Links for 2012-01-11

The rise of Super PACs and the glorious display of democracy that is the Republican primary season got me thinking about attack ads in other contexts. What if colleges ran attack ads?

he new Colbert has crossed the line that separates a TV stunt from reality and a parody from what is being parodied. In June, after petitioning the Federal Election Commission, he started his own super PAC -- a real one, with real money. He has run TV ads, endorsed (sort of) the presidential candidacy of Buddy Roemer, the former governor of Louisiana, and almost succeeded in hijacking and renaming the Republican primary in South Carolina. "Basically, the F.E.C. gave me the license to create a killer robot," Colbert said to me in October, and there are times now when the robot seems to be running the television show instead of the other way around.

The economic status quo in BCS-level college athletics -- management makes the rules and reaps the profits; labor has minimal rights, compensation and recompense -- is untenable. Deplorable. Hopeless, really, in the long run, given that the money involved keeps growing and the resulting inequity becomes more and more obvious. Two years ago, Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan -- a man who creates little value beyond capably filling an ugly yellow blazer -- earned a reported salary of $593,718. Meanwhile, a skilled performer like LSU's Tryon Mathieu -- whom people actually want to watch on television, and are willing to sit through endless advertisements to do so -- gets a scholarship worth a tenth of that amount. Oh, and if Mathieu tried to capitalize on his actual market value -- perhaps by selling T-shirts - he would be punished for both his entrepreneurial hustle and for violating the tenets of amateurism, the classic Greek philosophy of this pie is all mine, enjoy the crumbs, sucker.

Edward is an agent of the Culture, a galaxy-spanning post-human civilization run by smart-ass AIs. Against the backdrop of the Idirans War, Edward's been sent on a mission to a non-Culture world, as part of a war strategy only understandable by an AI. On that world, he meets Bella, who is awed by his super human strength and sparkling skin (all part and parcel of the wacky post-human benefits package bestowed by the Culture.) Meanwhile, Jacob, a shapeshifting humanoid agent hired by the Idirans (who are dour, religious lizards) discovers Edward romancing Bella (triggering several pages of Jacob describing Edward's abilities in loathing detail.)

2. A dangling modifier walks into a bar. After finishing a drink, the bartender asks it to leave.