[Good Links] Hit the Links

It's been a while since I dumped some interesting links on you, so have fun with these.

• How to use money to buy happiness -- I'm pretty much in sync with these.
• From Chuck Klosterman, a point I have made numerous times over the years: You should probably chill out about your beliefs because they are probably wrong. Of course, the counter argument is that the only way things get accomplished is via passionate persuasions. Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
• 15 towns worthy of a day trip. Thanks to my recent trip to Bar Harbor I have hit 8, including many to Las Vegas and living in (or next to) Ann Arbor. Says something about my taste in lifestyle, and also gives me ideas for future trips.
• Current pop music is actually industrially constructed. I thought I was just being a snarkmeister when I said that last month.
• Also appropos, the history of the Ramones. Not pretty, but completely human.
• Also last month I made a flip comment along the lines of "Someday in the future somebody will write an essay entitled "Maybe it's Better to be a Brain in a Jar." Well, it turns out Robin Hanson has written a book along those lines. Regualr readers know what I huge admirer I am of Robin's brain-warping site Overcoming Bias. I haven't read it yet; it's next up for my Kindle (i am currently reading Don Quixote, of all things) but in the meantime I've been thoroughly entertained by the early reviews which Robin is replying to in detail over at his site. If I hold to form, my review will be coming in about a year.
• To be clear, despite the title of Robin's book an Em is not Robot. The robot revolution is already in full swing.