July 14, 2014

• One year from today, mankind will make its first contact with Pluto via a spacecraft the size of a baby grand piano.
• America's great pot experiment: Legalization in certain states has been more treacherous than others, and could end after Obama.
• Berkeley City Council votes to give free medical marijuana to low-income patients—though non-poor pot users may bear the cost.
• Pot-smoking workers in legalized states can still be fired, or never hired, if their employer forbids marijuana use.
• Compared to 2008 there are fewer wars, but less peacefulness—though non-violence is the most effective way to achieve goals.
• For a documentary filmmaker captured by the Taliban, life got worse after his release.
• Backgrounder on the Arab World's al Qaeda heirs.
• With its development of smart bullets, the Pentagon could reduce the time and expense of training snipers.
• The CIA Style Guide is now available online.
• Account passwords will soon die, to be replaced by any number of technologies already in place.
• See also: The history of passwords, explained in illustrated form.
• Why pilots don't want cockpit cameras.
• Microsoft accurately predicted the outcome of each match in the final rounds of the World Cup.
• I'm struck by how perfectly her grave reflects her life: at once dilapidated, lonely; and yet unique, inviting, nearby to children.
• When your cat becomes famous, you become its agent: on owning Grumpy Cat.
• When online services die.