Brazil demands that Twitter ban users who warn of police speed traps and roadblocks.

Coffee shops invade India, and young people enjoy them mostly for hanging out.

Interview with Berlusconi as he prowls around his gigantic Rome apartment in thick makeup and stacked-heel sneakers.

Reactions on Facebook to stories by The Onion that people believe are real. via

Chart shows which information popular apps (Angry Birds, etc.) give away to third parties.

Bringing iPads to the classroom helps Apple, not the kids. #opinions

Screenshots from iPad lovers living “at the intersection of art, stories, and technology.”

Poetry from Craigslist Missed Connections.

Less said the better: Werner Herzog on chickens. #video

Quick guide to National Security Agency jargon.

This was pointed out to us, so we’ll point it out to you: a school named University of Maryland University College.

Story of the plot to kill a man for life insurance, and the target who just wouldn’t die.

Analyzing “Plitdown Man” could clear names of Arthur Conan Doyle and others implicated in archaeology’s greatest hoax.

Classical musician argues for playing in bars: patrons enjoy “an enhanced degree of listening.”

As a literary experience, it was pretty thin gruel. But like Oliver Twist, I wanted more. Sam Anderson goes to Dickens World.

China reacts to jumping inflation by announcing it will raise the minimum wage 13% each year until 2015.

And when poorly trained spokesmen and officials do speak…disasters often ensue. China’s continuing PR nightmare.

When young Chinese want to learn American slang, they turn to OMG! Meiyu, a popular web video series.

BBC tracks, confronts internet troll. #video

Efraim Halevy: Syria is becoming Iran’s Achilles’ heel, and Israel is missing an opportunity.

Recent violence reveals white supremacists have revived their dream of a Northwest homeland.

Over the Thaipusam holiday, Tamils show their Hindu devotion through piercings, prayer. #photos

“This Chart Is a Lonely Hunter”: the history of infographics and why they’re here to stay.

Pre-1930 modernist lit mags now available in PDF.

Thoroughly and precisely, a T-cell kills a cancer cell. #video

Italy imposes emergency measures to conserve gas supplies during Europe’s big freeze.

100,000 Muscovites turned out in sub-zero weather to protest Putin.

List of jobs held in a Medieval city.

Wagner’s Rienzi had a big effect on Hitler, but there’s no reason to call it “Hitler’s favorite,” and no reason to cancel performances on his birthday.

Reporters face jail time for secretly recording an interview with a Nazi war criminal.

Unfortunately I don’t get to decide which facts are stupid; I have to check all of them. Entertaining exchange between a reporter and his fact-checker.

Li-Fi is an LED-based alternative to household Wi-Fi that requires phones and light bulbs to communicate.

Consumerization has been disastrous for R.I.M., because the company has seemed clueless about what consumers want.

Trailer of the day: Bombay Beach. #video

The only true, authentic Cindy Sherman is the one who makes the pictures: a conversation.

American and British covers compared from 2012’s Tournament of Books’ contenders.

Portable signs of America. #photography

Of 10 men in a Dallas coffeeshop, seven wear pageboy hats, seven wear beards.

Drop something like a cherry out of your cocktail. Advice on flirting from Ira Glass, a 10-year-old girl, and more.

Excerpts from steamy romance novels for parents of young children.

Willpower is the root of all happiness; a new book explains how to exercise yours to get more.

Diners travel to a Hudson Valley monastery to experience mindful eating, where each bite can last 20 minutes.

Once an American food staple, squirrel could make a comeback—though they can carry bubonic plague.

Police discover sommelier decorated his apartment with $430K in stolen art.

It’s just horrible. Hoping to boost productivity, Spain moves traditional mid-week holidays to Mondays and Fridays.

Sarkozy’s socialist rival’s campaign survives by putting “an American spin on cultural revival” (i.e., The New Deal).

Rising temperatures at Fukushima cast doubt on government claim that the reactors are stabilized.

Researchers find increased stress hormones in whale feces, which they believe are caused by ship traffic.

This week New York City settled a 30-year, $15 million class-action lawsuit over illegal loitering arrests.

The most terrifying Valentine’s Day gift ever. #video

The barbarian leader was, for the most part, a man of his word Nice things about Attila the Hun.

Notes on whether Italy can change its ways, or remain “more or less equally honored and dishonored.”

Despite the lock-out, the NBA is doing very well, with viewership going “a bit nuts.”

I wish that I had let myself be happier. Hospital nurse lists top regrets expressed prior to death.

Story of former spouses, now step-siblings (her mother married his father), as they attempt to co-care for their aging parents.

Twenty-five lessons learned from opening a bookstore. via

Colleges from Dixie State to Harvard offering bathroom-naming opportunities to donors.

Oldie but goodie: Dallas food blogger finds world’s most expensive chocolate in Plano.

Pictures from the freeze in Europe.

Last year, PWC estimated that the total weather derivatives market was $12 billion. How Wall Street profits off weather.

Tale of the 34-year-old virgin who photographs his stool, optimizes his sperm, and has fathered 15 children while angering the FDA.

Consider the perceptual challenges inherent in the robotic manipulation of unseen socks.

New OkGo video features 1,000+ instruments struck by a moving car.

Somehow we are late to this: The Collected Blurbs of Gary Shteyngart.

“Are you eating your toenail?” Cataloging the precise moment when you know a relationship is over.

[In 1886] a pitcher for the Boston Beaneaters gave it in a joint team photograph with the rival New York Giants. When did the middle finger become offensive?

In the U.S., an invented country freed from its past, a tough match lays ahead for soccer vs. football. #opinions

Researchers force monkeys and humans to watch Clint Eastwood to discover their brain differences.

Fake TV and movie violence is up, but real-world crime is down, and there appears to be a connection.

Doctors perform first jaw transplant created from a 3D printer.

Signature foods and slogans are so 20th century: Chattanooga is designing its own signature font.

Thousands of private banks issued their own notes. A short history of American money.

Pew findings show the difference of opinions between liberals and conservatives is greater than the gender gap.

Simpsons toys banned in Iran.

Ross may represent the final abandonment of hip-hop’s mandate to “keep it real.” SFJ profiles former corrections officer Rick Ross.

Reporter boards indie-rock cruise to Cozumel with Weezer, Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr., more.

Breakdown of bride pricing in southern Nigeria.

Arnold Bread offers 40 varieties, “and that is just counting the sliced breads, not the thins or buns.”

Iran not amused by Samsung ad showing Israel accidentally blowing up an Iranian nuclear facility.

What’s morally repugnant in one country is accepted business practices in another. More on why America can’t build Apple products.

Chart: Penalties for gays in Muslim countries.

Tips on parenting the French way.

More international students study on American campuses, paying top dollar so Americans can study there, too.

Forty-eight percent said they “would disapprove if my child wanted to marry a member of this group.” Believers rank atheists in sharing a common vision of America.

Americans who live in “SuperZips”—neighborhoods of wealth and education—have lost touch with America. #opinions

Philip Glass on his life as an East Villager.

Music samples from yMusic, “at the heart of the current indie-classical overlap.”

Shit people say while watching “shit people say” videos. #video

Q&A with Joan Didion on acting, reality, and non-fiction vs. fiction.

Man behind Faces of Death now reviews movies as one half of “Two Jews on Film.”

Nobel officials face inquiry into whether they’ve adhered to Alfred Nobel’s ideals—case in point, Obama.

Their genes kept them from experiencing either very high or very low levels. The genome of Wall St. traders.

People who speak languages that blur “today” and “tomorrow” more likely to prepare for the future.

History of jet packs at the Super Bowl.

History has forgotten Sealab, the deep-sea equivalent of the U.S. space program.

Coming soon: virtual reality contact lenses.

Dickens biographer says kids today don’t have the attention span to handle the novelist’s tomes.

The internet now plays a part in most, if not all, cases of violent radicalization.

Now type the worst thing you’ve ever done, that you’ve never told a soul. Password check.

The origins of the Epic Grandma Advice meme.

Minimalist internet meme posters.

Largest anti-Putin protests yet in Moscow today despite temperatures of -4.

“The government has a system in place to destroy our nation.” Talking to parents of Russian neo-Nazis

Somalia’s famine is over, but it’s still enduring its worst crisis in decades.

Keystone oil will be likely transported by truck—more emissions and liklihood of accidents.

As Iran’s Khamenei talks tough, Israeli Samsung tablet ad shows enrichment plant exploding.

Wait a second. That’s cannibalism! Errol Morris’s documentary on the Wing Bowl.

We should pay attention to the U.S. Peace Index, revealing the billons that states lose due to violent crime. via

Frere Jones’s brilliant take on Lana Del Rey and the dumb discussion about pop music.

World most popular online newspaper, the Daily Mail can hardly call itself a newspaper.

It’s not a cop drama where it’s just black and white. South Bronx officer takes a camera to work.

Today Komen announced it will continue funding Planned Parenthood.

Girl Scout cookies politicized after members boycott the organization for accepting a transgendered scout.

Stop saying our wars are over, Mr. President. They’re not. #opinions

Mitt Romney falls into the uncanny valley of presidential candidates—just creepily perfect enough to be unsettling.

Record label seeks choral singer who can hit a note so low it’s thought never to have been sung before.

Stadiums composed of meat.

Whiteboard remakes of famous paintings.

UK authorities’ seizures of counterfeit alcohol rise fivefold in two years.

Self-proclaimed “Jewish Indiana Jones” admits he never found, restored Torah scrolls in Europe and Israel.

Researchers say purported jellyfish invasion unlikely.

Mauritius’ commitment to open trade and the rule of law…do correlate well with growth. The little economy that could.

Below are 20 common grammar mistakes I see…in HR manuals, blogs, magazines, newspapers, trade journals, and even best selling novels.