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Lots of good stuff today in Salon. Watch the day pass, or better yet, throw them a bone and subscribe.

The penguin is mightier than the sword. No, it's not about Linux, it's a rare interview with Berkeley Breathed about his new comic strip "Opus". Like Bill Watterson, he's forcing editors to run his strip half-page only. Good for him.

Salon turns 8 today. Read what it was like in the old days, plus a link to the first issue of Salon!

Dan Savage: I don't. Dan Savage responds to the gay marriage ruling.

Tom the Dancing Bug is awesome this week.

Green China? Katharine Mieszkowski talks to two scientists about the motivation behind China's new fuel efficiency standards I talked about yesterday.

Matthew Yglesias does some math and finds that countries with socialist universal health care are paying less per capita for it than the US. That's not surprising to me. What's surprising is that their governments -- while paying a higher percentage of the cost than the US -- also pay less than the US government per capita with our mixed (and crappy) system. For example, Sweden's government pays $1,759 per capita while the US government pays $1,895 per capita. Interesting!

Slacktivist: Uncivil union. Fred Clark explores the strange ways civil and religious marriage intertwine. I think this essay gives more weight to the idea that churches should decide who can get married and the state should hand out "civil unions" to any people who want one. Fred explores gay marriage in Uncivil unions (part 2).

Bruce Sterling: How free software is fueling a new kind of patriotism