Iced Borscht

Friday morning linkage.

• Mark Scribner at Open Market has a few choice words for urban planners: “…they are merely misdirecting taxpayer dollars and private investment into development projects that no one desires enough to privately provide—another example of the road to Hell being paved (a bit more literally in this case) with good intentions.”

• Greg Gutfeld discusses the idea of building a Muslim-friendly gay bar near the proposed mosque site at Ground Zero. The humorless and ignoble twerps at Media Matters, of course, fail miserably in their assessment.

• The people be talkin’ about Brion Gysin more.

• 18 of the world’s strangest restrooms.

• Jon Stewart does have moments, now and then, of fierce lucidity.

• The world’s worst vacations: Bali; Belize; the Indian Ocean; Uganda; Thailand; London; Cancun (twice); Yemen; the Jersey Shore; the Great Barrier Reef; Moab, Utah; the Mediterranean; Istanbul; Luxor; Mont Tremblant, Canada; Baja; Yellowstone National Park.

• Francis Collins: Year 1 review.

• Angry people pay more attention to rewards than threats. (Why don’t customer service goons understand this?)

• The ocean’s vacuum cleaners.

• Oregon: the shrimp glow here.

• Naked people on a roller coaster.

• Cheese calamity closes Wisconsin highway.

• In Ohio: The pious vs. the leafless.

• Pennsylvania guy wants to change his name to Boomer the Dog.

• Nice Roger Ebert piece on Christopher Hitchens, belief and death.

• The majesty of a good shower scene (NSFW).

• So many great films are explored at Movies About Girls — Bikini Chain Gang; the Pig Keeper’s Daughter; and Dinosaur Valley Girls (NSFW).