Sunday Open Thread [7.29.12]

It looks like the world is captured by the Olympics and the entire #RomneyShambles business. Here are some interesting reads during Olympic commerical breaks:

The Guardian provides a wonderful wrapup of the disaster that was Romney’s UK visit:

The comparisons with Romney’s trip to Europe and Obama’s visit at almost exactly the same stage in the electoral cycle four years ago are almost too embarrassing to mention. Obama wooed a quarter of a million people in Berlin while Romney was mocked by the British prime minister.

The Discreet Charm of Willard Mitt Romney Ouch!

I’m calling on Anglo-Saxons everywhere to distance yourselves from this guy.

The Conversion of a Climate Change Skeptic. Good read, and note how a scientist’s mind works — global warming is not an all or nothing narrative that is flavored by ideology. It is an evolving body of knowledge where it’s existence is quite real, but we still have a long way to go to determine the precise contours of its impact and in how to best address it:

Call me a converted skeptic. Three years ago I identified problems in previous climate studies that, in my mind, threw doubt on the very existence of global warming. Last year, following an intensive research effort involving a dozen scientists, I concluded that global warming was real and that the prior estimates of the rate of warming were correct. I’m now going a step further: Humans are almost entirely the cause.

How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance This is simply a tour-de-force of writing — the author (who currently teaches at Vassar) gives a look into what it feels like to be a young black man standing at the center of a great deal of violence and in how easy it is to respond to that with more violence.

What interests you today?