Spiffy bits

A bunch of things that have tickled or intrigued me over the last few days...

• A neat historical fact: Martha's Vineyard was once home to an original deaf culture that was fully integrated into everyday life (and later contributed to the development of ASL). Amazing!
  
  
• Roger Ebert gives a lyrical description of Twitter, the art being done there, the connections it forms around the world, how it won him over from critic to addict.
  
  
• Rachel Maddow gives the alternative oil-disaster speech we all wish that Obama had given, including actual policy changes! Amen.
  
  
• How could one ever explain the ending of DADT policy? Really, it's really not that hard, at least if you're in the habit of talking about differences among people as part of the spectrum of natural and behavioral variation among folks...
  
  
• An entertaining art series from the New Yorker, in which the US map is scrambled to various effects.
  (via kottke)
  
  
• Finally, I'm inspired by this piece of self-boosterism, but I also seem unlikely to actually compose my own equivalent. So I'll let her @$#! amazingness speak for me.
  

Have a great weekend, all, and a Happy Father's Day, if appropriate!