OK, troops, time to look sharp and get smart with our weekly web linkfest:
 

• World’s most interesting bridges: I’m quite fascinated by bridges, having followed the construction of the new Narrows Bridge from its beginning. Here’s some really cool ones. (They neglected one of the coolest, however: the extraordinary Millau Viaduct in France)
   
  Update: A commenter points me to this link on the Millau Viaduct, with numerous photos of its construction. Very cool.
• Cool ads: Most ads are awful. These most definitely are not.



• Cultural Cuisinart: Mark Steyn is one of my favorite writers — talented, funny, clever, very insightful. When he sharpens his rapier, stand back, ’cause his target’s gonna get sliced and diced. This week he strikes again: The whims of legal immigration. Brutal. Funny. Sadly, all too true.
• No free lunch: Cost Control for Dummies. Basic economics of government price control of health care.
• Michael Totten in Iraq: Another must-read dispatch. How is it that 2 or 3 independent reporters like Totten and Michael Yon, working on their own dime, make the entire mainstream media with their deep pockets and armies of journalists look like incompetent fools in their Iraq reporting? Balance of Terror
• Have sex, win a car:
  

  Everyone who has a baby on Russia Day, June 12, gets a prize, but the grand prize goes to the couple who are judged most fit to be parents. The 2007 grand prize went to Irina and Andrei Kartuzov, who received a brand new UAZ-Patriot . . . a Russian-made SUV.

   
  Wonder how they judge who is most fit to be parents — a drivers test? And will this lucky lady be known as Miss Carriage? Patriotic parents needed to reignite Ruskie baby boom

• McHeimlich Maneuver: Some use the choke to start their car; others use it to stop. Seat-belt Heimlich maneuver saves choking driver
• Subprime mess: Want to know what the deal is with the subprime mess which is hammering the stock market and making lots of people nervous? Dale Franks spells it out: More on the Economic Outlook
• Just a small town girl: Just be careful which small town you’re talkin’ about, though. Hillary’s Feeling “Good About Where I Am.” In Pahrump, Nevada

Well that’s all for now — have a great week, and God bless.