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In the Motherlode Blog on the New York Times, KJ DellAntonia writes about the spectacle of Penn State University students rioting in the streets: Wednesday night I was watching ESPN’s coverage of the firing of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno (an event whose magnitude one announcer just compared indirectly to the Kennedy assassination), and wondering how I’d feel if my child was standing on Paterno’s lawn, or on the streets of State College, supporting a man who could hear a graphic description of a sexual assault on a young boy and then choose to walk away. I’d like to hear one of those students support the argument that the coach deserves “one more game.” And then I’d like them to tell me how they’d explain it to a 10-year-old. ...

The DeLorean DMC-12, one of the world’s most iconic cars, is making waves again, re-emerging as an all-electric vehicle. The DeLorean Motor Company, now based in Texas, rolled out the proof-of-concept version of the eDeLorean to customers at its biannual DMC headquarters gathering in Houston over the weekend. I want one.

Adam Gopnik wrote a piece in The New Yorker about The Phantom Tollbooth after 50 years. We’re quickly introduced to the almost anonymous, and not very actively parented, Milo, a large-eyed boy in a dark shirt—a boy too bored to look up from the pavement as he walks home from school. Within paragraphs, a strange package has arrived in his room. It turns out to be a cardboard tollbooth, waiting to be assembled. Milo obediently sets it up, pays his fare (he has an enviable electric car already parked by his bed), and is rushed away to the Lands Beyond, a fantastical world of pure ideas. The book breaks the first rule of “good” children’s literature: we’re in the plot before we know the people. ...

Me, I choose to use Apple products. Some of the time. When I’m not using other products, some of which might be more to Stallman and Raymond’s liking. I’m familiar with the pros and cons of my various options. I understand my needs. I think I’m as good a position as anyone to know what products will serve me well, or at least a better one than Stallman and Raymond. ...

Bravo, Pittsburgh on securing a spot as the number 3 most mustache-friendly city. However, I believe that coming in third place was skewed by the methodology that the American Mustache Institute used for the research. After all, the white paper states, Previous AMI research actually demonstrates that Pittsburgh has the highest number of Mustached Americans per capita outside of only Graz, Styria in Austria and Tijuana, Mexico. Maybe I should grow a mustache… ...

A fascinating look at cultures around the world via photographs by James Mollison. [via kottke.org]

The drama is noticeable for its obsessive attention to detail. Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and the production team had a long debate about whether aristocrats of the period – the second series takes us from 1916 to 1918 and the Christmas special takes place on New Year’s Eve 1919 –would eat asparagus with their hands or a fork. In the end producers cut the asparagus up and pretended they were green beans, which they knew were eaten with a fork, so keen were they not to put a foot wrong. Five days of the 23-week shoot was done in replica Western Front trenches. “Because the show is so popular, we’ve a special role in teaching, particularly young people, about the war,” said Neame. “ITV wanted more of the same [as the first series]. But because this is wartime, we had a duty to show the social impact of war.” ...

Tim Brownson on the “I don’t have time” excuse: We all adopt the ’lack of time’ approach on a regular basis, because the easiest out in the world is to blame the clock when we want to avoid doing something. But it’s nearly always untrue and it’s seldom helpful. … I challenge you to join me and go a week without telling people you don’t have time to do something. ...

Jonah Weiner writes a superb article about the developers of Dwarf Fortress. At bottom, Dwarf Fortress mounts an argument about play. Many video games mimic the look and structure of films: there’s a story line, more or less fixed, that progresses only when you complete required tasks. This can make for gripping fun, but also the constrictive sense that you are a mouse in a tricked-out maze, chasing chunks of cheese. Tarn envisions Dwarf Fortress, by contrast, as an open-ended “story generator.” He and Zach grew up playing computer games with notebooks in hand, drawing their own renditions of the randomly generated creatures they encountered and logging their journeys in detail. Dwarf Fortress, which never unfolds the same way twice, takes that spirit of supple, fully engaged play to the extreme. ...

BBC News posts 50 examples of “Americanisms” that were submitted by readers. My favorite? “I could care less” instead of “I couldn’t care less” has to be the worst. Opposite meaning of what they’re trying to say. Jonathan, Birmingham