* Hack the Cover!; I find especially appealing this:

It wouldn’t be until years later that I realized this sense of rationality stemmed from a respect for readers. The books were sized perfectly for your back pocket or bag. Giant volumes were split into smaller tomes. The paper was elegant. The binding strong. Bookmarks glued in.

To the extent American publishers want to protect their paper business, they should be making physically awesome books. Too rarely they do.

* Germany’s mega-brothels, news to me.

* Peter Watts assaulted by U.S. border guards for no discernible reason other than asking questions.

* Getty Images and making “free” photos into a business. This makes more sense than any other analysis I’ve seen; certainly the value of stock photos is approaching zero. In my own small way I’m part of that effort since all my photos are “creative commons” licensed and friends have seen them on random places around the web. I’m not a professional or even a highly skilled amateur, so any expert photographers can restrain their opinions about my shortcomings. Despite those shortcomings I can hit some shots and very good cameras and lenses are now very cheap by historical standards; a couple hundred dollars can buy equipment better than what pros spent thousands on ten years ago.

* Good news if true (and long overdue whether true or false): “Shaking Up the Classroom: Under an increasingly popular system called competency-based learning, students are promoted after they master material—not just because they have spent a year in a class.”

* “Wonders of the Invisible World,” or, the True Detective finale.