Monday Linkdump has given up worrying about what day it is.

Seriously. August is chaos, and September starts with a three-day weekend. I'm pretty sure I won't remember what a Friday feels like until mid-October.

But hey, links:

- Organic Food Isn't More Nutritious, but That Isn't the Point
This article pretty much nails my reaction to the (not particularly surprising) study comparing the nutritional value of USDA organic foods to their conventional counterparts. Do I eat organic (and local) when I can? Definitely. But not because I think I'm getting more nutrition out of it. I do it because these foods tend to have more variety and flavor, because they support my state's economy, and because organic production methods are designed to create and maintain healthier, more fertile and sustainable land. Organic farming also significantly reduces runoff that damages our aquatic ecosystems, and eschews the use of chemicals linked to bee colony collapses. It also makes farm labor safer because workers aren't exposed to high levels of pesticides and insecticides. In short, just because a piece of 'conventional' produce is roughly as nutritious and mostly non-toxic after you wash it doesn't make it equal to its organic counterpart in terms of safety and overall impact.

- Emily Dickinson gets a new look in recovered photograph
If this is Dickinson -- and it certainly does look like her -- this is a very cool discovery indeed.

- Knocked Over: On Biology, Magical Thinking and Choice
I stopped having a horse in this race six years ago -- thanks gender transition and surgical sterilization! -- but this essay on pregnancy, abortion, and miscarriage is one of those pieces that does an amazing job of really demonstrating how these things are not nearly as tidy and black and white as the public discourse on them tries to make them. My own stories in this arena are few, but even as someone whose position on the whole thing is now "ally," I was moved pretty hard by this.

- How to Determine If Your Religious Liberty Is Being Threatened in Just 10 Quick Questions
Like many things about religion, I'm not sure this will necessarily move those who hold those strong convictions that make the current discourse on religious freedom so ridiculous. Still, I thought this was pretty awesome and wanted to share.

- I don't know much about Koch and Minard's credentials, but I do kind of wish I had $200 to spend on a pair of books.

- Princesses and superheroes: the consequences of gender roles
As a friend of parents, and as someone who grew up being socialized in ways that were ultimately both wrong for me and kind of harmful, this piece kind of kicked my ass. It also made me want to send the author all four of Jim C. Hines' princess books so that his daughter could have those in addition to Xena. It also made me think of this article about a girl quarterback in Florida, and how complex the dance of progress and effort really is.

This post has been mirrored from Christian A. Young's Dimlight Archive. To see it in its original format, visit dimlightarchive.com