UPDATE: Visit my Pinterest board for more links!  I am going to try doing all the updates over there starting in 2013.  Pinterest can be used by anyone; you do not have to get a Pinterest account to see and click on the links.  If you have any trouble using the page, please comment on this post or e-mail becca [at] earthlingshandbook [dot] org.

Sometime two or three years ago I decided to have one post for collecting links to pages I thought were interesting but didn’t have so much to say about them that it was worth a new article.  Instead of putting up a new Links post every few months, I would keep adding new links to the top of that one post.  It worked just fine for a long time.  Then, about nine months ago, the software I was using (Online Quickblog) pulled an irritating new trick: Whenever I edited a post, it would “re-publish” it and change its URL to include the current date.  That was a major problem for anyone who had bookmarked the page, because it had vanished from its old location.

Since moving The Earthling’s Handbook to WordPress about five months ago, I’ve been meaning to write a new Links post including all the cool stuff I’ve found on the Internet since I stopped updating the old post!  (Once this is published, I will edit the old post to reflect the existence of this one.)

I will be updating this post as I find new interesting links.  If you subscribe in a feed-reader, this may mean that you see it as a “new” post every time I update.  But if you click on it again, you’ll find that I’ve added something at the top!

Okay, on with the links:

Click and Drag.  The last frame of this comic is much larger than it looks!

The Brick Testament tells stories from the Bible…illustrated with Lego models.  Note that, in the author’s words, The Bible contains material some may consider morally objectionable and/or inappropriate for children.

How bad is living together before marriage?–a perceptive and humorous article from a Christian man who did cohabit and is now married.

Meet My Daughter…Batman! addresses the issue of gendered Halloween costumes in a very reasonable and loving way.

Does gender segregation of public restrooms really make sense?

A married Catholic woman who plans to have no biological children wrote a great post about pregnancy, fear, and Natural Family Planning in response to another Catholic woman who hopes never to be pregnant.

Here’s a thorough explanation of how the pro-life movement is not primarily about saving the lives of the unborn and what this has meant for the author.

This mother of six transports her whole family by bicycle!

Kelly took some time off from the Internet and gained a lot of perspective…and, of course, blogged about it!  Ironic, yet very much worth reading.

We were given a copy of the children’s book Rainbow Fish and were so appalled by its “self-mutilation is the road to popularity” message that I threw it in the garbage, not the Goodwill pile!  I was very pleased to see this scathing (and funny!) review of Rainbow Fish.

Read the hilarious illustrated story of a little boy who set a trap to catch his mama!

A father writes about the discrimination he experiences at playgrounds and in other situations where people seem to think mothers are the “real” parents.  (This was a real eye-opener for Daniel and me–apparently our neighborhood, in which almost as many men as women are picking up kids from school and taking them to the playground, is unusual.)

Are robots a whole new kind of being, as far as moral reasoning is concerned?  Do kids care if their robot friend gets stuffed into a closet?

Emily McClements wrote the best response I’ve read to the Time magazine article on attachment parenting.  A quote: “…while the article talks about attachment parenting as so demanding of mothers and all about parental sacrifice, did they ever consider that maybe it’s on the rise because it actually works for many parents and makes their lives easier, even better?”

A Christian blogger did a really nice interview with a woman living in a polyamorous triad.

Lots of tips for reducing your car’s environmental impact, even if you aren’t able to replace the car with a more fuel-efficient one.  Includes links to many other resources.

This incredibly gigantic insect survived on just one remote island, until a zoo helped the species to grow.  They hug while sleeping!

Katie at Kitchen Stewardship decided to use cloth diapers on her third child . . . and took this opportunity to evaluate twenty-five different varieties of cloth diapers!  That’s got to be confusing, but in typical Katie style, she’s turned it into a big adventure and learning experience, and she’s posting a review of every diaper.  Learn which are the best!  Be sure to read the comments, full of helpful advice from other cloth-diapering parents.

Unwrapping the Onion is the amazing nine-part story of a couple, each of them raised in ultra-conservative Christian families, who married young and assumed they would continue the lifestyle they’d been taught was the only acceptable one . . . but gradually became able to admit their own sexual orientation and gender identity to each other and worked together in love to become the family they really want to be.

An excellent, and very funny, article on the risks of teaching children to believe in the Tooth Fairy and similar home-invading characters.

A thorough analysis of how much water is really needed to cook pasta, plus a handy tip on using pasta water to improve cream sauces.

Two beautiful articles on remembering that your children may be forming a lifelong memory at any moment, from Permission to Live and Emerging Mummy.

My neighbor wrote a vivid portrait of a local barbershop.  (I’ve often noticed its aura of history and local color, but I’ve never been inside.)

How much space is required to transport 60 people?  This is a neat visual demonstration of how different methods of transportation affect traffic flow.

Here are three ways to use food peels you might otherwise throw away:
Banana Peel Chutney
Apple Honey Tea
Make your own Mrs. Dash tomato seasoning!

Is it really less expensive to eat junk food than to cook real food?

My six-year-old son and I rolled on the floor laughing as I read him (from the print edition of the excellent Nutrition Action Healthletter) this article on absurdly unhealthy restaurant meals, with such vivid phrases as, “a small silo of whipped cream” and “help its patrons eat more food with less chewing.”  Nicholas went around singing, “Pork belly burger with a fried egg on top!” for days afterward.

Breastfed babies are more accepting of a wide range of food flavors.  (It’s no wonder Nicholas showed a preference for foods seasoned with garlic within his first month of eating solids! :-))

Women who drink coffee are less likely to get depressed.

Have you heard about the great things being accomplished in the Harlem Children’s Zone?  Check it out!

A funny and touching profile of a man whose last words were, “Dial nine.”

The horrible quality of America’s school lunches threatens national security!  Seriously.

Here’s a handy graph of how different protein sources contribute to global warming.  It doesn’t include eggs, which are strikingly inefficient in calories of food they contain versus calories of energy expended to produce them.

Prescription narcotics now kill more Americans than cars do!

The Bechdel Test is an interesting way to evaluate films.  Here’s the explanation of its origins and why it actually shouldn’t be named after cartoonist and graphic novelist Alison Bechdel.  Here’s a list of movies that pass the test.  Personally, I think men can be very interesting both as characters and as subjects of conversation, but I do see the point–and it’s remarkable how many movies still fail this test!

Can we please stop trying to make things illegal and actually fix the damn problem? is a common-sense take on efforts to ban abortion.  This is the post that first brought me to Jessica’s excellent blog.

I cried when I read that nobody has claimed the remains of the September 11 hijackers.  Why?  Because they were trying so hard to do what they thought God was telling them to do, but they were so, so wrong that even their own parents won’t bury them.  They did an incredibly horrible thing, but they were people, too.  (And after I stopped crying, I was surprised that there were any identifiable bits of them found!  I had not known that and still can’t figure out how it’s possible.)

This lady is protesting consumer culture by wearing the same dress every day for a year.

Here’s a scientifically compiled map of online communities.

The latest innovation in plant-based plastic actually is a good one!  Here’s the truth about Pepsi’s new bottles.  I noticed in the store that Heinz ketchup is using those bottles, too, but for some dumb reason that news is impossible to locate on heinz.com!

Speaking of Heinz and the environment, Heinz Field here in Pittsburgh is now recycling beverage containers and cardboard.  The aluminum haul from just two football games saves (compared to making cans from new aluminum) more than enough energy to power an entire household for a year!

Here’s a great explanation of why to boycott Nestle and a list of the many brand names made by Nestle.

Do you like waffles?  Are you wondering what to cook when your vegan friends come over?  Either way, you need The Global Vegan Waffle Cookbook!  You could buy it at Better World Books, an online bookstore which donates one book for every book sold!

No, children under 3 years old do not need their mothers to be with them every minute of every day!

Walking helps to prevent age-related memory loss.

Here’s a meticulously detailed map of character interactions in some famous movies.

The Case Against Antidepressants

Aw, are you depressed after reading that?  Check out this blog of a preschooler’s funny sayings: Kazooisms.

A simple intervention, which takes just one hour and costs almost nothing, can improve the grades, physical health, and happiness of African-American students for three years or more!

Mile-Hi Mama explains why testing food-stamp recipients for drugs is stupid.

Don’t give an eight-month-old baby a big bowl of cooked spaghetti, even if a parenting expert said you should!

In the wake of the Arizona shooting spree, a liberal promised to give up violent rhetoric against conservatives (or anybody).

Here are the advantages of living in a studio apartment with a toddler.