English sentences without overt grammatical subjects. A linguistic exploration of the f-word’s unusual place within the English language. (From LanguageHat.)

If there’s one link worth double-posting to Snarkmarket on an otherwise-quiet posting day, it’s this. The Passion of the Present, a blog that has been tirelessly chronicling the ongoing genocide in Darfur for almost a year. It’s been almost a year since I wrote this. I haven’t played the “Paris Hilton vs. Darfur” game since, but whether the ratio’s gotten better or worse, the slaughter continues.

We know the ending to this story. Eventually, the conflict will come to an end, after a couple years of unthinkable death. We’ll put on a brief, solemn, nationwide show of mourning and regret, crying “Never again!” Ten years down the line, we’ll light candles, hold memorials, maybe even make a movie.

I’m bad at preaching. I do it for my own sake. When my children ask, “Where were you when Africa disappeared?” who knows how I’ll reply? I hope I don’t have to say that I just wasn’t paying attention. I think that might be the worst possible answer.

One of your favorite websites lacks an RSS feed? Roll your own.

Michael Kinsley, sometimes I love you. And right now is one of those times:

Newspapers are essential to every American, and none more so than the fools and ingrates who have stopped buying them. It is up to us, as members of the last generation that experienced life before computer screens, to make sure that future generations of Americans will know what to do when it says “Continued on Page B37.” In a recent survey of Americans younger than age 30, only 26 percent said “Look in Section B,” and a pitiful 13 percent chose the correct answer, which is “Look FOR Section B. It’s around here somewhere.” As a service to humanity and because I like my job, here is a seven-point plan to save the newspaper industry.

Beloved Webstop Things magazine is back, hopefully frequently and for good, with a collection of wonderful links, including:

• The physics behind four amazing demonstrations — walking on broken glass, dipping fingers into molten lead, etc.
• A drawing of 221B Baker St.; annotated
• The photography of Chris Jordan, whose new exhibit, “Portraits of American Mass Consumption,” is mesmerizing

Chad Capellman over at morph writes up this Craigslist ad, which he sees as a portent of things to come:

I need some very simple PHP/MYSQL coding done, and I need it now.

I’ll give you 100 bucks, but it has to be RIGHT NOW.

email me. I”m here.

* this is in or around TRYST COFFEESHOP

When Coldplay released their latest album with the cover at left, fans were apparently really curious about what the image meant. So they did some voodoo and discovered that the image is a graphical representation of a code invented in the 19th Century by Frenchman Emile Baudot. I wonder if Coldplay knew this. (Via The Modern Age.)

When Malcolm Gladwell says you’ve got the most brilliant mind in America, I’m guessing you can write pretty much anything your little heart desires and it’ll sell like hotcakes, even with a hellsafugly cover.

At any rate, Freakonomics sounds fun. This excerpt and this one, both about baby names, are fascinating. OK Kottke interview | The NYT Mag article I assume led to the book | A NYT Mag piece also co-authored by Levitt and Dubner | Other writings by Dubner

It’s not often one sees a hard-hitting piece of entertainment journalism, like this Q&A, in which Der Spiegel grills Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg about their Scientologist beliefs. (Waxtastic.)

Love. (Quicktime.) From MeFi.