If nothing else, Charlie’s tactics are resulting in massive publicity for his cause.

Beck’s 1933 London Underground map, an iconic design that removed curves, distorted distances, and used consistent iconography to create clarity, was replicated around the world over the following decades. But the Paris Metro held out, only adopting a Beck-like design in the early 1990s.

I love it when Onion articles are written with this level of care.

The IDF, historically a social cauldron, is segmenting into the more religious and right-wing fighters, who generally believe in Jewish purity and Zionism, and the traditionally more secular, left-leaning forces, who value all human life over land disputes. Obviously this is dramatically oversimplifying, but I have interacted with those who see all non-Jews as inferior, and it is an ugly and very real way of life. Letting those sorts of values permeate the IDF is dangerous and counter-productive to the long-term survival of Israel.

He was head of the visual design group for three years, but quickly discovered that all design decisions, even which of 41 shades of blue to color a toolbar, or whether a line should be 3 or 4 pixels wide, were driven by data and user testing. “Google was a massive aircraft carrier, and I was just a small dinghy trying to push it a few degrees North.”

A two year study of four types of weight-loss plans came to an inescapable conclusion: the best way to lose weight is to eat less food. Remarkable. I guess Michael Pollan was right all along!

Most armchair security experts totally missed this aspect of the question over whether Obama would be allowed to keep a BlackBerry as President.

I can’t imagine trying to fight a fire in 117°F heat. Yikes.

Good that a court is finally asking that question. The details of the case in question are disturbing just because of the ages of the children involved, but there doesn’t seem to be much justification for charging a young boy with statutory rape and not charging the young girls with the same “crime,” since the encounters were consensual.

via Kottke.

No matter your feelings on the closing of Brandeis’s Rose Art Museum, it seems clear that the Rose staff, trustees, and friends were treated — in typical Brandeis fashion — quiet badly.

No one seems to know what they’re thinking. Either Brandeis is severely overreacting to their budget crisis or the depth of their losses is far deeper than has been revealed.

A 2:25 video that explains how Twitter works and why people use it. Although the primary question asked by Twitter, “what are you doing?,” is a misnomer.

The plane made an emergency landing in the Hudson River yesterday after flying through a flock of birds that damaged both engines. All 150 passengers and 5 crew members survived.

A Sri Lankan newspaper editor, foreseeing his own assasination, penned an editorial to be run in the event of his untimely death. On Sunday, three days after he was gunned down on his way to work, Lasantha Wickrematunge’s self-written obituary was printed. “When finally I am killed,” he wrote, “it will be the government that kills me.”

Michael Pollan’s brilliant and detailed plan to fix America’s food problem. He’d make a great pick for Secretary of Agriculture.

The ever-awesome Improv Everywhere turned a local little league game in Hermosa Beach, CA into a major league event, complete with mascots, JumboTron, live commentary from NBC sports, and the Goodyear blimp.