Extra Credit, Sunday Edition

I've decided to try a daily links blog, where I can and will go off-topic a little bit, as well as throwing in a lot of those interesting things I run across every day but never get around to writing about. We'll see how long it lasts.

AT&T Files Patent Lawsuit Against Vonage: another abuse of the patent laws

Tim Harford on whether free newspaper websites cannibalize subscriptions

A state-by-state map of house prices: CA is the biggest loser, HI is the biggest gainer, and NY is still non-negative

Dan Radosh: N-word, please

As far as I can tell, the N-word is nothing but a way for white people to be able to say nigger without feeling guilty and uncomfortable. Sorry, but that's exactly how white people should feel when they use a racial epithet. It's not the media's job to let them off that hook.

Marina Hyde: Lies, hysteria and contempt. Because we're worth it

Take Dove, whose campaign for "real beauty" has won plaudits from most corners. Its current ad is called Onslaught, and shows a young girl being bombarded with mind-bendingly suggestive beauty industry imagery. Slogan: "Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does".
Yet for every brand like Dove, there are 10 more like Fair & Lovely, which sells whitening face creams to Indian women. Fair & Lovely's packaging depicts an unhappy dark-skinned woman changing into a happy light-skinned woman. The New York Times recently pointed out that "it once focused its advertising on the problems a dark-skinned woman might have finding romance ... The company's ads now show lighter skin conferring a distinct advantage: helping a woman land a job normally held by men ... Their current ad is taglined The Power of Beauty". Perhaps needless to say, both Fair & Lovely and Dove are owned by Unilever.

On the other hand,

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