- Here's an interesting endorsement of intellectual freedom from Ayatollah Khomeini: "Freedom; it is not easy to define this concept. Let us say that freedom is when you can choose your own ideas and think about them when you please, without being forced to think something else." Anne learned this from an advance copy of "The Infernal Library," Daniel Kalder's forthcoming book about dictator lit. This is due out in March, so stay tuned for an interview with Kalder.
- First Jon Ronson investigated the "Butterfly Effect" that free, virtually unlimited pornography has had across a range of different media industries. Now the New York Times is reporting on the realities of raising kids in that world: Parents and educators are taking extra steps to prepare teens with "porn literacy." It's part of a larger effort to accept the reality that kids will encounter pornography eventually, and that they need to be able to place whatever they see — no matter how wild — into a more realistic context.
- This modular synthesizer performance setup used by composer and synthesist Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is blowing Charles' mind. "Bleepy-bloop" should totally be a genre name.
- Is lithium the next fluoride? There's a not-that-out-there argument for putting it in the water supply.
- An Internet company takes to the streets, looking at how we move around cities in real life.
- It’s Girl Scout cookie time in some parts of the United States. Here’s dog musher and author Blair Braverman on the recent controversy over the Boy Scouts of America suddenly and finally inviting girls to join.
- 2011 doesn't seem like that long ago, but our original website tells a different story. Not exactly mobile friendly but plenty of great content there. We've come a long way!