she thought her ruminations would be heavy enough to give the last episode enough weight. No, I'd rather hear about the DNA.

4. It annoyed me that they spent so little time entertaining other killers, and what a different narrative might look like.

5. Okay I'll go back and read the thread that you all had last December. Probably all of this was addressed but I was not yet there.

Still seems like the first two chapters on the 13th is a good plan! But you know what, no one has indicated a willingness to do the summarization/reaction honors. If no one wants to go first, I will, but c'mon, people.

Witt writes: The NYT posted this very simple puzzle. I was surprised to find myself in a minority subset (9%) among respondents. I won't spoil the surprise, but the fundamental thing that confused me was why that was such a small minority among respondents.

My greatest fear in doing policy work is that I will publish something that will cause people to laugh and point out an obvious explanation that I have overlooked. I would have assumed this was a widespread fear and that my solutions for overcoming it (basically, try to poke and prod as much as possible at my own material before it goes out the door) would also be very widespread.

What am I missing?

Heebie's take: the underlying phenomenon about policy work and corporate America is not well-illustrated by that puzzle. People like to solve puzzles! People sometimes try to solve puzzles without looking at the answer in the back of the book. It's a thing. (The underlying phenomenon is still interesting in its own right.)

Also I recognized the puzzle so I couldn't say whether or not I was a superior being.

This is just nuts (keep scrolling).