June 5, 2014

• China bulldozes mountains to create new business zones, wreaking environmental havoc.
• Related: By staying silent over Tiananmen Square, China has assured the event's place in history.
• All but 60 of Israel’s 273 original collective farms have abandoned socialism to become serious businesses.
• Britain's main streets of "tedious and depressing chain shops" said to be under threat from online retailers.
• Boko Haram lays siege to four villages in northern Nigeria, allegedly seeking revenge​.
• The squirrel has long served as the American child’s introduction to killing something.
• NASA's incredible photograph: 10,000 galaxies shown, 3,185 images used, 592 exposure hours, 841 telescope orbits, nine years to create.
• See also: Composer turns his tinnitus into music.
• Twitter feed of every single word in English is shutting down; top retweeted words were “sex” and “weed.”
• With powdered, odorless caffeine now available in salt shakers, all meals can become "high-powered energy foods."
• Expert-stoner tips for Maureen Dowd, who ate a pot-laced candy bar and got way too high.
• Type design experienced salad days in the partnership of Hoefler and Frere-Jones—one now ruined.
• Japanese design team builds a better pickle jar, "whose lid can be easily opened even by the elderly."
• It may matter less whether or not any of us are actually public intellectuals than whether we are able to play them on TV.
• Van Gogh's ear 3D-printed, using the artist's great-grandson's live tissue.
• Berkson's fallacy explains why hot men seem mean, and how a book's ranking may fall after it wins a prize.
• Ill-fated tale of dog adoption.