Interesting reading…

Drugs to build up that mental muscle - “Despite the potential side effects, academics, classical musicians, corporate executives, students and even professional poker players have embraced the drugs to clarify their minds, improve their concentration or control their emotions…” See also: How Caffeine Works

World’s Biggest Building Coming to Moscow: Crystal Island - At 27 million square feet (about 1 square mile) of floor space, it will be the world’s largest building by far. See also: World’s tallest building and The New Tallest Building in the World

Email in the 18th century - “More than 200 years ago it was already possible to send messages throughout Europe and America at the speed of an aeroplane – wireless and without need for electricity…” See also: How Email Works

Anarchists in the Aisles? Stores Provide a Stage - “This is the season of frenetic shopping, but for a devious few people it’s also the season of spirited shopdropping. Otherwise known as reverse shoplifting, shopdropping involves surreptitiously putting things in stores, rather than illegally taking them out, and the motivations vary…” See also: How Anti-shoplifting Devices Work

State of the Unions - “Once upon a time, back when America had a strong middle class, it also had a strong union movement. These two facts were connected. Unions negotiated good wages and benefits for their workers, gains that often ended up being matched even by nonunion employers. They also provided an important counterbalance to the political influence of corporations and the economic elite…” See also: How Unions Work

The Spectrum Swindle - A look at the FCC and spectrum auctions.

Small, Strange and Surreal: 3 of the Most Bizarre Micronations in the World - “Have you ever wanted to rule your very own country? A micronation is an area of land claimed by one or more persons to be independent from any major recognized nation in the world…” See also: How the United Nations Work

Top 10 Coolest Laptop Concepts

FBI planning world’s largest biometric database - “The FBI has announced it plans to assemble the world’s largest biometric database, nicknamed the Next Generation Identification system. Currently, the FBI stores fingerprints, facial features, and palm print characteristics at its facilities in Washington DC. The agency’s $1 billion dollar database, however, will hold far more information on any given person…” See also: How the FBI Works

BrainyHistory.com - A database showing thousands of historical events.

Best picture quality with 6 megapixels! - “A digital camera with 12 million pixels is better than one with 6 million. ‘That is correct’ is what you would probably say because you’ve always heard more pixels are better. It’s not true…”

Meet Google: Search Giant, Monopolist Extraordinaire - “I owe Microsoft thanks because I learned more about what Google’s position in the market will look like once it tucks in DoubleClick from Microsoft than from what Google offered. But the best part of these documents is not the detail, it’s the prognostications that could shed light on just how ingenious (and perhaps, insidious) Google’s ad plans are with DoubleClick…”

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